…a sweet pupper, curled up on her pillow…

…and a baby girl who still holds on tightly.

I love my beautiful, sweet family.

First of all, let’s start here. I’ve had barely any wine for the last year, and tonight I had about 6 oz and I’m TIPSY. I wouldn’t normally blog in this state, but as I said before, it’s NaBloPoMo and I’m trying to post every day. I don’t have something “saved up” for today so it has to be something “fresh.”

And ALL OVER the twitterverse is controversy about #AmazonFail … Amazon has an ebook for sale called “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A child-lover’s code of conduct.” WRONG. DISGUSTING. HORRIBLE. OFFENSIVE. And guess what. Thanks to everyone yelling about it all over the internet, it’s now #80 in paid Kindle sales and has over 2,000 “reviews.” It’s only been on the market since October 28th.

Some of the One Star “reviews” of the book include:

“I can not believe this filth is still up !!! Amazon you screwed yourself by selling this book . Boycott just in time for Black Friday and Christmas !!!! SHAME ON YOU !!! “ – By Pissed Off

“You have lost my business…. and even though it pobably doesn’t mean much, I’m spreading the word!!!! “ – By SouthernVal

“This is disgusting and disgraceful. And illegal. Whomever approved putting this book up should be fired. “ – By dress lover “Cathy”

“I love Amazon and am shocked to see this. I am saddened to have to say that I will not buy or sell one thing from Amazon as long as this book is for sale. I will stick with EBay, Overstock and where ever else I have to go to find what I need.If this is deleted, I will make sure everyone I know hears about it and never spend another dime here. Sick, so diapointed Amazon and I am emptying out my shopping cart, to be saved for later and sellers account now. I hope whoever thought this was protecting free speech is FIRED. You are obviously sick and need help. “ – By Brandy L. Ringgard “bleelee”

“Child molestors are not people, they are subhuman animals who need to be hunted down and destroyed.
Amazon should pull this immediately and turn over all the personal information they have on any purchasers to the proper authorities.“ – By A Customer

Then there are some 5 star reviews, and one in particular that was along the lines of my FIRST thought upon hearing about this book. My immediate thought is – some idiot wrote this TOTALLY NOT SERIOUS ebook to try to rile people up and make a bunch of sales. But I won’t know for sure since I didn’t want to spend the less than $5 to see for myself.

“No one here seems to realize that this book is not a serious creation. It is a production of a website community called 4Chan. They do this kind of stuff all the time! Google the name and you will behold a history of what I like to call “The Id of the Internet”
Kudos 4chan (/b/), you did it again. “ – By PedoBear Stamp of Approval

And another 5-star review,

“Disclaimer that I know will be all too necessary:
I am not a pedophile. I completely condemn all acts of child abuse and believe that people who do molest children are wholly immoral and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
That said, the author has every right to write this book and Amazon has every right to upload it. They could have taken it when people saw it and starting complaining, but they chose not in order to maintain their philosophy of no censorship. This is definitely a book on a disturbing topic, but it’s child molestation that is illegal, not writing about the subject.
Honestly, for those of you who care so much about protecting your kids, you’re not doing yourself any good by bringing so much free publicity to this author and his work. The more you rant about it, the more REAL pedophiles who do have criminal intent will learn about it and decide to give it a read–earning money for the author and Amazon, too. “ – By Tloya

Thoughts from my Twitter friends:

Oh, right. It’s gone now! (Some people have told me it’s not REALLY gone, but the system is just being overloaded, so it appears that way sometimes. I’m not sure which is correct.)

Did you know that in 2002, a bunch of folks were boycotting Amazon for selling “Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers”? It’s still for sale. I wonder if the people who boycotted are still holding firm.

And guess what you can pre-order now:

And also, if you buy this, are you an arsonist? There IS this disclaimer: “This manual features dozens of dangerous designs, showing the many ways a bomber can combine commonly available materials into lethal packages. For academic study only. “

And here’s another great how-to guide. Anyone want to grow some weed?

You can also learn how to get out of your drunk driving arrest.

Top 10 Things I’ve learned from #AmazonFail:

1. It must be truly, seriously EASY to self-publish an eBook and get it listed on Amazon.com.
2. People love drama.
3. The “problem” may be solved, but there’s still a lot of books out there “supporting” illegal activities, and no one seems to care.
4. I don’t much care. If someone writes/sells/buys/reads a book that is creepy, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re participating in illegal, gross, or wrong activities. The people who are suggesting that law enforcers should investigate everyone who buys this book? Well, they’ve got better things to do. Like catching actual pedophiles/murderers/robbers/drunk drivers/rapists/etc, not just people who have disturbing reading/writing habits.
5. That was just 4 things.

Are you going to boycott Amazon.com?

If so, you’ll also want to boycott / stop using these Amazon companies:

1. Bookpages.co.uk
2. IMDb
3. Alexa Internet
4. Accept.com
5. Exchange.com
6. CD Now
7. Joyo.com
8. BookSurge
9. MobiPocket.com
10. Createspace.com
11. Shopbop
12. dpreview.com
13. Brilliance Audio
14. Audible.com
15. Fabric.com
16. Box Office Mojo
17. Abe Books
18. Shelfari
19. LibraryThing
20. Bookfinder.com
21. Gojaba.com
22. FillZ
23. Reflexive Entertainment
24. Zappos.com
25. Touchco
26. Woot.com
27. Quidsi
28. A9.com
29. Endless.com
30. Diapers.com
31. Soap.com

I’m not boycotting, for the record. I love shopping on Amazon.com – they always seem to have everything I need, and obviously… lots of stuff I don’t want, too. I’ve recently signed up for Amazon Mom, which gives me free 2-day shipping and free returns (free Amazon Prime) for 3 months, which can be extended as I buy things from the baby section of Amazon.

But if you ARE boycotting, are you also going to boycott those 29 other companies? If so, where are you planning on doing most of your online shopping in the future? What, if anything, would cause you to “lift” your boycott status? Will you judge people who still shop at Amazon (like me)? And if you were going to write a controversial eBook to try to get a huge media surge, what would your topic be?

So I made my own inspired-by-Ree Cauliflower Soup. And I’ll be making it again, for sure. It’s GOOD.

Comforting Cauliflower Soup

You’ll need:

• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• celery if you want, but I didn’t have any
• 2 heads cauliflower, chopped
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup whole milk
• the other 1/2 stick butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• garlic salt
• black pepper
• 1/2 cup sour cream

1. Melt half a stick of butter in a big soup pot.
2. Dump in the onions, and cook them for a while.
3. Add the carrots and cauliflower. Stir around, cover, and let cook for 15 minutes. You don’t need to add water or anything – there is enough moisture in the pot to steam them; just trust me.
4. After your veggies are all cooked, dump in enough chicken stock to cover the veggies. For me that was about a quart of good, rich, homemade chicken stock. mmm. Bring to a simmer.
5. Pour in a cup of milk. I don’t care if you measure. I do care if you use whole milk. It must be whole milk. Fat is good.
6. Now, because we’re not thickening with flour, here’s what I want you to do. Ladle 1-2 cups of the chunky soup into a separate container, and add the other half stick of butter.  Use your immersion blender (click to see the one I use and LOVE) to blend it into a heavenly puree.
7. Dump the puree back into the pot of soup, and stir to combine.
8. Pour in a good splash of heavy cream.
9. Season with garlic salt and black pepper. I’m not usually a pepper girl, but black pepper just BELONGS in this soup. Do it.
10. To serve, put a dollop of sour cream in each bowl, then ladle soup over it. Extra creaminess, and it helps to cool the soup so you won’t burn your mouth ad haff do dak like dis.

This makes about 6 generous servings. But of course, it’ll depend on how big your cauliflowers were, and how much stock you needed in order to cover them up.

Before I had Anneliese “on the outside” I knew I wanted to give babywearing a go. I’m not sure where I first heard of it… probably somewhere in all of my research into natural/evolutionary diet, breastfeeding, etc. I guess I got sucked into the natural parenting rabbit hole.

But you really don’t know what type of carrier will be “for you” until you try. And at first I thought I’d like a pouch sling. I thought wraps and ring slings looked too complicated.

Well, my older sister gave me a pouch sling, and I used it in the beginning. My girl seemed comfy enough in it and fell right to sleep if we were out and about and she was in it. But soon she got too big to comfortably be in cradle hold in it, and since the sling is not adjustable, I couldn’t wear her snugly enough in other positions yet. I’ve kept it around in case it works better when she gets bigger.

My other older sister gave me a stretchy wrap style carrier, which she swore by when my niece and nephew were younger. It was simple enough to put on, even if it did take a minute or two with all the wrapping, but it was HOT, and my girl hated it. Once she was in it, too, it was next to impossible to adjust, so nursing in it was pretty much out of the question as well.

Then I got the chance to review a Snuggy Baby ring sling. It was AWESOME. Even though I had a soft structured carrier that Anneliese and I both really enjoyed… the simplicity of ring slings attracted me. They are NOT complicated, even if it seems that way “from the outside.” It’s so quick to pop them on and off, and to put the baby in. They’re also adjustable while wearing them, so I can lower Anneliese or angle her differently without taking her out, so it’s simple to nurse with her in a ring sling. I can have her tummy-to-tummy with her legs tucked in, which is a position she loves to fall asleep in.

Or I can pop her legs out of the bottom, which lets her body be a little snugger against mine. I can scoot her over onto my hip, which is great for her being able to “see the world” while I’m wearing her. And I can face her outward on my front (she’s basically sitting cross-legged) if she is well rested and interested in what’s going on around her. Later on, when she’s a little bigger, she can actually ride on my back in the ring sling!

I got the fever. For sure. I started making myself some ring slings – dupioni silk ones (strong, but VERY lightweight), with pockets on the tail (so I can throw my phone, keys, lip balm, burp cloth or whatever in there and truly be hands-free). First I made this brown one with a happy owl family embroidered on the tail.

In these pics, we were going to a friend’s Halloween pre-party party. Anneliese loved being close to eye level with all the big people, and listening to them chat and joke. She was really alert the whole time, looking from face to face.

Then I made myself this pretty blue one, with a fox embroidered on the pocket.

I love the color of this one!

We’ve gone on walks with our new slings, run errands, and just puttered around the house. My baby girl, who always hated to be worn in the house really seems to like my silk slings, maybe because I can cinch them so tightly, so she is very close to me. Recently, we baked cookies together, and she got to see all the action while I explained each step to her.

It’s pretty precious when she gets sleepy, and rests her head on my chest. She’ll grip the tail of the sling, or hold on to the rings. Sometimes she lets her hand dangle and scratches the fabric slowly. Since dupioni silk is slubby-textured, it makes a pleasant “scritch, scritch” sound when she does that. I think she finds it calming.

I don’t know if it’s the same for formula-fed babies, but it’s pretty common knowledge that breastfed babies smell amazing. At least to their mothers. Sometimes I catch myself just breathing in my girl’s sweet smell… like warm buttery vanilla. The ring sling makes that just that more convenient! Also, kisses are always right there waiting for me.

I’m so excited that we’ve found babywearing, and found a way for it to work for us. My girl is going to see so much of the world from up there, and I love the closeness we have together.

I’d really LOVE to try out a lightweight woven wrap. Ouch! That babywearing bug has bitten me HARD.

What Is It?

Zutano is a company that makes colorful, modern, adorable baby and kids’ clothes. They sent me an outfit from their new organic line for Anneliese.

My Thoughts:

The clothes Zutano sent me are sized 0-6 months, which is a pretty big range. I think they’re more along the lines of 3-6 months (except for the hat). The shirt fits Anneliese now but with room to grow, and the pants are a bit long. Everything is totally cute.

Anneliese wasn’t crazy about the hat when I put it on her for this little photo shoot (but later wore it happily on a walk outside). It has a cute little puffy ball on top, which I think is a charming alternative to pom-poms.

The colors are vibrant and fun, but aren’t a usual ho-hum color combination. Pink, orange, yellow, taupe, and white look so fresh and new together. And the stripes coordinate so nicely with the floral print.

The fabric is really soft, and the quality is great. These clothes feel like they’ll last through at least a couple kids’ use. And see the little buttons at the shirt’s shoulder? How cute is that? I thought it was a nice little classic touch.

Am I a bad mama if my baby faceplants and I take a picture? I promise I helped her up afterward.

Buy It:

Go to the Zutano website to see and buy all their newest stuff!

Win It:

One lucky Joyful Abode reader will win a $75 gift card to Zutano’s online shop!

To enter the giveaway, you must visit the Zutano site, then come back to this page and comment with you’re your favorite item and the link to it.

Be sure to use a valid email address when commenting, otherwise I won’t be able to contact you if you win!

I will select the winner using Random.org on November 19 when I get up. I’m not giving you a specific time because, hey, I have a new baby. But it will be in the morning, Pacific time.

Update: The winner is comment #47, Kristen M!

Extra Entries:

If you’d like an even greater chance of winning, you may leave an extra comment for each of the following:

• Tell your facebook friends about this contest using @Joyful Abode and @Zutano so that each one is linked. (1 extra entry)
• Subscribe to Joyful Abode. The RSS and email links are in the right sidebar. (1 extra entry per subscription method)
• Email at least 10 friends about this contest, and BCC: me (emily at joyfulabode dot com)so I can see. Only email friends you think would truly be interested, because I don’t want you to annoy people!  (1 extra entry)
• Follow Zutano on twitter AND like them on facebook. (1 extra entry)
• Follow Joyful Abode on twitter AND like me on facebook. (1 extra entry)

The SupaFine Print:

Zutano provided me with a free sample of this product to review, but I promise these are my real thoughts and opinions of the product. If you win, I’ll contact you via email and you will have 48 hours to respond with your shipping information, otherwise I’ll pick another winner. Sorry, Charlie, but that’s how it goes.

If you have won a Zutano gift card within the past 6 months you are not eligible to win.

Product review & giveaway disclosure: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”]

The recipe in the book calls for salt, but I left it out with no ill effects. I figured the bacon and bacon drippings were salty enough.

Grain-Free Bacon Drop Biscuits

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

You will need:

• bacon
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 eggs
• the drippings from your bacon – 1/4 cup

Start cooking some bacon. The book says 6-8 strips, but I just did as many as my pan could hold, which was probably around 5.

While the bacon cooks, sift together the coconut flour and baking powder

In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs.

When the bacon is done cooking, set it aside to cool, and whisk the drippings in with the eggs. I was afraid to cook/curdle the eggs, so I drizzled the drippings in very slowly while whisking with my other hand. That worked fine.

Combine the eggs with the flour mixture until it’s smooth.

Chop up your bacon while the dough/batter sits and melds (always a good idea for coconut flour recipes to let it sit a bit).

Fold the bacon into the dough, then drop onto a greased cookie sheet. I used one of those cookie scoopers and got 9 lumps. (The picture only has 6 because we already ate 3!)

Bake 15 minutes.

These are a tiny bit dry on their own, as are a lot of coconut flour things. But with a schmear of butter over them? They’re perfect. I think they’d be awesome with some cheddar cheese mixed in too.

At the beginning of the month, she was just starting to reach out and try to touch things…

Now she’s so much better at it, and can hit/grab dangling toys with a lot more accuracy (still not a pro though).

Sometimes she will take things out of my hands too. Today, I was playing with her rattle near her, and she took it out of my hand and started shaking it with a grin on her face like, “Ha! Soon EVERYthing in the house will be MINE!”

She still doesn’t love tummy time, but tolerates it much better than she used to.

Here’s tummy time at ONE MONTH old:

And tummy time at THREE MONTHS old. Big difference. (Though she still rolls over to get out of it pretty often. The boppy tends to keep her from rolling over as much.)

What can I say?

Tummy time is just such an obvious photo-op. I can’t help it!

And she has a giggle that could kill you with cuteness. Quick, before you watch, make sure you have your home, powers of attorney, and will in order. You may die of the cute.

I feel lucky to have a baby who is generally VERY HAPPY.

How many pictures are too many?

Though sometimes, she’s NOT happy and isn’t afraid to make it known.

She loves being carried and “worn,” but prefers to be in the sling or carrier OUTSIDE the house. At home, she wants none of it, so it isn’t useful for me “getting things done around the house.”

A couple weeks ago we went to the farmers’ market and she actually stayed awake for most of it! She’s been to the market many times but has always fallen asleep as soon as we started walking. She’s going to be taking in so many sights and sounds now that she’s awake more!

(She’s in “kangaroo” carry in this pic – we were just going to check the mail. She still gets exhausted from being in this position for too long, since it requires her to fully support her head, but she did enjoy seeing something besides my chest and neck.)

Sucking, sucking, sucking. On her pacifier, but now also her hands, her arms, my arms, my shoulder or neck (if I am carrying her somewhere and she’s looking over my shoulder), and even occasionally her feet!

Anneliese is discovering the world and just can’t get enough!

And have I mentioned how smitten she is with this guy? Yeah, that. She loves the heck out of him.

I hope you’ve had a happy 3 months, baby girl!

I bought this serger based on its TONS of 4-5 star reviews, and relatively inexpensive pricing (less than $200, with free shipping). Everyone said it was super-easy to use, and since I can remember my mother’s insanely complicated-seeming serger when I was a kid, I figured ease-of-use would be a deal-maker.

Right out of the box, it’s ready to use. It comes with an instruction booklet that’s good for referencing, and an instructional CD-ROM with videos that are good for watching before you use it the first time.

Unfortunately, I let the green tester-spool of thread run out, so I wasn’t able to do the easy tie-on-pull-through threading. Plus, it was the spool that has to be threaded first (you have to thread in a certain order, otherwise it won’t work). I think they do that on purpose, so you’re forced to learn to thread from scratch it right away.

So I threaded it. And serged a little chain before one of the threads broke. *sigh* the lower looper thread (the one that has to be threaded FIRST, again). Threaded all 4 threads again. Same deal – thread broke after a few inches.

Then I realized I had a tiny part of the threading wrong, re-threaded it, and lo and behold, it worked!

Then I set about sewing my diaper inserts I’ve been needing to make. They’re a bit wonky, partly because I’m getting used to the machine, and partly because it’s such a thick stack of fabric for the machine to handle. Some of them ended up smaller than I wanted because I cut off too much fabric, but hey… I got them done!

(The rainbow-edged ones are the ones made with the test thread.)

I figure wonky is perfectly acceptable for this project, since they’re going to just be peed and pooed on after all. I’m prepping them now (washing on hot and drying – 6 times) so they’ll be absorbent, and I’ll let you know how it goes once I try them out!

Also? I need to get some more thread. I’m not used to needing 4 spools of the same color, so I only have 1 spool of each color/shade… hence using 4 different yellows for this project!

PS. I still can’t get over how much I love this new camera lens I got. Best $100 I’ve spent in a long time! All the awesome photos in this post were taken with it, in my dim house with no flash.

You’ve seen some of the little dresses I’ve made for Anneliese. I have pieces cut out for several more, but haven’t sewn them together yet.

I’ve picked up a blanket I started crocheting… oh, about 6 years ago… it’s going to take a while to finish because it’s going to end up pretty big, and the cables slow me down a bit. But I’m working on it again.

I’ve picked up embroidery again (which I’ve always LOVED), to embellish some pockets for a super-secret project. I can’t reveal the whole project yet, but here’s a sneak of one I’m making for a friend:

…and one I’m making for myself:

I have fabric for lots of diaper inserts cut out and ready to go once I set up and figure out my new serger. The light blue is just some satin I’m going to serge into rectangles to put under my girl’s head when she sleeps, to hopefully stop all her hair from rubbing off when she moves her head… hopefully it’ll grow in by Christmas? The dark blue fabric is for another project.

This area has been getting a lot of use lately… my laptop is exiled to the living room.

This sucker needs to be set up and played with a bit… it came with instructional DVDs I need to watch! The husband just set up a big folding table in the office for me to put this on.

So basically, you’re going to be seeing a lot more projects coming up… my craft mojo is back!

Can you tell it’s been several years since he’s held an infant grandchild? SO EXCITED.

I love when he plays the guitar, too. He wrote a lullaby for Anneliese, and he was playing it for us here:

I love the look on Anneliese’s face in this one. “What? I’m just chilling on the couch with my dad and grampa!”

T got behind the lens a bit too. 3 generations!

Her legs are so strong!

Thanks for visiting, Daddy. It was awesome. We love you!