DIY Baby Food

Dear husband and I have a relatively healthy diet. My kryptonite is refined sugar and when you read the ingredients of, well, everything these days, it's usually in the top three.  So reading the ingredients of jarred baby food was quite the eye opener...tons of sugar.

In any case, making baby food is actually pretty easy, cheap and you know exactly what's in it.  So far, boiled potatoes and peas.

My experiment today is carrots and parsnip. I have steamed veggies in the microwave lots of times before (broccoli in a ziploc bag for 90 sec is wonderful! Flavourful and a bright green, not at all mushy), however...carrots...let's just say charred, smoking mess!

With that in mind Dear Husband has gone to get a steamer basket for our rice cooker...update shortly.

Parsnips in the rice cooker...success! On to the carrot.

Here is the rice cooker with the steamer basket and carrot (FYI, I'm not employed by or endorsed by Salton. It just happened to be the cheapest rice cooker on the shelf last grocery shop.)

 

Birth Sampler

One of my hobbies is cross-stitching (aka xstitching).  I have favourite designers and am active in several online facebook groups.  So when I decided to stitch a birth sampler I originally was aiming for one of my favourite designers but none of the ones that were available spoke to me in the way that projects do when they yell "make me!"

I ended up choosing a design from a new-to-me designer by the name of Brooke A. Nolan.  I had not heard of her or of perforated paper, which really intrigued me.  After scrolling through her offered designs I settled on one called the "Spring Baby Boy Sunshine Line."  At the time of publishing this blog entry, the pattern and chart kit were still available.

When I started this design I actually started using the wrong colour in the clouds!

You'll note I had gotten quite far before I noticed that I should have been doing a different colour altogether!

The next few pictures show my progress, it took me 29 days to stitch from beginning to end (including framing) although there were days I did not stitch at all so technically I was done in about 43 days.

 

All of the pieces then had to be cut out of the perforated paper, which was really more of a perforated card stock.  Then the bunny was stitched together, very carefully and each of the other pieces were embellished with DMC's memory thread, beads and DMC Light Effects thread (note to reader: if you decided to do this pieces I cannot emphasize that I wish I had used the Kreinik Braid #8 for the actual stitching.  The Light Effects was great for the back stitching but not so much for the xstitching.).

  

I then proceeded to prepare my linen for the shadow box. I tea-dyed it in a large pot on the stove and rinsed it really well.

Then I ironed it mostly dry and hung it up to dry. I carefully stretched it onto the board that came with the shadow box, mitred the corners and stitched them close.

 

Then I pinned each piece to the board and inserted into the shadow box, where it now hangs on my boy's bedroom wall.  At least until he gets older and says "Mom, I'm not a baby anymore!"

Blankets & More Blankets!

I have been given a few blankets for Jellybean.  My folks actually gave me three over the last weekend, one beautiful yellow crocheted one (done by my Baba for my mother), two that were identical in a fun green camo and my Baba also is making one for Jellybean too.  BUT, where to store?  DH and I live in a townhouse and there is not a lot of storage room.  I've been trying to use what we already have around the house (and not buy more stuff) and while doing an attic purge over the weekend I found an old ladder that was left behind by the previous owners.

Now, I know what you're all thinking....NOT SAFE! Absolutely, I agree 100%.  So, first, my plan is to paint it (crib first, then use left over paint) and then I have to attach this to the wall, or just remove it once he's pulling himself up (at least until he's a bit older.). If you have other safety ideas...please let me know!

So, I took the whole thing apart and sanded it (really more of roughing it up).

Spent the afternoon with DH (dear husband, NOT designated hitter as he so charmingly refers to that accroynm, him being a pseudo-baseball fan) painting it. Not my best painting job, this was the last pre-baby project so I was in a bit of a hurry!

I put it back together.

Put the blankets on and Voila!