Canvas sign

A good college friend and I have been enjoying some craft nights during the cold MN winter evenings.  Last week, we popped in a chick flick and went to work.  She had her own projects, and I had a canvas sign that I wanted to create.  I used her cricut to cut out the letters and then mod podged them to the canvas. 



 I think next time I will make sure I cut out the mdidles of all of the letters.  Live and learn!

Now this sign is hanging on the wall between our kitchen and living room and is a great reminder every day of the many blessings in our life!

Burp Cloths

A little over a year ago I was at a friend's baby shower and some of the cutest gifts she received were hand-sewn.  This inspired me to start researching some baby items to make.  I am definitely in the stage of life where friends are having babies at least once a month, so I thought it would be fun to start some projects and have items on hand for baby gifts. 

I came across this blog:
http://sewshesews.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/burp-cloth-tutorial/

And this is what I came up with!

Since I'm not yet a mom, I'm not sure what size of burp cloth or fabric would be best, but the mom in the blog I read swears by these. One side of the burp cloth is a reusable baby diaper, so it absorbs really well, great for all of those projectile spit ups! The other side is the pretty side, made from flannel so that it will stick better to your shoulder when burping. 

This is the start of my stash for baby gifts.  Stay tuned for some other fun baby projects that I'm going to be trying out!

Bridesmaid

My best friend of many years is getting married and asked me to be a bridesmaid!  She stopped over on Valentine's Day to surprise me with a Valentine's Day gift, which included an adorable card and some candy. 

I couldn't be more excited for her and her fiance and to be able to be part of their special day!  I'm also super excited for upcoming wedding projects with her.  She is going for a country/barn theme, and it's going to be a ton of fun to help her decorate with burlap, twine, anything rustic.  Stay tuned for posting on projects throughout the next year and a half:)

I also received beautiful flowers at work from my hubs on Valentine's Day!  I am not usually a fan of Valentine's Day - maybe because I spent many February 14th's single and always referred to it as SAD (Singles Awareness Day), but this year my bestie and my hubby made it very special:)

Gender Reveal Party

My good friend Shannon and her husband are having their first child this summer.  They wanted to find out the gender, and of course all of her friends wanted to know ASAP, so I threw a Gender Reveal Party for Shannon.  It was a great excuse to get everyone together and celebrate this special time for Shannon!  I didn't get as many pictures as I hoped, but here's a few:

I made this banner by cutting out triangles of burlap and the letters from a cricut.  It was strung by thin twine.

The mother-to-be and me!

I made these baby mobiles and hung them from the ceiling.  My inspiration came from an etsy site: http://www.luulla.com/product/18129/pink-nursery-heart-mobile

After enjoying some munchies and beverages, we played an Old Wives Tales game, asking Shannon questions and her responses determined if it was a boy or girl.  I got the questions from this site: http://www.snugasabugbaby.com/baby-gender-reveal-party-activity-ideas/

After playing the game, I had little gifts with nail polish inside, either pink or blue, and each of the girls picked the color for what their guess was.  Even though the Old Wives Tales told us Shannon was having a girl, the majority guessed it was a boy.  All of the girls put in baby name ideas for Shannon and her husband and we read those outloud too. 

Shannon and her husband and their parents found out the gender 2 days prior to our party, so she brought cupcakes to our party to reveal the gender to us!

It's a BOY!!!!!

The cupcakes sure were delicious!

Winter Cracks

This MN winter has been colder than I remember the past few years being.  That being said, my skin is feeling very dry and cracked.  I was shopping at Trader Joe's and saw this moisturizing cream at the check-out counter.  For only $4.99, I had to to try it.  After using it the past few weeks, I think this may be one of my better impulsive buys!  So often it seems that the good moisurizing creams leave your skin feeling greasy, but this one doesn't, and it smells good too!

Christmas cards

This year was the first year in our home as a married couple and between both of our family and friends, we received so many great Christmas cards and pictures!  I was looking for an inexpensive and easy way to display them and found a great idea on Pinterest (http://pensandneedles-by-amy.blogspot.com/2010/12/diy-christmas-wall-art.html)!  All I needed was a piece of foam board and fabric.  I added burlap to hang it from and pins for the pictures.  Check it out!  Now we get to see our family and friends every time we walk in our door!

Next project is figuring out a way to archive past Christmas cards.  I've seen a few ideas on pinterest, now to just do it!

Superbowl Eats

We enjoyed watching the 47th Superbowl with good friends and lots of good food!  Everyone brought a dish to share and we had quite the spread of eats to enjoy during the game.  Our contribution was Buffalo Chicken Wontons, a recipe that I found on pinterest (http://youngmarriedchic.com/2012/02/superbowl-sunday-apps/).  They were easy to make and delicious to taste!  Here is our serving platter:

These were delicious apps and were gone shortly after I pulled them out of the oven.  I followed the recipe in the link above but added more chicken than it called for.  I would highly recommend for anyone looking for a quick and easy appetizer to share with a group of people!

I have about 30 wonton wrappers left, and I've never cooked with wonton wrappers before.  Off to pinterest to see what other recipes I can find to use the wrappers up!

Other than the good food and social time with friends, my vote for best part of the Superbowl?  Hands down, Beyonce!  Anyone else?!