The blog Happy Together has put up a great tutorial for an adorable nursery item. She does such great things. I only wish I could sew like her. She is awesome at altering clothing. The project includes a tutorial and print outs for the background. If Wee Rose's walls weren't already full I'd be so tempted to make this myself. Umm.. maybe as a future baby shower gift for a crafty mom.
Check out her site though, it's adorable.
I have a large amount of WIPs (work in progress) laying around I realized. This past weekend Hubby and I worked diligently on tidying up and organizing the house some. In doing that I came across an almost completed project. It was a modification from this pattern at MyGurumi. Everything for this crocheted flower was done except it wasn't put together. I had made the stem, all 5 petals and the 2 leaves but they were just sitting in the box. I just finished putting it together and then took apart a wire coat hanger to add into the stem so that it would be stiff.
What is worse is this project was intended as a gift. Yes yes I know really bad of me. But not it will make its way to the intended recipient and I hope they like it.
This got me thinking though. I have a laundry list of intended projects or in progress projects. So each week I'm going to either finish a project or report on the status of one. I have one or two I expect to take longer than a week to complete so I must at least show you all what I have gotten done.
In a way this is to make me accountable. After I have completed my intended projects I'm going to move on to creating at least one thing each week out of my craft supplies stash. This includes my fabric stash and my yarn stash. I can not buy any new primary supplies to create a project, notions will be allowed though. I really don't have that large of a stash of them and things like interfacing. I can not buy any fabric to complete it though. And I hope to continue this through the and of the year.
I guess we can call this a mid years resolution since I never made one in January.
Wee Rose appears be starting to wean herself. She has little interest in her bottles anymore and the only good size bottle she will eat anymore is at about midnight everyday. We think that one is out of hunger. We're trying to adapt to giving her more solids, specifically finger foods that are good for self feeding. Unfortunately her skills there are still developing and it's looking like a mix of spoon fed food and finger foods is best. Well to give her a bit more variety to her diet I went on an Internet hunt for suggestions and recipes. I found this site aptly labeled Homemade Baby Food Recipes.
This morning I put forth on of the sites suggestions in regards to sticky fruit that is hard to pick up. I cut up some peaches and dusted them in baby oatmeal. I'd only call it a so so success. Yes she was able to pick up the fruit easier and eat it better but boy was it a mess. She had this sticky oatmeal on her fingers which she got all over her face and into her hair. We finished off the peaches with just a bowl of oatmeal. I think it worked pretty well as a breakfast. At least she still lets us spoon feed her. When Lil' R switched to finger foods he refused anything but that. He's always been an very independent sort where Wee Rose is much less.
This site has this recipe up which I really want to try. It looks like it's something I could make in bulk and freeze the extras.
Infant finger food recipes - Butternut Squash Ravioli (age 6 months+)
2 oz (1/2 cup) flour (unbleached)
2 oz (1/2 cup) semolina flour
2-3 fl oz (1/3 cup) very warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
around 6 oz (3/4 cup) butternut squash, peeled, cooked and mashed
pinch of sweet paprika (optional)Mix the flours together, then slowly add the oil and water, mixing well (this is easiest to achieve with a food processor set at the lowest speed).
The mixture should become a ball of dough - if it seems too dry, add a teaspoon of water at a time until a ball is formed.
Knead the dough thoroughly, then divide into two pieces.
Roll out each piece VERY thinly.
Stir the paprika into the butternut squash.EITHER
Take heaped teaspoons of the butternut squash and place at intervals along 1 sheet of pasta.
Place the other sheet of pasta over the top and press down around the 'mounds' of butternut squash.
Next, cut around the butternut squash mounds with a very sharp knife.
Create a decorative edge for your ravioli by pressing all the way around the edge with the wet prongs of a fork.OR
Splash out on some ravioli moulds.
They are inexpensive and make it much easier to create perfect ravioli shapes!
NEXT...
Bring a large pan of water to the boil, then carefully slide in your ravioli shapes (we find it best to cook just three or four at a time).
When the shapes rise to the surface of the water, they are ready. Carefully remove them with a slotted spoon.
Serve as they are - with a fresh tomato sauce for babies already enjoying tomatoes - or even with a sauce of another veggie puree thinned with a little stock!
I'll let you all know how it goes.
So remember awhile back when I started my Organizational series? I wrote one on Evernote and Part 1 of a group on Google products. Well I've been diligently trying to work on the the next one on Google Calendar but I use it for so much it's pretty complicated because I use it for a lot. Insert curve ball though in that Evernote just did a major update to 4.4 and it looks like I'm going to adjust a bit how I organize my meal planning. There has always been a kink in my process in that I have always desired a place to have a single list of our favorite recipes to easily reference. Well I've figured it out by combining my use of Evernote with Google Calendar.
I encourage anyone who is constantly bookmarking sites for inspiration in any manner but would love to add notes on top of it then Evernote is the greatest your best friend. I have recently started using it to help organize things in my office and it's streamlining things so well. No more trying to find that single note file I saved on how to do something, now it's at my finger tips, literally, since it have it both on my Android Smartphone and my Nook turned Android Tablet. (oh yah that's another post idea!) So to add to my too do list, my Google Calendar blog post, my Evernote part 2 post and turning my Nook into a full Android tablet.
I know I haven't sewn or made anything in a bit, though I did make my android a case but I really don't like it much. At least not enough to show it off. Maybe I'll try it again and show it off. I've been all about technology recently either regarding the Android, Evernote or searching out new blogs. If you go over to Treegold & Beegold I've added a Blog bundle of all the awesome Pagan blogs I've been reading recently. It's a pretty decently length list and I'll hopefully keep adding to it.
Is there any interest in my discussing Android apps I find useful for organizing crafts & family also? I'm forever hunting out new ones and trying them out. I don't know how many people have smart phones now and are specifically Android ones (though some of the bigger apps are on multiple platforms). If you're interested in that idea either leave a comment or just click the "interesting" box.
Okay well I'm off to make some notes and update my to do list.
In the past few weeks I've won contests at 2 blogs, go me!
The first was over at a friends blog Uniquely Normal Mom, she was having a giveaway for Skoy Cloths. I've started using them around the kitchen for general cleaning, and spills. They really do work well. I won a pack of 4 and I'm sure they are going to last a long time. It's just breaking my paper towel habit that's going to be harder.
The second contest I won was over at Whipup.net. She was doing a multi-day giveaway of Family friendly books and honestly I'm not sure which book I won! Yes I know that's pretty bad but I'm excited to see which comes in the mail soon.
It seems this blog has been around for quite awhile but I just stumbled across it and I just had to share. It's called A Magical Childhood and is a blog full of ideas for making every day with your child that, magical. Not in the spiritual sense but it could be applied that way. To me my children's laughter is spiritual in itself and I look forward to doing some of these activities with my kids. Especially now that Lil' R is getting to the age where he can begin to do this stuff.
I'm going through her archives and I bet her children have a lot of fun. There is everything from playing in the mud, dancing in the rain, salt paintings, building towers out of blocks with shaving cream as the mortar, and many more. Often she links to other sites but she appears to be a wealth of a resource. I hope you all enjoy it too.
Blogger informed me today that I can now set my blog to have a mobile version for viewing, awesomeness! So if you have a smartphone check us out and if you have a Blogger blog yourself you'll find the setting under Settings -> Email & Mobile.
And more so I wish I could make this! Actually instead of R2-D2 I'd really want Wickett, yeah I admit it. I have a soft spot for Ewoks.
Besides sewing and crafting you all should know by now is that I'm a huge geek and I'm always on the look out for the coolest newest technology. Well I came around this in my blog roll and thought I'd share it since so many have their own blogs they may find it useful. It's a service that helps to embed about anything you want into your blog. Want to imbed a CNN video, a tweet, Facebook, or something from deviantART? It currently supports 218 services.
Here is a test embedding an article from Wikipedia.
A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.[2]
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.
And a video from National Geographic
A lot of the services are video or photo services so for someone who often writes blogs commenting on current events, movies, etc. this could be really useful. I'm not sure how often I'll get to use it. I know it'd be a lot more if I started making Youtube videos of tutorials etc. but I don't see that happening too soon. Until then it's just a nifty thing to know.
When it comes to sewing patterns made by RAE has some great ones. Last fall I purchased from her the Big Butt Baby Pants pattern which is specifically designed for the big butt of a cloth diapered baby and I finally got around to sewing 2 pairs this weekend for Wee Rose. See we were starting to run into an issue with her in regards to pants. Because of the cloth diapers and that she's a chunky monkey she's gone up in sizes by leaps and bounds. She'll be 11 months next week and already we're putting her in 18 month clothes. If it's a t-shirt often she can wear a 12 month size but if it's pants the 12 months look like Speedos.
I'm happy to say that the pattern is a huge success!! I forsee myself making quite a few pairs of these in the next few months. For my first try I used some quilting cotton I had laying around which I have no pictures of her in. It was really to make sure I didn't screw up using the cute fabric. For the second pair I used this adorable cotton print fabric I made a dress out of for my niece. There was the perfect amount left to make Wee Rose the pants. The size I made is a bit long but I just cuff the pants up and she seems to get around okay. I may do a basic hand stitch to keep them where I want but easy enough to remove once she grows taller. The patterns has directions for multiple variations including a ruffled butt panel. I think I may try that out for the next pair. I also want to set some jersey knit and make up a few that would be great for pajamas. This may call for a thrift store raid to look for interesting fabric.
made by RAE has a lot of great patterns for boys and girls. Please go check her out!
So I fell off the meal planning wagon. After our vacation to Florida Pagan Gathering I got completely screwed up. We came back and I immediately needed to grocery shop for a weeks groceries with no meals figured out. I also had to go back to work immediately so I didn't really have to free time to figure it out either. Well yes that was a few weeks ago and I still haven't gotten the full swing back.
This is horrible because without knowing what to cook our food bill went up immediately. I mean the difference was $40 when I bought things "just encase" I mean it isn't like the food went bad it's in the pantry or freezer still to be eaten but we didn't need to buy it. If I don't get my act together quick though we're going to repeat this all over again. I go shopping again this weekend and only have a handful of meals down on the calendar.
I think part of the problem is that I'm bored with I've been cooking. I need to change things up a bit. It can't be too much though or I know I'll feel overwhelmed. I picked up the Sneaky Chef Cookbooks because Lil 'R won't eat a vegetable save his life right now. I've already started adding a puree of sweet potatoes and carrots to our mac 'n cheese which he doesn't notice but I need to add more and more green vegetables at that. It has this recipe for egg and bacon breakfast bars that I want to make within the next few days.
Anyone have any favorite recipes that they cook that can be done either in the crockpot or within 30 minutes at night? I suck at making things ahead of time though I really wish that wasn't the case. If I could do that I know we'd be eating a thousand times better.
I finally have begun launching everything for my home business. I just finished up the first posts on the blog. From there you'll find links to the Facebook page where the shop is located and also a link to the new Facebook I'm running for parents who follow any form of pagan spirituality.
This blog will continue to exist as a personal outlet with hopefully more entries. I think I just have too high of aspirations. I need to first post regularly and build connections. I worry too much about doing big posts and get so caught up in them needing to be these big things. I need to think baby steps.
Baby steps.
