BubbaChic

A Little Piece of Heaven..

So today - after 10 days of waiting, I got to bake some very special bread - Amish Friendship Bread. I was given a ziplock bag of cake mix 10 days ago by a friend, along with instructions of what to do over the next 10 days which culminated in the final stage of baking this little heavenly loaf today.

The instruction sheet that I was given also shows that at day 10, you can split the mixture into 6 cups and give 4 to your friends (hence friendship bread) and keep 2 cups for yourself...so it is also a gift - what a fantastic concept! I don't think I have ever spend 10 days preparing any recipe or meal, so this little loaf (and the other one in the oven!) feels and tastes very special.

Here is my slice - made even more heavenly by the 30 minutes of silence I had to enjoy it, whilst the kiddies were napping...mmmmmmmm!

A recipe and instructions can be found here: http://www.armchair.com/recipe/bake002.html

and then the rain came...

This is the view of our lounge this afternoon when a severe thunderstorm hit...

The kiddies were both a bit freaked out by the thunder and lightening, so we set up camp on the floor and spongebob (bob-bob) seemed to take their minds off it!

Here is a close up:

We also had an exciting evening - with the arrival of our new baby:

After 2 years of being over here in the States, and sharing a car - we finally bit the bullet and bought a second-hand one. We have been looking for a suitable car for literally months - and had gotten nowhere, so in the end, we just agreed a price and the max mileage we were happy with and were willing to consider ANYTHING that fit the bill...out of the blue we mentioned to some friends that we were struggling to find anything within our price range and they told us about their friends who were selling their car which they had from new, looked after well etc etc...

And here it is! Its a Mercury Mountaineer (aka Big Daddy) and is lovely - far beyond our expectations of what we thought we would end up with! It does an amazing 14 miles to the gallon (How funny is that!!! There is NO WAY we would ever consider such a guzzler in England with the petrol prices!!) and is perfect for me and the kiddies to get around...more than perfect, we feel very blessed!

We have the kiddies seal of approval - Joshy has pooped in it already on the way home, which I think means hes happy! and Maddy kept telling me to take it back to the people we bought it from - she hasn't quite grasped the concept of buying a secondhand car methinks.

Spongebob and Monkeys

Today has been an interesting day - an unsettled Joshy and active Mads has made for a worn-out Mummy! So I decided to create something that we could all play with that the kiddies would appreciate...and here it is - Spongebob tote filled with 11 (strange number to do - I know!!?) beanbags

and an inside shot

Joshy was so cute - he kept looking at the fabric and saying 'Sp-bob' or 'bob-bob' which made me grin every time he did it! We all played with them this afternoon together aiming to see who could get the bean bags in a big pot (I also managed to temporarily disable Jay by throwing him a bean bag too *low* poor bloke was grimacing for a while - oops!)

I also attemtped my first sock monkey tonight - with one of Joshy's old socks...it currently needs ears added which I think I will do tomorrow as I am knackered! (you can see him in the top photo)

Dee
x

The Floppy Bag Saga

...So a few weeks back when Mads finished preschool for the summer - I made both her preschool teachers a little bag each to say thank you - they went down very well and subsequently both teachers have asked if I could make a couple more for gifts for their families - no problems! So tonight, I made the first one up - it had to be bigger than the bags I previously made, so I just altered my pattern and spent 3 hours making it.....only to discover that it is just too big to stand up by itself and the front flops down! Its pretty vital that it does keep its shape because of the design on the front ...so I am pretty miffed!

..and I again have to go to bed pondering how on earth I am going to sort it out, without re-doing the whole bag! Anyhow - here is a photo of said *floppy bag*...a very bad photo, because I am very tired!

and my visions of what Floppy bag was meant to look like...

Happy Holidays

Like the true patriot British people that we are (apart from Joshy, who is a true American!) we celebrated 4th July the only way we know how - eating, drinking and being merry with wonderfully hospitable friends.

After spending the morning chilling out and not doing a great deal of anything productive, we all headed over to our friends house this afternoon to have the mother of all BBQ's.

The food was great - but it was being ourselves and chilling out around friends that really made the day. The kiddies loved the pool and Joshua managed to eat about 4 dinners - quite impressive for a 1 year old, don't you think?  I have some fab photos to share - and some other even better photos that I would love to share, but fear that a divorce may be on the cards if I do ;o) (let me just hint at a tipsy Jay doing Olympic diving...haven't laughed so much in a long time!)

We witnessed more hummingbirds in our friends garden than I have ever seen before - which has made it even clearer to me that the hummingbirds in our neck-of-the-wood must have a bit of a problem with us, because not one has ventured into our garden, despite the presence of many hummingbird feeders all full to the brim of sugar solution for them to drink! I have no idea what I am doing wrong!

So, here are some photos from today...a fab day full of lots of memories...
(oh and you might notice that Mads is not wearing the stars and cherry dress I slaved over yesterday - she opted for the outfit she wore last year...never mind!!)

Jay (wearing Maddy's sun hat) with the kiddies in the inflatable and hugely popular floating armchair

Jay following a bad landing after one of his Olympic dives

My Little Mads playing so happily in the pool, she was so content today

Joshua, eating his pre-dinner goldfish

Star Spangled Cherries...

So tomorrow is Independence Day, and I had very little motivation to make outfits for the kiddies...not least a specific *4th July* outfit that they will wear just once...so I came to a last minute compromise for Maddy - Maddy doesn't want to wear any dress which is not *princess* like at the moment- and I seem to only be able to motivate myself to sew vintage patterns....so here it is...the vintage cherry dress with a side of stars!

Close up of rick rack which I found at the thrift store with a whole world of  vintage patterns yesterday - which reminds me, here is a fab photo of my thrift store finds yesterday (Please note: this photo does not include the large amount of vintage fabric which I also got - and which was in my washing machine whilst I took the photo!)

Please also note the BEAUTIFUL leather vanity case which I manage to pick up for mere pennies - which is completely immaculate and I felt strangely protective over as soon as I put it in the shopping trolley (it felt like someone was going to come and tell me it was priced wrongly, or, shock, try and take it!)

Anyhow - it is perfect as a sewing box - which I have been looking for for about a year now...brings new meaning to the whole 'the best things come to those who wait' saying

One last photo of another completed project today - the dreaded green baby dress from yesterday...here it is in all its glory!

   

The Vintage Dress that is driving me NUTS!!

This horror of a dress (still unfinished and still don't know how I am going to finish it) is from a vintage pattern picked up in a bundle at the thrift store (yey!) I read through the instructions, looked pretty simple - thought i'd try out the vintage trims that I also found at the thrift store today (yey!) and three hours, and ALOT of unpicking later, here it is....in all its unfinished glory - and whilst I love the fabric and style of it - I am really not feeling too positive towards it right now! And I HATE the fact that I have to go to bed with it unfinished...

Bummer....the darn thing has defeated me for tonight!

Accountability Sunday!

Today marks the day of some completed projects - hooray!! As Modeled very well by Maddy Mops, her dress up cape (with embroidered ballerina) is finished and being put to very good use whilst she is talking to Grandma on the web cam!

Completed project number 2 is the funky retro inspired reversible apron, which I adore and which I quite fancy keeping for myself!

..and here is my little pile of *things to do* over the next few days (children

permitting!) Having made one of the A-Line Amy Butler skirts for me and loving it sooooo much, I now have 2 more to make in fabric that I have fallen deeply in love with - so deeply in fact that it hurt to cut it up (just in case I made a slip and messed it up)

I am also desperate to have a go at some vintage patterns I picked up - and make up some new 'old' dresses for Maddy.

....oh and the project which is top top top of my to-do list - is to turn the two adorable embroideries of smiley faces into little wall hangings for Birthday Gifts for the Grandma's back home. Maddy is very intricate in her artwork of faces right now and she completed these portraits of Nanny and Grandma tonight - which I managed to digitize and embroider...I love how they came out and can't wait to sew them up into gifts!

Dawn of a new *Crafting* Era

Hey! My new addiction to crafting weblogs has dawned a new era for me...start my own! The huge inspiration that I get from crafting blogs has spurred many a crafty project in this house - So having now accrued a varirty of inspired projects, I would love to share them and *get them out there*

I also think there is something strangely motivating for stating publicly what I need to get done - that it may somehow inspire me to see a project through to completion, rather than my current situation of starting one project - which leads to dozens of little projects which take my time, attention and motivation away from the original one!

So here is my first photo - not a great one aesthetically, the lighting is bad and the kiddies aren't looking at the camera - but the situation and feelings surround this photo are what make it special to me. Its the only picky I have of me with both kiddies (Madeleine and Joshua) and it was taken when both children had just had their bath on friday night and were *chillin out* before going to bed. We had all just been to the park to play after dinner and then to go get ice cream afterwards - doesn't sound like much of a memorable evening right?! Its something we have done before, but the magic of it all just kinda struck me on this night - how easy it is to overlook things as being mundane and everyday - that are actually special, magical and heartwarming to children.

Its really prompted me to start trying to see the world through the eyes of my children and recognise the magic in things...profound huh?!

So, this evening inspired me greatly to do a number of projects which have been on my mind and have never yet made it to the sewing machine! I finally made a cute retro apron, reversible don't you know! as a birthday gift for a very special friend. And I managed to start a ballerina cape for my daughter Maddy - who has a huge interest in dress-up at the moment. (Its not unusual for her to change about 6 times a day!) So I am planning on expanding her dress up closet.

This picture just about sums up my friday night of bliss! Wine, sewing and all whilst watching the light show put on by the fireflies outside...magic :o)