Diaper Kit for Dads

GIFT IDEA FOR NEW DADS

I wish I had remembered to take pictures of this with all the contents.  You will just have to use your imagination on this... luckily I was able to find a photo from the shower!





I wanted to make something fun, yet useful, to give at the baby shower for my son and daughter-in-law -- so I put together a manly diaper changing kit.

The first thing I did was buy a tool box.  This is a plastic tool box from the Home Depot.  I used a Cricut machine to make the letters on self stick vinyl...  I put Papa, because I wasn't sure what he was going to be called.  My husband is Pop or Poppy. My dad is Dad.  My cousin calls her father Daddy.  I guess we never know until we actually have kids and the kids start talking.

I filled this thing up with all kinds of paraphernalia.

First, I put in the necessities:

a couple diapers
a small pack of wipes
Boudreaux's Butt Paste
sample size baby powder

And then I had fun with it!  I added novelty (yet useful) items as well:

New shop towel (for a changing pad)
latex gloves
small can Lysol
a face mask (one of those disposable dust masks)
a sample size (i.e. as in off the airplane) bottle of Whiskey


I thought this made a fun gift... great so the new Dad didn't feel left out at the shower.

GRANDMOTHER'S SEWING ROOM: Precious Moments Burp Rags

Precious Moments Burp Rags

I made some more burp rags for our newest addition, Baby Tristen.

My sister sent this wonderful pack of diapers that are NOT pre-folded!!  I hadn't seen these in YEARS.. so glad she found them... gotta love Amazon!  Link to Diapers at Amazon





I played with my Janome Digitizer MB (found here) and created these three Precious Moments design.

The clip art was from a Google search for free baby coloring pages.  These were perfect!
I had to tweak the pictures a bit on my Photo Impact program (found here) in order to even out the colors before digitizing.

 I used a variegated thread on each one.  The brown is a brown 'tweed' and has white in it.  The blue tweed on the bottom is the same way.  The baby variegated turned out to be my favorite.  They are all Robison-Anton Threads (tweeds here) (4CC Rainbow found here).

I think it's time to buy a pack of these flat-fold diapers to embroider on and have baby gifts ready on hand!

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Potato Cakes

This recipe is called Mrs. Ireland Potato Cakes. I received it from a Marlene on one of my Yahoo groups.

Start with 1 1/2 cups mashed left over mashed potatoes.  I used a a couple tablespoons more because I was using up an extra pint from the Colonials that we had.

 The next step is to add a cup of rolled oats and a teaspoon of salt.  Also add softened butter. Use 2T to 1/4 cup depending on how thin your potatoes are.
I used only 2T in my batch.

Mix into a dough then pat out onto a floured surface.  Then using a biscuit cutter, cut out into patties.  As you can see, I use a regular sized canning lid for my biscuit cutter!  This works perfectly!

Fry in additional butter.

Turn over and continue frying until golden brown.
Serve warm.

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Chocolate Pretzels

A quick and fun snack idea is chocolate covered pretzel sticks.  I just melted the chocolate (on 50% power in the microwave) stirred the sticks in it, allowed excess to drip off, then sprinkled on confections and M&Ms.  The M&Ms did not work out as well as expected, but were fine.  It would have been better to use minis.  I laid out on parchment paper to harden then transferred to a platter.  Some didn't turn out half bad looking.

GRANDMOTHER'S LIBRARY: Yentl the Yeshiva Boy

Yentl the Yeshiva Boy 

by Antonio Frasconi

After I discovered that Barbara Streisand's movie, Yentl, was based on a book, I decided I wanted to read it.  The movie actually follows this short 58 page novel well, with a little poetic license thrown in.

Yentl is a girl living in a time when girls were not allowed to study. Her father allows her to study with him, but when he dies, she is afraid she will have to give that up.  She decides to cut her hair, dress as a boy, and join a yeshiva so that she may continue to study the scriptures.

Along the way, Yentl, who has now changed her name to Anshel, meets and falls in love with Avigdor, another yeshiva student.  Yentl's lies become more complex as she devises a plan to 'marry' the woman that Avigdor loves in order to remain close to him. 

The movie remains true to the book in that Avigdor is not allowed to marry his true love because his brother committed suicide; however, in the book, Avigdor marries a widow and is extremely unhappy.  When Yentl finally can no longer live the lie, she reveals herself to Avigdor, who loves her back.  However, Yentl wants to remain a yeshiva student and could not do that if she married.  She sends divorce papers to Hadass, her 'wife,' who never knows what has happened: it remains a mystery to the village. Avigdor divorces the mean widow and marries Hadass. Avigdor and Hadass live happily ever after, naming their first son Anshel.

This is an easy, quick book. I read the whole book while sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office.
I recommend both the book and the movie.

 

GRANDMOTHER'S SEWING ROOM: Pillow Cases

 I have been making these fun pillowcases for a while now.  I just need to remember to  blog sometimes!
These are so fun and easy to make. You start with 3 pieces of fabric, each the full width of the material.  The top of the pillow case requires a 10 inch piece, the bottom is about 28 inches, and the contrasting strip is only 3 inches.

Begin by laying the 10 inch strip right side up on your ironing board or table.  Iron the 3 inch strip in half the long way, right side on the outside.

Place this strip with the fold side down across the length of the top of the pillowcase.

Then put the pillow body fabric on top, right side down.  Pin the three pieces of material across.

 For whatever reason, the edges never match up, but that is ok. I always keep the first side together and just pin to the end no matter how the width ends up. This is trimmed when you sew it all together.

Take the pillow case body fabric and roll up. This will be wrapped up with the 10inch piece.

Then fold the bottom edge of the 10 inch piece up over the roll of the larger fabric and match the edges.
Then re-pin all the way across.

This fabric roll is why some people call this the burrito or taco method of making the pillow case.

 Sew across the top being careful not to catch the fabric roll other than across the top edge that has been pinned.  When sewn, pull that fabric roll out the end.

 You end up with a beautiful pillow case with all the seams hidden inside the rolled part.  Iron this then fold in half length way.

 NOTE: I do NOT match the edges.  I pin together where the shortest piece ends on the one side. The remaining will be cut off when I surge it.  I really need to take a surger because about the only thing I use my serger for is to make pillow cases. I know there is more out there than can be done!





If sewing, you can trim now.  I use the serger down this side which does the trimming for me.
 I round the corner. There is no reason for this. I have no idea why I do it, other than I like to.  I only round the corner on the selvedge side, not on the folded side. Again, no reason why; that's just the way I do it.

I then iron again and have a finished product.
I make these to match my quilts.  I make them for holidays (I used glow in the dark skeleton fabric for Halloween pillowcases).
Sometimes I piece the top 10 inch piece using the block that is in the quilt I am matching.  I often embroider on the top to personalize them.  As you can see, these are fun and easy to assemble. And they make wonderful gifts.
 Here's a link to some of the other pillow cases I've made.

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Jerkey

 Deer season is our favorite time of year because of the wonderful jerky that we make.  There is nothing better than the sweet aroma of jerky curing floating through the house on a cool fall day.  Mouths water in anticipation, and parents scramble to find new hiding places for the fresh snacks so that they last more than a couple days!

 Some people use a dry rub jerky seasoning.  I prefer soaking my meat in a marinade before jerking it. My mixture consists approximately the following ingredients:
1 1/2 cups worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 cups soy sauce
2 tsp or so liquid smoke
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper

I lay my pieces out in the Tupperware Season-Server container. I have THREE of these and use them all! Of course I've had mine for 20+  years, but I see that they still have them.  Well worth the investment!!  The meat needs to soak overnight.  When my dehydrator is full, some of the meat stays soaking in the fridge for a couple days.  I then spread the meat out on my dehydrator trays. I have the Ronco 7 tray food dehydrator and sometimes I borrow my mother's dehydrator so that I can make my jerky in 1/2 the time.  Yes, I make that much! If my mom did not own a dehydrator that I could borrow, I would definitely invest in a 2nd one for myself.

Once the meat is spread out on the trays, I sprinkle different seasons on the jerky pieces before drying.  This varies depending on what I have on hand, but includes the following:

• My homemade cajun seasoning 
• Tony's
• white pepper
• lemon pepper
• black pepper
• taco seasoning
•  Chili seasoning
• BBQ seasoning
• McMormick's steak rub
• Italian seasoning
• store bought cajun seasoning
• french fry seasing

 As you can see, I use whatever I have on hand and whatever strikes my fancy.  I like them all!  My family's favorites are the taco flavored, lemon pepper, Italian (they call it the jerky with the 'grass' on it) seasoning, and cajun flavored.

This year I have started putting each of the trays in little jars. I liked mixing the flavors up, but my daughter wanted to keep the flavors separate.  Another reason why I put in jars is because last year, my kids left the jerky container in reach of the dogs; dogs can open Tupperware!! Who Knew??? 
So.. individual jars it is!! Plus, it makes it easier to hide the small jars: we just put a few of them up for later.

I have tried different jerky recipes over the years, but this is my tried and true favorite.