Food                      Fabric                    Paper                    Holidays                    Decorating                   Giving                     

Friday, February 25, 2011

Some Bunny Loves You

Welcome to We Grow By Our Dreams. Next Saturday is the Operation Write Home Bunny Hop. It will be a ton of fun and many blogs will be offering tutorials and blog candy. All blogs will offer inspiration and creativity.
In the meantime, I made some simple Easter cards using the same papers but playing with the layouts. I thought it would be fun to go non-traditional colors. Maybe these are "guy" Easter cards.


I was having so much fun with the papers that I also made an all occasion card too.  Our heroes always need everyday cards to send home to their families.
Like I said, all occasion cards (thinking of you, miss you, happy birthday, love you, etc.) are always in demand. If you'd like to create some holiday cards, be aware of these upcoming deadlines:

Easter deadline: March 18
Mother's Day deadline: March 31

Don't forget to hop with me next Saturday, March 5th. Thanks again for stopping by.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

It's My Birthday!

To celebrate my birthday I am making/collecting pillowcase dresses for the organization Hope 4 Kids Internationals' "Dress a Girl Around the World" campaign. It is a wonderful organization that donates handmade dresses to girls in need.
My goal is to send 27 dresses by April 1st. I need your help.  

If you are a non-sewer you can help me by sending me cute pillowcases that my friends and I can turn into dresses. 

If you are a sewer, you can make pillowcase dresses using any pattern but I recommend the pattern on the Dress a Girl Around the World website.This is a great easy project for a beginner. And, once you make one, you will want to make a dozen more. :)

If you want to help, you can email me at h_mcewen at hotmail dot com or you can leave a comment below.

Thank you so much. It is such a simple act that makes such a huge difference in the lives of these girls.
Girl in Uganda
Children in Appalachia
Girls in the Philippines
 Wouldn't it be fun to see the dress that you make on a child?

Monday, February 21, 2011

I'm this weeks sample girl

Operation Write Home has a great sketch challenge this week and, I made the samples.  :) Actually, I was only asked to make one but I had so much fun that I made 3!

Here's the sketch:
First, I was feeling very pink so I made this card:
I had fun with layers as you can see here:
I made the pink card using Martha Stewart eyelet papers, a felt flower, button, chipboard flower, prima leaf, and rub-ons. 

Next, I was I made a fun patriotic card:
I think this would make a great hero card. We can never express our appreciation enough to the brave men and women who serve in our military.


One more,
For the owl card, I used vintage photo negatives for my squares, a camera eyelet I've been hoarding, another rub-on and the owl is a Odd Bird Planet Stamp that comes in a fun set.

Well, thanks so much for stopping by the blog today. Happy President's Day!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Pretty in Pink Party Decorations

Last month we had a super fun baby shower for my bff, Dawn. I was in charge of the decorations and it was all about the DIY. I have been super into making buntings for my friends lately and couldn't help making one for the shower (all pink) which doubles as a gift after the party.
I mixed some new fabrics with some vintage sheets and vintage pink corduroy. 

The main decoration was the records. I bought a dozen records at my favorite thrift shop.
Titles include: Organ Dance Party, Accordion Favorites, and Polka Party. I measured the label and then (since I don't own a circle cutter) I found something in my home the same diameter to trace. 
I was able to fit 6 circles on each 12" x 12" paper. And, I bought the paper at JoAnn when it was on sale 4 for $1. Score!!!
I tried a few glues but a good old fashioned glue stick worked the best.
I wanted the hole in the center so I stacked all my glued records, found the center and drilled a whole with my Fiskars drill thingie.
I placed the records all over the room and used one as the guest sign-in book.
Here they are all lined up on the mantle.
I could not get a good picture of this last decoration to save my life so I'll just explain it.
I look yards and yards of vintage pink string and glued on punched out pink scalloped circles and hearts. Again, I love that 25 cent paper!

Thanks for stopping by today. Right now I'm thinking about a tea party. Hmmmm. Any ideas/suggestions?

Here is the Pretty in Pink Party post and the sweetheart s'mores tutorial.
I have lots more projects and tutorials made from vintage sheets on my other blog, The Vintage Sheet Blog. 

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Burrito Soup

I had the yummiest soup at a place called Barbacoa in Salt Lake City. Apparently there are several Barbacoas in Utah. Delish. You must go. Anyways, it's one of those places where all the ingredients are lined up and the nice people behind the counter add whatever you want to make whatever you want. The day I went the guy thought it would be funny to ask me everything in Spanish. So, it was also an educational experience. 

Anywho, I had a wonderful burrito soup. Since there are no Barbacoas in California (boo hiss!), I decided to make my own and share the recipe with you (hurray!).
Burrito Soup
You'll need:
1 Quart of vegetable broth
1 Can of white hominy (it's a corn product) 
Bell peppers and onion (I used 1 green, 1/2 red, 1/2 yellow and 1/4 onion)
2 cans of beans, rinsed and drained (Barbacoa lets you choose between black or pinto)
Sour cream, 1 cup shredded cheese and 4 corn tortillas (or use tortilla chips, crushed)
2 cups Cooked rice (I use brown but it's a free country, use white if that's what you're into.)

Let's do it!
First, heat up the broth and hominy in a 2 quart pot. Set aside.
Slice the peppers and onions, fajita style.
Saute in olive oil until the onions are golden brown. Place mixture in serving bowl.
Slice tortillas into 1 inch squares (nevermind this if you are using chips.)
Fry in a pan with some canola oil until crisp.
Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.

Everyone gets to serve themselves for this one. 
Here's the order:
1. Rice
2. Peppers and onions
3. Beans
(at Barbacoa you also have the choice of shredded chicken, beef, or pork at this point. Hello leftovers!)
4. Broth (don't forget to scoop the hominy from the bottom.)
Finish it off with:
5. Cheese
6. Chips
7. Sour cream

How did I do?
or
Thanks for stopping by We Grow By Our Dreams today.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Super Bowl 45 Open House

Usually I upload my Super Bowl pictures during the game but this year the game was actually pretty fun to watch. So, it's a little after-the-fact but I need to hold on to tradition. So, here we go.
The Decor:

Besides my home-made decorations, I look for football-themed goodies all year long at garage sales, thrift stores, and clearance bills.
The Food:
The menu:
Sloppy Joes on Football-shaped rolls. You can find these rolls at a Mexican market.
Olive Bites. Olives surrounded by cheese and butter. Hello beautiful!
Greek eggplant dip. We had this at a Greek restaurant and went crazy for it.
jell-0 jiggler helmets (the dark ones look like Darth Vader helmets in the picture.)
Rotel Cheesy dip with chips, huge black olives, and potato salad

For Dessert: 
Ice Cream Football cake

The Outfit:
This is a referee apron complete with yellow velcro flag. Gotta love my slouch white socks.

We had a ton of leftovers. That cheesy dip goes a long way. Hope you had a great game day too.

Okay, gotta go get ready for the next big day-Valentine's Day! Thanks for stopping by the blog. :)

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