Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Jonah Tote Bag (belated birthday gift)


In December, Jonah turned 4 years old.  We celebrated his birthday as a family, but because of moving and Christmas and New Year...we didn't end up having his actual birthday party until last week.  And yet, still somehow, I didn't manage to finish his gift in time!!  My goodness.  Finally yesterday I sat down at my sewing machine, and about an hour later, DONE.  I already had the little slate (found it while we were moving -- gotta love "brand new/found" items!), and the fabric was from my stash, so the gift ended up costing me a total of about $0.58 cents -- the cost of the box of chalk.  LOVE it when things work out like that!!

Tote bag birthday gift for Jonah

I just used a Sharpie to write his name on the bag instead of taking the time to embroider it -- I really didn't need yet another reason to procrastinate!

Tote bag birthday gift for Jonah

Inside there's room for the slate and a little pocket for the chalk.  On the outside, the "Jonah" pocket is just the right size for a small stuffed animal.

Tote bag birthday gift for Jonah

Tote bag birthday gift for Jonah

Tote bag birthday gift for Jonah

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Chocolate-Rosemary-Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

This morning, Jonah and I decided to make up a batch of whipped body butter -- we were nearly out of the first batch we made a few months ago, and I wanted to give some little jars to all of my children's teachers as well (since we were moving to our new house right during Christmas, these will be...Happy Almost Spring! gifts.)

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Have you ever wanted to try making some?  This is only the second time we've made it, so I'm certainly not an expert, but here's what we did.

Cast of characters:
Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Sweet Almond Oil, Cocoa ButterCoconut Oil (extra-virgin),  Shea Butter (I use raw and unrefined, which has a strong olive oil-sort-of-smell, but you can get the milder refined version if you prefer), lemongrass essential oil (optional), fresh rosemary (optional).

It is easiest if you use a scale to measure out the solid fats before melting them down, but you can also just use a measuring cup after melting -- up to you.  The ratio is: 1 part each cocoa butter, shea butter, coconut oil, sweet almond oil.  (I weighed out 3.5 oz of each, because the NOW brand cocoa butter comes in a 7 oz container, and I liked the idea of using exactly half for one batch, because....I don't know, I'm weirdly neat like that.)

If you use 2 parts shea and cut out the cocoa, your body butter will be softer when it sets up, but I love the rich, natural chocolate scent so much, which is why I choose to include it.

Melt the cocoa butter in the microwave in 1 minute intervals, or gently in the top of a double boiler.  Next, melt the shea butter in the microwave in 30 second intervals (it's much softer and takes less time).  If you're using the double boiler, just add it to the nearly melted cocoa butter.  Next, add Sweet Almond Oil and fresh rosemary (if using), and allow it to steep for at least 15 minutes.  Since I was using other scented ingredients, I'm not sure this was really strong enough to make a difference, so I might not do this step again.  Strain out solids.

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Add the infused oils back to the mixing bowl, then add the coconut oil as a solid, and use an immersion blender to thoroughly combine it.

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

(Technically, the warmth of the other oils should melt the coconut, but in my last batch it left little coconut oil "nubs" throughout, and since this was a gift, I wanted it to be ultra-smooth.  Alternately, just melt the coconut and pour it in -- it'll just take longer for the whole thing to cool down enough to whip later.)  Add lemongrass essential oil (if using).  I used 7-10 drops, but add it slowly until you have the strength you want.

Leave the oil mixture out to cool on the counter for 30 minutes to 1 hour -- do not refrigerate to speed this up, or it could harden around the edges and make the final product lumpy...then you'd have to melt it all down and start the cooling again.  No fun.

Once it is opaque and slightly viscous, begin whipping (I love my KitchenAid mixer.  After about 10 minutes, it should look exactly like a whipped frosting, and smell just as delicious.

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Probably don't decide to taste it though.  It looks good and feels good, but taste...not so much.

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Now scoop it into jars, and you're DONE!

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial


Chocolate Rosemary Lemongrass Whipped Body Butter tutorial

Use sparingly -- this stuff is intense moisture!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Because it's just never too early to start embarrassing your children


With Jonah and his little friend M while dropping them off at school yesterday (notice M's face throughout -- "She's pretty weird, but we all know that, and... she's not my mom!"):

Hey, are you guys cold?
School fellows

Do you want to give each other a hug?
School fellows

...Am I making you feel awkward?
School fellows

Hahahahahaha and I'm not sorry.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

School Christmas Parties

(Class party catch up, because I know all of the grandparents want/need to see this sort of thing...)  :-)

The day after we got all of our boxes moved into the new house, all four of our children had their class Christmas parties.  Greg and I started at Jonah's school, which included an adorable musical presentation, then took Jonah with us to the other three parties.





I was really surprised that Jonah actually participated and didn't get all shy and weird on stage.  This is probably due to the fact that he couldn't see me, so I was seeing him in his own element, interacting with his teachers, rather than the crazy faux shyness he puts on when he's out in public with me.  How lovely.

Billy's class Christmas party 2013
With his little girlfriend M.  M says that she and Jonah are an item.  Jonah still hasn't weighed in on this topic.  I'll get back to you on that.  In 10 to 15 years.  Or longer.  Let's just give it an even 20.

Billy's class Christmas party 2013
Book exchange circle...this just confused the bajeezus out of all of the little people as they passed gift-wrapped books around and around, wondering....but can I keep one??!

Billy's class Christmas party 2013

Billy's class Christmas party 2013

Billy's class Christmas party 2013

Can I just say how much I LOVED being able to photograph Greg interacting with our children?  It felt rare and beautiful.  With such a long absence comes perspective, to be sure.

Billy's class Christmas party 2013
And now, for the first sugar rush of the day....

Billy's class Christmas party 2013

Billy's class Christmas party 2013

Andrew's class party:
Sparky's class Christmas party 2013

Sparky's class Christmas party 2013
(Jonah's expression makes me laugh)

Sparky's class Christmas party 2013

Sparky's class Christmas party 2013

Sparky's class Christmas party 2013

Sparky's class Christmas party 2013

Elijah's party:
Max's class Christmas party 2013

Max's class Christmas party 2013
Jonah was feeling smug, because he'd just gotten Elijah's "Christmas gift" from a class friend without Elijah realizing it.

Lavella's class:
Daisy's class Christmas party 2013

Daisy's class Christmas party 2013

Daisy's class Christmas party 2013

L1280647
I feel quite certain that Jonah might actually be a monkey.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

....and we're back!!

Well.  When I've been out of the blogging habit this long, it's kind of hard to know where to begin.  I'm not going to give you a full recap, because that would just be POKEMYEYESOUTBORING and I do my best not to bore my friends.  Although actually, some of my friends probably wish I'd be a little more boring.  Oh well, no matter, MOVING ON!

Here's the highlights:

The first two weeks of December, I worked harder than I may have ever worked in my life, packing up our family to move, scrubbing down the old house, preparing our new house (spackle, paint, pulling down wallpaper, etc.), and trying to keep the children and myself alive and well through it all.  Thankfully I have friends who love me, who stopped in here and there during that OH SO HECTIC holiday month to help out an hour or two here or there, wherever they could.

Learning to skip-trowel my bathroom
Learning to skip-trowel the bathroom walls

Preparing to paint my bathroom a clean, warm white
Getting ready to paint with the PERFECT WARM WHITE (thanks Becca...)  ;-)

Cutting out the old caulking in the upstairs shower
Cutting old caulking out of the shower

Jonah, working on cleaning the sanding dust from our new kitchen table
Wiping the sanding dust off the new kitchen table (built by our friend Josh, finished by Jonah, Elijah and me)

Sanding off the stain on the edges: giving a worn look to my brand new kitchen table
Giving a worn look to the new table by sanding stain off the edges

Learning to use a sander

Jonah, helping me put a poly-coat on the new kitchen table
There's nothing like applying a poly-coat with a Crayola watercolor brush...

Kitchen table -- handmade by a friend, finished by me
Table in progress (I promise a finished pic soon -- we've been using it in our new kitchen since we moved in!)


Some brain-candy for the new house

Housewarming gift
A rather fabulous housewarming gift (thank you Becca!)



Greg graduated from the nearly year-long course he'd been taking and drove home to live with us again (yay!!) on December 14th.  We sent our children to spend the weekend with friends, then spent those two days cleaning and packing all of the last minute things.  On Monday and Tuesday (17th and 18th), a bunch of our friends came and helped us load all of our boxes into a U-Haul truck, get it officially weighed at a truck-stop (so the Army would pay us per pound for household goods), and move everything into our new place.

Once we'd gotten everything in, Greg and I began the huge task of unpacking and setting up our new home...this time, in a place we plan to live in for the rest of our lives.  (For those of you who are wondering -- yes, Greg will still be stationed other places at different points in the remaining 8-10 years of his career, but we felt this was the best choice for our children and me to stay here, and for him to live with us as often as he possibly can.)

We took Christmas Day off as a time to just enjoy our children and each other, but then got back to work the next day, and managed to get the house almost entirely set up by our goal date: New Year's Eve.

Christmas 2013
Opening gifts from family on the East Coast using Skype

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

We had a great big "first party" on New Year's Eve with friends and neighbors to christen the new house, and it was an incredible feeling -- for the first time ever, we were really, truly HOME.

Angela, me, Greg, Josh: New Year's Eve
Greg and I with Angela and Josh

Tom on New Year's Eve in his Weird Science costume showing off his giant High Life
It was a costume party, so Tom and Susanne dressed up as the kids from Weird Science.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of them with their bra-head get-ups together, but it's hard to shoot anything while hosting a party of this size!

Jenny and I on New Year's Eve
I LOVE JENNY!!

Greg took leave from the day of his graduation until the end of last week, so we made sure to get in some daytime dates.

Early morning run with my favorite guy
Early morning run with my favorite guy

Lunch date with my guy
Lunch Date

Antique store shopping date
Antique store browsing - one of our favorite relaxing, low-key dates

Antique store shopping date
...might this be the beginning of a teacup collection for my studio....?

On Friday morning, he began the process of signing back in at Ft Hood, and yesterday was his first full day back to work.

Today, I'm sitting here at my computer typing this, thinking how crazy it is that...just like that...after all of the effort, sweat, tears, projects, emotions, struggles...here we are, living our normal life again.  Family.  Together.  Jonah's taking a nap.  The three older children are just about to walk in the door from school.  I will start dinner.  In 3 hours my children will jump on Greg as he walks in the door with his Army uniform on, ready to eat dinner with us.  Just like that.  It's good to be together.

Well.  I hope I didn't bore you to the point of tears, and everyone still has their eyes.  I've got some ideas for blogging in the coming year, and mostly...I'm just glad to be HOME HOME HOME!!!