Food adventures in Memphis

I love the weekends, especially when they involve eating your way through a city.

A few friends and I got together yesterday with one single goal: to seek and destroy some delicious Memphis food. Since we didn't want crying children to ruin our food adventure, we got a babysitter and set out on a culinary journey to Gus's Famous Fried Chicken (of Food Network and Man vs. Food fame) and Kooky Canucks (of Man vs. Food fame.) If you've ever seen either of these two restaurants on TV, you know that their food just looks way too good NOT to try. For some reason, the Memphis episode of Man vs. Food always seems to come on TV when I'm working out. It's extremely difficult to focus on running when Adam Richman is chowing down on some of the most delicious looking fried chicken I have ever seen. Being pregnant is also a great excuse to go downtown for some grub. Or go anywhere for some grub for that matter.

Our first stop was Gus's Fried Chicken. We had been warned that Gus's was kind of a hole in the wall, but hey, some of the best restaurants are. When we got there, we could see why. Upon first glance, Gus's wasn't anything special. A small, inconspicuous-looking restaurant a short walk from Beale St. with a single sign out front simply stating "Gus's Friend Chicken, World Famous." Pretty lofty claim for such a small place, but one step inside the barred door proved that many people agreed with their claims.

As we walked in, the smell of fresh chicken and fries was everywhere. The walls were simply decorated with eclectic pictures of dancing chickens and the daily beer offerings, and the room was packed with a number of small tables filled with hungry people. We were seated at a table in the corner after a short wait and introduced to our waitress who (luckily for her) was able to handle plenty of sarcasm. We each ordered heaping of plates of fried chicken accompanied by baked beans, coleslaw, and slices of white bread - and for the true southerners with us, sweet tea - and discovered after the first bite that the chicken at Gus's was worth all the hype.

Each bite had just the right amount of spice and crunch. Unlike other places where I've had fried chicken, the breast meat was juicy and plentiful and fat-free - meaning well-trimmed. Only in my dreams would this chicken have been a fat-free food. A girl can dream, right?

After stuffing ourselves with chicken, it was off to our next stop - Kooky Canuck for their delicious skillet-cooked cookies because really, what is lunch without closure? And what better closure to an amazing day than a giant, ice cream topped cookie?


I first learned about Kooky Canuck (formerly Big Foot Lodge) on Man vs. Food when Adam Richman went to Memphis to tackle their Big Foot Burger - a 7 pound mammoth hamburger the size of a small child. But other than making huge hamburgers that can feed a small army, they also have delicious desserts, like the skillet chocolate chip cookie that I shared with the hubby. The cookie is not just any cookie - it's served in a skillet, piping hot from the oven and topped with delicious vanilla ice cream. If I hadn't just eaten a giant plate of chicken, I'm sure I could have eaten this cookie all by myself. I couldn't even get a picture before tearing into this thing. They even offer peanut butter cookies topped with ice cream if you prefer. I'll definitely be going back for that one.

So that's how my Saturday was. I hope yours was just as delicious.

M-i-c-k-e-y M-o-u-s-e

A month or so ago, a friend of mine asked me to make Disney shirts for her kids (a boy and a girl) so they could wear them on an upcoming trip to Disney World. I wanted the shirts to look classic and not goofy (no pun intended) so I chose to use the iconic Mickey Mouse head and ears as the main focus and tailor them to each child.

I found a silhouette of Mickey's head by googling "Mickey Mouse Head" (brilliant, right?) and a bunch of different images popped up. I also found styles of crowns for a boy and a girl for on top of Mickey and Minnie's heads. Next, I traced the images onto fabric, attached some fusible webing to the back, and ironed the silhouettes of the heads and crowns onto the shirts. I then used a zig-zag stitch all the way around to secure the applique.

To finish, I set my sewing machine's stitch length and width to a low setting and attempted to embroider the kids' names to their shirts in a "Disney-style" lettering. Let me tell you, this was not an easy task since I don't have an embroidery foot plus I have no experience embroidering so the names didn't turn out exactly how I wanted them (perfectionist side coming out.) Looking back I would have used freezer paper stenciling to stencil the names onto the shirts, however I hadn't heard about this method at the time so I did what I knew. Or in reality didn't know :P Live and learn right?

Anyways, here they are!

Aprons and "The Bee"

After I making a full-length apron for myself months ago, I bought fabric to make aprons for my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law for their birthdays. I made half aprons this time because I felt like the full-length version was just too much fabric when 1/2 would do just fine. Hopefully my sisters-in-law think so too :)

Baby bump alert! You can kind of see my baby bump in the second picture, and believe me when I tell you the picture makes me look small. I'm amazed at how much more I'm showing this time around. Many people told me that I would show quicker with the second baby, boy were they right. I'm 21 weeks this Friday, and I feel like I'm showing as much as I did at 25 weeks....I really hope this doesn't mean Connor is going to be a giant baby. Maybe I should cut back on the onion rings (which have become my latest, and most persistent, pregnancy craving.)

Speaking of babies, look who got jealous while I was trying to take pictures?

What can I say, I'm a sucker for that little face, I can't deny her anything. Lately, Haley has grown more and more attached to one Baby Einstein movie in particular called "Baby's First Sounds." The main character in it in a little bee hand puppet that makes appearances throughout the video and makes little buzzing and squeaking noises. Every time she sees that bee, she gets a giant smile on her face and squeals "BEEEE!!" She asks for that movie all the time. We'll be driving along in the car and we'll hear a little voice say, "Bee?" from the backseat.

It really is adorable, even if I have watched "Baby's First Sounds" at least 20 times over the past 4 days. Seriously, I have it memorized down to the music that goes along with each scene. As Pat reminded me a couple days ago though, someday Haley is going to be 16 years old and we're going to pull out "Baby's First Sounds" and sob over how much she used to love The Bee. I just hope Baby Einstein comes out with another movie featuring The Bee before I start playing the movie over and over in my sleep.

Please hold

So, you may have noticed I haven't done a lot of posting lately. That's because 1. I'm 20 weeks pregnant today (yay halfway point!) which has made me sooooo lazy sleepy 2. I have had so much going on lately and have been whipping out projects like it's my job in between all that other stuff so I haven't had time to post them!

So what have I been up to?

1. Making birthday presents for my mom and sisters-in-law
2. Chasing around a hyper 16-month-old
3. Taking said 16-month-old to the doctor and hospital for chest x-rays for possible bronchitis (none, thank God!)
4. Pinning down 16-month-old while the husband and I attempt to get her to wear an aspirator mask for 10 minutes - which is FOREVER in toddler world - to help get rid of her smoker's hack (in case you're wondering, she hates that machine, even if it is named "Margo Moo" and shaped like a cow to make it more "fun")
5. Making necklaces out of metal washers and Diamond Glaze (there will be pictures and a possible giveaway on this soon!)
6. Multiple trips to the OB to monitor my cervix and see if I need to get a cerclage (ugh there's that "c" word) to keep the baby in til the big day. So far it's a no!
7. Playing more with freezer paper stenciling - I know, I have a problem
8. Running, yes I said running, 4 miles, 3 days a week. I'm sure I'm quite the sight to my neighbors as I waddle around the neighborhood in all my pregnant glory
9. Driving to Mississippi to get a kid's dresser with shelves we found on Craig's List to use as my new craft table and storage (yay!!)
10. Making more cloth stackable rings for a friend
11. Gathering fabric to make Steeler's-themed baby bedding for Connor (I need to start on that soon!)
12. Making a hanging crib basket for Haley so she has toys to play with in the morning - and hopefully lets us sleep in
13. Random other projects/duties that keep popping up

So that's what's up. Thanks for holding, I should be with you shortly :)

Freezer paper stenciling: a no-sew project with tutorial

How to use freezer paper stenciling on a shirt

The freezer paper stenciling continues!! I really love this method of embellishment and when that happens, I can't seem to stop myself. So, why fight it right? After I made the Ray Ban sunglasses shirt, I got inspired to make matching onesies for my daughter and her cousin, Avalene so they can match when we visit for Labor Day in September.

I went to Wal-Mart and bought onesies for $2.00 each and used an image that I enlarged from http://www.picnik.com/ as my stencil. Let me pause and say if you haven't checked out this website, go there now and sign up! Membership is free for the basic version, and the program allows you to edit and add fun stickers and text to your photos. In this case, I found this really cute butterfly pattern that looks great on the onesies.

The greatest part about this craft is you only need a handful of inexpensive supplies to personalize your own t-shirts, pants, pillows, etc., and there's no sewing required so anyone can do it! So, how do you do it? I'm glad you asked.

You need:

• Freezer paper. You can usually find a giant roll of Reynolds freezer paper at your local grocery store - I got mine for $5.50 at Wal-Mart. If your grocery store doesn't carry freezer paper, you can order it many places online. Just use good ol' Google.
• Fabric paint. I use Tulip matte fabric paint. Don't get the dimensional stuff unless you want the item you're painting to have a "puffy" look to it. The matte fabric paint dries flat, and it's about $4.00 for a 4 oz. bottle at your local craft store.
• A stencil, for example clip art. You can make your own stencil by printing out text and clip art from Word, or you can use any picture really. Again, I used an image and text I created on Picnik.com.
• An X-Acto knife. This is used to cut out your image or text.
• An iron. Used to iron your freezer paper stencil on.
• The item you want to paint. In my case, I wanted to stencil a t-shirt for a little girl's birthday coming up.
• Embellishments (optional). This is anything extra you might want to decorate your item with like rhinestones, ric rac, fabric, etc.

Step 1:

Find an image you like and trace it onto the paper side of the freezer paper. You'll notice the freezer paper has a glossy side and a paper side. Make sure you're tracing the image onto the correct side; the glossy side is what will be ironed down onto your shirt later. If you find it hard to trace, tape your image to a window, then place the freezer paper on top and trace.

Step 2:

Cut out your image/text with your X-Acto knife, making sure to save any extra pieces that will have to be ironed on as well (in my case the piece inside the "P" in princess and the little pieces inside the letter "e's"). Line up and iron image onto your shirt glossy side down, making sure your stencil is ironed on securely with no gaps where paint could leak.
Important: Iron another piece of freezer paper on the inside of your shirt opposite of the image to avoid paint leaks.

Step 3:

Paint over your stencil, making sure to paint from the outside of the stencil in so you're not jamming extra paint under the creases and making it smudge. I used a sponge brush and dabbed the paint on pretty liberally. If you're concerned about the paint not being thick enough, paint a second coat on top an hour or so after you paint the first coat.

Follow the drying instructions on your fabric paint bottle (mine said to lay flat and let dry 4 hours.) Don't get excited and peel the freezer paper off before the 4 hours are up or your paint will smear....I may or may not be speaking from experience here...

Step 4:
After the drying time is up, peel away your stencil and admire your amazing work of art. Add embellishments using fabric glue if you want, I added rhinestones because every little girl loves jewels on her clothes. If I start bedazzling everything I own, please stop me....

Ray Ban freezer paper stencil

I have a friend named Alex who is a huge fan of Ray Ban sunglasses - specifically white Ray Ban sunglasses. She loves them so much that she got my daughter a matching pair. I get the feeling Alex is trying to turn Haley into a little clone of her; she taught her to sing the courus of the Justin Beiber song "Baby" and how to put her little pointer finger up and say "rude!" What do you do when your 16 month old is suddenly a teenager? I guess that's a problem for another day.

Anyway, I have been wanting to try my hand at freezer paper stenciling lately, and Alex's love of Ray Bans seemed to be a good opportunity for a t-shirt design. I googled "Ray Ban + Wayfarer sunglasses" and found the perfect image, then used freezer paper and fabric paint to paint the design onto a t-shirt! Ta-dah! Super cute t-shirt after 4 hours of dry time.

If you go to Google and search "freezer paper stenciling" under images, you'll see tons of adorable clothes made using only a freezer paper stencil and fabric paint. So cute and so easy! You can use freezer paper stenciling on everything from totes,

to pillows,

to clothing galore (all images found through Google.)

Clothing seems to be the most popular - it's great to have a shirt personalized with your own design. I can't wait to make more stuff with freezer paper stenciling! Let me know if you want a more in-depth tutorial. I have a feeling you'll be seeing more shirts and clothes using this method in the near future.

Baby presents

It seems like everyone is pregnant these days (myself included), so what better time to make cute baby gifts like blankets, or cloth stacking rings? I have a few projects on my plate right now (all self-imposed of course, I'll never learn), but when I found out that a friend of mine just had her baby, I knew I wanted to make something for the new little squirt.

Throughout the pregnancy, my friend and her husband decided that they didn't want to find out the sex of the baby. I can't say that I have the same willpower, but I'm happy to say they were able to hold out until the big day when they found out they had a new baby girl. I decided to put together some necessities that all parents need for new babies, so I bought a yard of cute butterfly fabric and here's what I came up with:

Burp cloths. What new parent doesn't need two (or ten) of these...

Washcloths and baby wash for that first (usually not-so-happy bath)...

And pacifiers and a pacifier clip to keep baby from losing the pacifier all over creation (I speak from experience.)

Aside from a few snags that I ran into while sewing (combination of the wrong needle for my fabric and poor quality thread that kept breaking...grr), everything was super easy and fun to make! I'm definitely planning on making more crafts like this for future baby gifts (and some for my little one due in December too.)

You can find links to make these crafts here:

• Burp cloths
• Washcloths
• Pacifier clip