Simple Tooth Fairy Pillow

 This little cutie recently lost his first tooth! Two teeth actually. One fell out a couple of days after the first. When his older brother lost his first tooth, I made a little tooth pillow for him. Aaron knew that he would get a tooth pillow too and was excited to make one with me for the special night when the tooth fairy would make her appearance!

 The concept is super simple. I created a pattern by folding a piece of print paper in half and made a tooth shape on the fold. Aaron didn't think it looked much like a tooth, but I told him to trust me :) We cut out two of these shapes on white felt.

 Then we found some googly eyes and cut out a little mouth with felt as well.

 Leaving an opening at the top (about 1.5" wide) , I stitched around the entire tooth.

 Then we lightly stuffed the pillow with fiber fill.

 To create the pocket, I stitched the opening in 3 sections, leaving the top still open.

 We hot glued the accessories on...

And he was all set! Oh, Aaron wanted his to look different than Dallin's, so we made a felt toothbrush for him to hold and glued it to the front. He named his tooth "Super Tooth, the Tooth". Perfect.

The next morning he actually forgot about his tooth! I asked him if the tooth fairy left anything for him and he ran upstairs and retrieved his dollar bill. Dallin was jealous. Apparently the last few times he's received half dollars or change. Bills are preferred. Got it.


Enter the Pick Your Plum $75 giveaway here!

A Gift for Baby

 One thing we always seem to have an abundance of are baby blankets and quilts! Honestly, I don't use quilts much with my babies. They are beautiful, but not as easy to drag around or put in a car seat. I wanted this baby to have a special little blanket, something simple, made by mommy. It's the first thing I've made for her! I have other things in mind, but am not sure what will get done before she is born, so we'll see. But for now, I made the EASIEST blanket ever.

I love the super soft fabrics at Joann's. The ones next to the minky fabrics. I'm not sure what it is called, but it has super soft squares all over it. I used it to make a blanket for Kaylee's 1st birthday. HEAVEN. So I grabbed a yard of that and a yard of some cute black/white/yellow floral.

I used the floral to make a border/bias around the edge of the white fabric. No batting, no backing. Just the white fabric with a biased edge. Done! I think it's one of my favorites! The car seat that we will most likely get is black/white so it will match perfectly. And I like having something a bit non traditional (not pink!).

 This is probably the only pregnancy shot I'll post on here. I like being behind the camera, but I hit the 3rd trimester this week and it is crazy, exciting, and unbelievable all at once. The 2nd trimester flew by way too fast. This is most likely my last pregnancy and I am soaking it all in. It's amazing! So here is a shot taken at 28 weeks!

And this was just too cute, I had to share! Little Miss at 28 weeks! Resting on her bent little arm.

Homemade Foaming Hand Soap

Homemade Foaming Hand Soap. Who knew? Apparently a lot of people except for me because when I googled it, a bunch of links came up! Now that I know how easy it is to make I will never buy another $3 bottle of it again! How do manufacturers justify charging so much for a bottle of it when in actuality you are buying a fraction of the soap that a regular bottle of hand soap has and it is diluted down with water? They probably justify it because people are willing to pay for it! I was.

Here's how you do it:

Fill an empty FOAMING soap bottle with 1" clear hand or dish. It needs to be clear, not lotion/creamy based.
I used DAWN for these bottles, but have used Ivory liquid dish soap as well. It makes my hands soft and both are antibacterial.

Slowly add enough warm water to fill the bottle, leaving a small space at the top. Replace pump and gently rock back and forth to combine water/soap. Don't shake. Let sit for a minute, give it a couple of pumps and that is it!

A large $3 bottle of your favorite scented antibacterial clear soap will make 10-15 bottles of foaming hand soap.

I love foaming soap because it is easier to wash off of hands and uses so much less soap with each use, but is still as effective. My kids just think it's cool.

PVC Framed Canopy Bed

 While browsing Toys R Us & Babies R Us last weekend, we came across a cute Tinkerbell canopy bed that Kaylee just loved. She already had a nice toddler bed, so we didn't give it much though, or at least I didn't. Daddy had other plans...

 Derrick thought that it would be pretty simple to make her a canopy for her existing bed from a PVC frame. He is the king at PVC pipe creations...

 Homemade Sprinklers

Toy Bucket

Doorway Puppet Theater Frame

(Just to name a few :)

And he was right. He was able to put this frame together in a matter of minutes and Kaylee was thrilled! She loved having just the frame, never mind having any sort of canopy attached. Kids are easy to please. I took her to the fabric store and she chose a couple of fabrics for the project. A pink kitty fabric and turquoise tulle.

 After a couple of hours of stressing (I'd never done something like this before and did not have a pattern) and sewing, here is the finished product!

 It fits perfectly, thanks to a few minor adjustments and an extra seam through the center to tighten it up a bit in the end. I've already had some requests for a tutorial. If I had any idea what I was doing(when I was doing it), I might have written down some dimensions and instructions, but it was a first time project for me that would probably turn out differently if I did it again. Basically...

You can see that both side panels are kind of a triangle shape. I followed the outline of the frame that Derrick made and added an 1/2" all the way around for seam allowances. I used a 3/8" seam and that gave it a little room for error. I used newspaper to make pattern pieces (taped it to the pipes) and then cut out the fabric shape. The top is one long piece that is the width of the pipes and stops where you see the crease on the front. That is a seperate piece so that it would fit the angle. It is also the width of the pipes, but only 4" or so in length. Then there is another piece directly on the front attached to the small 4" one.  I made it long enough so that it was flush in length with the side panels. So the sides are each 1 panel and the top is 1 large panel + 2 smaller ones on the front and another 2 smaller ones (the same size as the front) on the back. This probably doesn't make any sense. Just use your frame as a guide. I'm not sure what it would have looked like if I just did one piece for the top and didn't use seperate pieces for the angles, it might have been fine. I'm not an expert so I just did what I thought would work. Then I hemmed it all the way around and sewed the little curtains to the hem. Total fabric for the project 3 1/2 yards pink + 4 yards tulle.
***
 I used extra fabric to make ties for the faux curtains and a throw pillow. This is the reverse side of her owl comforter in the first photos. It matched the new canopy perfectly!

 She loves her kitty bed (although she calls it a Tink bed after seeing the Tinkerbell one at the store) and sleeps, not only in comfort, but in style!

Here is a close-up on the fabric. It was found at Joann's in the juvenile apparel selection at 60% off last week. I picked up several prints since it is so bright and cheerful, and nice and sturdy! So much better than calico. 

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Homemade Ice Cream Bowls!

 The other night, Derrick asked me to make a batch of fortune cookie batter....for what? Ice cream bowls! I knew they would taste good, but I wasn't sure how they would hold up. Here's the final product and they were amazing!! He did a great job.

I've posted a couple of times about the fortune cookies that we make teachers every year for Valentine's Day. I used that recipe and the same technique for baking the cookies as for the bowls.

 To make the bowls, increase the batter on your cookie sheet to 1/4 cup. Spread into a smooth circle 6-8" in diameter (depending on how large you want your bowl to be). When they come out of the oven, working quickly, form your cookie over the back of a small glass bowl. Place another upside-down bowl on top to keep the cookie in shape. Let cool about 60 seconds and remove the top bowl. Carefully move cookie from bottom bowl and let cool on a rack.

When making fortune cookies. the edges get brown and the centers remain cream colored. To get an even color throughout the cookie, you can add a small dab of Wilton's concentrated food coloring (buttercup yellow). Derrick did that for the last half of the batch and they looked awesome.

They were a hit!

Hanging Make-Up Holder

This is what my make-up has been in since we moved here 3 years ago. No organization whatsoever. Usually it isn't an issue since I don't wear much make-up, but when I went to clean it out one day I noticed a couple of pairs of earrings that I didn't know were in the bottom along with some old mascara. It's a small bag and was already crowded without having useless make-up in it so I decided to try something new.

I cut two pieces of fabric (one for the front and one for the back) to fit the space on my medicine cabinet. I also pinned areas for pocket placement. I made sure that the pockets didn't interfere with the shelving in the medicine cabinet so that it would close all the way.

Using extra vinyl from a shower curtain bag in this project, I cut pockets and trimmed them with bias tape along the top. I sewed dividers and placed all of my make-up inside to make sure everything lined up correctly. I pinned a couple of bias tape loops to the top for hanging. Then I sewed the vinyl in place to the front piece of fabric, flipped it over and sewed the front to the back fabric with right sides facing and left a small area to turn it right side out.

Then I turned it right side out and top stitched all the way around, catching in the hole that I used to turn the fabric.

To hang it, I used 3M adhesive hooks. I wasn't sure how they would hold up, but it has been 6 months since I made this and they are still working perfectly!

I love my new system. Everything is laid out perfectly, and as if I couldn't get any more low maintenance, it helps me get ready even FASTER. Bonus!

Homemade Glycerin Soap!

 We made homemade soap for the first time last week and it was SO MUCH FUN! I had no idea how easy it was to make and inexpensive! For some reason I thought it had to be done in a double boiler, mix ingredients, etc. Now that I know how easy it is to make I want to make more! Different types of glycerin, different molds, colors, herbs and other add-ins....the possibilities are endless! And they would make great gifts!

 To make your own you'll need:

Glycerin (I bought a 2 lb. bag of opaque glycerin for $6.99 and we didn't even use half of it)

Glass measuring cups

Popsicle stick for stirring

Scents (optional)

Coloring (optional)

Molds

I found everything I needed at Hobby Lobby. Place your bars of glycerin in the glass measuring cups and microwave on high 30 seconds at a time (stirring after each 30 seconds) until melted. Ours took about 45 seconds and we did 3 blocks at a time.

 Add your colorings and scents....we used "apple" and stir. Kaylee loved mixing colors and stirring.

 Aaron (who is 5) was able to pour the glycerin into the molds.  He did a great job! Let stand for 1 hour, then pop out of the molds.

 That's it! They smell amazing and are so bright and colorful! We decided to save the rest of the supplies to use another day when these run out. We can't wait to make more!

Aaron's Watermelon Shark

Thank you SunScholars for the link and instructions for making this fun Shark! We had fun putting this together this afternoon!

Starting the Day Out Right!

Happy Independence Day! We started our morning out right with red, white, and blue pancakes and listened to Janeen Brady's "Take Your Hat Off When the Flag Goes By" download. I remember listening to that all the time when I was little....so much so that I knew the preamble to the constitution by heart when I was 5!

 The boys came downstairs in jeans and long sleeved shirts. I was about to tell them to change into shorts (it's HOT here!) until I realized that they had coordinated their clothing to be red, white, and blue! All by themselves. It was darling and they were so proud of themselves! It's the first year that they've really understood what we are celebrating...America's Birthday of Freedom.

We have some fun activities planned for today! Fireworks, slip and slide, carving a shark out of a watermelon, a BBQ, and snacking on these fun treat boxes. And the best part? It's all about family. Our little family. We don't have to go anywhere today and I love that! Oh how I love this country!

Enjoy the day!