I'm back! Did you miss me?? Here's a brain dump of things that have been on my mind the last few weeks!

Ok so I've been MIA... I have very good excuses though! I have been super busy crafting away and sewing up a storm and have had a sick baby for much of the last 3 weeks off and on.  I think I have one more solid 10 hour day and I will be finished with my Christmas sewing projects.  All I have left are gifts, and most have to be finished by Saturday, so we will see how this goes!   I also found some really cool fabric at hobby lobby and have an awesome Christmas outfit to make for Keelyn.  I’ll post pics and step by step for it.  If it turns out half as cool as it is in my head, then you will all want one J

My new "project". I have never created a quilt or anything on that magnitude before. Honestly, I'm pretty scared, but excited! "What drove you to make a quilt?" you may ask... Fabric.com and their damn days of Christmas deals! Monday, Amy Butler fabric was on sale.  Like crazy sale. Like $7.63 per sq foot sale! Also, I had a 15% coupon code.  That kind of sale warrants purchasing 22 yards of fabric. Looking at the 22 yards of fabric in my shopping cart, I started to think, Kyle is going to KILL me for this unless I have a really really good project to go along with it.  (TANGENT ALERT: see I can talk about Kyle on here because I doubt he reads this blog. Love you Honey! Tomorrow is our 4 year anniversary and he made reservations at Melting Pot.  I am SO excited! I can’t believe he made reservations. Totally awesome!) Back to the point: I searched Amy Butler.com for some project ideas and found a quilt that is so unique and so cool it totally makes up for the $$$ I spent for fabric.  Here’s the link. http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/pdfs/Bloom_Quilt.pdf See? It’s awesome isn’t it? Anyway, I think it’s going to be an ongoing blog topic.  I want you all (if anyone out there is reading!) to experience the process of making a quilt along with me.  Hopefully it will inspire you to embrace your creative side in doing whatever inspires you.  I plan to make a full size quilt to be used as a bed spread and pillows and window coverings and give this to Keelyn on her birthday.  I hope that it’s something that she cherishes forever. (my mom/grandma/bobi never made me a quilt… or anything that involved a sewing machine! Another Tangent alert – Bobi is Czech for Grandma. See learn something new every day…) Excited to get started! Hurry up mailman!

 So that’s what’s going on with me.  I skipped a few days of bootcamp… Keelyn has a horrid cold and everytime she lays down she wakes herself up because she can’t breathe.  Poor baby.  Put her in her swing last night and she slept all night –was snorty and snory, but slept! I hit up bootcamp this morning and WOW going to be S-O-R-E tomorrow!

By popular demand - Maple Glazed Roast Turkey with Apple Cider Gravy

Ok this recipe is totally worth it and it is NOT as big of a pain in the butt as it seems.  If I wasn't such a slacker, I would have thought to put this up last week.  Seriously, I'm a "put ketchup on any meat, especially dry meat" kind of girl and this bird needs no gravy, ketchup, or barbeque sauce - even on the white meat! I pieced this recipe together from about 5 different roast turkey / chicken / pork recipes that I found over the years and it is a winner every Thanksgiving.  You don't have to follow it completely, the recipe is more of a guideline :) Happy Turkey Day!

Summertime Pasta Salad

Those of you who know me, and have invited me to some type of pot-luck function or have attended one at my house, you have eaten or at least seen my Summertime Pasta Salad.  I got this out of a Rachel Ray magazine several years ago and changed it up quite a bit. It's perfect now, if I do say so myself :) It's so stinking easy, keeps for days, and it's great to take to an event where food will be sitting without refrigeration.  I'm actually going to make this tonight - have a work pot luck tomorrow!

 

Summertime Pasta Salad (I rarely measure olive oil or vinegar, just add until you think it’s enough!)

1 pound tri-colored short cut pasta, rotini or fusilli or anything you want (I usually use 2 12 ounce bags. This salad keeps for several days! Good to take to lunch)

3 to 5 bell peppers depending on size.  (Use variations of color)- sliced in thin strips “length wise”

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved (about a cup)

2 cloves garlic – finely chopped or minced (can use already minced out of a jar)

1 small jar (or half can) quartered and marinated artichoke hearts – drained and chopped

1 small can sliced black olives – drained

½ red onion, thinly sliced

¾ cup extra-virgin olive iol

½ cup red wine vinegar

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves, chopped (or a couple of tablespoons dried)

Juice from one smallish lemon (or 1 teaspoon bottled juice)

Italian seasoning, dried, a small palm full (about a tablespoon)

Salt and pepper to taste

·         Boil a large part of salted water and cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and rinse with cool water and set aside for at least 10 minutes.

·         In a large bowl, place bell peppers, tomatoes, olives, artichokes, onion. Set aside

·         In a big bowl (really big!) add the lemon juice, garlic, vinegar.  Wisk in the olive oil until an orange-ish dressing forms. 

·         Pour the veggies from bowl 1 into bowl 2 with the dressing.  Toss with a large spoon to coat.

·         Add the pasta, salt and pepper, Italian seasoning, and basil. Toss again.

Need to place an order? Hurry! Time is limited

I have so many special orders right now! It's a good thing :) If you place an order through me via blog, etsy or facebook, please note that any orders placed Nov 15-Dec 1 will have an estimated ship date of Dec 15. Orders taken after December 15th will not ship until after January 10th. I am taking a short break to spend undivided time with my baby girl on her very first Christmas! (off topic, she rolled over last night!! Finally!!)

For little girls!
Check out this sweet circle flounce dress (pattern designed by http://www.jocole.net/). Place your order now! Pair with leggings and a peasant tee and your princess will be set for the winter. Can do any fabric, size dolly through 5T. Price varies based on size. Email fussygussy@ymail.com for details.

Things for little boys!
Many of you have asked, here they are! I have not made any samples, but here are the options I have for boys:

• I can make basic pants - either the yoga style without the waist band or the ruffle pant without the ruffle
• I can make ribbon lovie blankies - I currently have fabric to make either blue or orange minky with a grey polka dot silky OR a blue minky with a blue and green patchwork flannel. any style can have ribbon taggies.
• necktie or bowtie t-shirts and onesies.
• Iron-on shirts and onesies. Currently, I have the design ALL BOY. I can make a design that says anything, but here are some ideas I have floating around - just waiting on someone to order one! Infinite possibilities!
• I bite
• I eat dirt
• 100% TROUBLE
• Boob man
• Daddy's little man (or mommy's)
• Rad like Dad
• Dear Santa... it wasn't me!
• check out http://www.jocole.net/. I own the pattern for the the necktie and the bowtie. Jodi has awesome patterns and they always turn out fabulous! Again, just waiting on an order! :)

I will be sending out a newsletter on Friday! If you would like to be added to the mailing list, please comment here.  There are couple of ways to save this month - following the blog will earn you $5 off your first purchase of $30 or more and signing up for the mailing list will earn you 10% off your first purchase of $20 or more.  (cannot be combined. may use whichever gives you the best deal.)

Only 39 days until Christmas! Are you ready??

Keelyn the Drama Queen

My daughter is a drama queen.  I guess we know who she takes after J She is completely pissed off that we take her to day care where she is not the only baby. About once a week, she decides she’s going to flip out all day at school. Her flip out day was yesterday. Apparently, she screamed and screamed whenever someone was not holding her. (that’s my girl!) She also prefers her mommy to feed her which is fantastic, but hard when someone else needs to. She only at 5 ounces all day at school. When we got home, she downed 10 in less than an hour. Like I said, DRAMA.  I’m not sure what to do! Anyone out there reading this have any suggestions? I don’t want her to get kicked out of daycare!    

She's a cute drama queen though :)

Bootcamp - A date with Wilson

This morning we had a date with Wilson. Wilson and I went for a long stroll on the beach followed by a nature hike... I wish! Wilson is the pseudonym for giant heavy medicine balls. After several reps of lunges and squats with Wilson, I was feeling the burn! In spite of the twitching left butt cheek, it was a beautiful morning! Not too cold – my car read 60 degrees at 5:15.  (It doesn’t matter if its 4 below zero or 75, we can always count on coach Mark to be bundled up in his bright yellow parka. He’s funny) Something new and exciting at bootcamp – with the time change, we actually get in a little bit on sunrise so it’s not totally pitch black the entire hour. We can see each other now!  All in all, a great way to start my day. My legs are still a little tingly and my booty is sore, but it’s a good pain!

Calories burned: 558   

Digital Christmas Card

Today over my lunch break, instead of blogging, I designed our family's Christmas card! It's so stinking cute (to me anyway!) that I decided that others may want some of my Christmas Card greatness.  Obviously the photo is just a place holder until a more appropiate photo can be taken, but you get the idea! Do you want me to design your Christmas card? I would love to! Post a comment here or email fussygussy@ymail.com or comment on facebook. I won't be selling my EXACT card, but we can work something out :) I have a TON of ideas! 

Bootcamp - Day 2

Oh. My. Gosh. It was FRRRREEZING this morning! Ok well not really, but I’m a wimp and it was pretty dang cold.  Thank you coach Mark for letting us stay on the pavement and not making us run in the wet grass! Made my day! Did lunges and squats like crazy. (Burpies with 12 pound dumbbells? Are you nuts?) I will probably be too sore to walk tomorrow. it was intense!  The best part, Keelyn decided she didn’t care that mommy and daddy were tired and mommy had to wake up at 5 to go workout. She wanted to stay up until 11 and wake up at 4:30. If she wasn’t so stinking cute and cuddly and sweet, I may have more of an issue with that J SO Tired!

Calorie count – 543 calories burned in 48 minutes

Had 2 scrambled egg whites + 1 yolk for breakfast. Even skipped the salt and used some extra spicy Ms. Dash.   

I forgot to take measurements and before pictures. Dang. Will get on that tonight. J

The transformation of the Casper Kitchen

I am so proud of Kyle! Long story, backing up…

Around the beginning of October of last year, we decided we were fed up with the design of our kitchen and laundry room.  Some ding dong designed the kitchen so the fridge is right up against a wall. I couldn’t open my French door fridge wide enough to stay open without having to pull a drawer open to prop it.  It was ghetto.  That was the first design flaw. The second, we have a cabinet I like to call the abyss.  Things go in and never come out.  True story! I think the previous owner even thought so since he left his fry daddy thingy back there when he moved out.  (Thanks for the housewarming gift, Kevin! J) The third major design flaw – our pantry was HUGE but completely inefficient.  To get to anything that wasn’t along the front of the shelf, you had to take everything out. The shelves were very deep, but had about 24 inches between each.  I don’t know about you, but how many things in your pantry need 24 inches of space.  Totally wasted.  We tried little wire racks, we tried multiple ways to organize, and it always ended in a tantrum (usually by me) “I CANNOT FIND ANYTHING IN THIS PANTRY! I HATE IT!!” Being the awesomely talented person he is, Kyle designed a plan. The plan was/is pretty extensive so it merits bullet points:

Recipe for the most awesome Mexican Casserole you will ever eat

So one of the best things about bringing home a new baby is all our wonderful friends brought over DELISH meals for us.  Here’s the recipe for a Mexican Casserole given to us by the Bushell’s. I have made this 5 times in the last 4 months, yes it is that good.  I ALWAYS make two and freeze one. (However, the one in the freezer never lasts more than a couple of weeks.  I see it in there and it speaks to me –“Eat me for dinner!” I’m weak and cannot say no to talking casseroles.) Its super easy, can throw it together in about 20 minutes and you have TWO dinners.  Off one casserole, we can usually get dinner, lunch, and another dinner out of it for the two of us. I would say it serves 6 very generous portions for a 9x11 pan. Made it last night and thought I would share with you. Enjoy!

Ode to Taylor Swift

Today I’m going to pay homage to a wonderfully talented woman.  Taylor Swift, I salute you.  After downloading and listening to every song on her new album “Speak Now”, all I have to say is “are there REALLY still guys out there that will date you? Honestly?” Even more importantly “are there really girls out there who will steal a guy away from Taylor?” (See track 10, “Better than Revenge”). I love her spunk and snarky lyrics (thank you Joanna for getting the word snarky in my head all day yesterday).  She’s really proving that she’s a big girl now and all grown up.  Love you Tay Tay.  But aside from her awesome songs, I love Taylor for a bigger, more important reason.  I’m not sure why, but when Keelyn is in full blown car seat melt down while we are driving somewhere, the ONLY thing that makes her stop screaming is if we sing Taylor’s “Our Song” track at the top of our lungs.  Keelyn stops crying and starts singing along.  (We have tried other songs. Some are marginally successful, but “Our Song” works EVERY time.) I think Keelyn is going to be a singer someday.  Let’s hope she doesn’t get her vocal abilities from her mom or dad! Wow it’s entertaining let me tell you… Here’s to you Taylor – we appreciate your ballsy, catchy, girl power songs but more importantly, THANK YOU for writing a song that can calm our little Fussy Gussy.

Damn. My baby did not weigh 40 pounds

So I have been blessed.  And I have been lucky... I have a wonderful and beautiful and super cute little stinker who I gave birth to (unexpectedly 3 weeks early) in June of this year.  She has been an amazing napper and has slept through the night since she was 6 weeks old.  All that changed the week I decided to "re-start" my 5 remaining months of an exercise class that meets at 5:30 AM lovingly called "boot camp".  Let me tell you, it is HARD CORE... For the last two weeks, I have been like a kid approaching Christmas (or the first day of school, that's a little less fun so lets go with that!). The anticipation has been growing along with the pit in my stomach - and a baby who decides she wants to stop sleeping through the night! GREAT! Love the four month growth spurt. Awesome timing. Well, today was my very first day of boot camp and I need to give a big kudo to my amazing husband Kyle (who has the metabolism of a cheetah by the way) for waking up with Keelyn at 3:30 and staying up with her almost until I got up at 5. Way to go honey - love you!

Ok - so got a decent night's sleep and decided to hit the park with all I had this morning. After 50 minutes and burning 758 calories (tracked with my Polar6), I hobbled to the car and made my way home.  Success! I didn't die! I thought about throwing up. I thought about quitting. But I didn't! That's the most important step right? Getting started? The weight loss countdown has begun. Excited about taking measurements tonight.  Hoping that by posting progress here, it will help keep me accountable. :)

If this round of boot camp is anything like last year, (another story - started boot camp, paid for 6 months, 4 weeks in found out I was 8 weeks pregnant!), there will be some pretty memorable stories.  I think the best memory was getting stuck on the toliet and being too sore to move.  I was there for 20 minutes before I was able to basically roll off! No lie. True Story.

Anyone else in this post-baby hate your body slump? I'm going to Florida in June... I will not be fat. 40 lbs is the goal! What's yours?