Birthday dress

Madeline's birthday was a month ago but I wanted to share this dress I made for her because it was just right for the occasion.  We celebrated the first year of her life with a Snowflake party that was sparkly and purple.

 She had so much fun and the dress came together in just a few hours. I ordered the Chevron fabric off of etsy and used the leftovers to make her baby a quilt for Christmas.

The pattern I also got off of etsy and is just a simple peasant dress with an elastic neck and sleeves.  Paired with a. Cute headband (etsy), tights and sparkly shoes she was all set for her special day.

We took her birthday photos shortly before the party and she was not too sure about the cake but was awfully cute for her pictures.

Happy Birthday (a month ago) to our sweetest girl! 

Broccoli cheese soup

Lunch at home today was broccoli cheese soup.  I am loving these days home with my girl over Christmas break.  Last time I offered her brocolli cheese soup she wasn't very interested but I thought we would give it a go today.  She loved it and ate almost as much as I did.  We also had some awesome pumpkin zucchini muffins, recipe on those to come.  Here is the recipe I used for the soup from Weelicious which I think she got from Pioneer Woman.  I modified a little so go to their sites for the exact recipe of you don't like mine. This is a half recipe by the way, which makes enough for our family of 3 to eat twice. So like 5 or 6 servings.

What you need:

1 small onion

Half a stick of butter

1/4 cup flour

3 cups milk

Pepper

2 heads of brocolli chopped into florets

1 1/2 cups grated cheese

What you do:

Melt butter over mediumish heat (I did mine a little lower than medium but not quite medium low)

Chop onions finely and cook in butter for a few minutes until they start to get translucent

While the onions are cooking chop your brocolli

Add flour and stir to combine

Cook flour and onions for about 2 minutes

Add milk and pepper and whisk to combine

Add brocolli, stir together, cost and reduce to low

Cook for 45 minutes to an hour or until brocolli is tender

Add cheese and you are ready to go.

I blend mine with an immersion blender so some of the brocolli is blended and some is still in pieces, you may want to leave yours as is or blend it entirely.

A baby doll quilt

Mr. And Mrs. Claus were hard at work last week finishing up this special project for a sweet little girl.

After finishing Santa's cookie, she quickly grabbed the baby out of the cradle and gave her some love

This was the first thing she went for Christmas morning (after the cookie of course).

Mr. Claus fixed up the old baby cradle that was Momma's when she was little and Mrs. Claus made a quilt and pillow so baby would be comfortable.  This quilt was such a cinch to bring together, some chevron fabric and a fun print for the backing...quilted along the zigzag and it was done in about 2 hours.  I am sure lots of fun will be had by baby doll and baby girl playing with this special gift.

Sewing for baby

I have been helping a friend with some sewing projects for her new sweet girl's nursery on Tuesdays.  We have been having weekly sewing dates during Madeline's morning nap on Tuesdays.  All this sewing has spurred me to do a few projects on my list for my sweet girl.  Today I knocked out two of them and I am very pleased with how both turned out.

This first is a "bapron"  a bib-apron combo, for my girl who is eating now and needs to keep tidy.  This one is reversible and ties on the shoulder and on the back.  Next time I think I would do a button or velcro on the shoulder as the tie is kind of distracting for her.

I also made this t-shirt dress.  I used a old onesie that was too wide when it was her size and now fits her around the middle but was too short to snap.  This dress was so easy.  I just cut two big squares three times as wide as the onesie, sewed them together using french seams and then folded pleats until it fit the onesie.  I cute the onesie off at the bottom and sewed the skirt portion to the onesie top.  I would have liked to do a sash in a coordinating color, but I couldn't find anything in my stash so I used some rick-rack instead and it turned out cute.  This is such a great way to use an old t-shirt to make a quick dress out of scrap material.  I will definitely make more of these when she is a toddler.

Fresh Food and Baby-Led Weaning

We have been all about food around here lately.  Our big girl turned 6 months a little over a week ago and we decided she was ready to start some solids.  This timing is perfect because we are really starting to bring in a lot of fresh foods from our garden and we will be processing some of our meat animals in the next few weeks which means even more fresh food.

Here is our girl enjoying her very first food, sweet potatoes, these were from last years harvest as this years sweet potatoes will not be ready to dig for a little while.  She has been eating broccoli and carrots from our garden as well and will soon be able to try some peas and maybe some fresh pesto on some noodles.

She has also enjoyed some foods that we cannot or do not grow around here.  She has had avacado which she heard is good for a facial, bananas (she obviously can't eat a whole banana so I have been taking some of the left overs and freezing it with a little milk in ice cube trays for banana popsicles which her little teething gums appreciate), and watermelon which is just not something I grow due to lack of space.

Madeline is getting table food not purees or traditional food.  Some people call this method of feeding baby-led weaning.  We just look at it as her eating food.  She doesn't ingest much of what she is given so far, it is a learning process and oh is she learning.  She has had so much fun exploring the tastes and textures of each food.  She gags somethings (not to be confused with choking) when the food gets on her tongue and this is helping her understand how to manage food in her mouth.  We attempt to eat only organic and locally grown food.  Our garden and a lot of the local food we buy is not necessarily organic, but it is from people and places we trust to raise our food without too much unnecessary chemical interventions.  While we do not have a super strict rule about our food, we just try to make good healthy food choices, not all foods need to be organic for us to feel they are healthy and we eat unhealthy foods sometimes too (watch for coming post on cookie dough cupcakes).  However we are trying to instill an appreciation for good food in our child and we want her to be aware of where her food comes from, particularly if we did not grow the food ourselves.  We are a little more strict with what she eats then we are for ourselves.

a note on baby-led weaning:  If you choose this method of food introduction for your baby remember to never leave your baby unattended when eating.  Give your baby big pieces that he or she can handle easily and soft foods they can gum to start.  There are a lot of websites and even books about baby-led weaning.  Baby-led weaning is not recommended until the baby has reached at least 6 months and met some developmental milestones, such as sitting unassisted.  Do your research before you make choices for your child, every baby is different.

Mama made pants

I made some sweet quick change pants for my girl recently.  These pants take less than an hour to make from start to finish.  The first pair were made from scrap fabric given to me when I was collecting fabric for the nursery quilt.  These purple, green and blue earthy prints did not match the color scheme I was going for in our gender neutral nursery, but I loved them so much and knew there would be enough to make something, would our precious baby turn out to be a girl, and she was.  I was so excited to use this material for her and the pants turned out so cute.  They are elastic waist so I hope she can wear them through the summer, even if they get to short for pants they can be capris.  The pair below are reversible.  They took a little longer just trying to figure out the best way to do this.  I wanted to make them long so I could cuff them and see the fabric on the other side.  In all my effort trying to manage the reversible thing I forgot to pay attention to the print.  So now we have upside down owl pants.  At least when she looks down at her pants they are facing the correct direction for her.

A Summer List

Helping Mama in the garden by sitting and playing in her washtub

• Use this blog as a journal and a way to share with out of town family
• Sew for Madeline
• Organize the freezers (yes we have several)
• Garden a lot
• Visit with family
• Spend some time thinking and planning for the next school year, it is sure to be a good one
• Store food
• Cook everyday
• Organize my craft room
• Get a new male rabbit
• Knit Madeline a winter sweater for next year
• Organize my recipe binder/box/stack/loose papers with random food ideas on them
• Babyproof
• Make a cushion, cover and straps for Madeline's high chair (soon!!! she will be ready to eat this summer)
• Organize the basement
• PLAY WITH THIS ADORABLE BABY

Warm and cold and really good soup

Last week we had some interesting weather.  I was in the 70's Sunday and Monday so we went for lots of walks in our new stroller

still bundled up even though it was pretty warm it was not sunny for this walk like it was for some of the others

Then it started to rain and rain and rain, and it got colder and colder and colder.  By Thursday there was snow in the forecast.  We ended up only getting sleet and freezing rain, but if you drove in just about any direction a little ways there was snow, it was weird, we were in a small pocket with no snow at all.

staying inside and snuggling up with lots of blankets on cold rainy days

So on one of our really cold days I made this soup.  It was really good!

Southwestern Chicken Soup

• 1 package fajita seasoning
• 1 lb cooked shredded chicken
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1 green bell pepper chopped
• 1 8 oz cream cheese cubed
• 2 cups grated cheddar (I used a little less)
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• handfull chopped cilantro

Put all ingredients into the crockpot or dutch oven except cilantro.  Cook on high (crockpot- 1-2 hours) or medium low (dutch oven- 30 minutes) until hot and ingredients are combined.  Stir in cilantro before serving.

Cloth Diapers

So we are a month into our cloth diapering experience and I love it.  A lot of people have asked me what diapers I like and what I don't recommend so far, so here is what I think.

Through all the illness we have had lately I have been using disposables at night because she wakes more frequently (we got a bunch from the hospital and some as a gift) and we have been sleeping in the living room because it is closer to the kitchen to clean all the nebulizer parts and pump parts as needed.

Anyhow.  We registered for and purchased a variety of brands and styles of cloth diapers so we could see what we thought and I have started to learn what I like.  So here is my analysis....this is my opinion and reflects how the diapers work with my child as a newborn.

GroVia all-in-one newborn diapers (we got 2 of these):
These are the cutest diapers and fit really well for the first few weeks, but she is already outgrowing them and probably won't be able to wear them anymore.  These are a little pricey to only last 2 or 3 weeks on a fairly average sized baby.  On the flip side most of the other fancy (not just prefold) diapers were WAY too big those first few weeks so they were handy.  They have started to leak most every time she wears them this past week so that is why I have decided to retire them.

Thirsties all-in-one:
We got one of these in the size 1 and it is great.  Has fit on the smallest adjustments since the beginning and will fit for a while.  My favorite all-in-one so far.

Besides the GroVia and the Thirsties AIO the only other diapers we could use those first few weeks were prefolds, everything else was too big, especially the one size diapers and the small/size 1 were too big too.

Flip Diaper system:
These are cool and I really love the inserts.  These are a one size diaper and they really have a lot of adjustments so they can fit pretty well.  We started using these this week (week 4) and they fit taken up all the way in every direction.  That gives me hope that they will fit for a long time.  These have a lot of stretch and seal well around the legs so we have not seen any leakage.  The inserts adjust as well and do a great job of wicking the moisture through the insert so it stays very dry against her bottom.  These are very bulky on her right now but that does not surprise me in a one size diaper.  These were also very affordable.  We got a "weekender" set that came with 2 covers and 4 inserts for a great price.

Swaddlebees pocket diapers:
I don't like these, we have 2 of these.  They may work for some, but they just don't seal up around my babies tiny legs and thus everything leaks out.  I will try these again when she gets bigger.

Best Bottom:
We got one of these in cow print that is so cute.  This is an all in 2 diaper like the flip with a cover and an insert.  These inserts snap in which I imagine will be great when she is on the move more.  I will admit that I don't really use the right inserts with the right diapers all the time....I just use whatever insert is on the top of the stack or just a folded prefold as an insert.  This diaper is great because it is very heavy duty.  It has a lot of adjustments so I think it will fit for a long time, though it just got where it fit as tight as it will go this week.

Thirsties duo wrap:
Thirsties has a lot of diaper options.  They have the all-in-one, the duo diaper which is a pocket diaper and the duo wrap, plus they make just plain old diaper covers.  We have 3 of the duo wrap in size 1 and I LOVE THESE.  The first few weeks these were too big to use with an insert, but fit over a prefold as a cover prefect.  Now I can use them as a cove over a prefold or I can throw and insert in them.  They have leg gussets that prevent leaking wonderfully and they have quite a bit of adjustments.  We will definitely get more of these when it is time to get some bigger sized diapers. These are also very reasonably priced

Bumgenius AIO:
We have one of these in the small size and it is very bulky right now but I think would make a great overnight diaper once Madeline starts sleeping longer spells at night because it has 2 inserts built in that wick the moisture through well like the flip inserts.  This diaper is also really cute and will probably not seem as bulky when she gets a touch bigger.

These are all the diapers we have tried so far (we do have 2 fuzzibunz and 2 covers for prefolds..no idea what brand.. that were hand me downs, we haven't used them yet because they are kind of big)

The all-in-one diapers are great  for on the go and seem like they would be great to leave for a sitter because it is just like a disposable, one use and you put it in the wash, you don't have to worry about showing someone how the diaper works like with prefolds or any insert/pocket diaper.  The pocket diapers really aren't for me right now.  I can see how they can be great when babies are a little bigger because you can stuff them with extra inserts.  The all-in-twos with the inserts are my favorites right now, I love that you can just change the insert and keep using the covers for a few uses, really saves on wash.  We have a lot of prefolds and I use them the regular way with a snappi or as inserts, they are handy and the ones we have are very absorbent (I have no idea what brand they are because they were a hand-me-down from my sister).

So this is what I think so far of the diapers I have tried and this is how they work for me on a small baby.  My opinions and likes/dislikes will probably change as she grows and gets to moving a lot.

Monster cookies

Made these cookies the other day.  I had a bag of M&M's in the pantry and wanted peanut butter cookies.  I found this recipe on pinterest and modified it just a little.  They turned out amazing....Myles loved them and ate several and he is not a big sweets fan.  Here is the recipe:

YOU NEED:

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup regular sugar
1 stick butter
3 eggs---you know your eggs are fresh when they are just a little dirty
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup M&M's (I think I might try peanut butter M&M's next time)

TO MAKE:
1. preheat oven to 350
2. spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray
3. combine butter, peanut butter and sugars in mixer
4. beat in eggs and vanilla
5. mix in flour, oats and baking soda
6. fold in chocolate chips and M&Ms
7. scoop spoonfuls of dough onto cookie sheet (I used ice cream scoop, made 22 good sized cookies), flatten out the dough a little once on cookie sheet
8. bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges

Running out of food

So before the baby came I froze a bunch of meals.  The week after she arrived my mom was here so she cooked for us each day.  Since then my sister has brought us a few meals and we have worked through the frozen meals.  It was very easy to get supper on the table.  Last night we used the last of our frozen meals.  Now I am sad, with a sick baby it is hard to cook because she does not want to be put down and with her trouble breathing I am not as comfortable wearing her in the wrap.  So what will we eat now.  Luckily it is the weekend so Myles can cook for us or hold the baby while I cook.  Most days lately he does not get in from riding until pretty late, too late to try and cook a proper meal.  We eat pretty good here, all of our meals are homemade and cooked from scratch so the cooking process takes longer.  We love to cook so that is not so bad.  We will just see how it goes for the next few days and what it is we actually get to eat.  I am looking forward to full health for all of us so we can get settled into a routine and I won't have to worry so much about what we will eat each evening.

On another note, this was Madeline's first trip outside to visit with the horses (this was before she got sick).  Hopefully she loves horses and much as her parents do.  This horse will probably be her first horse unless her daddy finds her another one he likes better for her.

A family of 3

We are now a family of 3.  We welcomed baby Madeline Ann into our lives December 8th and have cherished every moment with her.  She is such a good baby who sleeps and eats like a champ.  We have definitely had  a few challenges since she arrived.  Her birth did not go exactly like I had hoped (though do they ever?) and the recovery was thus longer than anticipated.  I developed mastitis on Christmas eve and spent Christmas day very sick with a high fever from the infection.  New years eve Madeline had to go to the doctor and was diagnosed with RSV which has been so sad, but hopefully she will recover quickly.  Despite these health challenges we are so excited to have her here and are so blessed to now be a family of 3.

Home-grown meal

We are in the midst of our first really cold spell (as I think many are).  Anyways my cooking has turned towards cold weather food.  Last night we had chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes and corn....all grown right here (well mostly).  The chicken was from one of our chickens last spring.  The corn was the very last bag of frozen corn from last years crop and the potatoes were some of the last few from this year (I did not maintain my potatoes well this year so we did not get many).  For dessert we had sweet potato bread from last years sweet potatoes (this years sweet potatoes did great, but we still have some left from last year to finish up).

Quilts and decorating

 

I made this quilt for Madeline's nursery.  I spent the first half of my pregnancy working on it just a little bit at a time and it came together wonderfully.  With the exception of the fabric on the back and around the border I did not buy any fabric for this quilt (it would have been very expensive if I had bought that many different fabrics).  Family members have been giving me their scraps and I love how it worked out.

 

 

 The baby will be staying in our room until we feel she is ready to stay in her own room.  She has a space with some of her things and a craddle and chair in our room.  This quilt is on her chair in our room.  My Aunt made this quilt for her and it is beautiful (her quilting skills leave mine in the dust).  Note the dog who insisted on being a part of the show when we opened gifts.

 

We are loving the handmade baby things these days.

Several months later here I am....school is back and we are 2 months away from the highly anticipated birth of the newest member of our family.  I have been sewing a lot lately and this weekend I made this dress for the baby.  Now I just need to make or find a warm sweater and some stockings to go with and maybe this will be her Christmas dress.

Found the pattern for this dress in a stash of patterns that were in a bedroom closet when we moved into this house.  The pattern included this dress pattern and a pants pattern that I have used to make pants for my nephew.  If I can find enough fabric I like in my box of scrap fabric I will make some pants for baby next.  For this dress I used leftover fabric I used to line a skirt I made myself a year or so ago and a bigger piece of scrap fabric given to me when I was collecting for a quilt project.  So far in all the sewing I have done for baby I have only had to buy fabric for the back of her quilt and for the cushions on her chair, everything else has been made from scraps I had or that were given to me.  Finding good ways to use small pieces of fabric is fun and works well when you are sewing for someone who will be so little.

A delicious cake

This was my birthday cake.

It was amazing.

It was my one birthday request.

It is key lime cake.

It is from a little local bakery in the little town next to our little town.

It was amzaing.

I would love to have a recipe for key lime cake that tastes just like this.....it reminds me of limeade, not too sour, but with lots of lime flavor.

My cake had pale green frosting (which you can't tell in the picture, and purple sprinkles). 

We ate every bite of it.

THANK YOU HUSBAND!!!

Wall inspiration

Want to see something funny?

Okay back to what I really meant to share.  I love pinterest (you know you do too).  So I was perusing pinterest last September and was coming across a lot of quotes on peoples wall.  I think this is a pretty popular thing to do these days.  We did not currently have any words of inspiration on our wall, so I thought it might be something nice to do.  However I had yet to see something that I really thought fit us enough to write it on the wall.

A few weeks later I had kind of forgot about the idea when I came across one that I loved and I had to add it to our home.  There is a hallway in our home that leads to all the bedrooms besides the master and ends in a blank wall.  This wall once had some beautiful plates with chickens painted on them hanging on it, but one of the plates lost a fight with a broom so I had taken them down. This empty wall, I thought, was the perfect location.  The only problem was I really wanted the words to be simple text and black and white.  The hallways was yellow.  To make a long story short the idea to put some words on the wall in our hallways led to me repainting the hallway, the kitchen and the kitchen cabinets.  Anyhow the project was complete a week before our wedding so I consider it a success.

If I had one of those fancy vinyl cutter printer things I would have just used it to make my quote.  Another alternative would be to go online and order the stick on words custom made (too pricey).  My alternative was very cheap but much more time-consuming.  I typed out what I wanted and then used a poster maker to blow it up.  The time consuming part....I cut out all the letters with a box cutter.  Ta-da, a stencil.  Taped this to the wall painted the letters and touched up with sharpie and some extra white paint.  It was a process, but it was worth it.  You can see these words when you walk into the kitchen and whenever you head for a bedroom, so we are constantly reminded of who we are trying to be.

Sausage bread

This is what we had for breakfast on Sunday.  It is a modification of a recipe my grandmother gave me.

Here is my recipe
 for the dough:
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/4 cup prepared mustard
2 tablespoons butter
31/2 cups flour

for the filling:
1 lb sausage cooked
3-4 eggs beaten
1 cup grated cheddar

to make:
1. mix flour, yeast, sugar and salt in large bowl
2. In a separate bowl microwave, water, mustard and butter until warm (but not too hot...I microwave the butter until melted then add the water and mustard and microwave it jsut a bit longer---my goal is about 110 degrees to make the yeast happy)
3. Mix liquid into dry ingredients (I used my stand mixer) knead until smooth and elastic
4. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes
5. Mix together cooked sausage (that has cooled a bit), beaten eggs and cheese
6. Roll out the dough to be about 10 x 15 inches
7. Spread filling ont he middle third of the bread dough
8. Cut slits in dough up to filling and braid dough
9.  Brush dough with extra egg before baking
10. Bake 375 for about 40-45 minutes (cover with foil if you need to to prevent it getting too too brown).

This is easy to prepare ahead of time a leave in the fridge until you are ready to bake.  No rise time so it is a quick hearty breakfast that is a big hit at our house.  You can also make this recipe into 2 smaller loaves and freeze one before or after baking.

Chicks......and ducks

Have you ever convinced yourself to get something you don't need because you really really want it?
Back to that in a minute....

We got out meat birds thist week.

This is the first time we have done meat chickens so we only got 25.  When we try something new for the first time we also try not so spend to much on the project in case we find out we don't like said project and don't want to do it again.  Should we find that we enjoy whatever it is we did then we consider investing in better supplies.  We have an extra dog lot that was given to us that we will use to raise these guys in.  I only felt comfortable putting 25 chickens in this lot at a time so that is what we got.  In the future I would like to get more.

We also went to easy route with Cornish Rocks this time, but will consider heritage breeds in the future.

For a brooder we are using a big water trough that leaks so is no good for giving livestock water.  This gives them plenty of room.  With smaller numbers of chicks (like when we add a few layers we use sterilite containers).  The chicks will live here for a week or so, then move to my big wonderful cage (see previous post about the best cage ever), then into their outdoor lot.

Back to the question.  I convinced myself that I needed ducks.  Yesterday I went to our feed store to pick up my chicks and they had ducklings....they were cute and I wanted one.  I decided that a duck would be very happy living at our house and also very cute, so I got two.  THE END!

Grillin, Smokin, Eatin

My birthday was last weekend, so my husband got a new grill (what just happened, I thought it was my birthday).  This is not just a grill though...


the new grill hangs out in the basement because we have not bought a cover for it yet



...this is a gas grill, a charcoal grill, and a smoker.  I have never had such amazing grilled and smoked food.  The steaks cooked with a little smoke are amazing!!! This week we will be smoking some ribs from our dearest Lenny.

On another note...

...dog and puppy finally decided they love each other (the puppy loved the dog, before but the dog did not reciprocate)