Monday, May 28, 2012

Moving day!

Just a warning that things might be a bit quiet around here for a little while. My mother-in-law just arrived to help us watch Beckett while we get ready for our big move on Thursday.
 
On Wednesday, we're closing on our very first house! But first, we have to get from here:
To here:
Next time I see you, we'll be homeowners!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

A treat from the farmers' market

Matt came home from the farmers' market with a treat for the adults.
 Yum!
It's hard to beat a bowl of fresh cherries. Wish we had enough for a pie. :)

Baby food for Beckett

We'd always planned to make Beckett's baby food, but it worked out nicely that he started on solids right about the time the farmers' markets started opening, so we've been able to let him try fresh, local, seasonal, organic food straight from the farm — not a bad way to kick things off. :)
It's also been a pleasant surprise to find out just how easy it is to make your own baby food. I mean, really, there's not really a good reason not to do it yourself. It's much cheaper, even if you go organic, it tastes loads better, it uses less packaging, and you know exactly what's going in it.
Plus, it looks like this:
Yum. I'll admit, sometimes I steal a bite or two from the bowl. :) Wanna know how to do it? Take your food "X," cut it into small pieces, steam it for about 10 minutes (a little more or less, depending on how hard it is to begin with; you want to get it pretty soft), then throw it in the blender. You may need to add a little of the steaming water if it's too thick. And that's it! Easy as can be.
To make it even easier, we usually just try to feed him something that we're already going to make for dinner. The other night, we had a squash and zucchini salad, so while Matt was making that, we diced up some of the squash to make for Beckett. No biggie. He'll be trying the zucchini for the first time tomorrow. Once he's progressed past the individual purees, we're excited to start trying out some of the recipes from this book by Tyler Florence. He's big (and so are we) on baby eating what you eat, so he makes a lot of meals that work for everyone, plus he does a great job of introducing more complex flavors (roasted blueberries, anyone?) and combinations (roasted apple, carrot, and mango puree) right from the beginning. Yummy!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

A day at the pool

The mercury's been rising around here the past few days, so instead of our usual walk, we decided to take Beckett to the pool for the first time yesterday.
He's signed up to take swim lessons in August, but we plan to spend plenty of time in the pool before then. Our current gym only has an indoor pool, but after we move next week, we'll have access to the best outdoor community pool around. Time to break out the swim shirt and hat!

Adventures in baby food: mangos and squash edition

Beckett's first encounters with mangos and yellow squash, in pictures (in case you can't tell, he LOVED them both):
 

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

WIP Wednesday #25

Happy Wednesday! It's been a good week (or at least weekend) of sewing, so there's some fun new stuff to report. We're getting ready for our move next week, so it was nice to squeeze in a few more projects before getting packed up. (In case you're new around here, I'm following along with Freshly Pieced's W.I.P. (Work In Progress) Wednesday series as a good way for me (and you) to keep track of what's going on around here.)

Completed this week: 
Two more blocks for my Early Bird/Kitchen Window quilt
It's moving along nicely, and the great thing about quilts is how you can squeeze in a block or two in the middle of working on other projects.
Speaking of other projects, I also finished up some baby gifts for several friends, which meant a big 'ol pile of bibs and burp cloths, plus one more burp cloth for the messiest baby in the world, my son.
 
 

Started this week:
More blocks for the Early Bird quilt. The official count is eight done, four more to go!

On the "to do" list:
Two coin purses
Changing table pad cover
Bumpers for our coffee table's legs
A few pacifier clips
Mystery gift for a friend
A few items to spruce up our new stroller
A sheet for Beckett's pea pod mattress 
A new bag and mug rug for me

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week. And be sure to click on the button to check out other great WIPs for more inspiration!
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Weekend sewing

In the midst of my weekend sewing marathon, I also managed to finish up two more blocks for the Kitchen Window/Early Bird quilt.
I really love the cherry fabrics (almost as much as the toasters).
And I liked the way this one turned out with the three colorways of the line fabric along the bottom of the window.
Just four more blocks to go!

Monday, May 21, 2012

A bevy of bibs and burp cloths

Finally! Some more time for sewing. This weekend was very productive, and I managed to knock out several gifts for friends who've recently had or are about to have babies. It was a burp cloths and bibs sweat shop around here.
 
 
I finished four sets for three boys and a girl, each containing a matching bib and burp cloth.
I used several different fabrics, mostly Riley Blake and Ann Kelle (if you're interested in a specific one, just leave a comment).
They'll all be in the mail to their mommas tomorrow, and if their babies are anything like Beckett, I trust they'll get plenty of use. :)
I had some leftover burp cloth fabric, so I also made Beckett one more of his own using his fox fabric.
Love it!