Easy DIY Valentine Pillows

I read about making your own pillows years ago and when I finally tried it I felt like a Mini Martha Stewart rather than a Pinterest Fail. These require no sewing machine, minimal sewing tools, and if you are paying attention they are pretty hard to mess up. I started them for Christmas, and obviously didn't finish sooooooo they made great Valentines for Mom and Sisters that they can hang on to for next years Christmas Season. They are red. It works right?

 Do It Yourself Pillows that are so easy because they are PLACEMATS! You heard me right. I really like doing these for seasonal decor because they are so so so much cheaper than holiday themed pillows and they are fun to have in your house for different holidays. Shop around and find some placemats you like that have a separate front and back. Sometimes you'll find single placemats and other times you can find packs of 4. 

Needed Supplies:

Placemat with front fabric and back fabric.

Needle

Thread to match your placemat

Pins

Scissors

Seam Ripper

Cotton Fabric Filler

How To:

Make a small slit in the side of the placemat with your scissors and/or seam ripper.

 Cut a few of the stitches until you have a two or three inch hole.

Stuff the placemat with Cotton Fabric Filler.

Pin the hole and stitch it up with just a basic in and out stitch.

Done and Done.

Add a tag and ribbon if you are giving them as gifts and you have a simple gift you can easily make up in one afternoon. That all for now, I have probably used up all my "craft luck" for this year so this might be the last of such things you see from me for awhile. :) 

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Tot Tip Tuesday - DIY Christmas Gift Tags

It always seems like Christmas is a month away then you pull out your calendar and have a mini meltdown seeing that it is next Friday. In my case it's stress eating.....ice cream dunked in carmel, chilled cookie dough bites, chugging the milk gallon.....when I could have been out checking things off my list. 

Not having a full time job or a needy infant this year I found myself with more time on my hands. I usually buy the sticker TO: FROM: Christmas tags. (Whats easier than write and stick?) This year I wanted to make homemade tags to give my presents more of a personal touch. It was pretty easy and straight forward and I loved the finished product! 

I found this darling festive paper at Michaels and Hobby Lobby in the scrape booking aisle. If you hit it at the right time you usually can find it at a good price. Lucky me I have a Cricut for crafty little projects like this. If you don't have access to a Cricut here are some patterns for christmas tags. I like to keep the cut out of the tag to layer with a tag. You can always find patterns online or free hand it. 

Be sure to get the littles in on this project, their tiny hands can help with peeling, cutting, and tying tags. 

Hope this helps give you some inspiration this Christmas Season!! 

Happy gifting and Happy Tuesday! 

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DIY Snowflake Christmas Ornaments

I'd never thought of baking cookies to decorate my Christmas tree with but once I finished up my tree trimming and noticed that it was pretty bare looking I scoured the Intraweb for recipes of gingerbread ornaments. They turned out beautifully and have held up for 3 years. The best part of making these little gems is the time you get to spend with family (sounds like a cheesy Hallmark movie, but the more helping hands the quicker these puppies will be done). After 3 years of using these ornaments I need to coat them with a thin layer of Modge Podge so the icing will not crack off. Get creative with your design, I loved the more simple and clean design, maybe that's was because I didn't want to mess up the cookie.

Here a few tips on making the cookies:

1. Don't forget to cut out a small hole in each ornament before baking the cookies so you have somewhere to tie them to your tree!
2. Make 2 batches of icing: one looser than the other. Use the firmer icing to trace out the contours of the ornaments, and the more fluid one to fill them.
3. If you want to correct a line made with icing, do it fast because the icing dries quite quickly.

Nick Malgieri's Gingerbread Recipe 

Makes about 24 large cookies, depending on the size cutter used (Source)

5 cups all-purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2/3 cup molasses
2 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans lined with parchment or foil

In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda. Stir well to mix.

Place the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until well mixed, about 1 minute. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating smooth after each addition. Scrape down bowl and beater.

Lower speed and beat in about half the flour mixture. Beat in all the molasses then scrape bowl and beater. Add the remaining flour mixture, about 1 cup at a time, and beat after each addition until it has all been absorbed.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and give the dough a final mixing with a large rubber spatula. Scrape half the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and press it to about a 1/2-inch thickness. Wrap the dough securely and repeat with the remaining dough. Chill the dough for at least 2 hours or for up to 3 days.

When you are ready to bake the cookies, set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

Unwrap one of the pieces of dough and cut it in half. Rewrap one of the halves and return it to the refrigerator.

On a floured surface, roll the dough until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Use a floured cookie cutter to cut the cookies. As they are cut, place the cut cookies on the prepared pans with about 1 inch between them on all sides. Repeat with remaining dough. Save, press together, and reroll scraps (they don't need to be chilled before rerolling).

Bake the cookies until they become dull and dry looking and feel slightly firm when pressed with a fingertip, about 12 to 15 minutes. Be careful not to over-bake the cookies or they will be very dry. Slide papers from pans onto racks to cool.

Store the cooled cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover.

Martha Stewart's Royal Icing
(Source)

1 pound of confectioners' sugar
2 large egg whites

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar and egg whites.

Mixing on low speed, add up to 1/2 cup water depending on the desired consistency. Mix until icing holds a ribbon-like trail on the surface of the mixture for 5 seconds when you raise the paddle.

Place the icing in different piping bags with a small tip for tracing the contours and a larger one for filling each shape.

Good Luck!!! And Happy Baking! 

Follow Us On IG: @MegynJordyn

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Tot Tip Tuesday: December DIY Advent Calendar

We love Advent Calendars. Who doesn't? Other than the amount of work they take to put together, they are a great way to bring little pieces of the season into the everyday, and show your creative side all at the same time. Whether you have littles (or bigs) at home, are putting one together for someone, or if you are a child at heart, here is one we put together and a few ideas besides. 

• Small canvas bags can be purchased online for under $10. Use a sharpie and a stench to draw the numbers.
• The numbered tags below where from 1 piece of scrapbook paper. We cut them out and wrote messages to the recipient on the back that corresponded to the little gift that went inside the canvas bag.
• We love to bring the outside in, so we used branches and string to display this advent calendar and it looked quite festive next to the tree. 
• Different gifts for each day can be placed inside and be as simple as small candy treats or more elaborate based on what you want to do. For this set we used a small gift for each day with a memory, christmas quote, and on some days a piece of the nativity set with a corresponding scripture.
• Remember you can simplify it by doing simply a piece of candy for each day. Or add events in such as light seeing, christmas cookie decorating, gingerbread houses, Christmas movie night, etc. 
• If December 1 has already past don't worry you can still start one up. Either put together a quick one or get something ready for December 13 and do the 12 Days of Christmas instead, which is a little easier to do as you only have half the days.

Happy Tuesday! 

Follow us on IG: @megynjordyn

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PRETTY PERFECT MOTHER'S DAY GIFTS

After putting together our list of Mothers Day gifts we decided there was one that stood above the rest as the perfect gift. Time. Whether you see your mother often or not nothing can beat time spent together. A dinner, shopping trip, or an afternoon at an attraction of some kind. Find something that you can do together and spend a little bit of time with the Mom that has done more for you than you'll ever know. 

 If time is not an option or you are looking for a little something to go with it scroll through our list of PRETTY PERFECT gift ideas. This is NOT a sponsored post so all gift ideas or either items that we own and love or items that we think would be a good unique fit for many of the Moms out there. We looked high and low for unique gift ideas so you don't have to. Enjoy the list and if you are a Mother yourself have a very Happy Mother's Day!

Pretty Perfect

Mom is timeless, classy, and looking for a thoughtful gift from you, her little darling. While it is an old standby flowers are still a good go to that are appreciated by many Moms. Give them alone or pair them with Molly Sims new book the Everyday Supermodel (read our review here) or the favorite tear jerker Love You Forever.

Fit N Pretty 

Mom is a fitness junkie? Or is in the middle of losing a few pounds.. (aren't we all.) Karena and Katrina's new book, 28 Days to Fit, Fierce, and Fabulous hits stores May 4th just in time for Mothers Day. While we have not had a chance to read it yet, we know it will be packed with fitness tips, trips, and expert know how for nearly every age of Mom. 

Flavored, infused, fruity-licious or whatever you'd like to call it. Water flavored with fresh fruit is everywhere. While you can find variations of these fruity water bottles nearly everywhere Brookstone makes a durable version that allows for fruit to be placed in the bottom of the bottle. On sale right now for 2/$40 you can snag one for Mom and one for yourself.

Yoga lovers will appreciate the light and soft texture of Superlites Travel Mat. Even if Mom has a mat, give this one a try and maybe you'll be the lucky recipient of her cast off Mat. Plus it's pink, but it does come in a wide variety of other colors.

Pretty Please Best Accessories

American Eagle and Old Navy are fabulous stores to shop accessories. You can find in style, durable, pieces that won't cost you an arm and a leg. They'll just look like they did. American Eagle is currently having a sale on all accessories but one get one 50% off. Glasses, watches, jewelry galore. Take your pick, or again one for you and one for Mom. We each own and love these glasses and this watch. They go with EVERYTHING. 

Protecting your face from the suns aging rays is suddenly fashionable, affordable, and stylish for all ages in Floppy Straw Sun Hat from Old Navy. Basic straw or patterns are available. Their light weight spring and summer scarves are a must have as well  (we may, or may not, have both purchased one earlier this month) and are flying off the shelves.                                          

Pretty Easy Tees

Graphic Tees are not just for boutiques anymore. From Target to Nordstrom Tees with sayings of every kind are popping up all over. If you Mom is a laid back lady with a sense of humor here are a few of our favorite new T-shirt shops. The pineapple shirt, available at Ivory Kate is a hand painted water color that has been turned into a T-shirt.

Boy Mom Designs features Tees, hats, and mugs in a variety of designs for both boy only moms, girl only moms, and moms with both. Their current sale is 65% off if you purchase two shirts or two items. Another to reason to love them? They donate part of their profit to charity.

Mama Said Tees is a relatively new shop that has popped up with Tees for Mom with cute sayings such as Mama Said, Because I said so, and our favorite Kind is the New Cool. Tees can be purchased for adults only or as a pair with a matching shirt for a kiddo. The Because I said so T for Mom goes perfect with one that says Why, why, why, all over it for little Jr.

Pretty Personalized

Gold bar necklaces are all the rage, so why not jump on the band wagon. These gold bar necklaces are from Made by Mary with Love, the coolest part is that you can personalize it with your child's initials, you and your hubbies initials, or simply the words mama. They are a little on the pricey side but we are paying for quality here. Not a necklace fan? Personalized Bracelets and rings can also be personalized with words or sayings of your choice.

Photos are always a good bet for Mothers Day. From online photo stores to your local Costco or Walmart most if not all offer photo gifts that can be customized with your favorite photos. These pillows from Shutterfly can be customized with photos or sayings and are 20% off through April 29th. 

Custom Pillows

Pretty Practical Mama

For the hobby Mama we stumbled upon Uncommon Goods, a website with hundreds, if not thousands of gift ideas broken down into categories. From gardening, to cooking, to music, to Grandmas. The site has it all. It is a great place for unique gifts and to get a few ideas. They even have a section that breaks down prices, allowing you to shop in the under $25 section or go higher if you wish. Gardeners Tool Seat , Birdie Yarn Bowl, and My Life Story, are a few of the trending items on the site that could be a perfect fit for the Mom with a hobby.

                                      

Bake it Pretty Sweet

Most of us have sweet memories attached to the smells coming from Mom's Kitchen. Cookies after school, popcorn on movie night, or the special Holiday treat that you wait all year to taste. In our humble opinion baking themed gifts have to be done right or they don't come across as a thoughtful gift, but rather a boring tool to where she spends time every day. So stay away from appliances (unless she has dropped hints) and instead find a unique gift that is more about her and her love of baking, than simply baking. This Recipe Box  gives a nod to times gone by when all of her favorite recipes were stored on the shelf rather than her phone. Give mom a chance to keep her favorites inside this new treasure box. 

Cake stands let mom shine as she shows off her latest creation. While this one is gorgeous, you can find a wide variety of stands at TJMaxx, Target, and Bed Bath and Beyond.

 Give her a chance to try something new with a Doughnut Pan. Something that can be done together and/or turned into a new family tradition.

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