Food Obsession: refrigerator garlic dill pickles

We planted a few cucumber plants this year and were amazed that the cucumbers keep on coming. So, we decided to make pickles out of them. I am pregnant, you know. What could be better. We were recommended this recipe here at dlynz.blogspot.com and decided to try it out.

And they're delicious!!! They taste like the real thing (although we didn't have the right kind of salt and so ours turned out way too salty - but if you wash them off before, they aren't terrible).

Happy pickling!

Photography Obsession: Embrace the Camera - Sept. 9

Ava asked if I'd come sit down with her and play with the blocks. I said yes and you should've seen her face, . . . like I'd given her a huge bowl of ice cream with sprinkles all over. It's moments like this, that I hope I never forget. In less than 3 months another little one will be joining our family and I hope that I'll continue to seize the moment and embrace the camera!
(she's always in awe of the self-timer.)

"What I'm Loving" Wednesday

I always love a good book. And these three books definitely fit under that category. If you haven't heard of these books . . . where have you been? It's called The Hunger Games Trilogy. They are so good and definitely keep you wanting to read more. The third book came out at the end of August and I finished it a week ago.

At first, I thought it was going to be sci-fi (which I'm not into), but after hearing great reviews, I decided to read it. There's action, suspense, and a little bit of love. All that makes a book perfect! So, go to your nearest library or bookstore and pick it up!

Dessert Obsession: Frozen Peach Pie Filling

Hope you're all having a wonderful Labor Day! We'll be going to a BBQ soon, but before we go, just wanted to post about this easy recipe.

Through my church, I was able to get 25 lbs of peaches for only $7.50. Talk about a great deal. They're very yummy. I love peaches and so does this little girl below.

What to do with 25lbs of sweet, yummy goodness. I decided to use half of them and make them into frozen peach pie filling. I checked out the internet for recipes and this one caught my eye. I mean, really. Who doesn't love Paula Dean's recipes?

So I was able to whip out 4 pie fillings while the little one was taking a nap. Not hard at all. Haven't tasted it yet, but can't wait! They'll be perfect in the upcoming cooler months (summer has ended way too soon, don't you agree?).

"What I'm Loving" Wednesday

I decided that every Wednesday I'm going to be writing about one thing I absolutely love. It could be a cleaning product, a book, an ingredient, a store, and the list could go on and on. So check back every Wednesday to find out what I'm loving!

For those of you who've been following my blog for awhile, you know that practically our whole house now has hardwood floors. We love them! But having to sweep and then mop an entire house was driving me a little crazy (our regular vacuum would scratch the hardwood floors). Maybe not just a little crazy. A lot crazy!

That's where the "things I'm loving" comes in. I decided to do a little researching on hardwood floor vacuums online and came to the conclusion that the Bissell Versus Bare-Floor Vacuum with Brushless V-Shape Technology was for us. And guess what? We absolutely love it. My hubby will even vacuum the floor without complaining (not that he did that before). It's made our lives so much easier. And so much easier on my pregnant belly

found at: amazon.com

price: $55 (which included free shipping)

The only thing I wish they'd improve was to make a longer cord. But other than that, it's definitely saving our sanity!

If you have a hardwood floor vacuum, what do you use?
*****By the way, no one from Bissell is paying me to write this, although, I wish they would!

Upcycling Obsession: Summer's End Toddler Dress Tutorial

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Now, the Summer's End Toddler Dress reveal and simple tutorial.

My inspirations were taken from these adorable JCrew dresses below. Just didn't want to pay the $50 price tag. $4 and a few hours is more my style.




And here it is on little Ava. I have a pretty cute model, don't ya think?


I had found this cute XL woman's skirt at Target on clearance and knew it'd be perfect as a dress for Ava. I've had it sitting in my sewing bin for months and thought it was time.

So, here's the easy tutorial. But, first of all. Just so you know. I don't explain things very well. I wasn't trained professionally so I don't know all of the technical sewing terms. So please ask questions if you're confused. Which you might already be.

This was made for a 2T-3T.

Here's how:

-measure the skirt (at the skirt's waistband) around her chest (inside out) underneath her armpits (while bribing your model with chocolate chips if she held still - -pssst. . . always works). It ended up being 21.5 inches around the chest and back.

-from there, I pinned down the skirt and made it look as symetrical as I could with the other side by just folding the dress in half and cutting off the extra material. *** don't forget to leave about 1/2 inch extra for the seam.

-with right sides together, sew down the skirt on that one side.

-I wanted the dress to go to her knees, so I just cut a few inches off and because of this ruffly fabric, I didn't even have to hem the bottom (from under the armpit to the knees, it ended up being 16 in. long). But in most cases, you'll probably have to hem it.

-Now time for the straps. Because this was a woman's XL skirt, there was some fabric leftover. The skirt had a slip like material underneath the ruffles so that's what I used to make the straps. I cut the material 3 inches x 11.5 inches (2 of them), sewed down them lengthwise making them into tubes and turning them right side out.

-I then tried the dress on her and determined where the strapes would go, pinned it, and sewed them to the dress.

You're done!

Hope it wasn't too complicated. I was really just doing it as I went.

I also glued fabric roses that I'd made from extra pieces of the fabric onto an elastic headband. Now that I see these pictures, it does seem a bit too big for her head, but oh well.

To take the pictures, I had to bribe her by taking her across the street to feed the fish in the lake. Works every time.

Hope you like it!

I'll be sharing this upcycle and tutorial with some of these link parties at the bottom of this page. So, check them out!!!

Saving Money Obsession: Groupon

Have you all heard about Groupon? If you haven't you definitely need to check them out. They'll send you daily e-mails of awesome deals in your area.

This deal comes out of Orange County, but anyone can buy because you redeem it online. So, if you're a movie lover, you'll love this deal. $4 movie tickets from fandango.com. You can only buy one, but you can buy others as gifts.

So . . . you have only 2 days left. Check it out here.