New Years Eve Pizza Party

So, tomorrow is a new year, and Noah's birthday. I decided to try making homemade pizza for the party, 1. because Noah loves pizza, and 2. because I love pizza, and 3. because pizza is now expensive. Really easy, I took my normal bread recipe, guessed that it would make 2 pizzas, and doubled it to have 4. Ok, each bread recipe made 3 pizzas, so we had 6. We'll be eating leftovers for a while, but it worked really well!!!








I have perforated pizza pans I bought at Walmart, rolled out the dough, stretched them on the pan and pre-baked them at 350 for 8 min.











Then top them, using the pizza peel, and slip them right on the oven rack (I don't own a pizza stone...) for 13 min at 400. Bingo!! yummy pizza for what I figure is $2 a pizza. Not bad, and very yummy!


The kids were excited to have all the pizza they could eat. Lets see how they feel about it after we have pizza tomorrow too, for breakfast and lunch... LOL

Cool Rise Cinnamon Rolls

One of my favorite holiday memories is having cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Alas, on Feingold, the Pilsbury dough boy and I have parted ways... But, my darling friend Marye at Baking Delights posted a recipie for cool rise maple pecan rolls. So, presto bango, I change it up a little and POOF! My cool rise cinnamon rolls! I would have taken more pictures, but they disappeared too fast...

Christmas!!!

Christmas went ok. The kids had fun, and that was the most important part.

He's here!!!!

Judah Samuel was born at 6:35pm after, believe it our not, a half hour labor! He's my first unassisted birth... and it was beautiful! He weighs 8 lbs even, and is 21 in long... he looks just like Michael. I'm so thankful he's here....

Sewing a tier skirt

I made a denim tier skirt for Natasha to use during Frontier Days for her youth symphony performances. It was insanely simple... so here's how I did it!


I cut out rectangles of denim. They are stacked top tier, middle tier, bottom tier. They get a little wider with each tier also. The top and middle tier have 2 pieces, the bottom has 3.







Then I serge the rectangles together to make loops. The bottom tier I also serge the bottom edge for the hem, and the top tier gets serged for the waistband.














Serging done!! That was the easiest part...












ok, so this part isn't hard, just time consuming, and invariabley, finger poking. Pins.... lots and lots of pins. I run two basting lines on the edge that needs to be gathered, pull to gather, and pin in place. Now, on the cotton dresses I make for the girls, this is insanely easy.... I discovered I should have used a heavier weight thread for this denim... my thread groaned, but didn't break. A major shout out thanks to Ingrid for helping me gather the bottom tier... I was mega-procrastinating...






Now its' all gathered, and I stitch a 5/8" seam between my two basting lines. Easy as pie. I have Michael remove the pins, then pull the basting threads, then serge the seam, nice and secure.







ain't that nice?










I iron the seam up, and top stitch it so it lays nicely.
I don't do this for the cotton skirts, but I thought it was really needed for the denim or Natasha would have those seams rubbing her leggs all the time. How annoying. I know the stitching barely shows... that's the point, isn't it? ;-)








turn, iron, and stitch the hem. This only needed a 1/4" hem, so that was nice and quick.







Almost done!!!!









Turn, pin, and iron the top for the waistband. I did a 1 1/4" casing, since my elastic was 1".





sew.






Don't forget to leave a hole so you can insert the elastic!!






Cut the elastic to length. I run it thru, then pin it so she can try it on before I finish...






this helps it not move, so I can pull it out and cut any adjustments...








ok, so it was 3 tries and 6" of adjustments...









I use a vertical stitch so the stretch isn't compromised by my stitching. Tuck it in, stitch closed the hole, and stretch the waistband to even out the fabric around it.









Last thing I did was to put in 4 verticle seams, one at each side seam, and one middle of the front, and middle of the back. This will help prevent the elastic from rolling, and from shifting the skirt around too much.








And here we are! One finished tier skirt or prairie skirt!

More sewing

Natasha needs a denim skirt. Ok, well, she could wear a pair of jeans, but we'd prefer a denim skirt. She and Michael have performances for the youth symophony next week during Frontier Days. So, I'm making her a denim skirt! I have to alter the pattern to make it longer. That's waht I get for having a slim daughter and a conviction to stay modest. So, here's some pictures! I also made a tutorial on how I made it.... lots of pictures....

catching up on knitting...

Believe it or not, I have been knitting. Nothing looks like much now, but I have been doing some. This is the pi shawl I've been working on. It's on size 4 needles in a laceweight from a hand dye yarn shop that I can't remember... I bought this wool nearly 2 years ago...









This is a maternity shirt for me.... or at least that's what it's supposed to be when it's done. LOL I have about 5 more inches before the bust decrease. It takes a lot of yarn to cover this growing belly!!









I'm also planning on starting little one's dedication gown soon. We're about to become significantly broke for the next year, so I'm ferreting money away. I wanted to make the gown out of an exotic fiber... but it looks like it's going to be made out of plain wool. It'll be stunning none the less. I can't wait to start it!

some of Michael's shots

Seems the shutter bug has hit Michael too.. not bad for an 11yo playing with mom's camera without instruction.

Weekly belly shot

24 weeks. Baby is about 1 lb now. I'm feeling all those lovely kicks and rolls. Sometimes, I can even see little ones movement on my belly. Jim hasn't felt anything yet, but I know he will in time. This seems to be a much quieter baby than the others.... could be interesting. LOL


24w0d

24 week stats: weight gain- 14 lbs; fetal heartrate- 155/bpm; fundal height- about 24 cm. movement- felt daily

weekly belly shot

22 weeks!! I can't believe it's past halfway... wow....

22w0d

No heartrate stat or fundal height or weight. Those will now be recorded every 2 weeks, so on the 24 week shot...

wimper...

I am massively craving spagetti.... massively.... mega.... big time.... wonderful yummy spagetti, sweet sauce, angel hair pasta, chunks of tomato...

wimper.....

I'm the only one in the house that can eat it. It makes everyone else sick. I have nothing here to make any.....


wimper......

I want spagetti......

Birthday!

Well, Liberty loved her birthday presents. 6 new dresses by the blessing of God!




















She looks pretty happy, don't you think?


Happy Birthday, Tia!