Belly Band

Since being pregnant I have been hearing about this Belly Band and wanted to try it out. I was going to wait and make some with my sister when I visited Utah. Unfortunately, in the last few days my belly has grown quite a bit and my pants started to get a little tight.
For those who don't know a Belly Band is made from stretchy material that looks like an undershirt but you wear it over your pants and keep your button undone for those who need a little extra space.

I used extra material that I had at my house.
Materials:
about 1/2 yard of knit or stretchy fabric (waist size previous to pregnancy by 20")
Sewing machine with stretch setting or zigzag stitch
Stretch needle or ball point needle.

I did not have a piece of material wide enough, so I had two 13" pieces plus 1/2 for seam allowance. Sew both long side together good sides facing each other so you have a long tube. Unless you have a long enough piece of material to fit your waist. Then you would sew the 20" sides together.

 Then Iron the seams to make a good finished product in the end.

Sew one short side together still inside out. Then go to the other short end and put it through to make a tube still inside out to keep seams consistent. If you have one long piece skip this step.

The sew around the short end of the tube, but not all the way around so that you can turn it right side out. All you need now after turning it right side out is to finish sewing the rest by hand to close the rest of the seam.

Lie it flat and iron it out to make it look beautiful. Flip it around so that the seam is on the inside of the band and put it on.

Check how mine turned out. It looks like a normal undershirt and I can now wear my pants!

2 Years Old

This little one just turned 2!

Photos for A New Missionary

I took these for a missionary entering the MTC! 

a before of the shoes!

Good Luck Elder!

Christmas Countdown

Last year Makenna made a Christmas advent calendar out of blocks and I have been wanting to do the same. So, for Super Saturday this year there was a craft that used blocks so instead of making the craft they were meant for I took them home and made this out of them.

Now we will know that how many days there are left until Christmas. I think that they turned out really well.

Tuesday Treats: Frozen Hot Chocolate

I have been craving Frozen Hot Chocolate from Dairy Queen, and I found this recipe at mels kitchen cafe.com and tried it out. It turned out so good! 

INGREDIENTS:

4 ounces of your favorite chocolate (I used semi-sweet chocolate)
2 teaspoons store-bought hot chocolate powder
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
3 cups ice cubes
lightly sweetened whipped cream
chocolate shavings (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
Chop chocolate into small pieces and melt in microwave on low heat. Once melted, add hot chocolate mix and sugar, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Slowly add 1/2 cup milk, stirring until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In blender, place the remaining 1 cup milk, room-temperature chocolate mixture and ice.

Blend on high speed until smooth and the consistency of a frozen daiquiri. Enjoy! (This recipe made a large blender full – I believe I got at least 4 8 oz. servings from one batch.)

I also found this recipe its a little more work but its totally worth it if you have the time and ingredients!

I found this one at Tasty Kitchen

• 3 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
• 1 package Hot Cocoa Mix (about 3 Tablespoons)
• 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• ⅓ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• ⅓ cups White Chocolate Chips
• 12 ounces, fluid Can Evaporated Milk, Divided
• 4-½ cups Ice
• Whipped Cream, To Taste
• Mini Marshmallows, To Taste

Combine sugar, cocoa mix, and butter in the top of a double boiler that is set over gently boiling water. Stir often until melted and a smooth paste forms. Add semi-sweet & white chocolate chips; stir. When chips begin to melt, slowly stir in 1/2 cup of evaporated milk. Stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

Combine the chocolate base mixture, the remaining evaporated milk and ice in a blender (you can do this in batches) and cover. Blend until smooth. Pour into frosty glasses. Top each with whipped cream. Sprinkle with additional chopped chocolate chips & mini marshmallows, if desired.


We hope you had a good tuesday!

Kitchen

Last month I posted about a play kitchen that I want to make for my daughters birthday here. Over the past few weeks I have been working on one. My hope was to not spend much more that $50.

Cost:

Wood- Free my dad had some left over wood from another project.

Sink- $11 (Orson Gigi)

Knobs- $5 (Home Depot)

Fridge and oven handles- $7 (Home Depot)

Baskets- $4 (Dollar Tree)

Hinges- $6 (Home Depot)

Plexiglass- $3 (Home Depot) 

Cup hooks- $4 (Home Depot)

Faucet- Free it was being thrown away.    

Total- $40

The wood could have cost around $15 and I decided to use a real sink because I found one that was being thrown away. The sink I got could have cost around $30. If I didn't have the sink I would have made the faucet out of pipe. 

Some of the blogs that I looked at used an Ikea book shelf as the base and then added to that but because I had access to wood and a brother I cut my own wood out of a sheet of plywood. 

I added these knobs for the burners and oven temp. 

The smaller baskets I will add to the door to make it look more like a fridge. 

Inside the oven I added a square cooling rack for her to put baking goods on. 

My brother made this shelf and I added the cup hooks to hang the utensils. 

I also plan on adding some tiles and vinyl lettering above the sink to personalize it for my daughter. 

This is our Kitchen, a big thanks goes out to my Brother and Dad who helped big time with the wood and work to help put it together. 

If anyone wants more detail on how much wood and dimensions just let me know I would be happy to help.

Entertainment Stand

I have been wanting to get a new entertainment center for a while now. After pricing them out, I just couldn't do it. Last week a friend of mine and I went to a salvage yard and we found this beauty for $30.

I bought it knowing that I would paint it and maybe make a few minor adjustments. You cant beat that deal.

To get started on this project I sanded all the surfaces that I was going to paint so that the paint would adhere to the wood. We bought paint that had primer with it so that we wouldn't spend more money than we needed.

I white-washed just the surfaces that would be seen when the drawers were closed or could be easily spotted when they were open.

I did this inside because it was so cold outside. I had a space heater on and the door open to make it tolerable.

Antiquing it was fun and difficult. I had never done this antique technique and never on a project this big. The antique glaze was made combining four parts glaze and one part paint. I used a dark brown, almost black color. Paint the glaze in places that you would see normal wear and tear and wipe it off with a damp cotton rag.

Then we just added a polyurethane coat. I did this outside, oil based paints have crazy fumes. All we need now, besides awesome knobs, is the ENTERTAINMENT.

 The hubby likes this project a bunch. I enjoy it myself. Its also a plus that even with all of the supplies to paint it, it was not as pricey as some I've been looking at.