Watermelon Cake with Tips and Tricks

This is the perfect summer cake!  Especially for those with summer birthday's and can you believe a kid picked his out on his own?!  Very impressive.

One of my bestest friends, sent me this link, and it seemed simple enough. 

Although...if I'm being honest...I didn't stick with the original instructions.

There wasn't an ingredient list, and even though I enjoyed their photo's, it didn't give me some of the information I wanted.

That said...I'm here to share their site, and add an ingredient list and my special tips to go along with it to help the constructing process go a little smoother.

So, here we go...

You'll Need:

1 SEEDLESS watermelon

1, 9" pie plate or serving platter

Various fruits (I used black grapes, since my store didn't have any good blueberries, green grapes, strawberries and kiwi)

1 tub of whipped topping (or you can make your own)

papertowels

1 box of your instant jello, your fav flavor (I used orange)

To begin, slice your watermelon - I sliced both ends to create a flat surface, then made a hexagon, but the original site, has an awesome tutorial on how to make yours round!

Once your watermelon is sliced, place it on your serving platter/pie plate.

Blot well with paper towels.

Open your jello box and sprinkle top and sides. (I had the HARDEST time getting the whipped cream to stick to the watermelon w/o using this tip.  This helped a ton!)

Refrigerate.

While it's refrigerating, start washing, peeling your fruit.

Remove watermelon and start icing it with whipped topping.

Refrigerate.

Continue fruit prep - Cutting.

Remove watermelon from refrigerator and start assembling your cake the way you want it.

The major key here is refrigeration!  So keep it cool as long as you can before serving.

Enjoy!

1st Day of Preschool Pictures - What works!

My "baby" girl turned 3 over the summer and I can.not.believe that she is already old enough for preschool! Where did my 'ittle bitty baby go?! *Sniff, Sniff*

Mother and child held it together rather well...

She practically jumped her way to the classroom, and me...?
Well...I waited till I made it to work to cry.
Okay...maybe not all the way to work, but mostly. *Wink*

Which brings us to today.

I wanted to share my idea with you about preschool pictures.
We all love to have those little memento's and I don't know about you, but it can be a chore to get a 3 year old to stand still for pics. Are you with me??

So, instead of spending a gosh awful amount of time on some construction project that may or may not make it into the picture correctly, I thought it'd be a good idea to just use a plain white sheet of paper, cardboard, construction paper...what have you and photo edit the information in.

And guess what?
It worked perfect!

After our pictures were all said and done, all I had to do was load them, type in the information I wanted displayed and Viola!

Now we have a forever memory masterpiece without the headache or near worry of whether she'd remember to turn this way or that'a way so we could all see what her sign said.

Your next question, I'm sure, is how do you "edit".

Let's go through it.

1.                   Go to picmonkey.com
2.            Click “Edit Picture”
3.            To add text to your photo – You’ll have a menu bar on the far left hand side that looks like    this:  

                        

4.           You’ll want to click on the left sided column, 4^th option down “P”

5.           This is where you can pick your font, size, color etc. – 1^st choose your font. (FYI – most     fonts are free, but everything with a crown next to it, is considered a “royal” treatment and     you do have to pay for those.)

6.           Once your font is chosen, select “Add Text” (Up at the very top)

7.           This is what your screen should look like:

8.                   From here, just chose what you want to say, coloring, size, etc.

9.         Once text placement is made, you'll want to arrange.  There is a small circle at the very top that lets you adjust and rotate text.

10.       Now it's time to save.  Pretty self explanatory, but make sure that when saving (if you’re wanting to keep your original picture as well) that you re-name the picture file before saving!

Hope you Momma's (Daddy's, Grandma's and Grandpa's) out there find this beneficial as well.
I don't know about you, but I'm hoping this saved me a few gray hairs - Hehe

Traditions - Santa's Cookie Plate

 

When my daughter came along, like most mother's, I couldn't wait for her 1st Christmas!  I adore this time of year; and Santa...oh, there's so much to be said about this jolly ol' fellow.  He and his helpers prepare all year long and then, when Christmas Eve comes, he travels all over the world in one single night to deliver special gifts to children.  There's something to be said about that.  Especially this time of year.

Like most families, we leave something special for Santa and his reindeer to keep them going strong for their long night of travel.  What do you leave for Santa?  What about his reindeer?

We typically sit out a tall glass of milk, cookies, and carrots.  Mmm!

This year, since my daughter is old enough, I wanted to create a cookie plate for Santa, that we can use for many years to come.

If you're a traditionalist too, or just like to have plain ol' fun; Head on over to Holiday's Homemade for the full tutorial.

This project is perfect for you, and this idea would be great to do for birthday's too!!

Faux Bedskirt

I have been wanting a cute bed skirt for my daughters room.  She has had her big girl bed for 6 months now, and she loves the bedding, but me being me felt like something was missing.

Even though no one else cares if she had a bed skirt (including her!), I wanted it.  I think it can really make a room (sometimes).

With Christmas being less than 2 weeks away (Wee!!!), now was not exactly an ideal time to be spending $ on something like this.  Especially since the one I want is a bit pricey!  eek!

So, I'm improvising for the time being, and decided to use an old curtain we had downstairs in our basement.  It was just taking up space, and it happened to turn out pretty perfectly.

Since so many of you have enjoyed her bed roll up I created, I thought I would share this project as well.

So far, I really like it.  It's been on there for 2 weeks now, and it has stayed perfectly in place.

I have been toying with the idea of just leaving it, but maybe dying the curtain a different shade.  The khaki goes really well with both sides of her bedding, but like most little girls - She adores pink!

Maybe something like this will work for you?

Just steam or iron out the wrinkles

Not too shabby for a free project.  Momma likes!

No-Slip Holiday Socks

In case you missed me Saturday over at Holiday's Homemade, here is a recap!

Yours truly gives a short tutorial on how to create No-Slip Holiday Socks for your little (or big!) ones!

Enjoy!

Kids Pumpkin Crafts - Glitter & Spidey Pumpkins

We really had such a great time putting this together.  The best parts were watching my girl make a *monster*ous mess of glitter glue on top of her pumpkin, but her stuffing the spider legs was my absolute fav!

She gets this "Must Concentrate" look on her face that is to die for!

I also loved seeing her aspect of how things should look.  Which by the way, she really surpassed my expectations as to what and how much she would do.  For some reason, I didn't think the spider craft would be too advanced for some reason, but it wasn't.  At all.

I think you're kiddo's will really enjoy this too!  So let's get started...

You'll Need:

Glitter Pumpkin:
Glitter Glue or White Glue (I found the glitter glue kept her more focused)

Additional Glitter
Pumpkin

Spider Pumpkin:
Googly Eyes
Black Pipe Cleaner
Pen/Pencil

We also did a marker one, which was really fun, but I don't have pics of that downloaded just yet.  Just throwing that out there in case any of you want/need more ideas :)

Basically all we did, was head outside.  Can't really screw anything up out there, so luckily the weather was cooperative. :)

Just like in my last kids craft post, I just sat everything out in front of her for each project and let her go to town.

For the glitter pumpkin, we started with white glue, which was fun, but WOW the glitter glue, really colored her world!  Highly recommend!! 

Then I sat out my glitter shakers, let her choose the additional colors she wanted to add, and viola.  Her Glitter Pumpkin was born!

Zombie Mode: Must concentrate

"Pretty as a pumpkin" BAHAHAHA I make myself laugh! ;)

For the spider pumpkin...Mom/Dad...you're in charge/supervision of Step 1. Take your pumpkin, and around each of the grooves, take your pencil/pen, and insert it into the pumpkin to create a hole for your pipe cleaner to go in for the spider legs. 

Mark the spot for the legs, making the hole big enough for the pipe cleaner to go into.  I used a ball point pen.  Worked great.

Insert the legs.

Completed legs

Attach your googly eyes - I laid out 8, but she only wanted 6...

and her Pumpkin Spidey, turned out absolutely great! 

Her Pumpkin Spidey now lives on our window seal for everyone to see as they drive by. 

Have a Great Day, Pumpkin's :)

The Artful Year - My Autumn Crafts EBook!

Have you seen or heard of The Artful Parent's - My Autumn Crafts EBook!?! If you haven't you're really missing out on something special this fall. 

I've seen and heard this trickling around a few places now, but it hit me like a ton of bricks when I saw it on Momma Harvey's page where she mentioned it here and here, then today while rummaging through Facebook, I found a wealth of information, but more on that in a sec.

This book is stuffed full of wonderful arts & crafts you can do with your kiddo's.  The bonus? It's all combined into one little place, so it's great to come back to reference for future years to come.  How fantastic! 

You wouldn't think it couldn't possibly get any better than that, right?  Well...you'd be wrong!

Today, through October 22, 2012, Jean Van't Hul, The Artful Parent, is having "A Pay What You Can Sale".  Say Whaaa???  Is she MAD?!?!!  *Shugs Shoulders* Must be! ;)

All I can say, is take full advantage of this sale while it lasts, and  please be truthful about what you can and can't provide.  This ebook is absolutely beautiful, and I promise you when I say "You won't be disappointed" that you won't be! 

To sum things up, take advantage of this fantastic offer.  Otherwise, you'll be regretting it when the kids are coped up, stir crazy, in the house, driving you mad, and all you want is a little peace & quite, and for them to "Turn that TV down!"

Not that I'd know from experience of anything... ;)

SO...what are you waiting for?

Bow Tie - DIY Tutorial

My nephew was in a wedding this weekend, and he looked so charming in this little bow tie!

I found this awesome tutorial through Pinterest!  She has a lot of wonderful and helpful information, but with me not being a seamstress, I ended up reverting back to my bow making ways.  For me, I found it to be easier and maybe even a little faster, so maybe you'll find this tid bit of information suitable for you too.

If you have a little boy, this project is sure to be up your alley, so please don't forget to check out her page!

Let's get started!

You'll Need:
1/4 yard of fabric
small piece of soft fleece
sew on velcro
thread
sewing machine
needle
scissors or rotary cutter
cutting mat

To get started, lets cut all your pieces.  You'll need:

-2, 3" x 10" pieces of fabric
-1, 3" x 10" piece fleece
-1" piece velcro
-1, 2.5" x  4"(for the middle of the bow tie)
-1, 3" x 13" strip, depending on your child's neck size.   The one I'm making is for a two and a half year old.  Tip: To measure your child's neck; Measure with a shirt on, and go under the colar for a true measurement and add 2".  You can use elastic in place of this piece, but with ours being so formal, I wanted it all to match.

Take your 3, 3" x 10" strips, placing the right sides together of the fabric and the felt on top of that.

Sew around the edges of your fabric, leaving a 2" opening.  This is where i got a little carried away.  I ended up having maybe a 1.5" opening.  That's what I get for not paying attention!

Now you'll turn the fabric inside out.  *Make sure that the fleece goes on the inside*  I had a hard time with this, being that I had a smaller opening.  I ended up using a metal skewer and a pair of scissors, and this was by far the most tedious part of the whole process.  Hey...just being honest...

A quick note:  If you're using delicate fabric like I was, I would use your scissors (or whatever you're flipping the fabric with) on the fleece side.  You don't want anything to happen to your pretty fabric.  That would be devastating!

Once the fabric is flipped, take your open end of the fabric and tuck in the lose ends.

 

Pinching the two ends together, you're going to sew a zig zag seam to connect the two pieces together.

Your piece should look something like this:

This is when my bow making skills kicked in.  1st, Thread a needle with coordinating thread, (you'll need at least 36" of thread) and sit aside.  Now, take your sewn piece and lay it flat.  Don't be afraid to smash it flat to get it completely straight.  In the middle, you're going to place your index finger and thumb, on the top and bottom of the sewn material and pinch it together...

With your needle and thread, create a box shape.  Doesn't have to be pretty or perfect.  It's going to be covered up later on.

Now go directly through the backside and in a clock-wise motion, wind the thread directly around the center of the bow tie.

It should look like this:

 

The more you go around, the tighter you'll cinch it...

Now place the needled directly in the front center of the bow and move it towards the back, then back through the front, and through the back again.

(Keeping in mind you still haven't cut anything - Thread should still be attached to needle)

Now find your 1, 2.5" x  4" piece, for the middle of the bow tie...Folding both sides in so there are no frays, like this:

 With the middle piece, wrap it around the bow tie.

Sew middle pieces together, making sure not to go through the bow tie itself, as you still have your neck strap to put through.

  Tuck your neck strap through...Scissors help here...

And now it's time to sew on your velcor.  Make sure you do opposites sides, so it closes correctly!

There ya go...One perfect bow tie!