2 easy crafts in 1 day!!

I was recently introduced to this thing called Freezer Paper Stenciling, actually... I found it because I started to read my friend, Emily's, blog: La Force Be With You, and she posted about it and I was immediately intrigued by the idea. I am always looking for fun new crafty things to do. You never know when all this crafty stuff may come in handy (especially with little ones).

Turns out all you need is a shirt (check), freezer paper (check), and fabric paint (check), woo hoo!! Well, it also helps to have a Silhouette machine (no check on that), but I really only wanted to do a a mickey head on a onesie so I had my handy dandy exacto knife. All I did was print out a mickey head, trace over the design on the freezer paper and voila, I have a pattern. Then I put the shiny side down (psst, this is important!! otherwise the freezer paper may stick to your iron), and proceed to iron your pattern onto your shirt. After a coat or two of the fabric paint I was done!

Here is the final product:

I mean how easy is that?!

My Second craft of the day, well... it's not really a craft, it's more of a thing I've been meaning to do for, oh... 4 months now :) But it's done now!!! In Charlotte's room my dad built her a shelf to put all her toys on, and we bought some of those cheap collapsible boxes that you can find at target and walmart, etc. The only problem is trying to put everything away. She's got so many playmobil, little people, roll around balls, blocks, flash cards that you have to pull out every box to figure out where this stuff goes. Again, it's not THAT big a deal, but I've wanted to do this for a while... so I did it!

I used some old scrapbooking paper, printed out the labels, laminated them, and attached them to the boxes. In total, about a 10 minute (ok... maybe 15 with Charlotte helping me glue) job and voila... project #2 of the day is complete!

Fast flats saved me in Vegas...

Ok, so not really... but these things are awesome!

My husband and took our first trip to Vegas this past week and while I was packing my dress shoes I thought to myself, it's Vegas... go big or go home, right? So , did I pack my low reasonable black heals? No... I packed my super high heels that aren't super comfortable.

Jump ahead to our second night there: This is our dress up night, so I put my little dress on and my shoes. They feel pretty comfortable, for about an hour. Before going to vegas I didn't realize how much you WALKED! It's a strip, I thought, so it shouldn't be too bad. Ugh! That night I got home to blisters across the straps and sore sore feet (which thankfully my husband rubbed for me). See I was GOING to bring my flip-flops in my purse, but I had to chose between my camera and the flip-flops... and we know which one I chose.

So the next day, we are passing a Walgreens and instantly the fast flats commercial popped into my head so I run in and find these things for $15. They're pretty cheap, but hey... the point of them is only to have some semblance of cover for your feet so you aren't walking around barefoot (which, by the way, we saw some girl doing the night before. Down the sidewalk in vegas. Gross)

That night we go out in Jeans, so no more strappy sandals, but I AM wearing my high healed boots, so I slip these fast flats into my purse (yes they do fit with my camera) and off we go. 6 hours later we are 3 casinos away and about to begin out walk home when I stop my husband, take my boots off, and slip these fast flats on.

The walk home was amazing!

I highly highly recomend these.

Evening walk with 2 kids + 1 really large dog

I am going to start by saying I have a newfound love of my Ergo Baby Sport.

I just got back from a walk with my 2 daughters, 3.5 months and almost 2 years, and our very large laboradoodle. I'm not sure if you know what one of those looks is, but he's a mix between a standard poodle (yes, the big ones) and a laborador; so picture a lab with long legs and a perm. So anyway, up until this point, I was using a double side by side combi stroller that I had gotten on craigslist for our nightly walks. Don't get me wrong... I love this stroller (and the price was perfect), but it's not ideal for our nightly walks because the sidewalk is littered with uneven cracks and lifted edges and trying to get those tiny wheels over the curb with my 2 year old leaning forward is just about impossible without giving her whiplash.

Earlier today I brought out my Ergo baby sport to see if my youngest had the head control for it (they say not to use it without the infant insert until 4 months), but it seemed to work well. Heck, she even fell asleep in it. So for this evenings walk I decided to put her in my carrier, but Charlotte, my oldest, in her brand new Radio Flyer wagon that grandma and grandpa gave her for Christmas, and leave the dog on his gentle leader leash. I have to say that it was one of the best walks we've had in a while. Jillie was happy, Charlotte had a ball going back and forth between the seats on the wagon; the only one who wasn't thrilled was the dog who was kept on his short leash, but with 2 kids he's lucky he's getting a walk as it is.

I bought my Ergo carrier when Charlotte was a few months old after a college friend recomended and thought it was pretty neat. Although with 2 kids, this thing is fantastic! Now that my youngest is old enough for it, no more squeezing the double stroller through small doorways, no more ring sling (which worked ok for me), and no more HotSling (which I was NOT a fan of).

Christmas gift from the kids to Grandma

This year (as with every other year) I was stumped on what to get for my mother-in-law. As hard as I try to find something that she would like, I am 95% sure she is going to return. But THIS year, I found something that she can't return (even if she doesn't like it... haha).

We bought an apron from Bed Bath and Beyond (I have since found cheaper ones,b ut not as nice at Joann) and some fabric paint. We had the girls put their hand and foot prints on the apron and I *intent* to embroider "Grandma's Kitchen" on it. At the time I did not have enough time to set up the embroidery machine, but it will come soon!

Cheap, easy, and from the heart :)

Homemade Christmas Gifts - 2010

Ever since I became a stay at home mom I have become more and more crafty. So this year when Christmas rolled around i decided to make some homemade gifts for my ever growing family and friends. After perusing many crafty websites I settled on Hot Cocoa Cones and Peppermint Bath Salts. The Hot Cocoa Cones were the more popular of the two but both were extraordinarily easy.

Hot Coco Cones

I made them simple this year, next year I may decorate them to look like Rudolph.

You will need:

Hot cocoa power

Mini chocolate chips

mini marshmellows

crushed up candy canes

Plastic cone bags (wilton has their cake decorating bags, but this year they started putting their logo on them, bleh... so search online for some)

1. Put cocoa (2 servings worth of cocoa) mix in one of the plastic cones and either tie up and trim or trim and tape to seal.

2. Mini chocolate chips - 1/3 c or so mixed with some crushed up candy canes.

3. Lastly is the mini marshmellows - 1/2c or so

4. Tie off the bag and add a cute note.

Peppermint Bath Salts

I found a few different recipes on Better Budgeting, eHow, and a few others that I just perused and then I came up with my own recipe.

I used a combination of glycerine (found in baking aisle at Joann), Epsom salts (walmart or publix), Peppermint essential oil (local store), and baking soda. Some recipes called for 3-4 drops of oil, and others called for 15.... so I sort of split the difference. Also, some called for baking soda and others didn't. I decided to use it.

Next year I think I'm going to try bath bombs! :) I hope everyone enjoyed their gifts.

Welcome Jillian Ann

Jillian Ann, Jillie for short, was born today at 1:24pm after just 3 hours at the hospital. She measured in at 7lbs 8oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.

I woke up early in the morning thinking that maybe my water had broken (it had). I got showered and ready for my day. Woke Charlotte up, fed her breakfast, and got her ready for school. I then informed my husband that we were both going to drop Charlotte off at school and then head to the hospital.We said goodbye to Charlotte at 9am (our last time with her being an only child... yeah, I was emotional at the time... I teared up), then we headed over to the doctors office which was right across from the hospital. When the doctor saw us he immediately said that 'yes, my water had broken' and that I was indeed in labor and moving along quickly. In fact, he told us that he'd probably 'swing on over and deliver me on his lunch break'. I asked him if we needed to head over to the hospital then and he told me, 'well, not if you don't want to have the baby there'. Ok... so it may have sounded like a stupid question, but what i was really asking was if we could drive 5 minutes home to our house and pick up the CAMERA which had been left there.
... so we went straight to the hospital, much to my dismay, and got there at about 10:20am to check in. We got situated in the room and Hubby called his mom to ask her to pick Charlotte up from school because we were slightly busy (oh and we asked her to swing by the house to get my camera).
A few hours later, and a little worse for ware without any pain meds (.... turns out my doc isn't a huge fan of the epidural because it takes away the 'push'), I hear "mommy.... mommy...... mommy" coming down the hall; I put on a happy face and my mother-in-law and Charlotte get to the room to say hi and bring my camera (woo hoo!). At this point, I'm in pain... it's about 1230pm and I delivered at 1:24pm... you do the math... anyway, so Charlotte comes in and sees mommy visibly in pain on a strange bed and she no doubt is freaked out! Poor child! After a few minutes my mother-in-law takes the confused and scared Charlotte out of the room.
At this point I tell the nurse to beg my doc to get me the epidural... and long story short (ok... so only slightly shorter) I get the epidural, am rolled to my side for monitoring purposes, the epidural goes down the outside of my one leg only!! And about 10 minutes later I tell everyone that I have to push. They check and indeed, it's time... 3 contractions later Jillie is born!

She climbs out of her crib...

Well, we knew it would happen sooner or later...