On Vacation

As you may have noticed, I have not blogged all week. This is mostly due to the holidays and the fact that David is on vacation. You can most likely expect the posts to return by the end of next week.

Freezing Meals Before Baby

I am due in less than a month (eek!) so we are trying to prep as much as we can to help make the whole process smoother when Teeny comes. This includes making meals in advance to freeze in order to avoid having to cook or think about what to make when you're sleep deprived with a baby never more than a foot away from you.

I did a lot of looking around online to see what other people are making and the highest recommendation seems to be things you can eat with one hand (presumably, you are holding the baby in the other). Another thing that I hadn't thought of was breakfast and lunch, not just dinner.

This is my compiled (but incomplete) list of things I will make and freeze before Teeny gets here.

• empanadas. I am actually making these tonight for dinner and just making extra to freeze (that's the easiest way to do it instead of spending an entire day cooking and freezing). You can freeze them before you bake them or after. You put them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper until frozen then you transfer them to a ziploc bag so they aren't all frozen together when you only want to eat one.
• waffles. We have a fancy waffle maker that we actually get a lot of use out of. We have made big batches and frozen them before, even without a baby on the way.
• quinoa with vegetables. I cheated and already made this. I was unable to finish the leftovers in one day so I froze the rest. I am excited to have this again! (Recipe in a previous post)
• banana bread or muffins. I'm undecided which to make, which probably means I'll end up making both. I will preslice the bread before I freeze it so I can easily take out one piece at a time.
• soup. Probably chili because we eat that fairly frequently. I won't make it as spicy as we normally have it because I plan on breastfeeding and you may need to adjust your diet if your baby is gassy or intolerant of some things. Spicy foods are included in that.
• lunch meat. Okay so I won't be making this but I will be freezing it so I can easily make sandwiches.

I may add more to this list (notice above where I said it's incomplete) but I will also have my mom and David around for the first few weeks and they can help out with meals too.

Other things I learned in my research:

• freeze things in individual portions because they're quicker to defrost and you never know how many people will be eating at a time
• I don't agree with this but some people say to make and freeze desserts like brownies and cookies to serve to people who stop by to meet the baby. I personally think they should be bringing YOU something but whatever.
• If you need things frozen for longer than 3 months, make sure you follow the proper freezing procedure (usually double wrapping things) to make them last longer without freezer burn.
• People recommend cooking up their meat and seasoning it then freezing it so you can use it with lots of different things (taco meat, sloppy joes, etc)
• Chop vegetables ahead of time if you won't be cooking them ahead of time. This will save you lots of prep work later.
• Most things taste better if you are able to freeze them before heating them and then just throw it in the oven when it is time to eat it. However, sometimes this isn't possible (especially if you don't have a nice, big chest freezer like we do).

Finished Christmas Tree Skirt

Please ignore the dirty floor. The tree is in the foyer, which is still considered a construction zone. As you can see, it's not perfect but that's because it is nearly impossible to sew a circle without something bunching somewhere. It was almost really difficult to sew the binding to the inner circle (the one that goes around the tree stand) so if you look at it in person, it's a disaster. I may fix it next year but it's good enough for this year.

I didn't really follow a pattern for this that I can share. I wanted to make a different tree skirt but it ended up being too complicated to finish anywhere close to Christmas. Plus, it was only 18 inches across because it was meant for a table top tree. I extended the wedges to make it bigger for our tree (our tree bottom is 60 inches but it has a lot of room between the floor and the first set of branches so it didn't need to be that big). This skirt is 36 inches. Then I cut out 16 of my wedges (this gave it a little overlap over the opening that allows you to put it around the tree) from my fabrics. It's hard to see in the picture but I have a plain white, red poinsettias, gingerbread men, red and white polka dots, red swirls, red and green plaid with shiny gold, and red with branches. I originally had more green in there but red was still going to be too dominant because I don't have all that much green fabric left since making my leaf hot pad so I decided to do a green binding instead.

The binding actually worked out perfectly because I had made too much for my brother's blanket and this was almost the exact right size (I had just a little extra). This also made it less work for me since it was already folded like a binding.

All my fabrics were at least a fat quarter if not bigger. It was nice I could use the fat quarters though. I planned that on purpose because the original way I had extended the wedges made them 18 1/2 inches. I knew I wanted to use some fat quarters because they were Christmas-y so I cut the wedge to 18 inches instead. Of course, if you are using only bigger pieces of fabric, you could easily make the wedge bigger to whatever you want.

For my batting, I used an old fleece type blanket that was nice and thick. I decided not to do a backing on it because nobody seems the back of tree skirts anyway and the blanket was thick enough. It does look a little funny when you're sewing it though because the blanket is blue but that's okay.

Looking back, it was actually pretty easy to make, once you have the wedge (if you want to make a tree skirt but need a wedge, you can either use a wedge ruler (which I don't have) or find a pattern to a tree skirt that uses wedges and adjust it to your size). The hardest part was probably binding it. This is only my third ever binding I think plus it was on a circle. I'm not that technically gifted yet! I think it all turned out really nice though.

Quinoa with Vegetables

Yesterday, David and I were finishing up Christmas cookies (28 dozen total, 6 different kinds, plus a pan of fudge) so I did not really have access to the oven or cookie sheets when making dinner. I also didn't want to do anything with measuring cups because we had basically dirtied all those as well. I had pasta for lunch so that was out. I decided anything versatile that you can do on the stove top would be best. I decided to do a quinoa with vegetables dish, kind of like a rice stir fry but not really. I got the idea from a recipe online but we changed enough (it's a very versatile dish) that I'm not going to link it.

Make your quinoa according to the box instructions. For us, that's 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water (we wanted to use broth but we didn't trust our cubes to dissolve right with these cooking instructions so we just used water instead. This dinner was completely vegan.)

Then heat up vegetables. We used carrots, bell peppers, and corn. I considered adding onion but that seemed like more work than I wanted so I ended up using onion powder. The corn was a great addition though and I would not leave that out if I make it again. The sweetness really paired well with the quinoa.

I had made a dressing of oil, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder (as mentioned above), and salt but you could barely taste it. I don't know if I just didn't use enough of the ingredients or if the ratio of dressing to quinoa and vegetables was off or what but I could barely taste it. David ate his plain but per his suggestion, I tried it with salsa (mild of course. I have no spice tolerance) and that was really really good.

I would make this again. It was quick, easy, and relatively healthy. Plus, you can make it with whatever you have on hand. You don't even need beans or a meat because the quinoa has plenty of protein. Of course, you could add them if you wanted to. I may try to add the seasonings without the oil to the quinoa and maybe double it or something so they're more obvious. I did think I used at least a tablespoon of everything but apparently it just didn't work out. It's still rather puzzling to me but oh well. I definitely recommend this.

On a side note, we did finish our Christmas cookies. We started them on Friday  night, did several batches on Saturday, and did a couple more batches last night. We made sugar cookies (with sprinkles), buckeye balls, oreo cream cheese balls, peanut butter blossoms, shortbread, thumbprints, and then the fudge. It was a lot of work but totally worth it. We're sending some to my family, David's taking some to work, and then the rest will get eaten by us (and David's parents when they come to work on the house this weekend).

Pajama Pants

Even though David's birthday is not until New Year's Eve, I decided to work on (and give him) his present early since with Teeny coming, who knows when I'd actually be able to finish it. I did it last night with the help of his mom. My fabric is a gray and red flannel that I bought at Jo-Ann's when it was on sale. I used a McCall's pattern (also on sale--otherwise those are not cheap!) and it was my first time using an envelope pattern.

We did add a pocket to the pants because otherwise, they wouldn't have any. We only did one though because it was kind of a lot of work (considering what it is). I forgot to prewash my fabric but I think they turned out big enough that even if they shrink, they will still fit him (if they don't, then I get them!).

I did not find this to be as easy of a project as I had predicted. Part of it could be that I'm almost 36 weeks pregnant so everything is becoming exhausting but otherwise, I'm not sure why I had so much trouble with it. Looking back, I think the most annoying part was cutting out the pieces.

I will admit (as will David's mom) that pants are really weird. Most of the time, you just have to follow the instructions for what to pin and sew together because as you're making them, they certainly don't look like pants. There were several times when I thought that we had just sewed the two legs together into one giant leg) when really that was just the top of the pants. What nonsense!

The pattern was relatively easy to follow if you kept track of which piece was which. They did have a few things I would change for next time but nothing worth mentioning to those of you unfamiliar with the pattern. I would like to make a pair of pants for me (some day) and the night shirt that you can also make with this pattern but that is a ways into the future. I am excited with how the pants turned out though and I think David really likes them. Sorry I don't have a picture but they're basic pajama pants with a drawstring and a pocket.

Pancakes

I was trying to use up milk (seems like I'm always trying to use up something, doesn't it?) and came across the idea of making pancakes. Usually, we make ours from a box mix since we keep it on hand for our waffle maker anyway. We do have a recipe for butter pancakes that we've made once. They oozed butter and were SO delicious (and so bad for you!) but I was unable to find that one this morning so I googled for another one.

This is the one I used. I followed other user's suggestions and downsized the salt to 3/4 tsp and added 1 tsp of vanilla (although since I didn't measure and it came out faster than I thought it would, it was probably closer to 1 tablespoon. Oops). I also just whisked everything together instead of making the well. I hadn't picked a big enough bowl to do that and the whisk was just easy. I don't think it over mixed it or anything. They still turned out great!

This was my first time ever making pancakes because growing up, my dad always made them and then when I got married and moved out, David always made them. Breakfasts are one of the things he can cook without much instruction or guidance. He was busy this morning though (he's work from home today) and I really wanted to make pancakes so I figured I'd just do it. They couldn't turn out that awful. And I was right!

The recipe says it makes 8 servings but I only got 13 pancakes and a pan sized one (I got sick of flipping near the end. I was surprised I could actually flip this one but it was perfectly golden and David said it was delicious) and to me, that doesn't feed 8. I'd say maybe more like 4 servings.

I was happy that it included all ingredients I keep on hand plus it didn't use all that much butter because we need 16 sticks for our Christmas cookies tonight/tomorrow! We couldn't remember if we had bought an extra box or not (to still have butter on hand after all that) so I was glad this didn't use much. Plus, even though it didn't make many pancakes, I was still able to use over a cup of milk plus we each had milk to drink with breakfast and we used it up! Yay!

Getting Ready for Teeny

Now that Teeny is due in like, a month (my due date is January 15th), I'm starting to panic about how little time is left. I did have both of my baby showers and we got a LOT of stuff but of course, there's always more. Babies require so much stuff and it doesn't help that we don't currently have a place to put it all. The room David and I came from before moving to the master is going to be Teeny's room for a few weeks (most likely) until the real nursery is ready but we were living in that room without trim and a few other fix ups so we are working on doing that now. The room should be done by Christmas and then we can move all Teeny's stuff in there. For now, it's in the living room, haunting me that it doesn't have a home.

I am also discovering that lots of things for babies are easy to make and cheaper to make than to buy but now that it's getting closer, I have to make the decision if I have the time to make it or if we'd be better off buying it to save me stress. I do plan on making some burp cloths, bibs, an extra crib sheet, patchwork sleep sack, and a changing pad though. Because of this, I have been busy sewing. There are other projects I want to get done before Teeny too so I have been working on those. The most recent being a Christmas tree skirt and living room curtains. I'm almost done with both and will try to post when complete (we are having major computer issues so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post this month and then of course, when Teeny comes I imagine I will have a hard time finding time to post as well).

It is also about the time to start making double batches of meals to freeze one batch for when Teeny is here. Then I don't have to cook. I will have my mom come help but of course, anything I can do to prepare and help beforehand will make everyone's lives easier.

I guess I'm just starting to feel the stress of it all. I wouldn't say I'm nesting but I'm definitely wishing I could get more done, let setting up the nursery. I just have to take it one day and a time and remember we can always buy more stuff (like clothes because it's impossible to know what size to buy until you know how big your baby will be) when I'm in the hospital or within that first week.

I'm definitely getting huge and uncomfortable, although I'm pretty sure I was saying that months ago. I'm barely getting any sleep between being too warm no matter how few blankets or clothes I have on, getting up hourly to pee, rolling over in bed requires a three point turn, and not being able to lay on my back, sides, or stomach. I haven't figured out how to sleep yet. I suppose it's just preparing me for when I will truly get no sleep once Teeny is crying all night.

35 weeks and just trying to stay positive and get a lot done!

Brats with Noodles

I am awful at remembering to defrost meat for dinner. This usually means we end up with vegetarian, fish, or brats. Last night, this meant brats. I didn't want the usual brat recipes I usually make though because I like to try new things. This recipe came to my rescue. I knew we would like it because we both really like noodles and we never mind green beans.

I did make some changes. For instance, I used cream of celery soup because I just wasn't convinced that cream of mushroom would taste good. Plus, I have found more uses for cream of mushroom and I only had one can of that left. We also used shredded cheese instead of the Velveeta style simply because that's what we had. I think it worked out just fine.

One problem with this recipe is when we were simmering, the mixture bubbled up (while the noodles were being drained so we didn't have our eyes on it) and pushed the lid off and made such a mess! I'm not sure why this happened because we didn't have the heat any higher than we do other times we simmer. So we lost a lot of sauce that way but the end result was still good.

I would make it again but I suppose we'll have to keep a closer eye on the sauce. I did like how quick and simple this recipe was. You cook the brats first, then when the sauce is simmering, start your noodles and everything should be done about the same time. David and I are awful at timing everything to get done at the same time (it really is an art my mom says) so I'm thankful for recipes like this where it doesn't take much planning to get right.

Next time, I will also add more beans. I'm not sure if we had more noodles (we just used a whole box) than sauce or what but the beans seemed to have been forgotten. David didn't think so though.

Fish Stick Florentine

On Friday night, I was looking for a way to jazz up fish sticks. We usually serve them with a vegetable and a variety of mashed potatoes but this night, I wanted something different. After looking through lots of recipes for how to make your own fish sticks (which obviously wasn't what I wanted), I found this one. I was a little nervous of all the spinach because I'm not a huge spinach fan and usually try to cover up the taste with other stuff (like when I put it in smoothies). I also wasn't sure how David would feel about it but he eats anything I make.

I decided to try it anyway. I followed one of the comments and made it on the stove top and then the oven instead of the microwave. I started with a pot over medium heat for the butter, flour, and spices (I added paprika at this point because I hadn't read the recipe all the way through and didn't know they save that for the end). When this started making noises like it was going to burn and stick to the bottom of the pan, I added the milk in haste. I whisked at this point because my butter still hadn't melted all the way. Then I added the cheese when it looked smooth (it never looked thick to me). I doubled the cheese they called for (mostly because I was still scared of the spinach taste plus we love cheese). Then, we assembled it like they did and put it in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Next time, I will add more of the cheese sauce to the spinach mixture because there was way too much for on top of the fish sticks and this made them kind of soggy. We also had the sticks in the freezer the whole time (we didn't thaw them in other words) and next time, I might bake them first (according to box instructions) and just assemble the casserole without baking it again to make them crunchier.

Overall, it was very good! David and I ate the whole thing in one sitting so depending on who you're feeding and how much they like it, it does not make 4 servings. I will definitely make this again but I'll try some of my modifications.

Our Christmas Decorations

The past couple days we have started to put up our Christmas decorations. We NEVER put stuff up before Thanksgiving but we have been known to do it the day after. Before just seems too early.

We had bought some new stuff on clearance after Christmas last year, so this was our first year using it. Our most exciting purchase was probably our solar LED white lights. We have them wrapped around the trunk of our pine tree out front. You do have to clear the snow off of the solar panel every time it snows but we haven't really had a problem. We like that these don't add to our electricity bill and we will most likely purchase more after this holiday season.

We also have multi-colored lights strung around our huge living room window (on the outside---when you string them on the inside, I think it looks weird). These are not solar or new. We really like them though, especially because it seems like most houses in our neighborhood only have white lights and those can look rather plain by themselves. This is the first year we have put them around our window so we had to put in nails to wrap around. Last year, we had them wrapped around our porch posts and that looked nice too.

Our front door wreath is not new this year but it still looks really nice. It's big and was too heavy for our magnetic door hook so we had to buy an over the door one. It has fake frost, berries, and pine branches. I obviously didn't make this one, like I did our fall one. Wreaths are a little hard to store though. We keep ours in a plastic bag on top of our ornament box.

Inside, we have our (fake) tree. We are almost done decorating it but we were both too tired to finish last night (plus we watched the live Carrie Underwood version of The Sound of Music). It comes pre-lit with white lights but we add a lighted star (that is too big to fit on the top of the tree because our tree is 8 and a half feet tall in our 9 foot foyer), garland (silver and blue), and ornaments.

This year, we have our little fabric Christmas tree and penguin that I made this past season. They're cute and help decorate our living room. We also have new bows we bought to put on our porch posts but have since discovered the wire to attach them is too small to fit around the pole so we are debating what to do with them. They may just end up on our tree.

I wish we had a mantle or a stair railing to wrap garland around because I always think that looks nice but we aren't getting either one. I also want to get a nativity scene but those are pricey so we will probably wait on that.

It is my family's tradition (and now David's and mine) to listen to Christmas music while decorating the tree. We listened to Pandora's station for country Christmas last night and it was really nice.

Now all that's left is Christmas cookies! We are making 28 dozen (7 different kinds) plus fudge. We are obviously going to have to share if we want to eat them all in time! We will most likely be making those next weekend (with our new mixer!)

Oh! And I will be making a tree skirt since we don't have one but I don't know that it will be done in time for this season. It's a rather tedious one but I'll be sure to post if I finish it.

Super Easy Casserole and New Mixer

Yesterday, I needed to use up our refrigerated biscuits because I kind of forgot we had them so they were past their expiration date (we don't really freak out about expiration dates unless it smells bad or looks weird). I, of course, turned to the internet for ideas. I knew you could do pot pies with them or tuna melts but I wanted something new. I came across two options that I liked. One was to flatten them and make little pizzas out of them and the other was a baked beans and hot dog casserole. Since we had pizza for dinner the night before (good deal at Domino's this week--50% off all pizzas if you order online), I decided on the casserole.

I know it doesn't sound that healthy but people serve baked beans and hot dogs all the time anyway. Plus, since we knew we were having this for dinner, we were able to choose healthier options for breakfast and lunch to try to balance it out.

The recipe is from Pillsbury but we made a few changes. We used country style baked beans instead of pork and beans. We also left out the onion and the brown sugar because we hate chopping onions and in the reviews on the website, a lot of people thought the brown sugar was too much.

We brought everything to a boil but only simmered for like, two minutes because we thought that step seemed like overkill. You already boiled everything and then you put it in the oven but you still need to simmer it? Well, apparently they know what they're talking about because we had some colder spots at the end.

For once, I agree with the servings. I believe you could pretty easily get 6 servings out of that so obviously, we had leftovers. We both liked it (me a little more so than David) but it wasn't spectacular. However, it was all things we had on hand (we don't actually usually have beans or hot dogs on hand but lately we have because of all the protein I need with Teeny). It was super quick and easy though so I would make it again on a day I don't know what else to make.

On a new topic, David and I decided to buy ourselves something big for Christmas rather than doing individual presents. We found a GREAT deal on a stand mixer (up until this point, we've only had a hand mixer) that does the mixing itself (you don't have to move the bowl around). It is a Kitchen-Aid and we are SO impressed with it. Of course, we had to try it out. So yesterday, we made a boxed cake mix (again, not something we normally have on hand but they were on sale) with homemade cream cheese frosting. We used the mixer for both. The mixer over-mixed our cake mix since it was supposed to stay lumpy but our mixer is just too good for that (or we were too enthralled with it to turn it off sooner). But the frosting came out superb!

I'm sorry I don't have the link for the recipe we used but you beat 1 stick of butter with 8oz of cream cheese (both at room temp) on medium speed until creamy (about 3 minutes). Then mix in 1 tsp of vanilla. Then gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar. Taste and add up to another cup to get desired taste and texture. The end! So simple. So delicious. We added 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar.

Cuddle Drop Pillows

In one of my books of sewing patterns from the library, I found a really cute, cuddly pillow in the shape of a tear drop. It even has a face! Of course I had to make it.

I had most of the materials but in my head, I thought I needed flannel. Turns out it was fleece. I also thought I needed a half yard but it was only a third so I  now have some extra left. Obviously, my memory isn't what it used to be (ha!). I picked a blue because it was pretty and if it's a tear drop shape, I thought that would look the nicest but you could really do any color. I was disappointed that the book gave me the pattern for the face but not the tear drop shape. I made it work out okay though.

This was actually kind of easy to make but would've been really hard to do by hand because they make you stitch everything at least twice (sometimes three times!) instead of just once. It also uses a lot of zig zag stitches.

I'm happy with the way mine turned out. I think it's cute. I only put the eyes on (in purple felt) instead of the decorative button and some fancy stitching. I would've done those but I couldn't figure out their purpose and it just seemed like a waste of time to me because I like mine the plainer way. Plus, who wants to cuddle with a button?

Here is a picture.

Mine is bigger than it's supposed to be. The one in the book is only a foot tall and mine is more like a foot and a half. I think the eyes are cute but now I'm wishing I had done some sort of a mouth (but they didn't suggest that).

It was relatively easy to make but I would've appreciated a pattern for the tear drop. If any of you are interested in making it, just put it in the comments and I can do a quick tutorial for you.

Styes

When I went home several weeks ago for my brother's birthday, my dad had a stye. He already had it a while then and when we visited for Thanksgiving, he still had it! He wasn't soaking it as much as he should've been but that is still a really long time. Then, I was noticing that my eye, especially my eye socket was starting to hurt but I'm kind of a hypochondriac so nobody thought I was getting one too. Plus, they aren't exactly contagious. You can only get them from someone else if you use the same washcloth or that kind of thing. Obviously, my dad and I do not share wash clothes.

Well, after everyone doubted me, my stye finally surfaced this morning. I think it's funny because of all the people trying to tell convince me that I didn't have one. It hurts though so I guess it's not that funny (at least for me).

For those of you unaware, a stye is an infected hair follicle, commonly an eyelash. Apparently they can go away on their own but they never seem to so the best way to get rid of them is to apply warm wash clothes or compresses to your (closed) eye for 10-15 minutes, several times a day. In some cases, you may even need to see an ophthalmologist for further help (which I think my dad should do but we'll see). They're common and like I said, not really contagious. They form from the bacteria that is already on your skin so don't think you're digusting or like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown if you get one. 

I've had one before but that was like 10+ years ago. It was also a pretty bad one because I could barely open my eye without it hurting like crazy. I'm not to that point yet with this one but even with that one, as long as you're good about doing the compresses, they do go away.

So don't panic if you get one and good luck making it go away quickly. I hope mine will too.

Back From Vacation

Hey everybody! Sorry I forgot to mention I was going out of town (to my parent's house) for Thanksgiving weekend so I have not been blogging. We all had a great time but it's hard to believe the next time they'll see me, I'll have a baby! This was the first time my older brother saw me pregnant and he goes "it just looks like you have a pillow under your shirt". Ha ha, no it's definitely all me (and Teeny).

So anyway, before I went on vacation I finished up some sewing projects. For instance, I finally did the valence for the master bedroom. I still have to do the curtains in the living room but at least this gave me more confidence for that project. It was really rather easy to make. The hardest part was hemming the long sides. I didn't do a French seam on the back like I was supposed to but nobody looks behind curtains to check your seams anyway. I just did a regular, right sides together seam. I had 2 yards of fabric that I cut in 3 sections and sewed all the sections together. Then I cut it slightly (I was doing 2 1/2 times the window instead of 3 because I didn't want it too ruffly) and hemmed three sides. The top has a tube for the curtain rod. Then the end! We got it up and it looks great! It doesn't have the ruffle part above the rod, just the tube for the rod but that's the way we wanted it. I'm sorry I don't have a picture but I'm kind of in a rush this morning getting this posted so I can move on to unpacking more from vacation.

Speaking of unpacking, I had my first baby shower this weekend (it was my side of the family. David's side of the family is next weekend). It was lots of fun and I got SO much stuff! All of it is adorable of course but boy was our car full when we drove home! It makes the experience seem a little more real and I'm even more excited for Teeny now (if that was possible). I'm starting to feel really huge, especially because my cousin was there and she's two months behind me in pregnancy so she seems really small next to me.

Then, before we left for vacation (sorry this post is all over the place), I made a little thing that holds my pins and needles for sewing on the go. It folds up and is about the size of a baby's bootie (baby on the brain!). It is really nice and convenient. I got the pattern out of one of my library books. It was probably the first project I made without getting frustrated and in one sitting. It took about an hour and a half. I also do not have a picture of this but if you are curious, I can post one later. It did work out really nicely for when I hand sewed in the car. It can even fit my little scissors.

Alright, I think you are all caught up now. I apologize again for how rushed this was but coming back from vacation is always a struggle to get back in the swing of things.

Scrappy Pillow

As I mentioned in previous posts, I was given a lot of scraps (some true scraps, some rather large and I wouldn't call them scraps) from David's mom. I have been looking for projects to use a lot of them because my bin is starting to get rather full. I found a scrappy pillow in a library book I wanted to make but the instructions weren't very clear and I wasn't sure of the technique they were using. So I did something similar but my own design. I did buy a pillow form but next time I will get a pillow from Goodwill or something to recover. It's an 18 inch pillow that I plan to use for the back of my sewing chair since, especially being pregnant, my back needs more support when I work for a long time.

The front is random sizes and shapes of the scraps in all different directions and ways. As David says, it's a Jamie original. I did run into the problem of not knowing how to do corners (a set in seam I believe they're actually called) so then I started overlapping things and not everything is sewn with right sides together. I also tried to use different stitches on the front to add to the scrappy look. I think the zigzag stitch worked really well with this. So I just kept adding things until it was big enough (19 inches at the smallest points) and then I cut all the sides straight.

The back is two 15 x 19 panels of strips going two different directions. In the future, I would've made them smaller so you could see more of both of them but this was a learning project. This part was much easier and took less planning than the front. I also forgot to hem the last strip that's on top so right now it's fraying and ugly but I may go back and do that (but I'll have to take the pillow out. It does come out rather easy. It's just a hassle to do it again because originally, we sandwiched it wrong and had a wrong side facing out. Seam ripped the whole thing and resewed it so I'm kind of over it.)

The front.

As you may have guessed, there are side pieces you can't see in the picture because of the pillow's poof. Some of my favorite scraps ended up on the edges and you can see very little of them but at least you can see them (in person).

This is the back. The raw edge that I may or may not redo is the black and white thicker strip right before the strips change direction. If I redid this, I would make that top square (with the vertical strips) skinnier so you can see more of the one underneath. The one underneath goes all the way to four inches from the end of the pillow so it seems like a waste to me. It did use a lot of scraps though! I'm still looking for more projects to use more scraps though because you always have plenty of them!

Penguins

Over the weekend, David's mom and I made penguins! They're about nine inches tall and are supposed to stand up by themselves (her does, mine has some trouble). We found the tutorial here per David's suggestion. Even though the pattern makes 3 penguins, we each only made 1 because they're a little tedious (especially with all the hand sewing) and I didn't bring enough yellow felt. For once, we actually understood the instructions the first time but we did make a few adjustments. For instance, we sewed the wings on individually instead of at the same time. When we tried it at the same time, the penguin got too squished and it looked funny. We also used yellow floss on the feet instead of black floss because we thought this looked better.

The sewing on the machine and the assembling the penguins was actually fun and really not as bad as I thought it would be (although when you are sewing the tummy on, be sure to not sew through the whole thing or you'll get the other side caught in it too) but the hand sewing was a bit much for me. I don't mind hand sewing usually but this was thick stuff (since everything was stuffed) and harder to do. I even split a seam (or rather, David did) when trying to stuff the wings. One of the harder parts was turning out the little pieces like the beak.

Here is how mine turned out.

The under wings are the same fabric was the tummy. It's kind of hard to see that in the picture. So as you can see, he stands by himself but not very well. I think it's because I didn't stuff him as much as was suggested. He also kind of lost his tail when I stitched it poorly and I think that would help with his balance. Isn't he cute though?

House Quilt Blocks

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am making a house quilt. Don't expect me to finish it anytime soon though because this is my first (and probably only) quilt and I have other projects going on right now too. With the design I'm doing, I needed to make two more houses (I was given 10 houses from David's mom who wasn't going to do anything with them). I didn't think it sounded too hard and I knew from looking up designs that there were lots of tutorials out there for making your own. My houses are all from different people (David's mom won them in some sort of drawing thing) so they are all different styles but basically the same (not that that makes any sense...sorry).

This is what I found to match them the best. The instructions even make two houses so it was perfect! I did have to tweak them a little bit (like when making the triangle squares) because I wasn't making two of the exact same house. The finished blocks are supposed to be 12 1/2 inches (with seam allowances, that gives you 12 inch blocks), which matches my other houses. However, I went wrong somewhere (probably in cutting because my cutting doesn't seem to be very accurate no matter what I do) and my houses are basically only 12 inches. I think I'm going to add a "border" to help my seam allowance so my houses aren't that much smaller than my originals. I know it's not my current seam allowances because David's mom approved of my houses and said that I'm getting really good at keeping those even.

These are my houses (sorry for the weird angle and the fact that they're in one picture).

Despite not understanding most sewing instructions, I was able to make these with minimal help from David translating what I was supposed to do. As you can see though, especially on the green and black house, not all my strips are the same length so I'm probably going to have to cut them straight before adding my border. I am pleasantly surprised with how they turned out though. What's funny is that when picking out the fabrics I thought for sure the one on the left would turn out prettier than the one on the right but now that they're done, I like the one on the right better.

Log Cabin Pot Holder

I'm sorry I was unable to post yesterday due to technical difficulties. I finished my log cabin pot holder though! I found the pattern in a library book. It was rather simple to make, although a little tedious with all the cut, sew, cut, iron but it was fun. It was also my first real binding, since the other binding I've done was on my brother's blanket and I cheated by zigzagging the edges instead of folding them under. This time, the binding was real easy (except for putting it on the pot holder. I did struggle with that a little bit) because I got to use my brand new bias tape maker! I had bought mine on sale, but even if you don't find a sale, they're still only a few dollars and totally worth it.

This thing couldn't be any easier to use and it works amazing. You put in your strip of fabric and pull the maker along it. Out comes your edges folded over so all you have to do is iron as it comes out! I did pin mine too but I think it was unnecessary. Here is a picture of it in action.

So you see, the strip goes in (right side down) and goes through the metal piece. You pull the little metal tab along (no resistance at all!) and it comes out with your edges folded up! They make multiple sizes and mine is an inch, which I think is pretty versatile but I would still like other ones. The thing is really small so storage shouldn't be an issue. I love this thing!

So back to my pot holder. I did top stitch the whole thing but I forgot to use the bigger stitches. I think it looks fine but in the future, I need to remember to switch the stitch size. So this is the front.

 As you might be able to tell, I had a hard time with one of my corners still exposing the raw edges after I sewed it. Like I said, this was my first real binding. So the outside is all cotton (measuring to an 8 inch square) and the inside is supposed to be batting but I don't really keep that around so I used leftover fabric from my tote because that was batting between two pieces of cotton and I figured that was basically the same thing. The back is also cotton.

You can see that my binding on the back is wider than my binding on the front but that actually made it easier for me to sew. I'll still have to practice my bindings but now with my bias tape maker, I don't dread them! You can also see my top stitching really well on this side.

So it was a pretty easy project to make but did take a little time (doesn't everything?). I think an experienced person could make this in an hour or less but it took me about an afternoon.

Magic Cabbage Soup

Over the weekend, David and I were sick. As I had mentioned last time I was sick (not that long ago!), pregnant people can hardly take ANYTHING to feel better. David can take whatever he wants and we even have lots of different options but he just doesn't for whatever reason. So I was looking for a soup recipe that would help us feel better. We didn't want anything spicy (even though it can help clear out the sinuses) and we're sick of chicken noodle. That is when I found cabbage soup.

We based it off the recipe found here and changed it to what we needed. Hers is actually vegan (depending on the broth you use) but it's lacking protein. You could just as easily use beans but we decided to use brats because we were unsure of the cabbage and knew that brats and cabbage tasted good together. We also used chicken bouillon (since that's what we had).

So here is what ours was.

• half yellow onion, chopped
• 1 head of garlic, minced
• 1 large cabbage head, chopped
• 5 large carrots, peeled and sliced
• 10 cups water (with 5 chicken bouillon cubes)
• 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes with onion and garlic with liquid
• 1 frozen package of 6 Polish sausages, chopped 

Then we threw everything into a pot but the bouillon and the sausages. We didn't cook the onion ahead of time (and we even keep ours frozen so we don't cry when we cut it).  Then we waited for it to boil (high heat) and added the bouillon and the sausages, put a lid on it and let it simmer (low heat) for 20 minutes. The end! It's so simple. The prep isn't that bad (although truly David did all of it) and you can just leave it on the stove and walk away while it simmers.

Not only is this delicious (we decided even with our additions, it serves about 4 or 5 people, not 10-12) and easy to make but it's great at making you feel better. It feels really  nice on sore throats and does help clear out your sinuses.

We both decided we would eat this soup even when we aren't sick. It does seem like it would be a little bland without the flavor of the sausages and bouillon but that's just my opinion. When you're sick, you can't really taste anyway. If we made this just as a great soup to warm up with, we might add more seasonings (I was thinking Italian seasoning would probably be a great addition).

Missing Sock

You always hear about the dryer "eating" socks. It's even a favorite topic in comic strips. However, I have never had this happen to me. The closest it's ever happened is one would fall in the basket below the washer when I was transferring to the washer. But then, I would find it right away because it was sitting in plain sight.

Well, I have officially entered the realm of a dryer eating socks. Unlike David, I match up all my socks into pairs when I fold laundry and this past week, one of my socks was missing. Most of my socks are white but a few are colored and this particular one is black so I thought that it would be easy to find. Boy was I wrong!

I went back downstairs and checked all the baskets, the washer, the dryer, the floor, everything related to the laundry room and nothing. So I went back to my folded laundry and checked most of the items for cling (I used vinegar to help with static cling but with how dry it is here, it still happens a little bit). No luck.

It has now been four days. My sock refuses to show up. Of course it's like my favorite pair. I know this may seem trivial to some people, especially if you knew how many pairs of socks I own but I just don't understand where it could've gone!

I'm not even convinced it's still in the house so if any of you see a black with blue trim, size 9 sock, please let me know!

Christmas Tree Softie

Because I would like to be a seasonal house, I am working on making decorations for all the seasons. I have to jump ahead and do all of the seasons and holidays because I won't have that much time (or any time) once Teeny comes. I sort of skipped Thanksgiving for now because my fall decorations work for Thanksgiving too. So I moved on to Christmas.

I found this Christmas tree softie tutorial and got really excited. I thought they were adorable and looked relatively easy to make. Rather than make my patchwork random colors the way they did, I made mine alternating red and green. I was also really happy that they made both a big one and a little one so it would follow the theme with my pumpkins.

I picked out all my fabrics and cut them to size, which took much longer than I thought it would but mostly because it always takes me a while to pick the perfect fabrics for a project. I followed their suggested method to make the patchwork. I was really scared of it because I didn't have much experience with the fusible interfacing but it worked out fine. I actually used fusible web and attached a thing fabric to the back (both sides of it were sticky) to make it stiffer. This was PLENTY stiff. I was kind of surprised you needed it so stiff if you were going to stuff it anyway but I knew better than to stray from the directions.

When I made the patchwork, I did back stitch but it turned out it didn't matter because you cut off the bottom anyway. Because of this, when you turn it right side out or back to inside out, you rip out stitches because the tree is SO stiff and because you had no way of knowing where to back stitch ahead of time. This frustrated me greatly! On my big tree, it was okay because the quarter inch seam allowance for sewing on the felt bottom covered it (although getting that bottom on was no easy feat either...). The little tree was basically ruined. I had the option to resew it by hand but it hardly seemed worth it because the tree turned out so small. After the bottom was sewn on the little one, I realized that this one wasn't going to make it. It didn't have a pretty side to display. All sides had something wrong with them. Mine turned out looking like a traffic cone because the bottom was sort of squared off. Also, because you use the leftover scraps of your first big square, the squares are much too big for the little trees and only two rows (if that) get displayed. This was beyond repair so I decided to be done with it.

Here is my big tree.

To hand sew it closed was also a big deal because of how stiff the fabric was. Even my sewing machine with my walking foot was starting to struggle.

I will not be making this again. They were really cute but there has to be easier way to do it because this was just ridiculous!

Third Trimester Hunger

Tomorrow I will be 31 weeks pregnant and I couldn't be any hungrier! I eat a regular sized meal, complete with protein, fiber, and nutrients and an hour later, I am starving. I don't just mean if I have a snack, I'll be good. I mean hungry! My stomach growls, my head hurts, and I just have to eat!

I'm worried about the weight gain from it. I know Teeny is growing a lot and needs more calories but even without these extra meals, I already feel like I'm eating a lot. My weight gain has been very good this whole pregnancy (or so my doctor says. I feel huge most days but I have only gained weight in my bump area so I suppose they're right). I just don't want to eat a million calories these last months and then balloon up.

On the bright side, this is the one pregnancy symptom that my husband can actually relate to because I've been eating like a teenage boy. I'm going to eat us out of house and home! It also makes leaving the house difficult because I need to pack snacks or make sure I'm going somewhere where I can eat.

It has gotten to the point where I will have to wake up in the middle of the night (no need to set an alarm. My growling stomach is loud enough!) to have a snack before I'm able to keep sleeping.

This is ridiculous!

Designing My House Quilt

Okay let me start this off by saying I am not a quilter. I currently do not have any desire to make quilts. Mostly because I like to make useful things (even if they're just decoration, like my turtle or pumpkins). Quilts are very time consuming (I'm told it takes an experienced quilter about 40 hours to make 1 non-complicated quilt) and once you have a couple displayed and some on the beds, I'm not sure what you do with them. I suppose you could sell some but they seem rather hard to sell. Plus, I'm not really interested in selling my stuff either, especially when it takes 40 hours to make.

David's mom is a quilter. I have recently gotten her into more sewing things since we started doing our Sunday projects but her passion is still quilts. She has given quilts away, she has sold quilts, she has quilts displayed in her house, she has quilts on the beds, and then she still has totes in storage because she just has that many. I could never be like that.

However, when we were starting to clean out her sewing room (a few weeks ago, we rearranged and had to go through everything before it went back in the room. I got a bunch of scraps and some useful pieces of fabric she didn't want anymore), she gave me a 10 quilt blocks that all have houses on them. She didn't really like them and couldn't see herself making anything with them but she had won them and didn't want to just throw them out. I thought they were really cool and I thought it would actually make a pretty cool "Welcome Home" quilt to hang up in the foyer.

I took them home and didn't look at them for several weeks. Then yesterday, I decided that if I actually wanted to make this, I better get started soon since I don't think I'll have much time once Teeny gets here (this pretty much motivates me to work on any of my projects). So the first step was determining what I wanted the quilt to look like. I learned about sashing, cornerstones, borders, and all that good stuff from David's mom. She has a (very expensive) computer program that helps you design a quilt. After playing around with it for about 2 hours, I finally found something I like. The houses on it aren't my actual houses but similar styles and the coloring is just random (because mine will be too) but below the picture, I'll explain.

With the way this is designed, I need to make two houses of my own to make it work but this was the best solution. I like the inverted square colors on the two borders. The cornerstones in the inside (all the little squares) are going to be the same color to help tie the quilt together. The sashing (lines between the little squares) are going to be a mix of different colors and prints (what can I say? I like color). Then the black square is going to be a plain colored square (most likely) with a saying on it, such as welcome home or home sweet home or something like that with iron on interfaced letters in different colors. The final quilt is 72 x 72 so it's huge and will probably take up most of the wall but if I went any smaller, then I had to get rid of houses (out of the original 10) and I couldn't bear to part with any of them. Plus, I'm not really interested in a smaller quilt. There was the option of doing a 52 x 52 but I didn't like the way it turned out. Plus, on the big quilt, the black space is 26 x 26. That gives me a lot of different opportunities. On the 52 x 52, the space was only 12 x 12 and that doesn't give me a lot of room to play around.

I'll be sure to let you all know as I progress on it how it's coming along but for now, the first thing I need to do is make two more houses.

Super Easy Chicken Parmesan

Now that I am feeling better in my pregnancy and able to do more cooking for myself, I am basically back in charge of making and deciding on dinner. I don't mind recipes that take hours but when I am trying to get a lot done in a day, sometimes you don't have hours to spend on dinner.

David and I have been looking into buying different types of meats lately because we have ground beef a lot and leaner, non-red meats would be better for us. We decided we weren't ready to learn how the heck you make a whole ham or turkey when there's only two of you and no good way not to cook it all at once so we looked at the "convenience" meats. We decided on chicken patties.

My mom used to make chicken parmesan using chicken patties instead of breading them yourself and cooking for an hour. We also never ate it over pasta but apparently, that's quite common.

So here's the recipe:

frozen chicken patties
red pasta sauce (we used a garlic cheese variety but you can use anything)
white cheese (we had an Italian blend cheese we were trying to use up. I believe my mom usually uses mozzarella)

Bake the chicken according to the package but not for the entire time. Our chicken needed 14 minutes so I cooked them for 10. Then spread a generous amount of sauce on each patty, making sure to go all the way to the edges. Sprinkle cheese on top, also going all the way to the edges. Put back in the oven with the broiler on for the rest of the time. Then you're done! It's really that simple and they taste so good.  And by not cooking them for the whole time and then broiling them, the chicken doesn't get dried out. If you want, you can put the sauce and cheese on when they go in and cook them for the whole time but I think the sauce would make them kind of soggy then.

If you don't have pasta with them, you will probably want to have spaghetti soon because you will have lots of leftover sauce, depending on how many patties you make. We only made 3 and used maybe a quarter of the sauce.

If you don't serve these with noodles, you can serve them with basically anything. I would've done a vegetable and maybe mashed potatoes but we weren't very hungry last night. You can also serve them on buns and make a sandwich out of it. We ate ours plain.

New Sewing Area

When I first started sewing, it was all by hand and I didn't have very many supplies so they all fit in a tote I had received as a christmas present (I even blogged about it. I'm not sure if the picture is still there because that was when I was still having difficulty but it was orange with lots of pockets). I could carry it from room to room, depending on where I wanted to sew that day.

Then, when I got my sewing machine (my Goodwill one, not my Brother), I was set up on my computer desk in a corner of the library. The rest of my stuff was kind of strewn about the room and in no way organized. (Although the library wasn't very organized either because it was a makeshift guest room as well). So basically I could never find anything (not that I had much to find) and I didn't have a lot of room to actually sew. I also had to take my cutting mat down to our kitchen island (the library is on the second floor) every time I wanted to use it since I didn't have any other flat surface big enough. That was a pain.

I am currently set up in our dining room because we hardly ever use it and it has a nice table. We also have a hutch where I store more of my fabric. The table is big enough for my machine and cutting mat. The room still has space for my ironing board too (although David did make me a little one before I had been given this one). This is working out okay because I have plenty of space but I have to keep everything really neat because we have to walk through this room every day (it's the only way to the kitchen or the downstairs bathroom). Plus, you can see it from the living room so guests can see it.

David and I talked about making the dining room permanently my area but then it would be hard to block off from Teeny (for safety reasons. The doorway is huge, I believe about seven feet, so baby gates would be hard). Plus, we would've decorated it differently and picked a different chandelier and stuff.

So then we had talked about putting my sewing area in half of the loft. The loft currently houses Cocoa's area, David's big L-shaped desk, and our TV with an old couch we want to get rid of. The TV would move to the living room and I would get the half of the room that David and Cocoa aren't in. It has plenty of storage opportunities but not a lot of space for the ironing station, cutting station, and sewing machine station.

We are still undecided if the TV will stay upstairs or if it will eventually move to the living room but my sewing area is going to be sharing with the library. Our library was converted from a bedroom since it would've been hard and a lot of work to put a doorway in plus the loft stairs come from the library. One wall is completely shelves for books, there's only one window, but there is a closet. So we have one free wall that will mostly be taken up by my new work station.

We just bought the materials for it last night from Menard's. They actually cost about 75 dollars (and we didn't even get the pricey things) but for what we have in mind, the real one would easily cost a couple hundred if not more so it's definitely cheaper this way even though it seems expensive.

It will be two tiered (so my cutting station is higher than my sewing station since I usually stand to cut) and will have shelves underneath. It will also have an overhang part so I have space for my legs when I sit at my sewing machine. I will have the option to have shelves above it but for now, I think the shelves underneath will be enough. The table is almost eight feet long and will be two feet wide. I'm so excited for it! We start on it tonight. Then, when it's all put together (which may take more than one day), I will most likely be painting it.

I'll be sure to keep you all posted and I will put up pictures when it's done.

Beef Stroganoff With Cream of Mushroom Soup

I was looking for a way to use up sour cream I had bought on sale a couple weeks ago. I decided on stroganoff. David and I found a really good recipe for mushroom stroganoff a few years back but now that I require more protein (basically if I get anything less than 70 grams of protein a day, I feel really sick and can barely function. I'm hoping this goes away once Teeny is born because I find myself eating a lot of meat) we decided to look for a beef stroganoff recipe.

We asked David's mom for her recipe but after finding out that it takes an hour and a half just to simmer everything, closer to two hours for the whole recipe, we decided to search elsewhere. I know my mom uses cream of mushroom soup in hers so I looked up if Campbell's had a recipe and sure enough, they did! That's this recipe. We mostly followed it but didn't like some of their instructions so I'll rewrite it for you the way we did it.

1 pound round steak (we actually asked the guy behind the counter at the butcher part of our grocery store for his recommendation)
vegetable oil (we didn't measure since we pour it off later anyway but it was about three tablespoons)
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (not diluted)
2 sprinkles of paprika
1 cup sour cream
1 box of medium shells (noodles), cooked (I recommend starting the water for these when you're slicing up the beef. We thought the beef would take longer to cook so we didn't start right away and they weren't done at the same time).

1. Cut up the beef. My parents usually use ground beef for this recipe but David's family's recipe uses the round steak so that's what we used. I would've made the pieces even smaller but anything bite size is manageable.

2. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook beef until almost done, stirring often. Add the onions and continue to cook.

3. Pour off fat. With the onions in there, I'm really  not sure how David mastered this step because I would think it would be hard to keep the onions in the pan too but he did it.

4. Stir in soup and paprika. Heat to a boil (this really doesn't take long). Stir in sour cream. Cook until everything is heated through and serve on noodles.

And there you have it! It takes less than a half hour (even for people as inexperienced as us) and for the most part, these should be ingredients you can find in the pantry. It's even short on prep work so you really don't have an excuse.

If you notice, the original recipe only used 1 can of soup and 1/2 cup of sour cream. It was also only 4 cups of noodles, whereas we made the whole box so by doubling these ingredients, you get more sauce. Plus, some people in the comments on the original recipe complained the sauce was too thick and I think they made it more the right consistency.

Broccoli Quinoa Quesadillas

The other day, I was looking for a recipe that used quinoa. We bought a box a while back and I totally lost the recipe for it I wanted to make. This is what I found. Broccoli quinoa quesadillas (try saying that ten times fast!). In the link, you have to scroll past the blog post about the cast iron cookware to get to the recipe.

These were really good and could easily be made vegan. They're also really quick and easy to make (even the quinoa only takes ten minutes to cook). The recipe says that they make 4 servings though and there is just no way. I even upped the broccoli to a cup, instead of a half cup. We were lucky we even got two out of this recipe.

We also broiled them in the oven instead of cooking on the stove top. Only one side browned because we were afraid they would fall apart if we flipped them. They still turned out delicious and we actually do it this way for all our quesadillas (for a while, we were making quesadillas a LOT).

I would be interested in using a different vegetable next time. Broccoli just seems like a weird addition to me. It did remind both David and I of the broccoli cheesy rice casserole (I may or may not have the recipe on here but it's essentially cream of mushroom soup, broccoli, cheese, and rice). We both really like that so we did like these but the broccoli was too chunky. Maybe peas or something smaller would be better.

I didn't add any salt or pepper but I would also be interested in adding in some sort of spice (cumin maybe? paprika?) and see what that does for it. They're not bland, mostly because of the cheese but I do feel they need something.

We would definitely make them again but if we ever had to serve four people with them, we'd double or maybe even triple it.

Finished the Blanket

The last couple posts have told you that I am making my (not so little--he'll be 17!) brother a blanket for his birthday. This blanket was much more work than the one I made him last year but I also had a sewing machine this year. Last year's is all hand sewn.

This blanket has one side of two fleece panels (the orange and grey side) and the other side with four flannel panels (I consider this the top and the fleece is the back). It has a wide cotton binding on it. This was my first ever binding! I also did some decorative top stitching so when he washes it, the fabric doesn't shift.

For the binding, I somehow miscalculated how much I'd need so now I have extra. I used a 3 inch strip. Then I ironed the whole thing, folded it in half and starched and ironed it again. I was then going to fold up the raw edges a half inch for each side but the ironing was already a lot of work because of how long the strip is so I decided to not fold the raw edges and do a big zig zag stitch around the whole thing. I did have to do some places twice because the two sides weren't perfect and the second side didn't get any stitches (if you know what I mean). That was still less work than if I had to do it the other way.

For the panels, I sewed right sides together with a half inch seam allowance. Then when I had finished my top and bottom and everything was cut to the same size, I did a basting stitch around the edge since I knew I'd be binding it.

Then I top stitched it with fancy stitches (which ended up a lot of work since it was in the middle of the blanket, not an edge, so you had to roll up the blanket to fit under the machine and it took us like 3 people to do it right...it was a mess. I wouldn't do it again.)

The finished product is 60 x 72 inches. I wanted it really big but I still have leftover fabric because I was unsure on what size I wanted. This is perfect. It can wrap around you with space to still move your arms and it covers your toes (even David's toes, and he's 6 ft 4 so most blankets are much too short on him). He's already asking if I can make him one for Christmas (he got to test out my brother's).

Here are the pictures!

So the top one is the flannel side and the bottom one is the fleece side. You can't see the decorative stitches very well from these but I was just excited to be done. This was a bigger project than I expected (like most of them are).

Since I am going home for his birthday weekend, I will return to blogging on Monday or Tuesday. Happy Halloween!

Chocolate Chip Cake

For Cocoa's birthday, I made a (human) cake. The recipe was found here http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-chip-cake/ 

I made it in an angel food pan since we don't really have cake pans, especially those round ones they asked for. I used another user's suggestion and baked it for 45 minutes. The batter was rather thin so all the chocolate sunk to the bottom (and got stuck to the pan even though David sprayed that thing like crazy). I'm not sure how to adjust for that next time. Maybe add less milk? I'm not sure.

We also made the mistake of leaving our oven on preheat instead of bake so that leaves the broiler on so the top was burned. It didn't taste burned but it sure didn't look appetizing. It was a very good cake. The part between the burned and the chocolate was very buttery. I happen to like that flavor but it's not for everybody. This recipe did use a lot of butter though (I can't come up with one way this cake could be considered healthy--sorry. I tried.)

I would make it again but I might do it when we have more people around to help us eat it because it got dried out rather quick. It was best just straight out of the oven (but isn't everything?). I would wonder if it would come out different in the round pans but I kind of doubt it.

We even used part wheat flour, like suggested. David thought he could taste it but I didn't notice a difference. I will mention that a lot of the users thought it used too much baking powder. Also, the recipe says that you could make a glaze or something with this but I don't think it needs one. It is plenty rich and flavorful without one. 

How to Organize Your Toiletries and Medicines

Before to we moved to the master, a lot of our stuff was kept in the closet in the library. Bags (both plastic and duffel), spare sheets and towels, medicines, extra shampoo and deodorant. It was all there. We knew it wouldn't stay there when the master got done but we weren't sure where to put it in the mean time so it ended up there. The thing is, we don't have a linen closet and we have very little bathroom storage in this house.

My parents have a walk in closet, similar in size to ours, that holds all these kinds of things and I always assumed that our stuff would end up in the master closet too. Well, we have less shelves than them and we filled it up pretty quick with all of our "real" closet things (like clothes). However, when we lived in the little room, we had a big black shelf that held a lot of our clothes to make up for our small closet. Now with the closet, we don't need the shelf. We decided to make this our "linen closet" with toiletries and such on it.

We just finished organizing the top of it last night. The bottom will be extra sheets but we have to fix one of shelves first. Of course, things will have to change when Teeny gets older because there is some medicine within toddler reach but for now, this is the solution. I still wonder if we should group things in baskets or bins instead of just on the shelf but it's still a work in progress too.

So to start, (sorry that was such a long back story), you need to find the closet/area you want to hold all these things. Then, gather everything you want to put there. Next, group them all in categories that make sense to you. Our categories are towels and wash clothes, common extras (shampoo, body wash, vitamins, deodorant), teeth (extra paste, brush heads, floss), pain relief, general medicine (tums, sleep help, band aids, etc), allergies, sick, bath/pamper, and outdoor (sunscreen, bug spray, aloe vera).

They aren't really in order by anything but we tested it and the categories make the most sense to us. Of course, we might decide that shampoo and body wash really should be with bubble bath but we'll deal with that later.

Then you either put them on the shelf as is or in bins (preferably labeled). And you're done! Now you just gotta keep it neat. You could also label the shelves if you didn't want bins but still wanted everything easy to find.

Here is what our shelf looks like.

I would also recommend putting travel size things all in the same area, instead of in their proper category to make it easier to find them when you are packing. We just don't happen to have any.

So then below what you can see in the picture will be our extra sheets. Looks nice, doesn't it? Well, actually it only looks nice if you know the categories. Otherwise it just looks like stuff everywhere. I better convince David we need bins. I actually have a pattern as to how to make your own baskets that I might make for this, with labels of course. I will also mention that I believe dollar stores would sell bins that would make for good organizers so you don't have to spend a lot of money on this project.

Excitement!

On Saturday, David and his dad worked really hard (David said he's realllllly sore today) on getting our master finished. Some things are still not done, like the bathroom trim. That is on hold because we had to stain more pieces and with the cold, it can take a couple days for them to dry. They'll go in next weekend. I believe by next weekend the whole master suite will be finished. However, we decided to go ahead and put the carpet in anyway so we got to move in on Saturday  night!!! This room is about twice as big as the bedroom we had been living in. We are much less cramped with lots more closet room. It's so nice having carpet and it's really plush (we even got a good deal on it). David and his dad installed it themselves but did rent a hydraulic carpet stretcher because the knee thing wasn't working that well and they were both getting tired. I think they both worked at least a 10 hour day on Saturday so no wonder they're so sore today.

We still have to finish moving in and organizing but David's dad stayed to help us move the heavy stuff like our bed. The rest will probably slowly trickle over this week. Then we need to clean the other room so they can put up the trim and stuff in there (so it wasn't technically finished when we were in that room). So now, our old room will either become the nursery or if we finish the other bedroom in time, that one will (it's closer to our room).

Also, yesterday we helped David's mom clean out some of her fabric. We will go through her fabric closet with the big pieces at a later date but for now, we did the scraps. She had a lot and when she went through them, realized she didn't even like some of them or they weren't of use to her anymore so I got two whole trash bags full! Some of her scraps are not what I would call scraps. I'd say they're at least a quarter yard so they will definitely come in handy! Now I have to sort them into my sorting system so I've been working on that all morning.

I'm also almost done with the blanket I am making for my little brother's birthday. I just have the binding left. I'll try to post pictures and more details when I'm done. I leave on Friday so it'll have to be done by then!

What a great weekend!

Cocoa's Birthday

This Saturday (tomorrow) is the birthday we gave Cocoa. We got her on January 6th, 2013 when she was ten weeks old. We counted back the weeks and decided October 26th is the perfect day (it also happens to be my older brother's birthday so it's even easy to remember).

For those of you who haven't been following, Cocoa is our rabbit. She's a chocolate brown (obviously) Mini Rex. She lives in our third floor, the loft. She is fenced in an area and always has access to this area. We only lock her in her cage for time outs and when we didn't trust her in the beginning, we would put her in there at night. Before she got spayed, she had a really bad habit of running around too excited and she'd jump up to binky (what it's called when rabbits click their heels together for joy) and she'd end up over the fence. We have modified her fence several times and it is now 3 feet tall. She could still get over it if she wanted to but she hasn't had an incident she was spayed back in May.

When we first got her, she was young enough that she didn't even have whiskers! She's grown too but since her breed is a mini anyway, she's not all that big now. She is actually pretty well trained. She knows where to go if she wants to be pet (because her fence is so high, we can't reach her everywhere to pet. And now that I'm pregnant, I can barely reach her on her petting spots anyway because my belly doesn't let me lean over that far.) She generally goes in her litter box but we have found poop in other places. She loves to dig out her litter box too (dirty or clean) and we aren't sure how to correct this but we try.

She does come out of her area sometimes but it's only when we take her out (she doesn't naturally have access to the outside) and it's usually to cut her nails. She does come out some other times just for fun so she doesn't associate leaving her area with getting her nails cut. Sometimes she's pretty good about letting us cut her nails and sometimes she's pretty squirmy and hides her feet.

Anyway, that is Cocoa. She is cute and one year old! For those of you curious, rabbits typically live 10-15 years so she's still a baby.

Stuffed Turtle

I made a stuffed turtle! My picture doesn't do it justice but if you look at the tutorial I used, you can get a better idea. Mine has four different greens for the shell sections and then the head, feet, tail, and belly are all the same. I think it turned out really cute. It was fairly simple to make as well.

I will note that the tutorial includes the pattern but I couldn't make it print big enough. The two inch test square is more like an inch and a half so my turtle is a little smaller but everything still worked out okay. In this project, I learned how to sew and stuff tiny things (like the feet and tail) and I did struggle with it but it worked out well. I didn't pay enough attention to my seam allowances, mostly because the pieces were small and hard to work with, so on a few of my pieces you can see the seams on the outside. If I were to give this as a present, I think I'd try to fix that but since it's just for me, I'm leaving them. They bother me but they don't look awful.

Sewing the shells seemed to be the hardest part because of the curves and they didn't look like they formed a circle to me but in the end, I think that's the part that turned out the best! Definitely took me by surprise.

Now that I have made this, I feel like I could make other stuffed animals. I did like that this one didn't need any unusual supplies like to make the eyes or mouth (there are no eyes or mouth). Some things call for that but I don't think I"m ready to go out and buy that stuff yet. This is my first project I have come across in a long time that didn't even use interfacing! All you need is some scraps (I did use fat quarters but you don't need something that big), regular sewing supplies (machine, thread, rotary cutter, pins, etc), and fiberfill. That's it!

This project could easily be made in an afternoon and it turns out so cute. Here is how mine turned out (I once again apologize for the bad picture.)

So his head is on the left and you can't see his tail. What you may think is his tail is actually another leg.

Pregnancy Glucose Test

I apologize in advance for typos in this blogpost. I am on our tablet instead of our computer because I am waiting for the gas line guys to come back to relight our furnace. They replaced the line today to make it PVC and they haven't come back to finish the job yet so I'm rather stuck.  

Anyway, I had my glucose test yesterday at 28 weeks. This is a test every pregnant woman has to have in order to test for gestational diabetes. You schedule it in the morning and all you can have for breakfast is protein, like eggs, and water. Anything else and it's basically an automatic failure. Then you drink 12 oz of this really really really sugary drink that most people compare to flat orange soda. It's awful but not nearly as bad as I expected. Then you wait an hour and they draw your blood. 

Something like only 4% of pregnant women have gestational diabetes but if you do test positive, you have to go back for a 3 hour test that sounds so much worse. Luckily, I don't have it. However, I am one of the few pregnant women that gets really dizzy and light headed after consuming the glucose drink. I wasn't even sure I could drive myself home since David didn't make it to this appointment. I was fine once I had a snack after my appointment. 

They call you with the results. My number was 70 and from what I understand, that is the lowest you can be without being hypoglycemic, which is basically low blood sugar. Anything lower than 70 and you have to be treated for it. No wonder I felt so sick while waiting for my hour...!

Stove Top Potatoes

We were given a lot of red potatoes from David's grandma and we are always looking for new recipes since dirty mashed potatoes are kind of our go to. With red potatoes, I feel like you can't do as many things but the only thing I can really think of is baked potatoes. So yesterday was one of those days were I was searching for a new recipe. Potatoes can take a while to bake in the oven so I wanted something faster. Then I found this recipe. They are so good!

We didn't measure our spices, although they were probably close amounts to what the recipe called for. We also left out the onion powder since we only have minced onion for some reason. The potatoes never did get brown but we also had the problem with them sticking to the pan, even in one of our non-stick pans with butter. I think this would've made them taste even better if we didn't have that trouble. They also took longer to get soft than the 6-8 minutes. I think it was closer to 15.

Also, I'm not sure if it's because they stuck or just because potatoes can be bland by themselves but I might add more seasonings next time to account for the fact that the middle of the potatoes don't have much flavor. We cut our pieces super small (smaller than bite size actually) and still had this problem so we'll adjust for next time.

This was a very easy, quick recipe that I would rate 4 stars out of 5 but if they browned, it might get the full 5.  We served them with fish but they reminded me a lot of breakfast potatoes so you could also easily serve them with eggs. Actually, potatoes go with any main dish so it's really up to you what you want to serve them with but I would definitely be interested in trying them with breakfast.

Wet/Dry Bag

Do you remember way back when in March or earlier and I was working on making a wet/dry bag for my reusable pads? Well, I finally finished it this weekend! The project was started on my old sewing machine and it was basically my first machine project. It was also my first (and so far, only) project with a zipper. I was getting the instructions as to how to make it from David's mom. Then we kind of forgot about the project and by the time I rediscovered it, it had been months and I still didn't know the next step. It turns out, all I had left to do was sew along three of the four sides (not the zipper side for obvious reasons) and I was done. It literally took about two minutes to finish and I had been waiting months to finish it. Kind of funny. It definitely feels good to have it done though.

So the basic design is based off a bag I already have but this one has a liner (for the dirty pads) and a center piece (kind of like some wallets have) to keep the clean from the touching the dirty. The final bag only measures 8 x 5 but I think it is a handy size for even a smaller purse. I also had the option to square the bottom but decided not to since squaring the bottom on my tote bag was such a pain.

Obviously due to being pregnant, I haven't been able to try it out yet. I'm still excited for it and I think it's awfully cute. You could also use this design for anything else that you want two compartments for.

The outside takes less than a fat quarter and that's all you need if you don't want to line it. If you do want a liner, that'll also be less than a fat quarter but since I used a different fabric, I'm not sure if one fat quarter would do the job or if you'd be better off with two. The divider part also has interfacing in it (what doesn't?) to make it stiffer. It doesn't really matter what thickness you use since you'll be folding that piece in half anyway.

I'm not going to put all the details here but if you are interested, let me know and I'll see what I can help you with. This type of bag is very easy to make, not like the tote bag.

I apologize for the blurry, dark pictures. I was kind of in a hurry. Also, for the one with the center thing, it actually is the right size and doesn't bend like that naturally. I just bent it so it was easier to see.

Make Your Own Tracing Table

I have a few books of sewing patterns home from the library. In the back, they are nice enough to give me the patterns but obviously I have to trace them on real paper, not their paper, so I can use them. They aren't the right shape (because they're printed on paper. This is kind of confusing. I mean that it's like drawn on a regular piece of paper so you still have the rest of the paper around the shape) and I can't just cut them out because it's library property so I have to trace them. It was hard to see through my paper (even though I have something similar to tissue paper to trace on). The solution is a tracing table!

Basically, you just need a clear surface that you can shine light through. We happen to have an end table with a glass top and little LED puck lights. I was able to (Okay, David was able to. He set this whole thing up for me.) put my stuff on top of the table and the lights underneath and it works perfectly! Any clear surface will work so if you have leftover glass or plastic from something. And then just shine a light under it. Voila!

Sewing Curves

When we worked on our wallets, our flap was had curved corners. It was relatively easy to do at David's mom's house because she has a Bernina machine (wayyy out of my price range!) with the ability to keep her needle down and a knee lever to control the foot. It was still slow going because you literally do one stitch and then pick up the foot to turn ever so slightly, do one stitch and pick up the foot, etc until you are around the curve. Her machine also lets you go half speed which means you can sew as slow as you want (and then even slower than that!).

My machine is very low-end but still a very nice machine (I'm very happy with it. It's a Brother.) I do have a hard time going slow on it, especially when I am first starting the stitch but with practice, I'll get faster anyway. Last night, I had to sew six curves for the turtle I'm making (I'm sure there's more curves to come but I haven't gotten that far yet). I was kind of scared but decided since I had already done the wallet flap, this couldn't be much harder than that, even though it would be on my machine.

I did it! They all turned out great (except for where my fabric got stuck but that was my fault and had nothing to do with the curve. Good thing David is handy with a seam-ripper.) I think what I have learned from this is to just go slow and take your time, be sure to raise your foot (the one by t he needle, not the one attached to your leg) frequently, and if you can, to keep your needle in the down position when you stop. I will admit sometimes I did more like three or four stitches before I raised my foot (mostly because the machine was going too fast for what I wanted) and it still turned out okay. Worse case, you seam-rip it and do it again. I constantly have to remind myself that.

I think at this point, this is all the advice I can give you with my limited experience but if you do have questions, I can try to answer them or show in pictures how to do it. It's really not as intimidating as it looks.