What in the world is that?!

It's my new best friend, of course! All pregnant women in their last trimester need one of these! Being at the end of my pregnancy it is becoming more and more difficult to put my socks on in the mornings I have to go to work. (On my days off I just slip on some flip flops.) I was telling my mom just how hard it is and she got all giddy and asked me if I wanted to borrow this thing. (I don't even remember what she called it.) She proceeded to pull out of a dresser drawer this little contraption. She bought it after she had hip surgery because she couldn't bend to put her socks on. You simply slip the sock over it, then holding onto the straps you slip your foot into the sock and pull the straps which pulls the plastic part out of the sock and "magically" your sock is on your foot without you ever having to bend over! Now that is FABULOUS! Thanks mom!

The perfect alternative...

So yesterday I made the simple skirt I have been wanting to try! It was the easiest skirt I have ever made! And it is perfect for after Daniel is born because all I have to do is open up part of the waist band and tighten the elastic to keep it fitting properly. And don't you just love the fabric? When I saw it on sale at Joann's I had to get it. My mom asked me the other day what was the one thing that I really enjoy buying for myself and I immediately said fabric. I actually spent a couple hours the other day online just looking at fabric. A horrible waste of time, I know, but I got a lot of cute ideas.

Here you can see the hem I sewed on the skirt. I didn't want to do a plain straight stitch so I chose the swirly stitch. I also chose to use yellow thread instead of blue so it would be a little more noticeable.

And then I made a hair tie out of the extra fabric. It ties into a bow at the nape of my neck. I have two more fabrics I bought at Joann's and I am going to make two more skirts just like this one. I don't like wearing shorts in the summer and skirts are so cute I think they are a perfect alternative!

Lookie what I bought!

So I decided to go ahead and buy the Robots Collection fabric bundle I found at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics Etsy Shop! Her price was actually the lowest that I could find online for that fabric. It will be arriving in the mail next week. I am thinking I will make a romper or two for Daniel and some bibs like the ones I made for Gianna and Billy. I also bought the Red Letter Collection fabric bundle from her as well. Isn't it fabulous!? I am so in to ducks and birds right now especially retro looking ones.




With the Red Letter Collection fabric I am thinking I am going to make some kind of tote bag. I found this very simple idea at Made by Molly's blog and I love it! I have the pattern for a tote bag almost like this one in the book I bought a little while ago called Romantic Home Sewing by Christina Strutt.




But I have so many sewing ideas I want to try that my mind is spinning so I need to just pick one and do it! So right now I am working on a simple skirt that if all goes well should take me no more than 30 minutes to make. I plan on having it finished this evening and I will make sure to take pictures and post them! It has a simple elastic waist band that can easily be taken in as my waist shrinks after little Daniel arrives. Well, let's hope it shrinks! :)

Lots of sewing projects and lots of posts to come, especially posts of little Daniel when he finally gets here! Only three more weeks to my due date, June 16th, but my mom thinks he will come on the 12th. And he can't come between the 6th and the 9th because my best friend Hannah will be out of town then and I want her to be able to come to the hospital. The only one who knows for sure is the Lord and the day He has picked fits into His perfect plan for Daniel's life. So I must be patient and he will be here when he gets here!

Annie's Scrumptious Chicken Thighs

Here is a recipe I came up with after seeing several different recipes like it and then adapting them to make one all my own. These chicken thighs are perfect served cold to take along on a picnic. Or they can be eaten warm right out of the oven. To make them a little healthier than the other recipes I removed all the skin and excess fat from the thighs. One recipe calls for butter and oil to be put into the mustard mixture but I left out the butter and only added about 2 tsp of canola oil.

Annie's Scrumptious Chicken Thighs

12 chicken thighs (skin removed and all excess fat)
1/2 cup French's mustard
4 garlic cloves finely minced
1 tbls dried rosemary
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt (the mustard has enough salt in it already)
1-2tsp of canola oil
About 1 1/2 cups of dried bread crumbs
Fresh lemon juice from about 1/2 a lemon

1.) Preheat your oven's broiler. Place the chicken thighs in a baking dish and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice. Put under the broiler for 5 minutes, remove, turn over and place under broiler for another 3 minutes.
2.) Mix together the mustard, garlic, rosemary, pepper, salt and oil in small bowl. Brush (or use your fingers) the mustard mixture all over each piece of chicken then roll in the bread crumbs until evenly coated.
3.) Place back in the baking dish and back under the broiler for another 5 minutes until the top of the thighs are slightly browned. Then turn down your oven to 400 degrees and cook another 10 - 15 minutes until the juices of the chicken run clear.
4.) Eat that night for dinner or put in the fridge and take them on a picnic on a beautiful sunny day! :)

Totally disgusting...but I want one!

I was watching an episode of Paula Deen's Home Cooking and she needed to separate some eggs for a scone recipe. Well, she pulls out this little pot that looks like a man's head and puts her eggs in there and pours out the egg whites. Well, guess where the egg whites came out of...his nose!!!! I was laughing so hard! She had a good giggle over it too. So I searched for this egg separator online. Here is a picture for you amusement (and hopefully not your disgust!).

Fabulous Fabric

If only I could add fabric to my Target baby registry! I found this fabric at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics' Etsy shop. (She also has a blog I really enjoy browsing.) I was trying to think of what I could make for Daniel with these fabrics and I came across another wonderful blog, Sew Liberated, and she has sewn an adorable little romper for her baby boy. But alas, these fabrics are a bit out of my price range and the pattern Sew Liberated used costs nearly $16! I could buy quite a few baby clothes with the money I would spend on fabric and the pattern that I don't think I could justify it. So I went hunting online for a cheaper romper pattern and found a Simplicity pattern on e-bay for $4.00. Now if only this fabric would go on sale. Joann's is having a great Memorial Day weekend sale and even if I can't find this exact fabric there I am sure I will still be able to find another fabric I like. But I do think this fabric is just fabulous!

Mother's Day

We had a very relaxed Mother's Day and we spent it at my parents. We all sat around the kitchen table to eat lunch and then my mom, Ruh, Daisy and I enjoyed a rousing game of "Oh, Heck!". I am so happy Ruh has finally learned how to play so now he, my mom and I can play whenever we get together.



We also took some "mom-and-me" photos and since we didn't get a family picture on Easter this year like we normally do we went ahead and took one today. I never realize how huge I am getting until I see a picture of myself! But at least I am getting huge because I am pregnant and not just because I am eating too much!


I am 35 weeks along and don't have too much longer to go. I can't wait for little Daniel to be here. I feel like I have been pregnant for so long and sometimes I wonder what it will feel like to not be pregnant anymore. Honestly, I bet I'll miss it! But that's okay because I want to have three or four more after Daniel. :)

Baby Bibs

This past Monday we had a double baby shower at church for little Billy and little Gianna. They were both born on March 16th. It was fun having a shower with a boy and a girl because we all got to squeal over little boy and girl clothes. I really wanted to make something special for each of them and I found a pattern for some baby bibs in a sewing book I bought recently, "Bend the Rules Sewing". I really enjoyed picking out each of the fabrics. I can spend hours looking through the fabrics at Joann's. I wanted them to have a retro/vintage look to them. I only took pictures of the ones I made for Billy since I had already wrapped the ones I made for Gianna. I love that they have the little snaps on them. I was going to use velcro but the snaps are so much cuter and they won't stick to the baby clothes like velcro can. I also enjoyed making the little tags to put on the packaging. These bibs are so quick and easy to make and just so cute. I plan on making a bunch of these for my little Daniel for when he arrives (in about 5 weeks!). :)