Neglected Blog

 My blog often gets put aside :-(   For almost 25 years I was so faithful with filling a daily journal with the most mundane things.  Doing laundry,  my babies doing cute things, baking, etc.  I wrote in it almost every night before I went to sleep. I  have several volumes of  diaries filled.  It is such a blessing to go back and read those entries that I made almost 33 years ago.  Sometimes I get misty eyed or laugh when I read little stories about my babies.  My daughter just turned 30 and her brother will soon be 33.  I'm so glad I recorded so much of their childhood. 

A few years ago I switched to online blogging. That required me to actually be sitting at a computer.  In some ways it is nicer because I can share my journal and add pictures. I can also access it from many locations, and I don't have to worry about losing it or having it destroyed.  On the downside. there are some things that I don't want to share with the public.  I now have a folder in my documents for those private journal entries.  Actually having to sit at a computer is also a downside since I don't have a laptop or tablet so I can't take that to bed with me and blog right before I go to sleep as I did in the past.  Maybe I should go back to a handwritten one for those private entries so I can write them before I go to sleep at night just as I used to.

And then there's life.  Do I just go about living it, or do I take time to document it?  Ha!  Can anyone identify with that?  Wife, grandmother, mother, daughter,R.N., small business owner, choir member, Sunday School teacher.  Something has to give and it's usually the blog.  I have many things that I want to share with you so I hope to write another post very soon.  One of the things I really want to share is my new granddaughter!  Yay!  I promise to tell you all about her very soon.  As it is, I wrote this on my break and in between seeing students this afternoon!  I'm all about multi-tasking!

Cracked Wheat Bread and Fonts

Cracked Wheat Bread for Bread Machine

My husband and I love bread.  Good, homemade, filling, yeasty bread.  We love to have it toasted with all natural peanut butter and my homemade strawberry jam, or with a little butter when it's straight out of the oven.  It is a wonderful addition to a meal of homemade soup.

I had some cracked wheat ( bulgar wheat) in my freezer.  It's been there a LONG time.  But it was still fine.  I have an old bread cookbook and found a recipe for Cracked Wheat Bread.  It was grand.  Since getting the cookbook 30 years ago, the Internet has become my main source for recipes.  I did a search and found many recipes for Cracked Wheat Bread.    I haven't made all of them yet but this one was VERY easy.  If you click on the picture, you will go to the website where you can get the recipe.  All of the ingredients can be put in a bread machine.  If you want to bake it in the bread machine you can.  I like to put my bread in a loaf pan so I set my bread machine to the dough setting.  If you slice each loaf into 16 slices, each slice will have 121 calories, 1.6 g fiber, and 3.5 grams protein.  I had a slice for breakfast.  I sliced 1 oz. of Cabot's Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cheese onto the top of the slice and top browned it in my toaster oven.  Yummy!  With a bowl of fresh cantaloupe and peaches, I had a delicious breakfast.

 
As for embroidery, I have been busy this summer.  I'll have to post pictures of some of my projects in other blog posts.  One of the things that has kept me busy for the past month is fonts.  I follow some wonderful embroidery pages on Facebook.  One of the pages, 8 Claws and a Paw , offered a 1 month font membership.  I looked at their fonts and decided it was well worth it.  I purchased the membership and started buying fonts.  Once they are purchased, they are sent to me in an e-mail.  I could only purchase 10 at a time.  It took me many hours of sitting and "shopping".  After receiving the e-mail with the link to download the fonts, I had to create a folder  for each font and unzip each file.  This isn't difficult at all for one or two items but I purchased over 200 fonts!!!  Now I'm creating pictures of the fonts so my customers can see their choices.   As you can see below, I'm working my way through alphabetically.  The fonts below are a small sampling of some of the wonderful fonts I have now.


When you order from Nan's Nappies, you can pick out a few fonts that you like and I will e-mail you a picture of what the words you want will look like in that font. 

Jacobean Hummingbirds

So I am a little embarrassed to say that I had to look up the meaning of Jacobean.  Here is what I found on Wikipedia.

The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.

The Avid Embroiderer Blog ,www.annthegran.com,  says Jacobean is generally associated with crewel workings and often characterized by the fauna, floral and the beauty of forests. 

Once I saw the pictures I immediately realized that I had seen a lot of Jacobean work and didn't know that was the name for it!

I found these Jacobean applique' hummingbirds on Designs by JuJu.  ( www.designsbyjuju.com) and fell in love.  I had to get the collection and try it out.  These designs are definitely more time consuming than other applique' but the results are well worth the effort.  I bought a plain purple t-shirt for my first attempt .  What do you think?

Old Houses and Sibling Shirts

When you live in an old house, you just never know what is going to need repairing next.  In 2005 we took up the carpet in our living room and discovered that we had beautiful oak floors.  We had them refinished and they are so pretty.  If money had been no object, we would have had the same carpet removed from our dining room, staircase and upstairs hallway.  But we decided we would save the rest of the carpet for another day.  In the meantime, we had total remodeling done in out upstairs bathroom and kitchen.  The remodels have been wonderful and greatly enjoyed but we didn't choose to do them at this time.  A major leak in the main drain pipe was the cause of the remodeling.

 Now, 7 years later, we are finally going to have our dining room floor refinished.  The carpet has been way past due to be removed.  First of all, the carpet was OLD!  I've lived here 27 years and it was here when I moved in.  Second, we had a little dog who developed liver disease.  If you've ever dealt with that in an animal you know that toxins gradually build up in the pet, causing them to become senile.  Our little dog started urinating in the dining room .  We never had a problem with him before this.  I have shampooed that part of the carpet to death.  I used products specifically designed to kill pet odors. Even so, I kept smelling old carpet padding and it drove me crazy.  To top it off, our little Yorkie, who we've had for 15 months, recently discovered that spot in the carpet and HE had urinated there a couple of times.  We're not even sure when he did as we watch him pretty closely and he's rarely alone.  I guess it doesn't take him long.  This was the straw that broke this camels back.  I told my husband the carpet HAD to come up even if we couldn't refinish the floor right now.

Last week, he ripped up the carpet only to discover do-it-yourself vinyl floor tiles stuck to the hardwood!  The previous owners had started to pry the tile up in one corner,  We  suspect they discovered how time consuming and difficult it was to do that, stopped and put down wall to wall carpet. Monday morning the refinishing will begin.  It will be SO good to have a long awaited update done.  I'll have to post some before and after photos when the refinishing is done.

This past weekend I went to a baby shower.  The mom to be has a little boy and is now going to have a little girl.  I love making matching/coordinating shirts and onesies for siblings.  This mom has chosen crib bedding that has a theme of pink and brown butterflies.  They haven't shared the name they will give the baby so I couldn't use the babies name.  I put a pink and brown butterfly applique' on the baby sister shirt.  I didn't think a little boy should have a butterfly so I put a pink and brown car on his.

 

Personalized Matching Sibling Onesie and t-shirt

A few weeks ago, I made a set for two brothers.  The customer chose applique' frogs.

 

Matching Onesie and T-Shirt for Siblings

I just love these little shirts and think they are a great way to make the older sibling feel special also.

Facebook and Ice Cream Cups

Recently Facebook made it easier to give everyone a way to find my  Nan's Nappies page.  If you are on Facebook, please be sure to click on the link below and "Like" it so you can keep up with all of my work.
 
https://www.facebook.com/NansNappies


Now to tell you about something yummy, clever and easy!  I saw this link on my good friend, Hannah's blog.  (http://aholeistodig.blogspot.com )

 http://www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com/2012/03/thin-mint-ice-cream-cups/#comment-25389

The ice cream cups in the photo are made with Thin Mint cookies and Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.  My husband is not a fan of mint flavors but I can imagine all sorts of ice cream/cookie combinations for this.  How many times have you had a party and stood there trying to quickly dip ice cream for your guests?  How many times do you hear someone ask for " just a little bit" ?  How many times have the first bowls you dipped been melting while you were frantically dipping and your hand was getting tired?  No more!  You can make these several days ahead of your party.  I can imagine vanilla wafers with any flavor ice cream, Oreo's with cookies and cream, Pecan Sandies with Butter Pecan.  What flavors do you think you would try?    They are like individual ice cream cakes without the sore hands from trying to rapidly cut the cake for your guests.  CLEVER!

I worked for a couple of hours today at my second job as a school nurse.  Today I went with a group of special needs students to a pool.  I have one student in particular that I travel with.  He is a sweet autistic boy with diabetes.

I have an order to embroider a Formula 1 Race Car on a t-shirt.  The customer's first choice was for a red-t-shirt.  I didn't have a red t-shirt on hand but just knew that I could find one at Hobby Lobby.  I went there after work only to find that their smallest red T-shirt was a size 2-4.  I needed an 18 month size.  The second choice was light blue; they only had royal.  The third choice was white but they didn't have a white t-shirt in that size.  The customer told me to use a onesie.  Guess what?  They were sold out of 18 month size onesies!  I stopped by Babies R Us and bought 18 month size onesies.  Unfortunately they do not sell plain t-shirts in any size so I couldn't get the t-shirt there either.  There are days when things just don't work out as I'd like them to.

Dinosaurs

My favorite items to embroider are ones for my grandchildren.  I know the photo is a little grainy.  It was taken in low light with a cell phone. But I like it because it is my little grandson wearing an onesie with a triceratops applique'.  The design comes from Designs by JuJu Dino Crossing Applique' set.  http://www.designsbyjuju.com/designsets.aspx?pscat=63  

His older sister likes him wearing this top because Triceratops are her favorite dinosaurs! 

Sports Themes

I recently stitched this burp cloth to give as a gift. Our church gives baby showers for EVERY baby born to our congregation. I try to give at least two burp cloths to everyone and sometimes 3 if I have time and money. I was told that this family loves the Cowboys so I thought a football theme would be good for their little boy who is due in June. 

*Jan 2012 update. I wasn't crazy over the way "Will " looked when I chose to put it in a curve.  Live and Learn.  I have since started using a vasrsity style font.  A football or a helmet can be used.


This one was ordered by a dear friend who is soon going to be a grandmother for the very first time. I am so excited for her. She didn't think her only child would ever have a baby with his wife but God had other plans! We are all thrilled. They are expecting a little boy.  The star glows in the dark!  One mom told me that was very helpful in the middle of the night.

New Designs

I've been busy this week. Here are some new burp cloths and a new swaddler that I made.

I loved the jungle print on this fabric and the cute little elephant embroidered on the front added a special touch.

New Swaddler!

I used a nice soft flannel to make this cute little swaddler. It has a nice simple tri-fold design with a little pocket on the inside to keep the babies little feet wrapped.

Just lift up one side of the pocket, place the bay inside and tuck it around the baby. Then wrap the right side of the blanket over the baby and tuck in , and then wrap the left side over and secure with the Velcro fasteners.

I embroidered a cute little frog on here but after I saw it I thought a dragonfly would have been cute also. I didn't have a particular baby in mind when I made this so it doesn't have a name or monogram but those will be placed on swaddlers that are custom ordered. There are so many choices for colors and embroidery.

This one is sized for 0-3 month olds. I wash all of my baby items in Dreft before shipping them and all are made in my smoke free home.