Money and Babies…

Posted by Gingham Apron in Uncategorized, Random Stuff and tagged with , , , ,

I’m done having them, so don’t go getting ideas. I went looking for a cake recipe and of course loving Smitten Kitchen I clicked on the “Best Birthday Cake” link I saw. I started reading the blog post and inside was tucked a link about $200 toys, which led to a now nearly 3 year old New York Times article.

It talked about how due to the recession parents had wised up about their spending. Things were purchased second hand, clothes included. The baby product industry is HUGE. I mean think about all the baby showers and things that parents feel they need. New babies are expensive when you look at it that way.

Sophia came along and taught me a lesson as a parent and a consumer…

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Beeswax Lotion

Posted by Gingham Apron in Bath and Body and tagged with ,

I mentioned in my last post that I had an incoming order from BrambleBerry.  With shipping my order was almost $40, which seems asinine to me to be honest, but I still think it’s worth it.  Thus far I’ve whipped out 2 pint jars of beeswax lotion, a half pint jar of deodorant, and 7 tubes of lip balm (the deodorant and lip balm will be different posts).  Despite all that I still have a decent amount of stuff left so I can make myself a perfume solid, or homemade vapor rub if the need arises (Sophia has been sick and congested quite a bit since Nola started at the charter school).

 

Yes, it's really got a green-ish yellow color like that....

 

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I think I’ve mentioned it …

Posted by Gingham Apron in Uncategorized

I’m bad at blogging.

Horrible.

okay I downright suck at it.  ;)

Lots has changed since August.  If I thought the middle of the month was fun the 2 weeks that followed included a move and the decision to give up our house.  We’ve since completed a short sale on it, and frankly we were amazed that it sold as fast as it did, and that we didn’t end up in foreclosure. 

Nola is in a public charter school, and struggling.  Homeschooling a strong willed child is not easy for the strong willed mother.  We’re just biding time until we get in to the charter Montessori school (next school year) that both of the girls have fallen in love with. 

I’ve been working more on my photography.  I helped at a wedding and have done a couple large scale model shoots as well as two private shoots.  I’ve also booked my first wedding!  Baby steps, but they are steps.  :D

With all the changes our focuses have had to change when it comes to money.  Of course this means my once happy little organic lifestyle – when I never took into consideration that I was spending $200 a week easy – has had to come to a screeching halt.  Even the nice organic milk is a treat. My bi-weekly household budget is $250.  I’ve got to get back to making as much as I can at home.

I have slashed the amount of meat we eat so I can still buy organic grass fed meat though.  I can’t give up the organic meat because traditional meat skeeves me out to the point of preferring vegetarianism over meat eating.  I’m hoping to set aside income tax return to put towards a quarter or half cow from a local rancher. 

 

Tomorrow I have an order coming in from Bramble Berry and I’ll soon be posting my adventures in lip balm and lotion making as well as a second adventure in deodorant making.  :)

Long week…

Posted by Gingham Apron in Photography, Random Stuff, Self

It’s been a long week around my house. Nola started first grade last Monday, and since I’m attempting homeschooling this year it’s been a battle of wills as she wants to go back to public school. The household acquired a traffic ticket. I checked my bank account to find unauthorized transactions in progress. The end of the week graced me with some GI issues that left me with lasting issues through even part of today. So a blog post has been in the very very back of my mind most of the last week.

In my downtime I’ve been looking at two different photo hosting type pages. SmugMug and Zenfolio. I’m pretty sure that my “about me” states that I have a love of photography. What I did not mention is that I’m in the process of starting up doing photography on more than just a hobby level.

White Wave Photography

White Wave Photography is the start of what I hope will be enough of a source of income that I can stay with the kids, but still get to do something I have loved for years. I like other arts and crafts, but have found that I enjoy doing them for fun at my own leisure. I will continue to do things like dye yarn, but just for friends, family, and myself. I have yet to find myself bored behind a camera because the focus through the lens is always changing.

My photography site will not be just portraits and candid shots. I love sunsets, storms, structures, lakes, rivers, the ocean, mountains, wildlife, flowers, fires .. anything and everything that can be photographed. I’m forever saying “I wish I had my camera with me” when I see something that I think would be a good picture. David fully expects me to take my camera with me just about everywhere I go, and he knows me well because I do take it with my just about everywhere (obviously not grocery shopping because that’s just boring).

This last week I’ve also been getting started with freezer meals, which I will talk about more in my next post I’m sure. :)

Tuna Casserole

Posted by Gingham Apron in Uncategorized

Roux scares me.

I’ve not had the proverbial testicular fortitude to try to make it until this tuna casserole. I do not claim that it’s anything similar to what someone who makes cajun dishes would make, but it did made a thickened sauce that I needed for the casserole. I’m actually going to be using the same method tonight for dinner to make another type of casserole. :)

Mmmm I want more now that I'm looking at the pictures.

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Homemade Butter

Posted by Gingham Apron in Uncategorized

In my honey wheat bread post a few days ago I made mention of homemade butter. I love homemade butter. My kids love homemade butter. Nola asks for it with homemade bread. It’s like .. well .. bread and butter together. ;)

When I was back in Texas I found a page showing how to make homemade butter with pure muscle by shaking the hell out of a container. I admit I used that method up until a few weeks ago. I stumbled upon a much easier method. Yes, Pinterest was involved, how did you know? Since then homemade butter has been a staple.

This is why here Meg, this is why were here.

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Recycling Crayons

Posted by Gingham Apron in Crafts and tagged with , ,

Today brought an impromptu lesson with my eldest that I will explain more about in another post. When my youngest got done with her bath she asked to do lessons as well and I asked her what she wanted to do. Her answer was “lassens!”. Alrighty I see this is going to go real far. So I picked a topic to Google for her. Crayons! She’s been so into coloring lately that I figured it was right up her alley. Low and behold the YouTube videos happened to have the old Sesame Street clip on crayon making (it was played when *I* was a kid). So we watched that, and then one about markers being made.

Here’s where I admit that I tend to hoard things sometimes. Things like broken crayons, because they’re still totally usable just not as nice as unbroken crayons. So I have a ziplock bag I keep on the bookcase of crayons I find that have met their match with one of my kids. Today I decided it was time to use them!

Not exactly like normal crayons .. but much cooler!

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Honey Wheat Bread

Posted by Gingham Apron in Bread and tagged with , ,

I was going to bake bread in the middle of the day just for pictures, which frankly is downright insane due to the fact that it’s been over 90 every single day (this past Friday my car was reading 104 on the way home). So mid-day bread never happened. So I suppose I will make do with my night time pictures that somewhat annoy me because of poor lighting. The recipe needs to be shared.

For people who own a grain mill and are looking for an awesome bread recipe look no further. My wonderful friend Stephanie who gave me the South West Chicken recipe also gave me the honey wheat bread recipe!

Stephanie.. without you I’d be lost. I’d never have cloth diapered, purchased a grain mill, found Azure Standard, or have a 2 fresh loaves of bread sitting on my stove right now. :D

Mmmm .. delicious.

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Red Wine Pasta Sauce

Posted by Gingham Apron in Condements and Sauces

I don’t claim to be proficient in the kitchen. Since that is the case I have no issues admitting that I use google rather a lot to form general ideas on how to accomplish things. Things like making a pasta sauce that aren’t from a recipe calling for WAY too much oregano. Don’t ask how I know.

Many recipes I saw called for white wine. After some more googling, and consulting with Stacy about red wine versus white wine, I decided to go ahead with red wine as it’s what I had on hand. I’m pretty glad I did too.

Nothing better than sticking your head right over a simmering pot of pasta sauce!

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Upside Down Potato and Onion Tart

Posted by Gingham Apron in Uncategorized

Whew! Finally getting around to posting after the network issues and then David deciding to upgrade our computers to OS X Lion. Then there was the adventure to Lake Tahoe with the girls which landed me with what I think qualifies as the worst sunburn of my life. Despite the fact that my laptop causes me severe pain I’m editing photos and posting anyhow! ;)

Now for the real reason for this post…

Cheesy potatoes and onion? YES PLEASE! :D

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