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robot quiet book.

For the past year I’ve been busy sewing quiet book pages for my little guys and to be completely honest, I am hooked. Like seriously addicted to making these adorable little felt pages.

I remember when I was 12 years old I used to babysit for a family in our ward and at the end of the night when it wasn’t too late, the mom would show me all her quiet book pages she had been working on. Colourful shapes, buttons, snaps and my very favourite one, a farm page. I honestly remember thinking at the very moment in her dining room, that one day I would make a quiet book just like hers, they were truly so beautiful. So 20 years later my wish finally came true.

Now before I show you, I cannot stress enough that these are not my patterns or my ideas. I stumbled across this awesome girl on Pinterest and have been a loyal stalker since. Imagine Our Life.

100% of the credit goes directly to her creative genius.

I do however finish my pages a little different from hers. I like to find coordinating fabrics to line the back of each of my pages. Then I serge the edges. I’m still working on a way to make them into a book.

The robot page has to be one of my favourite, especially since it has a couple really COOL elements to it.

There are inter-changeable pieces that snap onto the robot’s body. You can mix his arms, legs and heads.

I love the little wheelie feet piece. I used buttons from my Mom’s old button tin that we used to play with all the time when we were kids. So some of those buttons could be older than I am. ♥ that.

Now, the coolest part of this quiet book page. It lights up.

How awesome is that?!!

With the push of a button, his little heart and ears light up.

Using all sorts of high tech sewing, conductive threads, LED lights and batteries. She goes into complete and VERY awesome detailed instructions on her blog. (And I’m totally kidding about it being high tech, it’s really quite simple once you get the concept)

I even made a little video showing you the 3 different heads and how they light up. It’s pretty hard to film and play at the same time, but you get the idea. :)

Robot Quiet Book

I’ve probably got 10 pages either completed, or almost complete. When I get the time I will definitely post them here for you to see. ♥

Check out Stephanie’s blog if you get the chance, she is fantastic!

Imagine Our Life

perler beads.

We LOVE perler beads at our house. The little girls (and me!) are always busting them out to make quick creations here and there. Well of course the little boys don’t quite understand why they can’t play too. Which usually leads to tears from both sides of camp.

So when I found these adorable little kid friendly perler beads I knew they would be perfect for the boys.

Grey was so excited he walked around with the box for an hour telling everybody, “look at MY perler beans” (as he calls them)

We got work right away making the puppy.

And then little brother was like, hey are you crafting without me.

Well don’t let me stop you, just here to observe.

I’d show you the finished puppy but I didn’t iron it for him because he likes to make them over and over again and doesn’t care so much for the finished product.

Just thought I’d share.

sun catchers.

When I stumbled upon this idea on Pinterest, I was super excited. Cheap, easy summer crafts are exactly the kind of stuff I need to make these next couple months as painless and “I’m bored” free as possible.

All you need is some pony beads, a metal pan and an oven.

These are pony beads.

I’ve bought them at Michaels, Hobby Lobby and JoAnne's before. Any craft store will carry them, they’re really common.

Pick out your pattern or just pick a color scheme and go to town.

Once the bottom of your pan is mostly covered, you’re good to bake. It doesn’t have to be crammed in there either. Our beads still had wiggle room but melted down fine. The tighter the beads, the thicker your sun catcher will be.

This one however does not have enough beads in it yet.

Pop into a 400 degree oven for about 20 mins.

Ava’s was our trial and error one. We put it in the oven and it baked, and baked and baked. I thought that maybe it was the glass pan that was making it take foreeeeeeeeeeever to melt down.

I was right. It has to be in a metal pan. Glass no good.

20 minutes later in a metal pan they were done.

Since the instructions I found online didn’t really give a lot of help, here’s what I learned.

It must be a metal pan, the majority of the pan has to be covered with beads. You don’t have to grease it. Once you take it out of the oven just leave it to cool and it will literally pop itself out of the pan.

You can drill a hole in it and hang it up with string or use a suction cup to stick to the window.

I must say they were so easy and turned out really cute. In fact I bought more beads yesterday so we can make more!

brought to you by the letter k.

My computer is a piece of junk. This isn’t new information of course. Now to sweeten the deal even more, now I can’t upload any of the new pictures I’m taking, and since I’ve committed to blogging at least twice a year now, I’m forced to share boring old pictures (gasp) until we save enough pennies to buy a new computer.

Remember back in September when my kids had their first day of school? Didn’t you know all the cool kids save those pictures until January.

Just doesn’t quite have the same impact 6 months later huh.

Well, how about a fun project to keep you inspired. Remember how I talked about Mrs. King being my favorite teacher of all time. Well I wanted to show you the gift I made her for just being awesome.

I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy to put together. But she loved it, and she is worth all the time in the world. The whole thing cost me $1.25. $1 for the frame and .25 cents for the crayons. Not too shabby huh.

bunny tails.

Today I made these adorable little Bunny Tail treats for Lily’s school class. They couldn’t be easier than stuffing 2 jumbo marshmallows in a bag, printing off a bag topper and attaching it on.

Oh, wait, that’s exactly how easy they are to make.

And have you seen these marshmallows? I mean, what teacher wouldn’t like 2 huge sugary marshmallows for each of their students to snack on?

You’re welcome Mrs. King.

PS. I’m not the genius mega mind behind these adorable concoctions. Found the idea HERE! (one of my favorite blogs.)

get the party started.

I’ve started preparations for Grey’s 2nd birthday, which is 2 weeks away, but I will admit, I’m doing it pretty begrudgingly.

Why, you might ask.

Well, because the theme is just so uninspiring to me. Grey loves trucks. Me, not so much. I really wanted to do a monkey party, or a puppy party, or a carnival party, or an airplane party, or an anything but a truck party.

So, I’m dragging my heels, complaining a lot, but keeping in mind that it’s not my party, it’s Grey’s. And if trucks are what he loves, than trucks is what he’ll get.

I ordered his gift online this year, I’m having it shipped, we’ll assemble it beforehand, and put a big fat bow on top. Done. It’s so adorable, but I’m going to make you wait to see what it is. I’m cruel like that.

My color theme is yellow, black, orange and brown. Like the CAT trucks, that sort of idea.

I’ve got plates, napkins and some fun little trucks to decorate the table with. But I really wanted something unique and boyish as the table runner, so I came up with this super original idea, all by myself. ;)

I bought some really, really cheap fabric, like less than $3 a meter/yard. It’s a really heavy suiting fabric, heavier than denim. I cut it to the size I wanted and then simply serged the edges.

Next I took some white carpet binding (that’s what it was labeled as at the store)

and cut it into 4” pieces. Totally get where I’m going with this yet? Well Lily didn’t understand, so I drew on a scrap of paper what I was making. She added the adorable cars.

A ta-da my road table runner.

It’s not all sewn together yet, cause Grey woke up from his nap, and as we all know, free time is over when nap time is over. And by free time I mean my life.

So probably 1/2 hour worth of sewing those little white rectangles, a good press and done. And all for less than $5. Love me a deal.

countdown to halloween.

You didn’t think I would leave you without at least one or two Halloween posts now did you? There’s no way I could resist my favorite holiday of the whole year!! So of course with only one week left until Halloween, I have a whole week full of super cool and creepy ideas to share with you.

I was asked to teach a class on gifts in a jar for our Ward’s Super Saturday. I was kind of disappointed, because I feel like that’s been done a hundred times before. But thanks to the good old internet and some extra creativity this is what I came up with, and I’m pretty sure it was a hit!

Halloween S’mores in a Jar.

These were so easy to make and without having to go camping to enjoy a delicious S’more bar is even better in my books.

You start by layering graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of a 1 quart jar. Line with seasonal Halloween Peeps. (they come in ghosts and pumpkins) Topped up with extra marshmallows, chocolate chips and brown sugar. Yummy! (recipe at bottom)

I topped my jar with some sheer spider web fabric and tied it with some twine.

Add a cute little tag with the directions and you’re done!

(The S’more stamp and bat punch is from Stampin’ Up, call me if you want to order ☺)

The sad news about these is that you can’t get peeps in Canada. (I’m so sorry…) But if you have someone who loves you very much, I’m sure they would be willing to express post you some ASAP! ♥

S’mores in a Jar

· 1 sleeve graham crackers (about 1 1/2 cups crushed crackers)

· 1 package of seasonal peeps brand marshmallow candies

· 1/3 cup white mini marshmallows

· 1/3 cup brown sugar; packed

· 1 cup milk chocolate chips or Halloween m&m candies

Directions

1. Layer ingredients in a wide mouth 1 quart canning jar. Crush graham crackers into crumbs using a rolling pin, layer onto bottom of the jar.

2. Using the seasonal peeps, line the inside of the jar, so peeps are facing out. Fill center of peeps with mini marshmallows.

3. Layer remaining ingredients. Milk chocolate chips, then brown sugar on the top.

4. Instructions to attach to jar; 1. Pour contents of jar into a bowl. Using scissors cut the peeps into small pieces. Return the cut up peeps to the mixture. Mix well. 2. Melt 1/2 cup butter; then add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour this over the dry ingredients, mixing well. Place into a greased 8" or 9" square pan, pat it downs gently. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.

silhouettes.

With older homes, comes charming older features, and we have this sweet little window on one of our walls, that I absolutely adore, but the problem is that it sits about 5 feet off the ground. With a ton of un-usable space under it. Well after 3 years of having no ideas what to stick there, I finally found the perfect (well I think…) solution.

I know silhouettes have been very popular recently, and I just love the idea of having them done of my children. And honestly EVERYONE that comes over asks how I did it, and I mean everyone. So just in case you’re curious, here’s my process.

Start by taking a profile picture of your subject. Use a nice clean light colored wall so that you have a lot of contrast between person and wall.

Using a photo editing program, fill in the outline of your subject in black. I made Darren do this part for me, because he has more patience for this fine detail work, but I assure you, it's not hard to do.

The next part is not necessary at all, but because I’m cheap when it comes to my printer ink, I took an erase tool and made the inner black part of my silhouette white, so I wasn’t using as much ink when I printed it.

(I know, it looks funny now…)

Next up. Print your picture. And grab some supplies.

-An exacto knife, a self healing cutting mat, black cardstock, removable adhesive and your printed picture.

Using the removable adhesive apply VERY generously on the back of your picture. I used Dotto, and it literally rubs of when you’re done. I love it!!

(I really darkened this picture, so you could see the adhesive, make sure to get the edges, as you don’t want them lifting off when you’re cutting)

Stick your picture to your black cardstock. (I trimmed around my picture, so I didn’t have so much bulky white to cut away)

Using your exacto knife, cut all the way around your picture. You can be as detailed as you want (i.e. cutting out strands of hair) or really just make it a simple outline.

You’ll be left with your image and your left over cardstock.

Peel off the printed picture, and just rub away the extra adhesive, and because you used black cardstock you can flip your image either way if you want them facing left or right in your frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I did for mine was back each picture on some white cardstock and used some really cheap frames from Wal-Mart ($1.99).

The finished result is so adorable!

You can see a little of the baseboard in this picture, so you can see how high up this darn window is.

That lonely silver hook is patiently waiting to hold the newest little Workman’s silhouette.

And here he is…

Your Welcome. ;)

car seat blanket tutorial.

Awhile back when I was sharing pictures of the new baby’s clothes, I had mentioned that I had a cute tutorial to share with you, that was so easy your cat could do it. Well, I finally got around to getting it done and blogged. Hope you enjoy!

Now, you could do this 2 ways if you wanted. You could pick your own fabric and sew a simple hem around all 4 edges, or you could use a ready made receiving blanket, or even a thicker lined baby blanket like I chose.

You will also need a coordinating piece of fabric, or ribbon for this project. Luckily for me, when I bought the blanket, it was rolled up and tied with the brown/white band pictured above. Perfect!

Take your blanket and fold it in half.

Mine is all creased and wrinkly, which I’m assuming, is because it was rolled up tight when I bought it. But whatever, I’m trying not to let it bother me…

And then fold it in half again. We’re looking for the middle point people.

Pin out about 3 inches from the center of your blanket, on both sides. (Just ignore my clearly not even pins… LOL!)

Okay. Next step. Take your ribbon, or coordinating fabric and cut two even strips about 6 inches long. If your making your own strip using fabric, you will want to sew it into a tube so that you don’t get raggy edges that fray. Don’t worry about finishing the top and bottom, it won’t notice.

For mine, I just clipped the snaps off the bottom and was ready to go.

Using Velcro or snaps if your heart desires, sew your Velcro to the bottom of your fabric strip.

The second piece of Velcro should go on the opposite side of your fabric strip at the bottom. Be very careful.

It should be able to roll around itself like a bracelet and close up.

Simple so far, right? Well, we’re almost done.

Next up, take your strips of fabric and line the top up with your pin marks on your blanket.

Stitch your strip to your blanket, following the Velcro as your guide.

See only the Velcro part is stitched to my blanket.

The best part about mine, is that you can hardly tell from the back where I stitched it on, because the fabric is so plush.

Line up your second strip evenly and do the same thing. (It totally doesn’t look even in this picture, but I swear it was… LOL!)

And that’s it.

Grab your car seat and try it out.

Push the sun hood back and thread the blanket under the handle.

Loop your straps around the handle and there you have it!

An awesome car seat blanket that won’t shift or fly off on a windy day (I’ve had that happen more times than I can count)

Plus this helps keep people away from touching baby or trying to peek while they’re sleeping.

It keeps it cozy and warm in the winter, but still very accessible to lift and make sure baby is okay. From both the front and back.

A couple of things to remember… every car seat handle is different, so before you sew on the straps just make sure they are going to work with your style of handle. I picked a thicker blanket, since my little guy will be in it most of winter. A thinner cotton would work better for a summer baby. Also make sure your blanket/fabric isn't too big, you don’t want it dragging on the ground or getting all caught up in the base of your car seat when you click it into your vehicle.

So, that’s it. Told ya it was easy. Total time for this project, took me about 20 mins start to finish. Now if your cat does happen to make this, I wanna see some pictures. ;)

Totally off topic… I added a search feature to my blog, after a dear sweet friend of mine couldn’t find a particular post. Since it drives me nuts when I can’t find something I’m looking for, I thought I’d help ya out! ♥

nursing cover.

I’m one of those people that are really good at being discrete while I’m nursing my baby. One time I was walking around Costco nursing (Lily I think??) and some lady came up to me, trying to get a peek at the new baby, I told her she was eating right now and the woman was so surprised, she said “I couldn’t even tell you were breastfeeding and you’re walking around while you do it!!??” Well, when you got stuff to do, you just keep on going right.

Anyways, although I’m really good at what I do, Darren really prefers if I cover up, completely. So I made a nursing cover for those times I’m not at home and I think it turned out pretty cute. I started doing step by step instructions, but it was just taking way too long and it’s really not that complicated (I just add crap to make it that much more difficult. LOL)

Start with your fabric choices.

I’m using the pear fabric and accenting with the polka dots.

Cut your fabric 26” x 38”. A yard or meter of fabric is the perfect amount for this project.

and 4 Hours later…

The color scheme kind of reminds me of the circus, LOL, but I think it’s pretty darn cute anyways.

Some details.

The ruffle I added. Really simple to do, if you need any instructions on how to do this, I can post some additional details.

The neck straps are made with the yellow polka dot fabric too. I cut the fabric 3” wide and sewed them up the middle with a 1/4” seam allowance. Ironed flat and cut one 8” long and the other one 25” long. Added a simple D ring to tie them together.

I really wanted to use the brown polka dot somewhere, so I added a cute little fabric flower and used a red button from my Mom’s button tin. (spare buttons from clothes and some she cut off when I was little and saved in a metal tin. I got the button jar as a gift for Christmas this past year and I treasure each and every button in it. ♥)

Lastly, the neck has a stiff ridge to it, so when you are nursing the baby you can see down, and so they can get some air flow while eating. I just sewed a tube in the middle, about 14” long and added some corset boning to create an arc in the middle. My straps are sewn at either end of the boning to stop it from sliding out.

I’m sorry that this is probably the worst tutorial I have ever posted. (If you could even call it that) If you have any questions, please, please ask away.

I muddled my way through this by looking at pictures of Bébé Au Lait’s- “hooter hider” version online. The only difference… theirs costs $35, mine cost less than $10. ☺