Dinosaur Party!!!

 Both my boys had birthdays....Connor turned 3 and Grayson turned 1!!!!  I can't believe how fast it's going and how grown up they are already.  Since their birthdays are both the same week as Christmas (Connor the 23rd and Grayson the 31st) we had a joint birthday party this year the weekend after Christmas.  I probably won't be able to get away with joint parties for long so I'll take advantage while I can!

It's December!

I can't believe it's December already.  In 2 weeks my first born will be 3 years old!!!  And just 8 days after that my baby will be 1.  It's still sinking in that I'm a mom to TWO kids and here they go growing up on me, and way too fast.

So since their birthdays are fast approaching I thought I would take a post to write down some memories, quirks, things they do or say that make me smile....

Cranberry Orange Chutney - A Recipe

I love cranberry sauce.  Not so much the stuff that comes in a can, but the real stuff.  I've made some in the past using a recipe from a friend and it was really good.  This year for Thanksgiving, though, I decided to try something a little different and created my own recipe.  And since I'm not the best cook, imagine my surprise when it came out PERFECT.  At Thanksgiving my husband and I basically had to force people to try it because they said they didn't like cranberry sauce.  And you know what?  They LOVED mine. 

So I thought I'd share the recipe and attempt recipe writing for the first time.  If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Cranberry Orange Chutney
1 1/4 cups apple juice or apple cider
1/4 cup orange juice (fresh or not, doesn't matter)
1 cup granulated sugar (more or less to taste, we like it kind of sweet)
2 bags (about 4 cups or 1 lb) cranberries (you can use fresh or frozen)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1-2 tsp fresh orange zest

Put the apple and orange juice in a saucepan with the sugar, heat on medium-low heat stirring occasionally until sugar is completely dissolved. 

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir over medium-low heat until the cranberries collapse, about 15 minutes.  Turn heat to low and let the sauce thicken, about 5-10 minutes.  Taste to see if it needs more orange juice, spices or sugar.  Remove from heat and once it has cooled some put in a bowl or shallow dish loosely covered in the refrigerator.  Let cool and it will thicken up. 

 

 

 

Here is the sauce before taking off the heat.

If anyone tries my recipe please let me know how you liked it!

Sleeper Makeover

My baby Grayson is 9.5 months old.  He's short and he's chubby.  And he has short legs like his daddy and big brother.  What this means for clothes is it's hard to find things that fit him well.  Onesies that fit around him are too long.  Same with pants.  And sleepers are awful because his feet get pulled up in the legs and then he just gets mad being all tangled up inside his pajamas.
Well I found the PERFECT solution for this.  I mean, it's really truly brilliant.  And I really wish I could take credit for it, but I can't.  I found The Jammie Fixer Tutorial over at No Big Dill and I knew I had to try it.  I went to Joann's and they had rib knit on sale so I grabbed half a yard for just over $3.  And the amount of material I used for one pair of jammies was so small I could easily fix 10 more pairs with what I have left.  So not only is this a great fix, but it's inexpensive and easy, too.

Go check out the tutorial at No Big Dill for more details, but here are some photos of the process that I took.

Cut the foot part off of the jammies.  I did this right under the elastic in the back so that I could keep that.

I cut the rib knit, folded in half and sewed a straight line to make a tube.

 Then I folded it with the seam inside (wrong sides together), slipped it over the foot right sides together and pinned. 

 Then I did a zigzag stitch all the way around being careful to take the pins out and stretch the fabrics as I went.

A comparison of before and after.

And here's my little monkey in his jammies!  

The flash always makes him blink.

 He loves them!  They're still a little long, but the new cuff keeps them from going over his feet...and he's been crawling around in them and they have yet to go over his feet. 

PJs!

Today I made the boys matching flannel pajama pants using this tutorial to help me!  I really love the way they turned out and I adore this dinosaur construction crew fabric I got at Joanns.  Both have an elastic waist, and the baby even has elastic around the ankles to keep them from moving too much.  My husband even wants me to make him some pajama shorts with the leftover fabric (I don't have enough to make pants his size).  I think I'm going to attempt a waistband with elastic AND a separate channel for a drawstring for him using this tutorial so that he can get them tighter.  My yoga pants have seen better days and should be retired so I'm going to make myself a pair of PJ pants out of a pretty floral bed sheet I found tucked away and I'll try my hand at putting a cuff on the bottom of those.

Starting anew....again.

I know, I know, I said it all before.  I'm going to finally keep up with my blog! Only to write one post and forget about it.  But now that my baby isn't so much a baby anymore (he's almost 3!) and I have a NEW baby, I really want to have somewhere to journal all the things they do that probably nobody other than family cares about, but I want to remember forever. 

Also, someone recently gifted me a sewing machine - she had inherited it and didn't want it! - and what started out as me wanting to do small pinterest projects for the kids has turned into so so much more.  I finally have a hobby, something for me to do outside of my role as wife and mother, but something I don't have to go out of the home for (which is great because I rarely have the time to go anywhere, especially without my kids in tow).  So I want to use this blog as a way to keep up with my progress with my crafty side.

It has only been a few weeks but I've made a few things already that I'm proud of.  Most aren't good enough to sell, but good enough for a beginner like me (actually better than I had anticipated), and good enough to gift to friends and family.  I'm learning about quilting right now and I'm so intimidated by it but I have to get my feet wet at some point, right?  Reading about it and watching videos aren't going to produce a quilt, I have to actually do some sewing.  And if it turns out crappy, who cares?  I'll hopefully learn from it and do better next time...and even better the time after that.  My first goal is to get good enough to make a quilt out of the baby clothes that I have saved from my boys.