Sailor Knot Bracelet

I am back!  After having no computer for a week or so then getting sick, it kind of threw of my groove for blogging.  But I am back with a fun picture tutorial for you!  Last year for a Fabulous Friday activity we crocheted strands and tied them into a sailor knot for a headband.  And they were super cute, but I don't tend to wear headbands so I decided a bracelet would be just as cute and way easy to make.  So here is my first picture tutorial....and if you have questions about any of the pictures please leave a comment and I will try to explain a bit better.

Supplies:

4 pieces of 12-15 inches of yarn or jersey knit fabric

scrap of matching fabric

scissors

hot glue gun

 Once you finish this step, slowly pull the four ends.  Doing it slowly will help you get the size and shape that you want.  When it's to your liking, cut the ends and secure with hot glue.  Cover up the ends with a strip of fabric or a cluster of yarn.  Slip in on and enjoy your new bracelet!!!

Back to School Snack

Summer is winding down and all the back to school sales are starting.  Which means mom's are counting down the days in excitement and kids are just enjoying their long fun days while they can.  Why not make going back to school a bit easier and give the kids a boost of energy to get through the school day?!  These energy bites are super tasty (they don't tend to last more than a day or two at our house) and  healthy enough that I've snacked on a couple as breakfast a few times.

Ingredients:

 1cup Oatmeal

1/3- 1/2 cup Honey (your preferance)

1/2 cup Flaxseed

1/2 cup Peanut Butter (or other nut butter)

1 cup Coconut flakes

1 tsp Vanilla

*optional- Chocolate Chips or Craisins  

In a bowl mix all ingredients thoroughly.  Let chill in fridge/freezer (I do the freezer so I can eat them quicker) 20-30 minutes. Pull out, roll into balls and ENJOY!!!  Store in airtight container in fridge for up to a week.  Once everyone in the family tries on of these, I doubt they'll make it a week in the fridge though.

Hope you all enjoy this tasty fast snack and that you enjoy the rest of the summer. 

Freebie Friday

Freebie Friday is here again!  I absolutely love Fridays, it's the beginning of the weekend, my husband gets to come home at a decent time and we get to enjoy him all weekend!  This weekend is especially exciting for me, we are heading down to Oregon and planning on stopping at the coast for a day with some friends! Yay!

 I am so excited to see our friends (and of course family) and the coast that today I joined the 'Keep Calm' band wagon and created a sign to go along with this weekend.

  I'd love to hear what you have planned or your favorite things to do on vacation!

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful weekend!

Make Something Mondays

 Welcome to my newest tutorial and the start of "Make Something Mondays"!  I am excited to start sharing crafts/tutorials every Monday with you guys, let's get to it!

Awhile ago I came across a picture of one of these cute ribbon bows on Pinterest (You'll find as I keep writing posts that I'm kind of obsessed with this place).  I found a tutorial for the bow but somehow didn't Pin it, anybody else do that?! Anyway, I had a hard time finding it again so I decided to just sit down and try making one from memory. It wasn't too hard to figure out and now I've gone a tad crazy making them....anybody want some bows?!

 Below is bow done with a 1.5" wide x 3.5" long. Bow ends up being about 2.5" across

Materials:

• Scissors
• Thread
• Ribbon
• Needle
• Embellishments

 1. Find some ribbon that you would like to use, it can be wire ribbon if you'd like. Cut 5 strips of your ribbon to you desired length.  I did 3.5" inches for the bow in these pictures.

 2. If you are using wired ribbon, take the wire out from one side (this will make it easier to cinch up the petal).  With one hand hold the middle side that you are taking the wire out of and with the other hand push slowly from the top toward the middle.  The wire should start popping out enough for you to grab it and take it out.

 3.  Start sewing down the short side of the ribbon toward the side that no longer has wire, makes no difference on ribbon with no wire.

4. Continue to sew down the long side then up the other short side.  

5. Pull thread threw until it starts to look like a petal.  

6. Repeat steps 3-5 for the last 4 pieces of ribbon.

On one continuous piece of thread pull as tight as you can after threading all the pieces, don't pull too tight though or you'll break the thread and have to start all over again (I've done that a few too many times, not fun!) 

7. Thread back threw the first "petal" a little bit and pull to close the circle that has now been created.  Knot your thread, and you're done! Now comes the last and my most favorite step....

8. Add embellishments!  Jewels, buttons, pearls, etc.  Have fun with it.

 And there you have it, a super cute bow to go on presents, headband, or clips!

Fluff the petals to your liking (with wired ribbon you can make the petals 'bubbly' like the black and white bow below, or you can show the edges off  like the ribbon above)

The black and white bow is a 2" wide ribbon cut to 2" (so a square) 

1.5" wide 4.5" long ribbon used (this was a non-wired ribbon, so the edges are more ruffly)

I hope you have all enjoyed my tutorial and that it has inspired you to go make a few for some cute girls/lovely ladies!  

Freebie Friday

Sorry about not posting a freebie last Friday, we were out enjoying a family reunion in Utah.  So to make up for it here are TWO!  I created these a couple months ago for Mother's Day.  I hope that they will make you smile and that their words  apply to more than just me!

Enjoy and have a fun and safe weekend!  Come back on Monday for a new tutorial!

Freebie Friday

Freebie Friday is here!  Fridays are great to begin with with (beginning of the weekend and all), but why not make it even better and get a free printable!!

Today marks the first day of Freebie Fridays, I will try and have a printable every week but sometimes I might be a little creativity challenged and just let you all know about freebies that I've found that week.

 So let's starting the weekend off right, with a little bit of sunshine.....(you can just click on the pictures now!)

Sunshine for a Rainy day

Sorry for the delay!  Little hands make quick work of destroying helping write blog posts!

This is my first tutorial and I chose and easy one so bare with me..... here we go!

A couple weeks ago it was another rainy day here in WA and the kids and I were in need of something to do/create.  I had just been looking at my amazing stack of scrapbook paper wondering how I'd ever  use it all, since I started digital scrapbooking, and realized that our house could use a little sunshine.  So why not make some sun of our own?!  And I set to work picking out lots of different yellow and orange papers.

What you'll need:

• scrapbook paper (I used yellows and oranges', but use whatever you'd like!)
• paper cutter or scissors
• a ruler (if you're using scissors, unless you are confident in your ability to cut straight lines, I definitely am not hence the paper cutter)
• card stock (can be any color, I used white but you could use yellow incase some paper doesn't overlap) 
• glue
• scissors  

Cut up different sized strips but stayed in about a 1/2"-1" width (but its up to you!) by 12"

Let your little ones choose what ever papers they feel and let them go to it!  If need be, of course, do all the gluing for them

Cut your now glued paper strips into a circle.  Glue that circle to a piece of card stock as a base and

then glue little strips of left over paper on around the circle as the sun rays.

And there you have it!  A little bit of sunshine to brighten up your house.  

I didn't get around to doing this, but you could always do some glitter on it too to make it a bit fancier ;)  but little L is all boy and "boys aren't cute, they're handsome", so says him.

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Fourth of July Flag Printable

Fourth of July is coming up in just one week!! It's amazing how quickly the months just keep flying by.  So to help make my house feel a bit more patriotic I created this cute flag with the words of the Pledge of Allegiance inside the stripes.  I'd seen this idea on a shirt a couple weeks ago but with the constitution written in the stripes.  Such a great idea, but I decided that we don't hear or see the Pledge of Allegiance much anymore and I wanted to have that in my home where the kids can see and start to learn it. 

So I hope you all enjoy this cute flag!!!  And happy early weekend!

Find it HERE

And here's a couple sneak peeks of my first two tutorials coming this weekend so stay tuned!

Father's Day Printable

Father's Day is only 2 days away so don't forget those special dads in your life!  We've been teaching this song to the kids at church to sing for Father's Day and I have just really enjoyed the words so much.  As I watch my husband with our two little kiddos I can see that he really is their "favorite pal".

I'm so excited to celebrate the father's in my life, I was blessed with two growing up and when I got married I was blessed again with an amazing father-in-law.  They all have shown me the value of hard work, honesty, patience, love, and being self-less.  I'm so glad that I have them all in my life.

Enjoy this free printable for the special men in your life.

here

Have a fun and safe weekend!

You is...

I don't know about anybody else, but I had the hardest time getting through this book.  Not because I wasn't interested in it but because I was crying all the time.  Major softy here, I had a hard time with how people/kids were being treated in the book.  I went and saw the movie with some family when it was in the theaters and I did make it through without crying too much till the very end......"You is kind, you is smart, you is important."  Aibileen is such an amazing character and that quote hits so close to my heart that I had to put it into a sign to hang up in my kiddos bedroom.....and maybe put a tiny one on my mirror in my bedroom to see every morning. 

I've made 4 color options for this (5x7) sign, so you've got choices for boys or girls.  If you don't see a color you like just leave a comment and I can try and make a few more in different colors.  

Download here

 here

 here

and here