Link and Zelda Kids Costumes

I've loved the Zelda games since I was a little kid, and my daughter has started playing the newest one, so we chose a Zelda theme for Halloween this year. It took a lot of convincing for my son to be link.  I've been working on psyching him up for it since August.  What finally convinced him was the shield (which he calls a fire shield?  I think he thinks the Hylian Crest is fire) and the potion bottle.  Spiderman doesn't have those!!  haha

I made these without a pattern, and I thought about making one and posting it here, but it's just way too much work with a baby in the house, so just pictures will have to do.

The Link shield comes from this youtube video.  I used corrugated cardboard, acrylic paint, flat marbles, and craft foam instead of the things they recommend.

The best part is that our baby is a Zelda Cucco!

Ear Bud Pouch

My kid needed earbuds this year for school, and I didn't want to just throw them in her backpack with everything else and have them get tangled or broken.  I went searching and found an adorable tutorial for a circle earbud pouch at Dog Under My Desk (link here).

I used fusible fleece inside, which I don't actually recommend because it was too thick to topstitch, but it's what I had around.

24 Crayon Roll

My daughter's school required boxes of 24 crayons, so I searched all over for a 24 crayon holding crayon roll.  I couldn't find a tutorial for one I liked, so pattern shmattern, right?  I made my own.

I did not make a tutorial, but I will tell you that the pockets are 1 3/4 inch wide, if that helps you make your own.

I made a Bapron!

I've made a few of them now, but I just loved these colors so I took a picture.  The bapron tutorial and pattern is available at here from Craftiness is Not Optional.

I just added a pocket (I like having them to catch crumbs) and I backed it with rip-stop nylon instead of flannel to give it some water resistance.  It fits well on my chubby 6 month old.  I bet it will fit for a while now as she starts to grow up more than out during the crawling age.

I Love You in Dinosaur

Rawr Means I Love You In Dinosaur!

I have always loved this saying, so I finally spent the time to make a shirt for my son with a freezer paper stencil.  He has been begging me for a "sharp tooth" t-shirt.

If you'd like to make one, I've saved my template.  The dinosaur picture was just from a google image search of "dinosaur silhouette."  You can do the same and switch it out for a different dinosaur easily.  Click on the image to download the stencil pdf.

The easiest thing to do is to cut a piece of freezer paper to the size of your printer's paper and then print the image directly on the non-shiny side of freezer paper.  Then use an Xacto knife to carefully cut out the image (make sure to save all the tiny pieces like the insides of the "e" "a" "o" "r" and "d'", iron it onto your shirt, and paint away with fabric paint.  There are lots of freezer paper stencil tutorials online if you need better instructions.

Baby Blessing Gown

My oldest daughter wore the gown I was blessed in for her baby blessing, and I plan to hand it down to her for her own children.  For my younger daughter I made her a gown so she'll have something to hand down to her own children if she would like to.

Here's my baby girl wearing the blessing gown I made her.  Unfortunately at the time of the photo she wasn't exactly happy...

 

 

 The body fabric is cotton knit, and the ruffles are white and off-white satin and polyester lace.

 I used this pattern from Sew Much Ado (I purchased the full pattern because I like it so much) and this tutorial for a ruffle dress from Kojo Designs and meshed the two together to make my daughter's blessing gown.  I don't like unfinished edges, so I used my serger to make rolled hems on the edges of the satin ruffles, and I used this tutorial for gathering on a Brother serger to make the ruffling go so much faster.  I also used this tutorial on Make It & Love It to make the flower on her headband out of left over lace.

Look What I Made!

If you've been wondering what I've been up to lately, I've been suffering from pregnancy ADD (or so I call it).  In the end of my pregnancies I just can't focus on anything.  I can't read books.  I can't do a project that takes more than an hour.  But it was worth it.  Here's our latest little one!

Thanks so much to my friend Staci who took some beautiful newborn pics for us.  

Here's her facebook page if you'd like to see more of her work.

T-Shirt into Baby Gown

I've been saving my husband's worn out Soylent Green t-shirt for a long long time, just waiting to find some way to reuse it.  I found a baby gown tutorial from

because every baby needs a Soylent Green shirt, right?

Ha ha ha I'm so excited to try this on a baby!  The tutorial was simple and easy, and except for the whole "sewing knit fabric is hard" issues, I didn't have any problems.

Featured Fish Costume

My son's halloween fish costume was featured over at Lasso the Moon today.
Head on over to check it out!

Crock Pot Apple Butter for Canning

Last year some friends enlightened me to the fact that there is an orchard about 5 miles away from our house that lets you pick apples for only 40 cents a pound (a real steal around here).  My new-ish tradition is using those fresh apples to make apple butter and apple sauce every fall.  This is the week that I went last year, so I gave the orchard a call to make sure they were open, only to have the owner tell me that the apples were almost done for the year!  He said because of the drought and super-hot temps this summer, the apples ripened early.  The only kind left was Empire, which he assured me would be good for applesauce, and Blushing Gold which is a long-lasting variety.  So that's what I got.

My two-year-old and I waded through rows of goat's head thorns (note to self, don't wear flip-flops next time) to pick through the mostly rotten apples and find enough to make applesauce.  I found 24 lbs worth and took them home.

For canning I always follow the National Center for Home Food Preservation's recipes, because, frankly, I am scared I'll kill my family with botulism if I follow the ones on un-official websites.
Here is a link to their Apple Butter recipe.  I use it with my slow cooker.  If you don't know what apple butter tastes like, I say it's like a spiced apple jam that tastes a lot like apple cider.  I like it on toast or even on a PB&J sandwich.

First, if you have a fruit strainer or food mill, just core and cut up your apples, leaving the peels on.  If you don't have a strainer, peel the apples, and then core and cut them.  I just wash my apples, chop them with one of those tools that cuts them into wedges and removes the core, and put them into the crock pot.  The recipe calls for 8 lbs of apples, and that fills my 6.5 QT crock pot as full as you can possibly fill it without apples falling out.  The lid won't fit at first, which is fine because they shrink up as they cook.  After an hour or so you should be able to close the lid. 

 Add the two cups of apple cider and two cups of white vinegar, as directed, and set your crock pot on low for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally or as long as it takes for the apples to be soft and cooked through.  You could try the high setting if you want to shorten cooking time.

The apples should be thoroughly soft, and your house will smell divine.  I asked my husband when he got home from work if he could smell the vinegar, and he said no, he could only smell the cooking apples.

Now it's time to sauce the apples.  I have  an awesome mother-in-law that gave me this KitchenAid accessory, the fruit and vegetable strainer.  This thing is pretty expensive, but if you happen to find one at a good price at a garage sale or something, they are so nice to have.  It removes any peels and stems or seeds that are in your batch, and leaves you with yummy apple sauce.

This is how much applesauce it made.  I think I got more last year.  I should have filled the crock pot just a bit more I think.

 Take the apple sauce and put it back into the crock pot.  Add the spices (cloves and cinnamon), according to the NCHFP recipe, and the sugar (wow that's a lot of sugar!) to the pot and stir.  Set it on low again for about two more hours, or until it is thick enough that you can "spoon a small quantity onto a plate. When a rim of liquid does not separate around the edge of the butter, it is ready for canning."  To help the moisture cook off while it thickens in the crock pot, I used two metal campfire skewers to create a big gap all around the lid.  Keeping the lid on this way prevents splatters and lets the moisture out.  You can try a couple of butter knives or bamboo skewers instead, or just leave the lid on skewed sideways, or just leave it off, whatever you like.  I stirred it every once in a while to prevent burning.  At this point you can put it through a blender or use an immersion blender to make it even smoother.  I don't do that though.

Then it's ready to process.  Follow safe canning procedures.  This usually makes 7 pints for me.

Yum-o.  I love apple butter.