Small sewing for sanity

It's no secret that I start going a little squirrelly if I don't feed my creative soul, but having little uninterrupted time makes it difficult to do anything substantial. 

I stitched up a few of these cute lavendar sachet babies and put them on etsy. They are so easy and a great way to use up scraps of fabric. There is no pattern for this, you can make them whatever size or shape you'd like. 

Start by gathering your fabric. You'll need whatever you'd like for the face (1/3 of total baby length) and fabric for the body (2/3 of total baby length). 

Sew those together and then fold in half making it into a tube, leaving the top open. At this point you need to embroider a face on. I use the term embroider loosely as I basically used a total of 4 stitches for the entire face. 

I kind of like the simplicity of this face!

At this point you will try to figure out how to funnel the lavendar flowers into the bottom of this tube. 

Fill the body portion with lavendar. By now the relaxation properties of the lavendar should have kicked in and you will no longer be aggravated about the mess the flowers made.  Stuff the head with some fiberfill or a cotton ball and do a gathering stitch around the opening and pull the head shut tight. 

Now cut a triangle piece of felt or fleece for the babushka. 

It needs to be big enough for the points to meet around the head. 

I did some with the points in front but I really like them better in the back. 

Lastly I stitched a loop of floss on top so they can hang in a closet or wherever you want to smell lavendar. Every time you squeeze them you activate the scent... Even years later!

Black Bean Salad

There's an over abundance of soup in the fridge right now so as much as I wanted to make black bean soup I opted for salad. I love how colorful this is, especially because CT is pretty colorless these days.  I'm not missing soup for a minute, this stuff is delicious. Anytime I can use lime and cilantro...it's a good day. 

Black Bean Salad

2 cans black beans drained and rinsed 

1/2 English cucumber seeded and diced

A handful of grape tomatoes halved

4 scallions sliced

A few small sweet red peppers chopped

A bunch of cilantro chopped

2 limes zested and juiced

2tbs olive oil (I used chipotle infused)

1 clove garlic grated 

Salt, pepper, and a pinch of chili powder and cumin

Make a dressing with the lime zest, juice, oil, and seasoning. 

Toss all other Ingredients together with dressing. So simple. 

Refrigerate for an hour or so and serve cold. 

Now onto feeding my creative soul! I am addicted to vintage embroidery patterns

And as hard as I try not to go to www.patternbee.com, sometimes I can't help it. So this came in the mail yesterday:

 I started stitching on some gingham last night, these will cloth napkins soon. 

And I also managed to finish this cute towel yesterday

DIY Ranch Crackers

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know I can buy crackers but what fun is that?? So, I had all of those oyster crackers leftover from Chowder Bowl Sunday and although they are good, they're really bland and no one would ever eat them. I was thinking of ways to season them and I remembered the dried buttermilk in my cabinet, ranch seasoning was meant to be. I can't remember what aisle I found it in but I grabbed it because I never have fresh buttermilk on hand and I figured it would come in handy someday.  This isn't really a recipe because I didn't measure anything but here's what I did:

4 packets of dried buttermilk (1/2cup)

A few teaspoons of garlic powder, onion flakes, paprika, cayenne, kosher salt, black pepper, dried parsley. I put it in my little spice grinder and that's it!

You can go in hundreds of directions with this by switching up the spices. 

You can use this for a number of things; dip, burgers, chicken, potatoes, etc. this is what I did:

Ranch Crackers

1 bag of oyster crackers

1/4 cup canola oil 

3 tbs ranch seasoning

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl mix crackers and oil until coated. Sprinkle the seasoning and mix again. Spread on to a sheet pan and bake until golden, approximately 10 minutes. Let cool and store in an airtight container. 

New in the shop today:

Fruity Faux Bois lunch bag!

Soup for days...and days

Clearly, I love soup. It's the best part of winter! Yesterday was Pasta Fagioli, a favorite in this house. Although I am not Italian by blood, I was raised Italian which is why I tend to make a lot of Italian dishes. There are many versions of pasta Fagioli and this is mine.

1lb dried white beans 

Olive oil

2 diced onion, carrot and celery

4 cloves minced garlic

1 box beef stock

1 box chicken stock

1/2 cup red wine

1 can crushed tomatoes

2 tbs tomato paste

Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

1/2 box of ditalini pasta

Fresh parsley and basil

Grated cheese

The night before, soak beans in cold water. In the morning change the water and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until beans are tender. Set aside until you are ready to make soup. 

In a soup pot, Sauté veggies and garlic in olive oil until just tender. Season with salt and peppers. Add wine, scraping any bits from the pot. Add tomatoes (I used leftover marinara I had in the fridge) paste and stock. Bring to a boil and simmer 20-30 minutes 

Add beans to the pot and simmer another 10 minutes. At this point you need to mash half of the beans. I usually use my handheld blender but I was in a hurry and just used a masher, not as effective but it's ok. 

In another pot, cook the ditalini to the stage right before "al dente". That pasta is going to soak up a lot of the stock and you don't want it too mushy. Drain and add it to the soup pot. Turn the heat down low and stir frequently for a few minutes. Add chopped herbs and garnish bowls with grated cheese, a drizzle of good olive oil and a pinch of red pepper flakes. 

Today in the shop:

I've added 2 new items, it's getting there. Slowly. 

Etsy shop is back up!

It's taken me over three years to get back but it's happening...slowly! 

Some old favorites and some new items as well. 

Due to time constraints, I will be taking a new approach with the shop this time. I can't do any custom work this time around but will offer a bunch of new items that are ready to ship. 

As a thank you, the first orders in February will receive a small gift just in time for Valentine's Day. 

Lavender heart sachets...they smell so good!

Come visit me at https://www.etsy.com/shop/HomeEcNewHaven?ref=hdr

Ridiculously cute *updated* 04/14

I know that dishsoap bottle aprons are a little cheesy but they are just so cute in oilcloth and all hung up together!

Thank you for your nice comments. I have licked my wounds and am over it now. I tried to email the editorial assistant and it seems that she may have blocked me because it kept coming back undeliverable. Oh well.
I saw an interesting comment from Tracy at fabric.com saying that she has a gift for me and my readers...I'd better go email her!
****UPDATE*****
Tracy from fabric.com would like to offer my readers $5.00 off their orders this week only The coupon code is "blogwork" and expires 04/21/09. You should check them out, I always shop their clearance first and find amazing deals and the service is always excellent.

More new stuff!

What else can you do with oilcloth, you wonder?
How about reusable sandwich/snack bags?



Here is what my listing says:
This idea was kicking around my head for a while and then a customer asked if I could make them for her and here they are. I wanted to wait until we used them for a while before putting them up for sale and they seem to work just great. I tested them with sandwiches (the bread stayed soft), cracker-type snacks (stayed crisp), and even grapes (stayed grapey). My customer had this to say:

“I was waiting to leave feedback until I had used them enough...but honestly...I LOVE THEM! They make life so easy, are so adorable and everyone who sees them, loves them! Thanks so much, I am over the moon about a snack bag.”
Caring for the bags is simple: wash in your sink with warm soapy water and hang to dry. The sewn seam is on the outside to prevent any bits of food from getting stuck anywhere.
They have a nice, strong Velcro closure and double stitching. These bags will last a long time.
No need to limit their use for food; these bags are useful for so many things!
Appr. 7” square, just like a plastic ziptop sandwich baggie.

the ever-evolving lunchbag

A year ago, I bought my Singer Futura for the sole purpose of doing monogrammed things. What a pain! First of all, I don't have a laptop so it involves dragging my sewing machine and all of its parts into the living room atop a shakey card table. Second of all...well, that's it but it's a huge pain. Everytime I tried it out, I ended up SO frustrated that the Futura almost went out the window so I didn't try again until recently. Now, I have the hang of it and it's kinda fun! I still wish I had a laptop but at least I have it working.
I am now offering monogramming on my oilcloth items, check out these custom bags that are also insulated-



Thanks for all of the nice comments about Julia's Halloween costume! She even got a mention on Craftzine.com blog
woohoo!

I love Halloween!

How cute is this? I'm not sure how exactly we came up with the idea but we always get a good one in mid-summer. So, how come if we get the idea in the summer, I am sewing the darn thing as we are walking out the door to a party?? I didn't actually sew much; a simple skirt, half apron, rickrack on a t-shirt and lace on socks. The bonnet was a purchase from a wonderful seamstress at GrandmasGirl on Etsy. I could have never made it even half as nice as Julianne did...this woman can sew!
I tied some fake grapes in a basket and we threw in some raisins just in case no one could figure out who she was supposed to be. As if!

We already have next year's costume planned but it's a secret.