Author / Bethe

by Bethe

Sigh of relief

Dinner at sunset

This past weekend my in-laws hosted 70 people for a family reunion at their home for three days… four meals… and lot’s and lot’s of fun memories. I think it takes a little bit of insanity and a huge dose of hospitality to be willing to have that many people at your home for that long. They did a fabulous job. And we introduced a bunch of Oklahomans to the greatness that is Babe’s Chicken.

Visiting the horses and cows with my niece

I sported what I like to call the Texas Summer Layered Look – a layer of sunscreen, then a layer of bug spray, then a layer of sweat, then a layer of dirt. North Texas enjoyed its first weekend of 100-degree temperatures and I survived by the grace of God and the gift of wick-away fabrics.
A prize-winning bull enjoying a temporary stay at my in-laws’ place

And now that it’s over, I’m enjoying a much-needed day off from work (hooray for vacation time). Mr. Right has generously suggested that I go get a massage, and then I’m going to spend the rest of the day holed up in our home doing absolutely nothing. Okay, so I may do a little bit of sewing, but nothing that requires any thinking.

In other news, my good-looking man made a brief cameo on our favorite photographer’s blog last week – if you look closely, you can see me too… or my hands.

Which reminds me… I need to print our wedding pictures. After all, it has been 18 months. I’m adding that to the top of my to-do list… as soon as I get back to doing responsible things… which won’t be today.

by Bethe

Sunrise Pictures

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
How priceless is your unfailing love!
Both high and low among men
find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
Psalm 36:5-9
by Bethe

Chevron Wedding Quilt

One of the hardest parts of quilting is keeping it a secret from the person receiving the quilt… and keeping it a secret from my blog. I’m always itching to post a tiny sneak preview because 50 hours of my life has been spent tucked away in my little sewing studio, but everybody I make quilts for reads my blog… and so instead poor Mr. Right is constantly bombarded with me running into his study and like a proud kid squealing, “Look at this! Isn’t it cool?!” every time I make any sort of progress on my project.
I married such a sweet, patient man, who has added quilting to the list of things he gets excited about, along with hospital advertising and the Texas Rangers.
So I’m bursting with excitement to show you my latest finished product – my chevron wedding quilt!

This quilt was made for my dear friend Katie, who is marrying her own Mr. Right in August, and I am so proud to be one of her bridesmaids (she was a bridesmaid in my wedding last year). Katie is one of those rare gems who perfectly balances a huge love for the Lord, a love for people, a hilarious personality and a successful career as a math teacher (and math team coach, and prom sponsor, and you name it… she’s probably done it).
Katie and I became friends 4-5 years ago when she graduated from college and joined my Sunday School class. Immediately I knew we had someone special and she became my back-up teacher (and a much, much better teacher than I ever was) and when I got married, she took over for my class. She has a real heart for people and is a huge encouragement to not only me, but to everybody she encounters. Katie is one of those people who could write a tell-all book about me after all the prayer requests I’ve sent her way.
Oh, and she’s hilarious. Like, really funny. I adore her!

So of course as soon as she got engaged to her fiance, who happens to work alongside my Mr. Right at our church, I knew I wanted to make her a chevron quilt. The pattern was the easy part – the hard part was finding her the PERFECT material – it took me three different fabric stores before I found something that was just right for her.

These were some of my inspirations from Pinterest.

Scrappy chevron (swoon!)
This beautiful two-toned chevron quilt
This gorgeous multi-colored chevron quilt
Chevron in cool beach-inspired colors
This one is probably closest to the one I made, and similar quilting style.

My pattern was the same as the triangle quilt I made my new nephew, but this time I just used two colors and arranged the triangles to form a chevron. I did a little miscalculation and somehow ended up with a bunch of leftover triangles (there’s somewhere between 425-500 triangles in this baby), so stay tuned for some pillows made with the leftovers. Math was never my strong point, made more ironic since this quilt was for a math teacher. Next time I need to have her double-check my math!

Anyway, this quilt is HUGE because Katie and her fiance are both really tall. To get an idea, it’s four times the size of my last baby quilt – it’s just under the size of a queen.

Here is the back of the quilt – this brown, green, blue and pink fabric reminded me of something I’d find in Anthropologie. I quilted it very loosely so that it would be extra cuddly for those newlyweds (the more quilting, the stiffer the quilt). I love how you can see the chevron design through the back.

I used the same material as the backing to bind it – I did my typical half-machine binding, half-hand binding technique. I’ve since tried an all-machine binding, which saves several hours of hand-sewing, but my edges aren’t as straight, and since I’ve perfected the other technique, I hate to mess up the quilt at the very last stage of the game. This quilt was so big it took me about 10 hours to hand-sew the binding (while watching the Bachelorette and the new Sherlock Holmes BBC series on Hulu), but it was worth it. Check out that corner!

To Katie & Sean – I hope you have many snuggly nights under that quilt, enjoying movies or just using it to stay warm on a cold evening. Thank you for being a blessing to me – I hope every time you see it, you’re reminded of how special you are to me.

My dear readers – I’m taking a little break from quilting this summer to work on some pillows (I’m seriously considering putting a few on Etsy – do you think anybody would actually buy them?). My next quilt will be a baby quilt for our new nephew Jack (on Mr. Right’s side) who is scheduled to come in October. This one will be western and I can’t wait to brainstorm something new and fun for this special little guy.

by Bethe

Pillows

You know I love to quilt, but I’ve been looking for some quicker, less-expensive projects to serve as gifts (and who knows, maybe one day can go in an Etsy store to fund my fabric stash). I’ve had some ideas for pillows swimming around in my head for a year now, and finally had time between quilt projects to give two of them a try.

Ruffle My Feathers Pillow

Lately I’ve been obsessed with ruffles and this gal was easy-peasy. I just sewed up a stack of ruffles and then machine-stitched them onto a matching square of fabric. I used a light-weight cotton and hand-stitched it shut at the bottom. This became a birthday gift to a dear friend. 

We’ve Come Full Circle Pillow

This pillow was inspired by a set of pillows we got as wedding gifts from Crate & Barrel. Ever since I got it, I’ve wanted to recreate it on a smaller scale. I just took some felt I had leftover from making a Christmas wreath, used a few items I had laying around my sewing studio to trace the circles, and then hand-stitched them onto a matching square. Next time I do this I’ll probably do it on my machine, but I was a little worried that my free-motion quilting might be a bit wobbly on those little circles. 
I think I may make some in red and white, or green and white, for Christmas presents. They would be so cheerful!

by Bethe

Here come the shameless baby pictures

Wow, what a week we had last week. In just one week we:
Got a nephew. Refinanced our house. Built a new patio and vegetable garden. Spent two evenings at the hospital with the baby. Spent a third evening in the emergency room with another loved one. I did a 9-hour television commercial shoot that involved me leaving my house at 5:30 in the morning. We celebrated two Fathers’ Days. We hosted a dinner party at our home. We went to a wedding for Mr. Right’s old roommate. We cheated on our Paleo diet for the first time.

And we took one of the longest, best Sunday afternoon naps we’ve taken in years.

Thankfully today begins a new, somewhat less exciting week, and I’m finally organized enough to post BABY PICTURES!

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit smitten with my nephew. He’s just about the most precious thing you’ve ever seen, and I’m happy to report that my sister is recovering amazingly. I hope it runs in the family, because she made having a baby look easy.

So without further delay, I hope you enjoy a few shameless baby pictures of our sweet nephew Luke James, born June 11, 2012, a full week overdo, to my sister and brother-in-law. He’s our first nephew (we already have a niece, Ella, who’s almost three, and another nephew coming in October to Mr. Right’s brother and his wife) and first child on my side of the family.

On his birthday – June 11, 2012
Those tiny fingers, and even tinier finger nails!

My husband, the baby whisperer

Oh that little face just melts my heart. He is such a sweet, laid-back baby. Little Luke, I know God has big plans for you, and your family loves you dearly!

by Bethe

Brain dead evening

I have hit my wall, slid down that wall, and ended up a wet puddle on the floor. To say I’ve had an intense 24 hours is an understatement – between an unexpected and very stressful trip to the ER (and a phone call that made my heart stop – thankfully all is now fine), an all-day commercial shoot that involved a huge crew of people in multiple locations, and about 4 hours of sleep between those two… I’m pretty darn useless.

So instead I’ll just post a picture of my dear nephew Luke. As tired as I was, I couldn’t help but swing by his house to hold him for a little while. Holding a sleeping baby just slows your heart beat a little, calms your nerves, and makes your stress melt away. Thanks Luke for the pick-me-up. You are so dear to my heart, little man.

PS–It’s a small travesty that after paying a professional make-up artist a small fortune to work on our commercial today… one who happens to specialize in air brushing and who has worked with the Cowboy Cheerleaders… that I would look like this at the end of the day. I really should have asked her to give me the once-over with that make-up of hers.
(Also – I made that quilt in the background.)

by Bethe

He’s here!

I am proud to introduce my new nephew Luke! He made his big debut Monday morning at a whopping 8 pounds, 20 ounces and 20 inches long. I know I’m biased, but he’s the cutest baby in the whole world, and our whole family has fallen head over heels in love with him. 
I have many more pictures to post, but obviously I’ve been a bit, well, distracted this week with hospital visits and gazing into big blue baby eyes. Stay tuned for many more baby pictures.
And, in the meantime, head on over to the McGowan Images blog this morning to see photos of my recent gala. It was a labor of love and I’m so glad to see some bright, shiny pictures of our work on there. Enjoy!
by Bethe

Paleo update – more than 1/3 of the way there!

First of all, I want to start with a hearty THANK YOU to Tipnut for featuring my meal planning guide on their website. It made me blush a bit to see so many new visitors. Welcome!

Okay, now for the good stuff. Today is Day 11 of our 30 Day Paleo Challenge and I am proud to report that…

(drum roll please)

I have lost FOUR POUNDS!

I’m so happy I could spit. And for the record, my spit would be carb-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free.

After just a few days my cravings relaxed and I have stopped almost stopped dreaming about bread. I did have another food dream last night, but it was after I stayed strong and didn’t partake in a CHOCOLATE BUFFET offered at church.

That, my dear friends, is a whole new level of discipline that I have never achieved before. In all seriousness, I have been a total slave to food for my whole life, and it’s empowering to know that I have the ability to say no. It’s getting so much easier.

Now, I almost broke down and stuffed my face in that chocolate buffet, if not for the swift intervention of a friend who knew about my diet and who talked me off of the cliff out of the buffet line. Thanks Kelly.

So, what have I been eating?

For breakfast: banana and almond butter (the stuff I thought was like, well, butter, but turns out it’s in the peanut butter family); eggs; more eggs; almond flour pancakes; hard-boiled eggs; scrambled eggs; eggs with tomatoes. I’m a little tired of eggs. Oh – but I’ve developed a strange love affair with bacon.

For lunch and dinner: barbecue (no bread), chinese food (no rice), taco salads, or any other type of salad you can think of with olive oil and basalmic for dressing. I ate so much grilled chicken last week that I can’t look at it right now.
Barbecue is my new food passion. I could eat it every day. I practically do. I admit that I do splurge and use barbecue sauce, which has sugar in it. But otherwise I wouldn’t make it, and someone on the internet wrote, “If you do Paleo 95%, you’ll get 95% results. And heck, I’d be over the moon with 95% results, so pass me the barbecue sauce.

Snacks are the easiest part – I eat tons of fruit and nuts. I had to learn to eat grapefruit without added sugar, but it’s amazing how quickly your body adjusts. Oh, and watermelon will cure any sugar craving, as will grapes. 
As for drinks, I drink a ton of water, plus coffee in the morning and decaf ice tea if I’m craving something more interesting. That part hasn’t been as tough since I went a year without drinking any carbonated beverages because of all my health problems – recently I had added them back in, but they were so infrequent it wasn’t a huge deal.
The only other hard part is staying strong during work and social events. Like the chocolate buffet at church (it was a fundraiser, that chocolate was for a very good cause). Or yesterday’s chamber luncheon that didn’t have a SINGLE THING I could eat. Not a single piece of lettuce or vegetable that wasn’t smothered in cheese. So I sat there hungry for an hour, and then headed straight to my new favorite barbecue joint and ate 1/3 lb. of brisket and some green beans. It was glorious.
Mr. Right and I are not only losing weight, but we just feel better. I’m sleeping well, my energy is up, and I don’t have that crazy bloated feeling I get after eating a big lunch or dinner. Being full from meat is just different than being full from bread and cheese.
And so, we’ve decided that after our 30 days are up, we’re going to continue with an almost-no-carb/almost-no-sweets diet. We’ll work in a few cheat meals, but honestly now that I’ve detoxed from all the things I was addicted to, I don’t want to dip my toe back in that water again.
Unless that water is really a chocolate fountain. 
by Bethe

A little poop and an open letter to Baby Luke

My day began with stepping in a giant pile of dog poop in the backyard, and then tracking it throughout my house before realizing it was stuck to the bottom of my flip flop. And all over my feet.

How did your day start?

Luckily my day quickly improved, and I didn’t get any poop on our carpet. These are big wins, people.

And now to something much more important: an open letter to my sweet nephew Luke.

Dear Luke,

Your Aunt B can’t wait to meet you, and I’m afraid you may already take after me, for I, too, tend to run a little behind schedule, trying to fit too many fun things in, always forgetting how long it takes to do my hair, and habitually underestimating the length of my commute. Not to mention all of the traffic from road construction.

So I totally understand that it’s easy to be a few minutes late. But sweet Baby Luke, you’re already a day late. A whole day. I would never be that late to something. It’s just not good manners, my child.

Plus your dear mama (my sister) is so anxious to meet you, and hold you, and love on you for the first time. She’s waited so patiently for the past 40 weeks, and now every day seems like an eternity. Plus it’s awfully hot outside – I don’t blame you for not wanting to make your grand entrance in this blazing Texas heat, but trust me, it won’t get any cooler. And your mama is hot – help a girl out.

Please, please come out to play. I promise when you do, you’ll be greeted with so many people who have loved you before you were even, well, you.

Sweet Baby Luke, I prayed for you years ago, before your mama even married your dad. I prayed back when the doctors told your mama that she might never be able to have a baby. We knew that our God was bigger than that, and so we started praying immediately that you would prove those doctors wrong. And we never stopped praying, and you DID prove those doctors wrong! You’re almost here!

Your aunts and uncles and grandparents promise to keep on praying for you after you’re born. So let’s hurry this thing up and get your birthday party started. I’m free tonight, if you are. Please, oh please, don’t make us wait any longer.

From your favorite aunt,
Bethe

PS- I promise to end this crazy Paleo diet before your first birthday so I can indulge in a little birthday cake. Not that I’m craving sugar or anything. No, not at all.

by Bethe

Look at me – I’m still alive!

Yesterday I hit a total paleo wall – they say the third day is one of the toughest (probably made worse because this is officially the first diet I’ve ever been on). My body is addicted to flour and sugar and cheese, and I spent most of yesterday obsessing about all the things I can’t eat, and frantically worrying about how I would possibly manage to feed myself for another 27 days with so few options.

I may have, as my husband likes to say, “fractured from reality.”

I can only describe the feeling as being similar to that feeling girls get when their hormones are out of control, they’re exhausted, hungry, and not thinking straight. Very silly things become GIANT things.

That was my yesterday, as evidenced by my near-meltdown in the baking aisle of an upscale grocery store when I couldn’t find almond flour and coconut flour. And then the butter aisle didn’t carry almond butter.

All I wanted was to make paleo-friendly almond flour pancakes. I salivated just thinking about them ALL DAY LONG. And now it was useless – there would be no almost-floury goodness in my mouth.

God bless the sweet grocery store worker who graciously told me that almond butter is not, in fact, kept with the regular butter. I thought I was buying butter… turns out I was in the market for a peanut butter substitute.

I’m so bad at this hippie thing.

And then she introduced me to the gluten-free specialty aisle, filled with almond flour ($10 for a tiny bag) and coconut flour (so obscure you just scoop it out of a bin yourself – like the real health nuts do).

And then the heavens opened up and the sun shown down on these things.

Kale chips. Vegan, gluten-free, made with organic carrot powder (who knew there was such a thing?), at $5 for a 2-oz bag. Let me tell you, those Kale Chips may be the most wonderful thing I’ve ever eaten. They’re horribly ugly to look at, but they’re crunchy and if you close your eyes, you almost feel like you’re snacking on chips.

It’s amazing. And ironic because I don’t normally eat chips.

And this morning I was able to whip up my almond pancakes and while they really didn’t taste much like a pancake, it still helped sooth the cravings I’ve battled in my had and in my stomach for the past few days. I can keep going.

My wise and incredibly good-looking husband said something profound this morning. He told me that I have to stop obsessing about all of the things I can’t eat on this diet, and focus on all of the things I CAN eat. Like, as many fruits and vegetables as I want. And any kind of meat I want. I can eat steak on this diet.

So why obsess about a missed bowl of frosted mini wheats?

I’m pretty sure there’s a life lesson buried in there, underneath all of those homemade biscuits I’ve been dreaming about.

No kidding. I really did dream about bread.

And here is Paleo Plan’s recipe for almond flour pancakes so you too can indulge your inner hippie Martha Stewart.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup almond flour (I found this on a gluten-free specialty aisle)
  • 1 tablespoon coconut flour (I found this on a gluten-free specialty aisle)
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup water (they said soda water makes fluffier pancakes)
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon coconut oil (I found this near the olive oil)

Instructions

  1. Combine almond flour, coconut flour, applesauce, eggs, water, nutmeg and sea salt in a bowl with a fork. The batter will appear a little thicker than normal mix.
  2. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat with 1 teaspoon coconut oil
  3. Drop 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan once it is fully heated. Flip like a normal pancake.
  4. Top with fresh berries.

Again – mine were a lot denser than regular pancakes (sort of reminded me of buckwheat pancakes) and they crumbled when I flipped them (they’ve very crumbly). I topped mine with strawberries and peach slices.

Bon appetit!