Baby blanket with built-in entertainment :)

I love this baby blanket that my dear sis-in-law made!

I love the colors and the soft, black minky fabric she used.

And my favorite part? The fact that she incorporated some things to keep our little girl busy:

This blanket has some cute ribbon 'taggies' attached to it.

I have seen a lot of little blankets with tags around, but I have never seen them attached to a bigger blanket. Isn't that smart?

If this little girl is anything like her big sisters, she will really like to play with tags!

Thank you, Amy!

Easy Flower Hair Clip Tutorial (No Glue and No Sew!)

I know that there are a lot of tutorials out there in blogland showing how to make flower hair clips! But a couple weeks ago my daughter attended a birthday party, and she got the cutest flower hair clip as a party favor. The mom of the birthday girl showed me how she made them, and I was very impressed with the fact that this is SO fast and easy to make - probably one of the fastest instant result projects I ever made! 

So I am not claiming this project as my own idea, but since I really liked this super easy and speedy project, I just HAVE to share this :)

 Ready to make one?

Gather your supplies (this is the most time consuming part, I just happened to have everything laying around):

Alligator clip (Use the one with the opening in the middle as pictured above, not the 2 pronged ones or your flower will slip off)

Brad

Gerbera Daisy 

 Disassemble the daisy, usually they are somehow kept together in the center, just take the stem off the flower, and remove the center of the original flower.

Insert your brad through the hole in the center.

Stick the brad through the top opening of your alligator clip.

Open the brad to attach the flower to the clip.

And THAT'S IT!

Couldn't be easier, right?

I attached the hair clip to a crochet headband, so you could use the hair clip this way too...

I linked up to Sumo's Sweet Stuff.

Cutest Quiet Book Ever!

I have so many things that I would like to make some day ...

This definitely is one of them, but I wonder if I'd ever find the time and patience to finish it. 

Check out this link to see the other pages of this awesome baby book!
(Picture from thecraftingchicks.com. )

Recipe Organizer

Don't know if anybody recognizes this kind of 'pile' in their kitchen. 

(I hope so, please tell me I am not the only one!)

Anyway, that is how my recipes have been 'organized' for years!

When I needed something, I would just dig through the papers till I found it.

But just recently, I couldn't stand this sight any longer.

So I decided to finally tackle it. 

I just took an old binder, made a simple cover from scrapbook paper, and put it in the transparent sleeves on the cover. Next, I put all my recipes in page protectors. The recipes that were smaller than a standard 8.5 by 11 I just glued on some white printer paper. Nothing complicated, but it looks SO much better!

Just wonder why this took me years :)

I linked up to I Heart Organizing.

Make your own rose stamp

I was amazed to see how Maureen from Maureen Cracknell Handmade had her children use celery (yes, celery!) to stamp pretty roses. I have seen people use potatoes for stamping before, but never this! And apparently you can also use bunches of leafy lettuce. So clever!

This is one of the pictures from her blog:

Go here to read more about it!

Easy Baby Blanket

I think this has to be one of the easiest baby blankets that you can make.

Part of the reason is that I cheated a little bit...

Originally I was planning on using flannel on one side, and that really soft fluffy fabric on the other side. But, before I actually bought some of the soft fabric, I happened to run into a simple, plain and very soft brown baby blanket. It was very cheap, too. And that is how it got started...

It turned out to be very simple, since one side of the blanket was already done.

As I made this blanket, I took pictures, and I wrote up this tutorial. 

Hope you'll like it!

Easy Baby Blanket Tutorial

Supplies

* Soft baby blanket, any size

* Flannel, the same size as the blanket

* Matching thread

Prewash your materials. 

 This picture shows the backside of my original blanket. 

Very simple, just seamed around the sides. 

These seams will come in very handy, though!

Cut off all labels.

Put the 2 fabrics, wrong sides together, on top of each other. 

Temporarily pin the corners.

Make sure the original blanket is fully covered by the flannel. 

That is why you pinned the corners.

Now, following the original seam of the blanket, start tucking the flannel under, pinning as you go.

Work your way around the blanket.

Starting in one of the corners, sew the flannel onto the blanket with a straight stitch.

When you get to a corner, stop, make sure the needle is down (or use the wheel to let it go down), lift the presser foot, and turn the blanket 90 degrees, so that you are ready to go for the next straight line. 

Put the presser foot back down, and you're good to go again.

Repeat till you're done! 

Enjoy the end result!

 I just love this blanket, and how easy it was to make this.

If you happen to try it out, please let me know, I would like to see what you come up with.

My entertainment

 There is something very relaxing about watching the birds in our yard. I find myself staring at them, as they take turns using our bird feeder. My girls love to watch it as well! 

The only drawback is that they eat so much that I find it empty quite frequently. Oh well...