JulieK | Embrace the Everyday

40 Days

February 17, 2013 By JulieK

In trying to decide what to “do” for Lent this year, I was listening to the priest at Mass, and he was talking about the 3 major parts of Lent… Prayer, fasting, and alms giving… Which got me to thinking, what do I want to focus on the most right now? I realized that I kept going back to prayer… So, for the next (almost) 40 days (I do realize I’m starting a couple days late)… I’m going to post either prayers or scripture readings that speak to me in some way. I will still be posting craft projects (especially from my fabulous upcoming 5 day quilting retreat!!!! Which I’m so excited about, but starting to get a little bit nervous about going away for 5 days not knowing anyone!!) but I’ll also be posting .

This first one is a prayer I come back to often and was found in the book “30 Days of Prayer with Mary”

4-To Pray and Ponder

Mary, pray that I might treasure life
Beauty
Goodness
Opportunity
Truth.

Mary, Pray that I might ponder
How to defend life
How to see and hear beauty
How to affirm and share goodness
How to grasp and utilize opportunity
How to seek and proclaim truth.

Mary, pray that I treasure what I have
And ponder what I might become.

New Items in the Store!

February 5, 2013 By JulieK

I’ve been sewing like crazy lately, and have several new tote bags that I’ve added to my Etsy store!! I think they came out so cute, I hope you’ll like them!! I also have some scarves listed, with more completed and ready to be posted as well. Now, look at that spring fabric!! I don’t care what the foolish groundhog said… With these pretty totes, Spring is sure to be right around the corner!

Plus, because it was Kathryn’s 9th birthday last week, I have a coupon going on in my shop… Use the code KatBDay9 and get 9% off your order :)

Happy Birthday Miss Kathryn!!

January 31, 2013 By JulieK

Oh my heavens… Can you believe that my baby is 9 years old today?? I can NOT believe it!! Wishing an amazing wonderful day to my feisty, smart, fun, fearless youngest child today!! **and I can finally give her her sewing machine!!! I can not wait!! I’ll update with photos later, as she’s not getting that part of her present until tonight :) ** Updated with a photo of her at the end, opening her machine!! She loved it as much as I imagined!! Now we just need to find some time to make things!!

Here’s just a few favorite pictures… Mostly goodies from my phone…

Yup… this one captures her personality perfectly!

Pouring rain at a Lowell Spinners game won’t wreck her fun!

A new Bitty Baby-her first American Girl Doll

Dancing in the front yard waiting for Sean’s bus to come!

This picture is not flipped… She very carefully wrote her name in sticks… Backwards!

Just this winter, Knitting with me at the Library while Sean was at basketball practice

Last week, out for ice cream with her new hat!! Crazy girl :)

A very happy birthday baby!! I hope you have a fantastic day!

And, here she is opening her sewing machine!! She DID love it!! It it a great little machine, it’s solid, and so far seems to sew a straighter line than my machine does!! It’s great!!

Miss Crafty…

January 24, 2013 By JulieK

Miss Kathryn is AKA little Miss Crafty! here she is with the doll quilt that we made last weekend… There’s also a matching pillow, and I think I’ll write up a quick tutorial on how to make them… They were really easy to make, and Kathryn did 99% of it without any real help from me!! The only part I did was the ironing!It’s made from 5″ squares of Moda fabric (I’ll have to look up the fabric line) and she laid them out the way she wanted them and then sewed them together in strips. If I remember this afternoon, I’ll take a pic with the blanket, pillow and one of her dolls. For this project, she used my sewing machine…

She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s getting her own sewing machine for her birthday (next week) I have *ALMOST* given it to her early several times… but I really want her to have it on her actual birthday… I got her the Janome 11706 Hello Kitty machine, it’s solidly built (not a cheesy plastic model) and I’m hoping that she’ll LOVE it :) Seriously, I’m kinda worried that I’m more excited about it than she will be!! I also made her a machine cover out of fabric that matches her quilt and will get pics of that as soon as I can without her seeing me!I’m mildly worried that I should have bought her a full sized machine, but from all the reviews I read, this one is made of metal, is solid, and many people use it as their travel machine ’cause it’s lightweight but sews well… Worst case, she can have my machine when I get the new one I want (having serious sewing machine envy myself… but that’s a post for another day!!).

Here’s a pic of her new machine… So super cute!! I’ll post an update when she knows :)

My “Big Girl Mixer”

January 8, 2013 By JulieK

So, I have ALWAYS wanted a “Big Girl Mixer” AKA KitchenAid Stand Mixer… But, firstly, they’re expensive and I just couldn’t justify spending that much money on a mixer… And secondly, I’m a terrible cook (true, just ask my husband, he’ll tell you), so spending that amount of money on a kitchen appliance just seemed silly! BUT, Santa heard my plea (well, the kids were with me one day when I was in a store drooling over the big girl mixers, and they told Santa (AKA Mike).

Here it is… My precious…

Isn’t it pretty??? Especially on my brand new butcher block counter tops!! The kitchen renovation is a whole other post :) I kinda wish that I had had my beautiful mixer for Christmas Eve dinner, when I made chocolate mousse and REAL whipped cream for dessert!! That was a lot of standing at the counter with my little hand mixer… But, man… I love it!! I’ve also been a cooking maniac since I got it!! I kinda feel like he got me this amazing mixer, I SHOULD make some amazing food with it, right??

So far… I have learned that I totally stink at making brownies… doesn’t matter how good the reviews are for the recipe, I can’t cook them…

Then there’s cookies!! OMGosh, I don’t make cookies ’cause they’re too hard to mix… well, not any longer… I made THESE and wow… Even Sean, who’s not a “sweets” boy loved them and keeps asking me to make them again! Yummy, yummy, yummy!!

Then, there’s bread!! Oh, dough hook, how do I love thee? I made dinner rolls the other night, which were yummy, but I didn’t take a picture… then last night… Oh, yeah… One hour bread! Which came out great!! Hot and fresh from the oven with butter and our pasta dinner, YUM! and today I have it sliced and toasted for my sandwich!

Speaking of being a horrible cook… I so LOVE the idea of cooking, but you know how busy it gets when you have a husband, 2 kids who have activities, you work full time, and you co-own a crafting place!! Planning and finding time to cook is a challenge to say the least!! I’ve tried a ton of different recipe plans, most of them use ingredients that I simply don’t have, or that my picky-pants husband and kids won’t eat… I recently signed up for emeals and am already very pleasantly surprised!! The pasta meal we had last night with the yummy bread? You guessed it, that was from my new emeals subscription!! Check it out, it’s not very expensive, you get a whole week’s worth of yummy recipes, and for a limited time you can save 15% on your subscription cost with the code newyear . Check them out! They have lots of different menu options! I got the classic meals, and if you get a subscription and change your mind on the menu, you can change it!