Happy Valentines Day!

What's that, you say? Valentines was over a week and a half ago? Well, the decorations are still up at my house! And I'm just now getting around to blogging about them. What can I say, I'm a little slow. I have a box full of vintage Valentines I found at my grandparent's house that I've kept, and this year I decided to frame some of them with some scrapbook paper for Valentine's Decorations. What do you think?

Also my sweet husband gave me some lovely flowers. He bought two bouquets so I could combine them into one arrangement since he knows I like to arrange flowers. So thoughtful, that one. I think I'll keep him!

And I got him this DVD, because, you know, he's a rock star.

Oopa!

Since Nancy shared her recipe for her salad dressing after our Greek themed birthday party, I thought I'd share my recipe for tatziki sauce. The rock star isn't such a fan of gyro meat, as he relates it to meatloaf, mystery meat, etc. So when we make gyros, we just grill steak with gyro type seasonings on it and slice it thin. Mostly, I just need an excuse to eat that tatziki sauce. Oh man, I love this stuff!

Tatziki Sauce:
1 pint Greek Style Yogurt*
2 Cucumbers
2-3 cloves garlic
1 Lemon
salt

Peel cucumbers, then cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds with a spoon and discard. Dice cucumbers, and add to yogurt. Peel garlic cloves and grate with a fine grater over the bowl with yogurt and cucumbers. Juice lemon and add juice, salt to taste, but I usually do about 1 tsp. Now, enjoy, because it's delicious. Yeah, it's that easy!

*If you can't find Greek yogurt (I've been able to get it at Macey's), you can use regular plain yogurt, and strain it of the extra liquid through a tea towel or paper towels and a sieve. Keep in mind that you'll probably want to start out with more than a pint so you end up with about a pint after it's strained.

I also got my mom's recipe for making pita's. They don't end up with a pocket in the middle, but they're really tasty, and work good for making wrap style gyros.

Pita Bread
1/4 Cup warm water
1 tbsp yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
3 cups flour*
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Combine water, yeast, and sugar in mixer and allow yeast to bloom. Add buttermilk, flour, salt, and baking soda, combine and run mixer for a few minutes to knead the dough. Allow dough to rise for about an hour, then pound it down and divide into eight equal pieces. Roll out each piece into a round, and cook on stove top over medium-high heat until browned, about 2-3 minutes per side. Now throw on some of that tatziki sauce, and gyro meat, because they're best fresh. We also decided that these would work well as individual pizza crusts, or as naan for the next time you make curry or tikka masala.

* I used all plain white flour but my mom made them with 1/2 white 1/2 wheat flour, and both ways were tasty.

1, 2, 3

1. Last call for Haiti Donations through my shop. Thanks to everyone who supported the effort. It feels so nice to help, even if it's just a little.

2. So you know how Ina always says to get the "really good" ingredients, and that the mozzarella from the grocery store is just rubber? Well, in an effort to live up to Ina (not all of us live in the Hampton's where there are cheese stores), I made my own mozzarella cheese, you know, from milk and stuff. Okay, so really, Brian did a lot of it. But it was pretty exciting! I am a horrible food photographer, but suffice it to say, it turned out really well. And what did I make with this homemade cheese? Pizza. I know I was supposed to make, like, a caprese salad or something elegant, but we're just pizza people. I will say that everything on the pizza (crust, sauce, cheese) was homemade, except for the pepperonis. And really, who wants to know how that is made? Anyway, it was a fun activity, and if you want to try it, click here for the directions I used. And a special thanks to Mom, who informed me that rennet can be found at the grocery store in the Jello section.

3. Back by popular demand, here are some pictures of my exceptionally cute baby:

More Items Posted

I have a couple of new items posted in the shop, and have at least one more necklace to post before the end of the donation period. Here are a couple pictures, but click here to go to the shop and see what is available.

Thank you to everyone who has made a purchase! It means so much to me.

What I Can Do

As a new mother, I spend a fair bit of time nursing my baby. And to keep myself entertained while doing so, I'll read, surf the Internet, or watch TV. I don't know if you've watched much TV lately, but if you've turned on CNN, it's pretty much constant coverage of the Haiti earthquake and ensuing spiral into chaos. Here I sit on my big comfy couch, in my nice, temperature-regulated, structurally-sound home, feeding my baby, while watching Soledad O'Brien report about orphaned babies in Haiti with no formula.

Que the tears and feelings of helplessness.

It was a familiar feeling. I remembered feeling that way when I read about NieNie's accident. But that familiarity reminded me that I am, in fact, not helpless. DesignMom empowered me to know that even if my talents cannot directly contribute to the cause, there is some way to help. I may not be able to, quite literally, rescue a child from imminent danger like Anderson Cooper, but I have the ability to help in my own small way. And if Larry King can auction off his suspenders for the cause, I can sell my jewelry, and donate all proceeds to the relief effort. So that's what I'm doing. For any jewelry sold in my etsy shop by January 31st, I will be donating 100% of the proceeds. I'll be posting a couple of new items in the shop this coming week as well, so check back regularly.

Make a purchase if you have the means, and please help spread the word through your own blogs, and we can all help those in such desperate need.

Thank you-

Angela

Puj Tub Review

Whoa.

Did you know that having a baby will totally consume your entire life? It's true. Don't get me wrong, it's not in a bad way. There's nothing else I'd rather have consume my days. And nights. Well, maybe it'd be nice if my nights were still consumed by sleep, but other than that, nothing. I even have an extremely helpful, hands-on husband, but somehow the baby seems to dominate our attentions. But, I mean, look at her. She's so dang cute, how could she not captivate your attention?

Also, did you know that a baby can totally make you feel like an idiot? It's true. Even though I have had previous experience with other people's babies, mine is sure keeping me humble and reminding me that I have a lot to learn when it comes to taking care of her. Fortunately, she won't remember anything from this part of her life. The seemingly simplest of tasks, it turns out, are not always so simple.
For instance, let's say I was changing the baby's diaper, because a good mom knows that you're supposed to change your babies diaper. I've even got these fancy diapers that change color when the diaper is wet, so you know the diaper needs to be changed. See, that sounds pretty easy. I can do that. But maybe I didn't know that sometimes babies will go ahead and relieve themselves right in the middle of you changing their diaper. And there's no way to stop it from getting all over my once sweet little baby, who is now not-so-sweet.

Okay, deep breath to gather yourself. You can handle this. Remind yourself of all your many accomplishments, you college grad, you. You'll just give your baby a bath, and she'll be sweet again. No problem.
So I get out the baby bath tub. It looks something like this:

It got the job done, but not so easily. I had to entirely devote one hand to holding her upright so she didn't go under water. It turns out there's no good way to hold a slippery-wet baby with one hand. Especially not one who's wiggling and kicking, because she's naked and wet, and can tell her mom has no idea how to hold her upright with one hand. But if I used both hands, I couldn't actually bathe her. We'd just be sitting there, awkwardly starring at each other, wishing one of us had telekinesis to move the wash cloth over her. So we muddled through and eventually got her clean.

And then one day, the UPS man brings this to my doorstep:

No, not another cute baby, a Puj tub! Let's all give three cheers for Internet giveaways. Now when I give the baby a bath, the tub holds the baby upright for me, and she doesn't feel insecure, so she's not wiggling and kicking. She's actually quite content to sit there while I bathe her without the aid of super-human powers. Awesome, because I don't have those.

Thanks Puj!

Giving Thanks

1. A beautiful, healthy baby girl. This shot is from when she was two days old, but I think she gets a little cuter every day.
   


2. All the amazing doctors and nurses who helped get her here safely, and took such great care of us once she was here.


3. The worlds best husband and new dad, who has been staying up at night with the baby so I can rest and recover.


4. An incredibly loving and supportive extended family. Seriously, my fridge has never had so much food in it! We are so blessed to have so many people who love us.

Thank you everyone!

It's All About the Giveaways!

It seems like all I've been doing lately is tell you about giveaways, but, really, who doesn't want to know about cool, free stuff?

So here's another one for you, and it's a really good one. Puj Baby is giving away 100 baby tubs! Yeah, that's a lot of tubs, so your odds of winning are actually quite phenomenal. They're looking for product testers, so you need to be a mom with a baby, and you need to have a blog or website where you can post a review. And the tub is yours to keep!

Are you in? If so, click here for more details and to enter. The deadline is November 11th, so hurry over!

Even More Little Joys!

Remember my talented friend, Karla? She just opened an etsy shop of her very own! It's called Gracious Bloom, and it is graciously blooming with beautiful, imaculately-made purses, wallets, and gift tags.




I'm lucky enough to own a wallet and gift tags Karla made. Well, the gift tags are all gone, actually. They're so handy, they got used pretty quick!

My favorite thing in her shop right now is this adorable Petals Pink Errand Bag.

PLUS: In celebration of the shop opening Karla is doing another GIVEAWAY. Check out her blog for more details.

Dachshund Lamp

Back in August, I made my first purchase for the nursery. It is a lamp shaped like a dachshund. I think it's adorable, and it gives off the perfect amount of light to be an ideal night light. I love it. When I tried to explain it to people, they gave me lots of interesting looks. I would try to reassure them, "I know it sounds weird, but I promise it's really cute!" I don't know if anyone believes me until they see it. I thought I'd post pictures for those of you that my have heard about it, but hadn't seen it in person yet. Apparently I'm not the only one that thinks it is the perfect accessory for a child's room. Look at all the pictures below of other peoples nurseries and children's rooms with this lamp. And these are just ones that I've happened upon while doing my blog surfing, not specifically looking for this lamp.

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So there, I'm not crazy weird, I'm crazy like a fox (or dachshund).

Our nursery is still a work-in-progress, but I promise to post pictures once it's all done!

Little Joys for You!

My uber talented friend, Karla, is doing a lovely give-away on her blog, Little Joys. This girl has serious skills in all things crafty. Just look at the baby present she made me!

Remember what my stuffed elephant looked like?

Yeah, she's good. So be sure to check out her blog and enter her giveaway!

Babies and Beads

My SIL Emily just gave birth to her fifth, beautiful child last week, and blogged about it the same day. Amazing, that woman is! I made a couple of appliqued onsies as a welcome-to-earth present for the little man. Even though they are kind of outer space themed onsies...

Also last week, my sister Nancy and her daughter came over for dinner and hang out time while the boys went to the football game. She and I, along with our mother, went to a bead show in salt lake city about a week ago, and Nancy purchased some festive beads. She brought them down to girls night and had me turn them into a necklace charm with matching earrings. After I made them she said, "Oh, I guess I probably could have done that myself. But it's just a lot easier to have you do it!" Lucky for you, she decided to pay-it-forward and is now giving away the necklace and earrings as a set on her blog, so go sign up here!

I also made a necklace this weekend during general conference out of the beads I bought, but that post is forth-coming, as I have yet to take any pictures. You'll just have to wait patiently.