Quick and easy felt hair clips

The other day, while I was wandering through the Christmas aisles at wally world, I found these ornaments. They had green, red, grey, blue, and gold/yellow. I thought they would make some quick and easy hair clips, but I didn't particularly like all the colors, so I just grabbed a package of green flowers and a package of red ones.

I cut the tip off the petal that had a hole. I then used my glue gun to carefully glue two flowers together, making sure the cut tips were on the bottom. This is what the back side looked like:
The front side (can't even tell there used to be some holes):I then glued the two flowers to a clippy that I had already covered with ribbon. I now have some Christmas-y clippies that took maybe ten minutes to make, and were super cheap.

Pipe cleaner snowflakes

I found a super quick and easy snowflake craft here, and LMS and I knocked out a couple in about 10 minutes.

I cut the pipe cleaners in half and twisted one around them, and LMS started threading clear tri beads on them. Mine went a lot quicker, but I have better hand-eye coordination than she does. It was good practice for her.

All done! Hers is the one on the right with the bent pieces. I straightened them out and we'll set them on tree branches once my parents get their tree put up.

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

• A job for Mr. M
• The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey (to guide us in getting completely out of debt once Mr. M has a job)
• Easy Gluten Free Baking by Elizabeth Barbonne
• NutriMill Grain mill so I can experiment with gluten free grains
• Cricut Expression (hey, I can dream, right?)

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?

• Hmmm... here's where my really bad memory causes problems (side effect of 10 years of fuzzy brain- everything's fuzzy, including a lot of my memories). I'd have to say anything my mom made for me.
  

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?

• Handmade ornaments, different ones every year. Hopefully next year I can start.
  

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?

• Reference #2. I'd have to go with the antique Singer sewing machine my parents bought me. My first sewing machine!

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?

• She's 3- anything she sees, she wants. She's getting a kid-safe camera from us because she loves taking pictures with our camera.

6. What is your favorite holiday food?

• Anything chocolate! fudge, almond roca, etc

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?

• I'm making an advent calendar right now. I also made some easy hair clips for LMS, and I'm making a ribbon board to put them on. I'm not doing a lot of Christmas-y stuff this year.

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?

• White Christmas- no question!

9. Favorite holiday song?

• Christmas Canon Rock by Trans-Siberian Orchestra

10. Favorite holiday pastime?

• wrapping presents
• listening to Christmas music
• looking at all the pretty lights

Want to enter? go here- there's lots of cool prizes they're giving away!

O'dark thirty plane flight

This morning we got up at 3:15 to get Mr. M to the airport for a two week overseas mission (lucky duck!). The weather's been really nice for the last couple of weeks, so of course it started snowing a couple hours before we had to leave. Not only that, but we had to go to a different airport than usual. We're kind of between the two, but the bigger one is closer and the shortest route there is on major (ie. well-kept) roads. The smaller one, that we had to go to, is further and the quickest route is on back roads that aren't as well traveled or plowed as frequently.

We're not sure why, but someone must have thought they were doing us a favor or something, it sure couldn't have been cheaper to fly out of the smaller airport. Who knows. When he gets a chance, Mr. M is going to have a chat with whoever's in charge of ticketing.

Our ward Christmas activity

Our ward Christmas activity was last night. Early in the month and on a weeknight is a bit different, but we had a great turn out. Most of the families have kids who have to be there anyway, so it worked out well.

We had a 'Night in Bethlehem' theme- everyone brought a can or two of food to pay the 'tax'. Everyone was supposed to wear period clothing- so there were a lot of bathrobes and draped fabric. The kids were supposed to come dressed as angels. Mr. M and my brother (the biggest guys in the ward) were Roman centurions.

I made an angel dress for LMS for our ward Christmas activity- it was pretty quick and easy. I got a $4 twin flat sheet from wally world and folded it in half. Folded with the long sides together, the long sides formed the bottom hems on the front and back. It only ended up being a tiny bit too long- but the belt solved that problem. I laid LMS on top of the folded in half sheet and cut out the shape I wanted on one side. After she got up, I folded it in half again and cut the other side out so both sides matched (see below). Once it was cut out, I just sewed up both side seams and sleeves, hemmed the sleeves, and used some white binding I had left over from another project to bind the neckline.

I then used some felt and some gold fabric (both left over from her Sleeping Beauty crown) to make a belt. I sewed on some velcro I had leftover from another project so the belt can be easily taken on and off.Total cost: about $1.50

I only used about a third of the sheet, and will use the rest of it for a doctor jacket and a chef hat for her to dress up in.

At one point, LMS told me she needed wings.

"Angels don't have wings"

"Yes, they do. Angels need wings to fly."

"No they don't, angels fly without wings."

She showed me the angel from her Fisher Price Little People Nativity.

"See- she has wings."

How to answer that?

"Yes, but when you become an angel, you won't need wings to fly."

She wasn't convinced.

Luckily, she forgot about it and didn't bring it up again. Though she did try to convince me that angels don't wear shoes. Not sure wear she got that idea. Since it was quite cold outside, I managed to convince her to keep them on.

A bad picture of the kids up front during a song that everyone sang. It was dark in the room, so the quality isn't good, and everyone has evil eyes. LMS is standing next to one of her friends from nursery.

At the very end, Santa came to visit. LMS was quite excited. She's really getting into the whole Christmas thing this year- Santa, the lights, etc. I'm going to have her help me wrap the presents so we can talk about giving presents.

Bit of an update

I'm finally starting to feel almost normal.

While I've been working on feeling better, I've been doing some reading (fuzzy brain just isn't compatible with getting lots done, unfortunately). I read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, and the four Enchanted Forest books by Patricia Wrede: Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, Talking to Dragons. I liked the Patricia Wrede books the best, but the others were good, too.

We (Mr. M and I) went and saw New Moon on Monday. I thought it was better than the first movie. Definitely better than I thought it would be- I find the second book very whiny, but the movie managed not to be whiny. And Jacob is quite nice to look at :)

We finished up our Christmas shopping on Wednesday- just have to wrap and ship now.

Wednesday I also made 6 gluten free pie crusts. 2 became pecan pies (one for us, one for the in-laws), the rest were pumpkin, blueberry, apple, and strawberry. Everyone thought the pie crust turned out good- didn't taste different. I used the pie crust recipe from Easy Gluten Free Baking by Elizabeth Barbonne. Love that book!

I managed to successfully have a gluten free Thanksgiving. At the in-laws I couldn't eat the frog eye salad (we need to write to the GF pasta companies to ask them to make acini de pepe), the stuffing, or the rolls, but everything else was good. My mom made a completely gluten free meal, so I could eat everything without any problems.

Yesterday was a really nice day, so we went for a short bike ride, during which we realized both our bikes really need a tune-up. I also spent some time reorganizing the storage container. It really needed it- it had gotten so you could barely walk inside. Now, everything's neatly stacked again, even our bikes and bike trailer, so there's room to walk in and move around a bit. Can't wait till we move and can unpack- we have a lot of stuff, but until we can unpack and sort it all at once, we really can't get rid of any of it. I do plan on downsizing as much as possible though.

I also reorganized the closet in our room as well as our food storage in the basement. It had been moved around when dad was working on the plumbing for the downstairs bathroom, and has been jumbled together for awhile now. It was nice to have the energy to get that much done.

I'm starting to have more energy- I'm not as exhausted as I was, but I'm still fighting the brain fog- I have to force myself to get stuff done. Yesterday was encouraging- I did a lot of physical work without completely dying.

We've taught her well...

maybe. Not sure if we really want to encourage staying up late reading at her age, but she's reading (ok, looking at the pictures), so we don't want to discourage that.

I haven't gotten a lot accomplished lately- I've been fighting brain fog caused by the systemic yeast infection. Brain fog always makes it difficult to concentrate long enough to start, let alone finish, a project.

I did manage to almost finish a hat for LMS. She was sleeping, and I wasn't able to try it on her till it was almost done, at which point I discovered it's too small for her. She still has a big head, I guess. That tangle of yarn is what's left of the skein I was using, and was in it's original shape/form, till LMS decided to help. *sigh* She really did think she was helping me out.
I'll untangle it then make a ball as I unravel the hat so I can make a bigger one. And yes that is knitty-knobby loom thing. I couldn't knit a scarf if my life depended on it (despite several attempts to learn), and while I do crochet a little, my needles are packed up who knows where. Plus these looms are so simple and quick. I actually found a swirly loom at Hobby Lobby yesterday that can be used to make a king size (I think) quilt. When I have the $30 or so that it costs I think I'll get one. I think that's the only way I'll manage to finish an afghan larger than a baby blanket!

A snowy hike

Yesterday we took a hike to a fire lookout that's in the area. We've been trying to do this hike for awhile (actually started it a couple weeks ago, but there was too much snow and we weren't wearing boots), and we finally managed to complete it.

We came prepared with boots this time, but it was still a bit more difficult than we expected because there was still a lot of snow on the trail. We finished the 3.5 mile hike, and we have some things to keep in mind for the next time we attempt it.

1. Do the hike in the summer. That was the original idea, but we ran out of time.
2. If we must do it in the fall when there's snow and ice on the trail, wear Yak Trax on our shoes. I have some, and Mr. M's dad has some that Mr. M could have borrowed, but we didn't even think about using them.
3. Use trekking poles. This one I did remember, but I couldn't find mine, so I couldn't use it.
4. Use my inhaler before we go: 9000+ feet elevation is not good for asthmatic lungs that are still a bit phlegmy.
5. Bring the Ergo carrier to make it easier to carry LMS. It was in the back of the car, but I forgot to put it on. We ended up taking turns carrying her on our shoulders, which wasn't the safest on slippery snow and ice.

I love taking pictures of LMS and Mr. M walking hand in hand.
Once we made it to the top of the mountain, we still had some very steep stairs to climb to get to the actual lookout platform. They weren't bad going up, but coming back down, I had to not look too far down- I'm slightly afraid of heights. It was super windy up there, so we had to keep a good hold on LMS. Mr. M carried her down the stairs, and she covered her head with her hood the whole way down. She really doesn't like the wind. Check out her reaction when we were at Pali Point in Hawaii.

It was fun, but it was a tough hike. However, we didn't get to take a nap on the way home like LMS did. She managed to do a good portion of the hike up to the lookout, and even though we did carry her part of the way up and most of the way down, we still wore her out!

Home made Baby Legs

I love BabyLegs, and have several pair for Little Miss Sunshine. However, they're a bit expensive- $12-$15/pair (plus shipping if you can't find them locally).

About a year ago I tried making some myself- I'd heard of people doing it and figured I could make some myself too. For my first attempt I used a pair of tights and just cut off the top and bottom of each leg, then hemmed each end.

I wasn't thrilled with the end result. The hemmed edges didn't stay in place and they stretched out a bit more than they should have.

I recently found a tutorial here that shows how to make leg warmers from a pair of knee high socks. I bought a 3 pack of knee highs at Target for $6.99. I kept the boring grey ones for myself and made the two purple pairs into leg warmers for LMS.

I laid them out on the table:
Then cut the heels and toes off:
I folded the middle of the foot in half and pinned it to the cut end of each sock:A quick zig zag all the way around, and I was done:There's ribbing on each end, so they actually stay up, and they cost a fraction of the price of BabyLegs. Each pair cost $2.33 plus thread that I already had, and it took all of 15 minutes to make both pair. I'm much happier with how these turned out! As soon as I find more cute socks I'll make some more.

LMS modeling the polka dot pair:

Why I won't be taking antibiotics again anytime soon

I got over the nasty cold, and got a sinus infection. I'm over the sinus infection, but the antibiotics I took to clear it up also allowed my systemic yeast infection to run rampant through my body. I haven't felt this crummy in a year and a half- since my Juice Plus+ vitamins started helping my body work properly.

What I haven't been missing: Mind-numbing exhaustion that drains mental and physical energy, leaving me too worn out to accomplish even a fraction of the things on my to do list. Overall crummy feeling and foggy brain, both of which further reduce my ability to get stuff done and function like a normal human being. Yeah, haven't missed that at all.

So I've been eating lots of yogurt, taking massive doses of Three-lac, and trying to keep from eating too much sugar. I'm feeling better, but the exhaustion is still dragging me down.

It's been several years (don't remember when exactly) since I last took antibiotics, and I've learned from this experience that I'm going to have to be really sick before I take antibiotics again. The side effects are just too much for me to casually pop antibiotics.

And the answer is...

Florida.

My first thought was 'Aahh man, I just bought snow pants and snow boots for us. That figures...'

However, we won't be moving there, since he didn't get the job- turns out the company with the opening already had someone in mind when they posted the opening. Pretty rude, if you ask me.
Mr. M is working with a contracting company that helps fill open positions for companies needing specialized help. The contracting company got all Mr. M's info together and took it to the company with the opening, and they said 'we don't want him, it'll take too long to get his xxxx' (part of his clearance). When Mr. M heard this, he told the contracting company 'it won't take more than 2-3 days max to get it, I just have to talk to my unit'. So they went back to the company with the opening and after them going 'uh..., um....., well.....' for awhile, they finally admitted they already had someone in mind. They couldn't have just said that to begin with?

So, the contracting company is looking at some other job openings, and hopefully one of them will go through quickly. In the meantime, we're still working on being patient.

Back on my feet, hopefully...

Earlier in the week I was feeling better, then I started getting massive sinus headaches that took me out for the rest of the week. I got some antibiotics on Thursday and they're starting to take effect- I actually managed to be fairly productive last night and today. Now I have to make sure my systemic yeast infection doesn't take over. Good thing I've got lots of Threelac.

YUMMY bana bread

This afternoon LMS and I made banana bread (she calls it bana bread) using the recipe in Easy Gluten Free Baking by Elizabeth Barbonne. I knew it was a success when Mr. M said 'Wow, that was really good! What flour did you use?' If Mr. M likes it, it's good. He's endured quite a few of my experiments, and doesn't hesitate to tell me when the results are crap. Like the results of my low-carb baking experiments. They were all gross.

In any case, I followed the recipe as written, except I used super fine brown rice flour instead of white rice flour. I used it because I figure brown rice flour is less refined than white rice flour.

I tried to make banana bread last week, but didn't have quite enough bananas. When I went to the store to buy more, they were all green, so I had to wait till they ripened. This time I ended up with enough bananas for two batches of bread. I made one batch of muffins, and one loaf of bread.

I told LMS that the muffins were cupcakes (she doesn't know the difference since we don't have either very often), and we put a dab of cool whip on top. She loved it!
I added a handful of chopped pecan pieces to the loaf of banana bread. I forgot to do it until after the batter was in the pan, so I just stirred it in right there. Not sure if that's why, but the nuts seemed to float to the top.

Beautiful!

The results were very good- the bread had a nice, even texture- no grittiness, and tasted just like I remember banana bread tasting. My dad and brother weren't here to give their verdicts, but mom, Mr. M, LMS, and I all thought it tasted really good. The crust got nice and crispy, just like I like it. I cut the ends off to eat tonight (the crust is never that nice crispy texture after being wrapped up), then wrapped the bread (we'll see if there's any left in the morning), and I tossed the rest of muffins in the freezer.

look at that lovely texture!

With results like this, this cookbook just moved to the top of my gotta-have list. I have a couple more days before this copy is due at the library, so now I need to decide which recipe to try next.

New poll added

Check out my new poll!

I'll be adding more info as we get more info. Nothing's set in stone yet...