Homemade Baby Love

Right after LilE was born, my SIL sent us a personalized paci clip. I loved it! Since my girl loved her paci, I never had to go hunting for it or washing it off when it hit the floor at the grocery store. Perfect. I decided I could make them for others as a gift. Here are some directions.

I started copying them just as the one I had received, but (after this pic was taken) I have since started to sew the ribbon together instead of using the snaps. It makes it easier to use with whatever paci your baby uses (including the Soothie).

I have also made a hooded towel for a friend. I love the big towels because they are super fluffy for the newborn, but big enough to last into the preschool years. Here is one similar to what I have made.

I have a few other projects I would like to try out as I am on the hunt for a new "signature" gift for all my mommy friends.

Burp Clothes or Burp Clothes (depending on which direction you like your fabric)
Hooter Hiders

Soft Changing Pad or Vinyl Changing Pad

Diaper and Wipe Case 

Paci Clips made from fabric

What is your favorite homemade baby gift?

The Gift of Closet Organization

I wrote a post last year about hosting baby showers and the gifts I like to give at showers. I wish I had more brilliant ideas, but my favorite gift to give new moms is one of the gifts I mentioned in that post. I still love to make closet dividers for a new mom. You can see the post that was my original inspiration here.

There are so many reasons these are a great gift. They can be personalized to match the nursery theme or colors, but being hidden in a closet they don't have to match exactly. They are very unusual and a new mom probably won't be receiving more than 1 set of these. And finally, they are so practical. I even just finished making myself a "pink" set for our new baby's closet! It's so easy to lose outfits that your baby hardly wears in a closet full of clothes. The next thing you know they've outgrown things they never even wore! This gift makes sorting and organizing so much easier. I often pair a set of these with a package of diapers or a box of thank you cards. Also, both very practical gifts that a new mother will definitely use.

What's the most unusual or practical baby gift you received as a new mom?

The Gift of Help

When I was a new mom, the absolute hardest thing for me was feeding my babies. I felt completely overwhelmed by what to feed them, when to start, how to know if they had food allergies, when to wean..... ugh! Just thinking about it reminds me how hard it was.

Two books that really helped me were Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron and The Healthy Baby Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel. I made most the the food my babies ate. Super Baby Food helped me understand what foods were rich in certain vitamins and how to make sure the boys were getting all they needed. The Healthy Baby Meal Planner gives lots of recipes as your child gets older and can eat food combinations. You may already know that blueberries and peaches are really good together, but what about green beans with tomato sauce? That was my oldest son's favorite!

These books are my favorite and most helpful gift idea for mom and baby!
 

This Week: Something Blue... or Pink!

This week we'll be sharing our favorite gifts for new babies- whether they will be wearing blue or pink! From what we think are must-haves for moms to items that are just for fun, you'll find great gift ideas for any moms-to-be you know.

Starting next week, we'll be reposting our favorite Today's Housewife posts! We've been blogging here for two years so we have lots in the archives you may have never read. We'll still be interacting on Facebook and Twitter along with answering your emails, but we'll be taking a "vacation" from posting anything new. August 2nd we'll be back with new topics and lots more to say! Thanks for understanding our need for a break!!

Everyday Food: A Good Thing

Disclaimer: In no way, shape or form do I promote the perfectionistic (is that a word?) ideals of one, Ms. Martha Stewart. Nor, do I deem Ms. Stewart's actions or business practices to be a model to follow in one's personal life. Empires rise and fall,but Ms. Stewart seems to be a breed of another kind whose crafting, cooking, gardening, partying ideas will reign on in posterity for many years. Having stated such facts I neither condone nor practice every single task in the Home Keeping Handbook or Martha Stewart's Living magazine and I think that's a good thing.

Ok, so on to my borrowed...now that I've gotten that off of my chest!

The reason I made my disclaimer is because I have "borrowed" more than my fair share of recipes from Everyday Food (EDF) magazine. Yes, that is a Martha Stewart publication. Yes, my husband reminds me of that each time it arrives in our mailbox. You can find EDF on the grocery store magazine rack or get it sent straight to your home. The magazines are small and look pretty sitting on a kitchen shelf. They are filled with healthy, delicious recipes that use common ingredients and introduce you to some new ingredients that maybe you've seen at the grocery store but thought "What in the world would I use that for?"



Here are just a few of the delicious recipes that I have gleaned from EDF:

Light Chicken Parmesan
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies- This is the cookie recipe that I swear by!
Baked Ziti
Chicken Enchiladas with Creamy Green Sauce
Marinated Greek Chicken

Most of the EDF recipes get put on the Martha Stewart website, but it is really nice to have them handy in the magazine. I have given subscriptions to friends and family members and they always tell me how much they enjoy EDF. It is just that good and it is like getting a present in the mail each month! You can also catch the Everyday Food cooking show on PBS!

So there it is. I heart Everyday Food! Each time I've sidled up to the stove without a plan my Everyday Food magazine has been there to offer fresh inspiration and ideas!

~Jessica

P. S. I hope that I have not offended any die-hard Martha fans. Truth is I'm a closet fan...did I just say that? I take it back...I didn't mean it...Oh, the denial.

365 Project

This week I am borrowing a borrowed idea. My cousin posted about the 365 Project she had started back in May. I was intrigued, so I followed her links and found out what it is all about.

What is the 365 Project?
"The 365 project aims to collect photos documenting 1 year of your life. We want to build a picture of the little day to day things that make your life so special and unique. Everyone can take part and join in! All you need is a camera." -365project.org

Why am I doing it?
The short answer:
1. To learn how to take better pictures
2. To document the entire year in pictures

The long answer:
My camera died a few weeks back. I love my camera. Friends joke that I am the photographer of the bunch. Well, to be honest, I like the auto function best. No thinking, just clicking. And when my camera died, I didn't know what to do with myself. I felt like I was unable to capture life as it was happening. We thought and decided to take a plunge and get a really snazzy camera--last week. Then I started to wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew, but JD reminded me that I was going to learn how to use it.

After seeing the 365 Project, I decided it is the best and cheapest way for me to be using my camera every day and fiddling with all the settings to get a desired look. I am really excited about the potential!

My life does revolve around a very special 4 year old, so I am having to put some restrictions on the subject matter of my project. I would like to take one picture of her each week. (As you can tell from the pics from my first four days above, I have already failed!) And I also want to document my family once a month. Other than that, I want my pictures to revolve around what we do, not necessarily who is there. Now don't get me wrong, there will be more than one picture taken each day and people will be in these pictures, but the Project pictures will have these restrictions on them. And since it is my project, I can do what I want to! But here are some other tips to get you started.

Now don't be scared away from borrowing this idea too. And you don't have to have a big beast of a camera. Your point and shoot will work just fine! Who's going to join me?

Borrowed Cookie Recipe

A little over a year ago I stumbled upon a little blog called Bake at 350. It has changed my baking life (and my waistline, sadly.) I'd always seen creative cookies and cakes but my attempts had been disastrous. (I still don't do cupcakes. They never turn out cute for me!) But I decided to give cookie making one more try and now I'm loving it. I use this recipe for the cookies and this recipe/technique for the icing. Be sure and save yourself a few undecorated cookies to eat because the plain cookies are just so darn good.

Here are a few of my favorite projects: (Very few of these are original ideas! I'm all about borrowing - with credit, of course!) Be sure and take a look at my cookies first, because once you see Bridget's cookies you will not be impressed with mine!

My first attempt at a large-scale project was 6 dozen of these angel cookies individually wrapped for our annual Submarine Wives Christmas Angel Tea.

Submarine themed cookie bouquet for an auction near Valentine's Day. (One of my few original creations. I even drew my own template and hand-cut each submarine.)

Valentine's Day cookies

Cookies for a little boy baby shower

Cookies for a "Pickles and Ice Cream" shower. This idea came from Bake at 350, once again!

More baby shower cookies! This idea came from an episode of Martha Stewart.

I'm always looking for more cookie ideas to borrow! Any suggestions for other blogs I should follow?

A Place for Prayers

I borrowed this idea from my on-line friend Brooke who writes at A Life in Need of Change and The M.O.B. Society (mothers of boys!). She challenged her readers to writes prayers for their children based on Scripture passages. Then she challenged us to pray for our children everyday. Then (wait for it... wait for it as my four year old would say!) she shared that she taped the prayers she prays for her boys on their bedroom doors! Brilliant! 

For David, my 4 year old I pray 2 Thess. 1:11, "We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power." And a verse that we are working on together, Phil. 2:14, "Do all things with out arguing or complaining."

For James, my 2 year old, I pray Luke 2:40, "And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him." This verse is of course describing Jesus, but my James is a little guy for his age, so I do want him to become strong and this verse sums up everything I want for him.

I also pray for Joel, the little boy we are adopting from Ethiopia. The primary verse I pray for him is Psalm 57:2, "I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me." I know God has a purpose for the little boy who He will set in our family as a son and brother. 

I'm so glad Brooke wrote about the prayers she prays for her boys and that she tapes them to their doors! It's such an honor to pray over them as they sleep!

Blog Auction

Over at Sandra's family blog, they are holding an auction to raise money for their adoption! You can bid on this cute tank Kama made, or the sweet dress KLee sewed. But  you may not want to bid against Alicia on the necklace from Lisa Leonard!

There are 13 items to bid on and shipping is included in the bid price. You can get some great deals! Bidding ends at 10:00pm tonight! Start at the instructions if you're interested. And thank you for helping bring a little boy home to a forever family!

The Liberian Fashionista or My Favorite New Skirt/Dress Thing

Since I am just a guest blogger here on Today's Housewife most of you don't know much about me unless you have skipped on over to one of my blogs or followed me on twitter. If you head over to The Hoovers: Liberia Bound you can read more about the big adventure to Liberia, West Africa that my husband and I are about to embark on in just a few short months. Due to the massive life change that is about to take place my days consist of getting rid of the non-essentials and packing up everything that we want to store. Not an easy job!

Then there is the whole "Well, what do we take to wear to a rainy, swelteringly hot country?" I was told by a friend who has spent time in Liberia to bring something nice for church. Liberian women LOVE fashion and there is no better place to show off your duds than in church and boy do they! Thus, began my search for something comfortable but beautiful to wear. I came across these Jedzebel skirts at our local artist's flea market. The fabrics were lightweight and absolutely gorgeous! Turns out all the skirts are made out of recycled sari fabrics from India. My husband was sweet enough to surprise me with one for my birthday. I wore it for the first time last weekend and it was incredibly light and comfortable! Now I want to buy a dozen more!

The great thing about these skirts is that they can be tied half a dozen different ways to create many different looks. Here are a couple!


Look 1- Doesn't that raspberry color just kill you? Me too.


Look 2- My favorite!


Look 3- Yes, it's a dress now!


Finally, here I am, all 4'11" of me...no that isn't just the camera angle...

I haven't bought another one yet, but I am eying a couple on ebay!

Any other suggestions about comfortable, lightweight, travel hearty clothing?

My New Favorite Outdoor Activity

It is HOT here. Upper 90s for the past two weeks with heat index in the 100s. Not necessarily the best timing for this activity, but we have been enjoying our mornings and evenings outside going on treasure hunts.

Last spring I posted about how I wanted to try Letterboxing. And some how I blinked my eyes and a year had passed by and we still hadn't tried it. I was determined this would be our year. Our summer. And we have had success!

In a nutshell, because you can get the longer more detailed version here, you create a "trail" name for your family, pick a rubber stamp and pad, find a journal, get online and find your destination/clues, get in the car, and go, hunt, and stamp. It is mostly an outdoor activity, but I found 20+ indoors in our area, including the libraries, making it a rainy day activity as well. And, if it wasn't great already, it is something we can do while on vacation as well.

Our family has been packing a lunch each time. It is promoting family time and education. We are able to teach about following directions and also a little history the couple of times we have been out. While in a Veteran's Park we talked about how soldiers have to fight for our freedom and prayed for the soldiers and their families.

For us, Letterboxing has been about being more intentional with our time together as a family. Not about doing "stuff" around the house, but being outdoors in God's creation (and heat). It is simple, yet sometimes challenging. Sometimes we find the box, sometimes we don't. But as with life, sometimes God says yes, sometimes he says no. We have found some great life lessons and we have been at it for less than a month.

My Favorite New Album

Growing up in Texas I have developed a love for country music. And I'm always looking for music that I can listen to with my boys. Most of the time they actually prefer "grown up" music to the kid's albums I have. But I also try to be very conscious of the lyrical content. One of my new favorite country artists is Easton Corbin. He has a smooth, old-school sound that reminds me of George Strait. There's no hint of pop here either. The whole album is unapologetically country to the core. His first single, "A Little More Country Than That" is one of Mark's favorite songs. There are 2-3 songs that mention drinking of some kind, but most of the cuts are very family friendly and just great music. If you like country music and are looking for something new and fun to listen to this summer, you should check out this album.

On a completely other note, if country music isn't your "thing", I made the BEST oatmeal cookies I've ever made yesterday with this NEW recipe!

Do you have any other suggestions for good "grown up" music that's also appropriate for little ears?

My Favorite New Skill

... roasting a chicken! This certainly falls under the "why didn't I try this before" category!

Since we are tightening the budget saving money for our adoption, we are only grocery shopping every other week (instead of every week and every time I say, "Can you stop at the store on your way home?"). I've tried to use menu planning and coupons to keep the cost down.

So I was brave one day at the grocery store and bought an entire chicken. I consulted The Joy of Cooking and decided to roast it. I just rub with salt and bake away! I do it early in the morning when the house is the coolest because it roasts for an hour and a half (ish).

Lee used to work at Boston Market, so he's a pro at cutting it up and "picking" it. (Side note, I just put "chicken picking" into Swag Bucks and it's a country music guitar style. Who knew?) We get about four meals from each chicken. It's much more economical than just buying chicken breasts!

Have you tried anything new in the kitchen lately?

This Week: Something New

This week we are sharing some our new favorites things! Favorite books, projects, ideas... you'll have to check in each day just to see what's new!

Accidental Antique Coffee Table

I've always had an eye for the unusual. So when it came time to furnish our first apartment as a married couple it was inevitable that I would put my own spin on your typical decor. My husband can tell when I have thought of the exact way I want something to look. He usually gets this "Oh, no" look on his face because he knows that I will not rest until what I see in my mind's eye becomes a reality. The only consolation is that I am unbearably frugal so he knows that my project will be done on the cheap. He learned all of this very early on!

A few weeks before our wedding we were scouring the county to find odds and ends to fill our apartment with. I decided that I wanted a ginormous old trunk for a coffee table so off we set to the flea market to see what we could find. Buried under old china and dusty books we found just what we were looking for. Ok, let's be honest it was just what I was looking for because my wonderful husband-to-be could not have cared less. I offered the vendor $20 and he said
"Sold!"



We loaded it up and the rest is history...literally...

We got it home and opened it up. The thick scent of cedar wafted out as we looked inside to see real wood and antique wall paper still in relatively good condition. Seashells and sand came sifting out the bottom much to our surprise. We figure it must have been across the ocean a time or two, but we've never been able to find out much about it's origins. All we know is that it is old...really old...maybe even Antique's Roadshow worthy old!



Since that time we have lounged on our couch with our feet resting on top of the trunk. We have spilled drinks and who knows what else on it more than a few times. Our cat regularly crouches on it to catch nature shows on PBS. We have melted the equivalent of 40 candles on it accidentally. It has done everything else that a regular old coffee table could have done and more and it makes me glad to know that we have been a good retirement home for a trunk that has seen the world!

~Jessica

Trains

When I think old, I think Trains....Huh, you ask? I know it doesn't make sense, but hang in there, it's logical I promise.

You see, I love trains. I love watching them travel down the tracks. I love taking a glimpse of a train yard full of engines and boxcars. I love listening to their whistles. My grandfather started as a fireman (steam engine) before he became an engineer for Texas and Pacific Railroad (later becoming Missouri Pacific). As a child I remember all the train paraphernalia in their home. It was just a part of who they were. Ticket prices, train spikes, pieces of rail, games, lanterns, black and white engine photos, and hand drawn pictures, to name just a few. And to top it all off there were sounds in their home too: "I've Been Working on the Railroad" was the tune when their doorbell rang, as well as the sounds of real train whistles and boxcars traveling on the tracks a short block away.

My grandpa passed away when I was 16. But the house remained exactly the same for the next 15 years, until my grandma was able to meet her Creator in 2007. At that time we were able to pick out bits and pieces from the house that were meaningful to each of us. I knew that I wanted a piece of train-anything in my home to remember them each time I glanced at it.

I mentioned they had lanterns in their home, lots of lanterns. I received one of them, along with some other train items. This one is a 1925 Norfolk and Western lantern. Compared to my life, this is pretty old.

What am I going to do with this old lantern? I am not really sure at this point. I would love to decorate a little boy's room with trains. Or maybe a playroom, if we would be so lucky to have one someday. Maybe redo our office and put bits and pieces of our family history out to share with guests. No matter where I put this old lantern, it will remind me of trains and of course my loving grandparents.