And the stockings were hung…on the apartment wall…with care.

My daughter finally learned how to nap in her crib the last week that I was on maternity leave, so I finally got a few minutes to work on a project. And what better project than matching stockings for our new family of three? I just love having them all the same red fabric with different linings/cuffs. I saw this idea on another blog and had to replicate it.

I wrote up a little stocking how-to for all of you. Let me know if you make them; I’d love to see what fabrics you pick out!

Supplies:

• Stocking Pattern (note: my husband made the stocking pattern based off of my paper one, so it may vary slightly from my photos)
• 1/2 yard red fabric
• 1/2 yard lining fabric
• 1/2 yard batting
• 10″ ribbon
• thread

Step 1: Cut two stocking pieces out of batting, red fabric, and lining fabric.

Step 2:  With right sides of red fabric together, pin batting on either side like a sandwich. Sew around with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving the top edge open. Trim seam allowances, notch convex curves and clip concave curve (here’s why).

Step 3: Repeat with lining fabric, also leaving a ~3″ opening on the long straight side.

Step 4: Turn lining stocking right side out. Fit inside of red stocking with right sides together. Pin, matching side seams. Sew around with a 1/2″ seam allowance. Trim seam allowance. Turn stocking right side out through opening left in the lining fabric. Hand sew opening closed (here’s how).

Step 5: Fold 10″ of ribbon into a circle. Sew to inside of stocking.

Step 6: Fold down cuff and hang. Fill with sweets and treats!

It seems like all baby things at the stores are decorated with African animals. Don’t get me wrong; I think giraffes and elephants are adorable. But so are squirrels and black bears! My degree is in Natural Resources and I want my daughter to know about the animals in her own back yard.

So when I saw some forest creature mobiles on Etsy, I knew I had found the perfect thing for Alice! I bought some 25 cent felt squares and got to work. I got inspiration from several mobiles on Etsy for the different animals. This was actually the first baby craft I made, and it was the perfect pregnancy craft. I could make an animal a night while sitting on the couch.

I didn’t get around to assembling the mobile and hanging it until now. I had planned on hanging them from madrone sticks from my friend’s land. But it was proving difficult to work with, so I finally gave in and just used dowel rods. I think it looks great!

Alice approves! Plus she’s sleeping more in her crib these days, so she has more time to enjoy it. And I have more time to enjoy my own warm bed. Win-win!

Happy autumn!

These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins have two cups of sugar and two cups of chocolate chips. I’m pretty sure if I frosted them, they would be called cupcakes. But since I ate a dozen of these myself in the last three days, I’m going to pretend they are somewhat healthy and call them “muffins.” That’s how it works, right?

This muffin recipe is so easy to make (you don’t even really need to break out the stand mixer) and it makes 36 muffins! I guess I should stick the remaining two dozen in the freezer before I gorge myself any more. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 16 oz pumpkin
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*F.
2. Grease or line muffin tins.
3. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla, and oil until smooth.
5. Mix dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture.
6. Fold in chocolate chips.
7. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full.
8. Bake at 400*F for 16-20 minutes. Makes 36 muffins.

Recipe adapted from Food.com.

Pregnancy is over!! Our beautiful Alice Katherine was born in August, and we’ve spent the last two months falling in love with her.

Yesterday I put her in these cute little booties I made for her in my last month of pregnancy. I think that shoes for infants are really silly, but I couldn’t resist making these. I used this super easy tutorial and they whipped up in a half hour with some tiny scraps.

They fit her perfectly! I’m thinking of increasing the pattern and making some with leather or suede bottoms for when she’s a bit older. I figure I can buy an ugly suede jacket at Goodwill and get a lot of baby shoes out of it!

I just discovered Pinterest, and I’m totally obsessed! Does anyone else here use it? I’m looking for more fun people to follow so I can discover more fun things. Follow me so I can find you!

I think that’s enough for one post! Hopefully I can get back to blogging a bit more. Happy fall everyone!

Just over a week until my due date! Our little girl is still happily wiggling away in there. The waiting is the hardest!

Here’s one of our favorite meals to freeze. It’s delicious, super easy to double, and a great way to use up all of the veggies in your fridge.

Spaghetti Sauce with Ground Beef

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• assorted veggies (e.g. carrots, zucchini, squash. green pepper, etc.)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 6oz can of tomato paste
• 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes (or fresh tomatoes if you’ve got ‘em!)
• 1 26 oz jar of tomato sauce
• 1.5 tsp basil
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Dice veggies, simmer in a large pot with olive oil until softened.
2. Add ground beef and cook until browned.
3. Add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil, salt, pepper, and brown sugar, stirring well.
4. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Enjoy with pasta.
6. To freeze, store flat in freezer bags. Heat up in saucepan when ready to eat.

I’m past 37 weeks, so I guess the baby can come any day now! I’m hoping she holds off at least a week so I can finish letterpressing a friend’s wedding invites. Plus it just hit summer in Oregon and I’ve only gotten to wear my polka dotted maternity bathing suit once. I’m hoping for at least a few more swims in the rivers!

Anyway, the point of this post is to share another freezer meal. We’re up to nine meals in the freezer. Hopefully we can double that and I can document all of the recipes here. These chicken flautas are one of our go-to meals. We’ll buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store when we’re too lazy to cook, and use all of the leftover chicken the next night for this recipe (or chicken and dumplings or chicken noodle soup or some other chicken recipe). The recipe makes ~30 flautas, so it’s enough to bake up a batch for dinner and freeze the rest for later. We usually make the flautas along with this delicious Spanish Rice. Yum!

Chicken Flautas

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts – cooked and shredded
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 30 (6 inch) corn tortillas
• vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350* F.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the shredded chicken, salsa and ground cumin. Set aside.
3. Brush one side of each tortilla with olive oil. Stack tortillas on a plate.
4. Microwave tortillas for 8-10 minutes, checking periodically until tortillas are hot and flexible. You want to be able to roll them without having them flex back or crack.
5. Put a spoonful of the chicken mixture near the edge of a tortilla and sprinkle some cheese on top.
6. Roll up tortilla and place on a cookie sheet, seam side down.
7. Repeat with all of the tortillas until chicken mixture is gone.
8. If freezing, stick cookie sheet in freezer for 1-2 hours. Then collect frozen tortillas into a freezer bag.
9. When ready to cook them, bake flautas for 15-25 minutes or until tortillas are a little crispy and golden brown.

Macaroni and cheese is my husband’s absolute favorite meal. His Wisconsin roots beat out that pesky lactose intolerance of his every time it shows up on a menu. We discovered this recipe online a few years back and have never turned back. I think it’s originally from an old Fannie Farmer cookbook. We love the garlic (although you can absolutely substitute something more spicy if that’s your style!) and the fact that it freezes so easily. We always make a double recipe – one for tonight and one for the freezer. That’s definitely the easiest way to get meals into the freezer without having to set aside any extra time.

Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces macaroni noodles
• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• 1/2 tsp salt
• ~ 1 tbsp powdered garlic (optional)
• black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups good quality shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup buttered breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400* F.
2. Cook and drain macaroni according to package directions; set aside.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large saucepan.
4. Add flour, salt and pepper. Use a whisk to stir until well blended.
5. Pour milk and cream in gradually; stirring constantly.
6. Bring to boiling point and boil 2 minutes (stirring constantly).
7. Reduce heat and cook (stirring constantly) 10 minutes.
8. Add shredded cheddar little by little and simmer an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese melts.
9. Remove from heat.
10. Add macaroni to the saucepan and toss to coat with the cheese sauce.
11. Transfer macaroni to a buttered baking dish.
12. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
13. Bake 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.

To freeze: Once you have mixed the macaroni with the cheese sauce, allow to cool to room temperature before adding to your freezer. I always freeze it flat in a large zip-top freezer bag so that it stacks easily. When you want to make it, pull it out ahead of time and bring to room temperature. Add the macaroni and cheese to a buttered baking dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs and then bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown on top and bubbling

Eeks, I’m 36 weeks pregnant! How did it sneak up on me so fast?! The past few months have been busy, busy, busy cleaning out the apartment, getting the baby’s room ready, making baby crafts, learning about childbirth, freaking out about childbirth, working, enjoying summer, etc, etc, etc.

And since I’m pretty sure I’ll have even less time once the baby is born, I’m trying to prep some in advance and get meals ready and in the freezer. We got fresh sage in our CSA box last week, and I just had to find a good recipe for it! I have been holding onto this recipe from a coworker (thanks Gwen!) for Butternut Squash and Sage Tortellini for a while, so I cleared some time last weekend to get to tortellini making. I made 76 tortellini – enough for 3 meals for my husband and me.

What’s your favorite meal to freeze? I need lots of ideas so that my freezer can be stocked by the time the baby gets here.

Butternut Squash Tortellini

Dough Ingredients:

• 2 cups semolina flour
• 1/4 cup cooked, mashed butternut squash
• ~3/4 cup water
• dash of salt

Filling Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked, mashed butternut squash
• 1/4-1/2 lemon worth of zest
• 3 sage leaves, chopped

Directions:

1. Mix together filling ingredients. Set aside.
2. Mix together dough ingredients. Add water slowly while mixing until dough comes together.
3. Roll out dough.
4. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter. Keep dough covered while you aren’t working with it to prevent it from drying out.
5. Spoon a small amount of filling into the center of each circle.
6. Dip finger in water, and moisten 1/2 way around edge of circle. Fold circle in half, press to seal, then bring corners together to form tortellini.
7. Place tortellini on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet to dry out.
8. If freezing, place trays in freezer for ~1 hour. Then collect from tray and place in freezer bags.
9. To cook, place in large pot of boiling salted water. Cook until they rise to the top plus 1-2 minutes.
10. Serve with sage leaves sauteed in olive oil or your favorite sauce.

There is a fabric store in town that is definitely going to be the death of my wallet. It’s only 1 mile from my house (walkable!) and is full of amazingly cute fabric. This project would be perfect for using up scraps, but I couldn’t resist buying new baby fabrics! I used this pattern from The Purl Bee for the fabric beach balls. They can be sewn up in less than an hour and I am totally in love with them. I am resisting making more since I have so many other projects that I want to get started on!

Dave bought me Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing for Baby book for my birthday. I love it! It’s full of super cute patterns and ideas that truly are simple and quick to sew up. Of course I had to start with the Snuggler, which I think just looks like the cutest and coziest blanket ever. Luckily you don’t even have to buy the book to make it! The pattern is available free online.

I used Cheerful Raindrops from Carolyn Gavin’s Spring Street collection for the outside and a fuzzy yellow fabric for the inside. She’s going to have to love raindrops since she’ll be living in Oregon!

I can’t wait to snuggle her right up!