First Full Pattern! Sale!!!

After much work and much testing, I published my first full crochet pattern for sale yesterday! It's the nursing beanie redone! I've updated it, made it easier to follow, quicker to work up, and included sizes 0-3 months through child! 

The full pattern is now available on Ravelry and Etsy for $3.99 as a pdf download. Since I'm so excited to release my first full pattern, and can't wait to do more, I'm having a sale on this pattern on Ravelry through the weekend. Get it for $2.50 through Sunday June 3rd! Find it Here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-nursing-beanie-2.

I hope that this new venture of crochet pattern making is a success! I have a few more in the works, including my zebra hat!

After quite a bit of deliberation, I decided to remove my previous free nursing hat pattern from my blog. It was my first version of this hat, and it has been greatly improved upon. I don't want to offer a version that I feel is second best. I'm glad that some of my readers enjoyed it and were able to use it. I will continue to post free crochet patterns on my blog in the near future.

Sick of Being Sick!

After a double round of a stomach bug and a bad sinus infection that doesn't want to leave, I'm back to blog. It's been a terribly lazy couple of weeks and we've all spent a lot of time laying around, curled up in balls.

Now that the stomach bug is gone, I'm playing catch up in everything! Today, when the twins went down for their nap, B Bear and I went outside and picked some flowers from the yard. Fresh flowers on the mantle always cheer up a dreary house. B decided which ones to pick and arranged them for me in a vase. Didn't he do a good job?

If I can find some relief from this sinus infection, I hope to have a fun tot-school post tomorrow and a project lunch sometime this week. I also have a giveaway coming up soon, so stay tuned!

Project Lunch Week 3: Rice and Bean Wraps

This week, I have done a much better job at not only eating lunch every day, but also at making better choices. To save time, I made a big batch of Healthful Mamas rice and beans. Yesterday I ate just that, with a banana on the side. It was super simple and super yummy! Today, I used the rice and beans in a yummy wrap. It was super yummy and I'll have it again soon.

Ingredients:

• Healthful Mamas rice and beans
• Tortilla. Please use a fabulous whole grain, HFC free tortilla. I used a plain white tortilla because it's all I had. White flour is really not good for you, so opt for the whole wheat. 
•  Sliced cabbage. If you're me, just use a couple handfuls of coleslaw mix. (Yes, I am that lazy sometimes.)
• Cojita, crumbled. If you're not familiar with this cheese, it's time to get to know it. I'm convinced that cojita is indeed the cheese of the gods. It's saltiness resembles feta, with a mozzarella like flavor. Yum!
• Tapatio! (or whatever hot sauce you prefer)
• Lime

Warm your tortilla in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds. Top tortilla with cabbage and rice and beans. Sprinkle cojita over it and top with tapatio and lime juice to taste. Enjoy!

Easy-Peasy. Filling. Healthy. My kind of meal.

Thank-you to my friend Gretchen over at healthful mama for blogging your rice and beans recipe! It's going to be one of go-to recipes now too!

Tot School Tuesday: Sidewalk Paint

Yeah, I said tot school Tuesday. I'm fully aware it's Wednesday. As you may have assumed, it's been a busy week and I'm a day behind. Oh well! Better late than never, right?

This week B bear and I had some quiet time (didn't even know that could exist in our house!), so I pulled up a project that I pinned a while back and threw it together. I followed the instructions from Smashed Peas and Carrots, but it's so easy that you don't really need directions.

Just mix one cup of cornstarch with one cup of water, separate that into sections of a muffin tin and add a few drops of food coloring to each cup. I gave B bear an assortment of brushes and let him go to work. I like to offer more than one type of brush, so that he can experiment them. We started out with some really bright and pretty colors, but in the end we pretty much had swamp green in every section. He likes to mix colors.

For more fun Tot-School Ideas check out 1+1+1=1 and other participating blogs by clicking the image below.

Project Lunch Week 2: Honey Soy Tofu Stir Fry

I'm doing a little bit better at making sure I eat this week. Let's see, on Monday I had some brown rice with leftover chicken and asparagus. On Tuesday I skipped lunch and was in a hurry all day (For shame! For Shame!) Yesterday I had the best of intentions to make myself a fabulous lunch, but when I found out we were out of garbanzo beans, that fell through and I had a bagel with jam. Yeah...I need to keep working on this.

Today however, I was craving tofu, and just happened to have a bunch of veggies that needed to be used soon. I threw together a simple marinade for the tofu and used some left over brown rice from Mondays leftovers.

Easy Soy Honey Tofu Stir Fry
You'll Need:
Extra Firm Tofu (I use about a quarter of a package for just myself)
Veggies (whatever you have on hand)
Cooked Brown rice
For the sauce:
1/2 c soy sauce
1/2 c water
1 T sesame oil
2T honey
small squirt of sriracha
2 cloves garlic
1 inch chunk of ginger

1) Press your tofu. I wrap mine in a kitchen towel and place a cast iron skillet on top of it. Leave it for 15 minutes of so and a great deal of water will press out. This will change the texture of the finished tofu and make it a little less mushy.

 2) While your are waiting, mix together your sauce ingredients. Mince the garlic and ginger, or just push them both through a garlic press. (Oh yeah...I am that lazy). Use the sriracha to your liking. If you like a little more spice, crank it up.

3) Slice your tofu into triangles. I think it marinates better that way. Place your slices in a shallow dish and cover with the sauce.

4) Let the tofu sit for about 10 minutes while you chop your veggies. I used carrots, broccoli, spinach, and some peas that were left over from the boys' lunch.

5) Heat a pan over med-high heat with a Tablespoon or so of oil.

6) When the pan is hot, add the tofu in a single layer. Check frequently and turn as they brown. Be careful not to let it burn. I like mine light brown and a little crispy at the edges. It takes about 5 minutes, turning a couple times throughout. Remove them from the pan.

7) Add veggies to the hot pan and stir fry for a couple minutes. Add a couple T of the marinade to flavor it and continue to stir fry until the veggies are soft.

8) Assemble veggies and tofu on the rice and chow down.

Tot School Tuesday: May Day Flowers

 Happy May Day! Today the boys and I made May Day baskets and delivered flowers to our neighbours and family. The boys had a great time decorating their baskets and thought it was so much fun to hang them on doorknobs and run away.

I wanted to keep this simple, since the twins are only 2 1/2 and B seems to have a short attention span lately.

To make May Day baskets you will need:

• Construction Paper
•  Markers/Crayons
• Tape
• Stapler
• Flowers 

              I gave each of the boys a sheet of construction paper and some markers. They colored and scribbled to their liking. B drew flowers and bees on one of his baskets.

After the boys were done coloring, I rolled the paper up into a large cone and taped the side. I cut strips of construction paper about 1" by 6". I stapled these to the cone as a handle.

The boys helped me fill the cones with flowers, that their daddy picked up at the store. I would have loved to have them pick some wild flowers or flowers from the garden, but we still don't have much growing around here.


 L didn't want to go with us to deliver around our neighbourhood, but joined us went we went to take some to Grandma. L and A each picked one house in our neighbourhood to take their baskets to and they walked over, sneaking through our yard. Kids are so darn cute when they are trying to be sneaky.

They hung their baskets on the door knob, rang the door bell and ran off. They were so excited and kept talking about how happy the neighbours would be when they saw their surprise flowers.

I hope my little men made someone happy today. I know they made my day special, and I'm pretty sure it was a great day for them too.

For more fun Tot-School Ideas check out 1+1+1=1 and other participating blogs by clicking the image below.