Quilt

Another reason I felt accomplished on Saturday was because I had finished R's quilt. Didn't know I was working on a quilt? I had clung to the idea for awhile, and then around September or so I started cutting up R's receiving blankets. She loves those blankets, but they were getting too small to cover her anymore, and with winter coming, I wanted her to have one nice, thick blanket that would be just the perfect size. (Last year we threw one of Senpai's wool sweaters on her as a blanket at night... she's outgrown that, too. There's a pic here.)


I was so scared to cut the blankets! Aside from a poorly constructed pillow I had made back in my youth, I had never quilted before. Knowing my poor cutting and sewing capabilities, I did not have high hopes for this project, but I really didn't want it to be a flop. Yeah, terrified of cutting the blankets. But nothing would change unless I collected my courage and took the first step. Snip, snip.


There was no pattern to how I arranged the pieces, but I did come up with a few rules as I went along. I'm happy with how it turned out.


This part had me floored, literally and figuratively. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to make the edging. My breakthrough idea was to iron the pieces into the shape I needed (halved, with edges folded in). Once they held their shape on their own, it was easy to assemble and pin all of the pieces. It also helped TREMENDOUSLY that Senpai took R with him out of the house and I could work on the quilt in the daylight, Saturday morning. I had tried to work on it at night during the week, but by that time I was too exhausted to crawl around on the floor and solve hard problems.


After the edging went on, I ran some seams through all of the layers to hold it all together.


All done! I wish I had a nicer picture, but I don't want to delay publishing this post any further.


Once again, I wish I had a nicer pic-- maybe one where R is smiling instead of hoarding apple chunks in her cheeks-- but I won't wait on it.

Chicken soup, finished quilt... yup, Saturday was quite the day! What'd I do today, Sunday, you ask? I watched R so Senpai could take care of his projects around the house. It's give and take. :-)

Homemade Chicken Soup

I felt so accomplished yesterday! I was giddy as all heck by nightfall and Senpai wondered what had gotten into me. I'll tell you what it was.... SOUP!

Yes, I made homemade chicken soup last night. I used to make it all the time years ago (before I met Senpai, even) when I was a poor college student. I just hadn't had the urge since then. But last week when I was sick, it hit me hard. MUST. MAKE. SOUP. I kept buying the vegetables for the stock... then composting them cause they went bad... then buying more... and last night it finally all came together. We had a late, but much needed, trip to the grocery store, and we picked up a rotisserie chicken for a quick dinner. After dinner I set to work.


First I melted two tablespoons of butter in a large stock pot, and then sautéed a finely chopped onion until translucent. While the onion was cooking, I roughly chopped up two celery stalks (heads included) and two carrots, and threw them in the pot as well. I added ten cups of water, two bay leaves, and about two tablespoons of black peppercorns. While I was waiting for the water to boil, I picked all of the meat off of the chicken, set it aside, then threw the carcass (is there a nicer way of saying that? Body? Bones?) into the pot. I let it all simmer for forty minutes.


I threw away the carcass, then strained the rest of the broth into another large pot that was covered in cheesecloth. I composted the strained veggies (or, at least, I will. Right now they're still sitting in that pot in that sink).


Finished soup! I added a good sprinkling of dehydrated parsley flakes, two more chopped fresh carrots and celery stalks (no celery tops this time), cute little stelline noodles, about a cup of frozen peas, and the nicely chopped chicken meat that I had removed from the body earlier, and simmered it all until the noodles were done. I had gone back and forth about whether or not to strain the broth, but I'm really glad I did. The new carrot and celery pieces really rounded out the flavor, and it's nice to not have the onion bits floating around. This is hands down the best batch of chicken soup I have ever made.



I'm souper (:-p) glad to have lots of leftovers (first-overs, technically, since we had already eaten dinner when I made it last night). There are two large containers in the fridge, and then 4 cups stored in the freezer. I am SO looking forward to lunch today!

That rotisserie chicken is such a deal! We spent $5.49 on it, and we're getting three separate meals out of it, two of which will have leftovers! When we ate it with stuffing and cranberry sauce last night, we did not hold back at all. Two hungry adults and one toddler ate their fill of chicken. From what was leftover, half of the meat was plenty to add to the soup, and then there's still meat left to make chicken pot pie! We'll have that for dinner tomorrow night. I'm so excited. :-)

A Very Pooh Halloween

Wow, it's November already: we set our clocks back, Guy Fawkes continues to live in infamy with the numerous Facebook posts of the Gunpowder Treason poem, and Veteran's Day is at the end of this week. So, maybe I'd better post about Halloween already. ^_^

But first, this is just too cute not to share:


With the front rail removed from her crib, R now has the freedom to get in and out of bed as she chooses. This day, she wandered all around her room when she was supposed to be down for her nap, and then sleep unexpectedly caught up with her. When I went upstairs and found her like that, I stood next to her for a good five minutes wondering if I should leave her be or pick her up and drop her bed, possibly waking her. The carpet is well padded underneath. Senpai and I have each slept on that carpet before, so we know it's comfortable enough, but it was the baby doll pillow that sold me on leaving her there. I covered her up with a blanket, but then she started to stir so I went ahead and put her in bed where she finished her nap.

By now-- especially after seeing the above picture with the little lady still holding onto her Pooh doll even in slumber-- you should know that R LOVES Pooh. So there really was no question of who we would dress her up as for Halloween this year. Behold, the Pooh Cupcake.


I happily bought this costume from Babies 'R Us. No stressing out over sewing a costume this year!

Last year, she wasn't crawling yet. I thought it'd be great to have her dressed as a mermaid, but I didn't like any of the store-bought infant costumes and thus set off to sew one myself. Here's a reminder pic:


Awww... Okay, back to this year. She celebrated Halloween at several different events. The pic above was trick or treating on our little town's main street. It happened on the Friday before Halloween, so the place was packed with little kids, all getting a jump on the early candy handouts.



Saturday morning there was a special Halloween Storytime at Barnes & Noble where they decorated bags and then went trick or treating through the store. R lost interest after the bags were made, though, so there wasn't much candy from this venture.


Saturday night there was a "Trunk or Treat" event at a local church where you trick or treat in the parking lot where everyone has their car trunks decorated. It was fun, and fruitful (or, should I say, candy-full?).


We went to the Zoo on Sunday. At night, the zoo had fun Halloween lights and activities. During the day, when we went, it was just normal zoo operations, but they still had this Frankenstein guy up, perfect for catching a Franken-Pooh. We didn't mean to have R in her costume at the zoo, but it was so incredibly cold and windy that day (not at all what the weather forecast had said), that Senpai ran back for the costume we had left in the car for R to have some extra warmth.



Monday was another regularly scheduled Storytime. Since she had already worn her "official" costume on Saturday, I dressed her in a Pooh outfit that we had bought at the Disney Store during our Florida vacation.


Halloween night. Senpai borrowed some decorations from our neighbors (who always go overboard in their decorating. This year they even borrowed the front yard of the house next to them on the other side.) and made a haunted entrance to our house.


Here's what it looked like in the light. We didn't take R trick or treating through our neighborhood on Halloween night, but she enjoyed handing out candy with Mom and Dad. The play table is there to keep her occupied.


Here's R the Pooh, standing guard over our wilted pumpkins.


The pumpkins looked nicer when we first carved them. See?


Well, that was our 2011 Halloween! We had a blast, and I hope you did, too.