Easter Bunny Placemats

A few years ago I made this placemats for my kids. I saw the idea at a Pottery Barn catalog and decided I could pull it off, so I got to work. I decided this will also be a good example for my first attempt of a tutorial, even if I don't have a pattern to share on PDF right now. But let's make a deal: if I get any replies to this post I will post that pattern for you guys.

Now, this is what I did:

The first thing I did was trace the outline and details of the bunny in cardboard, I hired my husband for this.

Then I used this as template to cut one piece of muslin, one piece of batting and one piece of contrasting fabric (for the backing) for each.

I cut out an ear center, a circle for the tail, and the nose from the contrasting fabric and set them in place with some "heat n bond".

I made a fabric sandwich by placing the fabrics right side together and the batting on the back and then I sew around the edges, leaving a small gap for turning.

I turned the bunny out and topstitched around with some nice stitches from my very basic sewing machine. I also stitched around the apliqué.

I hand embroidered the whiskers and the paw detail with a running stitch, going through all the layers of the placemat, and then I hand embroidred the eye, being careful to catch just the muslin and the batting.

I made one for each of my kids, and they sure enjoy them every Easter Sunday when we sit down for lunch and thank Jesus for His sacrifice and the miracle of resurrection.
God Bless you all!

Chat Amour

Today, my girl has been a little bit under the weather with an upset tummy...and guess who has kept her company? The cat, yes ,the cat, who as if it were a dog has stayed by her side and wouldn't let her be alone.

Now who says cats are aloof and self-centered? Not me...Certainly, not me.

Grateful

Sometimes you have one of those days when you just feel that even with some troubles and tribulations, you still have so much to be thankful for.
Today is one of those days...
Thank you Lord for my family: my husband, my healthy children, my sister and my parents.
Please keep them well.
Amen

Busy and a new Venture...

I have been so busy lately! No time to craft anything special in more than a month.

I am making some "entrepenurial experiments", that's what's got me tied on...

Even with the global economic crisis my interior design business is good, but I got so freaked out that I started some other things just in case... Some friends and I started a small event planning company and I am very happy about that. My first carreer is P.R. so I get to use those skills long forgotten in a corner of my mind, with the added pleasure of adding my crafting, and of course, decorating skills in the mix...

Please, if any of you stops by and can lead me to good party planning blogs and sites (besides Martha, of course) please drop a note, don't be scared, I won't bite you...

Puppy Love

I had a request from my son... He said: I want a special Valentine for my girl friend at school, I want something that has a heart in it, or is a heart.

And I was happy to deliver the request even though the one who was asking for this was my youngest son (age 6) not my eldest son (age almost 14).

With a smile of my face I made this very nice pony tail holder I had spotted in this tutorial a few days ago, even though it was late at night after a hard day's work, I think it came out nice, don't you? The tutorial was great and it was very easy to make.

Of course, the first thing I did when I picked the kids up at school today was ask Vicente what happened with the gift, and with a smile in his face he said: mom! she wore it right away...

Ahhh, may I say that I love the Super Mom feeling you get from that?

Leftovers in a "gourmet" twist

It is Sunday again....I wake up early- before even Vicente, the smallest, gets up-. I am on a mission...I need to have an answer for my kids, they will ask me, I know...

Quietly I open the fridge and check out what I have left from the week: two chicken breasts in sage sauce from Thursday's dinner, some andouille sausage, some ham and some salami, cheese leftovers: gouda and a lucky block of mozarella that didn't get eaten I don't know how, two apples, lots of onions, a can of sweet corn, leftover zuquini from Friday's sidedish, some leftover tomato sauce from Tuesday's pasta, a bunch of spinach and the basics: flour, eggs and milk.
I need to come up with a plan, the clock is ticking, they will soon ask me the dreaded Sunday question...Mom...what are you making us for lunch?
And this Sunday it will be "Leftovers a la Crepe"!!!
Yes, and they were pretty good, let me tell you.

I used a savory crepe recipe from one of my books, but you can use this one, they are all very similar.
I sauteed the apples with the onions in some butter until they caramelized, and separated that.(the french use leeks, but I had to make do with the onions)
Then I mixed the ham and salami and sausage and sauteed that a little bit, too.
Then grated the cheeses.
I sliced and heated the chicken.
I heated the spinach and the zuquinni
I heated the tomato sauce (you could open a jar)
Opened the can of corn.

You are suppossed to add the filling while at the pan, but since there are so many of us and so many different choices, I just placed the crepes and the fillings on the table and everyone filled theirs with whatever they liked.
Mine was a very good concoction of chicken, onions, apples, zuqinni, spinach and cheese. Tomato sauce on top...voilá. C'est trés good!

The good thing about this is that you don't need a whole lot of anything, just some variety.

Another good Sunday lunch for us, it was.
I hope you can repeat the idea at your own house.

Food!

Sunday's all about food in Casa Chat Fancy.

I like to bake a special something for breakfast (if I get up early enough) and this Sunday was Jiffy Cinnammon Rolls from my trusty Company's Coming recipe book. These books are great! I love the easy recipes that you can do, well, in a jiffy...It is possible to bake something very easily even on a Sunday Morning!

Another good thing is our lunch, we like to cook our own meal on Sunday (and that was even before the difficult economy) and one of our favorites is homemade pizza. We buy a couple of packages of pizza dough at our grocery's store bakery, roll it out and then we top them with our favorite ingredients.

We usually make one with tomato sauce, ham, pepperonni and a mix of mozzarella and gouda cheese. As a big family we need two pizzas to get satisfied and the second pizza will always have some pineapple in it. We looove pineapple in our pizza. Our Hawaiian pizza has tomato sauce, ham, pinneapple, coconut flakes and cheese. Another good one is made with BBQ sauce instad of tomato, shredded chicken (usually leftovers, better if the chicken was grilled) pineapple and cheese...hmmmm yummy! These pizzas are much better than take out, and with the prepared pizza dough they are at the table in about the same time they would deliver them.

After all that eating I still have to think about food, because Sunday is the day I plan the menu for the rest of the week. This has been a proved time and sanity saver as I shop only for the things I need from a list, and there's no what's for dinner rush at 5:00 in the afternoon.

And what would be dinner in a typical Sunday at my house...well, cold cereal. Of course!