American Inspiration

Since we're nearing my favorite holiday, I've been looking for some inspiration... I'm a little obsessed with our Country. I think it's great. I love the colors. I love celebrating it! It's such a fun holiday. I once went into a basement that was decorated in American paraphernalia and I absolutely LOVED it! Someday, I might do the same thing. Why only bring these things out on the 4th?? Anyway, here are some things I want to do.

It might be fun to make a {bunting} with patriotic colors like this one from {Daisy's and Dots}.


{A Touch of Sunshine} has these cute pieces for sale on Etsy. I really like them. I might want them in some brighter colors, though. They're a little too antiqued for me.

This top hat is really cute, though.

And for some reason, I LOVE stars during the 4th of July. I love these!!


I really like the look of this sign and especially those stars, of course, from {Suzies Signs}. Although, again, it may be a little too antique for my taste.

VERY cute, though!

{Country Living} has a simple tutorial for how to make these Carnation Balls. I think they look so pretty and summery!! You just soak floral foam and cut carnations an inch below the calyx, then stuff them into the ball in a concentric pattern. Easy, and SO CUTE!

It seems like it would be pretty easy to make them with fake flowers too, so they'd last.

I always make a fruit pizza in the image of an American flag on the 4th of July, but {Diana's Desserts} had this really pretty idea.

Don't they look good?? I think it would be fun to make those cupcakes with red velvet cake mix for the 4th. I love the berries, though!

I saw this lovely scene on {Banquet Event}

Radio Flyers are as American as they get. I love that they're using it as a serving tray of sorts.

That pillow is so cute! I love using fabrics that have the American colors, but don't have all the fireworks and stars all over them.

It just makes me want to Celebrate the 4th, as it says.

Brownie Pops

I saw this on {Imprintalbes}. So these are brownies on a stick...cool idea. These are from {browniepops}. I'm thinking they look pretty easy to make...well, maybe not these ones:
These ones are actually {cheesecake pops} from Hostess with the Mostess. Don't they look delish? Fun party idea, especially for kids.

Pom Pom Nursery

I think this nursery is so cute. I LOVE the wood floors. I really think I might like all the floors in my house to be wood. That rug looks awesome, too. It's a very cute, but simple room. I blogged about these pompoms a while ago {here}. But, I never thought to use them as a permanent decoration.
I saw these images on House of Turquoise, but they are from {Life in the Fun Lane}.
What a cute nursery!! Those pompoms are adorable, and I found out from House of Turquoise that they come in a kit at Michaels. Sweet.

File Folder Fun

My cousin has been telling me about this for a while, but it was really hard to visualize. Thanks to {Our Cozy Nest}, I am finally understanding what these things are. They look pretty simple, and there are a lot of places to get the different folders for free/cheap, it looks like. Pretty good for a no-sew quiet book. :)

Doll Apartment

Can you tell what this is a picture of? It's a cabinet turned into a doll's apartment. What a great space saving idea. And how easy this makes it to clean it up - just shut the doors and the mess is gone. The only thing is that you have to have an extra cabinet... See close-up pictures at Cookie Mag's {Nesting Blog}.

Nursing Cover

One of my cousins made one of these for me as a babyshower gift and I LOVE it! I just thought I'd put this {tutorial} from Make It And Love It on here in case anyone was interested, or if I want to use it for another one someday. Mine is a little different than this in that it doesn't have the boning, but I just love the fact that I don't have to hold a blanket up with my chin. I also love that mine has a little pocket - it's been pretty useful. And I really love the fact that it's doubled up on the fabric. I feel like the hooter hiders are a little small and thin, but when you use 1 1/8 yards of fabric and double it up, it's really nice and big. I think every nursing mother should have one!

Fort Table Cover

I think this is one of the best ideas I've ever seen. Forts were something we made almost every day when I was a little girl, and of course it made a giant mess of everything. It was always really hard to get the blankets to stay up and we'd try tape and heavy objects...both things my parents didn't particularily like... Well, why not make a fort that fits over a table so your kids can make one much easier without destroying your entire house?? Make It And Love It has the {Tutorial}. I really think it's cute. You could make it to fit a dining table or a fold out one that you could store away. My only question is for whether or not the kids would actually like playing in it. I mean, part of the fort fun was building it. In fact once we were done building it, we usually were sick of it...maybe this would encourage more playing in the fort. I wonder... But it's a cute idea, anyway.

Graduation Treat

Guess what you can do with all this stuff:

You can make these!!

Aren't they just adorable!!? It makes me want to throw someone a graduation party. :) {Bakerella} has a tutorial for how to make them.

Grab & Go Baby Essentials

So, right before I had my baby I did all this research to find the perfect diaper bag that didn't look like a diaper bag. I wanted one that looked like a cute purse, and those are hard to come by unless you're willing to spend the big bucks, which I am not. I ended up finding a really good one at Walmart.com for only $18 with free site2store shipping...I LOVE that they do that and I wish every store would! It was such a find! I was so happy. I just tried to find it, but they must not have it anymore because it wasn't there... But I did find this one...
Hmm...it's pretty cute, and my dilema has been that my diaper bag doesn't really go when I'm wearing black... This one's $35. I may have to look into it, but anyway...

I'm beginning to realize that all I really needed was something like this from Restoration Hardware Baby and Child
It all folds up into the changing pad. They have several versions of these at any BabiesRUs store as well.
Or something like these little gems I saw on {With a Little Extra Time}. Jaclyn made these and did a very good job, and tells us where she got directions as well...so nice of her!
A diaper/wipes case and

a grab and go baby essential kit.
I might make this baby essentials kit out of fabric, much like this {take along placemat} I posted about a while back, but just have the pockets go all the way across...cute fabric would be more fun I think. Then, I could be set with any bag and it would be easy to switch bags as I often want to do. I'm really glad I didn't spend much on my diaper bag, or I'd be kind of regretting it right about now. The only thing I'd add is to put a changing mat inside of that diaper/wipe bag. Boppy makes little ones that would fold and fit in there pretty easily. Then, I'd just have to switch these two pouches from one bag to the next and I'd be set ...almost. I still need burp rags around. Someone also gave me a good idea of just keeping an extra set of clothes in the car. Then you don't have to carry them in the bag with you. I'm not saying I'm going to stop using that diaper bag anytime soon. I just think this would work just as well as an actual diaper bag does. They're great ideas.

My Quiet Book Pages 1 & 2

I'm actually making progress on this thing!! YEAY! My pages are bleached muslin. I cut them using a sheet protector as a pattern so they'll fit in a binder when I'm all finished. I plan on punching three holes and reinforcing them with grommets when I'm all finished. Anyway, These may not actually be the first pages in the book when it's all put together, but they're the first pages I've finished. And they'll open up side by side becasue they kind of go together. I'm trying to make all my pages do that.

This page is a stop sign with a pocket holding matching color circles. The color circles velcro onto the sign. This page is a map. The cars are buttons that are attached to ribbons that are sewn to the page inside the pocket. That way they always stay attached to the page. And all together, they look like this.

I like it. I hope my kids like it someday, as well. Hopefully this page will be more than just fun. Hopefully it will teach them to match colors, and how a stoplight works, and how to read a map. We'll see!

Homemade Baby Food

I realize I am not the only mommy out there who has done this, but I just thought I'd share my success story. :) I've always planned on making baby food. I'm the oldest in my family and I remember my mom almost always had a food mill at dinner time, grinding up whatever we were having into a dinner for one of my younger siblings. I totally plan on getting one of those as soon as my baby has been introduced to more foods, but for starters, I just wanted to give him one thing at a time. Cooking veggies is not hard and you hardly need a recipe for it, but I got a gift certificate to Borders for my birthday, so I went to look for something that would help me know what to start out with, and told me exactly how nutritious different veggies are, and the best way to cook them, yadda yadda yadda... So, I went and looked through about ten books and like this one the best. So much good stuff in there! It even has meal plans layed out for you. I really like it. So anyway, the first thing I made was carrots. Steamed them, then blended them with the braun. I love my braun, by the way!

If my freezer didn't have an ice maker, I'd have just used ice trays, but I don't have any, so I registered for these kidco trays and got them. They're cool because each "cube" is 2 oz. large, so that makes feeding pretty easy...I guess. My baby isn't eating that much yet because we just started, but anyway...

Froze them, then popped them out and put them in a ziplock to freeze. They should last about 3 months! Then, when I want to feed him, I'll just take one cube out and pop it in the microwave. Easy!

It was so easy that I've since made sweet potatoes and squash and I plan on doing many more. It will be really fun once I've introduced more things because then I'll be able to do mixtures. That is another reason I got "Superfoods." It has good recipes for what veggies go well with other veggies, etc. I'm loving it!

Great Quiet Book Ideas

{Homemade by Jill} is a blog I recently found with a lot of great ideas on it. Since I am in the process of making a {quiet book} (that will probably take forever!! :), I was most interested in her Quiet Book pages. They're pretty creative! Check them out.

Ruffle Collar Dress

{Katie did} is a GREAT blog I recently found. She does so many cute things. I love these Easter dresses. Aren't they cute?? She has a great {tutorial} for how to make that collar. But she has several other things worth taking a look at. Very cute. Thanks Katie!

Hall Wall Ledge

I'm loving this idea from The Lettered Cottage. What a great thing to do in a really long hallway. She put up a ledge running the length of the hall to decorate. Why not? It's a great use of space. I'm sure it's almost as easy as putting up a chair rail. Great idea.

Cupcake Tower

This is a cute Martha Stewart idea. Those strips of fabric are just bias tape cut in different lengths. They make this cupcake tower look so cute! And that streamer above just does it. Well, along with the carnations, of course - which look really cute for a flower that a lot of people don't like. We all need to take another look at that one...it's so pretty! Great summer party idea. I love the look of all of this outside.

Bare Books

To see the origin of this post, click {here}.

I recently found out about a company called Bare Books. They make many blank products like puzzles, calenders, comic books, game boards, stickers and more. You just order them and start creating! It sounds pretty fun, you could do some pretty cool stuff. What I was most interested in was their {chunky bare books}. These are board books - for little kids. Their prices are pretty good:

11" X 8" - $1.70

8.375" X 6" - $1.45

8" X 8" - $1.55

5" X 5" - $1.20

The only thing is that you have to make a minimum purchase of $25. That's a lot of books! But, shipping is a flat rate of $3 (free to a school). So, if you got a group of people together to make these things, it could be a pretty good deal. Their website says pencils, crayons, watercolor markers, paint, and glued text work on their books. So, I think you could put almost anything you wanted on these things. I just worried that I wouldn't be able to glue pictures to them like I planned, but their website shows examples of what people have done, and it looks like they've been able to do picture books just fine. I probably wont make a word book, like I planned, until my son's starting to talk, but thought this was a good idea to save for future reference.

Alphabet Decor

These little lovlies are from {Bibbity's etsy shop}. I think they're so cute! I also really like how they put it inbetween molding. It would look really cute around the ceiling in a child's room. You could really do almost anything inbetween molding and it would look cute - like animals, flowers, places, clothing, sea shells etc. I really like how Bibbity's are individual little tiles or plaques, though. It makes them look real, and less wall-paper-ish. You could make these things yourself! Decorative molding with an artistic touch inbetween. How cute!

Super Hero Party

Ok, this {super hero party} from Creative Kismet is so stinkin cute! I like that it's very little boyish. So many fun ideas. My favorite was that she made capes and eye masks for them to take home and had they decorated their own logo on the backs of the capes. Here's her tutorial for {super hero capes}. Such a cute party! I also love how she sent out "Super Thankful" thank you's afterward. She made these stamps and used them throughout the whole party. What a great way to get a little boy excited about sending out thank you cards!

KirstenCan also had a {super hero party} and hers turned out really cute, as well.

Cupcake cake - great for little kiddos.She drew this city in need of help for them to pin the super heroes they colored to. Apparently, the kids loved it!

She made capes out of silk, and got masks at the party store, but cut out the noses. These went home with the kids along with party bags filled with this stuff.

I really like these blank notebooks she made. They're so cute!! Great ideas...I may have to use them someday.

Fire Place Face Lift

Man, I love Layla's ideas over at The Lettered Cottage. She did an {$82 fireplace makeover} that turned out stunning. She is really talented. Check it out!

This is how her living room used to look, which by the way, after seeing what she's done to this house makes me less afraid of moving into an older home. You can do some great things!!
So, first she painted the paneling which gave the room a beachy feel. I really like it. Then, she beefed up the mantle by nailing wood to the existing one.

Then, she painted the brick you would see once the project was finished black.

Next, she coverd most of the brick with molding.

Then, she painted the molding white.

That's it!! And then her decorations are so great, of course.

But way easy and cheap and look how good it looks!

Man, I am so inspired!! LOVE this makeover! Her blog goes into more details about how she actually did it all. Such a great idea!

Finished Outdoor Blanket

Well, there it is. I am really happy with how it turned out. I did a rag blanket so I wouldn't have to actually quilt the jeans. They were SO hard to sew with a machine, so I can't imagine quilting through them by hand! I broke all my needles before I was halfway done. Then I went to the store and found out there were needles specifically made to sew denim. shoot. Bought those, used those and broke all but one. So I spent around $5 there, but everything else was free because I'd just been saving these holey jeans since high school. Clipping the edges so they fray like that was hard, too. Just because it's denim. I couldn't do all the layers together. I had to clip every seam 4 times to get all the edges clipped. It made a MESS of my house too because that stuff went everywhere! But, once it was done and I took it to the laundromat - because I didn't want to clog up my own machine - and got it washed and dried, it looked like this! And I love it. I love the way those frayed edges look and they actually make the blanket a lot softer. I just sewed around the edges and frayed them as well so I could add to it in the future, if I ever decide I want to sew denim again which isn't likely right now. But it is kind of small. It will fit all 3 of us on it for the time being and that's all I need for a while. the end.