Design Dilemma!

Now that fall is pretty much here, there are so many things to look forward to...... drinking baileys and hot chocolate on cool nights, eating root vegetables, and fowl suppers...just to name a few. Fall also marks the beginning of the craft show season! I already have 4 local craft/trade shows on my plate, and I am looking for more! Unfortunately, I have a little "design dilemma"..... This year I really want to make my booth look professional, pretty and functional. However, I have no clue how to display all my headbands and bows in a professional way! I have been googling for days and nothing has inspired me. So I thought that I would turn the problem over to all the crafty people who follow the blog.

So, If you have ever attended a craft/trade show would you be so kind as to tell me how you made your display and maybe even send me a pic? I need some great inspiration ideas that are girly, functional, and pretty!

CAKE!!!! That Is All.........

A few weeks ago my daughter hit a big milestone, she celebrated her first birthday! It's so hard to think of her as a toddler instead of a little baby, but she really has grown up from the sweetest little baby into an even sweeter little girl. Her party was amazing, with 15 family members making the trip to celebrate with her!

I thought that I would share the recipe for the cake that I made her......

Red Velvet Cake

3/4 C Butter

1 1/2 C Sugar

1/2 C Cocoa

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 Tbsp Red Coloring

2 1/2 C Cake Flour
1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Vanilla

2 Eggs

1C Buttermilk

2 tsp Vinegar

Beat butter, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, salt and vanilla in a large bowl for 2 mins until creamy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time until well blended. In a seperate bowl, stir milk, food color and vinegar until well blended. With mixer on low speed, beat in flour in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk mixture in 2 additions, beating until just blended. Bake at 350 for 20 mins.

And of course and picture of the birthday girl enjoying it...............

A New Blogging Low

So today I was reading through the post archive at a friends blog and clicked on a link, that low and behold, took me to my blog! As I was thinking about how nice it was of her to link me up, I noticed something on my site's post archive. I realized that behind "August" there was only a "1".....1 post for the whole month! I really don't know what happened or where time went! But I do know that you guys deserve more of my thoughts, opinions and general knowhow! LOL.

So I knew that I had to post an apology (again) for being slack, but then I had to rack my brains about something else to talk about, because let's face it....listening to me bitch about how I have no time is not that interesting, and I'm pretty sure that alot of you would "unfollow" me! So I took the time to look back thru my past posts for inspiration.

Since the big move I have really fallen off the wagon in regards to my budgeting and meal planning. Now that I am back at work, it's so easy to just spend and not worry b/c now we have duel incomes. But we have recently decided that instead of doing the reno's on the new house ourselves, we are going to hire people to do it for us. My hubby would still prefer doing it himself (aka the CHEAP way) but I explained it to him like this.... Less Stress=Happy Wife, Happy Wife=Happy Life. But I digress....

As I mentioned before, I am back to work, so I dug out the old financial calculator that I downloaded off the Till Debt Do Us Part website and plugged in our new numbers. As of today we are officially BACK on the jar system, so our weekly household budget breaks down like this......

Transportation- $57.69

Food- $92.31

Entertainment- $23.08

Clothes/Gifts- $18.46

Everything Else- $25.38

Total Jar Money- $216.92

I think that it's definatly doable....The biggest stumbling block that we had the last time that we tried the jar system was when ever we had to buy formula, we only had $52.00 to eat with for the rest of the week.... but that problem is solved b/c our daughter is almost completely weaned onto cows milk. I am really refreshed about this new budget and I'm excited to get ahold of our finances again.

A big part of making that budget work tho is meal planning....something that I also let slide. I hate to admit it, but I think that we eat out almost 5 days a week.....what a waste of money and of health! So back on the meal planning bandwagon, here is my plan for the week......

Sunday- Chicken Ceaser Salad

Monday- Beef Stew

Tuesday- No supper b/c we are going on a trip!

Wednesday- Trip!

Thursday- Trip!

Friday- Perogies and Smokies

So enough of my novel! I will let your eyes rest now, so that you can read my incredibly interesting post tommorrow!

August Featured Blog

Tonight I was at work and, instead of thinking about my customers, I was thinking about blogging....when suddenly I realized that I still owe all of you a featured blog for August! So without further ado here it is.....

My featured blog for August is one of my favoritest (it's a word in the Jacylyn Dictionary) blogs that I usually refer to at least once a day. Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a great blog with hundreds of wonderful recipes. What I like the most about the recipes that they have is that it was the food I was raised with. Nothing too fancy, just the good downhome cooking that you have on the Prairies. I also love love love that they have recipes for traditional fare, like Rollkuchen. Be sure to check out the recipe for Rhubarb Upside Down Cake with Warm Vanilla Sauce...it's my favorite! And I am sure that everyone needs one more recipe to use up their rhubarb with!

Sewing Machine Meltdown

Recently I got the chance to go to FabricLand, where I found that cotton prints were 60%-70% off! The prints were absolutely adorable, and I knew that I wouldn't be back into the city for awhile, so I went a little crazy and bought a whole lot more fabric than I should have. So I get home and I am looking at all this fabric and I am at a loss of what I should do with it, so I pull out my pattern box and start looking through it for inspiration.
I finally decided to sew my daughter a cute and light little summer dress. It turned out even better than I had imagined!


Since the dress turned out so well, I was going to make a few more to sell at the flea market that I had a booth at last weekend....but the disaster struck and my sewing machine decided to go on strike!

I have absolutely no idea what happened to it or how to fix it. Basically, it stitches fine, but when I go over a seam or a wrinkle, the bottom thread doesn't catch. Then it keeps skipping stitches for 4 or 5, then starts sewing great again! It's soooooo frustrating! I have taken it apart and put it back together and fiddled with all my settings, and I have no clue what to do next.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what is causing this or how I can fix it?

My Singer is a basic model and by time I take it to the city (over 2 hours away) where I can get it fixed, it would prolly cost more than it's worth. I hope I can get it working because I defiantly can't buy a new one. It took some fast talking to justify my new Cricut Cake to my hubby and I am pretty sure he would not be too happy if I dropped another chunk of cash on a new sewing machine!

Calling All Fabric-oholics

This past weekend I went to a family reunion and while I was there, one of my cousins was kind enough to tell me that she likes to read my blog...... I almost fainted! I figured that I had lost most of my readership since I neglected you all so terribly in the beginning of the year. So this compliment has motivated me to keep up blogging a little more regularly.

So I thought that I would pass this little giveaway on to all peeps out there! One of the blogs that I follow, A Whoopdedoo Life, recently won a giveaway, so she is doing a giveaway! I love that idea, pay it forward. She is giving away a bunch of fabric (hence the title) and is picking the winner this weekend. So head on over and take a look.

Also, might I add that if you love purses, you should go and look at her etsy page......I seriously have to restrain myself from not buying every single one she has!

July Featured Blog

It's a new month, which means that I get to share another one of my favorite blogs with you.
This month I have decided to feature a blog that has given me countless hours of entertainment....Cake Wrecks.

Cake Wrecks is a great blog that posts photos of professional cakes gone horribly wrong. From spelling errors to terrible decorating to unidentifiable creatures, this blog shows the best of the worst! In addition to the cake wrecks, they also have "Sunday Sweets" which feature amazing, beautiful cakes. I think that my favorite thing about this blog is that they update every single day, and who doesn't like having something new everyday?

So to see some hilarious cakes done wrong (and occasionally right) at Cake Wrecks