Minnie Mouse out fit

We went to Disneyland this week for my oldest daughter's birthday. When we went a few years ago, we saw a little girl in the tea cup line next to us wearing a pillowcase dress made out of red and white polk-a-dot material. It was so cute because she looked like a modern Minnie Mouse. So I wanted to do the same thing for my girls this trip. But my sewing machine was broken, so I figured I would just get a simple pattern and try sewing it by hand. I found this one for $1.99 and it went great.
I cut out 2 sets of pieces for a size 4. I made the first one the way the pattern said except I lined the bias tape right up to the edges on the neck and arm holes. It fit my 2 year old great. But I could tell that even with putting the bias tape 3/4" in on the neck and arm holes it would still not fit over the older one's head. (She has big poofy curly hair :) So I made some alteration to widen the opening for the head. And I also made the side seems a little smaller since she is a size 5 now.
Here is what I did to widen the neck hole.

1. Cut the back/top pattern piece in 1/2


2. Use bias tape on the raw edges that you just cut.


3. use some 1/4" elastic to make a button hole at the top. When you add bias tape around the neckline it will cover any extra elastic and stitches you make here.


4. Sew a button on the other side of the opening.


5. continue with the pattern as indicated.


6. When sewing the bias tape for the neck line, begin with the tape at one edge of the opening and end at the other instead of beginning at the shoulder seam like suggested in the pattern.
   

Here is the finished product. I think they are ADORABLE and I love them so much. And we will probably wear them again for 4th of July with some blue jean shorts or something.

eagle scout cookies & Baptism cookies

A boy in my Sunday school class earned his eagle scout award last month. So I made cookies for him so we could all celebrate with him in class. They turned out great. (Sorry the pic is sideways.)

This is how I did it.

First I cut the cookies out with a round cookie cutter. Before they got cooked, I make a paper template of an eagle and lightly traced it into the dough with a paring knife. Make sure that you don't go all the way through the cookie dough to the pan. Now put the cookies in the oven for the time indicated on the recipe.

Next use brown royal frosting to pipe along the marks you made with the paring knife. After that has set for a little while, fill in the center of the eagle with runny royal icing (flood frosting)

After that I did the stripes. I was worried I would make them all wonky, so I used some edible markers to make some lines ahead of time and they were a nice guide. But you don't have to do that. I filled one side in red, the other blue and left the middle blank. Once they were dry, I put them in bags and everyone loved them.

Baptism cookies-

Another cookie cookie that I did recently went unphotographed but was cute. A different boy in my class got baptized and he asked one of the other students to baptize him. (I know, my students are awesome!) They are both Mexican, so I did gingerbread men with little white jumpsuits. They were cute, but not as yummy as they could have been because with my time constraints I had to use frosting from the store.

The Primal Blueprint Cookbook review

My husband his been very interested in the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. So I got the cookbook and tried out some of the recipes.

We have tried the:

Mayonnaise-It didn't turn out as we would have hoped

Root vegetable chips- A lot of work, we tried both frying and baking them. I think I'll just buy them next time.

Nut Crackers- My youngest and I eat them, but they were expensive to make because of the almond flour.

Summer squash noodles- we thought they were fine and will be using 1/2 regular noodles and 1/2 zucchini noodles the next time we make spaghetti.

Almond crusted poached eggs- cooked more quickly than I expected, yummy, but made a lot of dirty dishes.

Turkey Kebabs- We all liked these. I think in the future we will not bother with the kebabs and just cook them up like a patty/burger. the girls treated them like chicken nuggets.

My overall opinion of the cookbook is that it is for people who have the time to cook a lot and who enjoy cooking a lot. But it's not so much for the average household cook trying to get dinner on the table. It's no wonder they also came out with a second cookbook Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals. If that one ever comes into our library system I will probably borrow it, but as for this book, I will try to sell it online after I cook all the recipes I'm interested in.