Getting Ready for Baby Part 2

So I went to bed and slept for 3 hours and now I'm wide awake and cannot go back to sleep.  Apparently, my baby also can't sleep because he or she is up doing jumping jacks.  Instead of sleeping tonight, I'll bring you part 2.
For the nursery, I've created a couple pieces of wall art.  Here is one of them.

In case you can't tell, it is made out of a very expensive, hard to find, one-of-a-kind show box lid.  I used mod podge to glue burlap and then cut the designs out of scrapbook paper and fabric and also glued those pieces to my "canvas."  Super easy and fun to design.  Now to get it hung...

Ok, so I'm finally starting to yawn again.  Maybe I'll give this whole sleeping thing another shot.  If that doesn't work, I'm going to go do a load of dishes.  

Getting Ready For Baby Part 1

Our  nursery is not complete.  Fortunately, we have everything that we need to bring the baby home.  The biggest reason that the nursery is not yet complete is that we do not have the big pieces of furniture yet.  We have so graciously been given a crib and a glider but, for various reasons, they have yet to make a physical appearance in our house.  So for now, I'm just going to share some pictures of various parts of the nursery mostly made by yours truly.  Stay tuned for the next couple of weeks and I'll try to keep posting different elements.
First off, we have the laundry bag.  This was super easy to make and I whipped it out in a couple of hours or less.

Note, I did use pink ribbon but that was because it was all I had and I didn't want to go to the store.  If we happen to have a boy, and I have the time and the brain power left, I'll probably replace the pink with green or blue.  The ribbon on the side is a draw string so I can pull it tight or let it hang loose.

Here is the bag in action though it is currently empty.

Gingered Brown Rice

We eat a lot more rice than my family did when I was growing up.  Most likely this is because we eat a lot of Asian food.  One great, easy side dish is something called gingered brown rice.  I once found a recipe for something like this that also had oranges in it.  However, I don't keep oranges on hand especially during the summer.  So here is my basic version.

In your rice cooker, mix 1/2 brown rice and 1/2 white rice.  Add the appropriate amount of water or chicken stock for more flavor.  Then toss in a little dried ginger powder or minced fresh ginger.  Turn your rice cooker on to the brown rice setting.  When it is all done cooking, just toss in some raisins for sweetness right before serving.  Super yummy!  It works great with Greek inspired food but could go well with a lot of different foods.  If you don't have a rice cooker...well, you should just get one.  I am physically incapable of cooking rice on the stove so I have no instructions for you.

The Reason I'm Hoping for a Girl...

I finally finished this blanket!  I love it.  I hope I'm having a girl because I don't want to have to give this one away or try and store it for years.

I got the inspiration for this flannel rag quilt from this blog.