Blog

More Changes.

June 19, 2013

I’m sure you have noticed a lot of changes happening around here lately. I guess I just needed a change. Something that reflected me and my style more. I started by having a new logo designed by Stone Soup Design on etsy and I think they did an amazing job! They actually hand draw all of their designs, how cool is that?! I hope you will take a second to check out their site, they are super talented! Here are my new logos because I couldn’t choose just one.

Next is my new blog design. I tried to redesign my blog on my own and you may had noticed some changes over the past month or so, but since I am majorly lacking in blog design skills I ended up having Dinosaur Stew on etsy redesign my blog. They have done an amazing job and I highly recommend using them! They have been more then patient with me and all my crazy blog questions. I now have a homepage that you are first brought to instead of being sent straight to my blog when you type in my web address. I did this so that new visitors would have a quick glimpse of what me and my blog are about. From the homepage you can simply click over to my blog by either clicking on the blog link in the upper menu bar or by clicking on any of the post links below. I realize it will take a little getting used to for some of you, but hope you will learn to love it soon!

The biggest changes though are that 2 little hooligans is now on…

facebook

instagram

Plus all of my photos now have a pin it button. Just hover over the picture with your mouse to pin a photo.

I am still trying to figure out all of this technology stuff. Technology comes easy to some people…for me, it does not! So I am just asking that all of you to hang in here with me for a bit longer while I continue to update the blog and make it easier to navigate and reflect more me and my style! I know I still have some kinks to work out, but if you see anything that may not seem right please let me know. I would really appreciate it!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

June 17, 2013

About 8 weeks ago I posted on how I was making Homemade Vanilla Extract and now I am back to report that it actually does work! Not that I was doubting everyone, but I just had to see for myself first. Just look at that beautiful brown color and it smells even better then it looks!

I ended up purchasing these bottles from Amazon. These are 8 oz. bottles and are a BIG bottle for gift giving. The Vanilla Extract printables are from Shrimp Salad Circus and can be found here. She even has a tutorial for making the extract if your looking for one.

I got 4 bottles from the one batch I made. I haven’t tried any of it in my baked goodies yet, but have added it to my coffee a few times and…YUMMO! That is all I can say and honestly it is worth making just to smell it. All wrapped up they really do make the best gifts.

I gave two of the bottles to my son’s teachers as thank you gifts and made some dishtowels to go along with it. These are the kind of gifts that I love to make and give away. Nothing better then a completely homemade gift to let someone know how much you appreciate them. Happy gift giving!

Fat Quarter Friday {Baby Bib Tutorial}

June 15, 2013

So I am going to try and bring back Fat Quarter Friday again. It is not going to be every Friday, but hopefully most. I have missed it and hope you have too! If you are new around here, Fat Quarter Friday is when I post a tutorial about a project that I have made using fat quarters or scraps. They are quick, easy little projects that only take a few hours to complete. If you want to see some of my previous Fat Quarter Friday projects you can check them out here or by clicking on Fat Quarter Friday Tutorials in my menu bar at the top of my blog.

I have received many emails over the years asking about my bibs and if I have a tutorial for them. It is actually amazing that I have never put one together before since I have made hundreds and hundreds of these little things.

Materials Needed: (will make two bibs)

*1 fat quarter of main fabric

*1 fat quarter of flannel

*1 fat quarter of backing material. I use minky, but I also like to use terry cloth on occasion. bibs 001 Start by printing off the templates, the link is below.

2 little hooligans baby bib templates.

I have included two sizes to print off, a newborn size and 6 months and up. Once you have printed and cut out the template, trace around the template onto the wrong side of your main fabric piece. bibs 002 Now layer the three fabrics like so: flannel on the bottom, then minky fabric right side up. Lastly, place your main fabric right side down. Pin fabrics in place. Sew directly onto your pen marks, except for at the top of the bib around the neck opening. You are going to sew on the mark for one of the sides and then leave a little space in the middle when sewing up the other side of the neck opening. Just leave enough room so that you can cut down the middle of the two sewn parts at the neck opening.See below how I left that little space in between the neck opening? You could also cut your template a little shorter on one of the ends to make it easier to trace around. I have made so many bibs that I just don’t forget to leave that little space. Also make sure you leave a 1 1/2″ opening on the side of the bib for turning right side out. Trim off excess fabric. Make sure you leave a little extra fabric at the opening for turning right side out. That way you can easily fold the edge in and stitch the opening shut while you are top stitching around the bib. Turn right side out.
Fold opening in and press flat. Add a tag.
Then top stitch all around the edges.
Add a snap, Velcor or a button. Whichever you prefer.
Always check to make sure the closure works!
And if it is a gift for someone else, make a cute little drawstring bag to hold it.
I think any gift seems more special when wrapped beautifully.
Plus no parent can ever have too many drawstring bags!

Fabric Weekend Giveaway! {$800 worth of goodies}

June 11, 2013

You may not have been able to attend Fabric Weekend 2013 Los Angeles or Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts Stores Girl’s Night Out but that doesn’t mean you can’t share in the fun! There are some amazing sponsors offering a Fabric Weekend Giveaway JUST.FOR.YOU! Just take a look at these amazing prizes!

One GRAND PRIZE winner!

Brother 1034D serger! (donated by GoToPatterns.com)

Four lucky winners will receive $150 in prizes!

$50 to GoToPatterns.com

$50 to LowPriceFabric.co m

$50 for a class at Craftsy.com

Contest Rules:

Giveaway open internationally to contestants 18 years or older. Contestants must enter their email address to be added to the LowPriceFabric.com and GoToPatterns.com email newsletters to win. All prizes are awarded in the form of gift certificates. Winners responsible for paying shipping. Gift certificate value of serger is $210. Contest open from June 11, 2013 through June 20, 2013 EST. Winners will be notified within 24 hours of winning. Winners have 48 hours to claim their reward. New winners will be chosen if prizes are unclaimed. Winners will be emailed their rewards within 7 days of claiming their prize.

ONE ENTRY per person. This contest is being held on multiple blogs. Please enter only once. You will be counted only once.

Completely amazing right?!

Fabric Weekend 2013 Los Angeles {Day 2}

June 11, 2013

For the second day of Fabric Weekend I actually didn’t do any fabric shopping. Instead I met up with my sister in law who lives in the area and spent the day with her. We decided to head from LA to Malibu and drive the coast…

but not without a quick stop to the Bachelor Mansion first. Yes that is right, we saw the Bachelor Mansion!! For now I am just going to share one photo of the mansion. This post is already going to be picture heavy. But no worries Bachelor fans, more pics are to come!

From there we headed to the coast. Such a beautiful coast. We stopped for lunch at Malibu Seafood. BEST. SEAFOOD.EVER. Seriously, I’m still dreaming of that fried (gluten-filled) food. It was such a treat to eat super yummy food while chatting with my sister in law. I sure have missed her. From there we just kept driving the coast while taking in the sites. The Malibu Pier We even caught a glimpse of the Santa Monica Pier in the distance.But as you can tell, what catches my eye the most is the natural surroundings.

And because sister time is never complete without a sweet treat, we made a quick stop to Sprinkles Cupcakes. I couldn’t order just one, so I chose a red velvet and a black and white. Best cupcakes I have ever had!

Then we headed back to the hotel so I could get ready for Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores Girl’s Night Out. I have been dreaming of attending one of these GNO events ever since Jessica from the Sewing Rabbit started hosting them.

The event was held in downtown LA at Industriel Farm. The moment I walked in it felt like a little bit of home in the middle of LA. There were canning jars and apple crates all around the restaurant.The hostess, Jessica from The Sewing Rabbit.

All of the tables were decorated and at each seat was a big bag full of goodies from some amazing sponsors.The food was super yummy!

And the company was even better!Me and Justine from Sew Country Chick

Mei from Sewing Like Mad and Me

It was the perfect way to end an amazing weekend!

Thank you to Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores for sponsoring such a wonderful event and to Jessica from the Sewing Rabbit for hosting. You sure know how to throw a great party! I also want to thank Pellon, Coats & Clark, Michael Miller Fabrics and Dear Stella for all of the goodies in those bags! Even though most of my pictures were of fabric, food and flowers…what made the trip best was all of the friends and family I was able to meet and share it with! I have linked to all of their blogs or sites below. I hope you will take some time to learn a little more about each of them. They are all amazingly talented women and I am so honored to have met all of them!

Abby Smith from Sew Much Ado

Andrea Pannell from The Train to Crazy

Autie Mousser from iCandy

Bev McCullough from Flamingo Toes

Caila Murphy from Caila Made

Cherie Lockwood from You and Mie

Jen Schumann from iCandy

Jessica Abbott from The Sewing Rabbit

Justine Abbit from Sew Country Chick

Leanne Barlow from Elle Apparel

Marissa Fischer from Rae Gun Ramblings

Melissa Esplin from I Still Love You

Melissa Mora from Melly Sews

Merrick White from Merrick’s Art

Mie Brindle from Sewing Like Mad

Miriam tribe from MadMim

Rachel McDermott from Stella & Dot

Sabra Gubler from Sew a Straight Line

Stephanie Knaus from Girl. Inspired

And again a HUGE thanks to Andrea, Bev, Justine and Jessica. You all put so much time and effort into making this weekend possible…and kept us all safe when traveling those busy streets!

Now stay tuned for the most amazing giveaway ever! Like $800 worth of goodies being given away amazing!!

Pretty Peony

June 8, 2013

My peonies have started blooming.
Isn’t it beautiful?! I’m not sure what kind it is other then it being white and beautiful. I really need to keep track of such things. So if any of you know, please pass on the info to me. I would love to buy like 50 more of these plants.
See my cute little canning jar lid? Yes, another to add to my ever-growing canning jar collection. I purchased it from Decor Steals. Decor Steals is like a Pick Your Plum but for home decor items. They usually carry vintage knock-offs at super cheap prices. Their style is everything I love and I have a hard time not buying something everyday. Seriously go check it out!
How are you flowers growing this year? What are your favorites?

Fabric Weekend 2013 Los Angeles {Day 1}

June 8, 2013

As you already know I was lucky enough to attend Fabric Weekend 2013 Los Angeles last weekend.

My trip began Friday morning at 2am after one long sleepless night. I boarded a plane in New Hampshire and after 8+ hours of travel I arrived in LA. From there I met up with Mie from Sewing Like Mad at the beautiful Omni Hotel. We dropped off our luggage and headed straight to The Fabric District.

fabric weekend 2013 015

Our first stop was to Michael Levine where we met up with the other 20+ bloggers who were already there. We were first treated to lunch and then given a private tour of their 3 fabric stores and a behind the scenes look at their daily operations.

Michael Levine really rolled out the red carpet for us and treated us like “Fabric Queens” for the day! I really cannot say enough great things about them or their stores!
I was just in awe of the amount of fabric they had there. As far as you could see…fabric, fabric and more fabric!
fabric weekend 2013 002 Everything was label and organized just so.

After the tour we began shopping in each of their 3 stores. I headed to the main store first and then to The Loft. Can you say $2.50 a pound for fabric?! Super bummed I didn’t buy more!Again, it was completely overwhelming for me. There was more fabric in The Loft then I have ever seen in one store before. Remember…I am from New Hampshire?!

Mie from Sewing Like Mad

After we left Michael Levine we headed onto the streets of LA to do more shopping. As far as you can see fabric shops in every direction.

It was just plain fabric craziness!Some of the fabrics were just fun to look at. Although I was wishing I knew what the kiddos wanted to be this year for Halloween. Just look at those fabrics!Crossing the streets is a challenge and I did worry for my life a bit, but anything for fabric, right?!Some of the stores were even more dangerous then crossing the streets. I wondered if I would make it out alive from some of them.I did buy some knit fabric from this particular store. They measured out my white knit fabric using arm lengths and then threw the measured fabric straight onto the ground. Oh my poor white knit fabric! Complete craziness I tell ya…but for $1 a yard I wont complain. I would say we did pretty well for one days worth of shopping.
That night we headed downtown to a cute little Mexican Restaurant. The area was so charming. I couldn’t help but love these little colorful buildings. Usually they are open selling all kinds of goodies. We just happened to be there on a night where they were all closed.

As you can see we had a FULL first day! It was completely amazing…exhausting…and so overwhelming. I just have to say that all of the girls were amazing! They were all so friendly, sweet and amazingly talented. I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing group of girls to meet!

Girls Night Out Los Angeles {Giveaway}

June 6, 2013

I am still trying to recover from my trip last weekend. It was a whirlwind of a trip! Posts will be coming soon, but until that happens I wanted to make sure all of you had the chance to enter and win some of the amazing goodies that we were given at Girls Night Out Los Angeles. The sponsors were more then generous and I thank them for every little goodie we were given! And of course a huge thanks to Jessica for putting on such an amazing Girls Night Out event!

We always like to follow up our Girl’s Night Out Events with a fabulous giveaway.

Its no fun just sharing a recap post, we like to share the goodies as well!

The fabulous Sponsors of the Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores Girl’s Night Out Event have teamed up, and we are offering eleven incredible prizes for you to win.

————————-

2 Winners will receive (1) Dear Stella Designs Charm Packs of their entire Spring 2013 Fabric Collection.

————————-

1 Winner will receive (1) Bundle of Pellon Products – including: 1 pkg Pellon® SF101 (15″ x 2 yards), 1 pkg Pellon® 906F Fusible Sheerweight (15″ x 3 yards), 1 pkg Pellon® 931TD Fusible Midweight (15″ x 3 yards), 1 pkg Pellon® 805R Wonder-Under® (15″ x 2 yards), 1 yard Pellon® 420G Fashion Fuse Grey, 1 yard Pellon® SK135 Sheer-Knit™, 1 yard Pellon® XE-45 Xtreme Elastic® Fusible Stretch Interfacing.

————————-

1 Winner will receive (1) Phoomph for Fabric Stiff and (1) Suave, Fat Quarters of the new “Eclectic Elements” fabric by Tim Holtz.

————————-

1 Winner will receive (1) Coats & Clark Dual Duty All Purpose XP Thread Assortment 50/pkg.

————————-

2 Winners will receive (1) McCalls Pattern Bundle, including 4 Sewing Patterns each.

————————-

2 Winners will receive (1) Box, filled with mystery ‘Summer Fabric’ courtesy of Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores.

————————-

2 Winners will receive (1) Girl’s Night Out Gift Bag. Gift Bag includes: Fabric from Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores, 3 spools of thread from Coats & Clark, Phoomph Product from Coats and Clark, Pellon Interfacing, Dear Stella Designs Charm Pack, Michael Miller Fabric from the new Violet Craft line, 4 Pattern bundle pack from McCalls, Notebook, and Burlap and Chalkboard Gift Bag from the Sewing Rabbit.

————————-

So much fun – right?

No purchase necessary. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Google Docs. We hereby release Google Docs of any liability. No purchase necessary. For alternate entry, e-mail jgerblick(at)hotmail(dot)com with your full name and the subject line “GNO Los Angeles Giveaway.” All prizes will ship within 7 days of the end of the giveaway. Giveaway starts Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 6:00 am EST and ends Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 6:00 am EST. Once the giveaway ends, winners will be chosen using Random.org and contacted within 24 hours by e-mail. A post announcing the winners will go live at https://www.facebook.com/MeSewCrazy with winners’ names on Thursday, June 13th. Winners will need to respond within 48 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to US contestants only.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Pecan Topping

June 5, 2013

The rhubarb patch is overflowing with stalks. As most of you who grow rhubarb know, that when it comes, it comes all at once and it can be more plentiful then what any one family can handle. Or at least that is our patch anyways. One of my favorite treats to make with rhubarb is my Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Pecan Topping. This sweet treat is super delish, quick to make and freezes really well. I normally quadruple the batch when I make it. I end up freezing a few batches for our little family and deliver a few batches to the neighbors. Honestly, of all the rhubarb recipes I have tried this one is the best…by far!

rhubarb 022 rhubarb 021

Sometimes I freeze the leftovers in canning jars and sometimes I freeze a whole crisp right in the baking dish for future meals. I have frozen it cooked and uncooked before. Personally I think freezing it already cooked made the crisp a little less runny then when I froze the crisp without cooking it ahead of time. The way I look at it, freezing it either way is better then letting the rhubarb go to waste. When you pull out this crisp in the middle of winter you will be so thankful you did. This desert can bring you back to summer in no time!

Click on the link to download the recipe. Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Pecan Topping

**Those of you who are GF I did substitute the flours and it was still super yummy!**

100 Days of Play {masking tape spider webs}

June 4, 2013

Today I am over at Sun Scholars participating in100 Days of Play Blog Hop

Sharing simple ideas on how to connect with your children through
play!
New ideas shared each day from 4/1 – 7/20.

Help us
spread the word!

Grab a Button to Share on your Blog!

100 days of play is hosted by Sun Scholars and Life at the Zoo. They are encouraging moms to spend 30 minutes a day for 100 days spending time just playing with their kids. Since April 1st 100 bloggers have been sharing fun and simple activities to do during this special 30 minutes of time. Today I am excited to be sharing one of our favorite activities to do. It requires nothing more then a roll of masking tape…or three in our case. To make it more fun and keep the fights to a minimum buy one roll per kid. Trust me!

All I do is hand the kiddos a roll and let them go. I am normally in charge of taping the high spots that they are unable to reach. And sometimes I have to play spider and crawl around trying not to break the web. Crazy I know…but they love it!

The webs don’t need to be perfect, just have fun with it. Masking tape is perfect for taping right to your walls and cabinets. No worries it comes right off afterwards with no stickiness leftover.

As for clean-up, make that a game too! I try to see who can pick up faster. Make a race out of it. Of course that doesn’t always work without lots of complaining so I set a waste basket and have them roll the masking tape into a ball. Then we play “web ball” while we clean up. That one works every time! Masking tape is a great toy to have around the house. Search the web for more play ideas with masking tape…there are a ton! Thanks for inviting me Rachel to be part of 100 days of play!

100
Days of Play is brought to you by these wonderful
bloggers