daddy's girl

My little angel is turning into a Daddy's Girl. She was very attached to me as I was the one who was taking care of her primarily. But Daddy has been spending more time with her lately. She loves it when he plays with her, tickles her, and even gets to feed her once in a while. As soon as Daddy gets home, she's all smiles and her eyes follow him around the house until he picks her up. It makes my heart melt knowing that she understands Daddy is the other important person in her life who loves her. I can tell that it makes Joels day when he gets her to giggle. Even when he is doing something totally ridiculous just so he can hear her laugh.

Joel already can't wait until she's old enough he can take her on "dates". You know like getting ice cream together, teaching her soccer, and taking her to car shows. It's so cute. For now their "dates" consist of changing diapers, eating, and "please don't cry". He loves that too, I think?

So here are a few of my favorite pictures of them together:

thrifty finds: black & blue

I have a huge bag full of fabric I bought a while ago at the thrift store. I was going through it and found a couple of pieces that had seemed like a good fit for a garment. A skirt in particular. I had an idea of how I wanted it to look. Now I don't really follow patterns, so I planned out and measured the pieces. I was working from just plain square material. Not a dress that I just altered, so this was gonna be a bit harder and longer to do. It probably took me a couple hours, with a little break. Anyways this is how it turned out:

 I think it's kinda hard to see in this pic, but I pleated the front of the skirt.

 For the back, I ruched the back of it.

The fabric I used was 100% polyester for the blue and jersey knit for the black.

a few of my favorite machines

I really started to appreciate my kitchen utensils a bit more when I started making more homemade foods. Now all those wedding presents are getting their use! I really really love that someone got me some of these gifts as they are not cheap and I probably wouldn't have them right now.

When I first got this (wedding gift), I never thought I would use it. But I kept it around in case I would later regret not keeping it. Well I'm glad I did. Especially since today I was making pizza and used it for the dough. By the way this is super duper heavy. Might just have to leave it on the counter instead of the cabinet.

This food processor has definitely been getting its use. Forget the blender! I use this to make our protein shakes, smoothies, puree veggies, and pizza sauce!

Of course my good ol' Mr. Coffee. I don't have an espresso machine, I like my Mr. Coffee just fine. He for sure gets his use. But as you can see he's empty today. I mentioned before I'm trying to cut back, remember? I still love him though!

My sewing machine is obviously a must on my list. I don't have the fanciest one (someday) but this works for the time being. I would eventually like one that does emboirdery as well. Right now I'm making a skirt out of a sheet. Not finished yet, I may try to get to it tomorrow since Hubby will be home. I'm also pretty excited that I can move this downstairs soon since Joel brought me home a huge craft desk (for free).

Oh what would I do without my laptop? I seriously don't know! It's hard to go through the day without getting online. I also use it to do our finances, store pictures, skype, recipes, etc. If I have a question or need to know how to spell something really quick, I use the internet. Lol, I just realized that, yes, I am addicted. Another habit to break!

The lovely pizza I made for dinner. We are kinda on a diet, a healthy food diet. I told Joel no more frozen pizza's! He almost had a cow. So I made one with whole wheat flour, fresh veggies, less cheese, my own sauce, and turkey pepperoni (70% less fat). It was yummy AND Joel liked it! Better than the frozen kind he said. :) BTW I also lost 5 lbs since Thrusday doing P90x and dieting. Self-esteem boost, yay!

Ever Eat Bruschetta?

I had this huge craving for bruschetta  the other day. So when it was time to go grocery shopping this weekend, I made sure to grab a few extra ingredients. I didn't really follow a specific recipe, I've made it before and just made my own adjustments to make it how I like it. And this one today, is by far the best one. Mmmm...

As you saw the ingredients above, this is how I made it:

2 roma tomatoes
1/2 red onion
1/2 lime (for juice)
splash of olive oil
shake of salt and pepper
sprinkle of basil
loaf of French or Italian bread

I couldn't tell you the exact amounts of olive oil, salt & pepper, and basil. I just eyed it. I would've loved to use fresh basil but I forgot to pick some up and mine isn't grown yet. :( There are tons of variations to make this as well. But I just chopped up the tomatoes and onion and mixed everything together. And Voila!

Venting

I know I haven't posted anything and I still don't really have anything to post yet. It's been a little crazy at home the past week. Last Friday I took Cora to my parents for the day while I stayed home and cleaned house. Then Joel and I went on a date (much needed). It was wonderful to go out just the two of us. We spent the afternoon at the plaza eating at PF Changs and watched Rango at the theater. Plus got free food at  PF's. But, I was starting to miss my baby girl toward the end of the night. Of course she was fine when we went and picked her up.

The next day we continued to work on the downstairs. We've been sanding drywall down there so it was dusty. There is carpet down there so all the dust collected in the carpet. My in-laws have been helping us and decided to shop vac. Which is great! Only the day before I cleaned house. I swept, mopped, dusted, did laundry and dishes, and cleaned whatever else needed it. The day we worked on the downstairs was pretty hot. I didn't want to turn on the ac yet so I just opened all the windows and turned the attic fan on. Shortly after, I walked out to the dining room and noticed a cloud of dust in the air. Oh no, the fan was bringing all the dust up from downstairs while they were vacuuming. Needless to say the floors, counters, table, and everything on the surfaces were covered in dust! I can't just leave Cora for a whole day again to clean, so I've been trying to get caught up on house work this week.

As for Cora, she has been very clinging and fussy the last couple weeks. So it's hard to keep her happy while not holding her. The plus on this is we've been spending more time outside. She loves it! Downside is I haven't been able to use my sewing machine, well I have, I just can't finish anything! I'm also trying to finish my on-line classes. And Joel and I are starting the P90x. We both want to get in better shape and just be healthier all around. I have to say that I haven't had a Dr. Pepper in a month now. But I didn't realize that I've been supplementing my caffeine intake with more coffee. So I didn't have any coffee today. I didn't make it half-way through the day without having a headache. So, another goal to add to my list is cutting back on caffeine. Hmmph.

So here are some before pictures of our downstairs. I will post when we finish everything down there. We just finished priming. Next, is finishing touches such as painting, trim work, and re-doing the bar. Hopefully not too much longer! Although anything is better than this:

Planting time

A few days ago I got to plant some seeds for herbs and some flowers. I potted the herbs since it would be easier for me to walk on my back deck and just pick what I want when I cook! I want to plant a full garden in my backyard. It wouldn't be very large, just some vegetables. I'm running out of time, so hopefully we can get to it this weekend! I'm pretty excited for it, we just have so much we are trying to do right now. Blah.

This little guy has been alive for probably 10 years. I inherited him a few years ago. Unfortunately he almost died. I saved a piece of him over the winter and was finally able to plant him. Hopefully it can stay alive!

Ok so I'm cheap. I labeled my plants with plastic forks. 

Even the cats were enjoying the afternoon weather.

thrifty finds: clownin around

Initially this looked hopeless without seeming like something a clown would wear. I had an idea of how to do it, but the more I worked with it, the more it changed! Well I think it turned out good, hopefully without looking like I should put on a wig and red nose!

To begin with, this was a 4X! Yep, I think this felt like a hospital gown left untied. So I had to take it in quite a bit.

So other than taking it in, I also shortened the length by about 8" and shortened the sleeves. I had to make this a little more form fitting because there was so much extra fabric and the type of material. Forgive me for the terrible pictures, I really was in my pj's until I did these pictures and didn't fix myself up at all. 

With some of the extra fabric I made a sash tied in a bow around the waist.

And with the extra fabric, I made a ruffle around the hem of the skirt.

Before: Can you see the potential?!

New Look!

I did a few changes to the look of my blog today. Well, actually Joel did help. I changed the title of it because I didn't care for the previous one and I feel this one suits me better. He designed the header for me, which I looovvvee! I told him how I wanted it and he created it. It's so nice to have someone creative that knows a thing or two about computer graphics. I really don't, but I think I'm gonna try to learn some of these programs myself. So if you or anyone you know needs any sort of designing done, contact me for I am the personal assistant of Joel Quinn Studios. ;) Lol.

scrappy leftovers: cloth diaper 2

I went to the thrift store a few days ago looking for some fabric. More specifically, some sort of water proof fabric. I found a bunch of fabric I liked that I could use for other things. But the water-proof wasn't seeming so fortunate. I went through everything! But, as I was getting ready to leave, I decided to search the shelves on the racks. Ok, these shelves are a disaster to search through. They are just so messy and unorganized. I was very determined to find something! And my determination paid off, because I hit the jack pot of water-proof material. Of coarse it wasn't all together so I had to search up and down, but I'm pretty sure I got every piece in there. Not to mention these items were 50% off to. Love it!

So I got these so I could make some more cloth diapers. I wanted something with a water-proof lining in them. I also wanted to make them a more "one size fits all". But I still need to work on that part. Anyways this is how this one turned out:

I thought that having a tie string around the legs would help for different sizes, but I just don't like it so I'll have to try something else. Every other part of this diaper I liked though. The inside is microfiber, then the water-proof lining is in the middle, and the outside cotton, which happened to be part of a tablecloth I got from the thrift store.

Here is the lining and table mats I used.

The inside. It's really soft for baby's bum. But I also have an insert that goes in here.

As you can see I added a ruffle on the inside to help prevent that dreaded back poo. Ick. I don't have my little model for these pics. She was sleeping very soundly.