Homemade graham crackers and an easy baby blanket

Has it really been a month since I last posted? I must say, going back to work outside the home has really been keeping me busy. Monday through Friday for the last month, we have left the house at 6:30 am and we don't get home until 12 hours later. It's all I can do to take a shower and crawl into bed after a day like that. Plus, we are moving to a new house in a week(!) These are all good changes of course, but the transition has been difficult. I've barely had time to celebrate the coming of fall by communing with my oven and sewing machine! But in a week or so, all will die down again and life will hopefully return to a more sane and healthy pace. I am looking forward to daily exercise, a more healthful diet and more time with family and friends.

But in the meantime, here are a few things we've been working on around here the last few weeks.

This blanket was a gift made for a very special little boy, born just a few weeks ago. The fun animal print is 100% cotton, the blue is the ultra soft baby blanket material that you can now buy in fabric stores everywhere. Although this blanket is of very simple construction, it took forever to make because I couldn't sew it without the blue fabric shifting all over the place in my machine. Thankfully, one of my more experienced sewing friends (good to have) told me to machine sew it with the stretchy blue fabric face down. It worked like a charm and the blanket came together lickety split.

Next we discovered how wonderfully easy and delicious it is to make homemade graham crackers! I found the recipe in this book. I really love making things from scratch for Jack, especially things like these crackers: the recipe makes enough to last a few weeks, they are easy to throw in a bag and pull out whenever Jack gets wonky, and they are made (at least partially) from whole wheat flour. Now you can't say that about the store-bought variety. I appreciate that feeling of knowing exactly what is in the food I give my boy.

I've decided this is going to be my Halloween costume this year. What should I call it? Should I just tell people that I'm a bird's nest? I think it's pretty cool. Surprisingly, this will be my second Halloween costume that has included fake birds. Strange.