Tutu Diaper Cake

I was asked to make a diaper cake for a friend and I was challenged to come up with an idea for what I wanted to do.  The baby is a girl and since I have 2 girls it should have been a piece of cake right?  Wrong!  I spent an entire week trying to come up with what I wanted to for the cake.  Finally I had a light bulb thanks to Nisee handing me a roll of tulle.  The idea of a tutu diaper cake just popped in my head.  I could clearly see what it would look like.  I think it turned out great and so did my friend!

Making your own Laundry Detergent and Fabric Softener

Laundry detergent is way over priced, even the stuff you get at the large outlet stores.  I had been reading a lot about making your own detergent and finally decided to do just that!  I wasn't too sure how it was going to turn out but the cost savings couldn't be beat and I am glad that we did!  It was so worth it!

I got my recipe from Frugal Girls and it only uses 3 ingredients.  

1) Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ($3) 

2) Borax ($3)

3) Fel- Naptha Bar of Soap ($1)

You can get about 12 gallons from the Washing soda, about 18 gallons from the Borax, and 6 gallons from the bar of soap.  That makes each gallon of detergent roughly $0.50!  Yes you read that right!  My washing detergent only costs $0.50 per gallon!  It works great and our clothes feel just as clean as the stuff we were paying a lot more for.  It only takes about 20 minutes to mix it up so it isn't time consuming either!  I highly recommend it! 

Basically you grate off 1/3 a bar of the soap and mix it in with 6 cups of water and melt the soap into the water.  Mix in the borax and washing soda (1/2 cup of each) and stir in until dissolved.  Remove from heat and add 4 more cups of water and then pour into a large bucket to finish mixing.  Then add 6 more cups plus 1 gallon of water (12 cups) and mix well.  Then pour into containers (we use old detergent bottles we already had) and let it sit overnight.  You just use a cap full for each load! 

We also use the make your own fabric softener recipe from Frugal Girls too!  This is super easy and works just as great as the more expensive ones.  It only has 2 ingredients that you have to buy.  

1) vinegar - white distilled  (3 cups) 

2) conditioner (yes the hair kind)- I use suave as it smells the best and they have a lot of different scents, Oh and its cheap! (2 cups)

Just mix up the both those with 6 cups of water and heat until mixed well. Store in old containers and use a cap full for each load.  This fills up one Snuggle bottle and half of another one.  So while this doesn't have as much cost savings the laundry detergent it is cheaper than most of the other name brand softeners and I love it!  

We also use dollar store fabric sheets cut in half.  You get 50 for $1 and cut in half is only a penny a load!  

There are lots of great ways you can save money by just making things yourself!

  

Making Dresses

The first dress I made came after I saw the dresses that my sister bought Nisee for her 1st birthday!  I had never heard of a pillow case dress until this point.   It made such great pictures for her 1st birthday that I decided she had to have one for her 2nd birthday so I found a pattern and made her a pillow case dress.  I had to have my mom help me of course because the last thing time I sewed anything would have been in 8th grade home economics class.  I did most of the work but I needed help understanding the pattern.  Then I found this really cool link online about a mock smock dress.  These are probably the easiest thing I have ever seen to make.  The lady is right the material is expensive but you can find it on sale and for a 2 year old you only need a little over half a yard but most places sell it by the inch.  Currenly Walmart has it on sale for $6 a yard and if like my little one you only need 20 inches you can make a dress for about $4.  They also have it on ebay pretty cheap and if you can find the coupons right then you can get it on sale there too.  I have made 4 of them so far.  Then for Lacee's valentines day pictures I made her a pillow case dress.  I am all about sewing now.  I have plans to make a lot more stuff from more dresses to quilts. 

The dress that inspired me to start sewing!

Nisee's Mermaid dress for her 2nd Birthday

My 1st Mock Smock dress in Disney Princesses
 Nisee was tired and didn't feel like modeling

Pillowcase dress for Lacee's Valentines Day Pics

This is 2nd Mock Smock dress I made. I also made a tinkerbell one but I haven't put ribbons on it yet.

Credits:  Mock Smock Dress

Festival of Tables 2012

Every March my UMW group holds a festival of tables.  This year my tables theme was A Night at the Movies!  I am super happy with how my table turned out! 

the plan was to pop our own popcorn but my it wouldn't work ... had to return it to the store and get another one! 

Diaper Cake for Sean

My cousin Scott and his wife Tracy adopted a little boy born 1 month after Lacee on November 3rd.  He was supposed to be cooking a little bit longer but he was ready to meet them so he came a little earlier than expected!  So they didn't get to have showers and things like they would have.  So we had them a small shower the 1st weekend of February.  I made a diaper cake for the shower! I loved this cake!  I did not use the rolled diapers this time and I added a topper that I also painted!  It was unique and they loved it!  

back of cake ... I made the bows too!

Valentines Day Crafts!

I did a lot of valentines day crafts this year!  

Candy Hearts Family Sign

 I got the idea for this from Pinterest!  Mine has my own touch to it but the basic structure was from pinterest.

Nisee's Valentines Day Tutu

Lacee's Korker Bow

Nisee's Korker Bow

My 1st non korker bow!  I love this Bow! 

 

Lacee's Valentine's Day Dress! 

I am NOT a seamstress by any means but I am happy with this dress.  I sewed the entire dress and then we tried it one Lacee and it was too long which made the top and the arm holes too narrow. I don't have my own sewing machine so I had to let my mom cut the arm holes bigger and sew them together.  I knew how to do it I just couldn't b/c I only have time to sew on the weekends at her house and I needed it the next weekend!  BUT anyways I love this dress and I was very happy with how it turned out! 

Here is a scan of the valentines day card we sent to family and friends!  Images by Brandi gets all credit for the pictures! 

You can see the 2 of the hair bows, tutu, and dress!  They looked great!  I was very happy how it turned out! 

Hair Bow Holders and another Tutu

So being the mom of 2 girls I have a lot of hair bows to keep up with!  I bought one of those hair bow holders for Nisee a few years ago and when I got it home I was like this looks really easy to make so I decided to try my hand at it a few months ago.  I started with some rubber duck wooden craft shapes that were already painted.  Then I just picked out my ribbon and then you just cut the ribbon the length you want and then just hot glue it to the back and don't forget create a way to hang it with ribbon as well. 

The Rubber Duck Bow holders I made!

I had a plain butterfly and I was making gifts so I decided to make one for my friend Nicole's little girl, Juliet.  I also had some wood letters left from the sign I made Lacee so I decided to put her initials on it.  This one was not already painted so I got to paint some which I love!  So I painted both the butterfly and the letters and then I hot glued the letters to it.  Then I hot glued the ribbon to it.  I am very happy with how it turned out!

Juliet's Hair bow holder I made

Close up

I also made Juliet a tutu for Christsmas.  It took me forever to find the right color tulle that Nicole asked for.  Teal is not a common color tulle but I lucked up and found some at JoAnn's the other day randomly!  This is probably my favorite tutu I have made so far! I think it is so pretty! I can't wait to see Juliet playing in it!  The next tutu I am making is for Nisee for valentines day pictures! 

Juliet's tutu close up

Teal and Pink ... too cute color combo

Monkey Diaper Cake

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this post up!  I have been really busy here lately and extra tired but it has only been 1 week so not too bad!  As I mentioned in my last post about diaper cakes I was asked to make a monkey themed on for a friends nieces shower.  Now with these cakes you can get really expensive depending on what all you put in them so we decided on a budget of $30 in the cake and I decided that I would add $10 toward the cake myself as my gift to the mommy to be.  The cake is simple because that is how I wanted it.  Sometimes simple is much better than having so much going on!  Anyways Hope, Megan, and Kari loved it and I was happy to be a part of a day she is sure to never forget!

Front of Cake - my addition to the cake was the towel and wash cloth set

Back of Cake - that little monkey is a finger puppet

Close up of monkey on top!

Diaper cake and the cake balls and mints I made (see post under Adventures in Baking)  Yes my stuff got its own table, LOL!  Not planned but still looks great!

Diaper Cakes

When my sister Tara and my friend Stephanie threw me a baby shower for Nisee I had only seen diaper cakes but I had never even considered making one.  Tara made one for Nisee and it was super cute and she said it wasn't that hard to make.  So as I was taking it apart to use the diapers I took note of what she had done.
 

Nisee's Diaper Cake made by my sister Tara

Then a friend at work was having a baby and I decided to try my hand at making her a diaper cake.  I was very happy with how it turned out.  I put some oneises rolled up in there as well for an additional gift and put a bottle washer and rattle to finish it off!

The 1st Diaper Cake I made

Side Shot

Looks good sitting with the other gifts!

 I enjoyed making it and I got so many complements that I decided to make another one for a friends shower but this time it was for a baby boy!  I had known the dad as he was my neighbor growing up and he loved hunting and fishing so I had to bring that into the cake with camo ribbon!  This time I added more clothing but still kept the other items as well! I had some bigger clothing so I placed it in the center of some of the tiers.

2nd Diaper cake I  made

Back of cake

My Friends with the cake

 My sister made one for Lacee's shower as well and I loved it.  It was smaller than Nisee's but had a lot more stuff in it.

The Front of the cake

Side of cake

I love these Bibs being on the back

The other bib

So why am I posting this now ... well because I have been asked to make one for a friends nieces shower.  I am excited because I like to make them and it has been a while since I made one.  I am going to start working on it today.  This is for a boy and her theme is monkeys!  I am excited to make it.

My friend Nicole made a diaper cake for her sisters shower and I want to try this really bad.  She just followed a tutorial online and I found the same one so I am going to try it soon! I am not doing it for this next shower because I don't want to risk messing it up.  But here is the picture of that cake.

Made by my friend Nicole for her sisters shower

My friend Chessney also makes diaper cakes and she can do the ones in shapes of animals and stuff!  She does a great job too!  She made this one for my best friend aka her older sister's baby shower.

Made by my friend Chessney for her sisters shower

Well I am excited and ready to make this cake!  I will post pictures when I complete it!

Penguins Tutu's part 2 - wrapping tutu in ribbon

So yesterday I finished the tutus and I wasn't sure if I wanted to wrap them in satin ribbon around the waist and finish them off with a bow.  This is an optional step and I didn't have any of the right color ribbon to finish it with.  Then yesterday we went to Wal-mart and so I decided to pick up some black ribbon and at least try my hand at wrapping Lacee's tutu.  Since this is a tri-color tutu to me the satin wrapping doesn't do all that much for the tutu but I do like the bow!  Instructions for wrapping can be found here:  DIY Satin Wrap Tutu .  She wrapped a green tutu with a bright red ribbon and it really worked for her and I think if this was a solid color tutu or even a bi-color tutu with a brighter color ribbon then it would stand out more and look a little better.  I think it looks good just not quite what I was expecting.