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Link Party Features: Six Last Minute Teacher Gift Ideas

May 15, 2013 1 Comment

Thursday is the last day of kinder for my oldest. I cannot believe it! In just a few short months she will be a 1st grader.

Man, that’s just weird!

Anyway, I am glad I have this link party to refer to to get some quick ideas for gifts for her teachers, since I only have two days to whip something up.

So, enjoy this roundup for last minute teacher’s gift ideas and get to creating. I know I will!

Nourishing Body Butter from Homespun with Love. This sounds so awesome for your skin.

White Chocolate Biscotti in a Jar from Mommy Hates Cooking. These are delish. I have taste-tasted these so it’s Rookie Seamstress-approved!

Orange you Glad it’s Summer Gift Basket from Shaken Together Life. How cute!

Lemon Foot Soak from The Creative Princess Brandi. Your teacher’s piggies would squeal with delight when they get this for a gift!

Duct Tape Beads from Crafty Night Owls would be a great project to do with the kiddos and I am sure their teacher will appreciate the fact they helped make them!

and last, but not least, my FABULOUS Fabric Bookmarks would make a great teacher’s gift as well since they are super simple to make!

I hope these ideas will help you get those gifts made and to your teachers before the school year is over.

Happy End of the School Year!

Filed Under: Make Bake Create, Uncategorized

Eight Years Ago……..

May 14, 2013 Leave a Comment

Eight years ago my life changed.

Eight years ago I walked down the isle in a pretty white dress and said I DO to a handsome, tall, rough-around-the edges guy with the most beautiful eyes that I have ever seen.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Eight years ago, I left the umbrella of my parents and clung to a man who I vowed to spend the rest of my life with.

Eight years ago, I made a spiritual covenant with a man to love, cherish, and remain faithful him until the day that death comes to one or both of us.

Eight years ago I married the man that God picked especially for me.

In the passing of these past eight years, we:

Bought a home.

Had a child.

Had another child.Sent the first child to her first year of school.

school pic Experienced the first child commit her life to loving Jesus.

And then be baptized, professing her faith openly.

We have also watched our youngest grow in leaps in bounds.

Crawl, walk and run in just a few short months.

And become the best of friends with her big sissy.In this year, our eighth year of marriage, we have a family of beautiful girls and a marriage that has experienced a lot of love.

Looking back, I cannot express the gratitude I have for all the blessings God has poured out on us. I have the best family, and my cup runs over.

So, Happy 8th Anniversary, my love. I can’t wait to spend the next many goofy years with you. You rock!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Mother’s Day Gift Idea: DIY Fabric Bookmarks!

May 9, 2013 6 Comments

This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day. YAY! Sadly, I did not realize this until yesterday. Fail.

Thankfully, I have a sewing machine, a ton of fabric, and an imagination. So, I came up with these fabulous bookmarks for mi madre.

My mom loves to read, so I know this will be a perfect gift for her. Although, I do tend to laugh at the genre of books she reads.

I won’t tell you what they are because I might embarrass her. And then she might throw my bookmarks that I toiled over in the trash.

Nah, she’d never do that. My momma loves me. And I love her, so, let’s get right to what I made for her.

Shoot, I’ll even show you how to make them too!

Fabric Bookmark Supplies:

Coordinating Fabrics
Heat & Bond (The Sewable kind if you are going to sew, the non-sewable kind if you aren’t going to sew)
Iron
Ironing Board
Sewing Machine (optional)
Thread (optional)
Cutting Mat
Straight Edge
Rotary Cutter
Pinking Shears

First, get your iron and set it to medium temp. Then, gather your fabric. You won’t need much, so if you have fabric scraps laying around, this would be a great way to use them up!

I made 2 bookmarks and used 2 coordinating fabrics for each bookmark. I cut them into 3″x7″ pieces. Below is what it should look like. I laid the fabric right side down to get ready for doing the next step.

For those who don’t know. This what what Heat & Bond looks like in the package. See at the top where it says sewable? That’s what you’ll need if you plan on using a sewing machine for this project. This is very important!

Then, take your heat and bond and cut a piece 3″x7″ as well. Lay it SHINY SIDE DOWN on top of your first piece of fabric. the SHINY side of the Heat & Bond should touch the WRONG (or back) side of the fabric.Take your iron and lay it on top of the Heat & Bond fabric for 2 seconds. It will adhere to the fabric pretty quickly. Make sure you heat the entire piece of Heat & Bond to the fabric.

Then, you will peel the Heat & Bond backing paper off of the fabric. This is what the wrong side of your fabric should look like when done right. Shiny.Take your 2nd piece of coordinating fabric and lay the wrong side to shiny side of the fabric you were first working with. Then you will set your iron on top and the heat from the iron will adhere the two pieces of fabric together.Since both pieces of fabric are now completely adhered together, thanks to the Heat & Bond, it is totally optional to sew.

Below is what the two pieces of fabric look like completely bonded together. The Heat & Bond gives the fabric somewhat of a stiffness, which is good when you’re making a bookmark!Now, If you do not have a sewing machine or if you do not want to sew, skip down to the part where I cut the edges with pinking shears.

If you do want to sew it, keep looking on. The sewing is really for embellishment.

If you’re sewing your bookmark, make your seam allowance about 5/8″ on each side. Sew a complete rectangle.If you have alphanumeric stitching capabilities on your machine, why not go ahead and add some fun little messages to your bookmark like I did?I wanted to put “Mom Rocks” on the first bookmark, but I started the fabric wrong in the machine, so all I could do was “Mom” before the fabric ran out. Oops!

That’s ok. This is a new machine–and I am a rookie seamstress, after all.

Once you’re all sewed up, take your pinking shears and cut around each edge.And that’s it. You’re done!

This took me hardly any time to complete. I was surprised how quick I whipped two of them out. I think I will be making up some more for teachers, friends, and book lovers like my mom.Think my mom will like these? I sure hope she does.

Feel free to whip some up for the momma figures in your life. Any homemade gift is special in my book (pun intended, ha!)!

**OK, so as I was posting this, I realized that I forgot add an 8 in the verse. The verse I was referencing was Proverbs 31:28, not Proverbs 31:2! Ahh!!

The scripture that I was wanting to put on there was:

Proverbs 31:28 “Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her.”

Proverbs 31:2 is “Listen my son! Listen, son of my womb! Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers!”

Totally not the scripture I was going for. Whoops!

I guess every rookie seamstress makes mistakes.

Thankfully I can go back and add to it so it won’t be totally awkward when I give it to my mom and she decides to go look it up! HA!****

Filed Under: Sewing, Uncategorized

Best of Make Bake Create Party #4

May 2, 2013 2 Comments

Hey everyone! How as your week been? It’s been absolutely hectic around here. I have been busting my tail trying to get everything ready to go to SoFabCon, my very first blogger conference! I am so excited!

Anyway, I wanted to take the time to share with you my favorite link-ups from last week’s Make Bake Create Party. I get so excited when I see all the creative flair out there. It’s so inspirational!

So let’s get to it! Here are my favorites from week #4.

These PB&J Cookies from Circus Berry have me over the moon! I am drooling worse than a teething baby. Nom Nom!

These Doily Picture Frames from Shabby Gals are awesome and so creative! I must raid my grandmothers doily stash and make some of these.

This Girls Room Reveal from A Little of This, a Little of That is ADORBS! I am loving everything about it. From the striped walls to bedding, I dream of having a room for my 2 little girls like this. Oh to dream!

Thanks to everyone who linked up last week. Week #5 of our Make Bake Create Party is up and running right now. If you have projects you’ve recently completed and want to share it, come link up with us. We would LOVE to see it.

Have a great week!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Make Bake Create Link Party- Week 5

April 30, 2013 3 Comments

make bake create 4

Welcome to our Make Bake Create Party! Every Wednesday come and link up your favorite projects from the week. This could be any food, recipes, crafts or DIY! Since there are 5 hosts… your link will be seen on 5 blogs at once. SWEET! Meet your hosts:

MBC Hosts: Rachel from Bubbly Nature Creations, Sarah from Hope In Every Season, Kristy from Mommy Hates Cooking, Brandi from The Creative Princess and Vanessa from The Rookie Seamstress.

If you haven’t already we would love for you to follow us on Instagram!

http://instagram.com/bubblynature

http://instagram.com/momhatescooking

http://instagram.com/thecreatvprncss

http://instagram.com/RookieSeamstress

This week is my turn to host and I am SO excited! I found these awesome DIY Stenciled Leggings from one of last week’s Make, Bake Create Party linkers (Spearmint Baby) and I fell in love, so I had to try it out and paint my own! I also sewed my own leggings from a yard of black knit fabric that I found at JoAnn’s. I just love how they turned out!

To make the leggings, I used the exact instructions that I found at Make It & Love It. They were super simple to make!

Once my leggings were all sewed up, I made my own stencils. I had some scrap laminated paper laying around, so I used that as my stencil material. It made it nice and sturdy, yet flexible and thin so it would stay pretty close to the fabric.

To do the stripes, I made the stencil using a ruler, permanent marker and scissors. I made the lines thick so there would be gaps between each stripe and cute the stripes out with scissors. I cut a few of the lines crooked, so I had to use duct tape to fix them. Whoops!

I also used a stencil and made stacked, different sized hearts and cut those out. Those were easy to do, so no picture is needed.

Then, I took the stencils, placed them where I wanted them on the leggings and secured them with duct tape. I highly suggest you use duct tape. It really holds the stencil down well!

I found the above paint supplies at JoAnn Fabrics. The bottles of neon fabric paint were less than $1.50 a piece, and it goes a long way!

This is what it looks like with one coat of paint on the leggings. The bottle said to do 1-2 coats, but I did three. The third coat really seamed to brighten it up and hide the black fabric better.

While I was painting, I wanted to experiment a little bit, so I made the hearts on my youngest daughter’s pants have A rainbow effect. I wasn’t sure it was going to work, so I went out on a limb and did it.

Below is how I used the paintbrush to get the effect and how it turned out:

I only did one coat of paint on this one because I did not want to completely blend all the colors together. I really love how it turned out!

After you’re done painting, carefully peel off the stencils and lay the leggings flat for four hours to dry. Do not wash the fabric until at least 72 hours after.

I think they turned out so cute and my oldest thought they were awesome!! I can’t wait to make some more!

Thank you so much to Spearmint Baby for linking up her idea. Now I can’t stop thinking about what I can stencil next!

Now onto the Party:

The Make Bake Create Party is like none other. Make sure to follow our Make Bake Create Party Pin Board where we will be pinning the projects linked up here. ALSO, your DIY project or recipe may be made by one of us. So make sure to link up one of your favorite projects and we may put it to the test ! It will be shared by all of us (with links back to your recipe or craft of course).

We will also be hosting a Make Bake Create Google Hangout too (TBA)! So stay tuned!!!

<div align="center"><a href="http://therookieseamstress.com" title="The Rookie Seamstress"><img src="http://therookieseamstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/155712_10151394733132153_1850891358_n.jpg" alt="The Rookie Seamstress" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Disclaimer and things to keep in mind~

* You may link up any DIY/ recipe/ food type post.

* You may link as many links as you want.

* Be sure to include The Make Bake Create button or text link to in your linked post; this is recommended to be featured!

* By linking up you are agreeing that the photos are yours or that you have permission to use them, that we may use those photos to feature your project on a blog post, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter with a link back to your blog of course. (; We may also occasionally MAKE YOUR PROJECT OURSELVES- with a link back to your recipe or tutorial. (this gets more exposure for you… and potentially lots of traffic!)

Now Ready… set… Link Up!!!

Filed Under: Make Bake Create, Uncategorized

Make Bake Create Link Party #4

April 23, 2013 2 Comments

make bake create 4

MBC Hosts: Rachel from Bubbly Nature Creations, Sarah from Hope In Every Season, Kristy from Mommy Hates Cooking, Brandi from The Creative Princess and Vanessa from The Rookie Seamstress.

We would love for you to follow us on Google+!

Bubbly Nature Creations

Hope In Every Season

Mommy Hates Cooking

The Creative Princess

The Rookie Seamstress

This week, we bring to you a delicious recipe from The Creative Princess!

I was introduced to Whoopie Pies way before they became a craze and have been in love with them ever since. This Vanilla Bean Whoopie Pie recipe from Brandi looks so good. I may just have to add this to my recipe to-do list! Yum Yum!

We will also be hosting a Make Bake Create Google Hangout too (TBA)! So stay tuned!!!

<div align="center"><a href="http://therookieseamstress.com" title="The Rookie Seamstress"><img src="http://therookieseamstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/155712_10151394733132153_1850891358_n.jpg" alt="The Rookie Seamstress" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Disclaimer and things to keep in mind~

* You may link up any DIY/ recipe/ food type post.

* You may link as many links as you want.

* Be sure to include The Make Bake Create button or text link to in your linked post; this is recommended to be featured!

Now Ready… set… Link Up!!!

Filed Under: Baking, Crafts, DIY, Food, Homemade, Make Bake Create, recipes, Uncategorized

DIY Ombre Wall Art

April 23, 2013 4 Comments

Last week, My Paper Pinwheel shared with us this DIY Ombre Cake Stand at our Make Bake Create Party. I absolutely loved it and drew so much inspiration from it, that I had to go out and make this DIY Ombre Wall Art to help spruce up my bathroom!

IMG_20130413_173416_734 This Ombre Wall Art was so simple to create, I wanted to paint my entire house in ombre!

But since my husband may not be too fond of that, I just limited myself to these half-price canvases from Michaels.

Would you like to know how I did it? I’d be happy to show you, so here we go!

First, gather the following supplies:

Once you have all your items, take a long strip of your painter’s tape and adhere it to the canvas. Make sure it’s straight!

Paint your first color above the tape line. Make sure you begin painting with the lightest or the darkest shade. the shade that’s between your lightest or darkest will of course go into the middle.

One your first color dries, remove the tape, move it down to the middle section, and add another piece of tape to the end of where the painted and unpainted parts of the canvas meet. I actually overlapped the colors a bit, so if you like that look, go for it!

Once the middle section dries, tape the bottom part where the last section is unpainted and paint it with your last shade.

Let completely dry and hang. So easy!

And this is what it looks like hanging in my bathroom. I apologize for the quality of my camera. I am saving up for a better, more professional one as we speak!

Thanks for looking! If you have drawn inspiration from me, please let me know and share it at my Make Bake Create Party that begins every Tuesday night. I would love to see your work!

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY, Homemade, Painting, Uncategorized

Taco Salad with Doritos

April 16, 2013 9 Comments

The following recipe is one of my favorite recipes EVER! My mom made this recipe all the time when I was growing up and my brother and I absolutely love it. When I serve it to people outside my immediate family, they are intrigued and perplexed by the fact that we use Doritos in our recipe. Trust me, it really works! It’s delicious!

So, check out our family favorite and enjoy! I know you won’t be disappointed.

Taco Salad with Doritos

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Beef
1 Head lettuce
1 Red pepper, chopped
1 Yellow pepper, chopped
1 small block Cheddar cheese, cubed
1 bag of Cheese Doritos
Dressing Ingredients:
1.5 cups Miracle Whip
1 small jar Taco Sauce
2 Tbsps Milk (to thin out the dressing)
1 tsp Sugar

Instructions

Brown your hamburger, drain and set aside to cool completely.
Wash and chop the lettuce and toss into a large bowl.
Wash and chop the peppers and toss into the bowl with the lettuce.
Cube the cheese and toss into the bowl.
Once your hamburger has cooled completely, go ahead and throw it into the bowl as well.
Take all the Salad dressing ingredients except for the milk and put them into a small bowl. Wisk until smooth. Wisk in the milk to thin out your dressing. Feel free to add however much milk you would like. If you like your dressing really thin, add more milk. Just don't make it too thin or you'll lose that yummy taco flavor!
When you're ready to eat, toss all the ingredients in the large bowl together to get a nice mix.
Serve your salad, drizzle with your dressing and sprinkle with Crushed Doritos.
Enjoy!

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Filed Under: Baking, Food, recipes, Uncategorized

Make Bake Create Link Party #3 with a Feature!

April 16, 2013 2 Comments

***Before we begin to party– I just wanted to say that my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the Boston tragedy. May God’s healing touch be with each and everyone affected.****

make bake create 4

MBC Hosts: Rachel from Bubbly Nature Creations, Sarah from Hope In Every Season, Kristy from Mommy Hates Cooking, Brandi from The Creative Princess and Vanessa from The Rookie Seamstress.

We would love for you to follow us on Facebook!

Bubbly Nature Creations

Hope In Every Season

Mommy Hates Cooking

The Creative Princess

The Rookie Seamstress

This week, we bring to you a delicious recipe from Mommy Hates Cooking!

These Apple Pancakes look so hearty and so delicious. It kind of reminds me of a cool Fall morning. My favorite season! Go ahead and check it over at Kristy’s food blog. Trust me, you won’t be disapointed!

Before we start linking up this week, I wanted to give a shoutout to one of my favorite link-ups from last week.

This DIY Ombre Cake Stand from my Paper Pinwheel is awesome! Her creation actually inspired me to create an ombre something to add to my home decor. I, of course, will be sharing that with you soon!

We will also be hosting a Make Bake Create Google Hangout too (TBA)! So stay tuned!!!

<div align="center"><a href="http://therookieseamstress.com" title="The Rookie Seamstress"><img src="http://therookieseamstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/155712_10151394733132153_1850891358_n.jpg" alt="The Rookie Seamstress" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Disclaimer and things to keep in mind~

* You may link up any DIY/ recipe/ food type post.

* You may link as many links as you want.

* Be sure to include The Make Bake Create button or text link to in your linked post; this is recommended to be featured!

Now Ready… set… Link Up!!!

Filed Under: Baking, Crafts, DIY, Food, Homemade, recipes, Uncategorized Tagged With: apple pancake, bloggers, blogging, crafts, DIY, Link party, recipe

Potato Cheeseburger Soup

April 11, 2013 2 Comments

After a few days of super awesome Spring weather, Oklahoma decided to grace us with another wonderful cold front. So, to keep me and my family warm, I cooked up a delicious pot of Potato Cheeseburger Soup. Yum!

If you’re stuck inside due to cold and snow, why not make up a pot too? It will be worth it, I promise!

Potato Cheeseburger Soup

Ingredients

1 lb Ground beef
5 Cups Potatoes, cubed
4 Cups Chicken Broth
2 Tbsp Minced Onion Flakes
1 tsp Dried Parsley
1 tsp Dried Basil
4 Tbsp Butter
1/4 Cup Flour
1.5 Cups Milk
3 Cups Shredded Colby Jack Cheese or Cheese of your choice
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
2 Tbsp Sour Cream

Instructions

Cube your potatoes and throw them into a pot with the chicken broth and bring to a boil on medium heat.
While that is coming to a boil, brown your beef and strain it. Throw it into the pot with the potatoes.
Then, toss in the onion flakes, parsley and basil and stir.
Let your potatoes boil until tender. Once they are done, melt your butter in the pan you cooked the ground beef in and add the flour. Cook and stir this until it begins to bubble and then stir into your pot.
Once your roux is completely blended into the soup, bring it back up to a boil. Reduce and let simmer for 5 or so minutes, then add your milk and cheese and stir until melted. Then, add your salt, pepper and sour cream and blend.
Serve and eat. Delish!

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