Expect Moore

Ironing Board Cover Class

2013-05-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

Amazon links are affiliate links.

Many of you know that I used to work at a quilt shop here in Vegas. After my second son was born, I became a full-time at-home mom, instead of working outside the home. But, I couldn't give up all the social interaction of hanging out with others, so I found a middle ground. I teach classes at the quilt shop - allowing me to stay home most of the time, but still get out and play with other quilters sometimes, too! Taking and teaching classes, as well as staying active in the local Modern Quilt Guild are so fun for me... so I'm excited to share with you the new class I'm teaching this summer!

I'm teaching a class on making an ironing board cover. I don't know about you, but my ironing board is out all the time. I never put it away. And as a permanent piece of furniture in my home, I think it deserves some beautification, right? I love this pattern, and the cover is simple to put together. There are a few simple tricks that make it even easier (come to the class and I'll tell ya)! You can sign up for the class on the Quiltique website.

If you're not a local, but still want to make the ironing board cover, you can get the pattern online at Quiltique here. Cotton Way has another ironing board cover pattern as well, it is available at Amazon here.

Parachute and Landing Pad Toy Craft

2013-05-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

My husband just had his birthday. I was badgering him for weeks to find out what he wanted for his birthday. He didn't have an answer. Until the day before. The day before his birthday he told me, "I'd really like to go skydiving for my birthday."

I wasn't completely shocked. Skydiving has come up before... but not in an uber-serious way. I'm not completely thrilled with the thought of the love of my life jumping out of an airplane... but he really wanted to go, and without resorting to extreme hypotheticals - why not?

As a fun way to actually GIVE this gift to him, I made him some parachute super heroes and a drop zone. The drop zone was on the bottom of a box that opened up flat, so that it was easy to fold back up and wrap with the parachute men inside. And it was a fun thing for him to pay with the boys as well.

If you want to make your own drop zone parachute toy, here is what you need:
Box that opens flat
Pencil or Pen
Several sizes of plates
White paint (I used DecoArt Patio Paint)
Red paint (I used DecoArt Patio Paint)
Paintbrush
Plastic grocery bags
Small toy men
String
Black paint pen or marker (I used a DecoArt Glass paint pen, which is great on glass, but worked well here as well... I love getting multiple uses out of products!)

Start by tracing your plates on the flattened box.

Paint the entire circle white. Let it dry. Paint every other ring red. You should be able to see your pencil lines through the white paint. Allow to dry. (You can see I like to pour paint into disposable cupcake liners - they work great!)

While the bullseye is drying, lay out your bags. I used these plastic bags from target. Lay them out flat, and cut squares as large as possible from the plastic. I used squares from both the front and back - one side has the bullseyes, one side is plain white.

Cut two lengths of string each 3 feet long. Tie one end of a string to one corner, and the other end to another corner. Repeat with the second string.
Line up the corners of the parachute, and pull the strings so they are parallel, then tie around your toy. Trim any excess string.

To store, I folded the plastic parachute into thirds, and then wrapped in the string so that they wouldn't get tangled.

By the time I finished making the parachutes, the paint on my drop zone was dry. I used a black paint pen to trace the circles, and then added the words "drop zone".

The parachutes were a hit with the boys! This is the least blurry of all my photos of them playing - they had a ball!

And skydiving was a hit with my hubby!

This week was brought to you by: Star Shaped Bubbles

2013-05-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

Today we burst my son's bubble when we explained to him that it doesn't matter what shape the bubble wand is... the bubbles will still be circular. Even star shaped wands make circle bubbles.

yes. that is his "I'm not impressed" face.

When he asked "why?" in typical four-year-old fashion, I'm pretty sure my answer was, "Well kiddo, it has to do with surface tension, and that a star doesn't make for a very secure structure." With answers like that, I'm not sure why he even asks "why" anymore!

This whole week has been a pretty amazing bubble, though! Over on 30 Minute Crafts I've been doing Craft Lightning, with a whole week of crafts that can be done in FIFTEEN minutes or less! Yup, for Craft Lightning week, I up the ante. I shared tutorials for my Falling Star and Tumbling Heart Earrings, Felt Cowboy Vest, Fabric Flower topped Gift Box, Fabric Banners, and Fancy Felt Clutch. Each evening I shared a roundup post with quick crafts from my friends about the interwebs. You can catch the roundups for Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, and Day Five.

The fast crafting doesn't end there, though! At 4pm PST Monday and Friday of this week, I'll be live crafting TEN minute crafts with Angie from the Country Chic Cottage as we do live crafting videos. Check us out, as well as our other awesome participants at Crafty Hangouts.

Here on Always Expect Moore, I shared my Mod Podge Dinosaur wreath, and then wrapped up the Dinosaur birthday party, and shared with you how to make super easy ice cream pizzas. Yum!

I started a new series on Craftsnark on the difference between the terms DIY and Craft. {{spoiler alert: I'm not a fan of one of them. No, I'm not telling you which one. Yes, that wasn't much of a spoiler. HA!}}

We had some fun this week. Wednesday hubs got a year older, and we celebrated on Thursday by watching him jump out of a practically fine airplane. You might have caught whiff of it on Instagram. And it is the inspiration behind a fun parachute craft project I'll be sharing here later this week!

Then today I took the boys to the park for a Mommy and Me event. It was quite a few hours in the wind and sun, but they both loved it. And that's all that matters, right?

I hope you have an amazing week! And enjoy this last photo... my son is a "ladybug whisperer". Any ladybug will find him, or he will find it, no matter how giant the park!

Ice Cream Pizzas

2013-05-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

My 4-year old loves Team Umizoomi. If you don't have small kids, you don't know that Team Umizoomi is a team of 3 tiny cartoon characters (4 if you count Umi Car), who run around Umi City helping their friends by using their "Mighty Math Powers".

Team Umizoomi has helped to teach my son math issues like units of measure, identifying patterns, and shapes. They also reinforce proper social behavior like sharing and helping friends. One of my son's favorite episodes is about Ice Cream Pizzas. The ice cream truck has broken down, and can't get down the street to bring ice cream treats to the neighborhood children. The ice cream treat of choice is the ice cream pizza. My son asked me if we could make ice cream pizzas together, so of course I said yes!

We had to start by getting our ingredients. Large sugar cookies, vanilla ice cream (which I allowed to soften) and gummy candies. In the show they use a striped candy. Since we couldn't find the right color striped candy, I went with these gummy candies that are the right color, but weren't the right size. I cut them down to size for our pizzas.

I spread the softened ice cream on to cookies. I had softened the ice cream so that it was about the consistency of margarine.

I cut up the gummy candies and then let my son put them on. Team Umizoomi used 5 candies on their ice cream pizza, and so did we.

All that was left was to chow down! Nom!

Dinosaur Party Wrap-up

2013-05-17T03:25:00.001-07:00

At the end of April my baby turned one. And suddenly, he doesn't look like a baby anymore. He's grown tall and lanky. His baby chubbyness is slimming down as he runs around the house and yard. He climbs up anything his legs can reach.

To celebrate his first birthday, we threw a dinosaur-themed party. When my oldest turned one, we used the theme from his nursery for his first birthday. It was an easy transition. So we did the same here. My baby has a dinosaur themed nursery, and so we threw a dinosaur themed party for him.

You might have already seen the dinosaur invitations with washi tape, the dinosaur wreath, and the tissue paper pennants. I had fun creating handmade items for the party.

I spent the day before prepping food for the party. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies. I had a smash cake for the birthday boy, and a chocolate cake on the side, but also cupcakes for the kids at the party. Cupcakes are so much easier than a large sheet cake when you're expecting lots of people.

I got a little help putting up decorations for the party... sometimes streamers end up like this when you have a 4-year-old involved!

Instead of getting a heavy helium tank, or schlepping to a party store early in the morning for helium-filled balloons, I hung regular balloons from the ceiling. This also kept them out of the hands of small children during the party.

Before the party, my brother and sister-in-law helped me cut out dinosaur feet for the kids to decorate. We used this template from Make and Takes.

Once they decorated them, they could wear them.

I made several batches of homemade playdoh the day before for the kids to play with. We also had a pinata for the older kids - at the request of big brother.

The birthday boy didn't know what to do with the dinosaur smash cake he was offered...

And although he loves cake, he hasn't ever been a big fan of frosting. After we pushed his hands into the cake, he wasn't a very happy guy.

After a change of clothes and a nap, we opened gifts.

I can't believe how big he is already! Happy Birthday, little man... I'm looking forward to so many, many more celebrations with you!

Mod Podge Dinosaur Wreath

2013-05-12T16:28:00.001-07:00

This Dinosaur wreath is so simple to make that I don't have an official tutorial for it... but if you want to make your own, or something similar, here is what you need:

Tissue paper (I used the leftovers from my pennant banners)
Ribbon (I used rainbow colored)
Foam craft sheet
Extruded Foam ring (this smooth surface works great for Mod Podging)
Hot Glue
Scissors
Ballpoint pen
Mod Podge
Paintbrush
Google Eye

Use the Mod Podge to layer the tissue paper on the wreath. Make sure the wreath is fully covered. Adding multiple layers will increase the depth of color on the wreath.

Once the wreath is dry, tie a large bow on one side with the ribbon.

With a pen, draw your dinosaur shape on the craft foam, and then cut out.

Hot glue dinosaur on the bow of the wreath, attach the google eye, and hang the wreath.

This week was brought to you by: Stitching

2013-05-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

I've been spending a lot of time these past weeks stitching. I can't show you much of what I've been working on... but I promise, awesomeness is on the way! Speaking of awesome, if you don't already follow me on Instagram, you missed out on this awesome set of predictions by my preschooler...

I have managed to get some work done around here between all the stitching...

I put together over 25 ideas for last minute Mother's Day Gifts, which included a quick mother's day handprint canvas that I made with the kids.

I haven't played with plastic canvas in a long time, so making these quick plastic canvas earrings was super fun. I was able to join in on a blog hop for Plasic Canvas Tutorials with Diane of CraftyPod - one day I hope to meet her in person, I've been inspired by her work in blogging (and plastic canvas) for years.

Hopefully you had a chance to watch the Washi tape in a live hangout on air that I did with some bloggy friends of mine. You can watch me make washi tape flowers there, or read the step by step washi tape flower tutorial. I had so much fun playing with washi tape that I made a washi tape necklace tutorial as well.

In the next few days, I'll be sharing more of Baby B's big first birthday party celebration. Yesterday I showed you how to make a dinosaur shaped cake.

And I checked a big to-do off of my list by finishing up my cross stitch necklace pendants. I mailed them off, and they should have arrived in mailboxes today.

In between we had a lot of our regular day-to-day around here as well. But we did manage to take a morning off to go out to breakfast and hit the pool. Baby B had fun running around the restaurant making new friends. Funny how a baby toddling around can bring a smile to just about anyone's face.

Dinosaur Smash Cake

2013-05-10T16:12:00.001-07:00

For Little Moore's first birthday, three and a half years ago, I made a small car cake for him to smash into. He doesn't remember, but he has seen pictures. Quite a few times he has requested that I make him a car cake again. I'm sure I will... but before then I had Baby B's first birthday cake to make. For Baby B, we were throwing a Dinosaur Birthday Party. I had all kinds of fun ideas planned (I'll share more with you soon - I promise!), but the cake really had me stumped. Dinosaur cake. How was I going to make this happen?

Sure, I could make a traditional cake and slap some dinosaur toys on it. But I really went all-out for his brother's birthday... and being a second child myself (and my mother was a second child too), I'm very conscious of second-child syndrome. Yes, some things are going to be different for Baby B than for his big brother... but I'd like to have some things the same, too. So I got baking.

I used one boxed cake mix to make 2 round cakes in 6" cake pans. I've had these cake pans forever, and love them. I used them for Little Moore's first birthday as well. I got them my last semester in college when I lived in a tiny apartment with no oven. When we were first dating, I used them to bake a birthday cake for my husband in a toaster oven!

I covered a small cutting board to use as the base. I then cut a slice off the bottom of the first round to make the bottom of his legs, and cut off each side to make the front and back of the body. I cut a notch in the middle to make the legs.

From the second cake I cut an arch to make the head, and a pointy bit for the tail, and then put them by the body piece like so:

Yup! Already starting to look like a dinosaur! I then cut the top so the cake was level. Now he looks like this:

I used canned frosting, and gave him a thin layer of frosting. This is called a "crumb coat". I didn't worry about crumbs everywhere, because this is getting covered up later. I just wanted to seal everything in. At this stage, he looks pretty ugly.

I tinted frosting green until I got it the right color, and then put it in a piping bag. I grabbed the largest tip I had, which happened to be a star tip. I then piped the green all over every inch of the cake.

With a knife, I smoothed out the frosting.

I added a couple touches later with a contrasting color, for fun... but that's optional. This is really a simple cake to make - I promise! And, he had his shining moment in the sun... before he was reduced to this...

I hope that in four years, Baby B will look back at photos of this cake and ask for a repeat as well!

Cross Stitched Wooden Pendants

2013-05-08T03:30:00.002-07:00

When Young House Love posted their latest Pinterest Challenge, I knew exactly what I needed to do. I saw these awesome cross-stitch pendants last month, and was thrilled. I love unusual craft supplies... and cross stitching onto wood? Yeah... pretty unusual.

I bought two of the scalloped edged pendants (they were the only ones left in the shop at the time... I'm sure I'll purchase more in the future), knowing I was going to stitch one up as a roommate gift for my awesome SNAP roomie, Carissa from Creative Green Living. I ordered them super close to the conference date... and since they ship from Canada, they did not get here in time.

That's where this Pinterest Challenge comes in. The pendants have been sitting in a stack for a couple weeks... yet another "to do" project with no particular deadline. Which generally means that they'll be waiting around for a while. So I decided to attack these... which is exactly what this Pinterest Challenge is about. Taking projects that you really want to do, and pushing you to actually do them.

The bird pendant is pretty much the same as the original pendant on the Thompson Family Blog. For the second pendant, I created the pattern myself - it is the SNAP logo. The bird will be going to my roomie - and the second will be going to someone who, while at SNAP, really helped me out. I'm hoping she likes it!

If you want to make one of these pendants, the wooden blanks are laser cut by The Workroom. Currently, she's sold out, so you might want to try The Geek Room on Etsy.

Here are my tips:
The blanks are laser cut, which burns the wood. Burnt wood can darken the thread, so dark threads are better to use here. Also, using shorter threads will prevent the ends from darkening by getting pulled through the holes so many times.

Be careful while you stitch. The wood has much less give than fabric, and stitching through previous stitches leaves ugly bumps. Try not to snag previous stitches.

After stitching, I sealed the backs with two layers of Mod Podge. This helps secure the threads so that the necklace really lasts.

Queen Bee Market Giveaway!

2013-05-02T17:52:00.002-07:00

If you follow craft bloggers on social media, you may have seen some awesome photos of the Queen Bee Market last week. This gathering of handmade goodness is fun to browse through... and even more fun to shop at! I run BlogPrizes.com and partnered with some of my blogging friends to give YOU a chance to win some of the hottest items at the Queen Bee Market. And I really mean HOTTEST. Several of these items were sold out before the show was over, and a couple sold out very shortly after it started!

One winner will be getting a box filled with all of this!

Be Kind Sign - Evie Ivy Engraved Cutting Board - Alexis Mattox Design Camera Strap - August Blossoms Cupcake liners, straws, and cookie cutter - Bake it Pretty Aqua Bracelet - Hoop-la Crochet Rose - Made by Jewls 3 Bars Handmade Soap - Karol's Handmade Soap White Flower Earrings - Love Stitched Heart Necklace - The r House Couture Moustache Covered Notebook - Ameroonie Designs Leather and Fabric iPad Case - Sage & Harper 3 Lip Balms - Kustom Kissers

Enter using the Rafflecopter widget found below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This week was brought to you by: First

2013-04-29T23:47:00.000-07:00

It was a crazy, crazy week. So crazy that I'm writing my Saturday wrapup post... on Monday night. Yup, crazypants.

After getting back from the awesome SNAP conference last week (at which I wore my new Duck Tape Chain Necklace), whipping up some yummy brown cow cookies for a Smart & Final Taste Test, and sharing my new headshot photo, I spent some time in the yard with the kiddo, and checking up on how our plants are growing. I also shared with you the details of the diaper party I threw the previous week (you may have seen it in my Instagram feed), and how you can re-create the diaper wreath I made. And then I worked on my son's first birthday party.

While also working on some Crafty Hangouts. I hung out with my friend Angie at the Country Chic Cottage online, and we did live crafting on video. You can check out the recordings where I painted some glassware as well as painted a watering can for Mother's Day with awesome Glass Paint Pens and Patio Paints from DecoArt.

You might remember the dinosaur party invitations that I created and sent out. This past week was the party. I have details I'll share with you soon... like how to carve up a simple dino smash cake...

Well, I'm off and running... hopefully this weekend I'll be able to share with you more progress... especially on some sewing projects with looming deadlines...

Have an awesome week!

Fixing up the Yard with the Home Depot

2013-04-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

Over a month ago, we started working on our yard. I spent an entire day clearing out the side yard and fixing the planter bed. It was a lot of work, but worth it.

Over the last week and a half, I've taken on other yard projects, and enlisted my son to help. We started with a trip to the Home Depot. Then we cleared out the lawn area to prepare for a new lawn, and we planted seeds and potted plants in the planter bed. We can already see growth. Our grass is starting to come in as a carpet of seedlings.

We already have an automatic sprinkler system in place, but an automatic sprinkler system doesn't mean an automatic yard (although I wish it did). A yard, we've discovered, is a living thing that needs TLC. It needs to be watered, but also cared for. It needs to be loved!

It has been fun to see the progress in the yard over these last few weeks. Seeds that Little Moore and I planted are starting to sprout. He is even more excited than I am to see them grow. Here they are two days ago, just starting to come up.

The plants are getting bigger. Soon we'll have to thin them out, and talk about why thinning the plants is important... which may lead to a lesson on thinning our toys out as well!

Soon we'll have zucchini, squash, pumpkin, and hopefully watermellon plants, as well as strawberry, bell pepper, and tomato plants growing in the yard. We'll talk about why bugs are important (boys and bugs are a natural fit), and which bugs are the "good bugs".

Throughout the summer and fall, I hope we'll be able to harvest some of our vegetables, and enjoy them in the kitchen. Kids are always more likely to try new things if they've helped make them themselves - and growing veggies in the garden absolutely counts!

Before then, there will still be a lot of yard maintenance. The weeds will keep coming back.We'll have to mow the lawn. In the next few days we need to head back to Home Depot to fix the sprinkler that has gotten another stone in it (replacing one sprinkler head after four years isn't so bad), and look at the best way to give the roses a very late pruning (or a very early pruning, depending on how you look at it). We might check out the Garden Club Community Forum for tips there.

Maintaining the yard is a constant process, but one that is simple compared to the big tasks we've undertaken. Buying new tools that will last us for several seasons. Clearing out all the weeds and debris. Re-building the planter wall. Getting new plants in the ground. We've done a lot, and it really shows... just in time for my inlaws to arrive today!

I hope that my journey has inspired you to make some progress in your own yards - regardless of the size. Getting dirty, wet, sweaty, and sore is so worth it! And if you have any questions along the way, know that the friendly folks at The Home Depot are available to help out!

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

SNAP 2013 Conference Recap

2013-04-23T23:24:00.001-07:00

When speaker openings were announced for SNAP, I decided I wanted to speak. I pitched the SNAP team on something I thought I would be able to speak well on. I was asked to add to my pitch a couple other topics I might be able to speak on, if there was a panel opportunity. One of the things I mentioned was Google+ hangouts.

About a month later, I got an offer to speak at SNAP, on a panel about Google+. I was excited, but nervous because I didn't feel that I was well versed in all areas of Google Plus. My co-presenter was confident that we would do great.

We put together our presentation, practiced, and then 3 days before our presentation, she called me. Her mom needed to be hospitalized. She was her mother's caregiver, so would have to stay home. I was on my own.

With my background in Toastmasters, I was able to pull together the presentation. I had everything ready to go the night before, and was feeling confident. 45 minutes of presentation by me on the basics of Google+. 15 minutes to introduce a panel of co-presenters that would chat via live Google+ Hangout, and then 30 minutes of Q&A with the full panel available.

I got set up, tested the speaker system, tested the wireless network. Everything was great. I started the presentation on time. Things were going great.

I finished my portion of the presentation in exactly 45 minutes. On the nose. Perfect. It was time to invite my panelists to join in... but... the network crashed. I couldn't get them to stream online.

I answered questions on my own while Carissa, my roomate and (at that moment) Godsend tech genius, attempted troubleshooting. In the process, my phone rang with one of my panelists joining in the hangout. I answered. Soon, I was live streaming my panelists via Verizon's data plan (can't wait to get that phone bill). They were loud enough that the room could hear them (can you hear me now?), and added valuable information to the presentation.

(if you can see them, from left to right at the bottom are me, Amy from Mod Podge Rocks, Angie from the Country Chic Cottage, Whitney from Google, and Colleen from Mural Maker).

It was probably one of the most unconventional panel presentations in the history of conferences... but it worked. I'm so thankful that my hubby upgraded my phone to a smart phone for my birthday!

After my presentation was over, I was able to sit back and enjoy the conference. I went to many other presentations, my favorite being an SEO presentation where I felt I really learned a lot. It was right at my level, and dovetailed with my own personal philosophy on SEO.

SNAP had lots of educational opportunities, but lots of social ones as well. I loved hanging out with bloggers that I've gotten to know online, and now got to see in person. And in pajamas.

My favorite part was the edu-social evenings. We'd gather in one of the rooms with a drink or two, and talk blogging. We'd re-hash the session information and expand on it. I spent one evening showing the back-end of Wordpress to a blogger who was getting ready to make the jump. I spent another night with a room full of bloggers talking about SEO and "content strategy", which is really a fancy term for having an editorial calendar. I learned a ton. I had fun. I got to be me.

Not that I'm not "me" when I'm in this space. But in this space, I'm a conservative me. I don't swear. I try to keep things clean and uncontroversial. I believe that the majority of you come here for fun projects, pretty pictures, and a little bit of me. At the conference I didn't bring fun projects, people were taking their own pretty pictures, so all that was left was a whole lot of me. Which is fun. If you ever get to meet me in person, you'll see that I'm really a total nerd without any geeky street cred. And I own it. And love it.

I'm still recovering from SNAP. I'm trying to snuggle with the kiddos a little more, spend some time with my husband, and catch up here on the blog. There is an unending list. But I'm so amazingly glad that I went. There is no way that in one post, or even a series of posts, I could accurately convey all that happened at SNAP... except that it was awesome. And I'd go again in a heartbeat.

I'm off to read more conference re-caps. People are linking up their thoughts over on the SNAP blog. I think I'll add mine in...

Diaper Party with White Cloud Diapers

2013-04-23T15:00:00.002-07:00

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of White Cloud Diapers.

I love hosting parties. Birthday parties, baby showers, bachelorette parties... I've had a hand in hosting just about every kind of party out there, and have loved them all. That's why I was super excited when I was contacted to host a diaper party for Wal Mart and White Cloud Diapers with a group of local bloggers.

White Cloud Diapers thought a fun way to share their diapers with local bloggers would be to have a party... and they were right! We had a great time! I only knew a few of the bloggers before they showed up at my house, but by the end we were like old friends. Which is only natural when you've shared diapering stories and birthing stories while playing games and talking about the features of diapers!

I created some fun White Cloud Diaper decor... you can see the diaper wreath and diaper centerpiece I created with my Diaper Wreath Tutorial. Much faster and easier than a big, complicated diaper cake!

A party with a group of bloggers isn't like a normal party. We end up doing a lot of tweeting and instagramming during the event, so parties with bloggers have a lot of this:

But we made sure to have fun as well! We decided to put White Cloud Diapers to the test, and played the baby food diaper game. If you've never played this before, it is a MUST at your next shower! Each diaper was filled with about half a bottle of baby food, and then wrapped up and numbered. Each blogger had to guess what food was in the diapers. This game makes for some fun photos!

The diapers held up to the heaps of food... and none of my guests got dirty! Plus, if you're going to play this game at a baby shower, White Cloud Diapers are a great choice - they are affordable for the hostess, and the extras are awesome for mom to be able to take home after the party!

We played the bottle game as well, where we each attempted to chug 4oz of water out of a baby bottle. That is a whole lot harder than it sounds!

We talked babies of course. All of us agreed that the wetness indicator on sizes newborn, 1 and 2 are great for new moms and dads still getting used to their baby's schedule. And the extra soft quilted liner in these sizes are great for keeping messes in place.

After the party, I hung out with my active little guy. He is a size 4, and was totally at ease in his White Cloud Diapers.

And I could play with him knowing that no matter how much he crawled on me, climbed over me, and ran into me, I would stay dry as well!

Diapering can be one of the biggest expenses in a family’s weekly budget and a great performing diaper is a must-have for parents. In order to make this affordable, Wal-Mart has reintroduced their premium line of White Cloud diapers to address the needs of today’s busy parents.
White Cloud Diapers provide your baby the highest quality diaper with superior leakage protection, exceptional softness and great fit. White Cloud Diapers are available exclusively at Walmart, where you can find low prices everyday on all your family’s needs. Check them out today!
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of #WhiteCloudDiapers.

Duck Tape Chain Necklace

2013-04-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

I went to SNAP last week, and wanted to have some fun jewelry to wear. When I saw that Duck Tape was going to be one of the sponsors, I knew I had to make some Duck Tape jewelry! That's when I came up with making a Duck Tape Chain necklace. This is an easy project to do, but it does take some time. I worked on mine while watching West Wing reruns (LOVE that show!), and it took me about 2 hours to make it.

If you want to make your own, here is what you need:

Roll of Duck Tape (I used "Hot Rod")
Sharp Scissors
Rubbing Alcohol
Paper Towels

I started by cutting Duck tape into strips between 3/4" and 1" wide.
Fold the strip up about 1/4" so that the sticky sides are together. Fold up again and again until you have a long strip with all the sticky on the inside. Repeat until you have a LOT of these.

If your scissors get sticky while cutting, wipe them down with rubbing alcohol on a paper towel. To keep your scissors from getting super sticky after each cut, try cutting the tape with the tape side UP instead of the tape side down. I found that this kept the tape from rubbing against the side of the blade as much.

Then it is time to make the links. Cut more strips of Duck Tape, this time cutting each strip into 3 or 4 smaller strips. put a small strip at the end of one of the folded pieces, wrap the piece around so that both ends stick, and then secure it by wrapping the small piece of Duck Tape around.

To join your links, create 2 links. Put them on a folded strip, and then turn the folded strip into a link using the same method. Adding links 2 at a time instead of 1 at a time will make building the necklace much faster!

Keep adding links to your chain until you've reached the desired length... or run out of Duck tape
(whichever comes first)!