A Blessing Dress

I haven't accomplished much on my pin list and this is partially why...25+ hours of crocheting. 

Its for a friend's grand baby. This is it with a slip underneath it.

It has a matching bonnet to go with it.

The total set, minus the little sweater I'm going to make for it since I didn't like the one I finished.

I really enjoy crocheting christening/blessing dresses. This is the first time I've used this pattern that I found in this booklet. Like always I tend to change up the dress a little bit...to personalize it, I shortened the sleeves and put the bow of the ribbon in the back.

Hair-dos

 Here's the latest attempts at cool hair styles. For Valentines day we did a double heart, but I forgot to take a picture. My daughter liked it so much she requested a heart with a fishbone braid.

 

 Upon seeing her sister's hair my youngest requested a "lil go fish braid"

For St. Patty's day we found this triple braid. It was super easy and I'll probably do it again.

Just for the fun of it we tried this braid in a braid, its very similar to things I've done on my own in the past, but I liked her suggestion of pulling the sides out.

 For Easter I wanted something special. I looked for ideas and thought an upside down french braid with a bun looked nice. I didn't follow a tutorial since I learned to french braid a few months ago. After doing it I wish I had watched a tutorial because mine doesn't look as pretty as the ones I saw when I googled images.

Yummy Recipes

Winter tends to be when I try out a ton of new recipes. Here are a few I've tried lately. 

 Crockpot Ham & Potato Soup*

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls 

Grilled Salmon I

 Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Dairy and Egg Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have two kiddos with food allergies so its nice to be able to find recipes where I'm not having to make a lot of substitutions, but I still omit things from time to time. The Spinach Lasagna Rolls call for an egg but I left it out and it was still very tasty. 

Memory Boxes

Everything in my house has its place, however it doesn't always get put back in a timely manner. I have keepsake totes for my kids, but they're in our crawl space so I don't get to them often. I end up with piles of kid artwork and school work in my bedroom. A friend suggested this pin to me. I knew it was exactly what I was looking for!! Since I don't share my kiddo's names online I can't show you theirs, but here's mine. 

 

I bought the file boxes from Office Depot when they were having a great deal...50% off. I don't own any of those fancy cutting machines, instead I found a font I liked and had the kids choose their scrap book paper and then printed their name backwards on the wrong side of the paper. I cut their names out and then Mod Podged them on the inside of the tote. 

Each of the family members have files that relate to their needs. Here's an example of my son's.

 

Of course this is before I started to file away his paperwork...it doesn't look as organized with all the different size papers peeking out of the folders, but its functional and better than what I had before. The nice thing about these totes is I can store them in my closet and have easy access to them, so ideally no more piles of paperwork on my window seat.

Doll Hair

My girls love their dolls they received for Christmas, but who knew their hair would get so crazy so quick. This was one of the dolls...hello stock treatment dolly. 

 

 Luckily for me I found many tutorials on taking care of doll hair. A lot of them suggested using a mixture of Downy fabric softener and water. I don't use fabric softener, so instead I used my girl's untangle spray. It worked well, but my camera wasn't at the time so I didn't get a pic of it nice and smooth and straight afterwards. 

Here's a pic of the doll's hair in twists while its wet to produce curls. 

 

 As you can see my camera was still acting funny. We let the hair dry and then took out the twists and here's the end results, pretty and tamed.

 

Braids

I have a niece who has long gorgeous hair and my daughter wants her hair like her cousin's. Of course then the movie Tangle came out and that sealed the desire for long hair. I do a lot with it, but there were a few skills that I needed to learn. 
Thanks to videos online I learned how to french braid.

 A friend had told me its easier for beginners to start with a small ponytail at the top of the head. She was so right, it was a lot easier. 

I also learned how to do a 4 strand braid.

Homemade Granola Bars

I'm behind on posting what I've been up to so I apologize. My kids have cold lunch at school and we try to switch things up. This past two weeks we tried different homemade granola bars recipes. The kids loved them and they went fast...so fast I forgot to take pictures of them. So sharing the links will have to do. 

Pumpkin Granola Bars

No bake, chewy Granola Bars

 Chocolate Coconut Granola Bars

PB Energy Balls

Chewy S’mores Granola Bars (no bake)

Pumpkin Butterscotch Granola Bars

The recipes are very kid friendly and my kids had a blast helping me make them.