King of Hearts costume - Alice in Wonderland

Photo found here 

Miss J's dance studio is performing pieces from the ballet Alice in Wonderland.  I was asked to make the costume for the King of Hearts. Heck YEAH!

Here it is,thus far (please excuse the mess in the background, lol) :

Current width

I used McCalls pattern # M7225 for the basic pattern, but had to adjust for the size of the child who will be wearing it, plus I adjusted the pattern for the collar and the addition of the white borders.

Not too thrilled with the way the sleeves look...

 I need to fix the sleeves, not too thrilled with the way they look.

Miss J looks soooo thrilled, lol!

 The mom of the young man who will be wearing the costume is going to build a frame so it billows out like that of the king's costume of the movie version.  I offered to help her with that and make any needed adjustment to the costume if necessary.  

I'll post a picture of the finished product.  I can't wait to see how it looks on stage! :D I was also tasked with making the costume for the Caterpillar. I'll post it soon. 

Have a most wonderful day!

Mrs. B

Cheesy Baked Orzo with Bacon and Spinach

OMGoodness this stuff is good!

I got the original recipe from Food & Wine, online.  Originally it is baked in a 12x8 inch baking dish but with my family that would have not been enough.  I have a growing teenage boy and two girls that have dance for several hours nearly every day, so they consume a lot of food.  Feta is a rather strong tasting cheese and though I know my kids like it, with the smaller pan and less of the other ingredients, it may have been too much. Especially for my youngest picky eater.  They loved it so much, there was nary a crumb left in the pan.  When I make this again (I have already had requests to do so, SQUEE!), I'll get pics of the process and finished results.

Cheesy Baked Orzo with Bacon and Spinach
*Adapted from Food &Wine

INGREDIENTS
Salt
2 cups orzo
12 oz bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 pound leeks, white and tender green parts only, thinly sliced
10 ounces baby spinach
4 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 tbsp fresh basil, minced
1 tbsp fresh mint, minced
1 tsp garlic powder (or two cloves of garlic minced, cook with leeks)
1 tsp onion powder (or 1/2 a onion minced, cook with leeks)
4 oz mozzarella, shredded

8 oz feta cheese, crumbled

Freshly ground pepper
4 large eggs
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
3/4 cup milk

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 375°. In a large saucepan of salted boiling water, cook the orzo until al dente. Drain and transfer to a medium bowl.
2. In a large skillet, cook the bacon over moderate heat until browned, 8 minutes. Remove and put aside. Remove excess fat from pan leaving about 1/4 cup. Add the leeks and mushroom to bacon fat (plus garlic cloves and onion if using) and cook until tender, 8 minutes. Add the spinach to the skillet and cook until wilted. If there is liquid from the spinach, it's fine. Add the leek, mushroom, and spinach mixture to the orzo, fold in the feta, mozzarella, mint, basil, garlic powder, onion powder and season (if using) with salt and pepper.
3. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the yogurt and milk, season with pepper and stir into the orzo. Scrape the mixture into an oiled 13x10 inch baking dish and bake for about 45 minutes, until the eggs
are set and the top is browned. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

New Creations and Etsy store

I have discovered a new love. Crocheting toy animals! It is so much fun and they are adorable! As I mentioned previously, this is the first one I made as a gift for a little girl who became a brand new big sister:

I made this Amish Puzzle Ball (pattern found here - Ravelry pattern) for the baby boy:

I also have been making Christmas Stockings.  I just recently opened an Etsy store. My first item for sale is Jeffrey the Zebra:

 Jeffrey is an accountant by day, because he is a black and white sort of guy. Now, don't let his straight-laced by day demeanor fool you. His punk-rock band will knock your socks off.

I'll be posting more items soon, custom orders and ready made. please check it out! :D

Have a most wonderful day

Mrs B

Starfire

I think this is one of the pics I took that showed the wrong side. LOL! I was still new at this whole crochet thing, so I had no idea which one was the "right" side.  Heck, its still hard to tell sometimes.  Its still pretty anyway, right or wrong.  

This is another Ravelry pattern and you can find it here.

Have a wonderful day!

Mrs. B

Violet Crochet Square

The corners are a little wonky, but I am pretty sure that's because I added a row or wasn't paying attention.  (Most likely the latter - lol)

This is a a Ravelry pattern and you can find it here.

Have a fabulous day!

Mrs. B.

Yarn Clouds

The texture on this one is awesome.  It helped build some skills for me as well. The color possibilities are endless with this.  

You can find the pattern here.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Mrs. B.

Purple Passion Heart Square

Miss J would have taken a whole blanket made from this square.  It would be adorable as a baby blanket, I think.  

You can find the pattern here.

Have a great day!

Mrs B.

Versailles Square

This is another square I enjoyed. It would look really good in various colors as well as a single color.  

This is a free pattern from Ravelry and you can find it here.

Have a beautiful day!

Mrs. B

Easter dresses for little girls

The girls love it when I make them something. Its a little harder to get them to help, however. Which is kind of ironic considering one of them wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up, or a prima ballerina, ya know which ever. lol!

I tend to use the same pattern for both of them (usually with minor differences, fabric, pockets vs no pockets and the like).  This year I used Simplicity pattern 1382. 

Photo from Pattern Review

I let them pick out their own fabric with the rules it has to be machine washable and appropriate for church/the season.  My step daughter picked out a beautiful fabric, but it wasn't machine washable. Surprise, surprise she wasn't all the keen on hand washing it herself or using her chore money for dry cleaning. So she picked out another.  

Of course, by the time I got the dress done for Miss Moo, she had already gone back to her mom's. I haven't had the chance (when I remember) to get a pic of her in the dress, by the time I remember about a pic she's already at school for the day (and then I completely forget).  She wears it at least once while she's with us for our half of the month.  Maybe now that school is out I will remember to get a pic of the both of them, in their dresses. It will be a fashion show, yeah yeah that's it, a fashion show. 

I LOVE the heart shape in the back. I was REALLY apprehensive about doing it, but it was a lot easier than I imagined it to be.  

My little bare-footed princess

Miss J has a slightly different taste in colors. For the longest time her favorite color was rainbow, because of course rainbow is a color. lol!

I could be wrong but I am pretty sure she liked it :-)

Have a most wonderful day!

Mrs. B

On the Huh Square

This one was interesting. While it is not a difficult square, it was challenging to my inexperienced fingers (at the time).  If I remember correctly, I added a few rounds to make it bigger. 

You can find the pattern here.

I hope you have a most wonderful day

Mrs B

Bunnies, Balls and Blankies!

A young lady with whom my eldest daughter danced with (oh my goodness that was a long time ago) is about to have her second child. Her eldest little girl and my youngest danced together and became bestest buddies. 

There are so many of my eldest's friends who are having babies - not to mention my own friends, it's tough to keep up, but this time I got something done. YAY! Even before the baby is born! Double YAY!

Allow me to introduce Emma....

I got her pattern from the book Edward's Menagerie by Kerry Lord.  (psssssst, I found mine on sale at Barnes and Noble). This little cutie is destined for the big sister.  I did add to the pattern, in that I added some pink under her ears to match the pink nose.  I kind of made it up as I went. 6sc for about 6 rows then reduced it as evenly as possible every other row until 1sc is left.  Bind off with a long tail and then whip stitch it on to the inside of the ear, widest part nearest to the head.  I had to be careful to only attach it to the underside layer (the ear is made in the round), so the pink doesn't show through.  The patterns are written in UK terms, which I totally didn't realize at first, the bunny was looking kind of funky. lol!

Next up is the Amish Puzzle toy.  I was looking for something other than a stuffed animal (so that the bunny was special for the big sister).  I came across this....

This toy is awesome.   A bit of a booger to fit together, but awesome none the less.  If you want to make one for yourself you can find the pattern here

Finally we come to the blanket. Its call Gingham Blanket by Bernat Studios. As usual I went a little overboard on the squares and many a couple too many...They'll make great coasters, *snort*

I've decided that I really do need a special place set up just for pictures. Outside doesn't always work and our bedroom (where the above two pictures were taken and yes that's a clean sheet  - ewww) while having the best light, doesn't really bode well for some pics, ya know like food.  Woohoo!! Something else for Mr Bissinger to build! I'm sure he'll be thrilled for yet another project, not that he doesn't have several others lined up already.

Have a most fabulous day!

Mrs B

Recipe Hoarder

I admit it I am, in fact, a recipe hoarder.  I just can't help it. I see a recipe magazine and I immediately drool. Not necessarily because of the food itself, just the recipes. I'm weird like that, but I'm ok with it.  There were several  many years that I lugged those magazines with me everywhere I moved. I had started a recipe book of my own, pasting each recipe I cut out on a page set up like a cookbook, arranging them to maximize the number of recipes on each page. It was quite tedious, I had A LOT of magazines back then. Oh who am I kidding? I still have a bunch.

Don't get me started on the number of cookbooks I have.  Even after paring down some I still have close to a bookcase full of them. I read the things like some women read romance novels.  Growing up I would imagine I was a housewife throwing some fancy party. I knew all the "appropriate" ways to set up a table, what to serve, and when. Well, at least according to Betty Crocker, lol!

My biggest problem is I would mark a recipe to try and though sometimes it happened, most of the time I set it down and completely forgot about it, until the next time I picked up that particular magazine or cookbook.  Organizing all of those bits of paper was time consuming, to say the least.  It was rather overwhelming, even now.  Now, though, thank goodness for computers and scanners.  It still takes some time to scan it, name it and the sort in the correct category, but it is sooooo much easier.  My darling husband was helping me scan when he was working from home when he could. I'm not kidding when I say I have a lot of recipes.  This has been an ongoing project (on and off) for several years.  I still have a lot to do, but the pile is almost gone, YAY!

Now that I have the majority of the recipes at my fingertips by way of the search function, I've decided to utilize at least one (or more) recipe each week and document how it was received by the family and/or how it was to make it.   I have a ton of recipes that I have found from various food blogs and sites, so if I use one of those I will most certainly attribute and link to the site. I also tend to make dinners on the fly, so to speak.  There have been several times, the kids have asked me to make it again and I have forgotten what I did.  Oops.   I'll put those here as well, so there is a record of at least what was in it.  :-)

I hope you have a most wonderful day!

Mrs. Bissinger

More Vs Please Square

Oh Good Lord, that right side is "slightly" misshapen. It looks like I lost count or got distracted.   No wonder I had an interesting time putting the blanket together.  Again I added rows to try and keep squares about the same size. I wasn't very confident in what I was doing on the corners, so I think I *slightly* over compensated.  Outside of my errors, this really is a pretty square.

You can find the pattern here.


Have a wonderful day!

Mrs Bissinger

Lemony Lime Citrus Square

Whew, finally found one that ALL my corners are wonky *snort* Meh, it happens.  While it "could" be it needed to be blocked, I know that these errors are most assuredly mine and not the various patterns , because I'm sure my gauge was off.  The off white yarn was slightly thinner than the lilac yarn, so that threw things off a bit as well.


You can find the pattern here.

Have a wonderful day!

Mrs Bissinger

Impossible Hexagon

Annnnd again, my corners are wonky.  Apparently I hadn't learned how to keep the sides even, lol.  I find it funny that all the pictures thus far have the wonky corner on the bottom left. As if I planned it that way, lol.

This pattern is from archived web page, scroll down a bit to get to the pattern, here.

Have a great day!

Mrs Bissinger

Grandma's Heart Square

This was interesting to do as the white part of the heart is done outlining it after the square is complete.  This is another Ravelry download that you can find here.

Have a most wonderful day!

Mrs Bissinger

Granny's Easier Star

Woo doggy, talk about out of my comfort zone for this one, and this is the easier one, lol!  The blogger/designer does a good job of explaining the pattern and I got it. Any confusion was more to do with my lack of experience on my part.    I want to do the other pattern, I just haven't had the opportunity as of yet.

You can find the pattern here.


Have a great day!

Mrs Bissinger

Framed Flower Square

This is a download from Facebook.  I will include both that link and the Ravelry link, just in case  one or the other doesn't work.

Facebook Download: here
Ravelry Link: here

Have a lovely day!

Mrs Bissinger

Flowery Square

At the time this was a stretch for my skill set. It's not hard, necessarily.  It just wasn't something I had done before.  I needed to add rows to match my other squares and the left bottom corner is wonky.  Again, lol.

Surprise! I have a blog link this time! You can find the pattern here.

I hope you have a great day!

Mrs Bissinger

Falling Star Square

I really liked this one, as well.  I had to add several rows to make it match the other squares.  I'm pretty sure that it was me and my gauge (or lack thereof, as the case may be).

This is also a ravelry download, you can find it here.


Have a beautiful day!

Mrs Bissinger