Pinspiring Friday!

     This week I finally completed a craft that I have been meaning to work on since before Christmas. I had been looking for a way to save all of the cards that we got at my baby shower and after Owen was born and I found this idea on Pinterest. The original crafter did it as a way to preserve her wedding cards, but it can easily be used for any other type of card like baby shower cards or Christmas cards. I may make one for our wedding cards at some point if I can find a good piece of cardboard that isn't too thick. At the moment, they are a box in the top of our closet. 

     Tim was sweet enough to help me with a lot of it. He helped cut the cardboard front and back pieces and also punched holes for me because the cardboard was pretty thick. He actually broke my hole punch when he tried it the first time. I glued down pieces of scrapbook paper on the front, back, and insides and attached the ribbon onto the back so that it could be used to tie the entire thing together. I think it turned out really cute. I am considering labeling it with Owen's name and what the cards are from, but I haven't gotten around to it.
     Here is the finished product.

This is the front cover. The ribbon is from a diaper cake that I got at the baby shower. 

And the back cover. I added a cute stamp of baby feet.

And when you open it up, you can read all of the cards!

      The other Pinterest-inspired project I did this week was a recipe for chocolate chip cookies with Oreos baked inside. They were very good, of course. The original recipe is from a blog called Picky Palate. I have made recipes from that blogger before and really liked them. Tim and I had a late night craving for something sweet last Friday so I checked Pinterest for my pinned dessert recipes and tried to find something that we had most if not all of the ingredients for. And this fit the bill!

    Hers seemed really quite petite from the photo, but these are actually really big cookies! She used an ice cream scoop to put a scoop of cookie dough on each side of the Oreo to encase it. I used a bit less since they were turning out really large. In the end, they turned out delicious. How could a cookie with another cookie baked inside be bad? 

Tastes great warm with a big glass of milk.

Pinspiring Friday!

     I have two projects to show off today. The first is a project I found on Pinterest before Christmas and wanted to make. It's a commemorative plate for Christmas decorated with a baby's feet or hands. Tim and I found a place in Spokane where we could paint our own pottery so we went there a few weekends before Christmas to make plates for Owen's first Christmas. We also had dinner with Tim's aunt and uncle who live in Spokane while we were up there. They were also nice enough to go pick up our finished plates a week later for us and we got them when we were up there in Spokane to fly out of the airport there when we went to Georgia. 
   Here is our inspiration for the plates. 

     These are the ones that we made. It was actually pretty difficult because you have to paint several coats of the paint to get it to be the bright color so it took a long time. And trying to entertain Owen while also painting was hard. Overall though, it was fun and we had a great time.

Each plate started with some cute baby footprints.

My husband is surprisingly artistic.

Owen hung out in his stroller and generally acted cute for all the passers by.

We made a Christmas tree out of Owen's feet and then I decided to add some Christmas lights around the rim of the plate. 

Tim did a lot of this plate himself, including the super pretty puffy paint snowflakes.

I love the raised texture.

I think they turned out really great!

    The other project that we did was to create a bill paying binder and a budget binder. I am also toying with the idea of making one of those home management binders and have found several ideas on Pinterest for those, including some great free printables to contain the information.
    Anyway, Tim and I didn't really make New Year's resolutions this year, but we did figure that January 1st was a great day to start working on taking charge of our finances and being more organized with paying our bills and sticking to a budget. And after having to buy a new washer and dryer recently, money is going to be a little tighter for a while. It is just me or does stuff always have to break in January right after the holidays? 
     Anyway, when I was visiting my mom last month, I noticed that she had a new bill paying folder and I thought it would be a great idea for us to use. So I looked on Pinterest and found a few different ideas for inspiration and then took a little from one and a little from another to make one that will hopefully work for us.

     Anyway, here is some of the inspiration that I found on Pinterest for billpaying notebooks.

This idea on Pinterest was the closest to what we ended up doing for our bill paying notebook.

    And here are our completed notebooks. One is just for billpaying and the other is for keeping track of our receipts and budget. I may combine the two at some point, but I'm not sure. 

This binder has our receipts and our budget. We haven't filled out our budget yet because we are going to wait and check our receipts to see how much we spend on certain things and then adjust our budget based on areas where we could spend a little less. We'll start trying to stick to a budget in February.

This is our bill-paying notebook. In the front I included a pencil pouch with a calculator, black and red pens, and a pencil.

The first page has our bills listed down the side and a chart so we can check them off as we pay them each month.

The notebook is divided by month, not by the type of bill because we thought that would work best for us. Then the first page under each month is a calendar where I fill in the days our bills are due and pay days (yay!).

A plastic page protector holds the bills that we haven't paid yet. And behind it, once we've paid the bills, I take them out of the envelope and punch holes in them and put them in the binder for future reference.

    And there you have it! Next week I will have pictures of a project that I am doing to store all of the cards we got from Owen's baby shower and right after he was born. I'm really excited about it. And if it turns out good, I will probably do the same for all of our wedding cards. And just for fun, here is a cute picture of Owen that I took last night. He has started pulling up on everything. So last night when I was unloading the dishwasher, I turned around to find that I had a little helper.

Here Mom, let me give you a hand with those dishes.

And then he tried to eat them. P.S. David and Katie, these are the pajamas that you bought him before he was born. They are sized 0-3 months, but they still fit! Go Dawgs!

Pinspiring Friday!

     This week, I got together with some friends from my mom's group to make ornaments with our babies' hands and feet. It was really fun. We got the idea from Pinterest. Here is the original picture where we got the directions and inspiration. 

     To make the salt dough ornaments, you just mix flour, salt, and water to make the dough. Then we cut the dough into circles large enough for their hands to fit on. We used Owen's hand to figure out which size to make because he has the biggest hands of the four boys. Actually making the imprints was the hardest part as anyone with a baby knows. I think it took me three tries to get a handprint without Owen grabbing through the ornament dough or scrunching up his hand. And then I made a footprint, though I had to flatten the dough circle some and stretch it out to make it large enough for Owen's big foot. 

So cute. And the fact that they aren't perfect kind-of make them that much better.

Here we are making our handprint ornament.

     To finish the ornament, you bake it in the oven for an hour on 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Mine were still a little doughy so I left them out overnight to continue to harden.

Baby foot.

Sweet baby hand. And with the correct number of fingers too!

     I also made a recipe from Pinterest last night for our "Christmas" dessert. I made eggnog cupcakes from a recipe on Annie's Eats. 

      They turned out pretty good, but the frosting was super sweet and Tim said the cake part tasted a little like sweet cornbread. Not sure what that's about, but overall they were pretty tasty and we enjoyed them. Not sure if I will ever make them again though. If I do try to make eggnog cupcakes again, I may try to mess around with some other recipes I have and come up with my own version.

    And as an added bonus, here is a cute picture of Owen that I took yesterday when it was snowing a little in the morning. I had the curtains pulled back to let in a little light and he just crawled right over to the window and stared at the snow coming down and then sat up and patted the window and babbled about the snow. So precious.

Pinspiring Friday!

     This week's edition of Pinspiring Friday is all about holiday sweets. All of the recipes were ones that I found on Pinterest, which is now my go-to place to find recipes for desserts. 
     On Wednesday night after a particularly trying evening of putting Owen to bed (he was up until almost 9!), I decided that we needed a special treat to drink while relaxing for another hour or so before we went to bed. I have had this recipe pinned on Pinterest for a while now, but had been waiting for a good night to try it. Nutella Hot Chocolate! If you have a special someone (or want to get a special someone), make this for them and they will love you forever. Especially, it seems, if that person is male and has the last name Rumely. For some reason, Rumely men all have a thing for Nutella. 

Yummy...

     All you do for one generous serving is mix one cup of milk with two tablespoons of Nutella and then heat it over medium on the stove while whisking it smooth. It tastes so very good and I burned my tongue because it was so tasty that I couldn't wait for it to cool before drinking it. Tim has said that he would think it an extra special treat if he had a thermos of this waiting for him before work one morning. Not so big of a deal until you consider that Tim leaves for work at 5 a.m. Talk about a special treat! Anyway, this is a fantastic take on hot cocoa and tastes a million times better than powdered hot chocolate mix. And when you make it, an angel gets its wings.

Here was my inspiration for the Nutella hot chocolate.

      I also made two batches of cookies last night that I found on Pinterest. The first were Double chocolate cookies with a peppermint patty surprise. They were fairly easy to make though forming the dough around the peppermint patty was kind-of difficult because the dough started to warm up and get all gooey. They turned out really tasty though. Here is a photo of my finished cookies.

See the peppermint patty inside? After my caramel-stuffed apple cider cookies, I am a sucker for cookies stuffed with things.

    The other batch of cookies were hot cocoa cookies. They are really yummy because the cookie has sort-of a gooey chocolate center almost like one of those molten lava cakes and then even more chocolate and a marshmallow on top. Oh mercy. Anyway, I highly recommend either (or both!) recipes if you are looking for a delicious new Christmas-y cookie.

Melty delicious goodness...

Pardon my freaky hand and dirty-looking nails (that's chocolate under there, not dirt by the way). I just wanted to show the melting marshmallow and chocolate.

    And to finish us off, here's a picture of a sleeping baby. Because he's adorable. And I don't need any other excuse to show off more photos of him. Plus, that morning he slept until 8:30 a.m. and I felt the need to document it.

Have you ever seen more smushy and kissable cheeks in your life?

Pinspiring Friday!

     I finally finished Owen's shadowbox of newborn memorabilia today. I am really happy with how it turned out. Tim helped me a lot when it came to laying out all the items because I had a hard time figuring out how to fit them all in. That whole thing about guys have better spatial skills is totally true. We hung it in Owen's bedroom above his rocking chair so now all of the walls in his room have something on them. I was able to fit in a picture of Owen, the identification card from his hospital isolet, his blood pressure cuff, his newborn hat and socks, his footprints, his measuring tape, his pacifier, and all of our hospital bracelets (we had five in all).

Here's the finished product!

The new view of his room from the door. Now I just need to finally get some curtains!

Now it's hanging above the reading nook.

Pinspiring Friday!

    This week I was only able to complete one of my crafts. I made a Christmas wreath that I found on Pinterest that uses only four things to make it - round Christmas ornaments, wired ribbon, a coat hanger, and hot glue. And it only cost me $10.81 to make! Which is awesome if you compare it to the ones at Pier 1 Imports that probably cost at least $40 or $50. I bought about 70 or 80 different sized ornaments in red and gold from the Dollar Tree and then hot-glued each of their tops to them so they wouldn't pop off when I was stringing them onto the coat hanger. I bent a clothes hanger into a circle and then had Tim use his man strength to unbend the wire hook so I could string them on, alternating sizes so that the smaller ornaments fill in the gaps. Then I bent the hook back together and tied a ribbon over it to hide it. The whole project probably took me about half an hour. And I love the results! I have some green and red ornaments too so that I can make a second wreath because it was that easy and turned out so pretty. 

This was my inspiration!

     And here is the one that I made. It doesn't photograph as beautiful as it is. Plus I took this picture in the evening and it's kind-of dark in our living room at that time of day.

     I still haven't made Owen's shadowbox because I didn't like the look of his hospital blanket as the background (too cluttered). So I bought some blue fabric and will use that instead as the backdrop. Hopefully I will get that finished within the next week.
    Another project that I am hoping to do is a book to hold all of the cards we got at Owen's baby shower and when he was born. I'm really excited about doing that because at the moment, they are just piled in a drawer and I can't wait to have a pretty way to display them so we can look back through them in the future. Here is a picture of my inspiration for that project.

Pinspiring Friday!

     This week I did a really fun (and easy) craft. It took me about three naptimes (give or take some time spent doing dishes and showering). I made a Christmas planner that I found on Pinterest. The planner is made using a composition notebook and Christmas craft paper and contains sections for a calendar, a "to do" list, a gift list, menu, Christmas cards, and envelopes to keep receipts and coupons. I took pictures while I made it so that I could show the step-by-step process. So here goes. This was my inspiration and where I got the print-outs for the front label.

STEP ONE: Make sure that you have everything you need to complete the project. ( I made a shopping trip to Michael's to buy some Christmas-themed paper.) These are the things you need to make the Christmas planner.
- a composition notebook
- ribbon (I used leftover ribbon from my Christmas card wreath)
- several sheets of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper in Christmas prints and colors
- adhesive (I used Glue Dots because I already had those on hand)
- 2 6x9 manila envelopes
- stapler
- scissors

The best part about this project? I had most of this stuff already!

STEP TWO: Download the printables from the website www.eighteen25.com. 

STEP THREE: Cut a piece of ribbon about 36 inches inches long and glue it around the middle of the composition notebook.

A way to use leftover ribbon? Score!

STEP FOUR: Cut pieces of Christmas scrapbook paper to fit the front and back of the composition notebook by tracing around the front and back covers. Then use another two inch strip the length of the notebook from top to bottom to cover up any part of the front of the notebook that still shows between the first sheet of paper and the black binding. Then glue everything down, including the Christmas planner label. 

Pardon my lame-o picture of myself "tracing." It's hard to illustrate tracing without a hand. to hold the pencil. Also pardon my fingernails. My brittle, non-pregnant nails are back. Sad.

I used Glue Dot strips to adhere the paper to the cover.

 STEP FIVE: Take the labels that say "My Receipts" and "My Coupons" and glue them onto a two-inch wide strip of scrap paper and then glue that onto the flap side of the manila envelopes. Glue those envelopes onto the front and back cover of the notebook. I also used scrapbook paper to cover the inside covers where it has the class schedule grid and stuff like that. 

A place for coupons!

This is the inside front cover and the first page.

STEP SIX: Cut five 2 x 2-inch squares of different scraps of scrapbook paper(I alternated colors down the side of the notebook), fold them in half, and label them "Calendar," "To Do," "The List," "Menu," and "Cards." Then staple them at intervals onto a few sheets of paper down the side of the notebook. 

I printed out labels for my tabs because trying to write out each one perfectly centered was making me frustrated.

So organized. 

STEP SEVEN: Print out weekly calendars online and glue them into the calendar section.

STEP EIGHT: You're done! Admire your fine work! This little baby will hopefully keep me organized throughout the Christmas season and it was a lot of fun to make.

Yay! So cute!

     In other crafting news, I have not started my shadowbox for Owen's newborn memorabilia because I am waiting on the delivery of a photograph of him that I want to put in the box. But here is my inspiration from Pinterest for the shadowbox.

    I love the use of the baby blanket as the background of the shadowbox and hope to be able to do the same using Owen's swaddling blanket from the hospital. I also have the hat he wore home from the hospital, his pacifier from the hospital, all of our hospital bracelets, his baby socks he wore in the hospital, the little card from his isolet that has his name and other information on it, some more of his footprints, his measuring tape, his blood pressure cuff, and a silver baby spoon from the doctor that delivered him. I can't wait to work on this project!

    The reason I pinned this one was because of the baby's name with the photograph inside it. I did the same thing with one of Owen's newborn pictures on Photoshop and I ordered a copy of it online so I am waiting for it to be delivered before I start laying everything out in the shadowbox. I hope I have room to fit it all in there! I'll post pictures of it whenever I finish it.