Thankful

An out take form our Christmas card shoot

Just a quick note on this lovely, cold Thanksgiving day to say how incredibly blessed my life has been and how amazed I am at my good fortune each and every day. I try really hard not to take anything I have for granted and today especially I like to really take time and appreciate the many wonderful people and things in my life.

Fist of all I am so grateful to live in this wonderful country and have a beautiful house that I love with a roof over my head and a warm bed to sleep in. I am thankful that I get to live next to my parents who are a constant source of support and guidance and are some of my very best friends (love you mom and dad!). I'm so happy I get to spend my holiday with them and that my brother can also be with us. Logan is an amazing person who I am honored to call my brother and seeing him for Thanksgiving is beyond wonderful :-)

I'm also incredibly thankful for the family Eric and I have made together. I get to be married to a man who loves me and is an amazing husband and father, sharing our lives together is a great gift. Thank you Eric for making me happy every single day. Most of all I am grateful for our beautiful daughters who have brought so much joy and love in to our lives. They are my everything and have made life better than I ever thought possible.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and I hope you all get to have a great holiday celebrating with friends and family!

Eric's New Laptop Bag

I have really gotten in to making bags over the past year and I finally had the guts to make one without a pattern. Eric got a new Macbook Air for his work and needed a lightweight bag to carry it to and from the office. He gave a me a list of requirements for the bag, it had to be well padded for protection, it needed a long long strap to fit his tall frame, it needed a pocket for the charger, pens, notebooks and what have you, and it needed to be compact and lightweight so it's easy to haul around. I looked for a tutorial for something like this online but couldn't find anything I was happy with so I just came up with this on my own.

I found some beautiful green wool felt at the fabric store and got some cotton plaid to compliment it for the pockets and lining. I basically made two rectangular bags and attached the shorter of the two to the outside for the pockets. I also sewed in some quilt batting to the outside bag for extra padding and with all the layers of thick fabric the laptop is pretty cozy in there. I was a little intimidated because I was using some hardware that I hadn't worked with before but I was able to look at pictures of bags online to figure out how to put it all together and the brown cotton webbing I picked up for the strap is sturdy and attractive. All in all not bad for my first laptop cases and first bag with no pattern :-)

October Photos

 So much happened this October! I feel like we are really making to most of Fall this year and have gotten to do so many things, including Halloween parties, a trip to the beach, several visits to the botanical gardens, and a corn maze!I had so many pictures from this month I had to cut a lot so if you want to see more be sure to check out my shutterfly here :-)

Botanical Gardens, Echo is really in to the kids area now.

Sunday in the park festival at Oakland cemetery 

Sunday in the park festival at Oakland cemetery 

More botanical gardens

Clover's first trip to the beach!

First road trip in the new car was a success! 

Clover holding a clover flower on the beltline trail

Checking out the horses at the corn maze

Echo had her first pony ride and loved it!

Us in our halloween costumes, Wizard of Oz theme

Trick or treating on Halloween, she didn't want to wear her pigtails that day but she brought along her basket and stuffed wolf who she has named Toto 

DIY Reusable Food wrap

I promise I will be getting our October photos up soon but first, DIY reusable food wrap! With the weather getting colder I have been feeling more and more like crafting and baking and this is a project I have been wanting to try for a long time. I'm sorry for the horrific picture, it was taken in the early morning hours when it was still dark outside since that's the only time I get to myself these days ;-)

This idea is simple but so cool. You just cut a square (or rectangle, whatever shape you need) or fabric and grate some beeswax on top with a cheese grater. Try to get the wax shavings evenly spread out and not too thick. I started slow and added more wax as I needed it because you don't want to over wax your fabric. Then all you need to do is put your fabric on a foil lined cookie sheet and pop it in a warm oven. I just stuck it in while I was preheating my oven for some bread baking. It won't take long to melt but you need to check it to make sure the fabric is saturated with wax. If you need to spread some wax around, use a stiff paint brush to help get the spots you missed. Let the wrap cool and then you can wrap it around anything you want to help keep it fresh. I have been using mine for bread and it works great!

I plan to make more in the future and hopefully help reduce our need for plastic wrap down the road, this is prettier, cheaper, more environmentally friendly and smells like beeswax so it's an all around win!

DIY Mei Tai Baby Carrier

One this I never used much when I had my first baby was a baby carrier. I loved the idea of baby wearing but I never found a carrier that was comfortable and it seemed easier just to carry her in my arms. I didn't want to shell out a bunch of money trying to find the right carrier (this things can be pricey!) so I just gave up on the idea. With baby number two I decided to give it another go however. I figured I would need my hands free to do things with Echo so I might use a carrier more (boy was I right!). I started off with a soft stretch structured carrier that I really liked, it was comfortable and easy to put on. The only problem was that as Clover started to near 13 or 14 pounds it started to sag and it just wasn't working for us any more.

Being the crafty (and cheap) girl that I am I decided to try to make my own carrier. I have had several friends that had Mei Tai style carriers and really liked them. They seemed simple to put on and the design was easy to make so I whipped out some extra fabric I had leftover from our wedding (I've gotten so much use out of this stuff!) and found an online tutorial to follow. There are a ton of tutorials for homemade Mei Tais out there but the one I used can be found here. The instructions are really clear and easy and it took me no time to put it together.

Honestly it has been a godsend, I can wear Clover when she starts to get fussy and it will put her to sleep so i can cook dinner. It's amazing for grocery shopping because I can wear her and still have two hands to push the cart, plus it leaves the seat on the cart open for Echo! It's kind of crazy how expensive theses carriers can be when they are so simple to make! Just be sure that if you make your own you reinforce your straps and use a nice sturdy fabric, safety first!

Clover seems to really like this carrier and it's really comfortable because of how evenly it distributes the weight across your back. Winter is the perfect time to wear your baby too, they are so snuggly and warm! My advice would be to not be intimidated by baby wearing and to give it a shot. It's not right for every mom (or every baby) but if your baby likes it it can really save your sanity and help you get stuff done! Also, if you are at all crafty think about making your own carrier, I was amazed at how simple it can be!