Monday, July 30, 2012

Taggie Blankie

I was at Target and saw those taggie blankies and was shocked that they cost like $10!  What a rip off.  I knew I would be able to make one fairly easily. 
First I cut out two squares of flannel and a bunch of strips of ribbon.
I laid the first flannel piece face up.  The ribbon strips I folded over and put the loop part facing the middle of the blankie with the ends coming off the edge of the fabric.  I laid the top fabric pretty sides together and would pin the ribbon in the middle.

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Below you can see what the inside of the blanket looked like, and the whole blanket ready to sew.  wrong sides faced out and ends of ribbons sticking out.
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I sewed all around the blanket leaving a small gap to turn the whole thing inside out.  Once I t was turned inside out, I sewed along the outside of the blankie and did a few quilting lines to keep the layers together.  Success!  it didn’t even cost me anything because I was able to use all scrap material and ribbon.
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Emmie approved
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Saturday, July 28, 2012

4 months

This baby is such a happy baby.  I feel so blessed that I get to be her mom.  She is always happy.  Even when she is upset you can usually get a smile out of her.  She is so chill.  Everywhere we go everyone talks about how beautiful, happy, and chill she is. 

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Weight: 13 lbs

Length: 25 in

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challenges:

  Lately Em keeps flipping onto her tummy when she sleeps… and then gets upset.  Oy. Getting her to sleep has also been challenging.  She is beginning to not like being rocked to sleep at night, but wanting to be laid down, but then getting upset that she is laid down.  We have had to let her cry it out a bit… which is hard for me to do.

Em’s new tricks and triumphs:

Em started flipping from her back to her tummy.

She also slept through the night several times :) That made for one happy momma.

Well…. it is summer…. and that means it is hot.  After Em waking up drenched in sweat, we decided that it was time to stop swaddling.  The first night… was awful.  I think I only got a few hours of sleep.  After a few nights, she slept through the night unswaddled the whole night! 

She also started sucking her thumb.  The way she does it is like a face palm to the face and she ends up scratching her face.

Em is beginning to be mobile.  She can spin in a circle on her play mat, use her arms to grab her mat and pull herself forward, and she has done several rolls in a row moving herself off of her play mat.

Things that I love:

I am loving being home this summer with my baby girl.  I haven’t been board for one minute.  I think I could definitely do this year round.

I love how happy and silly she is.  So many giggles!  I have loved every minute of being home with my baby girl this summer.

I love watching her lay in bed.  She is so cute!  Since we stopped swaddling her she has started sleeping on her side, and more recently she has started sleeping on her stomach.

We recently got Em a baby bath, and I love watching her splash in it.  She has such a great time kicking and laughing.

She has started giving kisses and loves getting kisses.  She kisses me by putting her open mouth on my cheek… and sometimes she starts sucking.  It is so cute.  She giggles so much when I give her kisses, especially on her tummy.  We have noticed that she is ticklish. 

Things I have learned:

I love being a stay at home mom.  It is awesome. I get to spend all day with baby girl.  When she is napping I actually have time to clean the house and do some crafts.  I have no idea how I am going to function when the school year starts again.  Right now baby girl is getting ready for bed at 7, and the thought of only spending a few hours a day with her makes me so sad.  I am definitely soaking up the summer while I can.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

flower hair clips

I decided to make some flower hair clips to go with the pearl onesies I made for a friend.  First get some fake flowers of your choice.  Remove the center part by pulling.  The petal pieces will all come apart.  You will want to hot clue all of the separate petal layers together.
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Cut out a circle of felt and draw a line of hot glue down it.  Clamp it in a hair clip.  Then cover the top with glue and attach to the back of the petals.
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I turned the clip over and either glued a button in the middle or added beads.  To add beads, I made a puddle of hot glue in the center of the flower and poured beads into it.  I then lightly pressed them so that they would get down into the glue.
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I was able to do each clip in like 5 min!  I love fast crafts.  There is something totally awesome about instant gratification and being able to finish a project during one of Em’s naps.  I made one clip to go with each of the pearl onesies, and one clip for Em.
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Look at my cutie modeling her flower clip.
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Monday, July 16, 2012

Pearl necklace onesie

One of my friends recently found that she is having a girl :) So that day, I started to make a few gifts.  I have seen pearl necklace onesies before, and didn’t think they would be difficult to make.  In just about 10 min I was able to make two onesies! 

First take some wax paper and put it inside the onesie so that the paint doesn’t bleed though.  Take some tape and tape back those little flaps at the top of the onesie so that paint doesn’t get smeared on them.

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Then you just get some puffy paint and start making your necklaces.  Photo Jul 09, 2 01 26 PM

The finished results :) I added a little fine glitter while the paint was wet… just for a little extra pizazz :)

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Saturday, July 14, 2012

Favorite Kitchen Items Gift

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One of my friends is moving to Texas.  She has never lived on her own, so to send her off, we are all bringing her some of our favorite kitchen/ household items.  I bought her silicone scrapers and a mini colander.
silicone scrapers:  I love these.  I that they are made of one solid piece.  I used to have those kid with the rubber scraping part and wood handle.  The problem was that junk would get in between  the crevices.  Nasty!  These are great.  there is no place for germs and gunk to hide.
Mini colander: I rarely get out my large colander.  I use this mini colander to wash berries, strain veggies, and even strain pasta.  With only two people, This min one suits most of our needs.  I keep it in the cabinet with my bowls because I use it so often.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Cleaning grease off of stainless steel

I don’t know about you… but my tea kettle is nasty!  It has that grease spattered buildup of years of sitting next to me cooking.  On pinterest I read that you can use Cream of Tartar to clean it.  I was skeptical since I have scrubbed it with dish soap many times without a dent… but it was worth a try.
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You just wet a sponge, use make a paste with the Cream of Tartar, and scrub.  Wow!  It worked great!  You can see the difference below.
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Here is my clean kettle!  It looks like new :)  And to think…. I was going to buy a new one.
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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Tie Dye attempt

So I bought a dye kit a while ago and thought it would be cute to tie dye a few white onesies.  I didn’t look up directions, but was going off of what I remembered from elementary summer camp.  Great idea I know. 

So I used a chopstick and twisted to make swirls, then used rubber bands.  as long as the rubber bands are tight, where they touch the fabric, it will be white… or at least lighter. 

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Once I had my onesies all bundled up, I dyed them according to the directions of my dye kit.  I thought I was making pink dye… but it turned out it was orange.  The jars of powder weren’t labeled… so oh well… I took a risk.  Orange is good too though :)

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The only problem is I went wrong somewhere along the way.  They didn’t turn out how I wanted them to.  I suppose I’ll look up directions next time :)

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