Ol' JEB

I finished another UFO in my sewing room. I made dolls for my kids about a year and a half ago and didn't get around to making them cloths. Well today I finished one.

I figured I would start with the youngest and work my way up.

I asked Bubby if he wanted a doll?

YES

What kind?

A Boy

Did he want a pirate, cowboy or something else?

COWBOY!

What do cowboys wear?

Yellow shirts, blue pants and hats

He kept running in and out checking on the progress. He really enjoyed the details.

You gotta have a pocket of a hanky.

He couldn't wait for me to finish but insisted on a horse for Ol' JEB to ride. Then he had to show me how it all works.

WooHoo another guilt project finished and one happy boy to boot!

Hot Fudge Sauce Recipe

Oh in Honor or National Ice Cream Month in July, I am adding my hot fudge sauce to the plethora or recipes out there in blogdom.



Last night for our big family gathering I bought buckets of vanilla ice cream and wanted to try the Magic Shell recipe at Skip To My Lou. It looks so lovely and chocolaty BUT last night I needed the Hot Fudge Sauce to do what Hot Fudge sauce can do and I wasn't sure it Magic shell would cut it so I fell back on my old favorite. hee hee So here it is so you can celebrate National Ice Cream Month for your self.

Aunt Lucy's Hot Fudge Sauce

1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 (5 oz can) of evaporated milk (can use whole milk if you have to)
3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Boil the butter, sugar and milk together for about 6 to 8 minutes. Watch it so it doesn't boil over. That is the worst mess ever and a very sad waste.
Remove from heat and add the chocolate chips and stir till smooth.
Enjoy!

If there are any leftovers, store in an air tight container in the fridge.

*** Variation ***

I like to add about 1/4 cup peanut butter to the sauce right before I add the chocolate chips. That is most tasty on vanilla ice cream, let me tell you!!!

Some of my friends and family have asked for this recipe and so I am posting it here. Well you can't post without a picture so I had to dish some up this afternoon so there would be a picture and you don't put your best stoneware bowls your big brother makes for you in the freezer. SO..... I had to take one for the team and eat it. I wanted you to know how much I DO sacrifice for you, my loyal peeps.

Great Grandma's Raisin Loaf

This is the only recipe I have the belonged to my Father's Mother. My Bennion cousins talk about her great cooking but my older siblings didn't. They grew up with my grandma Wood and she was a most excellent cook. So the recipes I have are hers.

I found this little treasure when I was digging through a recipe file my mom was getting rid of. It is written in my mother's hand writing and she said she must have copied it when she first was married.

Raisin Loaf

Boil for 15 minutes:

1 1/4 pkg of raisins (I think a package was a pound)

2 cups sugar

3 1/2 Cup water

Add 1 Cup Shortening (I used butter or lard) while mixture is still hot.

When cool add:

3 eggs well beaten.

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 heaping sieve flour (you gotta love measurements like that - it is 5+ cups) (you can use white or wheat flour)

Bake 1 1/2 hours in a moderate oven 325 deg in loaf tins.

ENJOY!

This loaf is very yummy (If you like cooked raisins). Even my husband, who hates quick breads like banana bread and zucchini bread, loved this bread.

Sour Cream Lemon Pie

One of Bryan's favorite pies is Lemon Pie. (I never noticed before that I treat pie names like proper names. Aren't they?) Well I can't eat much Lemon pie because it has so much sugar in it, it makes me sick. It tastes great but is overwhelming, and I am not a fan of meringue. When I was little my brother worked for Marie Calender's and would bring home leftover pies all the time. I discovered that meringue was NOT whipped cream and that it was made from eggs and that grossed me out. I haven't liked it since.
This pie recipe is one that I picked up while living with my brother Joe and his wife Lee. It is a favorite of mine now. It is sweet and sour, lemony and creamy. It is just heaven on a plate I'm telling you!

Sour Cream Lemon Pie

1 Cup sugar

3 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp grated lemon rind

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

3 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

1 Cup Sour Cream

1 9" baked pie shell (you can use regular pie crust or I bet it would be great with a graham cracker crust)

1 Cup Whipping cream

Combine, sugar, cornstarch, lemon rind, lemon juice, egg yolks, and milk in a heavy saucepan or double boiler. Cook over medium heat until thick. Stir in butter and cool mixture to room temp. Stir in the sour cream and pour into prepared pie shell. Cover with whipped cream and garnish with lemon twists. Store in the refrigerator.

ENJOY!

Sorry there isn't a better picture. I snapped that quick before dinner the other day and there wasn't a scrap left to take pictures of when dinner was done.

Sewing Room Makeover

I know it has been a few months since I promised to post monthly updates to my sewing room. Well..... I had some crazy busy sewing projects going on in there with birthdays, pattern design, ren fest sewing and quilt guild.

This past week my husband "decided" to help me with the sewing room.
You have already seen the before picture......

We have been redoing our side of the house (my mom lives on the other side in a gorgeous new home.) However, our budget died in January when my husband lost his job and we went for months trying to squeeze by on our savings until he got a job again. We we are almost in job land, (the postal service isn't the fastest at finalizing jobs). But our house still needs the changes and so we have had to rethink what we wanted to do. IE... the floors we have gone from considering hardwood to tile, to carpet to just painting the concrete and living the simple life. :o)
I grew up with the simple life and I am happy to have that in my blood and we are going back to it with our children. Life isn't all about getting gain and living in a magazine styled home. If you think about it your best memories aren't about money or possessions or furnishings, they are about family, love, and time spent enjoying simple things.
So I looked at my sewing room and thought about what I could do for less than $100 to improve the place. The flooring had to go. I had shag carpet put in there and the room used to be my children's bedroom. Well with 12 years of kids crawling, puking, dribbling food and who knows what else on it it was a little skanked out! Also the surface of the carpet had become like Velcro with all the years of washing and vacuuming. That does not make the best flooring for a sewing room. All the treads and scraps stuck to the carpet, NASTY! It was a vacuuming nightmare.

See what I mean?!? SKANKED!
So we decided to rip out the carpet and paint the concrete underneath. I had a painted floor in my room growing up and actually loved my simple country room.
So here is what we did.


Monday we emptied the room.




This is when we made a lovely discovery. Due to a very weathered backdoor we had water damage in the interior wall and now have Black mold damage in that room. We had to get that all cleaned up and sealed. Lucky for us it was a very tiny bit of damage.



Tuesday - Saturday I spent painting. The colors I picked were aqua, warm white and red. So with about $65 worth of paint, the room got a sweet makeover.


I am loving the closet. I want to put some of my selves in there (I know "Happy thought, selves in the closet". If you don't get that reference then you need to watch more Jane Austen.)

I was worried about the floor color. It is very bold but I love it. Red is my favorite color after all.


Interesting discovery, due to the placement of the closet, this room has marvelous acoustics and is really fun to sing in. My husband even noticed it. I used to sing all the time and haven't for a long time. He caught me singing in there as I painted and commented that it reminded him of when he met me 17 years ago. I worked in the deli/bakery of the grocery store he worked at and at night when I was cleaning the place up I used to sing all the time to make the work go faster for myself. He kinda liked hearing my voice across the store. He wanted to know who the new girl was that had the laugh that would float across the store to the meat shop where he worked. (We just celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary this week so those memories are kinda on the surface right now.) I wasn't like the other girls he had met. I guess he liked that. hee hee

All I have left to do now is put in the baseboard trim which I need to learn how to cut and my Friend Jill's husband is helping me trim out the window with a wide sill. I can't wait. It will be lovely and white.
It is amazing how exciting a new coat of paint make the simplest things.
Tomorrow I get to start the arduous task of sorting through the stuff that was in there and putting back what I want to keep.
I am teaching my oldest children how to weave some rugs and will let them use up the fabric I don't want to see come back into the room.

Oh I do need to put curtains up. Any Ideas?? I want something very vintage. It needs to keep the light out of my eyes. That room gets a lot of morning sun and I can only sew early in the morning before the kids get up or late at night after they go to bed.
I want the light to fill the room but not hit me right in the eyes.
And the rule is CHEAP FIX. I want something that isn't going to be really expensive. I don't ask for much do I? :o)

Muskogee Ren Fair Fun - Picture Heavy

We finally got to go to a Renaissance Fair. Muskogee Oklahoma is only 2 1/2 hours away from us so we were able to make that festival. It was worth the ride in the car with five kids and the fee to get in. We were able to go on Memorial day because we only get National holidays off. Lucky for us it was a Monday too. We had so much fun and decided that this would be our Memorial Day gig for a while.

Here are the obligatory Family photos.

Sorry you say cheese and these boys start hamming it up!

Sting gave him courage!

They had a children's land where it was totally kid oriented. They kids loved it!

They had a pony ride that the girls and bubby just loved.

Just look at that face. He was in little boy heaven. I wish I could have heard what he was thinking. His eyes were so big all day with all the knights, pirates, and real armor everywhere.

The archery booth was a big hit too.

Man I wish my corset fit like that! She also had pretty good aim. I was impressed.

The bow string was so tight he couldn't pull it back so bubby decided to just chuck his arrow over the barrier at the target.

There were three times Joe lost his cool guy face; at the archery booth, at the armor shop, and at the knife shop. It was so funny watching him battling being 13 and being in such a groovy place.

Isn't that a total Lucy Pevensie face?!? She was dangerous though because she would get distracted by us and turn to look and accidental let arrows fly in our direction. SCARY!

Bubby picked these up right after we got there. Everywhere we went he had to have them in his hands and would hold them up every time we passed a knight just to show he was one of them. It was so fun to watch his face. One of the shop owners just about died laughing watching him eye a knight's sword. His eyes were so big and his mouth was wide open. He had only seen things like this in movies. He was so thrilled to find out they were "REAL". Oh to be three again!

The place was covered with beautiful ladies!

Even their dad got in on the fun. He actually enjoyed the "Nerd" Fest. Hmmmm.... Somehow going to Ren Fest wasn't as dump as someone had once thought. hee hee hee

I had a lot of fun too but lucky for us all I was behind the camera. It was bad enough that we saw pound of giggly flesh there that day. Mine was not necessary to see. :o)

I do have to give a plug for the best corset shop ever. Our friends Michelle and Jill were there all month with the Damsel in this Dress corset shop. Check them out. Their stuff is fabulous.

Pirate Pants Tutorial (a.k.a. bandana Pants)

Here is a quick and dirty tutorial for making summer pants for your kids. Once you have be basic concept you can make these for just about anyone and just about any size. I will give some info on that at the end of the Tute.

My kids love these pants and wear them all summer. I have found that they fit about a large 3T to about a size 10 or so. My 11 (almost 12) year old can still wear hers but she is super skinny.

Materials

2 large bandanas (smaller ones would make pants for a toddler)
Thread.


Construction

1. Place two bandanas right sides together.

2. Fold them in half and just out a J shaped piece from one outside corner. The J size I use for most children is about 3" by 9". I came up with that number by measuring their crotch from the top of their bum to their belly button and then dividing that number in half and added a couple of inches. I placed the measuring tape on the fabric in a J shape and evened it up and decided that was my J shape. (sorry not very scientific but it works for me).

I had a little pirate waiting for the pants. Tutorials take oh so long when you are 6 and are waiting for some hot new pants to run around in.

3. Take each leg piece now and fold it in half with right sides together and sew up the inside seams. Since the bandanas are already hemmed you just need to make sure you keep that edge even.

4. Turn one leg right side out and slip it "inside" the other leg. Stitch the crotch seam.



5. Turn down the waist about 1 1/2" and press. Sew a casing 1" from the outside edge. Leave an opening to run the elastic in. Sew another casing 1/2" from top edge leaving a hole for the elastic in the same place as the first. Run two pieces of elastic through and secure them and finish off the seam. (measure around the waist and cut the elastic to fit. You can "test the elastic first around them and see how snug you want it.)



You are done!!! One Happy Pirate. These shorts will fit from mid calf to the knee depending on how tall your child is. They are long pants for my 3 year old and shorts for my 11 year old.

You can also make these pants with just fabric if you don't have bandannas. Two fat quarters make pants for a little kid. You can also make these for larger people by using yardage. You want to measure around the widest part and divide that by 2 and add four or five inches. That is how wide each piece of fabric needs to be to go around the waist, hips and legs of a larger person.
Play with the measurements and see what you come up with. You will need to finish the top edge of the pants with a zig-zag or serger and will have to help the pants.

Have fun and please post your pictures in the " Sewing with Mama Byrd Tutorials" flickr group.

Neapolitan Skirt PDF Ready

It's Done!!! Can you tell I am excited?!

The PDF file pattern is finished and ready for sale at my Etsy Shop.

My Byrd Nest

I have also finished up some skirts that are for sale at the shop right now.

Let's Bake a Sunshine Cake

We have had an exceptionally wet spring this year here in MO.



We had almost 3 weeks of rainy weather and very little sunshine. So last week we decided to bake a Sunshine cake to encourage the sun to come out so we can work outside in the garden.
I occasionally go over to Aunt Ruthie's Sugar Pie Farmhouse. I enjoy her music play list. It features songs I heard on old movies growing up or songs my dad used to sing, play or listen to. One of the songs she plays is Sunshine Cake featuring Frank Sinatra with Paula Kelly. Well the words have been stuck in my head and I had to find out if there was a "Sunshine Cake" recipe. Well there is, or I should say are. I found hundreds from vintage cookbooks to Food Network.
A traditional Sunshine cake seems to be type of sponge cake. They all seem to involve Oranges and or lemons. So I searched around and came up with a version we wanted to try and here it is.


Mama Byrd's Sunshine Cake Recipe

6 eggs (farm fresh of course), room temperature
1/2 cup cold water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 Tbsp orange juice
2 Tbsp orange zest
2 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 C cake flour, sifted **
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Pre-heat oven to 325* F.
Separate eggs, putting whites in a large mixing bowl and yolks in another large mixing bowl. Beat egg yolks until light and foamy. Slowly add the water. Gradually beat in the sugar, vanilla, lemon and orange juice and zests. Beat until pale and thick in texture (about 7 minutes). Sift flour again with the salt and baking powder. Return to sifter and fold the flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture, sifting in a little at a time.
Beat egg whites until foamy. Add a pinch of salt and the cream of tartar. Beat until they form glossy peaks.
Pour the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream over the entire surface of the egg whites, gently cutting and folding with a rubber spatula. Make sure you have them completely folded in.
Pour into a 10" round tube pan with a removable bottom (angel food cake pan). Be sure to remove air pockets.
Bake for 1 hour.
Invert on a rack and let cool in the pan for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove from pan and Ice.

This cake doesn't need much dressing but here is what we put on ours.

Orange Icing

Powdered sugar
orange juice
orange zest

Sorry I didn't measure this, I never do. I took about 2 cups of powdered sugar, poured a couple of Tbsp. of orange juice in and some finely chopped zest and stirred adding juice if needed until I hand a runny Icing. I drizzled that over the cake .



Enjoy!

** I don't have cake flour, never have and most likely never will. :o) However I do know how to make a good substitute. I mixed 1 1/3 C all purpose flour with 1/4 cup corn starch. It worked just fine.
I also discovered that my baking powder was missing that morning so I made a substitute with 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp corn starch. It works great too.

The morning after baking the cake my great nieces Gwenny and Renata and Julia came to spend the day. Jeddie has big sisters so he knows that when girls get together they have tea parties. He saw the cake in the kitchen and pointed to it and said that the girls needed a tea party. He helped me set it up and called them in for herbal tea, cucumber sandwiches, Sunshine cake and fresh fruit. I think they had some fun. They all helped fix up a plate to trot over to grandma's house next door.

Neapolitan Skirt

Thanks to a bug my friend Michelle put in my head a few days ago, I came up with a nifty thrifty, easy peasy skirt pattern to make multi sized, double sided skirts for my girls. The pattern makes skirts from size 6 mos to girls size 14 or larger if you wanted.

Here are the first three I made.


Side 1


Side 2

I am working up the instructions this weekend with illustrations and am seeking out some handy dandy pattern testers to see if someone else can follow my instructions.
It really is so simple to make, just 3 or 4 steps and you have a lovey, sturdy, double sided skirt with no hem. I really hate sewing hems and gathering.

I would love to hear what you think! Please leave a comment.


*** Edited*****
The Neapolitan Skirt Pattern is for sale in my Etsy Shops Here and Here.