Black Bean Rice Bowl with Corn Salsa and Chipotle. One of my go-tos for Thursday night Dinner Club. I was trying to channel Freebirds, which is way better than Chipotle, so it did it’s job.

Korean Pork Roast Sesame Leaf Wraps. This dish is always a winner. There’s so much flavor packed into one bite. It’s tangy, sweet, spicy, sour, and the different textures just go so well together. It takes prepping to make the side dishes, but so worth it.

Week of 5/26 – May 30
Monday: Sopes
Tuesday: Black Bean Tacos
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Homemade pizza
Friday: Sushi night

I can’t believe it’s finally almost summer. I’m so excited for our tomatoes to come in, so we can start adding fresh tomatoes to our meals. I look forward to growing tomatoes every year!

Weekend is here and that means more working in the garden.

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

I’m so thankful for all the support regarding my book, Let’s Sew Together, so far! You guys are so awesome!!! I’d love it if you shared a review over on Amazon (I’ve got one so far!). I know it’ll happen, so I’m bracing myself for the negative stuff too because that’s part of putting yourself out there.

I’d love a wall of kid art like this.

Um, nutella hazelnut cake?! Yes! Now, I need that recipe translated.

Michael Jackson’s new album Xscape is so awesome! It really just makes you want to dance!

I had a gift card and ordered this romper. Not sure what I feel about it yet.

Excited about the book launch party in exactly a week. Okay, and I’m nervous too! I’d love to know if you’re coming! Grab a ticket here to let us know you’re coming, or just say you’re coming in this post!

I love how Sarah Joy already made recipes from my book. Yes, I shared 4 recipes inside too!

Don’t forget to check out the book trailer and the song by Hope Leigh.

Rachel’s collection of weavings are just so awesome!

The biggest thing I learned this week, that no matter how great it feels to have written a book with my dream publisher, no accomplishment can ever satisfy completely, there’s still an emptiness in it. The only thing that will satisfy me fully is what Jesus accomplished on the cross. I know it won’t make sense to some of you, but it’s what stood out the most in my heart about finally having the book released and being able to say, “I’m an author.” (That’s still so weird to me.) Don’t get me wrong, I am superly duperly excited about it, and it’s not that I’m not thankful because I really truly am, nor is it because I’m discontent with my life (I’m not), but it’s more about how my source of joy should always come from Christ. End heart rant.

Happy weekend friends!

Last Friday, it was probably hormones, but I cried a little after the girls had made this mess, which was less than 24 hours later of me cleaning their room. I texted Ben that I was feeling frustrated (and crying), so later as the girls and I were eating lunch, we heard a jingle at the front door. This freaked me out because someone was trying to come in, but it ended up being Ben. He quickly opened the door, dropped down these goodies in the house, and took off back to work. It was such a sweet surprise and made me smile.

When I texted him earlier, he asked, “What would make it better?” I replied, “Chocolate cheesecake balls from the bakery.” I thought it was just a wishful kind of thing, but he made that happen. The plant was on my plant wish list and it’s cute that he even made time to run to a nursery to pick it up. And just because bloggers do strange things, I took a picture of it later that afternoon. I will look back at this picture one day and smile at my husband’s sweetness and how silly I was crying over a messy room.

I was thinking about it, and I wished I had a picture of what teenage Ruby’s bedroom looked like. So as frivolous as it is that bloggers take pictures of ridiculous things, I wished I took pictures of those small things of my life back then. Though I remember it so clearly, it would have been fun to show the girls a picture. They probably would have loved my bedroom. Early teenage Ruby’s bedroom was decked out with huge Lion King decals and a Lion King comforter, with all these Disney stuffed animals on my bed. I even had one of those ginormous Mickey Mouse phones in my room. It was a junior high graduation present and I loved it so much. I would spend countless hours talking to my friends and my high school boyfriend on that phone. I loved Disney so much (my dream was to be a Disney animator) and my room was decked out in it.

Then go to late teen Ruby’s bedroom, where I finally got my own room downstairs, and I had one of those Ikea tulle nets over my day bed. On the walls were my favorite movie posters: Titanic, Mrs. Winterbourne (Go Ricky Lake!), and I can’t remember the third one (I think it was Sense & Sensibility). I probably would still love Mrs. Winterbourne now, but Titanic was my favorite? Really, Ruby?! Late teens is also when I started falling in love with vintage furniture and my parents bought me my first piece, a vintage vanity table. I remember taking the movie posters down when I went to college and then I think I had shabby chic floral paintings up and some things I had created. Oh, and my parents had hunter green carpet, so you know it just really brought the room together. *wink*

Anyway, all this to say, I’m thankful for this digital age, where it’s cheap and easy to snap a picture for memory’s sake. It’s fun to celebrate and share the silly things in life. One day when the girls are grown, I’ll tell them stories of how their messy room made me cry and how Ben brought me a plant and dessert during his lunch break to make me feel better.

I started this blog to document my sewing and my wool felt flowers I used to make for local shops and my etsy shop, so it’s fun to go back to it. I am so happy to share that I will be heading to Singapore this summer, and teaming up with Bloesem to teach a creative workshop on felt flower making. It will be a fun time of creating, learning, and sharing ideas with other creative people. Irene has put together a list of awesome workshops and I wish I could take many of them (like this rope making vessel class), so I’m honored to be part of this. If you’re in Singapore (or happen to be there during this time), I hope you’re able to join us for the class! You can get more info about my class here, as well as the other Bloesem classes that are offered.

I’m also ready for all your suggestions of things to see, eat, shop, and do in Singapore too, so ready, set, go…

This is my dining room (this is what it looks like now), but you wouldn’t have recognized it for the 8 months that it was my sewing/writing room. It was an insane mess, plain crazy! If you came to my house, you would have to see this mess as you passed from the front door to the rest of the house. The girls pretty much stayed out of the area (there were needles and pins everywhere!) and things were just so scattered, but it made total sense to me. That’s all that matters, right?!

This is the behind the scenes stuff. If you finally have the book in your hands, and see all the pretty pictures, this is the mess behind it. I was drawing, making patterns, testing patterns, cutting, recutting, ironing, sewing, and doing it all over and over again. I watched many historical documentaries and seasons 1-3 of Nikita during my book sewing and writing process.

Actually, this space was looking pretty neat when it was taken as there were times this room was way worse than you see here. Looking at this brings back so many memories and feelings of this time. It feels great to actually have it out in the world now, and I’m so thankful for all your support. There’s so much I want to keep sharing about the whole process. I kept it a secret for such a long time, so it feels good to finally tell the stories behind it. I’ll probably share bits of book things once a week for a bit, so don’t mind the storytelling. If you have any questions for me regarding it, leave them here. I can work on answering them in future book posts.

Don’t forget I have a giveaway going on where you can win a dollhouse pillow and a $100 gift certificate to the shop of your choice (as long as they sell gift certificates). If you do get a book, please share it on Instagram (or any other place), I’d love to see it (tag me @cakiesblog and #letssewtogether). It’s so surreal to see it in someone else’s hands and it puts a big smile on my face.

Take more peeks at the book here at Made, and another wonderful post (with a project) from Parents.

P.S. If you’re wondering where we ate our meals, we ate at the breakfast table in the kitchen.

Brave’s love for Spider-Man started a few years ago, and I thought it was just going to be a phase, but it’s only grown even more. I made her the Spider-Man doll a few Christmases ago (see here), and every time a special occasion rolls around, everyone loads her up with more Spider-Man things like this mask and lots of little Spidey things. Ben’s cousin also gave her four volumes of Spider-Man comics several months back, and that just changed her life. She knows all about Peter Parker, and because he wears the same things in the comic, she tends to wear the same things all the time too, particularly those blue striped Misha Lulu pants. They’re worn so much that the pockets in the back tore off, and Karen was kind enough to send her another pair.

A month or so ago, we were passing by a comic store and saw a poster for a Spider-Girl and that just blew her away, another life changing moment. She didn’t know that there was a Spider-Girl (nor did I), and she had so many questions about her that we had too look her up online to get more info. Then this past week, Brave looked up at Ben and said, “Papi, do I scrunch my nose when I talk? Because Spider-Man scrunches his nose, so I want to too.” The spidey influence has led her to always be wearing red or blue (or both), prefer shorts and pants over dresses, and want to climb walls. She knows that last one is not allowed though.

I asked Brave, “Why do you like Spider-Man so much?” She replied, “Because he’s cool, climbs walls, and he’s brave.”

This Spider-Man thing is very unique to her and I think it’s really endearing how much she loves this red and blue masked hero. The other girls like him too, but not as much as Brave. It’s amazing to watch your children grow into their own unique selves. I think by nature since True’s the oldest, the younger girls would copy and like what True likes, but with Spider-Man, it’s the first thing that Brave latched onto on her own. It set her apart, and it’s this cute quirky thing that’s all Brave. Sometimes we still see the girls doing something just because True does it, but we tell them, “You don’t always have to follow True, you are own special person and it’s okay to be different.” And everyday we see how they are becoming their own special person.

Brave wanted to get a poster at the store, but I thought it would be cute to make our own. I had her get in her Spider-Man costume (hers is Target from a few years ago when we did this Halloween story) and do her best Spidey poses. We took a picture in front a plain white background, I brightened the color up in Photoshop, and saved it to the poster size I wanted. We went to our local copy center to get it printed and there you have it, we had our own Spider-Man poster. This oversized print cost $22, which is more than a store bought poster, but we get to make this special for her, so it’s worth it.

I started off the first letter on the poster, and I let her complete the rest. She made a couple mistakes, but they blended right into the web. She’s Spider-Girl, so we cut out an image from the Spider-Man pose doll box that she saved and attached that on. After she did the lettering, the other girls joined in on the coloring. I helped get the web started, taught them how to do it, they finished the rest, and added a whole bunch of spiders for good measure. Now, she has her very own special Spider-Man and Spider-Girl poster. We put it up next to her bed and it’s very clear which side of the room is hers, you probably saw a glimpse of it in this post.

True’s now asking to make her own She-ra poster, so I guess that’s the next super hero on the project making agenda. As the girls get older and into cartoon characters, we’ve learned how to incorporate our love for handmade things mixed in with regular store bought toys they love so much, both mom and children end up quite happy with the result.

This post is sponsored by Target. More Spider-Man, More Amazing: Blur the lines of fantasy and reality with your favorite superheroes at Target. Thank you for your continuous support of this space and the collaborations I choose to be a part of.