Frida Inspired Chair Cover

Wow... Sorry it's been a week since I last posted. Time has gotten away from me it seems. I would say that I've been too busy doing fun stuff to post silly blogs about my silly life, but alas-- that would be a lie. The Camsters and I have been sewing. That's really as good as my excuse gets... sewing. I know... it's lame. BUT! Wait till you see what we made!

A chair cover! A Frida Kahlo inspired chair cover! We also started an iPad case and a baby kimono, but that is a WHOLE other post. Remember how I was saying when we moved into our new place I wanted to decorate Fridaliciously? Well here is how you can do it too:

1. First find an old skirt with paint and bleach stains on it. Then hack it up.
2. Use the plain part as the seat cushion top. Set the ruffles aside.
3. Find a large piece of weird yellow-orange-ish fabric with pin dots and drape it over the chair.
4. Tuck and pin and hack and sew.
5. Cut the extra weird yellow-orange-ish fabric into strips and use to wrap around the side of the seat cushion. Pin and sew and pray it works.
6. Ruffles are good. Sew your extra ruffles onto the bottom edge of main cover. Make sure the green paint and bleach stains are towards the back. While ruffles are good, obvious wear and tear is bad.
7. Make a hideous red rose out of felt scraps and pin it to the cover. Don't sew it on otherwise when you wash it -and you will one day soon- it will get funky.
8. Lastly, put a cute baby on your hard work and take pictures until she cries. If you don't have a baby, steal one.

My Husband

My husband (aka: Husband, Sweetie, Babycakes, Whineypants) has recently read my blog and is being a "whiney pants" about my lack of Husband talk. It's not that I don't love the guy, he's just a private person. In light of our third wedding anniversary I thought I would make a list of why I love my husband. Here it goes...

He...
:: gives us each a kiss in the wee hours of the morning before he leaves for work whether we know it or not
:: loves the Camster
:: washes dishes because he knows I hate to
:: brings home truffles for me when he thinks I need a fix
:: drives me everywhere... actually that may be because he hates my driving
:: listens to all my crazy belly dance music even though he would rather listen to Tool
:: pretends to like the outfits and stuffed animals I make for the Camsters
:: likes all the same movies I do
:: quotes Zoolander as much as I do and laughs when I make references to it
:: pulls out the bed at night
:: gives me the fluffiest pillow
:: dressed up in period-appropriate Ottoman Empire attire when I performed with my troupe even though he felt awkward doing it
:: cooks dinner when I'm feeling lazy
:: is a great father
:: always tries his very best
:: gives me encouragement when walking up our street... the street that eats out-of-shape weaklings like me for breakfast
:: does a lot of things just because it makes me happy

Happy Anniversary Whineypants!

12 of 12 | September

1. Breakfast from the Saturday market... Blueberries!
2. Jean Philippe is enjoying her Sunday morning too
3. Cake sketch
4. Faux guinea pig trying to escape Camster's crib
5. Playing with her new "big baby" toy
6. 'Look at me go Ma!'
7. A felt rose for a future project
8. Making paper ring chains for who knows what reason
9. The Camsters hangin' with the watermelon
10. 'The poses my Grammy puts me in for photos sometimes...'
11. Camsters checking turnip production
12. Yum! Homegrown watermelon!

Survivor Night!

In my family, the television show "Survivor" is a BIG deal. Every week Husband and I truck it on over to my parent's house with Camsters just to watch it (since we don't have t.v.). We make a whole evening out of it. We have been watching this silly show together every week as a family for the last five years. Even before the Camsters was born, even before Husband and I were married, and even when one of us is hospitalized. I'm just laughing to myself as I type this thinking of a few months ago when I had my gallbladder taken out.

I went into the E.R. with severe back pain two months after Camster was born thinking it had something to do with my c-section... Ha!... Not! It turned out my gallbladder was enflamed making my pancreas angry and --long story short, they wouldn't let me leave for five days while they tried to book me an O.R. Anywho, one of those nights was "Survivor Night" and so my mom, my dad, my grandma, Husband, and Camster came down to my hospital room and we all sat there, cramped and in the way of the nurses, watching Survivor. By the way, I apologize to the nurses who were trying to check my monitors and creepy hanging bags when my family was in the way. You probably thought we were all crazy... and you would be correct.

"Survivor Night" is beginning once again and I can't wait to see what insane predicaments the cast... or my family.... gets into this season.

P.s. This picture is of the Camsters in a ones I made for her first Survivor Night when she was just a couple weeks old.

Big Baby

Today Husband and I went out to buy the Camster some big baby toys. Lately she has seemed to be bored with her regular baby toys: rattles, little stuffed animals, links, and even her musical toys. So we decided to break down and buy her one of those small free standing activity centers. You know, the ones with different knobs on each side and the busy beads on the top.

I remembered seeing one at Ross and when we got there we spotted two. But since we downsized after our big move, we decided to buy the smaller 5-in-1 instead of the 8-in-1. I wanted to get the bigger one thinking it would last her longer, but Husband gave me one of --those-- looks. You know, the look that without words says, "Don't even bother asking because you know I'll say no."
You know, that one.

Anyways- it turns out the smaller one is the perfect size! The box said for 18 months and up, but Camster is playing well with it and it's the perfect height for her to sit at and still reach the busy beads on top. A great buy for $11 I'd say!

My Best Move Yet

A successful move had by all! It took us all day Saturday to move, all day Sunday to do donation and dump runs, and Monday morning to clean. What a great feeling to be somewhere new and fresh!

The best part is that our new apartment is a half mile to downtown where I can start belly dance classes again if I wish, take Camsters window shopping, meet up with girlfriends for lunch, or just enjoy a stroll. I'm hoping that living somewhere with sidewalks will inspire me go for walks. We'll see. My current excuse is that it has been in the high 90's or 100 degrees the past week, so I won't be going for a walk until the sun decides to quit frying us.

My mom came over yesterday to watch the Camsters so Husband and I could go clean the old apartment. While I was making the three of us sandwiches, my mom said "I think this move was your best one yet." I enthusiastically agreed. To clarify, in the last six years I have moved seven times. That makes it sound like I don't stay in one place for more than a year, but to my credit I did rent a cute house for a little over three years.... so HA! To my mom's credit, this was my best move yet. I was so organized I surprised myself!

This is such a nice place I hope to live here awhile... maybe even a little over three years. ;)

Macaron Trial Attempt #1

Okay... so I'm being a bit of a follower instead of a leader, but it is for good reason. Bloggers from across the nation seem to be addicted to these silly little cookies called French macarons. I have to admit, when I first saw these little cuties I was curious, so I started to look for different flavors: pistachio and matcha in green, raspberry in hot pink, lemon yellow, chocolate orange, coffee brown, who-knows-what-flavor blue and purple and white. With such beautiful colors how could I resist?

I will say, I am not much of a baker and certainly not much of a "direction follower", but I did attempt to make two batches last thursday... and it went surprisingly well. I followed this recipe. I liked this one the best because it has step-by-step photo instructions. I don't know about you guys, but I need to see what it is supposed to look like to do well.

My first batch went slowly I think because I was afraid. Every blog and every recipe I saw about making French macarons reported how finicky they were to make. I didn't run into many problems however. I just made sure to have all my ingredients measured out before I started since it goes fast... once you know what you're doing anyways.

Contrary to the recipe, I used a large ziplock bag with the very tip snipped off instead of a pastry bag. I also used gel food color and added it at the very very end of whipping the egg whites and sugar with good results. It also takes a great deal of patience, but let the cookies rest for at least an hour... I figure when the French make these, they go out window shopping for an hour, come back, then throw them in the oven.

I made a white chocolate ganache flavored with raspberry to go in the middle that turned out runny, so I whipped it. I liked the whipped filling better than my second batch with just plain 'ol melted white chocolate.

Etsy Picks of the Week V

Here are my late picks for this week:

For Sweetpea...
Educational chemistry crayon stickers. These stickers cover the traditional crayon color names with names of chemicals or minerals that create that color. Neato! Check it out here!


and for Me...
"Aliens abducting cows" earrings! Self explanatory I think. check it out here!

Happy Birthday Grammy

Happy birthday Grammy! My Grammy even helped us move on her birthday. What a great family I have! Camsters enjoyed seeing you and we hope you had a great one.
Love,
Sarah, Husband, and the Camsters