PhotoGrove

Another Walkaway Dress

jen — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:52:03 +0000

This was the first walkaway dress I made, if you recall:

And tonight I finished this walkaway dress:

I’m offering these custom-made in the Etsy shop for a super-low introductory price.

A moment of sweetness

jen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:13:32 +0000

Brought to you by Ellie!

My latest quilt

jen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:04:24 +0000

This quilt was commissioned by a friend of mine from high school who is expecting her second daughter soon. I think its gorgeous! You can see the quilt, the crib skirt, and the crib bumper here:

I know, I know, I put too many ribbon ties on the crib bumper, but she can cut off any extras. Cribs have different width bars, spacing, etc so I wanted her to have plenty of options to get it secure. These really are the most gorgeous fabrics!!

In love with my latest creations…

jen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:27:46 +0000

I finished these two matching quilts today, and I think they turned out beautifully!

They are for sale in our Etsy shop, Birnam Grove – you can click on the pictures to go straight to the listings. I hope whoever buys them loves them as much as I do! I think these are the most cheerful fabrics ever, they made me smile the whole time I was making them.

Good and bad

jen — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:31:06 +0000

The good: Today is another snow day, but after having school for three whole days in a row, I don’t mind so much! So far today I’ve done accounting and paid bills, fixed a lot of foods for the kids (cantaloupe, sandwiches, fried eggs, muffins), put pork ribs with a chipolte-cinnamon rub into the oven to cook for dinner, liberated handles from ugly purses so I can re-purpose them into lovely purses to sell in the Etsy shop, watched the kids take a 1.5 hour bath, and played Wii games with Killian. Next up I’m planning on finishing one quilt and starting another quilt and hopefully making some more progress on the never-ending laundry piles. I was quite burnt out on snowdays, but am making the best of today!

The bad: Erin and I are both looking for full-time jobs, and neither of us has had luck yet. Erin had an interview but didn’t get the job she wanted, and I haven’t even gotten an interview yet. But, I will keep applying and work on trusting that the perfect job is out there for me and I will get it at the right time. (Right?) In the meantime, I love my part-time job and would happily stay there forever if it were full-time with benefits.

Growing up!

jen — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:39:21 +0000

Check us out!

jen — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:31:53 +0000

David and I went to a fundraiser for Ellie’s school – it was great! Here we are in our Mardi Gras party outfits:

The cuteness abounds!!

jen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:27:17 +0000

Killian decided to teach Ellie some ballet last night, after she put on her tutu. It was sooo precious!

However, as cute as that was, it could not even compare to this sweetness:

In other news, I got a haircut this week! Nothing major, just a trim and layers… but my hair feels so smooth and pretty now.

King Cake, two ways

jen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:23:01 +0000

So, the last couple of years I’ve gone all out and done a Mardi Gras dinner each year: red beans and rice and King Cake. The King Cake has been good – and huge! – I’ve used this recipe using my bread machine.

This year, though, I totally forgot it was Mardi Gras! I’d already started baked beans in the crockpot when I remembered, so we had brats and baked beans for dinner. Not very traditional! I decided, though, that we had to have King Cake. There wasn’t time to make a full King Cake, so I improvised a bit – I used Bisquick! I added a few cups of bisquick to a bowl, mixed in a tablespoon or so of nutmeg, an egg yolk, and enough milk to make a stiff dough. I pressed the dough into greased mini-bundt pans (adding a pecan half in each one since I didn’t have any baby figures as would traditionally be placed in King Cake) and baked for about 10 minutes at 4oo degrees. While they were baking I made the icing, but I realized I didn’t have any lemon juice or confectioners sugar… so I made a glaze out of cane sugar and margarita mix, heating the two together in a saucepan until the sugar dissolved. After the cakes were done, I removed them from the pans and drizzled the glaze over them, topping with colored sugar. Ta-da!

Don’t you wish you were my Valentine?

jen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:01:41 +0000

Because I make truffles every Valentines Day!

Ellie helped me make the truffles this year, Killian will help decorate the bags they’ll go into. We make truffles for grandparents and teachers and friends. And then I get to eat the leftovers because the kids don’t especially like them!

This year we made coconut truffles:

And dark chocolate truffles with sea salt:

I know that sounds a little weird, but trust me, its amazing. The combination of bitter, sweet, and salty is phenomenal!

Ellie and I had fun making them tonight – she told me it was her favorite part of the day!