Faux Chenille & Minky Blanket

I am in love with faux chenille blankets, like serious love with them.  They are so soft {and get even softer the more you wash them}.  I knew after I made one for a baby shower last year that I just had to make Lola one of her very own too!  

Fast forward about 9 months later, 'cause that is how I roll around here, I finally got around to making her one.  Only hers wasn't just faux chenille on one side and cotton/flannel on the other, as recommended, but rather cheetah print minky fabric!  I wasn't sure if it would even work, based on everything I read about minky {first time sewing with it was on this project btw}, but I knew that it would take my already favorite blanket to make to the next level if I could get it to work!

Let me start off by saying that YES, sewing with 4 layers of cotton to make the faux chenille side and one layer of minky works!  Just be prepared to triple, if not quadruple, the time it typically takes to make this blanket {which is about 8 hours}.  You can also expect to discover muscles that you never knew you had before while sewing!  I wish I would have had someone take a picture of me while sewing this bad girl {yes, it is a girl blanket}, because I literally had to plant my left let against one of the legs on the chair and brace myself as I pulled the five layers through the machine!  I am sure I looked ridiculous, but I was determined to make this work!  I also used a standard foot on my machine, so nothing special is needed!

I am not going to try and do a tutorial on this or how I made mine, but rather direct you to where I go for directions when I make these blankets.  Dana, who blogs over at Made, has an incredibly easy {and free, 'cause she is awesome like that} tutorial to follow and I highly recommend you go there for this part if you are interested in trying to make your own!  Seriously though, if you can sew a straight line you can make this blanket {with or without the minky}, just be prepared for how much time they take!  I promise you that I am no where close to being any kind of expert sewer, I really know just the basics.  If I can do it, you can too!   If you decide to use minky fabric, click here or here for helpful tips!  The only thing I have for you is...

Thirty-two hours later {or something like that}, I LOVE how it turned out and I am pretty sure my cheetah print lovin' little girl agrees!  

I also love its versatility and how different and beautiful it looks on each side!

On the left is how it typically looks when her bed is made {which is like never...okay, I take that back, when my mom stays with us it is made then}.  On the right, I laid it out on top of her full sized bed so you could see how big it is!  I think it ended up being about 1 and 3/4 yards and was 52 inches wide {pretty sure standard size is 45 inches?}, no reason really, just liked how it looked!

I couldn't find binding that matched, so I ended up making this myself?!  I went to just about every quilting store in the valley and it just wasn't the right color or size.  Finally, the sweet ladies over at Mulqueen showed me how to do it on my own!  I think they could see I was about to cry real tears.  I could do it again, but don't ask me to explain it right now!  I am sure there is a great tutorial for this somewhere!  They told me to hand stitch it, but I didn't listen.  Way too much work!  Honestly, you can only tell it looks a little bit crooked when you look super close, but thought you might wanna still see that it is not perfect!  I am a firm believer that imperfections happen to be beautiful and give things character! 

My crooked lines don't seem to matter to her either!  Whew!  She LOVES her blanket!!!  I love that it is one that she will be able to grow up with and when she gets too big, it can easily become a throw blanket for her!

 Sharing with my favorite party peeps this week!

Oops, I did it again...

{Please tell me you started singing Brittney right there?!}

Ugh, said I wasn't going to go another week and not do a post or two in between InstaFriday posts, but I just can't keep up right now.  Yearbook deadline and grades are both due today, before we live for Spring Break, and between that and a wedding to edit, my iPhone is the only thing that keeps me connected to the outside world I guess?!  So happy that I have it, it is always so much fun to reflect on what we did!

On Friday my pants wouldn't stay zipped to save my life!  No worries, my black tank top layered under my t-shirt saved the day and no one ever noticed {or at least they didn't say anything to me if they did!?}.  Dinner for Kyan was Burger King, he LOVES their seeded buns and the new crowns that come with their kid meals, while I indulged in a glass of wine for dinner!  This Moscato D'Asti wine happened to be the first bottle of wine that I have ever purchased that I planned on drinking myself!  I enjoyed every last drop of it.

On Saturday I worked from sun up to sun down, but found myself with a little bit of me time sprinkled in there too!  Left my babies in their pj's and returned to them in a different pair.  Daddy held down the fort so that I could work.  On the camera?  A wedding and a family reunion all in one day!  The wedding took place in Cave Creek, not anywhere close to home, but close to where Brion now rests.  I was running very early and stopped off to say a prayer before the day even began.  It was one of the best starts of my days in a really long time.  In between the wedding and the reunion, I was also able to sneak to my girlfriend, Candis', house, where we relaxed by the pool and caught up on life.  When I got home from work and after I tucked the kids into bed, I spoiled myself to a nice hot bath {with a glass of my new wine of course}!

On Sunday, I made sure to spend the entire day as a family, especially since I had been go all of Saturday!  Lola and I started off at the grocery store shopping for the week, in our pj's!  I braided her hair later in the morning, but was only willing to show you one of the two sides!  The other one didn't look as pretty, but she loves it like that so I will just continue to practice!  I went on the hunt for Skylanders figures for Kyan's new game - I have become obsessed over them actually!  As soon as I figured out how hard they are to find, I have made it my personal mission to find every single one!  I gave Lola a mani/pedi, only to have it chip off an hour later!  I need to do a bottom color and then the glitter on top {I even knew that going in} but was lazy and just went straight for the glitter?!  We watched TV Sunday night as a family, two weeks in a row watching Hillbilly Handfishin'!  Chad says he can't believe there is actually a show about this on TV and then he continues to say that he really can't believe we are watching it!  Have you ever seen it?  So gross, but so...so...I don't know, but can't stop watching!  The kids must have missed me a lot, because they ended up in our room, snuggled on the floor together, in the middle of the night at some point!  They looked to adorable to move back.

Monday I went on a bike ride with kids after work.  Lola made it around the block twice and then went in to watch cartoons!  Kyan and I rode all through the neighborhood for another 30 minutes or so!  Then, I began to edit photos from the weekend and started with my favorite picture of the day!

I had been anticipating this Tuesday since I ordered my new case from Uncommon last week.  When I opened it, I had hearts in my eyes, I loved it...but then turned it to see the front and realized that the ring around it is black, not white and doesn't go with my white iPhone at all.  How did I miss this?  I thought the design wrapped all the way around.  I jumped on their website to check to see if I missed an option, but turns out, I didn't pay attention.  It is clearly black and that is the only way it comes!  Wouldn't be so bad if the design had a little black in it, but it doesn't!  That or I am just way too picky?!  Because it is a custom case, it can't be returned.  However, I was able to find a friend, who owns a black iPhone, that is going to buy it from me.  I now get to drool over her case and am on the hunt again for a new one.  Uncommon has great customer service and if they ever change options and make a white front available, I would absolutely order from them again!

It was cold on Wednesday, but because it was Spirit Week last week at school, I skipped Dress Wednesday with the girls, and knew if I skipped again I would be in trouble...so I wore another long dress, jacked from my mama's closet!  I was excited to see that one hanging in there, she never wears maxi dresses and I knew that would be any easy one to score!  I realized about half way through the day that the price tag was still on it!  So itchy!!!  The emergency clutch came in handy once again when one of my students got red pen on her skirt {yes, skirts are allowed on Dress Wednesdays too}!  She knew about all of the life saving items in it for a girl and was able to put it to good use!  Wednesday also marked the first day of baseball practice for Kyan!  He is so excited to be playing on a team this time around where most of the boys that play with him attend his school!

While looking through Lola's folder before school on Thursday, I saw the picture she drew of her and Justin Bieber!  Girl has the fever like no other!  I also finally got around to hanging the Spring Door Decor  when I got off of work and was excited to see that it made it through the year {so delicate with the branches and birds and eggs, I was kinda worried}!  Remember when I was complaining about having grades and yearbook and editing to do?!  Well, I soooooo should have been doing that instead of playing around with my silhouette, but I couldn't help it.  I had a need to CREATE and hope that I can pull off what I started - but I promised myself everything had to be done that concerned school before I could do anything.  That and I have until March 31st to make it happen!  So I saved my page and then posted my grades.  Now I only have to finish yearbook and I will be good to go!

We ended our week with armpit farts!  It was awesome and the kids giggled like crazy!

Happy Friday!  

 

Linking up with Jeannett once again this week!  If you want to see what we are up to already this week, follow us (@jenni_roseland) over on Instagram!  On the verge of Spring Break, it is gonna be a goooooooooood week!

InstaFriday Already!?!

Is it really Friday again and I haven't posted anything since last Friday {scratch head now}?!  Well, I have my excuses and you'll see why I haven't posted in a second...

...but first, let's start off with that cutie pie below!

  Kyan ended his football season on Saturday with a win and a party at the park, where he received his trophy!  He had a great season and we are so proud of his sportsmanship and his talent on the field!  We got the week off, but get ready to start baseball on Monday!

We had beautiful weather last weekend and after the football party, the kids and I headed straight to the pool in the backyard to enjoy it!!!  We spent almost the entire day outside, it was amazing!

Sunday was a sad day and started with taking my parents to the airport after church.  Still missing them and wishing they were here.  In fact, when Lola saw me posting this picture, she wouldn't let me move on to the next picture for like 10 minutes.  She just wanted to keep looking at grandpa and grandma.  After the airport, Lola snuggled up in her favorite blanket (I swear a how-to post is coming soon for that one) to watch a movie while Chad and I made a nice dinner: steak and homemade onion rings!  After dinner, we watched Hillbilly Handfishin' as a family and Lola finally learned to crack her own sunflower seeds!  I remember eating seeds since I was a tiny one too, so this is a big deal to me for whatever reason!?  I know, kinda silly.

Alright, now began my week.  Going in I knew it was going to be crazy, it is every year around this time.  I despise yearbook deadlines.  They make my skin crawl and no matter how much of a plan I have to make it easier for next year, it never fails, the second half of the book always takes forever!  I have worked until almost 6-6:15 every single night (not to mention the work that gets put in when I actually get home) on that bad boy and there is no way I could do it alone.  I have had some big time help from some amazing students this year and they have stayed late with me - they even missed the school dance (even though I was one of the chaperones) on Thursday to help out!  We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel... 

I also recruited these two beauties to help out the other day!  They were my saving grace last year around this time and I can say the same thing once again this year (and they aren't even my students anymore)!  The picture on the right is Alyssa's school binder, I was cool enough to make the cover!  I love them BIG!!!  Both are seriously like daughters.  I am so proud of the young ladies that I see growing up right before my eyes!  Thank you both for coming in and helping.

 Chad has been awesome with the kids and holding down the fort while I work later than usual!  The kids have been busy together playing Skylander on the XBox together, after Kyan cashed in his $$$ from his piggy bank.  He wanted that game so bad and used his gift card from his birthday he has been saving and the money to get it (he never taps into that thing either, that is how we know he wanted it so bad).  We made him count all of his money to make sure that he had enough!  It was very cute to watch his reaction when he realized he did!  He also does a very good job of letting Lola feel like she is playing too, by letting her switch out the characters!  She loves it almost as much as him.

 To help get me through the week a little, I went to my girlfriend (and best neighbor ever) Kelly's birthday party at the wine bar, she turned 8 - a leap year baby.  Did I ever mention I hate wine?  No?!  I do...or I guess I thought I did.  Little did I know about Bex Riesling or Marco Negri Moscato (which is my new favorite, delicious)!?  I think I will pick up a bottle tonight after work!

 Last thing, I ordered that case above from Uncommon the other day.  I can't wait for it to arrive.  Uncommon lets you design your own cases, using premade artwork or by uploading your own art or pictures! How cool is that? 

Promise not to let another week go by without a post or two in between!  Happy weekend y'all!

InstaFriday!!!

It's Friday, Friday.

Gotta get down on Friday.

(Just can't help but get those song lyrics in my head when Friday rolls around)!

Anywho...Friday is now becoming my favorite day of the week, because I get to look back and reflect on the week that we shared together as a family {which is the reason why I blog in the first place} now with my random instagram pictures!!!

 So without further delay...our week!

I entered my first instagram giveaway from Lisa Leonard Designs.  You had to take a picture of your favorite piece that you own of hers and link it up on her hashtag #mylisaleonard.   I didn't win, but my picture was one of her favorites that did get featured on her blog yesterday, when she recapped about her giveaway!  That was exciting for sure and made my day!  There were a lot of cool pictures and really beautiful stories that went along with them!

 

 Daddy was on duty Saturday, while I spent the day with my mother-in-law and my two sister-in-laws, and one of their friends!  Girls days are always needed and this one was quite the treat, we went to see Wicked!  I have forever and ever wanted to see this show and I spent it with some amazing ladies, so it made it that much more special!

  

 

 Oh it was special alright...until we got to our seats, which happened to be in the balcony, the furthest at the top you could get.  Did I mention I AM TERRIFIED OF HEIGHTS!!??!!  I seriously was having trouble breathing and sweat was dripping off of my back I was so scared.  It didn't help that they let us get seated in advance either, since my mother-in-law in still recovering from her hip replacement and there was no handicap section where we were at!  So we were there early with no one but us for about 20 minutes and those walls were closing in!  I focused on the stage only, if I looked anywhere else, panic set in instantly.  The show was amazing, just as I thought it was going to be. 

Before heading up the mountain, I made Lola a playlist made up of songs only her "boyfriend" sings {don't let that Sean Kingston song fool you, Justin Bieber is featured on that one}.  We blasted it all the way to Grandpa and Grandma's house, daddy was so thrilled!

 

We spent our entire Sunday up at my parents place.   Hung out with cousin Hannah and her hubby Will and our friend Kyle too.  Even some old friends that I grew up with were in town and joined in on the fun!  Long time...no see...it was nice to play catch up!   We fed the ducks and played at the park before having a nice lunch together.

Lunch was hotdogs and hamburgers by the way!  When my dad told me he was firing up the grill, I made all the fixings for my favorite kind of hot dog - the Califonia Dog?!  HUH?!  Really, I just noticed that I spelled California WRONG as I am looking at this picture I posted {thanks instagram friends, surely someone had to have noticed, yet said nothing?!  Embarrassing}!  I was going to change it, but think it is hilarious for some reason, so I am leaving it, just as I posted it?!

Despite my spelling error, these hotdogs really are the best dogs you will ever eat.  I really believe they changed the way I will eat one for life!  If you are interested to see what is in it, click here!

Monday the kids and I had off of school and you can bet that my mama was over bright and early to help me clean {she woke my butt up actually}!  It was soooooooo nice to have her help and we really got a lot done!  She is a machine and I am so thankful that she helps me like she does, both my parents really!  My dad brought all of the girls at school lunch on Wednesday, just because.  So sweet!  They have taken my kids to school, picked them up, played with them for hours and hours!  It has been nice to come home and loads of laundry are done or my bed is made or the house is just picked up, not exactly how I left it from the morning.  They are amazing!   I am going to miss them when they leave Sunday {I will cry real tears}.  I know that I am lucky they spend as much time as they do down here and I know I see them a lot more than so many kids who have parents that live in the same town as they do, but I can't help but say it, I want them to be here forever.  Until that happens, I will keep dreaming and cherish every second I do get to spend with them!

Lola loves having her hair fixed curly and I made it happen for her earlier this week!  Having it done like this is a special treat and because we leave so early, it happens once in a blue moon!

A bright and early day, headed to school, happy as could be!

To thank my mom for all her help lately, I made one of her favorite meals for her Tuesday evening:  Parmesan Crusted Ranch Chicken!  Much easier to make than those hotdogs from above, here is how:

1 cup crushed Corn Flakes

1 cup Parmesan Cheese

1 packet Ranch Dressing Seasoning Mix

*Mix together*

In a small dish on the side melt 1/2 stick butter.  Take thawed chicken breast, dip both sides in butter, then in mixture on both sides, place in casserole dish. Mixture makes approximately 6-8 chicken breasts. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

Grandma finally paid up on her bet with Kyan, and he got his massage!  They bet on the winner of the Superbowl game and obviously Kyan won!  He enjoyed his little foot rub while eating a brownie sundae dessert!  Rough life I know! Later that night in the bubble bath he said, "It's the life when you are laying in a hot bath and bubbles are popping in your ear!"  Sometimes I wanna be seven again.

My friend Holly happens to trust me for all of her hemming needs!  I am really not sure if I am doing it right or not, but it works for her and looks decent enough for me to give back to her without hanging my head in shame!  Happy to help out a friend!

Lola is very independent in just about every thing she does and getting dressed in the morning is no exception.  She likes it when I lay out her clothes in the order she should put them on right in front of the TV in my room, that way she gets ready and still gets to watch her cartoons!

 I have been getting bored with my hair lately, but because it is short, I don't have a ton of options, so after almost 3 years of trying to grown my bangs out and almost getting there, I cut them again Wednesday night!  Welcome back bangs!  I have a love/hate relationship with you, I am sure that it won't be any different this time around!  For now, I love you.

Thursday was McTeacher night at the local McDonald's.  Always fun, always successful for the school as a fundraiser, always crazy busy!  This was the look I got from the kids after we left the madhouse!  It was fun while it lasted!

 She looks so cute sleeping, if only she would stay in her bed at night.  Girlfriend creeps into our room around 2am a few times a week because she is scared of any and everything.  It drives me crazy, but I really should cherish the fact that she needs me and wants to be close, I know it won't be that way forever.

 

Urban Outfitters {P}inspired - Ruffled Duvet

Alright, so before I go any further - the final home for this duvet is NOT on Lola's bed {although it is pictured on it for now} even though I wish she could keep it!  

 

You see, Celeste {who is NOT my daughter, but might as well be at times, I spend that much time with her} text me and asked if I could help her make this? duvet?!  Her bedroom is getting a makeover and she was having trouble finding the perfect duvet to cover her bed with {she even made her own headboard, crafty little thing}.  After a quick peek at the tutorial, from Kiki Creates, that went with her picture she pinned, I responded that it looked simple enough and that I would try!

Her bed is a full, so we grabbed two queen size white sheets from Walmart for the duvet and one king size sheet to use for the ruffles.  And ruffle our little hearts out we did!  Actually, Celeste did most of the work, I just helped when a part was too tricky.  She wanted to learn how to sew and what better way to learn than to just jump right in?!  

We used the tutorial for the different types of ruffles from the same website where she was first inspired, found here.  At first we weren't sure about the big triple ruffle, but once on the duvet, we ended up loving it, so yes, we used all of them shown!

 We ruffled our little hearts out and seriously, we thought they might never end!

Next we pinned and sewed them onto the duvet after we placed them exactly where we wanted them.

 Ta-Da!!!  So white and ruffly and made for about a quarter of the price as the Urban Outfitters duvet cover!  Kind of embarrassing how dirty and dingy Lola's bed skirt looks compared to our newly created duvet - but I couldn't show it any other way {Celeste still doesn't have her room set up quite yet for pictures, but once it does, I am invading her space to take pictures of the duvet on her bed and hoping to capture it in better lighting}!

I had so much fun late night crafting with Celeste {this project did take us several days}!  I do not feel like I am a pro sewer by any means, but was excited to see that I could do this one!  Learning that the possibilities are endless with my machine and looking forward to more sewing adventures in the future!

Linking up with these party people!