Felt Playhouse

I've been working on this playhouse for a long time.  I've finally had a little bit of free time while my baby is gone to school.  I've got three sides sewn together but I'm still working on the fourth side.  I'm a little impatient and couldn't wait to see it put together.  I know my little boy will love it when he comes home from school and sees his new felt playhouse.

Thank you homemadebyjill for the inspiration for the felt playhouse.

It's been really hot here the last several days.  The temperature has been 100 degrees plus and add humidity on top of that and it equals miserable.  If you know me anything over 70 degrees is to warm.  I prefer cool days and cold nights.  I think I'm living in the wrong part of the country.

Since it has been so hot I haven't been cooking or baking much and I haven't had time to sew either.  I have a 17 month old monkey, oh, I mean boy.  He gets into and climbs on everything.  He can't be left alone for a split second.  When he is napping I'm usually picking up the house, sweeping, doing loads and loads of laundry or loading the dishwasher and my sewing projects keep stacking up on me.

These photos are some I took in my mom's backyard a few weeks ago.  Enjoy!

Lemon Meringue Pie

This recipe is from "Praise the Cook" by Crisco 1959. 

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup flour

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups water

3 eggs, separated

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

6 tablespoons sugar

Combine sugar, salt, flour and cornstarch in saucepan.  Stir in water.  Cook over moderate heat until mixture becomes thick and clear.  ( Mine gets thick but not clear.)   Add a little of the hot mixture to beaten egg yolks.  Return to hot mixture and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and beat in butter lemon juice and rind.  Pour into baked 9 inch pastry crust.  Cool slightly and top with meringue made by beating egg whites and adding 6 tablespoons sugar until stiff peaks form.  Brown in hot oven 425 degrees for 5-7 minutes.

We don' get to eat this pie.  My husband is taking it to a pie auction tonight.

Gathered Clutch

I love to sew and have totes full of fabric.  The office where I work is only two blocks from a fabric shop that used to carry really cute fabric. (Notice I said used to, they switched owners and the fabric is not as cute as it used to be.) On my lunch breaks I would walk down to the fabric shop and compulsively buy fabric and make plans to sew all sorts of cute things.  Those cute things never got made.  Now I work part time and am a full time mother to a beautiful, happy, cotton top headed little boy.  For some reason it is easier for me to find time to sew.   Here is the latest project I conquered. I found this project on noodleheads.  She has some really cute projects on her blog and I hope I can get some of those projects completed soon. 

http://noodleheads.blogspot.com/2010/04/gathered-clutch-tutorial.html

Backyard Garden

A few pictures from our garden.  We have had two pickings of yellow squash and zucchini.  I cooked the squash, zucchini and some vadalia onions and it was delicious.  I can't wait to get fresh from the garden tomatoes.

Potatoes

Banana Pepper

Yellow Squash

Green Tomatoes

Oatmeal Crisp Cookies

These are definitely one of my favorite cookies.  I'm always on the hunt for a good cookie, but this recipe is one that I love.  I sometimes call it my healthy cookie or good for me cookie, but there is no health or good to it.

Here is the link to the orginal recipe.  http://www.recipezaar.comhttp://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/crispy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies-366649

I alter my recipe a bit, so here we go with my alterations.

Oatmeal Crisp Cookie

1/4 cup butter (I sometime use all butter)  *
1/2 cup crisco  *
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour  *
1/2 cup quick cooking oats  *
1/4 heaping cup ground flaxseed  *
dash of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon  *
3 cups Oatmeal Crisp cereal
1/2  cup raisens  *

* These are changes to the orginal recipe.

Colors Quiet Book

I love making things for my little boy.  It is so rewarding to look at something and know you made it. I hope someday he realizes how special something is when it is homemade. I'm constantly looking at web pages and blogs looking for ideas to make.  I found a semilar quiet book on another blog.  http://everydaycelebrate.blogspot.com/2010/03/tutorial-color-fabric-book.html

The pages I made are shown as follows.