Thomas the Train cake

Here is the Thomas the Train cake that I made this morning for Joshua's 4th birthday!! So cute!

My Cute LIttle Fall Tutu Idea

I came up with the idea of embellishing the tie-dyed pumpkin shirt idea for a little girl. My friend Amy, has a six month old, Audrey, who will look just darling in this little Fall tutu!! Cannot wait to send it to her!




A few bows, buttons, rick-rack and a little fabric ruffle, and VOILA!!

Cool Birthday Cake

So I just thought I would share a pic of this fun birthday cake that I made yesterday, for a friends' birthday. It came out so cool! I was really pleased.

VOTE FOR ME!!!

So I have entered some photos in the CAPTURE ARKANSAS contest. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette is looking for the best photos of Arkansas to be put in a full-color, hard-bound, coffee-table book. My friend Pat, suggested I submit some of our photos. So I have, and you can go and vote for the ones you like!! Just click on the link to the right that shows a little photo montage, or you can click here:
CAPTURE ARKANSAS.
Here are some of the pics I have entered:

The Past Week's Projects

Well, this weekend one of my best girlfriends came out to spend the weekend. My boys went off to spend a night away and went hiking. Ginger and I spent the first evening chatting into the wee hours of the night and plotting what projects we would work on the next morning. On Saturday, my sweet friend was awakened to the sound of the rushing attic fan, as I tried to pull in the last drafts of cool morning air before shutting the house up tight so that the air conditioner could keep us in comfort as we crafted! We had some coffee and some granola and then off to the fabric shop where we spent a couple of hours pondering colors and patterns. We had decided to make a cute ruffly apron. Well, we ended up with some great aprons. Here are my two aprons. They are gifts for some special people in my life!




Also, before Ginger's arrival, I just HAD to recover our scuzzy little loveseat that we inherited with our house. It is quite comfortable, but was so 70's!! So I took a day and recovered the loveseat and it came out pretty cool!

Furry Helper

So how many of you have one of these cute, furry helpers in your life? This is Starbucks our sweet kitty whom we brought home from Albania. We found her there on the street as a teeny tiny little kitten. Well she is quite well traveled but would much rather find a soft pile of anything and sleep the day away. As you can see here, I have ever so rudely disturbed this life goal of hers!!

Here is Starbucks on my fabric tub.

Here she is when we first got her in Albania. She immediately began purring in my arms AFTER the big chase ended and we caught her!!!

Rennovations!!

Oops!! See the post at http://pitchfordjourney.blogspot.com

These Enchiladas ROCK!!

Here is a recipe for some fabulous Enchiladas, which I got from another lady in our sunday school class!! Thanks Kim! We will be eating them in just a few moments. I cannot wait!

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients
2 cans (15 ounce each) tomato sauce, divided
4 cans (10 ¾ ounce each) cream of chicken soup
4 cups (32 ounces) sour cream
4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
1 tsp onion salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
4 cups cubed or shredded cooked chicken (about 4 large chicken breast)
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, divided
20 flour tortillas (8 inch)


In each of the two greased 9 x 13 baking dishes, spread ½ cup of tomato sauce on the bottom; set aside. In a large bowl combine the soup, sour cream, jalapenos, onion salt and pepper. Stir in chicken and 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese.

Spread about ½ cup chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam side down, in prepared 9 x 13 baking dishes. Top with remaining tomato sauce; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until edges are bubbly. You can cover and freeze these casseroles for up to one month. Thaw in refrigerator overnight to use frozen casserole.

For Ginger

Attaching the ties to the skirt

Pin ties to apron skirt, right sides together, centering the opening of the ties with center of skirt. ( I forgot to write on the instructions that I usually make the opening about ½ more on either side for a little easier working space.)


Stitch tie on to skirt with 1/2" seam allowance.

Press tie up from skirt and then press a ½" seam and then fold over and press top of tie.
Pin to skirt and then you can either top stitch it or hand stitch it

Off of the Scrapbook Track for a Minute!

So this week I was inspired by my friend, Sandra. She is planning a quilt/blanket with a panel of a world map. I have the same panel and have decided to try to make a full size quilt with it in the center of the quilt. Not exactly sure how that will come about.
No pattern yet or anything! :-)
However, I went to the fabric store (actually all of them in town!) to try and find some fun stuff to match the map. I was actually looking for something with like, kids of the world or something. So far nothing along those lines. But walking into the store and seeing all the possibilities was FUN!!

I love how they have arranged the bolts by colors!

Just makes me want to SEW!!!! Something, anything!!

Here is the map panel. (I used the photo from Sandra's blog, easier than taking it myself)

The fabrics I have chosen so far.

Here they are laid out together. The lighting seems sort of off, but you get the idea. I would like to find one more fabric. I am not giving up yet on something with children of the world.

Moving Along in the 2007 Book

Well, I hit the jackpot this past week! I found some amazing "China" scrapbook paper for Joshua's China book. I found it at http://www.vacationscrapbooksupply.com

It has not been easy finding nice background paper for China. I had found some stickers and my friend Ginger had also found some and sent them to me back when we were in Albania and we had begun the waiting process for Joshua. But I had an entire book to do and so wanted a bit more paper to use. Anyway, I was so excited to find this. The website is awesome! They have TONS of different places. You can search by the places you want which are listed alphabetically.

This past week I got to go to a Saturday crop and work for 8 hours without interruption!! Below are my pages.










Sorry it is a little fuzzy. Not sure, but I think I moved the camera!



At the crop, my friend had this new electronic device that cut the shapes I used on this page. So cool!!



Another fuzzy one, sorry!




Here is another layout where I needed just a little more space and so I added the fold outs.