Knock-off Mondays: Cuffed Crop Tutorial

I bought a yard  (60 wide) of this cute chiffon in LA for $1.99.  We did a little online window shopping for inspiration and found this on Piperlime.  I made the neck a little narrower, b/c I hate it when my shirt is always falling off my shoulder showing my bra strap.

Source $78

I started w/ the same way as my Sheer Crop Shirt (tutorial here).

 Step 1: Measure the opening of your sleeve.  Mine was 20 inches so I cut a strip 20  5/8 (to allow for seam allowance) inches long and 4 inches wide.

 Step 2: Sew ends together.

 Step 3: Fold cuff in half so the seam is hidden.  Serge unfinished edge (Optional).

 Step 4:  Pin to right side of shirt.  Stitch.  Fold the stitched edged under and tack in place.  I also tacked the cuff in place on the outside of the shirt as well at the top of the sleeve.  

She love it so much, she wore it to a dance!  I snapped a few pics as she was heading out the door.  

TADAAA!!

It took me about an hour and I save $76.01 on the original. 

To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

Hanging out with Jay Leno

 #36 on my 40 by 40 list is to be a member of a live studio audience.  My husband had a conference in LA last week so I tagged along. 

 We got tickets to the Jay Leno show.  We drove straight to Burbank  from the airport thinking that we would do an NBC studio tour before the taping or at least grab some food.  We didn't know that they discontinued the tours a few months ago and there is nothing nearby to see or do.  

It was actually fun waiting for the show to start and nothing like sitting in an airport or a doctor's office for 2 hours.  They even had water and lemonade for us.  I was super impressed how well they treated us.  Jay came out and talked to the audience before the show and let people take pictures with him and ask him questions.  He treated us exactly the same as the celebrities.

 Jay's car-of-the-day.  He has over 300 of them, which he parks at a hanger at the Burbank Airport.

Getting there 2 hours early paid off.  We were the first and second in line and so we got amazing seats!

Since we were sitting near the front, we got to go up and shake his hand and give him a high-five.  (I am wearing an orange sweater and my husband is in a black polo-ish shirt.

Here's the episode:

I was talking to my dad the next day.  He said he could only see my husband.  I told him I was the girl standing next to him in bright orange and he replied, "I thought it might be you, but your hair was weird and you look really heavy." nice.

It was a really fun way to spend the afternoon, and if you're ever in LA, you should check it out.

Not really Martha's Butternut Squash and Sweet Corn Chowder

The night before we left on our trip, I was driving my son home from football practice, when something HUGE ran across the road.  It felt like we hit a brick wall and my son screamed "We hit a monster!"  

Turns out it was a feral hog. It was dark, so I don't have any good pictures, but the thing was easily over 5 feet long and we guess over 500 lbs.   He looked kinda like this guy, but bigger w/ longer tusks.

source

I've lived here 10 years and have never seen one alive.  (If you're keeping track, then yes that it the third wreck I've been in in the past six months.)

 We are both unharmed. The pig didn't make it and my van is in the shop.  

Sorry for the tangent.  The short story, was that I was hungry and had no way to get to the grocery store and so I needed to use what I had on hand.  My MIL always buys weird random food, when she's here and so we had carton of butternut squash in the fridge. I found Martha's original recipe here, but I adapted it to items I had on hand.

14 ounces cubed butternut squash
1 large onion-chopped
1 can of quality can corn -drained(I used sweet nibblets)
EVOO
1 Tb boulion
2 cups H2O
1 tsp curry
2 shakes of cayenne pepper
1 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste

Saute squash and onion in EVOO until tender (5-6 minutes).  Add the rest of the ingredients (except cream) and cook for 25 minutes on medium. Optional: Blend soup until smooth in a blender.  Add half and half and heat through.


I thought it was really tasty and a perfect fall meal. Sweet, savory, and creamy with a touch of heat.  My kids all hated it.  My husband loved it and even went for seconds which really surprised me since he hates curry.  


To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

#31 Hollywood Walk of Fame

 #31 on my 40 by 40 list was to visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Done.

 Can you spot the Hollywood sign?

(You can take your pic w/ a various assortment of fake characters)

 Love me some Harry Potter...

 ...and some Star Wars!!!!

This particular star just made everyone laugh as they walked by. Who knew he could bring so much joy to the streets of Hollywood? Guess he's "winning".

We ended the day w/ a tour of celebrity homes-it just seemed like the touristy thing to do.  

Let's Make A Deal! Peacock costume

 My husband had a conference in LA last week so I tagged along. #36 on my 40 by 40 list is to be a member of a live studio audience and so I got us tickets to Let's Make a Deal. 

While he was in his conference, I sat in our hotel room, watched bad Lifetime movies, and cut out and hot-glued a million peacock feathers. (I can not imagine what housekeeping thought I was doing).

I was inspired by this baby peacock costume from Shwin and Shwin
 In case you ever want to make one yourself you'll need:
5 yards of black tulle
5 yards of blue tulle
1/4 yards of blue and purple felt
1/2 yard of green felt. 

I just gathered the tulle into a tutu and then used green ribbon to tie each feather on.  

 It all cost well under $20 but was a little more time consuming than I thought it would be.  I got fake eyelashes for $4 at Target, which was everyone's favorite part of the costume.

We parked down the street from the studio and got to walk through a neighborhood by two schools.  I was a little embarrassed, but I figured people were used to it and several girls yelled out that they loved my eyelashes. Which is much nicer than most things teenagers could yell at you dressed like this.

 All those hot-glue burns paid off- we did manage to get on stage, which I am dying to tell everyone about, but we had to sign a confidentiality agreement.  It airs December 6, and then I will post all the juicy details.

My daughter wants to use it for Halloween, so now I just need to come up w/ something for the boys.

Click HERE to see 12 years of crazy costumes.

Update:  Here's some pics from Halloween night:

You can read all about our Let's Make A Deal experience here.
To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

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Convert Me

Many of you out there are very passionate about your slow cookers.  Some of you even run entire blogs dedicate to rocking the crock-pot.     I am clearly missing something.  

I am of the opinion that they are perfectly useful to keep stuff warm and super handy for holding nacho cheese at parties, but not as a great culinary cooking device.  My experience w/ crock pot food is that it has been somewhere between truly awful to merely edible, but never have I eaten anything made from a crock pot that I would rave about.

However, I struggle with finding the time to make dinner when the kids are home after school.  Especially since many days, I am driving them around and miles from my kitchen. In desperation,  I have given in and finally bought a slow cooker.  

For my first attempt I made 6 Sisters Cashew Chicken.  The chicken had a great texture, but it was way to salty (my husband wouldn't eat it).

 Do you have any amazing slow cooker recipes? Then please share by either linking them up or leaving them in the comments. Pretty please.

Mommy Command Station

#13 on my 40 by 40 list was to create a "Mommy Command Station".  

I wanted to put it in the little hallway between the laundry room and the coat closet on the back wall of my kitchen (hardest spot in the house to photograph by the way). I've been collecting ideas for months (check out my Pinterest board here  if you're looking for ideas too) and finally finished it up this weekend.

1. Welcome sign (the little circle thing changes each month, but currently we are in the middle of birthdays)
2. Allowance Jars 
3. Dry Erase Menu Board
4. Calendar
5.  Baggie full of Box Tops (don't we all have these in our kitchens?)
6.  Thingy from Ikea-I can't remember what it's called, but it was cheap and a great way to hang the kid's art work etc.
7.  This is just a 2x4 that I painted/ glazed and then added some hooks.  The idea is that the kids will stop dropping all their stuff by the front door, but they aren't quit trained yet. 

I just notice there is a Yankee's hat on top of a Red Sox sweatshirt that would make both teams cringe, but I'm just happy they aren't on the floor.

On the opposite wall, I hung some wire baskets that I found for $9.99 at TJ Maxx.  Each kid has a little mailbox to keep homework, notes, permission slips etc.

I also made a giant ruler growth chart and hung it at the end of the hall.  

Hopefully this will help us all be organized.  

16 more goals to finish up and I have a little less than 3 months to pull it off.  I never blogged about it, but I also finished up my 30 days of no sugar last week.  After the first few days it wasn't really a hard at all.  I'm addicted to sweets and I need to come up with some sort of life long plan.  I want to try and limit it to special occasions, but haven't decided how I am going to define "Special Occasions" yet.

To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.