The Cozy Caterpillar

After spending a couple hours out shopping with my one year old nephew, I realized that babies go through a TON of socks! He would go into the store with two socks and inevitably by the time we left there would be one lonely sock on his foot.

I realized that the perfect gift for his first birthday would be some baby socks. I mean the more he has the better, right?! Especially since he seems to be constantly losing them.

I didn't want to just throw a bunch of socks in the bag and call it good either because that just didn't seem fun. So I came up with the "Cozy Caterpillar" baby socks gift. It's super cute and easy to make!

Ingredients:
About a dozen baby socks (boy or girl)
1 pipe cleaner
2 mini pop-poms
2 buttons
Green shredded paper
Note: I have double stick tape pictured but I found that Elmer's glue dots worked better for part of it, so I ended up using both
Not pictured: Container to put it in (I used a cookie tin)

Step 1: Take one of the baby socks and roll it up as seen in the picture.

Step 2: Take the first baby sock and put it down inside the foot of the matching sock.

Step 3: Starting at the opening of the sock, roll it around the foot so that you end up making a ball.

Step 4: Do this with all the remaining socks. Then decide which pattern you would like your caterpillar to have. There was only one red sock with mine, so I made that the head.

Step 5: Cut 2 pieces of pipe cleaner, each about 3 inches long. Wrap the bottoms together to form a "V." Bend the base of the "V" and attach it to the top of the head with the glue dots. Using the glue dots again, attach the pom-poms to the tops of the pipe cleaners and then attach the eyes. You can see why I changed it and went with the glue dots instead. The tape just looks messy!

Step 6: Place a piece of double stick tape on the bottom of each sock and attach them to your container. The double stick tape worked perfectly for this.
I made a zig-zag pattern with the socks. First, to get them all to fit and second because I thought it was cute and wiggly.

Step 7: Finish by filling in around your caterpillar with your paper shreds. I made mine by running 2 different colors of green paper through my shredder.

There you have it! A cute and fun way to give baby socks!

I will be linking up to my favorite parties this week.

Much Needed Workout Motivation

There's a much younger and skinnier me stuck with a magnet to the fridge. It's supposed to remind me of the weight loss goals I have set for myself. Sadly, I've reached a bit of a plateau and lost some motivation. The biggest problem - I LOVE FOOD!!! Diets are no fun because they are so routine and usually have weird food that I have no interest in eating. Or you have to take some sort of diet bar, shake or pill and that never seems to work out well. The weight just comes back when you stop eating/ taking them.

So with Lent starting this Wednesday, I realized it was the perfect time to set some new goals. First, being healthier with eating choices - not eating out and instead cooking at home. That in itself should help a lot. Second, it has become very apparent that I must start working out, as much as I have tried to avoid it.

I've been browsing Pinterest for some ideas to help motivate me to get going with a workout routine. That place is always full of great things and this time was no exception!

Rock My Run is one of my very favorite Pinterest finds! They upload new running playlists every week. Everything is upbeat and great for working out. Now if I could just use them for working out instead of singing in the shower!

Source: rockmyrun.com via Andi on Pinterest

I love this visual reminder of weight loss. Vases and marbles are definitely going on the shopping list!

Source: hotmessprincess.com via Andi on Pinterest

Not just to tell people, but to know that I am not anymore.

Source: google.com via Andi on Pinterest

I love this because I look like a hot mess after I workout!

Source: rippedandfit.tumblr.com via Andi on Pinterest

Can I get as an audio track every few minutes on my playlist?

Source: rippedandfit.tumblr.com via Andi on Pinterest

Absolutely REASON #1!  I have to remind myself that, "Endorphins make you happy!" to quote Elle Woods.

Source: healthy-is-the-way-to-go.tumblr.com via Andi on Pinterest

What are some of your tips or motivation for helping lose weight?

I'll be linking up at my favorite parties this week!

What's in a Name?

There are a lot of really cute family name art pieces out there. I've even made a few for around our house. But the latest project I have been working on had me a bit puzzled. What kind of family art do you create for a "modern family" who may not all share the same last name?

Being the Shakespeare lover that I am (and having just recently watched the movie) the famous Juliet quote popped into my head:
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part 
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet. ( Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Sc. 2, 43-47)

Being a family doesn't mean that you all have to have the same family name, what matters is that you are family. After a little bit scribbling and a whole, whole lot of erasing on my scratch pad, I finally settled on this design.

I made the lettering with my Silhouette and I used the LDJ Forever Friends font. The "Our Family" is available in the Silhouette online store. The vinyl is from Expressions Vinyl in light brown. Expressions Vinyl is one of my favorite places to shop for vinyl. They always have good discount codes for their email subscribers and Facebook friends.

I really love how it turned out because the names are all connected - like a family is! It's perfect because all of the people I know with modern families can now have name art too!

I'll be linking up to my favorite parties this week.

DIY: Subway Art Frame

My roommate's birthday was a few weeks back. I already had part of the gift planned - some really cool Stila eyeshadow and a few other make-up things, which I love and knew she would too. But I wanted to do something a bit more personal since she's so dear to me.

I came across this darling Subway art over at Kiki & Company. It was just the thing I was looking for!

Side note - so my friends and I always call patterns for projects "recipes" and I've had a hard time not doing that lately but I just can't help it! So...

Recipe:

You will need a blank wooden frame, acrylic paint (I used Apple Barrel by Plaid White and True Teal), scrapbook paper, white cardstock, Krylon Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze, sponge brush, and craft glue (I used Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue).

Step 1:  

Remove the glass (or in my case plastic) from the frame.  Prime frame with 2 coats of white paint. Let dry thoroughly in between layers. Then paint 2 coats of your desired color (also drying well between layers) and let dry. 

When it is completely dry, spray the entire frame with the Krylon Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze. Be sure to do this in a well ventilated area like outside (my roommates always gets mad when I do this in the house). Let the frame dry really well before handling again - ask how I know about that!

Step 2:

While that is drying, you can pick out your Subway Art for the frame. Like I mentioned, mine came from Kiki & Company. You can also do a search for "Free Subway Art" on Google for more ideas.

Funny thing was that I was trying to use the red and teal design on Kiki Creates. I didn't realize until it printed that my printer was out of magenta ink. Luckily, I love the way it turned out. To make it fit in my frame, I scaled it down to size in Photoshop and printed from there. I printed it on white cardstock to help the colors really stand out and make it sturdier. 

Step 3: 

This is my favorite part of any project - embellishing! I chose to make some 3D flowers and leaves with the colored cardstock. I love it because it is two-sided! I used my Silhouette to cut them and then glued them to the frame with the craft glue. You can find some ideas to make handmade flowers on my Favorite Flower Tutorials Round-up.

The best part of this project is that you can decide how you embellish the frame. You can use ribbons, buttons, stickers or vinyl cut outs. Personalize it and make it your own.

 

It turned out perfectly and she loved it! The best part of giving it to her was that I could finally take the sign off the craft room door warning her to stay out!

Cleaning the Dryer Vent

I'm sure you've all seen those commercials for things like the Lint Lizard or wands that promise to clean out all that lint trapped deep within the dryer vent. Well being the frugal cheap person that I am, I figured I could come up with some way to clean all that out without having to purchase yet another thing from an infomercial. Side note - I have just about been banned from watching infomercials because I will buy almost any cool thing I see on TV!

This project started because we found out that we have an electric dryer in this new place. If you don't have one, don't get one! They are ridiculously expensive to run compare to gas dryers. I've been searching for tips and tricks to help it operate more efficiently and found that if I cleaned the lint trap (which apparently is also a big cause of dryer fires) it might help it run better.

The wheels in my head got spinning!

You will need a wire hanger, Swiffer dry cloths, and painters tape (or another good and sticky tape).

Straighten out the wire hanger. Then lay the cloth lengthwise along the bottom of the hanger. Secure both ends really well with the tape.

Remove the lint trap and use the wand to clean down inside the lint duct. It will get out all kinds of crud that you had no idea was in there!

Nice and dirty Swiffer cloth that I just took off and threw away. Let's hope this helps the dryer run a bit better now!