Pretty & Cheap Jar Filler

Spring is comming, I can feel it! It's my most favorite time of the year! I love the pretty Easter colors and the change in temperature.  I'm skipping decorating for St. Patty's Day and going straight to Easter.  Well, I never decorated for St. Patty's Day anyhow.

When Macey and I were shopping at the craft store a cute little chickie jumped off the shelf right into my basket - I hate when that happens.  So we brought it home and decided we needed to somehow find a way to display our cute new Easter decoration in the hurricane glass that sits on our kitchen table.  It looked silly sitting in it all alone, it needed something under it but what?  Colored salt!

So, first you dump a container or two of salt into a big ziplock.

Then you squirt in whatever color of food coloring floats your boat.

Then you pretend it's Amish Friendship Bread and "mush the bag."

Lastly, you dump it into your hurricane glass or apothecary jar and put your decoration on top. Soo cute!  You could just leave the salt white and put in a pretty spring blossom.  You could do red, white and blue layers of salt with a flag sticking in it for the fourth of July.  You could do red or green salt with a cute Christmas decoration.  There's soo many possibilities!

Linking to:

Dish Drying Mat

I came across Cheryls' blog after she left a comment on mine.  She has pretty pictures, USEFUL craft ideas, and good recipes.  My blog wants to be like her blog when it grows up!  She posted about this cute little dishmat of hers and I said "I neeeeed one of those." I'm sure every mom can relate.  You unload the dishwasher and put everything away except for the plastic sippy cups and bowls because they are still dripping wet.  So I would pull out a flour sack dish towel and lay them on there until they dry.  It's not the most pretty sight and it looks all disorganized.  Cheryl's dishmat is a cute solution to that problem.  Hers' is much cuter than mine, but I didn't want to spend that much time on it. So I cut up an old flour sack towel, put batting between the layers, went over it with a quilting ruler and pencil, quilted and bound it. And did it all within an hour.  I love quick, easy and useful projects.  It makes my kitchen counter look soo much better!

My Craft Space

My craft area is finally organized! I've been letting stuff pile up forever and I finally got around to organizing everything.  It feels soo good to walk in to a clean and cleared out area. Now I can move on to more projects, yay!

 

Washer Necklace

When I saw the tutorial on how to make a washer necklace on Blue Cricket I didn't really think much of it.    But as I get bigger and bigger my clothing options get smaller and smaller.  I am now limited to one skirt that fits comfortably to wear to church, and I needed something cute to go along with my blah outfit.  So then I remembered the post about washers on a ribbon and thought I could spray paint them burgundy since I have searched every single craft store in St. George and couldn't find burgundy beads.

So Macey and I headed off to the hardware store in search of washers and spray paint.  If I were to do things over again I would buy all the same size of washers.  I'm not sure why in the instructions she said to get three different sizes.  And also, (of course I didn't think of this until AFTER I had finished the necklace) I should've spray painted some kind of clear laquer on after the spray paint so it won't come off if it gets scratched.  Oh well, live and learn.  The tutorial to make this is right here.

Good gravy, can I get any bigger?

Organza Flowers

I saw a tutorial for organza flowers on Little Birdie Secrets and decided I had to make some.  I mean, what if my baby is born bald? She'll need something cute on her head so people don't think she's a boy, right?  So, I ordered the variety pack of nylon headbands off of this website. 

Oooh it's soo pretty I just want to sit and stare at it.  Keep in mind organza is totally different than tulle.  It's a much finer fabric.  You can find it in the bridal/prom section of the fabric store.  I couldn't decide how much to buy, so I bought a fourth of a yard of each.  Umm, ya, that's a bit much. I probably should have only bought an eighth of a yard.  But, she who dies with the most fabric wins.

So then you cut out your circles or petals, either way turns out cute.  Sorry for the dark picture.  I can only light candles after Macey goes to bed.  Otherwise I am forced to sing "Happy Birthday to You" a million times and blow out the candle.  I have to admit I was kinda skeptical that the edges would curl under all cute.  But once you put the edge close to the flame it curls up.  The first time I did this I actually said out loud "Oooh pretty."

The more layers you do the cuter it gets.  You want the smallest layer to be about the size of a quarter, and then do each layer after that about a fourth of an inch bigger in diameter.  Once you get all the layers done (in this picture it's only half ways done) you sew the layers together with a nylon thread and then sew beads in the center. Glue it to a clippy or sew it onto your headband and there ya go, one stylin' baby headband! 

Shower Cleaner

So I ran out of shower cleaner the other day.  You know, the kind that you spray on the shower walls everyday in hopes that you don't get scary soap scum build-up?  So I went to add shower cleaner to my shopping list, and I don't know about you but looking at the long list of things to buy always overwhelms me.  Shopping trips with my two-year-old are a nightmare.  I try to get in and out of the store in as little time as possible before a meltdown erupts.  So I thought if I could save myself a trip down an extra aisle at the store the better off we would be.  I have heard of people making their own cleaners with vinegar and borax but had never tried it because the thought of a vinegary smelling house doesn't appeal to me.  But I decided it was worth a shot. So I found this "recipe" online and put it together.  And ya know what? I think it actually works better than the store bought stuff.  The positives to it are this: it costs almost nothing to make, it doesn't have a chemically smell, and it's enviromentally friendly.  The vinegar smell is really mild and it doesn't last very long.  Here's the "recipe," try it out and let me know what you think.

3 Cups Water

1/2 Cup Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Dishwasher Detergent

1 Tablespoon Borax

Happy housecleaning!

Toddler Dish Towel Bibb

This bibb pattern is one that I came up with out of sheer necessity.  I don't know what other people do once their kids grow out of the baby size bibbs. Stores don't seem to have much (okay, they don't have anything that I can find) in the way of cloth toddler size bibbs.  My two-year-old needs something to cover her whole front and the more coverage the better. 

This is my first sewing tutorial so if you have any questions be sure to let me know!

To start off your going to need:

-Dish Towels (new or used) most towels are 16 inches across which is what my pattern fits.

-Velcro

-Binding - Extra Wide Double Fold Bias tape seems to work the best
-Fusible Fabric if you want to add an applique and make it all fancy.

-Print out the pattern here {for personal use only}

First your going to print out the pattern and cut it out.  Fold your towel in half hot-dog style (I learned that in Primary :-) that means long ways.

Cut your fabric along the pattern.

This next step is the trickiest in the whole thing so pay close attention.  Your going to cut a strip of velcro about two inches long.  Pin the hook side of the velcro to the top of the towel.  Pin the eye side of the velcro to the BACK side of the other tab. If you sew them both to the top it won't velcro together right. Your going to want to leave about a fourth of a inch space between the edge and the velcro, especially if you have the extra wide binding. Then sew the velcro on.

Next your going to pin the binding to the neck part of the bibb.  Then zig-zag stich it on.

Now your going to fold the end of the binding tape in about a fourth of an inch so you don't have a raw edge sticking out.

Then pin the binding along the top of the bibb.  Be sure to turn your edges under at the ends when you pin it.  It will give it a more finished look.  Once you sew this binding on your done if you want to be.  Or you can sew some ribbon, ric-rack, buttons or an applique onto the bibb to fancy it up.

Don't throw away that extra strip of towel from the top.  Square it up and cut it.  Fold the raw edge under a fourth of an inch and zig-zag it. Now you have a new cleaning rag AND a cute bibb. 

Baby Beanie

Don't laugh! We'll don't laugh too hard anyways.  This is my very first attempt at making a baby beanie.  I really want to make one like this but I'm running out of time and I had to start somewhere.  You know how right after the babies born that put that ugy pink and blue striped knit cap thingy on the babies head and then all of your pictures of your babies first moments in life have that ugly cap in them?  Well it bugs me.  I'm hoping she has a really small head though because this newborn size beanie is really small, I'm kinda worried it won't fit.  Maybe I should hurry and make another one in a size bigger just in case.  Hmm, so many projects so little time left.

Breakfast in Bed Tray

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day. Ours was pretty good.   Our plans never go the way we expect them to.  I had a nice dinner all planned out for Saturday night (Sunday we were going to be with family celebrating my moms' birthday.)  But by the time Justin got home from doing chores and running errands I was soo exhausted, my feet were throbbing and my back was aching (keep in mind I'm 35 weeks pregnant) that I wasn't in the mood for cooking dinner.  So I gave Justin the recipes and he made it, and it turned out pretty dang good!  I made up for not cooking dinner by surprising him with a fancy breakfast in bed tray Sunday morning.  I thought I would share it with you all so you can use some of the ideas for the next birthday, anniversary, Fathers day or just a lazy Sunday.

• 
  
  Fabulous French Toast

The secret to making good french toast is to:

1. 
   
   Use french bread or Texas Toast
2. 
   
   Butter the bread before you dip it in the egg/milk mixture.  It gives it a crunchy texture on the outside and it is soo good..
3. 
   
   Mix your cinnamon in your vanilla before you add it to the eggs and milk. This way the cinnamon doesn't glump together.  I learned this on the Food Network :-)
4. 
   
   Top it with homemade Cinnamon Cream Syrup.

• 
  
  Cinnamon Cream Syrup

1 Cup light corn syrup

2 Cups sugar

1/2 Cup water

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 Cup evaporated milk

Mix syrup, sugar, water and cinnamon.  Bring to a full boil over medium heat stirring. Continue two minutes.  Cool for five minutes.  Add milk. 

Once you make this you'll never go back to that nasty store bought maple flavored syrup stuff again!

• Cute Tray Decoration

I got the idea for this off of Shoestring Pavilion and the instructions to make the flowers off of Dozi Design. I ended up with a few blank spot so I put a little loop of ribbon in them and secured it with a straight pin. It's sitting on a ceramic candle holder that Justin made in shop class in high school :-) It turned out kinda cute.

• 
  
  Simple Napkin Fold

I have tried, and failed many times to do those fancy napkin folds that you see at the restaurants - fancy napkin folding just isn't my thing.  So I have to rely on my trusty simple fold.  If you don't have cloth napkins be sure and check the clearance section at Target.  They always seem to have fun colors of cloth napkins for an awesome price.

Step one: Lay the napkin face down.

Step two: Fold in half.

Step three: Fold the bottom up four inches.

Step four: Fold the bottom up four inches again.

Step five: Fold both sides under.

Step six: Add silverware and your done!

I believe some of the best presents we can give are service to one another. I hope this gave you some ideas for a nice breakfast in bed tray for a special day or just any day that you just want to let your spouse (or kids) know that you love them.

Valentines Card Template

Thank you Shutter Sisters for the FREE Valentines card template! I love how it turned out and it was soo easy.  All you do is download their template, open it in photoshop and then insert your picture and print.  Go here to get yours!