Fence Post Coat Hanger

Diaper bag, four coats, purse, baby front pack, two hiking back packs, keys - this is what you would find on our living room floor so, we needed a solution. This was a successful illustration of how being lazy and stingy pays off - we bought hooks and then decided to screw them into an old fence post  (rather than follow through with our original idea of nice finished cedar wood shelf- rack). We did absolutely nothing to this wood. It retained the rustic-unfinished look for which people pay top dollar ;) 

yep, that's a fence post.

yep, that's a fence post.

Okay you caught me - Ian did most the work. He had to dremel off the part of the screws that stuck out. This gave me an opportunity to play around with shutter speeds on my camera. This pic is at 1/8 s.

Okay you caught me - Ian did most the work. He had to dremel off the part of the screws that stuck out. This gave me an opportunity to play around with shutter speeds on my camera. This pic is at 1/8 s.

Chocolate Lace Cake Wraps

I wanted to try this Julia Usher Cake Lace out for a test run for my sister's baby shower.  I am no cake decorator, but I found this this was surprisingly easy if you have patience and fairly good handwriting.. I just microwaved chocolate chips in the microwave, scooped it in decorating bags and snipped the tip of the bag (no need for fancy tips which is nice...) This was for a valentines day lunch so I added chocolate covered strawberries.  I was up until 11 doing this - it was so fun! As you can see my table was a disaster, and I just taped parchment on whatever to use up all the chocolate... :) It's way easier than it looks. You can also make doilies ahead of time and stack them in the fridge to make an awesome placement for a special dessert for a special someone... Although this, by the way, was not for my husband. He's getting mail-ordered steak :) 

See video 

Designing Fabric

This is so much fun! I ended up making a custom fabric for my mother-in-law and daughters for Christmas! 

You can do this at spoonflower.com. They have great videos and ideas on YouTube - apparently you can make fabric from a photo! 

My m-i-l loves sewing so I made her a custom seal of the mountains behind their house in Montana. MY 18-month-year-old loves her dog so I made one with the dog and we always sing the Richie Valen's "Oh Donna" to our other daughter (Donna...) so that - in a nutshell -  explains the designs.  :)!

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Gift Certificates

Gift Certificates for a service are an awesome gift because it allows your loved one to guilt-free get what they want & when they want it. Melissa (owner of FIT Massage) made some, put them in candy bags and tied off with a ribbon - they turned out quite cute:

Facebook advertisement for Los Alamos Local.

Facebook advertisement for Los Alamos Local.

Dresser Makeover! problems solved...

I have to admit I am pretty proud of this dresser. Not only is it a super cute color but I solved two major issues with a dresser of this size: 

1. One year-olds love opening drawers and pulling everything, I mean EVERYTHING out just for the fun of it.  Knobs = GONE.

2. Only I know the intricate ins-and-outs of these 9 drawers. Every time my husband needs PJ's or socks or a bib, he has to ask me where to find it. How awesome are chalkboard labels that can change as needed? (e.g., when onesies turn to pants/shirts) And, when my little one gets old enough to put away her own laundry (hmm, say by age  2?) I can draw pictures to show her where to put things before she can read. 

"Paint something with chalkboard paint and you're so DIY!" was the message I got from mom-blogs -  I felt like chalkboard paint was a bit over-used and over-stated. Alas, I have to admit it's all its cracked up to be. I had a bunch left over so I painted a little book shelf so it would match - the shelf is now laying on the floor and used as a chalkboard table... One-year-olds can't seem to push crayons hard enough to draw nor can they put tops back on markers - so chalk is a pretty fun alternative for scribbling all over stuff...

 

I bought this cute rug to tie together the red and yellow furniture in the room...

I bought this cute rug to tie together the red and yellow furniture in the room...

Before. 

Before. 

Pumpkin Ribbon Bread! & fall-week meal plan..

Okay, so it has been pointed out that my 'blog' aint really a blog, but just a display of random projects - so here I go! I am going to write a bit more (or shall we say bore more?) :). 

One of my greatest challenges as a wife & mom is the whole cooking thing. (wha?!) Yep, not exactly my favorite thing to do - spend two hours cooking to gobble something up in less then 2 minutes... Ever since I decided to start chewing my food (epiphany in my twenties coming from a family with eight kids), I actually 'enjoy' food, and fill up before I get sick. This 'enjoying of food' and the fact that my husband loves a warm cooked meal (a man thing?) - I started putting more thought into creating a healthy meal plan. Here is this week's fall plan - most recipes from Skinny Taste Blog:

Butternut Squash Lasagna Rolls | Loaded Sweet Potatoes | Parmesan Chicken Nuggets & Garlic Mashed Cauliflower | Parmesan Chicken Salad w/ Craisens | Salmon & Acorn Squash | Thawed out Butternut Squash Lasagna Rolls

Ha - there's my lazyness - last two days of the week are fish (freezer to oven BAM! done!) and whatever I made in the beginning of the week (freezer to microwave BAM! done!)

Okay, lets cut the [healthy] crap. The real reason for this post is to share my favorite fall indulgence, a recipe given to us for our wedding by a friend of my husbands family: Pumpkin Ribbon Bread

Cream Cheese Filling: 6 oz cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tb. flour, 2 egg whites. For filling combine in bowl - set aside.

Bread: 1 cup pumpkin, 1/2 cup apple sauce, 2 eggs whites, 1 tb. canola oil, 1 2/3 cup flour, 1 1/4/ cup sugar, 1 tea. baking soda, 1/2 tea. salt, 1/2 tea. ground cinnamon, 1/2 tea. ground cloves. In a bowl beat pumpkin, egg, egg whites, applesauce & oil. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, clove; add to pumpkin mixture.  Divide 1/2 batter in 2 8" x 4 " load pans coated with cooking spray. Spread each with filling then top with remaining batter.

Bake 350 degrees F for 40 - 50 minutes Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire rack.  

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Halloween Costumes

Star Wars Characters! My two little girls are Obi Wan and Yoda this year for halloween. I managed to crochet a hat but my mother-in-law, Lydia, made the adorable ears. Julia and Lydia helped with the brown robe and I just made up the pattern by looking at photos of the original characters. I bought the fabric, ribbon and yarn. Basically it would have been cheaper to just buy costumes. 

I wanted to do a photo-shoot that was super star-warsey, but alas, babies seem to despise halloween costumes so this was the best I could do. for now... :) 

Obi Wan & Yoda!

Obi Wan & Yoda!

Miniature Picnic Tables

I got the plans for these here to make tables for my nieces/nephews & my own kiddos when they're a bit bigger. They loved them! This was our first real wood building experience. Two take homes:

1. You can build just about anything with a Kreg Jig

2. The more time you spend sanding and staining, the better it looks. Don't plan on doing anything like this in one day because you need at least four hours per layer of stain/spar urethane. Maybe next time I will just paint them... :)

Don't be fooled- These are only about two feet tall!

Don't be fooled- These are only about two feet tall!

Apron for a 3 yr old : My First Sewing Project

I started blogging to give me motivation to start and complete (keyword!)  projects. Being a professional momma is a constant 'work in progress' - and today I did my first sewing project since, I don't know, Girl Scouts? One of my friend's daughters is turning the big 3. Apparently that is when kiddos start imagining - so she is getting a kitchen set and I made her an apron to go with it. Julia taught me some valuable lessons with sewing - mainly, if you want to do it, have someone who knows what they're doing show you how to thread the machine from cutting corners to pockets! Also, patience is key. To make this apron we used some scrap curtain fabric, leftover wedding ribbon, pink ruffles & a iron-on kitty. 

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Giraffe Mosaic : W.F.B. Creative Outlet #5

Waiting For Baby Creative Outlet #4. 

My wonderful mother-in-law Lydia came out to help with the new baby! But, no baby. Instead she taught us how to make mosaics so we decorated a mirror and some pots for the safari baby room. 

We bought old plates, mirror & board at a thrift shop. Lydia brought a tool to break up the plates - but dropping them in clothe bags and using a hammer worked pretty well. Adhesive, dry 24 hours, and grout, 24 or so more hours + sealant and done!

Rocking Zebra Makeover: W.F.B Creative Outlet #4

Waiting For Baby Creative Outlet #4. 

I made this to go with my elephant/safari baby room. 

What you'll need:

- An ol' rocking horse. Preferably one that hasn't seen any love for a long time

- Black and white Acrylic Paint, Green for the base

- Black and White Yarn

- Acrylic Sealer (Although we skipped this and three years later it looks fine)

Pull off yarn-hair, saddles, bridles - basically strip the horse down to the wood. Paint the horse white. Look at a picture of a zebra and copy strip patterns with black acrylic paint. The end of the nose is black, and the stripes curves around the eyes - so pay attention to the picture if you want it realistic looking. (Or copy ours)

To create the mane - Cut yarn into about12 inch pieces. Chunk about twenty pieces together and then lay down a white chunk next to a black chunk on a long strip of news paper. Alternate the colors until you have about two feet (depend on size of your horse) of yarn laid out. Sew through the yarn and sewing to the newspaper, and then remove the newspaper (so it sewed together). Fold the piece in half and sew again. Glue to the horse and trim as needed. For the tail I just tied a knot and braided the yarn and glued it.

My nieces and my sista made this amazing elephant collage - so to match we refurbished this broken ol' rocking horse to be a rockin' zebra!  

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Cake Bouquet: W.F.B Creative Outlet #3

Waiting For Baby Creative Outlet #3.

I have been wanting to make one of these delicious cupcake bouquets and there are tons of tutorials online - so look 'em up if you're interested. :) My only advice? Don't try to transport the thing.

sprinkles = birthday!

sprinkles = birthday!

I didn't have a fancy Styrofoam ball, so I just glued a bunch of Styrofoam bowls together. It kinda worked...  

I didn't have a fancy Styrofoam ball, so I just glued a bunch of Styrofoam bowls together. It kinda worked...

 

Photography Project

My sister Julia wrote beautiful journal entries to each of her children comparing them to "Fruits of the Spirit" - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness & self control. Pairing black and white photos of them made for a great photography project.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Galations 5:22-23