Sunday, October 31

A necklace for Leila. Aka- I made a pup collar.

Meet Leila. She's a 4 month old little Labradoodle girl. Such a sweet thing she is, too. She's been with us for a month now and fits right in with the family. And she seems to be loving her new pup collar. :)


I didn't follow a pattern for the collar, but I do think I remember seeing one in Amy Karol's Bend the Rules book, although her's was all fabric.

To make the collar, I sewed a strip of 5/8th inch ribbon onto 1-inch webbing and cut that to Leila's neck size plus ~6-inches (to accommodate for her growth and for threading through the buckle clasp). I did sandwich a little vertical loop of ribbon between the webbing and ribbon so that I could hang Leila's vaccine tags (off a small D-ring, not shown).

I have the collar threaded with the tail on the outside to show best how it's made, but it can also be threaded with the tail on the inside, so that you don't see the underside of the webbing at all. It really doesn't matter either way. Also, Leila wears a harness when we go on walks, so we don't attach the leash directly to her collar. If I did though, I'd add a D-ring vertically next to the un-adjustable end of the buckle before sewing down the webbing. If that makes sense.?

And heck, if you make one, while you're already sewing ribbon to webbing, you might as well throw together a matching key fob as well.  These would make great gifts, too! :)

Saturday, October 30

First birthday- and crowning my little prince.


My littlest one, Logan, celebrated his first birthday last week. Last month when I saw how much Gunnar loved the paper birthday crown that his teachers had made for him, I knew I had to make something similar for Logan.  I wanted it to be fabric though, and ideally adjustable. And then I remembered this tutorial I had bookmarked a while back. Perfect!

The crown should fit Logan's head for a while, too. It didn't quite fit on my head, but almost, so that's promising for longevity. ;)
We had a nice family picnic celebration on Logan's actual birthday, and then had a little celebration party at home over the weekend. Well, we celebrated until poor little Logan got tangled up in fire ants and suffered a pretty bad allergic reaction.  Yep. Not pretty at all. :(

I know, it's blurry. But I still love this pic. Big brother was so excited for Logan. Such sweet boys I have. :)
Happy birthday to my sweet, silly, beautiful little Logan! I can't believe you are ONE. 

Thursday, October 7

Brown Sugar Salami Chips

Let me just start by saying these chips are FANTASTIC. They don't make it past 20 minutes max in my house without being devoured (and its really only that long because they need to cool a bit first!). Gunnar LOVES them, and when all the chips are gone, he'll sit there,  focused, searching out every last little crumb. But heck, if it wasn't him, his daddy or I probably would be doing the same thing! No waste here, not with these bad boys.
The recipe was in Jewish Living Magazine from 2008. Here it is with my notes interjected:
Arrange one layer of thin salami slices on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 325ºF until edges are crisp, about 30 minutes (Add 5 or 10 minutes on if needed to get those edges crisping). Remove from parchment and blot dry on paper towels. Combine 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a large, microwave-safe bowl (You only need 2T if you are making just half the salami). Microwave about 30 seconds until bubbly. Add chips, stir gently, and return them to the oven on a fresh sheet of parchment to bake 3 to 4 minutes at 300ºF (My chips usually need 5-7 minutes, and I get impatient and will often up the temp to 350 or 400. Yep. Breakin' the rules..ha).
Make sure you slice the salami as thin as you can. Or if you get it from a deli, have them do it for you! My slices are thin but do vary in thickness, which is kinda nice, so some come out softer or more crispy than others. But you cant beat how thin the deli can slice them (more like regular chips!). And FYI, the slices will shrink to about half there size. I've always used Hebrew National Salami as it got the best ranking out of 5 salami's reviewed in Jewish Living Magazine, from a 2008 feature. But I'm sure any salami would work fine.

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Wednesday, October 6

Third year birthday canvas.

Okay okay, I promise this will me my last third birthday related post. ;) But I had to share G's third canvas, of course! This year Gunnar was a bit more purposeful with his art.
I secretly cringed a little when he began mixing and muddling the paint colors together. But it's his painting, so I bit my tongue and let him have his way. I'm glad I did, though, because I think he makes beautiful art. 
He calls it "Lots of fish, and a bird." The bird is the purple-ish creation on the bottom right side.

I am so glad he wanted to smash his hands in paint. Those little hand prints are so special to me and really mark him as such a big boy, and still so little, at the same time.
Not a great picture, but here they are together, clockwise from first birthday, hanging on my bedroom wall above my dresser.  Logan's first birthday canvas will fill that fourth spot in less than a month (yikes!).