background

Monday, February 8, 2010

It's all about the legs

I love little chubby baby legs! Who doesn't? My lovely friend, Kendall, is crazy about these things called Baby Legs aka baby leg warmers. She uses them for her baby girl, Olive, and when I was pregnant with Caleb she told me about them. Luckily, I received some at my baby shower from my other lovely friend, Jana. I was hooked from first use! So, I went online and found that they are 10.00 a pair on sale, which for me is crazy! I don't even spend 10.00 for my own socks. Not even 5.00 a pair. I got to looking at them and I just knew I could make them and that there had to be a tutorial for them somewhere out there in the blogosphere. Sure enough, I found a tute here at Everything Your Mama Made using knee socks. I drove to my favorite store, Target, and picked up six pairs of knee socks for about 14.00. That's a little over 2.00 and something per pair. I was thrilled!
 

Here are the finished ones:


I just love the diamond ones. They are my fave!
Here is my little chunky monkey wearing them:


They make diaper changing a lot easier! 
As you have seen in some of my previous posts, I have started sock knitting again. I am building my stash of sock yarn back up, and I've also been thinking of ways to use up some that I have been staring at for quite a while. I was reading on Knitting Like Crazy's blog about doing a different pair of socks every month. What a great idea! I am currently working on a pair of men's socks from Knitting Vintage Socks for my dad. They were suppose to be for his birthday, but I am way behind on them. Having two little babies and a lot of projects going leaves not a lot of time for knitting. I have made these my February socks, and some knitting during nap time and after they go to bed should have me finishing them before the end of this month. Here is the WIP so far:



Here is a pic of Katie's Valentines jumper. It's reversible. She wore this side to Mothers Day out on Friday:


As you can see, she was so happy to model for me.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplins

I LOVE chicken and dumplins, so today I decided I would use the left-over roast chicken from last night and make some. However, it does require a lot of standing over the stove time during cooking, which is not very convenient for me because my babies are waking up from naps around 5 pm. That leaves me tied up changing diapers, filling sippy cups, bottle feeding, etc. I thought about it, and came up with an easy and very very yummy way to make chicken and dumplins in the crock pot. If you do not have a leftover roast chicken, you can use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store deli. This recipe makes about 4-5 servings, but you will probably want to double it if you are going to be serving four or more. It's one of those things that you have to have seconds of!

Chop up 1/2 onion and 2 stalks of celery. Place in crock pot with some baby carrots. Add leftover chicken (I just pull it apart and throw it in). Pour in one 32 oz. carton of chicken broth. Cook on Low setting for 5 hours.
Make dumplins. I use Pioneer mix. It tastes the best. Bisquick is good too. Mix 2 cups of mix with about a teaspoon or two of poultry seasoning. Stir in 2/3 cup of milk. Scoop out by the spoonful and roll around in all purpose flour. Place in crockpot with chicken and veggies. Cook on high for an additional 30-40 minutes until dumplins are fluffy and slightly firm.

These were the best I have ever made, and my husband loves them! We have both had a cold for the past few days, so this was very comforting.