Crossover Pinafore into Sweet Little Top

I thought I would share few pictures of little miss Eloise and the fact that she is still able to wear her cute pinafores from these posts here and here!  It's crazy to think I made them almost a year ago.  She was about 10 months old in those posts and now she is 19 months old...whaaat?  Where has the time gone?

This is how she smiles when you tell her to 'say cheese', isn't she such a silly little girl?  I love her so!! 

The free pattern and step-by-step tutorial for making a pinafore of your own is found in this post here and no, I don't have the diaper cover pattern up yet.  It seems that printing the PDF has been so problematic for some people and I just don't know what to do...not everyone could get access via Scribd or GoogleDocs so I switched it over to Box.net and so far it seems to be doing okay there.  I had one reader comment yesterday that when you print it out it automatically has it print out at 111% (?) not sure why but she said if she scaled it back to 100% it printed out just fine, who knows!  Anyways, the reason I'm sharing my PDF hosting troubles with you is that that is the reason why I haven't put up the diaper cover pattern.  My inbox just can't take even more emails regarding help as to why things aren't lining up or that they can't access the file, sorry!  If all goes well with the pattern at Box.net I will upload the diaper cover for everyone real soon, pinky swear. 

Anyways....back to the pinafore!  You can see here that even if you make the 6-12 months size it will still fit your little lady as a cute top well into the 2 year age range.  So you might not need to scale it up in size for those of you who have been wondering about enlarging the pattern.  Mind you, Eloise is pretty average in height and weight!  

Ugh!  I can't believe she won't be the baby of the family anymore...she is moving on up to big sisterhood in less than 4 months!  It always seems a bit unreal to me that the baby of the family won't be the baby when the next little one comes along.  I guess she really is a big girl though, she can do so many things...sigh.

And for those of you wondering...here is a gratuitous belly shot at 23 weeks!  Am I really halfway done with this pregnancy?   Scary!  And even scarier that this belly will probably double in size by the end too, eek!

Hope you have a great leap day, ooooh only once every 4 years!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

XOXO,

Reverse Color St. Patrick's Day Knot Wreath-TUTORIAL

I finally took down my Valentine decor the other day, well on our front door at least, I still really like looking at all the hearts on my walls and windows :-)  I'm sure those will be coming down soon and I have to say I'm a bit surprised that Eloise hasn't ripped more off the wall but for now I think the remaining few will stay put for a few more days at least.  So with a bare door staring me in the face, I decided to make a fun and colorful wreath for St. Patricks day, you might remember the clothesline wreath I made a couple years ago here, I still love it's simplicity but thought this year I would go with some bright and fun colors,  basically 'think spring'.  We could use some color in this blah winter we've been having.

I made a simple knot wreath using grosgrain ribbon, my favorite ribbon to play with.  Is it weird that I have a favorite ribbon type/style?  Craft nerd alert!  I package up all my Etsy shop orders with a pretty chocolate grosgrain ribbon, it's one of my favorite parts of the completed look and one of the first things you see when you open your special package, ahhh love!

Anyways, back to the wreath.  Since St. Paddy's day is pretty much green and gold in coloring I thought I would spice this wreath up by reversing the prominent color palette.  I think this way it will work well going into the Spring season in case I forget to change out the front door decor by then!  Always thinking ahead, lol!

Color Reversed St Patrick's Day Knot Wreath

1 circular foam wreath form (mine was 11.5 inches in diameter)

3 rolls of yellow 5/8 inch grosgrain ribbon (7 yards)

1 roll of lime or green 5/8 inch grosgrain ribbon (7 yards each)

pair of scissors or rotary cutter and mat

I love simple projects and this one is just that!  Just pick two fun colors of ribbon and in a matter of minutes you will have yourself a lovely wreath to spice up your front door.

Cut your ribbon into 13 inch strips...

Tie each piece of ribbon onto your foam wreath form and double knot it fairly tight so it doesn't slide around too much.  Continue this same process until your wreath is full and beautiful.

I used all 4 rolls and just went to town while the kids and I read books one afternoon.  It definitely helps to have book holder helpers and page turners otherwise maybe a game of 'eye spy' would do the trick!

If you are wondering how I hung this to my door, I  took a 5 inch remnant of ribbon from an empty spool, threaded it through the back of one of the tied ribbon loops near the top center, and tied it into a small loop.   Easy peasy lemon squeezy :-)

Then go and hang it on your front door and enjoy the happy colors!!

XOXO,

Katie Evans Photography Giveaway Winners!!

Well, it's about that time...the TWO winners of Katie Evan's super awesome photography ebook, The Key To Taking Pictures Like a Professional Photographer, are...

Since you both have your emails included in your comment, I will send them over to Katie Evans right away and you should get them in your email inbox by Monday at the latest!!  Congratulations to you both, I hope you love this book as much as I do!

**Also, for those that didn't win, Katie is still offering a 20% discount off of her ebook to you by using the coupon code, peasandcarrots!  This offer ends on Tuesday, so hurry end scoop it up now!

In other news, today is my husband's birthday!  He's another year older...and wiser, I think!  I Love him!

Okay, I'll talk to you all soon!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

XOXO,

Creamy Crockpot Chicken Alfredo-RECIPE

How about today I share another easy peasy and delicious dinner recipe to add to your dinner menu rotation?  My family loves this one a lot, it's a super filling Creamy Chicken Alfredo that you make in your crockpot.  Well, the sauce that is.  The noodles you boil up on the stove right before you are ready to eat and then you pour that creamy alfredo sauce over top for a hearty meal your whole family will enjoy!  Serve it up with some garlic breadsticks and a nice green salad and you are set for the perfect well-balanced meal, nom nom!  :-)

Creamy Crockpot Chicken Alfredo

2 large or 4 medium chicken breasts (can be frozen!)

1 can cream of chicken (or mushroom) soup

1/2 cup Italian dressing

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained

1 8 oz block of cream cheese

1/2 to 1 bag of frozen peas or broccoli

1 lb spaghetti or other noodles

Place chicken breasts in crockpot and add in the cream of chicken soup, Italian dressing, minced garlic, and mushrooms.  Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.  About 20 minutes before serving, pull chicken out and shred or cut into cubes and return to the crockpot.   Add in the block of cream cheese and stir until combined.  Boil water and cook your noodles. 5 minutes before noodles are done, mix in frozen peas or broccoli into the boiling water with noodles and stir.  Drain noodles (and veggies) and pour alfredo sauce over top...Enjoy!

Grab your chicken breasts...and yes, the can be frozen or refrigerated!...and place them in the bottom of your crockpot.  Add in the cream of chicken (or mushroom!) soup, can of drained mushrooms, Italian dressing and minced garlic.  Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours.

20 minutes before you are ready to eat you are going to do a few things...first, start boiling water for your noodles of choice.  Next, pull out the chicken breasts and shred them or cut them into chunks.  Place the chicken back in the crockpot and mix into the sauce.  Add in a block of cream cheese too, stir until it is nice and combined.  Once your water is boiling, add in your noodles and about 5 minutes or so before they are ready pour in a bag of frozen peas or broccoli or any other veggie you'd like.  The hot water will cook them and once your noodles are done just drain everything and you are good to go!

Now, either pour all your noodles into one huge bowl and pour the sauce over top and mix everything together or do each person's bowl separately...your choice.  

Either way it is delicious!  YUM squared!

Enjoy!

XOXO,

Katie Evans Photography Giveaway!

Happy Wednesday everyone!  I've got a super duper giveaway I think you are all going to love today, holla!  

So let me ask, how many of you have one of those fancy DSLR cameras and just aren't sure how to use it?  There are so many buttons and settings on these cameras, right?  And lenses...which ones do you have?  Which ones do you need?  Well, if you feel like you don't know your camera at all or you just want to learn how to use it for all it is worth or hey, maybe you just want to learn how to take those beautiful photographs just like the professionals than you need Katie Evans to the rescue!!

Katie Evans is an amazing photographer who has come out with her very own book called, The Key to Taking Pictures Like a Professional Photographer...sounds good right!  Well it is!!  If you haven't heard of her yet you need to head over to her blog stat.  She not only shares some beautiful photography with all of us over there but she is also super sweet to offer up many, and I mean many, tips on how to take and get great pictures.  

{All Photos via Katie Evan Photography}

One of my favorite blog posts is her '5 ways to improve your child photography'...the pictures are stunning and the tips are great (see the photo above!)  She also has a great post on how to make those gorgeous black and white photos we all love to look at her and her latest post really called to me, '5 tips to taking beautiful newborn pictures in the hospital'.  I'll definitely be re-reading these tips come June!!

So are you interested in taking a peek at this great book?  

Inside it she talks about Lighting, Composition and even Editing...

She even talks about lenses and includes pictures of what kind of shot each lens takes.  And framing and composition...oh man, there is sooo much good info and so much that I need to continually practice...which is cool cause I have some great subjects named Noah, Penelope and Eloise :-)

Today Katie Evans is so generous to offer up TWO of her ebooks, The Key to Taking Pictures Like a Professional Photographer,  to TWO of you!!  Told you this was a great giveaway!

To enter:

1.  Leave a comment and tell me what kind of camera you own!  

     That's it!!!!  So easy :-)

     **Make sure you leave an email address so you can get your book via email!!

Oh, and if you want to go ahead and buy the book, Katie is offering 20% off her ebook to Smashed Peas and Carrots readers if you use the exclusive coupon code, peasandcarrots, at check out!  This offer is good only for 1 week!!!

Giveaway ends Saturday, February 25 2012 at 8 am

Good Luck!!

XOXO,

A Weekend Away

Ever since baby #4 wonderfully came into our life my husband and I started talking more and more about doing some weekend aways.  Yup, minus children...just the two of us.  We've never done that EVER in the last 5 years since we've been on the baby-making path...can you believe it?!  I think it has always had to do with not really having any close family around, breastfeeding each child for well over a year, getting pregnant every other year and consequently nauseous and sick as can be for at least the first 4 months of each pregnancy, and then having them so close in age that there was always some milestone we were facing..."oh, you're just getting teeth in?  what you want to start jumping out of your crib at night?  hey, let's bunk two of the kids in one room!  Cool, everyone is throwing up an hour before our date night starts"  Good but very busy times.  

Anyways, we finally decided that starting in 2012 (and once I started feeling well again!) that we would take one weekend a month and go away...anywhere...just the two of us.  We figured the kids all seemed to be in a good place and Noah and Penny are actually old enough to be really good helpers so they could tell anyone visiting exactly where their snacks are and how their bedtime routine goes, etc.

A few weeks ago, we did it.  We left for a long weekend with no children.  We headed into Chicago since we thought it would be a great beginners trip for us.  You know, in case we had to rush back home because someone needed an emergency appendectomy we weren't too far away (seriously, isn't that the way it always seems to go?)  Plus there are always a million things we want to do there that never seem fun when you have three little ones.  Can you imagine heading to the Museum of Modern Art with my three kids...ummm, no!

Clif made a reservation at a super swanky hotel.  Did the hotel have a pool?  How would I know, we didn't have our kids!!  Our room was filled with modern art and very funky furniture.  Definitely glad it was just us or our hotel bill would have dramatically increased with the amount of damage they would have done in there. 

Of course it snowed a big scary meteorologist's dream snow right before we left but that wasn't going to stop us, hey we made reservations!  Of course Eloise would just happen to come down with the croup two days before we left (really?) but we felt our babysitters (grandma and grandpa) could handle it, and they did.  All went very well, hooray!

Clif and I were able to spend lots of time talking, holding hands, and just enjoying being with each other.  It was perfect.  'Hey guess what?  I can hear you without you needing to yell'  oh, it's the little things!

We ate lots of delicious foods...chocolate almond croissants with chai tea for breakfasts...

Grown-up ham and cheese with Gruyere, Aged White Cheddar, and Brie for a lite lunch out.  

Eating out without our 3-ring circus might have been my favorite part!  I love them all so much, but... :-)

Of course we had to stop at Sweet Mandy B's on the way home to pick the kids up something special  just for them.  These cupcakes were a hit. 

I love this bakery.  If you are ever in the Chicago area you.must.go.  It is full of those yummy sweets and treats you ate as a kid, the recipes aren't doctored with so everything tastes just like you remember it.  I took home a peanut butter rice krispie bar the size of my head...okay, my hand, but it felt like it was that big!  

And of course, since we didn't have any children with us, I just had to ask Clif to make one last stop our way home.  Yup, home of the blue and yellow and so much more fun to browse when you can actually think clearly :-)

What a great and needed long weekend away.
It made coming home to their smiling faces awesome.  And getting back into the swing of things the following Monday not so bad.  I suppose all of us parents need that every now and again, right?  Not sure why we waited so long to do it.
Do you ever get to do fun things like that with just your significant other and you?
Now the big question is where should we go next?

XOXO,

New Flutter Sleeve Ruffle Peasant Dresses in the Shop

Yup, you read that right!  I finally opened up my Etsy shop again about 2 weeks ago and I have a whole stock of new dresses in there!  Hooray for second trimester energy and feeling completely back to my old self again!  And as many of you know from our Facebook chats, I also just ordered a what feels like a UPS truckload full of fabric bolts that should be arriving today (who's excited for more pretty fabric...me, me, me!) so look for even more dresses and sweet baby gifts hitting the shop in another few weeks.

All these styles are available in sizes 6 months, 12 months, 2T, 3T, 4T, as well as 5 and 6 years of age.  PS. You can click on the links below the images to go directly to my shop.  Hope you like them!

{Flutter Sleeve Ruffle Peasant Dress in Mod Pink Floral}

I just love the whimsical florals and soft pinks of this dress, super girly girl.  Plus it would be perfect for Easter Sunday, don't you think!

{Flutter Sleeve Ruffle Peasant Dress in Mod Green Floral}

I love the bright pops of color and the pretty flowers in this dress.  How sweet for St. Patrick's day too (coming up soon!)

{Flutter Sleeve Ruffle Peasant Dress in Mod Pink and Red Leaves}

This sweet number was Eloise's Valentine's Day dress but of course it would be perfect anytime of the year! 

{Flutter Sleeve Ruffle Peasant Dress in Pink and Red Dots}

This little number was Penelope's Valentine's Day dress.  You all know my love of dressing sisters in coordinating but not overly matchy outfits, right?  And if you don't, well, I LOVE it!  I think these two dresses did that perfectly!  See a picture of my two cuties in their dresses in this post here :-)

{Flutter Sleeve Ruffle Peasant Dress in Green Stipes}

And of course some stripes for the stripes lovers out there.  I love the greens, yellows, and blues in this dress, it feels like spring is in the air...which it will be soon, yahoo!  

I hope you enjoyed a little Spring Preview from my shop!  

Enjoy your weekend and we'll talk soon.

XOXO,

Embroidered Hot & Cold Packs-TUTORIAL

Today I wanted to share my guest post that I did over at Me Sew Crazy for Jessica's New Year's ReSEWLution series last month.  One of my sewing resolutions was to use my embroidery skillz more.  I started the year off by making these fun Embroidered Hot and Cold Packs!

I just love, love, love embroidery and I think it really adds that special handmade touch to any project you've been working on.  Embroidery can give a dress, baby blanket, or even a pillow that perfect final detail that makes it go from just okay to awesome.  

I also love embroidery for adding a personal touch to any project, it is perfect for adding in names or sweet little sayings that are meaningful to the recipient as well as the giver!

To warm up my embroidery skills, I decided to make each of my 3 children (plus one for the new babe who's gender is yet to be determined!)  their very own hot/cold pack personalized with their names just for them!  It's so nice to have something that is your very own when you have multiple siblings, don't you think?  I thought these would be perfect for using as cozy hot packs after they have been outside playing in the cold snowy weather, once they rip off their snowsuits and coats they can sit down and warm themselves up with a sweet little pack of warmth made just for them!

Embroidered Hot & Cold Packs

2 pieces of fabric (per pack) measuring 7 x 13 inches

scraps of linen of muslin to fit a shape you wish to embroider

straight pins

coordinating thread and sewing machine

chopstick or other tool for pushing out corners

iron and ironing board

embroidery thread and needle

embroidery hoop

disappearing ink pen

dry rice for filling

**Just an FYI, I filled my hot/cold packs 3/4 of the way full and it took about 5 pounds of rice to fill two packs of this size. 

**Heat the packs in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute depending on your microwave, some may need additional time.  I like to flip mine halfway through!  You can also keep these in the freezer so they are ready and waiting as a boo-boo pack as well.

I cut several pieces of fabric to the measurement of 7 x 13 inches to make a 6 x 12 inch sized hot/cold pack as I thought this was the perfect size hot pack to warm their little bodies on the couch after playing outside.  It is also a great size for a hot/cold neck or low back pack for an adult or to act as a tummy soother. 

 

I also used up some scraps of linen and muslin for embroidering, yay for using up scraps!

For a few of my packs I cut out random shapes, a heart, square or rectangle, and then place the linen behind it and pinned it in place.  This makes a great canvas for embroidering words or pictures.

Then I sewed around each shape using a 1/4 inch seam allowance to keep it in place.

I used a very small embroidery hoop and made sure the fabric was nice and snug before I grabbed my disappearing ink pen to write out what I wanted to embroider.  To write out letters I like to use a fine tipped pen as it is easier to embroider handwriting that isn't smushed together by a thicker-tipped pen!

Once I was done embroidering, I place the two pieces of fabric right sides together and sewed around the edges with a  1/4 inch seam allowance.  I left a 2-3 inch opening at one end for turning and filling.  Make sure you clip the corners before turning and then push out the corners very carefully with a chopstick or a similar pointy tool.   

I bought the inexpensive, generic store-brand rice to fill the packs with although you could also use dried barley or flaxseed as well too.  You can even add in a few drops of your favorite essential oils to give the packs a soothing or calming scent.  On a side note, make sure to keep your packs dry as the grains will get moldy if wet!

Fill each bag 3/4 full and then sew the opening closed using a ladder stitch or using your sewing machine and sewing the ends closed using a 1/8 inch seam allowance.  

 

When you are done, heat them up in the microwave for 30 seconds-1 minute at a time until they are the perfect temperature to warm up your little ones.  Enjoy the coziness this winter!

Thanks for having me today Jess, it was so fun to be here today!

 XOXO,