B-town

Design*Sponge has a travel guide up for my good ol' hometown of Boise, ID. It was fun to see and read about some of my old haunts.
Go check it out HERE!

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

I made these fabulous cupcakes this weekend. There are a few steps, but the nice thing is that you can do everything a day or two ahead of time and then assemble quickly the day you want to eat them. If you like Boston cream pie...you better give them a try!

Find the recipe HERE or buy the cupcake cookbook HERE

Image via marthastewart.com

More Baby Onesies

I have two perfectly good excuses for making so many of these lately. First, I have 4 friends/relatives expecting girls in the next few months. Second, I need to practice sewing. My biggest worry is how they hold up in the wash. So far, so good!

I did this one by hand stitching, just to see how it turned out.

These ruffles are fun and pretty easy to do. I've been giving a couple of these away with a pack of coordinating Baby Legs.

By the time I finished this "M", I started getting the hang of it all. I need to practice more letters...I'm willing to make one for you if you want! I need to know what letter, preferred color, and size of onesie. Leave me a comment or e-mail! Boys are welcome too!

For Abby S. and Tiffany C.

Abby: There is a store just down the road from me called "Green Tangerines". I was intrigued because I know that is the name of your craft blog, so I checked it out the other day. OF COURSE! It HAS to be a scrapbooking store. The fates wouldn't have made it any other way. If you can ever come visit me, we'll have to go there together.

Tiff: I think this store was made for you. This is the ultimate scrapbooking experience. I think you can even rent out the place for parties and stuff. They have classrooms and workshop rooms and a full kitchen for serving treats (they obviously know their target audience well). The store is arranged by theme or color, which means huge long rows of only green or blue. Very visually appealing. Huge jar after jar of different colored buttons...I could go on and on. I had a lot of fun just browsing around. We'll get you down here sometime and we'll go have some fun. Maybe Todd will even forgive me someday for telling you about this. :)

Sponge Water Fun

A fun summer time activity for kids to beat the heat. I call these the "reusable water balloon". They get you about as wet as a water balloon when one is thrown your way, but instead of filling a hundred one-time use balloons, you just dunk your sponge ball in water and go at it again and again!

For one sponge ball you will need:
1. 3 standard sponges, cut into 5 pieces each (cut lengthwise)
2. A piece of strong twine or string
3. WATER

After cutting your sponges, arrange them as shown above with your string underneath the sponge sticks, ready for tying.

Pull string as tight as possible and double knot. Cut off extra string.
You are officially ready to have a sponge ball water fight.

I was off limits while taking pictures, but was hit plenty once I put the camera down. These are a lot of fun!

Of course, they float which is nice for my toddler who can't reach all the way down in a deep bucket. They hold up really well too, just tie that string really tight. If they come apart for some reason....just get another piece of string and tie again. Enjoy!

Fresh Peach Pie (Easy)

I bought some early peaches this weekend and made one of my favorite treats: fresh peach pie. I grew up with this recipe and I don't know where my mom got it, but it is really easy and very yummy. I used a store bought graham cracker crust, but you could use a cooked homemade pie shell or do a homemade graham cracker crust as well. My husband was gone this weekend, so I opted for super easy since I had the kids.

Ingredients:

a pie shell of your choosing, cooked and ready to go
about 6 peaches, skinned, pitted, and sliced
3/4 c sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 cup cold water
3T peach flavored jello powder

Mix sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Add water and boil until clear and starting to thicken. Add jello powder and cool pan in an inch of ice cold water (I do this in my sink) until filling is room temperature. Mix filling with peach slices and pour into crust. Refrigerate until filling is firm. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

That's it! Just a few ingredients and not that much sugar too, which is nice. This recipe also works wonderfully with sliced strawberries for your fruit and make sure to use strawberry flavored jello as well. I think I need to go have another slice right now....

Ruffle Bum Onesie

I am not a sewing buff, but I do try to sew once or twice a year in an attempt to improve myself. I found this great tutorial on U Create and just had to try it. It was created by Char and I did option 2 since I don't have a machine that can serge.

This is my friend's daughter who is just learning to walk. The onesie was a little too big for her, but you get the idea.

So cute and the best part is that she has some skirt/ruffles in the back but can still crawl with ease. I'm happy with my first attempt and ready to do some more!

Chore Chart

It's time to start our first chore chart for my 5 year old. I used the custom chore chart maker found HERE to make my template. I chose to keep it simple, but you can embellish quite a bit if you wish.

I laminated the chart itself and then my son and I sat down to think of chores. We thought of a lot of different ones, that way each week or two we can change it up and not only learn a variety of ways to help around the house, but also so we don't get bored with the same ol' chores all the time. I also laminated some cute gold stars to stick on when we complete a chore. Once we get a certain amount of stars up on the chart, he gets paid! We're really into putting money in our piggy bank right now.

Testing to make sure everything fits.

Here it is in our fridge, waiting for us to decide what chores to put on here this week. I added some envelopes to the bottom to hold the chore cards and stars. I think I'm going to add velcro pieces to the chart for easy sticking and removal.
Time to go clean something!

Laminate, anyone?

I borrowed my cousin's laminating machine this week and I am hooked. I am definitely going to have to get one for myself.

So, here's a little project I've been meaning to do for a while. These cutouts were originally a poster that ripped (big surprise in my house), so I cut out the undamaged characters, mounted them on cardstock, and laminated them. The boys can now play with them or we can use them for decoration:

Kachow! We'll leave them up on the wall until the boys start pulling them off, wanting to play with them again.

This laminated beauty is for teaching music to the kids at my church on Sunday. On the back of each leaf is the title of a song that the kids know. There are also birds under some of the leaves and if they find one, then we do a certain action while singing the song, like singing with our eyes closed or standing up. Laminating this made it super durable, hooray for lamination!