Pioneer Pillowcase Dresses

The girls and I were in a pageant in our stake called the "Kirtland Pageant." It was about Joseph Smith's life up until after the Kirtland Temple was built and they were driven from their homes once again. It was a great experience for the girls and they really enjoyed it. I was having a very hard time trying to find something pioneerish looking at the thrift stores and I was starting to get nervous because dress rehearsal day

was almost upon us. While at Savers one day the light bulb went off in my brain...why not make a pillowcase dress? So I went over to the bedding and found two great pillowcases that I thought looked like it could work. I actually bought both in the set because I didn't know how if I would need to make them longer for the girls or I had also thought of making an apron as well. When I brought them home and started on the project
I realized that these must have been king size because they were extremely long! Anyway, this is what I found. I love that one of them has a ribbon on the bottom so I didn't need to add anything.

So, I grabbed a shirt for each of the girls to measure the arm holes and cut a little bit bigger for the hem.

Super bad pic, sorry! I cut open the seam and cut out the arm holes and then pinned all the way around. I sewed the hems for the arms and for the neck I made a pocket that was large enough for me to pull a ribbon through. Then I pulled my ribbon through and voila! My dresses were done. I had two ribbons on each side to be tied on each shoulder.

Here is what they look like with their aprons on. The people in the Stake had extra aprons so I didn't need to make them any, but I still might do that.

I got so many compliments on them and one lady said they were something she would let her daughter wear all the time. I thrive on those comments because I am NOT GOOD at sewing and doing crafty things. I really enjoyed making these and now I am on the constant look out for a really cute pillowcase to make another dress out of!

Pumpkin Mousse

I came across a Pumpkin Mousse recipe in my Taste of Home magazine and it sounded like a perfect dessert to serve at my Murder Party that I hosted the weekend of Halloween. The first time I made it I added a little too much orange peel and so the orange flavor really over powered the pumpkin. I decided to try and make it again for book club the other night and this time you could taste the pumpkin flavor. I must not be a huge pumpkin fan anymore because I preferred the more orange taste over the more pumpkiny taste. The recipe calls for a pie pumpkin that you clean out and serve the mousse in, but for my Murder Party I thought it would be fun to have individual servings in a mini pumpkin. I think they turned out beautiful!

Pumpkin Mousse (Taste of Home Magazine Fall 2009 pg. 70)

1 medium pie pumpkin

2 T sugar

3/4 tsp cinnamon, divided

1/3 C vanilla or white chips

2 T milk

1 package (3oz) cream cheese, softened

1/3 C confectioners' sugar

1/3 C solid-pack pumpkin

1 tsp grated orange peel

1 C heavy whipping cream, whipped

Cut top off pumpkin; scoop out and discard seeds. In small bowl, combine sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon; sprinkle inside of pumpkin. Replace pumpkin top. Place on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 min. or until crisp-tender. Cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, microwave vanilla chips with milk at 70% power; stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In a bowl, beat cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Beat in the pumpkin, orange peel, reserved chocolate and remaining cinnamon. Fold in whipping cream. Remove pumpkin top. Spoon mousse into pie pumpkin. Refrigerate leftovers.

Magazine Editor's Note: The sugar pumpkin is not fully cooked so that it holds its color and shape. It is used as a serving bowl for the mousse.

Patio/Porch Treatment

Please be patient with me as I learn how to do all this stuff. I write this blog not as a professional, but as a scatter-brained young mother who wants to document that sometimes she had a good idea and sometimes they worked out! Proof for my children that I could accomplish a few of the projects I set out to do!
This first one I am quite proud of. When we first bought this home there was a huge cement pad in the back that to me was wasted space. The people that lived here before us had a hot tub there, but I knew that we would never own one in the future. I have always wanted to build on to the house and turn that into either a family room for the t.v. or a music room/sitting room for me to teach piano. This way I would be away from the main house and could teach in peace and quiet. But I also knew that this would never come to fruition.
One day, while looking at one of my favorite blogs, I stumbled across a tutorial of how a woman painted her patio floor to look like tile. I instantly fell in love and felt that this was the answer to my prayers! The blog is beneathmyheart.com and she has so many wonderful ideas. I encourage you to go there and search for her patio reveal. I found the link off of tipjunkie.com
So, here is my ugly patio space before

and here is sort of the after. While searching for all of my pictures that I had taken I realizes that some of them didn't transfer :(
But it still looks good right? I love how it turned out. I furnished it with a coffee table from my house and a variety of chairs that I purchased at DI and I love this space. I also used painters drop cloths for my curtains just like she did on her blog. I love to sit out there while my children are playing and read a book or just watch them have fun. I love to have social gatherings out there and I'm really happy with how it all turned out.
I liked it so much that I decided to do the same thing to my front porch. However, the color that I had for the backyard did not go well with the red brick in the front. After much deliberation my husband and I decided on a light brown color. Well, I painted it and it didn't look right to me. Here's the solid color before the tape is removed:
So I decided to use a darker brown and use the plastic bag technique. I have never ever used this technique before and it took some getting used to for me. So there are a few spots that make me cringe every time I look at it, but overall it looks pretty good. Here's the texture before and after the tape is removed.


I also painted the posts black like I did in the backyard. I'm not as happy with this as I am the backyard, but it's still a pretty good job for someone like me. I'm not crafty, I hate to paint, and I never come up with my own ideas. But I like to try new things and learn from them for next time. Jsut like taking pictures of my projects in progress for posting later....

Movie Trays

I saw this idea online a while back and totally loved it! We love to watch movies at our house and go to movies. Sunday nights we have a tradition of movie night. We take turns selecting a movie and have a coordinating treat. For example, if we watch Willy Wonka then we would have a chocolate treat. The last movie we watched was The Apple Dumpling Gang and I made apple crisp. Sometimes we just like to make homemade poppies! It's hard at the theaters to make sure that everyone has their popcorn and drinks and candy and keep them from spilling all over the place. So when I saw this idea I knew it was the perfect solution for me and so dang easy!
So, you take a box from your canned goods, you know, the ones you take home from the caselot sales? You can even just ask the grocery stores if you can have some of their empty ones if you want.

Then, if you want, you spraypaint the inside and sides of it white. This just hides the circles from the cans. You could do scrapbook paper or I even thought of using just wrapping paper.

Then you decorate the outside of the box. In the original idea she used scrapbook paper. I DO NOT have the patience or the time to measure and cut strips. This is another time I thought of just using wrapping paper. But, then the idea light turned on and I thought of the decorative duct tape. So I went to Walmart...slim pickins but I found two that worked well for my kids. The width of the tape is so perfect! So, I taped around the edges and folded the excess underneath the box and voila!

I purchased some cute popcorn holders from the Target dollar spot and the dollar store. Now when we have movie night each of the kids have their little movie tray and when we go to the theater we bring our trays. No more putting handfuls of popcorn on napkins and having them spill all over the floor. The kids think they are so cool with these trays! And I am quite proud of them too!

**Link to the original idea. This blog has so many stinkin cute ideas! She's one of my favorites!

www.brownpaper--packages.com/2010/03/movie-night-funconcession-boxes.html

My Corner of the World

Hello Everyone and welcome to Fibbermigee!! I'm not a very creative or crafty person, so when I do actually do something creative or crafty I like to show it off. I'm like a proud mother when it comes to things like that. The times that I actually get to be proud of anything I do is few and far between, but it's an opportunity nonetheless!
I have this idea when I clean my house and it's "one corner at a time. I finish up one corner and move on to the next." I have applied this to my life as well. I try not to overwhelm myself with things and just take it one corner at a time. I have spiritual corners, physical corners, emotional corners, children corners, etc. I wanted to keep all of these ideas separate from my family blog as I like to print those off and put in a scrapbook. I don't want all these pictures of unfinished projects in my family photo album. Thus, this blog was born. This will be my journal about life issues and things going on, proud moments, and finished projects. Then I can choose to print it off later or just keep it floating out in blogosphere! I don't expect people to read this at all but I did want to have a place where I could document things and get it off my mind...and move on to the next corner!