Work In Progress: the forever blanket

About a year and a half ago, I started making granny squares and fell in love with a cool little trick that made a granny square with a big fat polka dot in the middle.  "Make a blanket for the couch," I thought to myself; "I'll never get sick of yellow & grey," I thought.

"How long could it *POSSIBLY* take?!"

I took this picture today when I found the bag containing this half-assembled hot mess.  I'm 5 squares short and even shorter on the patience required to stitch all of these squares together, obviously.

I've decided to just go ahead and finish the darn thing up already.  I'll make the remaining squares tonight and start the incredibly boring task of stitching it all up tomorrow.  I need the motivation to complete it because I just found a really cute idea for matching pixel art blankets to make for my nephews this year (but that's another work in progress post for another day).

What are YOU working on?

52 weeks, week 2

So this is technically week 3 of the new year.  What can I say? I'm perpetually behind. 

Also I realized I only took one photo of all my kids. It's not a great photo but it captures a super awesome moment, and that's what matters.

This baby of mine is getting older by the moment. He wants to do everything his big brothers do, and he's pretty lucky to have awesome brothers who want to include him in everything. 

The other night these 3 sons of mine played with a cloth tape measure and a stuffed animal for hours. Something about dropping it over the banister brought out the cutest baby laughter ever, the screaming giggles! 

It was a moment I want to remember forever. I love my boys!

52 weeks, post 1

Good morning! It has warmed up to -6 (-18 wind chill) so today I feel like celebrating!!! 

In all honesty it has little to do with the weather (cause it still feels bombassdiggity cold to me).......my baby boy is 1 entire year old today!!! Well at 10:40 am he will be, I'm trying to keep him a baby as long as possible. 

Birthdays are always bittersweet for me when they involve my kids. My oldest turned the big double digits 2 weeks ago and now my baby is no longer months old....how does a year go so quickly?

I'm watching him right now playing with toys, dancing while sitting, babbling on about dadada and brudders, and I realize walking is right around the corner. The reality is this is probably the last time I will have a child who is in the baby stage, and from here the time just disappears into thin air. 

But it remains a day to celebrate despite the twinges of sadness I feel. This year has brought so much with it, major surgery when he was 6 months, oh I'm so glad to be past that! We are all stronger for it, more grateful for each other, and closer too. This little boy has made our family perfect :) He is happy and healthy and just the biggest joy!!!

Okay now on to the subject of this post....So last year a couple of the blogs I like to follow did 52 weeks in photos and I decided I'm going to do it this year! It's a photo of your children each week for the 52 weeks of the year. 

I meant to get this post up last night since today is officially the start of the 2nd week of the year (already?!?), but the big boys had their first hockey practice last night and well I was tired ( but I'm officially a hockey mom.....sweet!!). 

So these count as week one because they were taken yesterday ;)

And just for fun, here is a photo of my 3 boys from this week last year!

Sigh, the memories.

If you'd like to join along in the 52 weeks of photos leave a comment with your blog link, I'd love to see your photos!

Clementine Cleaner DIY (with many, MANY pictures)

I've seen plenty of recipes for orange cleaner on the internet for awhile now.  

We've been a clementine family ever since Sullivan was 3 or 4 and could peel it himself so I decided to try my luck with clementine cleaner awhile back.  Citrus is citrus, right?  

Much to my surprise, not only is this stuff amazing on it's own or diluted in a spray bottle with your normal cleaner...

but it completely OWNS those pesky upc stickers on the bottoms of my candle jars.

Even diluted, I spray this on the stickers, wait 30 seconds and they all just peel right off in one piece.  it's crazy good, you guys.  CRAZY. GOOD.

Here's what you need:

Clementines, vinegar & a jar.

seriously, that's it.

I used apple cider vinegar for awhile but I started with white vinegar originally.  

The only difference I've noticed is color and smell but not in the quality of the cleaner.

Step 1:

Peel your clementines.  Put peels in jar, put fruit in mouth.

Cuties is KILLING IT with this sticker.  too cute.

 

Step 2:

Pour vinegar over the peels, almost to the top of the peels.

Ok you caught me, there are 2 different vinegars being poured here.  I finished off my apple cider vinegar about halfway up.  I could have gone out to the store for more but today is the coldest day in Chicago in a very long time, so... no.  I finished off with some rice vinegar I had on hand.  slightly less acidic than most vinegars but it still does the trick.

Step 3:

Set your jar aside.  

Somewhere it's out of the way but still close enough that you can drop more peels in there as you go and add more vinegar.  That's its home for the next 2 weeks.  You might want to hire a metal guard chicken as well, but it's your call.

When your beautiful, bright orange peels look grey and soggy, it's harvest time!

Here I just use a glass measuring cup and hope for the best but feel free to make this process as easy or complicated as you like it to be. 

potato masher? hey, if that's what you're into...

Put the lid back on tightly, make the jar pretty if you like...

but there you go. 

Natural concentrated cleaner and sticky cleanup solution

A purpose for everyday kitchen scraps

Happy New Year!!

We had some snow fall overnight and awoke to sparkly, soft, snowfall this morning too. 

We are spending our New Years Day cozied up inside watching the snow accumulate. Later we will venture outside to shovel and play. Followed by hot cocoa and writing some goals for this new year. 

I hope your day is filled with warmth and love (and a little snow too)!