Live: Burp Cloths How To

     I live in an area that personalized baby items are extremely popular, and as you know popularity also means high price. One of the most simple things that have become popular are cloth diapers turned into burp cloths with fabric stripes, ribbon tags, monogramming, and applique. I started by adding cloth stripes to the center of my cloth diapers, and I am going to have a few embroidered. Keep in mind sewing is not my thing, I have a friend helping me learn. Also, if you have an embroidery machine or a friend who does, it makes a great addition.

 Now because the cloth diapers are not perfectly square, I wanted my fabric to be square. This included having no extra flap of material hanging out on my corners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Materials:

Cloth Diapers (pre-folded)

Fabric of you liking (really about 8 inches wide)

Sewing Machine with matching thread

Pins

 

Step 1: "Pre-Wash" Fabrics so it is all pre-shrunk. You can do this by soaking it in very hot water and then drying it, not actually washing it.

 

 

 

Step 2: Cut your Fabric

 This part should be easy, but the cloth diapers have no consistency. You want your final product to be a little larger than the thick part of the diaper. I suggest about an inch wider on each side and each end. Then when you fold your fabric you will have a quarter to a half inch extra on each side.

 

Step 3: Folding Corners

Pick a corner and folder corner to angle as shown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 4: Fold Side

After you have the corner folded in you are ready to fold the first side. It is really important that you fold a straight line. You can see my pin on the right side of the picture to help hold my side in place. Although this is only the first side it is important to consider how much you are folding to insure that you have a wide enough piece of fabric in the end. At the top of the triangle created by the folds is where your corner will be.

 

 

 

 Step 5: First Corner

 Fold the other side, insure that it creates a straight line, and bring it in far enough so that it meets the other fold creating your fist corner. When finished be sure the pin the corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 6: Repeat for All Corners

Paying attention as you go to make sure that you keep the fabric wide enough to cover the center of the diaper, continue to fold each corner as described in steps 3-5.  When you are finished you should have a piece of fabric that is a little wider than the center part of the diaper, but you do not want the fabric to hang off on the ends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Step 7: Flip Fabric, Pin into Place, and Sew 

The easy part right?! Move the pins to the front side of your fabric while also pinning to the cloth diaper. Pick a coordinating thread color and you are ready to sew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished product. How cute would this be with a monogram on it?

 

 



Love: Pregnancy 32

(Sorry for the shadow.)

 

 

How far along? 32 weeks

Weight Gain: About 20 pounds.

Morning Sickness: None.

Maternity Clothes:  Always.

Stretch Marks: So far, none, hoping that continues.

Sleep: I love sleep! I am ready for bed about 9:00, but depending on what I’m doing stay up until about 9:30-9:45. The weekends aren’t much different. I really have to be busy to not just fall asleep after 10:00 For a while I was feeling like I was waking up more during the night, but the past few nights that has not been the case, I have been out. I haven’t had any Charlie Horses in the past week, I did however, wake up twice extremely thirsty. I’ve been keeping something on my nightstand for when that happens.

Baby Movement: It seems pretty constant. His head is between my pelvic bones, so I often can feel his little hands very low. His butt is in the area of my belly button and I can fell that move from one side to another. He is not getting under my ribs at this point, but getting up by them.

Food Cravings: None. My husband was expecting me to crave pickles and ice cream so I think it has been a disappointment for him.

Labor Signs: None.

Belly Button In or Out? Flat, and depending on what I am wearing you can see the top edge of it. (Totally weird!)

Wedding Rings On or Off? On, and still pretty loose.

Thoughts and Feelings: I can’t help but think how fortunate I have been throughout this pregnancy. I had no morning sickness, only a few cases of borderline dehydration which caused 1, nearly 2 blackouts. But generally speaking I have had energy, felt great, and have no complaints. I can only hope that delivery is like this too (I’m extremely nervous about that). I am excited to have Connor’s nursery done, but I am in no way anxious for him to get here. I am still at, “This is crazy he will be here in about 8 weeks!” My husband on the other hand is completely ready for him to get here.

Although the nursery is ready, many other things are not. I still need to pack my hospital bag packed, and I can’t really do it yet either. I think I’m going to say it’s on my agenda for the weekend I get home after Christmas. We have also not put his car seat in the car yet, again waiting until after Christmas, not to mention I’m not really sure when that should go in. I think really I’m at, “Let’s get through Christmas.” We did meet with the lactation consultant at the hospital, but I need to call back about classes. We have to wait until January, because my husband will have to ask off from work since the classes are only on Monday nights, and he works every Monday night. I also need to be making a list of questions to ask my doctor about labor. Things that some may consider simple, like at what point should I go to the hospital (we only live 7 minutes away so it’s not a big deal, but also pain relief options, and just general questions about what this hospital offers. We do however have a pediatrician picked out.

I have been learning how to sew and have successfully added fabric to the cloth diapers to use an burp cloths, made from scratch 2 burp cloths with a cut out so that it fits around my neck, and 1 bib. (I will post on that later.)

Live: Italian Chicken Crescent Rolls

They were mighty yummy!

 

It all starts with 3 simple ingredients: 8 ounces of cream cheese (softened), 1 can of white meat chicken, and an 8 pack of crescent rolls. There are som many varitations of this recipe from here. They make great easy dinners, and an awesome finger food for get togethers.

 

 

Italian Chicken Crescent Rolls:

 I only added 3 ingedients: 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, and pizza sauce for dipping.

 

I use my stand mixer when I start because cream cheese is tuff to mix by hand.

Directions:

1. Beat cream cheese.

2. Add in Italian seasoning and cheese, mix together.

3. Strain chicken and then cut into small pieces.

4. Add chicken to cream cheese mix, then mix together.

5. Open crescent rolls onto cookie sheet.

6. Scoop mixture onto each crescent roll (it's about a 1/4 cup).

7. Wrap crescent roll around the chicken.  

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. 

 9. When the crescents are close to being done heat up the pizza sauce.

 

Serve and Enjoy!



Live: Meatballs

This is one of those recipes that you almost have to make people try the meathballs before you tell them what is in them. 3 ingredients, in the crock pot for 6 hours, and delish!

Ingredients:
meatballs (I used the bag at Wal-Mart, it has about 70 meatballs in it.)
1 jar chili sauce
small jar grape jelly

Directions:
1. Dump all ingredients in the crock pot and mix together. It will not mix completely, but just stir it around. I use a crock pot liner because it can be a little sticky.
2. Cook in the Crock Pot for 6 hours on low.
3. Stir and Enjoy!

Teach: Grammar Games

I have been struggling with my transition into teach 4th grade writing, pretty much since the beginning of school. But the past few days and the upcoming days have been great! I wanted to share a few of my fun "games" we enjoyed while learning grammar.

Capital Letters:
It is a whole standard, but I have really having a hard time with the idea that it was something that I needed to teach again in 4th grade. I did spend a day on it, and a homework assignment. However, in looking for ways to make it a little more interesting I landed on this easy idea.

I had 6 sentences on the board and the students had the same six, plus more for homework in front of them. All of the students stood up to start with. As I called on a student they told me one word in the sentence that needed a capital letter. I then called on another student, and they had to say why that word needed a capital letter. Both students could then sit down. I continued until everyone had a turn, and they even got to go twice each. It seems really silly, but they did enjoy it. As we went they also highlighted the letter that needed to be capitalized. When we finished they had to rewrite the sentences correctly, and they also had more like that for homework. It worked out great and the grades were pretty good.

Ending Punctuation:
Again, this was a whole standard, and I was struggling with the idea of needing to spend a lot of time on it. So we played another "game". I read several sentences out loud to the students and they had an action to show what type of punctuation the sentence needed. If it need a period they clapped their hands, a question mark they jumped, and an exclamation point they held up spirit fingers. This literally took less than 10 minutes, but we all enjoyed it. My assistant principal stuck her head into the room for 30 seconds to tell me something, and when I met with her later she asked what we were doing because it looked like we were having so much fun. We were!

Commas (and maybe Quotation Marks):
This one is a little tricky, I mean I still have trouble with using commas correctly, but I wanted to again make this something fun. I wrote several sentences on a piece of poster board without commas. After we discussed the rules for the days lesson students identified where the commas needed to go in the sentence. They then taped/glued an elbow macaroni noodle in place for the comma. That night they had a matching homework assignment, just no noodles this time.

It will also work great for teaching quotations, but I haven't decided if I'm going to use the same thing twice.

I kept the posters around my classroom for weeks, and then finally got tired of looking at them and threw them away. Not thinking about I had not taken pictures.

Love: Baby Connor's Nursery Reveal

I did a sneak peak a while ago on the ideas I was pulling together for Connor's Nursery. After receiving my Uppercase Living shipment I had everything I needed to complete the nursery. We have avoided at all cost any thing baby blue, baby animals, and just pastel in general. His nursery is no different. My husband is a huge sports fan, and played many sports in high school, so we decided to do a sports themed nursery. The best part is it can grow with him, it's not just a baby room. The hard part was finding a sports bedding we really liked. I had success at Babies R Us.

(Sydney already love to play in there.) You can barely see our new carpet in this picture, but I did cover part of it up with a rug. I found the rug ar Pottery Barn for Kids. The room is fairly small about 10x11 feet, so I only ordered a 3x5 foot rug, not to mention it was about $130. You can see one of the baseball stiches in the top left corner, there is also another on the bottom right of the wall. That was a time consuming task, but worth it. I made my own compass with a pencil and twine. I used that to make my quarter circle, then used a darker tan color to create the seam where the leather comes together. Being the perfectionist that I am I made a template for the red stitches, so that that were all exactly the same. I traced with a pencil and then went over with the red paint. The wall turned out so great! (Don't you love Pinterest for ideas!)

The crib (gracious given to us by my husband's parents) is from Babies R Us. The "Little MVP" sign was what I ordered from Uppercase Living, I did put it on a cavas so that we could move it if we wanted. The bedding set came with 3 "wall hangings" (the pendants). I didn't have anywhere to hang them ,but decided they would look nice on a piece of brown ribbon on the from of the crib. I cut the ribbon, tied it on to the crib  and then hot glued the pendants to the ribbon.

The comforter, again from Babies R Us (given to us by my Grandma).

The bumper and fitted sheet.

A little more of the bumper, and the perfect Boppy pillow for our theme.

 

 The changing table and dresser. I didn't want to buy a changing table that was so limited on function for later. I found this dresser at a furniture store in the scratch and dent section. It was steal at $100 considering it is Ashley Furniture. It is also made really well, which is very important to me. I want something that is going to last. I found the bins inside at Target. (The dresser is actually a media center for a bedroom and that is the spot for the DVD player or cable/satellite box.) The boxes are great for storage at the changing table. One has diapers in it, and the other holds a box of wipes, diaper rash cream, etc. for needs while diapering.

Another Pinterest insprired project is canvas covered in fabric. It was extremely easy to do and fairly cheap. I did have to buy my canvas (12x12 inches). I was going to have my husband make a wooden frame to just staple the fabric to, but I ended up finding a pack of Canvas at Michael's, 7 canvas square for $10. It made more sense to buy them. I then bought fabric at Hobby Lobby. Listening to the blog I got the idea from I purchased 2/3 yard of each fabric, but it can easily be done with 1/2 yard.

 

I also bought a wooden C cutout and painted it the wall color to go on one of the squares. I didn't even have to hot glue it, it is on there with a strong double sided tape.

I debabted for a long time over a chair. I always wanted a big cushy glider chair, but when looking at the prices I just couldn't see spending the money. So I decided that I would just buy one of the gliders at Wal-Mart for $140. It seemed like saving the money was the wiser decision. Then my grandpa said he would buy the chair. I told him about the chairs at Wal-Mart, but when he went to look at them he felt like they were very poor quality. He ended up giving me money to buy what I wanted. After more debating, and more searching the interent for a chair with good reviews, I landed on this chair. It is still from Wal-Mart.com, but made by the furniture company Little Castle. So far it seems to be very well made, and it is very comfy. I am 5 foot 7 inches, and my head rests nicely against the back of the chair. The pillow that is in the chair is made from a piece of the valence that came with the bedding set. Because I put up solid navy panels I didn't need a valence (not to mention this was really the only part of it I liked. I simply cut off the end of the valence, put a pillow inside and sewed the end to be finished.

 Storage and Organization

If you have books then you know that hard back books stand up very nicely, and are easy to tell what book you are grabbing because the title is on the spine, however, you also know that paperback books do not stand up well. To help fix this problem I stood the hardback books up on the bottom shelf (they weigh more), and then bought 2 canvas baskets at Wal-Mart for less than $5 each to store the paperback books and tiny board books. The paperback books fit so good in the basket, and they are very easy to flip through. The other one houses the little bitty board books that I didn't know what to do with.

With my dresser only have 2 drawers for clothes I ended up feeling a little short on storage space. The solution was a ClosetMaid organizer for the bottom of the closet. I figure as he grows it can become storage for toys. Each basket has a different purpose, which can easily change, and will as we the rest of the house a little more ready for baby (one is full of bottles, and another bowls and spoons because I don't have a kitchen cabinet cleared out yet). Other baskets hold things like bath towels, lotion, baby wash, a tote with health items like diaper cream and the little care kit, and one for breastfeeding supplies. I think its going to be awesome to have.

 

I have his closet separated by the little 0-3 month, 3-6 month, etc. dividers. The 0-3 month section far exceeds the others. As you can see the top has been over taken by diapers and wipes (the Diaper Raffle idea for the baby shower was a great idea and I would suggest that to anyone!)

 



Live: Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Reindeer

Who doesn't love a quick, easy dessert that the kid's will love (and the adults too)?

Three Simple Ingredients:

3 Cups Rice Crispy Cereal

7 ounces Marshmallow Creme

1 cup Crunchy Peanut Butter

 

Just these three ingredients make a delicious, easy dessert. No stove needed!

 

Directions:

1. Mix the peanut butter and rice crispies together.

2. Mix in marshmallow creme.

 

(At this point you can scoop out balls of the rice crispies to serve as is. I took it one more step to make reindeer.)

 

3. Using a tablespoon scoop out a portion of the treats. (I rolled mine in crushed rice crispy cereal so that I could shape it a little better.) You will need an oblong shape, with a little more one one end for the nose.

 

Additional Ingredients for Reindeer:

 

Pretzel Twists

Red Hots

Candy Eyes

 

4. Break the pretzel twists in half to look like antlers.

5. Push the antlers into the top of the reindeer head.

6. Attached Red Hot to the nose, and the eyes above. (I used more peanut butter to act as glue.)

  

 

Love: 30 Weeks

How far along? 30 Weeks

Weight Gain: 17 pounds

Morning Sickness: None, but if I wait too long to eat in the morning I get to feeling like I may pass out.

Maternity Clothes: Yes.

Stretch Marks: No.

Sleep: Aside from Charlie Horses in the middle of the night I am sleeping really well. So far I have not had to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and Connor seems to be sleeping when I am sleeping. I do feel like I get tired earlier in the day, 9:30 is really my max on week nights.

Baby Movement: Connor moves nonstop. We had a 4-D ultrasound this week and it was very challenging to get a picture of him. The technician had to record a series of movements then go back though and find a good frame for a picture. He is head down, and at the beginning of the ultrasound he was face down. His butt is around my belly button, and I can often feel him move it from side to side.

Food Cravings: None.

Labor Signs: None.

Belly Button In or Out? In, but pretty flat.

Wedding Rings On or Off? On.

Thoughts and Feelings: My back hurts more often, and I have to watch how I sit or I will pay for it later in the day. Occasionally my ribs hurt, but I can’t figure out why, I don’t think his feet are there, I guess just pressure of organs and things being pushed there. While you would think that I am getting anxious or excited, I am feeling for nervous, and the fact that we are looking at 10 weeks or so is terrifying. I have a lot of experience with babies, but I am worried about knowing what he wants, and being able to soothe him. Also, just the idea of bringing him home and being able to do it.

Live: Christmas Explosion

I absolutely love decorating for Christmas, putting on Christmas PJ's, a Christmas movie or CD, and decorating the house. I also love watching the old classices like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, A Mizer Brother's Christmas, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

As soon as you walk into my living room, it is like a Christmas Explosion! Realize we have a fairly small living room. All of my decorations are themed, red, bright green, and white, with snowmen and Santa Claus.

Presents wrapped and under the tree, kind of.

Just the tree, I fell in love with the topper last year, a snowman hat. It was perfect!

 

We don't have a mantle so I decorated the TV stand like I would have decorated a mantle. I bought the gold deer at Kirkland's last year after Christmas, they were a steal!

I decorated my own garland with ornaments left over from my tree, the rest of the decorations follow the same color scheme, with lots of presents. I love the tree on the right side of the TV, I found it last year at Pier 1, it's a topsy turvy tree. I do need something else tall for the other side.

 

How cute is that tree?

Above our couch I normally have a series of 5 pieces of art, so for Christmas I just switch them out with Christmas art I found last year at Kirkland's.

 While I didn't make the Santa Claus on my front door, I do think he is quite adoreable!

I'm still working on this tree, but it's going to take a few years as I build my collection of Hallmark Ornaments for the kitchen. I am excited to buy it this year, it has a measuring cup with utensils sticking out.

 

Have a Very

Merry Christmas!