Halloween

More Appliques

I went ahead and did a bunch of appliques at once. Some of them had missing peices at the time such as wheels and faces, but you get the idea. I even dyed my own shirts. I just bought a multi-pack of shirts and bought fabric dye (green, navy, and brown). I dyed them in the washer, very easy to do, and cheap!

Long Time, No Blog

Whew, having two kids is exhausting and leaves no time for blogging. However, I have one project to share: appliques.
I've noticed a lot of my friends are buying appliques from etsy. I love etsy, but this project is so easy, save your money!
Tools:
Scissors
Iron
Fabric
Pencil
Steam a Seam sheets ($3 at JoAnns for 5 sheets)
clip art, picture, or drawing
something to add an applique to (onesie, tshirt, etc)

Step 1...find an idea! I printed a bunch of pictures that I liked
Step 2 : if you printed ideas like me, turn the printout over and outline the image in reverse, or you can print in reverse too. Cut this picture out.
take out a page of steam a seam. it is basically iron activated glue between two sheets of paper. You'll be working with the sticker side. ( I cut mine roughly the size of my applique) and outline your image on the stickier side of the two. Peel off the looser paper and stick this whole sheet to the wrong side of your fabric. Cut along your border through paper, glue and fabric. Then peel off the stickier side, place onto t-shirt and iron. It's that easy! Here's my final product...I have a stack of these to do but they literally take no time once you understand the process!

Front

Back

all of these instructions can be found on the steam a seam bag. i also purchased what's called "fat quarters" in the fabric shop, they were $0.99! It's way more fabric than you'll need!

Graham is here!

some of my faves...

Some post baby recipes

Chicken pot pie
This is the first recipe I've used that the filling actually stands up and doesnt gush out everywhere. It's delicious and my husband said the best one he's ever had. And you could totally just add whatever veggies you have in the house, even make it vegan.


And my go-to crust recipe (you can't use store bought crust!)

Speaking of documentaries...

Ok, one last post on a documentary (for now anyway!): No Impact Man
This documentary was very interesting, totally impractical, but interesting nonetheless. It's a guy who (in phases) changes his and his family's way of living to virtually have zero impact on the environment. First phase is no trash, shopping at farmer's markets, not consuming anything that's further than 120 miles from their house (they live in NYC), riding bikes or walking everywhere, and using up what they already have and reusing the containers. Anyway, as the documentary progresses they end up finally with no electricity, which is cra-zy! The goal is not to live like this forever, but to really see what's "do-able' in everyday life. Check it out! I love his wife, she's so NOT on board most of the time, cracks me up.

Food Inc and other documentaries

I've become a big fan of documentaries, I think in part to Netflix "Watch Instantly" not having a shortage of them! Well, I've heard tons about Food Inc. and had been putting off watching it until last weekend. Tom and I have watched our share of animal/food mistreatment shows (mostly on Gordon Ramsay's "The F Word"). He's far from vegetarian, but along the lines of Food Inc. encourages people to know where your food comes from and to buy locally. The surprising thing about Food Inc is that it focuses a lot on the treatment of employees of these giant "industries". Very interesting, so if you haven't seen it, SEE IT. It's really well produced movie, lots of information, not just shock value.
We also watched "The Business of Being Born" which was supposed to be about health care and why women are choosing home births. But it definitely wasn't well made, and didnt really have any compelling arguments that would make a woman think twice (believe me I'm 9 days away from a scheduled repeat cesarean) about a hospital birth. In fact, the main woman they are following goes into preterm labor, with the cord wrapped around the infants neck, and the infant also has had restricted growth and therefore needed an emergency cesarean! Which is exactly why I'm all for medical intervention! I am in full support of midwives and doulas and natural birthing options but when you're talking about an infants life "err on the side of caution." Even if it's 1% of the time that a woman has complications, that's not a risk I personally would take. Enough about that :-)

Squadron Picnic

Last Friday we went to the squadron picnic. They have adopted a pet pony (not sure why) but this was Carter's first experience with any animals other than household pets, and zoos. He did really well, much to my surprise.

It was a fun (but short) time. This pregnancy is chugging along. It seems like all the ladies I know, due around the same time as me, are feeling contractions, going into labor, or already have their babies! I have to say, I'm a little jealous but have to wait for Granny and Grandpa to come. I guess in the back of my mind, I was hoping to go into labor and have an easy VBAC but this little (or big) guy has plans of his own...at least so far. 9 days to go, so we'll see!

Website

Last week I worked on our website...you can check out our new pictures here

www.thomasandfaith.com

Big Brother

testing out all the freshly washed gear :-)

I wonder how many times in the past month I've uttered the phrase: "No, buddy, that's for baby brother". Poor kid, he's in for a rude awakening!

Mascarpone Filling Tart

The recipe can be found here.

Farmers' Market!

And here's the goods! I'd never heard of Pluots before moving to California, maybe that just shows how little I've ventured outside my local grocers before, but they are delicious! I've learned that you need to pick these a little firm or eat them the same day, otherwise they get pretty mushy. White nectarines- these bad boys are unbelievable! These have been my latest pregnancy craving. And here in Nor Cal they are HUGE! Peaches- a staple in our household. Raspberries- since berries are getting more and more sparse at the farmers' market, if I see them, I get them! They are great for baking, although Tom has been snacking on them too much for any real baking. Strawberries- I had a plan for a mascarpone tart which is why I bought so many, but I've also been enjoying these with some Zinfandel chocolate we bought a while back and Rutherford Grove Winery. Birdseed Raisin Bread- This was an impulse buy and while it was good, it dried out to quickly :-( And butternut squash- I'm going to push my luck and try it out for the second week in a row with my picky toddler...wish me luck :-)

Tom was amazed at how big the strawberries were, so he took a picture. Yes, that's a quarter to show how big they are!

Butternut squash fries

I have to be honest, I totally buy local fruits and veggies and have NO idea what to do with them. Sure you can just roast them, puree them, or add them to a pot roast (which is always delicious) but my goal has been to get my 2.5 yr old to eat them! Hmmm, how do I do that! Well, I had my doubts but Carter loves french fries, so I sliced up (CAREFULLY, butternut squash is not easy to cut) fry-sized butternut squash (after peeling and cleaning seeds and pulp), tossed with some olive oil and salt, and baked at 425 for about 40 minutes and they turned out delicious! AND...he scarfed them up! Success! They did not crisp up like I had hoped...perhaps a little heavy on the olive oil, or perhaps just need deep fried to get crispy (but doesnt that defeat the purpose of veggies??) but they tasted great! I actually had to "encourage" Tom to share with Carter :-) Tomorrow is farmers' market day...I'm so excited. I still have no plans for what to actually make, but that's half the fun right?

Baking Craze!

So being pregnant this time, I've been cleaning, sewing, decorating, and BAKING! I thought I'd share some of what I've been getting into!
I made these truffles today...so easy and so delicious!
I also made this berry tart for a get together with friends. It was a great way to use up some farmers' market (another recent obsession) berries with no tart pan. Since then, I've hit up my local Home Good's for a proper tart pan, I'm sure more deliciousness will be coming.

4 weeks to go!

Last week I met with an on base physician and scheduled my repeat c-section date for August 23. So in 4 weeks or less, we'll officially be a family of 4. My parents are supposed to fly in the Saturday before to help with Carter and baby Graham and my mom will stay for about 3 weeks. I'm very excited to see them, it feels like we haven't seen them in forever even though they were in for Tom's graduation from UPT. I can tell you that I'm counting the days until I meet our new addition, not only because I'm terrible at being pregnant and enjoying it, but more that I'm thrilled to have another little baby around. Carter is growing up so fast, and such a good boy 99.9% of the time :-) Maybe we'll be so lucky to have 2 "easy" kids, but I doubt it!