The Workroom Skirt and Reconstructed Chaos T

Yes, it's been a few days without blog updates...would you believe our modem died and it took us over 2 days to get the cable company to come out and fix the problem.. ok maybe not exactly two days approximately 29hours. I realized that I can live without my cell phone but not my internet.

In the meantime, I finished an aqua stretch knit skirt and reconstructed Chaos T (something funky) and had great weather on Wednesday to wear the skirt with some new shoes that match perfectly from Payless. Want to learn more about creating Funky T'shirt designs. See your local bookseller for 99ways to...T'shirts / Scarves or Denim. 3 fun chicks originally from Italy that transplanted in NYC and revamp/revive clothing into fun new styles. Check them out at http://www.compai.com/. And why not repurpose some of those clothes in the back of your closet. FACT: An average person sends 68lbs of clothing a year to the dump!

I have two other t's that are being reconstructed in the Workroom but they'll have to wait until I finish my yellow jacket. Here's a shot of it partially completed. Luckily, I have already added the lining but those pictures will post at a later date.

Here's another example of something funky to do to the back of a T' maybe a little tye-dye number.

In the meantime, it's been great weather here in NJ in the 70's so I've had DS in shorts and looking oh so cute. He's really a trip...he went from crawling to pulling himself up and crusing around holding onto furniture. He's seen here playing at the Kitchen set that as DD#1 when she was 2 1/2. On the bad end of things his teething is horrible at night and we're back to being woken up at least twice a night. UGH!

FOR THE LOVE OF STAMPING...yup I love lots of crafts and one of them is Stamping...I'm part of a small Stampin Up club with some neighbors and it's great! This week my rep. came over to help me work on some cute ideas - Whatcha think? The funny thing is that without the internet this morning, I used the time very wisely while DS was taking a nap to organize all my stamping/card making supplies, label storage units and even take samples of my cards from previous classes and place them in a 3-ring binder for quick reference. I KNOW AMAZING! It feels great to have just one more little piece of my life organized and available at my fingertips when the urge strikes to be card crafty.

Well I'll leave you with one RECIPE that my Friend Susan sent to me as a part of the receipe exchange...DD#2 helped me make this one tonight and it is ever so YUMMY!

Here is an amazing sour cream coffee cake recipe. Sue passed the recipe on to a friend who bakes it every Christmas. You could use it for breakfast or a dessert.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup Crisco or similar vegetable oil

1 pkg instant vanilla pudding 3 1/2 oz.

topping:1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate bits1/2 cup nuts (I used almonds) 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon

Combine cake mix, eggs, oil, sour cream, and pudding in a bowl. Mix well and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients. Grease and flour a tube pan. Layer 1/3 of the batter and top it with 1/3 of the topping. Keep layering until the ingredients are gone. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour or more.

** I used a bundt pan and layered a little on the top before adding the cake mix, then another layer of the topping mixture and finally the bottom cake layer - baked exactly for 1 hour and it turned out great!

Well ready to sign off for another day/night with hopes of accomplishing alot on Saturday. Alot of items are leaving my house via FREECYCLE this weekend - stacks of cooking magazines, misc craft items for a girl scout troop, a bike that I picked up curbside with intentions of fixing it up to ride and some kids clothing items. It does feel great to help people who are looking to fill a specific need.

April 22nd Earth Day - Tidbits

GREEN ALERT

Target Shopping bags give tips on reusing your plastic shopping bags some of which we already do...Bathroom trash can liner, kitty litter, Care package padding, Road Trip Rubbish just to name a few.

Shop-Rite (and maybe groceries in your area) give .02 back for every GREEN BAG you use...bring your own any kind or reuse previously used plastic bags. Hey it helps cut down on some of the State Taxes you might pay for incidentals at the grocery store. Cost of Shop-Rites green bag was 0.99 and they are sturdy and have a nice flat bottom. One of the other options was Targets 0.99 red bag that folds up into it's own self zippered pouch for glove compartment storage. However, these bags are made in China from 100? Polypropylene. They had a plastic smell when I brought them home so I hand washed them and air dried which seemed to work. The other downside is they arent flat bottomed so that made it a little difficult shopping. HMM sounds like they need to be squared off or have a piece of plastic canvas or recycled cardboard put into the bottom for grocery shopping.

AS SEEN ON TV ALERT: Debbie Meyer Green Bags - Claims to save food from spoiling by releasing the gases food produces. I actually found these at my WholeFoods store in the Produce aisle - 20 bags for 9.99.

Results - Romaine shown here in this picture is 15 days old since buying it at the Produce Market. WOW now that saved on waste! Bananas had also done well but what didn't seem to fair as well were Strawberries. But they might just not have been as fresh to begin with. I'll retest them when Strawberries are in Season. Claim: Each bag can be washed and reused up to 10 times...GO BUY SOME THEY WORK!

DO YOU KNOW EBAY? CRAIGS LIST? Well have you heard of FREECYCLE? Just like Craigs list, this site has regional locations to help you locate items you might like to give away or receive in your local area. I joined FREECYLCE as part of a Yahoo.com Group and began receiving OFFERS AND WANTED notices in my email inbox. I listed some items for OFFER: Kids toys, outgrown pants...easy pickup leave them on the porch with the takers name and they are gone by the end of the day. USUALLY. But on Monday I decided to take advantage of an OFFER and received an answer to a WANTED ad.

Here are my goodies that I got for FREE

A Childrens Bin System now a doll nursery and a Kenmore Sewing machine in great working condition. To test out the sewing machines abilities I whipped up this cute little crib blanket for DS. He's outgrown his bumpers made of this cute monkey fabric so now he has a blankie with Monkeys for a cute Monkey BOY.

Hope you all enjoyed today's postings and if you have any Earth Day - Green Tidbits please feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS box for all to share.

More on the WORKROOM: Sewing updates hopefully tomorrow. For now I'm trying to catch up on some housework and finish hanging some wall decorations in DS & DD#2's bedroom.

Yellow Linen Jacket Oh so close to being done but still needs finishing!

Muffin Results

The Muffin results are in - I had to add 2-3 Tbsps of milk to the mixture to make the muffin mix more like batter but the girls say they came out great and were two thumbs up here are a few shots of my DD's in action.

They always fight over who's going to crack the

eggs. But they are great helpers.

The Monkey at Home

Ahh sound asleep with his favorite little monkey... Now 7 1/2 mos old my DS is a great napper and very active...he has 3 teeth with the 4th one ready to pop! BUT What a bugger the 4th one is being...still 4 days later we're dealing with interrupted sleep at night and no sign of the tooth coming through yet.

And here's my Monkey during the day at home...yes that's gating you see....he's into everything and so we've started with gates around the house...it's amazing how quickly he went from starting to crawl to pulling himself up to stand and loving every minute of it.

He's even crawling overtop of mommy like a monster truck trying to get to his sisters homework papers and crinkle them up. What an excuse that would be for not turning in her homework - BUT TEACHER MY LITTLE BROTHER DESTROYED MY HOMEWORK! We struggle as it is trying to get homework done around here...some days are better than others but the littlest distraction is an excuse to walk away from the task at hand.

Today the girls have early dismissal from school so they'll be home at 1:15pm. It'll be a gorgeous day so hopefully we'll all go to the park. The only issue might be that my middle child DD #2 had a major crash on her two-wheeler yesterday and has 6 Bandaids...yes I saw the crash happen...yes I held my breath thinking...please Lord not a trip to the Emergency room. Luckily she just had alot of scrapes and needed tenderloving care and alot of Bandaids (I should buy Stock!).

In my attempt to pair down on some cookbooks and tons of receipe clippings I will be testing out receipes and giving them thumbs up or thumbs down to be kept on file.

Here is receipe #1

RECEIPE OF THE DAY: Dedicated to DD#1 for her love of muffins!

Blueberry-Yogurt Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons veg.oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I might try lemon for a twist) Turned out great with Lemon Extract!

1 (8oz) carton vanilla low-fat yogurt

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (thawed)

Add 2-3 Tbsps of Milk if your mixture seems to dry (I had too)

Cooking Spray

1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl: stir well, and make a well in center of mixture. Combine orange juice and next 4 ingredients in a bowl: stir well. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Gently fold in blueberries.

Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray; sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar evenly over batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 mins or until golden. Remove from pans immediately; let cool on wire rack. Yield: 1 doz.

WW Points 3 - Per serving (1 muffin) 153 Cal (19% Fat); Pro 3.7g; Fat 3.3g (sat 0.7g) Carb 27.2g; fiber 0.9g; Chol 19mg; Iron 1.1mg; Sod 172mg; Cal 62mg

I will be having DD#1 & DD#2 make and test these out later today...Results will be posted!

Welcome to My Blog!

Welcome to my blog! Name: Colleen Occupation: SAHM, Crafter, Ebayer you name it! Family: Hubby, 2 DD's, 1 DS, 1 Bad Kitty and a few fish Starting my blog to capture my sewing, crafts, homelife in process and share it with all my friends and future crafty friends. The Workroom: All things sewn, and in the process of being sewn and the dreams to be sewn The Home: All things Kids, cooking, cleaning and tips of the day and receipe of the week The Crafted: Other crafty ideas, links and crafted RECYCLE: tips, crafts and more on recycle, repupose, reuse, revamp and revive - yes thrifty too. More great blogging to come....

A Cat Among the mess

Yes that's a BAD KITTY you see among the mess...the mess that is my sewing / guest room. BAD KITTY "Stewie" tries to hide among the piles but I have hopes of cleaning the bed off, organizing my space and giving him no where to hide.

Anyone with sewing/shared space organization tips I'd love to have them or see your FLICKER pictures.

In the workroom projects include:

A yellow linen jacket "Project Runway" pattern that I'm taking a 3 session sewing class to improve my skills at JoAnn's superstore with Jenn.

Some T-Shirt Reconstructions: Halter, Cross Top and Chaos (see.supernaturale.com wearables for more details on Chaos).

INSPIRATION: The book ALTERNATION has inspired me to take a sleeveless tank from my closet and some old scarves - you know those corporate work accessories that every good suit wearing girl should have and create a new fashionable top...yup it too is a work in progress.

Ahh so much sewing fun so little time....ok this daydreaming mom has to grab a quick shower before the darling son wakes from his nap...more on him and his antics later.