A different kind of "made by Jenny"

First of all, let me say THANK YOU so much for all of the love about my hexie pillow!  All of your comments put a smile on my face for a good long time, and for that, I am very appreciative!  It's been quilted, but I've been debating back and forth about whether to do a zipper or a pocket closure, so it isn't finished yet.
Anyway, onto my "different" made by Jenny.  What does that even mean?  Well, I haven't been doing much sewing this week.  Or crocheting, or any other craftiness.  But I've been making things!  Oh, yes, I've been making things.
About a year ago, my husband was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease.  This disorder causes debilitating chronic vertigo.  He cannot work, drive a car, do anything, when he's having what we call a "vertigo attack".  Medication doesn't really work for this.  The best course of action is to keep the attacks from happening, and to do that, he's been put on a very low sodium diet (around 1500mg per day, most people eat about 6000mg).
This presented a HUGE challenge to us.  Neither of us are really cooks, and this sodium restriction has basically ruled out anything in a can, box, bottle, freezer package, or restaurant.  What would we eat?!?  Well, after seeing a nutritionist, and doing some research to find an amazing cookbook, we pretty much make EVERYTHING from scratch.

Homemade sesame seed buns.  Minus the sodium. =)

I mentioned in my last post that school is about to start.  After spending all day with my Kindergarteners, I am tired.  I often don't feel like cooking, especially since I don't really know how to make a lot of stuff. Which means right now I need to fill my freezer, before school starts.  We can't have traditional convenience food, so why not make Keith's low-sodium food convenient?  Plus, I DO like to bake, so it has actually kind of been fun.  In the past week, I have made:

*enchiladas with sauce from scratch

*stuffed shells (2 pans, in the freezer)

*sloppy joe mix for the crockpot

*taco meat

*ranch dressing

*Italian dressing

*salsa verde

*barbeque sauce (this is simmering on the stove right now, it smells amazing!)

*2 batches sesame seed sandwich buns

*bagels

*chicken parmesan meatloaf

*baked donuts

*nutella-oat and chocolate chip cookies

*soy sauce substitute

*our various dinners for the night

And I'm not done.  I plan to make several marinades to freeze with meat, and probably more breads/buns/bagels to freeze.  Keith has devoured almost the whole first batch of bagels.  When I told him I had a recipe for bagels he could eat (store-bought ones usually are around 300-400mg of sodium per bagel), he exclaimed, "What???  Why have you been holding out on me!"  Haha, oops.

I'm also going blueberry picking with my mom tomorrow, so I'll make some jam and baked goods to freeze for convenient breakfasts during the work week.  As we find more recipes that we love, I will make bigger batches for freezing as well.  I have a rule that I won't freeze anything unless I know we like it.  It has taken us a LONG time to get used to this new way of life, but we're slowly getting there.  The food I make actually tastes really good, it feels so much healthier (well, it is), and I'm better able to adapt non-sodium friendly recipes to work for us.  Plus, the biggest benefit is that Keith is able to keep the vertigo at bay, and lead a somewhat normal life!

WIP Wednesday

School starts in a mere 20 days (and I go back even sooner!).  Needing a project to keep my hands busy while sitting around watching tv, I decided to keep my tradition alive.  Which tradition?  The one where I make a new pillow cover for my library chair each year.

Since I have so many beautiful rainbow scraps, thanks to the Bottled Rainbows quilt, I thought that nothing could be more perfect than a mini-rainbow!

This pic was taken a few days ago, and progress is moving along nicely!  I'm thinking of backing it in Amy Butler's red lotus flowers, but here's where I need your help!  What color should I bind it in???  I really have no idea.

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday, over on Lee's blog.  Check it out!

Some Little Things...

A little while ago my friend Julie buttered me up with compliments about my craftiness (totally unnecessary), and asked if I'd make her daughter a crayon roll.  Of course I said yes!  People getting excited about things I make makes ME so excited!  So, Miss Olivia is now the proud owner of this:

I put crayons in it for her, too.

It was pretty cute, she took it out of the bag and said, "Ohhhh!"  Now, because her mama Julie is a pretty awesome lady, I threw in a surprise for her too.  Her very own coffee sleeve (Julie is quite the coffee connoisseur, much like myself).

I remembered that she likes red, and I had that awesome wooden button to use.  Perfect!

Here they are, all finished and ready to go to their new home!  Julie reports that they've already been put to good use.  In fact, looky what I found over on Facebook!  Love it!

To totally toot my own horn, I've had a lot of requests for those coffee sleeves.  My husband is pretty excited, because he really wants me to open an Etsy shop.  We shall see!  As for me, I'm off to construct two of them in that popular Joel Dewberry fabric (seen on Olivia's crayon roll)!

DIY-iversary

Last Sunday was my 1st anniversary.  It also happened to be the anniversary of the biggest crafty undertaking of my life.  I am not exaggerating.  I DIYed the heck out of my wedding.  It was a LOT of work.  But you know what?  Everything turned out perfect.  It was exactly what I wanted, and exactly as I'd imagined.  Even though I spent the hours before my rehearsal dinner in tears in my garage trimming the stems of 12 dozen roses that had arrived 8 hours after they were supposed to, it was worth it.  

So without further ado, here's all of my hard work in pictures (taken by the amazing Kristen Honeycutt).

The pic of the earrings is by me.

I had the stamps custom made, and I heat-embossed the napkins.  The candy buffet was a huge hit.  The pennant banner was sewn by me.

I went a little crystal crazy!  The shoes were my "something blue", the cake topper was jigsawed by my dad, and I glued 1152 crystals onto it.  I wore my blinged out hoodie to get ready.

Every piece of paper was made by me as well.  The backs of the programs had wedding mad-libs. =)

I did the main table flowers, but the rest of them were all done by my amazing bridesmaid Dawn, and her daughter Ryann (Ry did the boutonnieres and shepherd's hook jars).  I ordered 12 dozen supergreen roses from Ecuador that arrived Thursday before the wedding, and Dawn and I bought the rest at Pike Place Market on Friday morning before we arranged them all (taking a break to get our nails done, haha!).

Yep, it was worth it. =)