Chatty Cathy today

I'm chatty today. I've had nothing to say recently, and all of a sudden, I've tons to talk about.

This post isn't about chatting though - I just want to post pictures of Nora. She has discovered the sprinkler and loves it.

Things are growing!

We are reaping the rewards of our garden finally! I'm picking a few tomatoes each week, and I'm thinking that with the number that are starting to turn red, I'm going to be picking a ton soon.

The rabbits have had a field day with the leaves on the carrots, though picking one of the carrots, it seems that they are still doing okay? The onions are about done, so we'll be picking those when we have the opportunity.

All of my viney plants still have no fruit on them. Though, they have tons of flowers on them, we're hoping to see something soon - canteloupe, squash, pumpkin, watermelon - something! I'm thinking the only possible one left is going to be the pumpkins, since they have a long growing season. I just wish we were going to have some squash, I've been looking forward to it all summer long.

We have yellow peppers aplenty - though we have no clue what to do with them! Any suggestions? Our green peppers are also doing nicely. :)

A new hobby

I've been wanting to take one of the Wilton Cake Decorating classes for some time now. Finally, as a birthday present from my husband, he bought me the class and supplies. Little did he know, those supplies were not nearly everything that I needed. I've now bought pans, parchment papers, cookie cuters for cute shapes, dyes, flavorings, powdered sugar galore, a huge tub of crisco, a larger spatula - well, you get the idea. Thank goodness I already have the Kitchenaid Professional Mixer or this would have been an even more expensive habit!

Over the month of July, I completed the Wilton Course I. It was so much fun, and I'm anxiously awaiting Course II. However, due to my husband's bowling schedule on Monday nights (that will be starting soon), I may have to put Course II off until September. That's okay, I suppose, I still have plenty that I can practice on my own.

The first week, we just learned some basics. The second week, we had to bring in an iced cake and a cookie cutter. The cookie cutter was to transfer an image to the cake, then we star tipped the inside of the cookie cutter image. My cake looked much better before it nearly slid off the plate as I pulled into our driveway.

The next week our cake was cute little clowns. Although, mine aren't so cute. You see, after practicing with your icing for an hour or so on a practice board, you're then expected to use the same icing in order to decorate your cake. The result for me was what I refer to as melty clowns. Still, the basic concept is easy and cute. Sadly, you can see from my photo that mine are not so cute. I tweaked my icing a bit the second week so that it wasn't so sweet and a bit more edible.

The last class ended with the ever evil rose. If you've never had the pleasure of making a rose out of frosting, let me tell you - it's definitely a learned art. I think that I finally got the hang out of it - at least enough that they weren't quite so hideous. You should have seen some of the ones that I started out making! Awful, awful, awful! There's a definite learning curve and I'm told that they are much easier to make in say, I dunno ..... January? Yeah, trying to make them in the heat and humidity of July in a non air conditioned house? Not so easy. After I finally mastered the rose we had to learn a new technique - a bow. And I thought roses were tricky! As you can see, I didn't get as much chance to practice the bow before it was time to throw one on the cake. Since the bow looked so crappy, I then tried to cover it up with the flowers. Yeah, I know, didn't work so well, did it?

I took the class with the idea that I would make my daughter's first birthday cake, and I'm so happy that I'll be able to make a great cake for her. Her birthday party is next weekend, but right now, I'm less concerned with her cake then I am for a cousins bridal shower cake that is TOMORROW! I'm still going back and forth on a lot of issues - fillings, number of tiers, decorations. I have the two bottom tiers done, a double layer 10 inch and a double layer 8 inch. The shower will have approximately 50 people attending. While I know that technically, this is plenty of cake to feed said 50 people, I know the people attending and they will scoff at such little pieces. So, do I do the 6 inch tier? I'm thinking that it probably wouldn't add that much cake to the mix. My original plan, after talking with some family members (and them telling me that those two tiers would not be enough cake) I decided to make some cupcakes as well. But, now I'm all sorts of indecisive and found a fabulous sheet cake online. Would it be horrible to want to make a sheet cake now? Ack - I told you - indecisive! The other cakes wouldn't go to waste - the one that I filled and stacked already could be frosted and taken to a party for tonight. The other could be wrapped and frozen for DDs party next week (where I'm very decisive on how her cake will look!).

I'm never this undecisive when it comes to sewing projects, so I don't know what's come over me. All I know is I'm loving this new hobby. My hips, however, are not.

House stuff

My daughter is being baptized next Sunday, so I've had to put all my sewing stuff away. I hate that. Eventually, once the playroom is built in the basement (just one wall needed to block off the furnace, hot water heater, washer, dryer and sump pump) with a door to access those things, I will move into the room next to where the playroom will be. I'd put them in reverse order, but this way the playroom will be directly when you walk down the stairs. Otherwise, we'd have to walk through my sewing room. The whole point of a room is so that I don't have to clean up when I'm done.

Anyways, I finally talked my husband into swapping the living room and dining rooms. The way the current dining room is set up is awkward. Two folding doors into the Florida room line one wall. A door from the kitchen breaks up another wall. The third wall has a fireplace on it. And there isn't a forth wall, as it sort of L's into the living room (though, it's not a true L as the wall actually curves). So, it will be challenging to fit the furniture, but frankly, I think it will work better as a living room than as a dining room. Best of all, the dining room table won't be a catch all location!

So, that's what I'm working on right now. I hope to get back to sewing next week sometime.

knit waistband skirt

While playing in my fabric stash, I also made another skirt. I've been trying to find the perfect skirt - for both me and my sister - so I just keep trying to change up the waistband.

Here's what I made this time. I have to say that it feels great on - just like wearing a pair of gauchos. And, oh boy, do I love my gauchos.

Once again, excuse the wrinkles. Once I get my new sewing room set up down stairs, I'll be better about pressing my items. Right now, I'm stealing space from the dining room and there's just no room to set up the ironing board.

Reconditioned pants and shirt

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I bought these jeans on the clearance rack at Target. I took the time to take out the waistband, bought material to convert them into maternity jeans. And then, my sewing machine acted up, I got distracted and low and behold, my daughter is now ten months old and I'm getting back into my sewing pile.

I figured I might as well do something with them, as I'm sick of coming across them in my tub of material. Only, long ago I used the knit fabric intended for the waistband. So, what else could I use? And, then, it hit me. How about an old t-shirt? Well, not a t-shirt, but rather a fitted shirt of t-shirt material. So, I went ahead and took that shirt and cut away.

Then, I sewed up the fly where the zipper used to be. Once I was done with that, I lined up the right amount of t-shirt fabric that will hopefully cover a pregnant belly in the future.

And, there's certainly plenty of room for a growing belly to stretch out the t-shirt fabric. I'll have to pick up more clearanced out jeans before my next pregnancy. Then, I'll pair it with super cute old shirts to end up with a one of a kind pair of maternity jeans.

Grocery Shopping on a budget

Since I no longer work full time and stay home with our daughter, we certainly don't have as much disposable income. That translates into - I have a budget and I have to live within said budget. At first, it was very hard. I was used to grocery shopping with no thought given to how much I spent in a week. After awhile, it became much easier. But, right after Christmas 2006, I changed my eating habits. I was determined to shed some of the weight that had piled on. And, I have shed some of it and have managed to find a new way to grocery shop on a budget AND still eat healthy.

I'd say my average grocery bill is $60 a week for our family of three. Sometimes, I can get buy with just $20 (eggs, bread, milk, lunch meat - filler products if you will). Other times, I might take what I didn't spend the week before and apply it towards my grocery trip for the week - particularly if there's a great price on meat. Since we have an extra freezer, I make use of it by stocking up on meat when it's on sale, and I still have some extra money in my grocery budget for the month. Recently (well, if you count early April as recent), chicken breasts were buy one, get one free. I bought family sized packs - four in all and spent $20 on it. Then, I split the breasts into smaller freezer baggies. We still have some of that chicken left in our freezer.

One thing that also helps to extend the life of a meat product is to dice it up and put it into the dish, rather than serve the entire breast. You can do this with casseroles, pasta dishes, stir fry, etc.

I also eat a lot of vegetables. Not all fresh, mind you, as that would certainly take my budget through the roof! Rather, I buy tons of frozen vegetables - brocolli, cauliflower, spinach, etc. I can usually find these for $1 per bag or less. The great part is that they won't go bad, so long as you seal up the bag and they're cheap. You can get more out of those bags of vegetables than you can out of a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. I use these frozen veggies in so many different ways - making egg white omelettes stuffed with vegetables for instance. My favorite way, though, is to add vegetables to pasta dishes. While pasta is cheap, (even whole wheat that I buy) the serving sizes are actually quite small. In order to feel full, I throw in a ton of vegetables and make myself a rather large dish instead of a small plate. I don't feel deprived and I'm getting in my vegetables.

I do buy some fresh fruits and vegetables. I wait, though, until they are in season. No, I don't get to eat watermelon in the winter, but I do enjoy them in the summer. I also make use of our farm stands along the sides of the roads. I love that this supports local farmers, but I also love that it means I know that what I'm buying is truly fresh, afterall, it hasn't been trucked across the country. And, it's usually a bit cheaper than buying the same item in the grocery store.

Some people seem surprised that I can keep my grocery bills so low. The trick is, not to buy processed foods. I could buy all Lean Cuisines, baked chips, and sugar free-fat free icecreams, but that adds a serious amount of money to my weekly total. Instead, I buy those items with much moderation. I stay away from Lean Cusines and instead buy the bakep chips and ice cream for my husband. I enjoy them as well, but if they weren't in the house, my husband would simply walk to the convenient store and buy the full fat versions. Still, even buying those items in moderation, I can keep my food budget in check.

One other way that I'm able to cut my budget is to have our own garden. I realize it isn't possible for some people to have a full garden, but if it is, it's a great way to cut down on your grocery bill. If you can't do a full garden, you might consider trying to do some container gardening.

I look in the sales flyers each week to see what's on sale. I check which coupons I have and try to incorporate the two together. I'm not a loyal shopper to any one store. Sure, I have my favorites, but I'd rather get a great price on some meat than shop in a certain store. I plan ahead, planning from those sales flyers what we'll eat for the week. Perhaps in a future post, I'll take your through the planning to the final product. I can highlight what I decide to buy based upon the advertisements and planning my menus, all the way to the final grocery store run, complete with receipt.