Drying fingernail polish with water? - Day 324

Pinterest is awesome and one tip that I have been wanting to try is to paint my nails and dry them in cold water. Yeah I was skeptical. So I thought oh, cold water or ice water....I chose ice water because I thought the temperature was maybe what helped the process. So I put a lot of ice in my bowl of water. BIG mistake! As soon as I put my fingers in the water I was in pain! You are supposed to leave them in for 3 minutes, and it was the longest 2 minutes of my life!!! So next time I will try just cold tap water and no ice to see the difference.

It totally worked though. I didn't dry them off with a towel for fear that it would smear, so I just let them air dry. It was really fast and nice, because I only spent ten minutes dong it and then could immediately move on to do the next project without worrying about a smudge.

Sweet potatoes - Day 323

 I love sweet potatoes. I don't just use them for Thanksgiving, I use them almost every day. That is a lot of potatoes you are probably thinking, but I will explain. I hide my sweet potatoes in my children's food. Muhahahahaha! This is my process:

I entered a Martha Stewart giveaway before Tayrien was even conceived and I won this Beaba baby food machine. It is a steamer and a blender. I also go a recipe book and a flower shaped ice cube freezer to freeze the baby food in. I use this to make my sweet potato cubes. 

Here is the machine. It is small. I cubed two sweet potatoes and place them in the steamer dish.

 You have to fill the bottom with water to the 3 mark

You also add water into this little hole. 

This is what it looks like after it is done cooking. It has a little light on the knob that will turn off when finished. 

They want you to save the water in the bottom, so I poured mine in a Tupperware. 

I dump the potatoes back into the dish with out the steamer basket and add a little of the reserved water. I had to do this 2-3 times. You don't want to over do it.

Then I place them in my regular ice cube tray (cause I can't find the flower one) and freeze for a few hours. When they are solid I set them out on the counter for 5 min and then pop them out. 

I label a ziplock and put them in the freezer. 

This was dinner last night. We had spaghetti and I put two ice cubes into the sauce. No one could tell. I also put them in my pancakes with a little pumpkin pie spice. Also mac-n-cheese is a good one. 

Also last night for dinner I made these sweet potato fries. 

Ingredients
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into strips
2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Salt and pepper, a few dashes of each

 

Peel them, cut them and season them. Cook them at 425 for 25-35 min. Mine were done at 20 min.

Can you tell what I was craving??? I love sweet potatoes. I have also done the fries with just Olive oil and salt and they were divine!!!

Vintage apron step 2 - Day 321

 This is step two in the vintage apron!

Easier is purple, fancier is red text.

Ok, so this isn't an exact science. I place the third fabric pattern up to the finished top. I pinned the middle and at the edge where the top ends. Then hold it out past that mark about 8 inches. Cut. measure how far down you want this layer to end and cut. 

Also use this piece to measure for the second piece. They will be the same width, just make sure you let the bottom layer be 4-6 in longer than the top layer.

Fold and iron the side seams. Sew. 

The top layer will have 3 box pleats. How you make a box pleat is you measure the exact center of the fabric and iron. Half way between this mark and the edge iron another mark. Same on the other side. You should have three iron marks.

 Back to the center fold. I want you to lay the fabric so the fold you ironed in the center so the fold is on the right and the raw edges are on the left.

 Measure, from right to left, in one inch.

 Take the raw edge and fold back toward the right. Iron.

Repeat with the other layer.

This is what it looks like before you iron it down.

After you iron it will leave a crease. 

Measure down two inches down that ironed seam. Sew down that seam.

 After you sew don that seam you need to turn it over and flatten the little bubble in the center.

Sew across the top of that seam. 

This is how it looks like when the top has been sewn across the top.

  

Finished box pleat

 This pattern has three layers. You will cut all three layers the same width, but make sure the length is longer by 5 in in each tier.

Hem all sides of all layers and gather at the top. 

I like to stagger the sides a little so this is what my edge looks like, you can make them even. 

Sew to the skinny waist band.

What is fun about this pattern is you can stop here. You don't have to add the top if you don't want. this is a totally cute half apron!

Finished fancy apron!

Back

Finished simple!

Vintage apron step 1 - Day 320

I have this roommate from college, who I have talked about before, who designs fabric. I have been a procrastinator in making projects that use her fabric. NO more! I found an etsy store that still had her Lizzy dish collection that was inspired by the kitchen, so what better project than an apron! I made two, one fancy one and a more simple version so choose the path you like. The fancy one will be in red text, the easier in orange.Black text will be for both of them.

These are the three fabrics I chose. Aren't they fun and retro?!

I always start out by figuring out the ratio of what fabric goes where and how much it I will use. These are just pinned on my Barbie (dress form). 

I measured the length I wanted the top to be. I cut a perfect square the length and width of my torso.  You just hold the fabric on your chest and use your fingers to mark where you want to cut. This is not an exact science since it is an apron! 

ok, so lkittle tip, I find it much easier to fold my hems and iron them so it makes it way easier to sew. So you fold the hem over 1/4 in and iron.

I wanted the top to be bigger at the top and gets narrow at the waist. So to do this you take the sides, at the bottom and fold it in about an inch. Place a finger on the bottom and let the seam from the bottom to the top fall where it does naturally. Iron.

 This is what it should look like when you are done with the second ironing. Sew all the way around.

 Top seam.

This is what it looks like when you are done with the sewing. 

here is the bottom seam lined up with the top so you can see the width difference. 

 The next part is the waist. I cut a strip 5 in by the width of the fabric, I think it was 44 in.

 Fold the seams over once and iron.

 On each end of the strip you will fold it exactly to the center of the strip. You will lay one side over the other like a burrito. You also don't want the middle to overlap, you want it to stay as wide as possible.

Finished product after ironing. 

 Cut 4 inches by the width of the fabric (44in) twice.

Sew the strips together at the shortest end. 

Sew the length of the strip and turn right side out.

Sew the ends shut.  You are done with your waist piece.

 You need to take your two long strips and sew them up the length so you will end up wit two separate strips. 

 Connect with the waist piece. The order from left to right is skinny strip, waist piece, skinny piece.

Sew the waistband to the top.

 This is what it should look like. You wrap the straps around the back an tie in front in a bow.

The other one looks similar, the waist band is thinner. 

Next you will cut a piece of the third fabric 19 in x 4 in.

Sew  lengthwise and turn right side out. Sew ends shut. Run a stitch down the center and ruffle it.

Sew onto apron and add ric-rac in the center. 

Simple version is to just use ric-rac and sew it across the top!

I did not like the length of the waist band after it is in the bow, so I cut it shorter. I was able to use the leftover for this part. I cut one 3 in part, folded it over added two d rings and sewed to the apron on the back side.

Front view.

The other side I attached the long piece to the apron and sewed it. This will be the one you feed through the d rings.

Front view.

This is what your top looks like when you are done!!!

I hate D rings so I just measured and sewed both ends to the top of the apron. The reason why I chose D rings for the other one, is I don't have her measurements to make her neck band!

Part two comes tomorrow!