Spent Grains & Dog Bones

In celebration of Zoey's 3rd birthday we're having a party! Time to get in the kitchen and make some birthday treats. I love to use spent grains from Reed's brewing to make baked goods (there's actually a loaf of bread baking in the oven right now). Luckily for me, he just brewed yesterday and saved some grains. I could only find one recipe for spent grain dog biscuits online and while they sounded good they were boring. So I came up with my own. 

Organic Peanut Butter, Carrot & Blueberry Spent Grain Cookies.  

Recipe below.

I can't believe it's been 3 years already. Look how small Zoey was when we first got her at 6 weeks old :) 

MY RECIPE

2 cups Spent Grains

1 cup Organic Whole Wheat Flour

1 Egg (Local from Free Range Chickens)

1/2 cup Organic Creamy Peanut Butter

1/4 cup Organic Carrots, Chopped

1/4 cup Organic Blueberries, Cut in half

Mix all ingredients except the blueberries until combined

Gently mix in the blueberries

Grease cookie sheet

I used Refined (instead of Unrefined) Organic Coconut Oil because it has a high heat point of 365 degrees

Pat dough into 1-2" rounds approximately 1/4" thick

Our dog birthday party was today so I wanted to make some extra special bone shaped cookies. I rolled out some of the dough and used a bone cookie cutter for a few cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Reduce oven to 225 degrees and continue baking for 1.5 - 2 hours. This dries out the cookies so they become harder.

Party Time!

Tee to Tank Refashion

While in Asheville for "Asheville Beer Week" my husband, Reed, and I met Erik Lars Myers, from Mystery Brewery. Reed likes to follow his blog, Top Fermented. He's recently started and opened his own brewery. He was a super nice guy, and it was great to talk with him about his life's passion - BEER. On our last night in town, we were able to sample his beer at a tasting. Very tasty stuff. Right when we were getting ready to leave he came over and handed us free (awesome) t-shirts from Mystery Brewing as a thank's for coming up all the way from Florida. I decided to do a little refashion and turn mine into a tank top. Check out the before and after! I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Here's how I did it. 

BEFORE - Front & scrap of black tshirt

BEFORE - Back 

Start by cutting off the sleeves

Determine the neck line you want and cut. I started by cutting the back scoop first. Then I flipped the shirt over and carefully cut the front making sure not to snip the back of the shirt. 

I wanted to add a little detail to the back. So I measured, marked and cut where I wanted the detail to go. Make sure to account for your seem allowance before you cut :) I drew a dotted line where I wanted my detail to go and then measured 1/2" and drew a solid line to cut on. 

Then using the scrap black fabric I had, I cut out 2 rectangles for my detail piece. I made them bigger than needed and trimmed after I they were sewed on. 

Trim detail piece.

I knew I would add a taper to the shirt so I went ahead and cut up each side seem of the shirt. Then I trimmed off 3" from the base so I could add a black band around the bottom.

Using the scrap tshirt I had, I cut out 2 rectangle pieces. Then pinned them on and stitched one to the front piece of the shirt and one to the back piece of the shirt.

After all the pieces have been assembled, pin shirt front and back with right sides together. Use the pins to create your taper side seems. I tried the shirt on to determine where the pins needed to go. 

I serged all the cut edges. If you don't have a serger, you can zig-zag stitch over the edges.

Lastly, I ironed, pinned then stitched the arm, neck, and bottom edges. If you have a rolled hem foot you can use that as well. 

Transformation complete! 

Here's my new refashioned tank, perfect for the Florida's hot summer weather. 

Chevron Craze

I can't finish one project without being ready to start the next! That's the "I get side-tracked easily" part of me :) Yesterday I decided it was time for a bathroom re-do. My inspiration: Chevron! During my recent trip to Asheville I went to what my sis-in-law calls the "thrift store meca". They had some awesome deals and tons of neat stuff. I saw this cute little vanity stool and at $3.50 I couldn't pass up a DIY Project. 

My bathroom would be the perfect location for this. Of course, since it needed recovering, I started thinking about what kind of pattern I would like. My master bath hasn't been redone for 4 years so I think it's time. I love this new Chevron Craze. The pattern is so much fun. Here's a little board I put together to inspire me for my bathroom design in the weeks to come. 

Dots & Damask Aprons

I wanted to share two new apron designs I came up with today for Dots & Damask. There seems to be a lot of interest in half/waist aprons so I've been wanting to make one. Here's what I came up with. 

And a new style is always fun. Here's my cherry blossom design which features a large pleat in the front. 

Check out my Etsy Site!

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Nursery Design & Moses Basket Revamp

I am currently working on a nursery design for some friends and interior design clients. I'll just go ahead and say it's going to be a pretty awesome nursery! The good thing for me about knowing how to sew and being a designer is that I can actually make some of the items I recommend for my designs.  I love having the opportunity to be a part of the entire process. 

The Inspiration

My client has referred to the baby as their lil acorn for a while and this was the start of our inspiration for the design. While browsing etsy one day I came across an acorn ring and then a bookshelf that was a tree (from the same shop) and the design started to form. We knew we wanted some kind of tree on the wall to serve as a bookshelf next to the crib. And they knew the nursery would be blue since its a baby boy :) Then I found this modern zoo fabric that I knew was exactly where the design needed to come from! See for yourself the preliminary sketches for the nursery.  

We've found some pretty perfect stuff on Etsy, including a crib sheet and vinyl wall decals (image below) that were literally meant to be for the design. 

I'm also working on making a few projects for the nursery. One of which they commissioned me to do, revamp a Moses basket. Here's what I came up with.

And here are some custom burp cloths I made for them :) 

Fabric Basket Tutorial

Finished size basket is 8" square

Supplies 

1/2 yard Fabric (interior) 

1/2 yard fabric (exterior)

1/2 yard fusible batting

Cut one 9" x 26" rectangle from interior fabric, exterior fabric and batting (this allows for 1/2" seams)

*If you want a bigger or smaller basket here is the formula I used to get my measurements. 8 (for side) +1 (for seams) + 8 (for bottom - no seams needed) + 8 (for other side) + 1 (for seams) = 26"

Cut two 9" x 9" squares for side pieces from interior fabric, exterior fabric and batting 

(I used a contrasting fabric for exterior side panels)
*For exterior pieces I used a 1/2" seam allowance.
*For interior pieces and batting I used a 5/8" seam allowance.

 

Stitch the side pieces onto the main rectangle. measure down 8" from the end to get your starting spot - do for interior, exterior and batting.

Fold in half on the diagonal and stitch outside edges together only - this is how the box will start to form

 For the interior, this is when you will attach the batting to the interior piece. I used iron on fusible batting with fusible side out so it could later be ironed to the exterior fabric and held in place. Layer the interior and batting pieces together (back side of interior to right side of batting) and then fold in half (with batting as outer layer) and sew through all 4 layers.

Now 2 corners of the box have been created. Stitch together the other 2 corners by pinning the edges together and stitching

Now you have a box shape

Stuff the interior fabric into the exterior (back side to back side)

I then trimmed up the top edge so I could easily fold and iron my top seam.

Next I ironed the box so it would have crisp corners and I activated the fusible interfacing by carefully ironing each side of the box.

Create the top edge by ironing down the exterior fabric over the interior fabric 2 times to get a finished edge. Pin in place and then stitch.

Pull your threads through to the interior and tie off.

All Done :)