That Time I Deleted All My Photos

So, apparently when you are on your phone, and decide to look at all your photos through Google+, and you delete them from your phone to save space, it also deletes them from your blog.

Sad day.

Love Notes

Sometimes life happens and the plans you have change.

 

This seems to be especially true when it comes to my calling in young women's. I usually meet with my presidency once every quarter. We also have a Facebook page where we keep each other up to date on everything else. It is super convenient and I don't have to feel like we are having meetings just to have meetings. So when we do meet, we plan a ton and then divvy out who will be in charge of what activity. It works great! But sometimes life comes and throws a quick pot hole in the road and you have to be flexible.

 

I was recently in charge of an activity where I would be teaching the girls to correctly lead music and then we would make some cute scarves as a reward. It was all set. And then Savanah woke up with a fever that morning and my husband was away for training. I frantically began texting all my leaders to figure out who could take over for me that night. Sadly, none of them knew how to really lead or sew for that matter. It was obvious that we would need a Plan B. I did a quick scan of Pinterest and found an idea that I was able to modify to fit our time restraint.

 

It just so happened that this activity was the during the week of Valentine's Day. I ran out to the Dollar Store and grabbed some cute, plastic buckets and some fun ribbon. I then made a quick sticker using Picmonkey and printed them out on printable shipping label sheets.

The idea was for the girls to each decorate a bucket with the ribbon and stickers to hold their "love notes". They then used scrapbooking supplies to make several cards that they could send to people who might need a little extra love. The girls could continue to add extra cards all year long to their buckets and use them as a reminder to do small acts of kindness for others.

 

Not too bad for a Plan B!

Little Gentleman Cardigan

Sometimes it feels like every sewing project out there for babies revolves around girls. It is super easy to find a quick skirt, dress, headband, pair of leggings (I could go on) tutorial for your little girl. There are thousands. But when it comes to baby boys, it is like a deer in the headlights.

 

And then one day, the heavens opened up, and I found this.

 Cutest thing EVER!

 

Naturally I had to make one immediately. I rummaged through what I already had for the baby and got to work. So essentially this project could be considered free if you already have the stuff. If not, it is still really inexpensive.

 

I think this last one is my favorite. The combination of nautical and a teeny tiny onesie make it irresistible! Now I just need this little man to come so we can play dress up.

Quick & Easy Burp Cloth

I think you hit a certain point in your life when you look at your Facebook feed and at least 20 of yours friends are expecting. And it will stay that way for years and years to come! If you are like me, then you are probably always looking for a little something extra to add to all those baby shower gifts.

 

Buying clothes, toys, and other baby gear is fun, but I think there is something special about adding a homemade gift. I especially like to add something that is better quality than what you can buy. You know, homemade blankets that are actually big enough for the baby to use after their first month, or towels that actually absorb the water. Novel thoughts, right?

 

My babies have major acid reflux. No, not the "oops, looks like you got a little white stuff on your shirt" type of spitting up, but the "5 gallons of milk just came back up all over you, the baby, the baby carrier, and the diaper bag at church and there is definitely no salvaging this" type of spitting up. It is awesome...

 

Needless to say we go through a lot of burp cloths. And with two previous spitters, I can say with confidence that not all burp cloths are created equal.

 

So, what's my favorite homemade gift to add?

 Burp cloths!

 

Here's what you need:

Gerber cloth diapers

Ribbon

Coordinating thread

Sewing machine

 

You essentially could just dye the white burp cloths and call it good if you don't happen to sew. I think a rainbow of colors would be an awesome baby shower gift. I just really do not like dying things. Truth, I'm not good at it.

 

Cut your ribbon to about an inch longer than the length of the burp cloth. Pin your ribbon down on top of the two seams that are on the burp cloth. I tucked the two ends of the ribbon under so there would be no raw edges before I started sewing

Now switch your machine to a tight zig zag stitch and sew along both sides of the ribbon. This takes a little time, because the stitch is so tight, but it looks really nice when finished.

 

And just a quick side note, I left my bobbin white so that it would blend in with the underside of the burp cloth. But that's just my preference.

Purpose of Life Handout

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are expecting! Yea for babies, right? But I have definitely not been feeling "yea" with this pregnancy. It started with the "sickies" and then went straight to the "no energy to post anything". I have been crafting up a storm, but just have not gotten around to posting about them. That all changes today. I guess I am blog nesting.

 

I have been serving as our church's Young Women's president for a little over a year now. I absolutely LOVE the program and being with the girls. It is quite a nice change of pace from being with elementary school kids all the time. The new curriculum that was introduced in 2013 is awesome. I love the extra leniency when I am planning a lesson. And I really love finding cute things for the girls to add to their journals (more on those later!).

 

This month's theme is the Plan of Salvation. I taught a quick lesson on the plan and then switched to the purpose of life. I was really struggling to find a cute handout for the end of my lesson, and Sugar Doodle was down all last week. What?

 

I finally stumbled across this handout on Pinterest. 

I love President Utchdorf, so it was perfect! I then remembered seeing these little hamburgers all over Pinterest and thought they would be so cute to give out along side my handout. 

They are so adorable and come together in absolutely no time at all.

 

Quick directions:

1. Mix a few drops of green food coloring into a small bag of coconut. Shake well.

2. In three separate bowls, mix frosting with red, yellow, and green food coloring. I used butter cream frosting from a container.

3. Smear red and yellow frosting to flat side of vanilla wafer.

4. Place York peppermint patty on top of frosting.

5. Smear green frosting on top of peppermint patty.

6. Push a bit of coconut onto green frosting.

7. Smear more green frosting to the flat side of another vanilla wafer and top off your burger.

 

Now make about 50 because they are so easy and they look so darn cute all lined up together!

DIY Coming Home Outfit

Back in August, my sister-in-law sent me a pin on Pinterest asking me if I could make this outfit from an Etsy shop. Knowing that I could totally replicate it, and that I definitely could do it for way less than $24, I told her yes.

I kept some things the same, but added my own style, too.

 

I chose a lighter grey chevron and a dark pink onesie. Did you know that Hobby Lobby sells onesies for like $3.99 and then you can use a 40% off on top of that?  I also chose to have my bow tie go all the way around the onesie rather than just at the front. I like that it hides where the onesie and the material meet. And finally I found a giant rose for pretty cheap at Hobby Lobby and added that right to the center of the bow.

Cost breakdown:

Onesie: $2.40

Chevron material: already had, but let's say $1.50

Black material: $0.40

Flower: $1.80

Total: $6.10

 

 

That is quite a savings by doing it yourself, or finding a generous family member to do it for you! ;)

 

So the next time you find something super cute on Etsy, pause before hitting the "purchase" button and find out if you can do it yourself.

Picmonkey Handouts

 

If you haven't tried Picmonkey yet, you totally need to. I use it all the time to edit photos and create fun handouts for my YW. You can totally pay for the complete version, but I find the free version suits all my needs just fine.

 

I created this cute handout to go with one of my lessons. The great thing is that it is totally interchangeable. Just swap out virtue for whatever other word you want.

 

To create this handout, I googled "water" under images and found one I liked. Save the image to your computer. Open the image on the Picmonkey website and click the add text button. I found a "creepy-ish" looking free font and began adding my text. Once I had it the way I wanted it, I changed the blend modes from normal to overlay to give it that see through look. 

 

The best part was finding Bruce (the shark from Finding Nemo) Pez dispensers on clearance to attach the handout to. They turned out adorable and the girls loved them.