Busy Lizzy's

10 School Lunch Ideas

2015-09-12T12:23:00.001-06:00

At the beginning of the school year I am full of ideas to pack for school lunches, but after a few months into the school year they all seem to leak out of my brain and I can't think of anything but a peanut butter sandwich. The biggest problem with that is my eldest child barely tolerates peanut butter sandwiches. So I have been taking pictures of my lunches thus far this year so I can post them and then when I no longer can think about lunch I can refer back to this. Hopefully this will help someone else as well. So here our are top 10 non peanut butter sandwiches lunches. (That's 2 weeks worth!)
1- Spinach wrap: This is probably the most time consuming, but it is easy to customize and is full of vegetables in a way my kids love to eat them. Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on a large tortilla (I like to buy the uncooked ones from costco and after they are cooked they are warm and the cream cheese spreads fairly easy.) Top that cream cheese with a layer of spinach and whatever other vegetables you want. Julienned carrots, thinly sliced cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, avocado slices, bell peppers etc. You can also add a slice or 2 of lunch meat if you would like but we like it better without. We also like to dip ours in a little bit of ranch dressing.

2- Peanut butter dip. This is a favorite. I am sure you can use almond butter if you prefer. I mix about 2 Tblsp cream cheese with 1/2 c peanut butter. Add around 1 tblsp honey (to taste) and milk to desired consistency. Then we dip carrots, celery, apples, bananas toast or crackers whatever sounds good to you.

3- Refried bean dip and tortilla chips. Again customize this to what your kids will eat: refried beans, cheese, cottage cheese, avocado or guacamole, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, green onion. Basically a 7 layer dip.

4- Cucumber sandwich. My kids love these (I think it's because when they were little this is what we would make when we had "tea parties")

5- Peanut butter and honey popcorn. This feels like a treat (and it kinda is.) I pop fresh popcorn. Melt equal parts peanut butter and honey on stove top until combined and pour over popcorn. The real treat is let it cool for a few minutes then sprinkle with dark chocolate chips.

6- Homemade lunchables. So much cheaper and healthier.

7- A muffin, some yogurt sprinkled with fruit (fresh or frozen) and some of my homemade granola to top off the yogurt. My kids said this was the best lunch ever.

8- A basic pasta salad. So I kinda made this up but it feels so basic I am sure someone else has too. When I was talking with someone one day about lunches they mentioned their kids loved when they made some pasta and stirred some butter and Parmesan into it. I stepped it up a notch or two. I mixed olive oil with panko and tossed them in the microwave for 1 min. Then added parmesan cheese and italian seasoning. and tossed that with the pasta. Then I chopped up a bunch of veggies and tossed them in too, tomatoes, spinach and julienned carrots.

9- Basic green salad. I meant to hard boil an egg, chop it up and toss on top for an extra punch of protein but the morning got away from me...

10- And basic butter popcorn. The kids still love it.

I hope some of these help you out and I would LOVE to hear some of your favorite suggestions.

Baked Oatmeal

2015-08-31T12:50:00.000-06:00

I LOVE Baked Oatmeal. I see recipes all over the place and I love trying new ones. But when it comes down to it I have a favorite that nothing else has come close too. The thing I love about this one is it is a good base that you can play around with, plus you can make it fit your families dietary needs. No gluten, dairy, processed sugar, and you can substitute the egg for a flax seed egg with no problem. The best part is, it tastes like dessert:)

So here you go my Favorite Baked Oatmeal

2 c rolled oats

1/2 c chopped pecans

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/2 c maple syrup ( the real stuff)

2 c almond milk

2 eggs slightly beaten

4 tblsp melted coconut oil

2 tsp vanilla

2-3 ripe bananas

2+ c fruit of choice (blueberries are our absolute favorite, in this one I mixed peaches and blackberries)

Preheat oven to 375

Grease a 9X13 pan

Thinly slice bananas to coat bottom of pan. Top with 1 cup of fruit.

Mix dry ingredients and pour into pan (Only include 1/2 of your nuts and save the rest for sprinkling on top.)

Mix wet ingredients and pour over dry.

Top with remaining fruit and nuts

Bake 35ish min. And if you can let it cool for 10 min. (We rarely can wait and just dive right in.)

Some other suggestions for your fruit includes:

apples chopped into smaller pieces (I bet some grated zucchini wouldn't be half bad in here either)

grated carrots and drained crushed pineapple

triple berry mix (frozen berries are just fine to use)

The possibilities are near endless, let me know what delicious combos you come up with.

Super Yummy and Super Healthy Granola

2015-05-26T13:15:00.001-06:00

Hello blogging world again. It's been a few years and while I am certainly busier than ever I find myself missing blogging and thinking about it frequently. So Let give this a go again and to start off I am going to share one of my families favorite things.
Homemade granola. It is packed full of yummy healthy ingredients and has no processed sugars in it. We love it! Our favorite thing to do with it is add it to yogurt and fresh fruit. You could certainly add some dried fruit and eat it as is or with some milk. Dip french toast in it before you cook it (seriously if you have never tried granola on french toast you're missing out.) And I love that this recipe is flexible to meet your families needs.
Now quickly before I give you this AMAZING recipe let me update you on my family. Last I talked to you I had just had my 4th baby and first baby boy. That little boy is now 3 years old and has a little brother. Yep 5 kids. This is us last year. Super blessed.

Now for the good stuff.

SUPER YUMMY HEALTHY GRANOLA

preheat oven to 325 and line two large pans with parchment paper

8 c rolled oats

1 1/2 c wheat germ

1 1/2 c oat bran

1 c sunflower seeds

1/2 c flax seed

3 c chopped nuts ( I do 1 c pecan, 1 c cashew and 1 c almond)

Mix all the above together in a large bowl

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c maple syrup (the real stuff)

1 c honey

1 c coconut oil

1 Tblsp cinnamon

mix above in sauce pan. Bring to boil over med heat stirring frequently. Take off heat and add 1 Tblsp vanilla. Pour over dry and mix well.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 20 min (my oven cooks fast and it's closer to 17-18 min)

Stir about half way through..

After it's cooled you can add dry fruit if desired. Store in airtight container and enjoy.

There you go I hope your family loves it as much as my family does. If your family is gluten free I am sure you could do 3 c of oat bran instead of the wheat germ or substitute ground flax seed and just leave out the 1/2 whole flax seed.

Nursing Cover {review}

2012-03-27T13:08:00.000-06:00

Wow 4 kids is a lot of work. But I wouldn't trade them for the World. Crafting has been slow going. I have completed 2 projects in the last 4 weeks. One of them I am still waiting for pictures because I didn't take them. But the other is done.
While at the hospital my nursing cover got left in the labor and delivery room and by the time I realized it, it was long gone. So I made another one. And now I am so glad because this one is so much cuter.

I followed the tutorial over at TaDa Creations. I love the contrasting fabric and the little ribbon detail. It is a nice large size too. I didn't add the pocket because I couldn't really think of a good reason to have one. Although I since have. It would b a great spot to hold some extra nursing pads. But other than that, I am stumped.
One thing I would change if I did it again. I would cut the boning down to 14 inches, cause it feels a smidgen big to me right there.
Other than that I love this tutorial. As always her stuff is super high quality.

The Quilt is Finished!

2012-02-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to finally have this project done. It has been long and hard for me. But a good learning experience. I am not sure I will ever at will be attempt another one. If I do it will be a lot less piecing together. So here it is.

Back side:

Close up:

I am overall very happy with it. There are certainly lots of little mistakes throughout it so I don't want anyone inspecting it. But for my first quilt I cannot complain.

Here is the pattern I followed. This pattern assumes you have quilted before though so I had to go a few other places for help.
These are a few of the other places I went for help.
Here is a quilt along series that was helpful.
Here is a good binding tutorial
A few tips I had to ask somebody about. When I bought my batting I was unsure of a few things. I didn't want a puffy quilt so I was told to buy cotton batting. If you want it puffier go with the polyester. Also do not prewash your batting. I left my batting and back piece larger than the front whilst I quilted it and then I trimmed it down before binding. That way it left some room to stretch and pull while quilting.
I also planned on quilting around shapes. I got a shape and a half in and decided that was ten times harder, so I unpicked them and just went free style. Those two shapes and unpicking took as long as free hand quilting the rest.

So if I can make a quilt anyone can. It was mostly fun. I can honestly say blood sweet and tears went into it. And I really love the result.

Baby Boy!

2012-02-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would let you know that I had my baby this week. He is healthy and beautiful and we are doing well.

He was 7 lbs 15 oz and 19 1/2 inches long.
I am almost done with his quilt. I thought I would be able to finish the hand stitching in the hospital but it is taking a bit longer than expected. So super soon. In the mean time I am going to cuddling with this little boy and kissing his cheeks.

I am not a quilter...

2012-02-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

Wow I know I haven't been around these parts a lot recently. I apologize if you have missed me. And I will apologize again because for the next few months I cannot promise any consistency. It has something to do with being about to have baby #4....
Anyways with baby #4 being my first boy I wanted to make him something special. I didn't think a dress would cut it this time:) So I have taken on my first ever quilt. (Okay I take that back I tried one once, right after I graduated high school, but that thing is to never ever see the light of day...)
So here is how it has been going: It terrifies me, which means I procrastinate it. I am not a perfectionist or by any means a precise person so when I do work on it the work is slow and often has to be re-done. At this moment I don't believe I will ever quilt again.
Timeline: I bought material in Oct. I washed material in November. I started cutting out material 4 weeks ago. 3 weeks ago I was at this point. Figuring out the layout.

I have been working fairly diligently on it for the last 3 weeks and I am now at this point.

I am pretty happy with how it is turning out. But man is it work. Sewing a dress an 1/8th of an inch makes hardly makes any difference, this is a very different story.
So I do have a question for you. What color of thread would you use to do the actual quilting? I am going to trace some dinosaurs and then make them bigger on my copier, trace those onto freezer paper, cut them out and use those as my quilting shapes. Should I switch the colors I use? Should I just use black, or blue? What would you do? Thanks for the help.

ps. I am using this pattern from Moda Bake Shop.

Art Smock

2012-01-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

So I got another opportunity to test a pattern for Nap Time Crafters/Peek-a-Boo Patterns. I really enjoy these opportunities and I really wish I had time to test more of her patterns.
This time I got to test an Art Smock. I tell you this is a super cute super quick pattern that just about every kids could use. Here is how mine came out.

And here is my middle munchkin using it:
(I made one for my other girls as well but they both have birthdays coming up...)

Super cute. The art smock is too:)

Treasure Chests

2012-01-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

Now that it is almost a month after Christmas I guess I should do my final Christmas post. So my oldest has always loved to keep treasures. She finds shoe boxes to use, but alas they never last long. She has passed her love for keeping treasures to her younger sister. So with two of them it seems I can't keep enough shoe boxes on hand. So I decided to get them a real treasure box for Christmas. I wasn't planning on making one at first, but I never found one to buy that I liked or was willing to pay that much for. So I ended up making them. Here is how they turned out.
Here is the first one I made-

And the side/back view

And here is the 2nd one I made:

Didn't they turn out super cute!
They were really easy to do too. I bought the wood boxes from Jo-Ann's. Then I went to home depot to buy paint. (If you don't know this secret you can buy sample size paints for $3. You get more paint for you buck and more variety.) The color I bought was called whimsical white. I love it! Depending on the lighting around us it can look lavender, pink or white. At first as I was painting I tried to avoid the gold details, but that became to hard for me. So I just painted then I took q-tips and rubbing alcohol and cleaned up the gold details.
After letting it dry I used modge podge and cute paper to really bring it to life. I bought one of those small stacks of paper so I could have a large variety but not spend to much. I measured the sizes I needed and got to cutting and modge podging.
I did both of them different and I was pleased with how they came out, but I wanted their names on them. I don't have any fancy cutters to cut out and apply cute letters. I don't have cute hand writing or a steady enough hand to write their names on and I couldn't find any sticker letters I liked. So I had to turn to my mom for help. She has beautiful hand writing. So I brought them to her and she pulled out a fancy schmancy gold pen. I then told her I was having a hard time deciding which one to give to which child because I had a definite favorite box. She smiled grabbed the boxes, wrote the names on and then asked me which one was my favorite box. I love how understanding my mom is:)
Well there they are. My girls LOVE them. And it is a miracle I was able to keep the whole project hidden from them.

Holiday Sewing

2012-01-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

Okay I am sooooo sorry I disappeared. Let's just say strep throat, coughing harder than I have ever coughed before and being too congested to get any sleep is what has consumed my life the past while. And that isn't including my children. So now that I am really late let me show you one of the presents I made my girls for Christmas.

I saw this skirt over at Prudent Baby and I thought it was simple and perfect. So I decided to make it for all 3 of girls. I adjusted it a little to fit all the girls, luckily the waist and width were just about the same. My youngest had a waist or 21, my middle is 19 and my eldest was 22. I am not sure if this says more about how skinny my middle child is or how round my youngest tummy is but that's what they were.

Here is how they turned out.

(wow sorry that last one needed to be ironed but....)
I also measured from waist to just under their knee and figured out seem allowances etc to get the right size cut out. If you are new to this and want more details on how to adjust the size let me know.

I think they turned out really cute. I also made the tights to go with each skirt which I think makes the outfit jump.
I used this tutorial over at Choose to Thrive. When I told my mother this was what I was doing she thought I was crazy. Then she sent shopping for girls fashion tights and told me I was a genius. Amazing how that price tag changed her mind...
So I made all three of these skirt and tight pairings for less than $20. I love not spending a bunch of money!

I will be back soon to show you another super cute gift I made and then to show you the progress I am making on my very first quilt....

My Camera Cord is Lost...

2012-01-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry. I have a few things I want to post but they are kinda pointless without pictures. The really confusing part is my house is clean, how is something lost in a clean house???? Oh well I will be back once it is found, maybe it is time to go through the toy bucket... again.

My Top 5 of '11

2011-12-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

Wow I cannot believe this year is almost through. I have been meaning to post a few things that I made for Christmas presents but you will have to wait until next week. Until then I want to share with you my favorite 5 posts from this year.

#5 Saint Patty's Day Wreath

You see I have a wreath obsession and this one turned out just so fun and whimsical and perfect.

#4 This may be a pregnancy craving talking here but this Grilled Hamburger still rocks my world.

#3 I love throwing parties and this Dr. Suess Baby Shower was a blast!

See all post: Party Favors, Quote Blocks, Advice Book, Food Labels, and decore.

#2 I still love how cute these turned out. Girls Ruffled Ribbon Jeans.

It makes me want warmer weather again....

#1 This has been my favorite thing I have learned and it has certainly changed and improved much of my sewing. Making Bias Tape!

Oh how lovely is homemade bias tape.... See part 2 of this tutorial here. And just see how wonderful your homemade project can be with it... I still swoon.

So do you have any favorites I have done this year that I didn't include? I would love to know what they have been.

I hope you have a very Wonderful New Year and I can't wait to see what fun things I will do next year. Although I do know what it will start with and I am way nervous, my very first qu...... (can you guess?)

Christmas Dresses

2011-12-19T09:58:00.001-07:00

I love making my girls new dresses for Christmas and Easter. If you remember correctly I tested a pattern a bit ago and made this dress for my eldest.

When I made it I planned on it being a Christmas dress. There was one slight problem I had with the dress though. It was sleeveless. So to make the same dress for my other two daughters I had to alter it a tad. I already have a pattern that the sleeves are part of the bodice and not sewn in and I thought that would be perfect for this dress. (You can see what I have made from that pattern here and here.)
So when I went to make this dress for my other two girls I printed of the bodice piece for both this pattern and the other pattern, than I lined up the same sizes and traced a sleeve into this pattern. This is how my other girls dresses turned out.

(getting a good pic of an almost 2 yr old is very difficult and she is into make odd faces)
I am so happy with how they turned out and I think they are soo cute with sleeves. I hope you all have a great Christmas!

And the Stockings Were Hung...

2011-12-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

I know I am late but my camera cord has been MIA... I found it behind the couch underneath "the very hungry caterpillar." But alas the caterpillar thankfully did not eat my camera cord so here I am.

One of the things about my house that sometimes makes me sad is my lack of a fireplace/mantle. Each Christmas I have tried something different with hanging my stockings and each year I am unhappy. So this year I yet again have tried something different and this year I believe I am very happy with it.

It is a pretty simple and straight forward project. What you need:
A large board (I would say mine is 6 inches tall and about 2 1/2 feet long.)
white and red paint
clothes pins
glue (I used wood glue)
red vinyl saying
drill with bit
wire

I painted my board and applied my vinyl. I painted my clothes pins and wood glued them to place. Drilled a small hole in each top corner and threaded the wire through. Actual active time working on this (not paint/glue dry time) was 1/2 hr tops. But it was a day long project allowing stuff to dry.

If you have any questions let me know.

Tulle Christmas Tree

2011-12-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

So another way cute Christmas craft that I have seen on pinterest is this tulle Christmas tree. It is super cute and I loved it immediately. So I followed the link to find out how they made it. (You can find the original here.) But much to my dismay it required buying 73inch tulle and hand sewing. Bleh I am much to lazy for that so I made up my own version and here is how it turned out.

I think it is really quiet cute. So what I did is pretty straight forward. Sorry I didn't take pics as I went but let me know if you have any questions.

So for my base I started out just sticking a wooden dowel in a Styrofoam block. But after playing with the dowel for a moment (aka draping tulle over it) it became loose and would not stand straight. So I fixed that by grabbing a wad of modeling clay which I stuck on top of the Styrofoam and then jabbed the dowel through both. It has help up fine since.

I used to rolls of 6 inch tulle. I just started at the bottom draping the tulle back and forth over the dowel. I for my length I just followed how much dowel was left until the top. Luckily the tulle rips somewhat easily so you can just push it down on top of the dowel to create a hole and move on to your next section. No need for cutting, no need for hand sewing. Just take the tulle from the bottom to the top and push it down. Make sure you go all directions to fill out your tree.

At the top I hot glued a gold ribbon. I also sprayed my tree with spray adhesive the used gold glitter sparingly around it. I think it gave it a really pretty effect.

There you go a quick easy and inexpensive craft for you if you still need another decoration for your home.

I hope you are all having a great holiday season!

Christmas Advent Calender

2011-11-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

As I was browsing pinterest one day I saw an idea for a Christmas Advent Calender. Instead of gifts or candy this one focused on family activities. You can see the original idea here. I loved it. So I am going to implement that into my Christmas traditions this year. Of course to do so I had to make a calender to use. So I browsed for a moment until I saw a design I liked and went to work. This is what I came up with.

It is a simple easy design that really any one can do.
I used cute Christmas paper and plain card stock to make pockets to put the activities in. I used ribbon to make my frame. Behind the horizontal ribbon I glued dowels to make my frame sturdier.

After the frame was made I glued the pockets on and made my activity tags to place in the pockets. I would suggest that you not glue the pockets in the center. Make them a little bottom heavy so the tops don't tip like my # 22 is.

And I was done. It was quick and easy and cute. I am excited to use this and make it a fun family tradition. I like that it will be easy to make different tags each year if I need them as well. This year here is a list of tags that I made (in no particular order):
Drive around and see Lights
Go to Temple square and see lights
Decorate cookies
Deliver gifts to neighbors
Church Christmas Party
My families Christmas Party
Dad's family Christmas Party
Mom and Dad's friend Christmas Party
Make hot chocolate
Go sledding
Build a snowman
Write Santa a letter
Read a Christmas Book (I made a few of these for those days that nothing else can really happen...)
Watch a Christmas movie
Family Slumber Party
Make a Christmas craft
Make Grandma and Grandpa a present
Make Nativity puppets
Put on nativity puppet show
Buy a tree and decorate it
Dance to Christmas music
Read Christmas story from Bible
Color a Christmas Picture
Clean house to get ready for Santa

In future years I want to put more activities that serve others in the mix.

One more silly thing I did. I color coordinated the ribbons that went on the tags. Red ribbon means the date is set: Christmas parties etc. White ribbon is things that I need to plan for but can be switched if needed: make crafts, build snowman (cause you have to have snow), etc. And the green ribbon are things that I can do on a whim: read a book, dance etc. Now I can switch things around more easily when needed.

So there you have it. I am pretty happy with it and I am looking forward to having some fun times with my family.

Ginger Bread Houses

2011-11-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

Every year my in-laws gather the family around to make ginger bread houses. We usually do it the Saturday after Thanksgiving but there were conflicts this year so we combined with 3rd sun day dinner this year. My girls absolutely LOVE this tradition, and I must admit I have a lot of fun too.
So our gingerbread houses are made and I am now trying to convince my children (and maybe myself) to not eat the candy off. I took pictures today just in case someones will power doesn't last much longer.
So here is my 4 yr old daughters house

At first glance she just took random candy and placed it in random places. But then she started to tell me about the house and the vision is much clearer.
The two chocolate bells are for music. And I quote "Can you hear them ring? DING, DING, DING."

The mirror is a pond for ice skating. The fruit stripe gum on the chimney is a ladder. The other pieces of fruit stripe gum are slides.

And these neccos on the back of the house are for playing hop scotch. All in all I think I could live in this house, it is full of music, games and candy. A real dream come true.

Here is my 6 yr old house.

As you can see she was more organized about her decorating. The gum drops on the chimney are Christmas lights.

She pretended that this side of the roof broke so she fixed it with Santa

And this side of the roof is shingled with neccos. She also has a pond for ice skating.

And here is the house my hubs and I worked on together.

My favorite part is the sixlet snow of the roofs from the blue, white and silver sixlets. I wanted my candy canes to stand up making a heart shape, for the fence but we didn't have the time to get them to stay so we improvised and laid them down.

It was a fun night and I am already looking forward to next year.

Giving Thanks Days 17-25

2011-11-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

Okay I have created a printable for the rest of the days. One problem though, google documents isn't liking me today. I am going to keep trying, in the mean time if you would like this document leave me your e-mail address and I will e-mail it to you.
Here is what it looks like:

If you have any questions let me know.

Now to go off subject for a moment. In many ways this blog is for me, so I can keep track of things I do and learn. With that being said I am grateful for each and everyone of my faithful followers and readers, you guys often make my day with your kind comments. I love to share what I have learned and what has been successful for me. I also realize since I have been pregnant I have not been very consistent and my own personal creativity has lacked. I thank you for being patient. But in recent I have noticed that my follower #'s have been decreasing. This saddens me a little bit. Please if there is something I have done that has you considering unfollowing me let me know so I can try to do better.
Thanks!

A Super Comfy Skirt

2011-11-14T21:00:00.001-07:00

Hello my name is Liz and I am a Pinterest addict.

I have been spending a lot more time as of recent pinning instead of creating. So I have made a rule for myself. I must "try" one pin before I can pin anything else. So I acted upon two pins this weekend and both turned out very well. The first was this sock bun method for curling your hair. I did this on Sunday and since Sunday is kinda a crazy day in this neck of the woods I did not get a picture of my hair, but my sister did tell me that my hair looked better that day than it had in a long time. I thought it turned out very well. I have very flat straight hair that resists curling. And this method held well and lasted throughout the day. So I would recommend it.

The second thing I did was make a maxi skirt I saw on pinterest. Here is the link to the tutorial. Can I tell you how much I LOVE this skirt. I have worn it for three days straight now (well Saturday was only 2 hours so it doesn't really count does it?) It is sooo comfy and super cute too.
Okay I am going to show you a picture of the skirt but I couldn't take a picture of it myself so I had to wait until hubby got home which means two things, 1- the lighting is terrible and 2- it is the end of the day and I am certainly no beauty queen come this time of night. So please be kind :)

(do you like that my baby girl has to squeeze herself into the picture?)
Anyways I am pleased with it. I like the movement it has, I like that it is long (because lets face shaving your legs whilst pregnant is no fun) and I really like the way it feels.
So here are a few tips I might add to her tutorial.
- She said she used her waist measurement but she did not say if that was pre-pregnancy or current baby bump. I figured the top is similar to my yoga pants and those still fit so I did my pre-pregnant waist. It stretches and works just fine.
- I spaced whist buying the material to pick up an double needle and stretch needles. So if you don't have a stretch needle use a zig-zag stitch down the sides of the skirt. And if you don't have the double needle for the hem, I used the same hem I did on this dress from last year and it worked great.
- If I make another one (which is likely since as I said earlier I have worn this one for 3 days now,) I will make my bottom a bit wider. I doubled the waist and added a few inches this time but next time I will add a few more.

So since I completed two "pintasks" I have enjoyed pinning a few more things today. Now to decide which life changing pin to complete next ( I think it might be the using nail polish to paint permanent underclothing on Barbie, BRILLIANT idea. And a cute ribbon applique turkey shirt for my girls.)

Thanksgiving Blessings Day 1-16 Printable

2011-11-01T13:57:00.000-06:00

Okay so this is my first time attempting a printable so PLEASE tell me if something doesn't work out. In my last post I talked about one my families Thanksgiving tradition's of counting our blessing and then doing something for some one less fortunate. I gave you a link to the list of things we do each day as well. Well now I have (hopefully) created a printable for you with days 1-16 on it. I would laminate this and cut along the black lines, then place it in/next to your "treasure box" aka whatever you will be collecting your coins in.

Here is the link to go to and hopefully be able to print it off in a nice full paper size.

Again please let me know if this doesn't work.

I hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving.

Preparing for Thanksgiving (and some other stuff)

2011-11-01T09:48:00.000-06:00

Wow, I feel like I barley survived yesterday. Trick-or-treating went great. We went to a down town trick-or-treat for awhile and then to a trunk-or-treat that started at 5, a few houses in the neighborhood and we were done at 6. It was the rest of the evening that about killed me. I had to call poison control twice (go ahead send me the mother of the year award.) So between throw up and my other child refusing to sleep for more than half the night today I feel like... (think of something great to insert here I am too tired.)

Okay I will stop complaining now, it was just one of those nights. So I never showed you my girls all dressed up so I will do that now.

I am really pleased with how they turned out. And the weather for trick-or-treating was a dream. This was yesterday before we left and I didn't need to add any jackets or long underwear to their costumes. Now I have to point out the joy of living in Utah. These are pictures I took this morning, less than 24 hours after the Halloween pictures were taken.

Okay now for what I really came here to tell you. It is November first which means it is time to get ready for Thanksgiving. In my household we have this tradition where each day we count a different blessing and we add coins to a jar to show the blessing we counted. Then at Thanksgiving we count up what we earned and decide on someone in greater need than us and figure out a way to donate the money to them. Some years we buy a gift some years we donate it to charity, but all years we use it to help bless someone else's life.

I did post about this last year so for the moment I am going to send you to that post to get the details. I am working on a printable but I cannot guarantee it will be up today. As soon as it is ready I will post it but for now refer to last years post to get you and your family ready for Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T13:52:00.000-06:00

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Halloween. We have been celebrating all weekend long it feels like. Here are a few things I have done. I made this Monster pinata that I loved how cute he turned out but I feel pretty certain I am never making a pinata again. It was a lot of work.

Also when I saw this recipe for jello worms I could not resist.

Are those not the most disgusting thing you have seen made to eat? Many adults at the party couldn't even try them, many kids couldn't either, but they were sure fun. And my baby girl loved the left overs.

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween. (Oh and save me some snickers please.)

Halloween Dinner {Yummy Mummy}

2011-10-24T10:40:00.000-06:00

So for the past couple of years my family has enjoyed a very yummy dinner on Halloween and I am getting excited to eat it again this year. We call it a Yummy Mummy. And we all agree it is much tastier than a Dinner in Pumpkin. So I did blog about it last year so instead of going over it all again I am just going to link you back to that post. Trust me it will become your traditional dinner too!
So go HERE for all the yumminess:)

Quick Pics of Halloween Costumes

2011-10-20T18:30:00.001-06:00

So the costumes are done. Yeah!!! They are so cute. I thought I would take some quick pics to share them with you. I didn't do their hair cute and they were very uncooperative so these really are not great pics but you will get the idea of the cuteness of these costumes.
It all started with my eldest daughter wanting to be a bat for Halloween. She was very adamant about it. Then we got a costume catalog in the mail and she saw a "Baterina" (Bat+ Ballerina) and she fell in love. So I started planning making her costume.
A few days later as I was browsing pinterest I saw a costume for a little girl with a white tu-tu and a white shirt with a ghost face on it. I thought it was darling so I showed it to my 4 year old who was still wishy washy on what she wanted to be and she liked it. So boom my decision was made.
With a bat ballerina and a ghost ballerina I thought my baby girl would be darling as a pumpkin ballerina. So that's what we are doing.

So for the bat wings I just made them exactly like I would fairy wings (wire, duct tape and nylons.) Then for the vein things I just hot glued purple tulle on. The day of Halloween I am going to do two buns on the top of her head and tie a black bow around them. I think that will be a good cross between bat ears and ballerina buns.

Here is my little ghost girl. I haven't decided what I am doing with her hair yet. Any brilliant suggestions. For the shirt I used heat bond to applique the face on.

So you would think that finding a solid orange shirt in October wouldn't be hard. Well it was near impossible so I bought her white tights and a white shirt and dyed them orange. I have a little orange crocheted beanie for her to wear and I will clip in a green korker bow. I think that will make her a darling little pumpkin.

So there you have it. Hopefully I will have some daddy help next time I go to take pictures and I will have some better ones for you.

A Fancy Dress

2011-10-17T18:20:00.001-06:00

I signed up to test out a new pattern for Naptime Crafters, Peek-a-Boo patterns last week which meant I got this beautiful pattern and got to make my daughter a beautiful dress (which I am planning on using for Christmas.) So I thought I would show you this super cute dress.

See it is a darling dress. And her patterns are simple to follow and understand so if you are looking for some cute patterns you should check her patterns out. And I know she has some more cute stuff about to come out.

PS. I am almost done with Halloween costumes and I can't wait to share them with you. I am SOOOO excited:)