Baby Clothes and Hairbows

My hubby called me last week and said that they had all donated some money and asked me if I would mind buying some baby clothes for a guy at work that just had a baby.  Heck Yeah!  I got to buy baby clothes AND spend other people's money!  I bought a couple of outfits and then I remembered that I had started a dress for my niece last spring.  It was right before we moved, and I never finished it (and now it wouldn't fit her).  I actually made my kid a dress with the same pattern (Butterick 3404) when she was little.  I love how the skirt is made up of "petals".  It looks like a little fairy dress to me. 

 This pic helps you see the "petals" a little better.

 I also made her a pair of matching hot pink satin bloomers-

and a ridiculously large flower for her head.

I was having so much fun I decided to make bows for each of the outfits that I bought. Click under the picture for a link to how to make them.

 Rosette

I'm sure there's lots of tutorials for these.  I just wrapped the fabric around a pipe cleaner.  Then I twisted it into a rose shape.  I hot-glued  3 pieces of folded satin ribbon to the back for leaves.  Then I hot-glued a felt circle and a clip on the back.

 Loopy ribbon flower

Ribbon Flowers

 Gross-grain Ribbon flower

Awesome Blossom

I think I need a baby girl of my own :)

Linking up here.

You might also enjoy these other tutorials.

How to Dress Cute for Middle School

1. Take on $5 striped t-shirt from Wal-mart. 

2. From a leftover sleeve, cut 3 strips of fabric 5 inches long and 2 inches wide.

3. Tie each strip in a not and sew on to shirt.

4.  Make sure to wear a co-ordinated bracelet.

5.  Admire how cute you are

Linking up here.

Check out other ways we have made ourselves cuter.

YW Manual 3 Lesson 15 Blessings of the House of Israel

I teach 14-15 year old girls each Sunday. This is my lesson Plan for my upcoming lesson on the Blessings of the House of Israel.

I’m going to use the talk “Identity, Priority, and Blessings,” by Russell M. Nelson found here, as a general outline for the lesson. (Anything highlighted in tan is from this talk.) My girls love quotes and so I’m going to print up all the quotes for them. PDF file for all lesson handout here. (it's 3 pages so scroll down)

Identity

First of all I will ask the girls, who they are?  They are daughters, sisters, friends, girls, students, etc.  Most importantly they are daughters of a Heavenly Father and I don’t think that you can point that out too often.

It is important to know who you are and who you may become. It is more important than what you do, vital as your work is. You pursue an education to prepare for life’s work, but you also need to prepare for life—eternal life. I emphasize this because some people on life’s journey forget who they really are and what is really important. Without sure identity and priority, blessings that matter most are at the mercy of things that matter least

Jesus Christ knows who we are:

“Behold,” He said, “ye are the children of the prophets; and ye are of the house of Israel; and ye are of the covenant which the Father made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham: And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed” (3 Ne. 20:25; emphasis added).

I will ask, "Who does Jesus Christ say that we are?"

I will explain that by being baptized they have been adopted into the House of Israel and have all the responsibilities and blessing of the House of Israel.

The Bible Dictionary gives a clear, concise explanation of the covenant and we will read and discuss it together.

To make the Abrahamic Covenant more clear, I am going to print out the following : 

The Abrahamic Covenant
If we:
1,  Keep the commandments
2. Endure to the end
3. Believe in Jesus Christ
4. Be spiritually minded
5. Be married in the temple
 HE will bless us with:
1.The Gospel
2. The Priesthood
3. Eternal Life

Priority

I will discuss the following quotes with the girls.

You work to sustain life; you don’t live to sustain work.

I doubt that the Lord cares much which honorable vocation you pursue. But He does care if you love one another and serve one another (see Mosiah 4:15). And He cares that you have the obedience and self-discipline needed to maintain your identity and honor your highest priorities.

President Gordon B. Hinckley gave counsel to you sisters. He said: “I urge each of you young women to get all of the schooling you can get. You will need it for the world into which you will move. … No other generation in all of history has offered women so many opportunities. Your first objective should be a happy marriage, sealed in the temple of the Lord, and followed by the rearing of a good family. Education can better equip you for the realization of those ideals.”¹

Real love is not measured in terms of moonlight and roses but in terms of who will care for you when you are old.

When mortal life is over, each of us will return to God, who gave us life. In a judgment interview, I doubt that He will ask a surgeon, “How many operations did you perform?” or “Do you wish you had spent more time at the hospital?” But I know He will ask if Sister Nelson and I remained faithful to our covenants to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ and always remember Him. No doubt He will carefully scrutinize my apostolic ministry, but that vital subject will probably be subordinated to His evaluation of my record as a husband and father.

Seek not the things of this world but seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness; and all … things shall be added unto you” Matt. 6:33

Blessings

We have been promised, “All that he hath”.  Really what more can we ask for?  What’s more than everything?

(the middle is a mirror)

I will end by giving a handout to each girl, with this quote by Dallin H. Oaks:

“… It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.”  

I will ask each girl to look into the mirror and will tell them that they are truly daughters of God and heirs to all that he has.  I will then ask them to record in their notebooks, what they want to “become”.

 I found little glass mirrors at Hobby Lobby ($2.47 /10).  I printed out the quote by Dallin H. Oaks.  I used my Cricut Cake Basic's to cut out the mirror frame and the crown. ( I also thought it would be really cute to use my Paper Doll Dress up and cut out princess and use the mirror for the head.) I used a piece of cloud scrapbook paper to mount everything on.

You can find my other YW ideas here.

Monkey Bread

We had some good friends visit over the weekend and so thought it would be fun to do something special for breakfast.  Here's a easy recipe-kids can help too.

 

You will need:

1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

4 (10 oz) refrigerated biscuits

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

½ cup melted butter

½ cups nuts (optional)

If you are using nuts (I never do), sprinkle them evenly in a well-greased Bundt pan.  Pop open biscuits.  Take each individual biscuit and divide it in four.  Mix cinnamon and sugar.  Roll each biscuit quarter in sugar and place in pan.  Repeat until all the dough is in the pan.  Combine melted butter with brown sugar and pour over biscuits. Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes.  Cool for 8 minutes in pan and then invert on serving platter.  Serve warm.

 Some of my international readers have been confused by "biscuits" in a can.  If you do not have access to canned dough, you can substitute bread dough.

Linking up here.

Still hungry-click here.

Awesome Blossom

So I've been buying lots of long-sleeve shirts on clearance and making them fabulous. This has giving me an over abundance of left-over sleeves. I was messing around w/ a sleeve and came up with this:

I love it and it was so easy.

 1. Cut a piece of sleeve about 2 inches wide. You can't tell from the pic, but this is actually the bottom of the sleeve where it is stitched.  If you don't have a sleeve, I tried the same technique w/ a folded over piece of knit and it worked the same.

 2. Cut almost to the stitched line all the way down.

3. Start rolling.  Hot glue a felt circle on to secure.  Add a pin or hair clip if you want or sew it right on a t-shirt.  You're done.  I don't even think it took more than 3 minutes and it's so cute.  You can experiment with different lengths of sleeves for different looks.

You can even turn it upside down and make a carnation.

I pinned mine on this sweater.  (By the way, I stole the necklace out of the dress-up box).

Linking up HERE.

Click HERE for other fashion fun.

Books For Boys

I know all boys don't hate to read, but we have actual scientific evidence that my son hates to read.  My daughter did a science project, where she tested his heart rate after different activities (sitting, reading, walking, running).  His reading heart rate was almost as high as his running heart rate and considerably higher than his walking heart rate.  He’s a smart kid that doesn’t have any learning disabilities-he just hates to read. This confuses me, b/c books are my best friends.

When a big blockbuster movie based on a book is coming out, I tell them that whoever reads the book gets to see the movie.  It only works with my daughter, but maybe it will work for you.  I've also tried letting him watch the movie first and then getting him the book, but that's never worked either.

 Here are some books that he hates a little less:

WARNING: THESE BOOKS MAY CONTAIN GROSS HUMOR AND THE MENTION OF UNDERPANTS

Poetry

I think sometimes non-readers are intimated by entire books, but if they have to only tackle a poem at a time, they relax and enjoy themselves a little more, especially if it’s funny.

Anything by Shel Sliverstein

Monster Goose by Judy Sierra-pure genius right up there with Silverstein and LOL funny

Miles of Smiles-edited by Bruce Lansky (this is a collection of funny poems by different authors and it’s a lot of fun)

The Aliens Have Landed by Kenn Nesbit

Nonfiction

My husband doesn’t enjoy fiction (I can’t understand it), and has helped me understand that non-fiction is reading too.  My husband has shelves of books on birds and is currently reading 3 books on running (thrilling?) Get your son books about his favorite subjects.  We have shelves of dinosaur books and my kid has read every sports biography in the library.

Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleishman

-this is the true story of a railroad worker that survived when a 13 pound rod iron exploded through his skull (can you see why boys might like that?)

Fiction

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey (irreverent w/ lots of potty humor, but that why they like them)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid-by Jeff Kinney (the first 3 are laugh-out-loud funny and even the others are pretty good)

The Guardians of Ga’hoole by Kathryn Lasky-I haven't read this myself

Warriors by Erin Hunter (these are about feral cats that are warriors.  To be honest, I couldn’t get beyond the first chapter, but my kid and his friends love them.)

Magazines

Sports Illustrated for Kids -My son loves sports, but with all the mess that pro athletes get themselves into, ESPN is not always so kid friendly.

National Geographic for Kids

My Big Back Yard

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Here are some other books that I think boys might like, but I haven’t got my son to try them yet.

Leviathan and Behomoth-Scott Westerfeld

The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineus

Maze Runner by James Dashner (a little violent)

The Airman and Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

The City of Ember-Jeanne Du Prau

The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff by Jason Lethcoe (Reminds me a little of Dahl)

Harry Potter-JK Rowling ( I offered my kid $100 to read them all-so far I haven't given out any $)

Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan

Charlie Bone-Jenny Nimmo (there is even a fun website)

Leon an the Spitting Image by Allen Kurzweil

The Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan

Anything by Brandon Mull

For older boys I love Orson Scott Card and Jerry Spinelli.  Maybe even the Inkheart series-although I found it a little bloody.

Click here to read my favorite toddler books.
Click here to read my books for mother-daughter bookclub. (funnest idea ever!)

Do you have any other books, my boys might like?

Linking up here.

Cherry Blossoms

I was going to wait to post this until tomorrow, but It turned out really cute and I don't want to clean my house or exercise.

One of my favorite things about living in DC was the Cherry Blossoms.  It was even worth having to deal w/ all the extra tourists, just to bask in their beauty.  I also lived in Korea when I was little, and I remember driving through forests of them w/ my parents.  So Cherry Blossoms just make me happy. 

I've wanted to do this project for weeks.

My mom had an entire shelf in her garage of the cheap vases that flowers come in.  Several blogs have posted about spray painting the inside of vases to make them look like milk glass. If anyone did a tutorial, leave a comment and I'll link back to it.  The quick directions:  Wrap the outside of the glass in a few plastic bags.  Use masking tape to seal it shut at the top.  Spray the paint inside. I gave mine a couple of coats.

 Then  I cut out a bunch of flower shapes out of tissue paper. I used my Cricut 1.0 (scissors).  I hot glued them on a branch.  On top of each flower, I hot-glued a glass bead.

I'm in love!

Grand total for my lovely tree= $1 ( for the beads- a guess you could add in another quarter for the spray paint and a few cents for the paper).

Check out my other holiday decor.

Linking up here.