Big Batch Cooking - Chicken with a Little Beef on the Side!

I don't love cooking unless it's a project. Turn it into a project and it's like magic. How do I do that? Easy! Big Batch Cooking!

Now that summer is almost over and I have settled into life again (in other words I can think again with camps finishing a few weeks ago). I find myself wanting a nice selection in my freezer so here's what I did!

You are seeing some of our favourite freezer meals here...

1. Chicken Taquitos! Check this out... The Happy Money Saver makes me happy!
2. Chicken Soup! I bought a whole chicken, cooked it up with onions, celery and carrots and then made it up as I went!
3. Chicken Fingers. Boy do I love these!!! These are from my Looney Spoons Cookbook (don't have it? Look it up!) but I found the recipe for you on My Food Infatuation

Then because that didn't seem like enough, I cooked and shredded more chicken to make Chicken Pot Pies (with ready made pie crust!) another recipe by The Happy Money Saver and I also have some beef strips marinating and ready to be turned into stir fry.

So here's the scoop!

1. I put the taquitos and chicken strips on trays and froze them. Once they were frozen I transferred them to bags.
2. The soup cooled and went straight into the containers to freeze.
3. I double the pie plates on the chicken pot pies and then covered them with foil.
4. The Beef Strips are all ready for another Looney Spoons recipe Wok This Way (I couldn't find this one on-line so you better just buy the book!) ;)

My freezer is a little fuller and I'm a little happier in the kitchen now!

Enjoy!

Heather

Flipping Over Disney (with the Ethan!)

 Did you all see my post last week about the Creative Princess' new shirt? I promise it's a lot better than the Emperor's New Clothes!

I was SO excited about the final product that I shared it on the Scientific Seamstress Lab Group Facebook Page. This page is for sewers who love Scientific Seamstress patterns and want to share what they have on their sewing table. It was SO well received that I offered to do a tutorial.

I, of course, had NO idea what I was getting myself into (nothing new there!) I was making more of these anyway so why not? Right? After much ado I have now made this shirt 5 times, I've got most of the known kinks out of it and I am thrilled with the final products!

These ones have a new twist...take a look!

•  The Creative Princess chose those buttons herself (they are sparkly!) 
• Who doesn't LOVE eyelet fabric?! The sleeves are killing me!
• Oh and did you notice who inspired this shirt?

You bet! It's Minnie Mouse! She also brought a few of her friends to the party! Can you name these princesses?

These shirts have been seriously fun to make and I really love them! Go check out my tutorial at the Scientific Seamstress Blog (I'm SO excited about this!!!)

Enjoy!
Heather

Flipping Over You!

Everything I do I do in spurts and I am on an especially long sewing spurt...in the winter I made my boys these awesome shirts! They love them and I made one for Mr. CB too! The pattern is Ethan by one of my favourite designers... SisBoom! Their patterns are fantastic, they are easy to follow and they always finish beautifully.

Anyway...I was thinking about this pattern and how I could make it work for the Creative Princess...as I was finalizing my vision (it was all in my head) it came to my attention that the Ethan was the pattern for Flip This Pattern! 

That's when I knew it was meant to be so the Creative Princess and I had some discussions about design, colour and buttons (buttons are important right?!) and I went to work!

I want to start by saying, I have never done anything like this before. Seriously! But somehow the final product was just as I imagined it! The Creative Princess was eager to get this shirt on and loved showing it off to Grama CB! I watched her wear it all day wondering how I managed to pull it off!

To make this shirt meet the Creative Princess' approval I made a few changes to the pattern...

• Cut off the collar, widened the neck and added elastics.
• Changed the sleeves.
• Flared the bottom of the shirt.
• Lengthened the back of the shirt so it has a bit of a high-low look.
• Stitched a 2" black elastic to the waist.
• Moved the buttons so it buttons on the girl side of the shirt.

I honestly couldn't be more pleased! I am seriously considering making one for myself I love it that much!

Watch out for my tutorial so you can make yours!

I hope you love this as much as we do.

Enjoy!
Heather

Hello Dino!

I just found these photos loaded into my draft posts...and thought hey! This was a great party and I want to share it with you all! I always start a party with my room all tidy and organized...what happens next? Well, that depends!

Here we are getting the party started!

Next up? Let's decorate those cupcakes with dirt and dino eggs!

This birthday girl loves to ham it up for the camera...I've gotten to know her quite well since then and her crazy faces are endless along with her joy and her fun factor!

Here are the Dino Egg Cupcakes...

And our fossil necklaces!

And the grande finale! Dino Egg Soap! We've made a lot of Dino Egg Soap since these original ones were done...

I love these soaps and I really have missed blogging. I hope you all find me again!

Enjoy!

Heather

Scientific Silliness!

I was trying to get photos of myself wearing one of my favourite tops and my Little Man decided he was going to be part of the project. Which works pretty well since we are both wearing great clothes made with Scientific Seamstress Patterns!

I am wearing the Meghan peasant top and Simon is wearing the Ethan button down shirt. Both my boys and Mr. CB have a shirt to match my Little Man's shown here but I have yet to catch all three of them wearing them!

We had some fun taking the photos and we got a few serious ones too but honestly, I think serious is overrated!!!

 Enjoy!
Heather

A Stitch in Time

I don't know when it happened but it has. Sewing has become my latest obsession. Did you know I used to hate sewing. It scared me, overwhelmed me and sometimes it put me in a corner...rocking.

Not anymore. I have found some great designers who make amazing patterns and I have been loving it ever since!

Look at this! Jocole's Patterns are fabulous! I have made a few of them now and just love them! This is the Cross Over Dress (I used the Maxi Length Modification and went to town!) Most designers encourage you to make a muslin (a practice) copy (for the bodice at the very least) but I'm an all-in sort of woman so I just went for it!

I found the fabric at Fabricland...it was buy 1 get 2 free so it cost me about $12 for 3 metres and I used most of it (I did make a cutting error so I lost about 30cms there). Anyway New Dress + $12 = Very Happy Me!!!

And it's so comfortable...and let's face it. You love it too don't you? ;)

Just wait till you see what else I've been making! I've done so much sewing this spring and summer I have loads to share!!!

Enjoy!

Heather

Testing, testing...1, 2, 3!

You know what I love about my blog? It doesn't nag me. It doesn't make me feel guilty and say "Hey! Heather, I'm waiting!" It doesn't count the days. I do that all myself. You have been on my mind. A lot. I promise. I have been sewing a lot. For me. For the kids. For my mind. It has become my recent personal outlet/addiction. Actually, I may need an intervention but we'll do that another day!

For now, I want to share with you this super fun pattern that I got to test. Yes, ME! Yes, TEST! What an honour!

My kids all loved this pattern! It's by GreenStyle and it's called the Shawl Collar Pattern. It's going to be part of the Pattern Revolution Boys Bundle (I am seriously dying for this release!)

Anyway...here's what I made! I made my Middle Man a size 10 (he's a lean 10 year old) in camo knit with upcycled sleeves from an old tee of Mr. CB's.

He loves it and there's room for layering underneath!

Then, I made my Little Man this mostly upcycled version from one of Grampa CB's old sweatshirts (seriously, isn't this awesome?) with a bit of red ribbing to finish off the neck and the bottom (I used the sleeves as they were and just made sure that I cut the cuffs as part of the length so I didn't have to hem!) I made him a size 7 since the sweatshirt doesn't have a lot of give to it. 

And we loved the pattern SO much that the Creative Princess picked out some fabrics and I made her a version with a nice fleecy blue along with the black knit body. I also made the Creative Princess a size 10 but I lengthened it quite a bit so it was more fitted and closer to a tunic length (more stylish for a girl, I think!)

I would grade this pattern as an advanced beginner just because of the collar. Nothing to be afraid of but it's a bit picky. It goes together SO fast (less than an hour of sewing time for sure!)

So...help me pass the time until August 22nd when the bundle will be released so that I can get to work on some of the other awesome patterns coming out. My kids are going to look great this fall!

Enjoy!

Heather