More Projects for the TO-DO List

T-shirt to Newborn Gown

Okay so I keep finding all these cool baby projects that I want to do for my little guy before he arrives in April. I'm still deciding on fabric for the carseat cover, which I went to Joanns today and after looking at Heather Bailey fabric, nothing stood out at the store. I did see 2 cute prints at Hobby Lobby so I'm keeping those in mind.

I found this free tutorial for making Newborn Gowns out of T-shirts and think it looks easy enough! I've been looking at baby boy stuff and it's not nearly as fun as the girl stuff...but with projects like this, you can really get creative! Now I just need to find some cool T-shirts! This pattern would also work with fabric from the store too...How do people come up with these great projects!?!? I love it!

Anyways, here's the newest baby project added to my To-Do List! I also think this would make a great baby gift. I have some a friend due in a couple weeks and her husband is a huge Cowboys fan so I'm thinking of making one out of a Cowboys T-shirt for them.

Tutorial: T-shirt to Newborn Gown

by thismamamakesstuff.com


Scrappy Monster Toy

The NEXT little project I came across is this SCRAPPY MONSTER over on MADE.

What a cute little addition to add to a baby gift which can then be used as one of those little toys you hang on the carseat handle to entertain the baby! This is just a super simple, cute idea that can be made with random fabric scraps...hooray! isn't everybody looking for cute little projects to use up those scraps? This project reminds me of the Monster I made my nephew a few posts back.

Crochet Baby Hat with Brim

Next thing I love is this crochet baby boy hat found on this Etsy shop. However, I don't crochet so I might have to buy one of these. But aren't they just adorable?

INSPIRATION!!!!

Kitchen Island from Williams Sonoma Tutorial (Videos included!)


I just found the coolest blog today called Knock Off Wood, this gal has amazing project tutorials that she shares and I just had to spread the word!

Here are some of the projects I fell in love with....I'm sure I'll find more...I just found her blog today and have only seen some of what she has to offer.

Here are some of the tutorials she shares that are going on my ever growing future projects list:

Pottery Barn Bed Frame

Playhouse Loft Bed

Books & Toy Storage

Displaying pictures and artwork

Amazing Chocolate Pudding

Okay, so maybe when you think of pudding you think of either babies or very old people...people who don't have teeth, however, this homemade chocolate pudding is absolutely wonderful! This is not to be confused for the same stuff that comes out of a jello box...oh no! Just trust me and try this, it's simple enough to make! My mother-in-law passed this great recipe onto me after my husband kept asking me for this favorite childhood treat of his. Just remember, try eating it when it's still a bit warm! It's awesome cold out of the fridge too, but once it's solid enough, but still warm...that's the best!

Oh yeah, and by the way, I tried other chocolate pudding recipes before asking my MIL for hers, and they were not nearly as good as hers....so, here it is!

Gram's Chocolate Pudding

1/2 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Cocoa (I use Hersheys)
3 TBsp Corn Starch
1/4 tsp Salt
2 1/2 cups Milk
1 tsp Vanilla

*Mix sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt in saucepan.
*Add the milk slowly and stir until smooth.
*Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken, then cook and stir for 3 minutes longer. (this takes the longest...don't get impatient, keep stirring so it doesn't scorch on the bottom)
*Remove from heat.
*Stir in Vanilla.
*Pour into prepared cups.
*Allow it to cool/set on counter.

This makes 4 servings using my ramekins.

To dress it up, you could add a dollop of whip cream on top, but really, it's totally satisfying on it's own.

MMMMM...Muffins!

We are just a little obsessed with muffins over here. My 34 month old (that's almost 3) daughter loves making them as much as I do. Even though I love making muffins from scratch and trying out new recipes to find the best chocolate chip muffin recipe, to keep it simple, we have stocked up on those little packets in which you just add milk and stir, it makes a small amount and it's one of my Jordan's favorite activities, so it works because it only makes a few small muffins. However, today I wanted the real thing. Today we made Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, a recipe I found on allrecipes.com.

This is one of the best recipes I've made so far! I LOVE these! I will be sure to post more of my favorite muffin recipe recommendations...but this one is for sure a keeper!
Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar (I use a mix of brown and white)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
1/2 yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 bananas)
3/4 cup chocolate chips

*Combine the dry ingredients
*Combine wet ingredients in seperate bowl
*Mix all together just until moistened
*Fold in the chocolate chips.
*Place into greased or paper lined muffin cups (this made 12 regular sized muffins)

Bake at 350 for 20-23 minutes.

tip: This time I made these, I left out a bit of the sugar because last time I made them, they were a tiny bit too sweet. You can also use any flavor of yogurt, I used strawberry banana.

Here is my kitchen helper making her easy mix muffins! She can almost do the whole process without me, even filling the mini muffin cups with the batter! Who needs an easy bake oven??? These mixes are probably cheaper and taste better than the easy bake pouches!

Blueberry pouch muffins, we like to sprinkle sugar on top

We are muffin obsessed so I'm sure you be seeing more muffin making going on over here in the future!

Carseat Covers...a good tutorial anyone?

I am dying to make a carseat cover for my ugly carseat before this little guy arrives. Today I found these beautiful carseat covers over at MADE...a new blog I came across today in my search for instructions and am so inspired. How cute are these??? She does an amazing job!




Well I'm on the lookout for the tutorial...hopefully there's a good free tutorial out there! If not I'll buy a pattern! I'm not using the carseat as is! lol! It's bright yellow and black and looks like it's designed to attract wasps and bees to your baby! Well, in the meantime, I can daydream about what fabric I might use....I love the stuff over at Heather Baily! If anyone has seen a tutorial...let me know! :)

Update: AHA! Success, I found a car seat cover tutorial for sale on Etsy. However, if anyone has seen a free one online...I'd still love to know!


I'm thinking of ordering these 2 prints from Heather Bailey for my car seat cover, but I'm going to make a trip to the fabric store first just in case I find anything similar there.

What do you think?

Ocean Theme Baby Quilt

Brown and Turquoise Ocean Baby Quilt

fish Applique

Jellyfish Applique

I fell in love with these fabric combos I found at Joanns. I had a friend who was having a baby boy and both her and her husband are surfers so I wanted to include a bit of an underwater theme into the quilt without it being too tacky. These matched her nursery colors based on her registry so I was stoked!
On the backside I used soft flannel and appliqued fish, a starfish and a jellyfish.

Abby Cadabby Cake

Going through old files, I came across this...

Abby Cadabby Cake (Abby in Wonderland)

This was my first attempt at Cake Decorating. My daughter's 2nd birthday was themed after her favorite movie at the time Abby in Wonderland! I found a cake like this somewhere on the internet but can't find it now. I had an Abby cake topper, but believe it or not....I forgot to actually take a picture of it with the Abby Cadabby cake topper! JJ sure loved picking off those butterfly wings and eating them!

This was a learning process for me as I've never done any kind of cake decorating before, hopefully her 3 year birthday cake will come out a bit better! The yellow flowers on the cake kind of turned out to be big blobs! lol! And the green didn't come out the way I wanted it to either. Live and Learn! There are a lot of things I would do different if I were to make it again.

How to make the chocolate butterflies?

Draw the outline for the wings on paper.

Place the paper under wax paper.

Melt some white chocolate wafers in the microwave and mix in food coloring.

Using a clean paintbrush, paint the chocolate onto the wax paper staying within your design.

Let the chocolate harden, then carefully peel off wax paper and place on cake!

Tip: for white areas, paint white chocolate first, let dry, then add one color at a time, allowing each color to dry before adding the next...unless you want to blend the colors.