craft it: jewelry display

I have some super fun pieces of jewelry.  Some were gifts from my sweet sisters and friends.  Some were impulsively purchased while others caught my eye for a while before I indulged.  But the results were always the same: a big ole dusty mess on top of my dresser:

The site is anything but inspiring folks.  I ended up just wearing my wedding bands and the same necklace every day.  I love my wedding bands and the silver everyday necklace, but I wanted my jewelry to speak to my fun personality....because all my wear-the-same-darn-thing-every-stinking-day look was saying about me was that I was boring.  And I'm not.  Trust me.  I really quite fun.  Really!

Anyways, back to the issue at hand.  I scoured Pinterest for ideas but couldn't find any that were really "me."  I felt like the whole frame-backed-with-chicken-wire was great, but a little over done.  And, as you can see in the picture above, I was trying the whole jewelry-tree idea----but was really going to need a jewelry-forest to get the problem fixed.

In walked inspiration:  a $1 bin of old cabinet inlays at a yard sale!

I had some off-white paint in the garage.  I wasn't even sure if the paint would be good...but I figured that the cabinet inlays were only $1, so I wasn't really ready to splurge on new paint.

The inlays cleaned up pretty good!  After arranging the panels in the order I thought I'd hang them on the wall, I added hangers to the back

 Next I used a little rub-n-buff to add a little interest to the panels

 You always need an assistant while crafting.  How cute is mine?!?!

 Yikes.  Its looks like I got a little to interested in my assistant and didn't quite see the mess I was making!  Word to the wise---rub-n-buff dries QUICK! 

 Fortunately, it covers pretty well too!  Here's a look at the edges

 Next up: drilling pilot holes for my hooks.  I covered the area with painters tape to reduce wood splitage and paint chipage.  Yep, made up two words right there.  You can do that with a blog.

 Now I had to find a spot to hang them up!  This is the wall our bed faces.  The door on the left is the door to the bathroom and the door on the right is the door to the hallway (where our media wall is!)  I chose to hang the jewelry display to the left of the bathroom door.  Why?  Because we leave that door open a lot and it would hide the display most of the time.  Hey, I married a man who for some reason doesn't want to see my jewelry all the time.  what?!?

couldn't quite get josh or elliot out of the shot. oh well!

 But, that sweet jewelry-display-hating man did actually help me measure and hang the display.  Bless him.

 I wanted to do as little damage to the wall as possible.  These furniture pads should help eliminate scratches.  The display will "rock" a little bit when taking bigger pieces of jewelry off.

 Oh.  Be still my heart.

 So fresh and so clean.  Just waiting to be filled with so much awesomeness.

Oh, my.  My name is Blair.  So nice to meet you.  You look fabulous.

 I want to get my ears pierces 204982 more times so I can wear all of you at once!

 Even after 68 hooks, I still ran out of room for my headbands and stud earrings.  Oh well.  That's a little better!

I will say that my jewelry organization has already helped my accessorizing immensely.  Its also caused more jewelry-buying though.  Eek.  Good thing I have a few more panels left over---might need to add one or two more!

elliot weekly: week 27

Elliot loves Con Queso---she smiles SO big when she sees him!

What we've been up to this week:

Smack Those Lips: Elliot has been making this funny lip-sucking-but-smacking sound this week.  Its been funny to see her learn to do something new.  She'll learn a new skill (like smacking her lips) and not do an old skill (like making funny noises, grabbing her ears, etc).  It is really wild to watch her learn all of this stuff.

Back to Front:  Elliot has finally been rolling over!  She's rolled over several times this week and even got stuck on her belly during a nap.  The whole stuck-on-her-stomach fiasco wasn't so exciting, but I'm glad that she seems a little more interested in rolling around.  She'd still rather have you pick her up or grab a toy for her--and honestly, who am I to complain, I pretty much love holding her. 

Outdoor Girl:  Elliot has been loving her outside play time lately.  I took an old quilt to work with me and we've been having a blast playing outside.  I have to keep an eye out for the wandering chickens, but other than that we're having a great time.  Elliot seems to really enjoy all the noises (birds, breeze, cars and trains) as well as watching the chipmunks and squirrels run around.

Sitting Pretty:  The bumbo has been quite handy!  I really think its helped Elliot do a better job of sitting up.  She needs to kind of have her legs in a "v" shape and have some toys in between, but she's doing ok.  If she sees/hears something interesting to her left or right, she'll face-plant for sure! 

Sound Asleep:  I'd like to say our little babe is officially sleeping through the night....although, I'm not going to say that....because as soon as I do, she'll be up all night!  But it seems that the combination of quitting the pacifier and the Ferber method of falling asleep have worked great!  A friend asked me if I'll use a pacifier for our next babe.  Truth is, I'm not sure!  The pacifier was great and horrible....I'm just glad she kicked the habit quickly! 

Fair Life:  This week the fair was in town....and we took full advantage.  I love people-watching at the fair.  I make up names for people and create full dialogue.  Its kind of amazing.  Here are some family pictures:

elliot....not so interested

elliot was MUCH more excited once she got her overalls on
thanks hef for the sweet outfit! elliot totally loved it :)

!

love my sweet baby girl!

cook it: back bean and sweet potato soup

go ahead and drool.
i promise this meal is worth it!

I loved the cool weather this past weekend!  It made me so excited about soup season this fall.  I found this recipe on Pinterest last week and thought it sounded like the perfect quirky alternative to regular old vegetarian chili.  I don't know if its the blend of spices or the addition of sweet potatoes, but this soup is great!  This recipe serves about 8-10, so invite over a few friends and enjoy!

ingredients:

1 1/2 onions chopped

2 gloves garlic minced

1 poblano pepper diced* (optional)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/4 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder

28 ounces petite diced tomatoes (in juice)

8 cups of broth (i make my own veggie broth)

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 large carrot peeled and diced

1 large sweet potato peeled and diced

1 cup frozen corn

2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup fire roasted salsa

1/4 cup corn starch

directions:

1) heat olive oil over medium-high heat, add onion and saute for 5 minutes (until tender and golden)

2) add garlic and poblano pepper and saute for another minutes (until frgrant)

3) add cumin and chili powder and saute for another 2 minutes

4) lower heat to medium-low and add tomatoes and broth (save 1/4 cup broth), make sure to loosen any browned bits in pan

5) add all remaining ingredients except cornstarch and reserved broth

6) in a small bowl whisk together cornstarch and remaining broth until smooth.  add this to the chili pot and stir until well mixed.  bring to a boil for 2 minutes.

7) simmer over low heat uncovered for 1 hour. the continue to cook with a lid for 30 minutes.

serve topped with fresh cilantro, monterrey jack cheese and crusty bread. 

all in a morning's work

Someone recently asked me how it felt being a new mom.  I told them that I felt like it must be what being a postal worker is like: no matter how much mail they deliver a day, there's always going to be more the next day regardless of the weather.  Around our house it feels like there's always something that needs to be done.  There's always clothes to be washed, dishes to put away, toys to tidy up.  Sometimes it feels like the list is just endless!  

Here's my normal pre-work routine:

7:00am feed and change elliot

7:15am hand elliot off to josh

7:20am out the door for a quick run

8:00am get ready for work (while josh and i take turns entertaining elliot)

8:30am make coffee, pack lunch, pack elliot's stuff for work and clean kitchen

8:55am rush out the door to work

this shows about 2/3 of our messy kitchen
funny part is, this is just messy from the night before!

take out clean dishes and put in dirty ones
take out recycling (cause we're green like that, ya know)
put away expressed milk (can you see it over there? ha)
try and keep elliot out of josh's snack bowl

"who, me? mom, i'm just helping sort the snacks"

Then I come home from work, put Elliot to sleep for a quick pre-dinner cat nap, try and get a little crafting in, feed elliot, give elliot a bath, attempt to cook dinner, put elliot to sleep, attempt to put away as many dishes as I can without waking the babe, hang out with Josh, feed elliot again, go to sleep.....all to begin the entire process again the next morning.  So yeah...come rain, snow, sleet or hail, there's always more mail.

cook it: chocolate pecan pie

My dears, let me introduce you to my new favorite fall dessert.  Yep, my chocolate chip pumpkin muffins have been kicked to the curb (except that now that I thought of them, I'm so tempted to make them!) to make way for this beauty:

another great recipe from Tupelo Honey

I tried to give a few slices of this one away, but Josh refused.  Yep, we ate the entire pie ourselves (over several days of course...because chocolate pecan pie is a perfectly acceptable breakfast item.)  Trust me, this recipe is a total winner and will make you the hit of your holiday party this season!  Check it out:

Ingredients:

pie dough (i always use premade!)

3/4 cup light corn syup

3/4 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons tupelo honey

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 and 1/2 cups pecan pieces

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

directions:

1) roll out pie dough into 10" pie pan and crimp edges

2) in a large bowl combine light corn syrup, sugar, sea salt, eggs, vanilla and honey.  mix well.

3) stir in the melted butter and pour entire mixture into pie crust

4) top with pecan pieces and semi-sweet chocolate chips

5) bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes (or until the crust is brown and the pie filling is bubbly)

tips:

-if you don't have honey on hand, you can use a total of 1 cup light corn syrup and 1 and 1/2 cups sugar instead

-make sure to rotate the pie half-way through baking to ensure even baking. be careful--the mixture is very soup-y while cooking!

-don't hesitate to bring the pie out a little earlier than you think.  this pie doesn't really "set" until it starts cooling. its not like making brownies or a cake :)

-serve with a side of ice cream and/or coffee.

-be warned: you will likely get a marriage proposal out of this pie.  you're already married?  well, you'll probably not have to do the dishes, feel free to make a mess while baking.  yes, it is that good!

team amy

Thank you to all of you who supported us financially and in prayer for the Komen race this past weekend.  It was a joy and privilege to be a part of Team Patwa this year, thank you so much for joining with me to fight cancer on behalf of our friend Amy.

This was the second year that I ran for Team Patwa.  Elliot was just the little secret that we were keeping during last year during the run.  I was glad that she got to be a part of the run this year (well, as much a part of it as a baby could be, getting pushed in the stroller and falling asleep!)  I ran the race without my Ipod.  I just spent the time praying for Amy, her family, her second fight against this cancer, her friends and support team, her doctors, those that she comes in contact with and her story of faith.

There are so many things that I want to make sure I teach Elliot.  I want to teach her music and etiquette, running and piano, but I hope I teach her the most important thing: to love Jesus and love others.  I want her to know the assurance of the Lord's presence...that she would abide in His love...that she would experience such an overflowing of His spirit that it would flow into the lives of those around her.  I see those things in Amy and I am different because of it.

So, not to be cheesy or anything, but the race this past weekend is over but Amy's journey continues.  Please continue to pray for her and her sweet family.  If you'd like to support Amy (or her family) in any way, please let me know.  We're always on the lookout for a new way to show the Patwa family some love :)

amy, getting her grove on
so typical, hahaha

it was chilly!  mid-40s during the race, yikes

elliot loved the race!

my friend richard, sleep training and taking away the pacifier

(those of y'all not interested in baby stuff will probably want to skip this post entirely, hahahaha!)

I've made a new friend named Richard.  Richard Ferber.  Dr. Richard Ferber that is.

Now, I know I'm taking a risk by talking about Dr. Ferber.  It seems like nothing polarizes moms quite like a mom's decision to let their baby cry-it-out.  Well, here goes nothing!

See, the way I'd heard people talk about "the ferber method" made it sound like they just left their kid in their room to just cry for hours and hours, without ever checking on them, until they fell asleep exhausted.  It sounded a little extreme to me.  We've been having so much trouble getting Elliot to sleep-through-the-night and a lot of my girl friends were telling me to "just let her cry."  I figured that I'd read Dr. Ferber's book and check him, and his methods, out for myself (because I'm probably the most skeptical person you'll ever meet---I don't take anything at face value!)  

Here's the thing---Richard ain't so extreme after all!

We initially "sleep trained" Elliot when she was around 3 months old.  It was a modified version of the Ferber method and was suggested to us by our pediatrician.  We'd have a normal night-time routine (bath, eat, pajamas) and watch for signs that Elliot was ready for bed (rubbing her eyes, fussy, etc).  The goal was to put her in her crib semi-sleepy (eyes at "half mast") and train her to fall asleep on her own.  We were to let her cry for 5 minutes, go in and settle her for 1-2 minutes, let her cry for 5 more minutes and repeat the routine for up to 30 minutes.  If Elliot was still crying at 30 minutes, we were to do whatever it took to get her eyes back to "half mast", we could pick her up, rock her, sing and even feed her if we needed to.  The training went really well, and in about 10 days we had a routine where Elliot would fall asleep on her own.  I considered it a successful routine because we weren't rocking her to sleep, nursing her to sleep, driving her around in the car or anything that was a parent-dependent sleep prop.

The problem?  Giving her a pacifier to fall asleep.

After reading Dr. Ferber's book, I realized that it was most likely letting Elliot use a pacifier may have been our biggest problem in getting her to sleep through the night.  Yes, the pacifier was our greatest friend in getting her to calm down and get to sleep.  But the problem was nearly the same every night: Elliot would wake up around 1am or 2am, need her pacifier, go right back to sleep, wake up around 4am or so and need her pacifier again.  Sometimes we'd get a night where she might sleep until 6am-ish, but it was anything but consistent.

Our pediatrician-advised method worked really well on Elliot then, so when we started having problems with her sleeping again, I thought we'd take a similar approach.  I read Dr. Ferber's book and evaluated his suggestions for myself .  The book was pretty helpful (and not at all as militant as I'd heard) and his approach seemed pretty similar to our pediatrician's, so I figured we'd give it a try.  Josh skimmed over the chapters on sleep training, self-soothing and pacifier use and we agreed to give the process one week.  We were both encouraged by the fact that Dr Ferber claimed that weaning from the pacifier was one of the easiest sleep-prop habits to break!

We ditched the pacifier and went cold-turkey on Sunday night.  Here's how our results on how long it took elliot to fall asleep and what time she woke up in the morning:

Sunday Night: 1 hour 40 minutes---slept until 5:50am

Monday Night: 16 minutes----slept until 6:10am

Tuesday Night: 38 minutes---awake at 1am, took 30 minutes to settle----slept until 6:50am
Wednesday Night: 13 minutes---slept until 6:20am
Thursday Night: 34 minutes---slept until 6:30am
Friday Night: 12 minutes---slept until we woke her at 6am (leaving for the race)
Saturday Night: 5 minutes---slept until 6:30am
Sunday Night: asleep immediately, with no crying!!

I couldn't believe that elliot was able to sleep so well during the night!  And, she woke so happy in the morning.  Most days she woke up "talking" in her room.  So much cuter than a crying baby at 2am ;)

Dr Ferber encouraged us to focus on Elliot's night time sleep and that her naps would fall into place after her night time sleep was set.  Our goal is a 60-90 minute morning and afternoon nap with a 30-45 minute cat-nap before dinner.  Here were our nap results:

Monday: no morning nap, 35 min afternoon nap, 45 min pre-dinner nap

Tuesday: 45 min morning nap, 35 min afternoon nap, 45 min pre-dinner nap

Wednesday: no morning nap, 31 minute + 55 minute afternoon nap, 40 min pre-dinner nap
Thursday: 38 minute morning nap, 1 hour 15 minute afternoon nap, 40 minute pre-dinner nap
Friday: 45 minute morning nap, 40 minute afternoon nap, 35 minute pre-dinner nap
Saturday: 20 minute morning nap (during race) + 30 minute morning nap, 40 minute afternoon nap, 45 minute pre-dinner nap
Sunday: 40 minute morning nap, 35 minute afternoon nap, no pre-dinner nap

As you can see, our naps are not great yet.  Elliot has definitely needing more attention during the day, but I'm totally ok with that.  I'm fortunate enough to have a job where I can have Elliot sitting close to me or even in my lap.  The extra cuddles she's needed this week are fine me be!  Elliot is doing so well at night that I'm sure the nap-time stuff will work its self out.  And who knows, Elliot may just be a 45 minute napping baby!

My tips, suggestions, rants, ravings, or whatever:

1) use a stopwatch or timer. its amazing how hearing your baby cry can sound like 40 minutes when its really only been 7 minutes!

2) keep a written record. it'll help you see if your baby is progressing in one area over another.

3) pick a time you can work with.  we'd already let elliot cry for 5 minutes at a time, so we started on the "day 2" suggested allotments, instead of the smaller increments of time suggested in the "day 1" routine.  dr ferber also suggests that you could start with smaller increments of time if you need to.

4) give it a couple of days.  josh was ready to throw the towel in after the first night, but we both saw the improvements and were ready for a few more days.

5) its all like shoots and ladders.   my sister lauren said that parenting is a lot like shoots and ladders, and she's right!  just as soon as you think you're doing right, something else is going to fall to pieces---but its ok! we're in this thing for the long haul, so we have to remember that Elliot is going to sleep well----and as soon as she starts sleeping well regularly, she's going to have a rough night (or several rough nights!)

elliot asleep at work
without a pacifier!