Showing posts with label diy. Show all posts

Pie Baking Contest

Those of you who know me know that I'm a tiny bit competitive. Ok, a lot competitive. I'm a total perfectionist and have a hard time admitting defeat. So when Mr. S told me that his battalion was having a pie contest, I knew there was no messing around.

I thought long and hard about what to make. My mind immediately went to those cinnamon roll pie crust pics I see on Pinterest. Little did I know it's not as easy as throwing some cinnamon rolls in a pie pan! So I stuck with old faithful and went with a classic apple pie that I've been making for years. I'm so glad I did! Everyone tried something crazy or fancy and there were no classic apple pies! Umm... what's more american than apple pie at an Army event?!


So, here is my perfect apple pie recipe, in case you feel like being uber American or a perfectionist.
Side note: How cute are those little apple cut outs?! You can find the pie crust cutter I used here.

INGREDIENTS:


The Burp Rag Battle

We all know with babies come messes, particularly barfy messes... When you have two babies, that adds up to a lot of yuck. Burp rags are like gold in my house. Not just any old burp rag will do though. We've taken to each hiding our own little secret squirrel stash of our favorite, most absorbent burp rags.

I made these burp rags thanks to some Pinterest inspiration before my kiddos were born. I used a package of Gerber cloth pre-fold diapers and a couple of fat quarters from the fabric section. Silly me, I thought ten would be plenty. Haha! How naive of me...So here I am, making more so the hubs and I can become normal people again, people who don't secretly hoard burp rags.

The tutorial I used was through a lovely little blog called The Thinking Closet and was really easy to follow. You can find it here. These only took about an evening to complete. The longest part was cutting and ironing everything. The actual sewing was easy peasy!


Now that I've solved the great burp rag battle, we can fight about real things, like which way the toilet paper roll is supposed to face. Priorities people... Marriage is awesome.


DIY Pacifier Clip

Pacifier, binkies, suckers, whatever you call them one thing's for sure... they're forever getting lost/dropped/stolen by the dog, etc. Ugh. The thought of a dirty pacifier going into one of the kids' mouths gives me the heebie jeebies. Maybe it's new mom germaphobia, but I'd rather they not use them than have them become germ-infested.

Whatever it is, I finally figured I'd give these handy little pacifier clips a try. Of course I couldn't just go out any buy them like a normal person, I decided I must have custom cute ones of my own creation.

This was actually a super easy project. All it took was a little velcro, some hot glue, some ribbon, and some suspender clips. The suspender clips were the hardest to find. From what I've been told, you can find them at some big box craft store, but mine are all over an hour away. Thanks to the magic of the interwebs, I was able to purchase a bunch of them from Ebay for about $3 total! Now I can make binky clips until my little heart is content.

DIY Nursing Tank

While it hasn't been easy, I take pride in the fact that I'm able to nurse/pump for my twins. They have been exclusively on breast milk since being released from the NICU at 3 weeks old and have been thriving. In fact, at their last doctor's appointment the nurse didn't even believe that they were preemies because they're gaining weight so well.

Any mom who has breastfed in the past will remember the pain in the butt it is to maneuver your clothes every feeding time. Nursing tanks are a fantastic addition to any nursing mom's wardrobe since she can nurse without having to expose her whole stomach. Let's be honest for a second, no one wants to see my twin belly stretch marks, and I sure as heck don't feel like showing them. The only problem is these suckers can be expensive! Even Target sells theirs for $25+! 

I'm already doing a ton of laundry in this house. Between two kids who love to spit up, cloth diapers, a husband who seems to be constantly changing outfits throughout the day, and myself we have quite the pile of dirty clothes. Even if I tried to make due with one or two of these tanks, I'd probably never find them in the mass of laundry at the top of the stairs. 

In comes the little DIY voice in my head and a quick Pinterest search. I bought several camisole tops from Walmart, all at $5.88 each. Then, you simply cut the straps from the back of the top, create a small loop in the front and sew. Trim the remainder of the strap and voila! A new tank that hooks onto your nursing bra! 

Keep in mind you still need a nursing bra to make this work, but now every time I go to feed the kiddos, my whole stomach doesn't have to come out to play too. It helps me to feel a bit more comfortable, so I'd call that a success.