Everyday DIY Wreath

I always want to have a wreath on my front door, but in between holidays I've never found a wreath that I've really loved so I decided to make one! I've seen a few places where people have decorated a wreath out of what looks like dead branches (sounds like a great start for a pretty wreath, right?!) so I wanted to do my take on one of those.

Here are the steps I took to make it... Just need a couple things:

• A letter from your local craft store
• Twig wreath
• Faux flowers of your choosing
• Fun ribbon
• Hot glue gun and some wire cutters to cut the stems of the fake flowers
• Optional ** Paint to refinish your letter if you wanted a different color

This letter was originally tan but I wanted a crisp white so I pulled a spray can from my husbands garage and sprayed away! Then left it for a few hours to dry

I hot glued the ribbon down just by places a couple dots under each strip but I left the opposite side of where I placed the letter unglued until I placed the flowers through it, that way I could hide any gaps with the ribbon.

Then from this last step, Just place the flowers in the arrangement you like and stick them straight through the wreath and just clip off the extra stems. I placed a dab of the hot glue on the backside of the wreath where the stems were just for extra security. Now time to hang it up and enjoy for months to come before the next holiday pops up!

7 Month Baby Update!

Age: 7 months
Pureed Food:  

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I do make all Greyson's baby food, haven't bought anything store bought yet and it's been working out really well. So now at 7 months he still gets food twice a day (one veggie and then rice cereal at bed time). So in additional to last months food, he's now also eating the following...

• Sweet Potato  (Loved this as I think the sweeter taste caught his interest)
• Broccoli (Really liked it at first but found he didn't feel too well after our 3 day test so we won't be doing this again)
• Green Beans (Thicker texture now that we're stepping up our game over here)

Milestones:

• Crawling!! He started crawling on Sunday, April 19th (The day before he turned 7 months) and now he's constantly on the move!
• Sprouted his first two bottom teeth! We knew this was coming as he was none to happy at night and was drooling like a St. Bernard majority of the day. But yowza do those bites hurt now!
• Sleeps steadily through the night with a hiccup here and there, but we never have to go in and sooth him anymore, so it's amazing now getting sleep- If only I could train my mind to stop waking up at a random hour as my body still thinks I need to be on high alert.

So those are the big changes now that he's 7 months and I will follow up with his 7 month favorites in a week or so when I've really pinned them down, as I know there a couple that he's all about right now but more will be added I'm sure. :)

Tanaka Farms

 Today we fulfilled one of the pre-planned dates I created for Lee for a Valentines gift, and this months date happened to be stawberry picking at Tanaka Farm in Irvine and we had a BLAST!! 

 

 

The carrots were definitely his favorite veggie to gnaw on, and by the look on his face we'd be getting bit if we even thought of taking it away from him!

 

 This is such a perfect date for a couple or a family as they take you on a nice little tour of the property in a tractor pulled wagon and then you get to enjoy picking the fruit of that season yourself, so it's pretty darn cool! We're now eager to go back for all the additional tours they offer in future seasons. Just imagine the fun Greyson will have in the pumpkin and Christmas tree tour! I may have more than him, but so glad we can enjoy these activities with our son now, makes it that much more special. :) 

Soft and Gooey Skillet Cookie

So as many of you know, my husband travels quite a bit so when he does I have very quiet nights around here once Greyson is asleep (He's asleep by 7 or 7:15pm every night) So after I quietly shout, "I'm free!!" I figure out my next move for the remainder of the night- Which may be only an hour (Yes, sometimes I'll crash at 8pm) or it could be a whopping 3 hours of free time! So sometimes I sit in bed watching TV but 9 times out of 10 I plop down on the couch and catch up on all my recorded shows that Lee refuses to watch throughout the week, I'll read (Which is one of my favorite things to do and it's EXTREMELY hard to do with an infant!), work on finishing my cross stitch Christmas stocking for Lee (3/4 of the way done, will show when it's complete), watch a movie or bake something yummy and maybe have a nice glass of wine to indulge a little.

So during this trip that Lee was on, I decided to make a skillet cookie as not only did I want a gooey cookie but I wanted a GIANT ONE!! So here it is for you all to try out...

Ingredients:
1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Bread Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
8 oz milk chocolate chunks (NOT chips) *trust me the chunks put these on a whole other level

1. Mix the butter and all the sugars together- once combined, add the egg
2. Add all the remaining ingredients and continue mixing on low until well combined
3. Refrigerate for 1 hour
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
5. Scoop the dough into a iron skillet and put in the oven for 24 minutes

6. Voila! Just add a scoop of ice cream and you've got a giant cookie a la mode!

So delicious!!

DIY Baby Bumper for your Fireplace

It's go time! Greyson has officially been gaining traction around the house and therefore he has officially started to scare mom and dad as he travels across the floor in what seems like seconds...so I decided I wanted to create some sort of bumper to go around our fireplace hearth as it's in the main room he plays in and it's an accident waiting to happen. So I did a few measurements, went down to Joanne Fabrics and got working!

So first off, these are the items I used to create the bumper...Fabric, batting, measuring tape, rotary cutter or scissors, pins and a sewing machine,nothing crazy.

Next I washed the fabric and laid it out so the right sides were together and there was only one fold at the top. Then marked off all my measurements and got to cutting! These below measurements were just what fit our fireplace so those could be adjusted as needed for any other size you may be working with. Width is completely subjective, I wanted the bumper to be about 4 1/2" to 5" thick just to ensure we had extra cushion for our little man's head and yet was not this huge anaconda size tube chillin' in my living room, so small worked for me.

I am bummed to say I forgot to take pictures for the remainder of my process but here are the next steps:
1. Cut the fabric as shown above and make sure NOT to cut the purple line as that will give you a pretty, no seem front bumper (Just cut 1/2 of the width so instead of cutting 5" like you do on the sides, cut 2 1/2" as the fold will make it twice the width).
2. Make sure it's all pinned before you move it to the sewing machine!
3. Sew all around (Like you would a regular square pillow - again, make sure the RIGHT  (Patterned/pretty) sides are together) and leave a 4" gap on each of the sides (The 19" pieces) as that's where you will flip the fabric right side out and where you'll stuff the batting to make it cushioned.
4. Now, roll the batting as tight as you want (The batting will come folded and I left it that way and then rolled it until it was as thick as I wanted and then just took a needle and did a couple hand stitches to keep it in place and did that the whole length of the roll (The length is that 86" I mentioned above)

5. I then cut and rolled the 2 side pieces of batting that would be going into the 19" side pieces
6. Now stuff the long batting into the long fabric sleeve first, this took some time as I had to feed it in and then keep pulling the fabric over it as it was quite long, but I eventually got it!
7. Once your front batting is in, add the batting into the sides and pin the 2 openings closed by doing a simple blind stitch by hand to close them.
8. I then bought sticky back Velcro and stuck it to the fireplace brick and onto the fabric so that it wouldn't move as prior to that, this happened...

So now after just a few simple steps, VOILA! A nice safe bumper has been created for Greyson and it goes with the decor in our living room which is an extra plus :)

So glad to now be stress free when our little guy is rolling around!

Easter Weekend

Push me Dad! Push me!

This is the PERFECT floater for any infant to get to glide around in!! Greyson loved it!

We enjoyed a few firsts for Greyson this weekend! He had his first pool experience and his first Easter! We headed over to my parents house to enjoy their nicely heated pool as to not shock the little guy and he couldn't have enjoyed it more! The squeals of excitement definitely said it all. I told Lee I think he's going to be a little water bug as he never wanted to get out...His meal time and nap time had arrived but those were of no interest to him when he had this pool to be swimming in!

So excited to open his Easter basket!

 

Grandpa and Greyson having a sweet little discussion with each other

We loved having my parents over for Easter dinner! Greyson was incredibly happy chatting away with Grandma and Grandpa :)

It was overall a perfect weekend but now we're back to the weekly grind!

Greyson's 6 Month Favorites!

There are very distinct toys we've been seeing Greyson grab for these days so thought I'd share a few! Each month I'll plan to show his favorite things as seeing what interests him from month to month has be a fun process to see. He went from being interested in staring at me, to just wanting to have his limbs moved around to the tune of some oldies but goodies, to now wanting to actually grab, push and chew on anything he can find, so below are some of the staples in our house!

Baby Einstein Baby Neptune Ocean Orchestra (I think I may enjoy pressing the buttons on this toy more than him, but none the less he's always entertained by it - As is our dog Scortcho)

Infantino cube (Tons of colors, textures and pieces to rattle and chew on- I'm getting very used to picking up soggy toys at this point)

The oh-so-famous Sophie the Giraffe. (He gnaws on this like nobodies business! Thank God he has no teeth or I'd swear he'd chew the head right off this thing)

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Puppy - My husband and I have memorized and are now caught singing the songs this little puppy spits out. It's been super entertaining for Greyson to press the buttons and hear the songs it sings, but will become torturous to all adults...You've been warned

Rainforest Jumparoo - This is his go activity after his breakfast and afternoon nap. I'm pretty much guaranteed free arms for about 30 minutes with this sucker. Halleluiah!

Will be interested to see what month 7 brings us, so stay tuned!