Some useful information

One of the blogs I follow how some helpful uses for toothpaste. Here is the link. One of them is cleaning jewelry with non-gel toothpaste. I tried it and it works! Like a charm! I cleaned my wedding ring, which hasn't been cleaned in years and I noticed a difference. I was given a really nice silver bracelet for my college graduation. I was supposed to keep it in an air tight bag, but didn't and it got really tarnished. It was also too big for me, so I never wore it. Lately, I've been wanting to resize it and clean it, but didn't have anything to clean it with. I used the toothpaste on it and now it's sparkly clean! Dan helped me resize it and now I have a nice, new bracelet to wear.

Before.

Notice the black on the middle links.

I had started cleaning part of it at this point.

Never would have guessed that it was ever dirty!

The other helpful info I wanted to share was about calcium. Yes, I'm still on my calcium kick. Lol. I wanted to know exactly how much calcium I was getting from the foods I was eating. Well, if you look at a food label, the calcium content is given in a percentage amount. This was kind of confusing to me because the amount you need is given in milligrams. For example, adults need 1,000 mg of calcium every day (nursing/pregnant women need more, around 1200-1500). I looked at my yogurt container and it tells me I'm getting 20% of calcium if I eat it all. But that doesn't really tell me much. I wanted to know how much I was getting.

Well, it's actually really easy to figure out. I did some online research and all you have to do is add a zero to the percent given on a food label and that is how many milligrams of calcium is in the container/per serving. So my yogurt is 20% calcium, that means I'm getting 200 mg of calcium from that yogurt. Do that to all your foods and you got it figure out. Easy, peasy.

I just wish we were taught this at a younger age. Who knew it was so easy to figure out?

Well, I hope this information has been helpful. :)

Easy and cute fabric flowers!

One of my favorite sewing blogs, Make It and Love It, made the cutest little fabric flowers. As soon as I saw them, I knew I wanted to make them. Here is the link to the tutorial.

Aren't these so cute?

They are made out of cotton. I had some pants that I was going to get rid of, so I decided to use them for material.

Here are the pants.

And here is the new flower.

Woo-hoo for repurposing!

I made another one out of the leftover material from Anna's dress I made for her.

This one turned out much better, because the cotton was thinner and not as heavy as the white material, so it's a little more fluffy and fuller.

I think they're so cute and they were really easy!

All you do is cut out a bunch of circles, scrunch each one and sew them on in layers around a felt circle. Just click on the tutorial link. It's really easy.

I sewed barrett clips on the back, so I can put them in Anna's hair. I was thinking of making a headband and putting on one there. I need to make more, so hopefully I'll get around to that.

Anna's hair isn't fixed here, I just kind of put the flower on for demonstration purposes.

These would look cute in an adults hair as well, or pinned on a shirt or whatever. Lots of possibilities! :)

Homemade Ravioli!

A few months after Dan and I got married, my mom gave us a pasta maker that she didn't want anymore. So, for years we talked about making homemade pasta. We FINALLY got around to using it on Sunday. We've been wanting to make ravioli for awhile. We got a pasta cutter/roller thing recently, to help make ravioli. It was surprisingly easy and not difficult at all.

I had a recipe book that I got from the library a few years ago for like a dollar. I made the dough, which is basically flour, eggs, salt and a tiny bit of water. I divided it in half, then we rolled it through the pasta maker. You roll it through, then shorten the slot the pasta goes through each time, so eventually the pasta gets thinner and thinner.

Dan rolling that pasta!

We enlisted Anna to help.

Nothing like good 'ol child labor to get the job done!

She actually did pretty good once she got the hang of it.

Once you get the pasta to the right thickness, you lay it out. We cut our pasta in half. One is the bottom, the other half is the top. Put your filling on the pasta in small spoonfuls. We made a ricotta spinach filling.

Then, you take a cooking brush and brush water on the edges and in between the pasta.

If you look closely, you can see squares around each filling circle. That's where the water is.

Then, you cover the bottom with the top layer and press around it. The water makes the top layer bind with the bottom. You'll have to press well and get out air bubbles. This is probably the trickiest part, but still isn't hard at all.

Bust out your pasta roller and cut in between the mounds to make your ravioli squares.

We made ours kind of big. Next time, I want to make them a little smaller.

A nice, homemade ravioli square!

Anna saw me take a picture of pasta in Dan's hand, so she grabbed some pasta and wanted me to take a picture of her hand. :)

Boil them for about 8 minutes, top with homemade red sauce, a little basil from the garden for garnish and presto, homemade ravioli!

And the best part is, it actually tasted good too! Haha. I was a little worried about how it would turn out, but they were really good. We're looking forward to trying different fillings.

Mmm, buono!!!

C is for Calcium!

Recently my grandma has taken a turn for the worse. Her health has been declining over the last few years. A week ago, she had a mini seizure. She was taken to the hospital, was okay, and went home a few days later. Then, she was going down the two steps in her garage, holding the hand rail and my grandpa's arm and somehow slipped or something and fell. She ended up breaking her femur, a broken fibula above the knee, a broken fibula below the knee and two bones broken on each of her ankles. She had surgery to put her leg back together, but her bones are just like mush on the inside. The Dr. barely had to drill, then he just pushed the screws through. It will take about 8 weeks to heal, during which she'll be in a wheelchair or bed. She'll probably have to stay in a wheelchair for now on, since the Dr. said she would for sure fall again because she is so weak, has arthritis in her other knee and her bones are so soft.

I feel so bad for my grandma. I'm so sorry she has to be in pain and go through this ordeal. I'm so thankful she's okay, but honestly I don't know how much longer she'll be around. I feel bad for my grandpa as well. They've been married for 60 years. She'll have to be in therapy for 8 weeks, so he'll be living at home alone. I'm sure that will be very hard on him.

This whole story leads me to my main point.

CALCIUM!!!

Ever heard of it? Haha.

Women in general are more susceptible to bone problems. Having babies, breastfeeding and I guess just our anatomy leads to more bone problems. This is precisely one of the main reasons I lift weights and take a calcium supplement every day. I DO NOT want to be frail and weak when I get older. I want to be a spry, old lady who can keep up with the young bucks! Lol. :)

In reality, it's stupid not to take care of yourself when you're young (and even when you're older). So many problems are preventable and avoidable, if we just take certain steps and precautions.

Lifting weights helps maintain your bone density, and keeps your bones healthy and strong. When you're pregnant and breastfeeding, all priority goes to the baby. All the nutrients your body supplies go to the baby first and you get what's left over. If your body isn't receiving enough calcium, it takes it out of your bones and tough luck for you! However, this takes years and years for it to show up on your body and for you to realize there is a problem. By then, it's too late to change!

I take a calcium supplement and a multi-vitamin every morning after I eat breakfast. I like to take them with food to help with their absorption. When I first started nursing Alex, I started noticing that I was losing more hair than normal. I thought it was odd and realized I hadn't been taking a multi-vitamin or my calcium. I finished my prenatal vitamins when he was born and hadn't taken anything after. As soon as I started taking them, that problem went away. I can tell a difference when I take them. My nails grow faster, my hair is healthier, etc.

Getting calcium naturally is better than a supplement, but I like to take the supplement for extra measure, especially since I'm nursing right now.

I think how things could be different for my grandma if she had been more aware of her health when she was younger and taken preventative steps. I know there are some things that you can't prevent or completely avoid, but there are still things you can do to make it better. Also, she is very lucky to have my mom and my uncle and aunt around to care for her and get the help and treatment she needs. Who knows who will be around when you're older? Being able to take care of yourself and not have to depend on others is also really important. Keeping yourself in good health is one of the best ways to do this!

I really want to encourage everyone who is reading this to be aware of how much calcium you're getting, especially women! And to encourage everyone to take time to lift weights and do strength training exercises that will strengthen your bones!

It doesn't matter if you're 15 or 50. Starting something now is better than doing nothing at all. I think about different contestants I've seen on The Biggest Loser and how older people have completely changed their overweight body to be lean and fit.

If you're not sure how to start, do some research online, join a gym, or you can ask me. I am by no means an expert, I still have much more to learn myself, but it is something I enjoy and do regularly.

It's a normal occurrence to hear about older people falling and breaking a bone or a hip, I just hope it's not me when I get older! I'm going to do all I can now, to prepare for my old age. I want to enjoy my life, not just endure it. :)

From shirt to skirt

I've decided I really want to get into repurposing clothes. I did my first project the other day. My friend gave me a some clothes and there was a shirt that was too big for Anna and by the time it would fit her, it probably wouldn't be in style anymore, so I decided to alter it a little.

Here is the before. A cute little shirt.

I cut the top off, right above the dark pink line.

It's actually kind of stretchy around the middle, so it made the perfect waist for a skirt.

I pinned down the extra material that was above the dark pink stretchy part and sewed it down.

And now Anna has a cute little skirt!

The nice part, is that the hem is already made on the bottom, so all I had to do was the waist.

Anna wasn't being the most cooperative model (being three and all), so these are the best shots I got.

It's a little long on her, and the waist is a little loose, so hopefully it will fit her next spring/summer.

I have a lot of clothes that I've gotten at garage sales and some that have been given me that have a stain or whatever, that I want to make into other clothes.

I found a really cute blog that has some cute tutorials with repurposed clothing.

This dress is made from white cotton material, a yellow shirt cut into strips and ribbon!

This dress is made from an old t-shirt.

I'd really like to make stuff like this from the clothing I have. Some day... :)

Sibling Love

I've found that I really enjoy going back and reading old blog posts. It's so easy to forget the little things that Anna did or said, or things that happened. I love how a blog can be a journal as well.

So with that said, I want to share a bit about Anna and Alex.

It's funny how their relationship has transformed. When he was first born, it was a little hard on Anna. I think she felt a little ignored. As he got older, she would get mad if he looked at her toy. Then it changed to him touching a toy and she would get mad. He used to pull her hair and she would get really mad. Then for a while, she wanted him to pull her hair and thought it was funny. Now, that he's more solid and mobile, he's become her little doll, almost. She kind of push him down, to make him lay down. Or try and roll him over. I've caught her holding his hand or wrist, trying to make him push a button on a toy.

Lately, he's become more of a playmate for her, which is really cute to watch. She'll put her blanket over him and try and play with him. She'll want me to put him in the hall and make him crawl with her. This can be problematic, when he doesn't feel like crawling. Anna gets really mad. She'll try and do other things with him. We'll get out the toy tunnel we have and they'll crawl in it together.

Of course, she'll still grab toys out of his hands, try and push him out of the way, get mad when he has one of her toys, not want him to come in her room because he chews on her books, etc. But overall, their relationship has really grown.

The last few weeks have been kind of odd. Anna has changed into this little please/thank you princess. It's really kind of weird, but I love it. She's started to saying thank you for EVERYTHING. She'll tell me, "thank you for saying yes, that I could eat this bread." or "Thank you for getting me some milk." It's really cute, but I have no idea where she got it from. Maybe nursery? Or maybe she's just realizing that when she's nice and polite, she'll get her way more??? She's starting to say thank you for all the little things I do for her.

She's also starting to ask me if it's okay to do certain things. The weirdest one was, when I got her a glass of milk with a straw. After a minute, she asked me, "can I just drink it out of the cup?" Like she really needs my permission to do that! It was really funny.

I've been letting Anna watch a TV show when Alex naps. I try not to have the TV on when he's awake. As soon as I come out from putting Alex down, she wants to watch Pingu. It's this penguin claymation show, that's actually pretty cute. They don't use words, just kind of gibberish, but you're still able to understand what's going on. She's started to sing along with the songs and the little sounds the penguin makes. She has also started learning how to use the Wii-mote and turn the show on herslef. I still help her and every time she says, "thank you for helping me." She'll even hum along with the sounds the Wii makes as it's loading Netflix.

Alex is developing so much lately. He understands so much. The other night, I undressed him, and he started crawling away from me, which he usually does. I told him, come here so I can change your diaper. He looks at me for a second, then crawls out the door into the hallway. I started crawling after him and started laughing, which must have been loud, because he made a loud squeal and starts taking off really fast down the hallway! It was like he knew it was a game and I was chasing him. It was so cute. This repeated about two more times that night.

Today in church, he learned how to wave! It was amazing. A little girl, two rows back started waving to him, and he started moving his hand in a waving motion back at her. He did this a few more times at church with different people. Then did it with my mom and dan's parents on Skype. He's so smart! Did I mention that he just turned 9 months? :)

We've started him on finger foods and he loves it. He could probably eat all day. He gets so anxious and antsy when he knows he's about to get food or if I'm holding food while holding him. He'll try and get it from me.

He's such a squirmy little guy. When it comes to changing his diaper, it's gotten so bad, that I usually have to put his diaper on him when he's on all fours, or standing up. I can't get him to stay on his back. I've had to wipe his little poopy bum while he's on all fours.

Here he is, after he had escaped from me, during a diaper and clothing change.

Love that little bum!

Anna decided one day to get ALL her books out of her bookshelf.

Alex trying to play the piano.

Anna and Alex now bath together and he LOVES it. He can't get enough of the water.

What's not to love about this little cutie?

A new dress for Anna

Well, I decided to make Anna a dress. I've never made any kind of clothing before, other than scrunchies and I don't think that counts. So I was a little nervous, but then again, it's for a little girl, not me, so if it didn't turn out perfectly, it would still be okay.

I found a really cute little dress tutorial online at www.made-by-rae.com. The original is for an infant, but a reader did one for a 3T size. It was just a pattern you print out, then tape together and trace onto the material. This pattern has the top lined, which I really like, because it makes it seem more put together.

The pattern pieces cut out.

Ta-da!

Anna's new dress!

The top has long flaps that you tie together in knots, to hold it in place.

Here is the bottom of the dress. I had to sew the seam as close as I could to the edge. It wasn't too hard, because it lined up with the needle foot, so I could tell where I needed to be at all times.

This was the most frustrating part of the dress. The brown piece in between the top and bottom. The pattern calls for piping. Well, I didn't have any and thought I could get away with kind of making my own, but I couldn't. Plus, the instructions were not very clear with this step. I ended up calling my mom and skyping with her to try and figure it out. I ended up just sewing this brown piece of bias tape on the top and then sewing the skirt on after.

My mom told me to sew as close to the edge as possible. I thought I was close enough, but obviously wasn't. I sewed this before I did the hem on the bottom and should have done it like that. Oh well.

Sadly this is the best picture I could get of her in it.

The other ones were much worse.

It's actually a little big on her. It looks like it fits in the picture, but the top is just too big. I took it in a little, from the original pattern. But she would barely let me try it on her, without causing a big fuss, so I had to kind of guess. Soooo, hopefully it will fit her next summer. You can tell the ties are too loopy and big on her shoulders.

But overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out, especially for my first project. It wasn't really difficult, just took some time, especially since I could really only work on it in the evening, after the kids went to bed. I have a question for you all though, does it scream homemade??? You know how some clothes, you can tell a mile away, it was homemade? I've been staring at it too long to be able to really tell. Go ahead, be honest, be brutally honest! Okay, well maybe not brutally, but I am interested in what you think. I won't be offended if you think it does, or a little or a lot. :)

I am looking forward to trying some other sewing projects. I found an easy tutorial for some skirts, that I want to try.