Chickens, Kitties and Veggies

Sometimes a picture says a thousand words.  

It was a beautiful morning!

Enjoy the day.

Early morning sun salutations

Purple cone flower

Queenie, oh mighty queen of the flock

Charlie Chaplin is a lovely thing

 

Happy, free-ranging chickens

Baby cucumber

Beyond Canned Ravioli

Being an artsy family has its pros and cons.  One of the cons is that cooking is pretty low on the list of priorities. Who wants to cook when you can quilt, play piano or take photos?  We've all gotta eat, though, so I'm always looking for short cuts to make cooking easy and quick. 

On my most recent trip to the store, Tom asked me to pick up some quick and easy meals for his lunches for work.  He suggested canned ravioli.  Yuck.  But, okay, it's your lunch.  

Aldi has been our store of choice lately.  I like the prices and the fact that I can shop in 30 minutes without having to make choices between brands.  But, when I looked at the label of the ravioli, I was kinda grossed out.  Not only were the calories high, who knows how many preservatives are in there, not to mention the "mystery" meat. Plus, I know Tom.  Although the label says it serves "about 2", he's going to eat the whole can, which doubles the calories, sodium and fat. This seemed to be a 69 cent can of evil.  I decided I could not feed this to my husband!  I needed to find a healthier yet quick replacement to canned ravioli.


I grabbed a jar of spaghetti sauce, a set of freezer containers and a bag of frozen ravioli (I had to head to Pick N Save for this).  I think the cost was about $8 for everything.

When I got home from the store I immediately started on my food project.  After washing the freezer containers, I divided the frozen ravioli in 4 containers, which was about 10 each. Then I popped open the spaghetti sauce and poured it over top.  

I added the covers and, voila, four lunches ready for the freezer!  I swear it only took me about 5 minutes. Easy peasy! Plus the fat, calories and sodium all came down to a much healthier choice.  Sigh of relief.

Do you have an easy meal to share with me?  I'm always looking for ideas for this crazy family.  Share your ideas below in the comments.

Artfully sewing,

Angela Jean

Eddie Bauer Dress make over!

Over the 4th of July weekend I went shopping with my best friend, Tash.  We love to find deals, so we went to the local outlet mall. 



While browsing in Eddie Bauer a dress called out my name.  I'm always attracted to green, but this was pretty plain. There were about a dozen of the army green dresses on the rack in various sizes.  



The price was originally $89.99 and it was reduced to $24.99. I loved the style so I decided I could spruce it up, Artfully Sew style!




In my usual way, I pictured an orange flower, curly cues and the like.  I pulled out my old daisy pattern which I've used in the past for my crazy daisy bookmarks. 

I keep all my patterns in file folders.

I love using the Color Planning Tool!

I traced my pattern onto fusible webbing.  I have found the best webbing for machine and hand stitching is Pellon Wonder Under 805. My other favorite tool is the Ultimate 3 in 1 Color Tool. I use it all the time to match my colors both for fabric and embroidery thread. 

 I fused the daisy to my dress and blanket stitched around all the pieces.  I also chain stitched some curly cues for the vine-like leaves.

 
 The flower at the bottom looked a little off balance, so I added some embroidered flowers on the top shoulder on opposite side of the appliqued flower.

Embroidered daisies using a chain stitch

 Since I still had thread left, I decided to add a small flower on the back of the dress. Doodle, doodle, doodle!

 Here's the original dress.

 And here it is after the Artfully Sew additions:

I'm going to wear this dress for my birthday trip to see a theater production of Les Miserables with the family.  Whoot, whoot!

What things do you have in your closet that could use an embroidered daisy here, an appliqued birdie there?  Share your ideas and ask questions in the comments below.

Keep Artfully Sewing!

Angela Jean