Never trust a quiet baby...

Why?? Because when you have a 10 month old who can crawl, climb, open cabinets and drawers... they become quiet when they've discovered something new and fun to play with, such as a whole jar of petroleum jelly. You say WHAT?!?!? I'm saying, YEAH...petroleum jelly!! Apparently I left a little jar of it in the boys bedroom in a small drawer that I keep cloth diapering things in. You know, a drawer of stuff that you assume they will never get into because it doesn't have toys in it. It was a jar left over from when they were....you know when baby boys are "cut" (get my drift??) and you have to keep that area covered in the stuff to keep it clear of infection?? Yah, I left it in that drawer because it was never bothered with, until last night when 10 month old decided he could open that drawer (for the first time ever), pull everything out, discover a jar of non-edible-jelly, and open it (how the heck did he figure that out??). He must have been looking for crackers to go with the non-edible-jelly because it was smeared all over his hands, arms, face and the open drawer. There went the rest of our evening. I didn't get to finish drafting a new pattern I'm working on for this weekend for the boys baptisms. :) Maybe I'll have time to post about that soon, assuming the rest of the week goes smoothly and we don't have any more 10 month old caused mishaps.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye.....two babes in a bathtub. haha...it looks like a snow storm eh? I guess it was an especially steamy bathroom for the camera.

Strange Combination & Weird New Things

Last night's dinner was a pleasant surprise! I found a Betty Crocker recipe for Chicken Ranch Taco's here and me being me, altered it of course. First, I used four chicken breasts cut up (instead of a rotisserie chicken), cooked in a spoonful of oil, then I added the taco seasoning. After they were cooked through, I added the 1/2 cup ranch dressing, which makes it very runny. I also only had corn tortillas, so I heated those up in a skillet one at a time. Well they were all done, we dished up with heated (some burnt) corn tortillas, taco-ranch-chicken, topped with shredded cheddar, more ranch....and here's the strange combination....chopped parsley! I didn't have lettuce either and friend just gave me a bunch of fresh parsley, which I never buy and am not as familiar with it, so I chopped it up to add to the top of the taco. It was a very pleasant combination...and so simple and fresh tasting too! I love it when my variations turn out great!

I've found inspiration for this months YOE gnome ornament a while back...he...they...are "drying." I'm so excited to post about them when they are complete!! I used yet another new medium....heehee...I'm pretty proud of myself. Of course, that's all I can say. :)

Okay...here's the weird new thing. My dentist put on a waxy substance with fluoride on my teeth. I've never heard of fluoride being applied this way. The toothbrush doesn't brush it off, you have to wait for it to wear off. It's just weird feeling. I even googled it real quick and didn't come up with anything to explain it or how it works. Just weird I'm tellin' ya.

Grosgrain Giveaway & soon another sew-along!

I've been following Grosgrain for quite a while now and recently she started doing A Frock by Friday sew alongs. I'm still working on frock #2, I'm gonna try to finish it today before starting frock #3 which Grpsgraom is starting today!! WOO HOO!! So...bright and early this morning I headed on over to her blog to see what today's task was only to find a giveaway instead! Oh, and it's a LOVELY frock she created too...I'm SEW in on this giveaway! haha...

The Streamer Frock Grosgrain Giveaway

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....a doll hanging on the fence?? Now this was a weird sight to see...after driving down the road with the wheat fields on each side (the pic is in the last post), we drove down this little hill to this little ravine to find our geocache. Near a pile of garbage, you can see the black bags, burnt logs and some tires and an appliance in the distance, this doll was on the fence. Kinda....disturbing.
Poor thing...she was all dirty and covered in bugs. I wonder what she has to say??

Vacations over... :(

Last night I returned home after being away for six days. It was lovely. With my husband out of town, I went to my hometown and visited with family and stayed with my parents. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. I took my Frock by Friday dress, only got the pleats sewn back together, I completed my toddlers pirate coat (the pic above, it's a Simplicity kids costume pattern, he picked out the fabric for the pirate pants, yeah, not my first choice but you can't tell a toddler no to dino fabric), I took my husbands knitted beanie cap, the Mr. Tom's Beanie by Woolly Wormhead, it's still on the needles after what??...5 months??...(did not even pull it out), I took my fairies I designed back in February, I started four more (did not even touch), I took three books to read (I maybe read one chapter in A Reliable Wife and two chapters in a pattern drafting book from the library) and I took a couple of pilates DVDs (and I didn't even complete one 30 minute workout). Where did the time go? I don't know...but it flew by...The time has been flying by too much these days...We need to slow down...ALL of us...even you dear reader...we need to just find that road with the wheat fields on both sides with the clear blue sky and slight breeze in the air, spread out our red and white check table cloth and have a nice relaxing pic-nic in the middle of no-where.Okay....back to reality....Here's what I did accomplish other than the pirate coat...geocaching with my dad (that excursion resulted in the above pic, fun eh?....there's something relaxing about driving through the middle of nowhere, especially when that nowhere results in a view of wheat fields growing right up next to the narrow country road.), a Mary Kay party at my grandma's house, grilling burgers and visiting with family at my aunts house, brunch with my other grandma, wine tasting in Prosser (we chose Gamache Vintners), found a new quilt store and bought even MORE fabric (it's Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear pictures, see below), digging/sifting in my moms stash of garnet gravel for Idaho Star Garnets and I finally saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, that was interesting.The nicest thing about coming home last night was the part where I first walked into the house and the air smelled cool, crisp and with a hint of my peach scented candles from Pier 1. SO NICE!!! No stinky cat litter smell, no drooling, wet dog smell, no dirty dishes in the sink smell, no dirty diaper smell, no toddler food left on the table smell, not even stale closed up house smell....just cool, crisp, peachy air. Aaahhhh.....to come home to that every day would just be peachy!

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....the front of the line?? We didn't start out too far back when we arrive at the Farm Chicks Show at 10:45ish...at least compared to the stories I heard about how long these two lines originally were...all the way back to the main road and down the street...that's pretty long!!

The Farm Chicks Show

The past ten days have been hectic it seems...although it's all a matter of perspective....really they have just flewn by and I wasted quite a few of them. This past weekend we spent most of our days at The Farm Chicks Show....WOW!! What fun!! Does husband know what I spent yet?? No...will he?? Not sure yet, hmm. SO MANY wonderful goodies and eyesights both vintage and crafty. Here are a few pics I took of wonderful little details, I LOVE details...

Silk flowers on a white oval frame of black chalkboard.

A throw pillow with buttons to make a crown...and look at that

gold trim on the edge of that pink dress...so pretty!

Look at the cutest little seahorse in this vintage lamp used as a jewelry display.

This was a large cake display in the center of the main bay...so creative!

I couldn't quite get a non-blury pic...but you get the idea.

These were above a booth with delicious brownies and I think an apple crisp for sale.

I don't think this dress is vintage, but it's so fun! I WANT!

Frock Update

Well, I didn't quite get my frock made by last Friday. I don't think I even had it cut out yet. I had a lot of contemplating to do between the two yards of circle fabric and the four yards of floral fabric which would need to be lined. Lets keep it simple......no lining for me!!The yoke piece was my reason for contemplation...I had to cut the yoke into two just so that I could go forth with my two yards of the circle fabric. Here's how it laid out...

Instead of folding the selvages towards the center, I folded the cut ends towards the center plus overlapped them a few inches to get the complete angle out of the skirt that I made fuller, which was a large part of my problem. I managed to squeeze all the necessary pieces out of just two yards. I had to piece together the belt band, but I got it. I also only had 1/2 yard of the teal and had to squeeze all the pieces out of it, plus piece together the belt band again AND piece together single fold bias tape, but it all worked out. It's amazing what you can make to wear out of just two yards of fabric!!
You can see my scrap piles on the bottom, the left one of small pieces and the right one of trash. The left pile is even smaller now since I made the bias tape.
Here's what I got done last night. I would have been finished through Thursday's instructions, but I didn't sew the two side seams together and the buttons and button holes are not done. After putting it on the dress form, I thought it looked frumpy. After all that contemplating of choosing which fabric to use, then barely squeezing all the darn pattern pieces out of just two yards, I cut it a few sizes too big!! Yay for owning an adjustable dress form!! Tomorrow I might pin it all to fit properly and really see how many sizes too big it is. Oh, and I totally screwed up on the placket, but that's going to be a whole other post.

Happy June 1st!