DIY Baby Girl Onesies

It's been awhile since I've posted a project I've done besides the fair... let me rephrase...it's actually been awhile since I've even done a project that wasn't for the fair! So this was a fun and easy project that wasn't home decor.

Some good friend of ours were getting ready to have a baby girl. I just love all the cute ideas and things there are out there for baby girls and with me having 2 girls of my own I decided to gift two of my favorite things I liked having for my girls.

1. Some headbands and accessories from Ambrey's Accessories. As I mentioned before I love these headbands with interchangeable snap accessories. Mia wore one just about everyday of first year of her life and they held up perfectly to use now for Livy.

2. Cute onesies. Onesies are my absolute favorite and go to for babies. I even use them for under baby dresses or shirts because I hate constantly having their dress/shirt up to their armpits and their tummies being bare. It's a little weird and OCD I know. Anyway I thought I'd get a little creative and "embellish" some onesies on my own.

I just used scrap fabric, lace and trim I already had to put these together along with some iron-on applique paper and the final result was just so adorable! I want to remake all of these for Livy now!

I'm in love with Peter-pan collared shirts right now so of course I had to try my hand and making one in "baby form". 

Linked To:

http://thelifeofjenniferdawn.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-little-bird-told-me-link-party-55.html

http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/80-share-your-creativeness/

http://thenymelrosefamily.com/2013/08/whimsy-wednesdays-76.html

http://www.sew-much-ado.com/2013/08/we-did-it-wednesday_14.html
http://sparklesandastove.com/all-things-pretty-linky-party-21-features/
http://www.reasonstoskipthehousework.com/the-weekly-creative-thursday-link-party-2/

Instilling Creativity in Children

A couple weeks ago Mia went to her little friend's birthday party who had just gotten a cute Little People Disney Princess Castle. Mia's eyes grew about 2 times bigger after setting eyes on it and just loved it! It made me want to buy one for her on the spot. I'll admit I even went as far as actually looking on Amazon to see what it cost. After coming to my senses and reminding myself that buying Mia a huge toy for that price for no reason was crazy so I decided to think of some other options.

I started thinking about all the hours my sister and I spent building just about anything we could imagine out of things we found around the house when we were young. This made me realize how little I let Mia express her very creative side, especially since I am always crafting around her and how little I spend my time crafting on something she can benefit from as well.

So the next day I grabbed a cardboard box and we went to work creating a fun, little "princess" castle for Mia. As I was cutting out the castle I let Mia play with all my scrap papers and some scissors (yes, I'm a little too trusting of a mother, but luckily she did great!). It was so fun watching all the things she was imagining up. She started making houses out of some papers, a slide and even thought one looked like a car. Once the actual castle was done she had fun coloring the sides and then making a bed and a blanket for her little Cinderella to sleep with.

This experience has just helped me remember how important it is to let our children be creative and to give our time helping them to develop their creative side no matter the age. To also let them get a little messy doing it and to make a mess! Creative play is so very important to help children learn how to solve problems and come up with solutions. Not to mention it's just so stinkin' cute watching them!

Linked To:
http://www.muchadoaboutsomethin.blogspot.com/search/label/tell%20us%20tuesday
http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/08/inspire-me-monday-week-84.html
http://www.keepingitsimplecrafts.com/2013/08/motivate-me-monday-186.html
http://carolynshomework.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-inspiration-board-creative-party-115.html

Family Scrabble Wall Art

In all honesty, I am horrible at the game of Scrabble or anything related to it, but I am very much in love with all the scrabble home decor that has been populating the world of pinterest.

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and make a scrabble wall art piece for my mother for Mother's Day. Talk about an easy project that equated into some cute wall art...my favorite kind of project!

Here's the how to for making this Family Scrabble Wall Art:

Supply list

6- 10 inch wood squares (I had some leftover 3/4" plywood from Mia's bed that I used)

black acrylic paint

cardstock

printer

tape

foam brush

I printed out the letters on card stock and then cut them out to make a stencil. Then I taped my stencil onto my 10 inch wood squares and painted it with the black paint.

When that is done you could call it good and just hang then individually on the wall or connect them. I used a few nails in each to connect mine and then added some sawtooth hangers on the back to hang on the wall.

That's it folks! Easy-peesy!

Linked to:
http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/06/inspire-me-monday-week-75.html
http://sparklesandastove.com/all-things-pretty-linky-party-11/
http://www.ajennuinelife.com/2013/06/thrifty-to-nifty-thursdays-20.html
http://makingtheworldcuter.com/2013/06/making-the-world-cuter-monday-55/
http://diyshowoff.com/2013/06/09/that-diy-party-20/
http://www.madincrafts.com/2013/06/mad-skills-party-159.html
http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/71-share-your-projects/
http://www.fidlersunderoneroof.com/2013/06/fidlin-fridays.html

Staying in Touch with my Crafty Side

I don't normally have this many "crafty" posts this close together since its not something I do every night but since I have been trying to get a lot of crafts done before Livy comes I practically have been! And although my Pinterest Challenge is over I still get most all my ideas and inspiration for projects off there, which is where these next two projects came from.

First up are Quiet time boxes for Mia. Since she stopped taking naps a couple of months ago I resorted to quiet times in her room in the afternoons for about 2 hours on average for her bust mostly my own sanity. I also think quiet time is a great way to teach kids how to play quietly and entertain themselves for awhile. Anyway, I noticed lately Mia getting bored with the toys in her room and she would be done playing in less then an hour before she would be banging on the door ready to come out. So when I saw THIS idea on pinterest it was a must try! What she did was have a box for each day of the week and filled them with different toys for her kids to play with during quiet time, giving them something new to play with each day and keep them entertained.

So here are the things I started off with to make my "Quiet Time" boxes.

- 5 plastic containers (I found mine at Walmart for about $3 each)

- Labels with each day of the week (Monday through Friday)

- Age-appropriate things to fill containers with. (I started out with trying to get at least two different things per box and plan on adding to them as time goes.) You also can use thing that you already have so you don't have to buy everything.

For each box I tried to add something on the educational/developmental side like a book about colors or these cheap, cute puzzles I found at Walmart with ABC's and numbers. Then I tried to add something that would spark creative play like some more magnetic paper dolls or a princess dress up set.

I also tried to spruce up things I already had. For example, I grabbed a picture online of a kid's road map and printed that out and laminated it for Mia to drive this little fisher price car on.

Another thing I did was make some blankets and pillows out of some fabric scraps I had for these cute dolls that Mia was given for her birthday. She loves tucking things in "nigh-nigh".

These boxes have been a huge success and have made quiet time for Mia a lot more fun and entertaining. It gives her something to look forward to each day and makes it less painful for me so I  can enjoy some "me" time in the afternoon as well.

My second project were these adorable cardigan onesies I made following THIS tutorial. I made these for a friend who is due just a couple days after me and is having a boy. I never get to make things for baby boys so I couldn't resist! They turned out SO cute and were SO easy to make!

Here's what I used:

-Cute onesies to make the cardigan. I got these two onesies from Old Navy

- Double wide bias tape.

-Buttons to sew on the cardigan

- plain white onesie to go underneath

-coordinating scrap fabric to make the bow tie and tie. If you do the tie you'll also need double-sided iron on adhesive.

Now my list is pretty much complete on the crafts I wanted to get done. Now I just need my nesting phase to kick in and clean my house before this baby comes! On a side note I scheduled to be induced on my due date which is Monday, but I'm hoping Livy will decide to come before then!

Also here is my last plug for entering this awesome giveaway Ambrey's Accessories has been so gracious to offer and you won't want to miss it! Make sure to enter. It's the last day! Click on over HERE to enter!

Trying New Things

Now this is something that you don't often hear from me since I am a person that does NOT like change very much. I also don't tend to try new things just because of the excuses I make for myself sometimes. A few being that I'm afraid that I could fail, it would be too hard or the "unexpected" that comes from stepping out of our daily routines can be scary.

Honestly, most of these new things didn't take a huge leap to do. For example, this week I decided to try doing more "crafty" things with Mia. She gets so bored around the house sometimes, doing the same old thing day after day. However, for those of you who have toddlers also know that doing crafts with children mean more messes to clean up besides all the messes they already make on a daily basis along with all the other things that need to get done. So the other day I sucked up the fact of having a little more to do that day and sat Mia up to the table for some painting.

I saw this picture floating around pinterest of taking a empty roll of toilet paper and shaping it like a heart using that as a stamp with some paint. It looked simple enough for Mia to try and perfect for making some homemade valentines for friends and family. For Mia not always being the best listener and loving to make bigger messes the necessary, this project was quite the success. She managed to keep most of the paint off her (even though I stripped her down to her diaper just in case) and between the heart stamp and using paint brushes she stayed entertained with it for almost an hour.

The results...

After the painting project and Mia deciding not to take a nap, I got a little more ambitious and decided to have Mia help me make heart-shaped sugar cookies and decorate them. Mia have recently started to love helping out in the kitchen. She has a stool that she drags around the kitchen and get's up to try and help me. This project took a little more time and definitely was more messy, but I must say it's kind of fun/cute to have a little helper in the kitchen to help me bake. We didn't get to decorating the cookies until later that evening and by then I must say I was worn out from the day so I might have taken over decorating the cookies a little once I saw that Mia was basically just eating all the frosting and toppings, but she did help with a few. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of the whole process, but here is a picture of a little surprise we left out for Eric since he wasn't getting back until really late from being away on business. We also made up some cookie Valentines for Mia's friends. I'm sure their mother's appreciated me giving their kids a cookie the size of their heads :)



Lesson learned from these "crafting" experiences with Mia? Even though it makes more for me to do, as a mother is was so fun seeing Mia's creativity come out and watching her try something new that she was enjoying. So maybe not an everyday occurrence, but something that I will try to do more often.

That night offered another first for me. I had signed up to clean the Oquirrh Mountain Temple with some of other ladies from the ward. Although I was very willing to serve when I first signed up, after a long day of tending Mia and not getting much sleep lately due to the pregnancy, I was beat and the thought of staying up late to clean wasn't sounding all the appealing. However, I was so impressed with how those hired to clean the temple made it such a peaceful and spiritual experience for the volunteers even as we cleaned. This really made me appreciate Eric's grandma much more, who cleans the Vernal, Utah temple each night. I always wondered how and why she did that every night with everything else on her plate she has. I now know that it hardly seems like a "chore" at all, but a blessing to be able to do. After everyone was done cleaning they let us spend the next 10 minutes going where ever we wanted in the temple. I spend most of mine sitting and pondering on the beauty of the temple and on how blessed I am to have the gospel in my life and to have something to live for that is meant to make me eternally happy.

Lesson learned from this experience? After a long day this is just what I needed to rejuvenate me spiritually and physically and I would do it again in a heart beat. If any of you ever get the chance to volunteer to clean the temple DO IT!

My last first for the week...embracing the unknown and stop worrying about always having a plan for the future. I thought this one would be hard one for me since I live for having plans for the future and knowing exactly where I'm going. A couple weeks ago Eric informed me that he was going to be put on another project so he would no longer be going to California and it looked like the new project would be in Virginia. Normally, I would have a mental freak out with the new change and all the unknowns that this new assignment would bring. Surprisingly I was quite calm about it and after sitting on it for a week or so and still not knowing much more all I feel is peace instead of my usual worry and stressing. All I know is that I'm having a baby in April and after that who knows...maybe we'll be adventurous and move to Virginia to be closer to Eric!

Lesson learned? I am SO much happier when I stop worrying all the time about things I can't control and when I'm more light heart about unknowns and dare I say change!? And even though Eric would never admit this, I am probably much more pleasant to be around. Needless to say for once I am heavily relying on faith that the Lord will direct us where is best for our family and not making my own plans first.

Oh and one more other kind of new thing...Annelise, Sara and I have decided to go the Arts in the Park fair in Ely this August again! There were difficult times last time we did it and I'm sure there will plenty of those times this time around as well, but in the end it was a great experience last time, even though it's scary to put yourself out there by trying to sell the things you enjoy making. Hopefully this year is a success!

Anyway, here are a few more pics of Mia that Eric took on his phone that I meant to get on the last post.

Mia has such a good daddy that will play out in the cold snow with her. She loves it!

Mia's face after she gets done with her "moo-mee" (smoothie). We have one about every day now.

Note her crazy morning hair along with an adorable cheesy smile

Updates

I'll make it no secret that there can be moments that are challenging with Mia as she has grown into the "toddler" phase; however those moments could never out weigh what a blessings and beautiful things it is to watch what was once a tiny baby grow and develop each day by learn new things and seeing her joy and excitement with the world around her.

One of Mia's biggest developments which still continues is her vocabulary. I remember as much as I loved holding and snuggling Mia as a baby I couldn't wait for the day she could wrap her arms around my neck and tell me she loves me. It melts my heart each time to hear her little voice say "love you" followed by a big kiss and cheesy smile. She also has become very interested in the alphabet and loves pointing out all the letters she sees in books or around the house. Here is a list of some other new additions to her vocabulary in the last couple of months.

-"Yuck"
-"moo-mee" (aka smoothie) I've been on a smoothie kick lately and now Mia is always asking for one too
-Mia loves calling out all her friends names throughout the day ("emma", "phia"(Sophia), "cohen" and "addi")
-"peez" (please)
-"hewo"(hello) and "goo-bye"
-"nemo" and "woody" when she wants to watch her two favorite movies Finding Nemo and Toy Story.
-"book" We spend a could hour or more each day reading all her books that she brings to me.
-"sawee" (sorry)
- "see ya"

Along with spending lots of time reading Mia also still loves to color and is starting to play more imaginary play with her toys. Eric and I have to laugh when are cleaning up the house at night and see all her little people toys and animals in pairs kissing. Mia has become very interested in is putting on clothes, socks and shoes. She usually walks out from spending time in her bedroom with 3 shirts around her waist, mis-matched socks and two shoes on. She also loves to accessorize and try on all my necklaces.

My attempts at trying to take a picture of Mia in her new dress we bought her when we were in San Diego. (Yes I bribed her to stand there with a cookie)

Lastly, Mia is a daddy's girl. When Eric is gone for work she is always walking around the house pointing at pictures of him and saying his name. She loves to play with him in the evenings and also loves going on daddy-daughter dates with him. So far they have gone swimming together and then out to dinner and just recently to the aquarium.

As for updates on Livy or more on the pregnancy with Livy anyway, I have 3 more months left until I can meet this little girl! This last week I have done a lot for Livy's room and it has made it just seem even more real. Even though I know it's not always going to be easy I can't wait to have a baby girl around the house again.

So far everything has been normal with this pregnancy. I'm about as average a pregnant lady as can be complete with, moodiness, heartburn, ever growing stretch marks, insomnia and a baby who likes to move and kick a lot (especially when Mia decides to sit right on top of Livy, she always has a good kick in retaliation). I feel like my cravings have been a little more tamed this time around or at least so far. I hardly am every craving anything greasy or too heavy because the smallest things seem to give me massive heartburn, but one meal in particular that I always seem to be wanting is steak, mash potatoes and homemade rolls. I always seem to "carbo" load when I'm pregnant. Some things I've come not to like since being pregnant are vegetables, salads and wheat bread. Of course it's all the healthy stuff.

And lastly, upon requests, here are some updates of all the crafts I've been doing as of late.

So first off here are some crafts I've done for Livy's room. One thing I got done last week, but didn't get a picture of yet because I wanted to wait until it was quilted was her quilt for her bed. If you recall I made one for Mia when she was born and I kind of wanted to make a tradition out of it so my kids can have something made from their mom from when they were a baby. So picture to come, but here is a look at the fabric I used in the quilt which kind of set the color scheme and "bird" theme for the room.

Going along with the "bird" theme I found this adorable lamp on ksl for $10. With a coat of yellow spray paint for the base and painting the lamp shade white I think this is going to be the one of the cutest additions to her room!

I came across this picture awhile ago on pinterest and although I kind of just wanted everything in the entire picture I settled by doing something similar with a pillow I already had.

Lastly, when I was is San Diego I bought a new bag at the outlets to dual as my new purse and diaper bag. I love the bag and that is it big enough to for both purposed, but I wanted a way for when I was going somewhere without the kids I wouldn't have to take everything out separately and then put it all back in later. My solution was this "boxie" pouch I made out of a reusable bag I got awhile back from TJ Maxx for $1. I got the tutorial HERE, but just skipped doing a lining because the material from the bag was thick and durable enough on it's own. It was super easy to make and it works perfect!

If I can keep my burst of energy going for the next couple weeks I can hopefully knock off a few more projects for Livy's room as well as some others I would like to get done. So I'll keep the updates on those coming as well as some more pics of Mia when I get them from Eric :)

Adventures as a single parent

Maybe this title is a little misleading. No...I didn't loose my husband and yes, I am still happily married; however Eric has been gone the last 2 weeks at training in North Dakota for work. He got to come home to spend a full day back Saturday, but left again today for another two weeks.

To be honest, it wasn't much of a change at the beginning since Eric is usually at work all day anyway and then comes home and has to work on his online classes so I don't see to much of him. However, the second week I was starting to see how nice it is to have some help, even if it just in the evening as well as some company. Not to mention, Mia is teething about 4+ teeth at the moment and has not been a happy camper the last few days to say the least. Poor girl! Needless to say I survived the last 2 weeks and one to another. Now we'll see how it goes in the future when there are a few more kids added to the bunch. Yikes! The last week in June my Mom is being ever so kind and is coming in to watch Mia for the week when I go hang out in North Dakota since that is about as much as a vacation we are going to get this summer. I am actually quite excited to have a whole week to myself to read, be lazy, and rejuvenate to come back and be a better Mom and it's a plus that Eric's work is paying for it!

So besides venturing into the world of dying pants and introducing family and friends to it Mia and I had a little adventure to Ely this last week. My cousin Megan drove down with us which I was grateful for since I have never taken a long trip by myself with Mia. My original purpose for going to Ely was being there with my little brother when my Mom went to girls camp. Both Seth and my Mom got some kind of stomach bug before then and I ended up going up to camp for the first afternoon to teach part of a workshop they had planned for the girls. My mom recovered the next day and was able to make it to the rest of girls camp whether she wanted to or not. She dislikes camping (hum...that must be were I get it)! It seemed like throughout the week each of us took a turn not feeling well (Mia took more then her share of a turn from teething and being very sensitive) so we were pretty lazy and vetoed most of our plans of crafting, going to the pool and baking.

Mia and I made it back home Friday night to a stranger sitting in our living room...ok it was actually Eric, but it seemed like it had been so long that it might have well as been! We were both excited to get hugs and kisses from him and go to bed! Saturday we went to Provo for Sophia's birthday party. Annelise did a Minnie Mouse themed party and went all out! Everything looked so cute!!

The Birthday Girl!

There was a bubble machine that the kids all loved

I'll let Annelise do the honors of showing you all the cute details from the party. 

Sophia's birthday present was my first "homemade" gift of the year so naturally I was all geared up to do some big project which equivalated to a tablecloth playhouse that was under $20 to make! I had a lot of fun making this and got very into detail! It turned out just how I imaging it. For those wondering how I did this, I bought a full size sheet from walmart for $10 (you could use a sheet you already have) and then pretty much just used scrap fabric I had for everything else on the house. For the top of the house I used a brown curtain had from our old apartment which we didn't need anymore, but we live in a basement. Annelise asked for gifts that would be educational or hands on. Since part of my major includes child development I am all for thing that spark imaginary play for children since that is what helps the develop a lot of their social skills as well as problem solving skills. So I think this gift fit the category and Sophia loved it. In fact all the kids at the party loved it! They were all inside it at the same time at one point.

Testing it out on my table

The mail box opens for mail deliveries.

Mia tested it out for me. She played in that house all morning.

So before this post turns into a novel which most people have stopped reading by now here are just a few updates on Mia. I don't think I ever mentioned that she is officially walking now! It's so cute. She's still getting a little use to it so she walks a little funny. My family kept teasing she looked like a chimpanzee when she walks because she won't really bend her knees. She's also starting to recognize more things that I say or tell her to do (like vacuum and wash the dishes...lol, ok so not quite yet).

One day I found Mia on this speaker by our TV. She sat on that for over a half hour and loved it without the TV on mind you.

This was after she fell off which she wasn't very happy about lol, however it didn't stop her from getting back on it.

Mia's Book of Love

Lately I've been searching for things that I can do with/for Mia that will help her continue to develop new skills and things that are age appropriate. I read that at around 8 months (or earlier) they start remembering faces, especially those that are not their parents and that books with pictures of family members are a great way to help them remember everyone. So I decided to give it a try!

I had an unused photo album laying around that worked perfect for this little project. I also got lucky in having a pretty good picture of all of the family. I made all of pages on the computer and just printed it out and slipped each page into the slots of the album. Then with some mod podge and paper I revamped the front and back of the album to be "Mia's Book of Love".

Turns out she loves it!! She smiles when she sees each family member and tries to touch their faces! This was a quick and easy project that is a lot of fun for Mia.

Here are a few pages from the book. (Ok so maybe I'm putting words into Mia's mouth with this book, but I sure hope she loves her family!)