a dress

The tutorial

I unwisely did not follow the directions of making it 1 inch wider at the top for a less than 12 month old and/or non-stretchy fabric (both of which apply to this dress) so it is definitely a tight squeeze to get Averi in to. Once she's in it, it fits well! (= I made another one with different fabric that is bigger and stretchier but haven't tried it on her yet.

a dress at first, a shirt at last

another easy, use-fabric-I-have sewing project

It was going to be a dress till I ripped it (oops) to right about this length. In hindsight, I think it may have been a happy accident. Averi usually wears onesies or shirts unless it's Sunday anyways.

"Liberty Ball"

easy patterns/tutorials, that's what I like
I have been given scraps of fabric from here and there. I sewed some together to form this patriotic specimen.

Happy Independence Day!

baby food making

Recipe for Brown Rice Cereal

I made one batch and froze most of it in a silicone ice tray. In my opinion, the consistency after freezing/thawing was equally as good, if not better, than the first day.

Averi's room

Averi's giraffe room is finally feeling finished
the little sign on the door was from Averi's bassinet at the hospital

the giraffe theme was inspired by the picture above which I saw and liked before we were pregnant. here it is more clearly

I liked "gender neutral" giraffes for our gender surprise baby...

... and the nursery letters, changing pad cover, etc. help make the room more pink for our Averi girl

my favorite part of the room (=

tastiness

I was recently sharing my feelings of silliness for wanting to share recipes because sometimes I so loosely follow them. This is a great example. I make "it" pretty often and/or have some in the freezer. The only thing is I don't really measure much, use like a #10 of tomatoes from Sam's club that I puree (sans juice), don't use lemons, dump in some-odd packets of peppers from a pizza place, don't use that much EVOO...

it's a great recipe. (=

These next suckers are my, "I want chocolate in the form of bread but don't want to eat 'real brownies'" satisfy-er.

After making them multiple times slightly differently, I liked the outcome of my last batch:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup ww flour

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 5 tablespoons cocoa

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
  

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. 1

Combine sugar/salt and wet ingredients, add cocoa, add flour

1. 2

Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes in an 8x8 or 9x9 pan. (though I went for a double recipe/bigger pan)

I like frozen/cold desserts so I cut them and wrapped them individually in saran and stuck them in the freezer.


And...
Applesauce: so easy and so so yummy
my mom got a killer deal here on apples so we ended spending about $2 for about 30 cups of applesauce

and it's so easy!
I looked at this for guidance but we did not use exact measurements, it didn't need sugar, and we waited for the cinnamon till we topped off our individually servings.

baby carriers

This carrier (by Heather) was so nice for Averi to fall asleep in when she was smaller and we were on the road. I got such comments from strangers as, "She looks like an Anne Geddes baby" as well as, "Is that a baby in there?". I need to hone my skills in using it now that Averi is bigger

I liked the bjorn pretty well until I got to use the next one....

the mei tei (also by Heather) is easy to put on, easier on the back, and feels cozy too!

I like carrying Averi around! (=