Newest project: Wool Skirts

As promised we have done some new projects...hopefully you saw the hats!

The other new product we're working on is wool skirts for little girls. These skirts fit a three year old... Aria. They have a 21 in. waist and go to her knees.

We can make smaller ones and possibly adult ones, but we wanted to know what the general consensus was.

Without further ado:

Rosy Ruffle

Twirly Christmas Skirt

Asymmetrical Flowers

 

Please let us know what you think! We want to know if they would be worth selling at the craft fairs this year or not.

 

Sarah and Nathania

Fall is upon us

Fall is upon us...at least up here in Alaska.

Which means, rain, the fair, school starting, us attempting to keep up on blogging, rain...and by the time you all have "fall" we will have snow:)

Fall also means the beginning of the madness that is craft season.

Long nights, wool and fabric everywhere, panic....

You think I jest, but we are the biggest procrastinators on the planet, but we really have had two years which that is the case. Most people would learn and work ahead of time, at least those who value their sleep...which we always intend to do, and should, because let me tell you the husbands are not too keen on the living rooms looking like crap for the next three months.

And amazingly enough I have done just that...Mom don't die of shock...we are well stocked on headbands and wreaths. I've been after Nathania to get started on the ornaments, and I think she has 4 cut out!

We also have been working on some new projects.

Projects that we would like opinions on. Please, please let us know what you think...be brutal because we want to make things that are liked...and not waste time on the others.

Project #1 - winter hats

Made with a wool outer layer and fleece inner layer. We have 2 sizes adult and child at this time. My apologies for the pics...I hate taking pics of myself :) and my little model doesn't stay still long or enjoy modeling unless bribed with candy...so I'm ok with some blurry ones! 

Let us know what you think and more projects will be coming shortly! 

Nathania and Sarah

My friend zucchini!!

Tis the tail end of zucchini season here in Alaska and this year my plants blessed me with lots and lots of zucchini.  Not so much that I was out in the middle of the night blessing my neighbors with zucchini but enough to have me scouring Pinterest for some new savory and sweet recipes. I tried out a lot of new recipes and decided to share them with you , just in case you might still be up to your ears in zucchini!

1.  Cheesy Zucchini Rice - Buns in My Oven

Super easy side dish and it was a hit with everyone.

2.  Easy Mini zucchini Muffins - So easy being green

A perfect snack for little hands!

3.  Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Muffins - Tried and Tasty

I loved these!! I made them in a regular muffin tin rather than a jumbo tin and would watch them closely while baking. My first batch was a little dry. Second one turned out perfect! I would also add another banana and a bit more vanilla.  Definitely making these again!!

4.  Lemon Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze - Nancy Creative

This is the moistest bread and just might be my favorite!!  I would put this one on the top of your list!

5.  Zucchini Tots - Skinny Taste

I inhaled these! So delicious and low cal!

6.  Summer Squash Corn Chowder

I used green striped squash from the garden instead of yellow and it was perfect dish for the cooler evenings we are starting to get! It was a hit with the husband as well which is a challenge especially when it is a meatless entree :)!

7.  Sausage stuffed Zucchini Boats - Skinny Taste

I could eat these everyday!

8.  Zucchini Bread

recipe courtesy of Deb Feys

2 loaves

mix wet ingredients together well

3 beaten eggs

1 C oil

2 C sugar

2 t vanilla

Dry ingredients : mix well and add to above

3 C flour

1 t salt

1 t soda

2 t cinnamon

1 1/4 t baking powder

mix well and add

2 C shredded/grated zucchini

bake 350 degrees  for 1 hour -  I baked it for 50 mins and it came out perfectly moist!

I hope you have fun trying out some of these recipes and If you have some favorite zucchini recipes I'd love to hear about them!

Nathania

 

oreo madness

As of late I'm slightly obsessed with trying new recipes, most coming from Pinterest but not all.  I've attempted to recreate some homemade oreo cookies, several zucchini recipes, surprise surprise and a bread recipe.

First the oreo. I was introduced to the most delicious homemade "oreo" cookie at the Cake Studio in downtown Anchorage by my sister Sarah. It is to die for and it's a good thing they are located downtown or I would become a daily fixture! They are made with the chewiest but firm chocolate chocolate chip cookies and a thick but not too sweet white filling. I wish I had a picture to show you of this delicious creation but alas they don't last that long once they are in my hands :).
   So in love with them I decided to try and recreate them. After looking at multiple homemade "oreo" recipes I followed the basic filling recipe but found what I thought might be the winning cookie recipe. I wanted a cookie not a wafer like most of the recipes called for. I found the filling was too sweet for my liking and just tasted like powdered sugar so I added some cream cheese but then couldn't get it to thicken up for the life of me :(.  So on my second attempt I made the basic filling and then added just a couple of spoonfuls of my first filling attempt and it turned out better but not as thick I wanted. But by then my cookies were done and I was impatient to sample my wares. Tasty though they were my cookie wasn't as chewy/firm as I wanted, it was more on the cakey side and the filling definitely needed to be thicker as it squished out but they were definitely edible! Tweaking is definitely needed but that will have to wait until my waist recovers...I may have sampled a fair number for quality control! Anyone have any suggestions to help me in my quest to perfect my recreation?

stay tuned for more recipes

Nathania

O Sewdutch sisters, Where art thou?

Well, we've been awful at updating the blog...

but that doesn't mean we haven't been doing anything!

 

As national news has put it...Alaska is baking...

 

Or at least was.

 

For the entire month of June we had ridiculous temperatures and beautiful days. It was great except for the couple of days where it got so hot it was unbearable...80s up here is unbearable. We don't have AC in most buildings...so its hot. But because it was so beautiful, we've been out doing all kinds of things...hiking, camping, fishing, painting, biking...yah know the stuff we can't do in the winter!

 

I also was on my own for a couple of weeks as Andy climbed Mt. McKinley. (if you want to check out his amazing pictures....go here). So I got down to some projects that I had wanted to do for a long time. My pictures are a little crappy due to the fact that he brought the camera on his expedition. So I phone pictures it is.

 

I have multiple post in the wings so if you've stuck around there will (fingers crossed) be posts the rest of the week.

 

To begin I have the remediation of the ugly purple/maroon door.

 

This is the ugly purple/maroon door.

 

I may have forgotten to take a full picture of the door...and had already started painting, so this will suffice for a close up.

It was super crappy paint job. You could see the brush strokes and the white underneath...and the paint was all over the handle and lock. Sloppy.

 

Now, our house is tan with forest green trim. Not a whole lot goes with the lovely green. Even the gutters are green so I can't just paint the trim.

 

I thought about what color for a long time. Red would look to Christmasy. Yellow, Orange and Purple were out.  Brown was boring, and so was Green. So I decided on a Blue. It was a perfect choice. It looks way better.

I even took the hardware off and cleaned it up with some citraslov. It just looks classier overall.

No paint splatters on the handle, a full coverage of paint...and just all-together better!

 

Wanna know what's even better? It took about 2 hours to do the whole thing. Two coats and all...cause it was hot that day and the paint dried in record time:)

 

I love projects that can make such an impact but take little to no time at all.

 

What do you think?

Sarah

Flubber!

After a much too early wake up by little Miss Aria, 6am seems to be her fav time of the day nowadays and no nap we were not best of friends by afternoon! What to do when allotted tv time is done and I'm too exhausted to do much? Open up my trusty pinterest account to find that recipe for flubber! It was soo easy and Aria is having a blast with it and I must admit so am I! I will definitely be making this again once this batch has gone to flubber heaven.

All you need is white glue, food coloring, borax and hot and cold water.
Flubber
3/4 cup cold water
1 cup elmers glue
liquid food coloring
1/2 cup hot water
1 teaspoon of borax(you can find it in a box in the laundry aisle)

 In bowl number one mix glue, cold water and food coloring. In bowl number two mix the hot water and borax and mix til the borax has dissolved.

Then pour the glue mixture into the borax solution and mix

and mix

until you get this! 

I halved the recipe and it turned out great. On the website it said to pour off any excess water but I didn't have any.  Have fun!
Nathania

Stroller Seat redo

So Make do March was officially a bust this year. I blame the lack of sunny days that then led to a significant lack of productivity and I'm sticking to it! 

 

I've been eying this projects for a long time. It's hard to tell from my stellar before pictures that this is a well loved doll stroller seat.  It suffered multiple traumas after Aria decided it was made for her! :)The elastic holding it up on the handles was all stretched out and the fabric had torn on the seat making it difficult to use.

 

 

 

 

I took the original seat apart and used it as a pattern and saved the straps and reused them.  I used some pink fabric and blue binding I had in my stash along with some leftover elastic and voila, new seat done. Aria loved it and immediately got her baby and put her in it. Now that's what I call success!

 

 

Nathania