Blueberry Crumb Coffee Cake

I love sweet things. I mean really love sweet things. Candy, cakes, smoothies, ice cream, chocolate, etc. There are only a handful of people I know who don't care for sugary goodness. I am not one of them, With that being said....when my husband asked me to make him a blueberry crumb coffee cake one day, I was more than happy to oblige. I am a baker. Okay, not by profession but I do love to bake. I can't cook to save my life. Or my husband's life, or even my kids' for that matter. But baking is something I can do fairly well, without killing everyone who consumes my finished product. I had never baked a crumb cake before this. In fact, I had never even baked with blueberries before this. Well, it turned out scrumptious! It looked pretty, too! I will share with you the recipe that I used. I don't think I will use another recipe, or even try one out. This one was perfect! 

Blueberry Crumb Coffee Cake

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 stick Butter

1 Tablespoon (additional) Butter

3/4 cups Sugar

1  Egg

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 cups All-purpose Flour

2-1/4 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

3/4 cups Whole Milk

2 cups Fresh Blueberries

CRUMB TOPPING:

3/4 sticks Butter

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 cup Flour

1/4 teaspoon Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, and a salt. Stir and set aside.

Cream 1/2 stick plus 1 tablespoon butter with cinnamon and sugar. Add egg and mix until combined. Add vanilla and mix. Add flour mixture and milk alternately until totally incorporated. Do not overbeat. Stir in blueberries until evenly distributed.

Pour in batter.

In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients and cut together using two knives or a pastry cutter. Sprinkle over the top of the cake.

Bake cake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Sprinkle topping with granulated sugar.

Hair Bow Tutorial

Woohooo!! Today was a fabulous and very productive day! I was able to whip out a few headbands and hair bows and I even snapped some photos while I was making one of the hair bows. So here is a quick tutorial of one of my favorite hair bows to make. It is so easy and so simple to make. I have made countless of these for my little girl in many different colors and sizes. I can never seem to find ones I actually like enough to buy at the store. It's so much more fun to walk into the craft store and have endless supplies of ribbon to choose from. My ribbon collection really has gotten out of hand. I mean REALLY! Everywhere I look, I see spools of ribbon that have somehow managed to sneak away from their large number of counterparts. Anyways, you get the point! Ribbon is cheap and gives you the opportunity to make something that is truly unique. If you haven't made one of these before, and you have some extra ribbon lying around the house, give it a try and just see how easy it is!

Cut four, 4 inch strips of ribbon.

Next, make inward slits on both ends of the ribbon. Then heat-seal with  lighter to keep the ends from fraying.

Cut out a 9 1/2 inch strip of any pattern ribbon of your choice. Just make sure it is skinnier than the first ribbon you cut. Once it is cut, hot-glue it into a Figure 8. With the remaining four strips of ribbon, pinch them together in the center to form a "gathered look" and hot glue it so that they look like the picture above.

Next, glue the four strips together like this.

Now you can hot-glue the Figure 8 strip to the top of the four ribbons.

Lastly, you will need to cut out a 1 inch strip of ribbon the circle around the bow to completely cover the center. I chose to add an alligator clip to the back and clipped it onto a crocheted headband. 

Please feel free to send me a picture of yours! I love to see all the unique creativity!

Halloween Is Over!

Okay, I know I've been REALLY bad about blogging lately. It seems there are really not enough hours in the day to do all things I want to do. On my days off, I have about 2 hours while my youngest is napping to have some 'me time' before my other two get home from school. I have come to the conclusion many, many moons ago that 2 hours just isn't long enough. I have been working a lot, crafting a lot, and baking not so much! I made some candy apples a few weeks ago that turned out really good. It was my first time ever making candy apples and I found the recipe on Pinterest. Ha....where else?? I also baked some Halloween cookies and my kids helped me decorate them. Being as Halloween was yesterday, I figured it was still okay to post the pictures.  I think everyone in my house adore sugar cookies so I think it's safe to say that they were a hit. I hope everyone had a fun-filled Halloween because the holidays are just beginning!

Honey Lemon Facial Scrub

Woohoo!!! Who doesn't love a clean face? Well, I just whipped up a batch of my own honey lemon face scrub. It took about 3-4 minutes to make and the finished product smells so good! I had planned on making this so earlier today I made a trip to Goodwill to look for some little containers with lids so I could store it in. I only found two but they will work just fine. 

Here are the ingredients I used:

1/2 cup Organic sugar

Juice from 1/2 of Organic lemon

1 Tablespoon Organic Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Organic Honey

First combine the lemon juice and olive oil. Stir until blended completely. Then add in honey and continue stirring. Lastly, add in the sugar. You can add more or less, depending on how you want the texture of your scrub to be. For mine I added about an extra tablespoon or two. 

To use: Apply to fingers and scrub with gentle, circular motions for at least one minute. At this point you can rinse it off or you can leave it on for 5-10 minutes before rinsing. You can really smell the honey in this scrub so just don't be tempted to eat it!  :) 

The ingredients in this scrub make it ideal for those with acne-prone skin. Sugar cleans pores and removes dead skin cells. Lemon evens out skin tone and tightens pores while the honey helps prevent future breakouts. 

There are many other scrubs I would like to try but I have found this one to work quite well for my skin type. It works great for a morning or evening scrub. No matter what time of the day you choose to use it, your face will thank you and you will surely notice how soft it leaves your skin feeling!

No-Grate DIY Laundry Detergent

After reading numerous blogs and seeing endless pins on Pinterest, I finally decided to make my own laundry detergent. Most of the ingredients were the same. Some of the formulas called for more or less of certain things. I was mostly seeing posts on powdered laundry soap. Years ago, before I met my husband, I faithfully bought powdered detergent. Granted, it was definitely messier than liquid but I liked the way it cleaned and for whatever reason, I had it stuck into my head that it worked better than its liquid counterpart. Well, after meeting my husband I changed my tune! He only used liquid and after giving it a try I was eating my words, if you will. So for the last 10+ years I have only bought liquid. 
I kept seeing pins on Pinterest for homemade laundry detergents. I really loved the idea of making my own and thought it would be a neat thing to try. Even if I didn't like it what was there to lose?? Except maybe the $8 of ingredients I would need to buy. 
Well, I went to Wal-Mart one night and picked up everything I needed to make the liquid version. I even bought 2 bottles of Sunny D orange drink so I could use the empty bottles to store my homemade concoction in. 
After making a couple batches already, I have to say that I will most definitely be making this for a very long time. It is so cheap to make, it works well, and the clothes come out clean and smelling fresh! What more could a penny-pinching mom ask for?

Here is the formula I used for mine. I had found others online but this is what worked best for me. 

1/4 cup Washing Soda

1/4 cup Borax

4 Tablespoons Dawn Dish Detergent

Essential Oil (optional)

Put all 3 ingredients into a one gallon jug. Pour 4 cups of boiling water into the jug and gently shake all the ingredients together until completely dissolved.

Let liquid cool and then fill to the top with cold water. Be aware that adding the cold water will make a lot of bubbles at the top so it may take a few minutes to fill it up to the top. Just be patient and go slowly. Once you have filled the jug with cold water, give it a few good shakes to mix everything up. You will also need to shake it before each use.

This formula will be watery and that's okay! It's supposed to be. It is also low-sudsing so it is safe to use in HE washers.

The great thing about the Dawn dish detergent is that it comes in different scents. I personally think Dawn is the best dish detergent because it works quickly at cutting out the grease. You can also add some drops of essence oil after you have finished making your mixture. I used the Original Dawn blue dish soap and added about 8 drops of violet essence oil and it smells clean and fresh!

 I even found some free label templates online and printed them out! :-) I think it adds a nice touch to the whole DIY thing!

Turquoise and Black Headband

I had a few extra minutes earlier so this is a headband I threw together pretty quickly. My daughter wears mostly pink, but she does have a few outfits that are other colors. I made this one to match a little Smurf shirt my husband bought her.
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Summer Has Finally Arrived!

Hello everyone! Summer seems like it has finally arrived here and we really have been enjoying it! I have been spending a lot of time outside enjoying the gorgeous sunshine. So have the kids. I practically have to pry them from the outside just to come back in the house. I've even been able to get the hubby to spend some time outside in the sunshine. He is not too fond of warm weather, and would prefer much more for it to be 20 degrees and snowing. Summers here are very short so you really have to take full advantage of them when they are here. It is June 25th today and it finally hit the 80's!!!
So, I have made a couple new hair pieces for my little girl. They are both made from ribbon, just slightly different from each other. I went to Michael's today and grabbed some more ribbon. All their ribbon is "half off" right now so I kind of indulged! But here are the two that I made.....I hope you like them! If you have any questions on how I made them, please ask and I will be more than happy to give you a step-by-step tutorial.

Boutique Style Hair Bows

Just Another Fabric Headband

     It seems that making headbands and hair clips is addicting! Whenever I have a free minute I always get out my crafting supplies and work on something new. I love how easy (and inexpensive) it is to make something to match my daughter's clothing. I only wish I would have started this when she was a baby, considering how much $$ I spent at the stores!

     It is almost midnight at my house, it is pouring rain outside, and I work in the morning.....yet, I can't help but want to get out my crafting box and start something new. I am going to hold back, though or I will be a walking zombie come 5:30am. 

     I did make my little darling a headband today to match a lime green dress that I ordered her online. She is normally a "pink and pastel" girl but lime green is such a fun Summertime color! 

Rolled Fabric Headband

I recently bought my daughter an adorable new dress. The only problem was that she didn't have a hair accessory to match. I decided to make a headband from rolled fabric which I purchased from Wal-Mart. You can use any old fabric that you have laying around, or even denim works great also.


Here is the dress:

Here is the headband:

Here is a fabric flower I made this morning. The fabric I used was 20 inches long x 3 inches wide. I folded it once lengthwise so that the underside of the fabric would not show.I used a needle and thread to stitch it to give it the ruffley look, and also placed a pearl embellishment onto the center. It took me about 5 minutes from start to finish.     

Yesterday I went to Michael's and found this adorable crocheted flower. I bought some pink headband elastic and hot-glued it on. Then I glued on the center embellishment. This headband is very simple looking, but that's what makes it so cute!!! I may add some small rhinestones or pearls around the edges of the flower - still haven't decided yet!

DIY Wall Letters

Now, out of all the projects I have done, I think this one was probably the most fun. It also gives you so much room to be creative and add your own personal touch. There really are so many different things you can do to decorate these, both for a boy's and girl's room. I made these letters for my oldest daughter's room. She wanted them to be girly, but not too over-the-top. I had been browsing websites and saw similar ones selling for $10 and up for each letter. I almost certainly was not going to pay $50 for something that I could make myself for a lot more inexpensive! Pottery Barn sells some adorable ones, but they didn't really have what I was looking for. That's when....DING DING!!! I decided to make them myself!!
The letters, however, I did not make. I bought them at Michael's for $1.99 per letter. I already had acrylic paint which is what I used to paint them. I did buy some glitter dust, which was $1 for a small packet, but was plenty for what I was using it for. I also purchased from Michael's some pink scrapbooking flowers ($2.99) to add on each of the letters. I won't go into details on the steps I did to make this, as it is pretty self-explanatory. But please feel free to comment if you have any questions that I may answer. I hope you have fun with this project and if you are making them for your little one, have them help out too! 


TOOLS NEEDED:
*Pre-cut letters (any size)
*Acrylic paint
*Glitter
*Small craft paint brushes and/or sponges
*Embellishments of your choice
*Hot glue gun
*Velcro for wall hanging or some nails and a hammer

How to Make a No Sew Tutu!

Super Quick and Easy Flower Tutorial!! Less than 5 min. to make!

Ribbon Carnations by Crafty Ribbons

The Fabric Of My Life

Here are just a few of the ribbons and fabric I use to make headbands and clips with. My collection has actually grown quite a bit but this was just the beginning.

Here is a picture of one of the first headbands and clips I made. These ones are simple but I made them to match my daughter's dresses. The headband I made using the purple fabric pictured above and added in some white tulle. For the clip I used the pink fabric. I hot glued an alligator clip to the back and added a rhinestone to the middle of it.

Rolled Ribbon Headband

    ~~~~~Ribbon Rose Headbands~~~~~


I made this headband by rolling ribbon. I started rolling very tight for the center. After every few turns, I would twist the ribbon away from me once then roll it straight another couple times. I ended the ribbon at the bottom of the rose and secured it with hot glue. I then secured it to the elastic headband with felt and more hot glue. This headband looks SO cute when it's on!

Zulily Is My Indulgence!

I was just going through my little lady's closet and admiring all of her cute outfits and dresses. Ever since I found www.zulily.com I have been hooked! It hasn't warmed up enough quite yet for her to start wearing all of her adorable dresses, but we have had a few nice days that she was able to show them off. Part of the reason I started this blog was to share ideas (and perhaps get ideas) on how to save money. Zulily.com has amazing deals on clothes, shoes, accessories, and household items for babies, kids, and even moms. If you place an order, you get free shipping for the rest of the day until midnight and the shipping fees are very reasonable. I have found some really cute things on other websites but their high shipping prices kept me from making a purchase. If you do a lot of online shopping, then I would definitely suggest taking a look at this site. As all my friends on Facebook already know....I am always raving about Zulily!

Headband/Hair Clip Holder

A Must For Any Little Girl!

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

Staple gun - To attach the ribbon to the back of the frame.


Hot Glue gun - If you are going to add a flower or other embellishment to the front of the frame.


Photo Frame - You can use any size photo frame you like. I used a 16x20 natural finish photo frame that I purchased from Wal-Mart for $5. The bottom should be flat so that you can screw in the hooks without damaging the frame. 

Spray Paint -  You can use any color of your choice. I chose one with a high-gloss finish. You can also use acrylic paint. I did find that the spray paint was somewhat messy to work with. 

Small Craft Hooks - I used 11 for mine. But, you can use more or less, depending on the amount of space you want between the hooks.


Ribbon -  It is best to use ribbon with the ridges to act as grippers for the hair clips.


Flower or Other Embellishment - You can choose to not use anything for the outside of the frame, but I think it adds a nice touch. 

I started off by spray painting the frame. It took a few coats to cover it completely. After the paint has dried completely, you can then screw in the hooks. It's important to screw them in straight so that they are all aligned. You can choose to leave the hooks unpainted (most come in white, chrome, or brass finish), or paint them any color you like. Next, you will need to measure enough ribbon to staple to the back of the frame. The ribbon will serve as the new home for hair clips and barrettes. Be sure to add a few extra inches to each strand of ribbon so that you have enough to fold it and staple it down. You can cut any excess off when you are done. Be sure to pull the ribbon tight so that it does not leave any waves in it once it is stapled. I used 2 staples for each end of the ribbon. 

If you are going to add any sort of embellishment, you can now hot-glue it on to the frame. You can use flowers, butterflies, ladybugs, or anything that goes with the look you are trying to achieve. You can add only one, or you can add a lot. The choice is yours!!!! Either way, it will be unique and you can proudly say that you made it yourself!!!!

Day 2 of Blogging

So it is day 2 of my new blogging lifestyle! I am actually pretty excited about this! I can't wait to start adding pictures and "how-to's" of all the crafts I have done and will continue to do. I have stumbled upon many blogs in the last few years that have provided me with so much information, and I am using what I have learned from them as my inspiration. The internet is such a powerful tool that it would be a waste to not take full advantage of it. Not only am I a wife to a wonderful man and a mom to 3 wonderful children ----- I also work full-time away from the home. I like to keep my self busy on my days off but also want to have fun (don't we all?). That's where crafts come into play. I love that you can take things you already have at home and turn them into something completely useful. Sure, most of it is just for fun......but that's what makes it so enjoyable! I hope each and every person who reads my blog can learn something from it, as well as have a positive experience. I appreciate all of you for taking the time to browse my page. I hope you have a wonderful day!

No-Sew Tutu!

This is one of my recent projects I did. I made a no-sew tutu for my 3 year old daughter. It was fun and really easy to make. I bought some elastic from Wal-Mart, which cost less than $2, and also 2 yards each of tulle (fuchsia, light pink, and lavender). The tulle was $0.97/yard. I also purchased some solid color ribbon in matching colors to use to hang down from the waist. 

I started out by measuring the elastic around my daughter's waist. I subtracted an inch to make sure it had a good, snug fit. 

I then hot glued it together to form the waist of the tutu.

Next, with the elastic still around her waist, I measured with measuring tape to see how long I wanted the tulle to hang. I then cut 6 inch strips of tulle and multiplied the length by 2, and added an inch to replace the knot that ties around the elastic.

Next, I made a slip-knot with the tulle and tied it around the elastic, being careful not to pull too tight and bend the elastic. I continued this process of knotting until I had no room left. After that was done, I cut the ribbon to mach the length of the tulle and added them in.

And voila! That's it! IT was then time for my little princess to enjoy her new handmade tutu!

This whole project is really easy and doesn't take much time at all. The most tedious part was cutting up all the tulle. 

Here goes......

Hey everyone! This is my first official post on my first official blog! This will definitely  be a learning experience for me, which I welcome open-armed!