adventures in once a month meals, part deux

Well, I'm four months in. Let's make this quick:

- yes, i still love it. super duper a lot.

-yes, i've had some mess ups with amounts, and a couple recipes that didn't go over well with everyone. including this "Black Bean Ranch Tortilla Casserole", which SOUNDS like it's awesome but really is quite nasty. nasty enough that personally i'm of the opinion that the original recipe blogger was playing some sort of joke on everyone dumb enough to layer smashed tortilla chips, ranch dressing, yellow squash and a bunch of other stuff...but moving on.... but honestly these issues are far and few between.

- i discussed my food budget in the last post, and I'm happy to report that in the last 4 months of doing this I've saved a total of $700. SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. not that I have that money stashed under my bed (or even on my bed so i can roll around in it). it went to important things like underwear and socks and...i don't even know what. but seriously, SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. hard to beat that.

- i have talked at least 5 friends into giving it a whirl. i should sell this trash.

- i just used up the last of my sam's club giant box of gallon freezer bags and foil pans last month. they lasted me through 4 EPIC COOKING DAYS. not bad.

- jeremy helped me cook a few times, and we actually had a nice system going. having a partner wasn't as confusing as i feared. but schedule-wise it works better if i cook on mondays, so i'm flying solo once again. :(

- aaaand, that's about all i can think of right now.

my July menu has a large percentage of grill meals, because it's summer after all. and i bulked up the lunches a bit since all the kiddos are home. it's nice to know they're not eating boxed mac and cheese every. single. day.
and that's what i love about this whole process, in a nutshell.

xoxo
googiemomma out.

adventures in “once a month meals”

hello, hi, how are ya? long time, no see, kiss kiss and all that jazz.

it’s been so long since i wrote here that i’m not entirely sure i even remember how. my computer was like what? whoa! what are we even doing here? is this real life??? but blogging—and conversely, Not Blogging—are a two edged sword. Not Blogging has been sad, because i missed it, but also at the same time freeing and exhilarating. and the more time i spent Not Blogging, the easier that Not Blogging became.

lots has changed over the last year, and lots has stayed the same. there have been many things i seriously, like for realsies cross my heart almost but not quite fully considered blogging about. what inspired me to finally dust off the ole laptop and put pen to paper fingers to keyboard is my first foray into the world of once a month cooking. or, as one commenter on my instagram account put it “cook for a day, eat for a month.”

let’s be real: dinner time is the pits. cooking for a large family consisting of one vegetarian, one gluten free, one threenager who’s stock answer is“i don’t like it” to everything you put it front of her unless it’s a gogurt or mac and cheese, and 7 different palates, plus just being busy…ugh.
i’ve always tried to shop for 2 weeks at a time, with a menu, plan and list in hand. but so many nights jeremy would come home from work to a cold stove and a wife with no clue…and then suddenly it’s 7:30 and everything’s going to take too long so let’s just order.

what really pushed me over the edge was 2 separate incidents occurring in the last month.
o1) we went on a 2 week vacation. TWO. WEEKS. two glorious, sunshine-y weeks full of ME NOT COOKING. do you know how hard it is to get back in the swing of things after 2 weeks of all your children picking their meals from—literally—a buffet of options every day? that you didn’t need to cook or clean up? let me tell you: REALLY REALLY FREAKISHLY HARD.

whaddaya mean mom’s not serving prime rib AND lobster tail tonight?

it feels like every day since we’ve been home i’ve said to myself okay, this is it. time to get back in the swing, back on the saddle, back in the groove, back somewhere that includes schedules and regular meals. but then every night it’s dinner and i’m all let’s get dressed fancy and go to the dining room where our waiters will serve us and sing! wait, what?

hello incredible beach where i don’t have to cook. how i miss thee…

and then…
o2) when i finally did my major post-vacation food shopping trip, we missed a bag. one bag, not a huge bag in terms of size, sat in the living room for an entire evening, then overnight, until the next morning when i went to do the school run and found it there. it was the bag with all the meat. (cue crying and wailing). chicken, roast, ice cream…about $50 worth of food—and the staples for about 1/2 of my planned meals—garbage. i never made it back to the store for replacements, so more nights than are healthy we were scrambling for meals.

SO. obviously something needs to change. we need a reset, with a new plan of action.  a family can not live on pizza and mac and cheese alone. no matter how much certain 3 year olds wish that to be so.

with that in mind i stumbled across onceamonthmeals.com and it is AWESOME. (***also, you should know i’m not sponsored or paid in any way for this. people who don’t blog for a year aren’t exactly raking in the big sponsors lolz. this is just a girl, telling a blog reader, how she feels.)

i signed up for the “pro” plan which gives me the option to customize my menus. at $16/month, about 1/3 of the cost of one pizza night for us. (they also have a regular plan for $10/month)

when you figure out your menu, you select how many servings you need and then you get EVERYTHING. i mean, EVERYTHING:

those links on the right take you to printable sheets for EVERYTHING. did you hear me???? EVERYTHING.  on the left is the top of my menu. i swapped out one breakfast i was sure no one would like for the blueberry breakfast grilled cheese, because duh.

when i want to swap, i can specify what i’m looking for: another gluten free vegetarian easy assembly breakfast anyone?

they make it fairly idiot-proof. and that’s saying something. so, proud owner of one Brand Spankin’ Shiny New Pro Membership i set off on my first EPIC COOKING DAY…day…day…day… <---because there really should be an echo to make it more dramatic, dontcha think?

wanna know how it went? read on…

STEP ONE: the planning

WHAT I DID
i picked a mix of dinners: some vegetarian, some meat, some gluten free. i chose to cook 8 servings of each because 1) teenagers ya’ll and 2) maybe leftovers?
i also built a custom gluten free menu for gigi (oh yeah, gigi bear has been gluten free for about 4 months now and it’s worked wonders but we’ll talk about that later) and cooked 2 servings of each of those meals. that way i’d have a nice little stockpile of meals and snacks just for her, for when the rest of the family is gorging on gluten. also, breakfasts have been the toughest with this. so i’m hoping some solid pre-cooked GF options in the freezer will help us steer away from the expensive GF bars that have been a fallback.

on the hardware side of things: i borrowed 2 crockpots (because i broke mine, but i only used one in the end) and took a ride to IKEA for a new large stockpot (which i needed anyway) and some more measuring spoons and cups. you honestly can’t have enough measuring implements during EPIC COOKING DAY.

WHAT I’LL DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME
that’s easy: break it up. i figured since i was only doing 2 servings for gigi’s menu i could squeeze it in. but what that meant was i was cooking 8 servings of 10 meals and 2 servings of 10 other meals and snacks, each requiring prep and cooking and packing and freezer space. it was a lot, and i’ll definitely continue making separate meals for gigi, but on their own day.

STEP TWO: the shopping

WHAT I DID
we shopped on friday. no kids, just jeremy and i (yes, it was glorious) and my printed out lists. we started big and worked our way down: we hit up the local restaurant store first, where we snagged a 40 lb. case of chicken breast for $1.36/lb. my menu called for 31 lbs., and he usually cooks up a couple pounds a week for his lunches. that was a no-brainer. we also got a good deal on ground beef and a few other things. next up was sam’s club, where we got our roasts and some other staples. 3rd stop was aldi’s for the bulk of the “regular” groceries. a quick run in the local korean market for our herbs and sauces, and finally a breeze through the super wally for the last remaining items.
this may sound like a lot, but the restaurant depot and sam’s are next to each other, and the other stores run in a straight line to my house, all on the same road, and about a 3 mile drive to the furthest point.
it took us about 4 hours to shop, and maybe another 45 mins to unload and put everything away.

WHAT ABOUT THE COST???? okay, i’ll share some figures with you, because who cares it’s the internet.
my monthly grocery budget is currently hovering around $900. this includes all our food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, dog food, etc. it has grown substantially in the last 2 years as our children grow. yes, it’s more than my mortgage payment. so while you’re probably all HOLY GIANT GROCERY BILL BATMAN!!! remember we’re feeding 7. it’s about $30/day, so about $4.29/person/day for breakfast lunch & dinner. so take your average month and times it by…whatever. i actually don’t think we spend all that much, relatively speaking.

on friday, all told we spent about $580—and this includes a solid $40 worth of “packaging supplies”. we bought a case of quart freezer bags, a case of gallon freezer bags, industrial sized rolls of parchment paper and foil, etc. things i won’t have to buy again for a few months.
i am going to have to buy a few things in a couple weeks (think milk, fruit, etc.), but i’m guessing i won’t spend more than $200 at the high end.

SO that means—if this works, and this genuinely feeds our family for an entire month, we stand to have saved at least $120, or almost 15% shaved off our monthly food bill. looks like momma needs a new pair of shoes.
BUT…that remains to be seen as the month progresses. will update.

WHAT ABOUT STORING ALL THAT FOOD???? i put away all the “normal” groceries, but all of my EPIC COOKING DAY items went on the counter. we lined them up neatly and i even had ava label the tops of the cans so i could see it all at a glance.
we have a fridge on top/freezer on bottom type refrigerator and a small chest freezer. we cleaned both of those out before we went shopping, getting rid of old items and mystery meats. all of our purchases fit, with some creative jengatetrising, which is totes a word i just invented but should be a real thing. i do it all the time. 

WHAT I’LL DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME
honestly, can’t think of much. i checked some sales ads, but we got better prices the way we did it. so score one for us.

actually, i take that back because i just thought of one minor thing: i went by the shopping list as gospel, and it all worked out fine, but there were a few things that were slightly off. like for some reason i had to buy 13 packets of taco seasoning?!?!?! which killed me not because of price (they’re like 34 cents each) but alllll the sodium! yikes! i couldn’t imagine any recipe that would require 13 packets of taco seasoning? in the end i only needed 2 1/2 packets, which a) calmed my heart and b) left me with a LOT of extra taco seasoning it will take me years to use up. so next time i’ll go over my list a little more thoroughly and double check some of the amounts. taco seasoning is NBD because i wasted like $2, but i’d be pretty angry if i bought 11 extra blocks of cheese or something.

and on a related note…anyone need any taco seasoning? 25 cents a packet!

STEP THREE: the prep day

WHAT I DID
they stress and stress the importance of “prep day”. don’t think you can just roll that into your EPIC COOKING DAY. prep day needs to be a day on it’s own. and this is absolutely the truth.
sunday morning it took ava, jeremy and i about 90 minutes to do all the prep. this is pre-cutting, slicing and dicing veggies, pre-cooking some rice, pasta and chicken, etc. this makes EPIC COOKING DAY run much more smoothly.

jeremy cut up 14 onions. ha. dude was straight-up sobbing by the end of it. but he volunteered for that job and i love him for it.

i also made sure the kitchen was clean, looked over my lists one more time to double check i had everything, and then banned everyone from setting foot in the kitchen. don’t. even. think. about. it.

WHAT I’LL DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME
two major things:
1) more prep. there are things they didn’t specify to prep that i wish i had—and i’m not saying it’s their fault. for instance, we bought block cheese instead of pre-shredded, and i didn’t think to shred it on prep day. that took a big chunk of my time on EPIC COOKING DAY. so next time i’ll look over my menus a little more carefully and make sure i’ve really done all the prep work i can.

2) label amounts on the prepped items. there were times a recipe would call for xx amount of something, like cilantro. so i pull out my bag of pre-chopped cilantro and i’m thinking, well it says 1/4 cup, and this looks like 1/4 cup, so is it this whole bag? or no? (spoiler: i put in the whole bag. and i shouldn’t have, i needed some for another recipe. oops.) same thing with onions…2 sliced onions on prep day is listed as xx amount to go in my recipe. a little more or less in this won’t kill anyone, so i go to dump in the whole thing, but wait! do i actually need 1/3 cup of sliced onions somewhere else down the line for another recipe? obviously i could just measure, but this process is all about efficiency. having to slow down and find the measuring cup to double check is annoying, when i could just pre-mark the amounts. so yeah, next time i’ll just label everything.

STEP FOUR: the EPIC COOKING DAY

WHAT I DID
okay, so i was literally dreaming about cooking the night before, i was that worked up. i was equal parts scared to death and stoked to get cracking. (yes, stoked.)
i woke up at 7 and got dressed—hair up, bra on, comfy shoes on. this is another thing they recommend, and i think it’s a good one. my typical M.O. would be to just jump in with both feet and no bra, but that’s a decision i’d be sorely regretting 10 hours later. i brushed my teeth and drank my coffee and got going.
and went…
and went…
and went…
it took me 15 hours start-to-finish. i sat down one time for 5 minutes to say a prayer with everyone before dinner. around 2 i took a 10 minute breather and drank another cup of coffee and threw a green smoothie down my throat.
now, realize that part of the excessive amount of time is because i saddled myself with 2 menus. like i said i plan on changing that up. from what i’m reading average is around 8-12 hours, but yes 15 is possible. a lot depends on the menu you choose and the amount of food you’re making. things that go in muffin tins took longer because i had to do 2 cycles in the oven, whereas if you’re making 4 servings you may get it all baked in one go. i browned 5.5 lbs. of ground beef, which takes longer than 2 or 3 lbs. so everything was stretched out a bit for me.
i think the key to this endeavor is organization. i taped up my cooking day schedule on the cabinet where i could easily see it.

here’s some cruddy phone pics to illustrate: (and note—this is exactly how the instructions print out for you. step by step. ev-ree-thing.)

i did use my tablet for the recipes and that worked fine. i tried to keep things grouped together: salt, pepper, baking powder all in one place so when i used them they went back and didn’t get lost in my mess. i tried to wash my measuring cups/spoons/pans/pots/etc. as soon as i was finished with them, and stay on top of wiping down the counters and stove. if you don’t keep up with it you’ll have a destruction zone on your hands in no time. i had at least 2, sometimes 3 different recipes going at the same time and it took all of my brain power to keep it straight.
i had an area for all my “groceries”, an area designated for cooling items, and just outside of the kitchen i had a little table set up with all my aluminum pans, foil, freezer bags, parchment paper, etc. so that stayed together. see, organization is king. oh, and i clipped my permanent marker to my shirt. but i still lost it approximately 542 times.

this is the picture i posted on instagram, and like i said it truly is “organized chaos”. i’m fortunate to have a decent sized kitchen, but i still think this is doable in a smaller kitchen, especially if you’re not cooking quite as much. i did use up every square inch of my counter space though.
what about having help? these instructions are really written for one person, in my opinion. i think if there was more than one person doing this it would get confusing and annoying. that said, when ava came home from school she helped me roll all our galumpkis, and it was nice, because i was really flagging at that point. but later when everyone was kind of just…IN the kitchen, it made me crazy.

WHAT I’LL DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME
this is tough, because there are some major things. our regular freezer is dying a slow, lingering death. stuff isn’t completely frozen, but ice cream is great. so in an ideal world? i’ll have a new one before then. i’d also like a bigger stand up freezer. the chest freezer is kind of a pain to organize.
on the not as major side, i probably won’t bother printing their labels again. they were finicky and i couldn’t get them to print correctly so i ended up just writing about 1/2 of my labels with permanent marker.
obviously, as discussed, i won’t cook 2 separate menus in one day.
also, because neve and harrison are both home during the day (cyberschool) i didn’t make arrangements for elliot to go somewhere. i regret that now, because she spent her day in front of the tv, and i wish i had set up at least a few hours playdate for her.

STEP FIVE: the aftermath

WHAT I DID
because i cleaned as i went, the kitchen was surprisingly not terrible when i was done. while my last things were cooking i loaded the dishwasher one more time (for a total of 3 runs that day), gathered up one last load of trash (for a total of 3 full bags and 2 recycling bags that day)and wiped down the counters. then i piled up all my food and organized it between the 2 freezers—some dinners on the bottom of the chest freezer for later in the month, snacks and quick meals for gigi in the kitchen freezer, etc.
and i took this awesome picture:

yeah, i’m a little bit proud of that. want the run down?
12 breakfast blueberry grilled cheese sandwiches
48 bacon cheeseburger bombs
50-ish baked ravioli bites
2x bean enchilada casserole
2x drip beef
3x grandma’s galumkis (about 40 of them)
2x lemon garlic dump chicken
16 peaches and cream waffles
1x slow cooker chicken sandwiches with roasted pepper aioli (and another serving that they ate for dinner that night)
2x slow cooker salisbury steaks
2x swiss cheese chicken
2x thai chickpea pasta
2x thai salmon tacos (which we changed to tilapia because harrison got sick once after having salmon and now it’s a no-go for him)
10 freezer poptarts
48 egg cheese & veggie breakfast tarts
12 GF cereal bar cookies
36 GF sausage cheese breakfast muffins
2x GF chicken noodle soup
2x GF mac & cheese
2x GF spaghettios
GF cheez-its
GF sweet potato snacks
20 GF chicken nuggets
and for the life of me i swear there’s something else and i can’t remember it now.

BUT HOW DOES IT TASTE? well, so far we’ve tried almost all the breakfast foods (hey, some break while you’re cooking), and most of the lunch/snack foods, and they’re all quite yummy. the chicken sandwiches they had for dinner got good reviews, but maybe less onion next time. the galumpkis were delicious tonight. gigi’s GF mac and cheese was good, considering it’s gluten free.
which brings me to…

WHAT I’LL DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME
some recipes i won’t bother with again: the GF chicken nuggets were a joke. they were complicated, expensive (3 lbs. of ground chicken, at over $3/lb, plus gluten free bread crumbs) and they refused to stick together. i tried everything i could think of, refusing to let that much money be wasted. in the end they’re passable, but they’re more like medium sized patties vs. nuggets, and i’m not sure how much gigi will eat them.
and there are some recipes where the effort vs. reward scale is skewed. the sweet potato snacks were kind of annoying (cook the sweet potato, add a bunch of ingredients, roll out the dough, bake, reroll the scraps, bake more, etc…) and didn’t make very many. and they’re not great. so scratch that one.
but those are things that can happen with any recipe, so i think it’s just a matter of trial and error.
we’ve been in a dinner rut—feels like i’m constantly making the same things, so i’m trying to branch out and be a little more adventurous /with my choices in this process (thai chickpea pasta, anyone?). i’ll most definitely have some fails, but we’ve already had some wins.

OKAY, BOTTOM LINE IT FOR ME

will i do this again?
one thing i read on the site basically said that by the end of your EPIC COOKING DAY you may hate this and swear you’re never, ever doing it again. and that’s totally understandable. but come back to me 3 or 4 days from now and see what you have to say about it then.

dude, my body HURT last night. i had to take tylenol pm to sleep. i was wiped out.

BUT. tonight’s dinner was popped in the oven, and my kitchen is cleaner than it’s been after a weeknight dinner in months. tomorrow’s dinner is thawing in the fridge, and wednesday’s dinner is on the blackboard menu so i’ll know what to pull out of the freezer for thawing tomorrow. and the next day, and the next day….

and hey, look, i even had time to blog.

i think i can say definitely YES, i’ll see you next month onceamonthmeals.com.

any other questions? ask away…i’ll try to answer ;)

spaghetti: not just for eating {sewing tutorial}

there’s this thing i do, and i’m sure i’m not alone: i look at something, admire it, and without ever taking the time to research it just decide that it’s too hard and i can’t or won’t be able to do it myself.

i don’t do it all the time—a lot of the time when i sew it’s because i saw something and thought “hey, i can do that!”. but there are certain sewing techniques that i’ve written off as simply IMPOSSIBLE…without ever even trying them.

i know, i know. you’re shaking your head at me now and saying “stupid stupid girl.” and you’re absolutely right. i am. because standard sewing techniques are definitely not rocket science or brain surgery or whatever.
they’re just that: Standard Sewing Techniques.

so it went with the spaghetti strap. i’d always admired them on a handmade garment. but i could never do that myself. looked too…tiny and fiddly and requiring heaps of patience and time i just don’t have. until, you know…i tried it. and shockingly, it was easy.

lesson learned: try it. research it. if someone else did it, then you probably can to. have faith in yourself.

i learned there are three simple—yet important--steps to mastering the spaghetti strap, and now i will share all of my wisdom with you young grasshopper.

o1) CUT YOUR FABRIC ON THE BIAS

it’s obvious because i’m using a plaid that it’s cut on the bias. (bias: the cut is diagonal to the grain lines/selvedge edge. you know—the way that doesn’t make sense because you’re WASTING SO MUCH FABRIC)
but bias cut = stretchy which in turn = much easier to turn and makes a nicer laying strap. trust me on this: bias cut.

o2) SEW A POINT ON THE END.

don’t just sew a straight stitch from one end to the other. taper down at one side almost to nothing, as if sewing a dart. i say almost because you want to leave a tiny hole at the end.

then snip a little opening a tiny ways down from the end of your tube. you’ve now created the perfect handle for your tool. which leads me to number 3…

o3) USE THE RIGHT TOOL

okay, so if you google “how to make spaghetti straps” you’ll find a lot of people who say you don’t need anything fancy—just a safety pin will do.
but this bad boy can be found on any notions wall, and with a coupon i think it cost me about $2.50 at joann’s. it’s a long thin rod with a loop handle at one end and a small gripper at the other end kind of like a latch hook. yes—a pin will probably work okay. but you’ll probably be frustrated and annoyed and it will take WAAAAY more time. get the tool. (which i obviously can NOT remember the “official” name for…loop turner? maybe?)

there you go. 3 simple steps to ensure slinky spaghetti strapage.

want a quick run-through of the method?
(please excuse the varying fabrics/photos…i needed more pics for this than i initially took. i made a stunt double strap)

o1) cut a length of fabric (ON THE BIAS SEE TIP 1!) the width/length will vary based on what you need.

length: measure where the strap is going and add a couple inches for safety.
width: for the polka dot strap in these photos i went with a 1” width and a very tiny seam allowance (like 7/16”). the plaid strap is closer to 1.5”, still with a tiny 7/16 s.a. if you cut a wider strap and sew with a larger seam allowance your strap will be rounder because the seam allowance will act as stuffing when you turn it right side out. you’ll have to experiment and see what works for you.

o2) sew a straight seam tapering across the top to almost nothing at the end (DUH SEE STEP 2). i say almost because you want to leave a tiny hole for step 4. sew this with a nice tight stitch—you don’t want stitches popping or gaping in your strap after it’s done. that’s annoying. i use a stitch length of 2 on my machine.

o3) cut a little mouth about 1/2” down from the tapered end of your strap.

happy strap is happy.

4) slide your loop turner in from the bottom of the strap, and grab the top section through the little mouth you created. then pull. you may have to wiggle it a bit to get it started, but the tapered top makes it much easier to get the strap started than if you’re pulling a big chunk of fabric.

 

5) TA-DAH! you’ve just made a spaghetti strap. like. a. boss. now get busy spaghetting all the things.

(elliot’s plaid dress blogged here)

love all.

once upon a time i read a study explaining why a little bit of competition can be good for a marriage. their test? pairs tennis. the couples that played on opposite sides of the net, well…let’s just say they had a better time then the couples who played as partners.

works for me.
a little competition. check. keeping the fire burning. got it.
except…jeremy and i maybe compete a little differently than many couples.
i mean, we used to play tennis. but with five kiddos it’s a little hard to find the time for that these days. so there’s less “DOUBLE FAULT!” and more “let’s see who’s got the bigger fabric pile!”
oooooh.
he sends me videos of his sharp new fabric scissors. bragger.
we trade sewing tips.

what can i say? it works for us.

hello, my name is shannon and i’m married to an upholsterer. so yes, my husband has a bigger fabric stash than i do. i’m so ashamed.

but it has it’s benefits—namely lots and lots of scraps. and the scraps you get from large upholstery projects aren’t tiny bits and pieces—they can be anything from 1/2 to 5 or 6 yards or more. unfortunately a lot of them are not really usable for clothing. but every once in a while i snag a piece that can be.

so it was with this purple fabric. i’ve had it sitting in my sewing room for probably three years or more. and a couple of months ago i got around to using it for ava.

it’s pretty heavy, and this is actually the wrong side of the fabric. but i thought the texture was so interesting i went for it. there are flecks of gold and light blue and dark purple running through. i threw the fabric into the washer and dryer before i did anything with it. i figured i’d make sure it could withstand that before i put the time into sewing something with it. surprisingly it came through with flying colors.

also, excessive use of the word through/threw in one paragraph. flag on the play.

i had just enough to make a long circle skirt, and of course the math is from dana’s circle skirt tutorial. i seriously must refer back to her math instructions like 3x a week.

but circle skirts are just so fun for twirling. what more could a little girl ask for?

i used a 1/2 yard of deep purple knit from jo-ann’s for the top. a simple boat neck and 3/4 length sleeves.

fun tidbit: when i attached the skirt to the top it was so heavy it pulled the knit waistband down much more than i expected. i ended up having to hack a good 3 inches off the waist band and reattaching the skirt! the perils of making clothing from upholstery weight fabrics.

the flower was a last minute addition—just circles cut from remnants of both fabrics, sewn together and glued to a safety pin. 

also—i’m super proud of the stitching on that neck. high five.

this dress turned out pretty and very feminine and super easy to wear—it just slips on over her head. and i love ava in a boat neck. plus it cost me about $4, so…yeah.

sometimes workin’ with what ya got can lead to good things! who knew?! :)

also…this child? almost impossible to take pictures of. she’s got no head in most of these, because…well, this:

i’m such a good wife.

my entire life i’ve been a Reader—anytime, anywhere, any lighting. i’d sneak books in my bed, reading by the light from the hallway. and so, my entire life i’ve had people saying to me “you’re going to ruin your eyes!”

guess what. turns out eventually they were right.

i need glasses now. boo. well, sometimes boo. because sometimes they can be cute, too. so when firmoo contacted me about trying out some of their glasses i was like YEE-HAW!
digging on that hipster nerd look? they got you covered. want something more classic? yup, they got it. even sunglasses.

but.

i’m not the only glasses wearer in the house—my mister’s eyes are about 1000x worse than mine. and when firmoo contacted me about reviewing glasses, he was more in need of some new pairs than i was. so, i let him have it, err…them.



yup. i’m totally the best wife.

i <3 nerds with glasses and bowties

okay—pros: these glasses are nice. just as nice as any pair we’ve gotten for him locally. they came in hard cases, with a little kit for repairs. shipping was fast, and the biggest thrill—the price was AWESOME. compared to what we normally pay for his glasses this was a HUGE savings (although these 2 pairs were given to us for review purposes, we did figure out what the cost would have been).

he’s been wearing these two pairs every day for a few months now, and they’re just as nice as when he got them. seriously—dude is blind without glasses, they go on first thing in the morning and don’t come off until he’s going to sleep at night. jeremy has an astigmatism in one eye, so each lens is very different. the prescription was perfect.

cons:  honestly i can’t really think of any real cons. the only thing that was a little hairy was the whole process of entering all his prescription info and measuring his eyes. we couldn’t get the “virtual try-on” to work for us, so we based our choices on just the measurements and descriptions of the glasses on the site. we usually have a terrible time finding glasses for jeremy—he’s almost 6’4, and a big guy. most men’s glasses seem a little…smallish on him. but it completely worked—these glasses fit him perfectly. and in my honest opinion i think the ordering process is something that will be more difficult the first time and NBD every successive time you order from firmoo.

also a con—having to force him to take these photos. he did not want to. at all. stinker. and then he gave me a straight face in every shot. so i made him laugh. i don’t even remember what we were laughing about, but i love these shots (even though his eyes are closed). ;)
bottom line? i absolutely recommend firmoo for glasses. if you know or have your prescription definitely give them a try. for the price it’s worth taking the chance, even if you’re nervous about ordering glasses online and not being able to try them on first. srsly.
got more questions? check out firmoo’s f.a.q. HERE.
disclosure: we were provided two pairs of glasses at no cost for review. but all opinions are my own, and i would never recommend or endorse a product i didn’t trust and believe in! true story.

the handmade revolution

FAIR WARNING: long post and huge soapbox ahead. continue at your own risk.
this is not where this post was going to go when i made these dresses.



this is not where this post was going to go when i posted the photo on instagram.



this is not where this post was going to go when i took the photos of my girls wearing these dresses.



but somewhere along the line things changed. and this post became something completely different.
here’s the thing: these dresses were inspired by the dresses made by jessica at dreamcatcher baby. and i had all intentions of saying that in the original post—credit where it’s due.



i competed against jessica in sewvivor, and she did awesome. she was selling these adorable baby girl dresses and coordinating boy bowties at the time, and shortly after sewvivor ended her dresses got picked up and “pinned” by a big name blogger…and the rest was history. jessica’s business has virtually (literally and figuratively) exploded over the last few months. she’s got pre-orders, pre-sales, dresses that sell out as fast as her two little hands can make them (whilst juggling a husband, young son and newborn baby boy).
and rightly so: her dresses are impeccably made, and her fabric choices and pattern mixing is top notch. the bows on the fronts of the dresses always have the pattern perfectly centered—a little detail a fellow seamstress can appreciate. it speaks to an extra minute or two spent planning, rather than just churning these bad boys out as fast as she possibly can—chopping that fabric whichever way gets the most cuts out of each yard.

unfortunately, the supply/demand ratio and the popularity of her dresses make their price out of my reach.
fortunately, i sew.
so i made my own version of her adorable dresses for my littles. what i planned on doing was posting about them with a link to her shop for anyone interested.

no tutorial.

why not?

truth bomb: i’ve copied/been inspired by/whatever you want to call it etsy sellers in the past. sometimes i post the things i make-most times i don’t. there are many things i make that never see the light of blogging. they’re for my own personal enjoyment, and too close to someone’s hard won success in their little shop. i can’t justify telling someone else how to do these things, at the expense of another’s livelihood.


(image source)

but then that raises the question: where’s the line? when is it okay to say “hey i copied this from XYZ shop and here’s a tutorial to make your own” and when is it not? because isn’t that like…80% of what’s blogged?

in the blogging world it seems like a rather unspoken rule that that copy-and-paste type inspiration is okay if you’re taking from the big guys: the anthropologies, the pottery barns, the west elms. but not from the little guys: the etsy sellers, the big cartel sellers, the independent pattern makers.
i admit—this is kind of the line i follow to. but why is that okay? i’m not being smart—i genuinely want to know why and when this is okay. is it because we’re taking from a faceless “big corporation” vs. just one or two or three people working in the back bedroom of their suburban home?

and then the reverse comes in to play: the accusations of stores like urban outfitters ripping off the hard work and content of etsy sellers. (go ahead and google…there’s a ton of it out there).

when i see a must-have pillow at Big Store selling for $45 i think hey, i could do that in my home for $5 worth of supplies, and tell other people how to do it on my blog! when i see a cute or funny printable on etsy for $20+ i think hey, i could do that on photoshop in my bed and print it out and it’s costing me like 50 cents for paper and ink …and not show anyone.

again: stick it to the Big Stores, protect the little guy.

same with dream catcher baby’s dresses: i love them. but they are far out of my reach—especially for two (or three…or four…) of them. and here’s the part where i have drop another brutal truth bomb, knowing that jessica may well read this—they’re really very basic sundresses…empire waist, full skirt, bow on bodice. any home sewist with basic knowledge can make it on their own quickly and easily. my first dress from measurements to finished hem took just over an hour—while i did 10 other things in the meantime. and i did a similarly shaped dress last summer—same basic idea, just without the big bow on the front.

but that’s really beside the point, isn’t it?
the reality is ease of creation < how much people are willing to pay.

(image source)

the fact that i can make this dress myself cheaper than i can buy one from her basically has nothing to do with the dresses jessica is successfully selling. because as long as there are people out there willing to fork over the money for a Dream Catcher Baby original, then she’s fine.

but then…again i ask—where’s the line? if i post a tutorial showing how to make an easy high waisted, full skirted sundress, am i stealing from her? what if i add a bow to the front? what if i make the bow and dress two different fabrics? at what point am i “stealing” from her? and how much do i have to change to make it “mine”? and is it different if i open up my own etsy shop and sell something similar?

+

so what prompted all this? well, jessica had quite the blowup on her instagram account not long ago. the pictures have since been deleted—and i don’t blame her. a comment from one person along the lines of “i wish you weren’t so expensive and i wish i had money” spiraled out of control—people attacking her prices and people defending her work.

the one comment that really got to me was someone who said basically “i can make 2 or 3 of these dresses at home for the price she’s charging.”

i’ll admit it—when i saw what she’s getting for these dresses i almost choked. whoa!

but let’s stop and think about it for a second: yes. you or i can run out to the fabric store and buy the yard of fabric and fat quarter and (using a coupon OF COURSE) whip up one or two of these dresses for a mere what…$6? go crazy—buy designer—$12?

so we can sniff down our noses at the etsy sellers and their foolish customers and post comments like “bah. made it myself for 1/32nd of the price you fools are paying.”

but now…what if someone wants to pay you to make one for their daughter.

well now. suddenly you are spending your time picking just the right fabrics for her daughter. and sewing for her daughter. and pressing it and packaging it and mailing it. oh, wait. now you’re in it for $18 or $20 with shipping because boxes and pretty tissue paper don’t grow on trees…and you still didn’t charge anything for your time. cause you’re nice like that.

and now everyone LOVES your two dresses. and LOTS of people want them. yayyyy me! kermit arms all over! so now you’re buying bolts of fabric and storing them in your home, and your sewing machine and your serger are churning away for hours each day…oops—gotta get them serviced at $100 each—and you’re spending hours listing each dress on etsy and driving to the post office and communicating with Susie from Nebraska who wants this one for her sister’s wedding but can you make the bow a little bigger and can the fabric be a touch bluer and can i have it in 3 days? and then etsy takes a cut. and paypal

takes a cut. and uncle sam takes a cut.

how much is your time worth? because after you dish out for ALL of that, you still have yourself to pay. this isn’t charity. this isn’t dressing other people’s children out of the kindness of your heart.
ask yourself: what do i make at my job per hour? why should a seamstress’ time be worth any less?
sewing isn’t some magical art. this isn’t sleeping beauty, i don’t have a magic wand to conjure up dresses with. it’s real HARD, frustrating, tiring WORK. you get cramped hands from cutting, painful sewer’s back from leaning over your machine for hours, a tired brain from figuring and measuring and all.the.math.



if you can do it yourself—rock on with your bad self. i can, and i did. but if you can’t, and you’d like me to do it for you—THIS is how much it will cost. and if you don’t like that well then have a nice day no hard feelings.



if you want to scoff at a handmade dress because you can buy a dress at walmart for $8 then go ahead and go to walmart and buy your $8 dress. maybe you want to take a look at the non-monetary ‘cost’ of that dress before you get up on that high horse you’re riding, though.

because guess what—jessica can make 2 or 3 of these dresses FOR HERSELF very easily too. but if you want her to give up her free time—her time spent with her babies and man—her time spent watching dvr’d reruns and double fisting popcorn in her sweats on the couch—then THIS is how much it will cost you. and she shouldn’t have to apologize for that.

truth bomb #3: i’m as guilty as the next seamstress of under valuing myself. when people ask me to do work and offer to pay me i mentally tally up hours and then tell them a number…much less. and that’s why i find myself sewing for people late at night, hand stitching things for what amounts to $3 or $5 per hour. would you work for that? my husband just gave my sewing-freely-for-others-self the smackdown. no more, he said. at least for now. i’ve taken on too many things and stressed myself out over them too much lately.

alida makes wrote a post about this a few weeks ago. it’s a good read.

sooo…where do we go from here? i’m curious what your thoughts are on the matter. let’s talk.

disclaimer: if i’ve ever sewn for you…know that i did it happily and enjoyed doing it. i’m not talking about you, or us, in any of this. :)

daddy’s little princess

to go along with yesterday’s star wars quilt i made this adorable little princess leia onesie.

 

adorable, right? BUT…the design was based on a design from an etsy shop selling all kinds of star wars onesies. to be honest, my conscience is pricking me just posting this. i have guilt posting about anything i copy from an etsy seller.

i snag ideas and recreate things with my own spin a lot, but most times i don’t post anything about it on the blog. can’t hurt the little guy. but this is not the most difficult design, and i put it on a dress instead of a onesie, and my design is a little different and much smaller than theirs. also—if you google “chibi leia” you’ll find this is a pretty standard version of that look. (i’m also realizing that chibi-anything just means flippin’ adorable anything. perhaps you could weigh in here, kat? ;) i believe you’re the chibi-expert-in-residence )

and to make myself feel better i’m not going to tell give you a pattern for the applique. i’m just going to give you the finished product, and a link to the etsy shop: HERE.

phew. #i’lltakeAssuagingtheConsciencefor$100,alex

what i’m also going to give you is a tip: don’t discount already decorated clothing when looking for something to make your own. i had the hardest time finding a cute little dress to put this leia on.

finally on the clearance rack at babies ‘r’ us i found this:

a left over christmas onesie dress marked down to $4. it had a sequin design all over the front--a hat and “santa loves me”.

an hour with my stitch ripper left me with this:

a blank shirt with tiny holes all over it, and a hot mess of threads and sequins all over me, the couch and the floor.

a quick trip through the washer and dryer fixed both shirts, and the vacuum fixed the floor and couch ;)

seriously—once i washed and dried the dress, the holes disappeared because it was cotton.

i ironed some interfacing on the back to make sewing the stretchy knit easier…

and sewed down all my applique pieces. (i ironed them on with wonder under first, too).

i used non-pilling fleece to make the applique for two reasons: 1) the felt didn’t come in a good ‘skin’ color and 2) i think the non-pilling fleece will hold up better than felt to the repeated washings inherent in most baby clothes.

boom. one adorable leia dress, all for about $6 (cost of the onesie + fleece).

blurry photos free, courtesy of my new glasses and inability to compensate when picture taking, apparently. ;)

asparagus with feta and vinegar

alternate title: Asparagus for the Asparagus Hater.

true story.

i’m typically no fan of the asparagus. we have been nurturing a crop of it in our garden for three years now…truthfully, for me it’s more of an experiment and exercise in persistance vs some longing for bountiful harvests of fresh asparagus.

this year we picked our first stalks.

three. to be exact. one of which was too woody anyway and got chucked.

anyway, i saw a post from @lorchick on instagram (thanks lady!) where she showed an asparagus/feta dish. hmmm asparagus + feta? sounded good. sounds like something the mister would like (he’s the asparagus eater of the family). so i looked up a few recipes, allowed them to meld and process in my brain and then extracted this.

let me tell you something: the first time i made it i bought one pack to add to our measly three homegrown stalks. that first batch never even made it to the dinner table. jeremy and i and the oldest three hunched over the stove eating stalk after stalk. when it was gone we grabbed crackers to dip in the sauce lingering in the pan. the next day i got about three texts from him…i want more asparagus. i can’t stop thinking about the asparagus.

file that under “married almost 15 years”. used to be asparagus = me. used ta bes don’t count anymore ;)

so i went back to the store and bought more asparagus. LOTS more asparagus. and made it again. and this time, i took pictures to share with you.

make it. it’s made an asparagus eater of me. the oldest two googies were fighting over the leftovers on their sister’s plate. smelly pee is just a bonus.

it’s that good.

ASPARAGUS WITH FETA AND VINEGAR

okay this may be the world’s worst recipe. more a set of vague ideas than actual recipe.

first: i used the honey ginger balsamic we bought at a local specialty vinegar shop. if you can get your hands on some of this, i highly, HIGHLY recommend it. it’s a white balsamic, and the touch of sweetness with it is…just yum. i can’t even be more eloquent than that. if you don’t have it and can’t get it, i would maybe sub either a good balsamic or red wine vinegar and add a touch of honey and a sprinkle of powdered ginger. mix this up in a bowl first and then add it to the recipe.

also, i didn’t and don’t measure anything. it’s a splash and a pinch and a spoonful. i did my best guesstimating, but my best advice is go with what feels right. it’s just olive oil and garlic—you’re not gonna hurt anything. ;)

final note: i don’t add any salt. the feta is plenty salty, and the final taste—a combo of sweet, tangy, salty, a little spicy and a touch of bitterness….yummmm…don’t need any more salt.

INGREDIENTS
+ 2 bunches asparagus (3 lame stalks from your garden optional)
+ olive oil
+ chopped garlic
+ lemon juice
+ honey-ginger vinegar
+ pepper
+ crumbled feta

DIRECTIONS
+ preheat oven to 425F.
+ prep asparagus stalks by washing in cold water in and breaking woody ends off (just hold both ends and bend. wherever the asparagus naturally breaks is bueno. throw away the bottom, keep the top. good job for littles.)
+ put the asparagus in a bowl and add enough olive oil to coat.
+ toss in a spoonful of finely chopped garlic (about 2 cloves)
+ add lemon juice and vinegar. i’d say about 2 tablespoons of each.
+ pepper to taste
+lay out on baking sheet in single layer
+pour the rest of your sauce on top
+ bake 10-12 minutes, or until tender and lightly browned.
+ top with feta and put back in the oven 1-2 minutes
+ eat it. ALL.

just thought you’d want to know: number of times i said “asparagus” in this post—20.