Owl mobile

While putting together the new nursery I wanted to reuse as much as possible from little dude's nursery. I hated the idea of throwing anything out, but I also wanted something "new" for our new little guy. Always seems unfair that the second child (like myself) gets so many hand-me-downs. When I was going through all the baby stuff I found the old crib mobile and wanted to spruce it up.

Before, it looked something like this...

I really did not like it. I looked on etsy for some inspiration and really fell in love with all the felt mobiles. And honestly, they looked simple, but were so expensive... So as usual I decided I could do it myself. I went and purchased felt sheets (really cheap at dollar store or even michaels with a coupon) and embroidery thread. Otherwise, I just used old buttons, pillow stuffing and scrap fabric. For tools, I needed sewing scissors, embroidery needles and a hot glue gun.

I made a paper pattern for my owls. I had one for the main body, one for the stomach and one for the eyes. I used them as a template for each owl. I used felt for everything but the stomach circle, there I just used scrap fabric. After all the pieces were cut out I glued the stomach and eyes to the main body. I then added the detail to the back, the buttons and embroidery. I then stitched the front and back of the owl together, leaving about a 1 cm opening for the stuffing. Using a pencil to push the stuffing in tight and then finished sewing it closed. I then did the same for the stars and moon. I used the embroidery thread to hang it all from the mobile. I also took a long peice of scrap fabric to cover the long plastic bit. Just sewed the two edges together, flipped it inside out and slipped it on.

I love the way it turned out. It is however missing the moon now... Not strong enough for a 3 year old to hang off of...

 

Little dude turns 3!!

This year for little dudes birthday we were very busy. I had just finished my last semester at university, I was working full time and I was 7 months pregnant. I didn't have a lot of time to make a huge time consuming birthday cake. When I saw someone do a similar version of this cake I knew our little dude would love it. He's obsessed with machinery.

I went to walmart and found a cheap set of construction vehicles. Then I made a box (! I know shocking...) chocolate cake and iced it with a simple chocolate buttercream icing. After it was all iced, hubby took a knife and simply chopped out a chunk from the side. We positioned the vehicles on the cake and added some Oreo cookie crumbs to the cake to make it look more like dirt. And tada... It was that simple.

 

 

Little Dude's Room

I have been wanting to blog about my little dude's bedroom for quite a while. He is now 2 and a half, so no longer a nursery, but a big boy room. This was a big project and was a lot of work. We had just bought our house and there was still a lot to do. In this room, we had to pull the carpets and baseboards, the room was basically gutted. We were on a very tight budget for this job, after recently purchasing a home and expecting our first child as a young family.

Hubby started by replacing the carpet and baseboards. He went discs end of the roll place and got some carpet a bit cheaper, which hubby installed himself. He also managed to replace the baseboards himself. Then we needed to paint. This was one of the largest project in the room. I had this idea to do big squares and was inspired by colors on all the baby stuff I had gotten!

After we had colors picked out we wanted to do bedding and curtains. With the help of my mom we came up with some great ideas. We went to Ikea and bought a long beige curtain. We also purchased baby duvet, so we just needed to make a cover. When I was looking around at different bedding sets, they were all super cute, but, they were so expensive and included lots of things,such as bumper pads, that I wasn't going to use. Anyways, we also went to the fabric store and bought some fabrics. We brought along our paint chips and choose fabrics with the same sorts of colors. We weren't that concerned about what the patterns were, because the colors would tie it all together.

My mom took the long curtain from Ikea and cut it to a good length for the window, then with the rest She made the front of the duvet. For both, she cut bits of the colorful fabrics and sewed them in strips. We had also purchased a softer fabric, which we used for the back of the duvet. We used some big bright buttons to fasten it closed on the bottom. With the scraps she made some little pillows for the glider chair.

As for the furniture, The crib was a gift from the Inlaws, and we put an old bookshelf in the room, that my dad had made for my mom, years ago. Lastly, we looked everywhere for a dresser/change table. Everything was so expensive. I waited until babies r us had a big sale. When we went they were clearing out a lot of stuff. The one I got was more than 50% off the original price and then the guy loading it in our van took a chip out of the bottom, so we got it even cheaper. It was a great deal!

When we were traveling in the mountains shortly after little dude was born, we found these stuffed animal deer heads. If you can imagine, they were kind of cute. After much debating, we bought one (which we call ray). This however, turned into a bit of a joke, and now we also have a bear hear and a polar bear rug... Overall, I still love his room and like that it is a bit different than other babies room; there is not a "theme" per say, but, just colors that we liked.

 

Summer Centerpeices

For my little Dude's birthday I wanted to make some centerpeices for the tables outside. My initial thought was simple vases with spring flowers. But, I thought maybe something a bit more kid friendly was in order. Little Dude had gotten a tiny pinwheel from my inlaws (who live overseas) in their last care package and he loves it. They look simple enough to make, so I googled a few ideas. It turns out, it is pretty much as easy as I had thought.

I have a ton of scrapbooking paper with pretty designs that I have had for years, so I decided that this would be a perfect use for it. Other than that I used chopsticks (save the wooden ones you get when you order chinese food) and a thumb tack. I used the directions here.... Well, actually, it was the day before Little Dude's party, so Hubby put them together for me!

One they were together, I took the jars that I had made (check them out here), filled them with a bit of sand from the sandbox and stuck the pinwheels in. Any jar would work though, or even a bucket from the sandbox or a glass.

They were a cute addition to the party, and everyone had fun playing with them afterwards.

Pièce de Résistance - The Cake

This year, I had big plans! I wanted to make cake pops. I spent hours googling pictures and getting ideas for different kinds of cake pops. However, my one concern was that they would be too sweet for everyone- the traditional way including rolling icing and cake crumbles together. My mom had seen this cake pop maker and bought it for me one day. This way they would be fluffier and lighter.

I assembled the troops Saturday, the day before the party. I recruited everyone who was home at my parents, my mom, sister and Grandma and Grandpa who were visiting from Ontario. We started by mixing 3 seperate batters that are found in the recipe book included: chocolate, vanilla and lemon. Vanilla and lemon made really thick batters, so I poured them in a freezer ziploc bag (it needs to be the heavy duty ones or it will break on you) and cut the corner. This allowed me to pipe them into the machine quickly and with much less mess. The chocolate one was much runnier, so I put it in a measuring cup; This made it easy to pour into the machine. The trick I found with all batters was to pour as much in as possible without it spilling over and don't open the machine for atleast a minute. One baked I placed the cake pops in the tray provided with the machine to keep them round, but ran out of room quickly. I found that putting them in egg cartons was almost as effective at keeping them round. Then we let them cool for a few minutes.

If you don't have a cake pop machine, then you could always use these directions here. This shows the traditional way to make them, and you don't need any special tools.

After they were cool, we needed to put the sticks in. I used the lollipop sticks that came with the cake pop maker (you can always find some more at Michaels) and long wooden skewers, because we needed some on longer sticks (and we had those lying around). We dipped the sticks in chocolate and stuck them in the cake ball. Then they went into the freezer for about 15minutes. This makes them easier to work with and ensures that they do not fall off the sticks.

Then it was time to dip them in icing. I used the recipes here from the book that came with the cake pop maker. We did chocolate icing and vanilla glaze. Both were extremely easy to work with. The only challenge was finding the best consistency. Too warm and it dripped too much, too cool and it wasn't smooth.

Right after dipping they were decorated with sprinkles, nuts, toasted coconut, toffee bits...pretty much
whatever we had. I bought some cool sprinkles at Bulk Barn, but not nearly enough. It worked to roll the pops in the toppings, but sprinkling some on the tops also looked neat. I left a few with just plain chocolate, and later I melted blue candy melts (from Bulk Barn) and piped on designs with a piping bag, using the smallest tip I had.

We needed space to have the cake pops dry. They had to stand straight us so they didn't have an indent on the top. Using egg cartons, we poked holes in the top and filled the bottom with rice (to ensure that they didn't tip over). They then went in the fridge for a few minutes to make sure they were good and set.

The next challenge was transport. I had made them at my parents house because they have much more space. But, the party was at my house. My Step-Dad came up with the great idea of placing styrofoam on the bottom of a giant cooler and poking the cake pops in. This kept them upright and cool. It worked perfectly and they all survived the 20km trip home.

Once home I made the display. I had already bought a flower pot and floral foam (can find both at the Dollar Store). I filled the bottom of the pot with the floral foam and then started sticking the cake pops in. I was going for a "flower arrangement." Basically put the longer ones in the middle and used shorter ones as I went around.

Here is how it turned out.... Like?!

I also made a cake just for Little Dude. I baked a small cake directly in a flower pot. Once it was done baking I crumbled the cake a bit to look like dirt. I then added a few gummy worms coming out. Cake Pop in the middle, candles and viola! I wanted him to be able to blow out the candles, which he couldn't do on the big arrangement. Here is his little cake!

Lastly, I needed to have something to serve extras. So, I wrapped a peice of floral foam in brown paper, tied a ribbon around it. I secured the ribon with a thumb tack I found at the Dollar Store. Then I just stuck in a few cake pops.

It was good I did because the cake pops went fast!

Overall, the party was a success and the cake pops were a hit! Everyone loved them and they are perfect for a kids birthday party. No forks, plates and clean-up later...well maybe a bit of laundry...

Hydrating and Feeding the Guests

This year I did a spring/garden theme. It was Mother's Day and a 2 year old birthday, so I needed it to fit both occassions. Spring could be a girly theme, so I made attempts to make it better for a little boy. One thing I have wanted to try out for a long time is old fashioned lemonade. I looked everywhere for a recipe I liked landed on this one - here. It's sparkling raspberry lemonade. It was festive and fresh, for the hot day we had.

I also spent the week making ice cubes (I only have one ice cube tray). I froze raspberries and lemon in ice. I used fresh lemons and frozen raspberries. My first batch of raspberry ice cubes, I just dropped raspberries in the water and froze it together. The water turned really red from the juice, as they defrosted slightly. The berries became hidden in the cube and didn't have the impact I wanted. I tried half freezing the cubes but, that also did not look perfect. For the last attempt I filled the trays half way with water, took them out, placed the berries on top and poured ice water over it to freeze it the rest of the way. The lemons I just tossed in the water and froze it all together. In the end they both turned out great!

I also wanted some snack foods, but we were having an early dinner and didn't need anything big. I decided on a veggie tray. I just cut up veggies like usual and added dip in the center. It didn't match the theme, so I added gummy worms around and veggies. It made it more fun and was perfect for a 2 year old boy's birthday party.

Everyone left full and hydrated at the end of the day!

Birthday Ballon Wreath

It's Official, my little dude is now 2! We had a little gathering yesterday with family and I thought I'd share a few of my projects.

One of my first projects I did this year is a ballon wreath. It was pretty simple. All I needed was a straw wreath, any ribbon, which I got at Micheals (just make sure to rip the coupon out of the paper, you can even pick one up at the store) floral picks and a large bag of ballons, which you can get at Walmart, or the dollar store. I used approximately 70 ballons.

I just wrapped the wire from the floral picks around the base of the ballon and then stuck it in to the wreath. Overlap the ballons, so you cover most of the wreath. It took me a couple times of moving ballons to get it to look nice.

One the ballons were all around I just took a peice of ribbon and tied it around.

I hung it on the gate so that all of our guests saw it as they arrived! It was a big hit. The best thing about it is that I can put it away and use it again next year. Only 364 days and my little dude will be 3!!

Tell everyone I'm TWO!

Little Dude is going to be 2 on Sunday! I can hardly believe it. I wanted him to have a special shirt for his birthday, but I also wanted him to be able to wear it again. Most shirts say "It's my birthday," "Birthday Boy," and that type of thing...not what I was looking for. Therefore, I decided to make him one myself.

I bought a plain white shirt from Old Navy for a few dollars (its the baby sale - 30% off everything!!) and took a scrap peice of fabric from my mom's quilting box. You could use just about anything though. An old dress shirt, skirt or some other peice of clothing that you will never wear again. Anything with a large enough space to cut out your number (or letter depending on your project). I printed off a letter in Antique Olive Compact font, approximately size 500 as a template. Lastly, you need some fusible webbing. Fusible webbing is great stuff. It is basically a plastic fiber sheet to attach two fabrics together using an iron.

I cut the peice of fabric and fusible webbing large enough to accomodate the number I had printed. Try not to let the fusible webbing hang over the sides of the fabric or you might end up melting it to your ironning board. You pull off one side of the plastic and iron it to the backside of your fabric. While it is cooling, cut out your number template. I drew my template on the fabric before I cut it, but you could also just pin it on or freehand it. Make sure you draw it on the fabric side rather than the side with the fusible webbing, otherwise you'll get a backwards number. Cut the fabric number out. Pull off the paper from the fusible webbing and place it on the t-shirt. Then simply iron it on. Let it cool and voila!

I sewed a little border on with the sewing machine, but it didn't really need it. Here is how the back looks!

The front looked a bit boring so I decided to put a little two on the front pocket. I followed the same steps. I love the way it looks and can't wait for Little Dude to wear it on his birthday. I showed him...he seemed quite indifferent about it, I'm sure he loves it deep down.



Thinking Back - Baby's First Birthday!

My little dude's 2nd birthday is coming up and it has me reflecting on his first. I was quite (overly?) ambitious for little dudes first birthday. But, it is a big event. It means we managed to keep him alive for an entire year and we are still somewhat sane.

I had been wanting to try making a fondant cake since cake shows started appearing all over TV. My little dude's first birthday seemed like the perfect event. As he was a cow for his first Halloween, I decided to carry that theme through and do a barnyard theme for his first birthday. I had also had a book for a long time showing me how to make cute little animals that I really wanted to try out. I searched the internet for inspiration and found quite a few ideas. I showed Hubby, who said I should do whatever I like, but he wasn't interested in helping me.

I went to look at buying fondant and found that it was ridiculously expensive to purchase ready made. So, I thought I could make my own. A search on the internet brought up marshmallow fondant and many reviews said it tasted great. I then had to decide what type of cake and buttercream to make. I tried to figure out what went with marshmallows and I obviously landed on chocolate and graham cracker... a s'mores cake! For the graham cracker cake I started with a vanilla box cake (I know, I know, I'm a terrible person) and added a few ingrediants. I found a  recipe for chocolate buttercream, which turned out to be really simple and tasted like heaven.

I started assembling the cakes the day before. Getting the buttercream on smooth was not as easy as Cake Boss made it look like. I struggled for a bit, until Hubby came to check out the progress. He gave me suggestions and promotly took over. He is a perfectionist and made it look perfect. We did the fondant together. I had made it at my mom's the day before, because she has a bix mixer and making the fondant would have been almost impossible without it. The only thing I should have done differently was mix the main colour into the fondant with the mixer, because doing it by hand was A LOT of work!

I shaped the little animals and built the barn out of Rice Crispie treats, while Hubby covered the cake and made the fence. It was much more work than anticpated and took us into the early morning. After a few hours of sleep we got up for the big day. It looked nice, but I had seen on Cake Boss that they always steam their cakes to make them look shiny. We don't have a steamer sitting around, so Hubby suggested we use the iron... It seemed like a risky idea to me. I was terrified that we would either melt the cake. In the end he did it anyways and it looked awesome.

Here is the finished product... What do you think?

Of course, for a first birthday you also need a smash cake. I am too cheep to buy a small cake pan, so I bought a little metal bowl from the dollar store, greased it really well and made a tiny version of the cake in it. I covered it with fondant and gave it a cow pattern. It was really quick.

I really enjoyed the process. Hubby says he is never doing it again...

That was last years project and we are quickly approaching Little Dude's second birthday. It happens to fall on mother's day and I have a ton of ideas up my sleeve!