Tag: Fancy

Fairy Garden Party
Adventures · Gardening · Party Posts

Fairy Garden Party

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Ready for some magic? I had a fairy garden party with some girlfriends a month or so ago and it went rather well, I think. I may have gone overboard with plants and containers, but that just meant that people could have more than one garden if they wanted to! Some of the plants were indoor plants and others were outdoor plants and I tried to get ones that I hadn’t been able to kill yet, or were marked as easy care or good for terrariums. Here’s what the table looked like. I apologize for the cut off end. I was attempting to take a pic and it was super duper sunny, so I couldn’t totally see.

For supplies, we had rocks, glass bead fillers, moss, gravel, and sand. We had just all purpose potting soil too for the actual dirt. I went to the thrift store to find containers and bought a few at other stores as well. I even got a mini bathtub from one of the craft stores that I love and I’m probably going to go back and get another one for me. The teapot is my friend’s that she brought. I used my tiered treat stand to display all the accessories and it made me so happy!

For accessories, I found little fairy garden items like bridges and tiny yoga frogs, mini furniture, and some mini fairy houses too. We had shells, rhinestones, and mirrors, and shiny rocks galore. We had some houses you could paint too, but I don’t think anyone painted one.

I found a variety of containers. The thrift store must have gotten a set of wedding table centerpieces in because they had about 6 of these really big glass vases that matched. You’ll see some of the other ones throughout the post. I only had the little ones on the table. We had a bunny yard ornament, left by the prior owners, and it had a broken bit in it. My friend T made the cutest and most charming terrarium with it! Some of the other odder containers were a lamp shade (far left, white round dish,) a mini bathtub, and a chipped mixing bowl.

My friend donated a bunch of aloe starts and I had a couple of philodendron and spiderwort plants that I had started in my office. I bought a couple of succulents, a pepperomia, a mini nerve plant, a croton, and a purple thing that looked super fun! There were some others just marked “Terrarium assortment.” Basically anything I thought I might not kill. Outdoor plants included vistas, marigolds, alyssum, lobelia, something named “Gnome Pink,” and a coleus.

I also made snacks, but tried to keep it under control, so we only had two homemade things- lemon ginger muffins, and Cathedral bars/fantasy bars. Recipes for those are here: https://www.momontimeout.com/5-minute-fantasy-bars-just-4-ingredients/

Muffins- https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/lemon-yogurt-muffins/

I did switch out butter for oil because it was 7:30 AM and I didn’t have thawed butter or the will to go find it in the freezer. The muffins were a little overbaked, but they tasted good! The Cathedral bars were the stuff of dreams and now I want to make a pan again. I might get mobbed at work for it though, if I was nice enough to share. I did not take a picture of the snacks!

Here are some close ups of the terrariums. Some of these are from friends, as my phone overheated and got cranky. I hope you enjoy seeing them!

Uncategorized

Wordless Wednesday- Fox Theater

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The Fox is a super weird mix of very fancy styles, but it’s so much fun to go there. Although, I will send a shout out to my Mom and Dad who made sure we knew to be at concerts 15 minutes head at least and made sure we knew how to be polite in theaters. As Shepard Book says there’s a special place in hell for “people who talk at theaters.” I’ll add people who come in ridiculously late and disrupt the whole show for everyone around them. *glares indignantly at the general public.* We were at the Manheim Steamroller concert just before Christmas for these pictures. Outside of the annoying talkers and late arrivals, it was a lovely concert! There was a harpsichord on stage! I was super jealous of the performer’s dress. K2 and J came, as well as my inlaws and we all sat in a row in three sets of aisle seats.

Recipe Roundup

Scrumptious Saturday

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Well, hello! I’m way behind on food posts lately. I’m taking a new med and it’s unfortunately dropping my appetite way down, so has made it hard to want to eat and cook. The Husband has suggested several new angles for food posts, so maybe I will try some of those soon.

My Mom sent me this book for my birthday too and it’s lovely! I’m excited to try some of the recipes in it. It’s got some fun facts about procrastination and other funny things too. I’ll have to use it as my next cookbook to review.

Speaking of my birthday, we had take out from the very fancy winery that we went to a long time ago. The Husband had a breaded chicken dish with fancy mashed potatoes and I had a chicken and veggie risotto. We also each had a bittersweet chocolate truffle. I ended up finishing the Husband’s truffle the next day, as he thought it was too dark for him. We shared an order of chicken potstickers and it came with pretzel bread. It was a delicious dinner and I didn’t have to cook for three days after!

I got two mini ice cream cakes from Coldstone too and they were ridiculously cute! I had a devil’s food cake layer topped with chocolate ice cream with peanut butter and fudge sauces, as well as Reese’s cups. The Husband had a devil’s food and Oreo cake with M&Ms and chocolate chips mixed in. They both had chocolate ganache as a topping as well. Yum!

I made a Trader Joe’s run the day before my birthday, as it’s conveniently located next to the Coldstone. I picked up these croissants and fancy coconut yogurt for my birthday breakfast. One has chocolate and the other has almond filling. They were so good! They also had Kibbe and falafel in the freezer section, but apparently I didn’t take a picture of my birthday lunch.

I did take a picture of the Balela salad, shawarma chicken, and naan I had a few days later. It was also quite delicious and I would get it again!

We haven’t just had decadent restaurant food though! Below is pasta with homemade arugula and herb pesto from the freezer. Always a delicious choice!

We had an appetizer night. I made steamed chicken dumplings, homemade fried crab rangoon, and we had store bought mini chicken egg rolls.

I used the rest of the crab to make crab stuffed mushrooms the next night. We had the leftover dumpling meat as meatballs! I stir fried bok choy and peppers in a sauce too.

We’ve had mac and cheese too. This time it was stovetop shells and cheese. Cooked carrots and fresh green beans rounded out the dinner. There may have been fruit as well.

We’ve had some interesting meals and some comfort foods lately. I’m gearing up for jam and gardening, so stay tuned for a garden plan post soon! Tomorrow is one of my planting days! I’d better go make sure my seedlings are marked before I play “Guess what I planted in this spot?” With my garden. Wish me luck!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- More Life Lessons From Fancy
Wordless Wednesdays

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- More Life Lessons From Fancy

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We have had Fancy for 3 years! How can that possibly be?! She’s calmed down a lot lately, very little guarding behaviors, lots more cuddles, and has some white creeping in on her muzzle. She still barks like crazy when someone walks by and oh my gosh… If there should happen to be another dog on her sidewalk while she is in the house… The world might be ending. 😁 On the plus side, she’s still really good at scaring away salespeople.

Overall, we’re still so glad to have her. She makes us laugh and gets us out of the house. She also demands to see the neighbors regularly, especially since they now have a supply of carrots just for her. 🐶 In addition to me gushing, I thought you might like to see the lessons we’ve learned from her lately. So here’s the next installment of Fancy’s Life Lessons!

Make time for curiosity!

Spend some time looking up. (There were squirrel enemies in the tree. She spent the rest of the walk checking every single tree just in case there were more.)

Listen for new sounds. (She was head tilting to hear the falcons at Ren Fest. We didn’t let her get anywhere close, as she sometimes will chase birds.)

Stay hydrated- although maybe not from public fountains.

Make new friends. She has no shame and completely accosted the Ren Fest Queen, who is luckily a fan of dogs.

Try new things.

Embrace your weird.

Have adventures!

Use your manners.

And above all- Remember to rest! Preferably as adorably as possible. 😍

I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips! Give the dogs you see this week some extra love!

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Dogs!

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“Everything I know I learned from dogs.” – Nora Roberts

“I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross, and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.” – Mark Haddon (author, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that dogs think humans are nuts.”  – John Steinbeck

“The dog was created specially for children. He is the god of frolic.” – Henry Ward

“Men,” said Mr. Kyle, “people have been trying to understand dogs ever since the beginning of time. One never knows what they’ll do. You can read every day where a dog saved the life of a drowning child, or lay down his life for his master. Some people call this loyalty. I don’t. I may be wrong, but I call it love–the deepest kind of love.”

― Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows

“Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift. It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born. What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?”

― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs

Gardening Meals!
Gardening · Recipe Roundup

Gardening Meals!

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I love having a garden! I inherited some of that from both Grandpas and it was encouraged and fostered by my Mom. My Grandpa Ollie was a missionary Papua New Guinea who helped with agriculture. My Grandpa Ed was a fabulous gardener and I remember seeing his garden as a kid. I have very fond memories of gardening with Mom in the summer. Mmm… tomatoes fresh from the garden, pea pods off the vine, crunchy carrots, and raspberries! Now I have both garden plants and some very pretty flowers that I do absolutely nothing with. It’s a nice balance. The featured picture is our hydrangeas by our front door.

I have started to get some produce from the garden! I was getting worried, but went out to check and found some cherry tomatoes! I also have peppers to use in pico.

We’re talking about putting in another garden bed for next year, which I think will house the things with vines. I’ve gotten only two tiny baby zucchini this year from my plant. It doesn’t like being in a pot apparently.

Speaking of baby zukes, I had both of them sautéed in olive oil with some Sandwich Sprinkle with the rest of my garden haul tonight for dinner. We also had steak and mashed redskin potatoes.

It was delicious! I could have cooked the steak a tiny bit less, but I was distracted by apple recipes. I suddenly have a surplus, which will be turned into crockpot applesauce tomorrow.

I have officially used the Sandwich Sprinkle on a sandwich! I’ll give you a minute to absorb that information. 🙂 I even took a picture of it to prove it. It did add a bit of zing to the sandwich. I definitely need a bigger jar of it though!

I had fruit salad along with it. I’m a fruit monster in the summer and wanted all the fruit!

We had pizzas made with fancy things too. I used a pizza dough recipe that didn’t require a long rise time from The Kitchn. https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-pizza-dough-recipe-221367

It did rise for a couple of hours at least. The Husband had mushroom and ham with fresh mozzarella. I had a lovely Margherita Pizza with fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella. The recipe was also from The Kitchn. https://www.thekitchn.com/easy-recipe-classic-margherita-pizza-recipes-from-the-kitchn-174103

They were both lovely! The crust for mine was baked on an upside down cookie sheet, which made it super crunchy. The Husband’s was also nice and crispy, but I used the pizza stone instead.

Here’s some pictures of the rest of the garden as well. Herbs, tomatoes, radishes, and carrots.

Oh! We have strawberries!

I’m excitedly waiting for them to turn red so we can get them before the squirrels! We don’t always have good luck with that. Things are growing pretty well. I have to re-stake some tomato plants. They’re falling over with the weight of the tomatoes. Next year, I will get some cages and will hopefully be better prepared.

For now though, I will leave you with this very relaxing picture of Fancy. I hope your night is as lovely as her nap was. Good night!

Sewing

Just Keep Sewing! Just Keep Sewing!

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I feel slightly like Dory lately, from “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory,” in that I seem to have a short attention span for sewing projects lately and lots of indecisiveness for what to actually make.

I do need to get my shark themed outfits done for Shark Week, which starts on July 28th! I have three more things to make, I think, and then will be able to wear shark or ocean themed outfits all week! Oddly enough, I don’t think anyone will actually notice. My teen clients last year mostly just rolled their eyes at me when I told them they should be watching it, but I have hope this year, as I have some younger kids who do like sharks. I have to have someone to talk to about it after all! The Husband can only take so much. 🙂

I didn’t sew any shark themed items this week. I was focused on tank tops for part of it and workout gear. I did make a sleep tank top out of the scrap material from my SIL’s sweary panda shirt, but out of deference to my Mom, I won’t show it.. 😉 It’s got a cute panel on the front with the pandas and pink cotton lycra along the sides and back. It was really cute for my first time color blocking a pattern.

I hacked the Bonus Tank from George and Ginger to make it. I have used this pattern four times now, as it is a free pattern and has only three pieces. It includes actual pieces for the neck and armbands and it’s been nicer than having to measure them out. I’ll show you two other versions, but the third one isn’t done yet. It still needs bands and adjustments.

This one is from a remnant from Joann’s. It was actually the smaller of two cuts that I bought. The bigger one will be a skirt, I think. I believe it is rayon spandex, but I keep forgetting to take a picture of the end of the bolt with the info. It’s lovely, soft, and very light, even in the heat. It also goes perfectly with my blue chambray shorts I made last year.

This one is from a performance fabric, I believe nylon and spandex, also from Joann’s. All the performance and printed knits were on sale for $7.99 a few weeks ago and I stocked up. They are normally $13-20 a yard. I also had coupons!

It’s a bit of a different fabric that I normally use, but is supposed to be moisture wicking and all that fancy stuff. It’s soft and comfy. This was the first one I made and I have since narrowed the shoulders a bit as they were a tiny bit too big.

I also made these leggings with cutouts that I think are super trendy and cute.

They are just black cotton lycra with these panels and I don’t have a good picture of them on. I still have to take about two inches off the bottom of the leggings, but it won’t affect the panel at all. I am short, so the Capri length are actually somewhat closer to ankle. Chances are good I won’t want air conditioning in my leggings in the winter! The Husband thought they were cool too.

Since it has been so hot lately, of course, the best thing to do is to make a sweater, right? 🙂 I actually pulled this out to make because I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it, so it was something I could do quickly. I think it looks cute on me and this pattern has some magic that makes me feel cute, even in a slimmer cut. The fabric is a double knit and was from the Discount Fabric Outlet, which sadly, has closed. 🙁 I had just enough to make it work. The neckband is navy cotton lycra, as the blue floral doesn’t have enough stretch to work for that.

It’s the Fall In Love Sweater from Ellie and Mac. I love it! I have made a black and rose sweater in this pattern too and probably will end up with a couple more for fall and winter. It’s the perfect professional sweater pattern.

In a more seasonally appropriate direction is this dress, which is the Brunch Blouse from Patterns for Pirates extended to my actual dress length with a slight High/Low hem.

If you remember, this is a pattern I have made before, but forgot to add more to the skirt portion when I shortened the torso and ended up with a lovely tunic instead. Joann’s came to the rescue as they had almost perfectly matching bias tape and thread to finish the edges. It is made from rayon voile, which I bought after seeing the fabric on clearance online. I have not worked with this fabric before, but it is so smooth and floaty that I want all of it now. It works perfectly for a little summer dress! I have worn it belted to a friend’s birthday party and with a cropped jean jacket for work (which I thank the same friend for making me buy it every time I pull it out.) It looked lovely both ways and makes me feel super stylish and cute. I plan to make more of this pattern as well.

I have been finding a couple of stash busting hashtags on Instagram that I’m hoping will help inspire me to keep evaluating and adjusting my wardrobe. I’m finding that my style is really emerging and I’d like to keep up that momentum.

This weekend I have fun plans to try tie dying some white cotton lycra to see how it works and I will have some cute things to make after that. For the summer, all the online fabric places have really cool tie dye fabrics and my friend and I decided to try to make some on our own. And of course, my list of projects grows ever longer. For example, how cute are these patterns I found at the bag sale at my local quilt store?

I blame my MIL for part of them. It’s okay though, she got similar fabric (the water color looking ones) to me and blames me for that.

It’s dangerous when we shop together. Also, she has the ruler I need for the Twister Gnomes, so how could I not get it? And and iron pattern called “The Irony?” I mean.. I’m their target market on that one. (By the way, everyone may get a gnome themed table runner this year. Hope you don’t mind… 😉

To distract from more fabric purchases (although they do have a purpose- a quilt with the watercolors/batiks and a skirt or shirt with the floral,) I’ll leave you with this derptastic picture of Fancy on a car ride.

I hope it makes you smile as much as it did for me!

Sewing

So Much Sewing!

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Hallelujah! I have found my sewjo again! I have tried a couple of new patterns lately with great success and now have renewed confidence. I also went off my fabric fast with a bang, but in my defense, did have plans for almost all of it… You’ll see some of those lovelies tomorrow for the Wordless Wednesday post.

For now though, I’ll start with the additional vending things that I made. The show itself, Detroit Raks, was excellent and I was excited to see all the local dancers participate. I did very well vending too and had lots of people jazzed up about my costume pieces. It was funny though, I stayed up way too late to make three more things and one of those things was the first thing to sell!

It was this little dino skirt.

I call these “hip skimmers” based on a pencil skirt pattern. I came up with them one day after work when I went to class, but had forgotten to bring dance clothes to change into. Luckily, I happened to be wearing a stretchy handmade pencil skirt and leggings, so just hiked up the skirt a little for ease of movement and it looked super cute! So of course, I made more to try out to vend.

The lace one is see through, which garnered a surprising amount of comments. I assumed everyone would know it was really to be worn over leggings (I was wearing one to demonstrate,) but people seemed confused. The red fabric is awful to work with! I ran out of three three times and gave up on the third time. It looks cute though. I have a couple more, but these were the ones that I actually got pictures of.

I also made new hip skirts, one of which has been adopted into my costume stash. I mean, really, when it looks this good with an existing costume, it definitely needs to be mine.

It’s dreamy! It’s backed with a gold fabric, seen here. It’s crackly, but hard to take pictures of.

Here are two more.

The black one is also calling to me, but I really am going to try to sell it first. I can’t find the peacock fabric at Joann’s at the moment, so really do only have one additional one. I’m hoping to get my Etsy store up again. It’s currently closed for renovations and evaluation.

Also, on my completed, but not really for me list are my cutest doll clothes so far, the bathrobes! Aren’t they just adorable?!

I now have three dolls, so I need one more, but these are a good start. One of the few boy dolls that I have seen went on sale and I figured it would be helpful to have a boy too. I have a couple of boys who love to play with the doll food and tell me which clothes to put on which girl doll, but refuse to interact with the girl dolls and I’m wondering if they would use a boy doll. I made a couple of more neutral shirts and pants too, just in case.

These pants are made out of sweatshirt material that I promptly used the stretch the wrong way for, so I am interested to see if they will actually go on the dolls. I haven’t tried it yet. The office dolls are all slimmer than my Kirsten doll. I do have a collared shirt pattern to try and have a bunch cut out, including a linen one from scraps of my Ren Fest shirt.

I made a second leotard too and I’m going to use a different method for putting it together if I ever make one again. It’s a little wonky, but decent for my first one.

It’s funny, some of these patterns use techniques that are intimidating to try on bigger clothes, but easier to try out on smaller pieces first. I definitely feel like my skills are growing just through the sheer act of sewing pretty continuously.

I have sewn some things for me too, not just for other people. I made these spectacular leggings on Saturday, when I was missing aerial yoga, due to vertigo and a headache. I thought spinning around might not lead to happy things. These leggings did make me happy though. They’re electrifying!

They have a black waistband, you just a can’t tell. They are cotton lycra from Timeless Treasures. I’m actually a little disappointed in the quality of the fabric. I have worn them once and washed them inside out and they are pilling on the inside of the thighs already! It also doesn’t have as much recovery as most cotton lycras have. The pink is from Purple Seamstress and is fabulous, but I don’t know that I’ll be buying that company’s knit again. It makes me very sad, as the constellation fabric I wanted is from them, but if it’s going to be bad quality, I don’t want it! They will be cute for as long as they last though.

This is a new pattern, the Brunch Blouse from Patterns for Pirates. I have had this pattern for quite some time, but was all intimidated by how good it looked on everyone who made it. It’s two pieces… Four if you do the optional chest pocket and the Henley button placket on the neck.

It’s supposed to be dress length, but the hip curve was hitting down by my knee, so I shortened the pattern by an inch (measured and everything! I was very impressed) and forgot to then extend the skirt portion. So now it’s a really cute tunic and I like it a lot. It has bias binding along the neckline and hems everywhere else. I will probably do a binding along the hemline next time too, it would be much neater than just a turned hem. I did discover that I have a blind hem foot on my machine, but I couldn’t quite get it to work and was too impatient to wait. I love it, even with forgetting the bust darts. I’ll try those with the next one and see which way I like it. It’s peachskin fabric, which kind of feels like fuzzier board short material, I guess. It’s super smooth on the inside and very cool to the touch. I wore it all day at work and didn’t get overheated at all. I’m sure it’s polyester. I have a couple more planned and will definitely be keeping this pattern in mind.

Of course, my crowning glory for this sewing round up is the Shark Dress. 🦈

I blame the Husband. Well, and Shark Week. I asked him if he would mind being seen with me in public while I was wearing a Shark Dress and he said he wouldn’t be seen with me if I didn’t make and wear it. I wore it to his theater banquet, where no one even blinked an eye. Here it is!

It is a CKC Amy dress, with pockets. It’s my fourth dress from this pattern and I think it suits me very well. I was slouching in this picture a bit, I think. It has shark lined pockets! My hems went a little wavy on the bodice, so if I used this fabric for anything else, I will bind it or interface them before I sew them. Once it’s on, you can’t really tell. Both fabrics are cotton lycra. The Sharks are from Purple Seamstress and the navy is from Elevated Fashion Fabrics. The sharks are thinner than the navy, so I was glad the bodice is lined. It gave it a little more support.

I adore it, of course! Some of the sharks are emo sharks and look like they are simply undone by life.

I had to order more, because obviously, I know some boys who might enjoy shark outfits… Luckily, they have awesome parents, who might also appreciate sharks. 😉

I’m pretty pleased with my sewing adventures these last couple weeks. I’m still working on getting the basement presentable and organized again. It’s supposed to rain most of the week and into the weekend, so I think that I will do a bunch on Saturday after my staff meeting. Friday, I have plans to can and Sunday is aerial and sewing. Hopefully a productive weekend, even if rainy.

Fancy is giving me this look in an effort to make me go to bed.

She likes to lay on my feet and doesn’t like to go to bed alone at night. I should probably take her advice and head that way.

Have a lovely night!