the babe's faves

One of the most asked questions I think any pregnant woman gets would be "are you craving anything?"  At first I really didn't crave anything as much as I had "anti-cravings."  During the first trimester, anything chocolate sounded more like the plague to me, and I couldn't stomach the thought of chili.  But now that we're almost at the close of the second trimester, I can definitively point out some yummy (and new-to-me) recipes that the baby just can't stop flailing his/her arms for (or legs for that matter!).

So, here we go with The Babe's Faves!

Bread: Coconut bread with orange glaze

I think this is the BEST gluten free sweetbread I've ever homemade before. Whether it's the hormones or the baby talking, I can't be sure, but this bread is GOOD.

Snack: Apples! Apples! Apples!!!! (did I say apples?)

Lunch: A lettuce wrap with tomato and bacon (I use turkey bacon), pepper strips dipped in hummus, and probably another apple

Dinner: Real Simple's Mac and Cheese.  Okay, I get that this is very fattening, so believe me, I don't make it often at all.  I also do not use 6 cups of milk. That always seemed like a lot to me, so I use 3 cups of soymilk and only 1 cup of gruyere (hey, gruyere is expensive!).  Is it weird that I use soymilk and then real gruyere? Probably, but that's just how I roll! haha!  I also never have cayenne seasoning so I just use chili powder (sorry, free spirit here, I can never follow directions). :)

Dessert: Mud Pie (I received this recipe from a friend, and used a homemade hot fudge from a recipe I found online.)  Sorry for no photo, I would have taken one, but I made it in a regular cake pan at first, when looking back I should have done it in a spring foam pan.  Once I had baked it in the regular pan, there was no getting it out so I served it straight from there (you can gather from the name that this is a moist cake!). I have not made it in a spring foam pan yet, though I don't believe it would fall apart, but don't take my word on it so use a cake pan if you don't care about presentation!  Rest assured, it is very appetizing!

   Mud Pie
     1 c. sugar
     1/2 c. melted butter
     1 tea vanilla
     1/4 tea salt
      2 eggs
     1/3 c. flour (I used 1/3 c. all purpose gluten free flour plus a tea of xanthan gum)
     1/3 c. cocoa
     1 c. chopped walnuts
     1/2 c. hot fudge topping
      whipped cream

• Grease spring foam pan (or regular cake pan- see note above), set oven at 325
• Mix all ingredients together except for the hot fudge topping and whipped cream.  Pour into springfoam pan and bake 20-25 min.
• Remove from oven immediately, prick holes in pie with wooden pick.  Spread 1/4 c. of fudge over top
• Let first spreading of fudge cool for a few minutes before adding another 1/4 c. on top. Then put the cake in the fridge
• After at least an hour in the fridge, take the outer springfoam part off, spread whipped cream on top, and if you're feeling fancy, top with mini chocolate chips or chocolate shavings.  Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Enjoy perusing some new recipes!  If you are gluten free, you must try the coconut bread, it's amazing!  I think the babies' top favorite right now is apples (in case you couldn't tell, haha!).  NOT applesauce though, they've gotta be good ole red gala apples!  Now, I know the baby wishes they could eat all these foods every day, but don't worry, I keep the mac and cheese and mud pie's to a healthy minimum!  All in all- the baby really has been making me crave a lot of healthy foods like apples, hummus, almonds, etc.  I can't complain!  What are YOU craving lately?

How to make your own... Buckle Bear...

Right now Little E is about 18 months old and really really really into BUCKLES!! Every buckle that she can find seems to occupy her little hands for hours. It wasn't until recently that she mastered the art of the buckle and is still fascinated with buckling and unbuckling everything. And the more things that keep my little 18 month old "busy" the better!! At least my poor house that gets trashed every morning at 7am thinks so..hehe. Jaime recently sent me a link to a website called  Buckley Boo. It is where I got my inspiration! And Little E is at the perfect age to start working on smaller motor skills and the concept of matching colors.                                  For awhile now I have been wanting to make a "busy book" for Little E, but was afraid that it was going to take me too long. Not to mention she is really not into any other part of those books besides the buckles. So I thought why not make my own.... and make it entirely with buckles.. and instead of making a buckle book..make a buckle bear!!

This little guy makes the perfect gift and only took me an hour or two to make. And if you are like me then you already have an assortment of stuffed animals at your disposal to work with so the only thing I had to buy at the store was the buckles and ribbon. (Most of the ribbon I already had, but I wanted to do a rainbow)

Supplies:

One cute and fuzzy stuffed animal (preferably with a long body)

Buckles ( I found mine at Joann's in the sewing section)

Ribbon

Basic Sewing Supplies

1. The first thing I did was measure and cut all my ribbon and then pinned 

it around the bear to make sure that it would all fit and buckle easily.

2. Then I took it all to my sewing machine and hemmed each end of ribbon and then 

sewed it into place around the buckle.

A view of the ribbon from the front and back.

Once all my ribbon was sewn onto my buckles I wrapped them all around the bear

and used embroidery thread and hand sewed each ribbon piece to the back of the bear. This way Little E can't remove the ribbons from the bear. This is how the back of the bear looked when I was done.

This is a view of the front of the bear when it was finished. It's just too stinkin cute!!

And now the fun part!!!

This little bear was a lot of fun to make but what's even better is the fact that Little E will not put it down! Once she buckles him all up she puts him in her little stroller and takes him on a walk. She even had to bring him with her to church on Sunday!

DIY Binki and Mitten Clips

Want a creative and easy gift idea for the expecting mother or young kids! Look no further because these are just about the easiest thing you can create! Ok..ok..maybe that's a little over the top, but seriously I started making these and couldn't stop! I am always looking for creative items to make as gifts that are easy to make.

 When little E was born we could not go anywhere without that binki. I know some of you understand..how tragedy struck whenever we forgot it! However, as organized as I am binki's and mittens for that matter always seem to get lost in this house. So here is a way to make your own changeable binki and mitten clips. Using ribbon of your choice you can make a bunch of them and then change them to match whatever their wearing.

Supplies:

Ribbon (one inch wide ribbon works best)

Iron on velcro (found in the sewing supply section of Joann's

Mitten clips (also found in the sewing supply section of Joann's)

Iron

Interchangeable Binki Clips:

Measure and cut your Ribbon. (hint: I cut my ribbon with pinking shears so it wouldn't fray)

Place sticky side of velcro onto ribbon, turn ribbon over and iron on.

Make sure to leave enough room between the velcro for the binki and clip to fit.

so cute... 

Mitten Clips:

Follow the same steps for the binki clips except make this ribbon much shorter. 

Happy Crafting!

throwin' a baby in the mix

To quote a friend and new mom, "everybody loves babies! everybody is CRAZY FOR BABIES!"

Okay, so maybe not EVERYONE, haha, but c'mon, babies are cute.  And I'm 

~*pregnant*~ 

so maybe I'm feeling a little biased right now.

Yup, you heard right! Another baby is joining the mix here at Seven Sisters.  I debated long and hard on how/when to announce it on the blog.  I considered not announcing it at all, but ya'll might think I'm a little weird when the baby projects start popping up and there was no announcement!  The reason I've felt so cautious is because this baby has been thought of and prayed for and hoped for for the past two years.  I'm not quite ready to share the whole story, but I can say this baby is nothing short of a miracle, and God is so good.  The short story would equal an infertility diagnoses, fertility treatments, and now 15 weeks of perfect pregnancy-dom.  One sentance in no way does justice to any of that, and I hope you'll excuse me and that someday I can tell the whole story with clarity and completeness.

Right now I just feel so humbled and honored for this answer to prayer and huge (little) miracle.  We are basking in God's goodness and still pinching ourselves that this is really happening and staying busy working on the nursery and all those other baby preparation things! 

Speaking of the nursery, that brings me to the first project I can't wait to share, the mobile.  Our nursery bedding is the Migi Splash . We bought it off eBay for a great deal!  We don't want the nursery to be too "theme-y" or matchy-matchy though.  A lot of the inspiration for the room came from the bedding's stock photo, but of course I put my own spin on it.  More on the nursery as a whole to come! But you'll get a few sneak peeks below, like paint color :).  So, we didn't get the Migi Splash mobile, lamp or curtains.  But I didn't want a babies room without a mobile at all!

Enter the Jellyfish Jam pattern by Bittersweet.  LOVE this pattern, SO EASY and it's FREE!  I crocheted 5 of them.  On some of them I added/removed a few rows to the body to make some bigger/smaller than others.   Meet the fam: Alfredo, Stan, Betsy, Fluffy and Tiny Tina.

After I crocheted them, I bought some fishing wire, and found some driftwood (so easy to find at the lake/beach!).  I also had some jute string on hand.  I simply put the driftwood in a cross pattern, and tied the jute string around it till they were rock solid in place.  I also secured it with hot glue on the top.  Looks kinda ugly, but you can't see the glue from where it's hanging (over the changing station).

After that I just added some fishing wire to the top of the head on each jellyfish and wrapped it around the driftwood.  I added a little dot of hot glue at the top to keep the fishing wire secured in place on the driftwood so it couldn't slip off.

I originally thought about hanging it over the crib, but since it's homemade, I didn't want to take any chances since it definitely wouldn't pass a child-safety test.  But to have it over the changing table is perfect, since a baby must always be supervised on a changing table! (and everywhere else of course!) :)

So, what do you think?  Are you baby crazy?  Can you do the jellyfish jam?  Could you, would you, eat green eggs and ham?

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