homemaking // summer time drinks

Here are a couple of homemade summer time drinks we have concocted to help pass long afternoons on the front porch ;) We like to sip our summer time drinks from mason jars with colorful straws (of course!) A nice side of bubbles, sidewalk chalk, bikes, and sprinklers are the perfect compliment to these kinds of drinks and afternoons. Enjoy!

Watermelon Lemonade

-blend 4-5 medium sized lemons (you read that right - whole lemons!)in 2 cups of water
-strain mixture and set lemon juice aside (approximately 2 cups)
-cut watermelon into large cubes, give or take about 2 cups
-blend watermelon with 1 cup of water
-add lemon juice to watermelon water and then
-add 1/4-1/2 cup of raw honey and blend 
-serve over ice and enjoy! (makes about 6 cups)

tip: you can also throw a few cups of this watermelon lemonade in the blender with about a cup or two of ice cubes to make a slush!


Cucumber Limeade

-blend 2-3 small limes (yes, again - the whole lime!)in 2 cups of water
-strain mixture and set aside the lime juice
-peel and cut the ends off of one cucumber (rub the flat ends together, which somehow magically gets rid of any bitterness)
-blend cucumber in 2 cups of water, then strain to get rid of "pulp"
-add cucumber water with the lime juice back in the blender
-add 1/2-3/4 cup sugar, blend one last time with an additional 2 cups of water
-serve over ice and enjoy! (also makes about 6 cups)


*we do not have any special high-end blender, yet this all comes together just wonderfully. Also the "blend the whole citrus fruit" tip came from my husband, who lived in Brazil for 2 years - he says that's the way they do it and it seemed worth trying! Feel free to tweak the honey or sugar depending on how sweet you like it! I tend to do less over more, as it gives a bit more "zing" with the citrus and is that much more refreshing!

Boys shared room

Tomorrow Hudson will be one month old. I haven't put him in his crib at all yet (he sleeps with us at night, in his moses basket for naps...or just snuggled up with me at all times ;) Today, I was putting some laundry away in the boys' room and I thought, perhaps, I'd set him in his crib asleep for once, since I did make the effort to put together a sweet little welcoming space for him. It's a work in progress, of course - with little people constantly growing and changing, I feel like our home is a constant work in progress. You'd think with him being our fourth baby, I'd just give up and save myself the time, energy, and money in creating a space when I know oh so well he'll end up sleeping with us for at least the first year. But that nesting instinct is pretty strong - and it gave me something to do, right? So, here is the boys' shared space. Pretty simple. A bed, a crib, a teepee, and a couple of baskets. I made the teepee and the mobile - I have made a mobile for each of my babies, it's one of my favorite little traditions in preparing to meet them. Sawyer had a lot of input on this room - we painted it white and then he wanted to put splashes of color around, and forest animals. My favorite splurge was Hudson's crib sheet, and Sawyer's sheets, as well. Anyway, it's a simple space, that will surely transform and change a bit over time. If I'm being honest, I mostly just wanted an excuse to take some pictures of my sweet almost one-month old baby boy. He is such a gift to us all. 

Favorite Trio

I meant to share this a couple of months ago, but just now got around to it while organizing some digital files and *attempting* to clean off my desktop a bit. A couple of years back, Jacob helped me do silhouettes of the kids - which have since hung in their shared bedroom. I think Sawyer was barely two, and Aspen was around ten months at the time. I just loved them! I had an empty frame just waiting for something...so Jacob updated the Silhouettes by doing a new ones of all three of our kiddos. Sawyer is 4, Aspen just turned 3, and Hazel about 7 months in these. I love seeing their little profiles. It has been said that three is a "magic" number. Yes, it is! Loving and cherishing these three, my favorite trio ever!

Nesting // Hazel's corner

Well, it's finally done.

Hazel's little corner (of our room).

We are all ready for her!

I tried to get all the little things together that we'll need and put them in her little corner - things we'll need for naptime or night time needs when I don't want to go into her brother and sister's room to rummage around for things.

Sawyer & Aspen picked out a couple of little gifts to give to their new baby sister on her birth day - and this little bear is one of their favorites. It's soooo soft, too. Very sweet!

I found this pretty little frame at TJ Maxx and painted it to help it stand out a bit on our white walls. I'm hoping to get a good picture of our three kiddos together (wish me luck!) to put in this frame :)

I already told you about how I made her crib bedding...

and her butterfly mobile...

so I won't say anything more about them.

I'm not really a fan of those hanging diaper things people sometimes put on cribs...so I created one I DO like. I got this little canvas basket at Target and then used some ribbon to attach it to the crib...inside I put all of the little things we may need for diaper or clothing changes during her siblings naps or when they're already in bed and I don't want to disturb them by rummaging around in their room to find things. I am sure it will come in handy!

A basket full of cozy little blankets...I'll probably throw some burb cloths in there once she arrives - and if she's anything like her sister (who we nicknamed the "queen of spit up") we will need lots! Then again, if she's like her brother (who never spit up) we may not need many at all :)

I also hung up the dress I picked out for her special baby blessing at church. It was the first thing I bought for her once we found out we were having a girl. I just thought it looked fit for a sweet little angel :)  

Aspen is always asking me to blow on the butterflies to "make them fly, Mama!" Sometimes, she tries too but rarely does her little puff of air reach them. 

She's excited to be a BIG sister!

So, there you have it. Hazel's corner. 

I know there are a lot of people in the world who don't have room to design an entire nursery for their babies, and I feel lucky we at least had a few spare feet in our tiny room to make something feel special to welcome and cuddle our new baby. I know a lot of women look at all these beautiful nurseries and would love to have one, but I hope that by sharing Hazel's little corner with you, you may see that it's possible to make something special, even if a tiny corner of your own room is all you have to offer.

Three cheers for small spaces! And beautiful new babies!

A butterfly mobile for Hazel

I apologize that the blog has pretty much been taken over by my nesting projects - and probably will be for a few more  posts - but it helps motivate me to finish my little projects when I know I can share them with those who take the time to look at our blog. 

So, I was looking around for cute mobile ideas and found this butterfly one that kind of made me pause, it was so pretty. But it is also unavailable (and would've been way out of my budget, anyway). Luckily, I did a little web-surfing and came across this little tutorial, which made my project a home-made, hand-made bit of fun on a Friday afternoon (okay, and late LATE into the evening!)

I modified the diy tutorial a bit to my liking, and at 2am (yes, TWO AM! That is LATE for me these days!) I finally finished my little butterfly mobile for baby Hazel. I didn't want to buy a butterfly punch, so I ended up finding a free font and making my own templates (that way I could vary the species and also the size to my liking) It took me days to find the perfect paper - I keep being drawn to peachy pinks (think peaches and cream or kind of the shade of ballet slippers) and so I finally found one at a scrapbooking store. It was pearlescent as well, which only added to it's beauty! I also used the inside of an embroidery hoop to give the mounting part a bit more strength and shape.

It looked so easy to make...and really, it was. The hard parts for me were that tracing and then cutting out all of those butterflies ended up killing my fingers (haven't used petite metal scissors for a while but definitely needed them for the small details on the butterflies). It took a LONG time to cut out all of the butterflies - luckily I had two little helpers for some of them (ahem, very helpful they were!) Actually, Sawyer and Aspen were thrilled that I was making butterflies so they joined me and we had a cutting party at the table most of the afternoon - they cut all the remnants into teeny tiny pieces that floated to the floor, and begged me in between butterflies for some butterflies of their own to play with - so of course ended up making twice as many butterflies and we now have butterflies all over the house, which is actually kind of nice - very Spring like). I also ended up sewing and attaching the butterflies by hand - it just didn't seem right after cutting them all out by hand to just take a machine to them - so I daintily took my time by hand.

Jacob thinks I was rather crazy to stay up so late for the project - but once I got going I just didn't want to stop until it was done. I hung it over the dining room table when I finally finished so when everyone woke up they had a fun surprise in the morning - butterflies!

I mounted it to our ceiling above Hazel's crib this afternoon - and I couldn't stop staring at it! The pearl paper gives the most beautiful effect when the butterflies dance with the light! It makes the butterflies shine and look like they are different shades, even though they are all the very same paper. 

I know, I'm kind of silly. But I just LOVE this kind of stuff! I love that our new baby will have something pretty to look up at - and I can look right across the room at, too! 

In conclusion, it was a really fun project and anyone who wants to give it a try - should! It cost me about $5 for supplies - the biggest investment was patience and time. Happy Spring!

Home Sweet Home

here we are, friday night - 6:30pm...

waiting for the hubs to get home so we can head out on date night.

we don't have a sitter, or a plan...but I finally got around to taking a shower and getting dressed - and even got the kids looking cute (still haven't thrown any makeup on, but au natural is kinda my style, anyway) but I decided we needed a date night, even if the kids tag along...so we are waiting and then heading OUT!

my mom and sister are coming into town later, so I spent a lot of today scrubbing the house from head to toe - and now that it's all sparkly, we are just sitting here enjoying it (well - the kids have now moved from coloring at the table to jumping on the sofa, but such is life!)

okay - so this is getting more random by the moment - anyone following my train of thought? that's okay - it's my journal/blog so it really just has to make sense to me in the end, right?

last week for date night, Jacob and I did a bit of designing together. Well, he designed, and I more like art directed - because I had this thing in mind that I wanted done for a long time, even had the frame already. And we finally got it done. I think we're a pretty good design duo - and we had fun in the process, which is what counts. Here's what we did...

A little print for our living area. If you look close, you can see a sea of legos on the floor reflected in the tv, oh, and my gaucho pants which I love to wear when I clean the house.

Since I had the camera out, I decided to take some pics of some other recent home projects, since we're on the subject.

If you were married to me, I bet I'd drive you nuts. Luckily, I get to drive Jacob nuts, but I think he likes me just as much for my crazy antics and projects as for my smile.

I decided a while back I wanted to do some kind of window treatment in our kitchen. We have stainless steel appliances, black tile. Paint is an antique blue and appliances and accents are red. I thought it would be fun to make it kind of bistro-ish, so I got some stripey fabric at Ikea that I thought would fit the bill. I found a great little tutorial and the other day while Sawyer was in school, and Aspen was taking a rare morning nap due to a bit of a cold, I jumped at the chance to sew it. Last night, Jacob made dinner so I could run to pick up the wood we needed to mount it. And then he ever so patiently worked with me so I could get it up (I am NOT patient and wanted to get it up before our company came to town). I think it cost me about $35 to make.

This winter when I'm making some nice soups or hot chocolate, I will pretend I live in France and it is my own little Bistro. Hey, you gotta find some way to brighten the many gray days we have here during Seattle winters!

Lastly, here we have the Stripey Bathroom. Okay, so stripes make me happy lately. I think it's okay. My friend did her entry way in stripes and I loved it! So, I tried it in our half bath in the main room (we live in a 3 story townhouse - so this is right off the kitchen/dining/living area.

if you ever want to paint stripes - this blog had some nice insights. it's trickier than it looks, but with lots of green tape and a nice dose of time and patience, the results are really FUN!

the downside of pretty pedestal sinks = no storage.

I tried to add a little storage with these baskets from the Land of Nod. They are from the Ropers collection, which they no longer carry (bummer! we have these all over our house and I LOVE them!) the positive part of them no longer carrying the collection is that I got these for $3 each when they were clearing them out! I put extra rolls of tp and sawyer's special toddler wipes, as well as my not-often-used makeup in them.

The finishing touch are a few words by the sink - on the door side. I love friendly little reminders.

I think I may also do a simple white linen or canvas window cover in this room, too - but right now I'm already knee deep in another project - our downstairs room/office.

Oh, yes, I do love how when you look in the mirror the stripes are all around you! (I only did them on the one big wall - are you kiddin' me, doing them around the sink and behind the toilet would have been sheer torture!)

Yep, these pics were taken while the kids were napping and it was 3pm and I hadn't showered yet - still wearing the cleaning gauchos. Hair not combed, face not washed - I'm like this more often than I'd like to admit, but I am fine admitting it :)

Oh! Garage door is opening! Jacob just pulled up on his bike - perfect timing -

Time to sign off -

Happy Friday, all!

Apartment Therapy - Ohdeedoh

I have long been a fan of Apartment Therapy and their kids' division, Ohdeedoh.

I am pleased to share that today they have featured Sawyer and Aspen's room!

Hooray!

Check it out by clicking HERE!

ps- the following day, it was featured on another design blog - Adobe/Casa/Home

see it here (if you're not already tired of looking at it)

Green beans!

We prepared the garden beds.

We threw in some seeds.

Watered them.

(and tried to keep the slugs away from them, I should add)

The glorious sun beckoned to them - and,

they grew!!!

For some reason I am still totally amazed that our garden grew and is producing actual food to eat. I guess it's not that hard to do, with a little time, attention, and love - but still, I am amazed how these perfectly lovely little herbs (oh how I love fresh cilantro and basil!) and veggies are popping up all around our garden.

It makes me so happy!

We picked some green beans and then made pan roasted chicken with lemon-garlic green beans for dinner. Topped off with some left-over red velvet cake from dinner at my sister's house last night (thanks Kate & Tay!) it was quite the little feast for a Monday night meal. Yum!

Sawyer and Aspen's Nest

The finishing touches have finally been made, and after over a year of working on it, the nest for my little birds is complete.

Here's a little tour:

thoughts on the process:

Just because I have a boy and a girl, didn't mean I wanted to get stuck decorating their room with yellow and green (aren't most of the "unisex" things you find those colors? ugh!) SO. I opted for a pale yellow, gold, gray, and then splash of ballet pink and robin's egg blue. This room is our happy place - it gets the best light in the house, and I love how calming it is to hang out with my two little kidlets in their little nest (we gave them the Master bedroom since we spend way more time playing in their room than in ours).

I sold a few items we didn't need/use anymore on Craigslist and used the money to splurge on a couple of things (dwell crib sheet for Aspen, knock-off Eames rocker, and the ultra cool Roadster car,new bookshelf, and a fresh coat of ceiling paint).

UPDATE SEPT 2011: by request, I am including the paint colors - the room itself is "Lily" by Sherwin Williams. The play kitchen is "Robin's Egg" by Benjamin Moore. ;)

A few special pieces in the room were made by family friends - the Modern English Alphabet print was designed and then color-customized to my color palette by our insanely talented friend, Jeanie Nelson, of The Papernut on Etsy. (You should really check out her shop! and her letter-pressed wedding announcements!)

The retro play kitchen...well...this one is a treasure. A serious treasure. It will be an heirloom, for sure, in our family. I did some work for some wonderful family friends - The Flanders Family (they really are just like family) and in return, they built this for us. I had been gathering and collecting the supplies for months (tracking down mini bar faucet on ebay, splurging my birthday gift cert. for the anthro knobs, picking out the perfect color, etc.) but about two days before Jacob and I were going to rent the equipment to try our hand at wood-working, we came up with the trade arrangement and it could've have been better timing! I was getting really nervous about the prospect of me and Jacob with nailguns in our hands. So, I did their family photos while in Oregon in July, and then Dan built it - he even designed the refrigerator from scratch and from a picture in my mind I had, and did it just perfect! Lori painted it. My mom delivered it a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend I spent an HOUR in the fabric store picking out the perfect fabric for the sink skirt and then I stayed up REALLY late one night last week sewing away at the sink skirt and little tea towel. I never had a play kitchen growing up, so I have to admit, this is just as much for me as it is for the kids. I am SO in love with it! It is just perfect! I can never thank the Flanders enough for this special treasure. I spent many many hours babysitting their children as they grew, so it is extra special that they made this for my own children. (thanks you two!)

I had thought about printing an image of each of my children, or one of them together, on a large, gallery-wrapped canvas, but then decided against it. You would think, for someone who takes lots of photos, I would have more on the wall. But I actually think it's a little strange to have big pictures of yourself hanging by your bed. I don't want to encourage narcissism or anything. I wanted to keep things simple. So I printed just their silhouettes and a little reminder of who's children I am really raising nearby (I am a Child of God). I did a 5x7 more recent one of each of them, just to have a print on the wall, with a little reminder for them (Love one Another.)

This is their room, and also the room we spend lots of time playing in. My goal was clean lines, contemporary, minimal, yet with personal touches. Not only did I do a lot of it myself, or have a few pieces from special family friends (my sister Jamie made the ceramic piggy bank and the crocheted teddy bear on the shelf) but there are a couple of pieces from my childhood there, too. Most of the little golden books are mine (well, my twin sisters, too, but she doesn't mind...) and the vintage golden book encyclopedias were my Grandmothers that she gave to me when I had Sawyer (funny enough, he has loved reading through those encyclopedias - as un-"PC" as they are, since he was a year old! He seriously has them memorized.)

I made: Sawyer's toddler bedding & bird pillow, the bird mobile and prints, painted the birdhouses, the fabric poms above Aspen's crib, her blankie, the silhouettes, and then I pulled a bunch of "wishes" that I have for my children together from other sources and designed the print that hangs adjacent to the rocking chair(last photo). I tried really hard not to over-do the birds. I wanted it to be part of the room, but birds are a bit trendy right now and I tried to use them more as a soft touch to the room rather than the primary "theme". If there is a "theme" I wanted it to be "come, relax, be yourself, and play here with us. Feel free to dream and let your imagination run for a while, or just sit and read with us. Or sleep for a bit and dream sweetly." I wanted them to feel surrounded by "things" that were carefully placed, carefully thought of, and made with love.

Which, it was.

I had fun doing all the little things that made this room complete, but what really makes it complete, are the two little people sharing it. Oh, how I love my Sawyer and my Aspen!

Homemaking // Homemade Organic Babyfood

I must admit that I don't much care for Winter. I do love about a week of snow, and I love it all leading up to the holidays...but after that, Winter feels long, cold, dark, and wet. Hence, my quest for projects to keep me busy until Spring decides to, um, spring. :)

For Christmas, I got a wonderful Williams-Sonoma cookbook, Cooking for Baby. I have had my eye on that book for quite some time (thanks, Santa!) as it includes recipes for baby from first food purees, to toddler foods that will please the parental palette as well (ie. edamame & yogurt puree, chicken & mango quesadillas, buckwheat crepes, pumpkin pancakes, etc.) I was so excited yesterday to give some of the recipes a whirl!

Purees, of course, are quite simple. I started with a variety of organic fruits and veggies, and did some chopping, peeling, roasting, boiling, and steaming.

Then, wah-la! The puree. There was only one thing I didn't puree, which was the blueberry sauce. Oh-my-oh-my-goodness! What a treat for little tastebuds!

It is amazing how different fresh babyfood looks. Even when I buy the organic babyfood, it just doesn't compare to the bright, fresh colors, textures, and flavors of homemade food. Not to mention, the price! Here is an example:

Generally a 2.5 oz jar of Earth's Best Babyfood costs about $1.05 at the market. Well, 2 bags of organic carrots at Trader Joe's cost $2.78 and made the equivalent of 22 jars, which means it ended up costing about .12 cents per jar. Or, you could say if I bought 22 jars it would have cost me about $23 dollars, instead of under $3. Pretty sweet deal, eh? Well, of course I should factor in the time it took. It took the better part of the day to do all the food. FUN, should also be factored in, though. I had a great time listening to music, dancing with Sawyer in-between steaming and pureeing, and felt so satisfied and happy with what I had done at the end of the day.

After the puree was done, I put the food in ice-cube trays and let it freeze. Later, I transferred the ice-cubed food to a labeled freezer bag (it is good for 3 months frozen, or 3 days fresh in the refrigerator). I am stocked up for at least a month!

I also saved some of the containers I had from store-bought food to reuse. I froze some food in the containers to take with us if we're on the go or out and about. They say to feed your baby the "colors of the rainbow" and certainly, this food is colorful!

Best of all, was when I sat down to feed Sawyer his "dinner". He had organic carrot puree, and organic brown rice cereal with a swish of blueberry sauce mixed in. For a moment I thought "what if he doesn't like it?" But right away, I could see that even he could tell the difference between fresh, homemade, organic food and food from the store. What a delightful meal, he opened his mouth for every single bite and make happy sounds as he ate his meal. I couldn't have been happier!

We are so glad to finally be feeling a bit better. Sawyer still has a bit of a cough and a tough time sleeping well with such a stuffy nose, but all in all, we are feeling much better! Sawyer is such a good crawler, too! I can't believe how fast he is already! He crawls around and gets into EVERYTHING! He is so busy, he even works up a sweat! It's so fun to watch him explore, and so sweet when he crawls right into our laps for snuggles.

Next winter project: Babyproofing!