Pam's Rice Bag

As Pam was visiting me last week she got cold since she's not use to Minnesota weather anymore. One night I heated up my Rice bag for her and she was so happy. She use to have a rice bag but she told me she didn't know where hers was anymore. I offered to give her mine but she declined. So I've decided to make her a bag and send it to her for a birthday present since her birthday is in a few weeks. (plus I have leftover rice from Linda's Rice bags)

For Pam's rice bag I decided to make a "pillow" case to go over it. Since the fabric holding the rice wasn't going to be seen I just used some plain white fabric I had sitting around.

I made the case out of this fun red fabric and the bag is done! Now it's off to DC.

Baby Showers

In a few short weeks there will be two new little people in this world and I am so lucky to be apart of their lives. Some good friends of ours and my cousin are both having babies soon. So what better way to help welcome them into this world and save the parents some money but to have baby showers! Both showers are happening this upcoming week and I am super excited because I love babies and all the little things that they need.

Laura and I went shopping last week to buy presents for them. We went a little crazy because everything we saw we fell in love with and thought it was super cute.

Micah and Lauren have decided to be surprised about what they are having so I found some great gender neutral outfits. All of course on clearance because I don't believe in paying full price for something they will outgrow in a few months.

Tina is having a little girl. She has painted her baby room pink and brown so Laura and I found all sorts of super cute pink and brown outfits.

And of course these were all on clearance too. One observation we did notice is that Babies R Us does NOT have good clearance stuff, they have a lot of selections but no good sales. Target is the way to go if you are looking for cheap baby stuff. Even the diapers we found were $5 cheaper at Target. So I highly recommend shopping at Target.

Pam's Visit!

I had the pleasure of hosting one of my best friends this week. She stayed for 2 nights and we packed as much stuff as we could in those two days/nights she was here visiting. We checked out all sorts of great places and I became tourists in my own town. So I am going to attempt to be a critic and write reviews for each place we went because they were all great and we had so much fun.

Birchwood Café                                               

This is a great little restaurant nestled in a Minneapolis’ Seward Neighborhood. The place is full of earthy-granola type people, which makes for a fun relaxed atmosphere. Local artists’ work cover the walls and change every so often so the place always looks new. There is usually some pretty great stuff and they are all for sale!

Their food is organic and delicious! Since we went there for lunch I was craving something on the lighter side so I ordered a sandwich. I had a Cherry Turkey and Hazelnut Sandwich served with blue chips and salsa. The salsa was awesome, homemade and not too spicy. The sandwich was amazing! I don’t even know what was all in the sandwich, besides the turkey, cherries and hazelnut, but I totally recommend getting it.

Website: http://www.birchwoodcafe.com/

Uptown: 

After we had our delicious meal at the Birchwood café, Pam and I went shopping around Uptown. Pam needed hiking pants so we went to the Columbia store – where the service was awesome and we had a lot of great help. Than we checked out the Northface store – which didn’t have great service and was a lot busier but we were able to find pants! We of course had to stop into Juut and smell the Aveda products, Pam got a great little tea ball for her tea there and I had fun checking out the products. After wandering through a few other stores we went to Urban Outfitters, found some great stuff and ran into an old acquaintance of ours who happened to be working there. It was nice to see her.  

Applebee’s

 Applebee’s is one of those classic places that you go to just to hang out. You don’t go for the food but more for the price and the atmosphere.  I had gathered a few of us together so they could see Pam and say hi. We were all hungry so we headed over to Applebee’s because it is cheaper and the Viking’s game was on and the guys wanted to watch it. Applebee’s usually has half price appetizer’s after 9pm but since the game was on the half price apps started at 7pm so we all ordered apps and enjoyed! There is nothing too special about these so I wont go in depth.

True Grit

Once our bellies were full from Applebee’s, we decided we weren’t tired and so went to AMC to see a movie. We went and saw True Grit. Good old classic Cowboy movie, with a lot of shooting bad guys and riding horses. I really enjoyed it. I thought the actors/actress were very talented. The only thing that weirded me out was Matt Damon as a cowboy… I had a hard time taking his character seriously. Otherwise the movie was great… little gory at times but good.

Website: http://www.truegritmovie.com/

French Meadow Bakery

Another great place that offers organic food! This place has a very welcoming atmosphere. With the high ceilings and families at every other table makes you want to just grab a big cup of Joe and make yourself at home. The place is a bakery so they have a ton of amazing looking baked goods on display.  I decided to stay away from these because I like to have a good healthy wholesome breakfast to start my day off. For this meal I chose Organic Granola, served with whole milk and a Chai Tea Latte. The granola was baked to perfection, it was crunchy and very flavorful. It also came with enough raisins for every bite – which made me happy. The latte was also very good and the barista did an excellent job getting the perfect amount of foam on the top. If you are not into granola they also served many normal breakfast-type meals made with their own twist. I think I am going to have to back to try some of them because they looked amazing. Definitely recommend this place.

Website: http://www.frenchmeadow.com/

MIA:

 I love museums/art galleries. So we went to the Minnesota Institute of Art and walked around and check out all the cool stuff for about an hour. Right now they have a Native American display going on and some cool new modern art type stuff. There are also other displays going on but we didn’t have time to enjoy them. And apparently it’s a great place to take a baby. We met a dad who brought his 10 month old and let the baby crawl around on the floor as he checked out the artwork.

Website: http://www.artsmia.org/

Games, Pizza and movies

                For Pam’s last night here we wanted to be able to hang out and have fun and just enjoy company. So we invited another friend over and the four of us ordered Stuffed Crust Pizza Hut pizza, played Settlers than watched Despicable Me and Spider Man 2. It was a great relaxed night. I may have fallen asleep during Despicable me but it was still great to have good friends around.

Earrings

Jon bought me these cute pair of earrings when we were dating and I absolutely love them. They are diamonds in the shape of little flowers. Simple but still fun.

Well I've had horrible luck with them... I wore them on our wedding day and the next day when we were getting on the plane I couldn't find them and I've never been able to find them since. I was so sad but than Jon surprised me by buying me another pair of the same earrings. Isn't that sweet? He spoils me rotten.

Well tonight I had a little scare... Jon comes up to me and starts looking at my ears, I immediately go for the earrings and find that I am missing one! Thankfully Jon had stepped on it in the bathroom and that's how he knew to look at my ears, but still, it could have been lost forever again!

So I just wanted to document these earrings just in case I loose them... again. :-)

Holly's Gift

My sister-in-law's Christmas present was by far the hardest Christmas present I had to get this year. She asked for a shower radio mirror and a game called headbanz. Well, everywhere I went to get her gifts they were all out of them or stopped selling them the year before. Argh! And since I didn't really feel like ordering the gifts online, I spent my time going from store to store trying to find them.

I was getting frustrated and one day my husband said that I should just make the game for Holly because all the game is is Headbands and cards with words on them. I didn't much like that idea because I had a lot of other stuff to do before Christmas and I didn't really know how I would make the game.

So my last stop to find the game was at Games by James. I asked the person working if they had the game and he said they didn't but that even if they did I shouldn't by it. It's a "waste of money" according to him and I should just make the game. I laughed to myself, thanked him and headed home to start making the game.

Here's what I came up with. I took some extra fabric I had and made strips, long enough to be tied around a head. Then I added little pockets to the middle of the strips. Put a Apple to Apples game card in it and you've got the game Headbanz!

Merry Christmas Holly!

Ginger Snaps

I would have to say that my all time favorite cookie is Ginger Snaps. Ginger Snaps are also my dad's favorite cookie. So for Christmas this year, and since I didn't know what else to get dad, I decided to bake him a batch of Ginger Snaps.

The best recipe I have found so far for Ginger Snaps comes from my mom's Better Homes cook book. Now this book is really old as I inherited it from my mom and she probably got it 30 years ago but i do know they have newer versions of this book - I just don't know if the recipes are the same.

I roll my cookies in sugar to add a little extra sweetness

Bake for 14 min and they are done!

Jon found me these great storage containers at Menard's and since I know my dad doesn't have storage containers like this I figured that he might like to have them.

I filled them with homemade granola, the Ginger Snaps and some candies. And Dad's Christmas present is done!

Wood Floors

I absolutely love the look of wood floors. I grew up in a house that had wood floors and I always wanted my house to have them. So with that said, about a year ago my husband and I bought a bunch of wood flooring to put in our house. And this weekend we finally got around to putting them in!

To start I swept and washed our laminate flooring to prepare it for the wood flooring. Jon had asked around and did some research and found out that if the laminate flooring is put it well you can just put the wood flooring over it. So since our laminate flooring has been put in really well we are just putting the wood flooring over the top of it. Works for me and it's less work for Jon. :-)

While I cleaned the floor, Jon went around taking off all the trim. We are putting the wood flooring in our kitchen/dinning room and hallway, so there are a lot of doors and trim to take off.
Some of Jon's handy work...
 

I am very blessed to have a Dad who owns every tool you could possibly think of. He's also very generous and let us use some of his tools so we could put the floor in. He also donated most of his time this weekend to help out.

Getting started.

Dad did a great job under the oven.



I let the guys do their thing and put most of the flooring down. My main job was to organized the wood and find pieces that fit just right. It was kinda like Tetris, which was so much fun for me cause I rock at tetris.

I also tried to keep things clean... but the shop-vac didn't always want to let me.

more pictures of the great job the guys did...

 Finishing up...

Jon putting the plug-in back in the island.

And now we have a whole new floor! and I am super excited about it.

Tina's Blanket - Part 2

Now to add the finishing touches to Tina's baby blanket. For the backing fabric I chose a nice soft fabric - perfect for snuggling up in. I chose white because the top of the blanket turned out a little darker than I had want and the white will help brighten up the blanket.

I sewed the back on and the blanket done!

Well not quite done... the top of the blanket was looking a little too plain for me and since I had extra fabric from the backing I made a couple of hearts and sewed them on.

Now the blanket is done and ready to be wrapped around a baby!

Linda's Rice Bag

Last year for Christmas I made all the girls in my family therapeutic rice bags. Therapeutic rice bags are bags full of rice that when heated up can work as a soothing relief - like a hot water bottle or heating blanket. These bags are great because all you have to do is stick it in the microwave for 3 minutes and you have a warm bag of goodness that you can put on cramps, sore muscles or just under the covers to make your bed warm.

My mother-in-law loves these so much that she uses them every day to keep her toes warm and to sooth any aching muscles she may have. Since hers are probably pretty well used up, I decided to make her some more bags for Christmas this year.

The bags do not need much fabric, so I just went to the remnants area of my local fabric store and picked out some cute patterns.

Bag One:

Once the fabric was ready I started on the first bag. This bag is just a simple rectangular bag, 15in x 8in size. I sewed up all the sides except for 3 inches in one corner (so I can put the rice in)

The best rice to use is medium or short grain rice. They hold the most heat. I recommend using a funnel to pour the rice into the bag. Since I didn't have a funnel I just cut off the bottom of a milk carton and used that as a funnel.

I filled the bag about half full and sewed up the rest of the bag. Bag one is done!


Bag Two:

My intention for Bag two is a neck warmer. I made this bag into a long skinny rectangle, 20in x 6in size. Since I didn't want all the rice to go to ends of the bag when it's wrapped around a neck, I made compartments for the rice. I sewed a seam lengthwise down the middle of the bag and fill each side with a little rice, then I sealed off those compartments by sewing a seam widthwise.

I filled the next compartments with about the same amount of rice and sealed them off.

and last but not least, the 3rd compartments and sealed off the end of the bag.

Bag two is done!

Now that I've got both bags done it's time to wrap them up and give them to Linda for her Christmas present.

Oh and one more thing, the outside of these bags will probably get dirty with use so you could make a "pillow case" to go over the bag. That way when the bag gets dirty you can just take the case off and wash it. That's what I've done with my rice bag and so far it's worked well. Remember: heat for about 3 minutes, place on aches and pains and let the bag take all your pains (or coldness) away.

Audiobooks

Do you ever feel guilty when you pick up a book to read and realize there are a hundred other things you could be spending your time doing? Well I managed to find a way to solve that problem. I LOVE to read and being able to read the books I love without feeling like I could be doing something else is great. How do I do it? I listen to Audiobooks.

Audiobooks are great because you can listen to them while doing something else. I have a pretty long commute to work so listening to books in the car is great but I also listen to them when I am doing laundry or working on a project around the house.

Your local Library is a great place to find audiobooks, you can either go to the library and get CDs /tapes of books or most libraries have books online that are also available. All you have to do is find the book you want and download it to your computer.

If you can’t find what you are looking for at the library, another great resource that I use often is www.librivox.org. “LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain.” They have a huge catalogue of audiobooks that are free to download and listen to. The only thing is, is that their audiobooks are read by volunteers so you may have a different reader for every chapter of a book – if this bothers you than I would stick to the library.

Now if you are looking for a good narrator I recommend listening to any of the books Jim Dale has read. He has a great voice and is really easy to listen to. He is the person who narrates all the Harry Potter books – which by the way are awesome books and if you’ve read them already I recommend listening to them too. Here is Jim Dale’s website with a list of all the works he’s read www.jim-dale.com.

One of my favorite audiobooks I’ve listened twice within the last year is “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss.  I totally recommend reading or listening to this book and just the fact that I’ve listened to it twice in the last year should say something. Here’s Patrick Rothfuss’ website: www.patrickrothfuss.com.

Happy Listening!

Freezer Dinner Rolls

One of my favorite things to eat is bread, I like to have bread with most of the meals I make. This recipe is great for getting homemade dinner rolls whenever you would like them. All you have to do is make the rolls one day, put them in the freezer and take one out and bake it whenever you would like.

I found this recipe on http://www.recipelink.com/mf/31/9611

5 1/2 cups flour up to 6 1/2 cups
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup margarine
2 large eggs

In a large bowl thoroughly mix 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and active dry yeast.

Combine water, milk and margarine in a saucepan. Heat until 120 to 130 degrees F. Margarine does not need to melt.

Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add eggs and 1/2 cup flour. Beat at high speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Turn out onto lightly floured board; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Cover with plastic wrap, then a towel, let rest 20 minutes.

Punch down dough again. Shape into desired shapes for dinner rolls. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover with plastic wrap and foil, sealing well. Freeze until firm.

Transfer to plastic bags. Freeze up to 4 weeks.

Remove from freezer; place on greased baking sheets. Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

Bake at 350 degrees F 15 minutes, or until golden brown and done. Remove from baking sheets and let cool.

Tina's Blanket - Part 1

For my first blog I am going to write about a baby blanket I am making for my cousin's little girl. The Baby Shower is in January which gives me less than a month to complete this project.

First I picked out the fabric, because I don't have much time to spend on this quilt I chose a simple block pattern consisting of 2 colors. I found out from my cousin that she painted the baby room pink and brown so those are the colors I am using in the quilt.

A time saving trick I learned from reading other quilting blogs is instead of cutting out a bunch of squares and sewing them together (which takes more time). Start by cutting strips of the fabric, I chose to make my blocks 4 inches wide, so I cut 4 inch wide strips.

Then sew those strips together. Since I only have two colors, I sewed all the strips together alternating colors.

Once I sewed all my strips together, I cut perpendicularly along the strips to create 4 inch strips of squares alternating in color.

Then I took the new strips and alternating the colors, sewed those together to make the top layer of the quilt.