Some baby crafts

So I look at all things baby at stores and online, and realize 1) Holy, expensive... for the 3 months baby will use item. 2) Where's the boy stuff at????

I've decided to make a few things for my little Oliver. 

I can not get over how adorable these "Toms" are!! They fit him perfectly right now, so I will have to go buy more fabric and make ones slightly larger.

I can't recall if I posted about my cart cover or not, but I'm in love with it. I love taking him shopping now that he can sit up by himself. He can keep busy by either looking around at all of the things to buy, or play with some of his toys attached by the tags.

I had some towels I received as a Christmas gift from my mom a few years back that were perfect for our Master Bath. Except they weren't very absorbent. Super soft and fluffy, though! So I thought to change them into baby hooded towels. Grabbed the hand towel and sewed it onto the center of a normal towel, and Voila! Got a cute hooded towel that is sooooooo much better than the crappy microfiber hooded towels I got for Oliver earlier!

So Oliver loves to eat his Puffs grandma got for him for Christmas, but how healthy are they? They for sure have tons of ingredients that (to me) are not necessary. My little can do without some of them. So I made some of his favorite combos(sweet potato, carrot, apple, and rice) and dropped it into little bite sized pieces and froze them. They are now sitting in the freezer in a bag, ready for little hands to grab and eat. One of many plus sides? They are cold to help with achy(taking forever) teething gums!

Next on my craft to-do list? Hats for our visit to Maine in a few weeks. Maybe a few matching bibs to help with the drool?  And another pair of "Toms" :) Zeb wanted me to make him a pair too.... Maybe?
Til next time!

The food issue

I've experimented with a bit of recipes lately that I've been loving. Remember that fried rice in my last food post? Omg. My staple. I know Zeb doesn't like rice too much, but he loves the Liquid Amino I put in it(a healthier soy sauce. I recommend it. It's very salty without any salt in it!). 

It's super easy..... Garlic, a little onion(but I forget it a lot!), a small bag of frozen mixed veggies(our local grocery has a mixed bag of lima beans, corn, carrots, green beans, and peas) 2 cups of uncooked brown rice(cook it per your package- think it makes 7 cups cooked?)  pre cooked chicken if you like, 2 or 3 eggs, soy sauce, cook it all in one pot(minus uncooked rice) in that order and you're good! 

Tonight, I made homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese. Doesn't seem like anything special, but the soup has sweet potato, red pepper, onion and fire roasted tomatoes in it. Pretty good in my opinion. For not being a tomato soup gal. The grilled cheese had a few drops of Worcester sauce in it. Made the classic That much better. 

Let's see..... Shopping at Costco has gotten me to explore a little in grains. They sell a brown rice and quinoa with garlic pre packaged for 2 servings. It is soooooo good, I eat it plain. But this specific night(a few nights ago) I cooked up some red pepper, onion, asparagus, and garlic til tender, added some frozen shrimp then tossed in the pre cooked rice/quinoa pouch! OMG. I just had the (tiny bit of) leftovers today for lunch. I will dream about it until I make it again. Luckily, Costco sells all of the listed food items in bulk so I can make it over and over again!

For my birthday, I ordered lobsters to share with my family that came to Tahoe for Christmas... So for the left over lobster we made a lobster corn chowder(barefoot contessa's recipe) which was devine. I had leftovers from that, as per Zeb's request, and it was really good chowder the second night(frozen until the Master of the House got home from work).

Leftovers again from Christmas week with my family, we had beef tenderloin. The Christmas dinner I tried to reenact with twice baked potatoes and asparagus, didn't quite taste the same as what my mom did(she's a great cook), but it sufficed. We still had left over meat, and hubby wanted a beef stew... who makes beef stew with beef tenderloin!!??!!? I reluctantly made it, though. It was really good! I can't remember the recipe... And I didn't get pictures. All I remember is that there were veggies(the same veggie mix bag from the fried rice) and I added wine to it :)

As of now, I have no pictures, so I can't remember what else I made!! I've been making some purées for baby... He loves his sweet potatoes, pears, apples, zucchini, mango, and banana. I've made beets and spinach he still needs to try.

Mango mixed with rice(or oatmeal?)

Can't quite figure out how to eat puffs, but loves the package they come in!

Forgot to blog?

Sadly, I am not very good at remembering to 1)take pictures of my food/crafts 2)blog about them. Hubby is home, so I've been extra busy taking care of him along with baby and puppy. ;)

Here's my most recent projects I'm kind of proud of....

Our headboard is finished!!! I have to admit, I didn't finish it when hubby was gone(like I wanted to), but I did when he got home! At least I started it when he was gone? I needed his moral support to finish it I guess. My materials? Fabric, foam cushion, batting, glue gun to adhere to cardboard(yes!) and 3m tape to mount on the wall. Pretty impressed with the outcome.... So easy so why did I take soo long to do it?! I don't know...

Christmas wreath. Not impressed with this one at all, but I'll share my fail with you. No one reads this blog anyway, amiright? I needed to get rid of quite a few paper bags from my grocery shopping, plus I wanted a rustic Christmas wreath. I had no wreath form, so I made one with the paper bags. I then used items I had on hand to make this. Meh, it was something to decorate the door. I'll make a better one for next year.

Shopping cart cover. I needed to go to the store one day, and didn't want the baby in the car seat taking up room in the cart. So I decided I'll "whip one up quick". Ha! I recall starting at 3:45... Finished at 6. So much for the store that day(baby is in bed by 6:30). Since this has been made and used a few times, I added 3/4 inch foam cushion(leftovers from the headboard) in the seat and back rest spots(where the yellow blanket is in the picture). Haven't used it with that yet, but I think O will be a lot more confortable! Tags were added for attaching toys or just to play with. 

Til next time.

And some more craftiness

So, in between teaching baby to roll over and hearing him laugh and coo and play with his toys, I've been crafting(still). I'm pretty impressed with myself in all things craft I can actually do... So here are a few more things...

 These cute onesies.... I got my inspiration from a mug my sister nephew made me with the dots. I also got to play with my free motion on my sewing machine on the last one, it was fun, but I need a whole lot of practice. The Nevada and Minnesota ones were for friends that just had babies(MN was for a girl...).

 I've been super into making jewelry/necklaces. I'm contemplating starting up an Etsy shop...?? Follow me on Instagram @mollystrout and you can see more photos of my handmade necklaces. #DerusPopupBoutique to see even MORE!

 Oliver is into this awesome thing of, not only spitting out, but shooting out his "sucker". I have finally decided to attach that thing to him. This photo shows how far he shot it out of his mouth. Luckily, I have it attached now ;)
(this photo also shows him on his tummy... the FIRST time he was not upset I put him that way, and the first time he is actually using his arms! (plus he rolled over this day, too) One proud momma here!!!)

Now. This is a baby "bandana"/bib. I only have it on because it was a last minute(literally) gift that I whipped up because Oliver was sleeping when I was supposed to be over there giving said gift to the new baby(along with the Nevada onesie)!

Personally, I am loving everything I've been making.... I have decided to keep the 2 "Lake Tahoe" shirts for Oliver, and I'm planning on making more of these bibs(he is a MAJOR drooler)! Not to mention, the more people buy those necklaces, the more I make!
I'm off to eat my Pizza Monkey cupcakes(I'll post about it later) and watch some of my DVR. Good night, all!

Time for a little food

So, I originally started this to post about food and baby. I haven't done any food posts yet! I've done a few fun things in the kitchen but have failed to take pictures :( but, on to the ones I DID take pictures of! 

Quinoa stuffed acorn squash. Added some maple sugar, cinnamon and butter, so good!

Taco cupcakes! Meat, beans, cheese, all stuffed in a wonton wrapper placed in a cupcake pan! Pretty good!

Fried rice and cream cheese wontons. Okay. Since I made the taco cupcakes, I had a ton of wonton wrappers left over so I decided to make (baked) cream cheese wontons with them (I made 16- which I ate all of in one night-eek!) but still have more! Maybe I'll make another batch for tonight's left overs... Fried rice! P.S. Both delicious. 

Another things I've made... Chicken tetrazzini- so good! Hubby and I had it left over for the whole week though... It made so much and we could only eat a little bit for each meal....   Naughty of me, but I needed a chocolate fix, so I made homemade brownies. I think it took me 4 days to polish that pan off! Oops! 

Let's see, this mommy brain is not working! I guess I'll have to be done with my past cooking and start thinking of other meals to plan! And remember to take pictures! 

Here's a picture of my lovey, peacefully sleeping on momma...(ignore the mommy milk cleavage, ugh)

A little bit of craftiness

So I'm the type of person who thinks, "why buy _____ when I can make it for cheaper?!". Well, I've done a few projects during nap time, and sometimes while Oliver is sitting in his MamaRoo concentrating on either the black stripes or white stripes of the attached mobile. Things I've made so far...

A fall wreath... Pretty proud of this one. I love it!

My "galvanized" "fun"kin(the smaller one), I painted a funkin(fake carvable pumpkin) to look metal. My big pumpkin was a Flea Market find. I went to the Alameda Flea Market(Huge.) the first Sunday of October and got this lovely pumpkin.

A few necklaces. Up for sale if anyone wants any! All unique and customizable.

A sensory cube for Oliver. I have 3, this is just one. One has a bell in it, one has crinkle paper, and the last has nothing. Fabrics and ribbons are all different textures and patterns. 

A baby shirt made from an adult shirt. This was a long sleeved shirt of mine that was too small, so I converted the back of it to fit Oliver! Representing Daddy's ship, woot woot! ;)

Think that's it so far.... A few more items are on my list, I will post more once I get them done! I WILL do that headboard before Zeb gets home!(maybe) 

 

Your cuteness for the day

So, I take photos of Oliver every day, in the same spot(the MamaRoo) for my sisters and mother. But decided to share some of those photos with everyone! I realized the in laws were not getting any photos of him unless I posted them on Facebook. So here are my favorites so far... 

Snuggles with mommy

Snuggles with daddy before he left for work

Cheesin for the camera

Sitting all cute and being all happy

Wondering who the heck that baby is on mommas phone! 

Nap time in the crib doesn't go so well

Still unsure of that baby on mommas phone

Happy boy!