The Twins' Care Bear Nursery

For the twins nursery I wanted to do something bright and cheery that they could enjoy for a while.  I love classic care bears and decided to use those type of colors for the nursery. Also the Care Bear quilts would go good with the decor. We had already painted the room yellow when we moved into our house 3 years ago (planning that it would be a gender neutral nursery).

Their changing station- my husband's great grandfather made this changing station for him as a baby and it is still in great shape for us to use for the twins- there is storage behind the doors which works perfectly for holding cloth diaper covers, cloth wipes, receiving blankets and burp clothes!

We kept the twin bed in the bed room because I knew with twins I would be spending a lot of nights in the nursery. I sewed the curtains and matching pillow covers several years ago for a house I had in college. I made the care bear pillow to match the rest of the decor.

A book shelf for holding toys and books.

Little Man's bassinet/pack and play with his quilt hanging above it.

My sister drew this picture for the twins before they were born.

Diaper basket with all of their GMD newborn pre folds ready to go. It makes me sad that they have almost outgrown their newborn  pre folds already!

I made the cradle pad cover from leftover quilt fabric.

Care Bear lamp along with little monsters from my other sister.

I made this cross stitch as soon as I knew I was pregnant.  It was done before we even knew we were having twins and it hangs in the nursery. It is a design that came from Care Bear Baby Book.

The changing station. The babies love the little rattles while they are getting their diapers changed.  I made the changing pad cover using this tutorial from Family Julius.

For the rainbow and cloud mobiles I used a Rainbow Brite Mobile pattern that I altered to fit my needs. I used felt for the rainbow, stars and hearts. I used a cotton fabric for the clouds. I love the way it looks in the corner of the room and the twins already love staring at it as it moves.

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Care Bear Baby Quilts for Twins

I had previously posted finished Care Bear Cross stitches on my blog. I had always wanted to make a baby quilt out of them when the time came.  I had four of them all ready to go- bedtime bear, good luck bear, cozy heart penguin and proud heart cat (yes I am a nerd who knows all the names of the Care Bears and the Care Bear Cousins!).  But then I found out we were having twins! I knew I wouldn't have time to stitch four more Care Bears, so I altered the quilt design to have an appliqué in the center square and put their name with a border on the lower right square.  Then I stitched Baby Hugs and Baby Tugs Bear which was perfect for Little Man and Little Lady's quilts!

The finished quilt for Little Lady.

I used the quilt as you go method to put these quilts together, because I don't have a quilting machine at home and I knew the shop I usually take quilts to couldn't have them done in time for the babies' arrival.  There was definitely a learning curve with getting the back to line up right, so Little Lady's quilt is definitely sewn better than Little Man's because I did it second.  It is a method I would use again, but probably only on quilts this small or smaller.

The finished quilt for Little Man.

The quilts hang in their nursery and I love how cheerful they look on the walls.  I also use them as a background for the twins monthly growth pictures. 

 Little Lady at 2 Months

Little Man at 2 Months.

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Homemade Chunky Spaghetti Sauce

This is a sauce that I love to make in the summer when the garden produce is plentiful. I then freeze it in quart bags and enjoy throughout the winter.

One batch makes about 3 quarts.

Chunky Spaghetti Sauce

1 tsp olive oil

1 large yellow squash, diced

1 large zucchini squash, diced

3-4 peppers (I use green, banana, anaheim), diced

1 large onion, diced

15 medium tomatoes, diced (and peeled if you prefer)

1 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp oregano

1 Tbsp basil

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp parsley

quart freezer bags

Directions:

Heat olive oil in large stockpot over medium heat.

Add squash, pepper and onion. Saute until soft. Add diced tomatoes and seasonings. Bring to a boil then reduce heat. Simmer for about 90 minutes until sauce has cooked down. 

Let cool and measure into freezer bags.

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I may be linking up with some of these parties!

Grilled Pizza

I have mentioned before that I don't like to heat up the oven during the summer in order to keep the house cool. But usually I make an exception for homemade pizza. Recently one of my friends has been brining grilled pizza to get togethers and so I thought I would give it a try.  I found several recipes on the internet that described the technique, but I used my usual dough recipe from "The Simple Art of Eating Well Cookbook".  Honestly this pizza was better than usual and I don't think I will go back to cooking it in the oven, even in the winter (depending on how cold it is!).

Here is the recipe:

Dough (you can use pre made dough if you like): 

3/4 cup lukewarm water

1 package active dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

Toppings (you really can use whatever you want, this is just what I used):

6 oz pizza sauce

6 oz canadian bacon

1/2 medium yellow squash, sliced thin

1 small onion, diced

3 banana peppers, diced

6 olives, sliced

1 handful baby spinach, chopped

6 cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced

Stir water, yeast and sugar together in large bowl. Let sit for about 5 minutes until yeast is frothy. Stir in both flours and salt. I like to use my hands to mix it until the dough comes together.

Place onto lightly floured work surface and knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic- about 5-10 minutes.  Place dough in well oiled bowl, cover with clean kitchen towel and set in a warm place to let it rise. Let it rise about 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.

Prepare all toppings. I sauteed the onions, peppers and squash to make sure they were cooked through.

When the dough has risen roll it out on a lightly floured work space. Turn the grill on high heat and clean off burner. Spray grill with cooking spray to prevent sticking.

Prepare a bowl of olive oil and a basting brush. Brush one side of the rolled pizza dough with olive oil and place on prepared grill surface, oil side down. Dough will start cooking quickly.  When the bottom of the dough has browned flip it over using 2 spatulas. 

Working quickly apply a thin coat of olive oil to the top of the dough, put on sauce, toppings and cheese.  I made sure and had all of my ingredients laid out on a cookie sheet beside the grill. Once all toppings are on close lid of grill and let cook until cheese is melted. Check periodically to make sure bottom isn't burning.

Enjoy!!

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Chevron Birthday Quilt

A while ago I decided that I wanted to try and make a quilt for my nieces and nephews on their 10th birthdays. My oldest nephews birthday came up faster than expected but I did get a quilt made for him. I asked him several months ago what he would want to decorate his room like if he had his choice and he said he would want a Kansas State room. Of course I was totally happy to make a K-State quilt.  

I used old jeans to make the denim part of the chevron pattern. I used this tutorial for making the chevron pattern without having to make triangle pieces. 

I used interfacing to cut out the letters and the powercat and stitching them on using a blanket stitch on my machine.

I decided to tie this quilt and it was a pretty simple process.

I am so happy with how this quilt turned out and I hope that Garrett likes it just as much!!

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I will be linking up with some of these parties!