DIY Babylegs

I was browsing Make it and Love it, which has an incredible archive of tutorials, and came across this tutorial for Babylegs that you make out of women's knee high socks. I was totally stoked because I have never bought a pair because even at Target they are $10 a pair...and I'm super cheap, haha! I was at Target and they had a whole rack of knee socks for $2 each! I bought a simple white pair so they would go with everything. You don't need anything but a sewing machine and some socks making this project SUPER cheap and it is so easy you will kick yourself for spending $10-$12 on Babylegs.

Mine came out so awesome and I stuck them on Bela right after I got her out of her highchair after dinner so you will have to excuse my dirty baby, haha! Babylegs are SUPER cute with cloth diapers :)


I plan on making a couple more pairs with a few pairs that I have that I don't wear anymore :) It is total crafting mayhem over here but I LOVE IT!

School Fun

I have decided that since I am a Early Childhood Education major, it would be a good idea to practice on Leonard! He is two and we had a good time today starting with the letter A and doing a turkey craft. I'm not trying to create a genius or anything, but I figured it can't hurt to teach him his letters, numbers and some colors and shapes. Plus his crafts will make a great addition to his scrapbook. Here he is with his handprint turkey :) If any of you moms have any resources for teaching a 2 yr old, let me know.
I also finished the kid's fall garland. I didn't want it to be too grownup looking so we did it all out of construction paper chains. I took the leaves that they colored on and stuck them on the chains. It looks very cute and Leonard had fun watching me put together the garland and playing with tape.

I hung it on their window because anything within their reach (including over the bed) is in the danger zone. Leonard has already ruined some adorable robot wall decals and Bela has ripped off almost all her flower decals around her bed. Apparently not the best idea...
Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!

Wreath Project!

I am the least decisive person on the planet so of course it took me a couple weeks to figure out which totally gorgeous wreath project I wanted to give a try first (since I haven't made one before). I love rosettes and they are on everything it seems! So my wreath is FULL of them. I got the tutorial at The Pretty Poppy. Check it out and make your own! It is REALLY time consuming and she doesn't mention that you will go through A TON of glue sticks if you have a mini glue gun like me. I really should invest in a bigger, grown-up one...

So here it is, I am a little disappointed because it was SOOOO hard to find a CIRCULAR vine wreath, mine is really more of an oval...I'm wondering if I put a Christmas bow on it if it will look normal...I don't know but anyways it turned out really cute! I totally crafted today instead of cleaning and ya know what? The house doesn't really look that bad! Ok, I cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed, but that's it!

What's for Dinner Wednesday? And the Tidy Cook

I will say it. I love Rachael Ray. I think she is a genius and tonight we are having Rachael Ray's Turkey Bolognese Pasta. This recipe is a rollover meal where you make a large batch and then use the leftovers in a couple meals, but today I will be cutting in half so there are no leftovers. For the full recipe go here.

I will also be talking about cooking tidy today. No matter what I always end up doing dishes, so since I cook I try to make it as easy as possible in the evening so I have a few things I do to keep the cooking mess under control.

The Trash Bowl - got it from RR, totally genius basically take a large bowl and put all your cooking mess in it. Cans, packaging, peels, whatever, goes all in one place, then just dump in the trash when done.

Gather Ingredients First - this really does help for some reason. If I can organize my ingredients beforehand it makes cooking easier. Keep them all in one spot during cooking, I even put them away while im waiting for the chicken to cook or whatever.
So back to the Turkey Bolognese, Here is the halved version for ya.

1lb ground turkey
Couple Tblsp of EVOO
2 Carrots, peeled and grated
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt and Pepper
1 Bay leaf
1 Cup of chicken broth
1 can (28oz) crushed tomatoes
Spaghetti
1 cup of grated parmigiano-reggiano or romano cheese

Heat up the EVOO in a dutch oven or large pot. Add the turkey, breaking it up as it browns.

Once the browning process has started add the carrots, onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, add the bay leaf and cook for a couple more minutes.
Stir in the broth and tomatoes. Bring to a bubble and set to low. Discard the bay leaf.

Salt the water and cook pasta al dente. Drain then put pasta back in warm pot. Toss pasta with cheese and 2 cups of the sauce. Stir and serve with an extra ladle-full of sauce on top. Yummo!
It also helps if you have a cute little kitchen helper :) It seems like she always gets crabby when it's time for me to cook dinner, so she got to hang in the kitchen and pull out pots and pans.

So tell me what you are having for dinner and how you keep your kitchen organized :)

Fluffy Mail :)

Two words that make every cloth diapering mommy smile :) I was totally surprised to find the diapers I ordered on the 11th on my doorstep this afternoon! We had to put Leonard back is sposies :( so I decided to sell off some of my more boyish colors and get a couple more girly colors. Isabela likes to rip off her diapers so I have been loving the new Bumgenius 4.0 with snaps. I also got a free diaper with my purchase, a Kawaii.

I absolutely LOVE cloth diapering my babies! It totally sounds weird but unless you CD, you don't really know. Now it is really easy to spend a TON of money on cloth diapers because there are so many cute ones out there, but when I decided to do it, I decided I really wanted to SAVE money. I managed to spend around $500 for all of my fluff, for two kids :) It sounds like a lot but I made that money back in no time. We use cloth wipes as well so this only adds to the money we save.

If you are about to have another baby, or second baby, think about cloth :) I have tons of links on my blog for great information. Do something good for your baby's bum, the planet and your wallet :)

Slacker

I've been a bit of a slacker with my blog. But no worries, the Group Research Paper of Doom will be over this weekend thus freeing more time for fun stuff like crafting and playing with my babies :)

Somehow I managed to finish a bow and tutu that someone ordered from me. Just a simple tie on tutu, but geez thats alot of tulle strips. They always turn out so cute and I am loving the red and green color combo. The bow turned out cute too, even though it looks a bit weird in this photo. I am seriously THE WORST at taking photos for my blog...someone really needs to teach me how to take better pics...



We managed to have some fun this weekend and took the kids to the fair on Saturday morning. I really hate the fair but the kids had fun looking at the animals. Leonard wouldn't go on any of the rides, but Alexa had fun :)

One seriously huge pig...

Me and my little peanut

Hey look! Its a ewe!

There were some ridiculously ginormous rabbits at the fair!

Alexa did the rock climbing wall and almost made it to the top before she totally freaked out, haha!

It was really nice to take a break from the books and have some normal family fun. Hopefully I can get a start on Christmas gifts for the fam this week since I will be making most of them...Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

I made a pillow cover :)

It is sort of funny the things we form emotional attachments to. Several years ago my Grandma Janet gave me this pillow from an old couch for Alexa to use on the drive home from her house. She was very concerned that she didn't have a pillow! It is totally ugly, in some horrid fabric but it was super clean (that's my Grandma for you) so I kept it and haven't been able to get rid of it.

A very sad, ugly pillow

I bought some fabric to make some pillows and ran out of fluff so I had a genius idea to make a new cover for the pillow.

I didn't feel like going out and buying a zipper so I just took the original zipper from the pillow.

Old zipper ready for new pillow

I sewed on the zipper and sewed up the sides and voila! It turned out really nicely :) So now I can keep my Grandma's old pillow, but not the ugly fabric!
Now to finish stuffing this pillow's friend...