In an effort to save money, we are trying to be more creative with Sunday supper after church and eat at home.  Used to be that most Sundays, we ate out.  Usually nothing fancy but fast food or…a little sit down place we found where kids eat free on Sunday.  But still…home cooked is always better all around.  More relaxing for the grownups and healthier.

Last Sunday, after church, we stopped at the grocery to get a few things for our meals for the week.  The kids asked if I’d make bruschetta for lunch (french baguettes were on sale for $1!) so I obliged.

Never, would I think a 3 year old would say, “Bah-chetta!  YES!”.  Sprout loves it.

Here’s how I make mine…

1) First TOMATOES.  Loads of fresh tomatoes.  I’ve used canned before…it works but fresh is BEST.  Grape tomatoes or cherry works but this week, they were $2.49/lb so we opted for the Roma’s that were $1.49/lb.  For our family of 4 (The Gardener, my park ranger husband was at work…BIG winter hike day with several hundred hikers) I bought 6 Roma’s.  Dice them into pretty small pieces to make them easy to load on your bread.

2) BALSALMIC VINEGAR.  My kids love this stuff.  It must be because I LOVE VINEGAR and ate a lot of it while pregnant?  Anyway, I cover my tomatoes in this vinegar.  Usually  about 1/4 to 1/2 Cup.  I don’t measure it at all.  Just eyeball it.

3) BASIL.  Now last week, our fresh Basil was not on sale – $3.99.  $3.99?!?  Yes…since it comes in a big bunch, for us, 1/2 of it goes bad before I can use it all.  We have dried basil in a spice jar so we tried that this time.  Guess what?  Worked like a charm and WAY cheaper.  Fresh is great if you can do it but the dried also works.  Fresh basil, mince it – I usually take about a dozen or more leaves, roll them up together and dice it to smithereens.

4)  GARLIC.  Yum.  Oh, we love garlic.  And it’s good for you.  I use 2 cloves, minced and add to the mixture.

5)  SALT AND PEPPER.  Salt and Pepper make a huge difference in the taste.  So, add each to your liking.  The salt really brings up the flavor.

You can let this sit for awhile but my kids usually can’t wait.  We cut up our baguette, added monterey jack cheese and butter and toasted.  Then heaped loads of the tomato mixture on top.  The Two Peas each ate 7 pieces!  Sprout ate 3 and THEN ate 2 more huge spoonfuls of just the tomato mixture without bread.

It was delicious, a great light supper for Sunday afternoon, and

One thing that I wish I had more time to do is to blog hop.  My days are so incredibly busy that I rarely ever get to sit and just relax let alone read for pleasure.  But one of the blogs that I try to visit at least every few weeks is one that always brings a smile to my face.

My “sew inspiring” friend I want to introduce you to this week is Karen Davis and her blog Celebrate Life.  Karen is a military wife and mom living in Korea.  She is a photographer, sewer and faithful servant of God – and truly, every time I open up her page, I leave there with a true smile on my heart.

Her husband has recently deployed and before going, she made him this amazing photo book full of scripture and loving words…such a touching momento that I really wanted to share it all with you.  I think it makes such a great gift for so many different purposes.  When I was on bedrest with Sprout, one of my twins Moms friends sent me a package full of index cards with verses on them that really lifted me up.  This is that same concept done so, sew, beautifully.

As is everything with Karen, and all that she does.  Beautiful.

She and her husband adopted a sweet girl 7 months ago and watching her journey from the pre-adoption phase to her “gotcha day” to her girls amazing development because of the love and care of Karen and her husband, is a joyful thing.

Her photos are always so colorful and tell amazing stories.

And she sews…sweet things most often for her daughter.  But she has an etsy shop too.

I know you will fall in love with her story as much as I have.  She is…sew inspiring…in so, sew many ways.  Be sure to hop over to her blog and say hello – tell her I sent you.  She doesn’t even know yet that I’m featuring her today!

There is a time for everything,
and a season for everything under the heavens:

A time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to throw away and to time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace

This is from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8.

This was recited today, in remembrance for the father of a dear friend of ours who passed away on Sunday.
I think about how there are seasons to my life, and I say it aloud often.

This season, its a blessed one.  It’s full of delight.
It’s full of gifts of love, of friendship, of creative joy.
And I am thankful.

In every way, on every day, there is a reason and a season for
celebrating life.

Thanks be to God.

What inspires you?  To create and craft and sew.  Each week, I’d love for you link up on Monday Morning for some inspiration.  I am not one of those that hates Mondays.  I love Mondays.  I’m ready to get my work done for the week and anxious to jump in.  What a great way to start the week, sharing what each of us finds inspiration in and in turn, inspiring each other.

This week, I was inspired by FAMILY.
My sewing included making a stash of these for my niece.
(well, something like these – I changed up the pattern a bit from this first one)

She was married on Saturday and I made a stack of these for her bridesmaids.  They were a hit with the girls.
At the reception, they had a dance for all of the married couples.  They would call out, “If you’ve been married 4 hours and 10 minutes or less, leave the floor.”  Or 10 years or less, etc.  Until they had one couple remaining who had been married the longest.  The one couple still on the dance floor…my parents.

My parents have been married for 54 years.  They are in their late 70′s and they were dancing it up.  (My parents still work out at the gym 2 days a week!)  They asked my Mom first what advice she had for a lasting marriage.  She said, “Communication and Cooperation”.  Then they asked my Dad.  He said, “She communicates, I cooperate”.  Good answer Dad!  Additionally, I have video of my Dad from that evening dancing with all of my nieces, my nephews girlfriend and all the “young college kids” hooping and hollering my Dad’s name and cheering him on.  He seriously has still got the moves!   He and my Mom both really inspire me.

When I think about most often why I sew, it does always come back to one theme, family.  And friends.
Which is why over the weekend, I shared THIS Mystery Sew Along with my friends.  Did you play along?  If you didn’t, you can still go back and follow the tutorial.  I’d love to see all of your pumpkins!  It would be really cute to make these in different sizes and stack them all around your house this season.  I love the pumpkins because you display these clear through Thanksgiving!

So it’s your turn to share.  Share what inspires you.  Share your sew along pumpkins.  Share your crafty goodies!
You can link back here using this button   – here’s the code:
<a href=”http://twopeasinapoddesigns.com/2011/09/monday-mornings-inspiration-2/”><img src=”http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr225/2peasinapoddesigns/inspiration-button.jpg/”></a>

I’m sponsoring the linky party today and that pretty bridesmaid clutch pictured above…I’m giving that away to one of you!  Just link up your posts and we will draw a random winner from the linky participants.

Happy  Monday!

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.

Is this my calling?

Why do I sew and share my craft?  Is it what I’m supposed to be doing?  Am I honoring God with all that I do?

Those are some of the questions I battle with and I’ll share a few of my random thoughts that have been bouncing around.  Because I think in a way, that this is my calling and that I am doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.  But I guess I feel like at times, I need that “justification” as to where I am, today, here, now.

Alright, let’s start a few steps back.  When I started my career in law enforcement (yes…I was a police officer for 12 years.  A federal park ranger, state and municipal as well as a deputy sheriff) I knew that THAT career was my calling.  And it was.  At the time.  I knew, as I still feel now, that I did make a difference.  I know that I was put into the path, into situations, for a purpose.  That my presence, my actions, my words made a difference.  At that time – they told a child that it wasn’t her fault that her parents were hurting each other and that she had to stay with other family members while they worked out their problems.  They comforted family who had lost a loved one in a car crash.  They told drug addicts and theives that doing something bad was different than being a bad person.  That just because you did something bad didn’t make you a bad person and you always had a chance to start doing right, right now.  I prayed a lot then.  And now.  But I remember saying a lot of silent prayers back then, hopeful that the bad I saw would somehow come back around to good.  I knew that what I was doing at that time was my calling.

And I felt the time my calling started to change.  For my family.  When my kids kissed me goodnight one night as I headed out the door to work a midnight shift and they told me, “Don’t let the bad guys shoot you Mom”, I knew I was done.  Because I knew that my calling to be their Mother was stronger than “saving the world” and I knew that I was ready to let somebody else take a turn at getting all the bad guys.  I felt God molding me from one step of my life’s journey to the next.

I now work in higher education for environmental studies at a HUGE university.  And it’s my job to help students figure out just what they can achieve and what is available to them.  It is highly rewarding that my job involves “lightbulb” moments.  You can literally see the excitement brewing and the passion rising when a student hits on just the right niche and starts to grow, and they start seeing the difference they will make in the world.

But even that, I don’t think is all I’m called to do.  From the time I was big enough to hold a crayon in my hand, I loved art.  Before I even knew what art was.  I loved color.  And lines.  And textures made from paints.  And the ability to just create.  And to cut up pieces of paper.  And glue them back together into something new.  I have watched my own children have just that very same experience with art and I can see, that it is a God thing.

So, art doesn’t save lives.

It doesn’t mend broken families.

It doesn’t change people from bad to good.

Not like working in law enforcement or for the environment or in higher education.

But it sorta does.

I guess I look at it this way.  There is so much love in art, in sewing, in crafting.  It’s spiritual and peaceful.  It makes you think.  It makes you feel.  It makes you use your imagination.  It makes you stop and slow down.  It expresses emotion.  It says so much without using a single uttered word.  I love that about handmade.

Inspiring others in their own art, in sewing, in crafting.  To find peace.  To think.  To feel.  To use their imagination.  To stop and slow down.  To express emotion.  Finding that in yourself, can save a life, can help to mend a broken heart, it can change something bad to something good.

That encouraging others in creativity brings us all closer, to each other and to God.

I think that sharing something we make with our own two hands, telling a story, our story, in paint, in fabric and in thread, in paper and so much more, honors God.  It honors each other.  It shows love.  I think it’s a calling we all have within us.  It’s part of the beauty that makes our lives so much more valuable.

At least that’s what’s been rattling around in my head this week…

Check out our new space here on the web!  Ya like?

You know how your hair can get really long and shaggy and you just can’t wait to get a fresh new look?  Yeah, me too!  And that includes this blog…it just needed a little cleaning up and freshening up.

Let me show you around…over there to the right, you will find links to fun things like my tutorials or information about my sewing pattern line or a list of stockists who carry the Sprouts line of sewing patterns.

Up at the top right, you can link up with me on Facebook or Twitter or add this blog to your reader.

You’ll find ways to share posts.  If you are a retailer, you can subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest about new pattern releases and other Two Peas news.

I’ll be tinkering here and there as I have time doing a few more polishing to some pages.  Have I mentioned?  Busiest.  Summer.  Ever.  Kids will be back to school before I know it and I’ll have more free time to spend in this space but for now…I’m soaking in the summer innocence that is ages 3 and 10 and loving every most minute of it.

To celebrate the blogs new “hair-do”, I have a super cool giveaway coming very soon sponsored by Simplicity!

xoxo,

Trish

Heather from Olive and Ollie has the cutest shop and she is quite the rock star in the modern quilting world.  She was featured HERE and if you missed it, go check it out because she has an incredible eye for color and design.

Heather offered 3 of you a copy of her PDF quilt pattern, Yield…and the winners are:

BETH

DALIA

An email is on its way to you girls – congrats!!

If you haven’t already done so – visit the post from Monday and meet Jan DiCintio from Daisy Janie (and throw your hat in for a FQ bundle of her organic fabrics)

xoxo,

Trish

Link up with Lindsey from the Pleated Poppy for her “What I Wore Wednesday” posts…they are quite addicting.  Fun to figure out new ways to embellish and recreate outfits from what’s already in your closet.  I have a small addiction to WIWW.  Never miss a post.  Here’s my post – although they are collected from about the last 6 weeks worth…but whateva!

Maybe I should title this What NOT to wear.  Let’s start with a look at my shoes and socks options…

I love my gold flats.  {I got them on clearance for $5 and they are super soft and comfy}.  I love my knee high argyle socks.  Together, maybe not so much.  But I was in a hurry to get off to church and quite frankly, I just didn’t care what my feet looked like.  I chalk this up to the “creative” side in me…my feet making a “statement”.  

Now this combo…the red flats, again, clearance $6 at Payless.  Love them.  Again with the argyle.  I got a thing for argyle.  Actually, just noticed that as I type this, I have purple and gray argyle socks on.  Hmm…that’s odd.  I should expand my sock patterns, huh?  This is facinating, isn’t it?

At least here, I’ve moved on to stripes.  Now, on this particular day – not a single member of my family could find matching socks.  After the laundry was all done – they somehow all came back together but they mysteriously all became mismatched for an entire week.  {and say hello to Rosie the barn cat}

T-shirt and scarf – Old Navy
Jeans – Ann Taylor LOFT (my fav store that I NEVER pay more than $20 for anything – awesome clearance finds!)
Jersey cardigan – Cold Water Creek (also clearance $7!)
Hair flower – made by ME!

I have a thing for hats.  And pigtails.  And braids.
Hat – really old and I have no idea where I got it.  I added a pin I found for $1 to it!
Sweater – Old Navy (clearance! $8)

THIS – just a shameless plug for my tutorial coming up tomorrow for this cute fabric belt!
Dress – Ann Taylor LOFT
Beads – Bead for Life
Check out the red polka dot knee highs!

My what NOT to wear WIWW post…(giveaway winners announced tomorrow!)

xoxo,

Trish

I get asked a lot of different questions about crafting, sewing and more.  I’d love to do a post where I answer all of those questions…do you have one you’d like to ask?  Ask anything!  Ok.  Maybe not anything but…serious, ask away!

Shoot me a quick email with your question at twopeasinapoddesigns at gmail dot com.

xoxo,

Trish

I have been taking a class in Illustrator.  Previously, I would design, draw, sketch out my stuff – be it textile designs, etc and then hire a graphic artist to digitize, colorize and do all the work for me.

It’s super expensive to do that.  And I wanted to be able to play around with it all by myself.  So, I took a class at our local Art college and have fallen deeply in love.

With Art School – love designing, communications – all that stuff.  Super fun.  I already have plans for the next two quarters for more fun classes in both fashion design, pattern drafting and also more graphic design.

And I’ve been looking for guinea pigs (hee! hee!)

Do you have a blog or an etsy shop that you would like a banner made for it?  I love using personal photos but I’m up for trying anything.  And I’m super cheap.  I’d like to offer up a simple custom banner for you, like what is pictured here, for $15.  It will include a banner and avatar.

I will only take two orders for now so if you are interested, hurry because I’m not sure when I’ll do this again!

You’ll find the listing over in my etsy shop. Can’t wait to work with you!  Thanks for giving me a chance to practice!