How to Make Stocking Ornaments

How cute are these little stocking ornaments? A great way to use those little embroidery designs. But if you don’t have an embroidery machine you can just use really cute printed fabric. Click here to get the pattern for free. Alright, I realize you don’t really need a pattern for a stocking, but hey it’s free, so take it or leave it ya begger. The stocking itself took 5 minutes to make, the embroidery took 7 minutes. Not bad, huh?
I really like how my embroidered snowman turned out. He (or she?) can be purchased here.

And my shaggy-edges little Christmas tree just makes me happy to look at.

So here’s how you make these little guys:
Download the pattern and cut out your fabric. Embroider the fabric first, but that’s optional. Make sure the stocking pieces are cut mirror image, like below.

Place right sides together of the stocking pieces and sew all around, except the top. Place the cuff pieces right sides together and stitch just the sides. (I don’t know if you can see in the photo but I did serge (or you can zig-zag) the bottoms. But you don’t have to. Then place the cuff over your stocking—right sides together—and pin in place, like below picture.

Sew around the top, attaching the cuff to the stocking. Pull up the cuff, like below picture and press with iron.

Tuck the cuff all the way inside, iron again, then fold cuff over 1-2” inches and press again. Use a small piece (3” inches or so)of ribbon or scrap of bias tape, fold in half, tuck in the raw edges, double stitch through all layers.

Hang and admire!

I know, I know it’s only November, not even past Turkey Day and here I am posting about Christmas. Well, to fill a tree with all of these stockings will take a while to make, so you better get started early. These would make great little neighbor gifts too. Hmmm….there’s an idea for me as well.

Scripture Tote Bag

Hallie has been needing a new scripture tote bag. She grew out of her old scripture bag made by my fabulous (now far away friend) Candy of Candy Argyle Designs. So I made Hallie a new bag for church. While I was contemplating how to decorate her bag (yes, I think about these boring details) I had an embroidery customer email me asking if I had an CTR designs. CTR stands for Choose The Right which is basically the theme for all Sunday School children of the LDS faith. Well, I didn’t have such a design, but I said I could quickly make one. So being the brilliant gal that I am, I put those two ideas together—a CTR Scripture Bag! If you’d like to buy the design, click here.
If you’d like to make this scripture, bag you’ll need to cut:
Main body: 1 piece, 18”x11” of canvas,
Top strips: 2 pieces, 2”x11” each
Cotton batting to interface for structure: 1 piece, 21”x11”
Lining: : 1 piece of lightweight cotton, 21”x11”
Straps: You’ll need 2 pieces of 1-inch handbag webbing 19” each.
Fabric to cover straps: Cut 2 pieces of lightweight cotton 3”x19”
That should be it for your supplies!
I’m too lazy to type here all my steps, but trust me, it’s easy.  Like 30-minutes easy for this speedy sewer and maybe 1 hour for those without the Speedy-Sewer-Super Power. Just google “how to sew a tote bag”. But if you’d read this far, you obviously already know how to sew and don’t need no stinkin’ directions.
On the other side I added my Boutique Tag with her name, and voila, cute and chic scripture bag for lil’ miss Hallie.

My NEW Website!

I have been working for months now to get my very own website up and running. Now my embroidery designs can be instantly downloaded after purchase. No more waiting for me to email them to customers! Sweet Fancy Moses! (Name that episode of Seinfeld.) I’ll still keep my etsy shop but I hope that eventually my customers will move on over to www.meringuedesigns.net. 
Now I can offer coupon codes to newsletter subscribers and free designs just to say thanks to my awesome customers all around the world. Interestingly enough, I have quite a few customers in Australia, England, and Germany.
Thank goodness I hired a fabulous web designer, my brother in law Trevor. There is no way I would have known what to do. No chance at all. My brains (or lack of them) can only stretch so far.
Happy Stitching!

Kitchen Wisdom

I’ve blogged about this before. But I just can’t turn off the sarcasm.
Here are some new designs for my shop:
 
 
Ok, so this next one isn’t sarcastic, but I like it anyway.

My Kids’ Version of the show “Chopped”

In case you haven’t seen the show “Chopped” on the food network, I’ll give you a quick run down. Three chefs compete for $10,000 by cooking an appetizer, main course, and dessert—only they have to use three secret ingredients for each meal. The kids love watching this show with us.

In fact, the show has made it’s debut in our toy room.

Hallie is the chef, Ilene is the host of the show, and Nathan is the judge:

All I hear is Hallie on the 2nd floor of our house, running around like crazy, trying to prepare her meal in time while Ilene is shouting, “Chef, you have 2 minutes left!”.

More scrambling of little feet is heard.

Ilene shouts again, “5 seconds!, 4, 3, 2, 1…..Times up!”

Then I hear Hallie explaining to Nathan-the-Judge her meal she has prepared for him.

The three secret ingredients she had to use for her main dish?

fish, chocolate, and pretzels.

And for the dessert round?

cauliflower, chips, ketchup

I don’t think we’re ready for prime time just yet.

If there is any doubt that children soak up their surroundings like a sponge, this should put those doubts to rest forever.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I have an addiction to Bombay House here in Provo. It’s food so good you moan when you eat.  Or at least I do.

So when I saw a recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala on the cooksillustrated.com website I knew what we were having for dinner on Sunday night. Oh my—it’s spicy, creamy, sweet, and filled with aromatic spices. (Yes, I know Cooks Illustrated is $30/yr but it’s the best money I spend every year.)

Does it get better than Indian food?

Nathan is slowly learning to cook more than homemade brownies so when he asked Sunday night if he could help, I picked myself up off the florr, and happily turned the reigns over to him. Well, I held the reigns but he did all the grunt work.

He pressed garlic, measured coriander and garam masala, sautéed onions, etc. Ilene peeled the ginger which is the perfect job for children because you peel ginger best with a spoon—no knife to freak this mama out.

Cooking the meal took twice as long as it would had I done it alone, (Paul was napping!) but I guess that isn’t the point. I want my children to know how to cook amazing food when they leave the nest someday.

Two recipes down, 200 to go for my 12 year old son.

To make the Curried Green Beans:

Saute about 1/2 of an onion in 1 tablespoon of butter along with 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander. Add the haricot verts (thin green beans from Costco, not the thick ones!) and 1 tsp. mild curry paste and salt to taste,  and stir fry 5-10 minutes until desired doneness. Fantastic!

Birthday Boy

 

Today is my hubby’s 39th birthday. Yikes, when did we he start getting older? Time flies when you’re having fun, so maybe that’s why the last 15 years have flown by with Paul at my side. He is my best friend and an all-around great guy. All right, enough mushy stuff, like you care. Here are a few juicy tidbits about my main squeeze.

1. When we were first dating Paul gave me a push-up eraser for Valentine’s Day. Yup, an eraser. In his defense, cause heaven knows he needs one, we had some business classes together and I always needed an eraser. Always. Goodness knows why I never had one, so I was always borrowing the eraser off the cute blondie sitting next to me.

2. He also gave me The Little Prince along with the eraser with a sweet inscription, which makes up for #1.

3. On our first date, my 20th birthday,  he took me to see The Most Happiest Fella at BYU while he was also secretly plotting a surprise birthday party for me with my roommates. That was the first birthday party I’d ever had.

4. Paul loves Rocky Road ice cream (I hate nuts in desserts) and he always seems to have a smirk on his face while eating it straight from the carton. The smirk says, “Oh yea, this is all mine and I don’t have to share it at all with my nut-phobic wife.” Devious, I know.

5. Paul is not a talker. He just doesn’t have much to say most of the time. I often know when he is going to speak because he clears this throat. Imagine, going through life not speaking often enough that one has to clear his throat to be physically prepared to utter noise?! I have never had this problem.

6. Despite #5, Paul is not shy. He is just quiet. Yup, there is a difference.

7. Paul is OMDs biggest fan. Yup, the 80s band, as in the scene at the end of Pretty in Pink when Molly Ringwald finally kisses Andrew McCartney. (Two of the most unlikely teen heart throbs in my opinion. And because Andrew McCartney was such a hit in this movie he went on to star in the blockbuster, Mannequin. But I digress.) Paul regularly checks the OMD website. He is such a fan he even has limited edition CDs from them that come in blue suede boxes.

Huh? Yea, got me. 

They matched his blue suede Vans as well. That was a purchase before he married me, the shoes and the CD.

8. Paul is a Lakers fan. You can take the boy out of Southern California, but you can’t take the….well,you get it.

9. Paul was born to be an accountant. As a child he had a paper route and to pass the time he would make up games to go along with his ‘client’s house number.  For instance, Paul’s address was 21742, so mathematically he remembered this by “2 minus 1, plus 7, divided by 4, equals 2”.

Get it all you dummies out there? 2-1-7-4-2. 

Yup, I am frightened, yet laughing at the same time. Can you say Rainman?

10.  Paul has been re-loading the dishwasher for 15 years as well. Ok, we didn’t have a dishwasher when we were first married and living in Grapes of Wrath housing, but for say, 14 years now, he comes up behind me, after I’ve loaded the dishwasher and silently reloads it to its maximum capacity. I think this is truly a waste of time but hey, does a gerbil care if it doesn’t get anywhere as it runs on that stupid wheel? Nope, he’s just happy to keep doing it, day after day, year after year. Paul and the gerbil, I  mean.

So happy birthday to my favorite man. He wanted a lemon cake for his birthday so we’re off to fill our cake holes with pound cake and raspberries too.

Ain’t he lucky to have me too?

Falling Head First into September

I still have no camera.
It’s killing me.
I can’t post any new designs on my etsy shop without a decent camera so I have no motivation to make anything new. Oh please Nikon elves….fix my camera faster and send it back to its happy home into my loving arms! Please? (*anxiously biting nails*) So I’ve just been filling orders like crazy…..sewing away the hours of the day on this machine while listening to books on CD. (Thanks to my sister in law for convincing me that books on CD are sheer awesomeness. I’m a new convert.)

And because I am a multi-tasker,  the below machine embroiders magically away, while I sew on the above machine and while I listen to books on my laptop, while munching smoked almonds. Now that’s a hard days work. 

I am now at phase 2 of motherhood—the Daytime Empty Nest Phase. After having my children in the home nearly constantly for 12 1/2 years straight (those piddly 2 hour breaks for kindergarten don’t count, more trouble than they are worth), I am child free for most of the  week days. Phase Two of motherhood is fantastic. No one yells at me, no one spills strawberry jam on the floor, nor is any one following me around saying, “Why not?” for a good portion of daylight hours.
Oh blessed day!
I shower when I want, eat my breakfast when I want, exercise when I want, shop when I want, work when I want…..even read a book in the middle of the day….just because I can. I have talked to other moms who are also entering Phase 2 of Motherhood and some have admitted to being (gasp) sad.
Huh? Uh, baking powder? (Name that movie.)
I become speechless when I hear such utterances. I have plans….oh I have plans!
And taking up piano lessons again are part of those plans. I can play ok, I used to play well, but these days I just slog my way through most pieces. But Phase 2 of Motherhood is spurring me on to great heights! That and I was released as the YW president in my ward….so time abounds!
Stay tuned.

My Camera is Ill

My great little Nikon D40 has a hot pixel. I think this is one time when ‘hot’ is not a good thing. Notice the red line that appears on all my photos because it’s just so dang ‘hot’.

I’ve been without a camera for a whole week now while the gods at Nikon Camera in El Segundo camera fix it. I got the diagnosis yesterday with a bill for $150 dollars to fix it. Sigh, what choice did I have to pay it? To replace the camera would cost around $500 so decison made. Credit card number handed over to the Nikon gods and hopefully I will get my camera back in another week or so.

I’ve missed out on not taking any pictures this week. It was the first day of school nonetheless.  Very sad indeed to have to draw pictures of what my kids looked like on this special day. More or less, this is what the kids looked like. I am such an artist.

Now do you believe me that I NEED my camera like I need air? Hurry home little Nikon D40, hurry home to mama.

New Banner Photos

My amazingly talented photographer brother Michael Harrington is in town. He drove 600 miles just to take some photos for me. Ok, that’s a lie. He drove 600 miles to come photograph Speedweek at the Bonneville Salt Flats.  And even though he can photograph amazing photos like this….

….he can also dummy things down a bit to photograph my fun little banners for my shop.

So thanks to my brother for using his bazillion dollar lens on his  Canon to capture the color and fun of something so special to me. I love great photography because it says more than words ever could. So I’ll stop speaking now and let these photos do the talking.







Don’t you just wanna buy one of my banners now? Or at least buy the pattern and make your own?

Young Women’s Camp 2010

I just returned from Young  Women’s camp on Saturday. This year was my 5th year in a row attending. (Please, hold your applause.) For those of you not part of the Mormon faith, who have no idea what I am talking about, Young Women’s camp is for the teenage girls in my church ages 12-18.  Our goals are many, but just a few are: helping them increase their testimonies of Jesus Christ as our Savior, teach them skills, bond as only women (young and old) can, and get crazy and silly.  I call it the Mormon Miracle because no matter what obstacles beset us, there always seem to be much learning and growth despite my failings as a leader. 

Now, before I go further, I must say that when I went to YW Camp in the California San  Bernardino mountains as a teenager, it was quite different. We had electricity in our cabins, hot running water, and we ate all together in a giant mess hall where the food magically appeared on large tables, carefully prepared by fairies and gnomes.
.
No dishes were done, no work to be done. Oh, and we had a swimming pool which was crusty, but nonetheless, it was still a pool. Now, the camp we attend in the Utah mountains is rustic and meant for pioneer women who simply didn’t know the difference when faced with a week of no bathing and boiling water to wash dishes. I am such a wimp and I proudly proclaim that camping is for the birds. Well, it’s for the kind of birds who like dirt, bugs, and sleeping on 20” wide cots. Because this bird likes her Blackberry, memory foam mattress pad, and homemade chocolate milkshakes at night. (Good grief, that sounds like a personal ad!)

This year was dubbed Rainy Camp (notice the rain droplets on the pink lantern and on the canopy). And don’t I look happy in my yellow poncho? Last year was ‘Hotter than Hades Camp’, the year before that was ‘Frozen Chosen Camp’, and the previous two were just plain ‘Normal Dusty Camp’. I thought Utah was a desert, but mother nature has a sense of humor, hence the daily rainstorms. On the day we made reflector ovens to bake our pizza and cookies, I had to light my charcoal (no joking) at least 7-10 times because of all the blasted rain.  But oh yes, I prevailed in making fire, even in a deluge. Don’t the girls looks happy cookin’ in the wild?
I tried to stay out of most of the photos, instead preferring to be the Paparazzi. Here I am photographing our pizzas baking. After all, it’s camp, and there ain’t no make up allowed at camp.


All in all it was a fabulous week. Lives were touched and I still believe that there is nothing quite so beautiful as a young woman who keeps the commandments of God. She literally glows and it sure shows in her countenance.
Wouldn’t you agree?





 

Potpourri

This post is basically a mélange of whatever the heck I feel like talking about right now. It’s a quickie of what’s been important to me as of late. I’ve always loved the word potpourri and somehow I always knew what it meant. Probably because I used to make it with my grandmother. She had plenty of rosebushes lining the walkway of her Corona, California home. And being the fabulous lady she was, she and I would make potpourri. We would pick the roses, dry their petals in her dehydrator along with orange peels (Grandpa was a citrus rancher), and then mix in plenty of her perfumes and sometimes cinnamon sticks. We’d spread this mix in her beauiful crystal dishes around the house and waft in the fragrance of it all. I miss my Grandma so much as of late that I just had to share with you the sweet (no pun intended) potpourri-making story.
Switching gears, the teenage girls I work with at my church had no idea what the word potpourri meant. What? We were playing Jeopardy and well, you gotta have a category called potpourri when playing Jeopardy. They, along with the teenage boys, couldn’t even pronounce the word. A whole generation of children who have no idea about rose petal or game show potpourri is. Kind of sad.
Anyway, back to my mad-mix of what I’ve been up to.
It’s been hot. (I love the heat!) Really hot. Duh, it’s July and I live in a desert. The high desert, but still, a high hot desert. As much as I love to bake, I have put a moratorium on all things requiring the oven due to summer, instead opting for chocolate milkshakes each night instead of chocolate cake. Today I couldn’t take it anymore and had to bake some of these Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies.
Stacked and delicious looking, they tasted even better.

Let me add to that: They tasted even better with a glass of milk while reading a book on my new Nook.

And who knew you could ‘borrow’ books from your local library on e-readers? No more going to the library, just download them. The program libraries use for e-books is called Overdrive and chances are your library uses it too. And no more late fees for this absent minded woman. The books simply disappear when your 3 weeks are up. I don’t know how it works….I’ve only had the Nook one week but I presume that little fairies turn it on in the middle of the night and delete the almost overdue books before I can incur late fees. Sweet deal America! (Said with my best Bernie Mac impression.)

So this is how you’ll find me these days after 4pm. Avoiding the hottest afternoon sun. No doing housework after 4pm has always been my motto. By 4pm I can’t take the laundry, sweeping, and cleaning anymore. So I like to read a book. (Unless of course I have avoided all those chores before 4 o’clock, then I reluctantly do them after 4 o’clock.) But nobody said I had to like ‘em.
I hesitate to tell you, my bloggy friends, about the best part about owning an e-reader. I have texture issues. Not issues that require medication (not that there’s anything wrong with that) just well, some issues with rough scratchy things like wooden spoons, cheap paper back books, and the wrapping on Crayola crayons. (I always begged the kids on the first day of school who got the el-cheapo Rose Art crayons in their desks, with smooth wrappers, to trade me for my rough-paper-wrapped Crayolas in my desk. Either that or I would peel off the paper before using the crayons.) Anyway, I often have to put lotion on my hands before I sit down to read a book, particularly if it’s a cheap paper back.  They have the roughest paper in my opinion. Don’t ask why, lotion just changes the  feel of the paper in my hands. Well, those lotion days are gone thanks to my Nook with it’s smooth plastic-y cover.
And don’t I look comfy leaning again my newest pillow? I made it on Monday. It has made my couch happy again. The couch gets bored without a new bright pillow every 2 months or so. It’s just the way it is.

So there you have it. I haven’t been up to a whole-lotta good this summer, have I? That’s the way summers are supposed to be. A potpourri of fun.

Fabric Dyeing

I don’t need any new hobbies. I simply don’t. Time is precious so I am constantly reining myself in. However, dyeing fabric really isn’t a new hobby. I consider it just an extension of sewing. That’s my story and I am sticking to it. I love everything created by this gal. So when she wrote a book, I had to buy it. I have purchased some of her fabric before which can be found in this quilt of mine.
It’s a beautiful book filled with all things colorful pertaining to batik fabric. And if you know me, you know I love color. I crave it the same way I crave chocolate cake and buttery avocados. I see beautiful pictures out there of serenely decorated homes with soft colors in pastels and think how beautiful they are. But it’s not me. I just can’t ever pass up the opportunity to decorate with lots of color. Like I said, I crave it. A friend once told me color is simply a part of my Mexican DNA. Claro que si! 
Batik fabric is gorgeous. And I like simple geometric designs, so I thought, what the hey, why not dye my own fabric? News flash: I am officially hooked. It’s loads of fun and a great way to be creative with fabric before I even sit down at my Bernina.


How cute is this design above? It’s just the cardboard end of a roll of embroidery stabilizer dipped in hot liquid wax and stamped onto some Egyptian cotton.  The fun part is dyeing the fabric. See how vibrant and saturated the colors are in the fabric below? I used all kinds of stamps—carrots, potatoes, and cardboard. I use Procion Dye which can be found all over the web but I bought mine from Dharma Trading.

And here is a bag I made with some delicious new fabrics. It’s totally unique and because I dyed the fabric I know this is a one-of-a kind design. Nobody else in whole wide world has a bag just like this. It’s totally Cynthia.



So thanks to Malka and her fabulous book. I learned everything I needed to know from her perfect directions and dye ‘recipes’. (The only bad part is that this can’t be done in the home—I have to do it in my garage which means once winter comes, this new found love will have to take a 5 month hiatus. Stupid Utah winters.) But for now I am in love.