Home(made) for the Holidays

This December, like most others, I'm busy crafting and cooking. With Christmas drawing closer I'm starting to wonder if I put too much on my plate this year but I wouldn't be happy if I wasn't busy and there's something about making something with your own two hands that's so much more satisfying than buying the same thing.

I can't go into much detail (yet!) on some of my projects (spoilers!) but here's what I've got in the works this year:

To kick things off I made my sister a Cookie Monster scarf for her birthday at the end of November. I forgot to snap a picture of it before shipping it off. Maybe she'll be nice enough to send one or wearing it of her wearing it so I can share it with you.

Little Red Riding Hood

Have you ever seen a sweeter Little Red Riding Hood?

Maybe I'm biased since she's all mine but I'm awfully proud!

I used a skein of Homespun yarn. It's soft and thick and works up quickly. I know she'll be snuggly warm in this little number.

 I think she'll wear the cape all season. It's so cute and warm, there's no reason it has to be just for Halloween.

If I get around to it before then, I'll make Teddy a little mop cap to be the Big Bad Wolf but I'm doing my best to get busy making Christmas.
I'll also try my best to write a tutorial for this cape but I mostly made it up as I went along and held it up to her to measure.

Happy Fall! Anyone else making costumes this year?

Rainy Day Play "Quilt"

After a very rainy week the sun made a perfectly timed reappearance on Columbus Day when the Mr had a day off of work allowing us to go apple picking, something that's been on my Fall bucket list for years. unfortunately I knew the ground would be wet and that we would probably end up sitting on the ground at some point. Knowing that the regular blankets we usually use as play areas for her weren't going to cut it in the mud, I whipped up this water proof "quilt" during her morning nap before venturing out for an afternoon at the apple orchard.

I'll start out by saying I have NO experience in quilting but I was able to complete this project from concept to packing it in the diaper bag in about 2 hours, with a little help from my husband to cut and pin a few pieces.

Rainy Day Play "Quilt"

Materials: 3 large scraps of fabric about 1/2 yd each (A,B,C)
1 yd PUL
thread
embroidery floss

1. Cut nine 1 ft square pieces of fabric, 3 of each color (A,B,C).

2. Pin sqaures right sides together into 3 rows of three in the following order: 

• Row 1: A, B, C
• Row 2: C, A, B
• Row 3: B, C, A

3. Sew the squares to form the three rows using a 1/2 inch seam allowance. 

4. Now pin the rows right sides together matching up and pinning open the seams. You can take the extra step of using an iron to press the seams open but I was in a hurry and it turned out just fine when I only pinned them open to sew. Sew using 1/2 inch seam allowance to form a large square from now on called the Quilt Square.

5. Now that you have your Quilt Square pieced together, lay it onto the PUL matching up one of the corners and two edges. Cut the PUL along the remaining two sides of the Quilt Sqaure to make a PUL square of the same size.
6. Match up the sides and pin the Quilt Square to the PUL square right sides together and sew using 1/2 inch seam allowance and leaving a gap a few inches wide to pull the piece through.

7. Trim the edges to 1/4 inch and clip the corners to the seam then turn the piece right side out through the gap you left.
8. Pin the edges smooth and sew a 1/4 inch hem all the way around to close the gap and keep the edges in place. We want a mat not a bag! :)
9. Now the whole point of this is to have a dry place to sit on damp/muddy ground. That's what the PUL is for; it keeps water from seeping through the blanket to baby's bum the way a normal blanket would. Now the more holes we put in the PUL by sewing through it, the more places there are for water to leak through so we can't stitch all over quilt style to keep the two sides of the blanket from slipping around. Instead I used embroidery floss in a complimentary color to stitch small Xs at the four corners of the central square in my "quilt." You can do French knots instead if you prefer the look or place the stitches in the center of some of your quilt squares instead but I recommend as few stitches as possible to hole the piece together in order to maximize water-proofing.
Enjoy!

Chocolate Hazelnut Granola

Now that I'm a mom, breastfeeding takes a lot out of me. As in I'm hungry ALL THE TIME! I love granola because you can pack a lot of energy and nutrition into a small snack. Plus, oats are great for improving your milk supply if you're breastfeeding. For a while I was just having my husband buy me granola cereal at the grocery store. Then on our last shopping trip, as I looked glumly at the comparatively large price tags and small box sizes of the granola-y cereals I decided my money would be much better spend on some oats and nuts to make my own granola. I was also motivated by the ingredient lists on many of the mixed grain cereals available. Sure the Post Great Grains cereal I'd been eating before was delicious and healthier than say Coco Puffs, but sugar was still listed higher on the label than oats were.
So on to the granola making! Yesterday morning after I let the dog out, I whipped up a batch of granola, popped it in the oven, and by the time I'd finished my pre-breakfast morning chores, the granola was ready. Awesome!
Making your own granola is seriously easy and not a huge money investment for a kitchen stocked with some basics. Rolled oats can be bought in a large can for about the same price as those expensive store bought granolas; you'll get enough to make serveral batches of granola, or change it up and make oatmeal, cookies, bread... yum! Nuts are a little pricier depending on what kind you get but worth the investment I think and you only need about a cup for every 3 cups of oats. I have lots of walnuts and almonds on hand anyway because I use them in my baking all the time.
I found a great mix and match granola recipe here and came up with a chocolate hazelnut recipe.

Dry:

• 3 cups of rolled oats
• 1 cup of choppped hazelnuts
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Wet::

• 2/3 cup honey
• 2 tbsp canola oil

Instructions:

Easy peasy! Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 13x9 in cake pan with foil. Use a spatula to mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the wet and mix that in too. Dump the oat mixture into your baking pan and bake for 50 minutes, stirring once about half way through. For optimum crunchy goodness, let cool and store in an airtight container.
Enjoy!

A Good Granola Bar is Hard to Find

Last night I made my first ever batch of homemade granola bars and they turned out pretty good!
I love all the potential health benefits of a good granola bar but it's hard to find everything I'm hoping for in one granola bar. Bars I've bought in stores seem to range from glorified rice crispy treats (Special K bar anyone?) to teeth-breaking sawdust bricks. Well I want a lot in the perfect granola bar; it's a balancing act of chewy and crunch, sweet but not toothache sweet, and of course ingredients that pack a healthy punch and taste great.
So I decided to make my own granola bars. How hard could it be right? I did a quick internet search of granola bar recipes and found that the basic ingredients and process are mostly the same so I decided to make up my own recipe with what I had available. What I ended up with wasn't exactly what I planned (I was aiming for chocolate chip but I added the chips too soon and they melted) but they are no doubt yummy, solid granola bars!

Chocolaty Granola Bars: Makes ~16

2 1/2 cups oat fashioned oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tbs vanilla
1/3 c honey
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c butter
1 c chocolate chips

Toss together oats, nuts, and vanilla on a rimmed cookie sheet. Toast in the oven at 350 F for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile measure out honey, sugar, and butter into a small sauce pan. Melt over low-medium heat, stirring to combine. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Press the combined mixture into a greased glass baking dish. I used 2 8x8 dishes and got 16 bars. Chill in the refrigerator before cutting.

I'll definitely continue experimenting with more granola recipes. They make a great, fast, healthy snack on the go making them perfect for this breastfeeding new mama!

Stitching up a storm!

There are lots of new babies in my life and on the way which means I've been doing lots of crafting!
I'm pretty new to crochet but I already prefer it to knitting. Since I'm not a master crocheter yet I've enjoyed making these super simple jumbo granny square baby blankets. If you can make a granny square you can make this! No need to join squares, which I haven't attempted yet, just keep going around and around until the blanket is the size you want it.
I'm trying to expand my horizons with crochet. It's easier on my fingers and faster (for me) than knitting. To that end I found and joined a site called Ravelry. I highly recommend it for fellow stitchers! It's a social network and database for knitting and crochet meaning it's very awesome!. They have a huge searchable database of patterns that is very easy to use. You can search projects by age, gender, difficulty, cost (many are free), format (online, pdf, book etc.), and product (clothing, toy, craft...). Then you can create a library of patterns you like and a to-do list. The social part comes in because you can share which pattern you are working on, and update your progress. Then you can share a review and photo of your finished product that other users will see when they view the pattern. All very cool stuff, and did I mention the site is free!

Mr also bought me this book. I haven't tried anything from it yet but it's a collection of crochet stitches wonderfully organized with a large color photo of each stitch. I'm looking forward to using it to jazz up simple patterns, especially sweaters/cardigans once I figure out how the basics of those.


On to sewing!
I made this super cute baby carrier using this pattern by Jan Andrea I found on Pinterest. It's so easy I think even a beginner sewer could manage it. At any rate, I used some heavy weight "home decor" fabric from Walmart at something like $8/yd. The pattern used about 1 1/2 yds so for about $12 and an hour of effort, I had this handy cutey! Baby carriers usually sell for $25 minimum so I think this is a pretty great deal, plus I got to choose my own pretty fabric. I only made a very basic carrier but now that I know it's so fast, easy, and cheap, I can definitely see myself customizing future "luxury models" but maybe only after I've gotten to test drive this one so see what would be useful. Sure, the carriers online with retractable hoods, padded straps, and zipper pockets look cool, but how much of that will I really use? Only time will tell!
Anyway, if you sew and need a gift for a friend with a baby, I recommend this. I recently learned from friends that expecting moms end up with more baby blankets than they know what to do with so this seems like a practical, cute, and easy alternative for a gift made with love.
I also made a shopping cart cover with this pattern. Another quick and easy project. Way cuter and cheaper than a store bought cover. I bought my fleece on sale for $6 but even at it's normal $10/yd this project works up well below the usual $30 for a store bought cover. I haven't test driven it yet so any picture of the final product outside a cart just looks like a blob but I did customize the pattern by adding a pocket that the whole thing folds neatly into and I had enough fabric left over for a separate matching pouch. Maybe I'll go back and add some sort of closure to it and use it for toys and snacks.