Family News and Photos

Have you ever tried making mittens?  I hadn't until this week.

I found a good tutorial on You Tube and thought I'd give it a whirl.  They are made from wool sweaters that are felted.  To felt wool, just put the sweater in the washing machine on hot/cold and then in the dryer on the highest setting.  The fibers shrink and become tight which makes the material easier to work with.  It's important to get a sweater with at least 60% wool.  I tried these the first time with an acrylic sweater and it was extremely hard to work with and I ended up throwing the whole thing away.

Here is a little bit of a tutorial to get started, but to really learn how to do it, check out this video.  It's pretty simple, and my first pair turned out okay.  I do plan to make more, both for practice, and also because these are really warm mittens (they are lined in fleece) and we will use them this winter.

TO MAKE YOUR MITTENS YOU NEED...

(The sweaters in these photos have already been washed and dried to felt them)

I definitely recommend finding your supplies from a thrift store.  Wool sweaters can be very expensive brand new, and while you can make several pair of mittens from just two sweaters, you don't want to spend a huge amount of money on this project.  I got all my supplies for about $5.

To Make Flowers for Mittens

 I finally got Lauren and Nelly's bedroom painted and decorated.  It is very bright, but also cheery and sunny.  I had a moment of panic after I got it painted, and before the decorations were up in the room.  It was dark outside, so no natural light was coming into the room.  I suddenly felt like my eyes were bugging out and I had a horrible sinking feeling that I had just spent 5 hours painting it a color that wasn't going to work in there.  Fortunately, though, it was time to go to bed.  I felt better about it in the morning, and once the decor was up, it suddenly looked a LOT better.  Best of all, the girls like it.

It's a huge weight off my shoulders to have it done.  I was putting off every other room because I had promised the girls I would do theirs first. 

Another great thing about doing this was that the decor is from our other house, so I didn't have to buy anything except paint.  OH, and I also learned that Sherwin-Williams has a 40% off sale periodically, so this time around the paint was a really good deal.  SWEET! 

 A little late with the Halloween photos, but here are the pumpkins we carved this year.  Emily's is the one on the top left.  It is a French pumpkin with a French painter's hat.  Owen's is next to Emily's, and it's a ghost.  On the bottom left is Lauren's who wanted a moon with stars.  Nelly's is next to that with a silly face.

Carving pumpkins is serious business, let me tell you.

We don't mess around.

(yes that is a real saw, and yes Lauren is freaking out)

Carving 4 pumpkins in the house is totally ridiculous and should not be allowed to happen.  We will be doing it outside next year no matter what the weather is.

I was still picking pumpkin guts off my chandelier a week after this photo was taken.  Nice.

Someone had a birthday at our house this month!! 

 I can't believe my first baby is 11 already!  Where have the years gone?  Surely it was just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital.

She asked for an ice cream cupcake, and then took it one step further and asked if the "cup" part could be make from chocolate.  Whoa, girl! 

 Great idea, if you know how to do it.  It ended up being pretty simple once I figured out that Michael's had a candy mold that was actually a shell.  And inexpensive, too.  Those molds are really cheap, and the chocolate melts are, too.  
So I made the shells, made a regular white cake, cut it into little tiny squares, and put it in the shell.  Then I used regular vanilla ice cream that had softened slightly and added some yellow food coloring and put it in my mixer.  Finally, I piped that into the shells, covering the cake, added sprinkles and some other little candy molds I made (which sank into the ice cream) and that was her "cake".  Not exactly professional, but certainly cheaper.

Fancy Schmancy

Not really.  I don't really do gourmet.  In fact, even fancy restaurants scare me a little.  There's too much silverware.

This is a soup I found on The Pioneer Woman's website.  It's Creamy Carrot and Thyme.  I thought it looked so good on her blog and I had to try it.  I love soup this time of year.  Unfortunately, this was not as good as I thought it would be, but that's because I prefer savory soups and this one is a little on the sweet side.  It's pretty, though, and not hard to make at all.  Not all is lost, I don't think.  I have a little left over and I'm going to season it up a little differently and see if I can make it more savory.  

One Word.  Gorgeous!

I did not make this.  I'm going to try, though.  It is made from apples.  I found it on Pinterest (which I finally checked out for the first time last week and now have to set a timer for myself so I don't spend too much time on)

I did not save the website that I found this on (did print recipe, though) so I can't give credit to anyone, but it is really beautiful.  This photo was taken before it was cooked.  It is still very beautiful baked.  Keep checking back for a post on this one.

And our recipe post for today is Lazy Day Stew.  I believe credit for this one goes to Shelley Chappell.  I found it on their family recipe blog here. (which, by the way, has excellent recipes on it)

This is a crockpot recipe, and since I love all things crockpot, I had to try it.  It is easy, and perfect for a fall dinner.  

The biscuits.....well.....they are Pillsbury frozen ones.  I swear by them, but I will confess that I'm about to embark on a biscuit making adventure.  That will be in another post, though.

Lazy Day Beef Stew

2# beef stew meat

1 small bag baby carrots

3 stalks celery, cut into 1" pieces

8-10 red potatoes, quartered (I skipped this)

1 onion, quartered

1 pouch au jus gravy mix

2 pouches brown gravy mix

1 pouch ranch dressing mix

3 cups water

Toss everything into a crockpot.  Stir until mixed well.  Turn crockpot on low and cook 8-9 hours.  Serve with biscuits or hot rolls.

Caio!