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?