A cute idea

The other day I saw a little girl that we know wearing a cute little dress. I asked her mom where she got it and she replied, "I made it out of a pillowcase." What a cool concept and a great way to recycle pillowcases. That roused my curiosity so I did a little searching on the internet and found a great tutorial posted on one of my favorite blogs, Sew Mama Sew. Here is the link in case you are interested, www.jenleheny.com/pillowcase-dress-instructions.

I ended up making one for a precious 2 year old little girl I babysit. It turned out really cute. I didn't have a pillowcase on hand so I just sewed 2 smaller pieces of fabric together to mimic a pillowcase. I also added a little applique (designed by Jesseca Bellemare of "The Modern Baby Company") on the bottom. It was easy and fun. It's definitely worth a try!

Our little visitor

The other night Stephen found a critter in our back yard. I wonder if that's why my zucchini flowers are disappearing...... He was kind of cute though. ;)

Little pesty problems

About a week ago, I noticed some of my tomatoes were getting holes in them and turning into brown mush...yuck! I didn't know what was going on. Then I picked one and found the answer. It was an earwig. I had no idea they liked tomatoes. After some research, I learned they like to eat tomato leaves and zinnia flowers. Sure enough, so I would have a pretty garden, I had planted zinnia seeds right next to one of my tomato plants.... bummer! Fortunately, they typically don't destroy the plant, they just ruin a few pieces of precious fruit. So I have been experimenting with a couple different things to get rid of these gross bugs. I ended up putting little bowls of soy sauce mixed with veggie oil next to my plants and haven't seen them in a couple days. Another remedy is to use beer because the earwigs like the yeast in it. Then the yeast makes them die. And for you adventurous people out there, you can also go out in the evening/early morning and pick them off by hand.
I also got a recipe for a bug repellant for your garden from the Farmer's Almanac. This solution is good for a lot of bugs that like to "share" the garden with us humans. So, if you are having some similar bug issues, I highly recommend using this solution. Just mix 1 tsp. dishsoap, 1 cup veggie oil, and 1 gallon of warm water. Spray on plants as needed. It won't hurt your plants or veggies, but it should keep the bugs away. Watch out bugs!

Grandma's quilt

My grandmother made me and Stephen this quilt for our belated Christmas present. She made most of it by hand. She is an amazing lady! What an inspiration. I am so proud of it that I wanted to post it. It's definitely going to be in our family for a long time. What a family treasure.