It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

**Melinda, if you are out there, I got your comment, but I can't access the blog you commented from to leave my phone number! Email me at mindy_macd@yahoo.com!

It's hard to believe, but it's time to start thinking about Christmas! I've been having a lot of fun lately making pillowcase dresses and appliqued designs for my kids. It's about this time of year that I start thinking about cute things that my kids can wear throughout the Christmas holidays. That family Christmas picture is always hanging over my head, so I feel like I need to have it together by Thanksgiving! Anyhow, I would love to offer to make your Christmas a little easier by letting you shop for some cute things now! Here are a few things that I have available, modeled by my ever so accommodating 4 year old:

I love pillowcase (not really made from pillowcases in this case!) dresses because they look equally as cute over tights, leggings, or jeans with a t-shirt or turtleneck. I also love them because they are comfy, and my daughter will willingly wear them! These are all cotton fabrics and are available to you as long as they are available to me! You can throw them in the wash on cold and let them line dry.

Pricing and Sizing for dresses are as follows:

3-12 month- 15" long- $25

12-24 month- 18" long- $28

2T-3T-21" long- $30

4T-5T-25" long-$32

6+-30" long-$32

I'm also making appliqued onesies and t-shirts.

The onesies and t-shirts are available for $18.00 (zig-zag trim is $1.00 extra, ruffle is $2.00 extra).

I have red shirts, white shirts, and white onesies. Any applique can go on any shirt or onesie. Feel free to customize!

This leopard shirt is a good pic for your slightly older child....you know, the one that won't wear monograms, bows, or ruffles anymore! My camera didn't pick it up well, but those are little clear "sparkles" on the tree.

The ornaments on this shirt can be done with any fabric you like. You can choose 1 ornament with an initial or 3 ornaments (no initial). I can also add a ruffle or zig-zag trim to either.

And for the boys!

I will give a 10% discount for multiple orders that include a dress!

If you don't have my email or phone number and you'd like to order, just leave me a comment here. Happy shopping!

Sweet finds

Hubby and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary last week! We decided to take a "stay-cation", and just "stay" put in our house while my mom and dad took the kids for several days. It was WONDERFUL!!! My sweet hubby is so excited about all of the things I've found at Goodwill (and the power of spray paint!), that he actually suggested we go look around during our "free" time! We stumbled upon the cutest desk and bedside table for a little girl's room, and lo and behold, I had JUST been thinking about how nice it would be to have a desk in my little girl's room! The pieces were in excellent condition, solid wood, and very sturdy. They were also $8.00 (bedside table) and $18.00 (desk), which is obviously a steal! I think people were a little frightened by the fact that the previous owner had painted them (badly, I might add) neon pink!

Nothing a little paint won't take care of! I got a quart of Kilz to get rid of the pink, and then found a quart of white paint on the "oops" shelf at Home Depot for $1.00! Perfect! That transformed them into this...

You can see a little of her bed in this picture, which I also painted white. I LOVE how it all turned out! The knobs were just raw wood when we bought it, so I sprayed them white and bought clear acrylic knobs for the top left drawer and the bedside table. You can see that I'm still missing a knob on the top right drawer, and that is because the screw isn't the right size and I forgot to buy one today!

I still needed a chair, so I went back to Goodwill (of course!) and found a sweet little off-white ladder back chair for $2.00! I primed it, painted it, added some ribbons and made a cushion from an old pillow and some scrap fabric, and now I have this...

It has really completed the whole thing! So bedside table ($8) plus desk ($18) plus chair ($2) plus knobs ($8) plus primer ($12) plus paint ($1)= cute new bedroom for $49!! I LOVE GOODWILL!!!!

I'll end on another "sweet" note. Check out these tasty burgers and fries I made for Father's Day:

So can you tell what they are? Cupcakes, brownies, icing, and sugar cookies? How fun is that? I'm such a fan of Bakerella, and when I saw her do these last year, I knew I had to try them! They are simple, but yummy, and would be a fun 4th of July treat!

Speaking of a treat...

sorry....I couldn't resist!

Have a Happy 4th!

Just when I was back in the game

So many fun trips to GoodWill. So many cans of spray paint. So many cute re-dos. So many things to share. My computer? SO MESSED UP!!! Apparantly we have a motherboard issue. From what I understand in my very limited technological knowledge, this is bad. We are lucky to have a friend willing to help us out, but I'm going to be on a forced blog-cation until we get things worked out. So tune in!

Another Goodwill before and after

I'm joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday! Check out her site for lots of fun before and afters! I'm also joining Rhonda at Southern Hospitality for Today's Thrifty Treasures. Thanks to my mom at Nina's Nest for gently "suggesting" (ha!) that I join the blog party scene!

I found this pair of lamps at Goodwill for $10 each:

Hello, the 80's called, and they want their lamps back!

I knew they had potential, despite the lovely fake brass color, and I was in the market for some matching bedside lamps. So I taped them up, added a little spray paint, and now I have:

I love them! They are on our bedside tables now and they look great! (The lamp above is in the bathroom because I wanted some natural light!)

As always, one man's trash is another man's treasure!

I'm baaaack!!

Hello blog friends! Long time, no see (or write, or whatever!)! I know I've been MIA since October. I'd like to say it's because I've been in Tahiti or somewhere exotic, but the only exotic place I've been lately is the pediatrician's office during rush hour. There weren't any sandy beaches or palm trees, but getting there was an adventure and there were definitely some wild animals (particularly the one who had a 104 degree fever and strep). Anyhow, I'm breaking back into my blog because my mom and I spent way too many hours last night looking at DIY project before and afters, and I got inspired!

Here we have subject #1:

Subject #1 is a Shabby Chic bench that I bought at Target about 5 years ago. It's for the vanity in the bathroom. It's cute, but pretty vanilla. So I bought some fabric to recover it, which made it look like this: Much better, but even cuter when I added some trim...

Not vanilla anymore! I absolutely love it! I thought it would be nice to add a little more of this fabric in the bathroom, so enter subject #2:

A dear friend gave me a set of monogrammed towels as a wedding gift. I like them plain and simple, but I really like them now that I added a little fabric and trim:

So here are today's projects, all done with $9 worth of fabric and $8 worth of trim!

And here are my other projects, which are a continual work in progress:

Happy Spring everyone!

Some Fall Recipes

Every season makes me crave different food. Fall always makes me crave cozy soups and stews, apple desserts, and anything with pumpkin. Winter makes me want a good roast or crock pot recipe, delicious Christmas baking, and things with nuts and cinnamon. Then Spring comes, and I'm ready to dive into some lighter fare, like a really good salad with grilled chicken, fresh veggies like asparagus, salmon, homemade pizzas, and pasta. Summer is all about anything on the grill, fresh fruit, corn on the cob, and ice cream! And of course there is chocolate, which I crave all 4 seasons, hence the diet I'm now on (and for the love people, I HATE to diet!!!! I just love food so much more than I love being thin! Except that I really do need to drop this baby weight, since I haven't been pregnant in almost 16 months now!!!). Anyhow, I've decided that I can either blog about how sick I am of the recession and all the misery that comes with it, or I can blog about food. So food it is!

I have a few recipes that I've made lately that are just totally fabulous! I tend to be a fairly decent risk taker in the culinary world, which is hilarious because I am absolutely NOT a risk taker in any other area of life. I find such amazing recipes when I take risks though, which should really be a life lesson to me that sometimes you discover great things when taking risks, but I digress.

Pumpkin Ravioli. You either just read that and said, "Ewwwwww!" or "Yummmmmm!" If you have some extra time on your hands to make the raviolis, you have to try this. It is absolutely delicious. It is really easy too, just a little time consuming to actually fill the raviolis (but not difficult). It is everything I hoped it would be and then some. It is incredibly rich and satisfying, thanks largely in part to the Gorgonzola cheese sauce. It is just perfect with the pumpkin, and the hazelnuts (which I had in a can of mixed nuts) are a perfect match as well. This would be an amazing dish to serve company, as long as you had company with non-traditional palates. Seriously, if this appeals to you in the least, it's worth it. Even my husband who hates "orange squishy food" liked it. That's sayin' somethin'.

Next on the list is Butternut Squash Soup. I made this for my inlaws when they came for dinner, and it was also even more than I hoped for. It is thick and rich and creamy....everything a good fall soup should be! It is loaded with flavor, and the bacon on top? Are you kidding? It's just perfect! Again, my non "orange squishy food" eating hubby thought this was delicious. This, like the ravioli, is a bit time consuming, but it makes a ton and it's very low in calories (a bonus when you are on a wretched diet).

Lastly, I have for you one of the best Apple Oatmeal Crisps ever. I stayed at my parent's house a week ago while hubby was on a retreat. My mom was craving an apple dessert, so I found this online. Oh my. Really, oh....my. Just make it. You will love it. Invite your friends over to ooh and ahh over how delicious it is. Drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream next to this crunchy, buttery, apple-y, cinnamon and sugary sweet dessert, and you will be in heaven. I read a tip from one of the reviews that said to dot butter over the top before you put it in the oven. I have done it with like that and done it without, and I'm sorry, but more butter always wins out.

So there you have it friends. If you try anything, let me know what you think, and if you have anything new to try, share!

Pumpkin is easy.....who knew?

Last week while we were at the beach, my mom went to the store for some pumpkin to make pumpkin bread. They said they were out of it for some vague reason. So today, I went to Publix to buy some pumpkin, and they didn't have any either! I asked what the story was, and they said that because of all the rain we've had, the pumpkin harvest has been pushed back for 3 weeks, leaving us in prime-time pumpkin baking time with NO canned pumpkin! Isn't that crazy? They said that there have only been a very few shipments rationed out to the stores, and now it's all gone! Bizarre! Well, I've invited some friends over tomorrow for breakfast and I had planned on making some Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese breakfast rolls (my mouth is watering just thinking about them!). We're going to the pumpkin patch, so I'm really set on having something "pumpkin-y". I decided to buy a pie pumpkin and just hope that I could find directions on how to make it into what you buy in the can! Turns out it is REALLY easy! Most of you probably already know about this, but I have never even thought about making my own pumpkin puree! So if you are like me, let me share with you how to do it!

1- Cut the stem off of the pumpkin (make sure it's a pie pumpkin) and cut it in half from top to bottom, scooping all the "guts" (sorry) out with a spoon.

2- Place the pumpkin halves face down/skin side up in a 13x9 glass baking dish. Put about 1/2 inch of water in there.

3- Bake at 450 for about 45-55 minutes.

4- Separate the good stuff from the skin (the skin comes off pretty easily) and puree it in a food processor or blender.

That's it! You can keep it in the fridge for 5 days or stick it in the freezer. How easy is that?

Just wanted to share, in case you are in the mood to make something like this!