Oh You Poor Blog!!!

Oh wow I apparently really suck at keeping up with my blog... what can I say I've been super busy between baby, a second puppy (yes we are crazy), family coming to visit, and the relaunch of the shop. Woohoo yes the shop is now open again! Its over here I purchased new machines last year and had to redo my inventory.  I am still in the process of getting every thing finalized and up and running, but so far we have been off to a good start the last 2 months.  So without babbling and giving more excuses for my neglect here are some super cute baby pictures so you forget that this is the first post in months :)

Hehehe isn't he cute!

Easy Name Applique Tie Blankets

So I regularly get questions on how I do some of my projects so I thought I would share them here. I am a firm believer that you truly can learn to do just about anything on the Internet.

These are the blankets that I made for some of my nieces and nephews for Christmas this past year.

 

  Sorry for the sketchy color quick pick with the phone.

These blankets were quick, inexpensive, and fairly easy to make once you know how. Also (and best of all) they are/can be NO SEW! 

Materials

For each blanket I used 1.5 yards of two coordinating fabrics (one for the front and one for the back), scraps of coordinating fabric for the name applique, a computer, printer with paper, marker, and a yard total of paper backed, iron-on, adhesive (like this Heat'n Bond).

 Step-by-Step

First of all lay out the fabric and decided how large I wanted the names to be taking account a few inches of the blanket edges that were going to be cut and tied. Then I went to my computer, opened up MS Word, picked out a font, typed up the names, and printed them out (most names were on two or three separate page).

Then I placed the printed letters face down and then placed the adhesive on top paper side up and traced the letters.

Repeat for all of your names and letters...

After that separate the letters by loosely cutting them apart (doesn't have to be perfect) then place the adhesive (adhesive side down) on the back (wrong side) of the fabric and iron on according to the adhesives instructions. Like this...
 

 Then cut the letters out actually along the letters line. You don't want to have a bunch of excess paper/adhesive around the fabric letter.

 You should end up with something like this..

 Fabric on one side and adhesive on the other.

Now carefully peel the paper off the back of the letters and pin in place where you want them on the fabric. Like such

 

Then iron them on - following the instructions on the package. Most iron on adhesive does not require sewing (double check before you buy if you do not want to sew). Mine did not require sewing, but I liked the look so I quickly ran a strait stitch around the inside border of each of the letter.  That's completely optional though if you buy new sew adhesive.

Now the fun part cutting and tieing the fabric together. Lay the fabric wrong sides together. So the bottom fabric is facing down and the top fabric is facing up. Then make cuts along the edge of the fabric all the way around.  I like to make my cuts about 2-3 inches long about 1-2 inches apart.  Then start tieing by making knots with the strips you cut.  Make a not by tieing the top strip to the bottom and then repeat, repeat, repeat.  Eventually you will have an adorable blanket for your littles, or bigs if you make them bigger. 

The Last Several Months

Well it seems that I have been neglecting the blog again, but at least I have a good excuse this time.  I had grand plans for the blog before my munchkin arrived; however, he had a mind of his own and showed up a couple weeks early. So here he is all 6 pounds 7 ounces of baby cuteness . . .

The day after he was born

Newborn Photo Shoot

We had the best photographer for both our Maternity and Newborn photos. She is also a great friend. If you are in the Augusta area and need pictures check out her Facebook page Amma Jill Photography She has lots of great pictures posted in her albums.


And here he is again. 8 weeks old and as of Friday 11 pounds 9 ounces!  It's amazing how much he has grown in just a few short weeks.

Oven Cleaning Attempt 1: The Results

So shockingly enough my quick, easy, no scrub oven cleaning attempt went VERY well.  To recap the oven and its racks had not been cleaned in a year (gasp).  While I forgot to take a before picture, I do not think it is hard for you to imagine your worse, unclean, gross, embarrassing dirty oven you can imagine, and that is what my oven started off looking like.

For the Oven:

I sprinkled some baking soda in the bottom.  Then filled a squirt bottle with vinegar and squirted the whole oven down.  Then I let it sit for about two hours. After that I took an SOS pad and wiped (not scrubbed) it down and was shocked.  Take a look!

   

Shocking... right!  The black spot in the back is actually olive oil that has been baked on over and over again. It used to take over a good half of the oven, but now! The foul smelling, chemically laden, store bought oven cleaner could not even get it this clean.  So since it was so easy, I decided to try again. So sprinked the baking soda, squirted the vinegar and left it to sit for two hours. Then I cam back wiped it down and looked at a pretty clean oven.

For the Racks

The overly blackened racks were placed in the the bathtub, covered with super hot water. I then added about 8 dryer sheets, 1/2 cup of blue dawn, and sprinkled a little borax and oxiclean. After a few hours I checked on it and this is what I found....

  

EEEEWWWWW. Gross right? After seeing all the grossness, I decided that they were probably pretty clean.  So I drained the tub and wiped them down with another SOS pad.  These I did scrub a tiny bit (only because I was so thrilled at how clean they were becoming.

The Grand Finale

Tale a look!!!!!

Not perfect but definitely close enough in my book.  I would probably try again (because its so easy), but this biggo pregnant lady is tired of bending over in the oven. I deem it clean enough!

So what do you think? Easy right?

Oven Cleaning Attempt 1

Ok so I forgot to take a before picture, but I have a feeling its not completely necessary.   All you have to do is image a frequently used oven that has not been cleaned in  over a year a very long time. Being big and pregnant, I realize that this should probably get cleaned before junior arrives here in a few weeks.  I also have absolutely no desire to try and crawl inside of my oven (not that its even possible right now) to get it clean. Actually right now I would settle for clean-ish.  Right now I would be happy if it would just stop screaming "help me" every time I open the door, and make me not want let anyone near it for embarrassment. So in my quest to make it look clean-ish with little to no scrubbing I have baking soda and vinegar working its magic on the bottom of the oven. I also have the racks soaking in a very hot bath with dawn, borax, oxyclean, and dryer sheets... did I mention the racks were pretty much black.  So here we go with round 1.     

Life Right Now

Ok so it seems I have seriously neglected the blog I once had grand plans for. What can I say it's been a crazy, insane year.  After a lucky round of clomid we FINALLY got pregnant, sadly (or should I say tragically) we lost the baby, then about 6 weeks later Mr. D bought me a puppy, less then 2 weeks after that we were surprised to find out we were somehow expecting again! Then we spent 5 weeks visiting family all over France, and since then I have been doing home projects (like re-doing my kitchen at 20 some odd weeks by myself) and getting the little mans room ready. So I have lots of bloggy ideas and have taken on a ton of DIY projects in the last year since we moved in. Hopefully I can actually start remembering to post them. So here's to hopefully a new post soon.