Sep

21

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

i made this last night for a group of friends that came over, and thought it would be a good recipe to share!

i think this can pass as an appetizer or a dessert, or in my case last night, DINNER!

FRUIT SALSA WITH CINNAMON CHIPS

all you need is:

and some small flour tortillas, a few tablespoons of butter, and some cinnamon and sugar.




bake tortilla chips at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

While baking, chop:

refrigerate fruit salsa until ready to serve.
eat with cinnamon tortilla chips.
enjoy!


3 Comments

Sep

17

Pillowcase Dress

okay…so you know how i told you in my last post that i was gonna show you a project using that pink fabric? well…i got sidetracked, and if you’ve been reading for awhile, then you’ll know that this tends to happen alot!! but…the good news is that i have another project to show you, just in time for the weekend, that i promise you can finish in about an hour or less!! intrigued? well…read on…

with the start of football season, which in our house is a BIG deal, i noticed that Bella’s gator gear was gettin’ kinda small. so…i felt the need to make something for her before the Florida/Tennessee game tomorrow.

so i whipped up this:

and i thought you just might want to know the how-to! first off, clearly the whole pillowcase dress idea is NOT an original! its plastered all over the internet. so google away, friends! but i’ll show you what i did, cause it turned out to be a quick project and super simple….just what i was hoping for!

there are tons of variations for a pillowcase dress. some use elastic, some use seam binding…but if you want simple, quick, and imperfect, this is the tutorial for you! :)

first off, the whole idea of the pillowcase dress is that you actually create a dress out of a pillowcase. but since i needed to use some Gator Blue, and couldn’t find a pillowcase in that color, i just created one out of some simple cotton fabric:
(check out my old dorm room bedding!! :)



print template for armhole here, and cut to desired size. (but read here before printing!)



(please disregard the lack of straight sewing skills in this next photo…)

Repeat last two steps for other side of neckline.
Then:


i used the felt monogramming technique from my last post to create the Gators team logo:
(fyi: for all you Gators fans…the font i used is called Brody…and you can download it for free…google it!)
i then attached that bad boy right in the middle of the dress, near the top:
i also attached some ribbon along the bottom for a little extra embellishment. i used stitch witchery to attach that too, out of sheer laziness! you can definitely stitch that on too. if i had ric rac on hand, i probably would’ve used that too. so use your own creativity to embellish as desired! it would be really cute to create a ruffle at the bottom too! the possibilities are endless!

so now i guess all that’s left to say is,
“Its Great to be a Florida Gator!!!!”

9 Comments

Sep

15

felt monogramming

so basically, today, i’m going to show you how to monogram without spending mega money!!


i LOVE LOVE LOVE anything personalized. but the price tag for monogramming is too much for this little fam of our’s to afford on a regular basis. i even have dreamed of and priced out monogramming machines, but for now, that will remain a distant dream! :)

but a few years ago, i was dying for some monogrammed Christmas stockings. so i came up with the idea to use felt:
and it worked!! however, i didn’t really think it would hold up very well on clothing. that is, until my friend, Gretchen’s sister in law, Erica, who is super talented, made a onesie for Gretchen’s baby using the felt technique, and it looked so stupendous, that i knew my monogramming problems were solved! (i wish Erica had a blog with all her cool stuff, cause i’d link ya’ll to it!)

anyway, i took the idea and ran, and have been making gifts for all my preggo friends, as well as a few shirts for my own kiddos. i have more in the works, but i thought i’d give you the run down in case you want to jump on the cheap monograming train with me!!

basically, all you need is a shirt/onesie of some kind, some felt and iron-on stitch witchery (aka: no sew iron-on seam tape) as well as a print off of what you want to monogram. and depending on where your creativity takes you, possible embroidery thread.
cut out individual letters into rectangles. cut felt to the same size.

remembering that its taped, because felt can stretch and rip easily:
(sorry to change up the lettering on you…i’m using pics from multiple projects!)


check to be sure that the letters have attached. (basically, stitch witchery melts into an adhesive substance when heat is applied…and holds like crazy!!) you might need to check each letter and press iron on certain parts to make sure its all attached. don’t run iron back and forth though, as the letters can shift. just lift and place.

here are some finished products!
for these, i created layers of felt, and used embroidery thread and sewed a simple stitch all around the outside of the top layer. (the stitching idea is compliments of Erica…i think it gives it just a little added oommpphh, especially when using just one letter!)
here is another example of creating layers, without the stitching. i used stitch witchery to attach the layers to each other, as well as to the onesie:
on the ones where i used a decorative stitch, i sewed the layers together with the embroidery thread stitch and then ironed the whole piece on with the stitch witchery.
a few things to note:
i have found that stitch witchery holds up really well on its own. but for a few of these, i did hand stitch the letters on the onesie after ironing them down, just to give it extra hold. you could even stitch them on with your sewing machine too.

also, when washing, i would suggest turning inside out, and hanging to dry, instead of putting them in the dryer!

if you attempt, send me photos! in fact, if you’ve attempted any of the projects i’ve posted before, send me pics! i’d love to see and share what ya’ll have done!!

check back…cause i have another craft coming up in the near future using this cool pink fabric and more felt monogramming!

18 Comments