President Monsen - Day 233

 Ben had his first talk on Sunday. We practiced all week. He was really excited to do it and would give it to anyone who would listen.  I made this cute little sign for him to hold up during his talk. I found this wood plaque at wall-mart for $5. I painted the edges blue and then white all over on top of that. When it was dry I sanded it a bit where there was blue.  Then I cut the phrase using my cricut and vinyl. Then I printed this photo off on my home computer on white paper. I cut it to size and used modge podge all over the plaque. He loves it and points it out every day!

p.s. Ben did great for his first talk. Even if I did all the talking. He held the picture up high!

Jambalaya - Day 232

Last month our Relief Society had an genealogy presentation. This wonderful lady talked about her heritage of Cajun. It was so interesting! She made this awesome Jambalaya and I decided to make some! I LOVED it! So did everyone else! It was super easy since the recipe I used was in the crock pot!

Recipe

Comfier than P.J.'s Maxi- Day 231

 So we all have that day when we don't want to get out of our pajamas. Today was my day. I just wanted to crawl back into my warm bed and never wake up. I am in charge of our youth group tonight, so I knew I could only stay in them for so long, before I had to join the rest of the normal humans out there and get ready for the day. So I had a thought. I was saving this knit fabric to make something this weekend, but I jumped the gun and made a really comfy maxi skirt with a yoga band. It literally took 30 minutes including cutting, photo taking, and maybe even this blog posting.

 Pile of fabric from thrift store for $1!!!!!

Fold the fabric in half hot dog way (length wise) 18, 31

 I wanted the skirt to flair so I measured the bottom 31" on each side (total of 62"). The top of the skirt matched my waist at  18" (total of 36"). I marked the measurements with pins, then I started cutting from the top pin to the bottom. It will cut at an angle.

 I do not have a serger and if I use a strait stitch it wouldn't work. I have a stitch called a triple stitch. It does exactly what the name says. It looks like a lightening bolt.

 Waistband: I wanted it to be a yoga band, so I made the thickness 10". The way you measure a waistband is you wrap it around your waist. without stretching the fabric, you want 3/4 of the way around. Ok. So if that was confusing think of the compass. North, East, South, West kind of a compass.  You want the band to start from North and stop at West going clockwise. Th reason you don't want it to measure exactly the circumference of your waist is you want stretch. When you sew it to the skirt, you will pull this band to fit the skirt and that way the skirt won't fall off your hips!

So sew the side together using the same stitch as above.

 To sew the band to the skirt, you need to fold it in half. When sewing over a seam, things have to be even. So

 So when you fold the band make sure each seam is opposite ways and line of the stitching.

 Pin to the skirt and make sure that you use your North, East, South, West when you are pinning. Divide both the band in four equal ways by pinning the compass. Then match up the two compasses. Make sure you stretch the band to match the skirt.

 Folded down

On Barbara

 SOOOOOooooooo comfy. I want to live in it.

So much better than p.j.'s

Easter eggs - Day 230

 I was looking on Martha Stewart.com and found this wonderful list of dyed egg processes. I thought I would share them with you so you can do something fun and different this year.

  

Marbleized eggs

 

Silk dyed eggs

Electrical tape

Confetti eggs

Speckled eggs

Which one is your favorite?

Hot chocolate - Day 229

 Here is another hot chocolate recipe! This one is from London, England! 

L'Artisan du Chocolat

3/4 c whole milk

1/4 c heavy cream

2 tbsp firmly packed brown sugar

pinch of salt

Dash of pure vanilla

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

I used 1 cup of almond milk instead of the milk and cream.

 This is the chocolate I used.It was a little much to use the whole bar. I should have used half.

Little lamb - Day 228

 I did this craft last year with Ben, so I thought I would change it up a bit. I used real yarn this time so it looks a little different, but hey, that's what I was going for!

We used ink pads, but real paint works too.

 Add one googlie eye.

 Also add a bow under their chins. I added the boys names and year too.

Hair rosette bands - Day 227

 I have a friend who is having a girl and she wanted a ton of cute hair things for her. She asked me to make some for her and I thought I would share! If you want my tutorial of how to make the base rosette go here. I glued the doctored up rosettes to head bands I found at Wal-Mart. I measure them on Tayrien at the store so that I knew they would fit a little one. Then after you glue the flower to the band, cut a piece of felt the shape of a rectangle to glue over the band so it won't rub the baby raw. I used buttons, feathers, sparkles, and netting to vamp up the rosettes.

Oh! Tayrien was my model. He loved it!

 This one is not a rosette, but it is super cute. It looked really good in my hair too.

 I had to throw one in there of both boys.

Easter baskets - Day 226

 My mom went to visit her sister in Arizona three years ago. She got this cute idea and supplies to make Easter baskets out of tin cans. She initially passed the supplies off to me and I made them. They are adorable. The boys love them. You clean the cans and then paint them an adorable bright Easter color.

 Then you add adorable lovelies to the side. She already had them, so I just put them together.

Then I hot glued the pipe cleaners to the inside. I found similar ones at Micheal's store.