Quiet books

The sister is on her vacation and that means the quiet books are done! Go us. It was about a month of work but four books are complete. Binding was the hardest part and we had to get creative with that. Here are the pictures from our books.

First was an animal book for Avery which I guess Lexie loved. Each page had something fun on it. For example, the alligator and the zipper mouth and the butterflies wings have crinkle paper in it.

Then there is Avery's touch and feel book. We picked our favorite (and basic) colors and used different textures of material on the pages.

Then there was Lexie's learning book. We put a lot of number counting and matching in this book.

Finally was Lexie's fun book. This one took the longest to make and turned out really well.

For inspiration and patterns check out imagineourlife. This is where we got any patterns that we used. The color book, Lexies learning book, car page, pizza page, and Mike dress up were our own creations. Feel free to use those as models for your own quiet books. A always, if you have any questions about these, feel free to ask and I will help the best I can!

Happy crafting!

 

 

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Fall Wreath

Fall may not be in the air quite yet, but I am very ready for it. Fall projects have been all over Pinterest lately. Making this wreath has me in the mood for fall.... Plus, the Febreeze fall and winter scents probably aren't helping. My house officially smells like cranberry downstairs. But I digress, here is the link to my inspiration for my wreath below.

See I told you I am all ready.

For this project you will need:

- An MDF wreath frame: I found mine at Michael's in the floral section.

- Twigs: you can either find these outside or purchase them. Michael's has them in their floral section for fairly cheap.

- Burlap (or just plain fabric): I found the burlap at JoAnn's for $3.99 a yard and they had a huge selection. Pick whatever colors appeal to you. I got a quarter yard of each color.

- Hot glue gun and A LOT of hot glue: I'm serious, this whole wreath is held together by the hot glue so make sure to stock up.

- Any other embellishments you would like.

I started by breaking (or cutting) my twigs into pieces about 6 inches long. Glue all of these around the MDF frame. I found it was easiest to put some glue onto the frame and then put sticks on. Space these as you would like.

Put your twig wreath to the side because now comes the fun part... Making the rosettes.

First you will need to cut circles out of some scrap fabric. However big you cut your circle is how big your rosette will be. Cut your burlap into sections about 1 inch thick and 24 inches long. Again, use your judgement on this depending on how you want your flowers to look.

Step 1- tie a knot on one end of the burlap. Glue this to the center of your circle.

Step 2- begin twisting the fabric and spiralling it around the knot. Use glue every now and then to hold it in place.

Step 3- continue the twist and spiral process until you have covered your whole circle and only have a small piece of burlap left. The tighter you twist the burlap the tighter the rose will be. So, if you want a rose with more "fluff" to it, don't twist it as tight.

Step 4- flip the rose over and glue the end of the burlap down.

Voila, you have one rosette. Continue this process until you have enough roses to go around the whole MDF frame.

At this point go ahead and grab your twig wreath again. Make sure that you have as many twigs as you want glued down. I added some fake white flower/ball type things I found at Michael's. Begin gluing the flowers down around the frame, placing them how you would like.

After about 15-20 glue sticks to should now be done... I told you it was a lot of glue. But, I do have to say I am really proud of this wreath. I love the way it turned out and the burlap and twigs are perfect for fall.

Tomorrow (or this week) I am going to post some more fall and Halloween decorations I am working on... I did mention I was obsessed with both of those things right now right? But anyways, more decorating and tutorials later :)

 

 

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Pure Craziness

The hubby is off in LA for work. We shipped him off on Saturday. It seriously feels like it has been so much longer. I miss him already. :( But good news, I booked a flight to go visit next week.

I leave my house Monday evening to go visit my sister and do more quiet book stuff. Then Thursday morning I start my long day of travel. I can't wait for my trip. Another vacation... I am one lucky girl. This time I will be laying on the beach in Santa Monica. Super excited for some Bubba Gump Shrimp Co :)

Anyways, I got some more quiet book pages done. These ones are for Lexie's learning book. They are all ideas from my sister and I and no patterns were used.

Cute right? I'm pretty proud of them. The balloon one could easily be made into different shapes. It's a great one because it uses fine motor skills and color matching. The next one is a bead counter. It has shape beads, so animal recognition could also be used. It also shows the number and dots to reinforce the number three different ways. Next is a number matching and then a pizza for her to make. The pizza is mostly just for fun because she loves pizza :)

Back to the craziness though. Over the weekend was the Oregon International Airshow out in Hillsboro. Friday night we went up to the local park to watch the show and the fireworks. Coco was not so sure she loved the fireworks so she cuddled in my sweatshirt.

The next day was insane. I took my husband to the airport and then we had record breaking temperatures here in Oregon. It reached 102. For real, that is just not even okay. We don't do that here in Oregon. The heat was terrible, but I was at my sisters with no AC and sewing all day. Ugh. We got through a lot of the quiet books.

Sunday we were back at the quiet books. It was hot, but not as hot as Sunday. It is finally cooling back down here.. I am a 70s and 80s kind of girl.

I think that it all I can rant about right now. The craziness is slowing down and I am gearing up for my next vacation!

 

 

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Quiet books

Quiet books have been all over Pinterest lately. My sister Megan is heading to Michigan soon for a family trip and friends wedding. Two kids and a long flight.... Some sort of entertainment is needed. Her and I thought making some quiet books would be a great idea. Well, the books were a great idea if someone else made them or it wasn't 102 degrees without an air conditioned house.

But, all that aside, we almost completed two in two days. We used patterns from Imagine Our Life. This women is absolutely insane and makes the cutest books ever. I seriously don't know how she does it. A few times my sister and I were cursing at her because she made us jealous. But, all our hate towards her aside, she is amazing. Her patterns are easy to follow and her blog gives amazingly detailed pictures of all her pages. I wish I could be as cool as her.

The first page we did was the sandcastle. It turned out great and had minimal hand sewing. The cutting was also really quick. This one was really simple to customize with colors and beads.

Next was the cupcake page. Now, cutting out the pattern should have been our first clue. This one was tedious. A LOT of hand stitching went into this one. But, the adorable oven that opens up to reveal cupcakes and all the other small details make this one a winner.

The road one is something that we just whipped up on our own. The only pattern I used was from her camping page for the brown bear. Megan is supposed to be sewing a little parking lot with pockets for the cars to go in and I am thinking about another car or two.

In honor of Lexie's first airplane trip we made her the airport page. It has a truck to move the bags from the airport to the plane. A helicopter that can be moved around. A small plane that flies on a string. The airplane had one area that opens up to put the bags in. We ended up adding another opening on the plane so that Megan could sew in a vinyl pocket and put a family picture in there for Lexie.

We kept telling her she was going to go on an airplane soon and her response was "I too big". It was really cute. Hopefully, she will enjoy her first flight! She will have two really cool books to keep her entertained on the trip.

This page was by far Lexie's favorite. She has an obsession with green monsters, especially Mike Wazowski. Since the book is for her, we decided to do something special. We made a Mike and girl Mr Potato Head- ish page. This was one of our creations and we had so much fun making it. We cut out some circles, blew up a picture of Mike to make the arms and legs, then sewed on the eyes... Well one eye for each. For the girl, we added some yarn hair. Her favorite outfit for mike was the pink polka dot tie. We made ties, skirts, lips, and mustaches. I think we are going to have to make more clothes for this page because she loves it so much.

We still have plenty left to do but the rest of the pages should be much more simple to make... But I'll let you know after we actually make them. Stay tuned for more quiet book pages through the next week or so.

 

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DIY Home Cleaners

We have all been reading about natural cleaners and right now they are all over Pinterest. I found one that I figured I would try. Overall, any of these cleaners are really simple to make. Here is the link to the directions I used :)

For both cleaners:

12 oz spray bottles- I found some at Dollar Tree; the Container Store among others has them too.

Window Cleaner

– 3/4 cup vinegar
– 3/4 cup water
– 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
– 1/2 tsp liquid dish detergent
– 3 drops of orange (or whatever you like) essential oil
– 3 drops of vanilla (or whatever you like) essential oil


Countertop Spray

– 3/4 cup vinegar
– 3/4 cup water
– 1/2 tsp liquid dish detergent
– 10 drops of orange (or whatever you like) essential oil
– 10 drops of vanilla (or whatever you like) essential oil

Once you mix all the ingredients together, pour them into the spray bottles. For best results, shake them before each use. When washing your windows, use a news paper. It works a million times better. I also recommend making some cute little labels... But, there are also free printables on the link if you want to use her scents. Oh, she also has instructions for a soy wax candle to go with the sprays!

I have been using these sprays for awhile now and I love them. They are so simple to make, you can make them smell however you like, plus it is REALLY cheap to make.

My first test with this was to clean my microwave out and let me tell you, it practically wiped all the mess right off. I would mark this Pinterest pin as a win.

 

Lovelovelove

 

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Birthday is Over

My birthday is all over :( It was good though. Richard got me a new pair of hot pink Toms. And I had my epic birthday cake. Plus, he woke me up with my birthday crown and a bowl of ice cream for breakfast.... And he didn't wake me up until 10am. How sweet of him right?

Coco had her first camping trip this weekend. She did really well.... Until it got cold or rainy, which was often since it was at the coast. Last night she was curled up in a wool blanket next to the fire. It was adorable. I wish I would have gotten pictures of it. She slept in my sleeping bag with me and did really well staying between my legs and feet. Except at one point last night I woke up and I couldn't find her... She had moved from between my legs to laying right next to me and on the ground... It was really weird. I am just glad she didn't try to escape!

Tomorrow is the big day... Richard is finally having his shoulder surgery. Surprisingly I am really nervous. I know it's shoulder surgery, but it's still scary. I know everything will be fine.... Except my four to six hours I will be sitting up at the VA hospital by myself waiting. Maybe I will ride the tram down and walk around downtown Portland. As long as its a nice day. But back to Richard. He is scared. I know it. But after tomorrow it will be a start to recovery, finally. Something to thoroughly look forward to.

I am going to push my Pinterest Interest for this week back to Tuesday so I can concentrate on my husband tomorrow.... Hope you all understand :) let me know if anyone has any suggestions for things they want to see on Pinterest Interest. I mean, I have a lot of things to go through, but I really want to do things that my readers will enjoy.

Lovelovelove

 

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Pinterest Interest- DIY Tea Soap

 

This week I am looking at some really cute tea soaps that I found here.... They were really simple (and fun) to make. Plus, they turned out really cute. I loved being able to customize the soap by what tea that I put it in. So here, is the way I did it.

Materials:

Soap- I found an awesome kit at Michaels that had the bar soap... But, there is a huge selection at Michaels for all the kinds of soap you want, basically a good melt and mold kind.

Tea- I used Peppermint and also Earl Grey

Apricot seeds- this came in my kit from Michaels, but I believe they have them for individual sale there too. This adds the exfoliating scrubbing that I love in soap.

Soap Mold, bowl, tissue paper, string, and labels if you want them :)

I started by breaking off pieces of the soap and putting them in the bowl. Microwave this in about 20 second intervals until you have a smooth consistency. Add in about 1/2 to 1 tea bag into the soap. Also add in a little of the apricot seeds to your desired scrubbiness level. Dump this into your mold and let it cool completely before moving it!

Once it is cooled pop those suckers out of the mold. Now, I don't have a picture of it, but I wrapped them in tissue paper so that they looked like little tea bags. Then I stapled on the string and added a label that I made quickly so I would know what kind it was. If you want more detailed pictures of how it was wrapped, go to the tutorial that inspired this, she does a much better job than I ever could.

 

There you have it loves, a simple soap that smells wonderful, works amazingly, and is so cheap. Oh and here is a little bit of info on the benefits of green tea soap I you need another reason to make it.

 

Lovelovelove.

 

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DIY Mineral Veil

This one is really simple. While perusing Pinterest, I found this pin. Making your own mineral veil, who would have thought. I am one to spend a lot of money on makeup, but this is one place I will now save.

I will admit, this may be the easiest project you will ever do. One ingredient, that's it, just one. Cornstarch. I bought it at Fred Meyers for under $1.50.

Now let's do some price comparison down here.

This mineral veil costs $20. Look at its ingredients below... Notice what the first ingredients are? Oh yeah, it's about .3 ounces of product...

Ingredients

Zea Mays (Corn Starch), Corn Starch Modified, Zinc Stearate, Magnesium Stearate. May Contain: Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)

Now my 12 ounces container of cornstarch cost less than $1.50. How do you even validate paying for the other one?

If you have an empty mineral veil container from the last time you bought it you can just reuse that. If not, just buy a container that you can find in the travel section or even use a small Tupperware.

If you want to add a slight color to the mineral veil, just add some of your powder that you already have. Otherwise, this will just leave a nice translucent cover on your face. It really helps to set your makeup and make everything smoother.

There you have it ladies (and gentlemen I guess) the easiest project you will ever do from Pinterest.

Since I missed last Monday I am going to do another Pinterest Interest tomorrow. :) I know, you all love me. Check back tomorrow!

 

 

Lovelovelove.

 

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