Mommy Makeover

I'm normally a plain and comfy type girl.  Jeans and a ponytail suit me well most days.  After having a baby though, it is easy to feel frumpy and in need of a pick-me-up.  Here are a few of the things that I've done lately:

- Painted my toenails with Piggy Paint (review and discount code here), a non-toxic nail polish. I haven't had toe nail polish on for a couple of years now because of it not being safe. I'm loving my pink toes and feeling cute in my flip flops.

- Bought some new Mommy Necklaces. These are perfect with a t-shirt and jeans, but make me feel oh-so-pretty. Besides that they are very functional and keep me from getting pinched and scratched.  Wearing one makes any outfit feel much more put together and takes it up a notch.  (click here for a discount code)

- Got another Bravado Body Silk nursing bra (see my review here). At first I thought these were too expensive, but after wearing mine constantly, I've decided its totally worth the money.  The extra support helps me have a nice figure and not feel flat and frumpy.  Some new cotton underwear from Target, and I'm all set.  I also purchased another Blush Undershirt to wear under my clothes to turn them into nursing tops.  I paid the extra for the pretty one with lace.  ;)

- I have a couple of lightweight cotton skirts that I have been wearing instead of shorts.  A tank top, flip flops, and a skirt still feels casual to me, but adds a little flair.  That along with a Mommy Necklace makes a great outfit for church or even just a playdate.

- Cute pajamas.  When thinking of updating my wardrobe I don't generally shop for pajamas first.  I did find a cute set at Target recently though.  Now even if I hang out in my pajamas all day once in a while I still feel cute.

There you have it,  Without buying a whole new wardrobe I feel pretty and made-over.  I'm still often in a t-shirt and shorts, but a bit cuter.  Do you have a favorite way to feel pretty?  A special top, necklace, pair of shoes?  Feel free to comment and share your thoughts.

Bravado Designs Discount Code

Here is a code for 20% off at Bravado Designs, good through Monday!  I love my Bodysilk Seamless Nursing bra, and will be reviewing a nursing tank soon too.  Happy Shopping.  :)

Muffin Tin Breakfast

bagel with cream cheese, bananas, water, raspberries, blueberries, and vanilla yogurt

We had a Muffin Tin Monday breakfast today.  All three girls are sick with stuffy noses, coughs, and sore throats.  I thought making breakfast fun would encourage them to eat and would be a good way to include healthy foods.  I was right; they were way impressed.  "We've never had a muffin tin breakfast before!", "Is it lunchtime Mommy?", and "Do we have to nap after this?".

Remember the dinosaur sandwich lunch?  They are obsessed with it and ask for it every day.  I have to include rocks and dinosaur food every time too, although it can vary what that actually is.  As I was making this lunch, Julia said she wanted an elephant sandwich and Lucy suggested we find an elephant cutter so we can have elephant sandwiches.  I was relieved to find tiny elephant picks in our swap package and they were thrilled.  I do believe Mr Elephant is purely responsible to Lucy eating her bananas, so I thank him for that.  The meal went over well and they polished off every bit of it (after I bribed them with watching a Dora dvd).

Thanks for stopping by!  Check out the aden + anais burpy bib giveaway while you're here, it closes tomorrow.

Homemade Tortillas

I've been experimenting with my grain mill lately and made some yummy tortillas.  In the past, we tried whole wheat tortillas from the store and didn't like them.  With my grain mill, I'm able to grind Kamut, spelt, hard white wheat, and more for different flavors and nutrition.  I love Kamut for tortillas!  It has a light flavor, almost like a cross between a corn tortilla and a white flour tortilla.  Julia has so far refused to eat tortillas, but gave these a try and liked them.  Here is the recipe:

2 cups flour - I prefer Kamut flour, but 1 cup Kamut and 1 cup hard white wheat works also.

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup vegetable oil 

1/2 cup lukewarm water

Mix flour, salt, and baking powder.  Add oil and mix until it forms pea sized balls.  Add lukewarm water, until dough is soft and pliable.  On a floured surface, knead dough until smooth, 1-2 minutes. 

Place in bowl, cover and let rest 30 minutes.  The dough does not rise, but this gives time for the flour to soak up the water so the dough is not too crumbly.

Knead dough again just for a minute and form 8-10 balls.  (Yes, this is only five, the other three are already rolled out.)  ;)

Roll out as thin and round as possible.  Made with all Kamut flour, they are actually very easy to roll out.

Preheat a cast iron frying pan (ungreased) and cook one at a time.   Flip it over once bubbles start to form.  This only takes about a minute - in the photo above, the tortilla is ready to be flipped.  The second side usually cooks even faster, so keep an eye on it.

Stack the finished tortillas on a plate and cover them with another plate to keep them soft.  Cook some chicken, green pepper, and onion with seasonings and you have a tasty meal!  

Find more healthy recipes here: Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Parade

Packing

I've been busy packing for a few days vacation with family.  Aside from clothes and toiletries, here is my list of important things to bring:

Badger Sunscreen - our sunscreen of choice

Badger Anti-Bug Balm - to keep the mosquitos away

Seventh Generation disposable diapers and wipes - I've never tried this brand before, but we'll be away too long to take cloth.  I'll let you know how it goes.

UV Skinz swim shirt - Review coming soon.

Bummi's swim diaper - This works well for Esther, we picked it up at Ecobuns before a vacation this spring.

fish - Seriously.  We take our fish along with us.  Fifi is the coolest goldfish ever, maybe I'll give him his own post someday.

books I'm reading - The Discipline Book by Dr Sears, Making More Milk, Whole Foods for the Whole Family, and Whole Foods for Babies and Toddlers

laptop and camera - of course!

What are your vacation must-haves?

Muffin Tin Monday - on vacation

I brought cupcake liners and colored picks along on vacation just for Muffin Tin Monday!  We've had some upset little tummies, so we had to stick with chicken soup, banana blueberry picks, and Cheerios.  I am excited to try out my new supplies, but that will have to wait until next week when we're home.  I just bought these coolest ever picks, and organized everything into plastic tubs before we left:

The boxes are labeled: Egg Molds and Picks, Mini Cutters and Sandwich Punches, Cookie Cutters, Silicone Cups and Trays, and more Silicone Cups.  I cleared out the cupboard above the refrigerator, banishing the crystal bowls to the basement.  I do have to stand on a little chair to reach these, but I love having everything organized and ready to create with!  Do you have a good storage system for your MTM supplies?  Do share!

Easy Child's Dress Tutorial

I made this adorable dress for Lucy the other day during nap time.  She loves it and asks to wear it all the time.  We found some fabric at Joann's that was already smocked at the top and just did one seam up the back to make the dress.  Julia wanted one too, so I made a tutorial while I did hers.  

We found her fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby for just $4.  Field's Fabric also had some in various lengths.  I used one yard for each dress - just wrap it around your little one to see how much you need.  If you plan to use fabric for the straps, you'll need 8 inches extra.  A thick ribbon can also be used for straps.

Just to clarify, for this tutorial, the words refer to the picture above.

You'll need your little model nearby while you sew.  Wrap the fabric around her and loosely measure where your seam needs to be.  I made Lucy's dress a little bit big so that she'll have room to grow.  Fold the fabric over on top of itself with the right sides together.  Sew one seam down the full length of the dress. When you get past the smocked part, your seam will jog over to the right just a bit because of the extra gathered fabric.  Hold the bottom edges evenly together to help you sew an straight seam.

Cut just to the side of your seam.  (You can also cut the fabric first and then sew, I just found it to be easier this way.)  

Go back over your seam with a zigzag stitch on the edge to prevent fraying.  

Now you'll make the straps:

Take your extra fabric piece and cut the smocking off.  Iron this flat, and then cut two 4 inch strips.  This will make 1 inch wide straps.

Fold one strip in half and iron it flat.

Open it back up.  Take the bottom edge and fold it up to the middle.  Iron.

Take the top edge and fold it in toward the middle as well.  Iron.  Fold the strap in half again, the raw edges will be tucked inside.

Sew down one edge, across the end, and back up the other side.  When you get to the end, fold it up and catch it in your seam.  The other end of the strap still has a raw edge.  Repeat the above steps so that you have two straps.  

Try the dress on your little one again and pin the straps where you like them.  Be sure you have the seam of the dress in the back.  I placed the straps so that they angle out just a bit.

You'll have to convince your model to hold still while you adjust the straps.  Good luck with that.  ;)

Sew each strap on.

I left the straps long so that I can adjust the dress next year.  Tuck the extra under and sew another quick seam just through the strap to hold it together.  

I used the full length of the fabric, so there was no need to hem.

There you have it!  Let me know if you have any questions.  I'd love to see pictures if you make one.

linked to Made By You Mondays

Ecobuns Grand Opening

Ecobuns has a store front!  Saturday July 24th from 9am to 3pm they are having a grand opening event.  Things will kick off with a cloth diapering/ babywearing/ pregnant mama parade at 9am.  Each family that joins in the parade will receive a $5 gift card, along with free balloons for the kids.  Kellie is planning all sorts of fun including raffles, drawings, and refreshments.  Be sure and stop by.

(The store looks great, I was just there today!  Way to go, Kellie!)

Muffin Tin Monday - Swap

Lucy and Julia enjoyed a Muffin Tin Monday snack today.  They were looking forward to using our new MTM supplies from the recent swap, but we ended up eating lunch at a friend's house instead.  I'll have to make them a full out muffin tin lunch later this week.  For snack we had blueberries and string cheese pieces.  They polished this off in no time and then had fun putting more blueberries on their pinwheels to eat.  

Speaking of the swap - my partner Lisa at 1 Wasabi Mommy is awesome and sent my package already!  We got such a fun little assortment of supplies.  I've been wanting to try the egg molds, so I'm super excited about those especially.  Lucy helped me open the box and when I told her they were Muffin Tin Monday supplies she instantly asked me what day it was.  And kept asking me every day if it was Monday yet.  Training my kids to look forward to Mondays can't be a bad thing, right?  ;)

Egg molds, flamingo picks, pinwheel picks, animal cookie cutters, and more cute plastic picks!  I'm looking forward to making some fun lunches with these.  Thanks Lisa.  Hope your package arrives soon too.  

aden + anais burpy bibs

In my last post I discussed Esther starting solid foods and our picks for a safe high chair, sippy cup, and more.  I mentioned that plastic bibs can have lead in them.  Vinyl is one of the worst plastics because it often contains lead and phthalates - not something I want near my child's mouth.  We got rid of all of our bibs last year and only use cloth ones that I make.  We also recently got to try out aden + anais burpy bibs.  These are super cool because they serve double purpose as a burp cloth and as a bib.

The shape allows the cloth to drape perfectly over my shoulder.  I like that the cloths are soft and lightweight.  They are made with several layers of aden + anais soft cotton muslin fabric, so they are very absorbent.  There is a little snap attached on the back so you can easily fasten it around baby's neck to function as a bib.

After using bibs with snaps, I've sworn off velcro forever!  Velcro gets fuzz in it, and sticks to everything in the wash, not so with these.  You can see that Esther likes her new bibs.  They cover her up nicely and when she reaches her arms up, the bottom of the bib kind of rolls up and makes a little pocket to catch spills.  Did I mention that these come in super cute prints?  ...and that I love aden + anais products?  :)

Would you like to win a set?  aden + anais is giving one away!  These can be shipped anywhere in the US and the winner will be able to specify boy, girl, or neutral.  To enter, leave a comment letting me know what your baby's favorite food is.  For an extra entry become a fan of both One Little Word She Knew and aden + anais on Facebook and leave a comment letting me know you did so.  The giveaway closes on July 27th at midnight.

*Giveaway closed.  Congrats WWillow6!*

Starting Solid Foods

Esther is the happiest kid ever.  She is always smiling and loves to interact with people.  She can already wiggle herself around on the floor a bit and get into things.  Lucy likes to make her laugh and can really keep her going.  I can't believe our sweet baby is six months old already!  She's been trying to swipe our food and moving her mouth while watching our every bite, so we decided to let her try some things recently.

So far she's had mashed up banana (she's not quite sure what to do with it but she gets a big smile when we give it to her), frozen mango, and frozen peach in a mesh feeder (she loves that and really works hard on it).  We're taking a relaxed approach to feeding her, letting her try small bits of fruits and veggies rather than spooning lots of food into her mouth.  She still nurses frequently and up until about a year I'm not concerned about her needing anything other than mommy milk.  Here are some of the things we're using now:

high chair - Lucy and Julia both still use a Fisher Price Healthy Care Booster Seat, which we love but we didn't have another chair available to strap one on to.  In looking for a high chair, many have vinyl padded seats that we wanted to stay away from.  Vinyl is one of the worst plastics because of the phthalates that are added to keep it soft.  It can also contain lead.  The high chair we got from Ikea is made of polypropylene, one of the safest plastics.  Its still a bit big for her, so we tuck a towel in with her.  It is priced very inexpensively, and a tray is available for it as well.

bibs - Bibs are another place that lead can hide.  Wal-Mart even issued a recall for some bibs with high lead levels.  We got rid of all plastic bibs and have a stash of homemade ones that work great.  My bibs even have snaps on them so we don't have any more velcro chains in the wash.  If you're not interested in sewing, aden + anais has some great bibs that I'll post a review and giveaway for soon.

utensils - We have inexpensive Gerber bowls and spoons.  I double checked the Z Recs Guide to be sure they were all safe.  I do not put hot foods in the plastic though, and we hand wash them rather than using the dishwasher.  Esther also likes the mesh feeder we have.

cup - Gerber sippy cups work well for us.  I just got a new soft spout cup as the old version of this did have BPA in it so we tossed it.  Esther was so excited to have her own sippy cup and put it right to her mouth.  She doesn't actually drink out of it yet, but she is pretty proud of herself.

Happy 1/2 birthday Baby Esther!