Zucchini

I had 2 zucchini to use up tonight, so I made pumpkin zucchini bread and zucchini butter.  The bread is SO good!  I found the recipe on allrecipes.com, a tried and true recipe website.  I changed the 1 cup of butter to 1 cup of canola oil (for Rebekah), and used 1/2 white, 1/2 whole wheat flour.  I've eaten 3 pieces tonight!

This is the zucchini butter, it really tastes just like apple butter.  I found the recipe in an Amish cookbook that I have, Family Treasures Volume II.  I bought this book at an Amish dry goods store a couple years ago, it has some great recipes in it.  Unfortunately, I can't find a similar recipe for it online, only bread and butter zucchini pickles comes up.  If you are interested in the recipe, leave me a comment.  I will try and call the phone number in the book and get permission to share it. 

Baby Girl Shower Gift

I made another baby shower gift set.  There is a tote, pacifier case, diapers/wipes case with diapers, a bib, and 3 decorated burp cloths.  I love the pink elephant fabric!  I hope my friend loves it too!

Hair Bows and Chocolate Popsicles

I had a fun filled day yesterday teaching my sister-in-law how to make hair bows for her little girl.  Here are the ones that I made for Rebekah.  I learned how to make them from a friend and from this website: Grily Things.  They are so easy!  For the flower, I just bought a bouquet from the dollar store and we cut the flower off and glued it to a covered clip, see the picture below for the back view.  Super easy, and super cheap!

As a treat tonight, I made homemade chocolate pudding pops!  I think my kids liked them!  I found the recipe in a Weight Watchers magazine, July/August 2011 issue.  It was called dark chocolate pudding pops, on p108.  The only substitutions I made was using almond milk instead of regular (so Rebekah could have it too), and I used bittersweet chocolate chips instead of dark chocolate because that is what I had on hand.  They were really good, but had an odd taste, maybe from the almond milk, but the kids didn't notice.  The only problem I had was getting them out of the popsicle molds!  Do not run them under hot water, they melt too much and stick to the molds.  It was best to try to wiggle them out while fully frozen.  Next time, I think I'll take my sugared strawberries and puree them in the blender with some vanilla yogurt! 

"Undershirt" to Fix Low Cut Shirts

It seems like every shirt in the stores nowadays has a low cut neckline!  And I am not the type of girl to show off cleavage!  Plus, in the summer, it's too hot to wear a tank top (if you can even find one that doesn't have a low neckline) under your shirt.  I found this blog, Shannon Makes Stuff, that had the perfect solution.  I used knit fabric (she used an old T-shirt) and added ribbon and velcro that will go around my bra straps to keep it in place.  I ended up adding a little more velcro than she did to make sure it would stick.  I've tried it on with several shirts and it looks great.  You just have to make sure you smooth the bottom down after putting on your shirt, no one will know it's not a shirt.  I plan on making a black one too!

Hot Air Balloon Birthday Cake

My Grandma turns 95 tomorrow!  I'm so excited to celebrate with her, and I am honored to make her birthday cake.  She loves hot air balloons and the Fourth of July.  She always loves when flowers are red, white, and blue, so I thought a red, white, and blue hot air balloon cake would be perfect.  Do you like my basket weaving on the basket?  It's the first time I've ever done it on a real cake!  This is two 12 x 18 inch cakes put together, with a hot air balloon on top (I'm pretty sure it's a Wilton pan).  I think it turned out great, I'm sure she will love it!  I also made her a butterfly birthday card (see below).  

Denim Buttons, Fixed Zipper & Shortening a Skirt

I always thought that putting a denim button on would be really hard, but it was SO EASY!  The original button on this skirt popped off.  I used a denim patch on the inside of the skirt to strengthen the fabric, and then put the button to the right of the hole.  The denim button was basically the front button part with a thumb tack for the back.  You push the tack through your fabric and press the button on top, finished!  I apologize for the picture quality, I was down in my basement sewing room where the light is poor. 

 

Next up was to fix a zipper.  This zipper (see pic below) was missing 3 or 4 teeth at the bottom of the zipper, before the stop.  So the first time it was unzipped, the zipper fell right off the track.  After many attempts, I finally was able to get the zipper back together, and then I sewed around the last set of complete teeth to create a new stop, several knots helped in the process too.  You can see the white thread in the picture. 

Lastly, I shorted a khaki skirt.  The original length (see pic below) was at my mid calf, a very unflattering length for me.  Instead of throwing it in the donate box, I decided to shorten it to a more flattering, below the knee length.  

I tried it on and marked the length I wanted, determining I needed to cut 7 inches off the bottom (make sure you leave room for hemming).  Then I just measured around the skirt and cut it off.  I did a simple hem, and it was finished in no time.