My hubby's favorite.

I referred to my husband late birthday meal, in this post. Referred is the key word, the post was not about the meal, I just referenced Swiss Chicken. Here is the recipe:

Swiss Chicken
2 thin slices Swiss Cheese
4 chicken cutlets (1/4” thick)
2 tbsp. flour
1/2 tbsp. black pepper
1 tbsp. butter or margarine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 tsp. dried oregano

Cut each cheese slice in half; place 1 half on top of each cutlet. Starting with a short end, tightly roll up cutlets, jelly-roll style. Tie securely with string.
On wax paper, combined flour pepper, Mix well. Add cutlets; toss gently to coat.
In a large nonstick skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add cutlets; cook, turning frequently, until golden, about 3 minutes.
Add broth, juice and dried oregano to skillet. Increase heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until chicken is cooked through and sauce is slightly thickened, about 10 –12 minutes. Place on a serving plate; remove strings. Serve with rice.

This was the meal I first made Brent when we were dating. Coincidence that it is his favorite? I think not, turns out my husband is highly sentimental. By the way, I was not one of those girls that cooked for him because we were dating and I wanted to impress him. He was spending the weekend at my parent's house, and my mother was out of town which meant the cooking was divided between my father and me. I cooked Sunday, he cooked Monday.

Long overdue

I finally finished this apron. (Before I left for TX.) I bought the material almost a year ago. I copied the apron after my sister in law, Teresa. I hope she doesn't mind, I really don't copy everything from her, she uses some of my ideas too, I think.
Here are the aprons I've made in the last year.
I made this one for my old roommate when she got married. She likes the beach, she was planning to go to Hawaii for college. Yes that is a hand embroidered tea towel. Why she got hand embroidery when no one else did? I don't know I guess I was feeling ambition.
Also I never took a picture of this one, but I made my mom an apron with this material to match her kitchen, its yellow and blue, the kitchen that is, and obviously the apron is also.
Then I made one for my new sister in law for her bridal shower in december. They are a great bridal shower gift because they are not embarrassing to open in front of older women, but you can still look cute for your new husband (I give them with the intention the bride will use them fully clothed). Not to mention, its not embarrassing to model. I learned something doing this one, thin bias tape might look good, but go for the wide, the extra wide, thin will make you cry, will make you yell, will make you want to hurt yourself, and make you want to throw things at the wall. It will also make you end up in your room with the door shut until you can calm down and face your family again, don't use it, go for the extra wide.

Ma Jo

I totally found what I totally need!!
Seriously, if I was one of those rich people who thought of dollars like cents, and $35 was more like $0.35 I would totally buy it. I especially wanted it after my cute boy sitting on my lap said, "ma ma jo" that sealed the deal, if I would had $35 burning a whole in my pocket, it would have already been ordered. From this girl's etsy site.It is totally life like too! I have long legs, I like shinny accessories like sequins tutus and I love mary janes, I cross my legs, even if it has been giving me spider veins since I was 16. Not to mention we have affinity for bird in our house, I blame that on my husband. The only thing that will get me over not having them, is that they are 5 and 8 inches tall, and that is a little too big for my taste. I think 4 and 2 inches would be good.

Good thing I only have one...

Its a good thing I only have one sister because I have made her baby so much stuff there is no way I could be fair if I had more than one. If I have a girl before she has a second girl, her second daughter will also have way less handmade stuff from her only blood material aunt. These are my latest creations! I love them!

I think they turned out so cute! They are handmade, hand sewn baby shoes to match her blessing dress.

Here is the blessing dress my mother made her.

The shoe pattern is from Martha. But as usual, the instructions and the pattern leave something to be desired, I had to do plenty of modifications. The reason I hand sewed even though I think martha advocates a machine for this project is because I was afraid my machine would eat the little pieces of felt.

Grandma's

I made this for my mom. After she, Teresa and I were shopping in Rudiso, New Mexico and we saw something with this phrase on it, Teresa and I decided my mom need a pillow with it.
I'm so happy with the way the corners turned out. I have never sewn anything that looks so good and straight before. I'm so happy about it.
The finished product in a pillow.

Traveling Bag

I decided I needed a new traveling bag, so this was the perfect time to make my purse from the guitar playing budda material I got for a $1 a yard in the walmart clearance bin.I love the material, click so you can see the close up of the buddha. And I also went to the store especially to get a big red button for the bag. I think I spent more on the button than the material.
The ribbon I had laying around from a previous bag in which I decided to use a more unisex ribbon. This is solely a diaper bag, no room for anything but diapers, wipes, and a changing bag.
I went all out, even has a matching clutch and I remember once again I hate zippers. I don't read directions I just make it up as I go, and zippers don't like that mentality. The clutch actually looks terrible, but I think the bag is very professional if I do say so myself.
Luckily my sister in law, danna taught me how to make bags like in this a 2 minute tutorial, she has changed my life. I owe her.
Its reversible, so if I want the guitar playing Buddha bag less flashy this way works. I didn't really make it to be reversible, I made it to the inside wouldn't have exposed seams.

New and Improved

This is my new and improved valentine craft. I think the vase needs more candy hearts. I would have had enough if I didn't do the votive holder. But I thought it would be fun to do two things. Hopefully Jobo doesn't figure out there is candy in the living room.Don't worry there are more valentine crafts to come. Actually, just one, I think.

Its a later date.

In other pink crafts, I made my cousin's wife a nursing cover up. I told her I would make her one for cheaper that $27, that she was thinking about buying. It was suppose to look like this, I don't mind if I do say so myself but the one I made is fancier than the one she was going to buy for $27. I told her I wasn't going to put boning in it, but I wanted to make a good one so I did it anyway. If you look closely you might be able to tell that the cover up doesn't look like it is flushed with the shirt.
I was afraid it was going to be too small, but it looks way bigger than the one at this site.
When I was modeling it, I felt like I was wearing a poorly cut, apron for huge people. Apparently though these cover ups are all the rage. But I preferred the blankets I make. I went with black and white flowers because her carseat is black. And the pink I chose to make it feel feminine, and because black, white and pink are also all the rage right now.

Gathering Hearts

Here is my latest valentines craft. It was super easy, and jobo had a lot of fun making it with me.
I just bought foam candy heart stickers. It would be a lot cuter if I used candy hearts to fill the vase with.

Early Valentine's

Turns out the pearl necklace my husband made me was just practice, for this pearl necklace. The first one was made with not jewelry store quality pearls. Like these. This is my valentines present from my husband, he made it.
Here is the clasp to make up for the necklace I didn't get. Normally I'm not a heart kind of girl, but for some reason I like these. This necklace is actually way better quality than any of the other recently posted on my blog.
I know its a bit more gaudy than most of my readership would wear, but I like gaudy things, I blame it on my texan upbringing. Truth be know, I don't like gaudy things unless they are expensive. My husband bought these wholesale, but they would have been pricey if he would have bought this necklace from a jeweler.

Keeping busy with Pink

I am so excited I just finished my valentine's craft. I borrowed the idea from my cute sister in law, who has all the fun ideas. She had a similar love sign like this at her house last year, and I coveted it. I loved it so much it was going to be my first craft upon graduation, and then since it wasn't a timely matter, i put it off until now.
Here is a close up.
In other pink crafts, has been canceled until a later date.

My big announcement

My sister and my cousin who are both the same age, both had babies last month.
My sister's kid's blanket.
My cousin's boy's blanket.

Coolest Husband Ever

All the time that I was waiting for my pearls only necklaces, my husband was working at making me jewelry at work. Apparently coworkers would stop in regularly to see how it was going. He found some temporary strung pearls online and made these:
Its that so sweet?! Thats why he is the coolest husband ever, he MADE me jewelry. This is actually the second time, last year I wanted a size 4 1/2 ring which is unbuyable, unless you buy expensive jewelry, so he made me one with my wire jewelry set. I would include a picture but we have recently misplaced it. Now I have more pearls than I know what to do with, but I just think my husband is so sweet.

Speaking of Jewelry

My parents were visiting my grandparents this weekend, which means they were in my neck of the woods. And speaking of necks, I had my mom bring her jewelry making stuff to make some necklaces. (I know that was a terrible pun.) While I was with my mother at thanksgiving, I went searching for red beads like this:
I was actually looking for bigger but they got really pricey really quick. So I went cheap which meant small, which actually I think fits me better. (And definitely my husband, big chunky beads on me would not be what my husband finds attractive.)
While I was shopping I feel in love with green beads. I love green. So I bought some for a necklace, and then I had left over so I also made a bracelet, and then I still had left over.
Speaking of not my husband's style, this pair was not to his liking, he said neon green was not his thing. I also think it was a little too chunky for his taste. I bought the neon green as he said it because I really wanted apple green turquoise but it is expensive. The difference was about $6 to $60. I assume it is rarer than normal turquoise.
Then I happened upon this apple green turquoise bracelet. I didn't make this one, but I did restring it while I was making the other ones. My son in one his fits of terrible twos decided to overly stretch the elastic. I can't really be annoyed because it needed a bead out anyway, since I have small bones.
I really love apple green turquoise. I think I'm going to make a ring out of the bead I took off. If I can ever find actual silver jewelry wire instead of copper plated.
For my next project I decided I need to make a similar necklace to the first one with this charm. I was thinking dark blue stones. Its a charm my father brought me from one of his latest trips to Israel. Its some religion's symbol of the third eye.

Oh by the way...

Remember this, how I really wanted it. Well I told my husband too bad its not for sale anymore, or I would beg you for this. Well being the sweet boy he is, he started researching pearls and good deals online. He now knows more about pearls that me. He asked me to pick a necklace out, from Pearls only. I picked this:
Then we figured out shipping was way overpriced from Pearls Only so to make it not so costly for one item he bought me two. He picked this out:
Although he didn't tell me he was getting the second so it was a surprise, and a nice one. He is so sweet. I got two pearl necklaces for my anniversary. I really like both, the first one is much more my style, but I really love the second because my husband picked it out for me. I got him the Bourne Ultimatum for his anniversary present.