Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Easy beginner sewing pattern mcalls m5292 option B and A

This dress turned out amazing. I used quilting favric which is usually not recommended but there's always tons of patterns to choose from and it's a light and breezy fabric. The pattern calls for a lining but honestly thats completely optional. I needed a cool summer dress for a hot kentucky summer. I have never followed a pattern beforw and only had basic sewing skills thanks to my instruction booklet and YouTube tutoruals. The directions were clear and concise and the sizing needed no alterations for me. You don't usually just follow your dress size but the measurements correlating to the dress sizes on the package. For this dress the bust measurement is what you should go by instead of the hip measurement as the bust is the fitted part of this dress. I finished this dress overnight in five hours and that's from opening the package to putting it on to wear.
 This dress taught me how to gather. I had to find actual directions from a tutorial but there was no guestimating on where to put it or how long the gathers needed to be. I found a few pictures from people who followed this pattern with the covered bust (option c), which was my original choice. After I seen how it looked all sewn up I wasnt sure it was exactly what I wanted so I chose option B. Option B is exactly the same as option A except as you can see the tie is on the back of option B and on the shoulder straps of option A. This is definitely a pattern I would recommend for anyone because you dont have to destroy one option to make another. You can make all three dresses in as many different fabrics, styles, and lengths as you want. Its extremely easy to follow for someone with the most minimal sewing machine experience and no clothes construction experience and even for the experienced sewer it's just a beautiful dress that's constructed so quickly you can wear it as early as the same day.
 Has anyone else tried this pattern? What did you think?
 I bought this pattern from my local Austins sewing shop in Louisville, Ky. It was half off, so.It only cost me $1.50. That's a great deal compared to online prices. I would check out and support your local sewing shop since they usually have some pretty great gems and a good sized collection at price points for everyone.
I got my fabric from walmart. 2 yards of red and white polka dot and one fat quarter of black quilting fabric. I know it may look a little Minnie mouse like but I wanted a little contrast between the waist and the rest of the dress to give the dress and my body a little more definition. Dress package was size 12-14-16-18 from bust sizes 36 1/2 and up. Thats exactly what I am so I used the size 12 and needed no alterations. I added bias to the top of the bust as I hemmed it a little too much, thats why it's so low cut.


Thursday, July 14, 2016

Beginner easy summer nail art 2016


Paint yellow nail polish as many coats as you need to get a solid yellow color. I would use somethig much yellower personally but this is all I had. Its Sally Hansen miracle gel.
After this you should have left one nail blank.
 Add a base coat if you have rigid nails. Then add five dots in a circle evenly spaced with a dotting tool or Bobby pin or regular pen that is out of ink. After doing this on both hands go back through and add a black dot in the middle of each flower. After this add two top coats to each nail including the yellow nails. I prefer gel. Preferably Sally Hansen gel manicure step two or opi gel manicure step two. Yellow is sally hamsem gel lemon heaven.

Heavenly home made strawberry shortcake



This is a shortcake recipe where I hamdmake everything down to the heavy cream and strawberry sauce. It's amazing! I will add some things you can buy as short cuts but for the most part the purpose of this easy recipe is making it.homemade so you can brag to your friends and family that will be begging for you to make them more or even for the recipe.

First for the cake:
2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
(The recipe for home made heavy whipping cream is as follows:
  1. Melt the butter. Start with butter than has been thawed to room temperature. ...
  2. Pour the melted butter into the milk. In a medium bowl, mix together 1/3 cup butter (melted) and 3/4 cup whole milk. ...
  3. Whisk your ingredients together. ...
  4. Store your heavy cream (optional). ...
  5. Use your homemade heavy cream.)
  • 1 1/2 pounds strawberries, stemmed and quartered
  • 5 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • Whipped Cream, recipe follows
  • Whipped Cream:
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

Whipped Cream:
  • Using a mixer, beat the heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest until soft peaks form, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.


After this you will want to make the strawberry sauce which you can buy as strawberry glaze in store if you must.
 The recipe is 
4 cups of strawberries
1/3 cup of dark corn syrup
1/3 cup sugar
Simmer strawberries in saucepan with corn syrup in saucepan until you get a nice glaze. Then add the sugar and mix until melted.

Cake directions:

  • Mix strawberries with 3 tablespoons sugar and refrigerate while juices develop, at least 30 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
  • Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Add heavy cream and mix until just combined. Place mixture in an ungreased 8-inch square pan and bake until golden, 18 to 20 minutes.
  • Remove shortcake from pan and place on a rack to cool slightly.

Preparing cake:
  • Cut into 2 pieces, each piece in half horizontally.
  • Spoon some of the strawberry glaze with their juice onto each shortcake bottom. Top with a generous dollop of fresh strawberries on top of each half on top of the glaze. Then spread a generous amount of whipped cream on each half on top of strawberries then spread whipped cream all over sides add top evenly and then add strawberries on and the shortcake top. Serve and then chill to keep fresh after finished serving if any left.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Blondie brownie s'mores bars easy recipe! Summer 2016 party ready!

 The one thing most of us love most about backyard fires or bon fires at a party is the smores. Unfortunately for a lot of us we live in places where we dont have that luxury every weekend so I have come up with a great recipe for smores at home anytime. It's great for a big family or a party. Either way you will be a big hit. When you say you made it from scratch there will be oohs and aahs and tinges of jealousy but only you will know how quick and easy this truly was. 
 This is a homemade blondie type brownie mix with smores flavor mixed in. 

The ingredients you need will be:
1 1/2 cups flower
2 heaping cups marshmallows
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 cups light or regular brown sugar
10 Graham crackers chopped (about 4 cups)
1 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Line a 9x15 or similar size pan with parchment paper or tinfiil then spray that with non stick spray. If you don't have the spray spread regular butter or any.type of cooking oil as a non stick substitute.
Melt your two sticks or 1 cup of butter. Preferably unsalted but any will work. 
Then wait about a minute and mix in your vanilla, brown sugar and eggs until smooth. You dont want to put the eggs in immediately after melting the butter or as the first ingredient going in after its melting because you dont want to risk the eggs scrambling. 
 After this mix in half of the flower then stir until you dont see white. Then mix in the other half. Get it smooth but don't over stir.
Now in a bowl or on a chopping block cut up Graham crackers then add marshmallows and chocolate chips to the dry graham cracker mix and mix it up. 
 After this slowly fold the entire dry mix into the wet butter mix you previously prepared.
 Pour into pan and lightly spread and flatten over the area of the pan.
Cook for 20 min and check.

Cook up to 25 min max. The sides need to be set and the middle needs to be firm. The Marshmallows will ge golden brown. Mine got a little over cooked but it still tastes great.
Your marshmallows on top should be white with golden brown tops.

 This next step is optional. After you have taken them from the oven spread mini marshmallows all over the top but so you can still see the cake. Cover for ten min. Once they look shiny and somewhat melted grab a butter knife or spatula and spread.

 No matter if you did this step or not after you are finished let sit for 30 min and serve any time after. They can last for one week on counter top or up to 5 to 7 months frozen.

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