Best, easiest, cutest handmade baby gift tutorial

I realized when my son was born, some baby items were nice to have, some not necessary, others essential! What I couldn't live without were burp cloths, my son spit up a lot and went through a lot of them.

I got several different kinds of burp cloths from folks. Some were soft minky type fabric, some were small, but my absolute favorite kinds were the ones made from padded cloth diapers. They're so absorbent, they're soft and the perfect size. I could have one all day, use it for multiple spit ups and it was still not super wet. My mom showed me how to make these a few years ago. They're so easy. I'm no professional seamstress but I can do this! I keep a stash of these on hand to give to friends having babies. They are seriously the best.



The above photo is of some burp clothes, hats, and headbands I made for a friend. She died over them and was so super excited. I got all the fabric from Joann's and from an old t-shirt.

To make the hats I used this tutorial from make it love it.

I can't find the original link where I made the headbands, but I love this tutorial from The Sweeter side of Mommyhood.

As for the burp cloths, let's get started shall we!

Materials:
     -Gerber brand pre folded 3 ply diapers, not the flat kind, those are big like blankets. I can find these at wal-mart, 10 for $12. You might have to hunt, but they're in the baby section.
     -Fat quarters of fabric. I love these because they're just the right length. They're only a buck at Joann's, and you can get a bunch of different colors/designs.
     -Fabric scissors
     -Pins
     -Sewing machine
     -Thread

Step one:

Lay out your fabric on the cloth diaper. I'm never very precise with this, I just line of the fat quarter over the center of the cloth diaper. I can usually get about 3 burp cloths made with one fat quarter.
                                    
 

 Step two:

Cut your fabric so it's about a 1/2" to 3/4" bigger than the strip in the middle of the cloth diaper. Make sure you leave enough fabric hanging off the edge of the cloth diaper.

Step three:

Fold under your extra 1/2" to 3/4" of fabric to make a nice straight edge. Pin it down. Do this around the whole strip of fabric. You could iron it, but I don't think it matters that much when you're doing something small like this.

Fold under the corners so they lay flat.

Step four:

Start in a corner. And sew about a 1/4" away from the edge of your fabric fold. any more than that and the fabric tends to flip up and doesn't look as nice. I always use a white thread cause I like the contrast, but you could use a coordinating thread if that fancies you! Sew all the way around!

Sewing tip:

When you get to the corners, don't cut thread and start all over. Just lift your sewing foot with the needle still in the fabric and turn it the direction you want to keep sewing! My high school art teacher taught me that and it saves me so much time!

Looks good enough for me!

Ta da you're done in no time at all! And then you have an adorable, cost effective, baby gift. Each one really only costs about $2 each! Not bad, not bad at all.

My husband the woodworker and the story of three desks. Our ikea hack.

I didn't realize when I married him, but my husband knows how to build a lot of stuff! He is super handy around the house. His stepdad is an excellent carpenter and has taught David the trade.  He can basically do anything. Superman.

Anyways, I was begging him a while back for a desk that I could do my art on. Never in my life have I had a real space I could create. In high school I had a sweet loft bed with a desk underneath, but the space was small so I usually worked on the floor. Ever since I've been working on kitchen tables. It got old.

I drew up some rough plans of what I thought I wanted and then left to visit my sisters in Texas. While I was away, he spent the whole weekend building me a desk!

                                    

I came home and it also had a brand new computer on top! Woohoo!! As you can see, the desk didn't leave much space for me to make anything on.  I failed to really explain what size I needed it to be and he did it as a surprise. I felt terrible because he had worked SO hard on it and then I asked how I was going to paint on this thing. Woops.

We did paint it thought and he made it a little larger, which was another weekend of work.  So it turned out like this.

He made it so it would open and I could store things inside.

This is all in our bedroom now since we don't have a office space.  I had to rearrange a bit because after all the work of the TWO desks he made, I had another vision. Woops sorry babe. After all the trouble he went through for those two builds, we came up with a new plan to use some old ikea side tables we had.  

And now we call it: MEGA desk. (any office fans out there?!)

It's long, like 5 1/2 feet. The tabletop was made from 3 ikea lack side tables.  We bought them when we first got married and really didn't need them anymore.  So he took off the legs and hinged them all together. I took pictures of most of his process, but they're all on my old computer. It takes 20 minutes to turn on that computer sooo...ya I don't use it.  Anyway, this third desk has now become my hub. It suits my needs perfectly!  Not only is it really long, it also meets up next to my husband's study desk, so we have a wall of a desk basically. Mega desk.

You can see in the above picture he built a large shelf under it to store all my papers.  It had a door latched on the front that would drop down and also hid the ugly front. My son broke it off...twice. It's laying on the floor by the wall in the bottom of the picture...

We had no legs however until we found an old table at deseret industries for $10. He unscrewed the legs an attached them to our tabletop. Perfect! The most expense in all this was just a sealer, particle board for the shelf, and hardware to make it hinge open. All that was less than $20 though.  

MEGA save.

Now all of my supplies are at my fingertips! I can listen to pandora, paint, and do digital stuff all at the same time! Yes!

  A $5 filing cabinet we spray painted a long time ago. 

It's not perfect, but it works for now! Thank you handy handy husband!!! Gotta love him.

Mommy and me pictures, self timer

Lately I feel like time with my little guy is passing so fast. All the sudden he started learning a bajillion words, got a haircut, and wanted to start potty training. He'll be two in March and I just want him to be a baby forever! Surely I'm not the only mom this has happened to.

I imagine like many other mom's, I'm the family photographer.  If there are going to be pictures of any event, it relies on me (mostly, I should give my husband some credit :) to get some pictures.  This also means almost all are pictures are of our little boy or my husband. It might look like I didn't exist in a few years if I don't actively make sure I'm in pictures. I feel silly taking selfies unless someone else is in the picture with me. So I had to do something!

I really wanted some pictures of us just doing our normal every day routines.  To capture this, I set up my Nikon D3200 on the tripod since it's just me and little Harrison all day. If you don't have a tripod, find a chair or something to prop it up with. Then I selected the self timer on the camera and ran into place. I probably should have done manual focus on some of these since when I pushed the shutter button it focused with me out of it, but it's not super noticeable.  Then I edited them. I don't know why but I really love black and white.  I plan on taking more, but these were some I definitely wanted to have when he's a smelly old teenager.  I didn't really clean up cause I wanted these to show our life just how it was, so I can look back later and say...oh ya I remember that pillow I made that was awful. :)

1. Potty Training

 2. Reading books (his favorite)

 3. Playing with me on the keyboard

4. Playing in the laundry room sink.

5. jumping on mommy and daddy's bed

 6.  kisses

7. Brushing teeth

You don't have to be a photographer to do this, I'm not. Just think of routines or things you love and get pictures. So much of our photos now a days are selfies or we're all smiling. But those candid moments are really special. 

What special or normal moments do you wish you had pictures of?

do it yourself jello cups

My mom is a health nut. Standard "desserts" at our house were light yogurt and jello cups. She'd always have mini chocolate chips on hand to put in the yogurt. It's really good and is a very low calorie treat! She'd buy sugar free jello and light whipped topping.  I'd get in trouble for sticking my finger in the new whipped cream.

I was craving some jello and whipped cream recently. In our 4 years of marriage, I have NEVER made jello. I bought it once for some recipe and then never made it. So this box of jello has been sitting in the cabinet forever. Light bulb!


I also had on hand some glad snack cups that are the perfect personal size treat container. Bought them to use for baby boy's lunches while I was working and they are pretty fabulous. So naturally I filled them with jello. Step by step here it is, pretty easy.

1.Follow the instructions for making the jello.
2. Pour the mixture from the saucepan straight into the glad snack cups.
3. Put the lid on and stick'em in the fridge.
4. Your treat is ready in a couple hours.




If you buy a 4-pack of jello in the fridge section of wal-mart, it's typically 2.98.
                
One box of regular jello is 66 cents. That one little box made me 7 jello cups. Do the math and

each little cup is only 9 cents. Badabing.

Plus calorie wise with sugar free jello, it'll only cost you 25 calories total (that's WITH light whipped cream on top).  However the sugar free jello costs like 1.28.  But still a good deal and only around 100 calories.
                                         

 Happy snacking!!!

lessons in portrait photography

I took a photography class in college. It was all film and the teacher made us develop our pictures in slides. Who has a slide projector anymore? After all my art classes I still consider myself an amateur photographer. I did learn some good things about color and getting a good photo. Photography for me is all about knowing when to snap the photo, how to frame, the angle, and getting the exposure right. And if you're taking photos of people, you have to know how to make them comfortable and direct them so they look amazing!

If you aren't a pro you can still get good pictures of your family and friends with some of these tips.

Bad Example:

I asked my dear twin brother to take my husband and I's engagement photos.  Free pictures. Well you get what you pay for.  My brother can take pictures...but he didn't know how to direct us. I can't see through the lens to know what to do!  Here is some of the magic from that day. These are a little embarrassing and now makes me laugh. They did not turn out how I imagined. But I have to show you so you can see what I mean!

Several mistakes here.  It was windy that day, I didn't really do my makeup, and I chose a dress that made me look pregnant.  Aside from that...a photographer needs to get the right angle! Each of those pictures would have turned out much differently if my bro had stepped to the side or crouched down.  Photographers can't just stand there.  Also tell your subjects what to do! "Turn your head to the left", "Pretend like you are whispering something to her", "make a silly face", "laugh" etc.  Most people aren't natural born models, so tell them what to do!

I've done a few photography sessions for people.  I love it. It is SO much fun.  I did some engagements and some maternity shoots for my sister and sister in law.  You don't have to have a fancy camera to get some good pictures. Here are some from my little sister's belly shoot.

Isn't she adorable? I took these with a little Canon power shot.  Afterwards I did some editing. Editing makes all the difference! These photos are the unedited versions.  A really crappy photo can 9 times out of 10 look better in black and white.  Here are some I turned into polaroids (I LOVE the polaroid look):

There are lots of free programs and websites where you can add cool effects and lighting.  I like:

Picmonkey
Gimp
(gimp is the poor man's photoshop)
Turn pics into polaroids

Yesterday I took maternity pictures of my sister in law.  She is also tiny and adorable for being 36 weeks pregnant.  I took these with my Nikon D3200 that the hubs got me for my birthday :)

She craves popsicles and gatorade so we included that in the pics.  I also brought some simple props to the orchard where we took pics like: a blanket, mason jar, fun straws, streamers to hang in the trees.  There were deer running around in the orchard too!  I love how these turned out.

If you're taking pictures of your family, have them be themselves! Skateboard, swing, eat their favorite food, kiss each other, read books.  It's great to see pictures that capture their personalities.

Just have fun with it! Takes  a bajillion pictures.  Chances are with 200 pictures you'll have 20 really good ones.  Take a lot to get to those magic moments!