Thimbleanna – Page 18 – My little online diary.

Three Things

31 Comments / May 3, 2017 May 3, 2017 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing, Smocking

1. Yipee! We have a finish over here! FinallyAGirl’s little spring bunny dress is all smocked and done. It would have been nice to have finished it by Easter, but we had a little unplanned hospital time with TheManoftheHouse, so there were other priorities. It’s all good though — little bunnies are just as happy in the spring and summer as they are at Easter!

I purchased my patterns online at The Children’s Corner Store. The dress pattern is Lee and the pattern for the smocking is Baby Bunnies. There are kits available, but I had my own fabric — the pink 1/64″ pima cotton microcheck that is available in my little etsy shop. I love this teeny little check — it’s so sweet and it was a dream to smock.

I put my favorite little flower buttons on the back and added white piping where I could. I really wanted to add piping on the sleeve cuffs, but I wasn’t sure those little bias strips of fabric would be very happy with a straight-cut piping putting a crimp on their stretchy style. There’s a deep hem in this dress — maybe with any luck, FinallyAGirl will be able to wear it next Easter. Or, maybe, with even better luck, she’ll wear it out this summer and I can make another dress! ;-D

2. I updated my blog header. Yipee Again!!!

3. I was surfing around Ted Talks the other day and ran across this interesting talk by the author of “Still Alice”. “What You Can Do To Prevent Alzheimer’s”. My first reaction was to go learn how to knit. But I already know how to do that, so, I need to find some new skills to learn. Every. Day.

Here’s to smooth sailing into the weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Cookies I Don’t Want to Forget

18 Comments / April 24, 2017 April 24, 2017 / Chat, Cookie Monster, Recipes

Did you have a good weekend? Mine was short and sweet. Mostly cleaning and doing odd jobs around the house, but I did squeak in a little time for sewing. And if a girl’s going to clean and sew, she needs some sustenance! I was cleaning out the pictures on my iPad and ran across a picture of the recipe for some iced oatmeal cookies and they hit the sewing spot!

Usually, when I try a new recipe and like it, I tell myself it’s a keeper and I’ll make it again soon. The problem is, when “soon” comes around, I can’t remember where I found that really good recipe. So, I’m trying a new trick. I’ll file it here on my blog … and hope I can remember that that’s where I put it when the time comes. (Unfortunately, I have no idea where I first saw this recipe, so, if it’s yours — Thanks LOL! No, really, tell me in the comments and I’ll give you credit!)

Iced Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
2 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light-brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until soft and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add eggs, mixing until combined. Stir in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients, scrape the bowl as you go, and mix until just combined. Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.

Using a standard, medium-sized cookie scoop (about 2 Tbsp.) drop cookies onto a baking sheet, leaving plenty of space in between for spreading. Bake for 10 – 11 minutes or until edges start to turn a light golden brown color. If you like a crispier cookie, leave them in a minute or so longer. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

When cookies are completely cooled, drizzle with the icing. Store in an airtight container.

Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. milk
Whish together until combined completely.

And, next to having a cookie (or three) while you’re sewing, there’s nothin’ better than cookies in the cookie jar!

XOXO,
Anna

Save

Whoosh!

24 Comments / April 9, 2017 April 9, 2017 / Family, Store

That’s the sound the last few weeks made as they flew by. Holy Cow, it’s been crazy here and I’m looking forward to Easter just to catch my breath!

Last weekend, we had a flyby driving trip to Dallas and then back a longer way through Oklahoma — I should maybe back up a little. A few months ago, TheSecondChild moved back home while he looked for a new job. That was around the time that MeMum had been sick with pneumonia, so when she got out of the hospital, we moved her in with us too. We have plenty of room for both of them, but their “buddies” made it a little extra interesting. MeMum brought her cat Sally (she’s made appearances on the blog before) and TheSecondChild brought his two cats with him. For those of you keeping count, that’s five cats (and according to Anne five too many LOL). That’s too many cats to referee!

Fast forward a few months and a lot of poop-scooping, and TheSecondChild found a great job back in his favorite town of Dallas, so we packed him and his kitties up and took a roadtrip. One 15-hour drive day, one unload the truck and drive to Oklahoma day, one quick visit with family and 5-hr drive with a fly-by to The Mercantile, and one 9-hr drive day back home. Whew! Before we left, we tried to get a Five Cat Family picture, but it was impossible. We were throwing treats here and there to get them all in one shot, but it was a no-go. Poor little Sally hates all the other cats, so she wouldn’t play at all. The other four aren’t all that crazy about each other either, so they weren’t exactly co-operating.

Here’s a shot with Scruff and two black cats.

And here are three black cats. They must have some rule that 4 cats couldn’t all be in the same picture at once.

Scruff was feeling very outnumbered — four all black cats and his little ol’ gray and white self LOL. Anyway, the trip was quick but a success — TheSecondChild now has his first week at the new job under his belt and it looks like it will be a success.

THEN, three days after we got back, our little cherub FinallyAGirl brought her parents for a 4-day visit. We had a great time — what a little doll! She wore us out though — she doesn’t sleep much and she goes a mile a minute. We had several days of pretty weather and we took her for her first wagon ride (in her daddy’s wagon ;-D) — she LOVED it!

I made her the little Pixie hat — the pattern is The Jovie Pixie Baby Bonnet. I made the largest size (and sized up the crochet hook by 2 sizes) and I won’t even tell you how many times it took me to get the right size — but it was lots of crocheting and ripping out and it may or may not have been more than three times! ;-D

And finally, in the middle of it all, lots of new fabric arrived in my little etsy shop. Lots of Atsuko Matsuyama prints from both Yuwa and Lecein …

and this super cute little kitty and macaron print from the Yuwa Live Life collection.

Ok, I’m tired and off to bed! I’m hoping to get caught up on blog reading this week — have a good one!
XOXO,
Anna

Seattle

23 Comments / March 22, 2017 March 22, 2017 / Travel

I took a little trippy-trip a week ago and I haven’t had time to even post about it! It’s a sad state of affairs here in ThimbleannaLand.

TheFirstChild had a conference in Seattle and he invited me along to play during the day with SweetiePie (AND FinallyAGirl!) We had lots of fun, in spite of rain every day. It is Seattle, after all. ;-)

We did some of the touristy stuff. We visited Pike Place Market first. I love markets, but it’s sort of sad to visit them on a trip — I really wanted a kitchen so I could take some of the beautiful flowers, vegetables, and amazing fish home. (Not that I have a clue how to cook fresh fish or seafood, but it sounded good!). We also visited the first Starbucks (we had to) and found the famous gum wall (I was amazed at the variety in color of the gum!)

I think my very favorite part of the trip was the visit to the Chihuly exhibit. My oh My. So much beautiful glass in one place. I was only sorry that MeMum wasn’t there with us — she’s always loved beautiful glass and Chihuly is in a world of his own. I LOVED the boat full of “balls”. The colors were so gorgeous.

After Chihuly, we mostly just shopped and played around for the rest of the trip. We visited several neighborhood shopping areas (saw the Troll Under the Bridge in Fremont) — our favorite was the Queen Anne area where we found some fun baby gift shops.

TheFirstChild was able to join us on our last afternoon, and luckily we had a short break in the rain. We went to Kerry Park where we ~~wasted~~ spent a few hours hoping the clouds would clear so we could see Mt. Rainier. We got a teeny tiny peek of the snow covered western edge of the mountain, toward the top. (How’s that for a description — a fancy way of saying we saw a little spot that could have easily been confused with a cloud. Thank goodness for pictures on the internet that told us where to look!)

Anyway, it was great fun to get away, even if it was a short trip. The best part was all the snuggle time with FinallyAGirl and spending time with TheFirstChild and SweetiePie. Those moments are few and far between and time is fleeting, so they’re very much cherished.

Hope you’re having a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Save

The Doll Cradle

25 Comments / March 5, 2017 March 5, 2017 / Quilting

My Oh My. WHERE did the weekend go? I feel like it lasted about 2 hours! I was busy busy this weekend — time flies when you’re having fun!

One of my projects was to clean up this little doll cradle that MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I played with when we were little girls.

I always thought that it was a doll cradle, but MeMum said that she and BigDaddy bought it when I was a baby and I actually slept in it. (Which was a little horrifying because when we used it as a doll cradle, we’d put our babies in for a nap and the bottom would fall out and they’d end up on the floor LOL!) When my boys came along, they used it to hold their teddy bears and other stuffed animals. And somewhere in there, someone (BigDaddy or TheManoftheHouse) fixed the bottom so it wouldn’t fall out anymore.

Anyway, it’s been in the attic for about 25 years and now that FinallyAGirl will soon be playing with dolls, I decided I should get it out and clean it up. It was REALLY dusty and dirty, but it cleaned up pretty well. Look at the cute little vintage (because apparently I’m vintage too LOL) vinyl mattress.

A sparkly clean little cradle needs some new bedding, doesn’t it? This is where the little Goldilocks project I’ve been working on comes in …

I made a new little set for the cradle with a fat quarter pack (plus a few scraps from my stash for the applique) and a little yardage for the mattress cover. (Oooh, and the quilt looks crooked, but it’s really rectangular — I was taking the picture standing above it and I was a little off to one side.) The back of the little quilt and the pillow also came from the fat quarter pack and there were quite a few big pieces left over.

Now my old doll has a comfy new bed. Look how happy she is — smiling while she’s sleeping!

I used Cassie’s great tutorial for the little pillowcase (the fabric pieces were much smaller, but I used the same crochet instructions) and I love the sweetness it adds to the set.

I also did lots of big stitch quilting while I watched tv with MeMum. It was fun to quilt around the little applique pieces. Speaking of which, I had a few questions about the applique — I just enlarged a picture of the fabric on my computer and traced the basic shapes right from my monitor. Then I added a lot of embroidery for the little features (like jewelery, bow ties, etc.) because I’m not one of those people that can applique a piece of fabric the size of a sprinkle ;-D.

So, now, my baby is patiently waiting for FinallyAGirl to start playing with Dollies — we she can’t wait!

Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna