Babies, babies, everywhere!

These days it seems that I'm always getting a phone call that a friend is pregnant or just had a baby.  I love it!  It does keep me busy making gifts for the little bundles of joy.  Within the past few days two beautiful baby girls have made their arrival - both earlier than expected, so I'm hurrying to get gifts in the mail!  I found a wonderful tutorial for His and Her's Personalized Baby Quilts at Moda Bake Shop.  I used fabrics from Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms line and I was so excited when the fat quarter bundle (of the entire collection, eek!) arrived from Fabric Worm. I love, love, love the elegant simplicity of the quilt with the boldness of Soul Blossoms!

Here is the finished product:

Because it is physically impossible for me to exactly follow any pattern or tutorial, I backed this little quilt with white nylon.  The waterproof side will be perfect for spreading out in the grass for a little tummy time!  I hope Stella and her mommy and daddy love this quilt as much as I do!

Do you make lots of baby gifts?  What is your favorite gift to make for the little ones?  I would love to hear about what you are creating!

Farewell Discovery!

One of the perks of living in central Florida is that one can just step outside and watch with awe the ascension of the space shuttle into the outer space - or at least watch it disappear from our atmosphere. I watched today from my parents coastal home in New Smyrna Beach, and was surprised to see my almost year-old son watch the glowing shuttle with wonder.  I was born in Orlando on April 12, 1981 and that same day my parents, and countless others, watched the very first space shuttle blast off.  Given my connection to the shuttle, I have always been a fan.  Around here we even set our alarm clocks for the middle of the night so we can see night launches (which are the coolest).  I am so sad that we will only get to witness this amazing event two more times.

Enough of my rambling about my love of the space shuttle.  Here are a couple of pics of Discovery's final launch that I captured today:

Okay, so the last two are just the contrail, but it is really cool looking.  If you haven't ever seen the shuttle launch, try to schedule a Disney vacay for the next launch.  It is one of those things you should see before you die.

Meatless Monday...er, Wednesday

Here at the Jones house we attempt to have a meatless supper every Monday.  Since things don't usually go as planned, we had our meatless supper tonight.  Foil packet fajitas - super yum!!  I adapted a recipe I found in the Hungry Girl 1-2-3 cookbook.

Here's my version of the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 T lime juice
1 t cornstarch
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1 t chili powder
1/2 t salt
1/8 t ground cumin
2-3 portabella mushrooms, sliced
1 bell pepper (any color is fine, but I love the yellow for a little color variety), sliced
1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
1/2 onion sliced (again, it doesn't really matter what kind, but I love the color of the red onion)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix up the lime juice and cornstarch and then add all the spices.  You'll end up with a paste.  Add the veggies and mix it all up so everything is coated with the spicy paste.  Spread out a large piece of HD aluminum foil on a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.  Add the veggie mix to the foil and then seal up the edges well - you'll end up with a large packet.  Cook for 20-25 minutes.  When the packet is out of the oven let it cool for a few minutes and then be careful when you open it, it will be steamy in there!  Add this yumminess to warmed tortillas and top as desired.  We go all out with fajitas here and put black beans, shredded cheese, jalapenos, freshly chopped cilantro, fresh lime juice, and hot sauce on ours.

Here's the veggie mixture after it came out of the oven:

And here is the final product:

I know you are drooling now, so run to your kitchen and make some for your family...or just you! :-)

'Friendly' Consignment Sale

I found out about a cool organization called "Just Between Friends" last week and decided to drive on down to Maitland, FL to see what it was all about. Since my poor child has outgrown almost all of his clothes AND the warm weather is already upon us, I knew I had to find some cute stuff for him - or he would perpetually be nakey baby.  My sweet friend Sarah agreed to meet us there, with her three-year-old and newborn baby girl in tow. 

First, I must say the event was awesome!  There was obviously a great deal of planning and organization that went into it.  As far as the clothing, it was divided by gender and then broken down by size.  There was so much to choose from, and by-and-large it was on-trend and in good condition.  My only complaint is that I thought some of it was over-priced (as compared to garage sale prices), but there was still plenty of great stuff that was fairly priced.  Here's a shot of the room that held the clothing, shoes, bedding and baby "gear."

 Here's a view of the rows and rows of clothes.  That's my cute friend, Sarah, with the white shirt and jean skirt.

This is Sarah's oldest daughter.  I love her to pieces.  She's checking out all the cool swings, bouncers, activity mats, etc.  There was a great deal to choose from.  The stroller selection seemed a little limited, though.

It was crazy busy and we settled into a long line to pay for our finds.  Luckily, a lady came around offering people who were paying cash to move to the front of the line (there were multiple registers open).  Once we did that we were in and out in just a few minutes...and off to the park to make the littles happy.  All-in-all, it was worth the drive.  If you hear about a Just Between Friends event in your area, I recommend you check it out.

P.S. I haven't yet, but I will take some pics of the items that I found for Tiny Man and post them here to show you an example of the quality of clothing that was offered.