Epicurean Style

Happy Thanksgiving

Thankful for a son who loves to be with his Dad and a Dad who loves to have his son with him 

  I feel like I have so much to be thankful for at this time in my life.  I am thankful to be where I am.  You know those times in your life where everything just seems to be right?  Well, I happen to be right there and I am thankful to be here.  I know it doesn't always last, but I will savor it for the time being.  I am thankful for my family and am glad I get to spend time with them during the next few days.  I LOVE when Marc gets time off.   

 I hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving celebrations.  

 Thankful for a happy healthy baby, who could sit in the swing for hours.

T-shirt Flower Headband

Finally another tutorial.  I guess the weekend got away from me and then yesterday I had to go to Disneyland...its a rough life, but somebody has to live it.  :)  

 

Okay, so I don't know if any of you have ever been to Disneyland at Christmas time, but talk about magical.  I just have to share a few pictures, because I felt like I was in a dream.  Yes it was a crazy busy day with all the Thanksgiving crowds, but so worth it to see the lights.  Oh, and they re-do the inside of It's a small world for Christmas and do a song mix between Jingle Bells, Joy to the world, and It's a small world.  

i. love. it.  

As it turns out not ONE of my pictures is in focus, but at least you can get the general idea.

 

 
 
 

Okay, I'll move on to what you have been waiting for....

T-shirt Flower headbands.

 

Take an old T-shirt and cut off the lower half.

 

Take the strip you now have and cut up one of the side seams of the T-shirt

 

Take your chubby strip and cut it into 4 smaller strips about an 1 or 1.25 inches in width.

 

 

Cut those strips in half

 

Set your machine to a large stitch (5.0-6.0) stitch width---sew using the edge of your presser foot as your seam guide

 
 

Once you have each strip sewn, pull gently on the back thread and create a ruffle.
 

  
 

When they are all ruffled.  Take a Needle and thread and one end of a ruffle and begin to stitch the flower together along the bottom edge.  Slowly rolling the fabric up as you go along. 

 

 

 

When you reach the end of the flower tie a knot.

 

 

Repeat the above steps for as many flowers as you want on your headband.

Take a piece of felt and stitch the three flowers to the felt. 

 

 

Trim the felt up and stitch/glue the felt onto the headband 

 

 

Cut another piece of felt to place on the other side of the headband to hold the flowers on.  Then glue or stitch this piece to the headband and other piece of felt on the flowers bottom.

 

New headband!  

Made out of an old not being used t-shirt.  

Yea!

 

It's coming. It's coming....

I am working on a tutorial as you are reading this.  I was hoping to have it up by this morning, but kids can definitely change the schedule.  :)  Here is what you can look forward to making.... 

 

Project Ideas

 

I have to share this because I just came across this website today and spent wAAAAAAAAAAy too long looking at all the projects.  I had gone to the website because I got spray paint on something that it doesn't belong on and was wondering if there would be any tips on how to get it off, but ended up getting lost in their project ideas.  I never would've dreamed of all the fun things spray paint could be used on.  So if you are looking for a project look here, here , and here....for some of my favorite ideas, or just go to the Krylon Website for all the ideas.  :)  

Happy Spray Painting.

P.S. I am totally in love with Chalkboard paint and I am loving this idea and I am loving that it comes in a spray paint form.     

perspective.

Jackson has been into taking pictures lately and it is interesting to see the world through his eyes...what things he thinks are important to take pictures of, where is eye level is etc.  I thought I would share a few, just for fun.

    

Pasta with Chicken in Creamy Basil Sauce

Pasta with Chicken and Creamy Basil Sauce

 

1 large onion, diced (a bag of frozen onions)

2 red peppers, sliced

2 cups milk

2 tsp. basil

8 oz. cream cheese, cubed

¾ lb. chicken breasts, cooked and cubed

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

16 ounce package of fettuccine, prepared according to directions

 

Over medium heat, sauté onion and red pepper.  Cook until lightly browned, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in milk and basil; heat just to boiling.  Reduce heat, add cream cheese, stirring frequently until cream cheese melts and sauce is smooth.  Add chicken.  Stir in Parmesan cheese.  Toss hot pasta and sauce.  Serve immediately.

 

Carmel Apples

Recently we hosted a Carmel Apple Party and the small bite sized apples were a hit, so I thought I would share.  I used my handy little melon baller and made small circles out of the apples. 

  

Jackson enjoyed eating the "leftovers" and I actually really enjoyed making these little bite sized apple bits.  I used about 22 apples for a group of about 20 people.  We had a variety of apples--granny smith, golden delicious, rome, and fuji.  Everyone got what they wanted and we still had some left at the end.    

I cut the apples in advance because I wasn't sure how long it was going to take, but it was actually quite quick.  It only took me about 45 minutes to do all 21 apples. I did have them sit in a watered-down sprite bath so they wouldn't turn brown and it worked great. 

  

I had everyone attending bring a topping to share.  Which was great, since 1. That can get a little pricey, and 2. we got a great variety and not necessarily things I would have thought of. The other great part of having the apples in bite size pieces is that we could all try as many different toppings as we wanted.  

I had a tray of veggies to cut through the sweet and overall I would say it was a success.  

      

What has kept me busy...

So, sorry I have been a little M.I.A. the last week or so.  Life got crazy with Church Halloween Parties, School Halloween Parties, and me trying to get Jackson's and Bennett's Halloween Costumes finished.  I thought I would just share a quick re-cap of our Halloween.  

Jackson spotted a Hamburger Costume weeks before Halloween, but I wasn't willing to pay the price they were asking for it, so I decided to make it for him.  I was pretty excited that it actually turned out.  :)

  

 

Since Jackson was set on being a Hamburger, I decided to add Bennett into the action and make him a Hot Dog.  Their costumes turned out pretty cute.  Jackson loved being a Hamburger and put on his costume any chance he got.  Bennett was a bit clueless to the holiday, but was all smiles.  :)

 

Oh, while I was busy sewing, this is what Jackson and Bennett did to keep themselves busy...