Jam, Pie, and a Blue Ribbon

Yesterday I entered my strawberry pie in a neighborhood fair pie baking contest. I didn't take a picture of it because I wasn't going to win. I was just doing it for the fun of it. Well, guess what? I won!!! Can you believe it? I won the blue ribbon!!! (I do have to point out that it was just a neighborhood contest and only included about 9 or 10 pies - I'm not ready for a "real" contest by any means.) But I was still quite pleased with myself. Then I realized I hadn't taken a picture of my pie. Probably the only pie contest I will ever enter and win, and I didn't have a picture of it. AAAACCCKKK!!!! This has got to be documented because I am sure that 100 years from now my great-grandchildren are going to want to know all about how their great-grandma won a neighborhood pie contest thereby changing the entire course of their lives. They will want to know what this wonderful pie looked like, and I will have failed them all because I didn't take a picture. This is all they will have to look at:

The shame, the guilt, it's all too much. So I took a picture of my ribbon with the pie that I had made for my family, because no mother can make a pie to take somewhere else without making an identical pie for her family. She may just find herself kicked out of the house for a blunder such as that. So, although this is not the actual pie that won the contest, it is pretty darn close. The other pie was a bit prettier, it was fuller and the whipped cream was not melting, but it's close enough.

To celebrate my victory I made Triple Berry Jam.... mmmmmmmmmm.

I love homemade jam.

ABC's & 123's

How do I help my kids get rid of "summer squishy-brain," as we call it at our house?

By making alphabet and number shaped sugar cookies. You would be amazed at all the number and alphabet games that were played in our house.

"Summer squishy-brain" has left the building!

Semi-Homemade

A REALLY long time ago I posted about how I was wondering if I should make Baby K's blessing outfit, or if I should use one of the ones I made for my other boys. Later I told you that I had "sort of" made him his own outfit, but that I was waiting to get the pictures back before I wrote my post. I know you thought the day would never come, but I just got the pictures back about 2 days ago, so here is the long-awaited post.

I decided to call his outfit "Semi-Homemade"

Shirt - Store bought

Tie - Homemade

Socks - Store bought

Booties - Homemade

Shorts - Store bought

Blanket - Homemade

There you have it - "Semi-Homemade."

{Thanks to my wonderful friend for the great pictures. She took some REALLY fantastic pictures. Visit her blog here.}

Everything's Better in Miniature!

I have a very girly party coming up soon. Here's a quick peek at something I'm working on for the party.



These tiny terra cotta pots are only about 1 inch diameter. I love these! Why is everything so much better when it is tiny?

Sectional Reupholstery - Day 1

Yesterday began the reupholstery of my sectional sofa. Here is a glimpse of the before:


I thought it would be best to tackle this one section at a time. I decided to begin with the corner section.


The tools I used...

pliers, hammer, flathead screwdriver, seam ripper, and a sharpie for labeling the fabric pieces as they came off. Are they the proper tools for this job - probably not. Did they do the job - absolutely!


Three whole minutes into the project I broke my seam ripper. I guess not all seams are created equal. Is that a bad omen?


30 minutes into the project and here's what we have:


At this point I'm thinking, "This is a piece of cake! This isn't going to take me near as long as I thought. I'll have this piece stripped in another hour."


4 1/2 hours later...


The first piece is stripped and ready to go. Today I get to start cutting fabric!

"Ties for Little Guys"

If you have been to my Etsy shop recently, you will have noticed that it is empty. With the move, the kids home for summer, and all our summer visitors there has been no time to keep up with my shop. So I finally decided that the shop would have to be on hold until school starts again. But I am getting things ready. This is something new I will be adding to my shop. My "Ties for Little Guys" (thanks to my SIL for the cute name) will be in the shop this September (or late August if I am really ambitious).