Hooded Baby Towel Tutorial

Yes, those towels with the little frog face are cute, but after the first 6 months, they're about half the size you want.  My oldest daughter is 6 and she's still able to use the same size hooded towels I made for her when she was born.  Sure they might seem a little big for the tiny newborn, but who doesn't like a little extra absorption for those after-bath surprises that newborns throw at us?

It's about as easy as a sewing project can get.

What you'll need:
one full size bath towel
one matching hand towel
matching thread
sewing machine with a needle for heavy fabrics

What you'll do:
1. Pre-wash your towels and dry on medium heat.  This gets the towels clean and the heat drying will help avoid any extra shrinking in the laundry later.

2. Cut the finished edges off of the hand towel on each of the SHORT ENDS, leaving the long edges in tact.

3. Fold the hand towel in half, shorter ends together. Mark the centers of both edges with a water soluable marker or pins. Place one side of the long edge slightly over the other and pin in place.  Starting at the edge (instead of the point), machine baste together toward the point leaving 1-2" free. Top stitch with a zig-zag stitch setting your machine's stitch length short and the width at its widest.  You've just made the back seam of the hood.

4. Turn to inside out with right sides together. Take a tuck across the point of the hood and pin in place, right sides together.  Cut off the point so there is a straight line approx. 5" seam across.  Sew a 1/4" seam allowance and press seam down.  Zig-zag top stitch, encasing the raw edges.

5. On the remaining long edge of the towel (the front edge of the hood), turn under 1 1/2" (wrong sides together).  Pin in place and straight stitch along the edge.

6. Make a double pleat at the raw edge of the bottom of the hood, bringing 1 1/2" toward the center seam from each side. Baste in place.

7. Fold bath towel in half and mark the center.  Lining up the center of the bath towel with the back seam of the hand towel (wrong side of bath towel to right side of hood), pin and baste together as you did for the top seam of the hood (overlapping edges and stitching together).  Lightly press seam toward the hood (so the bath towel lays flat).  Zig-zag top stitch along the seam as before, encasing edges.
NOTE: Unless you're using an industrial sewing machine, be careful when sewing over the pleated section as it could break your needle if you speed over it.

You're done.  If you're an experienced sewer, it'll take you about 30 minutes to an hour.  Feel free to add trims like chenille rickrack or cotton ball fringe to the hood or edges of the towel.

Island Banana Donuts

We never seem to eat the bananas we buy and I end up with a freezer full of them, unexcited to make more banana muffins or bread, but unwilling to just toss them until it's been several months and they start growing ice crystals.

Yesterday we went to our local apple orchard to get our fill of apple donuts and cider. We also brought home our favorite fall treats, Honeycrisp and Chestnut Crab apples. This morning I was wondering if I could recreate the apple donuts we had. I was googling recipes until I saw a half dozen bananas going bad on the counter. I decided to google banana donuts instead and found a recipe that looked easy, save the gourmet ingredients it called for that I'd have to order online and wait another week for delivery. I tweaked it a bit and came up with this recipe that was amazingly yummy:

Island Bliss Banana Donut Holes
2 cups Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix (you could probably use whatever is in the house)
2/3 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 bananas, mashed
1 tsp. vanilla (opt.)
grape seed oil (or vegetable oil)

Pour oil into a pot, at least 2 inches deep and heat the to medium-hot. Mix remaining ingredients together until batter is sticky. Using a small 1 inch ice cream scoop, drop balls of batter into the hot oil. Turning once, deep fry until a deep golden brown.

Check the first few to make sure the batter is cooked through and adjust cooking time. (mine looked very dark before they cooked through completely)

Remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain.  Roll in sugar, if desired.

Note to the nesting: You may want to try this on a cool day while not pregnant or you may find yourself trying to keep your sweat from dripping into the oil.

another free-will review

FROGTAPE is my friend.

I love stripes.  Anyone who has seen my baby rooms knows that I love stripes.  Several years ago I was in a  Home Depot and saw a display for painter's masking tape called FrogTape.  The picture on the front was convincing enough. It showed cleaner paint lines. Even though it was more expensive than the 3M Blue Tape I'd been using for years, I thought I'd give it a try for my daughter's nursery. After pulling off the tape, I was instantly convinced. I'd been through years of using Blue Tape and always had to touch up the stripes I'd painted. FrogTape was a miracle! They were the cleanest lines I'd ever seen. That said, I recommend making sure your walls and trim are clean, free of dust and grease and that after you've painted, pull the tape off right away.  As with Blue Tape, it has a tendency to pull off extra paint if you wait more than a day.

I could talk about it all day long, but the proof is in the pictures.  I painted another room this weekend and after taping all the stripes, I ran out of FrogTape as I was taping off the trim.  I had a roll of Blue Tape in our stash and decided to use that for the rest of the wood trim so I could start painting.

Here's the difference in the same room, taped and painted at the same time:

3M Blue tape with "Edge Lock" technology:

FrogTape with "Paint Lock":

Need I say more?

USE FROGTAPE!!!

Learn more about FrogTape

I've got some trim to go clean up now.

Raggedy Flip Flops

My sister sent me an idea of replacing the rubber tops of flip flops with fabric and knots and I liked the idea a lot, but I didn't know how they would hold up. I started experimenting with my daughters' new stash of $1 flip flops we bought last week. I let the girls pick out the fabric and the flip flops (with a bit of direction from mom). I borrowed the general idea from another source, but this finished product is my own experimentation.

You'll need:
4 long strips of fabric, flip flops, scissors and flip flop glue

 Tie tightly so the short end is toward the toes.

Wrapping the short end inside, wrap around over the top toward the inside all the way around until you get to the center. You may want to glue as you go for extra strength.

Repeat with other side.

Tie knot around the top center.

Tie a bow tightly and trim long ends of fabric.

 Glue knots in place at base and bow.

Just add feet.

Thanks, Julie!

A Very Seussical Birthday

Stages Theater is one of my favorite places. One of the things I love about it, other than the fun and reasonably priced shows they put on for kids, is that they are an educational theater. They use as many children in their shows as they can and the kids get a true experience of hard work with fun, and get to work with some really great adults (like me, of course!)

I was thrilled when my daughter decided she would rather invite a handful of school friends to Stages' summer musical, Seussical instead of a having a big princess party. (It makes for a much more fun cake). It was almost too easy: get tickets, reserve an inexpensive room upstairs from the theater and I was done. I felt a little guilty that I was putting so little work into the party, but that would soon change.

Of course, the invitations needed a Seussical flair, so I went to work with my creative rhyming skills, which are lacking, but I would never admit that to you because I want you to think I'm amazing.

It was a little book:

The next step was figuring out the party favors. I didn't want to send home a bag of junkies that Moms will toss out when the kids aren't watching. I'm a big fan of consumables...crayons, gum, notepads, etc...anything that will eventually go away.  I decided to on something useful and consumable. I found a jpeg of the cat in the hat and designed a little iron on-transfer for some t-shirts I bought at JoAnn.  Then I added a giant lollipop or unicorn pop to thrill the kids. I would like to publicly apologize to the parents for the daily "mom, can I eat my sucker now?" that they will have to deal with.

The boys got gray.

Then on to the cake. I think I may have set the bar too high too early. My girls think I can do anything. Without batting an eye, the birthday girl decided that she wanted Horton, Sour Kangaroo, the Cat in the Hat and Things 1 & 2. Hey, no problem! I have all the time in the world to figure out how to do not just one character, but four. When I balked at it, she said, "Mom, you're really good at cakes. You can do it."

Yep, the bar is too high, and the little smarty pants knew just what to say to get it done. So, here it is.

She had to make sure there was the speck on the clover.

We all had a great time and I got to introduce a few kids to one of the happiest theaters in the Twin Cities.

adopted cupcakes

One of my favorite customers is a social worker in the Twin Cities. I can't imagine how difficult her job is: how gut wrenching it can be at times and how rewarding it can be too. It's a position I respect immensely, but it's also one that I can't imagine myself doing. I get way too emotionally involved in situations, so I think I would have meltdown after meltdown if I were to take on the job. Kate is just the woman for the job and she happens to be incredibly thoughtful and generous, always going the extra mile.

Today, when she came to pick up some cupcakes (root beer float flavored with pinwheels toppers like these) for an adoption party for 2 of her kids, she briefly told me the story of the beautiful children. She told of how much they had gone through in their few years on earth and how great their newly adopted parents are. My heart melted more than a little as she told me there were family members who'd flown in from out of state to celebrate with them. These dear children, who might have otherwise been considered too old to adopt, now not only have parents that love them, but also a huge extended family full of love for them. Not to mention how thrilled the parents have to be to add to their family with these two adorable kids (I saw pictures...they're cute, believe me!).

I know I'm not really a part of the celebration or the process, but today I feel like I do more than just run a bake shop out of my home. When the event is something so lovely, it makes me feel like I'm doing something sort of important. I know it's a stretch to think baking cupcakes is important, but when the sweets are going to celebrate a new start for these children and parents, it has a certain extra reward for me.

I love happy endings and pray for nothing but blessings on this beautiful family! Thank you Kate, for letting me play a tiny part from a distance.

pinwheel girl

I was at a loss when trying to come up with design ideas for my daughter's new big girl bedroom. Since she's getting kicked out of the nursery in a few months, I started shopping and researching. Before she was born, I found some Michael Miller fabric with a bird theme and I fell in love with it. It was aqua and orange but decided to do a green and pink cupcake theme for her baby room with the idea that birds will be her big girl room some day. I went to work searching for it, but to no avail as almost 5 years later, it is out of print. I found another theme that was pretty cute, but I was sure I wouldn't find the fabric at a retail store. So, a disappointed me went off to one of my favorite fabric warehouses here to look for inspiration.

I found a few options, but none of them hit a nerve of inspiration. Since I love Michael Miller fabrics, I started looking there and after much digging and searching, I found the collection I was looking for. I started gathering the coordinating fabrics and then my wonderful mother, who was shopping with me, showed me a pinwheel print that was not in the same collection, but coordinated perfectly. I was suddenly inspired!

Pinwheels.  So cute, so summery, so innocent, so fascinating for a child. It was perfect. I went to work sewing  curtains and textiles, giving my youngest daughter her orange room. (well, more melon than orange, but she loves it as if it were orange.)

Painting was an annoyance. We ended up needed 3 coats and almost 2 full gallons of paint. But I like how it eventually turned out with a cheerful melon color.

Orange and pink bedding backed with light aqua

Orange coordinating bed skirt

Detail on the pillow sham

Pinwheel curtains and ties

Ikea curtain rod cost me less than $15

Of course, she needed a matching laundry bin

And, my personal favorite: pinwheel pictures (made with scraps of fabric, wooden dowels, fiberboard, wood trim and spray paint and, of course, hot glue)

She is pretty proud to be in her big girl room now (almost as proud as I am of it). Better yet, she loves that the vent in her closet is connect to her big sister's room.  They will have many nights of secrets and giggles ahead.