Fall into Wreath Obsession

With extra yet unpredictable time on my hands, I spend way too much time browsing the internet. These leads to swooning over crafty blogs. [I know. I know. There's dishes to be done, laundry to fold and a house to pick up, but that can't be done 1-handed while holding a demanding beautiful babe like surfing the internet can!] Note: all but one of my posts in the past 32 days, including this one, has been typed one handed! :)

The One-Handed Cause
I don't mind too much! :)

Back on track: Something I stumbled upon is Pinterest. I really have no idea how it works or how to use it but I knew a couple friends have talked about it, so I headed over there and searched their names. Stalker-ish, eh? Anyways, I came across adorable Fall wreaths and then hundreds a lot of blogs/crafty sites with tutorials of gorgeous wreaths. Hence the trip to the craft stores upon Mister's arrival home from work!

I remembered that we had a couple yards of burlap from my grandparents' garage sale--gotta love those "I'll find something to do with this some day" pick-ups--so as Ains snuggled with Chris on the couch I sprawled out with my supplies on the floor.

Fall Decoring Supplies
Fabric Remnants, Ribbon, Leaves, Wreath

At first I thought I was going to make a Fall wreath like the one on this site and then some flowers like the ones on this site. [I like the overall consistency and look of the burlap flowers on the burlap wreath, but didn’t find any other color burlap in the remnant section at the fabric stores.] So that's what I set out to do. Well as with so many of my projects, I found something different I liked better, on accident! I read about how to best cut burlap straight and I followed that tutorial. I realized though that as I went to pull the burlap strand out to create my guide, I liked the effect that it had on the burlap and made a ruffled look. Nevertheless I pulled it all the way out and cut the strip. Then I got to thinking that it'd be prettier if I had the ruffle since my wreath was pretty small. So that's what I set out to do, and here's the jist of how I did it.

Supplies:
Wreath [Mine was a skinny little thing from the Dollar Store]
Burlap
Scrap Fabric for Flowers
Hot Glue Gun [I don't know how I've gone this long without owning one!]

Using the method for cutting a straight strip of burlap, I cut a strip of burlap 2.5" and then wrapped it around my wreath. [I read that if you purchase a straw wreath, to leave the plastic on it so it makes it easier to wrap. This is especially important if you wrap the wreath with yarn!] I needed two strips to wrap all the way around my 13" wreath, securing it with dots of hot glue.

Burlap wrapped Dollar Store Wreath

Then I cut two 5" strips of the burlap. These are the ones that I made the ruffle with. At the 2.5" mark I pulled the string of burlap, careful not to break the string so that I would be able to tie it and "hold" the ruffle. I then secured the ruffle onto the burlap covered wreath using my glue gun.

The next step was to make some flowers. Using a couple Fall-colored fabrics, I set out to make a couple different styles. The first one I made was what's called a button flower by some sites. Basically you cut 8 circles of the same size. [I used the top of an oversized coffee mug as a template.] Then with each circle, you fold it in half and then in half again. [You now have a quarter-circle. Use glue as needed to hold the fabric together.] I used a little scrap of felt to glue 4 of the quarters onto. Then with the remaining 4 quarters, stagger the top layer. The flower can be topped with a button for its center, hence the name. [You can check out The Ribbon Retreat for a full, better tutorial.]

Basic explanation of button & poufy flowers

I made this type of flower in 2 different sizes, but instead of using a button for the center, I ended up putting the one flower on the other and then "finishing" the top flower using the Poufy Flower method. I couldn't get the 9th circle to look as nicely as The Ribbon Retreat ladies could, so I gave it a little help by gluing it where necessary to give it the look I desired.

Poufy Flower Layered on Button Flower

Finally I made two other flowers [brown & yellow] using the rosette method describe by this site. Basically you made a knot at the end of a piece of 2-3" folded fabric and then wrap the fabric around the knot creating the rosette. One thing that I didn't notice when following the tutorials was the suggest to glue as you wrap as needed. I didn't do this, and so I just had to hold tight as I wrapped. next time I'll definitely use the glue every so often method!

Rosette Flowers

The last thing to do is to position the flowers how ever I liked!

Finished Product
inside our house!

I hung the wreath on the inside of our front door. I figured it'd get more appreciation because we have an ugly screen door with flowered gating aka completely blocking the wreath.

After this project, I'm pretty such that I'll be making a wreath for every season! :)

Last but not least, yesterday was Ainsley Jo's 1 month birthday, so we had to take a couple pics! I'm hoping to take a pic every month in a white onesie on the chair to document her growth. Hopefully I stick to it! :)

She wasn't the [most] cooperative!

#9 Freeze ten meals before the arrival of our first child.

Today I spent all the majority of the day in the kitchen, but I was able to practically knock out another goal for my 101 in 1001.

Goal #9: Freeze ten meals before the arrival of our first child.

The reason for this goal may seem obvious, and the obvious reason is my reason for it. I don't know much about what it takes to be a mom, but I do know that it will take a lot timewise, especially the first few weeks. The hope is that we can have meals ready in the freezer so we can focus our attention on our lil' babe versus answering the ever-so-common question of "What's for supper?!"
Now I say that I practically knocked this goal out because I am not 100% sure that I made ten meals. I certainly didn't make ten different things, but I think that it's enough to last us over ten meals. :)

First off last night to jumpstart this project, I cooked 4 unnaturally large split-chicken breast and picked the meat off them. This was the most disgusting process and I recognize why my momma-cita is a vegetarian! Meat is gross! Chris also helped me chop up some onions and peppers that would be used in today's recipes.

Cookin' Chicken--Those white chunks are onions.
We added some "pizzazz" to our meat!

Anyways without further ado, here's the food that is now occupying our deep freeze:

Chicken Roll-Ups 2 meals
This was the last thing that I made this afternoon, so conveniently Chris and I ate a couple before freezing the rest for future meals. At least we know they are tasty! And boy were they tasty!!


All rolled up. Pre-cooked.


Inside the crescent rolls is a shredded chicken, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese mixture that has some salt, pepper, and some other seasoning off the spice rack that "looked right". [In case you didn't know, I'm no chef!]

After lupper [lunch/supper]--that's what we have on Wednesdays because Chris has 2-4pm off between jobs--I was able to freeze 11 roll-ups for future meals. I'd say that's easily 2 meals or more, especially if we eat something else with them.


Chicken Spaghetti 2 meals
This is a chicken and spaghetti--profound I know--combination with cheese, cream of mushroom soup, onions, and peppers. Furthermore I used whole wheat pasta because I don't really care for it so I'm hoping in "casserole" form that wheaty taste will be masked a bit more. Overall it reminds me a lot of turkey tetrazzini that was served a lot in college, we'll just hope it's a little more flavorful!

All ready for the oven freezer!
Two pans for "four" servings.

Meatballs ? meals [32 meatballs]

When reading through a few websites looking for recipes for freezer meals, meatballs was one thing that popped up quite a bit. Now in and of themselves, they aren't really a meal, but since they can be easily added to other simple ingredients--pasta & sauce or a bun?--most sites suggested having them in the freezer.

When I mentioned to Chris last night that meatballs is one of the things I'd be making, he inquired, "Have you ever made them before?!" To which I of course answered "Nope, but I'll eat them!" "Oh, okay because my mom has made them and they don't always turn out." [Sorry Nancy!]

Well because I've never made them before and the recipe suggested making them in a skillet, I went ahead with that method and consequently burnt 10 of them. So instead of burning cooking the rest in the same manner, I heated up the oven and baked the rest. I didn't take a picture of the "good" not carbon-coated ones, but they looked much better!

Carbon-coated Meatballs.
I ate one eventually and it was pretty good
despite its darkened exterior! :)

Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas 3 meals [13 enchiladas]

Usually when I am looking for recipes to cook, I'm drawn towards Mexican. Now I don't particularly like spicy, hot Mexican--especially the last few weeks everything seems hotter than it was previously--but I do enjoy Mexican in general. So when I came across the "recipe" for enchiladas.

This recipe consisted of shredded chicken, black beans, enchilada sauce, onions, red peppers, and cheese. I wrapped them in foil with 2 per foil to be able to "portion control" later on. I'm hoping these are delish, because I'm certainly looking forward to them!

Chiptole-style wrapping with enchilada filling.

"Chicken" Parmesan Meatloaf 1 meal, with leftovers :)

Just like I've never made meatballs before, I've never made meatloaf before either, but I went ahead and gave this recipe a try because the picture looked delicious and anything chicken Parmesan has to be great right?! [I put chicken in quotes because I actually used ground turkey to make it instead of ground chicken. It was cheaper!

After making it, I put it in a silicone foil-lined loaf pan and froze it for a while until it held its shape. Then I took it out and put it in a Ziploc bag to store in the freezer.

I didn't take a pic of this because it was just a raw meat mixture that didn't look so good, but I'm sure once it's baked and covered in sauce/cheese, it will be picture worthy.

BBQ Chicken Pasta 2 meals

The last meals to mention are actually the ones that I made first. If you followed the link in the meal listing, you'll see that the recipe isn't super clear. I am not 100% sure what this meal is supposed to be like. I don't know if it is a sauce or more of a bake, so it will be interesting when it's time to cook it. I just made the BBQ chicken part, not that pasta, and it's kind of an odd consistency. Not real thick, but also not really sauce-like. My thoughts are when its eatin' time to  just cook some pasta and then put the BBQ Chicken concoction overtop it and bake. We shall see. :)

So there we have it: 10ish meals plus the meatballs in the freezer before the arrival of our first child. It was fun to make so much in one day--even though a bit odd not to eat what I made--and I'm sure I'll be making some more in the near future. We'll see if we can avoid eating these meals until after the arrival of our babe. That'll be the real challenge!!

Lack of Sleep + No School = Crib Skirt?

Last night was a doozy.

I recognize that in 11 weeks, I may be very, very thankful for a solid 3.5 hours of sleep but this morning my wake-up call came way too early—more accurately, my bedtime was ridiculously way too late!! Such can’t be attributed to a growing belly and uncomfortable sleeping positions. Rather the verdict—I assume—was none other than:

PEPSI!

Now I am not a regular pop drinker overall and haven’t been for a long time, but I do still drink it from time to time. However usually clear pop, or at least caffeine-free pop, is my cola drink of choice. Last night though since Pepsi was cold and Root Beer was not, I went for the caffeine-filled, sugar loaded dark pop way too late in the evening aka after my preferred bedtime.

As Mister and I had pillow talk at about 11:30, I asked him if he was ready to go to sleep as his eyes blinked slower and slower as my mouth moved faster and faster. He said he was when I was ready to be done talking. I decided to be selfless and shut up so at least one of us could sleep. J

Because I was wired wide awake, I logged onto my laptop and began surfing and searching. Catching up on Facebook and reading blogs. After over an hour I decided to head out to the living room as I was afraid the light from the computer would wake my sleeping beauty. I also took advantage of this time by texting my fav lil' bro who was still wide awake raking in the cash at a casino [despite telling him g'night hours prior]!. 

I ended up looking at nursery things and diy blogs and 2 hours and countless browser windows later, I found a few nursery ideas that I really liked. Now I have looked at other sites—and some of the same one’s I looked at last night—many times before, but I finally settled on what I liked for our lil’ Mystery Massie! We’ll see how long this “settledness” lasts and if it gets carried through in the plans!

I did however decide that I for sure wanted to make a crib skirt for the nursery. So after a partial day at school wrapping up loose ends, I headed to Hobby Lobby and JoAnn Fabrics to find the *perfect* fabric to use.  I gazed up and down the aisles at JoAnn’s finding 4 “elephant based” fabrics that I liked but couldn’t decide on—each had parts I liked more than another fabric—and then I decided to just leave. I then headed next door to Hobby Lobby to find it. Well their selection sucked was quite limited. So I bought Heat ‘N Bond and Velcro strips and headed back to JoAnn’s to force myself to decide. Finally I did. And I settled on this pattern:

Huge piece of large colorful animal fabric.

As I drove away from the stores, I was kicking myself for picking this pattern and not one of the others [I was having a self-heated debate as to which fabric would be best to “genderize” after the lil’ one makes its appearance], but now “in the end” I do think it was the best choice! When I got home I immediately laid out the fabric and was ready to cut. On one website last night I found an uber-easy no sew tutorial for a crib skirt and I was ready to go. However I ran into one dilemma: the fabric’s print and the way I was planning on cutting would’ve made the animals all sideways.

Crap.

No fear though. After a few mathematical calculations, and remembering another site I came across last night, I had a solution! Cut in the proper way and put in a panel using leftover fabric from my crib sheet adventure! Sa-weet. Still ahead!

Within an hour or so, after thinking I’d have to go back and buy more fabric, I had a completed a crib skirt, and liked it! J Not a single stitch was made but rather I used Heat ‘N Bond for all the hemming and seams—why did I not know about this before—and then used Velcro to attach it to the crib mattress frame.

Simple Materials.
Fabric, "Panel" Fabric, Heat 'N Bond & Velcro.

The Final Product

Easy-peasy.

Now just to wait and see what Chris thinks of my latest project before I start another one soon! Another reason I love summer break!

Total cost for this project was a bank breaking $11.48 and I still have some leftover Heat ‘N Bond and Velcro! Gotta love coupons! J

Sorry about the sidewaysness. It took
forever to load and I'm not patient enough
tonight to redo it.
Note amount-of-sleep-last-night above.

Until next *project* time!

One Quick Update

So today I told myself that I had to be productive when it came to getting ready to go back to school on Monday. I mean I had told myself all week that it was spring break and so I should just enjoy it which meant I didn't do a single productive thing when it comes to school.

Well after a not so restful night's sleep, I was waken by the doorbell. Crap! I knew Joie was supposed to drop off some pics, but my sleepy head forgot. Whoops! Anyways, thanks to a messy bedroom, I could quickly put on a pair a jeans and sweatshirt off the floor and answer the door before they left. I'm glad I did!Not only did I get some adorable 9 month pics of Stu, but Sondra also had to use the potty, so I potential prevented a wet accident! : )

After they left I got to work! Within a couple-ish hours, I pretty much had 2 weeks of lesson plans and powerpoints ready for my Geometry students. Ahh. It feels so good to not have to think worry about those for several days!

Lesson plans complete, laundry from a week ago finally folded [I left the putting away task to Mister!], compost taken out, trash and recycling taken out, coats and shoes put away. Sounds successfully productive enough for me!

Now just to find a project to use the white fabric! Perhaps something for Sondra! Or perhaps something else! We shall see. : )