Hooded Towels

We've received hooded towels as gifts from grandparents, and have found the 4 we have to be over used.  They often double as capes for a super hero in need, a beach towel, and of course a bath towel.  I love using them, especially at the beach or pool......  because it's attached to their head they don't drop it and get it filthy. 

Any way....... I've thought for a while that we needed more, 2 per child would be nice.  Also lately I've been trying to be more budget friendly with birthday/ baby shower gift ideas.  It's been a couple years since I last made some hooded towels as a gift, but I thought I'd try again, as we've been invited to a birthday party and baby shower this month.  I like to buy nice printed towels, which I can find reasonably priced at TJ Max.  

So if you are in need of a nice gift idea for about $10, I add some bubble/baby bath to mine for flare,  (add a  couple bucks for that) here's a nice little afternoon project idea.  Or maybe you might enjoy a hooded towel in your home? 

Suppilies: 2 body towels

1 hand towel

thread

sewing machine

scissors

Step 1: cut hand towel in 2 pieces

 Step 2: pin raw edges of one piece together ( wrong sides facing) and zig zag stitch. Do this to both pieces of the hand towel.

 Step 3: Turn inside out, you've just made the hood. X2

 Step 4:  Zig Zag stich the hood to the middle top of the body towel,

I fold the towel in half to find the center and pin it.

 and ta-da ...... hooded towel.

 Here's the four I made this afternoon. 

The kids really like theres, and hopefully our friends will enjoy their gifts as well. 

Garden

As I mentioned briefly in my "march madness" post, my father planted a garden for us. He used more seeds this year, so I needed to transplant some little seedlings after a bit, but all in all I'm impressed with how it is coming along, thanks for all your hard work dad!

This is my strawberry pot from last year. It has a little strawberry plant coming back in the top, but my dad put herbs in the side pockets. I only wish I had more, I may plant some more?

These are our blueberry bushes we planted when we first moved in.

Here's the first half of the garden, this is lettuce, pepper, tomatoes and zucchini.

Here is the other half, it is full of green beans. And then I planted 4 cherry tomato plants in hanging baskets, they are coming out the bottom, I'm told this increases their productivity. We shall see?
This is our front flower bed, we did this all on our own. I was thankful that the bulbs from my lily's came back this year, and the rose bush as well. We threw in a few extra little colorful ones to spice things up a bit.

Strawberries

I love getting to pick fresh strawberries. The big kids love it too! Aggie not so much, poor baby. We did it anyway, I didn't remember the camera. We picked all the ones in the box to the left, and then I bought another box that they had picked. So I could freeze some for smoothies, make freezer jam, have some with shortcake, and have some with lunches. We had the perfect amount and they were yummy!

I did 3 batches of freezer jam this year, that should get us through the year and leave enough to share with friends. Mummm!

By far my favorite fruit, and fresh to boot!

Random clothing questions

I am trying to clean out and downsize our children's wardrobes, but the girl scout in me say's keep it all. Sooo......

1. How many outfits do you keep on hand per child, please give their age?

2. How many loads per week of laundry do you do for your children?

3. How much space is each child allotted for clothing, dresser/closet space?

Thanks so much!

New Phone Numbers

You can delete our old numbers, we are changing providers.

New Numbers

Home: 850-400-1039

Appollo Cell: 850-324-5373

Mike Cell: 805-281-7382

coupons

So after owning a binder for 2 years, and many pep talks later I tried my hand at couponing for the 1st time today. I got the binder organized over the weekend. Bought my 2 papers, the kids helped me clip, (good practice) and away we went to the stores today.

I didn't take pictures, but here's my stats.

CVS

Spent $37.53 Saved $44.22

Walgreens

Spent $59.63 Saved $41.64

Wal-Mart

Saved $8.30

Not bad for a newbie. I bought all stuff we would use and normally would buy, with the exception of trying a couple new brands on random items, like mayo and rice. Doesn't hurt to try, especially when you are paying significantly less for the item.

Lessons learned were:

1. Go to Walgreens on Thursday not Monday it's Military Appreciation Day and I would have got an additional 15% off. Oops.

2. Wal-Mart will not except coupons that they can not scan. Good to know, only lost $.90 though.

I have a lot more to learn I'm sure, like how to trim down my planning time, but I hope that this serves our family's budget well.

Amusement

We've been amusing ourselves lately......

I got my sewing machine out and tried my luck with the "pillowcase dresses" I've been hearing so much about. I found a cute pattern on pinterest that was very simple. I made Shiloh 2 dresses, and had enough extra fabric to make 2 for her dolls, and one for my little doll. She really likes it. :) This would be a perfect project for a beginning seamstress, or someone learning. It is quick, easy and fruitful.

On to other exciting things.......

This may not appear to be much to the random on looker, but my boy, until recently has refused to try and write his name. Since he is not yet kindergarten age I didn't push him. I want learning to be fun for him, not a fight between us. Though that may come someday. Any who....... he's been sitting in on "school" more lately, ( i give him the choice) I usually copy him a page to color or something if he's interested. A new skill is emerging, he's been trying to write his name on the top of his page just like his big sister does. The first occurrence was super cute, he was so proud of himself. He showed me as if it were a big surprise gift for me "look mommy I wrote my name". With a gleaming grin! I loved it. A perfect present.

Last but not least......

This has become a regular morning activity for the children. Thrilling....... Who needs a Jack-N-the-Box when we have a toaster. They crack me up.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I've had such fun celebrating advent with the children this year. It has really been refreshing to anticipate the birth of Christ in this way.

I've been thinking how amazing it is that God's people were waiting for their savior all that time and then................... HE CAME!!!! What a blessing to be alive after the coming of our Load and Savior. I'm so thankful!

On another note; these are festive I thought.

The children decorating.

Hosea's handy work.

The final touch.

We call this our redemption man tree.

Who Knew?

A few of our articles of clothing or blankets have fallen victim to the washed and dried sticker adhesive. Our kids are the perfect age for this sort of thing. I'm always so bummed b/c I've never been able to get it off. I usually end up throwing the article away, as it seems to be mocking me every-time I look upon it. But Last week, we took one of Aggies softest/nicest blankets to the hearing test, for a variety reasons, all of which were sleep related. Anyway, the blanket fell victim to a hospital sticker that I didn't realized until I was folding and putting it away. After a google search and many good thoughts, this is what worked. It is a pretty fuzzy blanket, one of the softest ( just so the know the material i was working with). Hears what I did: 1. warmed the sticker with a paper towel over it, pressed it with a warm iron. I had to do it several times b/c once the adhesive would cool, it got hard again. 2. scraped the warm adhesive off with my finger nails, I suppose a knife probably would have worked. 3. Once it appeared it was all gone, and I just felt a little bit of residue, I sprayed it with "goo-gone" and used a tooth brush to brush out the rest of the ick. I just got it out of the dryer, from the "re-wash" and I can't even tell what corner the sticker was on! I'm thrilled! Up until now I didn't think there was hope for victims of the washed and dried sticker.