SUPER simple, fun, practical, (one of the best gifts we got) gifts for babies / kids!!!!

Two and 1/2 years ago when I was prego with our first peanut (C), we received a gift.  It was a simple blue towel with a hood and a ribbon on top of that hood that said "Jesus loves me, this I know". We both loved the gift for our little man but did not realize JUST how much we would be lovin that thing!! As we now have experienced many-a-time, after ANY bath that the beloved blue towel is not clean, C shivers and cries "I FREEZIN"!!! Poor little guy! This is the INSPIRATION for this fun DIY gift-eroo!

Because before you know it those babies grow and they SURELY do NOT fit in the store bought multi-pack Gerber hooded towels. Our littlest peanut, Q's little cheekies have been hanging for months now! Looks like Momma needs to get to work for our house too! (This will be another project with our old white towels we need replacements for in the very near future).

Anyways back to the DIY gift. We are still lovin every piece of that baby gift we got so long ago and I imagine that we will be continuing to love that gift until about age 6 or 7. Wow!! TALK about longevity when it comes to a gift for a new baby or young child!!!!

Currently we have LOTS of friends having babies, mostly second babies (so I am making one towel for the new babies and one for big brother or sister). I have wanted to do this for a long time but need to 1. own a sewing machine (even if it is an ol'bitty) and 2. figure that ol'bitty out. Now that I had done both it was time to give it a go and make some awesome hooded towelness for our friends kiddlets. 

Here is how it went.

Attempt #1 (FLOP)

The hood was too big and it looked drastically out of proportion, hmmmm..... I realized I needed to sew a seam / hem in the front of the hood, this gave it a finished look and shortened the hood at the same time! YAHOO!!

Attempt # 2 (SUCCESS):

1. Fold long side of hand towel in about 3 1/2 to 4 inches, sew. This will be the front of the hood, adding the hem makes it look finished and corrects the proportions of the hood and towel

2. Fold towel in half, sew the second long side together (the side that is NOT hemmed)

3. Sew hand towel to big towel in the center, by attaching the two short sides folded out and with the point of the seam up and the sewn together side in the center (see pics below)

4. Place stencil in center of big towel, secure edges with clear packaging tape, spray stencil with fabric stencil paint

     

OR
DECORATE however you see fit!!

GET CREATIVE!

TAAAADAAAA!!!!!!

All in all each hooded towel cost about $10, not too bad.... however, in the future I will be hunting for towels on clearance and stock up for gifts and will NOT be paying retail. At this point in time I only paid full price ($5 for big, $4 for hand) because I couldn't pass up on the SUPER CUTE stripped towel funness that Target had to offer. 

Not too bad considering some of the larger hood towels that are for sale at boutiques and online are about $25 buckeroos and personalized hooded towels run closer to $40.

These from PB Kids are $39.50 a POP! YIKES! Really cute though!


Fantastic! From Moonbeam Baby, But cost $33.95 personalized

All in all this was a simple (towel took about 15 minutes total START TO FINISH), fun, personalized and handmade gift I am SO EXCITED to give!  Nothing is better than giving or getting a DIY gift that's practical, fun, cute and can be enjoyed for YEARS!!!

Here's the finished product being modeled by C =)

That's my Shiny ~

J

A Little Lemon Whimsy

Well the freebie find "garbage diving" highchair, that I previously posted about here, is now painted, complete and being used by our little peanut daily! It turned out great! It was a bit of a slow go at first. The can of spray paint I purchased of Rustoleum Sun Yellow didn't work properly and I spent too much time shaking and the nozzle kept clogging. We got things moving once I found the PERFECT fabric for the seat cushion and got a new can of paint.  

HERE SHE BE ~

BEFORE:

DURING:

This was the slow part using the faulty can of spray paint

CAN YOU BELIEVE I found this AWESOME lemon fabric?! It was almost like I picked the fabric first then picked the paint (this would have been the smarter route) but I picked the paint first and hoped some suitable fabric would follow. This is more than suitable it's PERFECTION!!!

AFTER:

I used quilt edging for the ties and the buckle. These old school highchairs don't have a safety guard to keep the little buggers from sliding under the tray, so I added straps on either side and one in the middle with a loop, adding a belt buckle thingy purchased at Joann's along with the fabric, batting and quilt edging.

 For the seat cushions I bought a pre-cut piece of outdoor dense batting that is washable and mildew resistant, this well DEFINITELY NEED to be washed a time or two. I cut it to size for the back and bottom cushion. I then made a basic cover using the fabric, sewing three sides inserting the batting and then closing the last side by hand.

So there you have it a piece garbage is now a little piece of sunny yellow in our dining room, fun and lemon whimsy! Oh yea, the best part, this project cost about $11.00 TOTAL!!! I spent $3 on the spray paint and $8.00 at Joann Fabric on fabric, batting, buckles and quilt binding (this would have been more but I utilized several of their AMAZING coupons!!) and I have fabric left over too, hmmmm I will have to think about how to use this on another project!

P.S. See you later large, chunky, ANNOYING, plastic Chico highchair!

That's my Shiny ~

J

What's your Ball?

In a quiet house while watching House Hunter's International I saw the new Ball Jar Commercial. The commerical made me smile and think how VERY much I love my own (small) ball jar collection. I do love a good ball jar and I know I am NOT the only one! I prefer my ball in blue and with a glass top not the metal. I use these for extra color and food storage on my kitchen counter. Food can be so beautiful when displayed and I just love the way my blue ball jars showcase things like chocolate chips and whole wheat penne.


I only have a small collection at this point because I am a little picky and want a variety of sizes, in the blue color and with the glass tops, not the easiest to find (and did I mention for a good price?). I currently have five and I am ALWAYS looking for more, I have a few of the good ole" clear with metal lids. These I use to store food in the fridge ( I try to avoid plastic food storage where possible) or to store baby food. At this point I haven't done any traditional canning but this year might be a first with our CSA veggies, I'll keep ya posted.

Among the ladies I know who cook or antique most have a few or avidly collect ball jars and each seem to use their jars for different functions around their homes. I just love when something practical becomes something beautiful! The ball jar is a perfect example of just that! Do think the Ball Brother's ever would have thought that 132 years (see the incredible timeline of the company here) later their jars would be a coveted utensil in the modern 2011 home?

What's your ball?

Here's a few of my fav creations:

Isn't this wall of ball jars and flowers just GORGEOUS!

I love the use of chains and the different height of the jars, the how to can be found here (click on photo for link):

What a unique light a little modern a little vintage, LOVE!

What a beautiful way to store craft or office supplies

That's my Shiny -

J

A Barn Sale, Hoarders and Two Pickles, OH MY!!!

*photo courtesy of Maggie Smith / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A few weeks back one of my girlfriends called and asked me to go to a barn sale, I was thrilled! So Saturday morning arrived and my little Q and I packed up and headed to the sale.  The day turned out to be quite an amazing ADVENTURE!!

The barn sale was a score, there were hand made things, vintage things and lots of random things and THIS GIRL WALKED AWAY WITH A GREAT THING!! I found an antique head board for Q's someday big girl room, for 18 bukeroos!!! SCORE!! The best part is that it's beautiful as is and doesn't need to be refinished or painted (however, that does not mean that this won't happen, right now I am thinking coral).

As we were checking out at the barn sale we overheard people chattering about another sale down the road with A LOT of furniture, I did hear the word "hoarders" in the chatter as well, but I was being optimistic and thought "oh they probably just like to collect things, and are just purging". Well I WAS WRONG!! I officially saw and went into a house fit to be on A&E, the things in the front yard were enough alone but the inside, oh the inside, was indescribable and NOT SANITARY!!! We got out of dodge fast, I am sure there were treasures to be found though. Like an old brass lamp I saw with a great drum shade that I am sure could have been updated with a little spray paint and fabric, or some cool old scrolly frames that could have been revamped with some paint but I couldn't stand the smell or the possible bacteria lurking to dig through the HOARD. Literally there was a hoard and I can't possibly imagine this home livable, but I think it was, ICK to the Y! I do, however feel a little special that I witnessed the sensation of hoarding!! On top of witnessing the sensation I also scored a great solid wood bookshelf for only $10! My score will need a little love and some paint.

(this beauty will be white with possibly deep blue gray on the bottom of each cubby)

So now the task of squeezing a headboard, bed rails a book shelf and a baby in our crossover SUV was another feat in itself. With A LOT OF maneuvering and some help from my friend and the hoarder we fit it all, except the baby!! So Q got to ride with our good friend to finish the rest of the journey. Which included an awesome stop at the local farmers market were we picked up two homemade GINORMOUS organic pickles for my two best boys as a delicious summer snack!!!

Oh here's another score from the week, I found this highchair by the side of the road AS GARBAGE!!! SAY WHAT!!! Stay tuned for bookshelf and highchair project updates! Can't wait!

(This little lovely will be yellow)

That's my Shiny -

J

Chard to Figure Out & Other Recipe Adventures

We have been diving into our CSA veggies every Tuesday exploring the new additions and contemplating uses for the repeat veggies.  This week our share included chard (week 2), Kale (week 2), radishes (week 4), garlic spirals (week 2), STRAWBERRIES (week 1) and red leaf lettuce (week 2).

(this is a photo of chard, aren't the colors AMAZING!)

Before we began CSAing (this is our first year) I have never been in the same room with, let alone cooked things like chard or garlic spirals... However, in the last several years I have become much more of a confident cook and now don't always need to follow a recipe and I can usually whip something together pretty quickly just from our pantry. This fact has helped me thus far with the CSA adventure. Also what ALWAYS helps me is to create a meal plan and shopping list for the week (this is my sanity and BUDGET SAVER!). 

We pick-up our veggie share on Tuesday, meal plan and go grocery shopping on Wednesday. This has also resulted in finding lots of great new recipes which is always UBER FUN! So now, when I am using my favorite cooking sites (wwww.tastykitchen.com and www.rachelray.com) I can use NEW ingredients in the handy "recipe finder by ingredient tool" (sorry chicken maybe next time, lets give the other guys a few hu?)

So far we have had only one MAJOR CRUNCHY CSA blunder, eegggh hu yea, red leaf lettuce needs to be washed really really REAAAAALY WELL or you might find yourself enjoying a side of dirt with your salad (sorry honey, thanks for still eating it). However we have had MANY successes!  Here are two of my favorites:

Kale Chips:
Rachel Ray
  
   1 large bundle kale, cleaned and stemmed, leaves very coarsely chopped

   Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling

   Salt and pepper

   Freshly grated nutmeg

Pre-heat the broiler to high. Place the oven rack in the upper third of the oven. Set a cooling rack over a baking sheet and arrange half of the kale on it. Drizzle the greens with EVOO and season with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg.

Broil the greens until crispy at the edges, 3-4 minutes. Remove to a platter and repeat with the remaining greens.

For extra fun serve with Ketchup for dip!!

Our two year old C, thought these were so fun! He couldn't get enough, he just kept asking for more! The next day I asked him what he wanted from breakfast and he said "kawl chips" so cute!

Chard Rice Pilaf:
Yours Truly

   2 cups brown rice (instant or reg)
   1 handful spaghetti noodles, broken into 1 inch pieces
   1 large bunch of chard, stems finely chopped, leaves diced
   1/2 t garlic spirals
   Extra Virgin Olive Oil
   2 + cups Chicken Stock
  

Put a few drizzles of olive oil in bottom of pan over med heat, add spaghetti, chard steams and garlic spirals, cook for 3-5 minutes or until tender. Add rice, chard leaves and enough stock to completely cover rice and chard, bring to a boil. follow rice cooking instructions, i.e.  for instant rice once boiling remove from heat and cover with lid or for regular rice cover and simmer for 25 to 35 minutes.

C was also a very big fan of this also. The rice was really flavorful and with the chard cut so small the texture couldn't interfere with the taste. 

Spinach-Stuffed White Fish with Lemon-Chive Sauce

Better Homes and Gardens adapted

   4-6 frozen or fresh white fish fillets about 1/4 inch think

   Salt & pepper

   1 bunch of spinach or kale, chopped

   1 beaten egg

   1 cup bread crumbs (add herbs of choices like thyme and rosemary) or herb-seasoned stuffing mix

   2 T slivered almonds toasted

   1/3 cup sour cream

   1/3 cup mayo (you can sub plain yogurt too)

   1 t dried thyme

   1 t finely shredded lemon peel

   1/2 t prepared mustard

   1/4 cup whipping cream or 1/2 & 1/2  or milk if you don't have either

   1 T fresh chives

Thaw fish, if frozen. Rinse and pat dry. Season with S&P, set aside. For filling put a small amount of evoo in pan, throw in almonds, add spinach or kale to wilt, saute 3-4 minutes on med heat. In a med bowl mix egg, stuffing mix add spinach and almonds.

Spoon filling mix onto widest part of fish, roll up. Secure with toothpicks. Place fillets in a greased casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 - 35 mins or until fish flakes easily and filling is heated through.

For sauce in small sauce pan combine sour cream, mayo, thyme, lemon peel, mustard. Cook and stir over low hear until heated thru, do not boil. Add whipped cream.  Put sauce on top of finished fillets, top with green onion

This was the Hubs FAV! He really like this..I did to, it was a really nice way to cook fish and to change it up. The sauce is a delicious tarter type sauce and would be good over fish cooked any way.

It has been so so fun to cook with new ingredients that are filled with LOTS of nutrition to boot!! We will see how I fair when we get the 40 LBS of squash coming our way..... GET READY FOR ZUCCHINI BREAD kids!

That's my Shiny -

J

Late Spring Seasonal Recipe JACKPOT!

Our family has joined a CSA this year, which means bounties of seasonal veggies!! This is super FUN but it can also be a challenge to find ways to incorporate say, TWO LARGE BUNCHES OF RADISHES into our meal plans THREE WEEKS IN A ROW (so far we have only given away one bunch and have managed to eat the rest, we haven't wasted anything yet)! Last week we had a major success on Thursday night with three veggies: spinach, green onions and spinach all in one dish, yes a recipe with THREE seasonal veggies, WINNER WINNER STIR-FRY DINNER!!!

Orange Beef Stir-Fry or Szechwan Beef
Adapted from Better Homes and Garden cookbook

The GOODS:
   12 oz beef top round steak
   1 t finely graded orange peel
   1/2 cup orange juice
   1 T cornstarch
   1 T  low sodium soy sauce
   1 1/2 t sugar
   1 cube or 1 t beef bouillon
   EVOO
   4 green onions, bias slice into 1 inch pieces
   Garlic 1 clove minced or 1 t dried
   5 cups coarsely shredded fresh spinach
   1 cup thinly sliced radishes(8 -12 radishes)
   1 cup carrots, cut into small matchsticks
   3 cups cooked brown rice

1. Cut veggies as instructed above, in a large skillet or wok heat oil over med-high heat. Add green onions, spinach, carrots, radishes and garlic, cook for 2-3 minutes or until spinach wilts and carrots and radishes become slightly tender. Meanwhile, trim fat from beef, thinly slice beef across grain, into bit size strips. Once veggies are tender set aside in a separate bowl.

2.  Add more oil to pan, add steak to same skillet. While steak cooks make sauce, in a small bowl stir together orange peel, orange juice, cornstarch, soy sauce, sugar and bouillon, set aside. Cook steak 3 - 5 minutes or until desired doneness, push beef to side of skillet and add sauce to pan. Cook and stir until think and bubbly. Return veggie mix to pan. Stir together to coat with sauce. Cook 1 more minute to combine. Serve over hot brown rice.

YUMMY YUMMY!!!

That's my Shiny -

J

The Rescue of a Throw Pillow

I was in the aisles of Target looking for double sided place mats to turn into throw pillows, one of my very favorite bloggers posted (<~ here's the link) the how to;

so I thought I would give it a go.  I looked for the perfect place mat..... of course I found nothing that tickled my fancy. While standing there looking in wonder at the place mats for far too long I became AGITATED!! I started thinking of all the throw pillows just sitting in my basement that we used previously but don't fit our color scheme or needs now...AGGGGGH why do I need ANOTHER PILLOW!! So I went down the throw pillow aisle looking for pillow covers, found none.... (I had also already looked online several times for pillow covers and found some great ones for GOBS of cha-ching cha-ching, not an option). I went back to the place mats... stared... and then.... INSPIRATION was hanging right next to the place mats!! As lighting hit me square in the gut I thought, NO NO THERE IS NO WAY THAT DINNER NAPKINS HAVE THE SAME DIMENSION OF A STANDARD THROW PILLOW..... so you guessed it, I broke the rules and carefully opened a package of four beautiful dinner napkins and headed for the throw pillow aisle and VUALA..... magic!!!

So for $6.50 I bought a set of four dinner napkins to cover two of my down throw pillow inserts. Yes, the beautiful robins egg blue with circle detail dinner napkins sat for about 4 months (don't judge). I am not an expert seamstress and I bought a super cute vintage Singer at a garage sale last summer that I was too intimidated to use... so it took me some time to get up the gusto.  But GUSTO came and I sewed, not perfectly but because I already had perfectly cut and square fabric with seamed edges, this was a MAJORLY forgiving first project to start with (I hadn't used a sewing machine since middle school). Our "backroom", as we call it, is now outfitted with two beautiful throw pillows for $3.25 a pop that work perfectly.  HURRAY!!! I do love a good pillow, I'm just glad I was able to rescue two from an early basement grave.  I am hoping to rescue two more pillows with a similar project from another favorite blog with felt in the very near future. 

Here is what I did:
1. Bought Napkins

2. Line up two of the napkins with detail smooching inside out
3. Sewed three sides right along the already existing seam, (talk about easy peasy)

4. Sew a few inches on both ends of your fourth side for a clean corners
5. Turn pillow right side in, so your seams are on the inside of pillow

6. Stuff in your old pillow
7. Hand sew the remaining opening

PRESTO!

That's My Shiny -

J