One of my favorite projects ever!

One of my very best friends is preparing for the arrival of her second sweet son. I saw a similar quilt somewhere (can't find it now to give credit where credit is due!), and I knew it would be perfect for her. I immediately got to work, finished this quilt weeks ago, and couldn't wait to give it to her this morning at her shower. I love, love, love how this turned out! It was so much fun to make too!

Recent Projects

I have been sewing and crafting up a storm lately with little time to blog about it. Here are the contents of one of my latest boxes I shipped the other day. A great college friend of ours has a very sick baby girl. She's been in the hospital for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately they were out of town when she got sick, so their two boys are at their grandparents' house. They haven't been home in weeks. This is probably my favorite tag blanket ever. It's a prayer quilt/taggie to comfort their sweet baby girl. I also made a set of alphabet bean bags (each bean bag has a button that the letters can be attached to) with a drawstring peek-a-boo bag to hold them. I loved both of these projects and had such a great time making them. I hope the recipients are blessed by them!

Quick and Easy Teriyaki Marinade

I'm making a chicken teriyaki stir fry for dinner tonight out of things I keep in the freezer. But when I went to grab the marinade, I realized I must have run out. Parker's napping (which is rare), so I didn't want to wake him to go to the store for one measly thing. So I decided to throw some things together to see if I could come up with a good recipe. I love the way it turned out, and I wanted to make sure to save it here for future reference. Hope you find it useful!

Alicia's Last-Minute Teriyaki Marinade

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup soy sauce (I use low sodium)

black pepper

2 cloves of garlic, minced

about 1 inch of fresh ginger, minced

Throw it all together, and refrigerate until needed!

I'm planning on roasting some chicken breasts, dicing them, and throwing them over a bag of stir fry vegetables steamed with a bag of green beans with this marinade drizzled on top. Yum!

Holiday Craft-along

Can you believe it's time to get started on Christmas crafting? Hobby Lobby certainly can as their aisles are already loaded with green and red, sprigs of evergreen laced with shiny ribbons, and thousands of glittery ornaments.

I just ran across this Handmade Holiday Craftalong link that already has some amazing ideas. I plan to follow along and sew up a storm in the next few months, and I thought it may be helpful for some of you! Here's the link.

Uses for pool noodles

Last week we had a major black mold disaster during our master bathroom DIY remodel which ended with our family in a hotel. I was so thankful for this helpful hint from a friend as it made our night MUCH easier. Our 2-year-old sleeps in a twin-sized bed with bed rails. She's too tall to sleep in a pack-n-play comfortably, and bed rails are way too cumbersome to be portable. So we stopped at the Dollar Tree to buy some pool noodles which we used along the edge of the bed between the fitted sheet and mattress. It worked perfectly, and she slept soundly.
I've been meaning to post this idea for awhile now. Then this morning when I was catching up on Craft Gossip, I saw another fun pool noodle use which caused me to do a little Google search. Turns out there are tons of ideas out there for this inexpensive piece of foam. Here are just a few I stumbled upon.
Out of the Crayon Box's idea for using a pool noodle to make a wreath form. She went from this:
to this:Obsessively Stitching's Flower Party Decor:

My Little Gems' Lacing with Water Noodles:

My Little Gems' Water Noodle Race Tracks:

Craftzine's Flower Garland:

Thumbprint Tree

My husband officiated a wedding over the 4th of July weekend, and I was lucky enough to get to attend. There were so many amazing details, and this was one of my favorites. Instead of a guest book, they had a print of a tree minus the leaves. On the table was a green ink pad that each guest used to make a thumbprint leaf on the tree. Then everyone signed their name by the leaf. I found a store on etsy that sells these precious prints, and they're a great deal in my humble opinion. If you're interested, click here.

Dolly Donations

This is what Hannah and I have been up to this evening...sewing dolls for this amazing organization to donate to a Haitian orphanage. I would highly encourage you to go check out this website for simple patterns that use your scrap fabric to make the day (year?) of a child.