Daily Grind

I was going to lead with an apology for abandoning the old 'blog again, but it seems like that's been done before, no?  Let's change things up a bit.  

You know I'm busy.  

Things I've been up to lately include but are by NO means limited to...

This.

This.

This.

 But mainly this...

 

...and this.  

That would be... 

an Easter dress for a 3 year old based off of a picture of a dress from a boutique that my good friend wanted for her girl but could not obtain; a skirt I whipped up for myself and LOVE; a hefty stack of cloth napkins that I made out of samples of fabric that were discontinued at a furniture store, given to me by a friend who used to work there (completely free, awesome cloth napkins!!); my 3 year old and almost-5 year old; and my 1 year old and my 29 year old--err, my handsome husband and the capable provider for our family.  (LOVE that guy!)

Just didn't want to leave you hanging... even longer.  More later. 

(How much later??  Shall we begin to place bets??)

Oh, while I'm here, I'll impart a small nugget.  I have begun to indulge in a little afternoon treat that I want to chat about for a second.  In the morning, I make an extra cup of coffee--just one more than what I normally drink.  I doctor it up with a small shot of chocolate syrup, pop it into the fridge, and in the afternoon I mix some almond milk in it and have it over ice--TA DAA!  Iced coffee, with next to NO effort!  I leave it in the pot, adding the syrup after I've drank all I'm going to drink for the morning (but before it goes into the fridge so that the sugar dissolves completely), so I don't have any extra dishes.  If you're lucky enough to tolerate dairy, you could add cream or regular milk, and some sugar makes it a little more "treat-y".  

Okay, so it's not an original idea, but it is a small way that makes my afternoon a little happier, and helps to ward off the cravings that so easily turn into chocolate chip binges.  The reason I thought of it right now:  I'm having one, with a bit of vodka (I know, I know--whiskey would make it a proper Irish coffee, but I didn't have any) as a nightcap after a long day. Don't worry.  It's decaf.

And.  It's.  Awesome.  

Cheers!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

One year ago, I went through the most stressful time of my life. My husband's job was working him about 100 hrs/wk on night shift, I was 9 months pregnant, and the older two were 3 years old and 22 months old. Oliver was born on a Monday around lunch time, and my dear sister Brenda died early the next morning. I hosted Thanksgiving dinner two days later in a house much to small to fit everybody, and the day after that made a 4 hour round trip (more like 6 hr, said and done) with the two tiny kids and a very fussy 4 day old for the funeral. The next week, my husband started his new job 3 hrs away, only to come home on weekends. I parented 3 under 4 alone from December until March, when we finally joined him. Things got a lot better from there, due largely to the fact that dh is so much happier here, in a job and a location that he likes. Now, if only our house in Iowa would sell!

This is not the first holiday season that we will spend without Brenda, but it is the first time her name will not appear on my master list for gifts and cards. Likely due to the shock of the fresh event last year, I'm much sadder this time around. Brenda's childlike mind made for some lively discussions and happenings at meals and get-togethers. Now, there is no one to take your drinking glass to the sink to be washed before you're finished with it. No one to watch out the window, nails between teeth, worrying over who's late to the present-opening. No one will pull out his or her notebook and start their Christmas list for the next year just as soon as the last gift is opened. And for the life of me, I MUST find one of her hand-tracings with her ring sizes written on each finger!

Brenda, Easter 2009

There has been time to process some changes before the 2011 Christmas checklist was written up. Now more than ever, for some sad reason, I'm flooded with gift ideas for her. Here's one huge thing I learned from her passing: DON'T WAIT! If there's a small thing that you think would brighten someone's day, don't wait for a reason to execute it. If you feel like you should send a quick card for no reason to someone, do it! As often as it seems birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays come around, there's really no telling if they'll actually get here, is there? Nothing drives that home like an unexpected loss.

So this year, as Thanksgiving approaches and I am inundated with the seasonal tasks of menu planning, gift making and buying, and calendar keeping, my very honest thoughts on thankfulness are as follows: Take my money. Take all that is in my closet and hanging on my walls. Take our cars and our house (yes, PLEASE take our house!). Take our fancy dinner and the table we serve it on. Just let me enjoy my family--my loving husband, my precious children, my generous parents and in-laws, my siblings, my precocious nephews, and those friends who are close enough to count as family--for another year, and may I be so blessed to have even more.

Happy Holidays, from my family to yours!

Quick Note

I am working on a post that will act as a two-month update of what I've been up to. Unfortunately, it's taking about 2 months to complete, but I'm trying to get it done! I just needed to drop in for a quick holler about a blog that I just found and WISH I'd found months ago.

http://diymaternity.com/

It's awesome! I love it! If you're at all into DIY clothing and you're in the motherly way, or you know somebody who is, check it out! I found it while searching for nursing top ideas, and it's good for that, too. Love it!

Finally Settled

We've been in our new house for almost four months now! (Sad that when I started this post, it said "two months"--that's how long it takes me to get things done around here!!) As per usual, I can't believe that time has flown by as quickly as it always does, and there's also the usual guilt about not posting in, like, forever. (I think 4 months qualifies as "forever" in the blogosphere.)
I have been thinking that I haven't done a lot that's blog-worthy, and then I realized that, with as much time as I've found for sewing, there's got to be something I can chat about for a minute. So, here goes! A little bit of everything--mostly money-saving projects and ways to simplify.
(Are we noticing a pattern here?)
Hmmm, let's go back. Way back to the beginning of April. Prom season. Our church in Iowa did a dress drive, as the area is economically depressed and there was quite a call for formal wear without the cha-ching. I agreed to help, and ended up remaking a David's Bridal bridesmaid's dress for a girl with a more edgy style.

before

I shortened it, added a gunmetal gray taffeta pleated ruffle along the scalloped edge that ran from the waist to the floor and to the top edge of the dress (I took the straps off to make it strapless), and turned the top 8 inches or so into a corset-style lace-up back (it was a hidden zipper that wouldn't quite close). I think we were all pretty happy with how it turned out.

after-front

after--back, everybody's favorite part!

Just another reason our old church--First Cristian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Keokuk, Iowa, was the most fantastic place I could imagine to bring up a family and get involved in the community. How we miss it!

Hmm, what else have we been up to?... There was a good idea from Tight Bod With a Pod that has proven quick and fun that I thought I'd share. We call it French Waffles.French toast on the waffle iron...

One happy French-Waffle-eatin' boy!

All you do is whip up french toast ingredients and soak the bread, but instead of frying it in a pan, you just lay it on the waffle iron. It's simple, easy, and if you're making waffles anyway, it's one less pan to wash. And I'm all about less dishes. :)

I'm also all about quality. So often quality comes at a reduced price when you're making your own stuff. Vanilla extract may or may not be one of those things, but it's certainly not as expensive as you'd think. We LOVE using our own vanilla extract! And if you've ever thought about trying your hand at it--or just eliminating the gazillion tiny plastic bottles and questionable origins and ingredients of store-bought vanilla--go for it! It's as easy as chopping up a vanilla bean, putting it in a glass jar with some cheap vodka (or bourbon, or whatever strong alcohol you find on sale), keeping it in a dark place for a couple of months, and shaking it every day or so.

Okay, so that sounds like a lot when I have to type it all out, but all you do is save the glass bottle from your last Snapple purchase, visit www.spidercamp.etsy.com for some very reasonably priced beans (hurry--I think she's almost done de-stashing!), adding 1 cup of alcohol for every three beans, and setting it in the cabinet in front of your coffee or cereal or whatever you get into every day so that you see it and remember to give it a quick shake. Try it. You won't be disappointed. And if you don't use much vanilla extract, then hey! Vanilla vodka! I'm on board with that. Anyway, read more here.

Here's a re-purposing project I recently tackled. I could see this skirt in my head, based off of a bunch of lace scraps and some old fabric of a beautiful ecru color all given to me by a good friend at our old church, and I was absolutely tickled with it when it came together. Little Miss wanted one when she saw mine, so I made her one to match. I do not usually approve of Mommy-and-Me outfits, but I'm not dressing like a toddler and she's not dressing like an adult, so I was okay with this. They're beautiful, unique--I just LOVE how they turned out! And they were completely free to make. Think of all the possibilities! Take a tube of fabric that is bigger than your hips, your ribbon or trim scraps, elastic or a drawstring for the waist, and get to stitching! If anybody tries this, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see your results!

We are making a conscious effort to follow an even tighter budget. I thought I knew what we were spending. I thought. Then I re-thought. And I got even more creative! Here are a couple of ways I've spent less and avoided extra trips to the store (a very valuable thing, now that we live 20 minutes, and not 5 from it.)

Homemade syrup! This is a FANTASTIC idea, especially if you have your own berries to pick. We use it on waffles, pancakes, smoothies, to flavor our homemade yogurt... infinite topping possibilities. I use this recipe as a guideline and use whatever pureed fruit we've got. Dear Husband is a big fan of raspberries, and I'm a big fan of Dear Husband, so we usually have homemade raspberry syrup in the fridge. Y.U.M.

I very seldom buy candy, and we don't feed a lot of it to our kids, so when DH went to a wedding and brought home a few favor bags of kisses, I saved them from a long, cold imprisonment in the freezer by making kiss cookies. Okay, so I know this qualifies as "feeding my kids a lot of candy" that day because they were gone immediately, but WOW they were good! I used this recipe as a guideline, but did a mix of equal parts of brown, white, and confectioners sugar. It's a mainstay in the recipe folder now. You know when DH is grumpy because he didn't get enough before they were gone, it's got to be good!

Brace yourself: this is a little personal! Since I cloth diaper, I'm not afraid of kid pee. I mean, come on. Just deal with it. Spring water, right?? lol If you saw Little Miss taking "enough" tp after a tinkle, you'd think she was headed to the resident neighborhood crotchety old man's house on Halloween. So I took a receiving blanket (one that was hers, so it was pretty and girly instead of the sea of blue we've been swimming in for the last 2 years) cut it into squares, serged the edges, and now we have reusable wipes! We also have greatly reduced paper goods bill and paper waste, and she gets dryer without any lint. They go straight into the diaper pail which sits in the bathroom, and everybody's happy! Mom, most of all.

We also found ourselves in need of kitchen cloths. Being in a rental (not to mention, a rental that is painted in a completely different color temperature than any room in my old house, so we have no matching decor!), decorating and coordinating is VERY slow going and tedious and... well, interior decorating just isn't my thing. And I'm NOT going to spend $$ on something like dishtowels, which SHOULD match something else--anything else--in the kitchen, which doesn't have a color scheme or theme, and will get stained up and overused and abused and heavily laundered. Not when I have a length of crazy-printed retro terrycloth, also gifted by a friend in Iowa, that was too unique to throw/give away but (previously) too ugly to do anything with. It's the right color temperature for the walls, so now it's my new set of dishtowels and kitchen cloths! You just can't go wrong with a serger, I'm tellin' ya!

In need of a small storage space for a few kid distractions in the upstairs living room, I whipped up this cheery little fabric bin out of an old table cloth that someone gave me. The insides are those plastic grid sheets that you get at craft stores that you can do yarn hooking with (no idea how to explain that further--I don't indulge in that activity). It's pretty flimsy, but when we retire it upstairs, it'll be good for trim scraps in the craft room. I think it took less than an hour to make. I used this tutorial as a guide, which I found on www.oneprettything.com.

A few other things I've been working on (and not likely to be done with any time soon!):

Baby Oliver is almost 8 months old! He is fantastically happy, and LOVES LOVES LOVES his brother and sister! They love him, too, which provides for some pretty cute kid interactions around here. And some scary ones, too, as hugs can be very tight and not-so-well placed. But all in love.

Why does it seem like during summer time, when there are the most daylight hours, you have the least time for anything?? Since we live in the country and no neighbors have a view of our back yard, my kids have been bathing on the deck! Just another clever way to multi-task! We fill up the baby pool with bubble bath, they play and get clean at the same time, and when it's time to come in we pour a bucket of water over them and voila! Bath time AND play time are done! Now, don't ask me how many time I have to throw all the bath toys and floaties back up over the railing from the yard, but it's totally worth it. And my aim is getting much better. :)

And here's what DH has been up to. This was taken a few weeks ago. My loving baby-daddy has been harvesting zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, and a pepper here and there, for a week or two now. And the tomatoes are coming in. Bring on the pasta sauce! Food budgeting just got a lot easier!

This is where I'd like to remind you of the best zucchini bread recipe I've ever encountered. And some tried and true "improvements": reduce the sugar to one cup, replace at least half the oil with applesauce, replace 1 cup of the flour with whole wheat flour (or more than 1 c if you're using white whole wheat). And adding in some nutmeg makes it a little more Christmas-y, which I love, but DH prefers it less spiced.

The homemade things I checked off my to-do list yesterday could make another 4 month long blog post... mayo, jam, breads, cookies, pillowcases... but I won't put you through that. Not when I'm so dangerously close to finishing this book!

I'm Busy, Busy, Dreadfully Busy!!...

Veggie Tale fans might recognize that song...

Anyway, we're entering a terribly busy week, one I've been dreading for quite a while... WE'RE MOVING!! So long, Keokuk, Iowa, and hello, Hallsville, Missouri! Well, the countryside between Hallsville and Columbia. We're getting the best of both worlds, I think--small community where everyone knows everyone, and good shopping just a few minutes in the other direction. When we were in Columbia last, I was sitting at a stoplight and found myself staring at a purely magical sight--a big, brand new ALDI!! And the size of their new Hy-Vee is almost shameful, so the grocery shopping part is all taken care of. Yay! And, of course, a real shopping mall, complete with a Target. Every girl's dream, when you consider what a nightmare it is to live more than an hour away from one.

Here we go, getting ready to leave our little Iowan oasis behind for good--or at least for mostly good, until we sell it. Anybody looking for a nice little mid-western stronghold, btw? :)

Brenda and August, somewhere around mid 2009

In other thoughts, today would have been my late sister's 41st birthday. It's tough to think about how much she loved her birthday, and to think about how I should have always done more for it. I'm learning a huge lesson in not waiting for a special occasion to send gifts, and not holding out when I do. She, as is the case with most people we love and take for granted, deserved more every time.

There is a fantastic site that I've recently found, and I feel I must share it. www.MamAmorDolls.com offers the most gorgeous handmade fabric dolls I've ever seen, and--are you ready for this??--they hold, give birth to, and breastfeed the baby dolls!!

I cannot afford one, by any means, and my crafty side wouldn't let me buy one anyway, so what do I do? Naturally, I do searching for instructions and patterns for making my own. I thought I was a progressive thinker, but I just can't bring myself to explain to my 3 y/o exactly where babies come from--I mean, I'll at least wait until she asks!--so mine is sans vagina.

And because she's a dry run, she's also without nipples and baby for the moment. But I did try making one, and they're much harder than you'd think! But Little Miss adores Mamadoll, and she's easy to sew clothing for, so we'll keep her around until I get better at it. I'm sure there will be pictures at some point, but she hasn't gotten up yet. I know, I know, it's 11 am! But with no baby, she gets to sleep in. (Remember those days??) Also, no way am I putting a picture of Mamadoll next to these works of art. No. Way.

If I could take an interesting picture of cleaning and purging, I might. But nobody cares about that stuff. And now I'm off to do more of it.

Quick Update

There are tons of things happening here, but none that have been documented lately. :P

To begin with, we survived Christmas. I'm assuming most of you did, too, and those who know what traveling and celebrating with 3 under 4 is like can appreciate why this is worthy of reporting!

The kids got so many gifts that they're not even all opened yet. Not because I'm mean, but mostly because...

We're moving!
As soon as our house sells we're relocating to the Columbia, Missouri, area. This will get us closer to family. And it's a great area, so as much as I don't like moving, it'll be a good one for us. Finally, the roots can go down and we can officially unpack all the boxes! This will be the 6th move in 4 1/2 years (7 moves if we have to get into a rental first). I'm ready to be done with it!

Oliver's first official social smile showed itself at 4 weeks, and at 6 weeks it's coming easier and more frequently. The secret is making smoochy noises into his little mouth and on his cheeks, and he does this:

And if you keep working at it, it gets bigger:


My older two are doing great, too, even with the hacking cough and dripping nose they're sporting these days. And we're getting through Hubby only being home on weekends (he's already started his new job 2.5 hrs away). I'm insanely busy, trying to ready the house to sell and purge and keep up with it all, by myself. It's battle: me against the kids! We take it day by day. As anticipated, my Etsy shop is taking a temporary back seat to life for now. I'm hoping that keeping it in the forefront of my brain will get me back to it quicker, once we figure out a new "normal" with 3 babies and a new house. Wish me luck!

And there you have it. Fun, eh? :) Happy New Year!

Welcome Home, Oliver!

I cannot think of how to start this post. The past week brought much happiness and much grief.

First, the baby! My 8 lb 5 oz, 19.5" long son was born at 11:39 am after a mere half hour of hard labor. I was induced at 7 am, had my water broken at 10:30, and there he was, just over an hour later! This was by far the shortest, easiest labor and delivery I've had, with the best results in regards to my body.

Here he is:
Oliver Daniel Jamison Schanzmeyer!

I truly believe that the ease of this birth had everything to do with the short chapter I managed to eek out of a Hypnobirthing book about relaxing through breathing so that you can let your body do what it's supposed to, rather than fighting against it. I didn't have much time to practice this time around, but for our next birth, I definitely plan to read the whole book and practice the techniques ahead of time. Perhaps that last half hour will go smoother!

The birth of a child can easily be called the happiest moment of one's life. My happy moment was followed less than 24 hours later by one of the saddest; my sister Brenda, at 40 years old, passed away unexpectedly. She was disabled and had been having medical issues that were never able to be resolved before she withered away. She died with a bad kidney function and high blood pressure after a period of intense weight loss.

The circumstances surrounding her death have left me with profound grief. It's such a confusing time, something to awful riding hot on the heels of one of the happiest events of my life. I'm trying to focus on the positive: I didn't have to labor and deliver a baby after she passed, for example. As hard as this is, I think that would have been near impossible.

And then, two days later, the Thanksgiving holiday brought a load of family to our little home, another happy day tinged with sadness due to Brenda's absence. Her favorite thing in the world was socializing, spending time with her family, playing with her niece and nephews. I missed her buzzing about, clearing the table too early, telling stories about her dog chasing skunks and licking her face. Who would have thought those things did, indeed, need to happen to make it feel like nothing was missing?

Now that we're back home (services were Friday, and we packed up our toddlers and newborn and made a seemingly LONG day trip out of it) I'm hoping to get to rest up and sort through everything. Here's another picture of our favorite part of the circle of life: the beginning.

Little Miss Patriot

Imagine my surprise when my three-year-old came out with this one day, start to finish. We've spent quite some time since discussing what all the words mean. I'm completely in LOVE with this video, so I have to share it with you!

Just Stuff

I really have been busy, but it seems that I've been doing more work for my Etsy shop than anything else. So I must apologize if anybody has missed my once-frequent tutorials or personal projects that haven't been around due to lack of time/energy/etc. I may seem quiet, but that just means I'm hunkered down over my sewing machine, or hauling toddlers around all day. Anyway, here are some random tidbits from the goings-on around our house lately...

Recently I took my first product pictures using a live model, my very gorgeous and gracious friend Nicole. They turned out very well! They definitely got my Etsy items noticed more, so hopefully she enjoyed helping me out enough to do it a few more times. Seems this is a great thing for business! And it's fun to see my stuff on a real body, too.

And today, when Gus and Hubby came back in from the garden, Gus ate about half of a giant red pepper, raw, all by himself, by the huge mouthful. Not terribly special, I guess, but it was funny and I got a couple of snapshots of it. This is also the kid who, like his sister, would pick basil leaves fresh off the plant and eat them. Not just one.

And Baby #3 has hiccups CONSTANTLY! It's cute, but a little annoying after a while. I mean, if I were twitching like this all by myself, I'd go stretch or change position. But nothing helps! So I just try to enjoy the fact that my darling fetus has a working diaphragm and not that it'll be jumping around like an Irish step dancer inside my womb for the next 6 weeks!

Oh, and how can I forget Gracie?? Remember my first serger project? Her mom was good enough to send me some pictures of her in the outfit I made. See how close you can get to a good fit by using existing clothing as a guideline? You really don't need a pattern all the time. What an adorable girl!

And that is all for this evening. Hopefully I'll have something more fun for you to read soon! :D

I've Been Featured!

There's this great lady, Carlee, who's also active on the boards at www.mommysavers.com, and she has this handy blog (www.athomemoma.com) where she does reviews and giveaways and such, all geared toward moms. And guess who's on it today! :)

http://www.athomemoma.co.m/2010/10/review-and-giveaway-mrs-designs.html

Check it out, and enter the contest for this black satin ribbon and green bead necklace! There are pictures there, too, and here are a couple from me.

Enjoy, and good luck!

Just Thought I'd Share: Plate Wall Decor

Interior decorating is NOT my thing, but I've seen this great idea on sites like Apartment Therapy and maybe One Pretty Thing that I thought was totally doable even for me. So a few months ago I started collecting pretty plates, trying to stay in the green color scheme. They don't match, they don't always have green in them, and they're definitely not all the same style, but hanging asymmetrically together across the large wall in my kitchen definitely helps to make it feel more like home, and less like where non-imaginative people convene to eat (and where the more imaginative of us convene to throw food and make huge messes!).

This is a work in progress--when/if it's ever deemed "done" I'll post the finished results--but I'm just so psyched that it's coming together nicely that I wanted to share a picture. And, of course, cheap and easy ideas that make life easier and a little nice are always at the top of my list to shout about! And if you have a plate wall, let's see it!!

This Week I Worked Some Small Magic...

Seriously. My deadlines have been mobile lately, and I've been terribly busy. Last week's wedding veil was needed 2 days earlier than anticipated (which doesn't sound like much but it REALLY put a wrench in my week), and this week's project ended up needing to be done Monday instead of Thursday, a huge deal since I was unable to even start until Monday!! So here's what happened:

I volunteered to sew costumes for our local community theatre troupe, specifically the children's production of Alice in Wonderland. I was asked to make the 3 Alice dresses--just the blue part, not the apron, thank God!--and was given some material. With nothing more than the girls' dress sizes (I didn't actually see these little people until I did the final fitting!), t-shirts that I purchased from the Salvation Army to get an idea of their body sizes, and pieces from patterns that resembled the dresses I planned to make, I turned 8 1/2 yards of material into 3 peasant-style dresses for 3 very different sized girls in 2 afternoons (and one evening, with the final fitting and hemming). In technical terms, I believe that qualifies as a small miracle. If you sew and you have 2 (and on the second afternoon 4) very small children, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Or, if you have any idea of the kind of work that goes into free-handing a dress for someone you've never seen without a pattern or measurements 3 TIMES... well, you get it. It's times like this when I feel like I could move the moon if I tried! :)
All in all, I think the 3 Alices look great! And I'm sure their show is going to be awesome! We won't be around for it, tho, as we're leaving today for a visit to my parents' house for the next week. So, have a great week everyone, and good luck little thespians!