I’m one of those moms who can’t bear to see certain things go after my kids grow out of them.  Isaac’s first tiny booties.  Emma’s sweet classic Pooh bib with the ruffle.  Some of our favorite onesies and baby blankets.  There are some things that are irreplaceable, you know?  You have pictures, but being able to touch them really brings the memories flooding back.

For a long time, I’ve been planning on making Emma a quilt with her old baby clothes… but I’ve never made a quilt before and didn’t want to practice on those items.  So I turned to a company that makes professional quilts, Campus Quilt Company.  And I am SO glad I did!  But before we get to the great reveal (I’m so excited to show you!), I want to show you the process, and how easy it was to have done.

This is the kit they sent me:

The kit includes:

• A bag to mail all your quilt pieces (t-shirts, baby clothes, whatever you wish) to them in
• A prepaid label
• Detailed instructions with diagrams and pictures
• A form to fill out describing how you want your quilt to look
• Samples of the fabrics you have to choose from for the backing and binding

You have the option of designing your quilt completely yourself, down to where you want each piece you send in to be placed on the quilt (that’s what the sticker numbers are for), OR you can have their amazing designers do it for you.  That’s what I chose to do – have them design it for me – since I had already cut my onesies down to squares and rectangles.  I had no idea how I wanted it to look or what would be the best way to do it, I just knew I wanted them in a quilt.  I did throw an idea out, though, and suggested they put the squares in groups of four with white binding around each square.  Then I carefully put my precious onesies, a bib, and some super soft minky fabric I wanted in the quilt as well into the bag and dropped it off at a FedEx dropbox.  So. Easy!

Over the next month, I received updates via email letting me know that the quilt was being made and where it was in the process.  A designer emailed me at one point, too, telling me that they had some extra space to fill and I could choose the color and material to be used.  They were awesome!  Finally, I received the email letting me know that my quilt was on the way.  *Note that it normally takes about two weeks, but because I ordered mine over the Christmas holidays, it took longer.* 

One day, I received THIS in the mail:

Eeeee, so gorgeous – I couldn’t be more pleased with the result!  This quilt is so beautiful, and so special – I love it!  The flannel backing is really soft and pretty, and everything looks so pretty.  It is a true quilt, with batting inside and everything.  I can feel that the materials used are high quality, and the quilt is made so well!  It’s not going to fall apart for a LONG time, let me tell you that.

I love the way they incorporated the bib and Pooh mittens that went over her tiny hands!

Emma really loves her new special quilt, too.  She likes to go over each piece and really look at the details, then look through her baby album and find the onesies she wore.  She won’t go to sleep at night without it now!

I really could not be more thrilled with this quilt.  And now I know for sure I want to save up and do the same thing with Isaac’s baby clothes in the future!  And yes, I am saving them all.  It is going to be one spectacular quilt.  ;-)

Want to have a quilt made at Campus Quilt Company?

Campus Quilt Company makes T-Shirt Quilts, Baby Clothes Quilts, Photo Quilts, and even T-Shirt pillows!  They make them in all sizes, and what you receive is truly quilted!  Apparently not everyone who promises a t-shirt quilt actually quilts it.  Campus Quilt Company DOES.  Check out their FAQs for more information!

Here’s another cool variation of their baby quilts:

Yep, that’s right, they can stitch anything to the quilt that they can get a needle through! :)

See more examples of their quilts here. (I personally think mine is the prettiest!)

I would like to thank Campus Quilt Company for making me a quilt with my daughter’s baby clothes that I will treasure ALWAYS!  I was not charged for this – I was only expected to share my experience with you.  :) 

Who knew there were so many recipes for dishes that could be made in a rice cooker?  I sure didn’t!  I was recently given the opportunity to review this awesome cookbook – 300 Best Rice Cooker Recipes by Katie Chin.  I love my rice cooker, so I was looking forward to trying some of the recipes and seeing what the book is all about!

First, know that there aren’t many pictures… though there are two sets of a few glossy photos of recipes in the middle of the book.  Although not top priority for me, glossy pages and pictures with each recipe are one of the things I love in my favorite cookbooks, so I can’t help wishing there were more photos in this cookbook.  However, that just means there is more room for recipes!

The recipes are separated by breakfasts, appetizers, salads, soups, stews and chilis, main dishes and one-pot meals, risottos and pilafs, side dishes, steam cuisine, and desserts.  And it’s definitely not all based around rice!

Some examples:

• Cowboy Breakfast Tamales
• Stuffed Japanese Rice Balls
• Turkey and Wild Rice Curry Salad
• Thick and Hearty Split Pea Soup
• Shrimp Jambalaya
• Thai Pineapple Fried Rice
• Mexicali Rice
• Crab Dumplings
• Blackberry Custards

This book is packed full of information about the different settings on rice cookers, how to choose and store rice, the differences between certain rices and beans, and how you can get the most out of your rice cooker.  I realized after reading it that I need a new rice cooker – mine has only an on/off switch, but some rice cookers can cook with fuzzy logic which means they don’t cook at only one temperature (like mine), they have different settings for brown rice, white rice, soup, things like that.  I have my eye on this one right now!

Testing a Recipe

I decided to try a recipe I found for Rice Pudding, something I knew my kids would like (they’re rice fiends!).

Click photo to enlarge

Note that the recipe states it is “Fuzzy Logic Only“.  I ignored this and tried it in my rice cooker, and although I know the consistency could have been better, it still tasted really good, and was a total hit with my kids!  Here’s Isaac downing his serving…

Final Thoughts:

There is a wide range of difficulty levels of the recipes throughout this book – meaning that some take no time at all to put together and others seem to be more time-consuming.  The more time-consuming recipes that require going back and forth from the rice cooker to the stove or to the oven don’t appeal to me quite as much as the one-pot recipes, and I wish there was a way to search out the one-pot recipes separately from the others.  Also, many of the recipes contain types of rice and beans I’d never heard of, and some of the recipes are unfamiliar to me, so if you’re looking for simple, you’ll find some throughout this book – but it’s not all easy and familiar recipes. For those who are looking to branch out and try some different recipes, who want to explore the different types of rices and beans out there, this is a terrific find!  I have to admit that I am intrigued and want to try black rice now.  :)

I think this is a great collection of recipes you can use with the rice cooker and can recommend this cookbook highly.  I’m pleased to see that I have reason to invest in a more expensive, multitalented rice cooker!

Want it?

Buy 300 Best Rice Cooker Recipes from Amazon.com now for $16.30.  It retails for $24.95.

I received the book reviewed in this post free of charge in order that I might share my thoughts on it with you.

I saw Real Steel in theaters and wow.  It was awesome!  I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed it – I originally went for my husband’s sake, not so sure it was something I wanted to see.  I’m so glad he made me go (ha), because it was very worth experiencing in theaters!  I wanted to see it again immediately after it was over – it was that good.

The main reasons I loved it:

• Hugh Jackman (He had me in X-Men as Wolverine!)
• It’s set in the not-too-far future, but the future nonetheless.  I love imaginative futuristic movies!
• Robots!  Way cool.
• The actors did an amazing job and the movie is very well-directed.  No complaints there!
• The movie has a lot of heart, plenty of action, and isn’t predictable.  That makes a great movie!

What it’s about…
Sometime in the not-too-distant future, boxing has been outlawed and replaced by fighting matches with robots. Big robots. Hulking, rock ‘em, sock ‘em mechanical robots. But if those machines are cutting edge, Real Steel sticks to an old-fashioned style of storytelling, with a tale of a down-and-out fight manager (Hugh Jackman) looking for a good ‘bot to get back in the game, and get back out of debt. Hearts are further tugged by the arrival of this guy’s 11-year-old son (Dakota Goyo), who hasn’t seen his dad in many years but now needs tending. There’s something endearing about the way nobody ever pauses to remark on the fact that they are in the presence of giant remote-controlled prizefighting robots; it’s taken for granted in this cockeyed universe.

I received a review copy of the Real Steel Blu-Ray + DVD combo pack and couldn’t wait to see it again!  It was just as good as I remembered, and I’m glad to have it on Blu-Ray – it looked amazing on our TV.  This pack also comes with a collection of special features that will tempt even those who don’t “do” extra features to watch: Bloopers, deleted and extended scenes, “Second Screen” (get interactive content on your iPad or computer while watching the movie), an audio commentary, and much more!

You MUST watch the trailer:

Real Steel Online!

www.steelgetsreal.com
Real Steel on Facebook
Real Steel on Twitter
Real Steel on YouTube

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Disclosure: I was provided with a review copy of the movie in this post in order to share my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are 100% mine.