I've been busy...

As you can probably tell by the lack of posts. So, today I think I'll spoil you. You're welcome.

A recipe:

Sour Cream Cheese Potatoes

This is my Grandma's recipe. She is an amazing cook, so hers taste 10 times better than mine, and mine are really good!

8 (approx.) Sliced, boiled potatoes
1 c. Butter
½ c. Chopped Onion
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 pt. Sour Cream

1 c. Corn Flakes (or potato chips)
3 T. Melted Butter
1 c. Cheese

Slice potatoes, boil for 15-20 minutes and drain. Meanwhile, melt butter, onions, cream of chicken soup and sour cream. Add to potatoes. Combine melted butter with Corn Flakes. Top potato mixture with grated cheese and Corn Flakes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

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A Garden Update:

The garden is flourishing. We are so lucky to begin our gardening experience in Pittsburgh. This weather makes gardening easy.
This is our beans. One day they were tiny little sprouts, the next day they were full fledged leafy plants!
We love our garden and yard. It is so rewarding to us. Which sounds totally dorky, but I don't care. There is just something about planting a seed and watching it grow.

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A Project:

More darling little Kidlets! I made these for Brinkley's room. She has one of those cubical shelves (that she and I built together! How cute is that?) and I'm going to hang these little cuties above the shelf. I'll be sure to post pictures when I get that project all done.

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A Cutie:

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And a little Inspiration:

These were our shoes on Sunday after church. What a cute little family of shoes. Dad, mom, baby. I love it.

But if you really want to be inspired, you should check out these photographers:

Green Island Studios
Bloom, Grow, Love
Dripstick
Futurowoman Fotographie

Tortillas!

We had some friends over for dinner today. I thought since we were having company, I would go
all out and make shredded pork tacos on homemade tortillas! Ooooh boy!
I should have been born in Mexico!

Well, the pork is a whole bad story of it's own that I'm not going to tell because I am still getting
over the embarrassment of it (let's just say the very kind and empathetic guests had a similar
story with a 23 pound turkey and leave it at that).

Anyway, the tortillas were GREAT! I got the recipe off my friend
Lisa's 'Finer Things Club' recipe blog.
Lisa is one of those amazing people who can do everything including cook amazing food.
She had us over once when she made these tortillas and I fell in love.
I'd just post the recipe here, but that's copying. So, you'll just have to snag it off of her blog!

They are pretty darn easy too. The hardest part is trying to roll them out in nice circles. Most of mine ended up like rounded pointy squarish things.

Try them, you'll love them. I promise.




ooooh! Look at that bubbly goodness.



Nice and toasty!

And there is the finished product. Complete on a nice styrofoam plate. Classy!
They look good enough to eat, don't they? I could eat the whole plate right now.

And I'd totally eat one, but I'm saving them for fajitas later in the week...

Okay, maybe I'll just have one.

For Short People: Hemming Jeans

As a shorty, it can be tough finding jeans. And even when you find a pair you really like and wear all the time - you end up stepping all over the bottom of them until they are just a big jumble of ripped, shredded threads. Ugh. Ugly.

So, you just wear the same old favorite pair of jeans until there are big holes in the knees and the back pockets are falling off. Or even worse, you settle for jeans that look bad on you, but hey, they don't drag all over the floor, right?

In the past, I have tried hemming the pants myself like they are a pair of pj's. Let me tell you, it doesn't work. They just don't look the same. Jeans have a special kind of hem. I don't know exactly what it is, but they do. So, I gave up hemming jeans...

Until now that is!! My friend Sarah taught me this GENIUS trick for hemming jeans:

USE THE ORIGINAL HEM!

Now, why didn't I think of that? I have done this on 4 pairs of secondhand jeans now and I am so very happy with the results! I got them cheap and they are the right fit! You can't even tell I chopped them up and put them back together. Hooray! Now I can buy jeans no matter the length! And all I have to worry about when jean-shopping is that the butt looks good and my thighs look skinnier than they really are.

Here's a tutorial for you:

1. Trim your jeans to the length you want them.

(I used another pair of jeans as a guide)



2. On the piece you just cut off, trim the hem off (about 1/4-inch above the hem).



3. Pin the hem to the bottom of the jeans, right sides together, matching up the side seams.

(You may have to trim off a little to make it fit right, otherwise you might end up with a pucker)



4. Sew the hem piece to your jeans. Sew right along the fold in the original hem (as shown in photo).



5. Iron the hem flat making sure your seam is pressed down really well.






6. If you want to be fancy you can serge or zig zag stitch the seam so it doesn't fray. I'm not that fancy. So, I just topstitch the hem down (right over top the original yellow-ish thread) making sure I catch the seam inside. So far it had seemed to do the trick.

(use matching yellow-ish thread and you'll never even be able to tell that you sewed right on top!)



You're done! Now you can strut your stuff around and people will just think that you found jeans that naturally fit your short little legs!

Little do they know...

Garden Update - I love SPRING!

I am happy to announce that I am not a gardening failure! I'll be honest, I was really nervous that nothing would grow just because I was blogging about it. And then to my happy little surprise, my herbs popped up this weekend!

Not the best pictures, but you get the idea.

We also did some work in the yard this weekend. We are now officially a flower growing family; And no longer the ugliest house on the row! Hallelujah!



Marigolds, begonias and nicotianas, oh my!

I have nothing to do with the roses in bloom. The gigantic bush came with the house. And even though it is monstrous and may soon completely take over the house, I can't help but love the rosebuds.

This month is full of firsts for our family! Okay, well two firsts that I can think of:

My baby's 1st Birthday and our first time gardening!

So, for the month of May that is what I will mostly be blogging about!

I have a gazillion projects in mind for Brinks. #1 on my list: I want to organize her room since her toys keep multiplying and I'm not even sure where they are all coming from. However, since her birthday is TOMORROW and I haven't even started I figure we can celebrate her birthday all month long and make a big project of it. I'll keep you posted!

I am also making her a big birthday surprise, but I'm not giving THAT away! You'll just have to wait. Hopefully I have it finished for the big shebang we're having in a few days. I just know she's gonna love it.

As for our garden and yard:
We'll be planting our flowers as soon as it stops raining. And we'll be planting our vegetable garden this coming weekend! Yay!

On Saturday I started my herbs indoors. I'm crossing my fingers that they grow, or I'll be really embarrassed.

I'm growing chives, rosemary, cilantro (my fave), and parsley.

Happy Birthday Bunting

Somebody's FIRST BIRTHDAY is coming!!

That's right, I'm going to have a one year old in a few weeks. Even I can't believe it.
I wanted to make her a few things for her birthday, here's a special project I have completed:

The Birthday Banner!



I just have to say, I love it. It is already hanging up in the front room because I can't wait for her birthday to display it.

I'm thrilled about this project because every year on Brinkley's birthday, I can pull this out and remember my little baby girl. I think it will be fun to watch it age as she does.

Look at me, creating traditions.

Here is a closer shot:

It was fairly easy to make.

Here's some basic instructions:

You'll need:

• 5 patterned fabrics (1/8 to 1/4 yard of each will do. I used fat quarters - that way I had leftovers to use on other projects) You could also just use scraps you have hanging around.
• About 1 yard plain backing fabric
• 1 Package of coordinating bias tape
• Thread
  

Basic Instructions:

1. Cut out 14 circles of patterned front fabric (with the top cut off about 1 inch). And 14 circles of back fabric (I used plain brown fabric)
2. Pair up a front piece fabric (patterned) with a back piece fabric (plain) and place them right sides together.
3. Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, sew along the edge of the circles, leaving the top open.
4. Turn right side out and press flat with your iron.
5. Arrange them in the order you like.
6. Print off your letters on Iron-on Transfer paper and iron the letters onto the front side of your circles according to the Transfer Paper package instructions. (You can get Transfer Paper at Walmart or Target) Oh! and don't forget when you are printing out your letters - Print them BACKWARDS!
   
7. Arrange and pin your circles to your bias tape leaving enough spare tape at each end for tying (about 8-12 inches on each end). The raw edges at the top of your circles will be covered by the bias tape.
   
8. Sew the circles to the bias tape and you are done!
   
9. Hang it up and admire your work.
   

I'm sorry I don't have photos of the process. It didn't even cross my mind until it was finished.

Thrift Store Find

I was missing my mom the other day (I miss her everyday, but this day I was feeling particularly homesick).
So, I did what she would do... I went to the thrift store.

I grew up going to thrift stores with my mom. I used to get really embarrassed, and hoped I wouldn't see anyone I knew. But as I got older, I caught the thrift store bug.
My mom is the queen of finding great stuff! And I am following in her footsteps!

So, on this homesick day, strangely enough, it made me feel closer to her! Plus, it was a good day for good finds.
This little item was my favorite. I have a thing for vases (just ask my mom!), and this one matched some pitchers I already had.
I'm building up quite the collection!
I love how clean and crisp they look. Kind of Martha Stewart-y.