Amy's Baby Shower

My sister is expecting her first child in July, so that meant planning a baby shower for her!  Last Saturday, friends and family gathered for a lunch to honor the mom-to-be.  We kept it simple and cute.  She is having a girl, but I didn't want the shower to be over the top with pink and "it's a girl" plastered everywhere.  The theme was bumble bee/garden and we used green, pink, yellow and white colors to decorate.  I'm not going to describe every detail, but if you want to know where I got any of the decorations or how anything was made, just send me an email. 

30 Days of Creativity

I was going through all the blogs I follow on google read this morning, and something caught my eye (thanks Chris!)...a challenge to create something everyday for 30 days in the month of June.  I asked myself if this is something I could handle.  I admit, I'm lazy and a procrastinator and really the only time I ever 'create' is when I need a gift for someone or a party coming up.  When I think about creativity, I only think about sewing or scrapbooking, things like that.  So I looked up the meaning of creativity and I liked this one the best:

Creativity is when a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art etc.) that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs. What counts as "valuable" is similarly defined in a variety of ways.

I went on over to the 30 Days of Creativity blog.  30 Days of Creativity is described as a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in June.  I think I can handle that!  So I decided to take on this initiative and we'll see how it goes.  Check back to see how I spend the next 30 days creating.

Before the whole 30 days starts, a warm-up exercise was given.  And here it is (don't laugh!).  It's my picture with a thought bubble.  In the thought bubble, I put the words that I think make me creative and most likely the areas that I will be using to complete the 30-day initiative.

Another Handmade Gift Exchange!

I just signed up for the spring/summer gift exchange held by Linda of Craftaholics Anonymous.  This will be my second one.  I participated in Christmas gift exchange this past year, and it was so much fun!  I loved trying to come up with a cute, creative gift.  In return, I received a handmade gift as well (a personalized mug rug, some awesome fabric fat quarters, and pretty little magnets).  Can't wait to start working on a gift!

Pinterest!

I read about Pinterest a while back, but never signed up.  Then I read about it recently and decided to see what it's all about.  I was hooked!  I requested an invite and received the confirmation email this morning and started adding things to my boards.  Pinterest is a great way to organize, create and share all things that you love.  I set up several different boards to save recipes, sewing tutorials, gift ideas, and home decor styles.  Be sure to check out my boards and follow me! 

Business Card/Gift Card Holders

Last year, I sewed up a few of these card holders for my aunt.  She gave them as end-of-the-year gifts to her classroom assistants.  She asked me again this year to make them for her.  So I followed this tutorial, but instead of adding the button and elastic, I added a cute little flower.  These were super simple to make and I really liked how they came out.  Each one is for sale in my etsy shop.

Shaklee Cleaning Products

My sister was telling me about the Shaklee cleaning products a few weeks back.  The company has been around for over 50 years and sells all-natural cleaning products, along with with natural beauty and nutritional products.  She ordered the basic cleaner and germicide.  I saw her over the weekend and she was telling me how great these products were.  Even my mom was raving about how much cleaner her sink looked after cleaning with these products.  So I thought I would purchase a few of the products and try them out myself.  I purchased the Basic H2 cleaning concentrate and the Basic G germicide.  The prices are little high, but the products are highlight concentrated and you add a small amount of cleaner to a specific amount of water.  I'm excited to try these products and will definitely be letting you all now what I think about them.  Stay tuned!

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.  And a very happy mother's day to my mom!

Linked Up

I linked up my strawberries and watermelons to My Backyard Eden's Make It Yours Day!

Gorilla Bread

I know Christmas is not for another seven months, but Jeremy posted this on his blog and I wanted to share the recipe with everyone.  I think I first started making this our first Christmas as a married couple, in 2008.  I was searching on the Food Network's website and found this.  It's a Paula Deen recipe and yes, the recipe calls for butter and sugar. 

So I decided to try out the recipe.  It's a little time consuming because you have cut up biscuit dough and cream cheese and wrap the dough around the little bits of cream cheese.  But it's definitely worth it!  I've made it now every Christmas morning since 2008.  I think it's a great little tradition.  But I also think I need to make it more than once a year! 

You will need a bundt pan for this recipe.

Ingredients

1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
2 12-ounce cans refrigerated biscuits (10 count) (Note: I usually can only find packs of 8, so I just cut two in half to make 10)
1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

• Spray a pan with nonstick cooking spray.  In a saucepan on low heat, melt the butter and brown sugar, stirring well and set aside.
• Mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon.  Cut the cream cheese into 20 equal cubes.  Press the biscuits out with your fingers and sprinkle each with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar.  Place a cube of cream cheese in the center of each biscuit, wrapping and sealing the dough around the cream cheese. 
• Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bottom of the bundt pan (optional). 
• Place 10 prepared biscuits in the pan.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, pour half of the melted butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle on 1/2 cup of nuts, if using. 
• Layer the remaining biscuits on top, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, pour the remaining butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts, if using. 
• Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.  Place a plate on top of the bundt pan and flip over.
• Enjoy!

Let me know if you try this recipe.  If you look on Paula Deen's website, she has different variations that look just as amazing!

Classy Camouflage

My uncle recently married on March 19th.  A week before the wedding he asked if I could make something camo for him and his groomsmen.  I thought a camouflage pocket square would be perfect.  It's just a touch of camo without it being over the top. 

And here is what I came up with:

They were super easy to make.  I cut two 9-inch by 9-inch squares, sewed right sides together leaving about two inch opening, turned right side out, ironed, and sewed up the opening.  I looked online to find an easy fold for a pocket square.  To keep the fold, I sprayed spray starch then ironed the folds.  They held up really nice!

So I had some extra fabric left over and wanted to make something girly for my uncle's wife.  And this what I came up with:

I don't have specific instructions on how to make this, but you can go here to find a tutorial.  I added a sparkly button to the center of the flower.  To make it a hair clip, I hot glued an alligator clip to the back.  My cousin (my uncle's daughter) ended up wearing the flower in her hair, and I think it looked great with her bridesmaids dress.

And here is the happy couple after they said "I do".  Notice the camo pocket square in my uncle's pocket!

Congratulations to the happy couple!