Decorated Christmas Tree

I finally got around to taking pictures of my Christmas tree.

This year my colors are orange, brown, gold & cream.

I originally had an orange ribbon on the tree, but had to replace it when I realized my tree looked like a pumpkin. :)

Love it when the tree is all lit up!

Country Themed Baby Shower

Yellow & Green Country Baby Shower

This baby shower was created for my niece with inspiration from Pinterest.

She is a country girl and her favorite colors are yellow and green.

Luckily my niece used to work at the Shatto Milk Company, so she had all these cute milk bottles for me to use in decorating.

I made cones out of brown cardstock & green vellum to hold individual servings of fries.

Changing Pad Cover Tutorial

This is a custom fitted cover so you'll need to measure your own changing pad to get the dimensions.

You'll need to take measurements for:

-Cording to go around top edge

-1 rectangular top piece

-2 long rectangular side pieces

-2 short end pieces (trace ends of changing pad to get pattern that looks like the drawing below)

-2 side rectangular bottom pieces (to help hold the cover on)

-2 end rectangular bottom pieces (to help hold the cover on)

 

 

 

 

Supplies:

-Enough fabric to cover top and sides of changing pad (I bought 1 yard of minky and had some left over)

-Cording to go around top edge of changing pad

-Fabric to cover cording

-Fabric for bottom side of changing pad (I used fleece, but you could use the same fabric as the top)

-Elastic

-Matching thread

 

Directions:

 

Buttercream Cake Pops

I get to help with a wedding in December and the bride wants cake pops, so I thought I'd try my hand at experimenting with cake pops and buttercream ruffles.

The ruffles were a complete fail, but this is what I came up with by experimenting with other piping tips.

Easy and Inexpensive Halloween Decorations

Today I'm so excited to share with you a few quick, easy and inexpensive Halloween decorations.

First, I made these Witch Shoes from shoes I bought at a local thrift store for 25 cents!  They were a lavender color before they became witch shoes!  I didn't completely follow this tutorial from "Seeing Things That Aren't Really There", but I used it as basic instructions.   I was able to give them a little more shape with cardboard from a cereal box and masking tape.  Then once I had the shape I liked, I spray painted them black. They could probably use a little more, like a buckle or glitter from the tutorial, but this was all I had time for that day. Perhaps next year I'll make them a little more spiffy.

Our door was super easy to decorate!  Everything you see was bought at the dollar store!  Really cheap and really easy!

My next idea I got from this pin

Halloween Decorations: Glittered Pumpkins

For a family activity, we "BLINGED" out some pumpkins!

These are the foam pumpkins in the seasonal section of Wal-Mart. All we did was spray paint them pink and silver, let them dry, sprayed them with adhesive and then poured glitter all over.

That's it & we love the result!!!

Baby Bumper Crib Set Reveal & Tutorial

New Baby Crib Set

 

 

 

I finally finished my baby's new crib bumper set and I'm so excited to share pictures with you today.  I sewed a custom crib set for my first born about 11 years ago.  It was a neutral color brown, so I was able to use it for all my kids, but after 11 years I felt it was time for an update.

Plus, this is my last baby so I need to get all my baby sewing in before it's too late. :)

This time I wanted to sew a crib set that was all girly, and what's more girly then ruffles?!

I didn't want her bedroom to be all pink, so I turned to my Pinterest boards for color combination ideas and these are the colors I decided on.

This was my inspiration for the design.  Positively Splendid's crib set is absolutely beautiful, but I didn't feel like I could fit 4 ruffles without the skirt dragging on the floor and I wanted to sew my ruffles on a different way, so I came up with my own pattern and tutorial with less ruffles.

 

 

Purple Bedroom Wall

 We've been wanting to change up our bedroom for awhile now, so we thought we'd start by giving it a paint lift.

The color we decided on is called "Plum Good" and it's a rich color that we both love.

Here is a before picture of our bedroom.

(I guess I didn't have any bigger pictures of our room)

My husband and I felt like our room needed a little more "feeling" & we felt like color would do the trick.  I wanted to add some pattern and texture to the wall with a stencil, but I also wanted to keep the stencil subtle, so I tried to paint the stencil in the same color gloss paint.  As you can see, it didn't work very well and I gave up half way through.  :(

Neapolitan Cupcakes

I've been wanting to make cupcakes lately & haven't had a reason,

so today I just made some for no reason at all. :)

 

 

These are strawberry cupcakes with a layer of ganache & then topped with cream cheese frosting.

 

 

 

Maybe I've been watching too much of Cupcake Wars & that's what got me in the mood.

No matter the reason, I'm glad I made them.

After eating them, we decided to call them Neapolitan cupcakes because that's what they tasted like to us.  Enjoy!
 

Linked up at:

Tuna Melt Sandwich

Open Face Tuna Melt Sandwich

 

This is my new favorite thing to eat & it's really easy to make.

 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Bagel
• Tuna Fish (or you could substitute chicken salad)
• Cheese
• Sweet Relish (this is the relish I use & it ROCKS!!)
• Tomatoes

I first toasted my bagel, then added the tuna fish & cheese & toasted it again.

Top with relish & tomatoes and you're done.

(It looks like I have tons of tomatoes because I used the tomatoes from my garden & they didn't get very big, but they're super yummy.)

Eat sandwich & be super happy about the yumminess :)

 

 

 

40th Birthday Gift

40 Rocs!!

My husband's favorite candy is Almond Roca, so I decided to give him a jar full of 40 of them, all dressed up.

The kids and I came up with 40 things we love about him and I printed them out and wrapped them in colorful paper around each candy.

I thought it would be a fun play on words to say "40 Rocs". 

Not exactly Roca, but close enough. :)

Happy Birthday to my one and only!!



DIY Mantle

Build Your Own Mantle

I've been wanting a mantle in my house for quite sometime because I wanted to add a little character to my living room and, of course, I wanted another surface to decorate.

During the holidays it was always hard because there were no places to put our decorations, so we'd end up with lots of little holes in the wall from hanging things. 

Well, now we have a bunch of places for decorations: a mantle, a piano top, a side shelf and a bookshelf.

Of course all those things aren't solely for decorations, but this mantle is :)

When I was coming up for ideas on how to build my mantle I turned to google images and Pinterest for some great ideas on small mantles.  Then it was up to me to sketch out the design and dimensions on grid paper.  After that was complete, all I needed was to shop for supplies so I could dive right in.

Upcycled Pedestal Cloche

I've been wanting a pedestal cloche for my side table forever & I wanted to make my own, but I just couldn't find the right sized piece of wood.

Then one day I was wondering through Deseret Industries & I found this $.25 cookie jar lid & voila it was the perfect size!

I found all three of these items at Deseret Industries.  The glass dome was $2, the candle holder was $.50 & the cookie jar lid was $.25.

Chocolate Cookies

Soft & Chewy Chocolate Drops

A couple weeks ago I decided that it would be fun to try a new cookie recipe every week.

It just seemed that every time I made cookies, I would make chocolate chip cookies, so this gives me the opportunity to try all the many cookie recipes I have that I've never used.

This week I made Soft & Chewy Chocolate Drops by www.kraftfoods.com.

I tore this recipe out of my Kraft's food magazine a long time ago because the picture looked so yummy.  I was right to keep this recipe & it did not disappoint.

DIY Tiered Raised Garden Beds

I've had this post in draft form for a year and now I'm finally sharing it.
That's what happens when you get pregnant and loose all motivation.
If you missed my sister's raised garden boxes that she recently posted, click here.
Truth be told, I've been planning my dream garden for years.
I would search online for raised garden bed kits & I found many that I liked, but this one is the design that I loved.  Then I saw the price tag.
Don't get me wrong, I totally would have paid the price tag if I'd had the money, but alas, I did not, so my husband and I built these instead...
first, however, we recommend giving the lawn a good trim, with an efficient, quiet lawn mower!

We're not done with it all, but this is the first phase of my design.

I knew I wanted my boxes to be taller then just 12", so I thought the tiered look would be nice.

I'm hoping to add a ledge on each box for seating too.

Alice In Wonderland Birthday Party

10th Birthday Party

I had the opportunity to help my sister with her daughter's 10th bday party & it was a lot of fun.

My sister wanted to create a garden in her entryway & we were totally going to make larger-than-life paper mache mushrooms, but we just couldn't fit in the time to make them.  *sigh*  But we did create this flower garden using tissue paper & paper flowers.  They're all hung from the ceiling & taped to the floor.

This is the dessert table, complete with lots of color & sweets.

Happy Father's Day!

Handprints Framed

The kids and I made this for Father's Day.

I found a couple handprint ideas on Pinterest and this is what the kids decided on.

 

Layered Pudding Cups

I had a party at my house tonight and I made these cute little desserts.

They were super easy to make.

Just make pudding, layer with cool whip or whipped cream & top with whatever treat you like.

These are chocolate topped with heath bits & vanilla topped with white chocolate chips.

You can make them in whatever glasses you'd like.  I didn't have a lot of glasses, so I also used clear plastic disposable cups.

Happy partying :)

Covered Baby Wipes Case

Cover Your Own Baby Wipes Case

I figured since I just had a baby, I should make myself some of the cute baby things I've made for others.  If you want to make your own, click here for the tutorial we've shown before.