Recipe Reblog #8

Soup's On! And also chicken tenders.

Skinny Creamy Carrot Ginger Soup: I eat soup for lunch every day at work. Every.single.day. You want to save money and calories? Eat soup for lunch. Economical and healthy. This one is especially healthy. You just need a bag of baby carrots and a few other ingredients you likely have on hand. A few changes I made......I didn't have fresh ginger. I used 1 tsp of ground and it was the perfect amount. Additionally, I do not own an immersion blender. I blended mine in two separate batches in my regular old blender. Put the lid on but leave the center cap off. You need to let that steam loose. P.S. This delicious, easy soup only has a little over 100 calories per serving. If you're a soup lover, this one is right up your alley. Great flavor combo and surprisingly filling.

Maple Mustard Buttermilk Crusted Chicken Tenders: I don't know if it's an eat-with-your-hands thing or what but I LOVE chicken tenders. I would never turn one down. Don't offer one to me if you don't really want to give it up because I will eat it out of your grubby mitts. These chicken tenders though? They're so fancy! I had all the ingredients on hand, which I love. I let them marinate overnight and the seeped in buttermilk made them super juicy. Crusted in panko and cookbaked, get this....on a cooling rack on top of your baking sheet! This lets the heat get all around those bad boys and results in crispity goodness. What? Crispity is to a word. Don't question the English major. Note: You do not need 2 full cups of Panko when breading these. I used 1/2 cups and had plenty left over. MAKE THESE! And then eat them. Better yet. Make them and invite me over to eat them.

No Sweat Sweater Re-fashion Week: Boot Socks

I love my Hunter Wellies. I got them on ebay so I didn't pay the ridiculous $125 price tag that comes attached to them. Everyone should have a good pair of rain boots. You have no idea how often they've come in handy. Just tuck your pants into them and head out in the rain. They're equally as useful in snow. Especially slushy, wet snow which my Uggs really don't care for. I'm a bit of a boot monger. The only problem wearing Hunters in snow is that they have no insulation.

You can pay $40 for these fleece socks at Nordstrom.........

Source

or you can make your own! I'm sure you saw that coming. I didn't make full socks so they're really leg warmers but that also means they're more versatile! The leg warmers don't need the wellies to be worn. You can wear them on their own too.

Remember the pink, cotton cable knit sweater from earlier this week?

And I told you to hang onto those sleeves? I hope you did.

Slide the sleeve on your calf to check the fit. Pin excess sweater on the back seem to desired snugness.

You should still have the ribbed bottom band from the sweater left over. Cut along side seams so you have two pieces of equal length.

With wrongsides together, sew the ribbed band forming a tube so you have a joined circle.

Now, turn your leg warmer rightside out and flip the band over the top of the warmer. Slide those suckers on your legs and marvel at how warm your calves are.

Hi Sadie

Do you feel like a ballerina yet? You know, because dancers wear leg warmers....never mind. Of course you don't have to wear them down around your heel. If you push up the bottoms they'll be a lot slouchier.

In my boots!

Trying to avoid stepping in Sadie piles

Please note that the jeans add another rather bulky layer as these aren't my skinniest pair. Over leggings/jeggings, you won't get the bunching you see here.

Now, isn't free better than $40? It is in my book. Go make your own!

~I might link up this week to Tatertots & Jello, Six Sisters' Stuff, Sisters of the Wild West, and more!~

No Sweat Sweater Re-Fashion Week: Husband Cardigan

I'm a tall girl. 5'9" to be exact. This can sometimes present a sleeve-length issue when shopping for sweaters. Nothing worse than a too short sleeve, am I right? Take note: if your sleeve does not at least come past your wrist bone, it's too short. Don't try to force it. Just move on. I may be a tall girl but luckily, I married a tall man. John is 6'3" (6'4" if you ask him). He too has long arms but he also has a long torso. This oftentimes results in sweaters that eventually become too short for him.

John has owned this Gap sweater for many years. I rescued it from the Goodwill pile for myself. I love a longer, cozy cardigan and I knew this could turn out to be just such an item. This is really a "boyfriend" sweater but I don't have a boyfriend. I had to change the name since John is my husband. Maybe if I had made this before we were married, then it could be a boyfriend sweater. You can name this cardigan anything you like depending upon the relation of the donor.

If your pockets are deeper than the ocean, you can buy this cashmere version instead for just under $1,800!

Source

Pretty, but I'm sure you'll agree, not a practical expenditure. Let's work on the one that will cost me about $5.00, shall we? First, a little altering as I don't wear a Mens' XL. I put the sweater on myself inside out. Then, with a little help, I pinned the side seams and sleeves in to fit.

I sewed up the sides and down the sleeves with a pretty generous seam allowance. I still need to cut the center for the cardigan and allow for making a placket and finishing the edges.Once sewn, I trimmed the excess sweater from the seams. Hang onto those parts! They'll come in handy depending on your cardigan collar.

If you want to alter a large sweater into a plain crew or v-neck, you can stop here! You've got a brand

new-to-you sweater that fits perfectly. But, since we want a cardigan, let's press on.

Measure the width of the sweater to find your center. You want to measure a couple spots and mark with tailor's chalk or pins so that you're sure to have a straight cut line.

Now it's time to cut! Don't be nervous, just take your time. I also cut off the ribbed crewneck collar and added a slight V-neck to it. I will end up with a shawl collar. Once you've cut, turn the edges in, wrongsides together and sew. This will give you a nice finished edge.

Here we are with my center cuts and button placement. I searched high and low for toggle buttons. OK, I went to two stores. I didn't find what I wanted and I didn't feel like waiting for them to be shipped if I ordered online. Instead, I chose these chunky leather buttons. To make things a bit easier on myself, I skipped the buttonholes. How will you keep your cardigan closed? You ask. Just wait!

These are hair rubberbands! I bought a multicolored pack of them from Target. I don't need 20 rubberbands so I thought I'd take the best coordinated color and use them here. No buttonholes and a fun way to keep the cardigan together.

You'll want to sew over the rubberbands after you've twisted them into a figure 8. I backstitched a couple times as well to really anchor them down.

If you want to make things easier on yourself, you can sew on each button now and be done! I got it in my head that I wanted a shawl collar on my cardigan so again, we'll press on.

Please note, this shawl collar was formed through trial and error. I didn't have a store-made version to look at while I was finagling this one into place. That would have been super helpful. I took the excess fabric from the original alterations and fashioned a tube. The length should run from the top of the V, around the neck and down the other side. The ends will stop just above the first button.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of this step. Once I got the collar twisted correctly so it would lay how I wanted, I sewed it onto the sweater.

This is the collar (over the arm of my couch) I just wanted to show a close-up.

Then you need to find the proper placement of your buttons and sew them on. I did this by hand because the buttons were shanked (not flat on the bottom).

Button is a bit heavy but you get the idea -- Fastened with the hair tie

Rough angle - my photographer had the flu





Ignore that gap at the top, please!

Long sleeves, long length, WAY less than $1,800. Winner winner chicken dinner!

The thing to remember when re-purposing sweaters is that sometimes you have to go through a few rough steps to reach your end result. Keep at it. If you have to abandon your original plan to make it work (Tim Gunn!) then that's okay. No one will know any different.

Now, go raid your significant other's closet!

No Sweat Sweater Re-fashion Week: Dog Sweater

I wore the heck out of this sweater. It was a rather inexpensive purchase from the Gap outlet to begin with so I definitely got my money's worth. Unfortunately, I sweated in it one too many times (if you catch my drift). Chopping it up would solve that problem and the problem of Sadie only owning one sweater, of the Christmas variety.....

Let's get started!

If you don't dress your dogs and are shaking your head at me, too bad. We are having rather seasonable temps now but Sadie is often chilled by winter winds. Her Christmas sweater is somewhat ill-fitting and I don't think she's very comfortable in it. Because she can't talk, I can't be sure on that fact. Additionally, I'm sure she doesn't like wearing it out of season. (who would? dog or human!)

I used said Christmas sweater as a guideline for her new threads. It's essentially two rectangles, one of which is angled at the top. I hope your dog model is more cooperative than mine. I wasn't able to get accurate measurements at all. She kept running away once she caught on that my Milkbone bribery = prodding.

The nice thing about using a ready-made sweater for a project is that the edges won't unravel and are all finished. I kept the ribbing at the bottom of this sweater to add a nice finish on Sadie's sweater.

Since dogs come in all sizes, I can't really give you measurements here. You should have two rectangles to start, one larger and one smaller. The corners then get trimmed off the larger one. This will help the sweater angle around your pup's neck.

I used the ribbing from the v-neck on the sweater as the collar for Sadie's sweater. Additionally, the bottom of the stomach panel will come up higher than the bottom of the top panel. You can see that better below.


Put it on your dog, if she's not acting like a diva, and admire your handiwork!

 Now Sadie is more styling than ever!

I hope you make one for your puppy too. It's snowing as I write this so I guess she'll get to use it this season after all. Sometimes she likes wearing it, sometimes not so much. What an enigma.

Happy sewing!

No Sweat Sweater Re-fashion Week: Cable Knit Pillow

Welcome to No Sweat Sweater Re-fashion Week at

Ashley See, Ashley Does!

If you're like me, you probably have a bunch of sweaters that are just one wear away from the Goodwill pile. Let's do something about that, shall we? This series is designed to help you repurpose those sweaters so that you don't have to give them up completely. The fixes are low to no cost and easy to do! Cheap and easy, sign me up!

Let's get started!

I was really sad to cut up this sweater. I love a good cable knit. It was still in good shape but unfortunately, it accidentally met the dryer one too many times and was far too short for my torso.

Sweater covered pillows are everywhere these days. Observe......



The Company Store







Pottery Barn





 They always seem so cozy! While magenta isn't really a color that fits into my home decor in a more prominent room, it does happen to be an accent color in my craft room. I purchased a pillow form for $6.00 (half off!) at Joann's. I wanted a small lumbar pillow to lean against while I sew. It was something like 9"x14". I'm hoping it will help me remember to sit back instead of hunch over when stitching.

Save those sleeves for later, people. You'll see them again!

Shove your pillow form through the opening you left on the top seam.

Don't know how to do a blind (slip) stitch? This is a good picture tutorial.

And........Ta da!

Don't have a sewing machine? Get out your needle and thread and do it by hand. It will take a little longer than the 30 minutes (max) it took me but it's only two seams. Get stitching!

Come back tomorrow for a refashion of the canine persuasion.

Excitement coming!

I haven't sewed in quite some time. I hope you didn't notice the lack of craftiness around here this year. Oh, you did? I'm sorry. I think I just sewed so much for Christmas that I needed a break. But, I recently ended my hiatus with something really great!

Round up your old sweaters and join me back here on Monday for some serious fun! (Serious fun?)

Anyway, just come back and see what I've been up to, pretty please!

February Running Round-Up

We made it to March! Growing up, February was a great month because we got a lot of days off from school. Now that I'm a working woman, I don't get any of those days off. Luckily, we escaped February unscathed weather-wise. I love this "winter" we're having. Driving in the snow is not high on my list of fun things to do.

Unfortunately, February was not a great running month for me as I was battling an unknown injury. I did discover Aleve though. I guess that's a check in the Pro column.

Here's how my workouts played out:

Feb 5: 2 sad mi in 21:00, very painful
Feb 11: 3.15 mi in 30:00, pain during Last mi
Feb 12: 4 mi in 36:36, neg splits, slight pain with aleve
Feb 18: 4 mi in 36:38, 9:30/9:15/9:10/8:50, with aleve
Feb 19: 5 mi in 44:29, with aleve
Feb 21: 3.35 mi in 30:00, w/aleve, 8:56/8:52/8:40 pain at end but felt good otherwise
Feb 25: 3.5 mi in 31:40, some pain, 9:02/9:00/8:56
Feb 26: 5.25 mi in 51:00, pain last 2 mi,, 10:00/9:52/9:35/9:28/9:24
Feb 28: 3.5 mi in 31:20, 9:00/8:52/8:33, some pain

33.75 mi total


Definitely not anywhere near the 50 I was trying to hit. However, I'm still pretty proud of those miles logged because of my injury. I thought for sure I'd have to take a bunch of time off. Unfortunately, as wonderful as Aleve is, I'm still having the pain. Guess I'll keep trying to work through that. I have a follow up appointment with the doctor next week. Maybe he'll have other ideas.

Bad news......I didn't lose any weight this month. I take that back, I continually gain and lose the same 3 lbs. Good news......I did lose 2 1/2 inches. So, I guess something is working, right?

Stay tuned for more miles in March!