It seems like everyone around me is having babies right now! So naturally I've been in search of great baby gifts. While "pinteresting" (yes it's a verb now!) my life away, I came across this tutorial for a hooded car seat blankie from "The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking". I remember when Izzy was so little and it was all I could do to keep the blankets stuffed in around her - and I thought this idea was {perfect}. I followed each step exactly how the blog says - I wasn't sure about the hood part, but I followed the directions and it works perfectly.
Here is what I came up with! This is for a little baby girl...
It is mostly just a sweet flannel blanket, but it has secret (okay, they're not really secret) places for the carseat straps and buckles to come through. {As the blogger writes in her blog, I don't guarantee the safety of this blanket, however in my opinion it is safe, as the baby is still snuggly buckled into the seat and there are no obstructions.}
Keep those babies warm!!!! :)
This idea is pinned onto my pinterest board. If you'd like to follow me, click here.
My Spring classes started today, and I'm already procrastinating! Instead of telling my class all about myself, I figured now would be a good time to share {some} of the Christmas presents I made this year.This weekend I FINALLY gave out the last Christmas present, so now I can share them here!! I have to admit, it's possible I got a little carried away with the Pinterest homemade gift idea.
1. Canvas photos
One of the many joys of having children is that gifts for parents and grandparents are easy - they all love photos of the little Peanut! And I love creating them! I'm so fortunate to have a wonderful photographer friend {laura} camden - she is the photographer for some of the canvases that I created.
2. Photo coasters (can you see the theme already?!)
*photo coming!
This was one of the first ideas I "pinned" and they turned out beautifully! I found the original idea here. This is a FABULOUS and oh so inexpensive gift idea! If you'd rather not use photos you could use cute scrapbook papers instead.
3. Cork Monograms
These were fun and easy to do. I made {three} in one evening. I used 9inch letters that I found online at Hobby Lobby for a couple of dollars each. Then I used corks from my parents - thank goodness they {LOVE} wine! It took a LOT of corks! (Don't worry they had been collecting for quite a while...) I used a staple gun to attach a hanger ribbon to the back and wha-la! *Make sure you let the wine-soaked end show - the colors make it look more interesting.
4. Coffee Cozies! *One of my favorites!
I made {SO} many of these this year! I LOVE LOVE LOVE them! I think they are a wonderful idea. They were inexpensive (except that I bought different fabric for EVERYONE), they are green and they are practical! {PERFECT} I combined a couple of different tutorials and made my own pattern - based off of a Starbucks cardboard sleeve. {If you'd like the pattern, let me know!}
5. Chalkboard Wine Glasses
This was another one of my favorite gifts. I could see using this gift again for a Bachelorette Party, Shower or even a birthday party! Basically, I bought wine glasses from the Dollar Store and Chalkboard Paint from Home Depot. Super simple and so much fun! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of these... but they looked awfullyl similar to these ones.
6. Felted Flower Scarf
Let's be honest, I made one of these for myself and immediately went to the store and bought TONS more felt to make others for my dear friends. The only problem - they took FOREVER to make!! They turned out beautifully though! One friend said she wore her's and received TWO unsolicited compliments! :) {love that} Here is the tutorial I used, my photo coming soon!
Ok, well there are 6 fabulous ideas for you - more coming soon! The others include, glass etching, bird nest necklaces, tutus, coloring tote, play kitchen and more!! :)
P.s. New Year's Resolution: POST MORE BLOGS!! :)
It's hard to believe that it's December 23rd already! Only two more days until the big day! I'm so excited, I absolutely LOVE this time of year!!! This year, to go along with my pinterest obsession, I decided to do a {mostly} handmade Christmas! Nearly all of the gifts that we will give to our friends and family this year were made by us! Unfortunately, I can't share pictures just yet of all the things we made - but I will. There is one picture that I can share because the receiver of this gift isn't quite 2 and can't read yet. Yup! I'm talking about Izzy's play kitchen! This kitchen turned EXACTLY like the vision in my head! I'm beyond excited about this gift, I just hope she likes it as much as we do {Aaron's just as in love with it as I am!}.
Here is what we started with, way back in October:
Then we cut the top off, removed all the doors and drawers, sanded the whole thing down and added the back "wall". After a couple of coats of paint this is what it looked like:
{Notice the hole for the sink? I cut it myself! :)}
Next we painted and added the doors for the "appliances" - microwave, refridgerator, oven and dishwasher (every girl needs a dishwasher!).
Finally we added the accents - picture window, lights, curtains (yup, made those too!), and shelves and here's what we got - I'm seriously in love with this thing!
I'm so excited to give it to Izzy! There are so many wonderful things about this gift... it was upcycled and repurposed, it's homemade, it's sturdy, but my favorite part is that Aaron and I made it together and it truly was a joint effort!
If you are curious for a preview of the other gifts that we made this season, check out my "gift ideas" board on pinterest. I will post updated gift and other Christmas photos after Christmas. :)
Merry Christmas to all!
I am pretty certain there is nothing that I despise more than laundry. When I sit back and think about it logically, I'm not really sure why I hate it... it doesn't smell too bad (usually), it's not terrible dirty or disgusting. I think the problem is that it is so mundane and NEVER ENDING - that's the kicker, never ending. We have a fairly small household - two parents and one baby, but we consistently have MOUNDING piles of laundry. I like to blame it on my husband - he does wear a lot of clothes, but really it's both of us. The baby's clothes don't count, yet. She has little clothes and they get done separately. While I'm writing this there is one large basket of clean laundry staring at me and I can hear that both the washer and dryer have stoppd (although I'm ignoring the silence) and there are 3-4 more loads lined up ready to go.
I can't decide if it's better to save the laundry and do it all on one weekend day, or do a load or two each night. Usually I decide the weekends is better- better to get it all over with in one day than to prolong the misery.
Oh well.... here I go, off to be the laundry fairy!
While driving down the 17 (the road from Flagstaff to Phoenix) we came upon a car in the median that had obviously rolled multiple times. There were no emergency personel on the scene, only a couple of cars had stopped, but we could see a small group of people gathered by the car. I immediately stopped the car and Aaron jumped out to go help, however he could. He could tell that the group was moving very quickly or with much panic. He was pretty sure that the people had died. When he got to the group he realized that the driver AND the passenger were out of the car, walking around and talking. They were fine, not even a scratch. One guy had watched the car pass him going at least 95 miles an hour and then watched the car flip over at least six times. There was no way these people should be alive, let alone walking around. We were shocked. All night we kept saying, "can you believe those people were fine?!" (Clearly they were both in shock, however that is NOTHING compared to how incredibly terrible it could have been.) Aaron stayed with the group for five or ten minutes, then the emergency personel arrived. It was simply amazing.
So the moral of the story? Live every day to fullest, no regrets. And don't be stupid!!!
Hi, my name is Megan and I am OBSESSED with blogs!
Everyone in unison: "Hi Megan!" ;)
I seriously LOVE reading other people's blogs. I mostly like blogs about people I know, but even people I don't. Blogging is such a strange thing. It's basically an online public diary and for a nosy girl like me, they're perfect! Reading other people's well written and inspiring blogs makes me want to write my own well written and inspiring blogs. I think ultimately this means that I need to have more kids so that I have more things to write about - right? Seems like a GREAT reason to have more kids, ha!
So speaking of the one fabulous kid that I do have....
Halloween is just around the corner (literally, it's 2 days away!). I don't particularly enjoy Halloween itself, however I do feel like it is the gateway for the rest of the seasonal holidays and I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the fall/winter holidays! My husband on the other had LOVE LOVE LOVES Halloween - everything about it! He loves scary, spooky and creepy and everything else that goes along with the "holiday" (I hesitate to even call it that). We are of course VERY ready for Halloween, we have the spooky decorations outside, along with my not-so-spooky scarecrow and fall wreath, we have the Halloween advent calendar (a new addition thanks to pinterest) and after a trip to Sam's Club we are full up on candy!! Izzy's costume is all set to go! She's going to be the most adorable little ladybug ever! (I promise there will be a blog post with pictures next week.)
Speaking of Christmas (well sort of...) Aaron and I were able to work on Izzy's play kitchen this morning a bit. It has been fully reinforced and the backing has been added. The next steps are to add doors, shelves, paint and we are o our way! It's quite an undertaking, but I'm so excited about it! I'm still not exactly sure how she's going to be able to reach it, but I'll get there. If you have any ideas let me know! :)
See? This is why my blog posts are not as well written and inspiring - they're so random and all over the place! Oh well...
One last thing, I'm planning to run another half marathon in a little over a month. The Las Vegas half marathon - on the Strip AT NIGHT! Can't wait! Although I should probably start training... hmmmm....
Goodnight!
Since my obsession with http://www.pinterest.com/ I am pretty enthralled with reading other people's blogs. I love reading random people's crafting and recipe blogs and even more than those, I love reading blogs about people I know! It's such a great way to keep up to date and to document life! So, I noticed that other blogs seemed more happy and upbeat than mine - hence the new color scheme! And also, I'd like to post more often!
So... Izzy's new FAVORITE activity is coloring. All day, "Color?" and "Mommy, color?" It is pretty cute. Although I do get a little nervous, I do NOT want to repaint my house because of crayoned walls. So far *fingers crossed!* she has been very good about keeping her crayons on the paper.
Each new stage is fun and exciting. This particular stage is really fun because she is just now really exploring and learning about her world. It's really fun to watch!
