Meal Plan 4/24-4/30 and Easter Recap

Wow...long time, no blog.  I have been a little busy with other obligations and a little (make that a lot) uninspired.  However, I am back and have new ideas brewing in my head...hopefully some will come out as expected.

We had a great Easter...the Easter bunny came and was very generous...little Bean got to hunt for eggs at home and at Grandpa/Grandma's house.  Lucky girl.  We had some amazing weather which is a first for us in the inland northwest...it has been a cold, wet, and windy spring here.  Here are a few photos of our day...

Non-stop running all day

Love, love, love this pic

These bracelets were her favorite Easter gift!

Check out these shoes!!!

Cousins climbing a tree

What else is this thing for?

Okay, thanks for pretending that you care about my Easter :)

Now, here's the meal plan for the week:

Meal #1: (was supposed to be Easter dinner, but we were still too full from Easter brunch to eat):  Sauteed Chicken with a Lemon Buerre Blanc with Roasted Potatoes and Asparagus
Meal #2:  Penne with Eggplant Marinara and Feta Cheese
Meal #3:  Egg Salad Sandwiches (to use up all of those dyed eggs) with Tossed Salad
Meal #4:  Asian Chicken Salad (again) with Sesame Ginger Dressing (gotta use up all that dressing)
Meal #5:  Butternut Squash and Black Bean Winter Chili with Cornbread

Have a great week everyone!

California Dreamin' Tube Top Tutorial

Consider yourselves warned...my arms are very white and I am a terrible model.  That being said, I am tremendously excited about this tutorial.  I LOVE summer and the sun.  Therefore I love summer clothes.  I have been dreaming up this tube top in my head for weeks now and it has finally materialized.  It is really easy and dare I say, really chic.

It was about 39 degrees and windy outside.  Yep, I'm that dedicated.

This is just a white interlock knit.  Super simple.  If you have not sewn with knits before, this is a great place to start.  No serger needed (although I dream that I will someday have one for projects like this).

What you need:

• one yard knit fabric
• coordinating thread
• 1" wide elastic (amount will depend upon your underarm measurement)

Start by taking your underarm measurement - right at your armpits.  Mine was 32.5".  Since we want all of the fabric to be gathered...add 12.5" to your measurement, so mine was 45".

For the length of the main piece, I went with 19".  However, I have an incredibly long torso, so if you are more average, you may want to go with 17".  But go ahead and measure - you will want the top piece to end  at the top of the hip...allow 1" total for seam allowance.

So, the first piece = underarm measurement + 12.5" x 17-19"

For the second piece, turn your fabric around and find the direction that does not stretch very much.  You want to cut in this direction.  In other words, you don't want the piece that sits on your hips to stretch very much so it will hold that nice shape.  So, measure well.  Take your hip measurement at the widest spot (mine was 34") and add .5" (so my piece was 34.5" long).  The width should be 11".

Second piece = hip measurement + 1/2" x 11"

Using the top piece (the large piece) decide which edge is the top and do a zig-zag stitch (or serge) along the top edge.

Now, with right sides facing, line up the edges (side of your top).  Stitch all the way from the bottom to top and then finish off with a zig-zag stitch).

Back to the top.  Fold over the top edge 1 1/4".  Stitch all the way around leaving a 1 1/4" gap to feed your elastic through.

For the elastic, my measurement was 32 1/2" but I don't want my top to fall down in the least bit, so I want my elastic working for me.  I cut it at 28" + 1/2" for total seam allowance.

Elastic = underarm measurement - 4"

Using a safety pin, feed the elastic through.

Once you have made it all the way around, stitch the elastic together VERY well.

Now to the smaller piece (bottom of your tube top).  With right sides together, stitch the sides from bottom to top.  Finish off with a zig-zag stitch.

Now, with the right side facing out...fold your top in half so it looks like this...

Turn your machine's tension all the way up and also set your stitch length at the maximum.  We are going to gather the bottom edge of the top piece.  Do not back stitch here and be sure to leave long threads on either end so that you can alter your gathering, if necessary.

It should look like this.

Now you are going to want to play with the gathers a little.  Using the threads you left on, pull  and stretch until your gathered edge is the same length as the bottom portion of the top (the piece pictured below).

Once you have this complete, you want to line up all of your rough edges.  Make sure that your top is right side out.  All the right sides are facing here.  

Now stitch all the way around and secure the seam with a zig-zag stitch.

Flip inside out and voila, it's done! 

Note:  For wearing, I turned the top elastic edge under so it looks a little more sophisticiated, but it looks great either way.

 



 

As always, if you make this project, please send me pictures!

Meal Plan 4/3 - 4/9

A little late once more.  What can I say?  One of these meals is one that we didn't get to last week due to MORE sickness.  Ugh...is it summer yet?  I feel so fortunate that Bean is old enough now to actually tell me what is wrong.

Anyway...back to food.  I am super excited to eat this week!

Meal #1:  Bowties Alfredo and Tossed Salad (I lightened the recipe...I cut down on the butter by half and used half and half instead of cream but increased the amount to make up for the butter...delish!)
Meal #2:  Tuna Melts with Lemon, Capers, and Provolone with Steamed Veg
Meal #3:  Asian Salad with Chicken, Orange, and Almonds with Sesame Ginger Dressing
Meal #4:  Southwest Pinto Bean Burgers with Chipotle Aioli and Sweet Potato Fries
Meal #5:  Fish Tacos with Cilantro Lime Crema and Cole Slaw

Also, I finally found the motivation to create something this afternoon...new summer tutorial on the way!  This one's for us ladies!

Have a great week!

Princess Cake and Pink and White Wedding Cake

Two lovely friends asked me to be a part of their special occasions by requesting cakes.  The first, Layla's little friend, was turning 3 and wanted a princess party (what little girl doesn't?).  So, what better than a pink tiara cake?

And another friend had a lovely Spring wedding with pink and black accents.  Here is the cute little square cake.

What did you all do this weekend?

Meal Plan 3/28 - 4/2

Sorry I didn't post a menu last week.  The stomach flu made the rounds through our entire family and then we had an out of town trip.  Excuses, excuses, right?  So, our stomachs are strong once more and we are ready for some serious eating.  Here we go...

Meal #1: Breaded Chicken Breasts with Creamy Roasted Broccoli (OMG - I saw this on 5 Ingredient Fix over the weekend and HAD to have it!)
Meal #2:  Mexican Style Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers (wish me luck...I totally made this one up - will share if it is a success)
Meal #3:  Red Curry with Cauliflower, Yam, and Chickpeas over Rice
Meal #4:  Fettuccine Alfredo with Tossed Salad
Meal #5:  Creamy Carrot Soup and Grilled Cheese (a total cheat - I froze it last month)
Dinner Party Meal:  Still undecided, but I may do a Thai theme...so I may omit meal #3, switch it up to chicken, eggplant, and pepper along with Pad Thai, Cucumber Salad, and Butterflies - those delicious cream cheese and crab deep fried things.  Maybe mangoes and rice or black rice pudding for dessert.  What kind of cocktail do you serve with Thai food?  Totally taking suggestions!

What are you cooking up this week?  Please leave a comment and share - I get so much inspiration this way!

Have a great and productive week!

Salt and Pepper Shaker Cozy Tutorial

Never in my life did I think that I would sew a cozy for a salt and/or pepper shaker.  But, alas, here I am.  Here is my defense.  I can't seem to leave any sort of salt and pepper shakers within reach of Little Bean otherwise her food ends up inedible.  So, I decided I needed to get the grinders - well, at Williams Sonoma, they are like $50 each.  So, Bean and I were perusing the aisles of Costco and came upon large plastic versions for sea salt and pepper.  But, the ugly Kirkland labels were not something that I wanted to leave out on my table or on my counter.  Justified?  I think so.

Here are the grinders before (minus the labels - I needed quite a bit of Goo Gone to get those puppies off):

First you'll want to pick out your font for your letters.  I used Stencil Std in MS Word.  Based on exactly how big you want your letters, set the font at around 100.  This took a little bit of printer ink to get just right.



 Fabric you'll need:

• four strips of fabric 8 1/4" x 3"
• two small pieces of scrap fabric for your letters
• two small pieces of double sided interfacing
• ~5 inches of 1/4" elastic

 Iron on the interfacing to your letter fabric.

Carefully cut out your letters.

 Using scotch tape to adhere the letters to the interfacing, attach them upside down, as pictured.

Carefully cut out your letters in fabric.  Remove second piece of paper from interfacing and iron down to fabric strip.  I didn't get a photo of it, but I stitched around the edge of the letters just for extra security.

Place fabric strips right sides together and stitch all the way around leaving an opening to turn it right side out.

Once you have it turned, press it, being sure to press the open edge as you would like it to be sewn closed.

 

Now cut a piece of elastic, approximately 2 1/2".  Fold it in half and insert the ends into the opening to form a loop.  Pin down.  Top stitch all the way around being careful to sew the opening closed.



On the opposite end from the loop, hand sew a button down so it will be even with the loop.

Now you too can say that you have made a salt and pepper cozy.  Ha ha.  But seriously, Costco, under $10, super cute.

Meal Plan 3/13 - 3/19

This past week has been so incredibly crazy busy.  I have a to-do list a mile long and my house is a mess.  But, all of the pressing things have been done and we got to get out in the sunshine yesterday (I think it was the warmest day in six months, a balmy 50 degrees) and take Little Bean to the St. Patty's Day Parade and get to a birthday party as well to see some great friends.  So, all in all, a great weekend.

I'm loving doing this week's meal plan because I only have to plan through Thursday, a five day food week is much easier.  So, I have based this week's plan around food that needs to be eaten in the fridge/freezer.

Meal #1:  Falafel, Hummus, Pita Bread, and Tzatziki with Feta and Tomatoes
Meal #2:  Strata with Mixed Greens and Blackberry Salad (I need to blow out a bunch of eggs for a craft, so I've gotta put them somewhere!)
Meal #3:  Lentil Soup with Whole Grain Bread
Meal #4:  Pumpkin Pasta with Chicken Sausage
Breakfast #1:  Pumpkin Bread (I had to use a cup of pumpkin last week and you can only buy those giant cans around here.  Pumpkin overload.)