Adventures in Babyfood

We are still 2 months out from solids for Tate (if I can wait that long). But today I had some apples in my fruit bowl that had seen better days. It was either use it or lose it and so I used them to make Tate some Apple Puree.

Recipe from Baby Bullet Cookbook

Apple Puree

1 Apple 

1/4 Cup Water

Peel and core apple (I cut mine into chunks because thats how I core apples). 

Boil or steam (we boiled but I think you could also roast it). I cut the apples into large chunks and it took about 15 minutes to boil them to softness. 

Put into Baby Bullet (or food processor) and voila! 

I used Granny Smith apples and used the water from the pan to thin the puree though in my opinion you didn't need a lot of water. Maybe if you steamed or roasted them but after boiling them they had plenty of liquid. 

Diesel loves apples and sat diligently at my feet the whole time I peeled, cored, sliced, and pureed.

Best Buddies

Because it is too sweet not to share...

Tate at 3 and a half months with his favorite toy! That was 1/3 the price of Sophie and he loves it three times as much. I'm still hoping Sophie will earn her keep when he starts teething.

Getting Crafty

I may know my way around a power sander and a paint brush but I don't consider myself terribly crafty. Though, I do come from a long line of amazingly crafty ladies on my mother's side. Maybe it skipped a generation...however when itty bitty baby items were taking over my cupboards and closets I realized I needed more closets some way to contain it all. So I headed to the thrifty lady's organizational mecca- Ikea. There in the showrooms I found a storage container for every possible type of clutter I could ever hope to own. And then I wandered around to the store and was taken aback! Ikea you are supposed to be CHEAP! Ikea you even require assembly of small storage containers! Ikea this is just a cardboard box covered in fabric why would I pay you $10.00 for it! And there it came to me-I have cardboard boxes, I have random bits of fabric, why not make my own fabric covered cardboard boxes for the purpose of corralling baby related clutter? And so I did.

From This

To This

What follows is my very real attempt at a tutorial. This tutorial makes this project seem way more complicated than it is. In reality this took only slightly longer than assembling the Ikea fabric covered box (I bought a few because I didn't know if this was going to be a craft fail or not).


Supplies
1 Box- I used a shoe box but you could use anything
Fabric- I used an old tablecloth that shrank
Scissors
Glue
Foam Brush (optional)

You will want enough fabric to wrap around the box you chose. I eyeballed everything because measurements and spatial skills are not my strong suit. 

Mark with a pen (I put masking tape to make it more visible for photos) your cuts. You want to cut away the edges of the fabric to leave a cross or plus sign when all cuts are made. IMPORTANT: In order to create the finished edges you need to leave yourself just a little extra fabric (1/4 of an inch)

After you cut out all the corners this is what your fabric should look like.

The apply a liberal amount of glue to the bottom of your box (I use the foam brush to spread it evenly but you could use your finger) and position it in the center of your fabric. Turn over and push the fabric into the glue making sure to get out any air bubbles.

Then apply glue to the side of box and bring up the corresponding panel of fabric and adhere to the box. You should have 1/4 of an inch of fabric hanging over on each edge. Then glue the fabric to the inside of the box. Pulling tight and making sure there are no air bubbles.

The ends of box should each have that 1/4 inch of fabric hanging over like so.

Repeat the above steps for the other long side of box (or if your box is square just the corresponding side).

Once both sides are done (two glued on and two naked) place a line of glue along the box next to the fabric overhang. Fold the overhang around the corner of the box and press down tightly.

Repeat for all the fabric overhangs (there should be four). Then spread glue along the two remaining sides of the box and bring up the fabric panel. Apply glue on top of the fabric overhang that you folded down and then fold in the corresponding fabric overhangs on the panels that are not yet in place. 

The finished corners should look like this. Then glue the fabric inside the box.

If your box has a top then simply repeat the same steps for the box top.

Here is my finished product next to the box I bought from Ikea. I think I like mine better.

Linking to:
Martha Mondays
Made By You Mondays
Sundae Scoop

Debbiedoos' Newbie Party
Homemaker on a Dime

Project Pantry

About a year ago in a fit of pregnancy nesting I was inspired by The House of Smith's pantry makeover. My pantry is considerably smaller and serves a multitude of functions (read: storage of mixer, ironing board, trash can, amongst other homeless objects). I was a pregnant lady with a mission. That was a year ago and I have nary touched it since.

My pantry today- a hot mess.

Worse still is that unorganized mess seems to beget more unorganized mess and duplicate purchases (who doesn't need three large containers of mayonnaise). As I've watched my cereal boxes move from the top shelf to teetering off the side of the middle shelf to their current location on the floor (and inching closer to the trash can by the day) I have had it in my mind to tackle the pantry but its amazing what gets prioritized in a house with a 4 month old. But today it happened- Tate was napping, the rest of my house is some semblance of clean, and most importantly the cable was out.

First things first- EVERYTHING came out (sorry for the blurry picture I didn't realize it till I uploaded it)

Everything got sorted.

Pantry got throughly cleaned.

Side note: Those of you who are not blessed with solid shelving in your pantry and instead have these ridiculous wire shelves I have found that thick plastic shelf and drawer liner helps the shelving act more like a solid surface and greatly reduces the amount of items that topple over (I even use it for my shoes in the bedroom closet).

And then everything got put back in (minus the water chestnuts those got donated to the food shelf because I hate water chestnuts and I have no clue how a can ended up in my pantry). I even have room for more food!

I like to decant most items into glass see through jars. My flour, sugar, pastas, etc. are in these Anchor Hocking Canisters from Target.

I also save just about every pretty glass jar that comes my way- jams, pasta sauces, salsa. Mostly I use left over Classico pasta sauce jars. Classico uses Atlas canning jars that have squared edges and are also the perfect size for bread crumbs, chocolate chips, etc.

This Coca-Cola crate I picked up at a garage sales ages ago- it had been on a garage shelf holding junk very important car cleaning supplies until it was called to serve this higher purpose (bonus it is reminiscent of it's past purpose). 

Now it's not nearly as esthetically pleasing as The House of Smith's but it is certainly a marked improvement! What do you think?

Linking up to:

Funky Junk Interiors
Be Different...Act Normal
Sisters of the Wild West
Serenity Now
The Organized Housewife

What's for Dinner...

Caprese Grilled Chicken


3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

Marinade
3/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Minced Garlic
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Teaspoon Onion Powder

Mix together marinade and marinade chicken at least 5 hours but you could go overnight.

Topping
3 Tomatoes Diced
8 ounces Fresh Mozzerella Cubed
2 Tablespoon Pesto (could sub just fresh basil)
1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic
Splash of Balsamic Vinegar
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Mix together all ingredients and let sit. Pound out chicken breasts (tip: pound them out inside the zip top bag you marinaded them in to keep chicken goo from flying all over your kitchen). Grill chicken 5 minutes per side. Spoon topping over hot chicken and serve. We served this with grilled asparagus.

Linking To:

Show Off Your Stuff

What I Whipped Up Wednesday

Polka Dots on Parade
The Taylor House

House of Hepworths

Create Your Own Artwork

There is a theme with all the artwork in our house. It was all cheap (surprise) and is almost all black and white. I am just drawn to it for some reason.

If you've never visited the Graphics Fairy its a treasure trove of free clip art and printables. The link is to the images I used in Tate's room. I think I went through just about every single black and white clip art there is on the site and these were my favorites. I was in dire need of some art for the walls in Tate's nursery and the budget was as close to $0.00 without going over. Once I had the images I wanted to use I took some thick resume paper (because we had it laying around) and printed it but the paper was still to pristine looking for the effect I wanted.

We had plain white resume paper laying around. Please excuse the packaging-Diesel was working on his resume.

I experimented with tea and coffee staining the paper. I initially used the leftover coffee from my morning brew- the coffee was too dark and uneven for the look I was going for so I brewed up some strong black tea and tried again.

I soaked the pages in the tea for about 10 minutes making certain to cover the entire paper evenly.

Then I placed them on cooling racks over kitchen towels to dry while I was at work.

When I came home the pages were dry but slightly wrinkled so I lightly ironed them with the towel over the top.

Final product- perfectly aged paper ready for printing! There is a more noticeable difference in the two papers in person. The camera doesn't pick it up very well. I then just fed the paper into the printer through the bypass tray (the stiffness of the paper jammed my printer's regular feed) and printed out my images.

Linking to:  

It's a Hodgepodge Life

Simply Designing

Watch Out, Martha!

Love it, Like it, Link it!

Mother's Day Brunch

We hosted my Mother-In-Law and Father-In-Law for Brunch in honor of Mother's Day. I kept it simple with a make-ahead French Toast Strata (recipe below), bacon, and fresh strawberries. I hate rushing around and cooking while people are here so the Strata is the perfect solution.

French Toast Strata
8 eggs
1 package of cream cheese
cinnamon (to taste)
1/2 cup syrup (plus more for serving)
3 cups milk
6 tablespoons butter
2 crusty baguettes

Halve baguettes and spread softened cream cheese over bread. Put loaves back together (with cream cheese in the middle) and cut into bite sized pieces. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, cinnamon, syrup, and milk.

Place bread pieces into a baking dish and pour liquid over top. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning take butter and cut into small cubes and place over top of bread. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes covered and 5-10 minutes uncovered.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Linking up to:

  Grace at Home with Imparting Grace

Funky Junk Interiors

Show And Tell Friday

Tatertots And Jello
Crumbs and Chaos
Skip to My Lou