Bibs du jour

What is the origin of the baby bib?  Who can know for sure?  What is certain is that new moms will be doing a lot of laundry and one thing that can help is to have a lot of bibs.  Now you can buy bibs in plenty of places around town - easy-wipe vinyl from drug stores or big-box stores; fancy, lacy or even designer bibs from clothing stores and high-end boutiques and Etsy will offer many handmade lovelies to choose from.  It's funny - with all those options, it is still nice to make your own. Sometimes Nana’s and Momma’s just want to a DIY project to put a little extra love in there.  XOXO!  Such was the case for us last weekend.  

I fell for these two fat-quarter prints.  They just reminded me of our little Fiona who's current best friend is her real family doggie, Berkeley.   The tiny daisies on the black field is also a winner destined to hide a splatter of smashed carrots.   I bought a new clean white terry cloth bath towel for $2.99 at my local Wal-Mart to cut and use as the soft and absorbent backside of the bib.  The fabrics are laid out below after I pre-washed them.

With little Miss Fiona and her Momma (my daughter Lauren) spending some extra time with us while Daddy/Hubby was on a business trip we had grand illusions of getting a great deal of sewing/crafting done over the week.  Unfortunately the little granddaughter ended up getting the dreaded cough and cold AGAIN and so most of our efforts were toward getting her through that and getting some sleep.  :-) 

Now luckily bibs are not terribly difficult and the folks at Instructables made it very simple for us.  I got started and made the doggie bib first and then Lauren turned out the adorable tiny daisy bib.  We ended up extending the pattern to make the bib about 1/2 inch longer since Miss Fi is nearly 12 mos. old.  We used Velcro as the closure and its working very well. 

Mis Fi was starting to feel better by Saturday afternoon she was kind enough to model the finished products.  Love that face!  We think these are bright, fun and great additions to her everyday bib wardrobe.  Already we are thinking of ways to dress the next ones up with rickrack and floral adornments.  Don't be afraid to try this project if you are a beginner.  **You might use flannel as the backing fabric instead of terry cloth for an even easier sewing experience.

Here's our model now...

Respect To The Tuna Sandwich

That's it!  Really. After going wheat free since Oct. 2012 I find that what I miss most is a tuna sandwich.  It's funny when I think about it.  There are so many things to miss when you give up wheat, like cake or cookies for example.  But a tuna sandwich is a lunch comfort food item that goes way back for me.  My mother was an excellent tuna sandwich chef.  Ha ha!  She'd serve it up on white, on wheat, on a plain bagel, an onion bagel and best of all on sourdough bread.  Mom was prone to snap it up with finely diced white or red onion and a bit of celery while her mother, my grandmother, was heavy on the piccalilli (as she referred to sweet pickle relish).  Grandma always did lean toward the sweet.  :-)

Since October I have navigated the wheat free waters pretty well.  It's not been as hard as I thought it might be, and oh by-the-way; I feel marvelous off wheat. But the one thing that crops up for me each week, when the noon hour rolls around, is the desire for a gosh darn tuna sandwich.  I have discovered that if you ask nicely you can get the Farmers Market Salad at Togo's with an added scoop of tuna on top for an additional $1.  That's ...been a life-saver!  Now I know there are gluten-free products out there and I'm sure I could have found some reasonable facsimile of sliced sandwich bread before now but I also know from what I read that it's no healthy thing to give up wheat only to replace it with some high glycemic bread made with a lot of sugar and a wheat flour substitute.  So I decided to just skip it and stick to eating salads with meat for lunch as well as certain soups.  Today, however, I read about some bread from Julian Bakery which I will set out to find in my local area tomorrow.  Wish me luck! 



The reason I went wheat-free back in October had to do with my reading of the book the Wheat Belly Book by cardiologist Dr. William Davis.  If you haven't read it, I do recommend it.  I have lost 6 lbs. since dropping wheat from my diet but I don't feel like I am dieting at all.  It's pretty easy to get your head around the fact that you just can't eat wheat.  You can eat ice cream.  You can drink wine.  Enough said - I digress.  Ha! 

I find that restaurants are helpful and grocery stores are really organizing and increasing the products they carry in support of so many Gluten Free folks. I suspect true Gluten Free folks actually may have to avoid more than just wheat. I try to keep in mind - eat real food, not too much, avoid wheat. 
So here is to the weekend and my quest for a tuna sandwich!  I can tell you already mine will have celery and onion and some crispy lettuce.  Sorry Grandma, I'm not feeling the piccalilli right now.
Did this post remind you of a comfort food you've been missing?