My Lady Byrd

This is Lauren. She's super creative, super friendly, and beautiful. Not only is she an Army wife, but she's actually served in the military herself, and is a US veteran. Yep, she's amazing.

Lauren was my first friend I met here. Her husband is in the same training that my husband is doing here at Fort Benning. We met at a wives meeting before the opening dinner for the training. Josten and I were still living in a hotel, and they invited us over for dinner the next night. A home-cooked meal is exactly what I needed at that time.

Also, in an indirect way, she and her husband were responsible for us being able to finally find a house that we could move into. They gave us the references and numbers we needed to find the avenue that would actually get us into something quick, when everything else was failing.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, Lauren is super creative. She is an expert seamstress and has made a bunch of really cute things. Among the things she creates are these beautiful purses. She has recently decided to open an etsy shop called "My Lady Byrd" and sell her beautiful creatioins.

So I just wanted to direct your attention to the button below (that I have also added to my side bar) for her shop. Take a look around, admire her work, and pick something nice up for yourself, if you feel so inclined!

Got Eggs?

Easter has yet again come and gone, and as expected, we have come upon a bounty of hard-boiled eggs. It seems that the hard-boiled egg is to Easter as Turkey is to Thanksgiving. Both are completely necessary in fulfilling long-lived traditions in each (though of course you can certainly celebrate Thanksgiving by just being grateful and Easter by remembering our Savior's sacrifice, I'm just saying that in most homes, this is a standing tradition for each), and both leave you with an excess of one type of food that you have no idea how to use up afterwards.

Now, of course, you can always just eat your hard-boiled eggs as is, but who really likes to do that over and over??? Then of course, there's egg salad sandwiches, (my favorite!!!) potato salads, or using eggs slicers to garnish any other salad. But what about after that? I mean, chances are, you've got like 24 hard-boiled eggs...

Well, that is where the incredible, edible deviled egg comes in! Oh my, I do love deviled eggs. In fact, I love them so much, that I love to get creative with them. You will find them at any party I put on, because to me, they're as wonderful and versatile as a cupcake. So many ways to decorate, and to tie into a theme, but SO much more satisfying! (I realize this is debatable, I could seriously hear the entire state of Utah gasp when I wrote this...but just put your "Sarah" cap on right now and wander with me through the wonderful world of possibilities for deviled eggs.)

Of course just a normal deviled egg is amazingly delicious, but there are so many things you can do with them to make them adjust to anything you are doing. You can use them for parties, for lessons, for snack time after teaching your kids a new song or reading a new story... the possibilities are endless! Below, I have a few examples of fun things you can do with deviled eggs, and chances are...you've got some hard-boiled eggs to practice with!

This was from Breck's Dr. Suess Birthday last year...Green Eggs and ham. The yokes are dyed green, and fed through a frosting tip. These can be for a party, but also for a Dr. Suess reading time with your kids.

Not many people realize you can actually dye the whites of your hard boiled eggs as well. If you use a strong food coloring (I like Wilton's) diluted in water, you can dump the egg whites in, and put them in the fridge overnight and have beautiful colors the next day! These were for Sienna's 2nd birthday party which was a watermelon theme. Once again, you could use these after a lesson about fruits (Ha ha, then give them eggs!), or just a fun summery treat. These have coarsely ground black pepper on top to resemble seeds, and the middle is dyed pink.

This one is a recreation of deviled eggs I did for Breck's 2nd birthday party. It was a bee theme, so I made deviled bees. I use mayonnaise as a sort of frosting for deviled eggs when necessary. I just dye it whatever color I need.

Devil's Eyes...blood shot of course.

Need a treat for a football game? Look no further. White and yoke dyed brown, non-dyed mayo for lines.

(Sorry, no Picture :( )

Basket: Use after reading "Little Red Riding Hood". I used paper for the handle, I couldn't really think of anything edible to stick in there.

Deviled egg boats. Use Single's slices of cheese, and cut an X all the way through.

Then cut  + after that. These will make your sails. You will get 8 sails from one slice.

Put onto a toothpick, and stick into the deviled egg.

I hope this has given you a few ideas for finding fun ways to use up your hard-boiled bounty. If nothing else, your kids will enjoy the fun things you come up with, and hopefully you'll have some too!

New Maternity Clothes, Please! Stretch Pants

"Sometimes, when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...it's for fun."

I was able to get this project finished before the big move, which has been nice because I've been able to enjoy these bad boys most of my pregnancy.

This was a pretty easy alteration, and pretty straight forward. Truth is, I miss stretchy pants from the 80's, and had been wanting to get my hands on some for awhile. Then, while spending countless hours on my miserable back during the first + trimester of pregnancy, the thought occured to me... why not alter some black stretchy workpants from my first pregnancy??? Though my pregnant brain was fried with hormones and I forgot to take pictures before and during the process, I have conveniently illustrated as best I can the process for alteration. This process would work for altering flare jeans into skinny jeans as well, but make sure you use heavy duty needles and thread!

Here is a representation of what the pants looked like before: just your standard black, stretchy maternity workpants. Convenient, but plain.

The first thing you want to do is to turn them inside out and put them on. Decide how tight or loose you want them.

After you have a feel for where you want parts taken in, pin the pants in a vertical pattern so it creates an outline of where you want to sew. Remember, you should still have your pants on.

Take your pants off carefully, I think I got stuck a few times in this process, but I did rush it. If you're not home alone, it might be a good idea to replace them with another pair of pants.

Sew along the pin line, removing pins as you go, so you can sew in the exact area of the pins. Reinforce your hem to your preferrence.

Do this for both sides, and cut the excess fabric off as close to the reinforced seam as close as you are comfortable with.

Turn pants back right-side out, and you've got yourself some genuine 80's stretchy pants to comfort your growing body (or regular body) during pregnancy!

This isn't supposed to be a belly shot, but sometimes I like to emphasize that it is actually a baby there, and that I'm not just a super-sized Sarah in a mu-mu.

And isn't it kind of nice to focus on something on your body that isn't quadrupling in size?? Well, I guess at least from the knees down...

Artsy Craftsy Desginy Vocab

This post is just for fun. There are so many new words to become acquainted with when entering into the world of creating. Especially if you start getting into it while entering the world of blogging and only see these words typed out. Pronunciation is lost, and anyone who knows me, knows that I'm huge on correct pronunciation and that a mispronunciation on my part is as embarrassing to me as involuntarily passing gas in public. So I've decided to compile a list of words in the creating world that at least at one time or another I myself have questioned the pronunciation of, so that you all can learn from my mistakes!

Sepia- (SEE-pee-uh) - the old fashioned looking brown tint to photos. Instead of black and white, it looks brown and white. This has got to be a word that is pronounced every single possible way that could be considered logical (and even some not so logical!).

This is our Christmas 2008 family photo with a sepia finish

Chic- (sheek) Cute, fashionable, high class/fashion. I was really into the Style Network (rest in peace) in high school, and seriously thought that whenever they said chic, that it was spelled like I have it written out for the pronunciation. It wasn't until I was a senior in high school that I finally figured it all out.

Height- (hite) Okay, I threw this one in there because when sewing you use a lot of measurements using height, width, etc. But I have noticed that this word is commonly mispronounced (should I have been an English teacher??). I often hear "heigth", which is incorrect. An easy way to remember is that it is pronounced with the same ending as weight. So next time you're tempted to say Heigth and Width, just think Height and Weight instead.

Damask- (DAM-usk) Type of scrolly pattern as shown below. I totally thought for the longest time this was pronounced da-MASK, until I watched the "Muppet Christmas Carol" where Scrooge talks about his DAM-usk bed curtains. I thought that maybe it was an old English way of pronouncing it, until I finally looked it up. To my surprise Scrooge's way is how it should be pronounced in modern American English as well!

Toile- (twahl) A type of French canvas, these days usually referring to the type of old fashioned scenic print on the canvas as pictured below. I'll be honest, I didn't know how this was pronounced until I wrote this post.

Applique'- (APP-lick-kay) A peice of fabric, usually in the shape of something sewn onto the top of another peice of fabric. I always thought this was how it was pronounced, but didn't look it up until more recent years.

Burp cloths with appliqued polka dots and argyle

Fondant- (FAWN-dunt) Clay-like frosting applied to cakes and cupcakes.

A cake with Fondant frosting

Brocade- (broh-KADE) A raised textured, elaborate fabric. Similar print to damask, but this is more referring to the texture than the design, though the design is usually something fancy like damask. My favorite type of fabric.

The tablecloth pictured is a brocade fabric

Shawnte's Baby Gift #3

And finally, here is the last of the gifts that I made for Shawnte's new baby girl...like 3 months ago now. Man, what is wrong with me???

This is was what took up most of my time with the gift. It was a dress I decided to make for baby Demi. I remember not having very many dresses that would fit Sienna when she was first born, so I wanted to make a dress she could wear to church in her early months.

I didn't use a pattern for this, but used Sienna's baby blessing dress as a guide for size and shape.

It took awhile, and I definitely ran into some bumps, but in the end it turned out alright, and Shawnte' loved it, so that's what matters, right?

*On a funny little side note, when Shawnte' pulled this gift out, and found out that I made it, she exclaimed, "I seriously thought you bought this from a store!" Though no presents were being passed around, she insited on passing it around, and when it got to someone that was there that I've known for awhile, this person was overheard to say, "Umm, you can totally tell it's homemade." Duh! That's because it IS! That's the point! I just laugh about it. Goofball.

Shawnte's Baby Gift #2

The next portion of my gift to Shawnte' was a set of bows I made for her little girl. Special thanks to my friend Alyssa for guiding me through the first one! There was a set of mini clippies, and 3 big bows for a headband, hat, or ponytail.