Don't Bug Me!

A couple weeks ago, The Son had "Reading Week" at school, each day was filled with special activities focusing around reading. The best day, according to The Son, was the day they got to dress up like a character in a book,my boy LOVES a costume. I don't think all parents did this but I told The Son that it had to be a character that was in a book first, like it couldn't be Bakugan or Sponge Bob or someone that books were written about but had to be more from Childrens' Literature. He decided to be a "Big Bad Bullybug" from Ed Emberly's "Bye Bye Big Bad Bullybug."

I used silver dance costume/bathing suit fabric and traced around The Son to make the base of the costume. The Son and I stuffed knee highs with fiber fill to make the legs and I attached them to the sides of the costume, it was a little tricky but I used fishing line to string the legs together so that they would attach to his wrists and be able to stick out straight at the sides.

We used foam sheets and pipe cleaners to create the Itty-Bitty-Babybugs in the book and also attached them to the costume and lastly, I took an old pair of sunglasses and attached some more foam pieces to make the Bullybug's three eyes with some more pipe cleaners as the antennae.


He was so proud of his costume and he looked so cute. We had a great time making this together and he was so excited to ride the bus the next day, he said everyone liked his costume and told me about some of the other kids' choices. I have to say, it sounded like his was the most creative. ;)


Later that day, we had some real excitement, excitement I hope to never have again...

I'll tell you more about that tomorrow, thanks for visiting today and I hope you enjoyed my Big Bad Bullybug Boy! Happy Wednesday!

Sounds Gross but it's Cute: Making a Diaper Cake

Happy Thursday everyone! I am participating in Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop today. I was so thrilled when I saw that she had a craft post as an option because I've been working on this one for quite some time.

I have a co-worker who is pregnant with her third child. She has two little boys who are around the same age as The Son and she is having a much-wanted girl this time. Another co-worker of mine thought it would be a great idea to have a little baby shower for her. I agreed and we had planned on having it at my home.

The Blizzard of 2010 decided to come on the same night as the scheduled party and... Surprise! We had to cancel. I was bummed, my co-workers were bummed but the guest(s) of honor had no idea because it was supposed to be a surprise party anyway. We rescheduled the party for the following Monday night after the mom-to-beX3 was finished teaching swim lessons. I didn't take pictures of the actual party because no one wants to be photographed at almost 9 months pregnant, let alone almost 9 months pregnant AND just completing a couple hours teaching swimming lessons in the pool. Trust me on this one.

I didn't know what to give as a gift and had always thought that diaper cakes were a little bit odd but now that I've been a new mother, I know that diapers are a wonderful gift because they are one of the items that you need right from the beginning and keep on needing. Presenting a case of diapers as a gift, isn't very creative or pretty so the diaper cake makes a cute way to present something that's a rather well, let's face it... unpleasant part of parenting. I had a friend at my shower give me a pack of diapers along with the books, "The Gas We Pass" and "Everyone Poops" which I thought was hilarious but I'm not sure this particular guest of honor has quite the same sense of humor as I do so I decided the diaper cake was a better option.

Making a diaper cake is actually pretty simple. I looked up a couple different varieties on line since I had never made one before, and decided on the kind that doesn't roll up each individual diaper. It came out beautifully and I'm sure was much quicker than the other kind, not to mention better on the diapers.

First, you need a round object to put in the center, this will NOT be staying there as it does in other diaper cake varieties so it really doesn't matter what it is, it's just there to hold your diapers up as you form them into a circle. I started with four diapers layered on top of each other kind of like steps and rested them against my center object.

Continue to lay your diapers all around the object, kind of with a pinwheel effect.

You will need the following amount of diapers per layer, the first number is the diapers that will to around the outside and the second number will be the numbers you put into the middle:

Bottom = 40 and 8
Middle = 28 and 4
Top = 14 and 2

After you put all your diapers around the round object, tie them tightly with a piece of string or other thin ribbon. I used curling ribbon. I put the ribbon around, tied them part way, removed my round object and then tied them the rest of the way, there should be a smallish area still open in the center. After you tie them you can arrange them to make them more even.

After you like the way they are arranged, take the smaller amount of diapers and roll them up all together to stick them in the middle.

Do this for all three layers. One of the tutorials I saw suggested using a pizza pan to put the bottom layer on but honestly, I used a piece of cardboard from an old calendar that was much smaller than my bottom layer but worked just fine, I found that once everything was tied up, I didn't even need it.

The decorating was the fun part. I found this thick white ribbon and made that the base for all my decorations. The important thing to remember with this project is that you don't want to glue anything to the diapers OR to the objects with which you're decorating. I wrapped the ribbon around and used my hot glue gun to glue it to the other side of the ribbon. Remember, NO glue on the diapers. I am saying this twice because as obvious as it is, if you are a big glue gun user, you might get carried away and want to start gluing all over the place. I had to keep reminding myself not to do this. I used small pieces of ribbon and glued them to the white ribbon and then used them to tie various things on.

This little cutie was the thing that inspired the whole theme of my cake, I knew that my friend wouldn't have any little toys like her because, like I said, she has two boys. I loved the pink and brown colors and she's really soft. I got her at Wal-Mart, she's made for their store's Carter's brand. I tied her to the top layer and rested her so it looked like she was seated on the middle layer. So cute!

Here's another angle, I used some onesies, a few toys, some bibs and a little brush and comb set as my decorations along with some various pink and brown ribbon. I made a big bow for the top and secured it through the center and then just tied everything around to make it look cute. (Such technical directions, huh? ;) )

I did not attach the three layers to each other so the cake was easy to transport and just assemble when we got to the party. It was a big hit and made a really cute decoration on the table. I was very happy with it.

One final note, I read a lot of tutorials in order to come up with the way I was going to make this and noticed that a lot of sites comment that diapers are very absorbent to smells as well as liquid so if you're a smoker or cook a lot of "fragrant" types of food, it's a good idea to make your diaper cake away from these various odors. This wasn't an issue for us, but I can only imagine how a beautiful diaper cake could ruin a baby shower for lots of people if it reeked of cigarettes. Ewwwwww...

Well Friends, I hope you all have a lovely day. If you stopped by from Mama Kat, thanks! Leave me a comment and I'll be sure to stop by your blog too. If you want to see what we're doing today, click here for yesterday's post. Yes, it happened, or I should say, it's happening. Again. Stay warm people! Live healthy!

Caution! May Cause Heart Palpitations...

Scrapbooking Girls gone Wild!...

Sort of. A facebook friend of mine says I should really call it Scrapbooking Girls gone Mild. She's probably right.

I issue a warning to my sister and others who may be obsessively organized. Read. No. Further. (or at least don't look at any of the photos!)

Did you miss me while I was gone? I have had a few "issues" during the past week and I was getting ready to go away on a Scrapbooking Retreat Weekend with my cousin. I will tell you a little more about the issues at a later date. Things weren't good and I had some pretty scary episodes but it all seems to be taken care of now.

As for the scrapbooking weekend. It turned out to be a really good time. My Cousin Chrissy came from Connecticut to go with me, usually The Sister is able to go, but this year she has The Baby Niece and her nursing needs to worry about so she wasn't able to come. We were bummed and missed her but after she sees the mess the two of us created, she may be relieved, turns out I've found out my Chrissy Cuz might be just as messy a scrapbooker as I am.

We got there late on Friday night after a trip to the craft store and dinner out at Bertucci's. We each had a salad, shared the individual Margherita Pizza and then shared chocolate mousse for dessert, it was delicious. When we got there, we settled in, arranged our supplies and I fielded questions about my 86+ pound weight loss. The last time I saw these ladies was last January so they were pretty surprised.

As the weekend went on we managed to complete some nice layouts. I think Chrissy Cuz got about 17 layouts done and I got 6 done. It's not a lot but I am a very intricate scrapbooker so it takes me a long time. I enjoy the process and quality and don't worry about how many I get finished. Chrissy's are really nice too. Some of the ladies who were there finished 60+ pages so that's a good comparison to see how "little" we actually completed. I bet ya we had just as much fun though. ;)

My tote is organized...

Our tables... not so much.


We worked hard...


And had lots of fun.

I am so thankful that my Chrissy Cuz was able to join me, we had a great time, ate lots of (not so healthy) Pennsylvania Dutch food and made memories in our scrapbooks and with each other. I can't wait until next year...

(Insert Post Title Here)

Hi Everyone!

Another long stretch of time without a post. I've just been very busy, so what else is new?

Lots of new weight management groups starting up. I have some fantastic people in my groups and I am so honored and excited that they'll be working with me to get healthy. It's such an awesome job that I have and I feel so fortunate. Obviously, I don't blog about other people's journey's since losing weight and getting healthy is such a personal thing but I've had a lot of success in my groups and have seen so many healthy changes in people that it thrills me, I love helping people realize how much fun it is to be healthy!

The Son turned six last weekend. We had a party for him at the Y and it was very successful. I have pictures of course but you may have to wait a while to see some of those. My MIL visited and we had a really nice time. She lives in Maine which is hard on The Son, and on her but she makes time to see us as much as she can.

I am going away for the weekend with my fantastic cousin, Chrissy Cuz. She is coming from Connecticut to go to a scrapbooking weekend away with me. My sister usually goes but her daughter, The Baby Niece, is a little too high maintenance right now for her to be able to join us. We're sad about that and will miss her a lot. Next year Sissy, next year... So, I've been uploading and uploading and uploading pictures to have them printed at CVS. Next year, will someone please remind me to start this in November, not a couple days before I have to go. I always have good intentions to get started early but alas, it never happens.

I'm about to get The Son ready for school and myself ready for the gym and work. If you notice my running mileage in my sidebar, you'll notice it's gone down considerably, that's because I am trying not to over do it so that I can have good runs for my training plan. I am running more than the plan suggests because I just can't bring myself to run only three even when it tells me to do three, I just use the extra miles as warm-up and cool down. Soon, I'll be wishing it only asked me to do three I'm sure!

Have a great day everyone! I have a few more photos to upload and then we're heading out.

Teeny Tiny "Gingerbread" Houses

Oh, the weather outside was frightful... but our tiny gingie houses are delightful!

We got a lot of snow yesterday. Official estimates are close to two feet for our area. This is more snow than we've gotten TOTAL for the rest of The Son's life, he's kind of excited to say the least...

Needless to say, we were snowed in yesterday. Fortunately all snow-related disasters were averted because I managed to hit the grocery store the day before to stock up on bread, milk, eggs and snacks. We wouldn't want to be one of those tragic families you hear about who die in their homes stranded without any food to see them through the long 24-hours of snowstorm. Just terrible those stories, huh? ;)

Anyway, I also stocked up on supplies to create some super-cute gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. The Husband, The Son and I had a lot of fun and it truly kept us busy for the day. The FIL and his wife are also visiting and I am happy to say that my Step-MIL helped The Son with his house which made it easier for The Husband and I to work on ours. I highly recommend this activity, we all got into it.

I hit the bulk bins at the store first, it's easy to buy a couple tootsie rolls or starburst candies when you use the bulk bins, and the cost is definitely better so unless you need an entire bag of tootsie rolls, hit the bulk bins. These cute little trees and "wreaths" were fun.


I made my own "royal icing" to use as our glue, it's a very simple recipe. I used four cups of confectioners sugar, 3 egg whites (you can use pasteurized egg whites if you're worried about salmonella, I'm not, plus we didn't really eat any) and 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar. Throw it all in your mixer and stir it all up. It mixes for about 7 minutes and makes a nice thick icing.


We then cut the graham crackers with a serrated knife. You need two full graham crackers cut with a point at the top, two half sheets to make the walls and two additional half sheets to make the roof. I cracked the first one I attempted, don't press too hard on the opposite side when you cut.

Smiling for Momma...

The Husband took his work very seriously.


Here's our mini-neighborhood...

The Husband designed a church, The roof is covered in whole wheat linguinie pasta which I must say, was a really nice food to use for decorating, I used it too as you will soon see... The cross on the steeple as well is made from linguine.


His stained glass window on the back of his church, is made from gumdrops


Here's The Son's house, his theme was clearly, "How Much Stuff can I Stick on my House before Momma and Daddy tell me I'm Wasting Candy?"


Don't you you just love the back? I think the "Andes Mint" randomly stuck to the roof really pops.

Yeah. The Son's house is kind of like your neighbor who puts out a few too many holiday inflatables and then adds even more to them each year...


Here's my house, I made the fence around it with the aforementioned pasta, and gumdrops

The snowman is one of my favorite parts, I used two different sized gumdrops and then a tootsie roll that I cut as his hat. I must admit that I drew the eyes and mouth on with a sharpie marker. Melted dark chocolate dipped in a toothpick works really well if you need everything to be edible, but the sharpie is easier.


Here's the back, you can get a good glimpse of the fence here...


I used coconut to make the snow all around after the houses were place in their locations and again, those long linguine noodles came in handy to push it around into all the little crevices and corners.

The FIL took a couple shots of us with our neighborhood, Ziggy decided that he had to be in this first one which made The Son act a little silly himself,

One more try... Merry Christmas!


As I mentioned before, this project was LOTS of fun, we will definitely be making this a holiday tradition. The Husband and I also made a real gingerbread house and it came out very cute as well, I'll feature that one later this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and if you live on the East Coast, enjoy the SNOW if you got any! (I'm off to the Y now, a couple feet of snow can't stop me from working out!)

Did I tell you...?

...that I was working on making myself an apron? I ask, because evidently, I can't remember the things I tell these days, as my sister so kindly informed me about yesterday's post regarding the Snuggie. Evidently, I already posted about it. Oh well, you know I love the thing so it deserved two posts.

Well, I've been wanting to make myself an apron for a long time so I finally bought the supplies on Black Friday. (when I also bought those beads that yes, are still missing) Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of me in the apron. I realize it's very cheesy, campy and totally over the top as far as aprons are concerned but that's what I wanted. It's a vintage simplicity pattern and there's a couple other options for aprons that I'll have to attempt as well because, it was fun to make. The Son took these pictures so they aren't the best but you get the idea and yes, Ziggy had to get in on the action too. The back has criss-cross straps and a cute, big bow but I decided against posting the photo of me from behind. It didn't come out very flattering considering The Son was pretty much camera level with my rear end. So here ya go... funny huh? Yes, I will wear it and actually already have!


Enjoy your Wednesday everyone, I'm off to do KidWriting in The Son's classroom this afternoon and then I'm heading to the Y for a run. I've been especially hungry this week who knows why? It's probably not going to be a good week for weight loss, that's for sure!

I think we have poltergeists or trolls, or leprechauns...

Or some other kind of creature that steals things.

On Black Friday, I was very organized, I went out early to a local shoe outlet to get some shoes and boots I wanted "needed" and then I went to the craft/fabric store because they were having an additional 20% off if you got there before noon. I did. I stocked up on supplies I needed for the fundraiser basket I made, a few stocking stuffers for The Son, fabric for the apron I am making myself and beads for some personalized necklaces I am supposed to be making for my Dad's cousin's daughters. I came home, showed The Husband what I got and then put everything away and went down to the basement to organize my craft room. I thought I took the beads with me but... now they are missing.

I know where everything else is that I purchased that day. I knew where I put it and when I went to look for it, it was there. The beads however are gone. Totally. Gone. I searched the house, I searched the trash (and by "I" I mean The Husband) I looked everywhere I could possibly think of. I did not find them.

I have come to the only conclusion possible, poltergeists, trolls (do they steal things?) or most likely leprechauns even though it's not March, they are known to take shiny, pretty things, right? I have given up on finding them and will probably have to repurchase everything I got, at which point, the offending leprechaun will return them to the basement craft area right where I left them.

This just goes to prove my theory that things should never be organized OR put away. Had I not tried to put stuff away that day, which is so NOT in my nature, they'd still be in the bag on the kitchen table or on my island where I left them. Why do I never learn?

I think I'm on hiatus...

I can't seem to get inspired to blog. I don't know why, I just can't.

I am going away this weekend for a Scrapbooking Girls Gone Wild weekend with my sister. OK, honestly, it won't be that wild, it's at a Christian retreat center and my sister's pregnant so...

It will be fun and creative and relaxing which is just what I need. I printed out over 500 pictures today so I have a lot to keep me busy. I still need to organize my copious amount of supplies and pack my suitcase, we don't leave until tomorrow evening so in my mind, I think I still have plenty of time. Plenty.

Anyway...I'll be back after the weekend. Have a good one!

It's October!

Did you think I forgot that I said I'd post my Halloween decoration pictures today? Well, I didn't forget, I just didn't do it in a very timely fashion. At least it's still October 1st though, right?

Here's the entryway. I decoupaged the "BOO" with different scrapbook papers and changed the ribbons on my mirrors to be more Halloweeny. I also gathered the sticks and spray painted them, added ribbons and crows from the dollar store to a gothic-ish looking urns and called it my "spooky tree". It looks cute but it's not actually that spooky. 

Here's the mantel, it's usually the thing I have the easiest time with. I'm telling you, if you have trouble decorating your mantel, just get some apothecary jars, think of some coordinating items and go for it! You'll have a good looking mantel in no time. 

Some close-up details... yep, that's one of those infamous dollar store white pumpkins...I got the LAST one! 

A side table, I added the web and glittery spider to a picture of The Son last Halloween, that web stuff makes anything look scary! 

This project took me a long time, I cut out ten little bats and suspended them with fishing line from my chandelier in the dining room. I found the idea in a Martha Stewart Magazine and I'm really happy with the results. 

Talk about a window mistreatment! I shredded up an old sheet to do this since I didn't have anything there anyway. It actually looks kind of cool although I doubt "The Nester" would approve. 

Well, that's it for now, I wanted to at least get these up for today, I'll probably post some close ups and more detailed information for tomorrow. Have a good evening everyone! 

The decorating continues...

I'm still working on my Halloween stuff. I cleaned the downstairs yesterday...throughly, including the pantry and a couple cabinets. I didn't get a whole lot done with the Halloween stuff but what I did finish, is looking C-U-T-E  cute if I do say so myself. 

That is of course if you find ripped curtains, black crows and scraggly trees cute. Which of course I do. I won't be blogging much today because I have lots of little black bats to cut out and suspend from my dining room chandelier. See what I mean...doesn't it sound cute? 

The Son has school today and I teach swimming this afternoon/evening. I'm hoping to finish up the decorating tomorrow and Friday then I'll post pictures. Lots of pictures. 

Have a good Wednesday everyone! 

Operation Halloween Decoration!

Is beginning today. I think I waited long enough and it is now acceptable to start putting up autumnal decorations. After all, yesterday was officially The First Day of Fall, right? 

I am starting with my cleaning and then will move to my actual decorating. The actual decorating might not get finished today but I'm hoping it at least gets started. 

You know I'll post pictures of it and the crafts The Son and I did last week when it's all done...lots of pictures. I'm good for that at least. 

Happy Fall everyone! 

Crafty Critters

The Son and I are spending a quiet day at home today working on crafts. It will start out as fun but will probably end with my being frustrated and him being covered in paint. I'll let you know how it goes. 

I love Thursdays. It's the day before the weekend, The Son doesn't have anything that he has to go to (except next Thursday when he will test for his first karate belt) and I don't have any swim lessons to teach. The Husband gets out of work at a somewhat normal hour too so that's always a bonus. 

It's a beautiful day today so we'll probably also spend some time outside taking our puppy for a walk. All in all, a nice relaxed Momma/Son day. I like those. If our projects are successful, I'll post some pictures later. 

Halloween Sneak Peek!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays as I think I've mentioned before. I've been diligently collecting and creating decorations over the past few weeks that I will soon be able to start displaying. Yesterday I was out front spray painting thrift store candle holders and branches I found on a walk in a neighboring neighborhood. The kids in THIS neighborhood seemed to think that was strange for some reason. What? Your mom doesn't take sticks from the woods and spray paint them for use as a decoration? Well, perhaps she just needs to get a bit more creative! ha ha!  

So I took a picture of all my stuff that I've accumulated so far, most from thrift stores and dollar stores and I thought I'd post a sneak peek for you. Are you getting as excited as I am for Halloween? Here it all is in my decorating cabinet. I put things I'm going to use for my next season in here as I buy them and then they're all ready to go when it's time. This of course won't work at Christmas since I could probably fill 1,047 of these cabinets with all the decorations I have but it works just fine for all the other holidays and seasons.

See those candlesticks below? They're black now and looking oh so much cuter. They were $2. The pumpkin, ghost, black cat (that you can't see in this shot) decoration was $.50. It's a little more "country" than I'd usually do but for $.50, I couldn't pass it up. I'll just change those little ribbons up and it will nestle in somewhere just perfectly! The little glass jars were $2. I know! I thought that was a lot too but I've been searching for those everywhere so that I can make some scary potions to display. I had to get them. The yarn that I also got in LOTS of other colors because I love me some hand knit wash cloths was $.40! (I taught myself to knit cables making wash cloths.) It's normally in the $2 range at the craft stores. I had to get lots of them. The Husband didn't necessarily agree with me on that one but he got over it. (I know that's not Halloween but since it's orange, it might get used somewhere)

The leaf-shaped glass dish was only $.75, I might try to spray paint it a color because they tell me that can be done on glass but I haven't decided yet. The pumpkin and the little picture of a pumpkin were found at an "antique"/craft market. They're new but still didn't cost too much and can also be used for Thanksgiving. 

These babies were $2 too, they're also black now and will have white candles dripping with "blood" in them for the holiday. 

And I think my best find, my little cutie apothecary jar that was $1! You know that's a good deal, right? 

Lastly, I found this giant platter for $5, it won't be used for Halloween but I had to show you since I got it at the Goodwill. I knew I'd never stop thinking about it if I didn't buy it. I have no idea what it's going to be for but it's BIG and would make a nice platter for a veggie tray for our next party so I bought it. Cute, don't you think? So ultimately, my goal is to have everything completed (I have more crafty projects and stuff to paint) and displayed by the beginning of October. That will give me 31 days of haunted holiday bliss until I switch it all up and get ready to give thanks for my many blessings! Happy Fall everyone! Happy Fall!