bloglovin'

So I learned a while back that Google Reader was going the way of the walkman.... So I looked into other Blog readers...And I found Bloglovin'.

A few of the blogs I follow had already made the switch to Bloglovin', and they raved about it. So I figured I'd jump on the train. So I looked up how to move my Google Reader feed over to Bloglovin'. I googled it and found the Bloglovin' blog and this awesome explanatory post!

It's pretty easy to use, and there's a mobile app for it as well. I have my blogs separated into groups : friends (people I know!), crafty (all the crafty blogs I follow!), and fun (all the crazy fun blogs I follow, like Pintrosity).

I know when you go the Blogger dashboard, there is a list of new posts, but I follow a lot of blogs and Blogger doesn't put up more than 20 new posts... So I miss them sometimes. On the Bloglovin' each blog on my list has a number next to it with the number of new unread posts. When I click on a blog I want to read, it opens another tab, with a direction bar at the top! So I don't have to keep going back to the main page! I can go onto the next blog or post I want to read, right from that page!!

So pretty sure I'm sold on Bloglovin' - it's pretty awesome. Well, awesome when I remember to check my account. But when I do, there's LOTS to read and I enjoy catching up!

So for those of you who still use Google Reader and are as disappointed as I was about it being gone, Bloglovin' might be the answer you've been looking for. It's very user friendly and very fun.

:)

Crock Pot Freezer Meals

Alright, so there are days, even weeks where I don't cook dinner.... It's not that we don't have food at our house.... But when I look in the fridge, all I find are ingredients! Ugh! That's the worst!

So I've been searching the Pinterest for CrockPot Freezer Meals... I love my crock pot, I love being able to dump a bunch of stuff in there and have a meal when The Mr. comes home. And for the most part, the meals are pretty delicious! And way easy. In the summer I lean heavily on the crock pot, I don't want to turn the oven on!

So I found a CrockPot Freezer recipe gold mine! I stumbled upon Baked In the South, and decided to make ALL of her recipes. She's got 5 parts! This link goes to Part 5, because parts 1-4 don't link up part 5. But part 5 links up the other 4. She's got about 5 recipes per post, so that's A LOT of food.

 Please ignore how disgusting my freezer is.... I bought berries from Dollar Tree... once the packaging froze, it cracks and broke open... Lesson learned.

It feels so good to have a freezer full of meals. I made 20! And no repeats either. Although I did have enough of some recipes to make doubles, I figured we'd try them out first, see if they were tasty, then make more.

Also, I ended up not having a few things, I thought I had more than 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, so I put on the bag the things I needed to add when I put it in the crock.

So easy, and I bought all the ingredients (expect for the stew beef!) with my bi-weekly grocery budget! It worked out so good!

Baby Shower Wreath

So, all of friends are pregnant! And all of them are having girls (it seems like!!)

One of our friends had their 1st child, and she is so cute! For the baby shower, I made a diaper wreath. I found the link on Pinterest. I went over to Behind The After for her DIY!

I didn't do a tutorial or anything. But I had to post this cuz it was so cute! I picked things that I NEEDED as a new mom, and a whole bunch of cute girly things!

Her DIY was such a good one. I tried to follow it but I think I ended up making some of it up.

I crocheted some little shoes and tied them in the middle. I also made a hooded towel, I will make a post about it later!

Pacing myself!

Ok - so there has been quite a bit going on lately.

I got a pacemaker... Yup, me, at 26, I got a pacemaker. It was kinda coming, we knew it had to happen. And it made it easier to get it done because The Mr and I had talked about going to the Dr's to find out about getting one sooner rather than later. So the idea wasn't just sprung on us, but the surgery was. I had an episode with my heart on Monday, I told them on Tuesday, they called on Wednesday for an appointment and to tell me that I was going in on Monday for a pacemaker....

 Ok, so this is after the 1st one. Yes, there is a 1st surgery. When they put the wires in, the wires apparently caught my diaphragm..My doctor explained that my diaphragm was getting paced along with my heart. In normal anatomy, the leads go in the right atrium and the right ventricle. In my backwards anatomy, my leads go in the left side. The phrenic nerve comes down from the neck (C3-C5), the nerve splits and the left phrenic nerve passes over the pericardium of the left ventricle and then down to the diaphragm. (My nerves are in the correct location, it's my heart that is backwards... So the nerve goes around the back of the heart, where my leads were positioned....) So when the charge goes down the leads, it catches the phrenic nerve and my diaphragm is paced right along with my heart, which right now is set at 60 bpm. They ended up trying to program it down, which didn't work so a week after they put in the 1st pacemaker, they took it out and repositioned the leads. 

This is after the 2nd surgery. It really sucked being in the hospital for 2 weeks. I was only in the hospital overnight each time, but it was a week of painful recovery each time, the 2nd time it was a longer recovery (there was no surgery in the middle of the recovery!!).

So it's been 3 weeks since the 2nd surgery and I feel amazing! I immediately had tons of energy to chase my kiddo around. I freaking love it! I feel sooo dang good!!

baby hats service project...

So, I bought a set of crochet looms a while back from the thrift store. The whole set of 4 cost me $3. I was pretty excited. I knew how easy it was to make hats on looms. I was ready to get started right away....

And then, I waited a year to start on anything....

But for some reason, this past week, I have had a hat-making itch. So I looked up on YouTube, how to make a baby hat on the loom.
I found this video, and it was way helpful.

So then I started knitting little newborn hats. So far, I'm up to 8...

I made a goal to make one every week of my new 1001 days, that's 143 hats.... If I end up going beyond my goal, that would be awesome.

When I first had Danger, we ended up taking 3 hats home... we didn't need 3 hats but they put them in my bag, and that didn't include the one I made for him... While in the hospital, Danger was in the Nursery for 2 days, and I started making them. But that was doing a double crochet. Looms are way easier.

So yeah... I've just been cranking those out.

So far, I haven't made a different colored brim, or a cute little pattern... I've had 2 colors of yarn (usually white and a color) and I loom those around into hats.

Let's face it, it's not like me yarn stash is hurting. I have so much yarn, it doesn't fit in my container anymore.

I'll keep everyone posted on that. :)

I've also got some crafts in the works. I'm planning on making a height ruler. I have the plank for it, I just need to start marking it up and then hang it. Another one of my goals is to measure Danger every month.

I haven't been crafting (besides crochet) lately because I've started babysitting. But I'll try to keep doing stuff and posting about it.

Well HELLO

I know it has seriously been forever.... Sorry about that. Things have been crazy, but I know they have been crazy for everyone.

I've been working on making my Christmas presents. I crocheted scarves for everyone, I etched glasses for everyone, I crocheted Ninja Turtle hats for The Mr. and his brothers & sister.

I have seriously been making these things since July! Seriously!!

I made some Hot Cocoa packages for the mailman, and some friends of ours.

I got some neighbor gifts together this year, some wrapping paper and tape - for that last minute wrapping.

I made some Mistle-Toes plates for the grandparents.

I made Danger a Christmas shirt. It says "Where my HO's at?" on the front and "HO HO HO" on the back.

Yeah it was awesome!

I didn't take many pictures of things this year. I have been crazy lame about taking pictures, but hopefully 2013 will be a different story.

We threw an End of The World Party. We invited our friends over, and asked them to bring their last meal (what they wanted to die eating!). It was fun to see what they brought. I love food, so we had plenty of it. It was fun to spend, yet another End of the World.

I've also been working on making my Pins, not just pinning more. It's been fun. I'll try and post things that I do. :)

Talk to you soon!

Cute up diaper bags

Ok, so I go to the Dollar Store and I buy those little baby powder diaper bags. (the ones you put stinky diapers in.) And everytime I pull one little bag out of the box, all the bags come out and then I have to stuff them back into the box (very tedious and annoying). Well, I've had it in my head for a while to make it easier and less bulky. (Carrying around that box takes up some space.)

Well, I saw this ideas about reusing grocery bags. Rerolling and sticking them in cuted-up Lysol wipes canisters. I saw this idea over at Tater Tots And Jello. Now, the little diaper bags are exactly like the grocery bags. You just roll them up really tight and stick them in a small bottle. (I was thinking about using an old Tylenol bottle, but discovered an old prescription bottle worked better cuz it fit more bags in it.)

Ta da! Then I wrote DIAPER BAGS on it and tossed it in my purse. Ooh, bonus : I can let Danger play with it, cuz now it's just a bottle, rather than a flimsy, broken box with plastic bags in it. Way safer, smaller and less frustrating.

Easiest Easter Blocks Ever

So I have been the lamest crafter ever. Ok, so I've been crocheting like a mad-woman {cuz I don't have to leave the couch...} hey, my baby has been sick! But I haven't been doing a whole lot of crafting and sewing.

But a while back I went to Target {Oh, I love that store.} And every time I go there I go specifially for the Dollar Section. Well, anyways, while checking the bins in the $1 Section, I found these SPRING blocks.

I had an idea. I'm all about multi-purpose decor, as you can tell by my seasonal word blocks. I counted it out, and there are the same number of letters in EASTER as there are in SPRING. {Yes, I stood there in the aisle and counted the blocks to make sure my idea would work.} So I decided today was the day, 2 days until Easter, and I was finally going to do my project. I measured and cut out the word EASTER in white vinyl.

Then turned the blocks for SPRING around and stuck the vinyl letters on so all I have to do is spin each block around so it says Easter!

Easiest craft ever. Maybe I'll eventually get around to making my St. Patrick's Day/Valentine's Day blocks... Did you know that St. Pat's and Valentine's Day have the same number of letters in them?!

Ta Da! So easy and cute! And those blocks only cost $2.50 in the Dollar Section! Awesome! Now If I can just remember to take them out every year!

binky clips

Ok, so I've been searching for a way easy binky clip. I've bough a few, but decided not to spend ANY more money on them, - cuz I knew I could make them!

So when I found tons of suspender clips on Amazon AND that I had a credit on my account from a gift card, I jumped on it. {I found some mitten clips in the dollar section at Target, but only found 1 set! grr!}

So, cheap and easy binky clips! These clips are useable with ANY binky! I had a hard time finding a clip that would work for the Soothie binkys that Little Mr. likes. The elastic cord fits thru and loops around any hold or ring!

What you need :
- suspender clip
- length of ribbon (I went for about 22-24 inches)
- elastic cord
- sewing machine

Ribbon and suspender clip.

Get your ribbon, fold over the edges and sew the ends in - facing the inside of the ribbon.

Now make sure when you put the clip on, the clip part is on the side you want, the outside of the ribbon.

Put your elastic between the sewn ends of the ribbon. Now I go to town and sew this bad boy up, like 20 times. Just make sure the ends are sewn together and the elastic is secured {remember, little ones are going to be tugging on this!} Don't lift the needle from the ribbon, just lift the foot and rotate the ribbon.

Sew down the edge of the ribbon, stop just short of the suspender clip, lift the foot and rotate the ribbon again, sew across the ribbon - parallel to the suspender clip, lift the foot when you get to the edge and then rotate the ribbon. Sew up the other edge of the ribbon, back to the end with the elastic.

So basically, you sew a square around the inside of the ribbon.

I love the football one I made for Little Mr!

Week 1 done

So, this past week was Week #1 of the 52 week Challenge!

And I did it! Now, I had to clean off my counters AGAIN to get the pictures, but it wasn't too bad. {I had craft night at my house on Thursday and nothing was picked up from it...}

Kitchen Table

Counter Top Island

Counter Top - It's our bottle making station. Plus, The Mr. and I each have 1 cup each day and we wash it out and set it back on the counter. :)

Bakers Rack
Next week is cupboards and drawers... it should be interesting!

Hello & organize

Hello again! I am still alive, I will be posting about the little guy! But first here's my New Years Resolution!

So this year I'm planning on de-cluttering and organizing my house. I guess it's THE wagon to jump on this year. I've found all kinds of info about organizing and de-cluttering.

My secret is : every year I plan to organize my house and de-clutter it. And every year I fail.

But not this year. This year I'm going to make it happen. This year I'm going to follow thru and kick some organizing booty.

Ive found a few blogs that are going to help me out.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon Home Storage Solutions 101. {pretty sure via pinterest..}

And I subscribed and I decided to participate in the 52 week Organized House Challenge. At the beginning of each week, I get an email describing this week's challenge, and also reasons why that's our challenge. {it makes alot of sense when she's tells us why!}

Over at Six Sisters' Stuff, they have an organizing post with a WHOLE bunch of great links to organizing posts!

And who can think of organizing without thinking of Heather over at Decor-ganize Crafts? I love her car organizer using a shoe organizer! And, I know her in real life. Yeah, she's pretty awesome.

I've also found some pretty good ideas and plans over at IHeart Organizing.

Over at A bowl full of lemons, she had a 21 day organizing challenge.

Ok, so there's my inspiration. Right now, I've decided to only do 1 at a time. And right now, that 1 is the 52 week challenge from Home Storage Solutions. Because, even tho organizing is important, I really need to de-clutter my whole house. I'm throwing away TONS of stuff! :)

And technically, I'm counting this as #80 on my 101 in 1001!

Love to those whose resolutions never change, just get more desperate thru the years. :)

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!! :)