Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to everyone! Since I didn't get around to it last week, today I'm showing off the kids costumes for this year.

My oldest wanted to be a red gypsy. I made a peasant blouse for the top using this tutorial and a yoga waist band skirt using this one. For the wrap around scarf and head piece, I just kind of jumped in and pretended I knew what I was doing.

My next girlie wanted to be a mermaid, NOT Ariel, just a mermaid. She found this picture on line and wanted her costume to be just like it.
I'm not sure it's just like it but here's what we came up with.
And for my little man, you've been wondering what the bow tie was for right! He's Alfalfa! I used the bow tie I showed in the last post and one of his dress shirts. I made the suspenders using this tutorial. And his pants are a pair that he has grown too tall for so they are nice and short to show off those white socks! He will even have a fantastic spike in his hair. I've been growing his hair out for three months just for Halloween. Tomorrow he'll be getting a hair cut!
Happy Trick-or-Treating!

Baby Bow Tie

I finished Halloween costumes last week. Hurray!!! The kids are very excited. I'll show you the completed costumes later this week, but today I wanted to give a more detailed post on one item from my little man's get up, a baby bow tie.

I looked at a couple of tutorials to get an idea of how to make him a bow tie, one from Prudent Baby and the other from A Lemon Squeezy Home. I didn't follow them exactly. I did make a few changes. I didn't used interfacing or felt, just the material. I didn't use their measurements either. I drew on paper how big I wanted the finished tie to be. Then I doubled the length and the width and added enough for seam allowances. I did the same thing for the small piece that wraps around the center of the tie.

And my little guy won't wear anything around his neck, so I could use the neck band. Instead I sewed a small rectangle and put a button hole in the middle. Then I hand stitched one side of it onto the bow tie and added a snap to the other side. This way I can hook it onto the top button of his shirt.

Pony Party

I really like reading the blog Make It and Love It. She used to have a Make-a-Cake series that had super cute ideas. My daughter and I were looking at some of the cakes and we came across this one (go take a look but don't forget to come back). She told me that's the one she wanted for her birthday, which by the way was still several months away. And when her birthday came, it was still all about the My Little Pony Cake.

So here was our version of the My Little Pony Party! Rainbow Dash is one of her favorite ponies so she was our main focus. Here are the invites:

For our activities we melted crayons in a mini muffin tin for our very own homemade "rainbow" crayons. We played "pin the rainbow on Rainbow Dash". Ok that was a really long name but you get the idea.
And yes we had pony rides! No, I didn't rent a pony. I'm not willing to spend that much on a birthday party. We actually have a horse and access to several others, so pony rides are kind of a normal thing for us. Sorry no pics of the pony rides (I have issues with putting pics of the kids online) but the kids had fun.

And for the crowning achievement. Our pony cake complete with Rainbow Dash on top. It was a very tall cake!
What a perfect rainbow slice!

Fashion Birthday Party

This week I want to share with you what we did for my girls birthday parties this year. Our first party was a Barbie Fashion Fairy Tale party. My oldest loves that movie and had to have it for her party theme.

First were some very cool invitations:

Then at the party we dumped out all the dress ups and let the girls have a ball. Then we had a fashion show and took pictures of each girl. With the pictures we made each girl a "magazine cover" featuring them! The black rectangle represents the girls pictures and we put their names into the name spot.
We also painted nails and watched "Barbie Fashion Fairy Tale". The cake, which I so wonderfully forgot to take a picture of, was pink with red and white "jewels" and a crown on top.

What Snow Does To Me

My kids and I had croup last week and they missed the whole week of school. So this week I have been super busy getting them all caught up on the gops of homework they missed. But we're all caught up now so I can have my blog time back.

It has been snowing here for the last few days. I really don't like when it snows before Halloween, I hate driving in it, and I don't like the super cold. But I will say that the first snow always puts me in a very good mood. It makes me feel like Christmas and I LOVE Christmas. We've been lighting fires and drinking hot chocolate. It's so cozy. I would listen to Christmas music but my husband won't let me until after Thanksgiving. But I have started my Christmas shopping.

Every year I try so hard to get my shopping done by Thanksgiving so I can just enjoy the Christmas spirit and not feel stressed. And every year I fail, and the stress gets to me and ruins it for me. So this year I am bound and determined to make it happen.

I've made our Christmas cards. Ordered Santa presents for 2 of the 3 kids, they just better not change their minds. I talked my husbands family into drawing names early so I can get started on those too. And I've planned most of the presents, I'm just spacing them out so the financial burden gets spread out. I think this just might happen this year.

How early do you do your Christmas shopping?

Also, go visit Raising 4 Princesses. I was featured on their link party earlier this week. I've just been absentee and haven't been on to let you all know. Thanks.

Cleaning Products I Now Love

A friend once told me that cleaning the house with small kids is like brushing your teeth while eating an Oreo. So true and therefore I am always on the look out for things that make my job a little easier. I have recently fallen in love with a couple of products that I'd like to share with you (and no I'm not getting paid, just passing on what I've learned).

Product #1

I am super picky about how the bathrooms get cleaned, especially the toilet. I've always used Clorox toilet cleaner because anything less than bleach just never felt good enough. And my Clorox has always done a great job, until our new house. We have very very very hard water and my toilets have developed nice rings inside the the bowls that my Clorox just can't get off even with scrubbing.

So while venting to a friend about it, she recommended getting the dark blue Lysol toilet cleaner. That what she uses and she has found it great on getting that yucky ring off. When I got to the store I saw this cleaner:

It's the same as the dark blue one, but with added lime and rust remover. I decided to try it out first. And guess what, those rings I've been scrubbing at for months on end went completely away in one cleaning! Now that I've seen visible results I guess I'm proven wrong that bleach is not always best.

Product #2

We bought a new vacuum when we moved into our house. It was the Eureka Pet Pal. We don't have any indoor pets, but I shed just as much so we figured it would be good. Frankly the vacuum was horrible. It had no suction power what so ever and when we tried to get it taken care of on the warranty, Eureka gave us the run around until our warranty expired. Yeah, not impressed.

So we decided just to throw the thing away and get a new one. After reading reviews we went with the Shark Navigator Lift Away. And we have absolutely loved it! It has amazing suction- the first time I used it I filled the canister twice just in my bedroom. I know that's gross but that's how bad our other vacuum was.

It has swivel head steering, kind of like the Dyson Ball. Doing the stairs is so easy. The vacuum comes apart so that you only have to carry the canister while doing stairs instead of trying to balance the whole vacuum. It can go from carpet to hard floor, but I don't use that very often, that's just me. And it's light weight making it easier to lug around the house.
Hope those were helpful. If anyone else has any great cleaning helps, let me know. I'd love to share them with everyone.

Featured On Craft-O-Maniac

Hey guys! I was featured on Craft-O-Maniac today! Yay! That's always so fun and exciting for new bloggers like me. Just click right here to head on over and see me. Have a great weekend.

Little Man Tie

Before I get to my post, I was asked how my Ute husband liked my BYU cookies from my last post. Well, at first he said he wouldn't eat them, but then changed his mind because it would be metaphorical. Which sadly was the truth, Utah beat BYU 54-10.

Now onto the post.

I love, love, LOVE little boys dressed up in nice dress clothes. It totally makes me melt. I thought it would be fun to make my little man some ties so that we could mix up his church wardrobe a bit, and I just like making stuff so it gives me an excuse to sew.

Well I decided on this about a year ago, yes it's really been that long. At that time a good friend of mine told me she had found a pattern for little man ties and would teach me how to make them. I was so excited. She even bought this great patterned material to make them with and the elastic and bra hooks so we could put the ties around our kiddos necks. We got the tie made and well, guess what I discovered. My little man won't wear a tie that goes ties around his neck. Every time I tried to put it on him, he'd try to pull it off. I was so bummed.

BUT, he will wear clip-ons! So I have search and search and search for the hardware and no craft store carries them. Double bummer. Until, a couple weeks ago I found the hardware online at............ The Ribbon Retreat!!!!! Yes of all places The Ribbon Retreat sells tie clips. So I ordered a handful of them to try them out and took my tie off the elastic neck band and tied it around the clip and YAY I have a tie that I made that he will wear!!! (Wow, that was one big run on sentence.) And here it is:

Isn't he going to be so handsome at church on Sunday!

Team Spirit

My husband and I went to rival universities. He graduated from the University of Utah and I graduated from Brigham Young University. Neither of us are really into football until game day. We both have to defend our teams on the day they play each other.

The game this year was on saturday, so to show my team spirit, I used my sour cream sugar cookie recipe (see here) and made my man these wonderful cookies. Go Cougs!

GAP Knock Off

School shopping this year my daughter dragged her aunt into the GAP. Not a place I usually shop because I generally find it to expensive for our budget but looking never hurts I guess. She of course found the perfect shirt that she just had to have for school:

Isn't it just fantastic with all the beads and jewels and bows! Every little girls dream shirt right! Then I looked at the price tag and at $27 this particular dream was not going to happen. So instead we bought a cheaper but still nice, plain pink top. And with my new love of freezer paper stenciling, we add pearls ourselves. Then used some fabric glue to attach some jewels and bows. She even decided to add some jewels to the bottom of the shirt, her own design. And here it is, our GAP knock off for a third of the price!
Here's an up close of the top portion. I actually like how it turned out better than the original and better yet my princess loves it!

Back To Crafting

I finally got my follower count up and then summer hit and I disappeared! Our summer was the busiest summer I've ever had. We only spent two weekends the whole summer at home. So needless to say blogging got neglected. I'm just hoping at least a few of you still stop by every now and then to check up on me.

So now that school is back in session and my life has somewhat settle into a "normal" routine, I'd like to share with you what I've been up to. I've been seeing freezer paper stenciling all over blogland. However, I didn't ever really get what it was or understand what all the hype was about. Until this summer! I decided to figure out the freezer paper mystery and I am now hooked. For those who are as naive as I was- freezer paper stenciling is a way to paint designs onto shirts. It's a way to make your kids all those designer graphic tees they want for a lot cheaper. There is a great tutorial on MADE.

My first freezer paper project was to make my little man some sports shirts. I bought tees at Hobby Lobby for $3 a piece and now they look like shirts you pay at least twice that for.

Paper Plate Masks

We have a rainy day book full of fun things for the kids. My girls love looking at it and picking out crafts and recipes. This was the one they picked last go around.

It was so easy and they had a ball. Just cut eyes and a mouth out of a paper plate. Then punch two holes on the sides and tie on some cord elastic. They glue on what ever decorations they like. We used feathers, beads and glitter for these ones.

Stay tuned this week for more fun for the kids!

Marble Painting

My daughter brought home this painting she made at school with......don, don, don....... MARBLES! How cool is that! Just put a piece of paper in the bottom of a shoe box. Squirt some drops of paint onto the paper. Drop in your marbles and shake shake SHAKE! I LOVE it!

Resurfacing With A Kids Craft

I know, I know. I have officially been put on the missing in action list. I went into hiding but am now resurfacing. Hehe. Actually, my brother and his daughter came in from out of state last week and well, you got neglected so I could spend time with them. Sorry about that.

But I'm back this week with some fun kids craft ideas. For my first one, we made sun catchers. My aunt always does a craft for the kids every April and October coinciding with a certain religious event. Hehe. We call it our Conference craft and it's something the kids can do between sessions.

The kids had tons of fun. Here's how they turned out:

Aren't they fun! So to make your own you will need: hand towels, wax paper, crayons, a zester, pressed flowers and leaves, foam paper, a stapler, an iron, a hole punch and ribbon.

First cut out your wax paper in the shape you want, you will need two of the same shape. Lay a hand towel on your counter. Put one wax paper shape on the towel. Now zest some of crayon around your wax paper, not a lot just some to add color. Lay out your flowers and leaves leaving enough room around the edges to make the frame. Zest some more crayon over the top. Lay the second wax paper on top. Place another towel over and iron. Do not slide the iron, just press and lift.

Now cut out a frame the same shape from your foam paper. Again cut two of the same shape. place your wax paper between the frames and staple together. Punch two holes at the top of the sun catcher and tie on the ribbon.

Pretty easy and just in time for spring.

Shoe Restyle

Hey everyone! Before I get to my post I just wanted to share this funny picture I found online. And no I am not feeling competitive today, I just found it funny.

Okay on to my post. My girls have been into wearing skirts a lot lately. But they are not the most modest thing to run around playing in. So I decided for this summer, instead of buying them a bunch of shorts, I'd get them some capri leggings to wear under all their skirts. That way they can run around outside without showing off their undies to everyone.

I also wanted to get them some converse style flats to wear with their skirt/leggings but without the name brand price. So I went to that store we all hate but always find ourselves it, yes you know what store I'm talking about. And I found these on sale for $5!!!

But did you notice something was missing. Yeah, no laces. My first thought was maybe that's why they were on sale but they had so many of them. How could they have so many defective pairs of shoes? So I asked the sales lady if they came with laces and she said no, they have elastic in them. Apparently it's the "trendy" thing to not have laces. I must not be very trendy cause I thought it looked a little funny. No offense to anyone who likes it.

The other problem with the shoes was the elastic. It's a great idea in theory to put elastic in the tongue to hold the shoes on, but whomever made them must not have kids. The elastic was soooooo incredibly tight I needed a crow bar just to try them on the kids.

So here's what we did. After I finally got their feet into the shoes and got the right sizes, we cut the elastic out of the tongue and laced them up with some ribbon (which I already had). Now my girls have adorable little "converse" with cute laces for only $5 each. I'm a happy mommy!

Where For Art Thou Spring?

I wanted to post this yesterday, but we had a power outage half the day. And by the time the power came on and I did the dishes, played house, cleaned a bathroom, had a playdate, did the laundry, cooked dinner, gave my little man his first hair cut, and got all the kids to bed..... Well let's just say I was wiped. So lucky you to get to see me on a weekend!

After enjoying several days of nice spring weather, yesterday morning looked like this:

And today looks like that too. What happened to my spring? I want the warm weather back. But one cozy thing about the snow yesterday, I got to wake up to this:
My husband had a nice warm fire going in our new fire place. When we built our house we had the rock for the fire place put in, but not the stove. We weren't sure if we wanted to get a new stove or a used one. New ones are pretty pricey so we wanted to just have the house stove ready and we could put our own stove in once we got one.

We are so glad we did it that way because we ended getting a stove for FREE!!! The glass needed to be replaced in it and it was pretty rusty. But my amazing hubby sand blasted the whole thing and repainted it. And now I have a wonderful wood stove that keeps our house toasty warm! Thanks hun!!!!

Thanks!

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all those who voted for me on Saturday Mornings. I didn't win but it was sure fun to participate. And thanks again Dana for including me! Have a wonderful night everyone.

My First Fondant Cake

I've always had this great ambition to make amazing birthday cakes for my kids, but frankly I'm not very good at making the frosting smooth. I usually end up just buying figurines and putting them on top of a regular cake. I've seen lots of cute fondant cake ideas and wished I knew how to that.

My cousin found a recipe for homemade marshmallow fondant for me and since my little man turned 1 this past weekend, well, I decided to try it. And after ruining my first batch, and then employing the aid of my husband, the second try worked. I am so excited how it turned out.

So do you want the recipe? Here it is with all the tweaks we made:

Marshmallow Fondant

8 oz mini marshmallows (4 cups not packed)

4 c powdered sugar, plus a little for dusting

2 T water

Food coloring and flavoring, optional

Put marshmallows and water in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute and stir until smooth. If you are adding flavoring, stir it in now. Also if you are only doing ONE color, add it now too. If you're doing more than one color, wait. Add the powdered sugar and stir until it becomes too difficult to stir. Dust your counter with powdered sugar and dump the mixture out. Knead with your hands until all the powdered sugar is incorporated and it is smooth. If your doing more than one color, split your fondant and hand knead the coloring in. It is now ready to use. If you're not using it right away, wrap in plastic. You can store it in the fridge also. If the fondant gets a little stiff, microwave for 5-10 seconds to soften it up again.

Note: If you don't want to have to knead the coloring into the fondant, split the recipe up before you make it so you are doing several partial recipes and dye each section before you add the sugar.

Now to use your fondant:

Spray your work space and rolling pin with cooking spray. Yes I know it sound weird, but trust me you want to. This is where I messed up my first batch. Roll out fondant to desired thickness. To transfer to your cake, roll the fondant up around the rolling pin and lay over the cake. Use your hands to smooth out.

To add the shapes to my cake I rolled out the fondant, or rather my husband did, and we used regular old cookie cutters! For the border around the bottom we made two long snakes out of the two colors and twisted them together.

Isn't it AMAZING!!!!!