ADVENTURING!

Adventuring... that's the word I am going to use to describe my life right now. I've been keeping very busy thanks to many hobbies I have picked up. Though I've been going to bed late and tired most nights I have been enjoying everything I've been doing.

Here's how it all started:

Two weeks ago our family went to Idaho to go visit family, friends and for Paul to go fishing. While we were there we decided to pick some apples from the BYU-Idaho orchard so we could make apple sauce since we wouldn't be able to get any apples from Paul's parents this year. We had a pretty fun time picking and tasting a few apples. When our basket got full we went to go weigh it and pay for the apples, which was 50 cent a pound, and we were at 35 pounds! Holy cow that was a lot, but we looked up on google how many quarts that might make and it said roughly 12 so we decided to get 5 more pounds to make it an easy even 20 dollars to pay. The rest of the time we spent going to the city fair, visiting with family and friends. We had a wonderful time being back in Idaho. 

We got home pretty late on Sunday because we like to travel while Sawyer is asleep so the next day I was so tired I didn't really feel like getting started on the applesauce. Then on tuesday I started the craziness that is making and canning applesauce! The first time we did this we had a lot of help and I have to say that it is definitely not a one man job, you need a family of 9 kids to do this kind of work! Also, I need to say that I am so grateful that my in-laws were kind enough to let us borrow their Victorio Strainer! That machine seriously makes life easier, no need to peel and core apples it does that for you! Though it was very tedious work cutting all 40 pounds of apples into quarters, cooking them down in a pot with some water and then hand cranking them through that machine.

 As soon as I got started and got the first full bowl full with just one and a half batches of apples I had done I started to worry about how much it was going to make! After making all the applesauce and the bottling started we found that we had made 20 quarts of applesauce! Oh man, the internet failed us this time, 40 pounds was a little too much! However, its great food storage and we have a need for it with our babies so we aren't complaining! (Also hoping to do a future blog post on food storage so stay tuned!) That night we started the long task of sealing the cans. Sealing the cans wasn't that hard to do the directions I found on this site were very clear and easy to follow but how long it takes is what killed me. We started it way too late and had to stay up past 1 to make sure everything was done with the first batch. Thats also the other thing that makes it take so long is the fact that you can seal only 7 at a time in the water bath canner we were using.  

Well the next day I remembered I had a bag of plums I had gotten from my mom I decided to make some jam with it! Well talk about some more crazy adventuring in my life! I have never made jam in my life! So after cutting all the fruit it took quite a bit of researching to learn how to make some good low sugar jam made with clear jel. After a while I finally found a blog that gave some good information about how to use clear jel with making jams found here, which it took me quite a while to find this site let me tell you most people use pectin! After getting that all done I think finally on Thursday I had finished it all! That night I had said to Paul "I am so relieved that all that canning is finally done with!" and he looked at me kind of funny and asked me why. Well, though I loved doing it and it was great feeling getting so much done, I really wanted to get back to sewing! So if you haven't seen on Facebook or don't follow me on Instagram you probably haven't seen the little projects I've been doing for this little baby girl.  I seriously have started an obsession with sewing clothes for her, it has taken over my mind. Not only has it taken over my mind but also my dining room table! I don't know the last time it was clean but I guess I have kind of claimed it as my "work space". I'm not a professional by no means but I have been improving tremendously and the things I have made I think are pretty cute, even more cute than the things at stores because I would actually wear them!  I wish I was more professional with all these things though, so I could post DIY's and pattern's but sadly I am still just trying to figure things out for myself! Lastly I made  plum fruit leather, having another bag of plums from my mom, and man oh man it was good! Hopefully I can get a post for that recipe for you all soon! 

We Went on Vacation... What?

This little vacation of ours was definitely overdue but came at just the right time. Paul and I had been wanting to have a little getaway for a long time now but never seemed to have the money, babysitter available or time. So it was nice when we decided to hurry and jump on the opportunity to go and spend some one on one time together. Before we left, Paul was working pretty much all day long stressed about deadlines and getting things done. I, on the other hand, was stressed trying to keep up with our house, meals and Sawyer. We were having a pretty rough time trying not to get at each other and take out our stress on each other. We were pretty much having arguments and little fights (don't judge we are nowhere near perfect) almost everyday for a week before we left!

Well the morning we left, when my mom came and we got in the car to drive away all the tension started to go away between us. There really is something that makes relationships better about getting to spend that one on one time that just makes you remember again why you love your spouse and why you wanted to be with them in the first place. Paul and I since having Sawyer, and quite honestly since we first got married, weren't very good at keeping up regular dates. Though I don't want to blame it completely on this fact, I do feel that the lack of personal time together on dates and still trying to court each other has caused some tension in our marriage. It's so hard to think of dates, what to do and where to go especially after having a baby. I wished we had tried harder to have that habit before Sawyer came so that we would be more willing to do it when he was here but after he came dates honestly disappeared. I think we had gone on a total of 3 dates without Sawyer after he was born. Yea, not good. In all seriousness, when we had our getaway I felt like when we were first dating again, just it being only us doing things together. I wanted to hold hands, kiss more, show my affection and talk sweetly to him. I felt excited to be do something with him and more willing to have patience though things he does still might bug me. Personal time together in a marriage is a marriage saver, don't waste the time you have and don't make excuses, GO OUT WITH YOUR SPOUSE!

But, back to our vacation story. We left early friday morning before Sawyer woke up so he wouldn't be so upset to see us leave. We were going to Saint George, where it was going to be much much warmer than Springville, Utah. We got there around 11 or so and check in time wasn't until 2 so we decided to go shopping for a few groceries so we could have snacks and stuff for our picnic and hike the next day. We didn't end up eating lunch because it was so hot and just got some popsicles instead to eat. (yea, we are so healthy on this trip). We were exhausted from the night before, someone in our neighborhood was lighting off fireworks at midnight, and so when the hotel was ready we decided to take a nap. That night we had tickets to the Tuacahn Theater for the show The Little Mermaid. We had also gotten tickets to their all you can eat Luau buffet before the show. It was a pretty good meal but the show was amazing! We got some great seats too, pretty close to the stage, half price so we were having a blast being there! However, it was pretty hot our first day there so we were pretty uncomfortable from the heat sitting in our seats. The first part wasn't bad we had gotten a water bottle to keep us cool and that was enough because their was a breeze but by intermission the breeze was gone and it was HOT. We got a frozen lemonade to help but it didn't last long. Good thing the second part wasn't very long! If there is ever a next time, which I hope there is, we will definitely be bringing fans and seat cushions FYI.

We got back to the hotel pretty late that night, so we decided that we would try and wake up at 7:30 AM and hurry and get ready to be out at 8 AM to go hiking in Snow Canyon. Surprisingly we weren't that tired (must have been the nap the day before) and were able to get out and be at Snow Canyon ready to hike at around 8:30! We were so lucky that it was overcast that day and so it made hiking so much more tolerable. Even though it was still hot, around high 80's and mid 90's throughout the hike, the shade from the clouds made it easy to be active. We had picked the hike called three ponds or hidden ponds, thinking that it was one of the easier hikes (I was 26 weeks pregnant so we wanted to take it easy) and when I got started I was thinking "if this is an easy hike I'd hate to see moderate or expert!" well we only got about halfway through when we got to a part that would have been probably a mile in sand and I told Paul there was no way I could continue doing this hike in sand, so we hiked about a total of 4 miles there and back. Even though we didn't get to the end, the hike we did do was beautiful with all the red rocks and it was up and downhill so we had a lot of gorgeous views. When we got back to the car and had cell service we looked up the hike and found out we had misread the labels and we actually were hiking a moderate level hike! We laughed and were pretty happy with ourselves that we, especially me, had made it that far! We had a picnic at some shaded tables we found and then went back to get ready to go to the temple. It was really nice that we were able to go to the Saint George Temple together since we haven't been in a couple of months and also learn a bit of the history of the temple there as well. It was beautiful inside and we enjoyed feeling the spirit there. We then decided after the temple we wanted to get dinner and then go the the movies. The only movie that we really wanted to see that looked good was How to Train Your Dragon 2. Well we had an early dinner and then headed over to the theater to hang out and get our tickets early. We were there over an hour early for the 7:30 showing and it was sold out! We couldn't believe it we looked for any other places playing it that might be close and none in town, so we decided to drive all the way to Cedar City and see it playing at 9 their because we didn't have anything else planned for that day. We ended up being the only people there, which we thought was pretty funny because it was so popular in the city just 40 minutes away. The movie was great, better than we had hoped and glad we decided to make the trip instead of watching something we weren't interested in or trying to figure out what else we could do. 

The next day, our last full day, was sunday. We decided to go to the church across from the temple and after sacrament go to the visitors center to check things out. We talked to a sister missionary there for a while and found out that she speaks French and that they always try to have Sister missionary at the visitors center that speaks french or german because they have so many tour buses of people who speak that language come buy and want to see what the temple is all about. I thought that was pretty cool. After that we went to all of the church history sights that were around including the tabernacle, Brigham Young's Winter home, and Jacob Hamblin's home.  It was interesting to learn more about where the city got its name from and also a little bit of the history of the first settlers in the area. We then finished the night off at Texas Road House (the only place baby girl wanted to eat :P) and just relaxed at the pool and hotel room the rest of the night.

It was a very fun getaway, which we were so grateful to be able to go on! (Thanks family and especially mom for watching Sawyer even though you had back pain!) We loved every moment of it, but we did miss our little man and couldn't wait to see him again. Going on a vacation was seriously the best thing for us because we finally felt like going home and being a family again! 

There Are Ups... And There are Downs

It's that day. It's pretty much a living nightmare scratching, screaming, clawing, pinching, kicking, crying, hitting and wailing at you. So you put it in it's room, in the crib so it can't escape and shut the door. Then you find yourself in the closet, bathroom end of the hall or stairs crying. Crying hysterically because you don't know what to do and you have had it.

Lets face it, motherhood has so many joys and fun moments, but it also has the utmost worst moments of our lives as well. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life and I have had my share of trials, but sometimes I have to say some of the moments I have had with my child has brought me to my knees, or more like fetal position on the ground. If you say you don't have this problem in life then I am going to say one of three things to you. One, you are lying. Two, your child isn't real, its a doll, you should probably go get that checked (that or you don't have kids). Three, you must have it made in heaven, what are you doing because I want to go too?!

The last week or so has been a tough one for our family. Paul had to pull a lot of late nights because of a new product launch at work that they weren't quite prepared for, which has meant that I get to stay home alone, all day long, with Sawyer. Things were going pretty good, I was getting things done, I was cooking dinner and bringing it to Paul, I was keeping the house clean and Sawyer and I even had a little time to go to the pool. Then the dreaded downfall. It seems like when you are already having a hard enough time, things get harder. Its not like it wasn't already tough enough not having Paul around to help me with things but trying to do anything with Sawyer just seemed like an impossible task that day. Nothing was going right. Sawyer can sometimes be a stubborn and determined boy and if  his little body can't do exactly what he wants it to do he gets frustrated and throws a fit. I try to work through it, I try to calm him while trying to do what seems to be a billion other things at once. I'm on mommy-overload and my patients has run dry. It takes everything in me to not take my anger out and yell on the top of my lungs for him to stop it. I whisk him upstairs put him in the crib and shut the door. I feel like such a bad mom, I feel overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done and the fact that my child has almost broke me down to the mother I don't want to be.

I had to call Paul. He came home even though he had more to do at work and it was going to be a late night and he helped me. He got things together, cleaned up for me and took care of Sawyer all while I cried. I am so grateful for that man. I felt like I didn't have control of myself, I wanted to be a monster, and the feeling was so overwhelming I couldn't do anything else but sit and cry. My husband tells me all the time that I am too hard on myself, but it's so hard to feel fine with yourself when you give into anger or your impatience with life.

I don't want to be that person, but sometimes I am. I am human, so, so human. I can't do anything about it, and thats why motherhood is so humbling. You cannot control the child you have, you cannot pick who they will be or what they will do and at the same time you barely have a grip on what you can control about yourself. Thats why I am so grateful that there is the Savior, Jesus Christ. These are the moments where I have to stop and say "I have honestly done all I can, Please help me! Help me do what is right and calm my troubled soul!" There are a lot of things that we need as mothers to make our job bearable and easier, but there is nothing more in our lives that could help us with our job than the Savior. Though, I have to say  I was not as good as I should have been in this situation with going to the Lord for help, I know He is helping me and wants to help me with my burdens. Life is hard, but through the Savior I can have my burden made lighter and find peace in His gospel. Remember he is there for you, me, sinner, saint, child, adult, rich or poor he is there for us all.

Things are getting better. There ARE ups, and there ARE downs in life. And even though being a mom really has been one of the hardest things I've done, I would not trade it for the world. Motherhood is where I belong and I am willing to work hard and fight for it!

DIY Lace Trim

This little project is something I've been wanting to do for a while. I feel like every store I go to buy a dress the dress is never quite long enough, so I never end up buying dresses and I'm left with only maxi dresses and skirts to wear. Well the other day I found this cute blue dress at forever 21 and it wasn't quite long enough but I decided I could make it longer somehow and  bought it. Well here is the finished project!

What you will need for this project:

• Skater dress (or any dress of your choosing, skater looks nice with lace though)
• 1 1/2 - 2 inch lace trim
• thread that matches the dress and lace 
• needle 
• pins 

*I currently did not have a sewing machine when I did this but I am sure it would be easier if I did. However this project was very simple, didn't take a lot of time and still looked store bought! 

Step one: 

Measure out lace around the hem of the skirt, starting at one of the seams, and pinning it in place on the outside of the dress. Do this until you have gone all the way around and you have about an inch or two overlapping. 

Step two:

Thread needle with string that matches color of the dress and start sewing, with the dress inside out, along where the hem was made like so. If you are choosing to do this like I did without a sewing machine start out at one of the seams and make sure you tie it off when you start. Then just do a simple stitch a along the top of the lace where the hem is. This way you will not be able to see the stitch marks very noticeably on the other side. 

Step three:

Once you have made it all the way around and tied it off at the end now we need to sew the lace. Still having the dress inside out, bring the lace together so that if you lay the dress down flat the lace would be nicely folded, and not twisted, on top of each side. Like seen in the picture below. Sew along the lace and tie off on the top part wear the dress is. This can be a bit difficult as lace has holes in it if you don't have a sewing machine just try to sew along the spots that have bigger clothed areas. 

Step Four: 

Once you have sewn the lace, trim up any flyaway strings and trim the lace as close as you can to the line you just sewed in it. 

And thats all there is to it! such an easy simple DIY to make your dresses longer and cuter! 

*Style Tip. I will admit that I am a curvier girl, especially being pregnant, and so a lot of times when shopping at stores like Forever 21 (they can seriously have the best prices for a girl on a budget) I go to plus size when looking for a dress (JUST dresses). Not because I am totally huge and need bigger clothes but because a lot of times they are longer dresses and the dress just fits a little looser, which is how I like my dresses anyways, but it could easily be fixed if I wanted it a little smaller. I got this dress on sale for 11$ so it was a steal! 

*Shopping Tip. Don't buy your lace at the craft stores your the craft section. It honestly is overpriced and they usually aren't even that cute of a style lace. I bought mine on amazon for a previous project I a couple months ago and it has lasted me this long! Though I did look at a lot of other online fabric stores and they all had pretty good prices amazon just had the best for the style I was looking for, which was crocheted lace in cream. 

Clean Eating Brownies

If you're anything like me, then you love dessert. Its as plain and simple as that. You would probably rather spend most of your time in the kitchen cooking yummy desserts. However, if you're also like me, then you are also trying to eat healthier. Healthy eating equals feeling better in life generally and tempting desserts just put you in a slump. 

I feel like most of my Pinterest pins are in desserts section and just about all of them don't get made because they are way too unhealthy however they are so tempting. So, when I find a chocolate dessert recipe (I'm a chocolate lover) that is healthy I have to try it! I found this one on Pinterest called Clean Eating Freedom Brownies however when I looked at all the ingredients it called for 5 eggs! Well with my experience in cooking, which isn't a ton to call me a professional but I have a good amount to know that 5 eggs with the amount of all the other ingredients would turn out tasting super eggy. I don't know if any of you know that taste but I am not a fan of eggy tasting food that shouldn't taste like eggs. So I had to revise the recipe a little to my liking, so here it is enjoy! 

Clean Eating Brownies:

• 1/3 cup coconut flower
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 mashed avocado (optional)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil 
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup 
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt (or regular)
• 2 TBS flax meal 
• 6 TBS water
• 2 tsp vanilla 

First start off by mixing the flax meal and water together in a cup and set aside to thicken.

Preheat oven to 350.  

Mix the flour and cocoa powder in a food processor or a blender. 

Then slowly add the wet ingredients one at a time starting with the avocado if you are choosing to add it and the flax meal mixture last to make sure it has thickened is the consistency of an egg. 

After all the ingredients are mixed grease a 8x8 for thicker brownies or a 7x11 for thinner and pour mixture in. 

Bake for 35 min. 

take out and make sure they cool or when cutting them they will fall apart. 

*tips:

• I used a food processor because if you have ever used coconut flour in absorbs moister differently than wheat flour and will clump quite quickly making it hard to mix with a whisk or spoon. However if you do not have a food processor or blender just now attempting with spoon or whisk might be a bit difficult to mix well. 
• adding the avocado makes the brownies more fudgey which I love but you are more of a fan of more cake-like brownies you shouldn't put it in. 
• I served these brownies with just a scoop of ice cream on the side and no one even knew they were healthy, just a suggestion. 

They Don't Stay Babies For Long

Just about over a month ago Sawyer turned one and soon after that we found out we were having a baby girl!

As I looked through the pictures from that time a flood of different thoughts and feelings come over me. I start to remember how desperately I felt when trying to get pregnant after feeling impressed to start having a family and soon finding that it's not as easy as you think to just get pregnant. I also remembered how devastated I was when I found out I was miscarrying our first pregnancy, and the joys and fears that accompanied a crazy roller coaster of emotions when we got pregnant again with Sawyer. Now here I am pregnant with my second, a girl which I have always dreamed of having and having a whole new experience with this pregnancy. It's a constant battle of wishing I wasn't pregnant, hoping my body doesn't change too much, thrilled to have cute baby girl to dress up, scared  my body is going to look worse after this pregnancy, excited for the attention you get when you have a newborn baby and the list goes on and on.

Since starting my little family I have been humbled a lot. First, I was humbled to learn that getting pregnant and pregnancy are not easy things. When you look at the statistics there is only a tiny window of opportunity for a woman to get pregnant each month (if she has a normal cycle) and the chances are not that high, yet we do, so it makes it amazing that women can even get pregnant (human life truly is a miracle). However, then after your pregnant the fears of many things constantly rush through you afraid of miscarriage, still birth, unhealthy baby, labor, delivery and everything in between. Then you have that little bundle of joy and there is so much happiness and so much love that you didn't even know was possible to have for someone and fears will be washed away momentarily by all the hope in the world just looking at that fresh from heaven new face. Sadly, if you're as "lucky" as me it doesn't last too long and new fears and insecurities creep in with postpartum depression. Now don't get me wrong I was happy as could be to have such a wonderful child in my life, but things got hard when feelings of inadequacy found its way into me about motherhood and being good enough on many different levels.

With feelings of inadequacy, I don't just mean the everyday question's of mothers like "am I doing this right?" or "How do I know what he/she wants?" Though it does cause troubling feelings inside I'm talking about other things like "How come I don't look like 'her' after having my baby" and "How do they afford all those cute/cool baby things?" and also "How does she have time to put makeup on, I barely have time to take a shower?" Yes, I am talking about the awful thing that can happen when you come into this world of motherhood, COMPARISON. It quite honestly is hard not to do it when once we get pregnant and become mothers we seem to see people in the same exact stage as us EVERYWHERE!

This was something that was quite hard for me, it seemed like I could always see someone somewhere doing it better than me. I came into this rut where it was like once I get to this certain point in motherhood where I lost all the weight I gained, look good in a bikini, had time to make myself look glamorous, could cook a full course meal and afford all the best clothes and gadgets for my baby I would be happy. The sad thing was that was never going to happen. Nine months later I would find out I was pregnant with our second (oops!) and the weight wasn't going to be coming off any time soon being pregnant. Stretch marks were never going to go away especially after getting pregnant so soon so having the goal to look good in a bikini was unrealistic, plus the mommy tummy that happens after having a baby (yikes!). Having a busy one year old and the energy of a pregnant women well there goes having time to make myself look glamorous and cooking a full course meal. Now, my husband did get a better job but now we have so much more bills to pay for a bigger place, all the insurance and other responsibilities that come with growing up there goes the last thing of ever getting the "best".

Today, it is so easy to get wrapped up in what everyone else has and needing to be this "perfect" mother. I can't tell you how much I have struggled with this unrealistic "perfect" I have chased after, and with constantly trying to chase it, it was hard to find my self worth. I thought it would be easy to be happy being pregnant with a girl, something I had always wanted, but it wasn't because I had been so wrapped up in wanting to be this beautiful pregnant women with everything perfect, not gaining any weight, looking good in a bikini, glamorously made up, cooking perfect meals and afford all the best for my baby girl. However, I am not. It's as simple as that and that is ok because who I am is good enough. I am tired of being so wrapped up in how things need to look from the outside that I forgot about the most important part of having children and being a mother is... being a mother. I know that sounds funny, but think about it we need to forget a little more about all those temporal things that don't mean much in the long run and spend time being the best mom for our kids. Our kids aren't going to care if we aren't the skinniest woman on the block, have perfect skin, wear make up, cook a full course meal or have have the best clothes and toys (sorry I'm listing so much). Believe it or not kids are going to love you for just being their parent. I never look back at my life and wish that I had better clothes in my childhood, or ate better meals I was just happy to have what I needed and tried to enjoy life. If I felt that way and never saw any of those things important as a child then why am I worrying about it so much now?

I love that quote given in general conference sometime ago saying

"Motherhood Is Not A Hobby, It Is A Calling. You Do Not Collect Children Because You Find Them Cuter Than Stamps. It Is Not Something You Do If You Can Squeeze The Time In. It Is What God Gave You Time For." ~ Elder Neal Anderson

This bring so much perspective to me of what motherhood really is. We don't become mothers because we just have to have that cute little baby, not because of the motherhood status or because "everyone else" is doing it and we need to too. We are mothers because as a women we have been called to do it. I know that when starting a family I have fallen trap to thinking that being a mother was all about having the cutest baby/child, being the most beautiful mom, having the best stuff and pretty much being the best at everything. I now realize what motherhood really is all about. I bear the marks of having a child that I used to look at in shame, though no one else was going to see them I wished they were never there. Now I look at them and remember the sacrifice that was made to have my little Sawyer, and the sacrifice that is motherhood. Take in those moments, women, enjoy motherhood and take the time to realize the sacrifice you are making to bring that child of God into this world and the stewardship you have been given over that life, because they don't stay babies for long. 

Yummy Healthy Homemade Fruit Snacks

So I have already posted this recipe before but when I made it this time I made a few changes to it. Anyways I am going to post the way I made it then at the end I will leave some tips on how you can make the fruit snacks the way you would like them to taste! 

Homemade Fruitsnacks:

• 1 cup fruit 
• 2/3 cup lemon juice*
• 4 tablespoons honey*
• 4 tablespoons plain gelatin 

First start by taking your fruit, fresh or frozen, and lemon juice and put them in a saucepan on medium high heat until the fruit is nice and soft. (to the point where you can easily cut through with a spoon. Next let it cool for a few minutes but don't let the mixture get completely cold, and depending on what you have (blender, food processor, stand mixer) puree the fruit. 

*Make sure you blend it pretty well because depending on the fruit you use you can get weird fibrous chunks like if you use pineapple or mango. Also, if you want to use berries be aware that if you don't have a very good blender to pulverize the seeds the fruit snacks will have crunchy seeds. 

Now add honey. Now one tablespoon at a time whisk in the gelatin. 

*Do this slowly or else you will end up with gelatin chunks, and make sure the mixture is still warm or else it will easily get clump with cold pureed fruit. 

Now depending on what size fruitsnacks you want you can pour the mixture into either an 8x8 dish or a 9x13 dish. 8x8 will give you thicker gummies and a 9x13 thinner ones. 

* I lightly greased my pan before putting the mixture in too afraid it would stick. 

Now place in the fridge for about 30 min or until solid. take out flop onto a piece of wax paper and cut into desired sizes. Or if you have fun shaped cutters use those! 

*keep refrigerated because they can go bad sitting out. 

*know your fruit, if you know your fruit is more tart them maybe using orange juice will help it become sweeter. If your fruit is bland lemon juice will bring out the flavor. However if you use lemon juice you will most likely need to use a sweetener if you don't like sour.
* with the gelatin if you like softer tummies then do 4 tablespoons if you like firmer then do 5 each way it turns out perfectly. 

*honestly with the sweetener you can use whatever you prefer sugar, honey, agave etc. and I would honestly do it to your taste, put however much you feel is necessary to make it taste good to you! So make sure you do a few taste tests! 

Easter's Coming!

I don't know about you but I really enjoy all the fun holidays and wish to get into them with my kids, however I only have one 10 month old right now and he isn't exactly into the holidays like I would like. But, hey? What can I do he's only a baby!

Anyways I try to make the holiday at least somewhat fun and entertaining for the both of us! So now here Easter is coming up and of corse I am not going to buy the typical candy for my 10 month old so I came up with this cute little Easter basket for babies, especially a little boy!

Now to the supplies!
first off I had to go with the cute little blue basket for this little boy, but  I guess whatever color floats your boat then so be it. Next must have for a the basket is a pair or blue bunny ears. He will probably only wear them once but hey! You got to get some good pictures to embarrass him with when he's older!

Of course during this Easter/spring season they sell the most adorable touch and feel books so I had about a dozen books to choose one. I chose baby animals touch and feel book. He already has one with farm animals and that book seriously keeps him occupied in times I need him quiet! You also have to put some fun little toys in the basket, so the cutest one I could find for a boy was little dino toys. (I hope he likes them!) Now lastly, put in one of their favorite snacks. Sawyer loves those squeezable fruits on the go! 

I am so excited for Sawyer to see all the fun little things in his basket and I hope he likes them all! Of course all of this can be made to fit a girl as well, just turn the basket and ears into girly colors and the dino toys maybe into a small stuffed animal! Just have fun with it!

Up-cycling and DIYing

So spring is here and that means warmer weather and if your like me that means a lot of t-shirts! Well, I have to say, being a person who loves fashion and being comfy, I have a love hate relationship with t-shirts. Why? One because they can be so plain and have no style to them and I love them because they are just so comfy. Also, spring means spring cleaning and that means cleaning out closets of clothes you don't wear anymore. So I have an awesome craft today to fix that problem!

No-Sew Peter Pan Colar Necklace: 

Things you will need:

• old shirt
• t-shirt
• scissors
• felt
• glue
• ribbon

So I started with an old jean shirt I had for the collar part and then a T-shirt to use for tracing out the collar.

Sorry, I'm not very fancy and don't have a pattern, I just drew it out myself. (I do things the hard way!) So what I did was place a paper inside the shirt up around the collar. I folded it in half to so I could find the middle.

Then I drew out just one half the collar and cut it out. 

Next I traced it on the inside of the old jean shirt. Doing 2 flipped right side up and 2 upside down. If your like me and make mistakes easily make 2, it came in handy when I realized I messed up halfway through with one of the steps.

 Now, get your felt and repeat the previous step.

Cut all the shapes out now and get your ribbon and glue ready. I measured the ribbon out longer just so I would have room for mistakes and could cut it down to the perfect size for my neck after I'm done.

Place glue on one side of the fabric and one side of the felt. Make sure that when you put them on top of each other they match, this is where I accidentally glued on the wrong side and when I was going to place them on top of each other they didn't match.

 place ribbon down on the felt so that it the edges won't stick out on the sides of the collar.

Now place fabric over the felt and ribbon so that it evenly matches and repeat this step with the rest of your fabric, felt and ribbon.

Ok so I lied, there is a tiny bit of sewing in this project. 

However, its super simple just flip it over to the back where the felt is facing up and sew the two pieces together. Only sew the felt part so you won't see it on the front side. 

And now you are done! You know have a wonderful piece to wear with those plain T's this spring and summer!