Red, White and Blueberry Trifle

I don't know about you, but my favorite thing about the 4th of July (aside from the fireworks) is the food. The 4th is a great excuse to dust off the grill, cut up a giant watermelon, and enjoy time with friends and family between bites of traditional BBQ food.

A few years back, a friend of mine brought a delicious trifle to a BBQ that was unforgettable. I had never had trifle before, but after one bite I was hooked. She gave me the recipe (which is surprisingly simple!) and I've probably made this for friends and family more times than any other dessert since then.

Traditionally, a trifle consists of layers sponge cake with brandy or rum and custard and whipped cream, but there are tons of different variations to this dessert. This particular version has no alcohol in it. The fresh strawberries and blueberries, along with the whipped cream, make this dessert surprisingly refreshing.

Ingredients:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 2 small packages of Jello brand instant cheesecake pudding
• 1 large container of fresh strawberries
• 1 small container of fresh blueberries
• 1 cup of Cool Whip whipped cream, softened
• 1 package of white chocolate chips

*Note: If you're making this for a party, make it a few hours ahead rather than overnight. The juices from the strawberries tend to soak the cake somewhat, so this dessert is best served right away.

Recipe:
Prepare cake mix according to package and let cool. (You will only need 1 of the prepared cakes, so only make 1/2 of the box if you want, or you can do what my husband and I do and make both so you can frost and eat the other cake later :) While your cake is cooling, prepare both boxes of pudding according to the directions on the box. Set aside 2/3 cup of pudding to be used for the topping later.

Rinse blueberries and strawberries, then cut up strawberries into slices and coat with sugar if desired.

Cut up cake into bite-sized pieces and layer 1/2 of the pieces in the bottom of a trifle dish or other large glass dish. Layer all of the pudding on top (except your reserve), followed by 1/2 bag of white chocolate chips, 1/2 of the blueberries, 1/2 of the strawberries, and lastly the remaining cake cubes.

Combine the reserved cheesecake pudding with the 1 cup Cool Whip and mix well. Pour mixture over top. Use the remaining fruit and white chocolate chips to decorate the top of the trifle (or just toss them on top, no one will mind, they'll be too busy eating :)

Enjoy!

The "Miss Independence Day" dress

It's almost Independence Day, so I wanted to make Haley some kind of holiday skirt or dress. I knew I wanted it to be red, white and blue and have ruffles...then I found a great tutorial for
the Playground Dress by Nicole on her blog Create and Delegate!

I followed her basic design, but I added my own spin to it since I wanted to use a shirt that I had rather than cutting a separate strip of fabric for the bottom (which would have been super cute had I been feeling up to doing some extra hemming!) Thus, the "Miss Independence Day" dress was born!

Check Haley out, modeling as if she were born to do it. Yes that's a weed in her right hand, but it kind of looks like a pretty flower, right? This dress is made entirely of scraps from 3 different shirts (including one that I found during my recent garage sale marathon.) I got so into making it that I stayed up until 11:30pm to finish. The exhaustion the next day was totally worth it. I can't wait for her to wear it on the 4th!

One man's trash is another woman's treasure

My in-laws were in town this past weekend. It's always so much fun when they come into town because there's never really a game plan, we just go with the flow and fun stuff always happens. This time, and we took advantage of their time here by eating too much, watching movies, and one of my new favorite things - going garage saling! I knew I liked going garage saling before, but I think I love it after this weekend.

My mother-in-law and I were as prepared as you possibly could be for our adventure. The night before, we went on Craig's List and looked up local garage sales in the area, then we mapped out the ones we really wanted to go to through Mapquest. In the morning, we woke up at 6:30 am, ate a healthy breakfast, packed umbrellas in case of thunderstorms (well, my mother-in-law did anyway, my pregnancy brain made me forget mine) headed out to see what we could find.

We had planned out 11 different stops, but on the way we were lucky enough to find others near our planned destinations, so we probably ended up going to 17 or so. I was exhausted by the end since we were out for 7 hours (with a stop to Hancock Fabrics and Chick-fil-a) but it was so worth it, we found tons of great stuff!!

A cute decorative box that is now sitting on top of my kitchen cabinets.....

some fun pictures of different veggies to hang in my kitchen.....

some shirts for myself that I found for $0.50 each (!!)...

some cute prints that I'm planning on refashioning into clothes for Haley...

....and one of the best finds - a Little People barn for Haley that we found for $2.00!!

She LOVES the little barn, it makes sounds when she opens the stable doors and presses other areas on the barn. Unfortunately, the set didn't come with a horse so as you can see, her My Little Pony is standing in for now. I also found 2 shirts for the hubby ($1.00/shirt - brand new!) and packages of Pampers diapers for 1/3 the price I would normally spend at Sam's Club. The total amount I spent was about $35.00 for everything. I'm never shopping at another store again (until next week anyway.)

What fun things have you found while garage saling?

The verdict is in!!

Just a quick post to tell you that I had a check up today for Baby #2 and had an ultrasound. We found out we're having a boy!! I wasn't expecting to find out for sure today, but I was hoping.

Even though I'm only 14 weeks and 4 days, the ultrasound tech was very sure of the gender. To quote her, "oh it's definitely a boy" so that makes me feel better knowing I can go out and buy lots of boy things without wondering if she was making a wild guess about the sex. I have no boy-themed fabric, what am I going to do? I guess this is a good excuse to go shopping at Hancock Fabrics :) I mean after all, the little boy needs a Steelers themed room, right? Right.

Baby boy lounging. He looks so much like Haley's profile at this stage in her gestation. I suppose most fetuses look like this at 14 weeks though :)

The money shot. Here he is in all his glory!

The name is yet to be finalized, but we're leaning towards Connor Lee (Lee after my husband's dad). I don't know, I guess nothing jumps out at me like the name Haley did.

Care to throw out some suggestions? No fruits, vegetables, or names you would give a puppy, the kid has to go to school one day.

Pocket bib tutorial

My 15-month-old has decided that she would rather feed herself nowadays. While that's a good thing, that means a lot of finger foods end up on her lap or on the floor (and somehow not on the mess mat that I placed to catch everything!) When she started feeding herself, I bought her a pocket bib (easy to wipe off bib with a pocket to catch falling food). The bib has been great at home, but when Haley goes to daycare, the poor girl who watches her has to deal with food everywhere so I knew I needed to get at least one more. I went to Babies R Us to buy another pocket bib... and then I saw the price - $9.99!!! I knew I could definitely make a cheaper one.

Introducing the Dollar Store Pocket Bib!

I made this bib from a vinyl tablecloth, some bias tape, and some velcro, all for probably under $2.00. And you can too!
You'll need:

• Vinyl tablecloth with flannel backing - don't get the kind without the backing, they're usually too thin to work. I got mine from the Dollar Store
• 3 inches of velcro and backing
• Double-sided bias tape (or you can make your own with scraps like I did)
• A bib to trace for your pattern

First, take your bib and trace around it leaving 1/4 inch around all sides for seam allowance.(Be careful you don't make your seam allowance too much around the neck, I made that mistake -you can see in the picture -and had to trim it some to make sure the neck hole was big enough.)




Once you have your bib traced, cut it out carefully, making sure not to tear the vinyl. For my bib, the Dollar Store table cloth was too thin, so I had to cut out 2 bib shapes to make sure my bib would be sturdy enough.
Next, place your sample bib down on another piece of table cloth and trace around the pocket area, making sure to leave 1/2 inch or so extra on each side of the bib (you want the pocket to be quite a bit larger on the sides because it needs to poke out some to catch the falling food.)After tracing, cut out carefully.


Now, you need to line the top of your pocket with some bias tape. If you don't have any, you can always make your own by measuring the top of your pocket and cutting a 2" wide rectangle of fabric. Fold the fabric down the middle and iron in half, wrong sides facing, then open the fabric and iron each side in half wrong sides facing. You should have something like this:


Tuck the top of your pocket into the cleft of the bias tape and sew a straight line across, encasing the bib in the bias tape like this:



Now, pin your pocket onto the right side of your bib pattern, making sure the shiny part of your bib is on top (and if you had to double up on your bibs for strength, place your 2 bib patterns together, wrong sides facing and then pin the pocket on top). Next, take your bias tape and line it all around your bib, making sure to pin it on well. If you have trouble lining the bias tape around some of the corners of the bib, clip the inside of the bias tape a little bit where it meets the corner so the tape can curve better. Sew in a coordinating string color around the entire bib, making sure to backstitch where you begin and end to anchor your stitches.


Last, cut out 3 inches or so of velcro and backing. Pin the hook part of the velcro (scratchy side) on top of your bib on the left side (where the baby's right shoulder would be) and sew securely around. Attach the loop part of the velcro (soft side) on the back of your bib to the neck strap (see below).


And you're done! Now all you need is a baby to put it on. Luckily, I happen to have one of those :)


Enjoy your mess-free meals! Well, less messy anyways :)

Oh what a weekend

Baby girl was sick this weekend with a 100 degree temperature and who-knows-what. This is what we did all day:

Snuggled on the couch and watched lots of Dora the Explorer and Spongebob (I had to stay glued to the couch with her or else she'd cry, needless to say the "Backpack" song was stuck in my head all day)...

Read "Baby Animals" about 20 times. She should be a pro at what sounds baby animals make after that marathon...

Typed on the keyboard her Yaya and Papa Bear gave her...

And blew lots of "bub-o's." Look, I got a smile!

It's a snap!

Lately, I've discovered how great old clothes can be. You know what I'm talking about. That bag of clothes sitting on the floor in your closet that you've been meaning to give to Good Will for the last 3 months. Or maybe it's that one shirt hanging in your closet that you haven't worn for almost a year but you just KNOW you're going to wear it soon. Maybe next week. Or the week after.

Yeah, those old clothes.

I have a bag of those too. They're mostly odd t-shirts or sweaters that haven't seen the light of day in a looooong time. I dug into that bag a week ago and realized something. Even if I don't like a shirt, why not make it into something I DO like? Novel idea, huh?

Prudent Baby has a ton of great tutorials for kids and babies from clothes to toys and books. It's one of my new favorite blogs! I found a great tutorial for the "Snappy Toddler Top" and modified it some (they have a downloadable pattern on their site too, which really helped.)

I liked the idea of the collar and snaps, but the t-shirt I had to work with had this funky line sewn down the front and the back of the shirt (part of the reason why I didn't ever wear it.) I knew I wanted to cover it up somehow, while still making it cute, so I decided to add some ruffles! When you have little girls, ruffles are pretty much a must, right?

Here's a few pictures of how my shirt turned out. (Sorry if some of the pictures are kind of blurry, I caught my little model in the middle of play time :)

So dig out those old clothes and see what you can make!