Checking things off my to-do list

A while back I started a to-do list of some unfinished projects I had laying around the house that I wanted to get done before the baby was born.  It's taken a couple months but I'm finally checking some of those things off and finishing some projects.  It feels good to accomplish something tangible and to see the results of just a little time and effort.  Here's a 12x12 Salt Lake Temple picture craft that I bought the photo and board for a while back but wasn't quite sure how to do.  I finally painted the wood black, modge podged the picture on and waited for it to dry for a few days and then finished it with another coat of modge podge to seal it and give it a textured look.  It looks so good up on my mantle!

This was an unfinished wood board that had a metal plate glued on it and 4 pegs for hanging stuff.  I got a couple of these at a 90% off sale at Roberts, so for like $3 each, and I finally found a use for one.  I painted it black like the wood frames above it and put it in the entry way by the front door for Abbie to put her backpack and coat on when she comes home from school.  We put little notes or pictures on the magnet board and it just really goes with the black and white pictures that I already had hanging there. 

I've had mending pile a mile high sitting in the corner of my bedroom for a while and slowly but surely I've been getting those things done.  One of the fun things that I've done is convert a bunch of my old maternity pants from just having a low band to having a stretchy, over the belly, tight, smooth band that is more popular these days and they are way more comfortable and stay up better.  I've changed almost all of my old maternity pants and skirts to have this and it's nice having things that fit better and that I can wear the whole pregnancy through.  I even wore one of my favorite pairs of jeans that had this type of band for most of the time between having Porter and getting pregnant with baby #4 so I'm sure I'll be getting lots of use out of these in the next few years.

This wasn't really on my to-do list but it was a fun project to do with the girls and they loved helping me sort colors and make new crayons.  It was an idea I saw a long time on a blog and it was so easy.  You just peel all your old, broken crayons (that took the most time), sort them into pretty combinations and similar colors in a muffin tin, and melt for about 15 minutes at 350.  Then let them harden overnight (or in the freezer) and pop them out when cool!

 Again, not something that was originally on my to-do list but I thought it was pretty cute and creative.  I'm the primary president in our ward (yeah, I know, not quite what I had in mind when I moved to a new ward and am expecting a fourth child) but anyway, we needed to come up with something for the kids for their birthdays for the year.  I found these cute silicone bracelets that say CTR and Choose the Right on the other side (the primary theme for the year) and then I found these Jolly Rancher "Chews" that were the perfect size for the bracelets to fit onto.  Each kid gets one on their birthday (the bracelets come in 10 different colors) and hopefully they like them. 

Since I'm getting bigger and growing a little baby, I'm hungrier more so I've been cooking and trying new recipes lately.  I found this recipe for cinnamon rolls that are really similar to Cinnabon that were delicious and pretty easy to make.  I've never really liked any of the homemade cinnamon rolls that I've made in the past but these were to die for.  I made a few changes to the recipe after reading some of the reviews but overall it was pretty similar. 

Here's my recipe, enjoy!

Soft, Moist, and Gooey Cinnamon Buns

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Ready in: 3 Hrs 35 min
Servings: 24

Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
4 Tbsp melted butter
4 Tbsp water
1/2 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 cups flour
1 Tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast

Filling
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup raisins (optional)

Icing
4 tsp milk
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
1. In a bread machine pan place the milk, beaten egg, melted butter, water, vanilla pudding mix, flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in the order recommended by the manufacturer.  Select the Dough cycle.

2. When cycle is finished, remove the dough and knead for 3 to 5 minutes.  Roll out to a large rectangle.

3. Mix together the softened butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  Spread over dough.  Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and raisins, if desired.  Starting with the widest end, roll the dough into a log.  Pinch to seal seams.  Cut into 1 inch slices and place in a greased 9x13 inch pan.  Place in a draft-free space and allow to rise until doubled (I turned my oven on to 150 degrees until warm and then turned it off and let the rolls rise in it for about 30 min). 

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  To make the frosting mix the milk, powdered sugar, softened butter, and vanilla in a small bowl.  Spread over warm cinnamon rolls.

When I'm not busy being a mommy, I craft

Here are some of the projects I've finally completed in the past few months. They are all done in little spurts of time, just a little here and there while kids are napping or playing or late into the wee hours of the morning. At any given time, I usually have a few unfinished projects laying around, just begging to be finished and displayed. I also have a list a mile long of more sewing, painting, scrapbooking projects that I want to do so I don't think I'll ever catch up or finish all the creative things rolling around in my head. It's good to know that I'll never be bored!

These are wood letters that I covered with scrapbook paper and then decorated with ribbon, flowers, buttons, and tags. So easy and cute!

It goes with the nesting shoe boxes and wood frame that I covered with the same paper and they are all displayed in Porter's room. I made the shoe boxes over a year ago and the frame a few weeks ago and I think they all look custom designed to go together.

After making Porter's rag quilt last November, I got the quilting bug and have made two more for gifts. This one was for my sister who had a baby boy about two months ago. I bought fabric to match the theme in her nursery and it turned out so perfect!

This one was made for a service project with some 8-11 year old girls in my ward. Each girl cut out 9 squares and made their own little mini-quilt and then I sewed them together to make a normal sized baby blanket. It turned out pretty cute too. The hard part was making sure the back squares lined up in the right pattern.

I made a family name board for a friend for her wedding a few months ago and loved it so much that I had to make one for us too. I bought the vinyl lettering online and then painted the wood a contrasting color and viola, easy peasy!

While I was buying the fabric for one of the rag quilts above, I couldn't help buying this fabric below. I didn't know what I was going to do with it all but I was sure I'd come up with something.

First some pillows for a new brown suede slipcover for our couch (it used to be green with white piping but got so stained and holey that I finally traded up for this beauty and had to change the pillows to match).

And a new boppy cover to cover this hideous pattern on the boppy I bought secondhand when I had Leah

Much better!

I saw a tutorial on Grosgrain and thought, I can do that! I just layed the boppy on top of the fabric, cut it out free hand, sewed the two sides together with white ric-rac in between, and sewed in a little zipper.

I haven't done a zipper in a while so I wasn't sure if I could remember how to do it well, especially working around the ric-rac, but it turned out great! My high school home-ec teacher would be so proud!

Nesting...

Call it nesting or OCD or just the deranged doings of a pregnant lady but lately I've been feeling the urge to make crafts, sew blankets, organize clothes and closets, harvest the garden and make food, and just get tons of projects done. I've also been busy shopping online and finding deals on a new dresser for the baby's room, stocking up on diapers and formula and baby stuff, organizing my recipe box, updating the 72 hr kits, making lists and checking them twice, catching up on journal writing, saving and backing up pictures and files on the computer, and doing some deep cleaning (I actually dusted the whole house the other day and later got out the vacuum hose another night and cleaned all the corners and edges of a couple rooms because it was bugging me!) I feel overwhelmed with how much I need and/or want to do before I have the baby so it's a good thing I have the desire and some energy to tackle some of these projects now. So to feel a sense of accomplishment (and to check off on my list that I finally blogged about it :), here are just some of the things I've been working on lately...

I saw this rag blanket online a while ago http://quiltsjust4kids.blogspot.com/2008/04/pink-and-brown-baby-blanket-set.html and decided I wanted to make one for a boy if I ever had one. So here's the fabric I bought a few weeks ago...

I finally cut all the squares this past weekend...

And layed them all out in a pattern...


Now I just need to start sewing, which is the funnest part, and clipping the edges and it should look something like this when I'm done. I'm so excited!

Another fun idea I saw once, FHE jars. You put strips of paper in each jar that say titles of primary songs, gospel stories, scriptures, and games and then you just draw one out of each jar and you have an instant Family Home Evening. Very nice for when you have little kids and no time to plan a lesson or activity.

I couldn't stop with just one jar, though! I also saw this idea on my cousin's blog http://woodstockwoodstock.blogspot.com/2009/06/im-bored.html and had to make it too so I have something for the girls to do in a month when it's cold outside and I'm busy with the new baby.

My messy recipe/coupon/take out menu box that has been driving me crazy.

So I wrote down all the recipes on 3x5 cards and put them into a little file box, put the bigger recipes with pictures into a folder with sheet protectors, and threw out a bunch of outdated coupons and menus. Now, that's much better!

Since I organized all my recipes, that got me in the mood for cooking so I started harvesting the garden and have been making salsa...

And carrot cake, pot roast, and soups with many of the carrots from our garden. This is only half of them, I still have a bunch more in the ground ready to go in the next batch of soup or casseroles.

I was really bummed that I missed out on the prime peach picking time this year since I was gone to Utah for most of Aug. so I've been looking for good and cheap peaches in the stores the last few weeks and finally found some decent ones to cut up and freeze for winter.

Lastly, Abbie has been begging me to make bread ever since we came home from Utah because she got to watch her Aunt Irene make it several times while we were there and just loves it so much fresh out of the oven. I don't blame her, I love it too, it's just a lot of work to make it very often.

Here she is helping knead it...

And finally getting to eat some! Yay!

Can you believe I did all this while 8 months pregnant? I can't either! I'm tired just thinking about it so I'm going to bed, I've got to get my rest before the baby comes!

Feeling crafty

Here are just a couple things I've been working on...

Little matching sundresses for Abbie and Leah. I bought the fabric a few months ago and meant to make them sooner. The fabric was already gathered on top so I just had to sew one seam down the back, hem it, and make straps but still, I finally got around to finishing them. Aren't the girls so cute in them?

I've also made a few more tutus for more nieces...

And finally got around to making these crayon roll-up holder things. I saw the idea a while ago here http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/ and have wanted to make some for our church bag. I finally got the motivation and time this week to complete them. Aren't they cute too?