sewtakeahike

new venture

                                                                           

Shhhh, don't tell Sarah, but I have no idea what I am doing!!!!  She recently asked me to make a camera case for her to take on holiday in June, so yesterday I started a prototype to see what I could come up with.  Keep in mind, I had never even thought of making a camera case before she asked, so after MANY revisions, much seamripping, cutting pieces apart and starting over, this is what I have come up with. 

                              

The whole bag is lined with cotton batting and haphazardly quilted around some of the designs in the fabric.  Inside there is a little pocket which has a velcro closure to store extra batteries, memory cards and such. 

                              

I really liked the small scale of this project!  I also love that I was able to make this from virtually all recycled materials.  I used one of these swatches for the outside, and the lining is a thrifted cotton bedsheet.  Oh happy day!

Now that I have all the mistakes out of the way, I can start on the real thing.

~Penny

BBQ chicken pizza

                                                            

What kind of breakfast person are you?  As I sit here at the computer at 6:40 am, I am eating a piece of BBQ chicken pizza and drinking a cola energy drink.  Very rarely does a donut or cold cereal (or anything sweet) sound good to me in the morning.  I have never been a traditional breakfast person, preferring leftovers from dinner the night before every time.  Tacos, mattar paneer, fried rice, chicken parmesan, chips and salsa, cheese and onion enchiladas......... I think I need another piece of pizza!

I guess one "traditional" breakfast I don't get bored with is cream of wheat and toast.  My dad used to make cream of wheat for us (or maybe me, I can't remember) as kids.  The secret to the whole breakfast though is sprinkling salt onto the toast after you butter it.  SOOOO good. 

Anyway, the whole point to this post is to give you a beauty of a recipe for BBQ chicken pizza.  Truly, I have never tasted one so good as this. 

What you need:

• 1 lb (or so) chicken breast
• BBQ sauce (I use sweet baby ray's)
• premade pizza crust (you know the kind that is in a bag and prebaked, or make your own as you like)
• cilantro
• red onion (cut in rounds)
• jalapenos in a jar
• shredded cheese (I use a combo of mozzarella and sharp cheddar)

What to do:

• In a crock pot, spread about 1/4 C of BBQ sauce over the bottom of the pot and then put in chicken breast.  Put more BBQ sauce on top of the chicken and cook on high or low (low for 4-5 hours, high for 2.5-3 hours) until the chicken breast can be pulled apart easily with 2 forks.  ***As a side note, you could stop here and have some amazing BBQ chicken on a bun if you like.
• Once the chicken is done, shred it with 2 forks and preheat oven according to pizza crust directions.  Spread BBQ sauce over pizza crust and layer chicken, chopped jalapenos, onion rounds and cheese to your liking on crust.  Bake according to pizza crust directions (the crust I use is baked for 7.5 minutes).
• Remove from oven, sprinkle with cilantro, cut and serve. 

~Penny

Shopping green

After 2 and 1/2 weeks of no grocery shopping, I decided to take the plunge today and went to get groceries.  I think the only thing that kept me from staying home instead was the fact that I had these and I was so excited to use them!  Lisa sent me a free set of 3 (thank-you Lisa!) to try and give her my opinion, and I purchased another set as well because I never buy just three different kinds of produce.  (and, I may have to purchase anther set in the near future because I used all 6 bags). 

It was so nice to be able to come home and not have one bag of plastic to deal with.  They make a perfect addition to my wrap-it-up bags and market bags.  By golly, I am actually excited to grocery shop now!

Thank-you all for the well wishes for our recent trips, you are all so considerate!  We had a great time in Phoenix this last weekend.  Lots of sleeping (no kidding, about 10-12 hours/night!!), hanging out, shopping, and for me, swimming and laying by the pool.  Yum.  Eat it up.  We also made it to a 3D IMAX showing of a Grand Canyon river trip.  As my father-in-law said (over and over) it was fantastic!!!  There were parts in the film where I actually felt sick to my stomach from the feeling of going over the waves in the river.  Several times I ducked so I wouldn't get splashed, and several times a tear rolled down my cheek because I love river trips so much.  I highly recommend the Grand Canyon 3D IMAX film to anyone near an IMAX theatre.  You will be happy you went, and who knows, it may put a bee in your bonnet to go on a river trip!  We'll talk again soon,

~Penny

in and out

                                                                  

I'll be in and out for the next week or so, we are doing a little traveling.  We got back from

                                                    

yesterday and are heading to Phoenix Friday morning to visit some family.  Here's one of my fav. shots from Vegas of one of my good friends (in the green hat) and an acquaintance of mine.  They were both so gracious to amuse me while I picked out their garb and snapped this shot.  They are both such beautiful women don't ya think?

Be back soon!

~Penny

backpacking, bambi and bears

Believe it or not, in addition to sewing, crocheting, baking, knitting, and paper making, backpacking is one of my favorite things to do.  My husband and I just started planning a week long backpacking trip in Yosemite for August and I have never seen him so excited.  We are taking along a sweet couple that has never backpacked before and they are equally excited.  I can hardly sit still.  In preparation for our trip, I started exercising again.  Like I've been telling Lenny, I don't want to be the weak link on this trip.  You never know when the weak link will have to be eaten!!!  In all seriousness though, I suck (wind) going uphill.  It kills.  I'm slow.  But, it's hard to keep up with me going downhill.  I have my leki hiking poles and often times will jog/run downhill.  I've been told I look like a praying mantis when I go downhill, but who cares.  I love it. 

I'm a little nervous though, for this trip.  Here in Colorado, we have backpacked all over, and have never run into any bears. We've always taken (feeble) precautions though, hanging our food (although sometimes it was only a mere 5 feet off the ground) and cooking away from our tent.  In Yosemite however, the story is that encountering bears is to be expected.  Whether it's on the trail or hearing them trying to get into our bear-proof food containers at night, I am trying to prepare myself for this.  I have always been a nervous Nellie even when it's just the little patterings of mice (or Bambi) outside our tent at nighttime.  I wonder how this will go.  Hum.  I think there will be a lot of praying going on.  Yes, yes, I think there will be. 

So in the true spirit of backpacking, here is one of my "I've had enough and I am so tired I could cry (and often have)" photos that my husband took of me as part of a tradition he started.  Upon taking the traditional photo, he says, "the next time you want to go backpacking, I'm going to show you this photo!".  He's such a sweetie!  And I love him way lots!                                    

Here's to all you backpackers out there! 

                         

~Penny

ruffles and bags

I'm sick.  I mean really sick.  I cannot stop collecting, making, dreaming of bags.  I ordered this one from Lisa's etsy earlier this week and I love it!  She has a whimsical little etsy shop and I love the way she recycles!  (just a note, she is having a sale for 20% off all orders in April.  read her announcement to find out how to partake!)

                                          

                         

I am such a sucker for ruffles and when I saw this bag recycled from a ruffled pillowcase, I just had to have it!

Also, I have had some people express interest in the crochet market bag from my last post, so keep your eyes peeled for shop updates with these!  I made a few changes to the pattern and think I have a better bag now.  I just put this one in my shop!  More to come soon......

                

~Penny

sew inspired, market tote

                                     

by this that I had to crochet/sew this

                              

I'm loving this aqua and red combo right now!  I will be making more of these!  For those interested, I modified this pattern to make this market tote.  I'm personally going to start taking two of these to the grocery with me.  One for veggies, and one for fruits.  I think I'm going to go make another one real quick, it's a fun and easy pattern!

~Penny

holy smokes, it IS a bag!

Ok, ok, sorry to have drug this out so long!  Sometimes my days just don't go as planned and, well, you know.  Surely none of you have ever run into that problem though!  So, for those of you who guessed it was a bag, You are right!

Here's the story.  A couple weeks ago I picked up this free pattern at hobby lobby and immediately started scheming.  Lenny and I are taking a few trips the next couple of weekends and I wanted a new airplane/briefcase bag.  I decided to modify this bag pattern for exactly that purpose. This is what I ended up with:

                                 

                                       

This is the bottom of the bag.  I sewed leather squares on it for feet.                                                

                           

Once I had the bag completely crocheted and was ready to make the lining, I decided to insert something into the lining to help the bag keep it's form better.  The sides were pretty stiff, but not as stiff as I wanted, so I added pieces of "plastic canvas" (found with cross-stitch supplies) into the lining. 

                         

Overall, I am very happy with how this bag turned out and will definitely use this pattern again!

~Penny

                     

teaser for Sarah

w.i.p. and a m.e.m.e.

                                                                  

I'm at it again with the crocheting.  Here is a sneak peek of my latest project I started yesterday.  More to come soon, but for now, I was tagged earlier this week for a 4 things meme by AnnieB.  So here goes.....

• 4 jobs I've had:  ice cream scooper, phlebotomist, grocery clerk, dental hygienist
• 4 places I've been: cascadas de micos, Edmonton mall, kayaking the Salt river in Arizona, and backpacking to Rainbow lake.
• 4 place I've lived: Kansas, Montana, Kansas AGAIN, and Colorado
• 4 fav TV shows:  my husband and I decided years ago to get rid of our TV and have not had once since!
• 4 fav radio programs:  It has been a loooooonnnnnnggg time since I've listened, but, NPR's Click and Clack and the Garrison Keeler show were fav's once upon a time......
• 4 fav foods:  Mattar Paneer, coconut shrimp, filet mignon, and cheese and onion enchiladas.
• 4 (or more) places I'd rather be:  Peter Island, Atlantis, Machu Picchu, or anywhere on a river in a kayak (ok, not just anywhere, class III or less would be grand).  Ok, since I have been short and sweet in the other areas, I REALLY NEEEEED to go into more detail with this one.  How about this, waking up with the breeze blowing through this and all the magical sounds of the forest.  Or how about this, hiking from one side of Scotland to the other.  Or how about tandem biking with your sweetie through Europe.  Or how about cruising through the Greek Isles.  I truly could go on and on and on and on. 

I'm going to tag Jordana, Allyson, Stacey, and Amy.  I would truly love to read your answers to this meme, but please play along only if you wish!

~Penny

mmmm, I love chicken pot pie!

                                                                        

Yesterday I made a crock pot of chicken noodle soup and waalaaah, today we have chicken pot pie!

This was really easy to make and very low fat (until the pot pie part!)

For the chicken noodle soup, place these ingredients in a crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours:

• 1 lb chicken breast
• 3 or so stalks celery, sliced thick
• 2 or 3 handfuls baby cut carrots
• chicken stock (40-60 oz.)
• dried thyme
• salt
• pepper
• dried parsley
• 3 bay leaves
• dried onion

For the last hour of cooking, add one package of homemade egg noodles (found in the freezer section of the grocery.  Season with salt and pepper and enjoy!

The next night, take the leftovers to a new (not so healthy) level by doing this:

• Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter in a pan, add about 1/2 C. flour to make a roux.  Add 1 C. milk and some of the stock from the soup and heat until thick.  Add all the bits (chicken, celery, carrots, noodles) from the soup to this mixture and heat up.  Season with more thyme, salt and pepper if needed. 
• Fill ramekins until almost full and cover with a premade pie crust ( I used pillsbury brand found in the dairy section. It is rolled up and in a long box).  Bake at 400 degrees until pie crust is brown and enjoy!!

                     

             

Yay for chicken pot pie!

~Penny

Monday shop update

The bags I put in the shop last Monday went so quickly, A BIG THANK-YOU!!!  I will be putting more bags in the shop on Monday (tomorrow) and these will have a slightly longer handle per the request of several people in a previous post.  Now you will be able to wear your wrap it up bag on your shoulder for those times when your hands are full.  Spring is in the air (even though it is snowing here), so these bags will speak to you with color! 

EDIT: shop update here

~Penny

new look 6463

                                                      

I love this pattern!  This has to be the easiest pattern I have ever made for a skirt.  A friend of mine gave me this rayon material a while back, so really, the only cost I had for the skirt was for the elastic in the waistband and the thread.  I made view "B" of New Look 6463 in misses size 13 (it doesn't really come in a size 13, I just cut it out between the size 12 and size 14 lines).  View "B" only has 3 pattern pieces and I decided to only use two of them, omitting the belt.  It was so easy to put together and now I'm looking for more fabric to make more.  I love wearing simple skirts in the summertime, they are so breezy and cool.  This one happens to look great with my chacos and mountain hardware vest (which is a staple in my wardrobe!).  Here it is on me, with the aforementioned vest:

                         

Here is the pattern and the different views.

                

I think I may try the shorter version of view "D" next!

~Penny

Adventures with Eggman

You all know those pay it forwards that were going around a while back?  I signed up with Lisa's PIF, and I received my package in the mail this week!  I was SSSOOOOO excited, and impressed! 

                                             

Isn't this the cutest tote you have EVER seen?  I believe it was made exclusively from one pillowcase.   What a great idea and pattern.  I LOVE, love, love the piping and the print is to die for!!!  It's so perfect!!!  That's not all......

                     

                               

She also sent this little fabric covered notebook and........ EGGMAN!!!!!  He is so cute.  Lisa had stuffed him with a butterfinger cadbury egg, which I promptly ate.  Eggman seemed rather relieved to be rid of the egg too, so we were both happy.  We introduced ourselves, chatted for a while and then he wanted to take a walk.  He really is a curious egg.  He was rather enamored with the fire from this candle but when I explained to him what would happen if he got too close, he got this crazy look on his face:

                   

                           

and screamed like a girl!  He has been hiding away in a box since and doesn't want to come out!!!  Please, please pray for my Eggman!

~Penny

wrap it up bag shop update and a question

                                                       

I am updating my Etsy shop with some more wrap-it-up bags!  I have updated the pattern as well, making a boxed bottom, changing the position of the snap, and updated the handle as well.  I have a question for you though.  Would you prefer *edit-the appearance of* the handles to be like the ones in this picture:

                                       

OR, like these:

edit:  Just for clarification, the wrap it up bags are for shopping/groceries.  The handles are meant to be carried by hand since they may ultimately end up stuffed to the gills with stuff.

I would really appreciate your input!

~Penny