Homemaking

Gardening Update

danielle — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:13:41 -0400

It's not been the best year for gardening with not enough rain then too much, but somethings have done well enough. The sunflowers look lovely, for example. :)

The blueberries have also done well thanks to the rain arriving just in time.

The tomatoes loved the dry weather we had early on so they are doing well too.

Strawberries and Gardening

danielle — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:16:58 -0400

I'm running a bit late this year but I did get around to putting out a garden. I've got tomatoes, peppers, corn, sunflowers, cabbage, lettuce, and egg plant in it. Here is a pic from right after Brian tilled it up.

I'm very happy to report we got quite a few black raspberries this year. They are my favorite. Miss Katie's too! :)

We also had a good amount of strawberries from our patch to eat fresh. But I found a GREAT u-pick place and ended up with 11 gallon of strawberries. As you can see, I was busy with them!

Evan's Toy Story Birthday Cake

danielle — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:38:08 -0400

As those who have been around awhile know, I like to make a special cake for each of my children on their birthday. In the past, I've done coordinating Sesame Street cakes for M & E, a candyland cake, Elmo, Veggie tales cakes, a barn cake, and an ice cream cone cake.

This year Evan asked for a Toy Story cake. (He LOVES Buzz and Woody). So, I did Andy's Room. I made a half sheet cake and covered it with fondant (this was my first time working with fondant). I used MM fondant made from this recipe. I added a small rectangular cake for a bed, covered with a fondant "bedspread" and made a headboard out of fondant, graham crackers, and pretzel sticks. I added fondant stars to the base for decoration. I also added miniature character toys I bought (they were easy to find thanks to the new movie coming out!) As you can see, Evan loved it!

Miriam's Kitty Cake

danielle — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:38:08 -0400

Miriam asked for a kitty cake this year for her birthday. So I decided
to try my hand at my first real 3-D cake. I made the body using the top
tier pan of a wedding cake. I cut it in half and set the halves
together upright on their cut side. I made the base of the head from a small
oven safe glass bowl. I then cut the tail, ears, front paws, and muzzle
from a 9 inch round cake. I assembled it all with icing and a few
toothpicks and cardboard dowels. After freezing the cake over night, I
sculpted the hind legs and face and did a bit of of general sculpting
until I had the cat shape I wanted. I rough iced everything. Then using
a #233 tip, I piped "hair" on to the cat in three colors. I made the
eyes, nose, and mouth along with the ball of yarn from fondant. I was
very happy with the end result as was Miss Miriam. :)

g-Diapers: gCLOTH!!

danielle — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:58:55 -0500

As long time readers of this blog will note, I've reviewed gDiapers before here and here.

Earlier this year, gDiapers released their cloth inserts (gCloth) to use with their little gPants. I was very excited and got my hands on some ASAP. I've been using gDiapers with cloth inserts as our primary diaper for 3 months now, and I think I'm ready to report!

First, As you might remember, my biggest complaint about gDiapers in the past was that the snap-in liner would stain where poop touched it, and it would also smell unless bleached. Well, I'm happy to report gDiapers has addressed this issue. They changed something in the material of the liner. They no longer stain easily (I've had no stains with the new liners) and no longer retain smell. WOOHOO!!

Now, about the gCloth inserts.

Positives:
They are trim fit, almost as trim fit as the flushable refills or a disposable diaper. They wick moisture away from the baby's skin with the fleece side. They are easy to wash. Easy to remove poop from. Staining is limited. They are absorbent enough to last 2-3 hours during non-heavy wetting times without leaks.

Negatives: These inserts will not cut it over more then 4 hours (i.e. overnight), nor will they stand up to a heavy wetter.

Workaround related to above negative: I HAVE found a way to make the gCloth work well for us for 4-5 hours or during heavy wet times (right after breakfast here). I take two inserts and place them with the fleece side out, works wonderfully! Only down side is the increased thickness, and they still wouldn't make it overnight.

Overall, I really love them and recommend people give them a try.

gDiapers Again

danielle — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:28:54 -0400

Some of you may remember the review I did on gDiapers, the environmentally friendly diaper, awhile ago. I ended up really liking them but only used them for travel due to cost. Well, they recently came out with cloth inserts!! Woohooo! This plus a new 6 pack of cover unit makes them as affordable as other cloth systems. I really love how trim they are and they have most of the positives of all-in-one diapers with none if the negatives!

Even better, right now (until July 31st) they are running a special where you can get their 6 pack of covers regularly $70 for $40!! That is incredible! You need a coupon code to get this deal and I have one. The really cool thing is if enough people us my code, I get some free. Here are the instructions on how to use the code and the code, of course:

Here's the personal gMum/Dad coupon code we promised:

g1323West

To use your personal gMum/Dad coupon code, add one or more everyday g's six-pack(s) to your
gDiapers.com
cart, enter your code and click the "redeem" button. The price will
automatically drop from $70 (regular price) to $40. What a sweet deal!

Please note, gDiapers.com coupon codes are case sensitive, so make sure to enter your code exactly as shown above.

Cleaning is DONE!!

danielle — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:41:17 -0500

Well, I have finished spring cleaning the house! WOOHOO! It was really dirty behind the couch... sssssh! Don't tell anyone! kay?

I have also completed the dry run packing. Weight limits for in China flights are tight... even though we are allowed two 50 pound bags each on the trip over, once in China, we get one 44 pound bag each! We also get one carry-on each. As you can imagine, this limits packing a bit. First, I packed everything that I know I'll be sending back with Brian... that came in under 25 pounds! Woohoo! Then I packed everything as I want to have it for the trip over. Bag one, a rolling duffel, came in at 40 pounds!! Bag two, a standard rolling bag, came in at 30 pounds!!!! I still have a few items to pack, but they aren't even close to 5 pounds total.... besides between 10-15 pounds is donations/stuff for our friends which we will get rid of in Beijing! Ok, I'm really proud of myself! I guess the two months of obsessing over my packing list have paid off!

T -4 days to leaving... T -9 days until Katie-Day!!

The prep work continues!

danielle — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:32:18 -0500

This weekend I worked on the food angle. We now have a 10 week menu planned as well as detailed plans for the 17 days I will be gone. There are 32 meals prepared and frozen in the freezer including those numbered for use the days I am gone. Yup, I'm pretty happy with myself. Now on to this week's mission... clean the house! T- 9 days and counting!!

Big Boy Room!

danielle — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:43:52 -0500

Well, since poor Evan never got a proper nursery due to his sudden arrival and since the girls' room was already decorated for Miriam, I decided to give Evan his big boy room instead of doing a nursery for Katie. So after almost 2 years, Evan finally has a room just for Evan (it was also a guestroom in its previous life).

The theme is "Transportation" and the breakdown goes like this:

Primary-color Furniture (bed frame/headboard, desk & chair, and shelf) - $50, used from friend
Fabric to re-cover chair & make two curtains - $7
Dresser - free from neighbor
Hardware to make dresser gender neutral - $17
Paint to cover gold on dresser - free, re-appropriated from other project
Multi-color ceiling fan - free, already in room
Mattress - new, $100
Box-spring for bed - free, was mine growing up
Canvas to cover torn bottom of box-spring - free, re-appropriated from other project
Bed skirt to cover rest of old box-spring - $12
"Transportation" theme sheets - new off ebay, $17
Train blanket - gift from Mimmi
Bed-rail - free, off freecycle
"Transportation" rug - free, off freecycle
Pattern for wall murals - free, created myself off of online pictures
Paint/brushes for wall murals - free, re-appropriated from other project

I think I did pretty good if I do say so myself! :) Have a look see.

Because I'm crazy...

danielle — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:56:02 -0400

Grandpa George picked 4.25 bushel of apples off our tree today. I'll be making applesauce tomorrow, but tonight we eat these.