Entirely Smitten

Homemade ZERO CALORIE Ice Cream!!!

Now that I have your attention ;)

 

I was one of the lucky kids that grew up making homemade ice cream.  On a hot summer's night we'd go out on the porch and hand churn it.  There's honestly nothing like it.  We experimented with a ton of different flavors and before long, we all had our favorites.  The only bummer?  The churn was really difficult to operate and extremely exhausting, which meant only the grown ups and big kids could partake in the making of it.  I have to say that the thing that makes the ice cream so delicious is the satisfaction and pride of knowing that you made it!  That's where "Kick The Can Ice Cream" comes in.  I know, I know old school!  But I put a spin on it that is beyond easy and ridiculously AWESOME...

Doll Clothes Insanity!

The above comparison precisely depicts how I feel about buying American Girl doll clothes.  So much money for such a small amount of fabric!  Would I pay $24 for a pair of undies?!  Hmmmm.  I guess that depends!  But honestly, $24 for a doll's dress?  I've paid less than that for a dress for me!  Now although this is not a tutorial, I did snap a few pics for some of the process.  I will certainly throw up a few tutorials if y'all are interested ;)

 

I literally only used 2 fat quarters for the whole thing! (Like I said about $3 total!)

 

The bodice of the dress

 

The skirt of the dress, if that makes any sense!

 

Sewing the bodice and the skirt together.

 

And I'm spent!

 

  Ruthie sporting her new threads... Kit's going to be PISSED!  That's ok, I'm completely hooked on making doll clothes now. for now!  (Ask me how I feel about it next week!) 

 

 

Pins and Needles

I can never find a needle when I need to hand sew something and my pins are always all over the place.  Today I crafted up a solution that is not only functional and cute, but also showcases an adorable terra cotta pot that Aislin painted for me a few years ago.

 

 
 

Clothes Pin Magnets

So I don't know about your fridge, but mine is covered with art, calendars, notes, newsletters, pictures, etc. all sharing 5 really crappy magnets that fall off when you slam the fridge closed because you're peeved that someone ate the last of your chinese food leftovers.  Solution?

Clothes Pin Magnets!

 

Easter 2011

Wow!  Easter was AWESOME!  I have to admit that I was slightly suspicious that something would go horribly wrong because the day started off too perfectly.  First off, I had decided (with help from the lovely, amazing Alison Salmon - retail goddess extraordinaire) to pair the girls' dresses with a soft powder blue.  I found a great top for Aislin at H&M that set everything in motion.  From there I found cute socks for Marlee in the same shade of blue.  On a whim I grabbed a ton of blue ribbon from Walmart.  I knew it was the wrong blue, but I was desperate to find more blue to pull the outfits together.  For Caleb's outfit, I had just sort of grabbed a white polo for him, knowing that he had some nice khakis to go with it, but by some amazing stroke of luck, I stumbled on a powder blue sweater-vest in his wardrobe that I had purchased for Easter last year, but a) it was too big at the time and b) it wound up not matching his sisters' outfits so I scratched it.  Honestly... it just came together so well!  Here is the outcome!

Although I couldn't get everyone to look in the same direction to save my life, their outfits were a smashing success!

Wire Wrapped Jewelry

I'm feeling very inspired by nature today.  Spring is here and I love it!  I decided to take a few minutes and put my inspiration to work on a neat little pendant. 

How to remove water stains from wood

Ok so you know those annoying little rings that form on your kitchen table when you have a cold, refreshing beverage and forget to use a coaster?  Well top this...

Easter Dress Hack

I found these matching silk skirts at Savers the other day.  They were only $5.99 each!  Although they were both girl's size 8 and my girls are size 6 and 12-18 mos I knew I could hack them and make them work for matching easter dresses.  I love having my kids match or coordinate for holidays, but having three kids it is getting increasingly difficult to do so.  Finding identical silk skirts was a SIGN!

Read on to see the transformation!

My {small and lofty} fixation

I've always been attracted to small houses and cottages that have little lofts above them.  The attraction was more of a "wow-so-cute-and-perfect-too-bad-I-have-a-zillion-kids-and-10-tons-of-stuff" kind of attraction.  Being cooped up in my house for the last 192 hours I've done an awful lot of looking around and realizing that this house is SO BIG and full of nothing important.  When we first moved in, it felt so empty.  Everyone told us "Don't worry.  You'll acquire things along the way and you'll have more stuff than you'll know what to do with."  And good god, here I am.  I feel like I live in a shrine devoted to stuff.  Our stuff takes up more room in this house than we do.  All I can think about is Fight Club: "You buy furniture.  You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life.  Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled.  Then the right set of dishes.  Then the perfect bed.  The drapes.  The rug.  Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you."   - Chuck Palahniuk 

This stuff is holding us emotionally hostage.  It's crazy.  If I didn't have so much stuff (which in my opinion we actually have less than most) we could fit anywhere as a family of 5.  Seriously?  What do we truly need?  Do I need 15 or so pairs of dress pants?  18 or so pairs of pumps?  Nope.  A huge TV that we spend our time watching pretend people live their lives so we can procrastinate or escape from our real lives?  (Side note: we actually shut off our cable two summers ago and we thought our lives would suffer tremendously.  HAHA!  I don't know how I accomplished anything before.  We never turned it back on and there is literally nothing I miss about it.)  It's all crap.  We don't need any of it.  None of that improves the quality of our lives, and in fact, most of them hinder it.  So I am officially vowing to rid our house of everything we do not need by May 31st.  I have a feeling that once we achieve this monumental task, we will realize how much of our living space was just taken up with our stuff and actually went unused.  That's when we will DOWNSIZE!  YAY!!!! 

Oh?  Not yay?  You think downsizing is a bad idea?  Small isn't fun?  Small isn't awesome?  Well feast your eyes on these delicious displays of tiny-ness in all their puny glory...

Face Mask Heating Pad - A Tutorial

Desperate times call for desperate measures...

For the past week I have been suffering through the world's worst sinus infection.  I literally could not function.  On several occasions I wanted to go take a hot bath to help ease the pain, but the thought of having to walk myself to the bathroom made me borderline suicidal.  Although I had a "warmie" (a homemade heating pad that my mom made for my son) I struggled to heat my forehead, cheeks, nose, eyebrows, etc. and still retain the ability to breathe.  Not an even trade-off!  I vowed that as soon as I could see straight, I would make one for the face, complete with holes for seeing and breathing!  Well, here it is!

Read on for a step by step tutorial!