"Box Full of Sunshine" Gift Basket

Tomorrow is my 39 week appointment at the birthing center and I'm hoping my last. My first Bug was born at 41 weeks and my second Bear at 38 weeks, so who knows when this baby will actually decide it's her birthday... But I wanted to take a gift for my favorite nurse and my midwife just in case it is my last actual appointment. I knew I could whip up something for them using my good ole "Gifts" board on Pinterest.

This was the inspiration pin.

This is the collection of yellow goodies I came up with.

1.leftover Whitmans box re-used as the "basket" 2.wet-ones sanitizing wipes 3.Swedish Fish 4.tic-tacs 5.Lemon jello 6.Snapple Iced-Tea 7.fruity air-freshener 8.Canned Pineapple 9.Ice Breakers Gum 10.Juicy Fruit Gum 11.Carmex 12.Snickers Egg 13.Nail Polish 14.Crystal Light Packets 15.Reeses Egg 16.Post-Its 17.lollipop 18.lipgloss 19.socks 20.highlighter 21.Kleenex


Yellow card stock, quotes from the internet, some clear cellophane, a ribbon, and voila!

Two boxes of sunshine for two people that are always happy even when the waiting room is full, the hoodlums are crying, and it's raining outside.

The only downside to putting this box of sunshine together is that I have been singing "I've got a pocket, got pocket full of sunshine..." ALL DAY LONG. Even customizing lyrics and making my husband think I'm even weirder than I actually am! :)

Do you know anyone that could use a sunshine basket? Either to lift their spirits or just for fun? This random assortment of things I'm hoping is a big hit tomorrow! I'm thinking this is a great cheap go-to that would work well in any color!

Candy "Cake"

I have seen so many super cool candy tiered "cakes" on Pinterest, for my favorites I've pinned find them on my board "My Kind of Party!"

My husband LOVES, I mean LOVES candy, and he doesn't eat it often because he has self control and we don't eat a ton of "junk" in the hope our kids learn from us and will continue healthy eating habits long after they're out of our home.

But, come on a birthday is a special day, and now he has a good stash to last him the year!

Step one- buy a cart load of the gift receivers most favorite candy. (Be sure to show the cashier the picture on Pinterest so she doesn't judge you and think you're big pregnant self if wolfing this all down yourself)

Step two- find some boxes, and/or some cake cardboards, and sit and arrange and re-arrange and get frustrated over how you are gong to make all this candy stack up properly to not look like a glued on mess, then just get to it and stop stressing out!

Step three- add some pretty ribbon & some candles & then hide it in a cool place until party day! (If this cake was for anyone other than my husband I probably would have wrapped every tier in ribbon and made it look a lot fancier)

Step four- surprise Husband at the party and let all the party goers marvel at your tower of teeth ruining junk!

Woohoo one more Pinterest pin completed! Can't wait to make another one, think I'm gonna go with a solid one candy "cake" for the next one!
Do you have candy lovers in the family? Try this and let me know how it goes!

Easy Valentine Bags!

Yep, still only posting pictures with my iPhone it's the easiest way to put them on here for now! But anyway, here's a group shot of all our Valentine bags we gave out this year!

Ella Bug is trying so hard with her letters! She is doing so well for a three year old! Plus we're going to like calling Ben, "Bem" now! The girls wrote out all their own Valentines, Lyla Bear scribbled more on her hands than the cards but no one cared they loved her one year old chicken scratch!

We bought a few different bags of candy and used ziplock bags and embroidery thread to split them up for each gift.

Then I looked up different quotes on Pinterest & personalized each persons Valentine bag using scrapbook paper, Sharpie paint pens and a regular black Sharpie!

I am also getting really addicted to using puff paint on things! For some reason I just love the way it adds a little something extra! We had to use a big bag for Gramy and Grampys, our little clear treat bags weren't gonna cut it for our number one fans.

Everyone loved their gifts and they were so much cheaper to put together ourselves than buying the same-ole same-ole overpriced valentines baskets for all our closest friends and family!

Thanks for stopping by!

My SMASH Holiday & Vacation Book introduction! The 365 Folio

So, I used to be a scrapbooker. Used to be, as in before I had children or a house and the time to sit and play with paper all day.

And, I used to be a face booker. Used to be, as in before I was tired of everyone telling me every time they took a crap or waited in a fast food line too long.

I still needed some way to record daily things and my old-school pen and paper ways could not get the hang of any fancy pants app I got on my ipad for journaling. Plus I wanted something physical, something that was a hard copy of our life events.

Enter the SMASH book by K&Company. I bought the 365 Folio & the Pretty Pink gift pack.

The reviews I read of the 365 Folio pegged it as a Holiday journal so that's what I intended to use it for. Family vacations and Holidays! Which was pretty perfect since we were about to embark on our first vacation of the year it would give me the perfect opportunity to start my SMASHING. The pretty pink one will be my daily family write-whatever-the-heck-I-want book.

Here's my first Vacation page in the 365 Folio!

For a detailed explanation of what a SMASH book is read this blog post, she does not leave anything out and where I got the idea to use to tape as tabs for pictures!

Keep checking back for more information and pictures as we SMASH our way through 2013!

DIY: Baby Burp Cloths

Like most people who sew, I am a fabric collector. Ok, fabric hoarder, call it what you want I love having things to choose from. I seriously needed to kick start my nursery sewing and thought burp cloths would be a good thing to get finished and get me in the mood to conquer the bed skirt, the crib quilt, and the fancy fabric wall hangings I've pinned on Pinterest.

I read this blog tutorial, and got to work. She gives very good instructions and exact dimensions. I just kinda winged it...

There was a little bit of brown in the flannel print so I thought using brown thread would make them look fancy. I was wrong, so after re-threading the serger I finished them.

Looks a lot nicer without the weird brown edged one....

Ava's gonna love laying her face on this.

Easier to serge than it was to get a picture to look ok with my phone... I need a real camera I guess. Enjoy! Be one of the many moms making their own soft, absorbent burp cloths! Think these will be one of my go-to sewing gifts for baby showers they're so quick to sew and can make so many with a little bit of fabric!

Project Preview: Going Paperless

It really is ridiculous the amount of paper products we go through. Not "we" as a country, I'm not being all judgey, I just mean "we" as a family.

Paper towels take up a lot of valuable cart space when shopping, and the one thing I'm noticing lately is less room due to the mega pack of paper towels it seems like I am ALWAYS buying.


This is the first set of re-usable paper towels I saw; found via Pinterest but sold here on Etsy, for $52!

This tutorial is a good one to check out! Full pictures and very well explained.

I think during the weekend I'm going to try to sit down and sew a couple dozen of them, it should be fast on the serger, I hope...

While I'm at it, I'm hoping to finish re-usable lunch bags for the girls, with sandwich wraps and home-made ziplock type bags.

Here's the tutorial I plan to follow for their lunch sacks. She uses a brown paper bag as her template and that's exactly what I'm looking for so that's what I'm going to do!

Well, that's the plan anyways. I do need to finish a diaper changing pad cover, a crib skirt, and several dozen feet of fabric bunting... Oh, to Sew!

Bug's room and her scrapbook paper wall!

Truth: I absolutely hate removing wallpaper. Especially when it's ugly blue and pink vintage print that makes me want to barf. Not vintage cute, vintage barf.

I know one day my Bug will want this removed and I'll have to deal with the wallpaper I left up that's now covered with glue and paper.... But that's not now, and Bug loves her room!

This idea was not my own, like all things crafted it came from Pinterest!

To check out the original blog post click here!

This room was first the playroom, but Bug is apparently the living version of Princess Pea and played musical bedrooms. We seriously arranged the set-up of the house three of four times before landing where we are now and staying. Not for fun, even though it was fun to decorate and re-decorate, but my husband called the entire process a whole set of different words other than fun.

Oddly enough, after avoiding the easterly side of the house with the neighbors barking dog, or the southern facing side because it was the coldest room in the house, Princess Pea landed in the smallest room of the house, the playroom, the wild crazy scrapbook paper room. Now that it's finally finished and her complete sanctuary, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's my record that this room can be clean. Hope you like her fun wall, and you can tell by the amount of things my Bug has, she is a very well taken care of grand-daughter. That's my fancy way of saying my parents spoil the crap out of her. Well, out of all of us. :)

Manly Gift Basket: fishing creel!

Like all good things crafted this idea came from Pinterest.

I knew I wanted to put together a manly basket for my Grandpa's Birthday, but other than candy or alcohol like most of them I found I also wanted it to be something semi-useful.

Fishing supplies, are super CHEAP just pick a few standard items that are sure to be used sometime or another.

You could save and not buy the fishing creel, but I think the basket is what really makes the gift.

Well that, and the voucher for the fishing license.

There's really not that much stuff in it, but enough that it was full and in my opinion a super cool gift for Grandpa!

The Land and the Husband do provide; 2012 Protein Review.

What is a husband to do with a house full of girls?

Well he's to escape as often as he can to be like John Muir and walk alone in the wilderness.

He likes to play Robin Hood in the forest, be like Elmer Fudd tracking his prey, and put some good food on our table in the process.

Here's my pictures of him and some of his favorite provided feasts for us throughout the year. The freezer is still full and tummies never empty.

California Department of Fish & Game Regulations