The Countdown Begins!

Emma’s birthday is just around the corner and this weekend we made her a paper chain so she could see just how many days away it is!

Ignore the goofy faces throughout if you can! Emma was in a weird goofy mood 😛 So I pulled out paper, scissors, scrapbooking glue, and I didn’t really need anything else 😉 The pen was to entertain Emma if she got bored.

I folded it in half (hot dog way 😉 haha)

And again just to make the guided lines. These in no way shape or form need to be pretty since your child is just going to rip them up each day.

After unfolding it I just cut each strip out to how many days I needed.

I like to use multiple colors so it’s easy to see which is the next chain.

Take the scrapbook glue and run it along one side folding it into a circle and pushing it so it sticks.

Slide the next piece in the ring and repat until you’ve used all your pieces!

Emma was excited as I explained it to her. We counted how many rings and jumped up and down at the excitement that it’s not too far away!!

Each morning we are going to wake up and rip off one more!

Do you remember doing this when you were a kid? I am pretty sure I made a million of these chains for all different occasions!

 

 

In My Mailbox!

I had so much goodies in my mailbox I had to share!

Two books for me!

Ladybug shoes for Emma!!

Stay tuned for more info this week 😀

My Little Super Hero

Emma beans has been watching a super hero show called Word Girl and has completely fallen in love 🙂 After “flying” around the room and singing that she was a super hero I decided to ask her if she wanted some super girl hero swag. She looked at me like I was nuts! Then I said, “Emma would you like me to make you a super hero cape?” Her response?

Giddy excitement 🙂 After looking at a few YouTube tutorials – I knew this was going to be a piece of cake!

I measured my little girl, made a template with the sizes on it and got my materials out and ready!

First step was to draw out the template on the material. Since this is just play clothes I wasn’t exact in my measuring or drawing.

Before I cut out the second piece I made sure this was going to fit!\

Perfection!

After I cut out the second piece I ran it under the iron real quick (remember it doesn’t need to be perfect! It’s play clothes!)

Next I took a piece of felt (since it doesn’t fray) and used a bowl to cut a circle.

I hopped on the computer and printed out a letter e. I chose a lowercase because I thought it would look better with the curves of the circle! (Plus it’s easier to place in the middle!)

I put my black felt under the letter e, pinned it, and cut it out. I removed the paper e and then hand stitched the felt e onto the circle. It might be easier to use the sewing machine instead of hand stitch but I was too lazy to change out the bobbin 😉

Next I put the circle in the middle of the cape and did a quick sew line around the circle. Not perfect at all but again it’s play clothes!

I put the two pieces back to back and did a quick sew all along the edges leaving a small part at the bottom to flip it inside out. Ran it under the iron real quick, and did a fun stitch at the bottom to seal that end in.

Most people would sew all the way around for a finished look but this is supposed to be a quick easy project so just finishing of the end was good enough for me!

Next I put snaps on the ends to keep the cape on. Obviously I butchered the first snap so I did a second 😉

I like the thick straps in front with the snap – something about string just drives me crazy!

And Tada! We have a little super hero in our house! Emma is crazy in love with her cape 🙂 Her one disappoint was that she thought once she had a cape – she’d be able to fly!! Poor thing was a little flustered but she wouldn’t take it off all day!

 

An Outdoor Adventure!

Whew! What a weekend! We have been doing house work almost all weekend and today I made a HUGE change up in our front yard. Since we don’t have the budget to do serious major changes in our front yard we decided to do what we could with it until then!

As you can tell everything is a little bit overgrown and chaotic. Don’t you just love the crazy weeds growing taller than any of the other plants?!

Brian mowed the lawn and did the trimming which made the front look much better but I still had a lot of work ahead of me. I trimmed up all the bushes, pulled out all the weeds I could, and cleaned up a bit.

Emma played hide and seek behind the chair and colored with chalk on the sidewalk. I think she didn’t know what to do since we were both busy working!!

Here’s the halfway point! I’ve gotten most of the weeds up and most of the bushes trimmed. I started pulling out the bricks because they aren’t my favorite – I’ll explain what I’m going to do with them later.

And TADA! The for now finished front. All the bricks are gone and everything is cleaned up 😀 I’m so proud of all the hard work!!

I brought all the bricks up on the patio in preparation for the next phase of their lives 😉

I’m going to buy some outdoor brick paint and turn these red bricks gray:

We’ll have to figure out which gray we like the most. We’ll also be painting the gray brick behind the bushes to match. I’m so excited!! Now I know why everyone gets so excited to do house projects! It’s hard work but it’s TOTALLY worth it!

 

Butterfly Flowers

Last weekend we spent some time with the family and we took Emma to a nursery. Papa was picking out flowers for his deck and wanted to take Emma to see the fishies:

The first rule of spending the day with Papa is to never go anywhere hungry! If your belly isn’t happy – you aren’t happy!! I personally absolutely LOVE that rule! Emma on the other hand – just likes to make Papa laugh 🙂

You have to admit they are a cute pair!! It wasn’t that long ago that I was the one holding Papa’s hand in awe of how amazing he is.

There were huge fans there that Papa kept going by and Emma would laugh and cover her ears. I couldn’t resist getting a shot of this!

While we were there we had to look for “butterfly” flowers because that’s what she had decided she wanted Papa to get her!

We took a break from finding the perfect flowers and watched the fish. Emma was mesmerized! 

The set up for these fish was so gorgeous I couldn’t resist showing it off! If we ever have the spare money to do some extra landscaping these are exactly the kind of rocks I’d love to have framing our gardens.

One of my favorite flowers 🙂 I love these little puffs of joy!!

Another stop to see the fish!? I think it’s mandatory! I love Papa and Emma time 🙂

I stopped to check out the cactus side of the nursery. Emma and I love to check out the little terrariums on Pinterest – this may be a future project for us!

My little cheeseball making silly faces again 😀

And here it is! The “Butterfly” flower that Emma chose to take home!

It’s been a few days and it’s finally sprouting new flowers 🙂 I’m proud of my little gardener!

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th!

 

Moving Moving Purging Moving!

Hey everyone! In the process of moving – this girl is PURGING! It seems like every box I open  I get rid of almost half of it (except my clothes 😉 haha!)

This week it was CD’s, DVD’s, & Video Games. Granted I don’t own many video games because they are mostly Brian’s,  I do have a few that I will be passing down to Emma Beans and other’s I’m downright ready to get rid of.

We have a collection of DVDs and if I hadn’t taken out Emma’s DVD’s, we wouldn’t have any space in this sucker!

Brian’s Video Games drawers. I’m pretty sure he has more than this hiding somewhere 😛

Oh wait – yes that is more video games 🙂

I didn’t even take a picture of our CD’s – They are still in boxes..

So while I’m purging all of this with Brian, I was introduced to Music Magpie.

It’s an online company that literally buys your old CDs, DVDs, and Games from you. It takes the hassle away from yard selling, trading them in at Game Stop, or selling them on Amazon or Ebay.

I created a free account, typed in the barcode info and it immediately gave me a price for my items. I haven’t even done a quarter of our things and we’ve already almost hit $100 dollars!!! My mouth dropped when I saw this!

Best part of this? I don’t even have to pay for shipping! You print out your shipping information and put it on the box and say, “See You Later!!!” (Actually no I won’t – I’ll see a sweet check in the mail later 😉 haha)

This has to be the newest number one purging and organizing tip I’ve gotten all month! If you want to check it out – click the link above and give it a go yourself! You can go through the whole process to just see what you are going to make without even sending your things in.

After showing this to Brian, I think he’s a little more excited about getting rid of a few things and that’s a huge accomplishment to say the least!

What do you think!?

Love Always,

J

This post was sponsored by Music Magpie.

The Good Life

Hey Everyone!

I posted a recipe on A Charming Twist that I thought you all might love! It’s Garlic Butter Chicken with Rice & Veggies! Check out the link above to see the recipe!

Yesterday I spent the day in the kitchen and out in the pool with Emma beans 🙂

I also got some new listings done for my etsy shop! My goal has been to post something new each day that I’m home. So far I’ve gotten this made and listed:

 

Cell phone cases anyone!? These are so much fun to make!!!

Finally! I’m all set up to make burp cloths again – I made a set just like this for my friends baby shower and loved the fabric so much I decided to make some more! Emma has been saying: RAWWWRRRR I’m a DINOSAUR!! every time she see’s them 🙂

If you want to check out my shop it’s: Daydreaming Gifts

 

Thanks for stopping by!

J

Mini Meals

Today I made Emma a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. She has like five favorite lunch meals that we tend to rotate through and I try to throw in something different each time. It’s been hard to come up with new lunch ideas when I don’t want to make an ENTIRE meal and her not eat it and then I’m stuck with the leftovers..

An idea popped into my head. Meals for one – better yet mini meals!

Although these look great – they still make a bunch! What I was really looking for was recipies that create a nice meal for one!

So I’m going to attempt to take a couple meals and create a recipes for one! I’ll be posting it here with the ingredients and instructions and Emma’s taste test approval 😉

This will be exciting!!

Got any recipes you think would be perfect for this project? Please let me know below!

Thanks!

J

A Road Trip!

Emma and I took a Road trip to go to a baby shower!

The adventure started out real exciting – and by real exciting I mean Emma passed out within 15 minutes of being on the highway 😉

It was quite a quiet ride 😉

Emma’s favorite part? Probably the HUGENORMOUS lollipop 🙂

We had a great time catching up with everyone and can’t wait to see the girls again!

Now that Emma’s older, I feel like packing her up isn’t as tough as it used to be – so we’ll be prepared for the next getaway adventure soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

J

Friends In Town

This week/weekend we have a lot going on! We have friends from college in town!

It’s so nice to hang out with them and catch up! It’s also nice to use our guest room for the first time!

We put Emma’s mattress on the floor and having her use her crib mattress.

Brian was teasing me because I made them a little “if you forgot” got with extra things in case they forgot to pack anything. I’m pretty sure Brian said, “We are not a hotel”

We might not be a hotel but I’m so darn excited about having them over!

We are doing more traveling and seeing friends tomorrow! Emma and I are leaving the boys to have some boy time and we are going to see the girls! One of my great friends is having a baby shower and we are so excited about giving her some handmade goodies!

Once her shower is over I’ll show you all the goodies I made for her!! ❤

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Always,

J

P.S. don’t forget to check out my other blog A Charming Twist