Pillows...

I'm trying really hard to de-junk my house right now. Not an easy task... it's been a while! I've gathered up a little collection of homeless throw pillows that have been living under beds, in closets, but not on display at all because they no longer fit the decor that I have around.

Six to be exact! So I've decided to make new homes for them, or they need to go to another home! So for part of my spring cleaning I'm going to make some new covers for them and put them somewhere other than under the bed. My kidlet thinks they are just fine the way they are though.. stacked and ready to jump on.

I've already finished one of them. I've been wanting some knit pillows on the bed in our room. This was fun, but a lot of work for a little pillow! Knitting takes a long time I've found, but I love the texture and the way that it looks. Just a simple ribbed knit pillow...

For the back I knit two panels and overlapped them so that the pillow could slip inside. I measured the pillow and knit all the parts to match up to the size of the pillow. Then I just pinned and sewed them together with my machine. I worked out really well! I love the thick course yarn...

I want to do two more for the bed, probably in cream/off white. I'd really like to do a cable knit pattern, but I've yet to sew a cable knit... so I might be browsing through the thrift stores to see if I can find some cable knit sweaters I can make into pillows.

Hair inspiration...

I love Josie Bissett's hair. She has such cute short hair! I've been gathering pictures of short haircuts that I like in hopes that I can have fun with this short hair while I have it. I think in just a couple of months my hair will be long enough to pull off this look!

I never thought this day would come but I think it's about time to break out the flat iron again. That will be a good day...

Baby Steps- It's not about being skinny...

I'm still here... plugging along. Trying to figure out how to get myself back to what I would like to be. I had a great discovery this last week that I wanted to share. It's pretty simple, but has caused me to think really differently about trying to get back into shape.

The thought is that it's really not about being skinny. It's about being healthy.

Of course I would like to be "skinny", but as I've been trying to loose weight and get in shape I've noticed that when I think about being skinny, I find myself wanting to do things that are not really healthy to get there. I also find myself feeling like by trying to get "skinny" that means that I am not skinny now, that I'm not good enough the way I am now. Which is a really self defeating thought you know. And thoughts like that don't make me want to try really hard, so it's pretty counter productive. When I think about being skinny I think about the way that I look instead of what's really going on inside of my body.

I've found that when I think about being healthy, a whole new world opens up that is a good positive place to be. Suddenly my thoughts turn to if I'm getting enough sleep at night, if I'm using and working my muscles everyday so that they can be stretched and challenged. If I'm eating things that are really going to feed and nourish my body instead of just putting empty calories in there.

Where I work I get to see really sick people all day long. Something that has been surprising to me is that it really doesn't seem to matter what size you are to what health problems a person can encounter. I've seen some really tiny people with a whole host of health problems. High blood pressure and cholesterol, renal failure, missing toes and limbs from diabetes. I think that sometimes we feel like if we can keep our weight in check but still eat whatever we want and not really take care of our bodies that it will be okay... but I don't think that it really works that way in the end.
So I did something this week that I feel pretty good about. I put my scale away. It no longer sits on my bathroom floor, tempting me to step on it to see if I've been successful this week or not (usually not). Instead, I'm really trying hard to think about what I can do to make my body healthy. What things do I need to eat so that I can be healthy... It feels so good to have this refocus, this mini breakthrough for me.

But now I'm curious. What things do you do to be HEALTHY? And what does being healthy mean to you?

Acorns...

I was walking outside the other day and noticed that a tree by our house was dropping some acorns on the ground. So today my boy and I went outside and gathered up the ones that we could. We had quite a few talks about how we needed to be soft putting them into the bowl so that their little "hats" didn't come off.
As you can see we weren't super successful at that, but a lot of them managed to keep their hats on.

I think they are beautiful! I've always loved acorns. I think they are super cute. I think that we will go back out in a few days to see if some more have dropped and we can get our little vase filled.

I resolve - January...

I started out the year fixing a dress that I already owned that was too short. I have only worn this dress twice because it really was too short for me and I wasn't very comfortable in it. This dress has sentimental value to me, it's the dress that I wore to my sons burial, so I didn't want to throw it out. I decided to make it into a skirt so that it would be wearable.

Just for the record, I like it a whole lot better as a dress, but it sat in my closet unworn. I wanted to add some fabric to the bottom to make it longer but I wasn't able to find any that looked good with it. I ended up measuring the length, cutting it off, and making a waistband out of the top part of the dress, and sewing them together. I added a zipper and  hook and eye on the side.

It was really simple to get it put together. Now it's functional and cute! I'm sure I will be wearing this a lot more now that it's long enough and I feel like I can move around in it.

Twins...

My cute sister in law is expecting twin baby boys any day now! I am so excited for them. I can't wait to see their cute little faces. It was fun to put together a twin package for her. I haven't done a gift for twins before so I decided to do everything similar, but not quite the same. I put together some of my favorite baby things...

 I love these little guy ties. This is such a great pattern! They aren't too difficult to make and they don't take too much time. And what couldn't be cuter than a little baby boy in a tie?

This is my favorite baby book ever!!! I wish I had read it before I became a mom, or shortly there after. I didn't read it until my son was almost 5 months old and it totally changed our lives!!! I know I sound dramatic, but it really is so good. I try to give this to all the new moms I can because it was a real life saver for us {well... more of a sanity saver really}.

These are my favorite baby pacifiers. I'm a big believer in pacifiers. Once again, a sanity saver for us as parents. I also made a few binkie clips to go with them from this wonderful tutorial here.

Last but not least, a pair of knit hats. I found the pattern from Ravelry, and they knit up super quick. I love it when I can start and finish a project in one day! These were perfect for that. I just love little cute hats for babies.





Chocolate truffles...

This year for Christmas treats we made some yummy truffles. We did a variation of this recipe (I think we added a little butter in there somewhere). We heated up the cream until it was really hot (not boiling) and then added the chocolate and let it sit for about 5 minutes off of the heat before we stirred it all together.

We rolled them in coconut, crushed up candy canes, and cocoa. My favorite were the cocoa ones, I like the bitter mixed with the sweet taste.

These could be done up for Valentines too. Instead of doing the candy cane version you could roll them in red sprinkles or something... lots of possibilities here!

Wooden spoons...

I got a few new wooden spoons to add to my collection for Christmas this year. So last week I got them all clean and rubbed them down with some spoon oil (great instructions for spoon oil here).

This one isn't new... but it's my favorite. It's a deep wooden ladle for soups. I love it!

This is one that my husband got me for Christmas. It's hand carved and the wood has the prettiest grain running through it! Almost to pretty to cook with... almost.

Sometimes I feel silly that I get so excited over wooden spoons, but I really do love them. I love cooking with them. I actually have enough now that I got rid of all of my plastic cooking spoons. Slowly but surely I'm trying to get rid of most of the plastic in my kitchen, I'd like to just use wood, metal, and glass for most things.

I highly recommend the spoon oil though. It keeps my wood looking great and not cracking when they get wet.

I resolve - 2011...

I am very excited for this year's New Year's Resolution! The idea came a few weeks ago when I was sitting at church. I looked down at my favorite denim skirt that I wear almost every week... Why do I wear this skirt every week? Because I love denim... and it fits me! Yes, my closet is severely lacking in the skirt department right now. I have a lot of skirts/dresses that I wore before I became a mom, but they have just never fit the same since. Well, it's time to remedy this situation don't you think?

My New Year's Resolution for 2011 is to...

Sew a new skirt or dress every other month.

I wish I could commit to every month, but I really want to do this so I'm cutting myself a little slack here. I think every other month is very doable, and I'm sure some months I might be able to do an extra one.

I'm so excited for this! Mainly because when I first learned to sew it was sewing clothes. I used to make myself dresses and skirts in high school and I really loved it. I've sort of fallen away from sewing clothes and really sew more blankets and such now. So I'm excited to get back into sewing from a pattern, button holes, zippers, lining, the whole nine yards!!!

I've already got the first skirt all figured out! I can't wait to get started...

What's your resolution for 2011?

December...

I felt bad that I hadn't bought a cute pair of heels all year... for the husband you know! So I went ahead and got some for December. I'm planning on wearing them out this weekend when we celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. I think he'll like them...

Well... I didn't quite stick to my New Year's resolution of buying a new pair of shoes every month. While I think it was an awesome resolution, and I really liked the purpose I had behind it, I proved to be true to myself and had a really hard time spending money on myself every month of the year on shoes ;). I did however, end up with five cute new pairs of shoes this year which I am happy about!

Baby Steps - Drink your vegetables!!!

One thing that I've been trying to be better on is getting more fruits and vegetables into my diet everyday. I am much more likely to snack on cheese, bread, chips, than I am to snack on veggies. So I've been trying to find ways to get more green food in my diet.

I've always liked the idea of green smoothies, but the ones I've tried before tasted way too much like spinach to be very enjoyable. I found this simple recipe for a great green smoothie.

Green Smoothie
- 6 oz Pineapple Coconut juice (I use the L&A brand in the glass bottle)
- 1 banana
- two handfuls of spinach
- about 5-6 ice cubes

Blend together the juice and the banana first, then add the spinach. When it's all blended together add in the ice cubes and blend till smooth.

I promise you that this tastes like a banana smoothie. You really can't even taste the spinach. I like the way that spinach tastes, but not really in a smoothie. I love that I get a full fruit and veggie serving in first thing in the morning.

I've been reading up on why it's good to drink veggies instead of eating them. The idea behind it is that when you eat food your body has to make it into a liquid state in order for the nutrients to be absorbed. That's why you chew food and break it down with your teeth and then your stomach acid breaks it down into a liquid form. When you blend your veggies into a liquid form before ingesting them then your body is ready to absorb the nutrients and you cut out the time and energy it takes to break them down. This makes it so that your body can absorb more nutrients than it normally would be able to. Sounds like a good plan to me!

And the best part... this little guy loves it. Especially when I tell him it's dinosaur juice. He drinks it right up!

Have you tried green smoothies? What's your favorite combination?

Stacked Coins Quilt...

I finally got the quilt done for my little boys bed. It's been in the makings for almost a year... but I did the finishing touches on it last week and I'm so in love with it.


When I started it my son was still in his crib and I figured that we would buy a twin bed for him. But somehow my husband talked me into getting a queen. So the quilt sat in the closet for a while, until I decided what I was going to do. I ended up just cutting some of the bottom off and adding the cream borders around the whole thing. And for the record... I'm glad that my husband talked me into a queen bed. Some of our funnest times are at night when all three of us lie in bed and read stories.

Then once I had the top done I took forever to decide how to quilt it. I really didn't want to tie it, I wanted it machine quilted. But I couldn't bring myself to paying someone $200ish dollars to have it done. So after some pep talks from friends/sister in laws and watching lots of You Tube videos, I decided to go ahead and do it myself.

HOLY COW!!! Why didn't anyone tell me that machine quilting was so much fun! It was amazing. I had a blast doing it. And it turned out pretty good. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm so happy with how it turned out.

I love the binding that I made for it. It adds just the right cuteness on the edges. I know that this fancy quilt (well, fancy for me) is just for a three year old boy and that it's probably going to be filthy dirty in a week... but I am so glad that I did it. I started this when I was going through chemo and I would work on it during the times that I was too sick to have my son with me. It was heartbreaking to send him away for a few weeks each time I did, and so to me working on something for him while I wasn't with him was good therapy for me.

I really love his room. Most of the art work/things in there are things that I have made for him. I love making things for my family!! It makes me feel like my boy is always surrounded with his mom's love.

Helping Jenny...

This is Jenny. She is the mom to my dear friend Melissa. I met Melissa 8 1/2 years ago when we were camp counselors for the summer, and we've been friends ever since. Her mom has been battling cancer for a long time, and Melissa is hosting an auction to help raise some money for her family.

The auction starts tomorrow over at Helping Jenny. Please head on over! And if you have something that you can offer or donate to the auction as well you can send your item over to

helpingjenny@gmail.com.

Trees for Christmas...

I've added a new tree in the shop for Christmas this year. This is a little grove of three trees. It can be used for a blended family, or a multi-generation family.

I love how this one turned out, it looks so great in the frame. I used linen for the trunks and I love how it looks with the green!!

You can find it in my shop here.

Also, head on over to Love Luci for a giveaway! You can enter to win one of my family trees just in time for Christmas (giveaway open until December 6th).

Quinoa...

I've been wanting to branch out and try quinoa for a while now. So I bought some and it sat in my cupboard for a week until my husband saw it and got curious. We tried it out one night and are completely obsessed now! It is so good! It has such great texture to it. I'm hoping to get this book for Christmas so that I can try out new quinoa recipes.

One night we whipped up this tasty dinner. It was so yummy! I've been trying to find recipes and meals that I can make without meat and I've been struggling at that. I'm not trying to go vegetarian or anything, but I just don't like being so dependant on meat to make a good dinner. But this is meat free! And it was awesome!


We cooked the quinoa with vegetable broth (2 to 1). Mixed in black beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, cilantro, corn, some cumin and pepper. It really was so good. We put it on warm corn tortillas with sour cream and some Gorgonzola cheese (another awesome recent discovery). It really was amazing.

The popular man of the night was Mr. Tapatio. I've never been a real hot sauce fan (I'd only ever tried Tabasco) but this is really good too. Nice spice, not an overpowering vinegar taste like most other hot sauces... yum!

Are you a quinoa fan? How do you like to eat your quinoa?