Neglected on the Needles

That title sounds more than a little weird.  Ha! 

I accomplished a lot on vacation last week, including making several hats to build up my Etsy store inventory again (to be revealed soon!), three skirts (using an awesome new technique I discovered, I'll post more later!), and another big project that I can't talk about until after my brother's wedding.  :)

Now that all that is done, I want to work on a few treasures I found at the bottom of my yarn baskets when I organized my massive yarn stash a couple weeks ago.  My poor husband....I bet he never knew he would not only be marrying me, but also boxes upon boxes of yarn.  Hopefully I will finish at least ONE of these neglected projects before the end of the summer, given my tendency to start about 10 projects at once and then not finish 3 or 4 of them for a year or two.  Here they are:

This was going to be a tank top.  I started it over 2 years ago, and I really love the delicate yarn (it's knit with 2 strands at once) and how it creates a light, airy, organic texture.  The sad thing is, I don't think it would fit me now, if I kept knitting it in the size I started.  So, I either plan to start over in a bigger size (thank you, motherhood), or make something else out of the yarn.

This is the first of a pair of mittens.  The pattern is a really cool fair isle design, and I made a pair just like this (but in burgundy and white) for my mom a couple years ago.  That pair was my first experience with intarsia knitting, and it's really fun....it just takes me FOREVER.  I'm determined to finish this pair before this winter!

This is a pretty scarf/wrap I started last summer while I was pregnant.  I thought I'd make something for myself before my knitting time became forever scarce once the baby came.  Then, a couple weeks later, I learned how to crochet and haven't touched it since.  I'd also like to finish this before cooler weather comes again!  (and as a side note, I'm pleasantly surprised how much time I still have to knit/crochet, even with how busy Liam keeps me!)

This is about 1.5 hours' worth of work on a really gorgeous felted oversize tote bag.  It has a floral pattern on one side, and reminds me of those really pretty tapestry bags.  The pattern is from a book I got for Christmas, so it's the newest of these neglected projects--so I may finish the others first, but I WILL get this one done, sometime!!!

I'll update this post when I finish these projects...which will happen between my never-ending list of things I want to make for my Etsy store, plus winter things I want to make before winter comes, plus Christmas gifts...sigh.  I think somebody has a skewed sense of what she is able to accomplish in a reasonable amount of time!

Dinner/Supper: Week of 6/27

Here's my grocery totals this week, followed by the meals planned.

Purchased with a Groupon at T-Bones

T-Bones: (A local, high-end grocery- I only went there because I had a groupon for $30 of groceries)
Whole wheat penne
Salsa
Milk
Turkey Italian Sausage
Beef stew meat
Chicken thighs & drumsticks
Mushrooms
Whole Wheat flatbread
Sour cream
Onion soup mix

Total spent: $15.98 ($15 for the groupon a couple months ago, $0.98 out of pocket)

Aldi: (not pictured, mainly because it was for last Sunday, and also because I forgot to take a picture)
Fresh mozzarella
Tomatoes
Chips
Hamburger/Hot Dog buns
Bowtie pasta

Total Spent: I lost the receipt, but under $10, because I used a $10 bill.  :) 
Grand Total: $25.98 (ish)
It was a light week grocery-wise.  Good for the wallet!


And here's the menu:

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff (recipe on this blog, under the 'recipe' label)

Wednesday:  Pinto Beans (recipe from the Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook), rice, salad

Thursday:  Pollo Asado (looks delicious!), green beans/wax beans from the garden, flatbread and hummus

Friday:  Turkey Italian Sausages with peppers and onions


My garden is just starting to really produce lots and lots of stuff....it's exciting!  Can't wait to plan next week around what I'm able to harvest.

Dinner/Supper: Week of 6/20

Sorry this is so late--the week is almost over!  Yikes.  We had a great vacation, and though Rob came back last Sunday, I actually ended up staying in Ohio till Wednesday.  A couple of things came up, and it was nice to have an unexpected couple of days.  So, we didn't have much of a shopping trip/dinner menu this week.  Rob went to Aldi when he got back and proudly reported to me that he spent $26.36.  Love him!  I don't have the receipt to list all the items, but it was lots of basics like fruit, milk, cereal, etc.  The stuff we didn't buy for awhile before we left.  Then yesterday I spent $4.98 on a rotisserie chicken, and bought some baby food.  So we still came in under budget.  Anyway, here's this week's menu, Wednesday-Sunday.

Wednesday:  Taco Salad/Haystacks (I don't really know what to call this...you crunch up a bunch of tortilla chips and pile all the taco fillings on top)

Thursday:  Rotisserie chicken, wild rice, corn

Friday:  Skillet chicken, broccoli and penne  (this is one of our new favorite recipes!  I'm using leftover chicken from Thursday)

Saturday:  Leftovers or homemade waffles (Liam and I will be spending most of the day in the car attending a wedding while Rob's at work, so I doubt that we will even get to have a meal together)

Sunday:  I don't have a plan yet.  Hopefully some sort of a belated family dinner to celebrate my in-laws' anniversary.  Which I knew was this week, and even talked to them on that day, but didn't have my days of the week straight enough to put the date with the day.  Fail.  I'm losing my mind.  Happy anniversary anyway, Mom and Dad Barone, if you read this!!


I have lots of things to post this coming week--I went overboard in the sewing/crocheting/knitting categories while on vacation!

Vacation Discoveries

So, I've decided that my dream job involves being on vacation full-time, forever.  Sounds fair, right? 

Ha.  Seriously though, this week has been so nice.  And it's not over yet, but I will be so sad when it is. 

We've gotten to spend time with family we don't get to see as much as we'd like.  And sleep in (till 8:00, that is).  And do fun things like visit the zoo and Cedar Point.  And attend bridal showers and help out with preparations for my brother's and soon-to-be-sister-in-law's upcoming wedding.  And spend countless hours doing things like watching Star Wars (Rob) or the Food Network (me), or playing with an almost-crawling baby on the floor, or hitting little plastic wiffle golf balls around in the yard, or taking long bike rides, or making impromptu trips to get ice cream or coffee more times than we'd care to admit.

Also, I personally have gotten to stay up WAY too late surfing the web every night and not feel guilty about it, because I'm on vacation after all, and surfing the web usually brings me some sort of epic inspiration/motivation/creative ideas....usually.  Sometimes it just means I have wasted an hour on Facebook. 

But I'm going to focus instead on some of the wonderful things I've discovered this week--and since I've hardly done any cooking the past few days, and am generally doing non-domestic things instead, I decided to share with all of you some of the things I found and want/want to do NOW love.  

1) Cloth Diapering 101.  Okay, so this one is kind of domestic.  I just thought it was cool how my last post was about cloth diapering, and then this popped up on one of the blogs I usually read.



2)  Knitted Minion. 
 
How cute is this?  I must make one IMMEDIATELY.  Regardless of how useless/impractical it is.  If you haven't seen 'Despicable Me,' go rent it.  SO CUTE.



3) Fila Skeletoez

 I know the whole barefoot-running thing might just be a fad (though I do understand the health benefits), but I have to confess that I have wanted to try out the Vibram Five Finger shoes for awhile.  They're really expensive though, so I was glad to hear that Fila has made a cheaper version.  I tried on a pair today...they're SO comfortable!  Definitely hope to get a good deal on these sometime.



4)  This area rug. 

 

Liam will, literally, be crawling in a matter of days.  *sniff*  It is so adorable to watch him try to figure it out, and though he's been scooting himself around the floor for a couple of weeks, in just the past 2 days he's really been trying to propel himself using his legs, and has also pushed himself up on his hands and toes.  This also means that our beloved wool kilim rug, which last summer seemed like the perfect choice for our living room, is no longer practical as it is not soft at all and will produce rug burns like crazy.  I guess we weren't thinking very far ahead with that one.  We're going to be getting something like this one that is simple, soft, inexpensive, and newly-mobile-baby-friendly to use for awhile.

5) Supreme 90 Day.  I will admit, the pictures on the website are so cheesy that I couldn't even bring myself to put one here.  Anyway, I have been interested in doing the P90x and/or Insanity DVD workouts for awhile now, but they are SO EXPENSIVE.  Even used, they're still pricey, and I have now lost a handful of eBay auctions trying to get my hands on a set.  Then I heard about Supreme 90 Day, and have read countless reviews which say it is a great alternative.  The best part?  It costs $19.99.  No joke!  I ordered mine from Bed, Bath, and Beyond today (with free shipping!) and am excited to start.  I'll share my (hopeful) recommendation and results after I give it a try!

I think I'll stop there for now.  I have added approximately 2 dozen new bookmarks to my browser in the past week!  Perhaps I have too much time on my hands....?  Oh, and if any of you have feedback about P90x/Insanity/Supreme 90 Day, let me know!!

Our Cloth Diaper Experience: The Stash

It's been awhile since my last post--but I'm back!  Last week was busy but we're on vacation right now so all is well. 

I've been meaning to write a little about our experience with cloth diapering for awhile now.  I know this may not be interesting at ALL to some people, but hopefully somebody out there will appreciate this!  In all reality, these diapers have probably been our biggest money-saver to date in our married life so far.  I'll write in a separate post sometime about the cost breakdown and how much using cloth actually saves (I had to make a detailed spreadsheet to convince my husband that it was worth it--but it worked!).   Since we are using disposable diapers at my parents' house, I had a chance to snap a photo of Liam's entire stash before we left, all clean at the same time.  (For the record, they're never all clean at the same time!)

We have several different kinds of diapers, and all the ones you see pictured are either one-size (meaning they will fit from birth to potty-training), or sized to fit from about 16 pounds to potty-training.  Peeking out from under Liam's crib is a plastic bin of cloth diapers he's already outgrown.  We used extra-small and small prefolds and covers until he was about 3-4 months old.  Here's what the rest are:

1) Thirsties duo wrap diaper covers (6 total), used over prefolds (#3)

2) Snappi diaper fasteners (3 total)-used to fasten #3, instead of diaper pins

3) Bumkins and OsoCozy prefolds (18 total)-the absorbent part of the diaper.  We have two kinds because I got the Bumkins with a groupon-type deal for half off.

4) and 5)  Econobum prefolds (15 total) and covers (5 total).  I have to say, these are my favorites.  They are so easy to use because the prefold just lays inside the cover (no Snappi needed), and they are SO inexpensive!  They come in different package deals, and I'm thinking about getting another set of a dozen prefolds with 3 covers because right now I have enough to last for just over a day (I wash diapers every other day).  Plus they're easy for my husband to use.

6)  Planet wise (2 total) and bumGenius (1 total) wetbags-these are waterproof and I use them to hold dirty diapers when we're away from home.  They contain the smell really well, and can be washed with everything else.

7) BumGenius 4.0 one-size pocket diapers (7 total).  These are the easiest to use because they go on just like a disposable diaper, but are also the most expensive.  And unfortunately for us, they leak the most.  I'm not sure why, but they just don't work for Liam as much as the others.  They're very handy to have for quick changes though.

8)  Flip diaper covers (2 total) and stay-dry inserts (4 total)--these are made by the same company as Econobum and bumGenius.  I bought them really just to try them out, and I do like them a lot.  Liam usually wears one of these to bed with two inserts stuffed inside--I've found they don't wick moisture like the Thirsties covers sometimes do.

So, there you have it.  (Is anyone still reading at this point?!?)  Cloth diapers have come a long way from rubber pants and diaper pins!  I'll try to make my next post have a little more universal appeal.  :)

P.S.  My two favorite places to buy cloth diapers: Mom's Milk Boutique and Happy Baby Company (Pittsburgh's own cloth diaper shop--about 15 minutes from our house!)

Dinner/Supper Menu: Week of 6/6

I feel like I just posted last week's menu....?  Well actually, I didn't get it posted until Wednesday but still--the weeks just seem to fly by.   I'm keeping grocery shopping to a BARE minimum this week because we're leaving for our vacation next Saturday (woohoo! we're going to Findlay again...maybe not the most tropical location to some folks but we're looking forward to alot of R & R!) so I don't want a lot of food laying around.  Every meal listed can be made from stuff we already have, so I only need to buy a few fresh fruit and veggies and possibly a little baby food.

Here goes:

Monday:  Grilled cheese and tomato soup (can you handle the exotic cuisine?!?)

Tuesday:  Grilled chicken sausage, veggie, and potato packets, also known as 'hobo packets'

Wednesday:  frozen pierogies, salad, and fruit

Thursday:  Roasted whole chicken, mashed potatoes (can you tell I have potatoes to use up?), broccoli

Friday:  BBQ Chicken Pizza (using leftover chicken from Thursday, and using my bread machine pizza dough recipe)

Saturday:  Leftovers for lunch, packing snacks/getting road trip food for dinner on the way to Findlay (probably from Sheetz, it's our favorite road trip fare!)

Sunday:  We'll be in Findlay--where the standard Sunday night meal is pizza (yes, again, we are pizza lovers after all) at Jac & Do's!

Dinner (Supper) Menu: week of 5/30

I am continually reminded (most recently, when we were in Ohio visiting my family for a long Memorial Day weekend-good times!) that I was raised in the land of 'breakfast, dinner, and supper.'  As in, breakfast is breakfast (I don't think that's ever anything else, anywhere) dinner is eaten around noon, and supper is eaten in the evening.  I don't know what happened, but somewhere along the way I conformed to the ways of the 'city people,' who eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Anyway, as a way to keep myself accountable to sticking to regular meal-planning, I'm going to post our dinner/supper menu for each week, because whenever I don't I end up going over budget at the store.  Breakfast around here is usually oatmeal, fruit and yogurt, cereal, toast, or muffins/waffles if I've had some extra time.  On the rare occasion when Rob and I are both at home for breakfast, I'll make eggs or omelets.  Regardless, I'm not including breakfast in the meal plans, nor lunch--which is usually leftovers or a sandwich for Rob, and leftovers, eggs, a sandwich, or a smoothie for me. 

So, here we go.  Whee.

Monday:  Last day of our long weekend at my parents'

Tuesday:  Cookout with our small group

Wednesday:  Lemon Pepper Chicken and Green Beans, cut-up oranges, salad (from our garden), and Strawberry Summer Cake (this is in the oven right now, and smells SO GOOD!)

Thursday:  Burritos (killing 2 birds with one stone--making some for the freezer), rice, frozen vegetables, fruit

Friday:  Homemade pizza

Saturday: Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella Salad, veggies and flatbread with homemade hummus (this will probably be lunch since I'm working around dinnertime)

Sunday:  Meatballs from freezer and whole wheat penne with red sauce

Anybody else having something yummy this week?