This past weekend, a friend and I drove to a holiday boutique craft fair -- we intended it to just be a girls' day out, a chance to get away from the kids for a few hours and recharge....we had no intentions of buying anything....that was until we walked in the door :) Some homemade lip balms, bar soaps, a few jars of hand raised honey, 2 handmade journals made from old library books, a customized wooden sign, some children's books and this lovely vintage tablecloth later, we left fully recharged and ready to take on motherhood once again! :) This was actually the very first table we stopped at after arriving to the fair, a woman was selling loads and loads of GORGEOUS vintage table cloths, one prettier than the next! But, this one in particular caught my eye from the get-go! I didn't bite just then, but decided to look around the rest of the room to make sure that I wasn't getting swept away by the excitement of seeing all of this gorgeous lace and needlepoint work :) We made it all the way around the fair....and this cloth was still calling my name! Only, when I saw this lovely piece of fabric, I didn't think table cloth at all....I thought, 'Man! That would make one beautiful QUILT!' So, my plan is to transform this vintage table cloth into an amazing quilt :) It seems simple in my head: line the table cloth with a neutral cotton, add batting and backing fabric, and viola! a quilt! ...But we shall see?? The part I am having the most trouble figuring out, is how I am going to bind/finish the quilt since the table cloth has these lovely scalloped edges??? Any and all suggestions on how to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated! I would hate to trim the scallops off, since they are one of my favorite parts of the cloth....but it just might come to that? Of course, I will be sure to keep you all updated on my progress! In the mean time, if you're needing a little pick me up today, take advantage of Starbucks' buy one get one FREE on all holiday beverages!! Dec 13 -16 from 2-5!!! Yay! You know where I will be this afternoon! :) ...and please, any suggestions on how to finish the edges would be GREATLY appreciated!!! :) Have a great weekend!
I finally finished it! I couldn't be happier with how it turned out Please visit my Etsy Store if you would like to learn more about this quilt!
The ultimate comfort food, Chicken and Rice Soup, takes on a flavorful citrus twist in this AMAZING recipe I found over on Fork, Fingers, Chopsticks! This recipe is very easy to put together, makes a ton of food and tastes even better the next day! What's not to love about that!? Not to mention it was kid tested by my picky eaters and passed with flying colors...they even ate the carrots...what!? I found the original recipe a little difficult to read -- I like my recipes written with, dare I say....military precision :) So, the wordiness of the instructions drove me a bit bonkers as I was trying to follow them on my phone's tiny screen...I think I have mentioned before that I won't print an unworthy recipe, it must pass the family taste test before it will win a permanent place in my cookbook. :) This one, will be printed this afternoon!
So, in case you are like me, and would like a trimmed down version of this recipe's instructions, along with some changes I made to simplify the cooking process for myself, here it is:
Lemony Chicken and Rice Soup
Makes 6-8 servings
Ingredients:
3 Chicken Breasts (cooked in crock pot with 1 cup water on low for 6 hrs, then shredded)
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 Yellow Onion
2 Stalks Celery, sliced
3 Large Carrots, sliced
8 Cups Chicken Stock (not broth)
1 cup Arborio Rice (Risotto Rice)
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Black Pepper
3 Eggs, Whisked
2 Lemons, Juiced (about 1/2 cup)
Directions:
*Place Chicken in crock pot in the morning and cook with 1 cup of water on low for 4-6 hours. Turn crock pot to warm, shred chicken in pot and set aside until ready to use*
When Ready to Eat:
- Add Olive Oil to a large stock pot and heat over medium high heat. Add Onion, Celery and Carrots to pot and sauté for about 5-6 minutes.
- Add Chicken Stock, Rice, Salt and Pepper to the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat, cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, turn off heat and remove 1 cup of cooking liquid. Set aside -- this will be used to temper your eggs.
- In a small bowl whisk together 3 eggs and lemon juice. Temper the eggs. To Temper: Pour a small amount of reserved soup liquid (about 2 Tbs at a time) into eggs while whisking constantly, fully incorporate liquid and eggs before adding more liquid. Continue until whisking and adding liquid in batches.
- Add tempered eggs to the stock pot and stir to incorporate. Add shredded chicken and any liquid from the crock pot to the soup. Stir and Serve! Season with Salt and Pepper to taste -- Enjoy! *Store leftovers in an air tight container -- note soup will thicken considerably as it cools, which I love! But, if you want a soupier soup for your leftovers, just add water before reheating -- these pictures are of reheated 'second day soup' without any added water*
This is an amazing recipe that I hope you will try!
Last night I got a wild hair. And as a result have opened, what I think is going to be, a HUGE can of worms :) I finally decided to take the plunge....I made a dress for my daughter! I've always dreamed of being able to sew her (and my) wardrobe from top to bottom -- how fun would that be!? But of course I was always limited by my own inexperience in sewing and the seemingly daunting task of teaching myself the basics in clothes making....which, if you play by the rules, means following patterns....and I hate patterns.
So, I decided to search the web using 'easy tutorials for girls clothing' as my guide and stumbled onto a TON of helpful tutorials on making anything from leggings to capes to skirts, tops and dresses! This, is where the wild hair comes in.....it was 8:30 PM, motivated and excited by the tutorials I found online, I decided 'I'm going to make a dress!' And off I went to the sewing closet to pick fabrics and begin my project.....I wasn't confident it would turn out very well, but wanted to get my feathers wet.....
To my surprise, it worked! I used two wonderful tutorials from CraftyCuboard and from DanaMadeIt to make this awesomely easy dress....It is essentially a circle skirt attached to a t shirt! A great project for beginners and one that is so versatile! The tutorial called for a sash around the waist, but I decided to use the leftover fabric that I cut out to make the radius of the circle skirt as an embellishment for the top of the dress. You could also layer the skirt with different fabrics or add a contrasting hem to the bottom of the skirt....or even shorten the skirt length and turn it into a tunic top -- really you could make so many different looks with these tutorials!
It took me about an hour from start to finish. I could hardly sleep last night thinking about how my daughter was going to react to seeing her dress in the morning! She took one open-mouthed look at it and proclaimed 'I love it! Can I please wear it today!?' So....now I am hooked :) So much so, that I spent this morning (the one day a week I have 'off' when all of the kids are in school) at Joann's buying yards and yards and yards of fabric to make more dresses! ....Next up, a peasant style dress.... Stay Tuned...If all goes well, you might be seeing a dress or two available in my store in the near future :)
THE SPOTTED LAMB'S VETERANS' DAY SALE BEGINS NOW! NOW UNTIL NOVEMBER 14TH ALL QUILTS ARE 15-50% OFF!!
*No Code Required -- Current Prices Reflect Veterans' Day Discount*SHOP SALE NOW
I guess the word about my Slim Potato Casserole is beginning to get out! I was approached by an editor at AllFreeCasseroleRecipes.com who wanted to include my recipe as part of their collection! You can see my recipe by clicking HERE If you haven't tried it already, please do! It's the perfect time of year to bake up a deliciously hot and comforting dish that won't cause your buttons to bust! :)
Have a wonderful holiday weekend and a special thank you to all of our Veterans, past and present, who have made the selfless commitment to protect our home and all that we value as American citizens!
When my boys were babies...well, younger babies that is, I made all of their baby food from scratch. Not for any other reason than that they ate a TON of food -- I would have had to rob a bank to pay for the amount of store bought jarred baby food I would have had to buy to keep their bellies full! As you might imagine, they are not picky eaters, but what they LOVED the most was when I made butternut squash puree. So, it surprises me when I realize that I have never made my own pumpkin puree!? To think that, after all of the baby food I have made, the fact that the boys' favorite baby food came from the squash/gourd family, and the fact that I LOVE pumpkin anything...it never even crossed my mind to make fresh pumpkin puree!? I guess that's what happens when you get into grocery store auto-drive....just picking things off of the shelf and tossing them into the cart without thinking about whether or not it is healthier, less expensive and even easier to make your own from scratch.
Anyway, thanks to PInterest, my eyes were opened: 'hey, homemade pumpkin puree looks pretty darn easy, inexpensive and good!' I made my first batch last night -- along with some pumpkin bread using my fresh puree -- and I am here to tell you that I will never go back to canned pumpkin! The taste difference is pretty remarkable and I can't wait to try the fresh puree in all of my other pumpkin recipes...pumpkin pie -- oh my!
The process is VERY easy and the rewards are... well, delicious! Here's how to make your own puree!
-PreHeat Oven to 350 degrees.
-Line a rimmed cookie sheet with tin foil and spray with cooking spray.
-Cut your Pie Pumpkin* in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits
-Place each half of the pumpkin face down (skin side up) on the cookie sheet
-Cover the pumpkin halves with more tin foil
-Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 60-90 min -- pumpkin is done when you can pierce the skin easily with a skewer and the flesh is soft.
-Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and let cool until pumpkin can be handled safely.
-Flip the cooked pumpkin halves over and scoop out the flesh from the skin (this should be very easy, like scooping butter) and place in a large bowl.
-Mash the pumpkin flesh with a potato masher or fork.
-Use your pumpkin puree right away or store in glass canning jars and place in the freezer for later use! That's it!
*A pie pumpkin can be found at your local grocery store -- they are smaller sized pumpkins, usually around 8 inches in diameter and have more flesh and a less stringy texture than their larger Jack-o-Latern brothers. Although, you may be able to find these smaller pumpkins at your local patch too, that is where I found the one I used.
In the mean time, all of this talk of baby food and purees had made me miss these two little roly-poly baby faces...
Sniff, Sniff....it's amazing how quickly time flies!
I am teaming up with my wonderful friend Jill, over at AutismDeal.com to host an amazing fundraising opportunity for Autism Spectrum Disorder Research! Jill is an amazing long-time friend, fellow military spouse, wonder-mom to two beautiful boys and recently earned her PhD in Psychology to boot! In her own words: 'we need to keep searching...everyday...for every child and family [living with ASD]. My son Jaxon has been recovering from Autism for the past 4 years. Together we have found a way to 'give' back and hope that more research will lead others to recovery.' Jill will be selling these awesome, Spotted Lamb made key fobs for charity. Each fob costs $10.00 and for every fob sold, $5 will be donated to Autism Research -- amazing! Please head on over to AutismDeal.com to order yours today!
I was able to use the last of the Kaffe Fassett fabrics I order for this quilt, which I then used for this quilt, and finally turned into THIS beautiful table runner! I thought the colors would be perfect for a fall/winter centerpiece -- maybe even a great backdrop to Thanksgiving dinner!? I made this runner reversible -- using a really nice mustard and cream colored paisley print for the back, which I thought would allow this runner to be used year-round! Artful stitching, and bright, warm colors -- it's going to be hard to part with this runner! If you'd like to see and read more about this runner, please take a look at my Etsy store!
Life is funny sometimes, isn't it? Yesterday a friend of mine emailed to ask if I could sew her a couple of handmade hot/cold packs for her sons -- I had never attempted to make one before, but had saved the idea on one of my Pinterest boards a while back (by the way, I am obsessed with Pinterest....you should follow me! :)). Today, my daughter woke up complaining of a headache...something very unusual for her -- she hardly ever complains of physical ailments. Then, when she came home from school this afternoon, she really started to whine that her ear was hurting....uh oh...a dreaded ear infection!? She has never had an ear infection (I can hear all you moms letting out a collective, spiteful sigh...I know....I DO thank my lucky stars!) My immediate thought was to panic...I always do when she says she is hurting or sick because she rarely ever mentions that she is. My next thought....hey, now would be a great time to make those Hot/Cold packs! Essentially two pieces of equally sized fabrics sewn together, filled with rice and, in our case, fragranced with some essential oil. That's it! Once the sewing is complete, you can pop the pack into the microwave for about 20 seconds and it is nice and toasty and ready to take on any ache or pain! My daughter was THRILLED to help in making her special pack -- she picked the fabric from my scraps, watched as I sewed, helped measure out the rice and chose her essential oil fragrance from my stash...she decided on orange because it 'smells like candy!' I think the excitement of making this pack had therapeutic properties in and of itself because she became a lot less agitated during the process :) Once everyone had their turn at taking HUGE sniffs of the wonderful orange fragrance coming from the warmed pack, I had my daughter lay her aching ear on it while she and her brothers watched 'Rescuers From Down Under' for the 13th time this week....yes, as a child of the 80s, this makes my heart smile :) I was really surprised by how well and how long this pack held in heat -- after a few minutes she claimed that her ear was already feeling better. Smiles once again! After the heat wore off, we gave the pack a rest for dinner and then warmed it back up again for her to take to bed with her -- she was very excited! Whether it was the heat, the delicious smell, the fun fabric, the novel idea or a little mixture of it all, this hot/cold pack certainly made my daughter feel a little better, which made me feel A LOT better :)
These homemade packs can be made in any size or shape, can be made to use hot or cold by placing in the microwave or the freezer -- the perfect accessory to combat the upcoming cold and flu season and really the perfect accessory to use year round for aching muscles, for stiff necks and backs or for simple body temperature regulation.
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