First Etsy Sale

We have had our first sale on my etsy store. I recently put some items on clearance on my lil' shop and have gotten a bit more traffic along with my Christmas themed burp rags. I guess it takes getting your holiday gear up to get traffic, also getting labeling correct. I'm still trying to get the hang of it all. Putting the right kinds of tags on my products I think has been the hardest thing for me.

But yes we had our first sale this last Thursday. Someone actually bought something from my shop! It seems crazy for some reason but then again isn't that the goal to sell things? Not just have etsy be a site you check every time you get on your computer?
It was the most excited I've been in a while and I hope they enjoy the burp rags I made. I really enjoy the burp rags because of they're size. It seems that a lot of other burp cloth shops do a small version with chenille fabric on the bottom, though they are really awesome, I just don't see how this little thing will do you any good if you've got a projectile vomit baby. For the sake of mom's clothing is another reason I make the bigger burp rags.

Cooking this week has been a na-da...I'm in serious need to clean my kitchen yet again but no energy to do it. Which is bad when I cook every meal we have. Dishes just pile up more and more.
But today's project will be making some sandwich bread. We've eaten a lot of sandwiches lately and my bread supply is very tiny now. So, I found a recipe for Classic Sandwich Bread and I'll be trying that out today. Most of the bread recipes I've tried end up being too dry and crumbly. It's hard to eat a sandwich made out of bread that crumbles everywhere. I'll tell you how it goes next time I blog.

Happy November, everyone! Just that much closer to Thanksgiving! So excited, its the one holiday that's totally great because it's all about food.

Cookie Madness

Well here we are again, another Monday...This weekend was awesome though! Our good friends came over on Saturday and helped me clean my house to get more baby ready. It was so fast and nice to have the help. Now to just magically have my toddler know to keep everything clean and not throw his food on the floor, that would be a totally cool!
But this momma still over did on all the projects and ended up all swollen and unable to walk the next day. HAHA I skipped church! Yeah I know I'm going to hell. But anyway...I stayed in bed all day until my swollen legs and feet went down properly and by evening time I was in the mood for cookies.

Earlier in the week I had made peanut butter cookies from the JIF peanut butter cookie recipe you find on the back of the jar. I have yet to perfect it. They totally bombed and were not tasty at all. So yesterday I decided I wanted something I knew wouldn't go nasty on me and be the yummy in my tummy bliss I was looking for.

A big thank you as well to my husband who let me be lazy and sit in a chair so my legs wouldn't swell up again and tell him everything he needed to do in order to make these lovely cookies!

So without further ado, here is my version of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

1/2 cup of shortening
1 stick of butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 bag of chocolate chips
1 cup of chopped pecans

Preheat oven 375 degrees F.
Beat shortening, butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs until creamy.
Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix altogether with mixer.
Then mix in chips and nuts by hand.
Cookie dough should be a dull, non-sticky texture. Not wet looking nor super sticky.
If you do get a wet looking texture add a bit more flour and mix it in with your hands
so you can judge the texture better.
Drop tablespoon sized balls of dough onto a very lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Bake for 9 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

If you would like the original recipe I will link it here and up above.

If you have any ideas or requests on different recipes to try please don't hesitate to leave a comment below or email me!

Breakfast for dinner-

One of my fond memories growing up was always that every Saturday morning (well almost every Saturday) my Dad would make his old fashioned pancakes. This recipe has been in my family for quite awhile and I must say was the first recipe I made sure I had a copy of when I moved out on my own.

It is a tummy filler and budget friendly!  Nothing simpler than pancakes and eggs.
A great thing about this recipe as well is that it makes a big batch of pancakes. Great for big families or if just for a little family like ours, I like to freeze the leftovers and then we have homemade ready made for the next pancake and egg meal. Which is always an awesome time saver for days when you just don't feel like doing anything or just wanna sleep in.

Here is tonight's dinner adventure: breakfast for dinner!

Dad's Pancakes
 2 eggs
1/3 cup of veggie oil
1/4 cup of lemon juice
2 1/2 cups of milk
3 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of baking power
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt

You will have lumps, but you want lumpy! We always have fried eggs and I make homemade maple syrup as well. Make for a cozy full feeling. Comfort food at it's best, I think. So if you're looking for that old fashioned cozy feeling it's all right there.

*next cooking project: Apple Butter

Apple Pie

Betty Crocker possessed me and I got all the energy this pregnant lady could muster and made apple pie from scratch. The pie dough actually worked out for me for once. It was flaky and uber yum. But the apples did not quite do what I was plannings on. It all turned out pretty dry but very lovely to behold. At least my sweet and sour chicken (which I made from a sweet and sour pork recipe just pan fried chicken breast instead of deep fried pork) that I made for dinner that night was fabulous! Even if the was pie wasn't up to snuff.

There are still many adventures to be had in cooking and baking for me. I might know how to make it taste or look good but sometimes it doesn't turn out with both. Like my potato soup. If I had bacon or leeks it would have been not as boring as just potatoes and onions but what can you do when all you have is potatoes and onions?

Which brings me to my greatest depressive. The lack of money and ability to have on hand those awesome things that make a meal spectacular.  With being positive for gestational diabetes not only is more money going out for pre-natel cares, but now diabetes office visits, diabetes supplies, and now diabetes medication. Our paycheck is being eaten alive by medical woes that seem to just become worse. If only...And that is what is depressing most of all. If only...
But one happy thing, we did get Bubby payed off today. All of our hospital debt from Bubby is payed off. So there is $120 extra a month that is going to be going to diabetic stuff. :P
Only 10 weeks more of pregnancy, if we last that long that is.

Hopefully next paycheck we can get Bubby a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. We're still working on his costume. Trying to figure out how to make a sonic screwdriver out of things we already have. It's becoming quite hard to figure out what to do, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. We're still really excited for Halloween! I sure if Bubby knew what it was all about he'd be super excited too.

TARDIS Treat Bag

Our wee lil' Doctor has his TARDIS and is all (well almost) ready! Just need a sonic screwdriver now!

This weekend was TARDIS weekend. So, we got up this morning and ran over to my husband's parents house to use their printer to print out awesome police box iron-on slips then! we ate a $5 lil' cesars pizza(It was a high blood sugar kind of day.)...then!  We had naptime....
then! I cut out and sewed our awesome TARDIS together.

It turned out way better then I thought it would and my sewing machine was actually good today and did all that I wanted it to. Most often it will be a pain and mess up everything I'm trying to do.... It has nothing to do with me...it's the machine's fault....really...

If you're interested in the tutorial that I used I'll link it here. I did change it up and added things to it. We figured the add ons that we put in would help with the costume to make it have more of that nerdy awesome factor.

gestational diabetes...

Yep...I gots it...gestational diabetes. ::sigh::

Went to my first diabetes education appointment today and was... educated, slightly depressed more then anything. In the end it felt like 'you can't eat anything' when really it was 'you're fine, just need to limit carb./sugar intake'. I have a feeling that I'm going to be very hungry...But we'll manage right? Until I get that craving for skittles or a huge hamburger that will drive me insane. ::weeps::
Oh how I wish my cravings we're not so intense, along with the fact that pregnancy for me was a feeling the best I've ever felt health wise experience, but no...

meh...

The joy of naptime...

I love this time of day where I get to sit and browse etsy.com or just fooling around on facebook or google+...anything really to keep me away from the evil chores that I have no patience for, while Bubby has a nap.

Lately naps haven't been happening. Too much fun to be had in his bedroom or just the enjoyment of alone time. Who knows? All I know is that he's a character and is pretty independent. Bubby is talking more and more but with that also comes more teeth and trouble. I'm just loving the occasional "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!....Hi."  that gets yelled out randomly, even when I'm sitting right next to him.

For an update on my etsy shop...I have done some sewing and am almost done with all the fat quarters that I'm turning into flannel burp cloths. I still have six flannel baby blankets to put together but it'll all get done at some point.
My mother-in-law (she's a professional photographer) came over and took pictures of the few projects I already have done. Which was exciting, another step towards hopefully selling something and having the shop look more professional.

But on to other non-etsy related projects. Halloween! yes oh yes, we're nerds and we're going full out this year. hehe!
We are dressing up Bubby as Doctor Who. You have to feel sorry for the poor children who are too young to pick they're own costumes. Poor Bubby, but! he'll totally be the coolest 20 month old at trunk or treat.
Daddy is in charge of making a homemade sonic screwdriver and I have found an awesome tutorial on how to make a tardis trick or treat bag! Oh yeah..super nerds! woo!  I'm even on the look out on etsy.com to find a toddler bow tie to go with his outfit!
Oh my poor children...next year we'll have two to dress up..oh the ideas are endless! I love it!

a taste..

Here's a taste of some of the burp cloths (my fatty rags) I have all finish. I have more but I'm putting them though the washer and dryer to make sure they hold up and are all clean. Hope to have them up on our etsy soon. But I have to wait until I can get good pictures taken of them. All the pics I've taken today the lighting is crap and my camera is old and stupid, so I can't really get it to look like I want.

Meh...was all feeling good and pumped to be that much closer to starting it all only to have to wait. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and that much closer to hopefully getting something accomplished. Even if its just cleaning my kitchen or getting caught up on True Blood. I really don't want anything to do with that kitchen...

tacos! woot!

Today's accomplishment: Homemade taco sauce.

At the rate I'm going everything is slow and hurty. I'm in last leg of my pregnancy (3 1/2 months) with a mess of a house, that never goes away. ::cries::
What can ya do? Just take one day at a time and write a blog on your awesomeness for the day! YA! lol 

I did make some pretty dang good tacos and homemade taco sauce today to help us save money and keep our goal of "no more eating out"...Oh Taco Bell how I miss you... But Mommy Bell was a hit with Bubby and Daddy. We'll see if Jude liked it too, if I have heartburn later we'll know we're a go on spicy yum yums.

Here is the recipe I used for the homemade taco sauce:
http://www.food.com/recipe/taco-bell-taco-sauce-60254
I did alter it a bit. I didn't have tomato sauce so I use diced tomatoes with chilies, used all the spices asked for but the garlic I used minced and I minced up onion too instead of using powdered. Then I pureed it all in my food processor then followed the cooking instructions.  

So, here's to a messy house, a happy toddler, nap time, and a to-do list the size of a whale...just like my bum.
   
Tonight's goal! Getting paypal set up for our etsy store and getting more sewing done. See the awesome pile of cloth diaper burp rags waiting to be finished behind Bubby?  hehe

Step one

Burp rags, burp rags, burp rags!

It seems that there are a never ending array of different burp rags.
But what works?
My three favorites are the all flannel fabric, fleece fabric with a cotton top, and
the cloth diaper rags. I love the bigger square rags that you can get multiple spit ups
with.
My goal is to try and make more variety in fabrics(designs) used to decorate said rags. 
I don't know how well I'll do but I'll try. Always can use more variety in life, right? Even
if it's the cloth you wipe your babies vomit off with.

what I have in the works this week:

 Will be on our etsy store soon for all our Halloween loving moms and babies.

The Beginning

Here's to new beginnings...We will hope and pray for more time than a day can provide, more patience, more creativity, and more energy to provide more to our little growing family.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/williamandjude
We're slowly getting our chicks in a row. :)