Fourth Of July Hair Band

 

I cut a bunch of thin strips of fabric.  I did a loose stitch across the bottom and made them ruffle.

I wrapped the ruffles around my fingers.  I would put a little dab of hot glue at the bottom of the ruffle every so often, that held the layers together.  I wrapped until it was as big as I wanted.  Then I took the navy blue tulle and layered it and cut the edges.  I put hot glue in the center of the ruffles and set the tulle down inside.  Then I glued the cute clear button on top.  You could also do a few stitches with a needle and thread at the bottom of the ruffle.  That would hold it together a little more.  I used a needle and thread to attach it to a stretchy head band.  Then I added a couple of cute girls, that's it.

Happy 4th!

Banana Pudding

This was so easy and yummy (I thought).  I used this recipe from Great American Brand Name Cookbook, 1993. I made a few changes.

Cold & Creamy Banana Pudding
1 (14-ounce) can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 (3.5 ounce) package instant pudding and pie filling
2 cups (1 pint) whipped cream, whipped*
36 vanilla wafers
3 medium bananas, sliced and dipped in lemon juice

• In a large mixing bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and water.
• Add pudding mix and beat until well blended.
• Chill 5 minutes in refrigerator.
• Fold in whipped topping. (Do this slowly and as few times as you possible to combine, so the mixture will retain its thickness.)
• Spoon 1 cup pudding mixture into 2 1/2 quart glass serving bowl.
• Top with 1/3 each of wafers, bananas and pudding. Repeat twice.
• Garnish as desired.
• Chill thoroughly. Refrigerate any leftovers.

I whipped up my own whipping cream, I like it better than using Cool Whip.  I also used the Mini Vanilla Wafers. They are perfectly bite size!  The other ones are too big to fit in your mouth.  I used some extra banana's too.  This is a double batch.

Perfect cool treat for a hot summer night.

Getting Organized

I shouldn't do anything until I get my closet organized, but that wouldn't be any fun!  I think most mom's like to keep special art projects, and other papers from their kids school.  I have been wondering where to put the "keepers" from my kids school work.  I found these cute boxes at Target.  They are in the office supply and organizing section.  They are from the Liberty of London line.

Each box came with  hanging file folders.  Perfect!  I will have to get a few more folders for each box.

I love all the fun patterns!  They had even more to choose from.  One huge step in getting organized for me, and a really long way to go.
One funny story from one of Belle's "keepers" is .........

At the end of her 1st grade school year she brought home her school journal.  on 3-4-10 this is what she wrote....
"Yesterday my Dad shut my face in the window.  He said it's diner time.  I didn't ckum he didn't no my face was in the window."

Ahhhhh, parenthood!  I will keep this one forever to remind us of why we never won parent of the year.
Here is what happened that night.
We were at the dinner table and everyone was sitting waiting for Belle to come.  We called for her several times and she didn't listen.  She was in her bedroom hollering to her friends a few houses down.  Aaron finally went in to get her.  Aaron reached through her blinds and closed her window.  She was standing behind her blinds and he couldn't see that she had her face pressed up against the screen.  So he did shut her face in the window and pinched it.  I wish I had a picture to go along with her journal.  There was a red pinch line all the way down her face.  Aaron felt so bad.  Then when the journal came home at the end of the year, we got a good laugh.  The journal is going in the cute box!

Kids Apron

Alrighty, so the disclaimer on this little apron is that I don't sew.  I repeat......I don't sew! My main goal when I made this was not to call my mom or neighbor.  Mission accomplished, but maybe I should have. I remember back in Jr. High when I had to take a required sewing class. What a nightmare. If my mind serves me correctly the drop waist on my drop waist dress, dropped right off! My mom and Grandma were always hopeful that I would become interested in sewing one day.  My parents gave me a sewing machine for Christmas one year.  My Grandma gave me a fancy pair of scissors with my name engraved on them. I have only attempted a few projects over the years.  The last thing I remember making was a cape for Belle's Halloween costume a couple of years ago. I hate to admit it but I used my glue gun as much as my sewing machine on the cape. It's true.
Anyway, a new day has dawned. Belle helps me in the kitchen all the time. She has a few cute aprons, but a girl needs options, right?  I found this blog with a cute ruffle apron.  The only problem was that it gave instructions for an adult apron. So I just winged it. I just reduced the measurements a little bit.
I also added a top piece to the apron. I made it detachable so she could wear it with or without. I added a little flower with the extra fabric.

I used the sticky velcro. It attaches to the velcro in the waist band in the skirt. I also  made bands in the back of the skirt instead of ties. I put velcro on those too. It's easier for Belle to put it on herself.
I think it turned out okay for one of my first experiments. Belle loves it.
For those of you who sew this would be a quick project, and easy to understand from her tutorial. For the rest of you, give me a shout out if you need help and I will pretend I know what I am talking about.

Teacher Gifts

So I guess it might be a little late to post this idea since school got out yesterday.  I used these as teacher gifts, but I think you could use them as a gift for anyone.
My friend Kelly showed me one on a smaller scale that she made to put show tickets in as a gift, cute!  I needed an idea for Teacher Appreciation Week last year.  I sent home paper with the kids in their homework folder.  It said "My favorite thing about Kindergarten is...." Then they wrote it down and drew a picture.  I put them all in this book.
For the cover of this book I used card stock.  I used Modge Podge to attach it, then I covered the entire the entire book with Modge Podge. Then I attached the bow with spray glue.

 This is what the book looked like in the beginning. I spent about 50 cents on it at DI.

This year the PTA sent home notes with the kids, so I made a book for my daughters teacher to keep them all in.

On the cover of this one I used fabric.  First I used spray glue and stuck the fabric to the cover of the book.  I wrapped it around about an inch on the inside.  Then I covered the inside with card stock.  I covered the fabric on the outside with Modge Podge.  Then I used a glue gun to attach the ribbon where the three fabrics met up.

I took some spray glue and sprayed in between about 8 pages and stuck them all together.  Then I took a piece of card stock and spray glued one to each side of the section of pages I glued together.  I did this throughout the book.

Now the teacher will be able to attach the notes from the kids inside the book.  I thought these would be great gifts for other things too.  Father's day is coming up, you could make a book for dad or grandpa with notes and pictures from the kids.

Is That A Slurpee?

No, it's a cupcake!  These are the treats I made for my daughters soccer team.  Spring Soccer is to cold here to have a real Slurpee.

I went to my local 7 Eleven (I like to call it the "Sev") and asked if I could buy Slurpee cups.  I think I paid about a dollar for a dozen or so cups.  I told them what I was doing, and they were really great about selling me the cups.  

I wanted a cupcake flavor that would go along with the theme.  I used a Cherry 7up cupcake recipe.  For the frosting I used this 7up buttercream.  In the frosting I left out the cherry juice and used plain 7up because I wanted the frosting to be white so I could color it blue, purple, and red.

The cupcakes are not regular size.  I found jumbo cupcake papers at Hobby Lobby.  Regular ones would have fallen down in the cup.  I also wadded up a paper towel and put it in the bottom of the cup for some extra support.

I colored the frosting, frosted the cupcakes, sprinkled the colored sugar on top, and dropped them in the cups.  I cut Red Vines in half and used them as the straws.  Badda bing, badda boom.  Super easy, and cute.  And from what I hear, they taste really good.  They were gone so fast I didn't get a taste. :)  I believe I doubled the recipe and got around 15 jumbo cupcakes.

Fourteen Layers Of Heaven

I saw this cake a long time ago, and have been dreaming about it ever since.  I wanted to make it for some kind of "occasion" so I decided to do it for desert on Easter.  I used the Smith Family recipe, only I did fourteen layers instead of 12.  I also used a few other tips from Bakerella.

Fourteen pans (dollar store) you can cook three at a time.  Hey, it's better than washing pans in between cooking!

Are you drooling yet?

I topped it off with a chocolate buttercream frosting.  Only problem, I don't remember what buttercream recipe I used, but it was a good one. :)  We had to give most of the cake away because it was so big!  We couldn't have eaten it all, believe me....I tried.  Oh baby, come to mama.

Coconut Cuteness

We had a few family get togethers over spring break.  I found these cute flower cupcake papers by Wilton and thought they would be really cute with these yummy coconut cupcakes.

I used this Coconut Cupcake recipe.  I didn't use the frosting recipe that is listed there, but I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream and added some coconut flavoring.

I knew some people wouldn't be thrilled with so much coconut, so some of them have jelly beans instead.  I found this cute little "flower box" in the dollar bins at Target.  Me and my cousin dropped these off to my Grandpa and had a really great visit with him.