Apple of my eye

A few weeks ago I decided to make a pie. It was my first - every bit of it completely homemade - pie ever. Even the crust. That's a big thing for me. I am not the fantastic and adventurous cook that both my sister and my SIL are. I thought it would be a great way for Pumpkin and I to spend some quality time together. Well, baking a pie with a two year old is a sure fire way to turn a thirty minute task into a three hour one. No one told me this. But, it was totally worth it. I would do it again in a heart beat. She helped me with everything. I had her wash the apples and then hand them to me to be peeled. Then with her little hands on mine we used the apple slicer/corer thingamajig to slice and core them. I cut them into little pieces and she put the pieces in a bowl. I measured the spices, she poured them in the bowl. We mixed everything. We made the pie crust dough together. We rolled it out together. Again, my hands together with her little hands grasping my Gramma's rolling pin. There was something warm and wonderful about that. (A little bit of Gramma right there with us, sharing that moment.) Here is the little "K" we cut in the top, we initialled the pie for Pumpkin. She got a kick out of that.

And here's the finished pie. It was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The crust was buttery and flaky and just as a crust should be. Pumpkin, you can bake me a pie any time...

My Fat Quarter Addiction Part V: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

My daughter is crazy in love with colors, more specifically all the colors of the rainbow. She loves rainbows with all the two and a half year old love she can muster. She loves to sing about them. She loves to look at them. She loves to wear them. So I made her a rainbow she could wear all winter long.

What you need:

• fat quarters in a spectrum of colors. I used red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, oh and white for the clouds
• heat bond
• sweatshirt, doesn't have to be new
• thread in a coordinating color
• scissors
• iron
• sewing machine
• pen or pencil

The first thing I did was wash my fabric and my sweatshirt. (Actually I lied. I didn't. But you should. Always.) Then I drew an arch on each color of fabric (except for white) starting with red, with each successive colored arch getting a little bit smaller. I drew the red one and cut it out, then used it to draw the orange one a bit smaller then cut that one out, then used it to draw the yellow one a bit smaller and so forth through violet. When I was finished all my arches of color fit right next to each other just like a rainbow. Next I drew my clouds on the white fabric and cut them out. This is what the sweatshirt looked like with everything laid out just so.

Once it was all laid out I cut my rainbow straight up the center so I could iron half of it on either side of the zipper. After all that cutting I cut out strips of heat bond and ironed them to the fabric arches and clouds. I peeled the backing off the heat bond and warmed the sweatshirt with my iron. I then placed my pieces and ironed them to the sweatshirt.

I set my sewing machine to a zig zag stitch with a length of just about zero and a width of five. I stitched around everything in blue.

When I was finished with that I ironed the sweatshirt and rainbow one more time and ta da! This is what it looks like. I love it. But she loves it more. Doesn't want to take it off. That's the best.

Partay in the ER

The other night, three nights ago to be exact, we were playing a fun bedtime game with Pumpkin. It's called "Chase Pumpkin" or, "I'm going to get you". Anyway, Superman was announcing in his big, loud voice that he was going to get her and she was screaming and laughing with delight and running around trying to get away from him. She ran into her bedroom and threw herself down on the pile of pillows that she likes to dive onto and hide under. They are right by her bed. On her way down she also threw her head into the edge of her bed with a sickening "crack!" I was sitting on the floor in her bedroom laughing and shouting with them. I knew as soon as it happened, and I heard the awful sound, that this would be serious. Pumpkin let out a scream like I've never heard before. I grabbed her and cuddled her taking a closer look at the gaping wound right above her eye. It was flapping open. Sorry for the grossness. Ack! A trip to the ER was surely in order. Superman ran in and started gagging when he caught sight of the blood. (His one weakness...bet you thought it was kryptonite.) So to sum up the rest of the evening, we sped over to the emergency room. An hour and a half later (and some lidocaine and a shot, lots of screaming (from fear and pain), and three people holding her down) we left the ER with three huge stitches. Here they are in all their glory. My poor, little, beautiful Pumpkin! We stopped at McD's on the way home because chocolate shakes make EVERYTHING better. By the looks of this goofy grin you wouldn't even guess that she had gotten hurt!

Here she is the next morning, playing with some magic noodles. She was such a little trooper. And she hasn't picked at her bandaid at all. Amazing!

And here she is after another LOOOOONG day of playing hard, running around, riding her trike, and throwing herself on the pillow pile despite the stitches. She's a bit of a bruiser really. The only girly thing about her, as I've stated before, is the tutu she insists on wearing. I'm actually really surprised. You know, that she made it to nearly three, and it was the FIRST time we partied with the doctors in the ER...

Work in progress...

So the only thing I've had time for lately isn't even "post worthy". Not really. It's not crafty, not artsy, not family oriented, or remotely interesting even. Oh well. This is what I've been able to squeeze in downstairs in my craft area.

A little bit of organizing. And now that I've separated my buttons into these fabulous Ball jars by color, I realize that I want to do something completely different with them. The jars I mean. Ah, such is life. Maybe there is something else down there for me to put the buttons in. I also sorted my fat quarters by color families. Only a portion of my collection is showing because, if you recall, I'm a fat quarter addict. There are LOTS of fat quarters down there. I need more plastic containers. Lots more plastic containers. And time. Lots more time.