Tank and Crop Nursing Top

I am breastfeeding my second child (Child II) now.  She is not as easy to nurse in public as my first, she plays with the cover, pulls it off, yanks it down, covers her face etc etc.  So, I don't feel comfortable just pulling up my shirt or pulling down a low neckline like I did for Child I.  So, I need some quick and easy nursing tops with a little more coverage.





I found some ideas on etsy, a tank that pulls down over a built in top.  But I decided to come up with something on my own, hopefully for a bit less $$.  I lucked into a big sale at Old Navy, where I ordered a couple of knit blouses for $3 each and some of their "first layer" tank tops.  And then picked up some actual crop top tees at Target for cheap.








I turned the knit blouses into crop tops by cutting off about 3 inches on the bottom, hemming the new bottom of the shirt, and then running 1/4 inch elastic inside the hem so the bottom of the shirt would stay under my boobs until I pull it up.

The t-shirts I just wear under the tank top as they are.


















To nurse, I pull down the scoop neck of the tank top and pull up the bottom of the blouse.  After the kiddo is latched I adjust the blouse for coverage.

DIY Disneybound: cutoffs

I love the idea of Disneybounding, and I love LOVE the idea of DIY refashion.  I want to make all the things I see on Pinterest, but I don't have that much time.  So I am going to share my thoughts and ideas here instead.

I'm mostly looking at outfits for the parks, but also for weekend casual wear.  Now that it is really starting to heat up here in SoCal, I have started obsessing over cutoff ideas on Pinterest.  I have been pinning ideas that I think evoke a Disney vibe.  You can see my pin board here: https://www.pinterest.com/vickiesstuff/dinseybound-cutoffs/

I will highlight some of my favorites here:

Starting with some basic designs where you can choose your own accessorizing:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967882208662/

Getting a Disney themed ribbon for trimming would make these shorts perfect with any park t-shirt.  You can pick up ribbon at most craft stores or online.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967881955578/

A different trim method using fabric pieces rather than ribbon.  I have found Etsy to be the best place to get character fabric in fat quarters, or check out your local fabric store.  I have bought 8 inches of a fabric once, the cutter was annoyed but she got over it.  (Pick a pattern that works for a small space, they won't cut you 6 inches from the middle.)

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967882182869/

These would be great for bounding as Minnie Mouse.  Have fun with a bleach pen, and pair them with a Minnie t-shirt or tank.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967881964166/

If you prefer bows, this is a great way to use some of the bottom parts of the legs that you cut off.


For those that prefer princesses,

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967882183107/

There are a few tutorials out there on making a skirt from old jeans (using the waist as a yoke for the skirt).  With a princess pattern cotton, or just the proper color theme this would make a cute and comfy bounding skirt.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967882182928/

I can't decide if these tulle covered cutoffs would look cute or too "twee".  Maybe for a child?  Or using colored tulle over regular blue jeans for a contrast?  I think they would work best in yellow for Belle or possibly Cinderella's poofy dress.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967882183167/

There are quite a few fringe ideas, these could be used for either Pocahontas or Moana.
More fringe:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967882182893/

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/cb/4d/11/cb4d1174acb8d80b1f8c100acede9ddc.jpg

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967882182939/

A tassel or ball fringe in purple would make these a great option for the classic winter "Anna" outfit in summer.

This is "ball" or "pom-pom" fringe.

Moving on:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967882183071/

Patchwork applique if you like Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas.  Pick up a could of fat quarters from a fabric store when they are on sale for $1 or less or cut up old clothes you plan to throw out to make the patches.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161425967881955583/

Find a shape to trace with chalk (fabric chalk, test before using to see that it will come off) and cut along that to change up the edges of your shorts.  Try a leaf-like shape for Tinkerbell.

I have more pinned on my Disneybound cutoffs board.


One great thing about making your own cutoffs is that you can make them as long as you want.  If you look at all of the ideas on my board you will see some short-shorts, Bermuda length shorts, and even capri length.  Pick the length that you are comfortable in, and remember, you can always cut them shorter after trying them on if you want, but you can't cut them longer.

Soon to come: my Disneybound t-shirts board.

SoCal Resident tickets: Disney Weekend

Disney has announced their annual Southern California Resident discount tickets!  These are a great option for those of living in Southern California.  The parks are not as crowded at this time of year so you can ride more rides, see more princesses, and generally have a more relaxed visit.  And, these are usually the best prices you are going to get for Disney tickets, This year it is $179 per person for a 3-day (1 park per day) ticket.

I found a zip code map, and I am impressed that Disney has a pretty generous definition of Southern California.  The zip code range is "Southern California residents within ZIP codes 90000-93599 and Northern Baja California residents within ZIP codes 21000-22999."  For US residents this covers from the US-Mexico border up past San Simeon on the coast and even farther north in the east part of the state.  The best Zip code map I could find was at "About Zip Codes": .  You have to really zoom in to see the zip codes on the California map.

This year Disney is only offering 3-day tickets at the SoCal price.  The usual restriction on multi-day tickets is that you have to use all the days in about 2 weeks.  I couldn't find that disclaimer on the SoCal tickets page, if you want to spread out the ticket's use you should probably inquire.  I expect that they have the same restrictions for any type of multi-day ticket.

Note that there are blackout dates for these tickets in April.  The website has details, but basically it is around Easter and Spring Breaks so check to make sure your dates are good.

Where to Buy:

These tickets are best purchased on the Disneyland website: https://disneyland.disney.go.com/.  If you want someone to plan your weekend for you there are quite a few independent travel agents around the web who can do that for you, they should get their commission from Disney and so shouldn't charge you much, if anything.  If you use an agent be sure to let them know you are a SoCal resident and make sure they can get the discount for you before you buy.

But for a quick trip it can be just as easy to do your own planning.  I'll be following up this post with some transportation and hotel advice posts, as well as some ideas for Disneybounding (clothes) and ear hats.

I actually recommend using the Disneyland website for buying tickets year round.  There really aren't very good discounts, you might be able to get some hotel discounts buying in a package, but most of the legitimate discount tickets are only discounted a few dollars if at all (as in a "good neighbor" hotel might eat a dollar or two of your ticket price if you are in their hotel).  If a ticket is discounted more than about $5 (vs the website) it is probably a fraud.*

Park Hopper?

Do you want Park Hopper tickets?  Each ticket is more expensive ($234 per person this year rather than the $179).  So the question you need to ask yourself is "will I get my money's worth?"

I have a small child, with another on the way, and the answer for my family is "No, the Hopper option really wont be used."  Each park (Disneyland and California Adventure) is pretty big and just walking around one each day is enough for a child.  The littles need time to absorb all of the Disney magic and won't be happy rushing between "lands" in each park much less between parks.  Also, you need to plan downtimes in the parks where they can eat and have some free play time to keep the kiddos from revolting.  I find I just don't have time or inclination to run across the square to the other park to stand in line to get in again.

If you don't have children (or they are older teenage type children).  Park hopper can be fun.  You can focus on the "cool" rides like the coasters each day.  If you use the Disneyland App on your phone you can keep an eye on where the lines are and get FastPasses before you head over for a ride.  And California Adventure sells alcohol in the park, so you can head over there for meals if you feel you need a drink.  I have friends with Annual Passes who basically just eat and drink at California Adventure.

So it really comes down to what kind of trip you want.

• Are you planning to leisurely enjoy the Disney experience? Go with one park per day.  
• Is there a group of rides that you want to hit everyday? Park hopper would be best for you.
• Do you need Booze to get through a day of Disney?  Actually, you can get drinks at the bars in Downtown Disney, the Disney Hotels, and most neighbor hotels have a fridge in room, so don't use this question as a deciding factor.

*There are many blogs already addressing ticket frauds so I am not going to do it here.  Just google for "Disney ticket fraud" and "Disney ticket discounts" if you want to read up on them.

Lactation brownies

I wanted an easy and quick recipe for lactation cookies, but I didn't want to take the time to spoon out individual cookies. I bought brownie bars with oats at Trader Joes, but they did not taste as good as real brownies.  I don't understand how and why they put so much sugar into something and then make it taste healthy. I wanted something I could eat when I get a chocolate craving that tastes good.

These are my experiments with boxed brownie mix.

The Internet research pointed me to a babycenter group (The Exclusive Pumpers) who had tried this back in 2013. One poster suggested adding 3 Tbsp flax meal and 2 Tbsp Brewers yeast straight to a boxed mix. That sounded easy.  I wanted oatmeal too though so I added half a cup, that didn't seem like quite enough so I added another 1/4th cup for a total of 3/4 cup.

I pick up brownie mixes when I see them on sale and keep them for when I need a quick dessert.  The first mix I had in my cupboard was Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix.  I hoped to find a recipe that would work with any mix.

The brownies were delicious, they tasted like fudgey brownies.  They did not rise at all though, I probably could have used the 2 eggs for cakey brownies.

Here is my suggested recipe:

1 box brownie mix and ingredients listed on the box (usually eggs, water, and oil)

2 Tablespoons Brewers Yeast

3 Tablespoons Flax Meal

3\4 cup rolled oats.

1-2 Tablespoons extra water.

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl (brownie mix, oatmeal, flax, brewer's yeast)

Add egg(s), oil, water, per box instructions. Mix the batter together with a mixing spoon.  The batter should be easy to stir but not runny, if it is too stiff then add an extra Tablespoon or two of water.

Spread into a greased pan and bake per the box instructions.

Some tips for the novice baker:

-Set your timer for the shortest time in the baking directions, check if they are done, if not close the oven for another minute or two.  Repeat at the end of that minute.

-instructions usually say to insert a fork and if it comes out clean they are done.  You are looking for drippy or gooey batter on the fork, that means it needs more time. A crumb or two on the fork means they are done.

-set the pan on a cooling rack or hot pad or trivit on the counter to cool.  The heat from the oven will continue to cook the brownies if you set the pan on the stove.

Here is an Amazon shopping list of what I used, if you just want to click.

There are also many other options at different price points on Amazon

The DisneyBound Birthday Party: The Ocean

Screenshot from Disney's Moana, image found on http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Moana_ocean_high_five.jpg

I was recently invited to a friend's 50th birthday party, held in Downtown Disney, the invitation suggested we all wear something Disney, or try out DisneyBounding.

DisneyBounding is when you choose your outfit to mimic a character, but you are not actually dressing in costume.  DisneyBounding got started on a Tumbler blog a few years back, and is becoming more popular with even Disney getting into it.  I tried out a couple of outfits at Disneyland on our last trip, but I have wanted to really get into it.

A store I have liked for a few years is Fresh Produce.  They used to have a store nearby, but now I have to buy online.  I did recently find that they have some of their clothing on Amazon, which is nice, but potentially expensive as the regular website has a spending threshold for free shipping, which usually keeps me from buying things on a whim, when they are "Prime" it is easy to just add something to the cart.  

Affiliate link to one of their tops:

This is the print that caught my attention a few months back when it first came out.  I have a better picture of it here (from the pin I had saved to Pinterest, from their website).

When I saw this top my first thought was that it looked like the ocean, which led to thinking that it would be great for DisneyBounding as the ocean in a Moana theme.  Then I was invited to this party.  I decided to splurge and get a dress in this print.  

That covered the base of the costume.  Then I started getting creative.

First I wanted a fascinator to wear in my hair.  I thought about starting with a teardrop-style base and adding a Moana's boat.  I wasn't able to find a small toy boat, and wasn't quite up for making one myself.  So I changed my plan to make a "sail" as an embroidery necklace, and making a "Heart of Te Fiti" hair pin.

Picture of the Dress and necklace:

The nice part about this dress is that I can wear it to work as well, part of DisneyBounding is finding pieces that speak to you that you can wear in normal life as well.  So this will give me a work dress or party dress for the future as well.

Work Option:

Next up will be posts on the tiny embroidery and the light up hair clip.

P.S. Another Fresh Produce print that caught my DisneyBounding eye is this one (affiliate link if they still have it)

This would make for a great "MoanaBounding" top.  I'm not sure that the style and cut will work for me though, I usually need longer tops.

DIY Mickey Mouse Ears: Merida

My 3 year old likes princesses.  I'm sure most people with 3 year old girls say the same thing.  So, we decided it was time to go to Disneyland and meet some princesses.  When we stopped by the gift shop after dinner I saw all the new styles of ears.  When I was a kid they were just the felt and plastic beanie like Mickey Mouse ears, now you can get headbands and hats in sequin and plush with some different themes.

You can check out the official Disney ears at Shop Disney.  And if you want a fancy bow for your Minnie Mouse hat I recommend choosing one from there, if they have your princess or character.

I think you really need a sun hat in the park, it is hot and sunny here in Southern California, and I like a hat that keeps the sun out of my eyes and a little shade on my face.  I liked the baseball caps, but, I needed an adult sized cap and I wanted a Merida themed hat.*

There are a few DIY blogs and YouTube videos out already on making Mickey ear hats, so I won't go into a detailed procedure again here, just google for instructions.  There are downloadable patterns (circles), but I just found a cup that was about the same size as my daughter's store-bought (or OTS, Off The Shelf) ears and traced it on the fabric.

I used plaid fleece from Joann's craft store.  I went into the small brick and mortar store so I could just buy 8 inches from the bolt.  (The website usually has a minimum order of 1 or 2 yards for each fabric.) I also picked up a plain, black baseball cap and gold perle cotton for the embroidery.

I would have liked to get plaid felt, but I couldn't find any and I really wanted plaid.  The advantage of fleece and felt are that they don't fray and don't need hemming and won't fall apart while you are working on them.

I found a printable "coloring page" bow and arrow that would work for hand embroidery and copied it into MS powerpoint**.  I used the image sizing with copy and paste to get a couple of different sized on the sheet, and then copy-flip to get a mirror pair of each size.  I decided what size I wanted after I printed it out and compared it to my circles. You can find it on my Merida DisneyBounding Pinterest Board.

Transferring the pattern to the dark plaid fleece was a challenge.  I finally ended up using the tissue paper transfer method. You can read about it over at one of my favorite blogs, "Needle 'n Thread".

I later learned about an interesting, iron-on paper that will wash away after you embroider.  I have ordered it from Amazon but I haven't tried it yet.

This has rave reviews all over the internet, now I have to think of a new project to try it with.

The gold thread is not easy to work with, especially on fleece which is not really a woven fabric.  I think if I was to do this again I would use a cotton weave plaid fabric, with an inside hem instead of the blanket stitch to hold it together.  I thought it would save time to skip hems and fraying, but I lost that time in struggling with the embroidery.

Here is the finished embroidery on 1 ear.

I used the gold perle cotton again to blanket stitch the back and front circles together. I like this stitch for fabrics like fleece as I don't have to worry about fraying and it looks pretty.

Here is the blanket stitch after stuffing the ear.

I stuffed the ears with "Doll and Toy" stuffing left over from some other project.  Some of the tutorials suggest that you cover a stiff circle with the fabric, and you can do that if you want, but this seemed like the easiest way for me to make ears that are durable and can get wet.

I sewed the ears onto the hat.  I had left a section of the blanket stitch open for the stuffing and I just folded out the part of the circle and sewed it down.  I had to tear out the blanket stitch and start over leaving a new place open a couple of times. I'm still not sure I have the ears oriented to the hat perfectly, but it works.

I added a plain bow made from 1 inch orange gross-grain ribbon.  I couldn't see a good way to sew on the bow neatly. So I gave up and hot glued it down.  If you are more confident about your ear placement you might want to hot glue them and then tack down the flaps for neatness.

In the end I wore this hat around the Disneyland Resort for 2 days.  It was comfortable and fun. I liked the simplicity of it highlighting the embroidery.  I am considering an addition to the front, maybe a horse or bear silhouette. Or maybe I will add that to my Disney bounding Merida dress.   If the official Mars tartan wasn't ~$100 per yard I would consider using it. Merida on Mars would be awesome.

This is the Mars Tartan, you thought I was joking didn't you?

Stay tuned for my husband's Stitch themed ears and some Disney bounding posts.

* Remember Merida from Brave?  Liked to gallop through the woods on her horse?  She is my Spirit

Princess.

**If you don't have Microsoft Office you can use Google Slides in Google Drive.  You need a
Google/Gmail account but it is free to sign up and you get some storage space on Drive to keep
your stuff.

Busy Moms Pump into Bags, or How to Wash Fewer Bottles

Medela is one of the most popular breast pump makers out there, and they have some great ideas on making pumping easier.  They are the gold standard in pumps.  Which is why the fact that their bags are not the best is very surprising and dissapointing. So the question is how can we use better bags with all of the Medela awesomeness?

First, what makes the Lansinoh bags better?

  1. Double Zippers: Lansinoh bags have 2 "ziplock" style seals at the top, so if I don't get 1 quite closed, or something gets set on top of a milk bag the chance of all of our milk leaking out is less.

  2. Soft Plastic: Partly it just feels nicer, but it is also easier to handle because it is more pliable.

  3. Lay Flat for Slim Storage: Lansinoh bags are designed to lay flat to freeze so you can fit them into your freezer more easily and a flat bag will thaw faster when you need to make a bottle.

  4. Bigger: Lansinoh bags are a little bigger if you need more than 4-5 ounces occaisionlly.

"But I really like pumping directly into bags!  Or at least I like not washing extra pumping bottles," you cry.  Good news, there is a solution for us!

The Medela bag hanger is the key.  If you have a Medela pump, then at some point you have probably bought, or been given, a box of Medela bags.  That box of bags should have included 2 plastic hanger attachments, keep those with your pump for bag pumping.

You will also need a pair of scissors.  I keep a pair with my pump.  I cut my bags in sets of 2 as needed.  If you wanted to mass produce hanging Lansinoh bags for yourself you could try an exacto knife and a cutting pad, I'm not an expert on exacto knives though.

We'll start with 1 bag for this demo. Take your Lansinoh bag and gently fold the top in half, then cut a small slit, about a quarter inch in the plastic.  I like to cut along the purple line as that seems to be low enough so that the hanger reaches just below the zippers, so milk doesn't get into the zippers, but high enough that I don't worry about accidentally cutting the top zipper.

Assemble your pumping setup including hands free bustier if you use one, screwing the Medela hangers in where you would usually put a bottle.  Then open your Lansinoh bags and pull them up over the hanger with the hanger inside so milk will go into the bag.  Then slip the cut slits over the hooks on the hangers.

Start pumping!

When you are done, carefully unhook the bag from the hanger (this is where I appreciate the hands free), check the volume in the bag, press the air out of the bag and seal the zippers.  Before you forget, label the bag with the date and volume.  You now have a bag ready for the freezer!

Muffins for Horses

I have been reading some notes on vegan baking and decided to try making vegan muffins.  Of course my favorite vegans are horses.  I went with the banana-for-egg substitution and swapped in juice for milk.

The first batch I made the oatmeal variation and added sliced strawberries.

For the second batch I followed the "banana" variation in the book reducing the apple juice and adding extra banana as well as adding a mashed banana for the egg.  I didn't mash these bananas as thoroughly so there were some banana chunks in these.

The results:
-The horses and humans all liked the strawberry muffins, although some humans pointed out that they were not as sweet as traditional muffins.  They were also very moist, to the point of being too moist I think.  I decided to cut back on the liquid a little in the future.

-Most of the horses liked the Banana Chunk muffins.  The exception being the thoroughbred mare who picked up her piece of muffin at the edge, thought about for a moment, then spit it out on the ground and delicately stomped on it.  She's a sweetheart.  However, after seeing her human and the boys (the geldings around her) eat the muffins she decided that she did like them.
 -The humans all enjoyed the banana muffins.

Recipe for Banana Chunk muffins:

1 3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
(The one thing I don't like about this recipe is that you use every measuring cup in the set for these 2 ingredients.)

2 tsp baking POWDER
1/4 tsp salt

Mix all of the above in a medium mixing bowl and make a "well" in the center.

4 bananas mashed with chunks (I smash them in a bowl with a fork)
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix the bananas, juice and oil together and dump them all at once into the "well" in the dry ingredients.  stir everything together quickly.  Fill 12 muffin cups with the batter and bake at 400 deg F for about 20 minutes.

My Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book tells me that using the paper cups with banana muffins is not a great idea.  That was demonstrated with the strawberry muffins which stuck to the papers.  So for the Banana Chunk muffins I just sprayed the muffin pan with a squirt of Pam in the bottom of each cup before filling them.  I have one of those nifty plastic muffin trays that can go in the dishwasher so clean up is easy.  If you have to scrub by hand you might want to use papers anyway.

Last weekend Pepper and I won "prettiest bonnet" at the Easter Bonnet contest sponsored by ETI.  He was thrilled as the prize included a bucket with horse cookies in it.  Far more exciting than a ribbon! At least from a horse's perspective.

We did not win the egg-and-spoon race however.  It turns out that the galloping and lead changes so useful in a barrel race do not work as well in an egg-and-spoon race.  He tried though.

Pictures of our winning bonnets:

This is Pepper's bonnet with flowers.  It also has a reflective trim in case I want to use it at night.

This is a picture of my helmet cover hat from the test run the day before.  I based the look on an old painting I pinned on pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/161425967863730443/

My new Blog

This is my new blog. I plan to share some of the stuff I think up in my everyday life.  From baking (for horses and humans) to fixing lawn chairs with bailing twine.

About me: I am an engineer with a darling quarter horse Pepper, a handful of kooky friends and millions of  random ideas.  I plan to use this blog to push me into actually exploring and trying some of those ideas.

Real content to follow soon.