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.