Worldwide Day of Service

This December, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is encouraging individuals to participate in a month long initiative to give service called "Light the World."  Today is a Worldwide Day of Service where they have asked as many people as possible to serve in any way they feel appropriate.

I love the concept of an advent calendar of service and wanted to do something special for today.  It is not my season to go stock shelves at a food bank or pick up litter by the ocean on a Thursday.  I decided to do something at home that hits close to home.  I sewed these developmental hearts for premature babies.  Honestly, I started earlier this week because even simple projects can take ages these day.  I was hoping to get them to the post office today, but unceasingly runny noses and damp weather have convinced me that it is wise to wait.

I plan to do little things every day until Christmas.  I'm not planning on blogging about most of them, but I might mention a few on Facebook.  I'm hoping that this deliberate effort in service will help it become a habit throughout the year.  

Summer Hat

Last year, I had a lot of trouble finding a summer hat for Joshua, but I did find a pattern to sew one.  It would have been too big for him last year, but is just right for this year.  The pattern itself was a little girly, but I found the perfect fabric for a boy (or a girl who likes superheroes.)

It was easier than I thought it would be and came out a little snug, but I think it will last the summer.  Now to convince him to keep it on his head.  The hat looks smaller than it is in real life because Joshua was fairly stubborn about not wanting to keep it on his head. 

Easter Egg Shakers

I put in a request to the Easter Bunny to hold off on a basket full of candy for at least a year.  Instead he came up with musical shaky eggs made from Easter eggs.  He said it was easy, inexpensive and far less time consuming than those blasted JELL-O Easter eggs that seem to be trending.

What You Need:

• Plastic Easter Eggs
• Fun Patterned Duct Tape 
• Food Storage Items - For Joshua the Easter Bunny used dry pinto beans, rice, and popcorn kernels.
• 10 minutes 

Fill the plastic eggs with various dry foods.  Ir you want to get fancy get some tiny bells from the craft store.  The Easter Bunny used varying amounts and types in each egg to create different sounds.  Wrap duct tape around the slit in the egg.  Voila!  Your easy, healthy, and fun Easter basket is done.

The only candy this kid gets to enjoy this year are the gummy bears he can look at on the tape. 

Joshua absolutely loves songs that involve shakers.   This is his favorite.  The version we listen to uses shakers instead of body movements.

Scrapbook Paper Bags

In preparation for Valentine's Day I needed two goodie bags.  I neither wanted to buy them or use lunch bags and colored pencil.  I have oodles of scrapbook paper and access to Youtube.  This is what I came up with.  It was quick and required no money that I haven't already spent.  I'm not as fast as her, but I have a new skill. 

Also, feel free to judge me for my cheesy Valentine's Day-ness.

Pumpkin, Zucchini, and Walnut Pasta

I love fall foods like pumpkin, cranberry and gingerbread and wish that companies understood that some people would like to eat it year round.  When pumpkin puree went on sale after Thanksgiving I loaded my cart.

With the new year, I've been searching for recipes that are deliciously different.  I wanted pumpkin that wasn't always in the form of a bread, or pie, or cream-filled roll.  I finally found pumpkin, zucchini, and walnut pasta and it was a refreshing change from my rotation of six recipes.

I found the recipe in a book (those old fashioned things made from trees), but found a similar recipe on Food.com.  The print recipe had a few substitutions/additions that I would recommend.

• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• Sage instead of parsley (Although on the next round, I think I will try basil.)
• 1/2 teas. cayenne pepper  (This gave the pasta a nice kick without being overpowering.)

The best part is that you can cook in in less than 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Joshua's Stocking

Joshua's stocking has now been added to our collection of homemade family stockings.  The most notable thing about this project is that is was so easy.  Three years ago, I posted about the stockings I made for Jerry and me.  It was my first successful project as a novice seamstress, and it was difficult.

Today, this project would have taken no time at all, if I wasn't playing interference with my army-crawling infant.  If you took a close look at my sewing from three years ago, you would see a lot of problems with the rounded edges.  But today, that seemed easy and fast.  I still have a long way to go to improve my skills, but it's nice to feel like I've improved a bit. 

Crafting Costumes

I started pondering Halloween costumes this summer.  I'm not good at this whole Halloween thing and knew I would need that much time.  I came up with the idea of ninja turtles.  Jerry thought that was great and we wanted to be a family of fighting turtles minus Raphael.

So, I Google-imaged DIY Ninja Turtle costumes.  DO NOT DO THIS.  Seriously, save your eyes and your innocence.  Amidst the filth, I found a cute kid idea on a blog called The Almost Perfectionist.  I took her ideas and my desired modification to the fabric store in Utah.  Said fabric is sitting with my sewing machine in a storage unit somewhere in the Midwest. 

While I was in Maine, I found some fabric and used my mom's sewing machine to make the costumes.  It was that important to me.

Unlike the blog I found, I am not even close to being a perfectionist.  The costume is far from flawless, but hopefully the gym at the Trunk-or-Treat will be a little dim and I don't think anyone will care that much.

For the turtle shell, I started with two circles of broadcloth and stuffed it.  Easy-peasy.  The original plan was to use felt, but supply did not meet my demand.

Initially, I was going to attach a shirt-like front (bottom of the above photo) to the turtle shell, but my mom talked me into just adding ties to the front and back.  Also very easy.

I highly recommend stick-on felt pages.  It was a great finisher for the front.

After all the sewing was done, I pulled out the hot glue and added a felt turtle pattern to the back.  I also used red, blue, and purple broadcloth for head and arm bands, but they aren't really special so I didn't post them here. 

In total, I made four turtles - two Leonardos, one Donatello, and one mini-Michelango.  You will see photos of us in costume next week.

Now, I am faced with one problem.  What can we be next year to use up all the green felt?  Suggestions are welcome because I don't think Jerry wants to be a lettuce leaf. 

Jamaica (The Drink Not The Island)

When I lived in Nicaragua, I discovered the most delicious drink.  It was called jamaica and it was delicious.  Embarrassingly enough it was not until much later that I discovered that the tasty drink was made from the hibiscus flower.

During my three years in California, I discovered that you could order the deep red drink at just about every Mexican restaurant.  At this point, I became a connoisseur.  I knew which eateries added too much sugar, which were too bitter and which were just right.

Outside of California, jamaica is hard to find.  Two years ago, Jerry found some jamaica leaves in the Mexican section of our store here in Utah.  Thinking that it would be hard to make I procrastinated the experiment.  But now we are faced with the prospect of consuming our entire food storage.  I hunkered down and tried it out.  Turns out it's as easy as brewing a giant pot of herbal tea.

I wanted to get the proportions right so I followed this recipe. 

The hibiscus petals were dry and brittle at first.  I boiled water, turned the heat off, threw the petals in and covered it for about twenty minutes.

The re-hydrated petals expanded and were rubbery after I strained them.

This is where things started to get a little dicey.  I didn't have a pitcher I could strain the drink into and it turns out I didn't have a pitcher large enough for all the juice.  So I improvised and risked permanently staining my clothes.

And yes that is a full cup of sugar.  I never said this was healthy.

 
After straining I added cold water.  Instead of a pitcher, I used my free mug from my not-so-free hospital stay.  Turns out it still has some use.

After a couple hours of refrigeration, we enjoyed it with our homemade burgers.  Yes, it would have been better with some tacos, but from-scratch hamburgers have been a summer favorite.   You can see that we eat them on only the healthiest and most beautiful whole wheat buns.

And so as I sit here this morning writing and sipping my favorite Mexican drink, I am pleased to report that it was a success.  Only my yellow bowl was permanently stained.  I may add a bit more sugar next time, but otherwise I discovered a new easy way to have what I love.

And because this guy is the real reason anyone reads my blog.  He's really got the hand of lifting his head up lately. 

Crafting

Last week, Jerry was out of town.  To fill what could have been very long days, I decided to work on sewing projects for Christmas gifts.  I'm still a sewing beginner and have decided that I like small projects that rely on a lot of straight lines.

I did three different things: cloth-covered notebooks, crayon rolls, and a bag.  If after reading this blog you feel inspired, Google instructions which are all over the internet.

I feel a certain amount of satisfaction when I take something wrinkled and frayed ...

and turn it into into something that looks tidy and complete.

I made eight cloth covered notebooks.  In order to avoid boredom I tried pockets on a few.  On the last two I sewed on ribbon.  I liked it better than the pockets.

Here are the final products.  (I made three BYU notebooks which are not all pictured.)

I decided that the younger crowd that I am making gifts for would not appreciate notebooks so much.  Then, I remembered that everyone at church as little cloth rolls to store their crayons.  With the help of some online instructions, I came up with this.

Last, but certainly not least, I made a bag to hold craft supplies.  It's pretty simple, but I think I have decided on a new technique.

The Skirt

About two weeks ago, I finished my skirt. I learned a lot along the way about things that I have basically forgotten at this point, but I completed it. I made some gospel analogies along the way - seamripping = repentance (I did a lot of this), my inability to sew a straight line = apostasy (this created the need for seamripping), learning to read a pattern = understanding the scriptures (the pattern was like a foreign language) etc.

My goal was to wear the skirt in public. So the first Sunday after I finished, I put together this outfit. I haven't decided whether I looked cute or just a little frumpy, but here I am.

Stockings

I have been wanting to learn how to sew for a long time, and a lack of a work permit has given me the freedom. I have my very own sewing machine and am in a class where I am learning with moderate success to sew a skirt.

I decided I wanted to make stockings to commemorate our first Christmas as married people.. I succeeded and I am very proud.

Experienced seamstresses (or the male version thereof) might be able to see areas where improvement is needed. I sure do. But this is my first sewing project success, and I am going to bask in the glory of it until tomorrow.