Let it Snow!

... in San Diego.

Christmas is not the same without snow. Even my 3 year old keeps saying, "It is not Christmas because it is not snowing." We are in trouble tomorrow when it doesn't really snow. Hopefully he will be distracted by what Santa brings him.It has taken me the whole month to make these snowflake. Not that they are that complicated, just a lack of time and fear of getting glitter out with 2 small kids. But I love them. It is all Martha. I used cereal boxes for the cardboard (they are flimsier than I would like but easier to cut). I painted them white before I added the glitter. I painted them with Elmer's glue to hold on the glitter. And my whole house now sparkles with glitter. It is EVERYWHERE!

Merry Christmas Eve

I made these a couple of weeks ago at a Church Fabulous Friday. The people in charge ordered the vinyl and provided the boards. All I had to do was paint the wood and put the vinyl on. This was my first time using vinyl and I loved it. I will definitely use vinyl again. I put these in the kids room and I love that I don't have to worry about them getting ruined.

Homemade Oreo Cookies with a Peppermint Twist

Every time I make cookies for an event I make Homemade Oreos. Not only are they fast to make but super delicious. And more importantly they have never let me down (meaning they turn out the same every time). I offered to bring the dessert to book group but then realized I should probably make some kind of Christmas dessert (because we read a Christmas book). Limited on time I decided to make a Christmas Oreo Cookie or Peppermint Oreo Cookie.

Cookie:

1 Devil's Food Cake mix

1/2 cup shortening

2 eggs

Mix, roll into small balls, and bake 350 degrees for 8 minutes or until they begin to crack. Frost with cream cheese frosting and top with another cookie. Crush candy canes and roll edge of cookie in crushed candy canes. (The frosting was not picking up the candy canes crumbs like I wanted so I ended up pushing the peppermint into the frosting.)

Frosting:

1-1.5 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

1-2 drops of Peppermint extract

In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar beating well until right consistency. I mixed in the peppermint extract last.

Chistmas Gifts

Do you need an idea for Christmas gifts this year? I did this one last year for some of my close friends. I got the idea from NieNie (It took me exactly five years to find that exact link. Geez, I must have read her whole blog last year after the accident. I had to catch up.) I used Lily's baby formula cans. They were perfect with gold lids (Costco). I wrapped the cans in some of my wrapping paper. I used Microsoft Word to make the labels for the top. I bought the plastic bags at Michael's to put the cookies in. Very inexpensive, but in my opinion cute.I can't wait to show you what I am doing this year. If I ever get them finished, or started. December is flying by too quick.

No Pattern Apron

A couple of weeks ago I dreamt up this apron in my head. I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. I used my William Sonoma apron to estimate the measurements and went to work. I actually finished it in one day. Which is a miracle for me. It usually takes me weeks to do a project like this. There are a couple of things I might change for next time, but not too bad for not having a pattern.
My friend Kim was kind enough to be my model. When I tried it on me it looked all wrong with my baby bump hitting it in the wrong spot.

Some Christmas Crafts

I wanted to share some Christmas crafts that I made last year. The first one was super fast and easy. I found these letters at Michael's. I just painted the sides red and mod-podged some paper on top. Ta Da.. Simple enough.

My second craft was not so simple. You may remember the Telluride Santa from Pottery Barn Kids (PBK photo above) from last year. I saw this Santa at PBK and thought "I can make that". My friend, Kim, and I started making them in November and did not finish our Santas until MARCH!!! I think it took so long because we couldn't find time to get together and we might just chat too much instead of craft when we get together. But here is our version. We tried to make it as close to the PBK version as we could. And I love mine.

I love...

..my newest Christmas decoration
The wreath not the couch. The picture does not do this wreath justice. So you will have to come over to my house to admire it. I found it this summer at a Restoration Hardware Outlet for $10. It brings me lots of Christmas joy.If only it didn't make my couch look faded and worn out. Maybe next summer I will find a Restoration Hardware couch for 90% off.

Lily's 1st Purse

Lily has become interested in everything girly in the last couple of weeks. She steals my purse everyday. I made her her very own purse for Christmas. I had in my head what I wanted it to look like and made it up as I went. I was excited to see how fast I whipped this up. I might make one for myself. Lily's measures about 7.5 inches wide and 4.5 inches tall. After I made this I realized that it looks just like the one on make it and love it. Maybe sub-consciously that is where I got the idea of what I wanted it to look like. I was thinking of making a tutorial if anyone was interested.

So You Think You're Crafty

Have you been to So You Think Your're Crafty yet?

I am loving it. It is a blog competition where 10 crafty bloggers are facing off. Each week they have a challenge with a theme, they create something and then we the people get to vote. It is week 3 and I about die every week at what these talented women come up with.

The first week the theme was Harvest and I loved what Mique for 30days created. I ran to the store, grabbed all the supplies and made one for myself. I have no ingenuity, so I pretty much copied it exactly. I bought a piece of scrap wood at Home Depot for $1. Justin cut it and sanded it down for me. Most of the other supplies I had on hand.

I want to make almost everything I see, but here is my to do list, just from SYTYC

(to see all of them click on the Week, to see the tutorial click on the craft)

Week 1: Harvest

• Wheat Throw Pillows from V&Co
• Dinner for Two from MADE

Week 2: Leaves

• Glitter Wreath from Homemade by Jill
• Modern Leaf from MADE
• No Sew Leaf Wreath from V&Co

Week 3: Green

• Cozy Car Caddy from we all know who (I am definitely making this for Tanner's stocking)
• Grocery Totes

There you have it. Go check it out and vote.

What is Under Your Bed?

This is what is under my bed:

I am not the best at collecting food storage but I do try. This is a great time of year to stock up on baking supplies and canned vegetables. Since we live in a small apartment most of our food storage is under our beds.
Under My bed: Food, Ziplocks, and Swiffer refillUnder Tanner's Bed: Toilet Paper and DiapersUnder Lily's Bed: Diapers, Cereal, Some Bathroom supplies, and her clothes drawers
To keep the food organized under my bed and for easy access I use produce boxes from Costco. They slide easily under the bed and they are free. Don't be shy about finding the box you want, they are perfect for under the bed.
Happy Storing!

For: The Chelseas

(Image from here)In nursing school I hung out with Danielle, Chelsea and Chelsea. Every fall when pumpkin season would roll around Chelsea squared would talk and swoon over all the different pumpkin foods, breads and desserts. They would even get teary just talking about it. So this post is for them. I found this recipe a couple years ago in Family Circle magazine (Dec. 07). We finally tried it this year and they are YUMMY! I didn't make the cranberry honey because of a lack of cranberries but the waffles were still amazing. Pumpkin Waffles with Cranberry HoneyThis recipe is copied directly from the family circle website. Click here for original source.

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 Tbs. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 egg whites

Cranberry Honey:
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cranberry juice
1 cup fresh or frozen, thawed cranberries, divided

Directions
1. Waffles: Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Place a large baking sheet in the oven.
2. Combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; stir to mix well and set aside.
3. Combine the buttermilk, pumpkin, egg, oil, and vanilla in a medium bowl; whisk until smooth. Add the buttermilk mixture and 1/3 cup water to the flour mixture; stir until a moist batter forms.
4. Beat egg whites in a medium-size bowl with an electric mixer on high until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whites into batter.
5. Coat a waffle iron with cooking spray and preheat. Spoon about 1/3 cup of batter for each 4-inch waffle onto the hot waffle iron, spreading the batter to the edges. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the steaming stops. Transfer waffles to baking sheet in oven to keep warm. Repeat procedure to make 16 waffles. Serve with Cranberry Honey.
6. Cranberry Honey: Bring the honey and cranberry juice to a boil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add 3/4 cup of the cranberries and cook 5 minutes or until cranberries pop. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup cranberries. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes before serving. Makes about 1 cup.

Little Red Riding Hood

For some reason I had my heart set on Lily being Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween. I also had the goal to make Lily a dress by the end of the year. I combined the two and made Lily her Halloween costume. It was my first time making a dress and following a pattern. It turned out far from perfect but I am still proud of my accomplishment.

I bought the pattern at Walmart. It was not the Halloween costume pattern. I wanted to make her a real dress. That she could maybe wear to church. I used the New Look 6448 pattern. I made a size 2 and it turned out pretty big so she might be Little Red Riding Hood next year too.

She was not fond of the cape and kept taking it off. I didn't have a pattern for that but just looked at some tutorials online and made it up as I went.

Kim's Halloween Placemats

A year ago I went to visit my family in Colorado. My sister and I thought it would be fun to have a craft day. We went to Joannes, picked out Halloween fabric to make a Halloween throw. We got back to my mom's house and while all the kids were watching a movie and running around she finished her quilt top. I however did not. I sewed and unpicked, sewed and unpicked, sewed and unpicked. Then my mom and sister felt sorry for me and my sewing abilities. I ended up with nothing by the end of the day. I brought the fabric home and tried again, determined to do it. I sewed some more and unpicked even more until I threw the fabric into my stash. I didn't want to touch the cursed fabric for a year.

So I didn't!

But all year I tried to think of something I wanted to make out of the fabric. Definitely NOT a Halloween throw. I borrowed Amy Butler's In Stitches from the library. I loved it. I wanted to make everything in there. But didn't. I just need to own it. I picked one of the easiest projects in there, the placemats. I finally used up my cursed Halloween fabric and I love how they turned out. I made 4 and gave them to my friend Kim. 3 people down 2 to go for my little giveaway.

Happy Late Halloween!

The Little House is DONE!!!

I have to say that I am having trouble finding the energy to be crafty. I am 13 weeks pregnant and I am tired. If I do have a second to do anything I usually lay down, watch tv or read a book. I have been going to bed early, so I haven't been too crafty the last couple of weeks. This week I have started to feel the holiday deadlines looming. I have a long list of crafts that I want to get done before Halloween and Christmas, so I pulled out my sewing machine again and have been working on some Halloween placemats.

This past weekend I finished the Little House. It is not perfect by any means but the kids haven't noticed. It was the perfect weekend to debut it because of General Conference. It keep the kids busy for hours. Justin was kind enough to snap these pictures for me (because I was too tired to even think about it). To see what all the sides look like click on the "Little House" label (on the left side bar) to pull up previous posts.

I was a little hesitant to post my house because I saw one on Homemade by Jill here and here. Geez, she is talented. And have you seen her quiet books. I am tempted to make one, but know it will take me 20 years. Afterall, look how long it took me to finish this house (only 5 months is all). Maybe I will start making one for my grand kids.



PS I hope I didn't sound like I was complaining about being tired. I was just giving excuses to why I haven't been crafty.

Modest-fying my Swim Suit

Before:

I went to the pool a couple of weeks ago and realized when I moved my arms from the stationary position (at my sides) the cups of my swim suit would open up like a cover of a book, offering everyone a full view of my (ahem) well, the tiny results of nursing two kids. I am way too lazy to go modest swim suit shopping in the fall. With all of the repurposing going on all over blog world I felt inspired just to fix my swim suit. I cut the ring off and sewed the two pieces that used to hold the ring together. Ta Da non-revealing swimming suit. It is a little more boring without the ring. But I rather have it that way than show off what exactly I am lacking on top.

After:

Family Home Evening

We are on a wacky schedule today, so we had Family Home Evening this morning. When I told the kids we were having Family Home Evening Lily ran and grabbed a pillow from the couch, threw it on the floor and sat on it. I was so impressed she did this all on her own. During FHE we have the kiddies sit on pillows. It helps with the wiggles and wandering. I have been thinking about making them each FHE sitting pillows.Every Monday night our family tries to have Family Home Evening. Family home evening is a time where we have some gospel instruction and an activity, mainly we just spend time as a family. We usually pick a topic and prepare a lesson in two minutes with the help of the Nursery Manual. The new nursery manuel has great lessons perfect for kiddies from ages 18 months to 3 years old.

Last Sunday I was reading this article from April's General Conference. Even though we have been having FHE, I felt that we needed to maybe prepare a little more and give the kiddies responsibilities. With the help from the nursery manual and the Family Home Evening Resource Book I picked topics for our lessons for the next couple of months. I also made a chart assigning responsibilities. So long story short here is the our family's FHE schedule for the next 7 months. Feel free to use it if you would like. The lessons come from the Nursery Manual (NM) and the Family Home Evening Resource Book (FHE), so it will work for all ages. Every 3rd Sunday I do sharing time in our primary, so sometimes the lessons are the sharing time lessons (the links for the sharing time ones are not working right now, I will load them later).

September

7 Priesthood blessings (NM p.116, FHE p.84)

14 The Commandments (FHE p.7)

21 I am a Child of God (NM p. 8, FHE p. 20)

28 Prophets/ General Conference (NM p.100)

October

5 Jesus Christ created the World (NM p. 32, FHE p. 23)

12 Scriptures (NM p.96, FHE p. 17)

19 The Proclamation to the World (Sharing Time)

26 Prayer (NM 16, FHE p. 27)

November

2 Service (Sharing Time)

9 We can choose (FHE p. 31)

16 Heavenly Father provided a Savior (NM p.20, FHE p.36)

23 Thanksgiving

30 Faith (FHE p.43)

December

7 Repentance (NM p.68, FHE p. 39)

14 Baptism (NM p.108, FHE p.52)

21 Christmas (NM p. 128, FHE p. 156)

28 Sacrament (NM p. 116, FHE p. 56)

January

4 Recognizing the Spirit (NM p.28, FHE p. 64)

11 Families are Forever (NM p. 56)

18 The Godhead (Sharing Time)

25 A House of Order (FHE p. 92)

February

1 Loving our Neighbors (FHE p.98)

8 Family unity and love (NM p.48, FHE p.92)

15 Atonement of Jesus Christ (Sharing Time)

22 Sharing our blessings (NM p.92, FHE p.109)

March

1 The Sabbath Day (NM p. 36, FHE p.218)

8 Journals (FHE p. 199)

15 Reverence (NM p.84, FHE p.216)

22 Safety in following the prophet (Sharing Time)

29 Being a Missionary (FHE p.208)

If you have questions about what I believe in check out http://www.mormon.org/.

Award!

I am super excited to announce that my Queen B blog won its first award.

The I love your Blog award.

I have to admit though, that the awesome person giving out the award was my sister in law. So she might be a little biased. But I am glad that someone is enjoying my blog. I have been having a great time creating it. I love that it pushes me to work on the things I enjoy.

Thank you Tricia for the award.

check it out on the bottom of my sidebar

Little House Garden

I am getting sick of this little house. I want to move on to other projects. My attention span is too short for such a big project. I had a couple more ideas but I think I am just going to keep it to this. I am in the process of sewing it all together and then I will post the final product.

And of course the inspiration for this garden is from Make it and Love it's fort. That is where I got the whole "little house" idea from anyway. The middle flower is inspired by Meg's flowers over at whatever. FYI: whatever is my favorite blog. I just love all of her pictures and I want to live in her house. Or have a house exactly like it for my little family.

Love your Kitchen Week Recap

"Love your Kitchen Week" turned into Love your Kitchen Month. Our kitchen has had a lot of changes.

First: A deep cleaning.

Second: New Paint. We had our whole apartment professionally painted (paid by our landlord). It is amazing how paint can even make your furniture look good. Our house feels clean and fresh. The biggest transformation was in the kitchen. The ceiling, cupboards and walls used to be a light blue. The ceiling and cupboards are now white and the walls are an off white. We are happy that the blue is gone.

Third: I put new contact paper in almost all of the cupboards. Who knew that this would take FOREVER?!!! There used to be a blue floral pattern from the early 80s. Now it looks so clean and bright in there.

Note the clean, white contact paper, NOT all the pots and pans shoved into a tiny cupboard.



Last and definitely not least: Our new kitchen table. We should have taken a before picture. We got this table from Justin's parents. It was a neighbor's craft table. Justin sanded off all the craft paint. He used polyurethane for the table top and and antique white on the legs. Justin did an awesome job. Now we just need more chairs.

More Chalkboard Placemats

I made 4 more chalkboard placemats. I was planning on keeping 2 and then giving 2 away. But now I am feeling greedy, and I think I am going to keep them all to myself. Last time I made them I kind of just guessed around the corners. The final product was not that great. This time I adapted this make it and love it tutorial to sewing the bias tape on the placemats. Same idea as the door just reversed. I cut 4 pieces for the 4 sides, sewed them together and then attached them to the chalkboard and oilcloth. The corners look way better this time. Now I feel bad that Hilary got the bad placemats. We might have to trade some how.

Being Creative

Part of me dreams of having time every day to be crafty. I have a never ending list of things I would like to make and it seems like the list just gets longer every day. To tell you the truth I was even getting frustrated that I wasn't finding the time to do the things I wanted to. But then reality hit. I am a Mother! I love being a mom, this is what I have always wanted to be. These little kiddies will not always want all of my attention, so I am trying to soak it all up before it passes me by. Which means that being crafty does not always happen. So if you are ever wondering why I haven't posted forever it is because I am busy soaking up life.

As many of you noticed I finally figured out how to make my pictures large on blogger. I had tried a couple of tutorials, but they didn't work for me. I finally found one at made by madeline that worked and was super easy.

Love your Kitchen Week

This picture of my kitchen was taken last November. It looks pretty much the same right now, except dirtier.

I am declaring this week LOVE YOUR KITCHEN WEEK. My kitchen is in desperate need for love. I'm not talking about doing the dishes or wiping down the counters, although that might be a good place to start. I am talking about cleaning out the fridge, taking things out of the cupboards and wiping them down (I might even replace the 80's contact paper), and maybe even cleaning my oven. GASP! Okay I will probably not clean my oven because I refuse. But if you would like to join me please do. I'm starting today and will be done by Friday. Because I don't want to clean on the weekend.

***Update: Last Tuesday I cleaned out my fridge. It looked better than ever. On Wednesday I looked in there and a root beer bottle on the top shelf got to close to where the cold air comes out and broke open. Root beer is on every single shelf and pooled at the bottom of the fridge. I felt so discouraged that I was going to have to take everything out and clean it all again that I actually made NO progress in my kitchen last week. So I guess I should get on it this week.

Little House Photo Wall

Today I finished the photo wall for the little house. Only one more wall to go! The photos will hang inside the house when it is finished. When I hung it up to take pictures the kids went crazy. They were crawling underneath it and checking out all the photos. It was impossible to get pictures without the kiddies in them.

Please ignore Lily's sunscreen, swimming, bed head.I made 4 frames with some scrap baby fabric. There are two boy frames and two girl frames. I used some leftover vinyl from the window to make the "glass" for the frames.

I printed off 9 photos of family and friends and laminated them for safe keeping. The pictures slide in and out of the frames so the kids can change the pictures whenever their little hearts desire.

This photo was not staged the kids were loving it. It gives me hope that they will like the final product.

Sunflowers

Little House Door

I finally finished the door and mailbox for my little house today. One of my friends asked me how I was holding up the walls for the pictures. I am just temporarily holding them up with masking tape for the pictures. Once I finish each side I plan to sew them all to the roof piece. The house will hang over our card table, just like the fort on Make it and Love it. I have not finished the bottoms of the walls because I am not sure how I am going to finish them yet.



I have had these postcards since I was 13 years old. I wrote little notes to the kids and laminated them so that they will last more than one day of play. I received a Xyron 510 years ago for my birthday. I got it for all my scrapbooking but had never used it because I stopped scrapbooking shortly after receiving it. Today was the first time I used it. I bought a laminating cartridge so I could laminate the postcards. It was amazing. I can't believe I have never used it. I want to laminate everything now.

You are welcome to send the kiddies a postcard and I will laminate it and put it in their little house mail box.

I was trying to find an inexpensive way to finish the door and window without buying premade bias tape (I don't know how to make my own). I found this twill ribbon (I don't know what it is really called) sold by the yard at Beverly's. All I did was iron it in half and use it like bias tape. I love how it looks. It turns out it is not all that much cheaper than the pre-made packaged bias tape but I think I prefer it for this project anyway.

Little House Curtains

I finished the curtains for my little house. I was surprised how fast and easy they were to make and the thought came to me "Why have I never made curtains for my own house?" Then I remember how we move almost every single year.

When I decided to make curtains these are the ones that I envisioned in my head. I love how they turned out. I hung them using a dowel. I put the curtains on the dowel and then sewed the curtains to the "wall". I then added a ribbon in the middle to add a little more support. I love that the kids will be able to open and close the curtains.

Next: The Door... maybe.

Twilight in the Park

Livin' it up in San Diego: Twilight in the Park

I have lived in San Diego now for a little over 3 years. I feel like I have a good feel of fun things to do around town, especially with kids. This city has so many fun things to offer. I decided I would begin posting some of my favorite things to do around town to help out the new San Diegan or the vacationer.Twilight in the Park is a free summer concert series in Balboa Park's Spreckels Organ Pavilion. It runs in the summer from June 16 to August 27. Concerts are every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6:15-7:15. All are welcome, including children. Bring a picnic, sit back and enjoy the music. For more information go to Twilight in the Park Summer Concert Series.
Lily eating her free microphone.

Azure Sky Creations

My very good friend, Kim, just opened an etsy shop called Azure Sky Creations. She makes and sells the cutest hair accessories. I have been shopping with Kim when she is buying materials, and let me tell you, she is very picky. She only uses the best quality materials to create her hair things. She is very careful and meticulous when making them. She makes them perfect. And the best part is she is selling they are SUPER inexpensive.

Today she is hosting a giveaway at Give Away Today. So go enter to win and if not just go to her shop and buys some bows.

P.S. Kim did not ask me to mention her on my blog. I just really like her product. Not that my blog is all that popular.

Little House Window

I had been wanting a little house/tent for my kiddies. Then I saw this ONE on Make it and Love it and decided to make my own. I have lots of plans for my little house. I'm going to keep you updated as I go along. Because lets be honest, this project is going to take me awhile. Today I made the wall with the window. This was my first time sewing plastic. Luckily when I made the chalkboard placemats my friend Chantal told me that if I had any trouble sewing with oilcloth to use tissue paper. I did not have problems with the oilcloth but did with the plastic. I just put the tissue paper on top and sewed it all together. When I was done I tore the tissue paper off. Genius.

Tomorrow: Curtains

Card Factory

If you are in my family, you know how bad I am on birthdays. I never send cards, I rarely call. Sometimes I even remember it is someone's birthday, or I will think about them ALL day, but never pick up the phone to wish them a happy birthday. Last year I made a new years resolution to send a card to everyone (meaning family, sorry friends) on their birthday. I didn't even do the January birthdays.

I decided it was time to get organized. First, I wrote down all the cards I needed for the next year. Second, I pulled out all of my scrapbook supplies that has been sitting unused for years. Third, I started a Card Factory. This is the first time I have really ever made cards. So here are a few. If you are family, beware you might see a card coming your way, if you want it to be a surprise, close your eyes. Cards for the November babies.

I made almost 20 of these. They are simple and it was really easy to replicate, over and over and over.

I only made a few present cards and two unique birdie cards. I did the birdies at midnight when my brain was fried.

These are my absolute favorite. I was inspired by Meg at whatever's designs for the shirts she makes. Let me tell you, something about making these flowers is super therapeutic. I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time I was making the flower cards. I only wish I had a stash of pretty fabric like my stash of pretty scrapbook paper.