I Like Apples

 Not to be out-done by her brothers, Kaylee is in school as well. Home preschool with Mom that is! I purchased an online curriculum a couple of years ago and absolutley love it. It came with probably 1,000 printables and a yearly calendar with all sorts of fun subjects! (www.kidsparkz.com) I won't be posting everything that we do together, but if there is a project that she espeically liked I will share it! And this was one of those projects!

We were going apple picking that weekend and so I thought that an apple theme would be fun to do before we went to get our own! She loved it.

I printed out a few printables, including this apple book. She had fun coloring it and putting it together. We read it over and over and then she "read" it to me a few times.

The book goes like this:

My Apple Book

I like to eat red apples.

I like to eat green apples.

I like to eat yellow apples.

I like to eat sweet apples.

I like to eat sour apples.

But I don't like to eat THIS apple!

 I thought she might like a fun little toy to go with it, so we headed upstairs to my felt stash.

I cut out (with pinking shears) two apple shapes from red felt, along with a stem and a leaf. I laid the leaf and stem on top of the two layers and sewed all the way around. Then I cut out a hole in the

 center of the apple (through both layers) for the little worm to pop through.

For the worm: Cut out two rectangles out of felt. Draw a worm shape on the top piece, then sew over your drawing. Trim closely around the seam line. Stuff with batting, then sew up the bottom. Hot glue on some googly eyes and a little mouth if desired.

 On the back side, I hot glued a strip of felt to make a flap. The worm slides under the flap. If I were to do this again, I might have made the apple a bit bigger and made pocket to store it in so that it doesn't get lost, but this works just fine for us.

Kaylee was excited to share her book and little worm toy with Aaron when he came home from school. She told him the story and he thought it was hilarious when the little worm popped through the apple as she said, "But I don't like to eat THIS apple!"

If you are interested in some free printables on apples, click here! I can't share the download for the little book since it was part of my purchaed file, but it would be easy to create one of your own as well!

3-D Cardstock Wreath Round-Up

 I made my first cardstock wreath in the summer of 2010 out of desperation for a bright and cheerful {and inexpensive} wreath for my front door! I hadn't seen anything like it around made from paper, but that didn't mean that I couldn't make one using cardstock! I used what I had on hand and was pleasantly surprised with the results! Since then, this tutorial has become one of the most popular on Gluesticks and I love seeing what you ladies have come up with! Here are some that have been shared from Gluesticks readers:

The Whitaker's Window

Crack of Dawn Crafts

Grey Luster Girl 

I recently made two more as examples for a craft class that I was asked to teach at church. I came up with a winter one and a fall one and offered those choices to the ladies at church.

 It was so much fun to see the paper choices and combinations that each came up with! I was able to get several stacks of nice cardstock at Joann's. A Halloween stack (which was my favorite), a Fall one, and a Christmas one. I cut out all of the wreath forms from cardboard boxes and found ribbon on sale. I was able to offer the class for just about $2 a wreath.

A far cry from the price of most wreaths! It was a lot of fun and each wreath turned out amazing!

For a tutorial on how to make your own, click here! And if you have made one, I would love to add it to this round up!

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What's for Lunch?

I'm pretty lucky. When it comes to packing lunches in the morning, I only have 1 to pack. And I enjoy doing it! I cater to my little guy's likes/dislikes and ask his input every morning. I remember my mom putting little notes in our lunches, so last year I put a note in his lunch the first day of school. He was just learning to read so I kept it really basic. "I ♥ U Dallin". When he got home, I asked him about his lunch and if he received a little note. He said, "Yep! But I didn't know what it said, so I had to ask my teacher to read it to me". Too funny. Boys.

Even though I only have to pack 1 lunch, I try to simplify things. I pre-bag crackers or chips and I make 2 large loaves of bread on the weekends with rolls as well. He can choose if he wants his sandwich on a roll or bread. We get juice boxes, sugar free applesauce/yogurt cups and plastic spoons as well. Looking forward to what my life will be like in a few years....I will have 4 lunches to pack every morning so I am always interested in finding ways to simplify it even further and still keep it homemade and personal for my little ones.

Dallin is sporting Daddy's lunchbox from when he was in elementary school. Pretty cool huh? I'd venture to say it's the only vintage lunch box in his class :)

Last year Amy, from the Idea Room, created this great post on how she keeps things simple for her 5 kids. I loved it. Definitely worth checking out.

I thought these were cute! Free printable Lunch Jokes.

Source: onecharmingparty.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

Kaylee, Aaron, and I made some fun pipe cleaner/fruit loop caterpillars for a snack one afternoon after seeing these on pinterest. What a fun little note that would be to add to a lunch!

I LOVE browsing the Japanese Bento lunch ideas. They are so fun! But honestly, I don't see myself

ever going to this extent. Maybe for a birthday lunch, or picking a couple

elements and incorporating them into my kid's lunches.

Too bad Dallin doesn't like cheese. I have all sorts

of little cookie cutters that would be fun to use to make different shapes.

Here are a few more fun lunch ideas...

via

Source: anotherlunch.com via Erin on Pinterest

Here is another version that is much more attainable! I also like that it uses less plastic baggies.

Do you have any ideas on creating fun and simple lunches for your children? I'd love to hear about them. Leave a comment or a link and I will check it out!

Score!!

 I don't normally stock up on fabric like this without specific projects in mind, but I couldn't help myself today! Joann's had their "Quilter's Showcase" fabrics at 50% off. Normally they are $4.99/yard, which is a great price, right now they are $2.49!
The price was listed in the flyer so it may be available online as well. I haven't checked.

They had all sorts of bright geometric prints, houndstooth, and different colored zebra prints on sale. So if you are into these trends right now, be sure to check out Joann's this week!

 With baby girl coming, I'll have two little girls to sew up pretty jumpers and dresses for....and lots and lots of little fabric baby shoes to make.

 This grey hounds tooth was the end of the bolt. I got 1 1/2 yards at $2.49 and the rest for $1.25/yard! I think I might make the boys neck ties with a part of it.

The polka dot was the end of the bolt as well. Every time they offer just buying the rest of the bolt for an additional 50% off I go for it.

Total spent on over 16 yards of fabric?

$25!

That's about $1.50/yard with the end of the bolt specials and THIS coupon for 20% off your entire purchase. It is good through September 14th. I found it online. It said one time use, so I wasn't sure if that meant for whoever posted it or if it meant one time per purchase. I brought it anyways and it worked! So if you are headed over there this week, print it out. It couldn't hurt!

I'm sure these prices are good for the rest of the week. Happy shopping ladies!

A Squeaky Clean Birthday Gift

 

 Aaron and Kaylee are going to a little friend's birthday party this weekend. She is turning 5. We thought she might like some fun items to use in the bath tub. I know that my kids love bath time and usually look like wrinkly little prunes when they get out. So we assumed that she probably has fun during her tub time too.

I picked up a towel at Target and sewed a strip of scrap fabric across the bottom (ironing the edges for a nice clean hem). Then I cut out a square for a patch and a monogram out of some purple felt and sewed those on as well.

 We added a couple of homemade soaps inside of a fabric gift bag that I tied off with some ribbon. Super easy. Just sew up 3 sides of the bag, cut across the top with pinking shears, tie off with ribbon---that's it!

 Aaron picked out some body wash at the store that went perfectly with our theme. Actually, he picked out the soap first and I coordinated the fabric to go along with it :)

Then we added a few more bath time necessities. A little monkey scrubby with a hanger, shampoo, and some more body wash.

We hope she likes it!

Felt Make-Up

Kaylee loves watching me get ready in the morning and always wants me to put my make up on her. Um....she's not quite 3 years old yet, a bit too young for that. I had a hard time finding anything that would be age appropriate for her. Do they not make fake plastic make up anymore? Maybe I just didn't look in the right places because all I could find was pretend "real" make-up and what a mess that would be.

I did a google image search for "felt make-up" and a pattern on etsy popped up.

I didn't want to spend any money, so I just looked at the photo and re-created it to the best of my abilities and this is what we came up with! She liked the little eye shadow applicator from a pack I had in my bathroom, so we just kept it, but it would have been easy to make one to match out of felt as well.

 The eye shadow was pretty simple. 4 rectangles cut from felt and another strip to connect the two sections. I sewed the accessories and decorative touches on first, then sewed the backs on them while sandwiching the connector piece in between.

 For the lip stick, cut out a rectangle and sew up one side. Stuff the inside with fiber fill and then cut out a small circle to hand stitch to the bottom, creating a tube shape. The lipstick shape needs a little work, lol, but I just cut out a cone shape, sewed it up, turned it right side out, added a little stuffing and hand stitched it to the top of the tube. The cap was made using the same technique, just a little wider so that it would slide over the lip stick tube.

 The blush was made using the same 4 pieces technique, plus a connector that I did with the eye shadow. Just cut out circles. I also padded the centers with a little fiber fill. And the brush was done the same as the lipstick.

To make the loops for the brush, cut a piece of felt in a rectangle shape. Fold it in half and cut slits along the fold, but not all the way to the edge. About 3/4" away from the edges. Keeping it folded, fold it in half again and you will have the loops. Stuff inside the tube and stitch across the top. Confusing enough?

 She brought it downstairs with her this morning first thing and pretended to put it on in her jammies. Doesn't she look pretty? Such a little natural beauty.

I couldn't find any tutorials for making felt make-up. Etsy was the only thing that popped up and there were a few patterns and pre-made sets available. Hopefully my instructions weren't too confusing, feel free to ask me questions!

*** For a no-sew pretend make up idea, check this out. She created pretend make up using nail polish and empty make-up containers.***

Strawberry Lemonade Slush

Summer isn't over yet! Here's one of my favorite treats lately. I LOVE Sonic's "lemon berry" slush. I order it every time I go there. So I thought I would try to come up with something similar at home! We have an ice cream maker that we got when we first got married and until the past year or so it hasn't gotten much use. But we've discovered how easy it is to make slushes in it!

 For this one I put 3 cups of lemonade (from frozen concentrate) and 2 cups of crushed frozen strawberries in the ice cream maker for 25 minutes. Done. It was delicious and although it wasn't identical to Sonic's version, I loved it! 

You can also make juice slushes. We've done cider, kool-aid, juice mixed with soda, etc. and it is always delicious!

One Smart Cookie

 My boys are starting school in the next couple of days and so I thought it would be nice to bring a little treat for their new teachers! Aaron actually gets to have a "Meet & Greet" afternoon with his teacher tomorrow, so this is perfect. It's so fun to spoil my kid's teachers for all of the random holidays throughout the year. I just hope we love these teachers as much as the ones in the previous years, but with such a cute little gift from a cute little boy, how can the year go wrong? At least we are starting out on a good note!

"With You As My Teacher...I'll Be One Smart Cookie"

You can find the tag printable here. The ladies from Eighteen25 posted the printable and their cute idea for a back to school gift, and I immediately went and printed it out...like an hour after they posted it:) It was just perfect! 

I printed out two copies on some fun card stock and then used my "Bags & Tags" cricut cartridge to cut out the little popcorn boxes. I used the "fit to page" feature to make them as big as possible on a 12x12 piece of cardstock. They are about 6" tall and were perfect for holding 8 small chocolate chip cookies.

Peaches!

 I came across a great deal on peaches the other day at our local fruit farm down the road. Jackpot! It was a volume discount sale. In order to get the great price, I had to buy a few...

 5 pecks to be exact! I was so excited to go and pick them up the next day. We got up bright and early, stopped by the farm, then went to buy canning jars. I love fresh peaches, but obviously we can't eat that many, so we canned them for the winter. My kids enjoy canned peaches and I like that I can make them with little or no sugar added.

My problem with canning is that it always sounds like a good idea. Exciting actually. It feels like I am doing something good for my family, and saving money, and learning self reliance....until I am in the middle of the canning process. My kitchen turns into a hot sticky mess, I'm wondering why on earth I would put myself through this, peach juice everywhere, slippery peaches that are impossible to pit (even with free stone peaches) without hurting myself. Two cuts from the pits and a rubber glove later...

 I had 21 quarts of peaches, a fresh peach pie (made the next day), and a peck of fresh peaches for us to enjoy. Now who is excited to can? I don't mean to be such a downer, but it always ends up being more work than I anticipate!  Was it worth it? Sure. But I'm not looking forward to canning again anytime soon.
 See, I say that, but if another deal come along, I'll be giddy as I drag my kids to go pick up our produce in large quantities, lol. I was so productive that day that I spent all afternoon canning and was too exhausted to feed my kids a quality meal that night, so to the McDonalds drive-thru we went. They thought they hit the jackpot, each getting a Smurf Happy Meal, and I had to laugh at my lack of mothering skills in my attempt to be self reliant...oh well.

This was the scene the night I made the pie. I gave Kaylee a taste and she LOVED it. I came into the kitchen as she was helping herself to a few more bites. It was the BEST peach pie I had ever tasted! And I can't take the credit, the farm fresh peaches made all the difference. I think I will make a couple more this weekend and freeze them. The peaches are ripening very quickly and won't last past Sunday and these will be nice to have!

I just love this time of year!

My First Puffy Quilt

Kaylee's birthday is coming up soon and the blanket that I made her 2 years ago has seen better days! I've seen these fun puffy quilts around and thought I'd give it a try. I didn't use a variety of fabrics on the front. Just a fairy printed flannel. The back is an ultra cozy fabric that I found next to the fleece section. I'm not sure what it is since it is softer than fleece, but I LOVE it!

The blanket ended up so much heavier than I envisioned. Most puffy quilts seem to be made from calico and other lighter fabrics. Not this one. She may break her back trying to drag it around, but boy is it cozy! It was fun to make, but a bit tedious as all blankets are.  I made a bunch of 4" pillows. The front with the fairy print, the back with scrap fabric. Then sewed all of the little pillows together. That created the blanket front. Then I took the blanket front and attached it to the back pink fabric. The pink fabric was a bit bulky to work with, so I had a bit of puckering in the binding but it wasn't worth taking it all apart because I probably would have made it look worse trying to fix it! I also tied it in a few places to keep the backing to the front.

I can't wait to give it to her!

Basil Recipes

 

 

This year we planted a couple of squares of basil in our square foot garden. This photo was taken about a month ago, and the plants have grown a lot since then!  I was excited to try some new recipes using our fresh basil. Including homemade pesto.
 

Pesto is simple to make and made from such simple ingredients!
 

Homemade Pesto Sauce

 I only have a mini food processor, so I had to do my recipe in two batches.

3 cups fresh basil

1 c. olive oil

4 cloves garlic

1 1/2 c. nuts (I used walnuts)

1/4. Parmesan cheese

 

We had this over pasta and it was delicious, but a little bit goes A LONG way! I put too much on my serving of pasta and it was so rich. Next time I'll just put a table spoon or so and toss it really well to coat, but it was delicious!

 

Have you ever had bruschetta?


I bought some baguettes and sliced them in small sections and set them under the broiler for a couple of minutes (just until they started to toast) then I spooned on some homemade bruschetta on them. Fresh tomatoes, basil...it was absolutely delicious!

I made it by dicing up tomatoes, adding some chopped basil, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of kosher salt. Just make it to your taste...like an Italian salsa and spoon it onto chips, pita bread, or baguette slices.


Spaghetti With Sautéed Chicken and Grape Tomatoes
 

Here is another recipe that I have made twice with our basil. I love Gina's Skinny Recipes and plan on doing a post sometime reviewing our favorite recipes from her site! This pasta was amazing and the flavor  added from the fresh basil was incredible!

recipe & image source here.

So now I'm not sure what else to make with my basil. I have lots of it! Maybe more pesto and freeze it? I'm open to suggestions!