Moon Sand

The bean box, a very popular activity at our house, got a new look today in the form of moon sand.  It is a big hit as you can tell.  

Recipe:  8 cups flour
              1 cup baby oil

Directions:  Mix flour and oil together with your hands.  Easy!

I really don't know if other oils will work if you are wondering, but it does smell really nice and has an awesome texture and enough clumping qualities for packing and making castles.  Perfect for the months that the sandbox is buried in snow!

The Land of Fermentation

In attempts to eating healthier and foods we can make at home, Jared and I have added two new foods to our "never buy again because we can make a tastier version ourselves" list.  Plus, we know what is in it and they are cheaper too!

First up, Sauerkraut!  We made this bad boy up a week before Christmas, let it ferment away on the counter and stuck it in the fridge right before leaving town after church on Christmas.  We used it today on our sandwiches and it will be a welcome bite and nice crunch in the coming couple of months.  I used a combination of two recipes, the first from Jared's aunt, Kim, and the second from The Homemade Pantry.  For those of you who are interested in another cookbook (because you can never have too many of those) the link is here.  I highly recommend it.  Along with making your own sauerkraut.  :)

Second in the bacteria journey is yogurt!  I was considering making this in the crockpot, turning it on and off and wrapping it in towels to keep it at the right temperature, and then my in-laws gave me a yogurt maker for Christmas.  Yippee!  :)  It has 7 6-ounce jars that you dump your prepared milk into, place into the countertop incubator, cover, and leave alone for 10 hours.  Done!  Pictured below is the first batch of many I am sure.  I'll be experimenting with different milks over the coming months too, right now I have 1% of the store-brand and that works really well.

Here is to healthy tummy bacteria in 2013!  :)

A sharp dressed man

Little man got a new church outfit for his birthday and we got a few pictures while he was decked out.  :)

And then he was done smiling...can you tell he is teething?

Christmas Projects

Most of the sewing lately has been gifts, so there haven't been too many things to write about here.  But, I finally finished a couple of things that I can show!

First up, an apron and chef's hat for my nephew and his soon-to-be play kitchen: 

(before I ironed it, sorry about that)

The hat tutorial is here and the apron tutorial is from my friend Gina, found here.  Both tutorials are really well written and easy to do.  There is an apron pattern with the hat that looks good too, but a little large for the 2.5 year old that is the receiver - it might be the next apron he gets after he outgrows this one in a few years.  I found some fun food-texted fabric at our local B & F and paired it with white muslin and some denim looking bias tape.  While I made this set, I also made a hat and apron for Timothy.  I tried to have him model, but he was so not willing.  Gina, I am looking for your advice here.  :)

I also made us stockings!  I love how I can fill my son's stocking and he has no clue...I am sure this is the last year that I will be able to get away with it. :)  I used this pattern for my outline and these instructions to put my stockings together.  I choose not to post the picture I had taken of the couch residents who where watching Snoopy at the time...my hubby was dealing with a touch of the flu...not pretty.

I did a quick loopy quilting all over to give them some texture and am really happy with how they turned out.  I used some cream heavy duty fabric that I had originally bought to make some bags with, so they are quite sturdy.  I have no clue what kind of fabric it is, other than not 100% cotton, because I actually melted a piece with my iron while trying to press out a crease.  oops.  :)

The only issue I have is that I completely forgot to insert a hanging loop in while putting them together. FAIL.  :)  So for right now, until I figure out what to do, a safety pin is being used...let me know if you have any good ideas to add a loop after the fact.

Linking up!

Little Man is TWO!

Timothy is now officially two.  Such a happy, loving little man who is obsessed with anything that has wheels, can be stacked, or is some sort of ball.  We had a great time celebrating his birthday with the Nies side of the family on Saturday and skyping with my folks on Sunday.  He was given lots of fun, thoughtful gifts and he has no excuse to be bored for some time.  :)

Check out the video of him blowing out his candles.  He is so proud of himself!  There are lots of pictures in the photo link (which is now my shutterfly share site) from his birthday and also of our official 2 year old pictures from jcpennys.   Now that I have the picture thing figured out, more posts should be coming soon!

Christmas Card 2012

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

So it has been a little busy and my picassa account is full, hence the lack of posts.  I am working on linking my flickr account over to my blog and it is taking some time because we have been so busy!  Working on Christmas projects, Timothy's birthday, travels here and there, but I promise to back with party pictures of my big boy soon!

In the meantime, enjoy our Christmas card!

I Spy Quilt

All done.  :)  Timothy's I Spy Quilt measures 41.5 x 54.5 after shrinking slightly in the wash and is oh so soft.  I hope that he enjoys looking at it and cuddling with it after he gets it for his birthday in a couple of weeks.  I couldn't have done this quilt without the help of the ladies in my quilt guild and for all of the scraps out of their stashes they gave me.  I had asked for squares while I was still pregnant and was planning to make a mixed boy/girl themed quilt...I went ahead and cut the girl fabrics up and have enough to make another quilt with the need arises someday.  Thanks for your generosity ladies!

The pattern is from In Color Order...I just made mine the size I wanted with 4" squares.  Now that I look at it, there are a few fabrics I would switch around, but it is also just nice to have it done and when he is dragging it all over the house, I hope that I am not going to notice.

The back is a farm print that also has lots to look at...

:)

Lots of Little Things 2

Guess the following picture:

1.  Marshmallow shaped pincushion

2.  Torture Device (my fingers would agree with this one)

3.  A Hat

Answer is at the end!

I LOVE THESE BAGS.  :)  I made myself a set of three - I need a place to organize my Christmas projects that I still haven't started...so they count as part of the gift making process, right?  Ok, no more little cute things for myself until I get some major gifting going on...

Oh look, another one of those bags.  :)  This one is a gift for a fun-loving college girl I know.  Don't you just love the pink zebra print?

Answer:  3.  A hat!  Actually, two chef hats.  One for my adorable nephew, Eli, who is getting a play kitchen for Christmas, and one for Timothy and being put away for later.  I figured that if I were going to make one, I should make two and get it done and over with.  And now my fingers only need to heal once.  :)  Two reversible aprons will be coming soon to match the hats.  

No more updates for a couple of days...heading to Sioux Falls tomorrow after church for Timothy's next GI appointment and meeting with the feeding therapists on Monday morning.  

Project Goals for the 6 hours in the car:

1. Bind Timothy's I Spy Quilt

2. Finish a dishrag (half done)

3. Sew buttons onto a travel case for Timothy (pictures soon)

4. Make a huge amount of Christmas hexagons...

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

The Strider

For anyone that doesn't know what a strider is, it is a bike without pedals.  The idea is that little kids can learn how to steer and balance a bike first, and then transfer to a bike with pedals and without training wheels.  Timothy got his strider last Christmas from his awesome cousin Cole and is finally tall enough and walking well enough that we thought that we could pull it out.  Man does he love it!  :)

Lots of little things

Sometimes it is nice to take a break from big projects and work on some smaller things that get done within an hour or so.  Luckily, my need for a couple of small projects is timed perfectly with my Christmas list needing to be fulfilled, so here is what I have come up with so far.

Don't mind the threads here and there...I get so excited to snap some pictures and get them up, that I forget to trim my projects first.

Wide-mouthed Pouch...this thing is awesome!  Easy pattern and a cute, useful bag as an outcome.  Perfect for stashing makeup, travel gear, various projects, or a jar of goodies to give away (the destiny of this cute orange bag below). I have plans to make several more, including a set for me.  :)  Here is the tutorial and she includes dimensions for a small, medium, and large version - this is the small version below.

Organizer - one for me and one to share!  For those of you looking for easy projects to make for gifts, check out Sew Mama Sew's Handmade Holidays posts during the month of November.  This is where I found this pattern and I really enjoyed putting it together.  Perfect for helping me organize my purse a little better.

The following is something for me too.  :)  I was thinking about making myself a wallet and did this instead...a place to put all of my loyalty cards and make my wallet that much more functional (and eliminating the need to make the world's largest wallet to fit all of my stuff).  I had fun practicing my free motion quilting and used a hair tie and button for the closure.  The pattern I found here, but know that if you follow the given folding directions, you will end up with fewer pockets than they show and the top one is too close to the top to use...

Finally, a couple of walker bags.  Our quilt guild is donating a pile of them to the local nursing homes, so these are my contributions to the collection.  I had the vision-impaired in mind when I picked this fabric out of my stash.  I think some little old lady will appreciate being able to pick her walker out of the crowd because it has glowing orange flowers on bright blue and green.  :)  Side one has the pocket divided in half.

Side 2 has one, large pocket so they can carry their newspaper, magazine, crossword puzzle books...  Juli found a great tutorial online somewhere and typed it up great for all of us to use if we chose.  It just hangs over the front rail of the walker and a piece of velcro on either side keeps it from sliding off.  We are meeting the last Tuesday of the month, so I can tuck these away and check them off my list!

Off to make some more small projects...Christmas is coming!

I Spy

Quilting is done on the I Spy quilt (a cuddling quilt for Timothy) and binding will be attached tomorrow!  We are going to Sioux Falls over the weekend, so the hand stitching part of the binding will be saved for the car.  Final pictures will be up next week!  

The Back:  I had to make it interesting too...  :)

Linking up with Freshly Pieced!

Teething and ABC quilt

This picture sums up our day...poor Timothy is teething and very clingy...

But we managed to take some pictures of the ABC quilt that is all finished!  It measures 38" by 36" and is going to a new little boy that was born at the end of September.  Here is the back:

Can you tell he isn't feeling well?  While I took some pictures, he just laid on the floor in his room.  :(

But then he found a good friend, kitty.  Yay kitty!

But then kitty had to take a nap and try out the blankie first.

And Timothy enjoyed looking at all of the pictures.  I have a feeling that I will need to buy some more of this fabric line for him...

Little does he know that an I Spy quilt is in the works for his 2nd birthday which is less than a month away!

ABC Quilt

I haven't updated any other sewing besides my star sampler, so here is a quilt in progress.  Check out the quilting!  I have been learning how to free motion quilt and this if by far the best to date!  I just need to trim a few threads, bind, and wash this little blankie and it will be ready for the little boy it is intended for.  Official stats and better (natural light) pictures to come in the next day or two.

I also have 2 quilts for my local quilt guild that are ready to be quilted, but I need to pick up the batting first, so pictures of those two will be hopefully up soon too.  No more stars to report - we had 2 trips to Sioux Falls this week and our washer has been broken for TWO WEEKS.  Much time was being spent in the car and money is still being spent at the laundromat....

Back to Sioux Falls, we met with the pediatric cardiologist and we don't have to go back for another year!  So exciting.  He didn't even feel the need to do an echocardiogram at this appointment.  The murmur from one of his holes was still there, but everything seems stable and his ekg was normal too.  No medications and no restrictions on activity.  Double hooray!

Still Canning...

Just because our garden is turned under for the season and the nights are too cold for most things to grow doesn't mean I am done canning...  :)

I picked up 4 bags of cranberries the other day (yay for being in season and on sale!) and whipped up 9 half pints of jellied "canned" sauce with a little leftover for dinner tonight.  It really is pretty easy.  The hardest part was waiting for my water bath to come up to a boil - it seems to take forever!  I followed this recipe and from what I tasted already, it is amazing!  I plan on doing another batch while I can still get cranberries and make some pint jars.  I have a feeling that some of these will be Christmas gifts...