I hate to brag..

But look what was waiting for me in my mailbox Friday afternoon! It came just in time so that I could read it on our very long car ride up to Rochester. I swear I am totally addicted to these magazines right now. I hope this obsession doesn't last long, otherwise I'll be broke! Here are some of my favorite projects from it.

I'd even like to make these yummy raspberry cupcakes!

Last night I had a serious craving for chocolate, so I whipped up a batch of these delicious Martha Stewart Brownies. I added some shredded coconut and mini chocolate chips to mine, just in case they weren't rich enough. Oh, they are so yummy, my husband took one to work for breakfast!

Another reason to be happy is that it is only 11am and it is already 80 outside! Whooohooo. I plan to take Isaiah for a nice walk and maybe do some gardening. We'll see how that turns out. Hope you all have a nice warm day like I do!

winner and a birthday gift

So, one or two days turned into 4, sooo... the winner of the Teacup Lights is... drumroll please..

So Karyn, please e-mail me (katiebhandbags@gmail.com) your address and they will be on their merry little way to you soon!

Giveaways are fun, so I'm thinking I might do another one this week, so stay tuned!

Anyway, my weekend was very hectic, but fun. Friday afternoon we left to drive up to Rochester and it turned out to be one very long trip! Traffic around here on Fridays is always awful. It took us almost twice as long as it should to go from D.C. to Baltimore. Add to the mix that Isaiah decided to hold his poop in all day long and you have a lot of screaming in the car, present company included. So we didn't get in until 11:30 at night and by then Isaiah was wide awake and ready to play. Aggh...

The next day was a lot better. My parents were also in town and we went over to my mom's brother's to celebrate her birthday. I decided to make her a cute little tote bag, inspired by the lovely Alicia. Once I saw these bags I knew I had to make one. I know, not very original, but I really do like the way it came out. It's probably hard to tell from the pics, but those are pleats!

Now, I really have to share this story, so if you don't like poop, look away! As I mentioned, Isaiah was having a pooping issue, which he really never has. So we go to leave on Sunday morning, and of course, Isaiah had yet to poop. He actually fell right asleep the moment we got in the car, but an hour later, wakes up screaaaaaaaaming. We find a rest station, pull over and take him of the car. He's standing up, feeling better, and then I smell the suspicious odor. We go to change him, and I can't find the wipes. John runs to the bathroom for some toilet paper, and we change him, and it's a crapping huge poop. I mean like panda sized poop. I realize he's not done yet, but cover him with a diaper and he finally gets the second one out. So I'm waiting for John to go get some more T.P. and Isaiah started peeing... everywhere. I'm trying to cover him up, but it's just not working because I am laughing to hard. Oh, at this point, I should mention he his peeing on the driver's seat! After he's done peeing, he rolls over to stand up and almost steps on the poop! John comes back, looks at me and starts laughing. Poor Isaiah is crying because he's had a traumatic poop and now he is all wet. Twenty minutes later, fresh diaper and clothes, daddy sitting on pee and we're back on the road. We had to stop 2 more times to change poop! Luckily for those ones, I found the wipes, which happened to be right at my feet the whole time! At least Isaiah slept for the last 3 hours of the trip.... Phewwww..

After the whole incident. Looks rough, doesn't he?

Anyone else have a good car/road trip story?

My Lucky Day

Ok... so you are not going to freakin believe it, but look what I found!!!

Yesterday I went up to Baltimore to visit my brother-in-law who just had surgery. While I was there I had to tie up some loose ends, so I ran to the Borders nearby to see if they had it. Jen had left a comment that she found hers at Borders, so I figured I'd try there. First I checked the craft magazines, but it wasn't there. Not to be defeated, I looked over in the foreign magazines and there sat a lone Marie Claire Idees magazine. I cannot tell you the sheer excitement I felt. I probably looked like such a lunatic because I was grinning from ear to ear and clutching onto the magazine like someone was trying to take it from me. Now mind you, I had been going to this same Borders once a week for a couple of months. It had become a nightly escape for me after dinner to go read some magazine and have a coffee. And they never ever had that magazine. But oh, how my luck had changed!

I am in love with this magazine. Everything is so pretty and I want to do all the projects. I was always in love with everything French. I took it in high school and college, so I can read a little. I have never been to France, but maybe someday!

Aren't these things just so dreamy? I want to make everything. Even the recipes looked yummy.

And look at this craft table. How cute is that? Everything is so neat and organized. Who am I kidding? I'll never be that neat and organized, but a girl can dream, can't she??!?

Oh, and of course I find this magazine after I had obsessivly placed a bid on one on ebay. Someone was selling like 10 of them separately and I bid on a few, but only won one. Thank goodness, my husband's probably really thinking I'm crazy now. So this should be on it's way to me soon!

Then I ran to the Post Office. A while back the man who runs it had asked me if I wanted to sell some of my bags there. It is a contracted post office, so it had a little gift shop in it. And guess what? He had sold one! Good thing I just had spent $9 on the magazine. hee hee.

And then waiting for me at my in-law's house was my April Issue of MSL. I love having that every month. My lovely cousin, who got married in September, gave that to me as a bridesmaid gift. Who ever said being a bridesmaid didn't have its perks!?!?

Alright, hope you all enjoyed my magazine obsession! I hope I'm not creating an obsession for anyone else! I'm off to visit family in Rochester, NY this weekend. Have a great weekend!

Martha Swap

My Martha Good Things Swap is over and I sent out my package on monday. Yesterday I got home and I found a nice package waiting for me. I ripped into it like it was Christmas and I could feel my husband's eyes burning on me. He thinks I'm so crazy! He actually said, "if you accumulate enough junk to I have the right to throw it out?" Uhhh... NO!!?!? Anyway, for the swap we each had to name a list of at least 5 crafts from Martha's Good Things we would like to receive. Our partner was to pick 3 of them and then make a 4 thing as a surprise (it could be any of Martha's crafts). So, I sent teacup lights, flowery notes, strawberry pincushions, and the tea towels I posted about before. Here they are in all their glory:

and my partner sent me button magnets, wallpaper cards, memorabilia tin, and a teacup light.

Aren't they just too cute? This was my first swap and it was so much fun. I have now signed up for the Pink and Green swap and I can't wait to start looking for goodies!

And now for a random giveaway. If you look closely at the teacup lights I made, you will see two others in the background. I made extra because I thought they were so cute, but now since my partner sent me one, I suppose I don't really need it. So, I'd love to share "good things". Just leave me a comment and I'll pick a winner maybe tomorrow or the next day.

Some catching up to do...

First, I just wanted to say thanks for all that have been reading my blog and leaving such nice comments. When I first started blogging, I wasn't exactly sure how it was going to turn out, but now it has become a part of my everyday routine. I love relating to others' lives and crafting tales. And I'm sure glad to find out I'm not the only crazy crafter out there! So thank you for your kind words, emails, etc. I really do appreciate them!

Secondly, I was wondering if anyone ever gets this magazine. I often see other bloggers mentioning it and I have been dying to get a copy. I can never ever find it. Do you guys ever see it in the bookstore? I was reading reviews on the amazon page and a couple of people recommended not getting it from there because their subscriptions never came.

Since Isaiah's first birthday party was no almost a month ago, I thought I'd share some pictures and stories. It's hard to believe he's already one. Sometimes I'm still weirded out about the fact that I even have a kid! But now I can't imagine life without this little crazy guy! This is me with Isaiah at 9 weeks. It is one of my favorite pictures.

Oh right... I said I was going to talk about the birthday party! I went with a penguin theme. Isaiah was a penguin for Halloween, so I thought why not continue with it. It'd be a penguin kind of year. Penguins are hot right now, but it was very hard to find party supplies, believe it or not. (I can't believe I just said hot like Paris Hilton!)

Here's the spread of food. We had sandwiches shaped like fish, shrimp, hummus, and some other fun things. Do you see that picture in the background of Isaiah? My brother in law did that as a Christmas gift for us. Isn't it so cute? He's still in college and just learning how to do it too!

For Isaiah's cake I made the Igloo cake from Martha's December or January issue of MSL. It was supposed to have this nice elaborate buttercream icing piped on it, but Martha failed me and the recipe didn't come out. So, Betty Crocker and a toothpick to the rescue. My 4 year old niece reassured me and said "I think Martha would approve!" Ha, gotta love that girl. I also used Wilton's edible glitter, which I think is just about the best thing ever. It made the whole cake sparkle!

We almost lost the cake to grubby fingers!

I also made cupcakes with blue icing with Swedish fish on top. I think that was Isaiah's favorite part!

Thrift store jackpot

Since I haven't unpacked any moving boxes and we have tons of room (ya right), I decided that I should go to the thrift store and get even more junk! Haha. Monday's are 25% off, so I love going when I know I can get an extra good deal. It was so packed though! I had to park really, really far away and went I got inside there were no carts. So, I thought it would be alright to carry Isaiah around for a little bit, but carrying around an extra 25 pounds is not easy while you're trying to shop. I was getting a little panicky when I first walked in and I found these two beauties.

I had to stalk out-going customers for their cart so I could pick these two up! They are two McCall's magazines from the 1960's. I spent the rest of my day flipping through the pages, reading the adds and looking at the projects. Some of them are really cute, some not so much. There is even a whole section for Bazaar crafts. Let me tell you, I was cracking up reading that article. I guess back then Bazaars were big. Here are some of the things that I thought were so cute.

These are knit and are just too cute. I wish I knew how to knit, but I definitely don't have the patience for it. Aren't they just so springy?!? Does anyone want the directions for these? I'll be happy to copy them for you because I want to see these cute things made!

And then these are made out of felt and are stuffed. They look like a simple project, but isn't that how all us crafters get into trouble? Something like.."hmm, I could make that."

Here are the ideas for the Bazaar. There was another page, but I didn't take a picture of that one. I'll save that for another day.

But these crafts really did me in. I was laughing so hard when I saw these. The McCall's people were probably thinking, "now what could these ladies make to wear to their bridge game?" The title for this page was "Kicky Jewelry."

These are some dresses you could knit or crochet for yourself for those warm summer months. On first inspection, they might be cute, but wouldn't you be sweating wearing them?

And finally, something that I just had to share. I can not even fathom drinking this. I mean, I love Dr. Pepper just as much as the next guy, but seriously, this?

Just in case you can't read that, it says Try Dr. Pepper Hot. Heat Dr. Pepper in a saucepan until it steams, pour into a glass over a thin lemon slice and serve piping hot! You could even write away for special Dr. Pepper mugs. Gross. I dare you to try it. I swear if anyone would do it, they'd get something special out of it. haha!

Did I mention that these two cost .60 each!?!? How exciting! I did walk away with some nice fabrics and trims, but I'll show those another day. Hope you enjoyed a walk back in time. I'll have to share more later.

I'm crafty

I know.. hold onto your chairs.. I'm going to post some craftiness. Since we've moved into our house, I have not had time or space to do any crafting. And now that my Martha Stewart Good Things swap is over and ready to be sent, I now have a lot more crafting time. Yay! So this weekend I was feeling craft hungry. You know those times when you're just feeling filled with creativity and you just need to craft for your own sanity. Friday night turned out to be one of those nights.

During Christmas, we went down to St. Augustine, Florida to visit my sister-in-law. They have great outlets there and one in particular that I know we would all love.... a fabric outlet! Well there's good news and bad news to this fabric outlet. Bad news-it was closing. Good news- everything was $1.99 a yard! 99% of the fabric was home decorating weight, which is great for bag making! Anyway, here is one I picked up and I got 2 yards of it.

Halfway through the Wedding Bells, I had this cut out. Can you tell what it's becoming??

Oh, and a word to the wise. Don't try to cut through eight layers of batting at once. It is not a short cut!! Trust me, I learned my lesson!

Ta-Da! It's March's In Stitches project!

This was my first project from Amy Butler's book, so I'm pretty happy with how it came out. Although I clearly messed up in matching up with tab with the front of the project. When I was cutting it out I thought for sure that it was going to come out right. I guess I didn't account for the tab's seam allowance and the width of the bag. Anyway, even in the wordiness of the directions, it was fairly simple and a reasonably quick project. I have yet to do the flower, so I might add that later. Next time I'll probably do it in a darker fabric. I'm not sure if I like the lighter one, but I had the intention of doing it in this fabric because it was so springy.

Has anyone else done some of the projects from this book? I got it for Christmas and I was just in love with all of the things in it. I was a little intimidated by all the directions and the way she has written them, but once I started sewing, I realized the thoroughness really helped. Plus, it's a good way to learn different techniques, at least for this sort of self-taught seamstress. (I say sort of because I'm not sure I can count my sewing lessons from 4-H back in the day! haha)

Now I'm dying to do another project. Maybe I'll go back and do one of the projects that I missed in the In Stitches -along. Hmm.. we'll see. Happy monday everyone and here's to hoping spring will come back (For those who don't have spring now)!

An Interesting start to the day

I fully intended to write my post today about my dinner last night. I'll get to that in a bit, but first a story. My father is one of 6 kids. All of his siblings, except 2 of them, have lived in the same town their entire life. Each has had 2 kids, and we, subsequently, grew up in the same small town, not living far from each other. We always shared holidays and birthdays together and were much more like brothers and sisters than cousins. Two of our cousins are a bit older than us, so we weren't as close to them. I was the first to go to college in D.C. and the next year my cousin Matt went to Univ. of Maryland. I stayed down here because of my husband, and Matt got a job, so he stayed as well. Last year, my cousin Jenna moved down from NY, followed by Matt's brother Sean. We are all so happy to be in the area together again and it is so nice to have my own family here.

So with that background, here's how my day started. I'm up by 7am because Isaiah is awake, get him breakfast, and settle into watching some news (ok, it wasn't real news, it was E!News). Sean calls me at 9 am, and I think, hmm, that's weird, why is he calling so early.


Sean: "Did I wake you up?"


Me: "Are you kidding? I have a small child."


Sean: "Are you doing anything today? I need a really really big favor"


Me: "Sure, what do you need"


Sean: "This morning I go out in the pouring rain, and my tire is flat, so I change it and now my spare is flat too. Can you come pick me up and drive me to work?"


(hmm.. he lives across town, which would be major traffic, and his work is only 5 minutes from here."


Me: "Can you take the metro over here and I'll drive you to work?"


So, I start rushing around, getting Isaiah ready and I stop to think... hmmm Starbucks is near the metro. Great Idea! Get Isaiah dressed, me sorta of dressed in sweats, go and get my much needed coffee, and then off to pick up my poor cousin. Of course, this is happens to coincide with Isaiah's naptime, so he's all cranky until I get home. Anyway, that was an adventure. Later I have to go back and pick my cousin back up, but I don't mind. At least I didn't have to change a flat tire! Actually, I don't think I even know how.


Anyway, here's what I was originally going to post. Last night I made quiche for dinner. I love, love quiche. It's great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and the filing combinations are endless. Here's my recipe, which has been adapted from several cookbooks and my sister-in-law's recipe.

Spinach and Swiss Quiche

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups of heavy cream

1 package frozen spinach

1 medium onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

8 oz grated swiss cheese

salt

pepper

nutmeg

hot pepper powder, cayenne or ancho

Pie crust, make your own, or cheat like I did and use Pillsbury deep dish crust

Preheat oven to 425. Defrost spinach and squeeze all water out. This is important or you will have a very soggy quiche! Saute onions and garlic, seasoning with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, sprinkle crust with a pinch of nutmeg and hot pepper, so that it looks like this:

Add spinach to onion and garlic and cook 1 minute. In separate bowl, mix eggs and heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper, then add 1 pinch (1/8 teas) of nutmeg and hot pepper. Sprinkle with cheese and then add spinach mixture. Place crust on a baking sheet covered with foil. This is the best way to do it because it will make spills easy to clean and if the crust is getting browned you can wrap foil around the quiche. You can sprinkle a little more cheese on top, then slowly add the egg and cream mixture. It'll look like this:

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375. Bake for another 20-30 minutes, until the top is browned, quiche is firm, and inserted toothpick is clean. Let rest for a few minutes before cutting in. Enjoy with a glass of wine (unless you're eating for breakfast).

Here are some other combinations that are really good. I'd love to hear yours if you have any!

Spinach and feta: Follow recipe as above, substitute feta for swiss, add 1 teas oregano

Broccoli and Cheese: Add 4 slices of bacon crumbled, 1 head of broccoli, chopped and cooked with onions. Use sharp cheddar cheese instead of swiss and 1 pinch of red pepper flakes.

Italian style: Slice 1 large roma tomato and let rest on paper towels. Add a combination of good quality parmesano-reggiano cheese and asiago cheese to bottom of crust. Layer tomatos and fresh basil leaves. Add italian herb mix to egg mixture.

A trip to the "Candy Shop"

(some more springy goodness, nothing to do with the post!)

My husband and I went to college not far from where we live now. We have been living out of this area for a little over a year and I'm so glad to be back here. I do, however, miss the abundance of craft and fabric stores near where my in-laws live. When we were in college I took many, many trips to Hancock fabrics, which at the time, was the only place I could find around us. So, now it's almost 7 years since the start of my freshman year, and guess what, still the closest fabric store to me! I'll have to do some more investigating when we get more settled.

A couple of days ago, I got the itch to buy some more fabric. Well, I went with the excuse that I needed some still interfacing for March's InStitches project. I happened to look up the sales flyer for that week before I went, and lucky me, interfacing was 50% off! And we all know how it is, you get there and a few things catch your eye, and you end up leaving with more than you went there for. Anyway, searched through the remnant bin and found these two beauties. Each is a little more than a yard, plenty enough to do some nice projects.

Best of all, McCall's and Butterick patterns were .99 each. I picked up a few, hopefully I will actually make one of these. I have about a million patterns that are unused. Part of that is not my fault though! I sweat! Blank's fabric, a huge warehouse store, was moving locations a few months back and everything was 75% off. My mother-in-law, being the sweet lady she is, bought me about 20 handbag patterns. She had gone there to buy patterns for a sewing school in Nigeria that she visits about 1-2 times a year. Anyway, maybe I'll cut into those sometime soon. Here are the one's I got a few days ago.

I don't know how those got turned and I don't know how to fix it. I hope you don't get a crick in your neck looking at them! Gosh, is it friday yet!?!?