Baby Doll Wipe Set Tutorial

When I was little, I had a Cabbage Patch Newborn that I have now passed onto my daughter.  It used to have little diapers but they are now hard to find.  So I made little "cloth diapers" out of white felt and small, round Velcro.  I didn't think about making a tutorial on that until now.  So that one will come later.

 

Evelyn loves to play Mommy.  She really, really does.  She tries to be sneaky and get some of her own wipes to "wipe baby's poo poo."  So, one day before heading to my parents, I decided to make her her own wipes.  Evelyn made a mess again by using too many wipes on her baby, so I said, "That's it!  I am making you your own!"  I thought this would be an easy tutorial and a good one so close to Christmas.

 

Supplies:

• 1-white fat quaters (mine was left over from a wipes travel container I covered)
• 1-8x11 felt sheet in your child's favorite color (you will see that I used material from a gutted pillow.  I know I had red felt but I couldn't find it, so I had so make do)
• white thread
• color cordinating thread to go with felt (try using opposites, if you use pink felt, use lime green thread for example)

First:

Cut white fabric into 4.5x4.5 inch squares. 

 

I made only six.  You don't want to be trying to find a dozen little baby doll wipes all over your house.  I thought six was a good number to make and remember.

 

Second:

Straight stitch all the way around to keep from fraying. 

(Not stitched)(Stitched)

 

You can make actual seams, I didn't because of time and with cloth wipes, you don't usually see that, they are usually Singered.

 

 

Next is the wipes holder!

 

Third:

Cut the felt to be 8x4 inches.  At about two inches from the short bottom, cut an oblong hole about 2.5 inches wide.

It's best to check and make sure you made the hole big enough.

 

 

Fourth:

Because you are working with felt, and that doesn't fray, you don't need to stich a seam around the hole. Yay!  If you are not using felt, but you are using a fabric that will fray (like I did), you will need to make a seam or you can use a short cut and just make a stitch all around the hole to keep from fray just like the wipes.

 

Fifth:

Fold over the felt, hamburger style, and stitch it closed. 

 (Remember, if your are using some thing other than felt (like me),

be sure to sew it closed with the inside out.) 

If you like that "inside out look," you are done with this step, it you don't like that look, then turn your wipes holder right side out.

 

 

Next is how to put in your wipes so that another will come out after pulling one out for use.

 

Sixth:

Fold all the wipes in half and press the folds.  Open them.  Take your first and lay it down flat, the next wipe will be place only half way on top of the first.  Fold the bottom wipe onto the top.

 

Get your third wipe, place that half way on top of the second, hanging off of the opposite side. 

 

 

Fold the second wipe on top of the third. 

Do that until you run out of wipes.

 

I hope that all made sense to you.  I was afraid of how that part would all come out.

 

Seventh:

Stuff your wipes into your wipes holder.

 Make sure to leave a little sticking out to make grabbing for little hands easier.

 

 

Tada!  You should now have a sweet little stocking stuffer, or a piece to your child's homemade Dolly Diaper Bag gift!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Orange You Sweet! Tutorial

I made this for a friend from church.  We had a meeting to go to and I car pooled with her so I wanted to make a little treat for her to say thank you.  I was going to make cookies, but we were out of eggs.  Which also meant I couldn't make brownies or cupcakes.  So I had to put something together that didn't need eggs and didn't need refridgeration.  Okay, so anything in the fridge was out, but I still looked.

Every now and again, we buy the really big bag of M&Ms.  For some reason, this past time we bought them, I felt the need to seperate them by color and put them in different baggies then put all those baggies into a large baggie.  Tom has eaten most of them.

"All but the red and orange," I said out loud. 

"Orange.  Orange?  Orange you gunna think of somethi--  ORANGE!  ORANGE YOU SWEET!"  It hit me with suprising force.

So that is how I came up with this!

 

ORANGE YOU SWEET!

 

This will be my first tutorial so be nice and bear (rawr) with.

 

Supplies:

 

• your choice of amount-orange colored candy (I used M&Ms)
• 1-clear goodie bag with twist tie
• hot glue gun
• stick glue
• 6-8 inches-orange ribbon (shown with 1.5 inch cut off already)
• hole punch
• sissors (not shown)
• matches or lighter (not shown)
• "Orange You Sweet" tag (I couldn't figure how to post a print out, email me if you would like the tag print out)

Step 1:

Fill clear googie bag with your orange candy and tie it closed.

 

Step 2:

Print out and cut "Orange You Sweet" tags.  Paste together.  Hole punch.  Cut off 1.5 inch of ribbon.  Make a loop through the tag's hole and hot glue it closed.

 Tada!

 

Step 3:

Burn ends of remaining ribbon to keep from fraying.

 

Step 4:

Thread ribbon through the loop on the tag.  Write "To" and "From" on the back or write a little note of thanks.

 

Step 5:

Tie the tag onto the bag of candy.

 I kind of looped around and thread it through the loop again to make sure it was secure.

 

 

You should now have a sweet little treat to give someone to remind them that they are appriciated by you.

Texas Snow

        Have you ever seen a cotton field after it has been harvested? We have a lot of cotton fields around this area. It looks like snow is on the ground. Christmas in July. That’s how I remember when it’s time to harvest the cotton, not that wedo the harvesting. And yes, I do know what snow looks like. We have visited family in Utah. Seeing the “snow” on the ground makes me think, “Summer is almost over and soon kids will be going to school, then I will be making costumes, then ‘gobble gobble’ Turkey Day, then tamales at Christmas with the scent of pine and the sparkle of lights and wrapping paper and then a new year is here and the live stock show is here before I can blink.” Well, kids are in school, I sort of made costumes, and it’s almost turkey time! I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to decorate for this Christmas. Every year I try to do a different theme than the previous year. Our first Christmas as a married couple was a toy land theme. Instead of a star we had an old teddy bear that my dad gave me that he had when he was a baby. The next year we didn’t really have a tree. Evelyn was almost 6 months and we were afraid of her getting into things. I think we only put lights on the tree that year. Last Christmas was the first Christmas that we spent in the house we are in now. We decorated the tree gold and red with a white cotton skirt made to look like glistening snow. This year I am so unsure. I’m considering making it a tradition to use the same ornaments every year. I just don’t want to spend money getting all new decorations when we just don’t have the money for it and money for the gifts we want to get for each other, Evelyn and other family. No point when I could probably put several things together and come up with a“new” theme. Maybe. We will see. Cross your fingers for me!

My day...

November 6, 2012

        Today was Election Day.  Many people went to the polls today.  I hope almost everyone did.  Didn’t turn out how I wanted, but at least I made the effort to have a different country.

        Today we also went and “cashed in” Evelyn’s HEBuddy points.  Those of you who don’t have an HEB near you (basically if you don’t live in Texas), HEB is a grocery store.  A few years ago they came up with HEBuddy, a life sized brown paper grocery bag with healthy foods in him.  He also as a pet beagle.  Cute!  They also came out with HEBuddy bucks and you put them into a machine that has a big spinning wheel, the kid pushes the big red button, get points and sticks them on this little paper booklet.  You add them all up and get prizes.  You used to be able to get groceries as well as kiddy prizes, now it’s just kiddy prizes.  Well, our HEB lost their key to the machine so they were unable to add more stickers so HEBuddy was “sleeping” for around a month and a half.  We ended up creating a nice little pile of Buddy Bucks while he slept.  They change prizes every three months so we started saving our points waiting for something “good.”  Good things come to those who wait.  For October-December, for 500 points, you could get a HEBuddy blanket.  With all our saved Bucks and Bucks we got when we shopped (they give a couple to each kid when their parents check out) we were able to save over 700 points.  It was not easy.  Points come out as 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50; you rarely get a 50, but we were able to do it!  There were two blankets to choose from both of which were in the packaging (as you can see below) and we only knew what one of them looked like; it was pictured in the booklet.  We asked Evelyn, “Do you want night time Buddy or big Buddy?”  She looked at them so unsure.  “This is the night time Buddy with Buddy in bed and this is big Buddy with Buddy by himself.”  She realized instantly then which one she wanted.  She grabbed the one that we assumed to be just HEBuddy and hugged it so tight, “My Buddy blankie!  Buddy blankie!  Blankie Buddy! Buddy, Buddy, Buddy….”  And then we left.  When we got home it was nap time, then wake up, Kai-lan, dinner, Tom returned The Lorax, then ¡Three Amigos!  Tom has been trying to get me to watch it since we bought it.  I didn’t have an interest in it so he watched it when I was asleep.  Tonight he sounded so excited about it that I felt like I wanted to see it to.  After the movie I took pictures of Evelyn opening her Buddy blanket with Daddy.  It’s HEBuddy in his winter attire!

This is really funny to me because the last time it snowed here it was in 2004 and it had been 100 years since the time before that. Evelyn was so happy about that blanket though.  She is sleeping with it now.  I’m glad that we were able to get it for her.

        My mom worked at HEB for 10 years and resigned when my younger brother was born.  When I graduated high school I got a job at HEB as well and worked there for 3 years while I went to university; so HEB has a little special place in my families’ hearts.  HEB has changed over time; they let you wear jeans to work, they sell wine, and they are opened on Sunday plus don’t pay time and a half to get people to be willing to work on a Sunday.  Sadly, my generation doesn’t know what that is like, a whole town shutting down to observe the Sabbath.  Imagine what the world would be like if we still did that? 

Family Traditions

November 5, 2012

 

Family Traditions

Some family traditions are fading as we get older, as the cousins grow and have their own children, when aunts become Nanas and uncles become Papas.  Everyone splits off and goes with their “own” family.  It makes me sad and miss those times when we would all gather at my grandma’s house, all of us so young and all of us so happy.  Happy didn’t change, just who is around did.  Some things about our families haven’t changed.  My mom is the youngest of six; only one of those is a boy.  So there are five sisters that mostly have the same taste in décor.  So the family tradition that I was thinking about tonight as I cleaned off the kitchen counter was…Christmas cookie jars.  On my mother’s side, you either have a tree cookie jar or a gingerbread house cookie jar.  Most of the sisters have both and sometimes both will be out in the same house.  The first Christmas we had as a married couple, my mom gave me a gingerbread house cookie jar. 

I’m pretty sure that my aunt did the same thing with my cousin.

Other End of the Year Holiday Traditions

·         For Halloween we attend our church’s Halloween Party

·         My mom makes special Halloween baggies for all her nieces’ and nephews’ kids

·         Thanksgiving has been spent at my grandpa’s ranch since when most of the cousins started having kids

·         Christmas Eve is spent at my parents and Christmas Day is spent at my grandpa’s ranch

·         Ever since I can remember we would go look at Christmas lights and it’s a tradition that we continue now as a new family

·         We always go to our church’s Christmas party to see Santa (Something that I thought was so awesome was that the man who played Santa at church for my first Christmas was the same man who was Santa at Evelyn’s first Christmas and being that our birthdays are only 7 days apart, we were almost the exact same age for our first picture with Santa.  Of course, Evelyn having her father’s height is so much bigger than I was at the same time of year for everything.)

·         Growing up, we were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve night before going to bed but it just couldn’t be our “main gift.”  I think that is something that we plan on doing as well

·         My mother in law made stockings for all her kids, and eventually her grandkid, that have traditional looking German doll girls (for the girls) and traditional looking German tin soldiers (for the boys)

·         Tom’s family always had that countdown to Christmas felt Christmas tree where you would add a different ornament each day, starting on the 1^st, ending on Christmas Eve with the star on top of the tree (Kathy made us one on Evelyn’s first Christmas as well as German girl stockings for the two of us, Tom already had one of course)

 

I love traditions.  When I was younger, I didn’t think that my family had many traditions, we never called them traditions; we just did them all the time.  Which I know that makes them traditions, now I know that.  As a child, if someone doesn’t tell you what something is then you don’t easily put 4 and 4 together.

Evelyn Update...

November 5, 2012

        I’m just making a note of things that Evelyn has been doing.  Evelyn has been able to tell us when she is hungry, though it comes out sounding like, “I’m hunky!”  It’s so adorable.  She is saying, “I love you” so much clearer now, she tells us “Sorry” when she knows she did wrong and will tell us, “No,” clearly when she wants us to stop tickling her or other things like that.  My parents gave her a retro Radio Flyer tricycle for her birthday at the end of the summer and Evelyn has been getting better at learning to ride it.  Her feet can mostly reach, she still scoots around with it which makes me wish that we did get her a ride along toy when she was younger instead of some other toys we picked instead.  Oh well, for the next one we know, especially if the next child we have is a boy.  If he will be anything like his dad or uncles, then he will always be outside.  Evelyn has started to like running around outside much more.  Before she didn’t like running around outside, she only liked standing in one spot looking at everything or drawing with sidewalk chalk.  She has become braver and will plow through the high grass without care.  It is so cute, but living out in the country it can be scary for a parent to have your child not be afraid to go through any tall grass (because of the snakes for example).

        Since we took the trip to Washington State and had Tom’s old iPhone with movies for Evelyn, she has wanted to watch movies on it almost all day.  I was able to get her to sleep in her bed one night because she was willing to sleep in her bed as long as she had her Toy movie.  It gets hard sometimes because she will stay up from her nap to watch a movie, so now we don’t let her have it to go to sleep.  So we have to find another way to get Evelyn to sleep in her bed all by herself.  Good luck to us!

        Every Sunday, we eat lunch at my parents then go to my grandpa’s ranch.  He has a lot of cows and Evelyn loves to go and look at them.  Right now I do Wednesday activities for girls ages 8-11 at church and so does my mom, so most every Wednesday we go to her house after.  Evelyn says, “Moo, moo!  Cows Mamma cows!  Mamma I wanna see cows!  We see cows! COWS MOOOOO!!!!”  She now associates going to church with also seeing cows.  So adorable.  Growing up we always went to visit my grandparents on Sundays.  I’m glad that we continue doing that.

        Evelyn is growing so fast.  I am shocked sometimes at the things she says.  She doesn’t seem like she is only 2.5.  She sometimes sounds like she is 4 or 5.  When she’s upset about something she loses her words and everything comes out like a winey grunt.  We are trying to get her to talk out what she is feel and also to still be able to say what she wants even when she is upset.  It’s hard sometimes but raising a human being to be humane is a hard thing to do.  I love it so much though.  I’m so happy that we have her. 

        Even though I am so happy to have my baby girl, I’ve been wanting to have another baby lately.  I see so many baby boys right now.  I know that there is a little boy waiting for us but I just don’t know when he’s supposed to come.  Right now my husband’s job is not ideal in any way to have another child.  He works EMS so you can imagine that is not nice on the family.  For the whole month of September we prayed that if it was right for us to conceive that we would be able to during the month of October when we would be trying, if it wouldn’t be right then we would not be able to conceive during the month of October.  So October came and went and I started on the 1^st of November.  It was a sad feeling, but then an instant relief came telling me that it just wasn’t the time.  We had also prayed for that; if it isn’t right that we conceive that we would also have a sense of peace knowing that it wasn’t the right time.  Yesterday I made a new plan.  We will conceive when Tom gets a better job.  He’s been working very hard for it and we have been praying hard for it as well as fasting for it.  We know that it will come soon, but how soon “soon” is, we are unsure.  It’s not as vague as I might be making it sound, I’m just being vague about it.  I feel, that is what we need to wait for to be able to have our next child.  With this new job will come a much more stable life financially.  We can get the really nice cloth diapers and Moses basket I’ve been wanting without having to scrap for money and worrying about if we can afford to buy Evelyn a new pair of shoes because she grew out another pair already.  This last January we bought Evelyn these really cute pink and white OP skater type shoes that she loved so much too.  She out grew them in just under a month and a half.  Luckily she is at an age where we can buy a size or two bigger on clothes and very easily tailor with a couple of straight stitches; unlike with smaller clothes.  Smaller clothes, to me, are annoying to tailor.  They are so small!  If I’m making something that small doesn’t bother me but tailoring is another story.  Plus, they out grow them so fast that getting just a few of each kind of outfits is just fine (casual tops, jeans, dresses, dress up tops, skirts, etc.)

So, everything has been going so great and is so fun with Evelyn!

Finally, Internet!

      So finally we have internet!  I will now be able to update my blog with no problems!  The next three posts will be from before we got internet at home, so the dates of “posted” and dates actually documented will be different.  Each post will be clearly marked of when they were actually documented.