HEADBANDS

So I made some headbands for a friends baby shower. These were the EASIEST thing I’ve made so far. All you need is:

Fabric flowers
Elastic
Needle and Thread
Felt
Hot glue gun

You take your elastic and measure the length. I did newborn headbands and it needed 14” of elastic. Cut your elastic. Take your needle and thread and sew your two ends together (it doesn’t have to be perfect). Once your ends are sewn take your felt and cut a small circle (you may need felt on the back of the flower – which means you’d need 2 circles cut out). Hot glue one circle onto the back of the flower (if needed) then take your elastic (where the end is sewn because it doesn’t look very pretty) and hot glue it between both felt circles. Wahlah! You’re done! Super easy, cute, and dainty!

        

I forgot to mention… You can buy fabric flowers at any craft store in their scrapbooking isles. I bought these ones at Michaels. Also, you CAN dye your elastic to match if you’d like. I’ve never done it, but try and out and let me know how it goes!!

**Thanks to Suzanne for the cute baby pictures.**

Here are the other lengths if you want to make some for older girls:

Newborn: 13 1/4”
3-6 Months: 14 1/2”
6-12 months: 16”
12 Months-Teen: 17 1/2”
Adult: 18”

I WANT TO MAKE THESE!!!

My friend Lindsay told me all about these and they looked super easy to make. So I looked them up and I am IN LOVE. My girls are getting to an age where they aren’t really thrilled with hair bows (or impressed) anymore. Luckily for me, baby girl #3 will be able to wear them if my older girls do not. But I LOVE THEM!

I found them HERE.

APRIL SHOWERS, BRINGS MAY FLOWERS

I have another baby shower coming up. What better time to make a baby blanket. I wanted this one to be different. It’s a work in progress…

First you make one of these…

Then you make like a thousand more… In different colors… And connect them all together…

This is the end result (Just not mine because I need more pink yarn. And I’m doing a slightly different color scheme.)

You can find the pattern here.

RETIRING

Well, not forever, but for the season. Winter has pretty much come and gone in our neck of the woods. I was SO busy and SO thankful for everyone who like my stuff enough to buy something from me. But don’t fret, I’ll be be back next fall and winter. And I think I’ll stock up and make a bunch throughout the summer to keep me caught up. I’ve been very blessed with all of you supporting me and even giving me suggestions and ideas throughout.

I am going to keep making things, mostly gifts. Baby blankets, booties, etc. I made this for a good friend. It turned out so cute that I’ll probably make one for our little girl… eventually.

**I think the brown ribbon around the edging really makes it. Other ideas I thought of  was skipping the ribbon and maybe putting a cluster of flowers in a corner.**

GIANT BIRTHDAY COOKIE

This thing turned out to be a HUGE pain at first… There are a few things I would have done differently. To start… You can use whatever size pizza sheet you want. I happened to buy a 13” pan… a 16” pan would be perfect, in my opinion. It would have been just fine but I made a bunch of mistakes. Learn from them.

1. Make sure you have enough room on the edges for expanding. It WILL drip over and burn at the bottom of the oven. I would give yourself 1-2” at least. I ended up taking out 2 1/2 cups of the dough. Which is GREAT because then you have it on hand to make regular cookies later on.

2.If you’re super worried about spilling over then put another LARGE cookie sheet underneath. Problem solved. I learned this he hard way. Mine spilled over, set my oven on fire (after getting the cookie out in time), and filled my house with smoke. It was a learning experience, to say the least. But you know what?? The cookie was REALLY good and everyone ate it up.

3. After it completely cools decorate however you see fit. It happened to be my daughter’s 5th birthday, so I piped some frosting and WAHLAH!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. In large bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well.
2. Gradually add flour, salt, and baking soda, beating until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Spread in greased 14 inch round pizza pan. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 20-25 minutes. Cool cookie in pan on a cooling rack. Decorate as desired.

 

CROCHETING

… HAS TAKEN OVER MY LIFE. It’s what I’ve been doing most of winter and finally decided to start selling my stuff. Mostly to people I know. People have suggested Etsy.  I haven’t opted to do that yet… it kind of freaks me out. What if people complain and I get irritated. Plus, I’ve been so busy as it is, It just doesn’t seem feasible right now.  Here are a few things I’ve made and sold.

ONE MONTH LATER…

I’MMMMM BAAAAACK. We’ve been REALLY busy around here with all of the house preparations. To bring you up to speed… We are selling our house (or at least going to try to) starting in March. I’ve made it a goal to get the girl’s room to actually LOOK like a girl’s room. So after finally finding an inexpensive ( but cute bedspread) we needed to amp up some of their already established decorations in their room. We had a long shelf that needed to be repainted and hung up. So we painted it a pepto bismal pink (that’s the best way to describe it) and then I needed something on top…

Which brings me to my latest project. It took a couple of weeks to finish. Between sick kids, dinners, cleaning, preschool classes, and regular everyday life I finally finished. My bff Lisa Larson helped me (and pretty much held my hand) throughout the whole thing.  Here’s what we did…

Lisa had a long piece of wood that was about 2 inches thick. We had it cut into pieces 4”, 4 1/2”, and 5” tall. Afterwards, we (Lisa) sanded the blocks for a smooth surface. We both chose our paint colors. I chose a dark chocolate color while Lisa’s was an off white… how appropriate. 

After painting both sides and letting them dry we cut our pieces of scrap paper to fit the front of the paper. We liked a little bit of the brown to show around the front, so the paper was a little bit shorter. We used scrap paper, embellishments, and ribbon from Archivers.  With the scrap paper we Mod Podged the paper and let it dry. Then Lisa happened to have a Cricket which are wicked expensive… I want one. But I’m not holding my breath. We cut out our letters. Mine spelled out “SISTERS” and Lisa’s spelled out “SWEET GIRL”. Then we Mod Podged those on also. After everything dried, we Mod Podged the whole darn thing (we LOOOOVE some Mod Podge… It acts a glue, sealant, and adds a glossy finish. Ok… So time for some embellishments. This was kind of the hardest part. You wanted to incorporate all of your colors, plus you didn’t want to repeat yourself in your patterns. After finally finding the PERFECT combination… Here’s how it turned out.

 

Here’s an up close look to some of the letters…

 
 

I’m REALLY pleased with how they turned out. If I didn’t have Lisa to help me, they would have turned out TERRIBLE!! When I got home I immediately put them up and of course stared adoringly.

And then took too many pictures.