Craft of the Month: Wreaths

I thought I had picked a verily simple, inexpensive yet fun craft for September; I shocked myself to find out how complex picking a wreath design is. There are so many choices. Once the design and material are bought you are limited to a certain type of wreath: rag, yarn, tulle, felt, and an assortment of other material. Different designs also ask for different kinds of wreaths. Knowing all this now I knew I needed to sit down and put some kind of file together for those wanting to make a wreath this month!


 I created a powerpoint to help view pictures, supplies, and link for tutorial all in one place!

Pinterest: crockpot dinner recipes

For some time now I have been wanting a crockpot. Well I broke down and bought a small used crockpot at the JBF consignment sale here in Gainesville, Fl. Turned out to be one of the best investments I have made in quite awhile, and I make good investments normally when I bring something home non-food.

This purchase was not only a great non-food purchase because it makes my life easier- making dinner hours ahead and walking away to deal with the rush of a busy schedule with two girls but it has led Dan and I into the world of grocery shopping once a week- making my grocery shopping more productive and less focused on treats.I also have been making creations from Pinterest not just "pinning".

So today I will be telling you about one of my "pins" that I have been using and loving! When I began making my shopping list (now weekly) I pulled up pinterest and headed straight for crockpot recipes- which seemed like a dream come true! I pulled up a site page worth five meals with a shopping list set up. There is now a SECOND menu on the site which I will need to check out.

The sites name really is true; Saving You Dinero when it comes to food- I have yet to check out what else the bloggers have gathered to help me save money.

It is recommended to freeze the entire meal but I opted this time to just freeze the meat because it takes no time at all. If you decide to make some of these meals just be away that some of them may have time restraints based on veggies or creams used.
Here are the meals:
 Garlic Honey Chicken-delicious!
 Beef Burritos- tomorrows dinner
 Chicken Fajitas-haven't made
 Hawaiian Chicken- made a similar dish which was Amazing! 
Teriyaki Pork Chops-delicious, should have cut into bite size pieces to fit the meat in the sauce all the way.


For those just starting out with either a crockpot, freeze meals, or both I highly recommend these recipes to get started. One huge benefit to these recipes is that they come with the shopping list all ready to go- so there is no hassle when deciding to do all these meals. Love it! At the end of each recipe is a quick review of sides to go with the meal such as served with "lime" rice.  I enjoy the extra information.


:)Brittney

Red Beans and Rice

This is probably my favorite Red Beans and Rice recipe ever. Mom found it in a healthy eating book and I have not been able to find it anywhere else since. It is not even in the family cookbook. So here it is, along with a picture of what it looks like.

Red beans and rice

2 - 1 lb 14 oz or, 4 - 15 oz cans of red kidney beans

2 teaspoons paprika

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½  teaspoon  black pepper

1  teaspoon  ground cumin

2  teaspoon  salt

1 ½ cup celery chopped

1 ½ cup onion chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

3 tablespoons fresh parsley minced

3 cups cooked brown rice

1  teaspoon  sugar

Warm olive oil in a pan, add garlic cloves onion and celery, cook until tender, then dump everything else in and cook it. Cook rice and combine with mix. 

David the Viking

So for David's first Halloween I decided to go with ancestry and make him a viking costume. Considering that he has a lot of viking ancestors on Kevin's side it seemed fitting. On that note I wanted to discuss how I went about the whole thing.

David the Viking and his axe

Teddy bear vest and boots

Remember, a loose Viking is a pillaging Viking!

The costume was made up of a stuffed fabric axe, a crocheted Viking hat and beard, a pair of fake fur boots and a fake fur vest, and a neutral colored onesie along with a pair of brown pants.

The Axe: To make the axe I went to JoAnn's Fabric and found some grey felt and brown burlap in their remnants bin. Remnants are almost always 50% off so I got them for a great deal. I cut out an axe pattern on the felt and sewed it wrong sides together, then I turned it inside out and stuffed each side. Then I took the burlap and sewed it together to make a handle, turned it right side out and stuffed it pretty tightly so that the handle would be pretty stiff. Then I hand sewed the handle to the axe head.

The Vest and Boots: I needed some fake fur to make the boots and vest, but fake fur fabric is expensive. So I went to the thrift store and found a stuffed Teddy Bear that was about the same size as Davy. Using my seam ripper I removed the head and opened the seam down the bear's back. I made sure to unstuff the bear (and kept all the stuffing for later use on other projects, stuffing can be expensive). I found that I could cut the arms off halfway down the arm and it made the perfect length for shoulders on the vest. I reinforced all the seams I was keeping intact so that they did not come undone now that the bear was being unsewn. I put the bear on Davy (now that the paws were off the arms fit him perfectly) and measured how far down I needed the vest to go. Then I cut the vest along the bottom (which ended up being right before the legs began). Next I put the legs on Davy to see how far up I needed the boots to go. I cut the top of the boots at the correct length. Now the vest and boots were basically done, but I still needed a way to keep them on his little body. So I got eyelet rivets and placed them evenly on each side of the vest opening, I also put two eyelets on the bottom back of the boots and on the top front of them. I laced the vest with leather cord once I had it on Davy, I laced it up in such a way that the bow ended up at the bottom of the vest (because Davy is teething and I didn't want the laces ending up in his mouth). I laced the boots in the back and then wound them around the boot to the top front and laced them again then tied bows with the laces.

The Hat: My mom made the hat and beard for Davy. She found a hat online and figured out a pattern on her own. If you are not as crochet savy as she is there are patterns for viking hats on etsy. Or you can also try your hand at sewing a hat.

The onesie and pants I got from Babies R Us.

Overall the costume was pretty easy to make and ended up being super cute on him. And I hope that this has been a helpful guide on how to make something similar if you are interested.

Baby wearing: Wraps and slings

When I got pregnant I read as many things as I could about pregnancy and what to expect after delivery. One thing I kept running into was baby wearing. Baby wearing is the act of wearing your baby around in a sling, wrap, carrier or other device that allows you to strap your baby to your body.

When you look at the websites on baby wearing they list many benefits for it, closeness to your baby, the ability to care for them immediately, the ability to get things done around the house while still giving them attention. And most baby wearing products tend to take the strain of holding your baby off of your back and arms.

As someone who was interested in baby wearing I looked into the options. I ended up getting a baby sling off a site online, it was free, I just paid shipping and handling. I also got a baby backpack style carrier from a baby shower. The baby came and he was rather small for the backpack at first, but eventually he grew into it and Kevin began to wear it with him. I on the other hand  used the sling. I kept looking around though, I kept seeing things about Moby wraps and after doing some looking around found this website that shows how to make your own Moby wrap type wrap: Wear Your Baby. The site also shows different holds for the wrap, and it shows how to make a baby sling similar to the one I currently have.

I bought material and cut one of the swaths up like they instruct and then tried out some of the holds. But I am a larger and taller woman and the wrap was tight and it seemed to be uncomfortable for Davy. So I just kept using my sling and every so often tried the Moby wrap again but usually used the sling.

Then a few days ago I began talking to one of the ladies at church who also wears her babies. She has a ring sling and I was interested in how it worked and how she liked it. She loves her ring sling and even breastfeeds with it. She is a distributor of them and said that she would send me a link to the website. Well that night I went and looked around and found the website. I was interested in finding it because it had a pattern on how to make your own ring sling. Maya wrap: make your own sling I looked it over and discussed it with Kevin and he said that I should try to make one when we got a sewing machine, which is something we plan on doing sometime in the near future. In the meantime we discussed it and I decided to purchase a ring sling, which I did off of etsy.

Once I have experienced the ring sling I will post again and report on how I like it. I am looking forward to trying out nursing while having Davy in the sling, because currently I use the nursing pillow at home and just hold him when we are away from home. Having something to help support him when we are away from home will be nice.

Icky stinky diapers

So after wrestling with our diaper genie quite a few times to get the bag of stinky diapers out of it Kevin and I finally decided that enough was enough and we were going to get a different diaper pail. So yesterday we went to Target and got ourselves a Baby Trend Diaper Champ.

Last night we unpacked it and put it together and started using it and let me say right now, we love it! No more wrestling with a diaper pail to get it set up and then to empty it. The pail is set up much like a trashcan, and it takes regular 13 gallon trash bags (which cost much less than a refill canister). The way the pail works keeps the diapers away from view and from sniffers so that you don't smell the diapers or see them. And when things are full and you want to dispose of the bag you can easily take it out and throw it away, much like any trashcan out there. So nice, I recommend it to anyone looking for a diaper pail, and great thing is it is only about $29 at Target, which is not too bad considering. If you can find one from a thrift store then even better!

Hat Carrots, Love this Recipe!

So I'm not a big fan of carrots, I mean they're alright, but I found this wonderful recipe that helps make them taste a little better with the help of honey and lemon juice!

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups mini carrots, (1 pound)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

PREPARATION

Combine carrots, water, honey, butter and salt in a large skillet. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cover and cook until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring often, until the liquid is a syrupy glaze, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

To view the website where I found the recipe, click here.