Camille's Quilt

So, there are certain things in life that are really hard in some way, but rewarding. After you finish, you decide that you're mostly glad you did it, but you vow to not do it again. It's not that you regret it or think it was a waste of time, but once was enough, like running a marathon or serving a mission in your youth. But, a few years pass, and you forget the hard parts of what you did and remember the good parts. Your vow to not do it again goes down the drain. This is why people have more than one child. This is also why I decided to make a quilt. Again.

I don't know what possessed me, but over the summer I planned on making a quilt for our bed. I ordered some hexagon precuts and gradually worked on cutting a bunch of little pieces to go in between the hexagons. After several months of hiatus I got excited to work on it again on my new sewing machine. I started piecing only to find out that the 200 triangles I had cut were all too small. I wasn't going to cut 200 bigger triangles, so out went the plans for the original quilt, and I designed a new quilt for Camille's big girl bed. I'm glad it's for Camille because the precuts are kind of kiddy colors, so it will look better in her room. I was racing to get it done before Camille moved into her new bed. I am 5 days late, which isn't too bad.

Please validate me on this quilt because it cost me a lot of sweat and tears. It was my first attempt at free motion quilting. Let me give any quilters out there advice: Don't make your first attempt at free motion quilting on a twin sized or bigger quilt, and don't use minky in the quilt. If I were cool, I would hang it on a fence and take pictures using our DSLR camera, but I'm not cool, so you'll have to look at poorly lit pictures taken with our point and shoot camera.

The aqua/cherries and red borders are minky, just for a little girl who has a penchant for soft things.

If you couldn't tell, it's a window pane design. 

The quilting is a large scale stippling design, but don't try and look closely at that.

Once Camille's room is put together, I'll post some pictures of her new room and the quilt on her awesome new bed that Brian built.

Olympic Fare Russian Edition

I wanted to make a tradition out of making food from the country where the Olympics are being held. So, I researched some Russian foods and went at it. Yet again, I didn't do as many foods as I wanted, but here are the ones I made.

To start, Olympic Ring Mini-Pizzas

I really wanted to do the one I pinned that was fruit on bagels, but that would be really expensive. I also wanted to do colored icing on donuts. Maybe in the future.

Blini

In our house we call these crepes, and I make them on nights when Brian is working because he doesn't really love them. We had them with frozen strawberries and Cool Whip. Camille ate the Cool Whip.

Piroshki

Brian was wondering what was up when I served rolls and a vegetable for dinner. Surprise! They were specially filled. I baked these instead of frying them. If I make these again, I will added grated carrot and maybe potato inside.

Russian Beet Salad with Herring

To all you doubters, you were right. This was gross. Brian thought it was gross, but finished his. I thought it was gross and couldn't finish mine. Camille licked the mayonnaise off two pieces of potato and that was all. I used canned salmon instead of herring. I don't think it helped.

I wanted to make borscht, but after the beet salad didn't go over well, I didn't dare. I might still try the apple sharlotka I pinned (think German pancakes with apples and sugar), and I'll probably make the doubtfully authentic orange cookies someday.

The Chair that Brian Built

I saw this little chair on Pinterest. It looked easy enough to make, and Brian and I both thought that Camille would most likely love it. Brian agreed make it, and he got to buy a jig saw since the only saws he has are a chainsaw and a hack saw.

I think he did a pretty good job, and Camille does like it. We sized the pattern up 150% so it would fit her longer, and it ended up more like a bench, which is fine. We decided to stain it instead of painting it, but neither of us had ever really stained any wood furniture. After Brian stained it, it looked exactly the same as it did before. From my research, we need to put a coat of polyurethane on it? We haven't done that yet. By we, I mean Brian since I'm pregnant and don't want to be around that stuff.

I'm planning on making a cushion to go on it, which will raise the seat and make it a little more comfy for her. It's going to go in her big girl room by these gutter bookshelves so she has a little reading area.

Brian enjoyed making it so much that he has some other projects in mind to use his saw.

Healthy Changes

I kind of go in spurts on this, and I'm starting another round of healthier eating. I've been inspired by a few things.

I received Eating Well When You're Expecting as a Christmas gift. Eating while being pregnant is hard for me except for like eight weeks in the middle. I'm too nauseous for the first half to care to eat much at all, and by the third trimester I just feel full all the time. Plus, heartburn. It's ridiculously bad all the time, and certain foods make me think I'm having a heart attack because the pain is so bad. Anyway, I enjoyed looking through the book, especially the recipes, and I plan on incorporating some of them now and continuing after the baby is born.

This month our insurance wellness challenge is focused on weight management. As part of it, we attended a seminar on the topic given by a BYU professor. He didn't say anything too revolutionary, but two things stuck out to me. One is to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, especially before the other parts of your meals. Fruits and vegetables have the lowest amount of calories per gram, are nutrient rich, and fill you up. The idea is that if you fill up with lots of fruits and veggies first, you won't eat as much of the higher calorie foods, and your total calories for the meal and the day will be lower. The other thing was just a way to control unnecessary eating. If you want to snack on something, ask yourself something like, "Am I hungry enough to eat a plate of green beans?" or "Am I hungry enough to have an apple?" You're probably not really that hungry most of the times you want to snack. If you are, go eat an apple.

I've felt trapped indoors by the winter weather and the awful air quality we've had in these parts. I'm an awful snacker and lack food-related self control, so being inside all the time makes me eat more and then feel gross because all I ever do is eat, and I can't get out to exercise.

So, I'm going to start being healthier by making smaller, sustainable changes. Here are some of the ways I plan on doing that:

1. Eat more fruits and vegetables. This will probably take the form of eating a fruit before the bowl of cold cereal in the morning, eating a fruit and/or vegetable before lunch, and starting dinner with a salad, or at least the vegetable portion of the meal. Plus, I want to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into actual recipes.

2. Eat more whole grains. I usually do okay at this, but I'm recommitting. This means making whole wheat bread instead of white, and using brown rice, whole wheat pasta, etc. as much as possible.

3. Eat healthier snacks. I openly admit to having a really big sweet tooth. And it would be near impossible for me to just cut out all sweets. Instead I plan on substituting things like fruit for a cookie and using healthier ingredients when I make things (applesauce for oil, more whole wheat flour).

4. Limit red meat. We don't eat much red meat (yes, that includes pork) anyway, and we will continue eating it sparingly. I might still let Camille have hot dogs for lunch sometimes, but I won't partake.

5. Get outside as much as possible. We went on a walk and played outside yesterday (warmer weather+no inversion) and it was good for both me and Camille., physically and emotionally.