A quilt for Eamesy...

Not so long ago one of my very best friends, Tiffany, called to tell me she was pregnant. Saying I was overly excited for her would be an understatement. I was absolutely ecstatic that an adorable baby would soon make it's way into the world and be part of such a wonderful family. Tiffany kept me posted all throughout her pregnancy with pictures, face time chats, and texts. With too many states between us I longed for afternoon chats, dinners, games and the thought provoking conversations of days when the distance was the width of the parking lot.      

I knew that I wanted to make a special blanket to welcome Tiffany's baby. The tricky part for me was that the gender of the baby wasn't going to be revealed until he or she was born. I thought for weeks and months about what kind of quilt I would make. I looked everywhere for ideas and never found something gender neutral that I was in love with.   

So, I anxiously awaited baby Nay's arrival so I could get to work. 

After much anticipation, guessing, and wagers baby Nay came and it was a BOY! Adorable sweet little Eames was here and I knew a snuggly blanket needed to be sent his way! I firmly believe in the power of a good snuggle blanket. Growing up I had my favorite ABC pink blanket given to me at infancy. That thing was tucked in with me every night, without fail. After years of sleeping on a trundle bed,  my poor blanket was ripped and torn. The day bed my trundle went under had springs that snagged and tore my poor blankey. Mom knew how much my blanket meant to me and set to work mending it the best she could. When she was done it wasn't necessarily pretty, but to me it was as good as new! After a whole lot of snuggling and loving, my childhood blanket has become an object associated with sweet memories of bed time routines, night time chatting with my sister, and regular leg wars between beds. Now blankey is kept in a special place in an effort to hold on and cherish the nostalgic days of years gone by. With best effort mends and really worn fabric, the comfort and warmth blankey brought over and over again remains. As an almost 25 year old I still have multiple favorite "blankeys" that love a quality snuggle. The comfort offered by a blanket from day to day, month to month, is something to share.   

MDill and I had been to the fabric store just two days before Eames was born. While looking for other fabric we stumbled across a few options for baby Nay's blanket, whether it was a boy or a girl. We fell in love with a dinosaur print and crossed our fingers that baby would be a boy. As soon as we got word the Eames was born we set off to the fabric store and I got to work making a very simple but cute quilt. Strip by strip I fell more and more love for the sweet baby boy. I couldn't wait to send the finished quilt on its way. After a few hours of work, a whole lot of love, and relatively few sewing frustrations, the quilt was complete and I was in love. MDill and I packed it up with a few other items for Eamesy (that's what I call him) and literally shipped it from the West Coast all the way to the East Coast. 

And now... a special part of me and my love is there with sweet Eames and his adorable Mommy helping keep them warm, cozy and comforted.    

Jean Quilting

For quite some time old jeans piled up in our guest room closet. Jeans that have holes, are too small, or are just too worn out to wear have been stacked and mentally labeled... "Do something with these."

Near the end of last year I decided that it was time that I actually do something with these. I got to work deciding what I would use them for. I decided that I would love a warm heavy jean quilt to snuggle up with in the winters. I made up a pattern that I thought would be fun but very simple, and got to work cutting up pairs of jeans.

I determined that I want my quilt to be about 90x96 inches. I did the math and checked it twice (or more like 10 times) and determined that I would need 240 6.5x6.5 inch squares to get the size I wanted. I got to work cutting up what seemed like a million squares. I found that cutting the squares 6.5 inches by 6.5 inches allowed me to get the most squares possible out of each pair of jeans. I used 1/4 inch seam allowances to sew the blocks together. This gave me a finished dimension of 6 inch squares.

After I spent what seemed like an eternity cutting up squares the next step was to lay them out and make sure that all the squares from a pair of jeans weren't too close together.

I then began sewing together row by row and the quilt began to feel more and more complete. After a few hours of pinning and sewing I had finally finished the top. This was only about 6 months after I had started.

After a few more weeks my sweet friend Lindsay helped me find some quilting frames, put up the quilt, and tie it. It finally felt like one little step at a time I was completing my project. At this point it was July and I had started cutting up jeans the previous November, but by golly my quilt would be done in time for the hottest month of the year!

After we got it tied it was time to bind the quilt. I decided that for the binding I would roll over the excess flannel from the back to the front and then do a decorative stitch. So, it was back to pinning and sewing.

A few hours later my quilt that had been a work in progress for far to long was complete! I was in love and itching for some chilly weather to test it out. Thankfully the Palmer's had us up to the cabin and we brought our new jean quilt along to keep us warm.

I would like to say a BIG thank you to the following:
 -The Lottermoser's for the birthday gift card to Joann's that I was able to use to buy flannel for the backing.
- Lindsay Lou for helping me dig up some quilting frames and tie my quilt.
-Momma Cheree for cheering me on through my entire project.
-Mdill for putting up with my crazy quilt mood swings. (I was pretty cranky during several portions of this project.)

Here are the items I used to complete my quilt:
240 - 6.5 inch squares of jeans, I would say I used about 15 or 16 pairs of jeans.
6 yards of flannel for the back.
1 bag of queen size light weight batting
1 bolt of turquoise yarn to tie the quilt.

A very thrifty Halloween decoration...

A week ago I decided that our apartment needed to feel more homey and a lot less like a pit stop until we are onto our next place. I was a woman on a mission. With Halloween coming I thought I would find some inexpensive ways to add a little Halloween spirit home. The three things I wanted to accomplish were: 

#1 Make cute, but inexpensive decorations. 

#2 Be ok with making some decorations that I could throw away. Our temporary location calls for temporary decoration. 

#3 Have fun figuring something out.    

So, I did a quick google search on Pinterest for Halloween crafts and I found this post.  And I got the idea to make a few jack 'o lanterns using items from around the house. I wanted 3 pumpkins and I wanted them all to be different sizes.  

Here is what I used: 

- One roll of toilet

- A can of Oats

- A package of rice cakes.  

I then rolled each item in some orange tissue paper and made some stems using some green tissue paper and twine. I cut out some jack 'o lantern faces from black card stock and glued them on. They turned out really simple and cute and have added just the right amount of festiveness to our small temporary apartment.

Red Onion Salsa...

Are you looking for something easy, fresh and tasty to make for dinner? This meal is one of the favorites around the Dill house. It is so delicious and always tastes so fresh. We first had this meal when our friends the Cedeno's had us over for dinner. It was so good that I insisted on getting the recipe and we (mostly me!) never get sick of this meal. Below is the recipe and instructions on how to make it, but first....The recipe pros and cons list:

Pros:
-This is very inexpensive to make. Rice = cheap. Lentils= cheap, cheap, cheap & the red onion salsa only has 4 ingredients. The most expensive part of this meal is if you have chicken with it.
-This is very easy to make. It's hard to mess it up and it always tastes good.
- It taste so good you'll just want to keep eating.

Cons:
-It taste so good you'll want to keep eating.
-You may have to plan ahead to purchase the items for the onion salsa. You may not just have a red onion, tomatoes, or cilantro in the fridge. (Unless you are me and always make this meal.)

So what is it?
It's kind of like a haystack... rice, chicken, lentils, and the red onion salsa to top it all off.

To make the salsa you will need the following:
>1 large red onion
>salt
>2 large limes
>2 roma tomatoes
>cilantro
>veggie/olive oil

Slice the onion very thin. Put it in a small bowl and submerge the onion in HOT water from the tap. Then, squeeze the heck out of the onions while they are in the water. Do this until you can feel the onions are soft or until your husband, roommate or kids ask you what on earth you are doing. Drain off the hot water and rinse the onion with COLD water. Drain off the cold water.
Once drained, add some salt.... not too much... no more than a teaspoon or so. Just enough salt to lightly cover the onions. Mix. Cut up the limes and squeeze the juice onto the onions. You can add a little water to it if you don't like a real limey taste (no more than 1/4 cup), but I never add water. We like the lime taste strong! Dice up your tomatoes, add to onions. Chop up some cilantro and add in with the onion and tomatoes. Put 1 tablespoon of oil and mix well. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve.

If you've never made lentils before, don't panic... they are SO easy to make.

You can make them by doing the following:
>Lentils
>Chicken Bouillon/Broth
>Water
>Cilantro

Put the lentils in a pot on medium heat with enough water to cover them. I usually add some chicken bouillon or broth to it. As it begins to cook water will evaporate and you might need to add a little water to them as they cook. Once the lentils are soft and cooked I add some chopped cilantro to it.
Sometimes when we want a little meat we cook a piece of chicken and have that as well.

So there you have it, we usually layer it rice on bottom, lentils, chicken, salsa.
Let me know if you have any questions! And happy eating!

4th of July

The 4th of July is just around the corner and I have something fun in my etsy shop to celebrate. Visit my etsy page to order your own 4th of July Pendant Banner.

Visit shop by clicking here.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Several years ago I was looking for ways to save money. I began looking at items that we needed, but were expensive. (Especially on a newly married, young couple in college budget) Laundry detergent seemed to be one of the larger expenses and something I thought we could save some money on. My next door neighbor Kayla told me that she made her own laundry detergent and she loved it. This gave me just the inspiration I needed. I could find a way to make my own laundry soap. Kayla told me that making laundry soap was very easy and I wouldn't regret it. Well, I took to the internet and searched for a laundry soap recipe. I found some for powder detergent and some for liquid detergent. I decided that I would want to have a liquid laundry soap, so I went on from there. I found several different recipes for soap and decided on one that I found to be simple and one I could make my own. As I have made this soap a lot it has evolved and changed and I have made it my own.

So, do it yourself. Test out this recipe for yourself, fall in love and never look back! 

What you will need:

ITEMS YOU WILL NEED: 

*Bar of soap - any kind you want. ($.99-$1.50 a bar) 

*Box of Borax - $6.00 - $7.00 depending on where you get it. 

*Box of Washing Soda - $3.50

*A pot that holds more than 2 gallons. I just bought one at Walmart for like $20 instead of searching for one at the thrift store. The $20 cost was definitely worth it. 

*A cheese grater. $1.00 at the thrift store. 

*A funnel. $.25 at the thrift store. 

*A long spoon. $.25 at the thrift store. 

*3 empty milk jugs or juice containers. - FREE - recycled from the refrigerator.  

* about a half an hour of time.

Don't know where to find Borax or Washing Soda at your local store? Try the isle that has laundry detergents and fabric softeners. This is where you will most likely find it, let's just say I've never not found it there. You will use the Borax and Washing Soda multiple times as you only need 1 cup of each per batch. They all around cost of making this will save you oodles. 

I promise you will thank yourself time and time again for trying this out and will definitely save some pennies, heck even dollars in the process.

The recipe I use is below:

Open Up Shop...

Ok everyone. It's time to open up shop!

As of two weeks ago I finally opened up my etsy shop. I was a little slow getting it up, and it is definitely still a work in progress, but I am very excited to have accomplished this little goal as a part of the big goals I have set for myself.  If you would like to check it out click here.  There are a few items up, and more will be coming this week, so please keep checking back. I also take custom orders! So, if you see something you like, but have an idea you would like even more, let me know.

In the meantime, start your week off right by watching a great pep talk from kid President.