Grateful beyond words

Yesterday, I could have very well lost all of my favorite fabrics...and everything else that me and my family possess. We had a little issue with faulty wiring. For the whole story go to my personal blog, I can't bare to type it all out again. But I want all of you, my fans and readers, to thank the Lord, along with me, that all is well. And then I would love for you to look for somebody in your area, who wasn't so lucky and extend a helping, loving hand in what ever way you can. I'll be looking for somebody whom I can share my great fortune with. I have so much. I have clothes. I have a warm bed, blankets and pillows. I have all of my precious pictures and journals. I have food and dishes. I have my family all safe and sound. I will gladly share any of it, whatever they need with anyone who wasn't as fortunate as we were.

I have issues.

While going through my fabric stash, I realized that I needed to add to my stash. You see, I have quite a bit of wonderful beautiful fabrics, but I have nothing to compliment them. So, I loaded up my shopping bag with a selection of fabrics that I wanted to find compliments for and headed off to the fabric store. I spent more than an hour hemming and hawing over what fabrics to choose. I finally came away with this...However, today when I went to start putting fabrics together to cut them out into things like car seat canopies or Take-along high chairs, or doodle purses etc, I couldn't bring myself to cut up the fabric...just yet. Except for one project. See, here is my problem, when I buy fabric simply because I love it with out any real purpose, I have a hard time deciding what the perfect project will be for it. I'm kinda afraid that if I cut it up and make something with it, later I might think of something else that that fabric would have been so perfect for and regret making whatever it was that I made. Take these two fabric selections for example.
I LOVE these fabrics. I bought them just because I had to have them. I have no idea what I really want to make with them, so they just sit in my stash and I like to take them out and look and them. Well, now I have fabric that compliments them nicely...and yet, I just can't bring myself to cut them up...yet.

However, If I buy fabric with a purpose, knowing exactly what I want to make with it, I don't have a problem cutting it up, and never regret or think of something else that would have been better. Like this fabric.
I bought it to make a carseat canopy, especially for my little one if it happens to be a girl(I am still on the look out for the perfect fabric for a boy), if not it will end up in my Etsy shop or go to one of my sister-in-law's who are expecting if they happen to have a girl.
Am I alone? Is there anyone else out there that suffers from this problem? My husband just laughed at me tonight when I admitted my problem. The only other person I have told about this problem, until now, was my friend Jakki, and she likes me too much to tell me that I am crazy. There must be others out there. Why else would so many people have stashes of fabric? Right? Or am I simply justifying my crazy...need to admire beautiful fabric. Whatever the case, honestly, I can't see myself changing, I don't know if I want to...that would mean that I might have to give up my fabric, and I don't think that I am ready to do that any time soon. I'll just have to keep buying other fabric so that I don't have to cut up the stuff I love so much...yeah...that's what I'll do. Problem solved!

Food Friday: Italian Wedding Soup

About a week ago I was wandering aimlessly through our local grocery store trying to think of something to make for supper. Something different. Something simple. Something tasty. AND something that I new my kids would eat.

A can of Campbell's Italian Wedding soup caught my eye. I stopped for a moment, picked up the can and thought. The only time I have had Italian wedding soup is at Eastside Mario's, and I loved it but I wasn't sure if my kids would like it. So I decided that I would have the soup and I would just make some boring soup for them. I paused and put the can of soup back on the shelf. I had a better idea. It was only noon, so I had plenty of time to go home and use my beloved google to find a recipe to make my own home made Italian wedding soup and time to come back to the grocery store to pick up what ever ingredients I didn't have at home. Before leaving the store, I bought some sausage and alphabet noodles(they were the cheapest and smallest noodles) because the picture on the can showed noodles and little meatballs, and I knew I had neither of those at home.

I headed home made lunch for the girls and promptly set out to find a recipe. I was surprised at how simple the recipes were. And that they actually sounded like something my girls would eat. I found this one and this one along with many others. And then I found this more complicated one that I would love to try sometime, but for that night I was looking for simple.

Using these recipes I ended up amending them as follows

Mandy's Italian wedding soup

8 cups chicken broth
2 cups finely shredded spinach
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup small noodles (like alphabets or orzo)
10 breakfast sausages(because they are faster than making your own, but one day I'll make my own)
fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Remove casing form sausages, break each sausage into about 5 or 6 pieces and shape into meatballs. Fry in pan, when almost cooked all the way through, remove from pan and drain on paper towel. Bring chicken broth to a boil. Add spinach, carrots, noodles and meatballs. Return to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes or until noodles are at desired doneness. Dish into bowls and top with fresh Parmesan cheese. Enjoy the yumminess!

Keep in mind that they only thing that I actually measured here was the chicken broth, which I started out with 6 cups, but then added about another two after I had added everything else.

My girls loved this! So I decided to make it again this week. To go along with it I made some tuna salad. Sliced some croissants half way through, filled with the tuna and some cheddar cheese and baked them in the oven for an unknown amount of time(just enough time to melt the cheese and to make the outside of the croissant crispy). These too were a hit.

Desperately in need of a new born baby

I once saw these fabulous blankets at a local kids garage sale/small business sale. They were called butterfly blankets. The idea was that it would make swaddling easier. they had a pocket to put baby's legs in so that they couldn't kick it free and then you just wrapped them up. I loved them, but I also thought they looked to bulky for a new born. My newborns love to be wrapped up tight, and I just couldn't see how I would get these blankets tight enough. So I have been thinking a lot these past few nights, cuz I do that when I am pregnant, think for hours on end at night while I lay in bed trying to sleep. So I've been thinking about how I might be able to create the same kind of idea, but more like a receiving blanket.

Yesterday I decided that I had had enough thinking and it was time to start doing(strangely enough I slept quite well last night). I found in my stash some ugly cotton fabric that I had gotten from my aunt years ago when she was cleaning out her fabric stash. I've kept it around for just this kind of thing when I don't want to waste perfectly good fabric that actually cost me money. I started measuring and cutting and more measuring and in the end I came up with this...
and then you wrap up your baby like this...

OK, so I know it works great on a Cabbage patch doll. It wraps up easily and it's not bulky. I know that some baby's are actually about the size of a cabbage patch doll...but not my babies. I planned for this, however I wasn't convinced in the end that I had allowed enough extra room. Also, a cabbage patch doll doesn't kick and squirm, so I can't tell if it will stay wrapped up any better than a regular receiving blanket. This is where the need for a new born comes in, I want to have this tested out before my little one arrives. I'd also like to start selling them in my Etsy shop, but I need to know how they work in the real world. Can you believe that I don't know anybody close by with a somewhat newish baby? My sister-in-law is due in March, but that doesn't help me right now....oh the troubles.

Happy One Year!

This month MaKC Creations' blog will celebrate one whole year of existence! And if everything goes well, I'll be celebrating 100 posts as well.

What a year it's been. I think it's safe to say that I have had great spurts of creativeness, and dry spells with not much to say for themselves. I don't know if I can say that I have accomplished all that I dreamed of accomplishing when I first started out on this journey. But I can say that I am happy with what I have done and that I am looking forward(and hoping for) more growth in all aspects. I am happy with the growth of followers, with the interest generated in my Etsy shop, and with the number of times other bloggers have contacted me and asked me to be apart of their giveaways. I am most pleased with my doodle purse tutorial, and how it continues to bring readers to my blog. I gives me great pleasure to know that I have created something that so many people around the world have fallen in love with.

I want to thank you, my 50 followers, for letting me know that somewhere out there, someone is reading my blog and that at times, I might even inspire you to create something of your own. As a thank you to my readers, I am offering a 30% discount off everything in my Etsy Shop with the code "Anniversary" for the entire month of February.

You'll all be happy to know (is that to much to presume?) that I think I may be getting over my crafting funk. I've spent the day perusing online fabric shops, and nothing makes me want to sew more than looking at delicious fabrics. It's interesting to me that when I am looking for fabric to make things for other people in general, things that I make to sell, that it is much easier for me to pick out fabric and I even have to spend time narrowing things down, but when it comes to making something as simple as a carseat canopy or a baby sling for myself, I am much more picky about the fabric, I know exactly what I want, and I just can't seam to find that exact thing. Another sign that this funk may be up is that the past few nights I have been laying in bed awake till crazy hours in the morning thinking about how to create this baby sling that I want to make for my little one for when he/she arrives. I've been looking on line at different styles and ways of making them, and of course I figure I can do it better :). OK, so there was a point to all of that, I had temporarily forgotten that I was going to make a point. But I have now remembered that my point is that I am hoping to have some new things up in the shop through out the month, these new items will be included in the 30% off sale.

ALSO if you do make a purchase from my Etsy shop you will be entered into a draw for a really great something(s). Not absolutely sure what yet...still thinking on that and once I have this really great something(s) created I will post it to show you what you are all dying to win.