Box of Homemade Knitted Baby Hats

For my sister's baby shower, I wanted to give her something for the baby that I knew no one else would give her (or at least give it in a way that no one else would). I wanted to knit some baby hats, but I wanted to take it a step further. I found this very cute polka dot luggage box at HomeGoods and right away I knew what I wanted to do. I knitted six hats and arranged them in the box. Then I made a fake luggage tag, which doubled as a gift tag. What is great about this box is once the tissue is taken out, it will fit many more hats. Also it was a big hit at the baby shower, which made me feel good .

At first my Niece Marley wasn't able to enjoy the hats because since it was summer it was too hot. Now that the weather is getting cooler I am now receiving text with pictures of her wearing the hats I made. So as my sister shares the pictures of Marley wearing the hats I will then share them with you. As I post them I will come back to this post and create the link of the hats. Just click one of the names of the hats below and if I have made a post it will direct you to that page.

Baby Turban 

Rib-Knit Baby Hat

Gnome Hat

Pumpkin Hat

Pink Bow Hat

Long-Tailed Hat

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Quick Pink Monkey Diaper Cake

 

This post is a little over due. I made this diaper cake for my sisters baby shower that was in May and now its September. I don't know why I didn't post it sooner, but at least I'm sharing it now. I made this diaper cake as a surprise for my sister and put it as a centerpiece on her gift table. It was a fun and cute way for me to give her some diapers as a gift, along with the many other gifts I gave her. 

It is actually very easy to make the diaper cake and took no time at all to assemble. I will try my best to describe what I did to make it. I have some pictures that show the assembly, but I don't have photos of some of the steps because the cake require both my hands and I had no one home to take pictures of me making it. Good luck when you make your diaper cake and I hope whoever you give it to loves it as much as my sister did :)

Supplies Needed

About 100 diapers (preferably with minimal to no pattern)

A paper towel roll

About 6 rubber bands

Wide pink ribbon

Another size pink ribbon (smaller than the other)

Pink shredded gift basket paper

Hot Glue

3 different sized cake pans

A cute stuffed animal for the top

 

This is what the layer looks like put together with the rubber bands 

Building the layers

 

Start placing the diapers in the cake pan in a fan like motion going around one of the cake pans with the top of the diaper on the inside and the bottom going around the edge. Keep filling with the diapers until you cant put anymore. Slide 2 rubber bands onto the diapers. Set aside until you make the other two cake layers.

To put the pieces together

Start with the biggest layer on the bottom. Place a paper towel roll in the center of the cake. Next take the medium sized cake and slide through the middle down to the top of the big layer. Next slide the small layer down the paper towel roll. Now with the cake assembled you can decorate it.

 Here is how it looks with the paper towel roll in the center

Here is how it looks putting the top layer on.

Now to make the cake pretty

 Cut and wrap the biggest sized ribbon around the cake. Piece the edges of the ribbon together with some hot glue. Now take the smaller ribbon and wrap that around the wider ribbon and press shut with some more hot glue. For an extra touch make a few bows and glue them to the ribbon on the cake. Now start stuffing some of the shredded gift basket paper into the diapers of the cake. Finish by placing the stuffed animal on top. Now you are ready to give your gift to someone special. :)

Here is how it looks with the ribbons and the process of stuffing the shredded paper into the diapers.

Here is another look at the finished product.

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Garlic Lentil Soup

Years ago I did a post on some lentil soup that I had made. Well now there is a new lentil soup in this house and the best thing about it is it taste just like the one I enjoyed as a kid at my daycare. Tomas also loves this soup as well because of the garlic. It is very quick and easy to make which is why i have made it twice within a couple of weeks. I know I will be making this soup in the near future. Especially since there is never any leftovers when I do make it. 

Ingredients

1 package of bacon

1 cup lentils

6 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups chicken broth

2 teaspoon onion powder

2 teaspoon chopped bay leaves 

Directions

Cook 4 strips of bacon and set aside for cooking in the soup. Chop the rest of the bacon into small pieces and cook and set aside for topping on the soup. In a pot add lentils, garlic, chicken broth, onion powder, bay leaves, and cooked strips of bacon. Cook on med high heat until lentils are soft. Serve and top with bacon pieces and homemade croutons and some bread on the side. Enjoy :) 

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Starbucks Frappuccino Cupcakes

 My friend Beth loves Starbucks. So for her birthday I wanted to give her a special treat to go with the photo tile coasters I made her. I wanted the special treat to have something to do with Starbucks, but I didn't want to do the small Starbucks cupcakes that I have been seeing all over Pinterest. So I had to get my creative juices flowing. The idea to make Frappuccino cupcakes came to me when I bought coffee for my team at work. After they finished up the coffee I saw that there were some of the Starbucks cups left, so I grabbed them, but I still wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with them just yet. After some thinking I came up with the idea to go to the store and buy a pack of the bottled Frappuccinos, in the cardboard holder. I wanted that because I was going to take the bottles out and put the paper cups in their place. I got the straw at Starbucks when I went and bought myself a Frappuccino one day and used my own straw to drink it so I can keep the straw for her cupcakes. So none of the products I used were stolen. 

   

To Make:

 After gathering all the products needed it was time to assemble the cupcakes. To make the cupcakes all you need is a cake mix, a can of frosting, and some chocolate syrup. After baking the cupcakes and they cool off you can start putting the Frappuccinos together. It will take about 10 cupcakes to make them how i did. First place one whole cupcake with no wrapper in the cup. Then put a little frosting on top of that cupcake in the cup. Next cut a cupcake in half and place in the cup on top of the frosting, then put some frosting on top of that cupcake. Now place one more whole cupcake on top of the rest in the cup. There will be some space between the edge of the cup and the cupcake. Just place some frosting in the space to keep them from moving and continue to frost the whole cupcake. Give it a messy look to make it look like whipped cream was squirted on top. Top it off by drizzling chocolate syrup on top. Repeat these steps until you have four Frappuccinos. Now take your straw and cut it into fours and place in the cupcakes. Now place the four cups into the carrier and now you have a fun and tasty gift to give to someone special. I hope they enjoy it as much as Beth did :)    

This is the amazing picture Beth took of the cupcakes and photo tile coasters I gave her for her birthday :)

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Photo Tile Coasters

I wanted to make something special for my friend Beth's birthday. So I decided that I would make her some photo coasters of her and her daughter Jasey. A long time ago I saw the pin on Pinterest on how to make them so I pinned it for future use. They were actually very easy to make, but you do have to have time and patience because of the dry time between coats of Mod Podge and the spray acrylic adhesive. 

The hardest thing about making these coasters is picking the pictures you want to use. I went onto Beth's Facebook and began picking what pictures I wanted to use. I chose 10 that I liked the most and because I wanted the coasters to be black and white, I transferred the color photos to black and white for the coasters. After picking up the photos at the store I then chose the best 6 that fit onto the tile best. 

The finished tiles turned out great. I wrapped them with a cute bow and box and gave them to Beth. She absolutely loved her coasters. I also made her some Starbucks Frappuccino Cupcakes for her birthday as well, which she also loved. Whether you make these coasters for yourself or for a gift, you or your friend will absolutely love them.  

Photo Tile Coaster Supplies

6 white ceramic tiles 

6 photos 

Glossy Mod Podge

Clear Acrylic Adhesive ( I used the one put out by Plaid)

Black Felt

Hot Glue

Acrylic Paint

Paint Brush 

Sponge Applicator

First paint the edges of your tiles with the color of your choice, I chose black to make the photos stand out. After the edges are dry cut the photos down to the size of the tiles. Apply some Mod Podge to the back of the photos and place onto the tile. After they are dry apply a layer of Mod Podge on the top of the photo and tile then allow to dry. Apply a coat of Mod Podge 2 more times allowing time to dry between each coat. Now it is time to spray the acrylic adhesive. I did this outside, since it was very hot outside I brought them inside to dry because they were not drying outside, instead mine were just getting stickier. Before spraying the adhesive lay down some newspaper then wax paper on top of that. Now you can begin spraying. Do at least 5 coats allowing dry time between each. When I brought mine in the house to dry I would slide the wax paper with the tiles onto a cookie sheet and transport them that way. If the weather is nice then you can leave them outside to dry. After the 5 coats and they are dry, it is time to put the felt backing on them so they won't scratch your surfaces.  Cut the felt (I used black) to fit the tiles. Use hot glue to apply felt. Now you have a set of beautiful coasters to enjoy.  :)

I pin I found on Pinterest on how to make these came from TheFrugalGirls.Com

Here is how I presented the coasters to Beth :)

 This is the Picture Beth took of the Photo Tile Coasters and the Starbucks Frappuccino Cupcakes I made her for her Birthday :)

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Strawberry Butter

Last month Tomas and I went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. One of the things we always have there is the sourdough bread and butter. Well this time there was a new butter to choose from, it was strawberry butter. It was so good that I wanted to take some home with me so I can have it for breakfast on a bagel. I didn't take any home with me, however I started researching the web and I found a recipe by Martha Stewart. The recipe is very easy to make and taste very yummy. My strawberries are a little more chunky then they should be, but that's ok, because once the butter starts melting on my warm toasted bagel I am left with chunks of strawberries on top of my bagel. Enjoy :)

Strawberry Butter

1 cup (2 sticks butter)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt (if butter is salted then don't add)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh strawberries (I think I did 3/4 cup:)

Beat the butter, powdered sugar and salt (if needed) into an electric mixer for about one minute. Add the strawberries and beat until combined. Chill until ready to serve.

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Baby Monkey Cake Pops

A lot has happened since the last time I was able to post something, one of those things being that my lil sis just had a baby girl named Marley. She is just so precious and all I want to do is buy and make things for her (which I will soon share some of the things I made for her). Before Marley arrived we threw my sister a monkey themed baby shower. I wanted to make a special extra treat so I made monkey cake pops. However, since they were a bit challenging and time consuming I only made 12 and I just splattered pink chocolate on the other 12. My cake truffles were very moist and since it is warm this time of year my cake pops didn't want to stay on the stick. After a lot of patience I was able to make it through making the 12 monkey pops. Everyone at the party loved them and thought they were cute.

To make the cake pops I used the same recipe I used to make my cake truffles, but if you decided to use the same recipe I suggest a lot of refrigeration. Since I was trying to get them done in a hurry they would hold on the stick. So I recommend placing them back in the fridge after you place the stick in them. Then after you finish decorating refrigerate again until ready to use.

To decorate  you will need 3 bags of melting chips (1 dark chocolate, 1 peanut butter flavor, and 1 pink) You will also need mini brown M&M's. First dip the cake pop into the dark chocolate. Before the chocolate dries place 2 brown M&M's on the sides as ears. Next take the peanut butter Melting chips and melt into a piping bag. Draw the shape of the face onto the front of the pop. Next take The melted dark chocolate and draw on a face. Next take the pink chocolate and make a circle and make a loop for the pacifier in the mouth area. Repeat for as many cake pops you want to make and enjoy.

Look at all those cute monkeys.

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