Change is good.

There have been a lot of changes in our lives in the last 15 months. I quit my job, we moved across the country, Hubby started a new job, we made new friends, had a baby, made more new friends, found a new church, started blogging, learned to sew, the list just keeps going! I got to thinking about all the changes in our lives and have been wondering how I can help bring change in other peoples lives across the globe.

So, we’ve decided to use my birthday to start a 3 month campaign to raise $1,500 for charity:water. Watch out for more blogs between now and November 30th for all the crazy things I’m going to do to get you to donate to my campaign. And to make it even crazier, we will match every dime you donate to my campaign so we can make an even bigger impact!!

Never heard of charity:water? Check out this video for a short history and then visit my charity:water campaign page to make a donation. Heck, you should even bookmark the campaign page so you can see how we’re progressing.

Meal of the Week 7: Pasta Salad

A summery Pasta Salad
Ingredients:

• 1 bag multi-colored spiral pasta
• 1 cucumber
• 1 green pepper
• 1/2 red onion
• 1/2 bag shredded mozarella cheese
• 1 cup Italian dressing
• 2 T Italian seasoning
• pepperoni or proscuitto
• salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: black olives and/or cherry tomatoes

I’ve never been a fan of cold pasta dishes, but my husband grew up with them as a staple summer time food so last night when he told me he was making dinner (never say no when your husband says he’s making dinner!) I asked him what he was going to make. “Pasta Salad” he replied. I was skeptical, but it was so yummy I’m sure I’ll let him make it again. You could also heat up leftovers for a quick and yummy hot lunch the day after.
Just boil the pasta as usual, chop up all the veggies, and toss with the dressing and spices. A perfect summer dinner or side.
Linked up to these parties

1, 2, 5, … 8, oh wait, what’s next?

I found this fabulous tutorial for making beanbags and had such a blast making them that I had to share. I think this would be a really fun way to learn to count, so I put numbers on mine. What I love about this process is how versatile it is! You could put shapes, numbers, letters, messages, or really anything on the bean bags - and they were SOOO easy to make. Unfortunately, because they have beans in them and can’t be washed I don’t really recommend them for children under 3. BUT! if you substitute the beans for plastic pony beads I think that would solve the problem.

I also know that I don’t cut straight so instead of cutting the fabric out, I used pre-cut quilting squares from Jo-Anns. Enjoy!
Linked up to these parties!

Naps are back…. and so am I!

Man, its been a tough couple of months. My Sweet Pea just loves to play and learn and snuggle with mommy so much that she wasn’t napping much! Thank goodness that season is over. She’s so social and fun loving that its hard to deny her sweet request to get out of bed when she wakes up from a devastatingly short nap. So we made due with teeny-tiny nap time for a while, but no longer! And that means that I have my daytime sanity hour back again!

I’m working on a couple of projects that I’ll post soon. They’re so fabulous and easy (and even though its taken me forever to finish them), I think just about anyone could do them. Stay tuned!

Meal of the Week 6: Chicken Tikka Masala (from the Pioneer Woman)

Chicken Tikka Masala
I haven’t been this excited about a recipe in months. You MUST try this if you like Indian food, Thai food, spicy food, or interesting food, or if you just want to try something new. SOOOooooo yummy!! (click the image for the link)
 
Happy Eats!

Craft debacles and works in progress.

Lately my posts have been few and far between. Sorry. :-/

Part of the reason is that the craft projects I’ve taken on lately have been time consuming and I’ve been keeping myself, my mind, and my baby occupied with the gorgeous weather outside.

So I thought I would post a couple of works in progress:

The biggest project that I’m working on is a felt and fabric book for Sweet Pea and her future siblings (some years down the road). It’s eight pages long and each page contains hand sewn images of animals. I went for the zoo theme. There’s a lion page, a giraffe page, a panda page, and even a zebra page (that one was the hardest, believe me.) Here’s a picture of the turtle page

I’m also working on a crocheted monkey – almost done! I’ll post a picture when I finish sewing the pieces together (maybe tomorrow?) and a couple of outfits for Grace and her friend Nicole.

The outfits are slowing going because I have no experience in the clothing making department. My lack of experience (and lack of a pattern….oops) has led to an interesting debacle of sorts. I used an online patter that I measured out myself to try making a peasant style top for Grace. It looked like it was going to work out great when I cut out the fabric. But then I started sewing all the seams and realized that the chest measurement was all wrong. I decided to finish it and see if it would still work.  It didn’t fit. at all. So. I tried to save it by cutting out the arm seams and sewing them back up to make the chest larger. It worked. It fits now. Its just really ugly. So ugly in fact that I couldn’t bring myself to take a picture. I’m going to try again with the rest of the fabric I have, but this time I’m going to use a dress that I know fits Grace as the model for the pattern instead of an internet blogger’s measured out pattern. Stay tuned for more on this.

As a side note to end my blog: How do all these mommy bloggers find the time to write so many blogs per day/week????? Do they neglect their kids??? there’s no way I could write more than maybe one blog a week with my sweet 9 month old. And you are the witnesses to the fact that I don’t even get that many done any more… sigh.

Till next time.

Baby Food! A Shameless Plug for a New Favorite Book.

So we’ve been making baby food for almost two months now and it just gets hard to come up with new combinations to make eating fun for my little Sweet Pea. Then I was introduced to this book.

First I must admit that I do not own this book yet. I have “borrowed”a recipe or two from my dear friend Stephanie and have fallen in love. Sweet Pea loved the first recipe and we’re trying the second tonight. The best part is that they were SOOO easy to make!! I even like them. In fact, the most recent one I made makes for a pretty nice soup for adults. Maybe we’ll have some for dinner tonight. (wait, is that like stealing food from a baby?)…. never mind.

The point is that the recipes in the book are fabulous and if you were looking for a new recipe book to pick up for your kids, this is definitely the one. Let me give you a sneak peak so that you will be more convinced:

The first recipe I tried with Sweet Pea was the Apple, Peach, Strawberry Compote. Sweet Pea was about done with peaches on their own and liked them ok, but not amazingly – then I introduced the compote and it was like a taste explosion in her mouth!… in a good way… She LOVED it! We’ve mixed it with Oatmeal for a yummy breakfast, yogurt for a yummy dessert, or just eaten it on its own. So how do you make this fabulous compote?

Step One: Ingredients

I used - 3 Organic Gala Apples (peeled, cored, and chopped), 1 carton of Organic strawberries (chopped), and 3 medium Organic Nectarines (peeled, and chopped).

Step Two: Cook

Dump the apples in a pot and just cover them with water – set to boil while you’re chopping the peaches and strawberries. When you’re done chopping the rest of the fruit the apples should be about half done, dump in the rest of the fruit and continue to boil for another 7-10 minutes.

Step Three: Puree

Spoon or Pour the compote into your favorite pureeing device (ood processor, blender, Magic Bullet) and puree until smooth.

The best part is that this is a great recipe for freezing! Yummy fruit compote for days to come!

The book has all the nutritional information, serving sizes, and other important tid-bits right next to the recipes AND its not just for babies!! There are recipes in the book that are great for older kids too. I can’t wait to buy it!

Happy Birthday to Nicole!!

Grace's very best bud Nicole turns 1 tomorrow! In honor of her awesomeness I thought it would be cool to share with youl this way awesome personalized card making tool on Shutterfly! Here's the card I made for Nicole:

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.



AND! if you order before June 9th you can get 5 of your cards free (you do have to pay shipping and tax which is a little over a $1 per card) Just use the code: DADCARD at check out.


Happy Birthday Nicole!

Sick Days 2

My sweet Pea has been pretty sick for the last two weeks (hence my absence) and just can’t seem to shake this thing! So I figured I would update and show you all the things that have helped make her more comfortable while' she’s been sick.

As much as she has always hated it, the Nosefrida is an AMAZING snot sucker that really helps her breathe better. We have to be careful when we use it thought b/c if we don’t get all the snot out at once she tends to choke on what’s left and has thrown up more than once as a result. She’s been choking on the snot when we aren’t using the Nosefrida so its definitely better that we use it than not. This go ‘round with the snot, my pediatrician even asked me if we had it to help with getting rid of the congestion.

When her fever popped up yesterday we started giving her Tylenol. I was actually surprised at how well baby Tylenol worked! Her fever came down within an hour, she wasn’t as letharic and she was back to her normal cheerful self. Definitely check with your doctor about the dosing for your baby because its based on weight and NOT age for infants.

Just before Sweet Pea got sick, my husband’s boss came in from the UK and brought with him these decongestant capsules. WOW, talk about amazing!! They’re safe for infants older than 3 months and they work instantly! You just squeeze the contents of a capsule onto a burpie or washcloth and tie it their crib or hang it somewhere out of reach. The Menthol in the capsule permeates the air and helps open up their airways. It even works for adults. I wish we could buy more in the US.

Other than that we’ve just been having Jammie days and snuggling lots. I promise more craft and recipe fun when my Sweet Pea is feeling better!

Swimsuit Giveaway on BHO!

I would LOVE to win this give away:


 Baby Half Off is giving away a gift card to Hapari Swimwear and who wouldn't want to win this? (especially those of us with post-baby bodies :-)
Check out their swim wear yourself: http://www.hapari.com/modest-tankinis/

Not that I neeeeed a new swimsuit living in the Pacific NW... but if I won, I would surely find some amazing occassion to wear is... like maybe a vacation to the FL Keys or Hawaii... which I could plan and surprise my husband with. I think that would work don't you?