Flannel Blanket with Crocheted Edge

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 I helped my mom make a baby blanket for our first great baby.  

Her great grand baby and my great niece.
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My mom found this colorful flannel.  I then took it and hand rolled the edge and did a single crochet  along the edge about a 3/8 of an inch from the edge and 1/2 inch apart.  I used a very small metal crochet hook and poked it through the material and pulled the yarn through.  It was pretty easy.  Then I went around the blanket again with a row of single crochet.
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It took about 3 hours to do.  I "watched" 2 movies while I was doing it.  Needless to say, if I really want to "see" those movies, I will need to put them back in and really watch them.  LOL.........
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The movies were mostly for background entertainment.  I do that once in a while.
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I crocheted around the blanket with out trimming any material.  It was cut almost perfectly straight and so I decided to make it as big as possible.  So it is about 42-45" square.
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I very nice size to keep our new baby snuggly wrapped up in.
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Hopefully she won't be kicking her feet out. 
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This is my first Great baby- a niece!  I think she is beautiful.  I hope to meet her soon.
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She is already over a month old....  Soon........
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She lives in Wyoming and I am in Utah.  Not far, but far enough that we haven't met yet.

 

Keeping Pen and Notebook Together

 



Keeping Pen and Notebook Together

I hate it when my pen gets separated from my notebook!  So I had to take measures to prevent this from happening any more.

I grabbed the trusty Duct tape and fashioned a pocket to the front of my notebook.  It doesn't look so smart/snappy, but it works.  Everyone around me knows that if they borrow my pen from it's special pocket they must return it or it creates a Mommy Monster that they would rather not awaken~~!!!!


I also added ribbon book marks, they help me find my today's stuff really fast.  I usually mark my notes for camping and the page that I put my notes for the next trip on.  This past camping trip was really great, we only missed a couple of things that would have made the days away a bit better.  So I jotted them down and next time we will try not to forget them.  Things like Dad's pillow!  We shuffled things around and everyone ended up with something for their head.  (I am actually going to put a permanent pillow in the trailer for Dad.  This is the second time he has missed bringing his, this year.  It is on the list.  The kids each have one in there already.  I like to bring my favorite one from by bed at home.)

On my old notebook I put a pencil holder.  So far I have not had the need for a pencil in this book, but rest assured if I feel the need, I will add one.  Adding a pocket is Easy Peasy and so handy.


1. Get your Duct tape, scissors, etc. together.  I am working with Giant wide tape.  This is not as easy as working with the regular sized roll.  But it is what I had on hand and easily accessible.

2. Decide what size your pocket needs to be.   On a regular size roll, I am sure I would have had just the right width.
(For a larger item, you might have to overlap more than one piece of tape to get the size you need.)

3. Take a piece of duct tape and place it upside down- sticky side up. This piece will be the piece that sticks to your base.  It will need to be larger than the piece you had cut to fit your item, in my case my item is the small notecards.  (used to be business cards)

4. Then place the piece of tape that you cut for your item sticky side down- on the sticky side up piece. I left a tiny bit at the top that I folded down to make a nice clean, non-sticky edge.  I could have done a bit more trimming on both pieces before I put the pieces together, but for some reason I was not in perfection mode. 

5. Then I checked to make sure that everything looked right.

6. Tape pocket to your base, making sure to leave ample wiggle room for your pen, or object.  Not too much room that it will fall out, but enough that you can slide your object in and out.  Here I have just set the tape on the book for placement. 

7. I removed my notecards and then I smoothed down the tape and reinforced the top edges.

8. Enjoy the satisfaction that you will not/ should not loose your object, ever!  I wish I had some other colors of duct tape, but maybe some day.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Then make more as needed!!!

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Thanks for visiting with me today and leave me a comment if you have the time.

Now jump back to Ann's site for more ideas.

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Food on Fridays- May 15 - Homemade Sour Cream

Sour Cream may not always be cost effective to make your own. For myself I will have to do a bit more research on the price of heavy cream and half & half cream.

Just a quick look at one grocery store today, I learned that a 2 pint heavy cream (16 oz) was 99 cents and a 16 oz sour cream was also 99 cents. Same amount for the same price, but then a couple of cents worth of buttermilk culture goes into the cream would make home made more expensive, not even taking into consideration the time and effort you would have to spend in making it.

But that was one of the more expensive stores, I went there because the pork they had was a really good buy. And I really like their meat department.

On to making home made Sour Cream-

It was a load of fun and tasty too.

I made 3 kinds all using my favorite buttermilk as the culture. You can also substitute sour cream as the culture. The recipe is as follows:

* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1/4 cup buttermilk or sour cream

Mix cream and buttermilk in a glass bottle, cover and let stand at room temperature about 24 hours until very thick. Chill well in refrigerater after thickened and before using. Makes 1 cup.

Again, Easy Peasy.

1. The left bottle was made with a mixture of equal parts of half & half and heavy cream.
2. The middle one was made with half and half.
3. the right bottle was made with heavy cream.

They all turned out really great. The one made with heavy cream tastes wonderful but was almost solid when it was chilled. You can see the differences in the above photo. The one made from half & half and heavy cream was more the consistency of my store bought sour cream. And it tastes wonderful, too. The final one made with half & half was very soft, a little runny, but again it tastes like sour cream.


I tried a baked potato with store bought sour cream and all three of my homemade sour creams made from the buttermilk culture. I can only say- yum!! I don't know if any one was better than the other, my potato tasted awesome.

So, in order to make this cost effective, you have to get your cream at a lesser price than store bought sour cream.

I have also made two samples using sour cream as the culture. One made with heavy cream that turned out great and the other with half & half that was also delicious.






You can see in the photos that the one made with heavy cream and sour cream culture is very stiff. The one with half & half is softer and a bit runny. It is trying to escape the bottle.

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Return to Ann's Blog for the Food on Fridays carnival and find more posts that might be anything remotely related to food.

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My Make-Do Monday for April 20th

Make-Do Mondays

is a carnival dedicated to sharing the creative,

frugal or even humble ways we’re making-do with what we have

or what we can acquire in a frugal way.

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My Make Do Note Pad

So today came and I wasn't ready for Make Do Monday. Well I had plenty of ideas and I wanted one that would be new so I decided to fix my problem of note paper. It seems I a lot of times just need a small piece of paper to jot down a note on.

Like a web address so that Hubby can print something for me. (I don't stay hooked up to a printer and for some reason we can't get the Toshiba Laptop to print to his printer anyway.)

Or I can jot a phone number or street address. Or even a simple recipe. Most of the time I take the laptop to the kitchen when I need to make something from a recipe online or in my documents. But if it is a small, or quick recipe, I jot down the numbers and take the note to the kitchen. Most of you would remember a small recipe, but my memory isn't so great in that department anymore. Bummer!

So I have been using old business cards as note paper for years now. Don't ask how, but I have plenty. But the problem with that is they scatter and get borrowed for other projects. So I figure if I make them into a note pad type thing, maybe I can keep some by the computer so I have them when I need them.

So here is my solution:

Elmers Glue
Business Cards
Elastic Band



I stacked the cards evenly and then put the elastic around the edges.












Then I smeared glue on the one edge I wanted to be the top. Pilot suggests doing a couple of layers. I haven't tried it yet, but it may make a better bond.

When the glue dried, it looked just like a storebought notepad.

Do you see the chocolate? Yes, what project can be worked on without a bit of chocolate nearby?

Pilot picked it up from the store the other day with me in mind, he said. It is a Ganache Torte. Day old, well maybe week old, it definitely needed milk with it. But it is the thought that counts!! Right?!


Now I can jot a note and take it with me. Unless, someone else thinks this is cool and they borrow it for their own use!!! Possible, but I will set down the law when everyone gets back home!! lol...........................


Another Easy Peasy Project!! Useful, Make-Do and I am happy.

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Thanks for visiting with me today and leave me a comment if you have the time.

Now jump back to Ann's site for more ideas.

Sharinskishe

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