Construction Site Cake

My little boy just turned three on New Years Day.  Since we have the celebration from the holidays still coercing through our blood I usually don't do much for his birthday besides a cake and presents.  This year he is fascinated by Bob the Builder and Construction Equipment, or "diggers" as we call them.  My mom was already giving him little diggers for his birthday present so I decided to use them on the cake instead.

 

 I stacked two 9" white cakes and frosted them with white frosting (we are a white cake family!) I then took kit kat candy bars and cut them in half and put them around the edges.  

I used chocolate rocks and chocolate covered peanuts for the dirt and gravel.  I smashed up some of the chocolate covered peanuts to make it look like smaller clumps of dirt and used some large pieces to fill in the top of the cake.  

 I used the frosting to help build up the rock piles into each digger.  Chocolate frosting would have blended in a little better than the white frosting but I think it wouldn't have shown the details of the "dirt" as well.  I wish I would have had some crushed oreo cookies to fill in the white spaces.

This cake was fun to make and was pretty stress free.  I didn't try to make it even or frost it perfectly and got to dump dirt and rocks where they needed to be.  My kind of cake!

Can you tell he was excited about his birthday cake?

 The best part was watching him eat his cake with his diggers.  

Parties I'm linking up too

    

    

Christmas "Kiss" Advent Calendar

I remember as a kid pushing out the nasty, cardboard chocolates that you would get from the advent calendars from the store.  I didn't want my own child to go through that experience! So when a friend of mine found a cute idea for an advent calendar for different holidays from Infarrantly Creative using Chocolate Kisses, I was excited to make a Christmas one for our family. 

My friend's husband cut all the holes for the chocolate kisses.  After some light sanding, I painted my board a Country Tan. Now that it has sat around for a few days I think I'm going to use some antiquing glaze on the edges.  

I used a Silhouette Machine to cut out the tree, stars, and words from cardstock.  Vinyl would have been better but I didn't have it in the colors that I wanted.  I used mod podge to put the pieces on the board and then I did another layer of it on top.

 

Finally, I laminated red circle numbers for the back of the Chocolate Kisses.  My son gets so excited every time he gets to have another Christmas Chocolate! 

I want to make one for Halloween but I think I'll make room for the numbers in vinyl above each hole instead of keeping track of little circles.  

Infarrantly Creative: Advent Calendar Tutorial

Baby Girl Quilt

We just welcomed a new niece to the family so I decided to make a cute but super simple quilt.  With my brother's first kid they didn't know for sure if she was going to be a girl or not so everything they got was greens and yellows.  This time they knew for sure so I was able to go with bright, girly colors.  

 I followed The Road Trip Quilt tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I did add two more fabrics to my quilt to make it a little longer.  Instead of having 1/4 yard of 10 different fabrics, I used 1/4 yard of 12 different fabrics.  

After I had pieced the top of my quilt, I used a quilt frame to put the three layers together.  I find that using the frame helps keep my fabric from getting bunched when I pin the three layers together.  

 I used two yards of fabric for the back that also worked as my binding.  I used the Back to Front Binding method.  Here is a Back to Front Binding tutorial by Prudent Baby that I found that is close to how I did mine.  

I also used a walking foot to machine quilt the blanket.  I did one line down the seam and 1/4 inch on each side of the seam.  

I also did a boy version of this quilt for my new nephew.  Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures because my camera was in the land of the lost (aka a secret hidden pocket in my purse!)

Turkey Rolls!

For Thanksgiving Day last year, I decided to liven up my rolls.  

I used Black Peppercorns for the eyes and shaped the body and face to look like a turkey.  Then, I fanned out the other balls of dough to look like the feathers.  I gave each ball of dough enough room for them to rise.

Next time I'll put the feet on top of the turkey body as if the turkey is sitting down.  

Spread some butter on the rolls and now you have a fun way to display your rolls!  

Double Sided Nursing Cover

A friend of mine is having her 5th baby in a few days and never had a nursing cover.  I couldn't let the misfortune to go on any longer! 

I think having the double layers helps the peep hole stay open while nursing.  I also like having pockets on the inside to store pacifiers, nursing pads or burp cloths.  

Made by the Mamamonster has a great tutorial that I follow every time I make a nursing cover.  It is only one sided so I also use Our Side Notes tutorial for the double sided and pockets.  Someday I'll make my own combining the two!

I found the fabric at JoAnns.

Scrap Belt & Applique Shirt

My niece just turned three.  Since I don't have a girl to dress up in pink, I take advantage of every birthday and Christmas that comes around.

   This year I made her a cute applique bird shirt.  I used scraps from my stash and made my own bird pattern on cardboard before cutting out the fabric.  I found the cute lettuce edged shirt at Walmart.

I thought it added a lot of character to have the wing from the bird not completely attached.

I also made a Scrap Pieced Belt from the tutorial by Ashley at Make It and Love It.  Go HERE for the tutorial.  Super simple and I had everything in my stash.

Summer Activity Chart

At the beginning of the summer there were so many great summer activity charts for kids.  I found that most of them worked better with an older child.  Since I only have a 2 year old, I decided to come up with my own version.  

I put things that I knew my son would like.  On the days that we have time, I let my little guy pick which activity he wants to do.  Some days I have limited time so I pick the activity for the day. I put the picture in a cheap frame that I wasn't using anymore.  Since the picture is covered with glass, we mark off the activities after we do them with a dry erase marker.    

The activities that I included are:

• Playing with his car (Cozy Coup)
• Playing in water
• Going for a walk
• Watching a movie with Mom
• Playing on the swings at our complex
• Going to the park
• Going to the library
• Playing on the toys at the mall
• Coloring on the easel
• Going to the store and sometimes getting a cheap toy
• Art Project
• Going and watching the trains

I went for activities that were simple and didn't take much time out from our normal day.  We've been using it for the last month and it has worked perfectly.  It has helped me get out of the house and enjoy the summer with my son.

You can print your own copy HERE.  It prints out in an 8x10.

Father's Day

For Father's Day, we didn't do anything very special but I was able to make a few of these cute food gifts for my husband.  My husband LOVES peanut M&Ms so I got him a 2 lb bag of them and attached this tag that I found at Little Birdie Secrets.  

I also found this cute pop cover at Oopsey Daisy that wraps around any pop can.  

My favorite part is the Nutritional Facts!

Sewing Machine Pin Cushion

Whenever I sew I usually end up with a few pins still in my tomato pin cushion, which I usually lose, and several all over the table and even more on the floor.  I found a great idea to make a pin cushion that I tie around my machine.   

I just stick my pins in after I pull them out of my project instead of digging for my tomato cushion or just leaving them on the table.  

One of my most loves and used projects.  Plus, it is so much cuter that these...

I got the idea a couple years ago from I Can Find The Time. 

Mother's Day Magnets and Card

I know that Mother's day has passed but certain things have to wait to be posted until after the holiday so I don't give away the surprise.

I decided to make homemade cards this year for Mother's Day.  The blue baby bird was for my mother-in-law and the pink baby bird was for my mother.  It took less time to make the card than looking through a hundred cards at the store. I got the adorable template from mmmcrafts and you can download the template for one of these adorable momma bird cards HERE.

For inside the card, I found a wonderful poem about mother birds by Mittur Ramprasad.  I could not ask for a better poem to go with this cute mother bird template.

I also included this quote by Marjorie Hinckley that perfectly described the life of both my mother and mother -in-law.  You can find a copy over at Ladybird Ln and either get a blue or yellow background.  I had it printed as a 5x7 photo.

 I then stuck a MOM magnet on the back. I traced the MOM on some scrap magnet sheet.

 Finally, I took some of our family pictures over the years and turned them into magnets using scrap magnet sheets.  Each one of these are about wallet size.  Walmart photo has a program where you can make a photo collage.  I just put two pictures on each collage.  

I did a similar project with my Family Photo Magnets.