Forget Not

On Saturday I went to the LDS women's (Relief Society) meeting worldwide broadcast. Not only was it awesome to get to go with my awesome mother in law and sister in law, it was so great to hear such inspiring words.

Now I know there was amazing messages given by the presidency, but I was not even a fraction as touched as I was by the talk given by President Uchdorf's talk. His talk was centered around the beautiful Forget Me Not flower. I would love to summarize his entire talk but my darling little Mr. B. wants me off the computer asap. So I borrowed this gem (I found it uncited on facebook so if you know who did it let me know).

My favorite (not the most significant though) was when he gave examples of good and foolish sacrifices.
He talked about a mother who sacrifices sleep to comfort a child who has had a nightmare is an example of a good sacrifice. Whereas someone who spends all night staying up to make handouts for her Sunday school lesson did not choose the more worthwhile sacrifice. I loved this because every time I taught I never ever ever made a handout.

Likewise I loved how he reminded us that we too often as women compare our weaknesses to someone else's strengths. I am so super guilty of this. In my mind every sews better, parents better, cleans better and cooks better than I do.

Pretty much the entire talk was amazing and I plan on listening to it again and again.

Adventures in Clothing Alteration

How to take in "Stretch Fabric" clothing:

I have always been picky about how clothes fit. I get so uncomfortable if something is too tight or too baggy, or if it just does not sit right. Two of my problems are dresses being too large in the bust and tank tops have too long of straps or being too loose at the hip (which makes them look funny under other clothing. Two separate pet peeves include wearing tank tops under dresses and the hem line shows through the dress, and wearing t-shirts that look baggy and have an uncomfortably high neckline.

Today I successfully finished tackling all of these problems. I had tried before but I always seemed to lock up my sewing machine or get ripples and messed up stitches. Little did I know that their was such a thing as a ball point needle made especially to prevent problems like these when sewing stretchy fabrics. Anyhow once my awesome mom informed me of my mistake I set off two alter the top 3 offenders in my wardrobe.

Tricks of the trade:

100% Polyester Guitermann (sp?) Thread

Once you have the thread ready, set your machine to a triple stitch that looks like this (and when sewing make sure to not stretch the fabric or push it through the machine.

An article worth reading:http://everythingyourmamamade.com/2008/07/30/sewing-machine-straight-stretch-stitch/

The end result (prepare to be photo bombed):

I took in the chest portion of this dress. Gappyness be gone.

Tank top straps shorten, I hemmed it shorter, and I angled in the sides from the armpit down to make it more of a sports bra than a tank top.

Last but not least I took in my BYU t-shirt. Voila!

Okay so I kinda suck at rotation.

Kitchen Copycatting

Does this picture bring joy to your heart and cause your mouth to water? Does it leave you wanting to drive to a certain local restaurant, bitter you are too far away, or thinking something along the lines of "what in the heck is she talking about?"

Anyhow what I am talking about is the iconic (Utah wise) Cafe Rio dressing. I could pretty much drink this Creamy Cilantro Lime Ranch Dressing. I use it on quasadillas, tacos, burritos, salads, heck I am pretty sure it would go well on anything. In the past all of this had to be done only when I had leftovers of this stuff available. I had pondered over many an internet recipe, but many of them left me thinking that it was not worth the effort. Until I found this beauty:

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing
Recipe by Ourbestbites.com

1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (regular or buttermilk, and ignore directions on the packet)
1C mayo
1/2 C milk (or buttermilk depending on which packet you buy)
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa*
hot sauce

 Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender.   Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice.  Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa.  Blend 'er up.  Sample it and add hot sauce to taste.  Make it several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

*A note about green salsa:
There are several brands of green salsa available in most supermarkets and they have various degrees of heat.  One of the most commonly seen brands is Hernandez.  Hernandez brand is a lot spicier than any of the others I've tried.  Even their medium green salsa is way too spicy for my liking.  I like to buy La Costena because their  medium is actually really mild.  That way I get all of the flavor of the tomatillos but I control the level of heat with the hot sauce.  If you're not used to buying green salsa, make sure to sample it first before you put it in the dressing so you know what you're getting into!

My ingredients looked like this (okay so the tortillas are for pouring it on :)

When I made this today I used the Herdez Salsa Verde because it was cheapest. I even made the whole batch in my Magic Bullet. I poured it into an old bottle of Ranch and now I have this wonderfulness in my fridge.

You should make some, it is so yummy and so easy. Total ingredient cost was about 3 dollars for everything other than the Mayo I already had, and it is worth it.

Naptime=Craftime

Today's Naptime Activity

I swear the ribbon is not crooked like it is in the picture.

This pocket can hold a diaper, a few wipes and has a inner compartment for a cell phone.

I have almost gotten to a point where I can finish one sling a nap time. This makes me super happy.  As does the pretty colors of the ribbon.

Hmm what should I sew next? Any ideas? What is your favorite craft?

Shameless Bragging

Excited About Wood

We could not be more excited than we are about this. Little kid on Christmas Eve excited does not even begin to describe it.

This is a picture of our future kitchen (Behind me is our pantry)

See . . . I told you we were excited.

UPDATE:

We have a roof (kinda)

Favorite Music

I have definitely worn out my current music collection. Specifically my workout music collection, which had not needed much because at most my workout consisted of walks with Benton. Now I have rejoined the gym, and have committed to being in shape again. Basically it was becoming sad that I could no longer go a mile even at a near power walking speed with out being out of breath. 

Previously I had wanted to go back to the gym
1) I did not away from G during the few hours he is home (not a good excuse, but man I love him and I miss him when he is gone)
2) If I went during the day Mr. B would have nowhere to go.


Well miracle of miracles I decided to be smart and actually have Mr. B try out the gym daycare, and low and behold he loved it. He was trying to dive out of my arms while I was signing in, unlike the other munchkin who was clinging to his mother. As soon as I set him behind the kiddie gate he took off in a sort of "see you later lady," and he was gone.  I fretted about him being with people I did not know but thankfully I calmed down enough to go actually work out.


Awesomely there was an exercise class going on right as I was dropping off Mr. B, and even more awesomely it was actually a class I had been wanting to go to . . . ZUMBA. I had heard all the hype and thought that it could either a) be pretty lame or b) actually be a good and fun workout. Oh man was the later a true statement. I sweated my butt off dancing around to awesome music. And unlike my last aerobics class it involved real dancing (not that I am any good at it). It was so awesome to be in a huge room of women from 18-50 having a blast. Many of these awesome older women were really good dancers. I only hope that with some practice I can increase my stamina enough to actually last more than the pathetic 15 minutes that I did. 

From:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsmn4wVN1CU&feature=player_embedded#!


The music was so much fun that I am still playing the music over and over in my head, it was that good. Music has such an incredible power, a good song can inspire to be happy and want to actually get around and move.


Anyhow this brings me to the question in the title. What is you favorite music to work out to? Oh and do you swear by any particular set of workout clothes or shoes etc?

Things I Heart

My sister in law warned me that I would become addicted to the website known as Pinterest. She was right, oh man was she right. The website is all about ways to share great ideas online. You share these things by "pinning" them, they can be about fashion, parenting, craft, cooking, landscaping, decorating, and everything else in between. If you are like me and heart any of the above listed things than you too may end up joining me in my addiction.


For example in the last day or so I have found the following:


How to make a super cute little kid's tent

From grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com

How to make delicious Cake Batter Flavored Rice Crispy Treats :) 


If you want to make these I recommend buying the half batch sized jiffy brand cake mixes so as not to have a bunch of powdered cake mix left over.

From gimmesomeoven.com

How to use a bleach pen to decorate old fading t-shirts

From showtellshare.blogspot.com

This list could go on for a long long time.

What are the most awesome ideas you have stumbled upon while online? I would love to hear them.

Oatmeal Awesomeness

This is why I do not video blog as you can tell I am terrible at it. But at least my specimen is pretty cute!

And if you promise not to judge us for letting Mr. B sit on G's lap driving around a near empty campsite at a barreling 2 miles an hour, you can watch this one too :)

Heck lets add one from facebook too, this one also makes my day.

The $10 Dress :)

I stumbled upon a fantastic blog called elleapparel.blogspot.com. I am in love with this site. The creator is this super crafty and super gorgeous LDS mom who loves to make cute clothes without patterns. Her specialty is making updated (non 80s style) t shirt dresses. I totally had one of the non updated style kind when I was about 8 years old that looked like this. Oh man do I wish I had a picture of the one my mom made me. It was hot pink on the top. I loved that thing.

Borrowed from http://kirabell.blogspot.com 

I am drooling over pretty much every one this awesome lady (Leanne) has made. I have a shirt that shrunk in the wash and I think it will make a super cute one. I am planning on using the directions she used to make this one because the fabric I found is similar. Hopefully it turns out.

If I can ever find a similar fabric I will be making this one immediately. With a pair of my many red high heels I would be smiling ear to ear wearing this one.

http://elleapparel.blogspot.com/2010/06/nautical.html

If you have any awesome sewing tutorials send them my way (pretty please).

Design Doodles

As you can tell I am a little laundry room obsessed lately. Instead of looking at other peoples design ideas I decided to try my hand at my own. The drawings are to scale (1 foot=one inch), after spending time drawing them I found that Ikea's website has a free design program (oh well I had fun).

Option 1

Option 2

What are your thoughts on stacking washers and dryers? I love the idea of making room for a laundry basket storage system.

Laundry Room Ideas

I cannot begin to describe how stoked I am to have a laundry room. You probably read about how in love I am with owning my own washer and dryer, but in case you didn't just know that I am sorely missing them right now (they are in storage until we move into our house).

In our new house the laundry room is also the walkway from the garage into the rest of the house. This is not ideal so I am looking into ways to make the space both beautiful and functional. I probably (okay definitely) do not have the budget let alone the room for all this:

From showandtell-sausha.blogspot.com

But I am totally digging this pedestal laundry sorting system it is awesome!

And maybe cool storage things as awesome as this:

Maybe I will get lucky some day and have somewhere like this:

 Laundry Suds by Holly Ledingham With Biltmore Inspirations

Do you love looking around the internet for decorating ideas? What are some of your favorite places to look?

Less Dirt, More House

Basements = Happiness

Backyards = Mucho Happiness

Life around here has been pretty quiet, just me and Mr. B trying to be productive and entertain ourselves in a small space. We need to find hobbies that we both enjoy. For example I like sewing, but he hates it, and prefers to scream at my feet until I stop sewing. Oh well. College football season is finally here, we have season tickets. Hopefully Mr. B is a good football fan this year.