Recovering a moses basket

Before I recovered it.......

 After I recovered it

I am trying to be more of a seamstress in my life.  I have done lots of baby blankets but beyond that I have not done much.  My husband got me a sewing machine for Christmas which I absolutely love.  I had a complicated older machine and he got me a simple machine that just goes without all the hassle.   I had gotten this moses basket from a consignment store and it worked good, I would just put a blanket in it because the fabric would never stay up on the sides.  I have to say that without a pattern or much direction it turned out ok.  Being a perfectionist in some ways I can see many flaws but it it is A LOT better then it was.  First I took apart the old cover to use as a template.  I knew that the sides had to be taller, since this one did not work, but I just guessed on the measurements.

Then I pinned the "template" to my new fabric.  I took some leftover fabric for a liner and cut out the liner and the soft fabric together so that it would match up. The bottom (under the mattress) I left as just the liner

After assembling the sides with the lining and the bottom I covered the mattress by just cutting it out with the template and creating a cover. I left one side open so that I could get the mattress out for cleaning.  I could put velcro or a small zipper but it works ok with it open too so that I can clean it in case of any accidents.

Then, I took some leftover batting and doubled it up to create a barrier between the basket and the baby.  I just stuck it in there and put the cover over it.

I was going to put elastic on the edge to hold it in place but that did not really work because my measurements must have been a little off so instead of redoing the entire thing I took some leftover ribbon from my mobile project and sewed it on to create some ties.  This worked great and I love how it turned out.  I know it is not the best but it works for us.

Baby Mobile

I wanted to create something for my baby girl to look at when she is in her crib.  I got this idea from my sister in law.  I got 4 colors of ribbon from the craft store for 50 cents each and a hoop for $1.29.  My daughter loves to look up at it and stare at the colors.  It was really fun to make too!!

3 months old!!

Three months old already!!

I cannot believe how big you are getting.  Some of your new tricks include holding your head up, cooing, and saying something that resembles "hi" although I think that is just wishful thinking on our part. You also have learned how to smile and follow us with your eyes around the room.  You have blue/gray eyes and your hair has a touch of red in it even though your daddy in in denial about that.  He says it is not red it is strawberry blond :) You are able to hold yourself up when you sit on our laps and your eyes absolutely sparkle when your daddy comes home from work.   Both of us love you more then words can say and we love seeing what a fun little princess you are turning into!~Love always Mommy and Daddy 

Below are some of our favorite pictures from the past month 

Soaked Granola

Soaked Granola

I recently tried to make some homemade soaked granola.  It turned out very good and I wanted to share the recipe for those that wanted to try it also.  I originally got the recipe from a great blog called passionate homemaking.  I really like this blog because it has some great recipes and lots of other information.  The recipe they had is listed here.  My recipe which was adapted the passionate homemaking recipe is listed below

• 8 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2-2 1/2 cups raw milk (only enough to make it moist)
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 1/2 cup evaporated palm sugar (although next time I would probably substitute maple syrup for this.  You can use any dark sugar and it would work fine including brown sugar)  
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 4 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tsp vanilla extract

The following is what I put in my granola but any combination of things in your cupboard could work including nuts, raisins, dates, coconut......the possibilities are endless!

• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup dried cranberries 
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup pecans

melt together the coconut oil,  butter, and honey.  Add to granola and then add the sugar, spices, and milk and mix together until all the granola is wet

Let this mixture sit on the counter to culture for 12-24 hours

Then put in a dehydrator or the oven on 200 degrees for 2-4 hours or until it is crunchy.  I would recommend putting parchment paper down....I made the mistake of not doing that :)

Add your favorite ingredients and mix

The finished product!  Very good with some cold raw milk or over some yogurt....enjoy!!

New Beginnings

2011

In this new year my husband and I have embarked on a new adventure.  We moved back to Sonoma county for a great opportunity for my husband with a new job.  Now I have the privileged of staying home with our little three month old daughter.  I love being with her every day but I am also trying to stretch our budget to accommodate me staying home.  With that said, God provided an amazing house for us to live in. It is actually the old homestead from the 20's or 30's.  It has it's quarks of course but it is a great place to be.  It is really fun to think that we have our own little homestead in the city.   It has a great yard and I am going to try to start a year round garden for us so that I do not have to spend as much on produce for my family.  We try to eat organic and fresh vegetables but that really adds us.  I spend anywhere from $25-$30/week just on produce that I could grow a lot of it in our own back yard.  I have been reading a book that my aunt loaned to me called One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein.  This talks about growing organic food in a 3 foot by 3 food box.  It shows ways to use every inch of the box to grow your vegetables. I am using this idea but I am going to have 4 foot by 4 foot boxes because of where we are putting them in the garden.   There is also a website that I came upon, it is a year round planting guide for Sonoma County.  I was so excited because I could grow things year round and this guide is so easy to follow.  I am sure that it could be changed a bit to show almost any climate in California.  Now I just need to get my husband to start on the boxes.......my birthday is coming up maybe I can have them built for my present :) There are so many new possibilities when there is access to having a garden.  After reading this book I now realize that it does not take a lot of room to provide a lot of food for you and your family. Now if the rain would just go away and spring would come..............on well we need the rain!  Have a great day everyone!!

 We are going to put the boxes along this fence line

This is the other side of our yard. I think I am going to put flowers along this fence line.  

And this is our little ranch homestead.  It needs a lot of work on the outside yard because no one has really cared for the yard in about 5 years but it is a fun project for my daughter and I.

Adventures into Cloth Diapering!!

Before I was pregnant I was reading a blog called The Bee Hive on this blog she talks about cloth diapers for more information click here.  I remember clearly thinking I could never do cloth diapers and that it was something that was just too gross for me.  While I was pregnant my sister in law started to use cloth diapers also and I saw just how easy it was to do and the amount of saving that could really add up.  My husband and I are doing the Dave Ramsey program and are really on a budget so the thought of having to put $20 a week in the budget just for diapers was not an option.  I figured it up and it basically costs $20.00  a week for diapers and if you figure that she is going to be in diapers for at least 2 years that would be $2080!!!  That would be if she was potty trained at 2 years old which could not be true.   My husband and I decided to do the cloth diapers while I was still pregnant and I got a couple from the baby showers.  Now that my daughter is here I am so amazed how many diapers that she can go through in a day!!  I never really knew how many it could be and I am so thankful that now she is big enough to be in them. She is 2 months old and now she has finally gotten up to 10 pounds.  They seem a bit big on her but the good thing is that I can finally start putting her in the 0-3 month cloths as opposed to the newborn clothes because the diapers are a bit bulkier then regular diapers :)

  We are using the bumgenius diapers.  This one shown is the bum genius 4.0 for more information about this one click here.  These are good for night time since they have two liners so it absorbs better then the other kind I use.  This helps to prevent diaper rash (which FYI for diaper rash just put a little breast milk on the rash for a day or so and it goes away :) The other kind of diaper that I use is  the bumGenius elemental (it used to be called the all in one organic diaper) which is made with organic cotton.   For more info click here.  This is great for day use since the diaper is changed more often.  I figure that I need about 24 diapers and I have 5 already that were given to me.  On the site cottonbabies.com the organic diapers are $264.95 for 12 diapers and 6 of the 4.0 diapers for night time for $104.70.  That would be $369.54 for all the diapers that I would need for this baby and the next ones that I may have so........approximately $2000 per child for diapers or approximately $400 for all the diapers that I will need......It seems like a no brainier to me :) Plus the bonus is that she is so cute in her diapers.  I hope that if you are thinking about having a baby or know anyone that is having a baby that you would consider cloth diapering.  It really is easy and does not add that much more laundry.  About a load every other day is all that it would be.  Happy Cloth Diapering!!!

4.0 Cloth diaper

Elemental Organic Diaper

Elemental Organic Diaper

Happy New Year!

Blogging!!  I never thought I would do it but after reading so many others blogs for the past year I thought that this is something I would love to do.  I want this blog to be about my everyday life but I am going to focus a lot on cooking and, of course, my family.  My family consists of my adoring husband and my beautiful daughter who is 7 weeks old right now.  We have been married for a little over a year and it has absolutely flown by.  In that year we have moved to the "mountains" from the bay area, I had our daughter, He started a new job and profession, and we have moved 4 times......It is a crazy life but that is why I wanted to call my blog moments of timeless treasures because each moment goes by so fast and remembering the good and the bad is what makes life so interesting :)

My husband and I love to cook together, that is one of the things that really brings us together.  We have the reputation of being good chefs and love trying new things.  My husband is much more adventurous then I am with trying new things but I have come to love that about him and because of that I have tried many things I probably would have never tried had I not been with him. Some examples are buffalo, bear, and most recently elk meat. These are all things that I would have never tried if he had not asked me to.  Another thing that goes with cooking that I am trying to do with my family is eat as whole, raw, and organic as possible.  I really try to make a lot of what we eat from scratch.  This is not always possible but I am trying and for the most part we do fairly good.   My resolution this year is to try to expand my culinary horizon to include things that are "healthy" but make them actually taste good. That is why I want to blog, I will try out new recipes and put them on here and see how it goes.  Happy New Year to all and I hope this year is filled with moments of timeless treasures!!!