Baby Ramsey will be 1 of 5 for the Nelms Family!!

It's a baby kinda year in our family.  There's 5 babies that are due to be here within the next few months.  I'm expecting our second, who is due September 30.  We're letting the gender be a surprise at the birth.  This from the woman who's been decorating and cleaning anything she can get her hands on, and NO, I won't be coming to clean your house.  Mine, alone, will take me until this baby gets here!

Anyway, my sister is also expecting.  She's due 1 week after me.  How awesome is that.  Cousins so close in age!  YAY.  She's having a boy.  This is the second for them as well.  I've got some HTV in the mail for the boys as well.  Everyone needs a personalized t-shirt!

The other babies due are my cousins.  She's having TRIPLETS!  All girls.  Her and her husband have 2 boys now.  They will most certainly have their hands full.  God has a lot of faith in them!  Could you imagine?  I'd be worried I'd forget who is who!  HAHA.  Well, with that fear in mind, I made the girls a little personalized something.  Check it out!

HTV (glitter)... finally figured it out!

The frustration of getting one little phrase to cut on my silhouette cameo!

I was so excited.  I had picked up some glitter HTV at my local Joann's.  It wasn't Silhouette cameo brand, but I figured they were all the same.  I had seen a pack of little tanks in a 2T at my moms, and asked if I could borrow them to spruce them up a little bit.  I had the phrase "if found please return to Nanny" all set up on the silhouette and ready to cut.  That's when things went south for me.  The machine didn't seem to be putting a mark on the HTV.  I did test cut after test cut and NOTHING!  I thought something was wrong with my machine, or at least the blade.  I was using the "heat transfer material- smooth" and just manipulating the settings.

Finally, about ready to give up, I stumbled on the setting for "Glitter/Flocked Patterned Paper (Medium weight- 65lb)".  This was the golden ticket for me.  It cut the glitter heat transfer without cutting the clear backing.  I was able to get my shirt done!

Yep... wasted about 1/2 of my gold glitter on that tiny bit of print!  LESSON LEARNED!

Today, while the kid slept and the hubby golfed, I tried another little shirt for Gwendolyn.  I'm still torn on whether or not to put her name above the butterfly, but I LOVE how it came out.

 

This was done by google searching "butterfly" and finding an image that I liked and that would work well when converting it to a cut file.

 

1. I saved the file as a jpg.

2. In the Silhouette software, I opened the file

3. Once the image was there, I clicked on the trace tool.  I had to increase the High Pass Filter to make the lines a little more smooth.  (When doing this, be sure not to enlarge the image until you have it in a cut format- the lines get a bit rough) Once it's in the cut format, you can resize it to your liking!

4. I didn't need to flip this, since it's not lettering.  So I just sent it to cut!  Don't forget to use the Glitter/Flocked Patterned Paper if you have trouble with another setting.

 

Hopefully this will help anyone else who is new to the Silhouette and ran into the same problems I did!

 

Pastry Cloth and Fabric Dyeing with Freezer Paper

Sooooo... I did sewing project 3 before completing project 2.  I needed to step away from the maternity skirt, and I really need to do a little research on heming. 

Anyway, today I decided to make the pastry cloth from the Pinterest pin on my "sewing" board. I'm super stoked about how it turned out!  Hopefully it'll be as awesome when I actually use it!!!

So here are the tutorials I used to complete this project.

Pastry Cloth tutorial

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2014/04/how-to-make-a-pastry-cloth-and-why-you-need-one.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+MakeItAndLoveIt+(Make+It+and+Love+It)

Freezer Paper Fabric Dyeing tutorial

http://www.thinkingcloset.com/2013/08/12/keep-calm-onesie-with-freezer-paper-stenciling-silhouette-winner/

Mother's Day Gift Bag

With Mother's Day around the corner.  I decided to, yet again, have a little fun with my Silhouette Cameo and some vinyl!

Go to unoriginalmom.com for the Cut File I used.  I had to edit it a little since neither of Gwen's grandparents goes by "Grandma". 
Check out her blog while you're there.  I found a bunch of great ideas!

This machine was going to town on making those cuts, while I got to sit back and wait for it to finish.  Then I had the joy of removing all the unnecessary vinyl.  UGH!  I actually had to recut one.  You really have to be carefully how small you go with text if you are using vinyl.

Anyway.  Here is the finished "Gift Bag"

I think they came out pretty nice!

Dinner Home Run!

I've made fried pork chops plenty of times, but tonight everything with dinner just came together perfectly!  Of course, tonight just happens to be the night my husband isn't even hungry.

I love to try new things.  Cooking and planning meals makes me happy.  The meal doesn't always end up as great as I'd hope, but that's the wonderful thing about having a husband who may be lacking a few taste buds (or is a really good actor).  He'll eat anything I make!  Yesterday it was Ribeye steaks with balsamic roasted broccoli and homemade mac & cheese.  NOTHING came out right.  The steaks weren't bad, but a little more medium than I like (I like it pretty rare though).  The broccoli had a bit to much bite and the mac & cheese became a little "gritty".  It was very disappointing, but I guess not all Pinterest recipes can come out perfect!

TONIGHT was perfect though, but don't ask my husband!  Some pinterest recipes that hit a home run!

HONEY TERIYAKI HOT WINGS (appetizer)
     Coutesy of damndelicious.net - though I edited mine due to some missing ingredients!

1. Pre-heat oven to 375°
2. in a small cup, mix the following:
     -1 Tbs cornstarch
     -1 Tbs water
3. In a bowl mix the following
     -1 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
     -1/2 cup honey
     -2-3 Tbs Sriracha (thanks to my husbands love of hot sauce, I actually had this!)
     -cornstarch mixture
   I completely forgot to add the garlic, but it turned out wonderful anyway!
4. Place chicken wings into a baking dish, being sure to do a single layer.
5. Cover with sauce mixture.  This should not fully cover the wings, but it will get close.
6. Bake for 45-50 minutes.  Turn half way through (I forgot that too).
7. After baking, turn the broiler on for a couple minutes to get that crispy yumminess.

Here's my finished product.  They were SO YUMMY!

Next I simply made fried pork chops and fingerling potatoes.  Both were so easy.  I just salt and peppered the the pork chops and placed in a hot frying pan with a little EVOO.
Roasted fingerling potatoes are just as easy.  I tossed them in some olive oil and used a little seasoning salt I had made.  Place in a 425° oven for 25 minutes and then broil to crisp up a bit.

Now to figure out what to make tomorrow night!  :)  Off to Pinterest I go!

A Spaetzle Recipe like Nanny Would Make

It's hard to believe that it's been over 2 years since my Nanny passed away.

I hope to have a marriage like my Nanny and Papa had.  I've heard both sides of how they met and fell in love, and both stories are so different!  My Papa worked hard to win my Nanny over though.

Some of my favorite memories involve them, and a lot involved the kitchen too.  My Nanny was a great cook, and so is my Papa, though that was always the kitchen debate.  They would make homemade pizza together, each one making a different part.  My Papa says the sauce is what makes it and my Nanny would always say it was the dough and pepperoni.  I'll let you guess who did what!  It was always the BEST pizza though, and I still look forward to when my Papa makes it.  It's a Christmas Eve tradition!  It's just missing a really special woman now.

There is one thing that I hadn't had in a very long time.  It was my all time favorite food that my Nanny would make.  SPAETZLE!  A German egg noodle that goes great with roast and gravy.  I would always go back for seconds (and even thirds if there was any left!).  I don't think I've had it since before my Nanny got so sick, and making it the other day brought back some happy memories from before she was diagnosed with cancer.  I just wish she would have been able to be here to try it.

 

Spaetzle

 



Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:
4 Eggs
2 tsp Salt
1/3 cup Milk
2 Cups Flour (all-purpose)
extra salt for boiling water

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Be sure to add a fair amount of salt to the water.
2. Mix the eggs, salt and milk in a mixing bowl.  Add in the Flour and mix until combined.  The dough is very stick and will take a little muscle to mix well!
3. Using a Spaetzle maker (I found mine here), slowly drop dough into the boiling water.  This can be done using a cutting board and dropping "noodles" into the water, but is very time consuming!
4. Once dough floats to top, remove and place in a serving bowl!

Cooking Time: Buttermilk Biscuits

It's very seldom that I actually have Buttermilk in my fridge, and I usually end up throwing most of it out! I decided to make some buttermilk biscuits tonight, so why not use ALL the buttermilk? There is no reason to have 12 biscuits for a dinner for 2.5. I hear you can freeze them though. What an idea. Homemade buttermilk biscuits when you need them!!

I can't wait to pop these suckers in the oven!

Ingredients:
-self rising flower
(Sub for self rising: 1/2 tsp baking powder & 1/4-1/2 salt to ever 1 cup all purpose flour)
-couple spoonfuls of Cisco
-buttermilk (DUH)

1. Pre-heat oven to 375*
2. Cut crisco into flour mix (make sure there are no clumps)
3. Add buttermilk till you get a wet/sticky dough
4. Flour the counter top, and place dough on top. Flip, so that dough is covered on both sides,
but don't kneed it in. You want the dough to stay "wet", but also need to be able to work with it.
5. Cut out your biscuits; reform dough to cut more. Do this until you run out!
6. Place on a greased cook sheet, with biscuits edges touching. Bake until golden brown. You
can brush with melted butter before complete done.

I LOVED my moms buttermilk biscuits growing up. It went perfectly with her homemade chicken & dumplings. Maybe I will post that recipe some day soon. It's an all-day thing! I do have a whole chicken in my fridge that needs to be cooked though. :)

(The picture is them "setting" in the freezer. If you plan on freezing them then be sure to put them in for a couple hours to harden before throwing them in a bag. You don't want to end up with a big mound of frozen dough.)