Valentine's Bunco

I love my bunco girls.

Our group has been together for about 5 years now, and I venture to say that each of us looks forward to our monthly girls' night out for good food, good fun, and friendship.  In the past 5 years, we've been through so much - members have gotten married, bought houses, accepted new jobs, been through infertility, adoption, and had lots of babies.  For 5 years now bunco has given us an excuse to celebrate together, laugh together, and sometimes to cry together. 

Thursday night we all gathered on Surrey Lane for Valentine's Bunco.  And I loved every second.  How good it is to be surrounded by friends! 

Bo made his signature cheese dip which was a HUGE hit!  By popular request, here's his recipe.  I'm signing off and turning the computer over to him so the recipe will come straight from the chef!

Bo's Crock Pot Sausage Cheese Dip
-One regular size block of velveeta
-One can Rotel (choose from mild, regular, or hot)
-One can black beans
-cooked ground sausage

Combine ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for at least 45 minutes stirring occasionally. Serve with your choice of chips...tostitos "scoops" are an excellent choice, but any type of tostitos are good, too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

T'was the Week Before Valentines

...and we've been busy CRAFTING!

If you've been reading this blog for a couple of weeks - you'll remember that I made Mc a Valentine's onesie that looked like this...

...but the project went horribly wrong when I put the onesie on Mc and it was about 3 sizes too small.  Since then, my dad's been calling it "McCord's Halfsie."  So, thankfully my friend Jess has a great sense of humor and isn't afraid to accept a refashioned onesie for her one-month-old little girl Eliza.  As it turns out, I think I like the "Eliza" version better.  Happy Valentine's Day Eliza!

So, McCord sprouted 2 teeth about a month ago and now I think he's on round two - lots of drooling and of course everything goes in the mouth - especially the tags on all of his toys.  So, I decided to make him a "taggie" for Valentine's day to chew on. 

I cut out 2 sides of the heart from scrap fabrics and embroidered "be mine" on one side. 

He loves the sound of his toys that crinkle, so I tried to mimic it by placing a piece of plastic inside (I read somewhere that you can use the wrapper that comes on diaper cases), so I cut a heart-shaped piece out of this too.  This worked okay on the finished project, but I'm on the hunt to find another material that crinkles a little louder.

Cut a variety of ribbons (all about 4" in length)

Fold each ribbon in half and stitch the cut ends to the edge of the right-side of your fabric.

Pin pieces of fabric right-sides together and stitch around perimeter leaving a 3" gap.

Pull project right-side out, stuff, and handstitch closed. 

 Here's my second attempt at making a Valentine's onesie for Mc.  This one is much less involved (and I purchased a onesie that's size 12 mos. just to be on the safe side!).  Here's Mc getting ready to help. 

Here's what we used: onesie, fabric paint, paint brush and rubber stamp.  BTW, there's some great inspiration on making rubber stamp onesies over at  Fly Through Our Window. 

 This is one I got at Michaels over the summer for cheap, cheap, cheap!

 "Love you"

Here's McCord testing out the new taggie...

...and here's the new Valentine's onesie (fits much better than the halfsie!) 

And finally, we found a great recipe in the February issue of Parents Magazine for Cream Cheese Melts.  

• Mix 4 oz. cream cheese, 1 Tbs. butter, 1 Tbs. light corn syrup, and 1/4 tsp. mint extract in a large bowl until smooth.
• Gradually beat in 3 cups powdered sugar.  When the mixture starts to come together, turn it out onto a clean work surface and knead, adding up to 1/2 cup more sugar as necessary to prevent sticking, until dough is smooth. 
• Divide dough into three even pieces.  Tint one part dark pink and one part light pink with the red food coloring.  Leave the thrid part white. 
• Roll each portion into a 15"-long rope.  Twist the 3 ropes together and roll into a single rope about 3/4" wide.  Flatten slightly and cut into 3/4" tricolored pieces. 
• Spread the mints out in a single layer on parchment-lined baking sheets; cover and chill 4 hours. 

The dough gets really sticky and creates a mess, but it's so worth it. They are delicious! I doubled this recipe and it made about 100 pieces - plenty to share with everyone you know!

Happy Valentine's Day!

McCord is 7 Months Old...

...and looking more and more like his Daddy.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Here they are next to McCord's maple





McCord at Kindermusik with his friends

You're not too sure about all of this eating  business

Meet Little Bo aka: McCord

Hey Doe Doe and Aiya, do you recognize this outfit?



And finally, here's my trusty sewing buddy



Dear McCord,

We've had so much fun this past month watching you grow and learn. 

• One of your biggest accomplishments has been sitting up on your own - and oh! how proud you are of yourself - you can self-entertain sometimes for 30 minutes or so.  Your Daddy and I just love to watch you!  It is so fascinating to see you choose certain toys over others. 
• You, my baby who doesn't take naps, surprised us all and became a regular napper this week! This is still a new accomplishment, but you will sleep for 2 hours in the a.m. and 1 hour in the afternoon. 
• Your favorite time of day is definitely bathtime around 7 pm.  You get so excited when we walk up the stairs to start the routine, and your Daddy and I look forward to this happy moment every day. 
• We've also nicknamed you "our little pterodactyl" because you love to scream and shriek.  Most babies are cooing and babbling when happy, but no, not you - you are squealing with delight!
• Recently we've been introducing foods, and you've tried carrots, avocados and bananas.  So far you seem to like the avocados the most.
• We just started another class with Kindermusik this month - your favorite song last session was "Hello, Hello" and I can't wait to see what you enjoy this time. 
• You had your first sickness at 6 1/2 months.  It started out as a stomach bug that moved to a cold and bronchiolitis.
• This past month, you've really developed a fondness for Rocky.  Wherever Rocky goes, you want to see what he's doing.  One time I was scolding Rocky, and you thought it was so funny you started laughing! Of course that made me laugh.  So here we were rolling with laughter over something so silly. You can imagine, Rocky was so confused why I was telling him "no, no" and laughing at the same time!
• And finally, you are using sign language to communicate with us.  We've been checking out this book from the library so frequently that they won't let us check it out for a while.  So Doe Doe got it for you for Christmas, and at 6 1/2 months you did your first sign: MILK! Since then, you've attempted the signs for "eat" and "diaper change."  Other signs we're working on include "music," "sleep," "Daddy" (Bo made up his own sign for this important word), "more," and "Rocky/dog."



Dear McCord,

Tonight I wrapped my arms around you,

and we said your prayers. 

You, at 6 1/2 months,

are grabbing everything in sight -

my hair, mouth, and cheek. 

But tonight,

you wrapped your hand around my finger,

pulled it in close to your face, 

and held it until you fell asleep. 

And there we sat, in the nursery -

me holding you holding me,

and at that moment,

my heart grew bigger. 

Happy Birthday Gee Gee

Love, your favorite wise guys!

If you've never heard of picnik - go check it out!  It is a free site that allows you to make edits to your photos.  For instance in the above photo, I created a frame (rounded corners), type (several fonts are available), and stickers (birthday hats and moustaches).  I also used picnik to create the "Life on Surrey Lane" blog header.  There is a great tutorial on how to use picnik to create fun things like cupcake toppers over at one of my favorite blogs, homemade by jill. 

Retail Therapy

We've been a little cooped up the past week or so, so what better way to rebound than to browse around an antique store?!!  I love it when my friend Jess blogs about her great vintage finds, so following her lead, here are a few treasures I brought home. 

17 pieces of flatware to accompany my hotel silver I bought off of e-bay a few years ago - $2

this is a picture I took before polishing - I'm only about half way finished with the rest

2 vintage patterns - $1 each

I can't wait to sew these for the summer!

A whole Fisher Price community for McCord to chew on - $2

He loves the cowboy!



And today we went to Michael's to check out their Valentine's goodies and found this fund DIY necklace - $1

if you have a little girl in your life, this would make a great gift! 

It comes with an elastic thread and is oh so easy to make.  I added these beads that I already had at home.

I think it's kind of fun in a kitschy sort of way.



And Mc loves it!

Valentine's Onesie DIY & Other Randomness

Continuing the trend of seasonal onesies, (Thanksgiving and Christmas) I thought I'd make a Valentine's onesie for Mc.  A lot of the Valentine appliques I've seen on etsy are so very girly, so here's a tutorial for a little boy featuring his favorite dog.  For more information on using Wonder Under and stabilizer, refer to this post. 

I printed out an old picture of Rocky in 8 x 10 format so his profile would be enlarged.

 Trace the silhouette of the dog using a sharpie and cut it out.  Then apply Wonder Under to the wrong side of the fabrics you plan to use. 

My sewing machine has a stitch function that sews letters, so I stitched out McCord's name on the fabric to be the Valentine.  Then I made a little collar out of the polka dot fabric for Rocky. 

 Fuse the pieces to your onesie and apply stabilizer to underside of onesie.

 Stitch around the perimeter of your design. 

 Now, if you notice, Mc is sporting 3/4 sleeves with this onesie...and it was almost impossible to snap! Hard lesson learned - even if the size says 6-9 months, try it on your baby before you wash and applique it.  If anyone knows a baby named McCord who could use a Valentine's onesie - probably sized 0 - 3 months, let me know.  We've got the perfect one!

Also, Bo gave me some amaryllis bulbs for Christmas.  I planted them in these glass containers with a couple of hyacinths that I had left over from last year. Here are some pictures from a few weeks ago. 

 ...and this is what we found today!  What a nice thing to see after staying up the past 5 nights with a baby with bronchiolitis!