In one of my other posts, I'll give a tiny bit more information about some American Girl doll accessories that Haley sent up for the twins, but for now, the important thing to know is that I picked a dress for Molly and a dress for Blaire and embroidered outlines of 'their' favorite characters on them for Christmas.
Using printer paper, I just pin it on, then 'trace' the lines in a dotted pattern, and after removing the paper, go between the dots for a more solid look.
I was worried about Areil's face looking weird, so she just has hair, but I think it looks close enough. = )
The material on the Hello Kitty dress was a knit, and it was awful to work with! I'm glad I did Ariel first, because I might have scrapped the project. Hello kitty is easily recognizable, thankfully, and I don't think their dolls will mind too much. = )
Speaking of clothing, Grace sewed her own skirt (with a zipper) using some fabric I got off of marketplace (thought it was from Natalie, but not earmarked for me necessarily.)
Last week, on a cool September day, Kristy had me over, and we stumbled our way through making cookies in her off-the-grid oven! It can be heated using catering candles or stick and leaves! We were using it inside, so we chose the former.
It was only supposed to take 25-30 minutes, so we started slowly closing the vents, and finally, after about an hour, it was finally ready to cook.
Well, the instructions say to put out the closer of the two heating elements, but it was not working. Each time we got it out, the other one would reignite it. Finally, we took out the canister all together.
Sadly, between having the drawer open to get out the canister, and opening the door to drop the temperature down from 400F, it stabilized at 200F, so that's how we cooked the cookies!
They took a looooooooooong time to cook, but were really tasty when finished!
She also put together a loaf of bread, using her bread maker, though I had to leave before it finished.
I made a banana nut loaf using some of the zucchini flour that I made from the squash that she'd given me. We had to sub in baking powder, since she had just used her baking soda on a different project, but it turned out okay, despite the sub.
I also tried to make a loaf, but made the rookie mistake of proofing my yeast in a metal bowl. = ( The loaf didn't cook through, but was definitely done on the outside! The bit we sampled wasn't bad, but the rest of it went to the chickens.
And, because I didn't get enough baking it, I came home and finished my projects for the day, then whipped up an apple pie from some aging apples that we had.
Alice got to it before I got a picture, but she and Billy are my pie people and both approved.
Emily is really into Steven Universe right now, and as such added merch to her Wishlist. I found a red tank top and some iron on vinyl at the rummage sale on Friday, so I made her a shirt. I didn't save it for Christmas, because it's a women's medium, which would be big on her, so we will have to alter it in some way for her to be able to use it.
After presenting it to her, she told me she would rather be a low key fan and just wear the shirt that he wears in the show. So I'm on the lookout for a red shirt, if you happen to have one lying around?
One night, Billy saw a video and was in the mood to make bread! The recipe required lots of sitting time, to the point that Billy didn't want to stay up late to cook it, so we stuck it in the refrigerator overnight.
I got out the bowl to bring it to room temperature, and later in the morning, he formed them into small little loaves!
The rolls came out crispy on the outside, and light and fluffy on the inside!
His instructions did not tell him to pretreat the pan, so he ignored my advice. Hindsight is 20-20.
The last crafty thing is far less fun. When Billy and I got married, my sister and grandmother bought us a set of Navy and White bath towels from Kohl's. They were good, fluffy towels that we enjoyed, and they looked so good in our bathroom! A few years after Alice was born (so maybe when Emily or William was a baby?) I read an article about how to keep your house, and one of the suggestions was to only use white towels, because they can be bleached! Well, that was the only tip in the article that I took to heart, but I said goodbye to our navy towels (which had a few pink bleach splashes on them by this time) and bought white ones, of the same brand to replace them.
Well, those towels lasted us all the way until our Michigan move, and then in the past few years, they started to fail. So, I bought replacements, but they are awful. Within 6 months, of normal wear, they develop holes and tears!
I know that I need to switch brands, but it's hard to change after all this time, not to mention expensive. So, I've been delaying. Well, the last time I ran a load of whites towels, 4 of our 8 towels had holes. With Billy's layoff, buying new ones is out of the question, so I cut up some towel rags in an attempt to repair them.
It was a two-sided repair, so each side needed a swatch of rag.
Honestly, the repair is not glaringly obvious when holding up the towel in person (I had trouble finding the repair when showing off my handiwork to my mom) but one of them did unravel on the edge after washing it. I'll keep an eye on it, but may end up having to quilt it to keep the patch in place. It was nice to know that the hole shouldn't be growing larger at least!
later days
