Mother's Day Pictures...Christian, Alec, Sadie, Lindi

 Every Mother's Day, Amber's gift is that her children cooperate with having family  pictures taken...when they were small she took them to Kiddy Candids I think, until they closed....now she take their pictures herself and does a great job....usually she has individuals of each of them, plus shots of the two brothers and two sisters and a group shot....of course this year Christian is on his mission in Colombia....but he had someone take a nice photo of him and emailed it to mom...then Alec used his photo editing skills to put himself in the picture! Next year Alec will be on his mission...we'll see who can create that shot next Mother's Day....aren't they fine looking young men and women?

Sewing with Lindi

So Lindi and I also made this skirt while I was here...Lindi did almost all of the sewing! Side seams, hems, gathering stitches (LOTS of gathering stitches)...It's very twirly!

Grandma "Genius"?....Extend-a-Dress

 Lindi was having to get rid of a lot of her favorite dresses since she is (of course) growing taller....and shopping for new dresses was a bit discouraging too because most we found(if we were lucky) would barely come to her knee....so enter a little creative grandmothering....

I used a half slip she already had....then bought 1 yard of lacy eyelet fabric and a couple yards of light weight velcro...
I cut the fabric into 4 strips, 1/4 yd each and sewed the short edges together into a cylinder , then gathered the top edge...(and hemmed the bottom edge)

  

At this point I could have just sewn it to the bottom edge of the slip....but here's the genius part....I sewed some velcro to the under edge of the slip, then the other part of the velcro to the top edge of the ruffle... so it attaches to the slip with velcro...this is because we plan to make a couple more ruffles (black, yellow, etc.) that can be switched for specific dresses...

 Here's happy Lindi with a dress that was approaching uncomfortable shortness...we'll make a black ruffle that would look good with it too..

 And this was a dress she had two years ago for Kaity's wedding and hated to send to DI...

So many sundresses become much more wearable now...

Isn't this a cute one???

This is a navy/white dress

This will look good with the black ruffle...

Happy (modest) Lindi.....what a fun (grandma) project!

Sewing project...easy way to add sleeves...

There are so many cute summer tops and dresses out now...both for us and for our girls....but they are mostly sleeveless so need a jacket/sweater or some adaptation for those of us who don't like bare arms...

I got this cute top on sale the other day, and since it was sleeveless, plan to wear it with a lightweight sweater....

 But the since the fabric was so cute on the back, and since it's summer, I thought I'd add a little sleeve, so I'd have the option to take the sweater off...

This is  an easy way to add a sleeve....buy a coordinating t shirt....I couldn't find one that was a good match in the hot pink/purple color so settled for this pale lavender....it was a Cynthia Rowley from TJMaxx...a nice soft knit and on sale for $7....

Just cut off the sleeve a little past the seam...

Pin it into the armhole and hand stitch with an invisible slip stitch...it's easy to remove the sleeves if you want to later...I may change them to pink/purple if I find a shirt that matches...

And the t shirt that was left with the sleeve cut off makes a great camisole to wear under a jacket or low necked top...just hem the armholes...

Another Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe...can you have too many?

Here's a Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that's been "pinned" a lot...it contains a box of instant pudding mix...the original recipe called for vanilla...when I was making it, I only had a box of cheesecake instant pudding on hand, so that's what I used...it was pretty good.

Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 C white sugar

1 C brown sugar

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

3 C flour

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 (3.4 oz) box instant vanilla pudding

4 C chocolate chips (I used 1/2 white, 1/2 milk)

Mix and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Take out and let sit on tray to continue baking for about 5 minutes. 

***the original recipe called for extra large eggs...I just used regular large eggs...you might try the other size if you think it would make a difference....maybe in Utah where you're dealing with the high altitude.

Great Green Beans!

A super simple way to really enjoy fresh green beans....get tender ones (Haricot Vert)...and steam (or microwave) just a few minutes until just tender...they should still be bright green. I usually cook in a steamer basket about 5 minutes, then cover and turn off heat and let sit another 5 minutes. Dump into a dish, sprinkle with lemon or lime juice (one of either), a little nutmeg, a few(2 t?) dried red onions(I got these at Safeway, but regular dried onions would probably be fine)
...they are good like this, but for added flavor drizzle with about 1/3 C-1/2C of the salad dressing from our raspberry, walnut green salad)...leftovers are great cold or as part of a regular green salad...but I usually eat them all!

Talented Lindi...

Lindi has quite the artistic talent!....Here is her first picture done with charcoal....

And this is a picture she worked on for months (it took about 25 hours!)....