Good for you Pancakes

I am a very routine person. I love to pretty much do the same thing day in and day out. That way I know what to expect. Making breakfast is the same. I make the same thing every morning for my kids. There is a reason behind that one though.

One day when I only had two little kids I made something different for breakfast. I don't remember what it was that I made, I only remember it was not the usual oatmeal. My oldest ate whatever it was I made and then an hour or so later he asked me when I was going to make breakfast. I tried to explain to him that he already had breakfast, but it just did not work. He wanted his oatmeal.

And so since then I rarely make anything besides oatmeal - though I will have you know it is not plain oatmeal, I have a bazillion varieties of it. And because I am nice each child of mine likes it a certain way and so I make it that way.

Now that the kids are a little bit older they tend to want something a little bit more exiting for breakfast more often. I usually do not comply - because it just messes with my groove, and I usually do not have the time to make anything else. However when we had lots of family here two weeks ago my kids were super excited because they have one uncle who whenever he comes to visit will make them whole wheat pancakes. That was the first thing they asked when they heard that he was coming - will he be making pancakes for breakfast.

And he did and they were a big hit - we had to make two batches and there were minimal leftovers that were polished off quite fast. It could be that he makes awesome homemade syrup to go with his pancakes.

Whole wheat Pancakes
2 C flour - whole wheat
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 C sugar
4 eggs
2 C milk
1 cube butter

Melt your butter or have it at room temp. Mix everything together and then cook on a hot griddle or skillet because I do not own a griddle. Cook on one side until almost all the bubbles have popped. Then flip and cook a little bit longer. This is not a science, so like all my recipes, you kind of have to work with it to figure out what works best for you.

Add some butter on top and some awesome syrup and enjoy! However, with all of that on them they are probably not that good for you anymore - but at least they taste good right?!

Look what I found

Okay, so you all know that I have spent tons of time on the internet this week, I just wanted to share a few things that I found while visiting so many different blogs. I love the fact that people are so willing to share their talents with the world! However, it does make me want to make all this cute stuff!

The first thing I found that I thought would be fun to make was this dated design wall art from Andrea Steed. I think this would be a great gift or great to make for yourself. I am trying to be good and have a place to put this before I make one. Mine could get a little bit big seeing as I have 5 kids. But as soon as I find that perfect spot for this lovely . . .

The next thing that I thought was fun was this Ballard design knock off ticket from Dreaming in Color. My family has movie night every Friday night and I think that this would look so cool displayed above where we keep the movies, or by the TV. And I spent a ton of time on her blog because this gal is awesome. She has a lot of great ideas and some serious talent!

 And lastly - well really I could go on for quite a while, but I won't because my house really needs to be cleaned - is these awesome board books. Utah County Mom made these books to help her kids remember who all the relatives are that they do not see all the time! Perfect for my family, since no one lives close to us! This is one that I am going to have to try. I have done it in those little 4 x 6 picture books with the plastic, but they are not super sturdy, and I am just loving this idea! She even tells you where you can buy the plain board books.

I hope that you all have a great weekend, and that you get some great crafting done! I am off to clean the house and then run outside when it warms up a little bit!

Fantastic Friday #14

IT"S FRIDAY!!!!

I have spent a ridiculous amount of time on the internet this week. Thing #5 has been getting over being sick, and just wanted me to hold him . . . all the time!! So I was not able to get much done, but I did find a lot of cool stuff and my list to make is pretty big right now! Please tell me I am not the only one who has a mile long list! :) Today we are supposed to have some warm weather so I am hoping to get some outside stuff done, and maybe a little bit of painting!

Last weeks party was great, there were so many fun creations out there. You guys continually amaze me with your talents. This week I chose to feature Carrie over at Fine & Handy for this awesome makeover with paint. She had this great crown - I just love the fleur-de-lis on it - and it was a little so, so to start with and then she painted, sanded, and had a new beautiful crown container! I just love the way it looks! Carrie is super talented and had a great blog, I have featured her before here, you should go and check her out! 

Grab a button to let everyone know that you have been featured here!

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Now for the real reason you are all here - to share everything Fantastic that you have been working on this week! Share with us your latest and greatest stuff and start linking your FANTASTIC creations up!

Rules:
*become a follower of Iron Violet Designs,I would love to reach 200 followers in the next week, spread the word!!

*link up anything that you have made - sewn, cooked, crafted, etc. family friendly of course.
*must link to a blog post, not your home page, another linky party, etsy shop or giveaway.
*link back to this post so that others can join in on the fun. Grab a button or do a text link either one is fine with me.
*visit a few of the links and leave comments! I enjoy comments because it makes me feel like someone is actually reading what I write! ;)

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Let's get started:

Cards

You may find this hard to believe, but I used to despise crafting and anything related. When I was a teenager I really did not like to do anything crafty at all. Even after I was first married I stayed away from that sort of stuff. But one day when I was at my friends house she was having people over to scrapbook, and told me that I should start scrapbooking. I had 2 kids and I loved to take pictures, it was perfect she said. Well I tried it and thought to myself "hey this is not too bad." And that my friends is where the obsession began. It all started with cute paper, and then it moved to cute fabrics (which unfortunately I am a huge sucker for!) and from there  . . . well I pretty much will try any craft related thing now. And I am totally okay with it - Conan loves it too, because he is an artist and was always telling me that I needed a hobby besides piano - because you cannot practice the piano when little ones are sleeping, it just does not work so well.

Today I have a few cards that I made for my girls birthday and baptism. I used to sell Stampin' Up and so I have way too many stamps and now I do not use them nearly often enough, because I do all my scrapbooking digitally. But I love to make cards, and my kids love to help me - so at least my stuff gets used more!

This first card was for her party. I like clean and simple things - if it is too busy I just don't like it as much. But like just about everything I make I copied this one from a magazine I got. She loved it and I let her help with all the punching. The banner is made from scallop circle punches folded in half.

This next card was for her baptism. (In my church we get baptized at age eight), and this was why we had so much family come into town. I love the stamp of the kids I used for this card. I let her use my watercolor pencils and color the kids.

 Isn't it funny how you can totally change your view of something over time. I am always curious what started people into crafting or if they have always been the crafty type, I would love for you to tell me what got you started into this hobby!

Bridesmaid Dresses

Do you all remember those bridesmaid dresses that I was working on last month? Well, I am finally getting around to posting them on here. I was very happy with the way that they turned out and the girls were also happy with them.

For this particular wedding the bride had her sisters as bridesmaids - which I think is great, I did the same thing years ago when I was married. But she was super nice and told them what her colors were and then let them pick out what kind of dress each girl wanted in one of her colors. I did not do that! But that did make it a little bit hard for me because I got 3 different dresses to sew.

This first one here was for her youngest sister, the nicest, most easy going gal you will ever meet. She was very simple and straightforward about what she wanted - which was awesome! This was a Simplicity pattern - maybe, I cannot remember now, sorry! - but from start to almost finished (just waiting for it to hang before I hemmed it) it took me under 2 hours! She really took this simple dress and made it look great!

This next one I was a little bit worried about. It was a create as you go dress and I have never sewn one of those before. But I had already told them I would do it, so I just figured it out as I went. And it was SO much FUN! I added the straps because she is kind of flat chested and was worried that it would not stay up. You got to love teenagers! lol! This is my picture of it before I took it over to have her see it. But the ruffles/bunches, whatever you want to call them really just complete the look and are super fun. My daughter now wants me to make a party dress for her like this . . . and it is just so cute that I might have to!

My picture of her is not that good but she was really into this guy there, and flirting and all that fun stuff and I did not want to keep bothering her for a good picture. But she loved it, as did all of her sisters - she has 4 like me! They just thought it was to die for.

This story does have a little bit of a sad part to it. I am not all that when it comes to sewing. Sometimes I like to think that I am, but then something like this happens and I realize that I am not. There was another sister was I was sewing for, and we had this great dress in pale yellow with blue netting peeking out from the bottom. It had vertical gathers across the bust and then horizontal gathers at the waist and them the skirt. I am not sure if it was the pattern, the fabric or me, but we could not get it to lay flat at her tummy. Now all these girls are pretty much size next to nothing, and have no tummy. This girl was 19, and thin, thin. But the dress would not lay flat! It kept making her look like she was pregnant and just showing. Then there were also some zipper issues, but we ended up scrapping the whole dress. I felt terrible, because she was the one who came over and helped me cut and pin and everything. She ended up having to go and buy her dress, but she looked super cute like the rest of her sisters.

This family was a little bit last minute about these - I was given the stuff 3 weeks before the wedding, and so I was kind of in a sewing frenzy for a while. I enjoyed it, but now I think that I am going to take a break with clothes and sew some quilts or maybe a bag or two. I hope that you all are having a great day!

Awesome Flower Pillow

I shared this tutorial as a guest post over at My World Made by Hand, and I thought that my readers should also get the great tutorial!

Today I am going to share a sewing project with you. It is for this Fabulous Flower pillow. I made a pink one for my girl and liked it so much that I made this cream one for me!

Supplies:
Pillow
Fabric - yardage depends on the size of your pillow - I used about 1 yd here
Sewing machine and accessories

 The first thing you need to do is take your pillow and in my case trim off that lovely trim. I got my pillow at the thrift store and gave it a good washing. Much cheaper than a pillow form.

 I then measured how big it was across my pillow and then added an extra 1/2 inch and cut a circle out of my fabric. As you can see this circle is not quite a circle, but it will work.

 I then cut the remaining fabric into strips. I used about 5 strips and they were 2 inches wide. You can vary this for a different look. On my pink one I cut the strips 3 inches wide.

 

I then sewed all of the strips together into one big long one. I then folded it in half, so that I did not have a raw edge for the flower. (You could do one like that and make it look a little bit shabby.) After that I took one end and folded it over like in the above picture and sewed it down to make a point.

I started on the outside on my circle, and sewed almost one inch from the edge. I just free handed it with the ruffles, tucking the fabric as I went along. At this point was where I was really wishing I had one of those rufflers that will make the ruffles for me - maybe someday.

When I had made it around the circle once, I continued to sew and kept my edge overlapping right to the middle of the row I had just sewn.

I then continued to sew until I got close to the middle. I then just tacked the fabric down and continued to twist it until it looked good. This part is kind of had to explain - I hope that the pictures make up for it!

 Then I trimmed my fabric to where I thought was good. I made another triangle fold on the end so that I did not have any loose ends, then I tacked it some more - okay maybe a little bit too much, but I am sure that it will hold!

When I was finished with my flower side I sewed it onto the back side with about 1/2 inch seam allowance. The flower you just sewed will be on the inside. I left a 6-8 inch opening making it like a pillow case. Then I flipped it right side out and stuck my pillow inside of its 'case'.

I then stitched the opening closed and done! This one was a little bit more time consuming then my first one, but I wanted it a little bit different. That is the beauty of this pillow, you can change one simple thing and it changes the look!

 Tell me that pillow is not to funnest thing ever! And here is a picture of the pink one on my daughter's bed.

Chicken Supreme

Last weekend when all of my family was here I was cooking for a lot of people, and I have a great recipe that is easy to alter to make more or less. And it is really quite good. I actually use this recipe quite frequently when I am having people over for dinner. And I never have leftovers – which I LOVE!!

I call it Chicken Supreme. And for those of you who have been following me for a while, you know how good I am with recipes, and measuring ingredients so bear with me as I explain how to make this. 

Ingredients:

Boneless/skinless chicken breasts (1 per person)

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 pkg dry Italian salad dressing mix

1 pkg cream cheese

rice – enough for one serving per person

salt and pepper to taste

1-2 onions diced up

mushrooms - optional

I do alter the rice, cream cheese, soups and salad dressing mix based on how many people I am feeding. You can easily double this. When I make this for more than 6-8 people I will double these.

 

You combine the soups, salad dressing mix and cream cheese together until mixed well. Add to crock pot and place rice and chicken on top of it. Cook for a couple of hours until the chicken and rice is cooked. (This varies depending on where you live – the whole altitude thing). I sometimes have to add a little bit of water (especially if I use brown rice). You also can stir it every now and then to make sure that it all gets mixed up well.

When I double this – or in the case this weekend triple – I cooked everything in the crock pot except the rice. I cooked the rice separately. I then used the chicken mixture on top of the rice. And Conan’s family seemed to think that jalapenos were an excellent addition to this meal. And do you love my paper plates that I served everything on this last weekend. No extra dishes – excellent! And we added a little bit of steamed broccoli on the side.

I hope I explained this in a way that you can understand – because you all will love this, and it is super easy. Good luck and if you have any questions please ask!