New Blog Tool - Embed.ly

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

 

Technorati Tags: blog tools,embedding,embed.ly

 

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.

Big Butt Baby Pants

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!

 

Technorati Tags: baby,sewing,pants,made by RAE,cloth diapers,infant

Meal Planning Fail

Technorati Tags: cooking,organization,menuplanning

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.

New Site

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.

Adventures in Sleep Training

On two occasions now we've had to go through sleep training with Wee Rose. The first time was well the normal first time just getting her to sleep through the night, the second time was after a prolonged illness that led to her learning new sleep associations.

The first time we went through sleep training Wee Rose was  sleeping in her crib and having no problems falling asleep but she was still waiting up every 4 hours or so. She was 5 months old. I borrowed from the library a book called The Baby Sleep Solution. Though the book was very breastfeeding friendly I was at this point having difficulty pumping while at work and we decided to switch to formula during the day. One method the book said to do was increase of food per feeding during the day and gradually decrease the amounts per feeding at night. It took a few days but soon Wee Rose was asleep 11 - 12hrs. It was so easy and so glorious.

The second time was much tougher and we're still working on it a bit. This time Wee Rose had formed sleep associations with sleeping in her swing. While ill we had let her sleep in her swing to help ease the pains of her congestion. She was congested for over two weeks though and at the end of it refused to go back to sleeping in her crib. We made a hard call and pulled out the big guns. I had previously bought Dr. Ferber's book when we were looking for solutions the previous time but it didn't arrive until after she was sleeping through the night, so I never read it. This time I read it from cover to cover.

Dr. Ferber gets a bad rap often. I thought his book was going to be very harsh just saying to let our baby cry and cry until she just gave up on us. It expressly says no NOT to do that. Yes there is a progressive stage of time where you let them cry but crying isn't the point of it all. The point is for the baby to associate what you wish them to (in our case and most parents it was her crib) with sleep. If you let them cry but they never fall asleep then all of that crying was worthless. Once I thought of it that way it really changed my few. I didn't want my baby to cry at all but if it was going to happen then I certainly didn't want her crying for more than was needed. So once she was fully better I settled in for a hard night. That first night we went in like advised after 5 min then 10 minutes and then she was asleep. What was harder was 2 hours later she woke up and it took 20 minutes for her to get quiet to just wake up 10 minutes later and start over. We all survived and she feel asleep. Since that night it hasn't been perfect but more times then not she sleeps in her bed. Last night she went all night without waking either for the first time in awhile. I think she just went through a growth spurt because on Sunday - Wednesday nights all it took was a bottle and she went right back to sleep in her crib.

The moral is that though CIO seems tough what is tougher is instead of a few nights of crying going through months of it. It can work and everyone can be happier for it. Remember the point isn't to cry but to fall asleep.

First Line of Bow Designs

I finally have photos of some finished products up. I've produced 6 different designs in the bows and 7 bottle caps that can be interchanged. The latter was Hubby's idea and I think it was a great one. 4 of the bows represent the 4 elements while the others are more in tune with the 5th element, spirit. The bows are all 4 inches wide whereas the bottle caps are 1 inch in diameter.

The bow that I am calling Air along with the Air bottle cap.

The Earth bow with the Earth bottle cap.

The Fire bow and bottle cap.

The Water bow and bottle cap.

Black and silver bow

Pentacle bottle cap

Triquestra bottle cap

Purple and Black bow with pentacle bottle cap on and off.

 

If you would like to get into making bows yourself it is quite easy. On the references page I have up many links to sites I found useful for free tutorials. Also check out Youtube. I didn't spend anything on materials or tutorials and neither does anyone else. There is plenty of free material on the web.

Facebook Page Launched

I've been working on the launch of my side business recently and I haven't gotten much sewing done. Mostly I've been working on bows.

I have both a Facebook Page and an Etsy site so please go visit. There you can see why I haven't been posting recently.

Treegold & Beegold Facebook page

Treegold & Beegold Etsy Shop

As of this moment there is nothing up for sale. In the facebook shop are examples of items I have made. Right now I'm in high gear for an event that is next week and I have a store that will carry my items consignment. I'm trying to get enough up and going to start marketing myself. After the event I will hopefully have some stock left to put online.