Charity Quilt

quilt

No pictures...

I'm not going to post pictures for privacy/security reasons, but in the last few weeks, we've been sick, had a visit from my bro, trimmed all of the trees on the property, woodchipped allsaid limbs, finished the walkpaths with said woodchips, and finished painting the entire inside of the house.  Yay for being more ready to put the house on the market.  There is a medical procedure happening next week so I'm not sire how much else we will accomplish because the following week my BFF comes out and then we will be moving the following week, but we shall see...

Shave Cream. So simple. So fun.

  I actually ddon't use ahaving cream since I'm using up the natural shampoo and conditioner that they changed the formula of ajd it no longer works with my hair.  Totally worth the $2

Daily Journal

It will be boring this year, but next year I will be writing new things on the day where I can read aomething fun that happened this year (and each additional year will be more awesome).  Great for someone like me who doesn't do well journaling big amounts

Throw Pillows for a present

Quilters Ironing Boards

This past week, we made six ironing boards that are bigger and squarw for quilting.  I, personally, hate ironing...especially when I have to keep moving my squares so they fit on the thin ironing board.  We got heat resistant wood, wrapped in towel, wrapped in fqbric.  Yay!

Gobbledy Gook

Today, instead of preschool, we made some gobbledy gook (qc corn starxh to q/3 c dish soap.

TV stand

Here Iis the tv stand we made for my dad (including handprints of each of the boys) for the camper.  It has been on the list for a year and now things can finally be watched during vacations.  It did take way longer tuan I was expecting, but we all really love the results

Christmas Blessings Jar

It may be small, but here's another thing we're doing off of Pinterest.  I decided to start with a really small jar to see if I'll actually stick to it.  I rarely have cash with me, but have since I closed out the local account.  So all of the loose change I have will be going into this jar.  By Christmas-time, I'm hoping to have graduated to a mason jar (or similar size/something nicer looking) and we'll find someone to bless with the jar of cash.  It may not end up being a whole heck of a lot, but it'll still be a blessing.

A few small projects

This week, the only thing we've *finished* is green goddess dressing.  It wasn't that great, I'll be honest.  We threw out the rest.  It *may* have been because we used a bit too much avocado.  The next time, I'd probably make an easier dressing as this one took probably a half hour just for the dressing.  BUT the grilled lettuce was *amazing* both times we made it.  It sounds weird/gross, but throwing some lettuce on the grill for a few minutes each side is quite tasty!  We like it most with Italian dressing as opposed to the green goddess.

*Hopefully* within the next half week, we'll be able to post the burp rags, swaddle blankets, snugglies we've made for the craft fair and the NICU and/or the quilt and/or the garden tower...but we'll just see what all we can get done.  It's much harder than we thought trying to do "just one" project a week when you have a lot going on that week...

Ice Cream Cake

Another project.  Homemade Ice Cream Cake.  Pretty much you take ice cream sandwiches as the cake layers and use/make cool whip as the frosting between the layers/on the outside.  Caitlin likes Oreo Blizzards, so we put crushed Oreos on top and some caramel drizzle...and Devin wanted the candies that spell out Happy Birthday, so we threw those on there too.  You could do other drizzles, chocolate chunks or shreds, other crushed candies, mini m&ms, or just about anything that would do well on top of ice cream, I'd say.
The good:  Everyone loved it (save for me who thought it was just okay...but that may be because I don't really enjoy vanilla ice cream).  It really didn't (couldn't) take long to make.
The bad:  It melts.  It melts quickly.  So I'd strongly suggest your whipped cream concoction is entirely thawed (if you use coolwhip instead of making it yourself) and your ice cream sandwiches are totally frozen (aka I should have put them in the freezer for a half hour after getting back from the store) when trying to put it together.  Also: It's hard to square them up entirely, so you'll either have a slightly off cake or you'll have to cut some sandwiches to make it a square.
Overall, I may do it again.  Maybe for Hubby (who also likes ice cream cakes) but if it were just me, I'd pass and just cram my face with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.

Our Goals and the starting week

After being inspired by our friend Dana, my mom and I decided that during our visit together, we'd try and accomplish one project per week as an outlet for our creativity (and to try new things).  We have yet to decide if this is in addition to the quilting we'll likely be doing or if finishing a quilt would be our project for the week.  We've got everything from kiddo projects, to gardening projects, to around-the-house projects, to gift-type projects.  We'll see what we choose each week.  This should be fun though.

Week One: 
*Blackout curtains for the guest bedroom. 
Pretty simple design with a cutesy fabric on one side and ray-blocking fabric on the other.
*Whipped Coconut Oil Body Butter. 
At first, we only did about two cups of coconut oil, but liked it so much that we threw in the rest of the jar.  We didn't add any essential oils this time, but would consider doing that the next time we whip up a batch.  Pretty much all we had to do was scoop the coconut oil into the standing mixer and put it on high for 7'ish minutes.  Then scoop into an airtight container.  It's so smooth, so we get the benefits of coconut oil without the frustration of trying to scrape some out of the jar b/c it's so thick normally.
*Baby swaddler for a chunky two month old who can escape from the Big Baby swaddlers.
This one was inspired by my two month old, Hux.  He's two months old, but 15 lbs.  He no longer fits in his Halo Swaddlers, so I bought a Big Baby Swaddleme.  It took him less than a night to figure out how to get one arm free from that, even when I velcroed it as tight as it would go.  I thought I was brilliant when I swaddled both arms both times, but he could still escape.  Then I thought I was smart because I safety pinned the side where he kept getting free.  No need to worry.  He started getting free on the other side.  That's when I decided I should just spend the $30 (which seems absurd) on a Woombie...  Oh wait.  I remember wanting to try to make something similar from the jersey pillowcase I had earmarked for that.  Yay!  But THEN I saw something that seemed even easier!  So we went to Costco and bought one of their organic footie sleeper outfits (with a zipper).  I simply rubber banded the arms shut and zipped it up with his arms next to his belly.  The bright side: it totally works better than the $12 Swaddleme.  The downside:  The smallest size they had was 12 months.  It's pretty tight on the zippered leg, but somewhat loose in the torso and the neck hole is bigger than I was hoping (he's gotten *part* of his hand out twice).  I'm thinking I may go to Target or something soon to do the same thing with a 9 mo outfit.  Note:  I could easily sew off both of the arms to make it look nice, but I like how when I'm done using it as a swaddler, I'll be able to unband the arms and use it as a sleeper outfit.  Note two:  You cannot make this work with the pull over the head sleeper outfits (the ones with elastic at the bottom for easy diaper changes).  Because it's a pullover, the neckhole is WAY too big to make it even semi-work

Pictures to follow