Saturday 18 August 2012

Pacifier clip


Another project I have been meaning to do is a pacifier clip. My two year old still uses a pacifier.
Ok so here is the story. She NEVER took a "dummy" (thats what we call them in England) but when I had to stop nursing her when I got pregnant this time my wonderful, amazing, extremely helpful 8 year old thought it would be a great idea to give her a pacifier that she found from when the 18 month old was a baby. BIG MISTAKE! she loved it. So much so in fact that now she is completely attached to it and I fear that she might hide it in her purse on her wedding day for a quick suckle to settle nerves :)
No but honestly she loves it. The only problem at the moment is when it falls under her crib in the middle of the night and she cries cause she cant find it. Me and my 9 month pregnant belly have a little bit of a difficult time crawling under the bed to get it. So for months I have said I really need to make her a dummy (pacifier) clip. So last night I finally did it.
Again this was so easy I have no idea why I waited so long. I could have saved myself so much discomfort in the middle of the night especially these last few weeks.
All I did was:
Buy:
Ribbon
Clips
cute bows
cute buttons
I cute the ribbon long enough to double it over and hung the clip at the bottom. I ran a couple stitches across the bottom to keep the clip in place and a single stitch up either side of the ribbon so that it wasnt a loop. I wouldnt want it to get stuck around her neck. I them added some velcro and the cute bow and button for decoration. And that was it.
Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Boppy Cover Remake

So I was given a boppy a few months ago and it has been sitting in a closet with all the other baby items just waiting to be used. Last night I pulled it out and decided to finally redo the cover. It needed a serious make over. It was so simple to do. I literally took the old cover traced around it on some really cute fabric, cut it out, sewed a zipper on it and then sewed the whole thing together. It only took about 1/2 an hour to do. I have no idea why I had been putting it off for so long. Now that I have done it I think I will make another one as a spare. Here are a few pictures :)




Here is while I was tracing and cutting the fabric. And that is the old cover.

Here is the finished Boppy cover on the Boppy. So easy Im not sure why anyone would ever buy a cover over making one :-)

Announcement


Some of you may remember nearly two years ago I had a very traumatic pregnancy when my water broke at 18 weeks with my now two year old.

Here is Siena at 2 years old. She is with her big sister and little brother.

You may even remember that I had explained how I always have very difficult pregnancies and that out of the three children I had never been pregnant longer than 34 weeks. My oldest was born at 34 weeks and my middle born at 26 weeks.

Well for this reason I was very hesitant to tell the world that I was expecting my fourth child. We are back in the USA now and I was very hopeful that things would be different and I can now tell you that things have been very different. I am now 38 weeks and am scheduled for a c-section in 11 days. I am so excited. This pregnancy has been wonderful. Im not going to say that it has been 100% easy but I have the most amazing Dr. who has worked with me so well to prevent anything from happening and everything he has done has worked. For the first time I am now carrying a full term baby.

This is the reason for the lack of posts over the past nine months. Being a full time mom and taking care of this unborn child have been my main priorities. I love being a mom. I feel that it, along with being a wife, are the two most important things in my life right now.

I have been crafting and the next few posts will be a few of the things I have worked on recently and over the last nine months. I have more to do before this little GIRL (yes we will have 3 girls and 1 boy) arrives and I will try to get some of them posted before she arrives.

Me at 37 weeks pregnant. I get asked a couple times a day if I am having twins. Nope just one, but she is a very big girl already according to the sonograms.

Monday 13 August 2012

Frosted Strawberry Squares


There are certain tastes and recipes which immediately send me back to my childhood. One of those recipes is Frosted Strawberry Squares. My mom used to make these during the summer when the strawberries were ripe and on sale in the stores. With strawberries being on sale these past few weeks here in Texas for 99 cents per pound I have been making these babies and just as I loved them when I was a child. My children and my husband love them too. Hopefully it will be one of those tastes that will effect my children the same way when they are adults as it does me.
Frosted Strawberry Squares:
Ingredients:
1 Cup Flour
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Slivered or Chopped Almonds
1/2 Cup Melted Butter
2 Egg Whites
1/2 Cup granulated Sugar
10 oz Whipping Cream
2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
2 Cups Sliced Fresh Strawberries, Crushed / Smashed
Directions:
  • Preheat oven to 325F
  • Combine Flour, Brown Sugar, Almonds and melted butter and spread in an 8x8 pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Stir a couple of times. Once done allow to cool completely.
  • Once cooled press 2/3 of the mixture in the 8x8 pan to create the crust
  • Beat egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks form
  • Beat whipping cream until soft peak
  • Combined beaten egg whites, whipped cream, lemon juice and crushed strawberries. Spread mixture over the crust.
  • Sprinkle the remaining crust/crumb mixture over the top
  • Freeze 3 - 6 hours
  • Cut into squares and serve. I garnish with a little fresh whipped cream and strawberries.

As a side note this last week when I made this I used Splenda brown sugar blend and Splenda Sugar substitute. It worked very well. When frozen they needed to defrost a little bit before serving but it actually worked very well and tasted very good still.


Coronation Chicken Sandwich FIller

During the Queens Diamond Jubilee we decided to have a few friends over and have a little garden party. We served traditional British food. You know, scones with Clotted Cream and Jam, Sausage Rolls, Chocolate Rice Crispy cakes and Sandwiches. Not just any sandwiches though Coronation Chicken Sandwiches. Since then I have had so many people ask me for the recipe. Even people who werent at the garden party have now heard of this awesome chicken sandwich which I made that evening and been requesting the recipe. So I thought I would list it here. If so many of my Texas Friends want it than maybe people in the rest of the world would be interested too. If you try it let me know what you think. We love it!

Coronation Chicken Sandwich Filler:

Ingredients:

1 Can Chicken (Or 2 chicken breast cooked and shredded)
3 Tbsp Mayo
1 Tbsp Mango Chutney
1/2 teasp cinnamon
Curry powder to taste
1 - 2 small boxes of raisins

Mix all these ingredients together and serve on your favorite bread. I love it best on homemade Honey Wheat. Either way even on the cheapest store bought bread this recipe is delicious and I am sure you will enjoy it as much as we do!