Food Soap Baby

I made Pear Raspberry Jam. It tastes really good, I can't really taste the pear, but that just means the next batch will have double the pear in it. ;)

I made Butterfinger Blondies. I was so excited to try this recipe because I found it on Pinterest (and I've been working at MAKING things from Pinterest, not just pinning things!) and beacuse I LOVE Butterfinger! These blondies tasted amazing, and the buttercream frosting with the Butterfinger on top way absolutely delicious. The blog this recipe is posted on has TONS of amazing looking stuff, so stop over at SixSisters'Stuff! The Mr. love them!

I made laundry soap. Yeah I know, I'm ever so ambitious! BUT, I seriously can make a TON of laundry soap for way freaking cheaper than buying even a small bottle. So, I have my soap making pot, grater, funnel and spoon. Plus, to make this first batch of soap, I had everything on hand. Sweet deal, huh! So yeah, I bought a 2.5 gallon water dispenser with a spigot to dispense the detergent. The recipe over at WhyNotSew said to put the detergent in 2 milk jugs, but I wanted something easier to get the detergent out (I can lift the spigot and pour soap into the cup ONE-HANDED!! So easy!)

I've made up some of the nursery decor. I've had these frames from work but they had some odd artwork in them that really wouldn't fit with any nursery scheme I could have come up with, I really bought them because of the blue frames. I got TONS and TONS of blankets and I decided to fix up the artwork.

So two weeks left until Little Mr. comes. So yeah, now we're just waiting 14 more days until our cute little man gets here. We're hoping he waits that long. {please wait that long!!}

Baby things

A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to sit at a table and craft and sew ALL DAY! Of course I jumped at the chance!! I made tons of baby things! Links are provided!!

Some Tinkle Tents, Pee Pee Tee Pees, Wee Wee Wigwams - whichever you call them! I used this tutorial from Make it and Love it.

I made a whole bunch of burp cloths. I used thos Tutorial from Cloud9!

I made football onesies! I saw this on Pinterest. I dyed onesies brown using Dark Brown Rit dye. I ironed some Heat-n-Bond onto some white fabric, cut the white fabric into 1" strips and then into 6" and 1.5" strips, then ironed them on. Then I took the very taxing task of sewing around ALL the edges of the white strips. I sewed down the vertical one, then across each of the horizontal strips. And in true football style, the horizontal strips cross OVER the long vertical strip. :)

I am overly excited for Little Mr. to get here! The Dr's keep freaking me out tho, telling me he'll come at 36 weeks (that's Oct. 24th!!!) I don't think I'm ready for that! But I am having fun preparing for his arrival. I have been working on a blanket for him. I used the quilt-along with Quilt Dad, for the Wonky Log Cabin. I love this pattern, it's so forgiving and easy to work with! I love it!!

Here are the squares as I got them done. The finishing dimensions of this part of the squares is 9"

Once I got the squares done, I put on a 3" floating white border. Then I cut the square down to 12".

I cut out Little Mr.'s name on the Cricut and then used those letters to cut out fabric letters. I layered the fabric letters with blue fleece (from an old project).

 I sewed these letters on the flannel backing for his blanket.

I sewed a square between the white float border and the patterened log cabin to secure the backing to the front {quilting style}.

And here is the finished product!  I really do love how it turned out! At first I bought green binding, but I'm REALLY glad I went with the blue!!  I really do love this blanket. It's not heavy enough to be a quilt but I love that it's a small blanket, something he can carry around with him as he gets older!! :)

Wedding Letters

So, since we've been married, most of The Mr's friends have gotten married and people from our single's ward have gotten married, and family members have gotten married.

I'm always in search of a cute easy gift to give. I've found a few that work pretty good, but recently found one that I LOVE!! I love making it and I love sharing it with newly-weds!!

I call them Wedding Letters.

When I first got married I was completely obsessed with my new last name! {Ok, truth is, I'm STILL obesessed with my new last!!} I was putting C's on everything, I was Mod Podging C's like a crazy woman, and putting our last name EVERYWHERE!! {I made some seasonal word blocks with a tutorial from Brown Paper Packages, and I added 2 extra letters so I could spell my last name....}

What you need:
-Cardboard letter
-Paint & brush
-Scrapbook paper
-Mod Podge
-Cheapie cheap nail files
-Ribbon

I go buy a cardboard letter from Joann's, the first letter of their last name. I try to stick with the medium ones I guess, that way it can fit on a shelf and not be too big but still big enough to see.

I have recently fallen in love with a paint color called Antique White. It's not a white-white, but it's also not a tan. I love it! It matches my "wedding pack" of paper PERFECTLY!! I paint the entire letter with a coat of Antique White. Insides and outsides, front and back!

Once dry, I flip the letter over, and trace the outline on the back side of the scrapbook paper. When you cut it out, cut on the INSIDE of the line, when you trace it, it always ends up bigger than the letter actual is.

Now, take that wonderful goo called Mod Podge and put a nice coat on the front of the letter. Place the letter cutout and smooth it onto the front of the cardboard letter.

This is where your cheapie cheap nail files come into play. I buy the big huge pack of 100 assorted nail files from the dollar store.

Once my paper is secured and dried to my cardboard letter, I always notice I didn't do a very good job tracing or cutting or lining up the traced letter to the cardboard one. I always have edges hanging over. I take the nail file, and file down the paper at an angle. I get paper dust all over, but the end result is pretty nice looking. ***Be sure to file down the paper BEFORE you put a top coat of Mod Podge on!***

This step will take quite a few of the cheap nail files, I use each end, both sides and each middle. I went thru 3 per letter.

Now, once the paper the filed down, I apply a coat of Mod Podge to the top of the scrapbook paper. I'm always careful to get the corners of the paper.

I've also recently fallen in love with antiquing things using brown or black ink pads. I take either the ink pad itself or a piece of paper towel/kleenex and press it into the ink pad then swipe it acorss the letters. I used the ink pad itself on the H, but the C and B were hard to get the ink pad into the turns. :) Tie on some cute wedding-ish ribbon, or if you know their wedding colors, tie those on. Brides love that stuff, I know I did!

And viola! You have some adorable, non-expensive gifts to give to some newly-weds!! The neutral color scheme goes with most decor, that's why I usually go with black, white, silver, cream. :)

Enjoy!

Pee Pee Tee Pee

So, I've got 2 months left until Little Man gets here. And I have been scouring the web (blogs and Pinterest) to find little things to make. I found a bunch of burp cloths {more on those later!} but I also found these!

Pee Pee Tee Pee!! Or Wee Wee Wigwams, whichever you prefer!

So I made a whole bunch! There are lots of babies coming the next few months and most are boys! So I made some for me, and some for all the ladies I know having boys! The Tutorial was so simple and easy. I found some flannel on the Remnants rack at Walmart, and picked up some cute fat quarters.

The tutorial was way easy to follow! I found it over at Make It and Love It. I found the tutorial via Pinterest.

These were so easy to make, I cranked out 2 burb cloths, a onesie, 4 Wee Wee Wigwams, paid my bills, AND went grocery shopping today!! ;)

Head over to Make It and Love It and start making Pee Pee Tee Pee's for all the ladies expecting little guys! They're a great gift and they're sure to make the girls laugh! :)

The List : A MUST for Engaged couples

So, when The Mr. and I got engaged, I bought 1 bridal magazine. It was huge and full of all kinds of ideas! In this 1 magazine, they had a 3 month checklist. {Which was great, because most Mormon couples aren't engaged for longer than 3 months!!} But it also included The List.

The Mr. and I come from different family situations and backgrounds. My parents are divorced and I was raised by my stepdad, his parents are still together. I was raised in Wisconsin, 45 minutes from my church building, and members being the minority; he was raised in Utah, 2 blocks from his church building, and members being the majority. I have 5 brothers and sisters, we fought all the time; he has 3 brothers and sisters, and they are best friends. We both had different opinions and thoughts about marriage and raising a family.

The List helped us get on the same page about marriage, duties, chores, holidays and family. The List is a series of questions, questions I never would have thought to ask, never would have thought mattered. We found out later, these questions really did matter, and they made all the diffrence in the world.

I still have the pages from the 1 bridal magazine. I did NOT create The List. We added our own questions to fit our relationship. I am NOT taking credit for The List, but I feel I had to share it. I'm not trying to deny anyone the credit for The List. The name of the magazine I got was LatterDay Bride. Pam Fullmer wrote this article, and she did a wonderful, amazing job in writing the story for The List and The List itself.

Alright, without further ado, here is the link to The List!! I put it on my Google Docs, cuz Google Docs is awesome and easy!

I am also giving you the link to the 3 Month Checklist! It was helpful for me to have a checklist, I was flying back everyother weekend to plan a wedding!!

One thing I also found helpful, was the Wedding Workbook. It gives a checklist, a budget planner, a guest list planner, a photography planner, a music planner, flower planner (with which flowers are in season!), and a reception seating planner!!

The Mr. and I had our own set of questions on top of the ones in the sample. Do you steal covers? Snore? Creamy or crunchy peanut butter? White or wheat bread? Will you go grocery shopping with me? How do you want us to greet eachother when we get home? What do you do to relax? How do you organize stuff? What do you NOT eat or drink? What smells do you not like? What color would you HATE to wake up to? Sleeping in on Saturdays? How clean do you want/expect things? What do you want to do together? Seperate? What things should we not do so our kids don't do them? Will you help me pick out furniture? Will you talk to me about problems? About your good days and your bad days? How do you handle confrontation? How do you handle anger? Will you confide in me? Medical history?

And those are just a few. We had 5 pages of questions we came up with together. We made a big date night of it, a mega Determine The Relationship date. But we only did this mega DTR after he asked me to marry him, so it didn't catch either of us off guard or make us uncomfortable. We were preparing to share our lives together, so these questions were completely appropriate.

I truly believe that answering these questions strengthened our relationship and helped prepare us more for marriage. We were mostly on the same page when we came out of the Temple that beauutiful day in June. I don't think anything else could have prepared us more or gotten us more prepared.

I figured I'd share The List. I've been thinking about it for a few months now, and finally FOUND it! Trust me, I lose these papers so often, I'm kinda surprised I found them! I hope you enjoy The List!

1000 sheets of paper giveaway

So I was strolling along the blog-iverse, and I came across an awesome giveaway.

Amy over at A Thousand Sheets of Paper is giving away just that, 1000 sheets of paper!! Here's what 1000 sheets of paper looks like, in case you're curious.

Ya - I know! So in order to get entered in this giveaway, I had to post about it on my blog. So here I am, posting about, and then going to link up, cuz I want in on this giveaway!

So yes, click HERE to get the low-down and find out how to get entered!!

I'm already crossing my fingers!!! Good luck!

Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip cookies

I'm posting the recipe and some pics.

It's not like you need a tutorial if I include the recipe right?

Here's the story of how I found these :

PINTEREST.

{sigh}

I love it. I got hooked on it and for a week solid I was logged in and pinning everything I saw.

When I'm on Pinterest, my computer bogs down. Like I have never had a computer bog down.

I used to work with 3D graphics programs, like 3 at the same time, to coordinate pipe, and those NEVER bogged my computer down. Ever.

But Pinterest does. Not sure why. Myabe because of all the MILLIONS of awesome freaking ideas and wonderful people on there loving and pinning the same things (and different things) that I do. Maybe...

But I found this blob of amazingness.

WE LOVE THEM!

I make them as bribes treats for my coworkers. I also made them for The Mr's Going-Away Party at work. Next Thursday is his last day, and apparently parties are FRIDAY things.

RECIPE :

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 package Double Stuff Oreo cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together with a mixer until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
In medium bowl mix the flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.
With a cookie scoop, form balls with the dough. Place one ball on top of an Oreo cookie, and another ball on the bottom. Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is fully enclosed with dough.
Place onto parchment or silpat lined baking sheets and bake cookies for approximately 13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

I used too much chocolate chips {I can't belive I just said that!} but the only reason the dough fit around the Oreo is because The Mr. was molding the dough around them. Pretty much forcing it to do his bidding and cover that Oreo.

At first we put 6 on a pan cuz I wasn't sure how big they would get. It turns out, the normal 12 on a pan works great.

Enjoy your awesome treat! They really are amazing!

Love to those who share great recipes! ♥

Pinwheel wreath tutorial

**Sorry I've been away lately, I've had a few compliations with the pregnancy and my heart, but right now, everything is back to normal-ish. At least steady.**

Alright, so I've had an itch lately.

I've been wanting to make a new wreath for my door.

Not a fancy one or anything, just a summery one.

I bought tons of pinwheels at Dollar Tree last year, hopeing to make a wreath. My first idea never turned out the way I wanted it to, so I gave up last year, putting it off until we got our own door and I could think of a better idea. I bought all the supplies for a pinwheel wreath.

This year it hit me.

I decided to wrap yarn around a floral wreath, and then stick pinwheels on that.

What you need :

1. floral wreath (Dollar Tree)
2. Yarn (I have a stash)
3. Pinwheels (Dollar Tree)
4. Hot glue (stash)

First, take your yarn and tie it around the wreath. Start wrapping yarn around the wreath.

I would twist the yarn after I looped it around the wreath. I twisted the yarn so it was a tighter wrap and there weren't any spots where the wreath was showing.

Now, if you're like me and don't know you're own strength, you might end up breaking the wreath at the seam {oops} I was thinking of hot gluing it, but hot things have never worked on the floral foam wreaths for me, so I duct taped it. I wrapped the yarn around the taped seam so nothing showed and you can't even tell I broke it!

Now, I teased my dog with the wreath while my husband cut the pinwheels.

I had him cut the pinwheels sticks short, but with some stick left still. In the end, I cut all the way up to the 90 degree elbow.

Then I put hot glue ont he elbow and stuck them on the yarn wreath.

I made sure they didn't touch, so in the event I get a breeze here, they will spin and not hit eachother.

I debated on adding a ribbon to hang it from, but decided against it, I can never get my wreaths to hang flat on the door when I put a ribbon on, so I just set it on my wreath hook.

Enjoy your wreath for the rest of the summer!