my life, one day at a time

New Calf and a Saturday Project

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Leah

We have another addition to our bottle family. Kasey brought us this black bull calf because he is a twin and was not getting enough to eat from his mother. He was a little older than the other ones when we got him so he was a little shy, but he warmed up real quick when he figured out who would be feeding him from now on.

As the other calves are getting older they are starting to eat feed. It is like baby feed for calves, made specially as a first food. It has rolled corn, some pellets and a few other things that make it smell sweet and taste really good to a calf. We had been feeding them in a rubber pan on the floor but decided since they spent as much time standing in the feed as they did eating it, they needed a little feed bunk.

We made this bunk this morning, I did the sawing. Kale did the measuring, drilling and screwing. Colt did the supervising. Now the lumber I bought to make a washer and dryer pedestal is a cat house and a feed bunk, oh well.

Here is Jessie trying out the new bunk, I think they are going to like it!

Have a Great Saturday!

Leah

The Only Red Headed Babies I Will Ever Get

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Leah

I always wanted one baby born with red hair like mine. However after two browns and two blonds I realized that is never going to happen. I think Kasey must feel sorry for me so he brought me, (and the kids) some beautiful red babies to take care of.

This is the bull calf he brought over first, he was orphaned during the c-section when he was born. He is a very hungary little fella and is currently looking for the udder under Kaseys ATV.

He brought me this little heifer calf next. She is a twin but her mother didn’t have enough milk for two calves so we are bottle feeding her too. She is very shy and didn’t want her picture taken. When she comes out of the barn to play she always comes out very slowly and has to check everything out carefully before she will get to close.

At this age they are like little kids, they love to run and jump and play king of the mountain.

They remember who feeds them and will follow that person where ever they go.

They get bottle fed twice a day and are always eager to eat!

When their bottles are empty they never want to see you go, if we didn’t have this board over the door keeping them in I think they would try to follow me out of the barn every day! I think Liv will take the bull calf to fair as a bucket bottle project so I will keep you updated as they grow.

Leah

A Simple Patchwork Valentine

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Leah

Valentines Day is almost upon us and I wanted to squeeze in one more quick project. This project went together very quickly and I think it would make a very sweet gift for someone special.

For this project you need some red or valentine themed fabric. I used the Mamma said Sew charm pack. You also need some white cotton, I used moda Bella Solids white. You will also need a piece of light weight interfacing.

I picked out seven different patterns then I cut each of the 5″ squares in half and then in half again so I ended up with four 2.5″ squares out of each one. Lay out the squares in your chosen pattern five squares high and five squares wide. Start sewing horizontal rows, press the seams on the first row to the right, second row to the left and so on back and forth so when you sew the rows together they “nest” neatly and make matching the seams easier. Next make a heart template on a piece of paper and use it to cut your patchwork into a heart shape.

Sew a piece of light weight interfacing to the FRONT of your patchwork heart, using a 1/4 inch seam, trim the interfacing to match the heart shape. Snip the curves up to the seam being careful not to cut the threads. Make a “Y” shape cut in the interfacing and turn the heart right side out.

Make sure all the interfacing is tucked under the edges and press well. Decide what size you want your pillow. I wanted mine to be very dainty so I cut my two white squares 12×12.

Pin the heart to one of the white squares and stitch around the heart staying very close to the edge. I used an open foot and used the edge as a guide to follow the edge of the heart.

Layer the second white square on top of the heart and stitch around the pillow using a 1/2 in. seam, starting at the bottom, leaving a three to four-inch opening to turn and stuff your pillow. Poke out the corners with a turning tool, or chopstick and press. Stuff evenly with your choice of filling. Carefully hand stitch the opening closed.

Your simple Valentine is complete!

Happy Valentines Day!

Leah

Valentine’s Day Pillow

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Leah

I wanted to make a simple yet striking pillow to celebrate valentines day and I came up with this simple design. This project is mostly about applique. If you have never tried applique before it is a simple technique that can create some amazing results. The most complicated part is reversing your letters and creating the template to use with the fusible, and I have done the hard part for you!

Letter template: click here: be_mine_template

Supplies needed: paper-backed fusible, white cotton (I used bella solids white), red cotton (I used bella solids red).

Start by tracing the letters and heart onto the paper side of your fusible. Before you ask, yes the letters are reversed so they are right side up when they are ironed on. Next iron the fusible onto the wrong side of your fabric.

Carefully cut around each letter.

Next it is time to layout your letters, I cut a piece of white cotton 12 inches square, folded my fabric in half and used the fold line as a guide to place my letters. When it is positioned exactly as you want it gently press with a hot iron, remember not to slide your iron around as this could cause the letters to shift.

Next, using a zig zag or blanket stitch, stitch around all the letters and the heart. Remember to back-stitch so all your hard work does not come undone. This might seem a little time-consuming but it is a lot of straight lines and goes pretty fast.

To add the red stripe border cut a strip of the white fabric off two inches from the top and bottom (you may need to adjust this based on your letter placement). Sew in a 1 inch strip of red fabric.

Clip all threads and press, press the red seams in so they don’t show thru the white fabric.

Square up the pillow front and cut a piece for the back the same size. Sew around the outside with right sides together leaving a 3-4 inch gap to stuff your pillow.

Turn right side out, press again to make the seams nice an crisp. Stuff the pillow as desired then hand stitch the opening shut.

Your pillow is now complete and ready to give as a gift or decorate your home. Either way enjoy!

Leah

Tasty and Tangy BBQ Chicken

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Leah

Last night I was going to make some sweet and sour chicken for supper when I realized I did not have any soy sauce. I did a little modification to my recipe and came up with this tasty recipe. My husband gave me high praise and said it was the best chicken I had ever made.

Click here for a printable copy of the recipe: Tasty and Tangy BBQ Chicken

Tasty and Tangy BBQ Chicken

For the Chicken:

2 to 3 Chicken Breasts cubed into 1 inch pieces

½ c. Cornstarch 2 eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat medium pan with enough oil to cover bottom of pan. Season chicken with salt and pepper then put pieces in a bowl and cover with cornstarch, shake to cover completely. Beat two eggs in another bowl then transfer chicken to eggs making sure all pieces are completely covered. Cook in heated oil until all pieces are browned on all sides. Put into a 7 x 11 glass pan.

For the Sauce:

¾ c. Brown Sugar ¼ c. Ketchup

1 T. Vinegar 3 T. BBQ Sauce

1 t. garlic salt

Whisk sauce ingredients until smooth. Pour over chicken, making sure all pieces are coated. Bake 15 minutes, gently stir, bake 15 minutes more.

Give it a try and tell me what you think!

Thanks for listening, Leah

Soda “Crack”er Toffee

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Leah

I have fond memories of sneaking into my Aunt Kris’s stash of Christmas goodies with my cousin and this simple candy was the first thing that I would go for. It is so simple, yet so VERY good!

Start by lining your pan with foil, this helps get the toffee out when it has cooled. Then line with a single layer of crackers.

Bring the butter and brown sugar to a boil and cook for three minutes. Pour evenly over crackers. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. I watch pretty close and when the crackers float I take it out and use a fork to push the crackers down and back into there orderly places.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over the hot toffee and let them get a little melty, you can tell they are ready to spread when they are nice and shiny.
Let cool in the fridge and break into pieces.

Eat it all yourself or share with others in the Christmas spirit. Either way enjoy this recipe, it is one of my very favorites.

Leah

The 7 Hour Quilt

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Leah

My son Kale turns 8 on December 15th. He told me last week that he wants a John Deere Quilt for his birthday. Not a huge deal, if I had not already started two rather complicated quilts for my daughters, a table runner for someone else, not to mention gifts for school and sunday school teachers. My first thought was there was no way I was going to do this. Then I changed my thinking. Unlike my other projects I did not need to make it complicated, so I went to the complete opposite and made it super simple.

I picked 3 fabrics, one print and two coordinating solids. I purchased two yards of each fabric because I was not really sure what layout I was going to use, and I also got 4 yards of a matching black flannel for the backing. I started by cutting 9 inch blocks (because you get the most blocks per yard), then laid them out in different patterns. This quilt could be made even faster using layer cakes (10×10 blocks), I could not do that however, since I have never seen a John Deere layer cake.

I decided on two different 9 patch arrangements, mostly black, and mostly green. But always with the print in the four corners. Then I sewed all the 9 patches together.

Now for the fun part, cut the 9 patches into fourths, slicing right down the middle horizontally and vertically creating four identical blocks. You can see now why the print is in the corners, so it does not get cut.

This quilt can have many different looks just by the way the sliced blocks are arranged. I laid mine out with the small square in the lower left corner alternating green and black blocks. This gives the quilt a zig-zag look. Finish the top by sewing all the blocks together in rows then sewing the rows together.

I finished the quilt by throwing it on my frame and quilting it with a squarish meandering pattern. The quilting was actually quite dense and I probably could have made it much larger and it still would have looked nice. I cut the binding from the leftover black fabric, then I used my Bernina Bias Binding attachment and put the binding on in record time.

Totals: Cutting – 20 minutes
Piecing – 2 hours. 15 minutes (including piecing backing)
Quilting – 3 hours 10 minutes ( I was also piecing other projects while I was quilting)
Binding – 45 minutes

I already gave Kale his quilt so he could have it on his bed for the party we had at our house this past weekend, he was so pleased with it. He said it was just what he wanted!

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading, Leah

Almost Homemade

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Leah

Yeah, yeah, I know it has been a while but the kids are back in school and I feel I have caught up again so I wanted to share a quick post. I am usually BIG on homemade. However there are times when I am pressed and need something in a hurry. Treats for school or to send in Kaseys lunch, and I can’t just run to the store and grab something. Instead I turn to something that I usually have on hand. Betty Crocker cookie mixes. They really do taste homemade and could fool anyone.

This recipe combines a two mixes and a few ingredients that I always have on hand and makes awesome cookies!

Almost Homemade Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1 pkg. Betty Crocker Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

1 pkg. Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix

2 eggs

1 stick butter (softened)

1 cup Reece’s pieces or plain M&M’s

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350
Place everything except candy pieces in large bowl or bowl of mixer. Mix until just combined. If it looks a little dry sometimes I add up to 1 T. of water.
When combined fold in candy pieces.
Place on cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart
Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges just start to brown. Makes 3 to 4 dozen depending on size.

Click the link below for a printable version of the recipe:

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Pour your self a glass of milk and enjoy.

Do you have any “almost” homemade recipes? I would love to hear about them!

Thanks for reading, Have A Great Day!!!

Leah

Backseat Car Organizer

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Leah

Like so many other people I have found countless projects on pinterest that I have added to my “to do list”. However, when I saw this one it went straight to the top. The directions that I based my project on came from Just Sew Sassy, and was very cute with excellent directions. Hers is on a seat back and I wanted one to go between the back seats so I made some changes. The great thing about this project is that it can easily be changes to fit in any free space in your car.

I started out by measuring my available space in the back seat and cut my pieces the following sizes:

Main piece: cut 2 - 16″x22″

Fusible interfacing: cut 1 – 16″x22″

Pockets: cut 3 - 17″x13″

Cut 1 – 18 1/2″x13″

Binding: cut enough 2″ strips to go all the way around plus about 3 feet extra for ties and bow.

Fold pocket pieces in half so they measure 17″x6″ and 18 1/2″x6″, press so a crisp crease is formed. This is the top edge of your pocket.

Sandwich the fusible interfacing between the main body pieces with wrong sides together and interfacing in the middle. Press with hot iron to fuse.

Place the first pocket about 3 inches from the top of the main piece. Sew the bottom of the pocket all the way across. The pocket will overhang about 1/2 inch on each side, so take the extra at the top and make it even with the main body piece. Pin like in step one and sew the edge seam. Trim the extra fabric off, like in step 2.

I also decided at this point to sew an extra seam down the middle of the pocket because it is so wide and because my son and daughter are sharing this.

Repeat this for the next two pockets working your way down, just remember if you make any extra seams you will be sewing on top of the other pockets, so keep the seams on top of each other.

For the bottom pocket I wanted extra width to hold the kids headphones, that always seemed to be on the floor of the car. I laid the bottom pocket, that is cut extra wide, along the bottom edge of the body piece. Pin the outside edges flush and work the extra fabric to the center of the pocket, pinch it together, then push it flat. This is sort of an inverted pleat. Put a pin through the pleat and sew the bottom and side seams.

Flatten the pocket out, separating the pleat, so you are only sewing through one layer of fabric. Pin so it doesn’t shift and sew up the middle of the pocket making two perfect headphone holders. Again, if you don’t have headphones, just make your pocket the same with of the body.

Time to make the binding. Start by sewing all of your strips together as shown above. Lay pieces together at a 90 degree angle and sew across the corner. Trim off the excess. Move to the ironing board, fold in half pressing as you go, along the entire length of the binding. When you are done with this, open the binding up fold top and bottom edges up to meet the crease in the middle and press again. Fold in half again, and press, to make the 1/2 inch binding strip.

Place binding around the outside edge of the body, enclosing the raw edges, try to get the binding on as even as possible so the same amount of fabric is on the front and back of the piece, this will make it much easier to topstitch. Pin all the way around, working the fabric at the corners until they make a nice crisp point. I like to start at the bottom so my start/stop point is not as noticeable. When you get to the end trim with about an extra inch, tuck it under to make a clean edge and overlap just a little to cover the start of the binding. Topstitch all the way around, checking every few inches to make sure you are catching the fabric on the front and back.

My organizer is going between my two older kids in the back seat so I will be tying it to one headrest on each side. To make the ties I cut a 12 inch strip of the topstitched binding, folded it in half and tacked it in the top corner of the organizer. Be sure to get it stitched on there good, this will hold all the weight of the organizer, and you don’t want it to rip.

I wanted to dress mine up just a little so I made a bow and hand stitched it in the corner. (On my daughters side, by the way.)

And that is it. All done, ready to put in the car!!

Let me know what you think, and if you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask.

Thanks for reading,

Leah

Minky Pillowcase Version 2

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Leah

For anyone who checked out my Minky Pillowcase version 1, this is a more standard type pillowcase using two colors of minky and embellished with a monogrammed name.

For this pillowcase I started with two pieces of minky. Cut the main color 25.5 in. x 37 in. and trim color 8.5in. x 37 in. I came by these measurements by simply measuring the pillow that it was going to fit and adding 2.5 inches to give it some room for seam allowances and so it was not tight on the pillow.

If you choose to do so, now is the time to add the embroidered name to the trim piece. Be sure to lay out all the pieces to get the correct placement for the name.

Next lay out the main body piece unfolded with the right side up. Fold the trim piece in half the long way right sides on the outside and place it along the long edge of the main body being careful to line up the ends and edges. Pin every couple of inches because the more you pin the less the minky stretches and moves ( I swear, Aunt Kris, it works!). Sew the two pieces together using a 1/2 in seam allowance, stop frequently to make sure the layers are lined up.

When you have the seam finished, fold the fabric in half lining up the trim pieces outside edge carefully and work your way to the inside. It should very simply look like an inside out pillowcase. Again pin all the way along the long and short side where it will be sewn.

Sew the seam starting at the trim and working your way to the inside. When you get to the corner I lift your presser foot and pivot the fabric and continue down the last side and make sure to back-stitch at the end.

TA-DAH!!

Turn the pillowcase right side out and you are finished.

A couple of tips to sew on minky:

I like to make my stitch length a little longer that I usually do. I find it does not make the fabric stretch as much.

Pin the heck out of what ever you are working on, I know it boring, but it is better than tearing out stitches.

Some people like to use a walking foot, it helps both layers of the fabric move together.

If you are confident and own a serger, this is an awesome project to use it on.

My kids picked out their own colors and they love to snuggle with their pillowcases. This really is a simple project that anyone with the ability to sew in a straight like can make.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

If there are any beginners out there that have questions please ask!

Thanks for reading,

Leah

fillthedaysdotcom

my life, one day at a time

New Calf and a Saturday Project

The Only Red Headed Babies I Will Ever Get

A Simple Patchwork Valentine

Valentine’s Day Pillow

Tasty and Tangy BBQ Chicken

Soda “Crack”er Toffee

The 7 Hour Quilt

Almost Homemade

Backseat Car Organizer

Minky Pillowcase Version 2

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