It's hard to believe I'm almost 29 weeks with this baby girl!! Time is going so fast and sometimes I just want to hold it still. I'm still in a bit of shock that I am blessed to carry out next child. I love feeling kicks and wiggles!!
When I started growing a bit bigger, I asked one of my good friends what she used to prevent stretch marks. Her answer was olive oil or coconut oil. I figure, since she's had four kids, she probably knows what she's talking about! So I decided to make myself a lotion bar!!
It's a pretty simple recipe. I started with a 1:1:1 ratio of beeswax, coconut oil, and cocoa butter, but since I wanted it to be very "oily" I add in extra coconut oil. Then I add in several popped and squeezed E capsules and a few drops of essential oil.
For about one bar, the quantities look like this:
1 oz. bar of beeswax
2 tablespoons cocoa butter
2 tablespoons coconut oil (plus an extra scoop or two!)
3-4 E capsules
3-4 drops of essential oil
I put it in a glass jar in a pan of water and heat it all up slowly. It just needs to be melted.
Then I pour it into my mold. I love using silicone, the bars just pop right out when they are done!
And all finished!! This is my second batch of making these. I've made a similar bar a few years ago, but I like this recipe a lot better. And best of all... No stretch marks!! And baby sure is growing!! Here I am at 28 weeks!!
Well, I've found a bit of my crafty spirit! :) I made this fun fall bow for Joy! She has a candy corn shirt and it makes such a fun accessory!
I've also been feeling a bit of knitting inspiration!! I fell in love with this pin a while back, and since I've yet to finish a hat for Joy (so sad, I know!) I decided she needed a fun hat from mommy before the cold weather sets in! This hat has gone very quickly, I'm already on the decreases! And it IS fun to knit something other than dishcloths! :)
So thank you, ladies, for your encouragement! It's fun to feel the knitting spirit again! I'm not sure if I'll start a whole bunch more projects, but this sure has been a fun one to get back into the groove for a bit! :)
Let's Sew Together by Rubyellen Bratcher. What a fun book! Blogging for Books has expanded to make available many different books and I was excited to get this book to review! The book itself is colorful, fun and made for families to enjoy! The project range from quite simple (cutting a square piece of fabric for your child to imagine with!) to a bit more complicated (such as a doll house pillow.) All the projects encourage child interaction and many of them include your child drawing on the fabric. (How fun is that?) :)
The author starts out very basic with many tips and tricks and how to's to sewing - great for anyone who has no experience with using a machine or doing sewing crafts. The instructions seem very easy to follow (though I haven't done a project myself yet...Hopefully in a few years!) I love that the examples aren't perfect, it makes the projects feel attainable and that they don't have to turn out just so.
I also LOVE the side bars! Many of the projects have a side bar with book suggestions to read along with the project! There are also ways to use the project to further education... such as having writing prompts to write a fun story about the doll or robot craft. Great for homeschool or summer projects! I give this book two thumbs up!
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This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review by Blogging for Books. My opinions are my own.
Thankfully, spring has started to "spring" around here!! We are starting to see blooms!! So happy! I know we don't have a whole lot to complain about down here in Texas, but the trees are about a month late budding out! Such a strange year! But my little project made it feel a bit more like spring whether the weather cooperated or not!
I haven't made many wreaths, but I'm thinking this could quickly become a favorite craft!! It wasn't that expensive to make and came together quickly as well! It sure has been fun to have something cheery on our front door (it had been empty since I took our Christmas decorations down!) I got a lot of inspiration from Pintrest, no surprise there! And the supplies came from Hobby Lobby. Oh, and my mom actually did the bow. She's the expert bow maker! :)
So, yes, I have had a couple of minutes here and there to squeeze in some crafting! Little "Joy" is sleeping for looong stretches at night - usually at least 8 hours!! YAY!!! She is such a sweetie and we are so very blessed! :) Not sure when I'll get the next bit of craftiness in, other than hair bows for my little one. I've had fun with that! Maybe I'll do a post of bows sometime... :)
Until then, feel free to link up here with a project!! Maybe you've had a minute to put together something springy?!
Hard to believe it is the second Friday in September already! We will be moving into our apartment very soon. Mark and I are so thankful to have parents that have shared their home with us for these interim weeks while we waited for it to open up! While we have been here, we have, of course, done a bit to help around the house - normal things like dishes, cleaning and yard work. However, last Saturday, Mom and I snuck this little project in.
My mom teaches piano lessons (and has for over twenty years!) She loves
her little "teaching chair." (isn't it darling?? It's called a
"Hepplewhite" chair - one term I DO remember from my interior design
class...) ;) After quite a while of continual use, it needed a little
TLC... as well as a bit more padding...
Ah... much better!!! And so much more comfy too!! There is a slight flaw that we have discovered, however... the chair looks so much better, that Mom doesn't want to sit on it! ;)
Here is part of her studio, complete with recovered "Hepplewhite" chair!
This was a pretty quick project. We didn't take the seat down to bare bones... just took off that nasty vinyl. (which we discovered did actually have some pretty(?) gold swirls on it.) And thanks to the sweet lady at Hobby Lobby who cut a generous sized piece (to make up for the test swatch that was hacked out of the end), the whole project cost less than $15.00. Not too bad! And so pretty too!
What little projects have you snuck in lately? I know we aren't the only ones with a hectic schedule around here! :)
Our church recently finished up our vacation Bible school. I headed things up this year, and I think somehow it was one of the biggest jobs ever!! Whew! I did the lessons mostly myself - the main reason being that I had already thought out what I wanted to say and it was easier to just teach it rather than pass all that info along! ;) (Ok, that sounds really strange when I type it, but I'm just so grateful to God for His leading in what to teach!)
This was one of the most technological VBS's we've ever done. Not only did I use Power Point for each day - including slides for songs and the lessons as well as fun space facts, but we also collaborated a LOT on Pinterest!! I love the group board feature for group projects!! If your church ever does a space theme, you may want to check out our board! We used ideas here for crafts, decor and snacks!!So.... I wanted to share just a few pictures to show you how some of our "Pinterest-y" things turned out!
I'll start with the cute food!! Saturday was our big picnic! I made these cute cupcakes for dessert.... Nothing like a cute little bear on the moon!!
I also used photoshop to design our invitations, name tags, snack
labels, digital frames for pictures, award certificate.... you name it!!
I'm glad that the template for all of that was something I got done
early on! I was able to just reuse the template and size it for whatever
I needed.
Probably the things I worked hardest on were our moon rocks!! (And a BIG thank you to my Sister-in-law, Mary, for helping! It had been ages since I did any paper mache!)
And here's what the rest of the sanctuary looked like when we got finished!!!
See all those planets!!! (And you can't miss the sun!)
A dear friend crafted each of them for us!!! Thank you, Miss "M," for all your hard work!!!! And she did every single one of them - yes! Even dear little Pluto!! (I'm not ready to exclude him from my list of planets!!)
Although we are all glad to have VBS over for another year, we all did have a blast!!!! The kids had fun and hopefully learned something too!!! (I know I learned a LOT!! I think the teacher usually ends up learning more than the students!) We are already starting to plan next year's VBS!! ;)
How about you? Have you had time to do anything "crafty" this summer? It seems that the year is just flying by!
...and I do mean quick! This little project took me maybe five minutes to do!
The hardest part was finding navy knit! I wanted a navy scarf to go with an outfit, but the main fabric shops in our area didn't have navy knit! (Hello? All they have to do is get on Pinterest to see how big the color navy is right now!) ;) So instead of finding navy fabric, I went to one of my favorite clothing shops and found a navy top! All I did was cut off the bottom and top to make a circular scarf!
Easy peasy!!! It's not perfect, but it sure is fun! And worked great for our mom/daughter night out at a concert!
Now it's your turn to share!!! I'm a little late this week, but not quite as late as last month!! ;) Our summer is off to a busy start and I'm heading up our VBS starting in a little over a week! Yipes!! We are excited about it though... Should be a lot of fun!!
Hmm... I'm thinking that I should rename this "Finished Object Weekend!" Or maybe work a little earlier in the week to get posts set to publish... Thursdays are always busy for me, and by the time I get sat down, I don't always feel like writing. BUT... It is still Friday, so I'll share! ;)
WAY back in August I made a little something that I planned to share. However, I wanted to be sure that my little project would work out ok before I shared it with you. Good thing that I did! But you'll find out about that in just a minute. I made one of these:
I'm sure you've seen them around quite a bit. They are nothing new in the blogging/Pinterest worlds. :) I snagged a jar out of my mom's cabinet and used a pump we didn't need from a new bottle of hand sanitizer, so the project cost me basically just a bit of time.
Oh, and I made it to give my mom, so she did get her jar back! ;) The trick for me was drilling the hole. I ended up making a bunch of little holes with my little hand drill. Really there has got to be a better way to do it, but I'm sure it requires differnt tools than I had on hand. Here's what I ended up with - with the addition of some hot glue to try to seal it. (and that's where the time comes in...)
Nope. It didn't work so well... the lid ended up rusting from the water that got trapped under the pump and the glue fell off inside. Yuck. So a few weeks ago, I brought it home for a repair job - I just used some silicone calk we had on hand and sealed it up really good - both sides of the lid, and I even sealed it a bit where the ring meets the lid. And, I'm glad to say, even though I didn't get a new lid, it seems to be holding up really well! So the trick is to calk it - no hot glue. Live and learn. :)
Glad it works now! I think it's pretty with the blue dishsoap - my mom's favorite color! ;) Has anyone else made one of these? Maybe you did better than I did the first time around! I'd love to hear what you did! And I'd love to see any other projects you've been working on!
Wow! This Friday has flown by!! Thank you, Brittany, for reminding me that today is Finished Object Friday! This week has been a little different for me with my hubby just getting back from a flying business trip.
So... while trying to think up something to share (I haven't been very crafty lately...) I remembered that I never shared one of my little Christmas crafts with you! I made lotion bars! (And given the shape, they are a great craft to share for February!)
These turned out so very nice. I love using them! I used this recipe, and they were very quick and so fun to make! I bought the scent from Hobby Lobby - the one I picked is called "Grapefruit Blush" and is so nice - not over powering at all. I did buy a soap mold, but most of the ones I made, I put into some silicone "molds" I had - brownie pan and ice cube trays. I only used half of the block of beeswax and it made plenty! The big heart is from the brownie pan - it made a really nice size.
I gave these as gifts to the ladies at church the night of our Christmas program, and also gave them to family and friends I got to spend time with over the holidays! :) The fun thing was, when we opened our stocking gifts with Mark's family, my sister-in-law had made each of us beeswax lip balm!! Great minds think alike! :)
Sorry this is so late in the evening, but feel free to share during the next week - we can enjoy this longer than just Friday! ;)
Funny. It seems like when I was doing FOF every week or even every other week, I hardly had any projects to share... now - when I do it once a month - I have a hard time picking WHICH project to share!! This one wasn't too hard to pick though. Such a fun and exciting time for our little church family. We got to welcome a new little member! :) My friend Regina just gave birth to baby girl #4 a couple of weeks ago!! Welcome to Baby "D!" (or "Love" as she will be known here...)
Last year my mom, with her nose for bargains, found a Cricut machine at a local Goodwill. My sister and I snatched it up and we share joint "custody" of the machine. And.... since she's off at college, guess who gets to store it!! :)
A while back Melissa made these shirts for Brittany's boys. I had heard that this kind of project was easy with the Cricut, but I wasn't too sure until I got into it. (It is EASY, but even easier if you know how to run the machine... I'm learning!) :) I used this tutorial - great explanation!
So Regina came over one afternoon and we started working on these. I finished them up and made a little surprise for baby "D!" I also made bows to match.
Here they are posing with their shirts right after they got them:
And here are the three big sisters posing with the little sis!!
Yep... they are ALL smitten with this little one!!!
And wouldn't you be?? This is a picture I took of her just this week:
She's growing and changing so fast!!
Maybe you have a project to share? I'm excited to see what you all have been working on!!
~PS. Just FYI, Cricut doesn't know I exist... not an advertisement, just craftiness at work! :)
It seems strange to already be almost halfway through September doesn't it? And yet this is only the second Friday in the month... I had to double check to be sure! So yes, today is Finished Object Friday!! :)
I've been doing a bit of crafting here and there... but one of my easiest projects was one that was half done already! You may remember the patriotic wreath that Angie and I made for summer. And you may remember that each of those fabric flowers was attached to the wreath on a small hair clip. This made for really easy removal and the wreath was quickly ready for a makeover for fall!
Such a quick little project!! I just added a few little things from my fall decor stash, whipped together a pretty bow, and the wreath was good to go!!
Speaking of quick, I pretty much all of my fall decorating done in one afternoon! Here's a peek at some of my other decor!
Fall Mantle:
I have enjoyed having a piano to decorate:
Here's a couple of closeups of the vignettes on the piano:
I love featuring this Bible in my decorating. It reminds me of my grandpa - a dear saint! and also of the sacrifices that our soldiers make to protect our country!
A sweet story about my grandpa. Grandpa passed away in 1996 - it will be 16 years ago at the end of this month - so hard to believe. The week before he died, he and my grandmother came to visit. We had a wonderful weekend with them doing all kinds of fun things. I was taking horse back riding lessons at the time and they got to come see me ride. On Saturday, we spent some time at our local county fair. My grandpa was wheelchair bound because of a problem with his leg. A lady came up to him and told him "I can see God all over you!" Little did she know he was just about a week from Heaven.
This is one of my very favorite pictures:
That is my dad with my grandpa and me... they are rolling hot tamales - a family tradition (and secret recipe...) ;) I'm doing what is still my favorite thing - snitching before they are rolled!! ;)
Well... I didn't mean for this to turn down memory lane! You never know where a post will lead! I hope you don't mind... But now that I'm finished rambling, it's your turn! Maybe you've been doing some fall crafting... OR feel free to link up to your fall decorating! I'd love to see!!
As I said earlier, I've been doing a bit of redecorating around our house. I really enjoy decorating for the seasons - not only Christmas, but for each new time of the year. So, since it is now June and basically summer here in Texas, it was time to put away my springtime things and get out my summery decor.
I haven't been super thrilled with the little welcome sign I had on our door in previous years. So I decided to make a wreath. I bought a spool of burlap "ribbon" and wrapped a 12 inch wreath. (With 30 feet of ribbon, I had about a yard leftover.)
Then Angie and I made flowers out of fabric and buttons that I had on hand. We attached them to clippies so they are removable! I can remake my burlap wreath any way that I want to... and having them on clippies helped us to be able to reposition them until they were where we wanted them. (This is where sis really came in handy. I knew if I kept working with them I'd probably never be satisfied with the placement. I just had her put them on, and it turned out really cute - and I wasn't tempted to keep fiddling with them! It's great to have her home for the summer!!) :) Cost for the wreath about $7.00.
So have you been making something patriotic? I'm excited to see what you all have been up to the past month!
Who doesn't want a little cheer to brighten up these cloudy winter days? :) Mom and I spent a little time crafting the other day - so fun!! She made some really cute flowers too, but here are mine (plus some... we didn't have long enough to do all we wanted...) ;)
Felt is so fun to work with - it doesn't unravel or shed so you can just cut it to the shape you want!
These were some of my favorites - soo fast and easy! I made a handful!! (Not all of them are pictured...) :)
and I love these colors!! So bright! (I used this tutorial.)
I love this one as well... matches several of my wintery outfits! :)
This was a quick and fun little tshirt flower. (Tutorial here.)
It didn't turn out quite like I had hoped. I think next time I would make it a bit bigger - maybe I would have less separation where I tied it off. But still... fun and super easy especially with a rotary cutter!
So what have you been up to? I'm ready to see some of your craftiness!! :)
Happy New Year, All!! I guess you could say I took a little bloggy
break. It wasn't really planned, but I have enjoyed having a lot of this
week to focus on getting our home back in order. I've really enjoyed
doing lots of "puttering" and I have most of our Christmas decor down,
AND a lot of my Valentine/Winter decor up. I'll be sure to post some
decor pictures, once I get everything done. :)
BUT... now I get to share some of my Christmas craftiness!! Can you guess what these are?
If you
guessed pillowcases, you are correct!! Now with this stack, I did have a
bit of help. Mom helped with some of the cutting out and a bit of
sewing. (But I helped her with her Christmas crafts, so it was a fair
trade!) :) Here they are with an actual pillow inside:
I think they turned out pretty fun... and from what I hear, each of the little recipients is enjoying them! These little gals below were the only ones I got to watch open them... all my other little people (cousins... adopted nieces and newphews...) live to far away!
Hmmm... she doesn't look to sure about this fabric thing... :)
Now we know what to expect... :)
Very excited about her patterns/colors!
It wasn't easy doing three different "pink" cases! I tried to fit them to their personalities! :)
I had a lot of fun picking fabrics. I think that the one that
became my favorite, mainly because I think it turned out great for a
pre-adolescent boy, is the solar system one! I just thought it was so cool!
(ETA: Oops!! Forgot to add the link to the tutorial I used! Great little tutorial - these were so easy and I love it that all the seams are enclosed! Find it here.) :)
So now you get to share some of your Christmas "craftiness!!" :) (If you had time to do any crafting. Was it just me, or did Christmas just zoom past?)
