The Woo-Hoo-Ha

Just looking for inspiration in my sketchbooks of yore and found this. I have no idea what I was thinking about here, but it made me smile.

For Frances

My little friend Frances is celebrating her first birthday this week. Today was her super fun kid and adult party. She is quite the character, which is no big surprise as her parents are both blessed with a love of laughter and a wicked sense of humor. She entertained us by repeating her new favorite word "shoe", while pointing at my feet. A girl after my own heart!

Ever since I knew she was coming into the world I've loved making stuff for this little sweetie. Not only does Frances have a smile that melts your heart right into a big ole puddle, this girl has the most amazing head of auburn red hair. One afternoon she arrived at my house in a robin's egg blue polar fleece jacket. The color looked incredible on her and I knew I had to make something for her in that very color. Frances is just starting to walk, and I thought a cute pair of cropped rompers would look adorable as she practiced toddling around over the summer. Can't you just see the little ties flapping about? As a soon-to-be mom of a little girl I am finding it really hard to find clothes that are anything but pink. Not that pink is bad (I own plenty of it myself), I just like to mix things up with a little orange and turquoise from time to time. This is why I love sewing. The options are practically limitless and you always end up with a something that is truly one-of-a-kind, just like sweet Frances!

Here are the specs for this project:

Pattern: Burda 9652
Fabric: 5 Funky Monkeys by Erin Michael for Moda Fabrics
Notes: This was my first time sewing a Burda Kids pattern. It was really simple, but I had to improvise some of the directions as they were a little lacking in the detail department. The pattern is great because it includes sizes 6 months to 3 years. The pattern called for snaps, but I was more comfortable using buttons. I will definitely use this pattern again. I've got a lot of extra fabric and may sew a matching pair for our little gal.

Chocolate Banana Bread = Happiness

There's a lot of banana buying around our house. Problem is, I'm kinda picky. Once they start turning spotty-brown, I'm done. As a result there are a lot of frozen, skinless, over-the-hill bananas just hanging out in our freezer, waiting for their reincarnation as muffins or bread.

About a year ago I found an awesome recipe for Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread in Cooking Light Magazine. Looks fancy and sounds fancy but it is really very simple. If you have your own trusty banana bread recipe already, you can still work some chocolatey swirl magic on it. Just melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips in the microwave and mix in 1 cup of the banana bread batter. Layer the chocolate batter with the plain batter, swirl it with a knife and bake as you usually would. The Cooking Light recipe is a good one. I like the addition of yoghurt, but I ignore the egg replacer and just use in 2 eggs instead.

Tasty!