Date Night

     Okay so the hubby and I had date night last friday night ((no kids)) this is the first time out without the kids in 14 months, YES I said 14 months. Everytime I think about that I really realize how much I deserve a cookie at least for keeping my sanity LOL! I love my children but come on 14 months thats just not healthy for anyone! Anyway my point...it was much needed so now with that little break I should be completely revitalized and able to get things going haha. Normally right now we would be on our family vacation (reunioin) I have gone every year since I was 15 (that would 20 years this year), 18 years with my husband, we just had to much going on this year to go but we are really missing it! On a lighter note we are taking a trip to Destin in August for the weekend so I'm excited about that!! The next 2 months are going to be full, My 5 year old is starting school (first grade) so I have to get her registered and both my girls birthdays are in Augurst too! FUN FUN 
      I was trying to find something I could cook for the kids while the hubby and I were gone Friday night (my mom was watching them) I didn't want her to have to cook too so I found an interesting recipe on Pinterest.  I love Pinterest and anyone who has been on there recently you have probably seen this recipe already...I found this one interesting because I have 3 kids who don't agree on much especially when it comes to food so I didn't want to be out Friday night worrying about whether or not they ate sooooo They had TACO BAKE (not thehealthiest meal but better than just plain junk food so if you have picky eaters like I do they may like this.)

    My youngest loves anything that resembles spaghetti, my middle child loves lasagna and my other one...well she likes any kind of chips (she would have them everyday if allowed) so when I saw this I new it was worth giving it a try!

    It is a casserole topped with Doritos which just thrilled my kids because we don't get junk food often here so when its served for dinner you better belive they were all game!


The ingredients:
1 lb hamburger meat
1 pack of taco seasoning
1 can of cresent rolls
1 can of tomatoe sauce
8oz. of sour cream
1 cup of shredded cheese
Doritos

1. Cook hamberger meat and drain

2. Add taco seasoning, tomato sauce (to the meat), Simmer...




3. In a 13x9 baking dish roll out the cresent rolls

4. Layer hamburger mixture, sour cream and then cheese.



5. Crush about 3/4 of a bag of Doritos and put them on top. You can see the picture above I put them in a large ziploc bag to crush because I didnt want any large pieces because of my little ones.

Bake at 350 for 30 min.





     It actually looks pretty good, and I was told that the kids loved it so YAY! If you like these ingredients its definetly worth the try, its easy & quick! And a nice treat for your kids and Momma serving Doritos for supper is unbeliveable you will be the hero for the night! I know this was way off subject from appliqueing I guess this is why I added the "& a little extra to the title of this blog a little while back! I just wanted to share :)

      I have been working on designs all last week and this week, all very random :) a few by request which gave me ideas for some of the others that I did...Next I would like to do some back to school designs, I know my daughter will have some ideas, this will be her first year in public school (fiurst grade) so she is excited but of course I'm nervous but ready! :)

Here's pictures of the new designs, I just got them listed on the website today! Let me know if you have any request, any ideas or anything you would like to have a tutorial about and if I can help I will! I would love to hear your comments or thoughts! Have a good week! :) ~Always Smile & Happy stitching or cooking LOL :) Click here for the link to these designs.

Summer Designs

     This is going to be short, I have a minute while the kiddos are engaged in playdough (I use to HATE playdough because of the mess but now ...it will entertain them for long periods of time so we LOVE it ! I just listed a few new designs! Finally test stitched a few of the felties I have been promising so I got them listed too! Two of the designs are just a dollar and I added a free design too! Last week when I finished one of the last designs that I was working on, (latelty I test stitch on shirts for my kids so I'm not just wasting material and my daughter informed me that Miles (her bubba) was getting left out. She was right they have loads of shirts compared to him so the last couple of weeks my focus has been on boy designs and it has been a challenge!Mission accomplised (all beacuse of a trip to the Dollar Tree)!! I now have a few more boy designs and now he has a few more shirts :)!

   I went to the Dollar Tree the other day and found these little boy short (12-18months) yes they are made cheap but I thought they were cute and for a dollar they would do just fine, my son is so rough on his clothes & so messy sometimes I can change him 3 times in a day so I thought these would be cute and perfect for the summer.

     Once I got home and laid these out I thought this will be easy enough I can make the matching designs so he'll have some outfits! I have some garanimal shirts that I got last year from walmart on sale for $2.00 each. (they have pockets but they are very easy to remove, just use a seam ripper or scissors and cute the threads from the inside of the shirt, once the pocket is removed I spray with water and iron and there is no evidence that there was a pocket there!)

   So the shorts were a dollar each and the shirts 2.00 each and I got to test stitch my new designs so for $12.00 I got 4 outfits and all my test stitching done, I think I got a good deal!

    They turned out really cute! My little boy is so rough on clothes we'll have to see if these shorts hold up through the summer LOL My girls clothes I could have resold as new they never got dirty or anything even their shoes, now my 5 year old is starting to get rougher on shoes but my little boys stuff when he outgrows it, its not even in good enough shape to give away! Click here for the link to these designs.

Pocket full of Flowers Raggedy design tutorial

   This is going to be a quick tutorial on one of my new designs (it's quick and easy to stitch!)

Supplies needed : Design file, embroidery machine, material, rick rack (or whatever you would like to use for the stems), embroidery thread, material & tape and now you're ready to start!

First Hoop your stabilizer & shirt or whatever you're putting the design on ( I used tearaway on this because the stitching is so light and tear away works great on these kind of designs!)

   Next you want to cut your rick rack a little long to line up over the tack down stitches and then secure the ends with tape. (make sure they are exactly over the tack down so the stitches dont show)

   Next I stitch the tack down for the stems and the guide line for the pocket. Then remove the tape and trim any excess rick rack from the pocket area.

Next stitch the guide line down for the flowers. Cut any excess rick rack out of the flowers.

   Next add your material for the flowers (oh and by the way the vinatge stitch thats on the pocket I changed that step to be stitched last so if you dont want it u can leave it off!)

     Then do the flower centers. If you want your flowers to have that raggedy frayed look check out my blog post on that.

This is my little one that is always picking flowers and will have a pocket full when shes coming inside :)!

Heres the stitch map (which you will get when you purchase the design)

This really is a very quick applique to do, it took me much longer to do the tutorial than to stich it out LOL maybe 15 minutes!

Click here for the link to this design.

&



Crazzy Week

     This has been a very long week!! I had a yard sale this past weekend which went really good and we definitely need the room but lots of work trying to tend to that and the kiddos... Never ever a dull moment that's for sure! I woke up on Monday sick as a dog now this is the second time just this year that I have been sick... So not like me I usually throw everything off  & by Tuesday I was even worse and had to go to the Dr ( I was even running a fever I don't think I have ran a fever for as long as I can remember ),,, I had a sinus and ear infection (maybe allergies was the initial culprit) ... Crazzzzy but as long as my babies don't get sick I can deal with mine!! I think I'm wearing myself a little thin, that's why I'm not throwing this junk off !! So this week everything I had planned in my schedule didn't happen and you have no idea how crazy that makes me! I have lots of designs I just have to test them! I will get some of them done in the next day or 2 and also be looking for my newsletter that's on my agenda as well if not tomorrow then hopefully by Monday! I will get caught up one day it seems as if every time I'm almost there another road block gets thrown in front of me....that's okay I WILL GET CAUGHT UP.....one day :)
      So is there a tutorial you would like to see on anything, any questions about anything just let me know!! I will be testing some designs today and finishing up on things I didn't get to this week ( I'm having that yard sale again tomorrow, LOL not sure what I was thinking on that one) :)  

This is one of the bow holders I am working on...it will come with a tutorial. Click here for the link to this design.

I hope you have a GREAT weekend!!