Make Do March Day 31...what was accomplished!

Woo to the hoo! We made it! We had a lovely post EVERY SINGLE DAY! I would say we're pretty darn tootin proud of our selves.

Here is a list of all the projects we accomplished:

Things for Aria:

~Crayons

~2 revamped fleeces

~ sleep sack

~ apron

3 1/2 quilts that had been sitting in our closets for a long time

A sink

A scarf

Pictures were finally found on the wall, not the floor

A pillowcase dress

Winter warm headband

Curtains, Curtains, Curtains

Bias Tape

3 recipes

Nursing covers straps

Now that wasn't all we accomplished! We, as of today have been blogging our little dutch hearts out for a YEAR! Yup that's right it's our Blogaversary!

We've over the past year done some crazy things...

Entered 3 craft shows

set up and maintained a blog

bought a house (Sarah)

did 2 month long series

made a lot of crafts/sewing/diying

honed our writing skills

learned that our photography skills need to improve

bought WAY to many wool sweaters

and more!

whew!

 

Do we still have more projects that have been sitting around for way too long? Yuppers.

So you may ask, "whatcha gonna do about it?"

Start a weekly series of course!

We'll be adding a linky as well and hope you'll join us. We would love to see what you're doing. We love getting good frugal tips!

We hope you've enjoyed the series and we're excited to see where we'll go from here!

Sarah

Make Do March Day 30...Baby quilt and more

ARGGGGGGGG!!!! I want to cry, stupid blogger just deleted my post as I was updating it....sigh. Dumb machine!  So can't remember what I wrote in my sleep deprived state last night (late nights plus early morning wake ups courtesy of my daughter, isn't she sweet) so here it goes, again.
   I can't believe it's almost April! I would give anything to see some daffodils or just plain grass instead of all the white stuff but I am thankful that it's getting warmer (40 degrees=spring jacket!!!) and that I don't have to stress about what I have to post every other day, ha ha!  :) It was a great incentive to get things done but it was hard to get as much done as I wanted. One thing I am proud I finished was my baby quilt. I was neglecting it a tiny bit because the binding intimidated me but many hours later and several sore finger tips here it is

I love how it turned out, especially the strip on the back!

Now the reason I was updating was to add a little project that wasn't quite done. I got to finish it this morning because miss crabby pants Aria needed a morning nap after waking up at 530am :(.  I was not amused and should be napping with her but am happy to show off my finished project.

Isn't it cute?  Aria has been "helping" me in the kitchen so I thought it would be fun to make her an apron just like mom has. I'll post of pic of her in it when she wakes up.

Happy sewing
nathania

Make Do March Day 29...tummy treats

Bah.....total food failure yesterday!!  Fruit leather turned into crunchy fruit bits and while the PB and J pancakes (that Storman was drooling over on the food channel) were tasty I couldn't get a handle on my pan temp so lets just say they were less than golden. Sigh, my food fairy Godmother apparently was taking a nap!
   I didn't bother taking a picture of my embarrassingly dark pancakes but they were some of the tastiest pancakes I have ever made. Most of the pancakes I make end up dense and flat so I was ecstatic when they turned out super fluffy and light! And even better my fussy toddler inhaled them so I will definitely be making them again, HEREs the recipe.

My first attempt at fruit leather involved a cookie sheet, saran wrap, applesauce and an oven at 275 for 30 mins then leave it in the oven for 8hrs til it dried.  But after the saran wrap melted to the edge of the applesauce 15mins in I didn't care to continue. I know what you're thinking saran wrap and an oven, really? According to Super Baby Foods and a blog a can't remember it should have worked...bah. Take 2 involved a silpad, applesauce and an oven at 200 for 3hrs.  Result - tasty fruit bits because I may or may not have forgotten about it and perhaps layered it on too thin. However since we all enjoyed the tasty fruit bits I decided to try, try again and while not perfect I avoided tasty fruit bits and was (gasp)able to roll my quasi fruit leather!  It was still  crisper at the edges than I'd like even with layering it thicker and I confess I may have forgotten about it again while sewing, oops. They're so easy to forget about as they don't let off that nice scorched cookie smell to remind you that the buzzer went off :).  Next time I'm cooking down and pureeing some frozen fruit I have been neglecting in the freezer and hoping I will get a more even bake. I'm thinking the applesauce may be too watery. I'll keep you posted. Here are my results.

take 3

it rolled up!!! even with the crispy edges, woo hoo

my rolled quasi fruit leathers

(please excuse my pictures

food photographer I will never be!)

Here's hoping your next food foray turns out better than mine did!

Happy Make doing!!

Nathania

Oh and by the way, remember my baby quilt? The binding is halfway done (told you it would take me forever). Sarah says it's because I'm so anal and while I'm not sure I appreciate that comment perhaps at times I do resemble it :). You might get to see the finished product depending on how much I can do tonight.  Ta ta for now.

Make Do March Day 28....strap up

Hallo Everybody!

Hows Spring going for you all? We are in the throngs of "break-up"...aka melting. Now, remember while many of you in the lower 48, aka the Outside...have had the warmest winters on record and summer weather lately....we have not. We actually have set records or nearly set records for cold and snow.  So we have about 3 feet of snow and in some places about 8 feet of snow....so "break-up" consists of this:

Day 1: Melting,  Beautiful, Sunny

Night 1: Everything freezes...in place...instantly

Day 2: ICE--everywhere....melting....flooding of the roads....

Night 2: Everything freezes...in place...instantly

REPEAT....

Fun huh? Actually, the sun is fantastic. We have light from 7:33 am today until 8:37 pm....and it's warm! I'm excited, but I know Andy isn't due to the fact that he is losing snow for skiing...

Now...onto the craftiness of the day. This past weekend I made a bunch of "insta-nursing covers". The straps that you can use to make any blanket into a nursing cover. I made them in an array of covers...and can I say my Simplicity Bias Tape maker made things super easy! It's my favorite, favorite tool that I have in my sewing repertoire.

I'm really liking how they turned out!

What say you?

Sarah
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Make Do March Day 27: somebody loves you

My best friend Chelsea is having her first baby in about a week!  I really wish I could be there when the little one is born...but she'll have to deal with getting lots of packages in the mail....shucks:) I decided to make a onesie that had a special phrase on it...I've had the onesie for months...but haven't done it.  So it was time.

I found an outline of Alaska at school and made a reverse photo copy of it...then I put the letters on and copied it again.

I cut the transfer to be smaller....so it was easier to work with, and then used the CitraSolv to transfer the image.

and

it didn't work...it look terrible! I frantically tried to get the transfer off the onsie....I actually used CitraSolv to get the transfer off. It worked but you could still see some of the stuff on the onsie. I thought I ruined it.

but 

I figured out how to cover it up!

I used the same photo copy and transferred it onto...da da da da!!! Fusible webbing!

I then took one side off, and put it on a pink fabric.

Ta-da! A unique and lovingly made onsie for the little one in Minnesota!

I also put a little heart on the butt....so cute!

What do you think? I hope she likes it, and I hope the little one knows she is very loved by her "Auntie" in Alaska!

Now...I told you about a steak marinade on Sunday. It was TASTY! I don't really like steak. But I liked this. IT was really good. We're keeping it  and will use it again!

Hope you're having fun Making Do!

Sarah

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Make Do March Day 26 recovery weekend, a winner and a LINK UP!!

So I seem to be on the mend from my recent encounter with the flu and have been taking it easy this weekend. Here are a few pics from our weekend.                   

 Aria painting her plaster heart, she loved getting her hands dirty!

 Saturday we took a drive down Turnagain Arm to enjoy the wonderful weather without having to exert ourselves too much (I seem to have passed the flu onto my dear husband), oops!  He was so thrilled with me!

Having a blast in the sunny weather, running off some steam!!

Check out all the snow we still have, can you believe it's almost April? 

 I did manage to get a bit of sewing in as well. I made this cute little rag quilt from some of the many extra receiving blankets I amassed when Aria was born. They worked out perfect for this project and so easy. I just may make a few more!

What have you been make doing?
Nathania

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Please email us your address so we can send out the package!

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Make Do March Day 25: Steak...mmmm...

Happy Sunday!

I've been crafting it up...but nothings gotten quite done. However I did try a new marinade today. We have a tried and true marinade that we always use...it has loverly things like garlic, rosemary, honey, soy sauce. Last night Andy mentioned that he wanted to try something different for the steaks that we had.

I found this recipe on All Recipes.com

Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients:

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder

3 tablespoons dried basil

1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (optional)

1 teaspoon dried minced garlic (optional)

Directions:

Put everything in a blender or food processor. Blend and pour over steak. Marinade for up to 8 hours.

I used black pepper as that's what I had and didn't add the optional items. It's marinading right now. I will post pictures later of the finished steaks.

NOW

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!!

It will close tonight 9 pm Alaska time.

Winner will be announced tomorrow with our LINK UP!!!

Happy Make Doing!

Sarah

Make Do March Day 24: vintage sickling

Hola mis amigos! Remember a while back I said I forgot to finish quilt cause I fell asleep? That it was pinned sitting on my couch? Well here's a sneak peak...cause it's still sitting on my couch, with bias tape pinned on.

This quilt top has been around for years! I'm pretty sure I made it when I was in high school. Which if it wasn't my senior year, was over 10 years ago. Yikes!!

It's made out of really neat vintage material that we got in a box from an estate sale. Oh how I love estate sales...they don't have them very much up here...boo! But I digress. The box had all kinds of fabric in it and we paid like 10 buck for the whole thing. If I remember correctly these squares were already cut out.

I love the vintage fabrics. They are so cheerful!

The fun part is that there was enough of the white and blue flowers to make the binding with...now it's just a matter of time to sew it on!

I quilted it just on either side of the ditch. It's the first time I've done that I think and I really like how the quilting on the back turned out. I used some batting and flannel that I already had in my stash. It will be a super soft edition to some little girls life.

Now onto the reason that I'm only posting a sneak peak and not a finished project. Nathania is sick....flu virus sick. I will be avoiding her household for a little bit! I don't wanna get it! But she was supposed to post for today...but is understandably not up for the task. Prayers for healing would be appreciated!

I'll post the finished project sometime this next week. In the meantime I hope you're having fun Make Doing!

Sarah

psst....the giveaway is still open until tomorrow night! Sign up!

Make Do March Day 23: flower power

I don't have a whole lot to post on today. Andy has been exercising with me daily....which can take up a lot a time, I thought I had some Velcro for another project, but I don't. So what do you get to see today?

Wool Flowers!

We make these wool flowers and put them on headbands. I've been trying to make one or two a day. They are a little tedious, but a good project for in front of the TV.

When we eventually get our act together they will be on headbands on Etsy...but we're not there yet. When you finally have light...sun rises at 8, sets at 8:40ish...and it's been sunny and warm (well I guess that's relative...Mom said it was 88 in Michigan two days ago)...you go skiing. Or walking. Or something to get some of the Vitamin D you've been drastically low on since October.

So while you all in the lower 48 enjoy real flowers, we will enjoy our wool ones. I don't think we'll be seeing flowers for some time...we still have about 3 feet of snow on the ground.

Happy Make Doing!

Sarah

pssst....don't forget to sign up for our giveaway!

Make Do March Day 22 What i've been working on thursday

With all the nice weather we have been having I haven't gotten as much sewing done as I would have liked so today is a what I've been working on Thursday! Here are a few pics of my quilt that is almost done. I ended up using material from an extra long curtain I had as the backing and it was the perfect length once I added the colored strip in the middle.All I need to do to finish it to fix the binding and that is almost halfway done. I wasn't paying attention while I was sewing it on and I didn't catch some of the fabric, oops.  That's an easy fix and then I only have to hand stitch the rest. I say only but that may take me awhile...maybe I'll pawn it off on Sarah who is a much faster hand sewer than I am :). 

What have you been make doing?

Nathania

PS- don't forget to sign up for our giveaway on Day 20 of Make Do March!!

Make Do March Day 21: Photo Bomb and a Bias

Heyo...

What do you think of the new look? Yay or Nay? Let us know!

Last week was my spring break, and whilst many of my colleagues went to the Hawaiian Islands....I went north. Yup you heard it right. I went to Fairbanks for the first time. We went with our friend Krista. Her parents live there. Its about an 6 hour drive from here. The world Ice Carving Championship was going on, so we thought it would fun to go there.

The following are some pictures from our trip.

Whale breaching, made from ICE!

Me and Andy on an ice couch

In between our viewing of the ice sculptures we went to the Silver Gulch...a brewery north of Fairbanks...in a little town of Fox. We tried a Scotch Egg...it was tasty. It reminded me of croquettes. Super tasty.

We returned to the ice sculptures at night. They were super cool all lit up.

This is a porcupine. Made entirely out of ice. CRAZY!

This is the whole display. They won. It was awesome.

We also saw the northern lights for the first time...well at least the first time I had seen them. It wasn't a spectacular show, but it was still really cool. They even danced a little bit.

Now...onto the bias tape. Well its more a faux bias. I didn't actually cut my fabric on the bias but I wanted to show you how my new machine works.

I received a simplicity bias tape maker for Christmas, but had yet to try it out.

 I cut some daisy fabric I had into 2 inch strips and sewed them all together.

See? One big long strip, 2 inches wide.

I then wound the strip onto a bobbin of sorts, and then fed it through the metal creaser thing.

It's all set up. All I had to do now was push a button.

And VOILA! Bias tape came out the other end!

Would you look at that? Perfectly ironed! Guess how long it took?

About 10 minutes start to finish. And...no burnt fingers. WOO HOO!

I may throw it into the giveaway so go sign up!!!

How are you Make Doing?

Sarah