Making the Cut

Well today was the day.  For the fourth time I got my hair cut - when I say cut, I really mean cut!  During high school I decided that I wanted to grow my hair out for Locks of Love.  I successfully grew my hair 12 inches and then cut it super short.  Since then I've done it 2 other times.  Today made the fourth time that I have donated my hair.  This time instead of Locks of Love I am donating to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.  You can read about it here I made the switch because for Beautiful Lengths your hair doesn't have to be as long.  As much as I loved my long hair it was starting to drive me crazy and not all of my layers were 10 inches, which is the requirement for Locks of Love.  I wasn't sure that I could wait until it was all the right length.  The minimum for Beautiful Lengths is only 8 inches so I went with them.  Both are an amazing cause and are worthy of donations.  Here is a line from the Beautiful Lengths website that kind of made me want to cry (because I'm not emotional or anything...ha!) "To us, it’s hair, but to women with cancer, it’s hope."

Here is a picture of me and my hair before I put it in the envelope to mail it off.  It looks short in the picture but the longest layers were 10 inches with most of it being just a little over 8 inches.  It will take me a while to get used to having short hair again but I'm so happy that I did it.  I just hope that I can make it look ok tomorrow morning...

I know this post wasn't about crafting or sewing but it's something that's important to me.  Thanks for reading, the crafty post will be back soon.  ;-)

Dreaming of Fall

I have tried my best not to complain about the weather at all and just remember that I always want the heat when I have car duty in January.  But I’m sooooo ready for fall!  My nephew plays football so I love putting on a sweatshirt, getting a coffee and going to his games.  I love the colors of fall.  Halloween and Thanksgiving are my favorite holidays.  Fall just makes me happy!  So today I’m sharing one of my new favorite fall treats. 

My mom actually requested this cake few her birthday cake.  She is obviously ready for fall too.  My sweet friend Jessica made this for another friend’s baby shower a few years ago.  I was always so anti pumpkin.  I never like it even though I’m pretty sure I can’t remember trying it at all.  Well Jessica made this pumpkin cake for Tiffany’s shower and I thought that I would hurt her feelings if I didn’t at least try it.  She had worked so hard on it I at least owed it to her to try it.  Well that ended up being a mistake because not only did I try it but I fell in love with it.  I don’t think that she got to take any leftovers home with her that evening after the shower.  Last fall I called Jessica for the recipe and she happily shared.  I took it everywhere I went last year.  It looks like a lot (there are a bunch of ingredients) but I promise it is so easy to make and will wow people who like pumpkin.  ;-) 

Pumpkin Spice Cake

15 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature

3 cups of all-purpose flour

2 ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon

¾ teaspoon of nutmeg

¾ teaspoon of ground all spice

3 cups of sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/8 teaspoon of salt

1 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder

1 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda

1 ½ cups of canned pumpkin *See note below

¾ cup of warm milk

*Pumpkin note – When I tasted this recipe for the first time at a friend’s baby shower I fell in love it with.  She had accidentally bought Libby’s Pumpkin Pie mix instead of canned pumpkin.  I liked it so much that I accidentally add those extra calories every time I make the cake. 

*Another pumpkin note – pumpkin is not the easiest thing to find in August.  So you may have to wait until closer to fall to make. 

1.       Preheat oven to 350*

2.       Spray a bunt pan with non-stick spray.  I mean really coat it.  I’ve made this cake several times and I still haven’t been able to make it pretty when I take the cake out of the pan.  I even break out Crisco for this, which I never use.  You want it slick!!

3.       Sift the dry ingredients together except for the sugar and set aside.

4.       Beat butter and sugar with a mixer until it’s fluffy.

5.       Add eggs one at a time on low.

6.       Mix pumpkin and warm milk.

7.       Add the pumpkin mixture to the butter mixture.  Beat on low until it’s combined.

8.       Add the remaining flour mixture and beat on low.

9.       Pour into pan.

10.   Back for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

White Chocolate Ganache

¼ cup of white chocolate chip morsels.

2 tablespoons of heavy cream

1.       Melt chocolate with a double boiler.  I don’t have a double boiling pan so I take a pan and put some water in it, just a little bit then place a glass bowl on top of the pan to melt my chocolate.  Works for me!

2.       Whisk in heavy cream until fluffy.

3.       Drizzle of slightly cooked cake.

I pretty much do the ganache different every time I make the cake.  I start out with those measurements as my base but then it’s too thick so I add more cream.  It still tastes good and looks pretty on the cake.  I definitely remember Jessica’s being thinner on her.  It was almost like a thin coating where mine is like a thicker icing.  Either way, enjoy!  Here is a picture of my make-shift double boiler. 

Happy fall,

Meghan



Lovin' Long Skirts!

 So I am absolutely in LOVE with long skirts rigth now!  I heart these long skirts for many reasons.  The main is one that maxi dresses just don't look right on me.  I am pretty broad through my ribs and the maxi dresses that I have (because even though they aren't the most flattering thing on me they are SO comfortable so I own a few, ok, several of them) just kind of drop after my chest.  Which then makes me look larger than I actually am.  I'm not small by any stretch but I don't want to add any visual appearance of more weight, what girl does?!? 

I have seen several tutorials for maxi dresses and I even went out and purchases several yards of jersey knit material.  It's so soft.  I'm pretty sure that I could take my leftover pieces and make a blanket out of it.  I didn't want to try and make a dress for fear that I would put all kinds of work into it and never wear it because I didn't think that it looked right.  So I decided to try a maxi dress instead.  I was very pleased with the results.  It's definitely not perfect so don't zoom in on the few pictures that I have.  For some reason I got too excited and forgot to take pictures along the way.  Fear not, it was super easy so here goes!



The finished maxi skirt



I purchased my knit material probably 3 weeks ago.  I was so excited about it but was terrified to try it because I've heard that you have to do special things to sew with knit material because it's stretchy.  I do good to sew a straight stitch so I was afraid I would mess something up.  I found a blog though that told me exactly what to do but I can't seem to find where I saved it to give that person credit.  I had to purchase a ball-point needle.  They were super cheap.  Then I switched my sewing machine to a zig-zag stitch.  You have to use this because the fabric will stretch.  If you use a straight stitch then you may tear the stitch out creating a hole in your skirt.  The bonus to knit is that it's very forgiving so any mistakes or imperfections in the skirt won't really show up.  ;-)

To get my measurements and form for the skirt I took one of my knit dresses and used it as my model.  I cut my material to match the existing maxi dress.  The dress came in a lot at the waist.  Instead of following the line in I left it wider because I knew that I was using elastic for the waistband.  Once my material was cut I sewed down one side making the side stitch to the skirt. 

CAUTION:  When sewing knit material you have to let your sewing machine do the work.  If you try to push or guide the material it will create issues.  I have heard stories so I tried my best to just let my machine take the fabric in.  It worked out fine. 

After I had my side seam I folded to top over about 1.5".  This was to allow for me to thread the elastic throught he waistband.  Here is a picture of the skirt once I made my first side stitch - ignore the pinning at the bottom, I got smart... But the top is where I folded over to make the opening for the elastic waist.



Then I stitched up the other side of the skirt.  Don't sew all the way up.  Stop when you get to the fold over for the waist.  If you don't stop before that then you will end up with a big tube because you won't be able to thread the elastic through.  After sewing the other side almost all the way up I put a safety pin on my elastic and put it through the opening (sorry for the lack of technical terms, one day I may figure everything out...).  Once I had my elastic all the way through I finished off the seam by sewing my elastic together to close up the rest of the side stitch.  

Even though I pinned up the bottom I ened up not even hemming the bottom up.  Knit won't fray (score!) so I just left it as is.  My finished piece is pictured above.  Not perfect but a start.  So excited about making my next one.  I have some black knit just waiting for some free time...

After making my knit skirt and absolutely loving it I decided I was a master seamstress and I got an idea.  I had a maxi dress that I bought from Forever 21 on sale for like $15.  I loved the pattern.  Each time I tried it on to wear to school I started to fret because it had a slit at the top with some button detail or something.  I teach kindergarten and I'm constantly bending over so low cut tops or tops with a slit in them are not ideal for teaching.  So I would always hang the dress back up on the hanger.  The dress is pictured below.  I hadn't even brought myself to take the tags off of it yet.  Well I decided to take my maxi dress and turn it into a maxi skirt. 

I took the knit skirt that I made and matched the height up to the maxi dress.  I then added 1.5" to the top of my skirt so that I had enough room to add the elastic without making the dress too short. 

After cutting the dress into two parts it hurt my heart.  I was afraid that I had totally screwed something up and instantly regretted that cut.  I moved forward though.  I folded over the top part and sewed a hem across.  After that I fed my elastic through and sewed the elastic pieces together with my fabric.  I didn't have to sew a bottom hem because I used the hem from the original dress.  I literally made this dress in thirty minutes while I was watching the latest episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians.  Here is a picture of my finished skirt.

It totally makes me think of a teacher skirt.  My most favorite teacher ever Mrs. North wore long skirts all the time.  I'm just updating the long skirt with a belt and some sassy jewelry.  I have another refashion idea that I'm working on I just need the finishing piece. 

Happy sewing,

Meghan

The PERFECT Summer Pizza

Hey friends!  Since my craft room is still a work in progress (see update below) I'm sharing a recipe today.  :)  Most people have that one recipe that they are known for.  My aunt Linda has her broccoli casserole, my sister-in-law has her pasta salad, my momma has her green beans and strawberry salad and of course, my Granny is good at everything!  I love to cook and most things turn out well but I still don't have that perfect recipe that everyone will request when they know I'm cooking something.  This recipe is as close to my signature recipe as I can get.  I in no way created this or even made it fit to me.  I follow the recipe pretty much the way that it is.  It's a Pampered Chef recipe so you can totally find it on their website.  It's Three-Cheese Garden Pizza.  He is a picture of the deliciousness.  I had to get a picture of it right from the oven because it dissapears quick!  This is so perfect for summer because most of the ingredients you can just get from your garden or local farmer's market. 

What you need:

1 refrigerated pizza crust

1 small onion

1 medium zucchini

2 plum tomatoes - I used one garden tomato

1 cup of mushrooms - totally don't use these...gross!

2 garlic gloves - garlic is my FAVORITE

1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup of grated fresh parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon of italian seasoning - I use way more than this!

When I make this for Josh I add grilled chicken to his half.  He loves it. 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*.  Roll out pizza crust.  I use the Pillsbury one its the shape of a rectangle.  The actual recipe calls for a round pizza.  I see no need in reshaping it though.  Then you bake the crust for 7 minutes.  This helps it from being so doughy and getting soggy when you start adding the vegetables. 

2. I use my Pamered Chef mandoline to slice all the onion, tomato and zucchini.  I usally do this while the crust is baking.  With the mandoline it is so fast and easy to slice the veggies. 

3. Remove the pizza from the oven.  Add the garlic on the crust.  Again, I love garlic so I pile it on there.  Then sprinkle the mozzarella and cheddar cheese onto the crust.  Add all the vegetables (mushrooms and chicken too if you want) on top of the cheese.  Cover with parmesan cheese.  Lastly, sprinkle with italian seasoning. 

4. Bake 15-18 minutes and ENJOY!!

I hope that you will try this recipe and love it as much as my friends and family do.  I can even get Josh to eat tomatoes when they are covered in cheese and seasoning. 

One quick update on the craft room.  We found a desk.  It was actually at Target, on sale SCORE.  It's still in the box but hopefully we'll get it put together this week.  I also found the perfect chair.  My mom and I found it in Shelbyville at an antique store.  It is as ugly as sin (Granny saying) right now but it has good bones and it will be perfect once I'm finished with it.  I'm hoping in all of the free time I have the week before school starts - ha, ha we'll be able to make some progress.