the little one

Gosh, she's just the cutest thing, and picked the white beanie out herself from my closet. This kid has good taste! I adore her, runny nose and all. 

Happy Monday!

felt food making-peel-able banana

Here it is, piece #3, a fancy peel-able banana!

 I found a great tutorial for this piece over at the blog Just Stuff. It's always the piece that I get the most comments on. "Oh, a banana! And look it comes out of the peel!" Its the little things, I guess? ;) You can also use this same method for making a corn in it's husk. 

To see more felt food click below:

Strawberries 

Watermelon

green smoothie

Spring is here! Yay, finally! The sun is shinning which makes taking blog photos much more enjoyable than fighting with dark skies and no natural light. It also makes me want to clean and eat healthier because I know i'll be forced into a swimsuit in a few short months (ugh). I'm trying to eat healthier (mmm...pizza) and tried my hand making a green smoothie after seeing a few motivating Instagram pics by Emma over at Red Velvet. 

This one has:

 two handfuls of spinach

one sliced apple

three large strawberries

one scoop protein powder

one cup water

a handful of ice

The verdict? It was yummy overall. I couldn't taste the spinach at all, but the consistency was rather thick. I think adding more ice would help for next time. The thing I like about it is that its filling. I couldn't even finish the whole thing. I'm looking forward to trying a few others this week, maybe something with blueberries? That sounds tasty.

diy blackboard

I just wanted to share with you a project I completed last week, a DIY kitchen blackboard. It was beyond easy, and only cost me $3.99! I've been wanting a chalkboard near the kitchen to write lists, notes, and menu plans on but the size of the wall I wanted to put it on was rather awkward. 

The frame I picked up at the thrift store, and the paint I already had. I just gave the frame a coat of white paint, then sanded around the edges for a distressed look. Then I flipped the mat board in the frame over and gave it two good coats of chalkboard paint. 

Easy peasy. 

If you're wondering where the quote is from, it's from the original movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Willy Wonka whispers "so shines a good deed in a weary world" when Charlie gives back the gobstopper. It's probably my all time favorite quote. Ever. :)

Have a good day!

felt food making-watermelon

Here it is...felt food #2...Watermelon!  It's large, about 10" long, and was fun to make. I hand stitched the seeds with embroidery floss, and stuffed it with poly fill. 

To see more felt food click below:
Strawberries

felt food making-strawberries

Last summer I had a grand idea to make a few pieces of felt food a week for Ella. I was hoping that by Christmas I'd have a rather large selection to give to her along with the play kitchen we made for her (more on that project later). So I started making felt food. LOTS of it. I managed to take pictures of ALL of it, so I'll share one food at a time. 

It was a lot of work, but very much worth it. Ella loves to play with it, and I'm hoping that these will hold up to pass down to the next kid (whenever that it) and maybe even their kids!

First up, and perhaps my favorite of the bunch...Strawberries!

If you're interested in making your own felt food I'd suggest Googleing it. There are a million patterns for great felt foods.

mason jar + felt = love

I've been addicted to Pinterest (who isn't, right?) for a long while now. It's just the most amazing place to find new recipes, projects, and inspiration. I came across these Valentines day jars and happened to have everything to make them on hand (love when that happens).

First off I dyed my doilies in coffee. Don't worry, it was cold, old, stale coffee from the morning (wouldn't want to go wasting good coffee now would we?). I basically just let the doilies soak in the coffee for a few min, then placed them on a paper towel to dry. The rule of thumb is that the longer you leave them in, the darker they get.

 Then you just cut some hearts out of felt, and wrap the doilies and felt hearts around the jar with your bakers twine. I used a variety of jars I had on hand, so anything goes. Then you can fill your jars with candy or even use them as small flower vases. Easy peasy.

 If you want to check out the original blog post on how to make these click on over to this blog.

handmade valentines

While the husband and I were grocery shopping the other day Ella spotted a box of Princess valentines. She screamed "Cinderella! Princess!" in the middle of the store so I let her hold the box while we finished shopping. When it was time to checkout, Travis and I did the whole "distract and hide" bit to get the valentines out of her hands (if you have kids you know exactly what that is). 

I had borrowed a silicone heart mold from a friend and planned to make some homemade crayons as valentines. It was a really really easy project and they turned out so cute! I can't wait to package them up and give them to her friends.

Here's how to do it:

Peel the paper off of the crayons and break them up into small pieces. Fill the mold with the crayon bits (not too full, you don't want the melted crayons to spill over) and stick the mold on a baking sheet lined with foil (in case any crayon spills over). Put it in the oven at 250 degrees for 10-15 minutes. You'll be able to see when all the crayon bits are completely melted. It's optional but before I put the crayon pieces into the mold I gave each mold a shake or two of glitter. Once the crayons are completely melted take them out and let them cool in the mold on the counter or for faster cooling you can put it in the freezer. Then just pop them out of their molds. And just like that, brand new crayons!

 Here they are cooled in the mold.

 I separated my red, pink and purple bits together and green and blue bits together. You can mix all  your colors together or separate them for a more uniform look. It's up to you!

 I bought some 4" clear cellophane bags at Michaels to package them up in and plan on making a bag topper to attach to the top. Of course this is not only a great project for Valentines, but for anytime you have a million broken crayons lying around. I think her little friends will really enjoy their sparkly crayon Valentines. <3

feelin' the love

It's February 2nd! That means only 12 more days until Valentines day. We were at Lowe's the other night and I stocked up on paint swatches in shades of red and pink knowing that I'd need to decorate something for the holiday this month. I used the same method as my Halloween paint swatch garland (you can find my tutorial here). The only difference this time is that I glued my paint swatches together first (right sides out) and instead of using a 2" hole punch, I freehand cut hearts. The hearts are by no means exactly the same but they look cute hanging from the mantle nonetheless. It was so fast and easy that it got me wanting to start on another Valentines day project. I'll share that one next week!

out with the old, in with the new

Happy New Year! Well, I guess I should have said that a few weeks ago seeing as how it's almost February and I've been absent on the blog for quite a while. A LOT has happened in the 6 weeks since I've last blogged.

Here's a run down of the craziness:

We moved.
We decided to not renew our lease at our apartment. The house we were renting before the move to L.A. last year came back on the market and we couldn't pass us getting back into it. My parents own the house so they love when we live there (we take good care of the place!) and we get a great deal on an otherwise expensive house in a nice area. The only stipulation is that we only had a few weeks to pack up and move. 24/7 packing and moving = no time for blogging (plus no internet!). During this short time frame we also had to complete some minor renovations/painting in the new place (i'll share more on that later).

Changing up the blog/shop.
During the break from moving I thought a lot about the blog and my etsy shop. I've been thinking about how both have evolved since I started them, what I want them to be, and how my style, thoughts, and life are expressed here on the blog. I'll talk more about what I plan to do in another post, but lets just say there will be changes coming...

More babies.
Travis and I are beginning to talk about expanding out family with another child this year. We all know this is exciting (and kinda freaking me out!), it's going to be a lot more work, and just another change that 2012 will bring. A lot of my time lately has also been focused on throwing my BFF a baby shower for her 2nd child. Baby D is due in just a few short weeks, and the shower is right around the corner, and we all know how party planning can suck you into it's detailed death grip.

Apologies...
I dropped the ball on sharing with you what I received from my CHWH partner. Ugh, I feel so bad, but the timing was just...not good. I had everything out to photograph her great package and the next day it was all packed up. Sorry Lisa!

So this is where we're at. Another year gone by, but a new fresh start for 2012. I'm looking forward to this year!