Q is for Quilt Made Out of Baby Clothes

Pin It Now!

This absolutely has to be one of my most prized possessions! Now that the quilt is finished, I proudly display it at the end of my bed. :) I first wrote about this quilt when it was in the making, however, the post is not a tutorial or anything.

Tip#1: Even if you don't know how to quilt, save your baby's clothes, blankets, and/or bedding. (You may be able to find someone who can make it for you ~ that's what I did.)

Unfortunately, I didn't save very many baby clothes that my oldest child wore. I wasn't thinking, "Hey, maybe you should save these for a future quilt." I saved a few more baby clothes that my second born wore (both boys so far), but by the time I had my third child (girl), I knew I wanted to save the clothes in order to have a quilt made for me to cherish until the day I die!

Since I didn't have very many clothes from both of my boys, I used their nursery bedding and a couple of blankets to make quite a few of the squares. I had way more clothes than I needed to make squares of  my daughter's clothes!

Honestly, I have no idea how the thought came to me, especially since I knew (and still know) nothing about quilting. I prayed for God to help me find someone I could trust with all my baby clothes. I had no idea how difficult it would be to find someone to do this for me!

Well, in 2009, four years after my third child was born, God answered my prayers in the form of a dear friend who moved to AZ from CO. She cut out all the squares, sewed all of them together, helped me pick out fabric for the back and edges, and then sewed all of that together, too! AMAZING!!!

Recently, another dear friend who moved here from CA finished the quilt by stitching the batting and fabric together. This quilt is so precious to me and definitely a true labor of love! I can never thank these two ladies enough.

Tip#2: Save some of your children's clothes throughout their lives in order to have quilts made for each child when they leave the house.

I have a couple of tubs of my kids' clothes that I am saving and adding to each year in order to be able to do this. I still don't know how to quilt, so I am hoping I will again find someone to do it for me. Or, maybe by then I will have the time to learn how to quilt on my own?!

I promise that quilts made of all your kids' clothes will be TREASURES!!!

Join Ben and me for more Q's . . .

Five Days of Fairy Food: Fluffer Nutter Flower Sandwiches

Pin It Now!

Fluffer Nutter sandwiches are quite nostalgic for me, but until my daughter's "fairy" sleepover, I'd never made them for any of my kids. I remember my mom packing these sandwiches in my lunchbox in elementary school. I liked Fluffer Nutter days; they sure beat margarine and bologna days! I knew it must be time to go grocery shopping when I got those. Bleh.

There's a reason I don't make Fluffer Nutter sandwiches for my kids ~ they fly in the face of healthy eating. I am not even sure that the white filling can even in good conscience be called food. But, since this was a special sleepover, I made them. White, fluffy filling just seemed fairy-ish. Plus, party food's not supposed to be healthy, right?

Anyway, for the sake of a fairy party, you might want to include these on your menu. :)

Fluffer Nutter Flower Sandwiches

Here's what you need to make them:

• Almond Butter, Sun Butter, or Peanut Butter {My mom's original ones were made with peanut butter, but we can't use that in our house - I used Almond butter for mine.}
• Marshmallow Cream {I admit, I had a leftover jar in the pantry from making fudge at Christmastime.}
• Bread
• Flower-shaped cookie cutter

And that's a wrap for Five Days of Fairy Food! Here are some photos of the girls enjoying their fairy sleepover.

And, of course, they had to play in the fairy garden for a minute. :)

In case you missed the other posts in this series:

Day 1: Pixie Popcorn
Day 2: Frosty Fairy Mints
Day 3: Flowers & Butterflies
Day 4: Toadstool Salad

*Linking up with Try a New Recipe Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday.

Lilla Rose Flexi Clip ~ Review

Pin It Now!

I was super excited when Jennifer contacted me about using and reviewing a Lilla Rose Flexi Hair Clip! I'd heard about Lilla Rose through other ladies' blogs, and I remember thinking about how pretty all the hair clips were. I just never got around to checking them out for myself; plus I've always had a difficult time finding clips and such that actually stay in my hair.

Lilla Rose sells unique, beautiful hair jewelry that is truly functional. Their signature hair accessory, the Flexi Hair Clip, is a versatile clip which enables you to wear your hair in a variety of styles. It's really lightweight yet holds your hair in place.

The hardest part about this review was picking out a hair clip! There are SO many pretty ones from which to choose. I finally decided on the flower blossom medley Flexi Hair Clip. (Retail $13)

What Size?

Before you begin looking for the perfect design, you will want to know which size will work best for your hair type. You can find out by viewing a sizing chart and watching a brief Flexi hair clip sizing video. Because I was not blessed with thick, luscious locks, I had to go with the extra small for ponytails and for the french twist. (Pictured above) I would need to have a mini clip to wear my hair in a half-up ponytail.

Sizes offered are: mini, extra small, small, medium, large, extra large, and mega.

My Opinion

It was very easy to use the Flexi clip for a ponytail, however, I did need to watch the styling videos to be able to use it for wearing my hair up. It took me a few attempts to get it just right, but now that I've had practice, it's pretty easy to do. Sometimes if I don't get enough hair in the clip, my up do will eventually sag just a tad, but it's never fallen out or anything. I definitely wear my hair up more in the summertime since it is so unbelievably hot in the Arizona desert! I feel that wearing the clip instead of elastic bands is less damaging to my hair. Prettier, too. :)

It did take some time for me to get used to the fact that the clip doesn't feel tight while I am wearing a ponytail. It was more difficult at first to achieve the "bump look" without elastic bands. And I do need a slight bump; makes my hair look a little thicker. Well, at least I think it does. ;) I am wondering if the mini clip would even be better for my ponytails?

Overall, I really like the Lilla Rose Flexi Hair Clip, especially for wearing my hair up. I'd love to try their other hair accessories as well. They have Hair Sticks, Orings, Hairbands, Bobby Pins, and You-Pins. All of these would make such great birthday or Christmas gifts for all of the girls on your list. They'd make cute stocking stuffers, too. Be sure to check out Jennifer's website to see all of these beautiful items! Thank you, Jennifer, for the opportunity to try the Lilla Rose Flexi Hair Clip!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow Jennifer's Pretty Hair on Pinterest and Facebook! Seeing all the beautiful hair styles really makes me sad that I don't have thick hair, though. :( Maybe my daughter will let me try out some new styles on her.

 

Also, if you are interested in a business opportunity, you can learn all about joining the company by clicking the link.

 

 

Five Days of Fairy Food: Toadstool Salad

Pin It Now!

Today, I am featuring the healthiest of the fairy foods. :)

Ingredients

• Shredded lettuce - I used iceberg
• Boiled eggs
• Roma tomato end slices
• Raspberries
• White Cheese sticks cut up into 1/2" - 1" chunks

Directions

Arrange shredded lettuce on a plate. Top the lettuce with whole, boiled eggs and cheese chunks. (May need to slice the bottom ends of eggs so they will stand up better.) Slice tomato ends and scoop out any remaining flesh. Put tomato ends on top of the eggs. Add raspberries to the tops of the cheese chunks. And there you have your Toadstool Salad!!

Other posts in the Five Days of Fairy Food series:

Day 1: Pixie Popcorn

Day 2: Frosty Fairy Mints

Day 3: Fairy Flowers

Five Days of Fairy Food: Flowers & Butterflies

Pin It Now!

Today, I am sharing how to make flowers (and a butterfly) with food.

What you need:

• Flower centers
• Flower petals
• Flower stems/leaves

Of course, the possibilities are endless, but I will share what we used. (Not all food items and flowers are pictured here.)

Flower Centers

• Strawberry slices
• Boiled egg slices
• Baby carrot slices
• Banana slices
• Cucumber slices

Flower Petals

• Grape slices - the flame kind, they're longer
• Strawberry slices - sliced the long way
• Orange slices sliced in half
• almonds

Flower Stems/Leaves

• Green onions - wanted to keep it simple :)

The butterfly was kind of an afterthought. I used leftover food - bottom of green onion for the body, strawberry end slices for wings, and green onion tips for the antennae.

Other posts in the Five Days of Fairy Food series:

Day 1: Pixie Popcorn

Day 2: Frosty Fairy Mints