Make your own headband:


I was watching the neighbor girls yesterday afternoon and we worked on a project to pass the time away. I can't find my camera right now so I pulled a picture form Google images to show what the headbands look like. This one is a bit bigger than the one we made, but ours were still fairly chunky. We used some silky ivory fabric I had.
Here are the directions:

1. Wash and dry the fabric
2. Cut the fabric to be 4" by 42"
3. use the template below and lay it on the "wrong" side of the fabric. On each end trace the pattern, it will make a 30 degree angles point.
4. Take the fabric to the sewing machine and fold it in half with the "wrong" side out. Starting from the middle, sew the headband out to the points. back stitch when you begin, but do not back stictch at the point. (This will cause puckering.) Simply leave a long string of top and bobbin thread and double knot it. Do this to both sides leaving space in between to pull the fabric through.
5. Cut off the extra fabric by the points and pull the fabric through the hole making the "right" side of the fabric show. Use something pointy like a crochet hook or a pencil to make the points look good. Then iron everything in place.
6. Go back to the machine and sew from point to point. To avoid any puckering issues, you can begin and end about an inch from the point. Now you are done.

Note to self:

• The girls were excited to use the sewing machine but were so tired form a long day at school that they had a hard time focusing. Especially once Maggie woke up form her nap. They just wanted to play with her.
• They were here for about an hour and it was long enough to let them all get to the ironing stage, but we didn't have enough time for them to sew the hole closed.
• They all needed complete supervision on every part of the task except for pulling the fabric through.
  
  

Navy Ball Hair:

Here are some pictures and directions for how I did my hair for the navy ball.

These are the special tools I used The green container is some very sticky goo I use to smooth things out, and control fly aways.

1. make a part. I prefer for it to be off to the side. I take the part from my hair line to about 2 inches in at an angle. I think this makes a good chunky bang.
2. I keep the bangs out of the way while I put the rest of my hair into a fairly high ponytail.
3. Smooth the bangs back. I use flip clips to keep them in place and then remove them latter when it is closer to the time of the event. I normally put one clip in above my ear because that is where I am turning the direction of the hair. Then sometimes I put one more wherever it is needed to help keep a smooth curve.
4. If the hair is long enough to reach the ponytail, use a second ponytail holder to secure the ends of the bangs. this will make the ponytail stay extremely well.
5. I take small chunks of hair and wrap them around my curler, starting with the ends of the hair and rolling towards the roots. (This can be done around any round item that is the desired circumference.) Don't roll too tightly because now you need to pull the curler out of the hair. Carefully bobby pin the curled hair into place, positioning in front of the ponytail holder.
6. Repeat with all of the hair that is in your ponytail.
7. My hair is so thin that I don't have enough to go all the way around the ponytail holder, so I just cover the top and put fresh flowers on the bottom. You could use anything.

I cut the stems of the flowers to be about an inch or two. Making sure that they are not longer than the pedals. Then I use two bobby pins per flower and place them in an X over the stem.

CSA

My sister just told me about CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. It is a system for getting farm fresh produce direct from the farmer instead of the grocery store. I have read a little bit about it and think that I will get signed up for it after we are all moved and settled next year. I post it so that I don't forget about it latter, But I also thought i'd share it with everyone to look into it for themselfs too.

Here is a site I found that shares a little bit of info on it and has a search tofind a CSA farm co-op in your area.

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Sorry locals, There are no CSA's in our area!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Although I spend a lot of time on other things, I spend my days with my 2 most important projects. My girls. Here is a slide show of Maggie's first year. I hope to get one done for Gwen too.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This slide show is very easy to do. You just go to

www.onetruemedia.com

and upload your photos and videos. They automatically put random transitions between each photo and you can make changes from there. They have a lot of free music to use, allow you to upload your own music, or buy music. But it does take a while to upload all your photos.

Today I made a shirt out of Kwik Sew Pattern # 3179. It went together VERY quickly!!! I cut the paper pattern out before Maggie nap and I was able to cut the fabric, and sew the whole garment before she woke up!!!

• It is baggy around the arms, (That seems to be the intended style.)


• But the waistline fits beautifully and shows off your shape.


• The neckline is not too low and an underpinning is not needed, even when you bend over.


• It is a little short waisted. I think it will work well with a highwaisted skirt, a coverup for a dress. Or length could be added with a flounce or ruffled trim around the bottom.

What I did differently/would do differently next time.

• I didn't like the baggy short sleeves, so I gave them the same elastic treatment I did with the dress I posted about a few days ago.


• I had some trouble turning under the curve on the hem around the neckline. Next time I will need to either use bias tape or make sure to stop stitching about a quarter of an inch from the end of the fabric at the shoulder seems.

Another little bit of pattern info I thought I would share is this website.

http://sewing.patternreview.com/news

I found it very helpful in choosing this pattern. I look forward to researching my future pattern purchases here.

Spinach artichoke pasta

Today for dinner we made a YUMMY Rachel Ray recipe

Spinach Artichoke Whole Wheat Penne

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/spinach-artichoke-whole-wheat-penne-recipe/index.html

It was SO good and I'm assuming healthy with the veggies and whole grain pasta.

Sam said he liked it okay, but then it must have grown on him because he laughed about taking seconds of a dish he labeled as only "Okay"

I LOVED it, especially how the flavors really soaked into the chicken we added to it.

Gwen didn't seem to give it much of a chance and decided before she tried it that it was yucky.

Maggie loved it and scarffed it down.

Making it our own:

We did alter the recipe just a bit.

• We cut the recipe in half and there was still plenty left.
• Also, we added 1 cup of cooked cubed chicken. That is what I loved so much about it. The chicken really soaked up a lot of flavor. In fact, we liked it so much that next time we will add 2 cups of cooked, cubed chicken. Because the chicken soaked up so much, I think we will need to add some more chicken broth or something.
• And we put the artichokes into the food processor also.

What we didn't like:

• The pasta didn't soak up much of the flavor. I am hoping that adding some more broth to the sauce and allowing the noodles to absorb the sauce for longer on the stove will help with that problem.