Bedroom finally done!

A while back we got Lauren some “big girl” furniture at IKEA but we never really got her room done. Everything on the walls was still set up for her old furniture and her room has been a mess.

Today, we spent some time getting her room cleaned up and re-hung all her wall stuff. As you can see in the pics, she LOVES her big girl bed and Tinkerbell comforter set.

This vanity and chair work out perfectly as a little desk and it’s so cute. There are two top drawers and a big pencil drawer for stashing stuff. I’m thinking when she gets older she can use a laptop here and have a quiet spot for homework.

The picture that looks like it’s hung too low is actually a growth chart and I really LOVE it. It’s a painted canvas. I only have today’s height marked right now (39”) so I need to back track and fill in the rest.

This picture is one of the first we ever saw of our sweetie. We fell in love at first sight!

Beach Robe Done!

I had a day off from work today, so I decided to be productive and sew the beach robe I cut out last weekend.  The pattern was done very well and it came together perfectly, but it took me quite a while to pin and sew ALL that bias tape.  That just may be the first and last project with lots of bias tape I’ll be doing in a long while. 

It was well worth the time because Lauren seems to really like it and had no problem humoring me with a little modeling... 

 

This robe, made from a Tarjay towel, is going to work out so much better at the pool than a big bulky beach towel that is usually falling off of her.   She’ll be able to sit and eat her after swim class snack and be cozy and warm. 

Beach Robe on the way and Disney disappointment…

I decided to try the Beach Robe pattern that Dana from Made just put out.  Lauren is always having a hard time keeping her towel on when she gets out of the pool and then she complains that she’s cool.  This robe, made from a towel, will be the perfect solution!  This evening I got it cut out.  Time will tell if I’m motivated to sew it tomorrow or if we’re heading out to the pool. 

Today we headed over to the Disney store for a Winnie the Pooh story-time, which was a promotion for the new movie coming out on Friday.  By the way, we can’t wait to see Pooh’s new adventure! 

I was disappointed with Disney today…and I’m a huge Disney fan, so that’s saying a lot.  Not because of the storytime, cause that was very cute.  Before storytime they handed out little plushes of Pooh, Eyore, and Owl to the kids waiting in line, then after storytime they collected them back!  They handed them out like it was a little gift for attending storytime and let the kids hold on to them for a good half hour.  Afterwards, they brought out the bags and back they went.  I heard one little girl ask if she could keep her Pooh bear and the cast member said “only if your mom would like to buy you one”. 

I think if they were going to take the plushes back, they should have said something like this as they handed them out…“our Hundred Acre Woods friends are going to visit while we read the story and you can hold on to one, but then they have to go back to the Woods afterwards”.  Oh well, I left the store without buying something after that, and anyone who knows me knows that rarely happens.  ;)

T-shirt cuteness and swimming…

I saw this cute and super simple July 4th t-shirt on Tatertots & Jello and pinned it thinking I would make it one year, but I actually made one for this year.  I pulled a white t-shirt out of Lauren’s closet and sewed some quilting fabric scraps on the front.  I think it turned out so cute and she was proud to sport her flag for the day!

Lauren just started swimming lessons on Tuesday mornings.  I was lucky enough to be off work on Tuesday so I could see her first lesson!  Here’s a few pics.  She loves the class and thinks Miss Kimberly is pretty cool. 

Iced coffee…

The Pioneer Women’s recent post on cold brewing coffee to make yummy iced coffee drinks at home totally motivated me to experiment with this.  Every morning at work we head over to Starbucks and spend anywhere from $2.50 on iced coffee to $5 on iced espresso drinks.  This costs $13 to $25 per week!  Ugh…not good!

After some poking around on-line for the best system to use, I decided on the Toddy Cold Brew System.  I figured the money I would save at Starbucks pays for this in two weeks and it seems easier than the process Pioneer Women describes in her post. 

So, here’s how it works.  Turn the brew basket upside down and place the plug in the hole…

It came with two of these filters…

The filter goes into the inset in the bottom of the brew basket…

Like this…

Then you fill it with 1lb of ground coffee and 9 cups of cold water (alternating coffee and water to saturate all the grounds).  Cover it with plastic wrap and stick it in the frig for 12 hours. 

I started it brewing yesterday when I got home from work and then this morning when I got up it was ready to go.  At this point you just remove the plug from the bottom of the brew basket while holding it over the carafe and set the brewer right on top of the carafe.  It fits perfectly and all the water dripped right through the filter without any grounds getting through.  It took about 20 minutes or so. 

   

What you’re left with is a carafe full of liquid gold!  It’s a coffee concentrate so if you want regular strength coffee they say to add 1% liquid gold and 3% water or milk.  I’m going to totally start experimenting with this and when I find the perfect combination of gold, cream, syrup, etc. I’ll let you all know!   ;)

I anyone already uses this system and has a drink perfected, I would love to hear about it! 

I Heart Shutterfly…

I finally finished our 2009 photo book (I know, a little late) of our first year with Lauren.  I decided to go with the 8” x 8” format for this book.  I did our China travel book in 12” x 12” and not only did it cost a small fortune, but it’s pretty darn big.  I designed most of my pages in Photofusion Scrapbook Essentials and uploaded them to Shutterfly as one big image on the page.  I also created some of the pages directly in Shutterfly using their design software.  It’s SO simple and fun to use.

I just got the finished book and we are SO happy with it.  They do such an awesome job with the finishing and binding of the book.  I love the look of their padded cover.  Here’s a few pics…

My cover and all the pages below are done in Photofusion and uploaded…

  

You can see the entire photo book here…

Click here to view this photo book larger

Web surfing fun…

I finally joined Pinterest and it’s so much fun.  It’s like a bulletin board where you can “pin” things you find on the internet and want to remember for later.  It’s like your bookmarks or favorites, but with pictures. 

What’s great is that you can follow other users with similar styles or interests and find all kinds of fun stuff.  Here’s a link to my boards.  Happy Pinning!

Last weekend Lauren had a blast swimming with her cousins and I snapped a few pics…

She loves the slide and Katie was such a good sport with her sliding down again and again…

I just barely caught the top of her head in this pic!  ;)

Love her Ni Hao Kai Lan heart shaped swim goggles…