Journal Publication

My second publication, Impact of Asthma 101 Training on Level of Nursing Students’ Knowledge, is published in the Journal of Asthma & Allergy Educators!

Grandma Minnie

My grandmother passed away last week at the age of 92. She will be greatly missed!


Grandma and grandpa, 1946



Grandma and mom, 1955



Toddler shoes

I found an excellent pattern for baby shoes and modified it a bit for a toddler. The free pattern, along with video demonstration, is available here. The original tutorial uses fusible tape to hold most of the shoe together. My approach was a little different and involved more machine sewing.

Materials:

Wool-blend felt

2 shoelaces
Thread
4 eyelets
Fusible tape (Optional. May be used to fuse inner and outer pieces together before sewing. I pinned my pieces together)

Measure the child's foot, adding approximately 1/2" to the pattern. For example, if their foot is 4" long (heel to toe), enlarge the pattern to 4 1/2". Trace pattern onto your fabric and cut out.

Pin the cuff accent onto cuff; Sew around edge of cuff accent, affixing it to cuff.

Pin together the main body pieces (2 for each shoe). I used brown for the inner piece and tan for the outer piece. Cut along dotted lines to form the tongue of the shoe. Sew inner and outer pieces together along top edge and around tongue (shown below in purple.)

Pattern from marthastewart.com

Next, sew the toe piece onto the end of the main body. You only need to sew along the upper curve. Pin cuffs to main body, aligning the top edge of the cuff (shown above in green) with the top of the shoe (purple). Turn the body of the shoe inside out, with the back edges touching (blue). Pin together and sew along edge.

Pin sole to body of shoe, wrong sides together. Machine stitch together. Turn shoe right side out and check seams. You're almost finished!

The last step is to add the eyelets for the shoe laces. I wrapped the cuffs snuggly around the front of the shoe and marked where I wanted the eyelets to go. Using a Crop-A-Dile, I punched a hole through the cuff and set each eyelet.  I chose a short pair of shoelaces and cut them to length. Then I tied the ends off in a knot and melted them slightly to keep them from fraying.

These shoes are a gift for a special little boy on his first birthday! 

Candied Pecans

This was my first time to make candied pecans. I made a few changes to an exisiting recipe and this is what I came up with. The measurements are a little odd because I adjusted them for the amount of pecans I had.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 lb pecan halves
1 3/4 c white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon and 1 1/4 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla
3 egg whites

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a pan with parchment paper and set aside.
• Combine sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.
• Whisk together water, vanilla, and egg whites in another bowl, until frothy. (An easy way to separate the whites from the yolks is to use a slotted spoon.)
• Pour the pecans into the egg mixture and stir to coat; then pour the pecans into the dry ingredients and toss/stir to coat.
• Spread the pecans out on the pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Yields approx. 8 cups of pecans.

I packaged the pecans in "broom bags" and gave them to my coworkers as a special fall treat! The idea for this project came from marthastewart.com. (I made similar bags last year, which I wrote about here.)

To make the broom bags, you will need paper craft sacks, scissors, twine, and sticks. You will use 2 bags per broom. 

Cut strips down all four sides of one bag, leaving the base of the bag intact. For the second bag, cut slits all around the top, a couple inches down.

Fill the inner bag with candy and insert stick. Place the inner bag on the base of the outer bag, with the strips fanned out. Then gather the strips around all four sides of the inner bag and secure around stick with twine.

Happy Halloween!

Seven Oaks

While in Oregon we stayed at Seven Oaks Bed and Breakfast.  The house was built in 1928 by an inventor named August Guignard. We stayed in the Seven Oaks Cottage, which is detached from the main house, but we got to tour the house and all of its beautiful rooms. The house also had some quirks; Guignard installed red lights above all the closet doors, so you would know if you had left the closet light on.

Images from sevenoaksbb.com

The owners of the bed and breakfast, Greg and Linda, were very friendly and served some very tasty breakfasts. We enjoyed sweet potato waffles with walnuts and homemade pear preserves, breakfast burritos, pumpkin blueberry scones, and apple stuffed pancakes. It makes me hungry just thinking about it... They had a large vegetable garden on their property as well as several chickens, so we enjoyed fresh laid eggs with our breakfasts.

We really enjoyed our stay and would recommend Seven Oaks to others.

Oregon

We traveled to Hood River, Oregon this past weekend for a friend's wedding. The wedding was held at the home of the bride's parents, with Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams as the backdrop. It was a beautiful, crisp fall day.

The family had done some landscaping in preparation for the wedding, putting bark dust down in their flower beds. What is bark dust, you ask? It's what mulch is called in Oregon...and grass clippings are called mulch. And Einhorn is Finkle.

We also experienced a full-service gas station for the first time, since pumping your own gas is illegal in Oregon. Apparently the law was passed in 1951 due to the possibility of inexperienced pumpers setting themselves on fire. Ironically, when Zach and I were pulling away from the pump, after the eloquently spoken attendant had filled up our tank, I realized the engine had been running the entire time. This is something that has never happened when pumping my own gas. I also got pulled over for going 38 in a 25, which we learned is the speed limit for the entire city of Hood River. Fortunately, I got off with a warning.

On Sunday, along with our friend Jake who was in for the wedding, we took a hike in The Dalles where we had a great view of all the orchards. Afterward we had lunch at the Full Sail brewery.

Then we headed back to Portland, where my aunt and uncle treated us to Greek food at Alexis Restaurant and pastries at Voodoo Doughnut. Their menu includes the Bacon Maple Bar (maple frosting with bacon on top), and the "Tex-ass" which is the size of a small pizza.

Spa wraps

I made a set of spa wraps for my sister and two of her girls...similar to the wrap I made for myself a few months ago.