Meg vs. Renters: Staining a new bed.

We found renters! I have been so consumed in finding a place/finding renters/creating leases/getting the house ready that I haven't taken time to post my goings-on, but I will try to catch up a bit, since I really have been chipping away at the projects.

Anyhow, we are going to be renting the house out to three students. We realized that to compete with the rest of the housing market for local students, we need to leave the house furnished. So I have been on a Freecycle kick finding the additional things we will need to turn our little boy/baby rooms into grad student rooms. And once we move, I will be on a new Freecycle kick trying to replace everything we left behind.

I got a full-size bed for the front bedroom that has storage in the headboard and underneath, which is perfect because then I don't have to buy a separate dresser! It was a light honey maple color and pretty worn, but I was planning on leaving it as-is because, well, I didn't really have time or space to do anything about it. Then John reminded me how much better it could look if I stained it the same color as the bathroom vanity, and said that if we put that old bed in the room after re-doing all of the walls and making it look nice, it would "automatically date it ten years." So...I ordered a bigger can of stain from Amazon. Last night I put on the first coat:

And tonight the second coat:

It really does look so much better, and I think it will be a really beautiful piece of furniture, so I'm glad John talked some sense into me, even if it means I won't sleep for a few nights...

I used General Finishes Java Gel Stain (disclaimer: that is an affiliate link), and am following this tutorial from Monica Wants It, just like I did for the bathroom vanity. I love this stuff! Only a very light sanding required before you get to slap that stuff on. Just the way I like a project! Now I just need to get the room done so I can put the bed inside! It is still looking pretty scary in there, and I have less than 3 weeks to moving day. Wish me luck!

Meg vs. Dessert: Banana Eclair Graham Icebox Cake Conglomeration

I pinned this:

I made this:

I used banana pudding because John loves banana and we had a ridiculous quantity of banana pudding mixes in the cupboard. I think I put more layers of graham crackers than I was supposed to (ended up using a full box plus some!), and my topping came out a little runny (tough to keep track of it when you are distracted by a crabby baby), but it was still a big hit around here, and we polished of the whole giant pan. Next time I will half the recipe if I am making it just for our little family. Otherwise, I wouldn't change anything!

Meg vs. Babies: Cloth Diapers and DIY Cloth Wipes

I have thought on and off about trying cloth diapering ever since we had our first boy. And now that we are on number three and the diapers keep piling up, I finally decided I needed to go for it. It haunted me that we paid so much, threw so much out, and didn't have something sustainable in case of an emergency.

Thankfully, cloth diapers aren't what they used to be. After looking all over for affordable used cloth diapers on Craigslist and elsewhere, I found Alva Baby, which is a Chinese pocket diaper manufacturer (I know, bad American. But I am a poor American, so this is what I can do). Their new diapers are cheaper than almost any used ones I could find here in the bay area, and they had pretty decent reviews. For about $135, I got 20 diapers (they actually ended up sending me 22 for some reason), 40 inserts (20 that came with the diapers, and another 20 more heavy duty liners with bamboo), a roll of liners, and a wet bag for the diaper pail.

They arrived after about a week, and I washed all the covers and inserts with bumGenius Diaper Detergent that I ordered from Amazon (washed the bamboo ones seperately 3 times in hot water to prep them), and was ready to try them on the boys. Since they have snaps to adjust the size, I can use the same batch for both of my boys in diapers.

I was worried about Mr. 2-year-old being resistant to switching up his Huggies, but he thought these bad boys were pretty fancy.

Then I got to thinking, "Why should I keep buying wipes, too?" So I pulled out my stash of flannel receiving blankets, most of which I received as gifts but haven't used because I have big babies and can't keep a good swaddle with them. I cut three of them up into squares (16 squares per blanket), and folded them tissue-style so they would pop out of my wipes container. Here's a quick how-to on that in case you're curious.

1. Lay out a square, like so:

2. Lay another square overlapping half of the first.

3. Fold the first over the second, like so:

4. Lay down a third where the first one was.

5. Fold the second one over the third one (see where this is going?).

6. Repeat until you get a stack like this:

I put a stack of 48 wipes (three blankets' worth) into an extra wipes container, and then went to work on some wipes solution.

I had pinned this solution a long time ago, but on reviewing it, it seemed like it used a LOT of soap for the amount of water it required. Plus in includes baby oil in it, and I read mixed reviews online about whether you should use baby oil with cloth diapers. I also read reviews from people who said just to use water and forget about adding anything. So I took my own approach, boiled two cups of water, added a squirt of the baby wash I had on hand (I think Johnson & Johnson's shea butter something-or-other), and dumped all over my lovely new wipes. Done!

Note: Due to gravity, more solution will sink to the bottom of the stack, making the bottom wipes soggy and the top wipes dry. I would just flip your stack over once a day to redistribute the solution. I do this with my store-bought disposable wipes on occasion as well.

So far they work fine, and it is kind of nice to have something sturdier than my regular wipes between me and whatever mess I am cleaning up (even if I am then throwing it in a laundry bag instead of the trash).

*Update: I realized after a couple of washes that these wipes would fray, since they are flannel (duh, for anyone who sews regularly; I sew not-so-regularly). So as I have pulled them out of the dryer I have been doing a quick zigzag stitch around the edges to prevent more fraying. Otherwise, a few weeks in and I am still happy with them!

One day in, and I would say that the cloth diapers are only marginally more work than disposables (granted, I haven't washed a load yet, but I have a machine that will do all that work for me!). And here is my take on the eww factor: If you are on your first baby and still kind of grossed out by poo, this can seem a little gross, since you may have to do some rinsing (like for my 4-month-old), and you have to pull wet inserts out of covers, dump big poos into the toilet (for my 2-year-old), etc. But after three boys and potty training, the poo part doesn't really bother me, and it is no grosser than cleaning out the training potty we used for my oldest (seriously, for some reason poop is so much grosser in that little potty than in the diaper. Not sure why.). The cloth diapers have done better at containing the newborn poop (we had a blowout pretty much every time he pooped before), which means that I don't have as many clothes to scrub and soak. And the liners in my 2-year-old's diaper minimize the poo interaction there. But to make things easier, I got this Diaper Sprayer on Amazon for $15 (though it looks like it has gone up in price since then), and am planning to hook it up today.

If I change my mind about this whole cloth diapering thing after a couple of weeks I will let you know, but so far I am pretty happy with it!

Meg vs. Organization: Pinned It, Did It Shirt Drawer

I saw this pin

and thought of my husband's drawer of tees (that is all he wears unless he absolutely has to dress up), which looked like this

and so I did this.

He says he likes it. It will make my life better, because I am the one who does the laundry, and I hate opening the drawer and having all the shirts get stuck and rumpled up. I think I will do the same to my drawer of tees/camisoles.

Now if only I could get the rest of the house clean... It was nice to get one thing put in order; it made me feel in control (that doesn't happen very often). No wonder people get hooked on organizing (not that I am likely to get hooked, I'm just saying)!

Meg vs. Dinner: More Pinned it, Did it Recipes

I cooked a lot earlier in the week, then ran out of steam; Thursday the kids and I split a piece of Costco pizza and a bag of Caesar salad. But we'll focus on the days I actually cooked:

I have made these green muffins a few times, and the kiddos are happy to gobble them up:

I don't use the nuts she recommends since I am not about to go buy them just to make muffins, so I have substituted the ground nuts for ground flaxseed, and left off the topping altogether. The muffins are just a little bit sweet and banana-ish, and you can't taste the spinach at all. They remind me of a really good bran muffin (not the dense, dry, not-so-good kind). These are a new staple around here.

Next up was spaghetti squash. I have been wanting to try it out for a while, and our favorite local produce market had them for $1 each, so I couldn't resist. I followed the instructions for this garlic and butter squash recipe, which was basically to poke some holes in it and cook for an hour at 375. It turned out a little bit crunchy, so my little guys wouldn't eat it (didn't believe me that they were noodles). I read one comment that suggested cooking it at 400 degrees for 60-90 minutes to avoid the crunchiness, so I will have to try that next time and see if I can sneak it into my toddlers' diet. Otherwise, I thought it was pretty tasty and not as difficult as I expected.

Lastly I made up these sweet potato parker rolls:

Hers are so pretty!

Of course I was lazy (I can't keep track of timing rises when I have three kiddies pulling at my pant leg!), so I dumped all of my ingredients in my breadmaker and set it on the dough cycle.

Half-way through, I realized one of the paddles had popped up and so it had only half mixed and kneaded, meaning I had to start the cycle over again. Even so, the dough seemed to rise just fine and the texture was good. So these are some fairly forgiving rolls (very important around here!). Here they are before baking:

And after:

I have to say that I was expecting them to be a bit sweeter than they are. I think they could have used a little sugar, but it could just have been the particular sweet potato that I had or the fact that I botched the whole mixing and rising process! They were tasty enough for me to polish off most of the pan within a couple of days. But they won't be my go-to rolls in the future (unless I happen to have a sweet potato that I can't use otherwise).

Meg vs. Dessert: Pinned it, Did it Sugar Cookie Bars

John loves sugar cookies. He especially loves Lofthouse cookies. They are a bit too sugary for my taste, but I get in the mood for one every now and again. When I am feeling energetic I love to make up a batch of Sue's sugar cookies, but it is definitely a lot of effort to roll, cut, bake, and decorate them. When I saw these sugar cookie bars from High Heels & Grills that purportedly taste like Lofthouse, I knew it was meant to be for us.

I told John I was making him a treat, but didn't tell him what it was. He was very excited when I produced these bad boys.

Sugary, Christmasy goodness. They do taste like Lofthouse cookies, but the cookie itself is definitely more dense. Perhaps I should have whipped the batter more, but I think that is just what happens when you make one big cookie bar. Laziness = denser cookie. I personally think that this frosting is better than the Lofthouse frosting (a yummy buttercream; I imagine Lofthouse is shortening-based so that it remains shelf-stable, but I could be wrong), but still sugary enough that I can't eat too much at once (if it were chocolate on the other hand, look out!). Two thumbs up for this pin for sure.

There was a similar recipe that I pinned which used cream cheese instead of sour cream like this one does, and I am curious to try that one out, so we may have a cookie bar showdown some day soon.

Meg vs. Dinner: Pinned it, Did it Pumpkin Pancakes

I realized that I have to do a whole lot of Pinterest projects if I want to meet my 30 x 30 goal of trying at least half of my pins. So I am going to start posting and reviewing them for you!

Let's start tonight with some pumpkin pancakes. I love pumpkin, and so these pancakes from How to: Simplify looked irresistable:

I used half whole wheat flour, and  our special Christmas pan.

Not as nice-looking, but tasty nonetheless. They are like pumpkin pie in pancake form, and amazing with butter and maple syrup. The batter is a little dense, so I had a hard time finding just the right temperature to get them to cook through without being overdone on the outside. But they got rave reviews from my toddlers and my 12-year-old niece, so we will be having them again!