DIY Baby Gifts

I was tempted just to buy a bunch of stuff, but I am proud to say I only purchased the plain white onesies in this pic. These are for the adorable new baby Reagan. Congrats Becca & Brady!

Quiet Book

This is one of those projects that was fun to do....but I am so glad to be finished! It took a few hours here and there for a couple weeks, not too bad. The finishwork is what took the longest. The freehand cutting and arranging was so fast :)

embroidery, so hard to line it all up!

Velcro-ed on

This is a little washer with a match inside of each of the socks on the other page.

Finger puppets

three seasons of leaves fit behind those hills

little toothbrush, also the bag will hold pony tails to do the yarn hair. The petals are just removable and fit in the pot.

cookie dough/cookie sheet shapes, little spatula attached

rainbow colors are attached to the cloud with ribbons, clothespins are hot glued to the rope, the clothes are in the basket

snowman building- pieces fit behind the snow hill, the other side is just beads for counting

Tic Tac Toe :)

Kambri loves it so far....Here's to hoping it will keep our little one occupied for many sacrament meetings to come!

Craft Nights

My sisters, mom, the occasional friends, and I have been doing craft night every week this year since about February (minus Sept because it was so busy). We've been taking turns hosting at our homes. The majority of our experiments have been from Pinterest. I thought I would do a quick post on what we've done that was super awesome, just so/so, or total fails. I'll update from time to time on this as the crafting continues. I have loved this opportunity to have some weekly fun with these girls :)

LOVED:

• DIY Laundry detergent. This was our very first craft night at Stefani's house. We made just one batch to test it out, and it smelled heavenly. We each tried it out and came to the conclusion that it is just as good as any detergent you can buy. It does not act as a stain remover, but I haven't really found a store bought detergent that does that either. Here's the recipe link.  

• DIY satin hand scrub. This also smelled delicious, was super easy and cheap, and such an easy gift. I think I may give a few for Christmas. Link found here.

•  Skirts. This one took a few hours and they had to be finished at home, but here's how mine turned out. And here's the Link to the tutorial.

•  Homeade granola bars. Kali's night :) I have made these a few times since then, and added some coconut and marshmallows and even graham crackers occasionally (my fav are the s'mores). Here's the Link.

• Happy Birthday Countdown. My mom did this one and it went so smoothly and was so fun! She found the unfinished plaques at hobby lobby and painted them black, sanded them a bit and had them ready for us. We stenciled on the 'happy birthday' with white paint and a sponge, drilled a hole, and screwed a little cabinet knob in. She just happened to have a stencil puncher that would work for the individual birthdays and we edged them with ink and hot glued a piece of ribbon to them. All done! Here's the link. I have mine in my craft room.

• Traveling Jewelry Case. Another of my mom's nights. We all brought our sewing machines. Can I just say I made one for me a little bigger than the pattern and I LOVE it. I've taken it several times traveling now, and everything is perfectly accounted for. I made a few of them for gifts as well:
  
  
   
   
  
  
  • These Jersey knit bracelets took us a minute to figure out, but they were really fun to wear with summer outfits.
  
  
  • There was a pin going around pinterest about using an empty sun tan lotion bottle to hide stuff in while at the pool or park. I went to the dollar store and found some decent sized water bottles. We put a keyring in the top inside and voila! I also had everyone write their last name in marker on the outside. It made it ugly which I was hoping no one would want to steal. It worked perfectly to stick my credit card, cash, camera, and phone in at the pool and Seven Peaks this summer. Loved it!
  
  
  • Homeade stain removers, shower cleaner, countertop cleaners, etc. We went through a few recipes for these items. Found a few that worked well, and some that didn't work at all. I think I'll do a separate post on this so I can find you all the links. 
  
  
  So/So's:
  
  
  • Homeade make up remover wipes. I'm on the fence about this one. It worked well and smelled good, even started to make my skin softer, but nothing we could figure out would stop them from molding eventually.. and usually before they were half gone. They had to be thrown out. So a so/so to me. I'm thinking about trying another make up remover that you keep in a bottle and use cotton balls to dab each night, which is what I do anyway. We'll see if that one works better.
  
  
  • Honey Strawberry sugar scrub. Now this smelled delicious and was fun to make. Stefani even had Andrew go get us Jamba juice afterward because I swear some of us were thinking of taking a taste ;).  But because of the stawberries it has to be used quickly and I'm just not a bath person. I stuck it in my freezer and there it lies to this day. Because who really thinks about thawing their body scrub beforehand?
  
  
  • Homeade dishwashing detergent. I haven't really given this one much of a great shot yet. I still had a lot of those little action pacs left. But the problem I'm having is that it's hardened like a rock. I even stirred it several times, as suggested, while it dried. It's currently in a canning jar, and I'm afraid I would need an ice pick to get it out. I know that Kali uses it though and says it works just fine. So/so for me :)
  
  FAILS:
  
  We actually haven't had many of these. I know there were some things that we tried on our own from Pinterest that were a big fail.
  
  
  • Dried strawberries. Kali tried this one. That pinterest post that can't be traced back to an actual website, just instructions about laying strawberries on a cooking sheet and baking at a super low temperature for several hours? Yeah, doesn't work. Turns them into blackened mushy mess that does Not taste like candy. haha.
  
  
  • Eucalyptus for coughs. Didn't work for me. 
  
  
  •  Justin got a terrible sunburn at Yuba. We tried every pinterest trick I could find to help that bright red or peeling. Nothing worked there either, at least nothing better than just Aloe Vera. Here's one of the links we tried and failed.
  
  
  There are sooo many more things that I have on my to-do list. It has been so much fun to get together! Otherwise I doubt they would ever happen :)
  
  
  

Complete for now

I finally got a quote put up here. Can I just say how much I love the gazelle? I had a cricut but I was using a program on the computer to customize my projects. Provo craft sued all companies who were allowing the cricut to be used with any program that they didn't create. I was so frustrated. I didn't want to buy a million cartridges. So I sold my cricut and bought the gazelle. I used it to make everything for Kambri's birthday (see below). It even writes with any regular marker or pen, that's what I used for the gift bags. It embosses, engraves, and cuts through chipboard. It also lets me choose the size of my project so that I make sure it's the size I need, that's what I did below. LOVE it so far :).

Happy Birthday to my baby girl

 I'm not even sure I can technically call you that anymore. You are well on your way to being a full blown toddler. Speaking sentences and running more than walking, you can be shy and serious around others, and silly when it's just us. You give me a little "peas" and then if you don't get your way within five seconds you will let anyone within earshot know it. My sweet stubborn girl, Happy 2nd Birthday :)

Justin squoze (is that a word?) 25 lemons for his daughter...or maybe me, either way he's awesome :)

Matching awkward expressions :)

Blowing out the candles on her lemon bar because her mama was too lazy to frost the cake ;)

watching the bubble machine

She was very spoiled

the pinata

Such a fun night. Thanks to everyone who came! Happy Birthday Kambri :)

Baby Blankets

So, several months ago when we first moved here I bought an awesome Brother sewing/embroidery machine...the SE400---love love it so far. 

I had to practice with it so I found an awesome chenille blanket tutorial....if you follow me on pinterest I have it saved there. I've made two of them now, they take a little time, but they are so easy to do! Both new mommies loved them so much!

Halloween Decor

I'm almost done decorating for Halloween...

I ended up making most of the pieces, the pre-made stuff is still kind of expensive.

This is my favorite piece made....the wreath turned out alright too.
and thanks again Michelle for the white vinyl!






The pumpkin one turned out alright...not my favorite, but the 3d effect of the stacked paper is cool. I also love the sparkly glitter ;). The happy haunting changes color and was only $3, bada bing!


Did I mention I like shiny/sparkly stuff? This pumpkin is my favorite, I got it at rod works a few years ago, and it just shines all day long. The glass ornaments were on clearance at hobby lobby for $2 as was the bandana beneath them.







another one of those, eh it turned out alright projects. I'll just call it festive :). The ghost was on clearance at Roberts a couple of years ago.


Another awesome printable, and odds and ends from Rod Works.


This is actually one I did last month for fall. It needs a bit more distressing, but I like the way it turned out.


This is Justin's favorite part of the fall decorating. And I have to admit it does bring a little of the autumn spirit inside the kitchen.


Last thing on my agenda....to add candy corn to the glass potpourri holders behind the sink. Justin let me know he would eat them all, but I'm going to try anyway ;)