An Evening Well Spent

I had a little chunk of time this evening to do a small project. This kind of time does not occur much during the week night so I wanted to make the most of it.

I picked up the not very attractive apron in a dollar bin of sorts somewhere and right away I thought I could make something like this only much prettier!



I set out to make a pattern of it. A few of the boys were watching over my shoulder as I tried to make the pattern. Mine was not looking quite right so Grant wanted to give it a try.



Grant did a very good job!



I thought I would make an Easter apron for my first try. I had some cute Debbie Mumm Easter fabric and thought the yellow check would go well with it.

The brown cupcake apron did not have a lining but I thought I would do a lining. If I would have thought I could have doubled the ruffle to make the apron reversible. I will do that with my next one.



Not bad for a first try!

Elena my sweet model.



From pattern making to finish this took about 1 1/2 hours to do. Now that I have made this first one the next will be much quicker. So sad my chunk of time is over!

Africa's Melodie

Most of you have heard that adoptions in Liberia have been suspended for a while as the Liberian government works on new adoption laws. I kind of fell out of the Liberian adoption information loop once our three girls came home last year.

I was very pleased to re-find Melodie Sheppard's blog
Africa's Melodie!

All six of our Liberia children have very fond memories of Melodie during their time in the orphanage. I read on Melodie's blog that Melodie who is a missionary in Liberia, Diaku Juasemai( AOHL Staff member) ,and Bob Bridges (an adoptive parent from the US) participated in a live call-in radio program in Liberia March 10th, 2009.

The topic discussed was adoptions in Liberia. This was a Liberian call in radio program and is about 50 minutes long. There are a few commercials at the start of the program. The third commercial in particular reminds me of what I hear every day around her. Not the content but the Liberian English the girls in the commercial speak.

Go to Ask The Expert and link on the "listen now" to hear the program.

If this link does not work Melodie has a down loadable link on her blog.

Melodie you sounded great!!!

How Parenting Has Changed

Frank Vascellaro & Amelia Santaniello from WCCO had done a story on how parenting has changed with help from Frank Vascellaro's mom. I just really enjoyed watching Rosellie Vascellaro being interviewed by her son.

This first link is the official story.

Motherly Advice:How Parenting Has Changed

This second link I enjoyed even more. It is an extended interview between Frank and his mother. It just made me smile.

Web Extra:Outtakes with Frank Vascellaro's mom


On another note: When Jeff schedules dentist appointments for the kids it takes two afternoons to fit them all in. This past Friday and this afternoon we kept our dentist office very busy! Out of the 12 dentist going children (Lily is too little and Joel has the potential of being a little difficult) only one was found to have a cavity. Pretty good for a few hundred (?) cavity potential teeth!

Austrian Schnitzel Headquarters

Have I ever mentioned that my great grandfather came from Austria-Hungary as a very young boy probably around 1889 or there abouts.In the picture below (dated around 1894) my great grandfather is the little boy sitting in the front on the left a few years after they came to America.



Anyway,I read this article this morning on WCCO.com about a new restaurant that opened up in St Cloud called The Austrian Schnitzel Headquarters. It might be worth a drive up there this summer for a quilt shop/schnitzel visit!

Message For Jeff...

What do you think? Maybe?



Info Here

It will be a busy weekend but I wonder if we could squeeze this in?

We visited an Alpaca farm two years ago up in Northfield. It really was neat. Living in town has it's disadvantages at times...

If any of you city folks come down for this let us know.

Random weekend Rap-up

I am just going to post a few different random things all in this one post. This is a weeks worth of my project stuff. It will probably be fast and overwhelming and maybe boring but...HURRAY!!! Pictures included. I like pictures.

First, I thought I would start filling in the Jan/Feb gaps in my blog so keep checking those two months for new posts. It will almost be like I never stopped blogging! I added this Feb post a little bit ago that I think some might appreciate.

Has it been a Year Already?

On to my new/old goodies...

Have you ever looked at the used shops for old vintage patterns? I found some gems!These are my two favorites. I thought I would add them to my Etsy Dragonfrye Supplies shop.

Do you think this one looks mid/late 60's?



The second one looks very fun to make. Maybe I will list it and if I ever have time and it is still around I will make it for Lily.

I date this one around 1958/9 there abouts.




Another baby/toddler drawstring skirt finished. I found this poly dress fabric for pocket change at Hancock Fabrics. Elena thinks this is the best drawstring skirt I made so far. Very Cute!




I thought a cute bow on the hem of the back seam would be nice and feminine.





Now I need more quilt fabric "like a hole in the head" as my grandma would say but I splurged on Ebay because I had a little extra money left over from selling my Sonlight manuals even after buying our new (actually used) fall school manuals a few weeks ago.


These are from Country Stitt-ches Ebay store

Here are my 5 inch square packs I chose. They will make cute and easy baby quilts.



This length of fabric matches the Sleepytime 5 inch square pack I bought. I was thinking I could cut each cute animal square out and add sashing and borders.It will be SO adorable!



This is a yard from American Jane's Look and Learn group. It also matches the Mary Jane 5 inch squares pack above. I was thinking I would use this as the backing for the 5 inch square Mary Jane quilt. What is neat is I already have a matching soft fabric book panel stored away. Maybe I could make the quilt and the fabric book as a set or something. I really wish I would never need to sleep. I could get so much sewing done.

Here They Are!!!

I finally figured out how to work around my HP Photosmart not working. I figured out I do not know how to blog well without visual aids.

Here are pictures of our Dragonfrye 2009 AWANA Grand Prix cars!

Jeff and the kids worked very hard on them. You will be impressed. As far as I can remember about the details of the races this past Wednesday evening all the cars made it down the tracks.


This attractive green van won first place for speed among the AWANA T&T leader cars!

Way to go Jeff!!!

This reflects real life for you would try to get where you need to go as fast as you can with 14 children in the back seats,too.






Grant's Air Craft Carrier won third place in design among the AWANA T&T leaders!

Hurray Grant! Great Job!!!



Elena's VERY cute lady bug car.



Alan's Model T. He thought it turned out looking more like an Army Jeep.




Nolan's Stag Beetle.



Cyrus's racing car.



Joyce's canoe. You might not be able to tell in the picture but she sanded it so very smooth.

Josh's March Coupon

As a birthday gift for Josh's 8th birthday I made a coupon book with a special coupon Josh could redeem each month. I added a few smaller coupons he could redeem for chores and $ off his fines*. Tonight he used his March coupon. It was a lot of fun just the two of us even when Joel and Jeff crashed our party. We opted for frozen pizza instead of homemade pizza and watched Spider man (the first one). I was a lot of fun!



Here are the other two smaller coupons Josh can use throughout the year. April's coupon will call for a trip with mom to the library,just the two of us!






* yes,yes we are some of those unkind parents who fine their older kids for their misdeeds. Depending on the month a child has had the fines can get pretty hefty and make a pretty sizable cut into their paper route profits. Not Josh but others have hit pretty close to the $15 dollar mark a few times. Our Motto "If you don't want to pay the fine don't do the crime!"

Spring Fever is Here!

This week we are being hit with a spring fever and not the fun looking forward to warmer days spring fever.

Busy Day!

Tonight was AWANA Grand Prix, Jeff and the kids were looking forward to this for a long time!

My HP Photosmart was acting all weird so I could not get pictures of the kids' cars on the blog to show you but I will try again tomorrow.

A few hints... # 16 the The Frye Mobile left the rest in the dust and sped home with 1st place. A beautifully made aircraft carrier flew home with 3rd place for design!

Wait 'till you see all the Frye cars!


While the rest had a grand time at AWANA watching the races, a cute Joel,a precious Lily,and I had a fun time walking to McDonald for a special treat. Joel was so exited. He was so cute beyond description. It just warmed my heart. Lily delighted in the wheelie McDonald's highchair but brought along a little baby attitude.I like baby attitude...

When Joel,Lily, and I arrived back home from our special walk we found three pans of warm from the oven hot dishes on our front porch.Very nice! Thank you secret hot dish givers! We ate very well tonight.

Tuesday!

It's pretty chilly outside but it is looking springy inside!

The seeds are sprouting!



Aloha!

Monday, Monday

Coach John emailed us these fun pictures from Saturday when Jeff and a bunch of the HeavenWord Handlers watched and met the Alexandria Aces.

Life with Only Eight!

This afternoon Jeff took the older 6 to watch The Alexandria Aces' performance at the Tim Orth Foundation at Bird Island with their HeavenWord Handlers FCA group. All of the kids were all very exited. The Aces are a very talented kids' basketball handling team who perform all over. The kids will even be able to talk with some of the Ace performers.

This past winter Grant,Alan,Joyce,and Cyrus have been able to participate in a few ball handling performances with HeavenWord Handlers. One during a Waseca girls basketball half time and another performance and mini clinic at a Wednesday night church service up in Burnsville. Anyway this made them even more exited about meeting the Aces.

That being said, I held down the fort with eight of the younger children. Now although it sounds like it would be hard, 14 isn't as bad as one would think but taking care of only eight all day was like a vacation!!!!! It was so quite and peaceful!!!

I thought you might join our smaller Dragonfrye group as we walk to HyVee to get some drumstick ice creams. It is OK if you are dirty or muddy,I just ask that your hands and nails are clean. Don't worry about your uncombed hair, remember you are just with us! I have not seen our brush around the house since early last week.

Ready?
Let's go!



Through the fair grounds is a fun short cut. Sometimes you can find "treasures".Did you bring your zippy "treasure" bag? That's OK. Your pockets will work just fine.



Mmmm...the drumsticks taste very good!




Now Lily will entertain us with her ice cream cute antics





Thanks for joining us!

Good Eats!?

I am not getting the projects done I planned but we are taking advantage of the perfect weather! The fun of eating outside distracts the kids from my overcooked beans and burned hot dogs!

Everything tastes better
in perfect weather!

Elephant Ear Anyone?

Looking good so far...



The ones I did looked very much like this one...not quite what I imagined them to look like.




Elena jumps in to help poor old mom



this one turned out perfect! Elena saves the day!



Elephant Ears

1 pkg active yeast
1c. warm water
2 eggs
6 T. sugar, divided
4 c. all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil
1 t. cinnamon

Soften yeast in water,cool. Combine yeast mixture with eggs, 3 tablespoons sugar and flour; blend well. Divide dough into 12 pieces and let rest 20 minutes. Roll each piece of dough in a large circle on lightly floured surface; stretch with your hands if needed. Heat one inch of vegetable oil in large iron skillet, and cook each circle until lightly browned, turn once, surface will bubble. Remove and place on paper towels. Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over each circle.

Looking Ahead to My Weekend Projects

I am looking ahead to my weekend projects with excitement. I am finishing up a few more drawstring skirts and then think I am going to work on these next.

This is just SO cute!!! This is a Mary Engelbreit Cuties Baby fabric book



and this will be a matching whole cloth type baby quilt. I am going to look in my fabric stash and see if I have a good backing for it. I was thinking a blue check or something but I am not sure. I could just go with white...this is just such cute fabric.




I thought as long as I was doing one Mary book and quilt set I might as well work on this one as well. This is Mary's Three Little Pigs fabric book



and matching whole cloth quilt. I decided to use the yellow check as the backing.



My project fun list is usually much longer than the time I have to sew so maybe I will only get the skirts finished.