R2D2 Quilt

For starters, my family and I are huge Star War fans. We're talking pre Episode VII. I grew up watching Star Wars. I know all the lines. We had all the action figures. Same for my hubster. And is there a better "Welcome home/good job finishing the first two years of med school" gift than a R2D2 quilt? No. No there isn't. I got the idea, not from Pinterest, I just googled "R2D2 quilt". Here is a link to the original blog post by TheBoredZombie.com. By the way, I have sent the original blogger a picture of my completed quilt and from our correspondences she just seems so awesome. 

Ok, so, picture this; a 9 month preggo woman (3 weeks away from her due date) cutting and sewing 1,530 two and a half inch squares. Did I mention that this was my first quilt ever? EVER?! Luckily my mother is an accomplished quilter and was very willing to help me complete it. It only took me about a week to assemble the quilt (sew the squares into blocks and the blocks into rows).

Unfinished

We had a friend help quilt in on her long arm quilt machine and the boarded was hand sewed on by my mom. Manly because I had a newborn to hold and feed and no free hands for sewing. The quilt was intended for the Hubster but the boyz have taken it over and sleep with it on their bed.

R2 found a home. 

Showing the quilt to my mother's local quilt guild.

Update

Its been over three years in between blog posts. I have some REALLY good reasons for the lag. 

To start, the hubbster, myself, and our two-year-old twin boyz moved to the tiny island of Dominica (pronounced DOM-MIN-EEKA) where he attended medical school. We lived there for about a year and four months. It was a crazy experience that I will talk about later. 

When we returned to the United States I was 23 weeks pregnant with our new addition, TomBob. Aka baby number three. I had to do the last three months of the pregnancy without the hubster. He had to return to Dominica to finish his schooling. Then, in August I delivered the 8 lb 5 oz TomBob. He was a week before his due date and a week before the hubster was due to return.

The last 2 years has been crazy to say the least. From August until now I've been navigating life with twin preschoolers, a new born and a med school student. Boy oh boy ain't life grand?

What I want to do with this blog from now on is use it to share my pinning experiences, experiments, failures, and maybe triumphs. Also, I'll post little nuggets of parenting wisdom. Here we go again...

Growth Chart

I have been wanting a growth chart fora while now. I just wasn't sure if I was going to puss out and buy one or if I was going to get my crafting on and make one. After not finding what I wanted, I came up with a plan. I took my time planning out what I wanted it to look like, what I would need, and how much it would cost.

Here's the breakdown for materials and prices:

Board: We found a nice piece of wood in the garage that we cut down to the size I wanted.

Paints: 10 different colors of paint and a large bottle of white paint. I used acrylic craft paint from Michael's. They are always having a sale on their paints so just keep an eye out.

Brushes: I already had a set of 25 brushes from Michael's. I got them like six months ago so I don't remember the price. Here's a link...

Craftsmart 25 Brushes Set

Spray finish: I got a semi gloss coating to spray on it when I'm all done.

Stencils: Again, Micheal’s. I got these for their names along the top and for the numbers that run downthe side.

Board: $0.00

Paints: $8.90

Brushes: $12.00

Spray finish: $4.99

Stencils: $4.99

Total: $30.88

And here is my progress:

I made this in photoshop  before I  started  any painting.

Before the primer

Dry primer and templet. I grided the paper and drew out what I had done in Photoshop.

I wanted separate stencils for the animals so I could easily recreate them.

I painted the background first. 

Hard to see but I traced the animals and the tree with a pencil first. 

First animal done! Looks pretty cute. 

Night ones work completed. 

All animals have been painted, next step stencils. 

Added clear coat then, all done! 

Gettin' measured! 

Stay at home moms vs working moms

Yes, I'm a stay at home mom. Yes, I like being a stay at home mom. There is just so much judgement on both sides of this topic.

One side says; why would you take your husband's last name?! Your giving up your individuality. That you are no more than a slave. You need to get out from the shackles of oppressive/subservient sexism. Every women should have a career. Why are you even thinking of getting married?! Seesh!

Then the other side; if you go to work, just who is going to raise your children? You're not really a mother or a wife if you go to work. I'm better then you because I can stay home with my children. You're selfish if you want a career and "you set your family aside".

I say - to each their own. If you want to work, great. If you want to stay home, great. For me, I love staying home with my boys. Teaching them new things everyday. I tried the working and daycare thing. Didn't like it. Wasn't for us. We don't need me to work right now so I have decided to stay at home. Not only do I like taking care of my kids but I like "taking care of my husband". I like making dinner, doing laundry and cleaning the house. I love organizing and being crafty. There is not a job I would rather be doing. Maybe later I will go back to school and finish my education but for now I want to educate my children.

Also, I have nothing against single mothers or fathers. I am impressed that they do it all on their own. I don't know what I would do if I had to take care of these two boys alone. They sacrifice so much and should be praised for that. 'Good on ya' I say!

I would just like to share this awesome website my father sent me.
What a stay at home mom is worth...

Yummy yummy Teriyaki Chicken Shish Kabobs

These are some yummy shish kabobs that I make. Mine are gluten free because I get a GF teriyaki sauce from Whole Foods. We have them with rice but you can eat them my themselves if you wish. They are very easy to make and don't cost that much. I would budget $10-$15 for this meal. I always have chicken in the freezer and rice in the cabinet so I normally just have to grab the fresh veggies and pineapple. 

Ingredients:

1 lb Chicken

1 Bottle of Teriyaki Sauce

4 Medium size peppers of any color

1 Fresh pineapple 

1 Red onion

Other Items: 

Shish Kabobs skewers 

Cutting board

Knife

2 Containers

Foil

Cookie sheet  

1st Step: 

Before hand (about an hour or two) cut 1 lb of chickin into small 1 inch pieces. You don't want them to very is size due to cooking time for smaller or larger pieces. Place chicken pieces into the container.  

Step 2:

Pour some of the tariyaki sauce over the chicken just enough. I never measure it, I just kinda eyeball it. 

Step 3:

Cut peppers, pineapple and the onion into large piece, about the same size as the chicken. Place into the other container. Remember to cut your pineapple in to LARGE pieces. It is much easier to skewer them if they are large. (I forgot to document that part, sorry.)

Step 4:

When the chicken is done marinating construct your kabobs. I put two or three pieces of chicken on each one. 

Place on to a foil covered cookie sheet and put in a 375* oven for 20-30 minutes. (I always keep an eye on them checking every so often.) Turn them once or twice.

Step 5:

Check the chicken to see if they are fully cooked. I like to take mine off of the skewer and eat them with rice. 

Grocery Shopping

My recently married sister posted on facebook the other day that she was having a hard time doing a menu and shopping list. This type of chore is one of my favorites! I love making lists and I love love love using excel (or in my case Openoffice spreadsheets.) Its organization to the max! Here's what mine looks like. Its like a living thing, its constantly changing and growing.

This is my menu sheet. I just plan dinners for now because the boys eat the same thing every day. I have our pay days in gray so I know just how long to plan. Yellow is a day where we will not be home for dinner so no planning is needed. I do this page first. Decided what I have in the cabinets and what I can make out of it. Next I pick things that I want to eat and gather the recipes.

Menus

This screenprint is of the list of commonly purchased items. That way when I make a new list I can refer to this is list. I sort it alphabetically for easy navigating.  I take the ingredients that I need to purchase and add them to the next screen.

Commonly purchased items 

This is my actual shopping list. I budget for each item so I know how much I'm going to need to shop. When I get home I use my receipt and plug in the actual prices for each item. I just recently added a column for overages and savings. I also added coupons down at the bottom. I don't often use coupons and this was the first time I had some that took an amount of the total price at the end. I just added them at the bottom and but in their amount as -$2.00. 

List

Renaissance Fair

This weekend we went to the Kansas City Ren Fair! My nerdy husband and his equally as nerdy friends have been talking about it for weeks now. Here is a snippet from my husband's email.

"Thought I'd try to organize a renfest weekend if anyone's interested in going. I'd really be open to any weekend, but I've listed several with tasty or interesting sounding events." 

And he did, his email then continued with the days activities in a nice bullet point list. We went last year, when I was pregnant and about as big as a house. Walking on two swollen legs and feet. It was awful. Particularly because I had no desire to show the world my sexy sexy cankles. It was hot, I was in pants, and 7 months preggo with twins. Not my brightest ideas when I suggested to go last year. We also went by our selves last year so we missed the witty repartee that comes with any afternoon with the guys.

*On that note I would just like to say how much I love the show "The Big Bang Theory". I watch that show to hear/see the same jokes, conversations and social awkwardness that is ever present in my everyday life.*
Anyways, I just love the Renfair and the people there. As you walk around you see people from every walk of life. Nerds, the rich, "normal", hipsters, punks, ect. There are people dressed up in Renfair get-ups. But there are also people dressed in random costumes. The best part is that these people are there to have fun. They come dressed to impress, not caring if they look ridiculous. I also feel like most people there aren't judging them. This is a place where they feel safe. Where they can be themselves. I say, go for it!!!
So, the boys loved it. They where so good, not crying and screaming until the end (nearly 5 hours at the fair). They napped, ate, and drank like all good babies. Maybe next year well have even more fun!

The boys watching a belly dancing show.