If you’re clamoring to get ready for Christmas every year, these are the steps you need. Here are 10 easy ways to prepare for Christmas early.
Continue readingEtsy
Cooking for a Party
You’ve just volunteered for the yearly family party. Panic ensues. How do I cook for all these people?! Relax! Cooking for a party is not rocket science. Let’s talk through it together. Tips, tricks, theme/meal ideas and a free planning printable!
Continue readingThe Overwhelmed Mom System
We’ve all had that feeling – you wake up and are instantly overwhelmed after looking out at the mess in the living room from the night before. The amount of things you thought of that need to be done are already flowing and the idea that it’s only Tuesday is so frustrating. You are in overwhelmed mom mode and need to get out. Have no fear – we’re going to tackle this together.
Continue readingNew Etsy Shop
Hey friends!
You may or may not notice that I haven’t been posting as consistently as normal. I wish I could tell you it’s because I won the lottery or had a baby or some big blogger discovered me and I have been helping them.
But it’s because I am a crazy person and keep adding things to my proverbial plate.
People always say to me “you do so much.” “How do you keep up?” “How do you get it all done?” “I could never do all you do.” And usually I respond with “I couldn’t sit at home and do nothing.”
My mind races a mile and minute, and that’s ok for me. I keep busy and I think I would go insane if I had nothing to do. I can’t remember the last time I napped while my kids napped or I just sat and did nothing. It’s just not me!
So, with that being said, I launched a new Etsy shop!
In doing research, shops are more successful if your niche is small. So I am planning on separating my shops into 2 – Home decor and kids and baby gift. I have launched my kids and baby site and I am so pumped. I am starting with baby blankets and superhero capes but plan to add so much more. Here are some pictures of some of them.
And here are a few with personalization
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I am having so much fun picking out all these different designs and getting them turned into blankets. It’s a great way for me to practice sewing and making these bright colors come alive. Please feel free to hit me up with special requests!
Custom Orders
As some of you may or may not know, I often times do custom orders for people. I really try to do everything. I compiled a few of the ones I’ve done and thought I’d do a blog post on it so people can see the types of things that I have created.
If you stumble across something on Pinterest and do not want to attempt it, or you tried to attempt it but failed miserably and need someone to do it for you or possibly fix it, let me know! Chances are I’ve done it…or at least tried 😉
First up (something I may actually add to my shop), snack cups! I did these for a good friend for her son’s 1st birthday. He is a snacker, for sure, so he needs to stake his claim on his food!
A while ago, I made a stool for Dylan for the kitchen because he loves to watch me (“help” me) cook in the kitchen. He also is learning how to wash his hands and face on his own and needs a little boost. I posted it to my Facebook page and a friend said she needed one for her girls! So I changed the colors a little bit for them. I am hesitant to add these to my shop because of shipping. It costs a pretty penny to ship and needs a good amount of padding.
I have sold a few ring dishes on Etsy as well, but this one I made for my good friend from college. Her wedding colors are purple but I asked first if she was okay with them because by the time my wedding happened, I couldn’t stand blue and brown anymore (still can’t, and it’s been 7 years!). I was SO SICK of seeing them!
Here is a ring dish I sold on Etsy as well. She wanted blue, turquoise and glow in the dark (it was for a man). I’ll be honest, at first I didn’t think the colors would go well together, but they looked awesome. And you can’t see a lot of the glow in the dark but when you turn the lights out, it flows through the whole thing. It is so cool!
This is one of my favorites. My sister is a special education teacher and they did a photo booth as a fundraiser for Special Olympics. It focused on respect, integrity and kindness. The kids used these white boards to show their favorite “R word” as part of Special Olympic’s “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign. They had so much fun being creative and goofy. The ended up raising almost $150 in 3 days! I added vinyl to their white boards to say “My R-Word is” & “#RespectCity.”
I used to do wedding invitations but closed my Etsy shop. It was just so competitive. So now I just do them by word of mouth. Someone recommended me in a mom’s group for some birthday invites that were firefighter themed and this is what we did!
So, if there’s some sort of creative project you’ve wanted to try but don’t have the time or don’t think you have the skills, shoot me a message! 🙂
DIY Polymer Clay Ring Dish
A few years ago, my mom got me the cutest frickin ring dish for my kitchen. It had a cat on it and you placed your rings on the cat’s tail. One day, we were cleaning up the kitchen and it fell onto the kitchen counter and his tail snapped off! WAAHHH! So sad 🙁 So I have been thinking about making a new one. I came across one online (probably Pinterest) and decided to attempt my own. One for the kitchen and one for the bathroom. I seriously had so much fun. D sat across from me and played with the clay. He loved it. Side note, it’s a great fine motor activity! He didn’t want me to bake it though – he likes squishy things. He also prefers not to wear clothes whenever possible. Whatever.
Supplies:
*2 oz package of oven bake polymer clay – your color of choice (I used Sculpey – because it was least expensive and on sale – yeah!)
*Rubber stamps
*Acrylic paint
*Paint brush – super thin!
*Nail file or sandpaper
*2 pieces of wax or parchment paper
*Place mat or craft mat
*2 different sized glass, oven safe bowls
*Cookie sheet
*Rolling pin
*A pairing knife
*An oven
*Acrylic sealant (if desired)
Instructions:
*Preheat your oven to whatever temperature your clay says (Sculpey is 275).
*Remove your clay and start to work it around in your hands. At first it’s totally going to feel like it’s never going to get soft, but with the heat of your hands, it sure will.
*Flatten out your clay onto one piece of parchment / wax paper.
*Place the other piece of parchment / wax paper on top.
*Use your rolling pin and roll out the clay.
*I will roll it out until it’s big enough for the opening of the bigger bowl.
*It helps if you every once in a while lift off the paper, take the clay off of the other layer of paper and place it back on. I do it once or twice while I’m rolling it out.
*Place your bigger bowl on the clay.
*Use the pairing knife to cut around the bowl.
*If your bowl is thick (like mine), don’t push down the bowl. It will leave a line on the inside, but after it’s baked you can file it out.
*Now is your time to use your rubber stamps! Spell out words, names, do designs, whatever! This is where you make it fun!
*Place your circle clay into the smaller bowl.
*Flatten out the clay so it’s flush against the side of the bowl.
*Bake according to package directions – Sculpey says 15 minutes per 1/4 inch thickness. This is how thick mine was, so I did 30 minutes.
*Remove the clay – it’s not going to be totally hard yet. It hardens as it cools.
*Flip the bowl over on the cooling rack. After a few minutes, it will fall out of the bowl. Flip the ring dish right side up on the cooling rack.
*Once it’s cooled, use your nail file to file down the edges of the dish.
*If you want to paint it, it has to be completely cool.
*Paint away! I found it easiest to use the tiniest paintbrush I found at JoAnn Fabrics. Not gonna lie, the painting was a pain in the ass, hence why it sucks. I read on a few blogs that you can paint the whole area so the paint gets in the grooves and then wipe off the excess with a wet towel, but, big surprise, that was a giant fail for me. The paint stayed on the surface.
*After your paint has dried, you can spray it with a sealant or a gloss clay cover.
I made one for my kitchen and one for my bathroom – and a few gifts. I am also adding these to my Etsy shop! I am loving all the designs and painting I can do. It is such a cool DIY project – so easy and so cheap! Post a picture of yours!
Happy crafting!
Easy gift idea – Canvas bag
Hi readers!
I am sort of obsessed with painting these canvas bags. I made 3 for my good friend Melissa’s 3 kids for Halloween treat bags. A friend of mine from high school just found out her son has cancer and they have to travel all over to get doctor’s opinions and surgery, etc. So I really wanted to do something for them. I absolutely cannot even fathom what they’re going through as a family right now.
She mentioned that he loves the Bears so I made him this bag to carry some games and such from appointment to appointment.
Then I decided to go a step further and buy some books at Good Will. I Don’t know why I haven’t done this sooner, btw. I got 20 books (some for him and some for D) for $13.
Then I popped the books inside the bag and shipped it off.
Here is the link to the bag on Etsy.
Dog Treat Jars
After I made the treats for my dog Shadow and my sister’s dog Payton, I made a few dog treat jars for some friends and decided to list them on Etsy. I have already sold a few! Check them out – and if you buy them, you’ll receive a special little treat inside for your furry friend 🙂
Homemade GLUTEN FREE Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats
Happy Saturday!
I have been itching to make some dog treats for my dog, Shadow. I am pretty sure he’s allergic to gluten so I have a hard time finding grain free treats that won’t break the bank. I discovered this allergy a few years ago. He was constantly rubbing his ears on the carpet and I had no idea why. I finally asked the vet and they told me to change his food to grain free. So we did, and he stopped the ear rubbing. Perfect!
I did a lot of searching on Pinterest and came up with this recipe. A lot of them called for whole grain flour, so my plan was to make some for my sister’s dog, Payton and give them to her in a dog treat canister that I was going to list on Etsy. But then I felt terrible sending them all home with Kelly and Payton so I gave some to Shadow. So I found some rice flour in my pantry from my gluten free kick. Originally I wasn’t going to put peanut butter in them but Kelly asked if they had peanut butter in them because her dog LOVES peanut butter. So I threw some peanut butter in the recipe for Payton. So these are Payton’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin treats!
Ingredients:
*1/2 cup of canned pumpkin filling (NOT PUMPKIN PIE FILLING!)
*4 tablespoons molasses
*1/4 – 1/2 cup of water
*2 tablespoons vegetable oil
*1 heaping tablespoon peanut butter (make sure your peanut butter does not contain Xylitol. I used Skippy – no Xylitol)
*2 cups rice flour (you can use whole wheat flour if you’re not concerned about the gluten aspect)
*1/4 teaspoon baking soda
*1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350.
-In a medium bowl, combine all wet ingredients (pumpkin filling, molasses, 1/4 cup of the water, vegetable oil, peanut butter)
-Add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder)
-Mix all together – I started using a whisk and that was a giant fail so I used a wooden spoon. This is also when you can add more water to make it like a sugar cookie dough. It’s about another 1/4 cup of water.
-Drop them onto a cookie sheet lined with foil (makes clean up a breeze) in tablespoons. You can do fun cookie cutters (you will have to roll it out onto some of the rice flour – it’s what I did. But I don’t use a rolling pin. I use the palm of my hand) or just drop them by the tablespoon and flatten them out with a fork.
-Bake for 25 minutes, until hard.
-Lay on a cooling rack to cool before packaging.
This made about 42 treats. I used the letter “O” cookie cutter that I had.
Pumpkin can actually help soothe a dog’s stomach, which I am all for with my dog.
When my sister came over, she mentioned the house even smelled good! My dog devoured these. He had 3 today. They are crunchy which is nice and it takes him about 1 minute to get through one which is very long for him – it usually takes him about 20 seconds to get through anything and then he’s asking for more.
Crazy story – my sister was over and got a call from her friend who watches her dog – her dog had bolted. So she bolted out of the house to go home and help find her. They found her, thank God, and my sister sent me this text that night…
Ha! I swear this wasn’t staged! We love that little Pey-tee. 😉
Here is the listing for the jar! Lots of color options
Etsy Listing – Wine glass charms
I love adding new items to my shop. One of my favorite things to make are these wine glass charms. I just find cute stuff at Hobby Lobby and can turn them into charms! It’s so easy and so cute. Check them out here!
One of my favorites though are these stemless ones. You can clip it right to the rim of your glass! SO neat.
