Booty Buns Cloth Diapers

Hey, it's me Shanni, and I am guest blogging at Honey Bear Lane tomorrow since Heidi is on maternity leave.

Check it out, and while you're at it got check out the newly updated Booty Buns Cloth Diaper site, our diapers are now available!

Happy New Year :) -Shanni

Ten Neighbor Gifts Ideas

With winter break in full swing all of my little ones and my hubby are home for the holidays!Before I go on my own little Christmas break from blogging, I wanted to share with you what I posted on my cousin-in-law, Heidi's blog. Just in case you didn't go a lookin' I also included three more ideas that I found via pinterest, so that if you already did visit Honeybear Lane you wouldn't feel like you looked at my blog for nothing!:)

But First . . .

This little Sucker got deleted from the bottom . . . I know, how totally unprofessional to start with number 6!

6. Here Is What You Give: Hot Chocolate Mix
Here Is What You Say: "When Your Hands and Nose Get Cold and You Need A Warm Thing You Can Hold, Look No Farther Than This Jar. It Has Been Filled With Love, By Friends So True, With Sweetness Made Just for You. To Us Your Friendship Is A Gift That Always Gives Our Hearts A Lift! Merry Christmas! "

NOW . . . the new

From splitcoaststampers.com

From love-the-day.com



From room-mom101.blogspot.com

Now, this is what I wrote for Heidi . . . it starts in the middle . . .

Now For The CUTE Stuff! You may have seen something like this already this season, but I really wanted to do a post that featured ideas for Neighbor Gifts this Christmas! So here are 7 ideas and some original short poems that you are free to use! (P.S. I tried to stay low budget- there are so many cute and clever things you can do, but I was trying ideas that were easy on the budget:)

1. Here's What You Give: Wafer cookies:
Here's What You Say: “Wafer” Not, But Let Your Faith Abound In Christ and Let Your Soul Delight In the True Meaning of The Season! Merry Christmas!”

2.Here Is What You Give:Sparkling Cider
Here Is What You Say: Like the Stars That “Sparkle” in the Night, Friends Like You Bring Our Soul Delight. When the “Sparkling” lights come down and no longer on our rooftop found, Friends Like You Bring Lasting Cheer and Make our Hearts “Sparkle” the Rest of the Year! Merry Christmas!

3. Here Is What You Give: Pop Corn

Here Is What You Say: Friends Like You Make the Holiday Season “Pop” With Joy! Or"We "Popped" On Over To Give You This Treat Because We Think You Are Really Neat. At Christmastime You're A Gift Times Ten And We Feel Really Lucky To Call You A Friend."

You could also just wrap a bag of pop corn . . . I just thought it looked cuter in the jar for picture's sake:)

4. Here Is What You Give: A Strand of Christmas Lights

Here Is What You Say: “Shepard's Kept Their Watch By Night and Saw a New Star Burning Bright. Angels Sang and Greetings Gave And Invited All To See the Babe” May The Light Of Christ Fill your Hearts This Holiday Season!

5. Here Is What You Give: A Christmas Star

Here Is What You Say: “Star Light, Star Bright, A Brand New Star I See Tonight, Bathes the World In precious Light and Hails A Baby's Birth Tonight” May the Light of Our Savior Bring You Peace and Joy This Holiday Season!

6. Here's What You Give: Fishy Crackers or Swedish Fish

Okay, this is not an original poem, but Here Is What You Say: "We Fish You A Merry Christmas, We Fish You A Merry Christmas, We Fish You A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!"

So, there you have it! I hope you like some of these cute and affordable ideas!

I hope your Christmas is merry and filled with joy!

xoxo, Amy

My Advent Calendar Picks

As usual, I am running a little late . . . the story of my life! The good news is that even if I am late making an advent calendar this year it will be ready for the next. That is the great thing about Christmas, it's an annual thing. I'll let you know which I decide to imitate!

These Beauties come to you from a wide Pinterest search:)

From the Maya Road Blog:

From Martha Stewart:


From The Freckled Nest:

From Kimberly Petersen:

From All Things Simple:

She also has a way cool activity advent on this same post. Every night you choose a simple but meaningful activity from a stack of cards. I'm thinking it will be great for when school gets out!

By Narrating Life:

I would love to see any advent calendar that you love . . . I still need to make one and at this point I am still open to suggestion. Leave a comment and point me in the right direction.:)

Happy Crafting!

xoxo,

Amy

DIY Photo Canvas! What?!

I saw this on pinterest. I for one LOVE the canvas look but I don't really love the price!
This was too good not share! Check it out from the Sassy Pepper! What a great gift!

Happy Crafting!
xoxo, Amy

You Are Invited!

Please, PLEASE Come!

NeighBor Gifts For Christmas!

Hey Blogland, I am so excited to say that I get to do a guest post on Honeybearlane!

The very talented Heidi, is married to my cousin and is absolutely wonderful! She makes and sells the. most.amazing baby quilts. Go check out my guest post on her site and get SEVEN great gift ideas to give to your neighbors/co-workers/teacher gifts etc!


Thank you for your Support:)


xoxo. Amy

How to Throw and Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

I won't argue, I know we look good! My sweater even won an award:)

I should so be a fashion blogger:)

Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties are so much fun! You can make your own sweater or go to a thrift store or ask your Aunt May to borrow one of her sweaters. Just a warning however: When you ask to borrow Aunt May's sweater, don't tell her you need and "ugly" Christmas sweater, tell her you need an extremely "festive" Christmas sweater:) That way you will still have peace in the family.

So this is what you do:
Invite your guests and tell them it is a pot luck party.
Go in search of the perfect Holiday sweater (or make your own- it is way more fun)
Have a prize for the ugliest male and female sweat.
Prize should be simple, like a glow stick left over from Halloween (don't break the bank on a prize)
Have a white *Elephant gift exchange (something you don't ever use that is laying around your house or a dollar store item.
Enjoy food and Company!

*White Elephant Gift Exchange Rules:
Place all white elephant gifts in a central location.
Have two to four plastic cups (depending on how many guests you have) Each cup should contain a pair of dice. Pick a number like three. Every time someone roles doubles of the number three they get to choose one of the white elephant gifts. The cups with dice should be moving constantly around the guests. The next person who roles doubles can choose to take a new gift from gift location or steal from someone who already has a gift. It is best to set a time limit like 5-8 minutes depending on the crowd you have invited.


** Another great party game is Catch-phrase because it doesn't matter how big or small your group is everyone can play. edit: If you wanna get really crazy add some "Minute To Win It" Games!

There you go, simple, easy, fun!

Happy Party,
xoxo,
Amy

DIY Felt Headbands and Velcro Flowers!

I think I log a lot of bathroom hours . . .hold on, it's not what you think . . . I am the mama to three little girls (and one sweet little boy) so with four heads of female hair to do every morning, we log a lot of bathroom hours. See, I told ya, it wasn't what you thought:)
Because I have so many little girls, I have a fondness for hair accessories. Like these:

Brown Paper Packages is one of the lovely blogs I follow (and you should too) and she did a post about these headbands and I wanted to try my hand at them because I thought: no.1 they looked cute and no. two they looked easy! Mine are slightly different from hers however and I'll show you what I mean below.

I didn't want to use an elastic headband for my 8 and 6 year old so I opted for a soft plastic headband instead. I buy a special kind on line that don't cause any pain behind the ears so my kids actually don't mind headbands.

I attached the the soft part of the Velcro in one one spot only on the felt bow but put the tougher side of the Velcro in multiple places on the headband. The felt sticks to Velcro pretty good so I felt like I didn't need to attach both pieces of Velcro at every point on the headband.

I then proceed to attach the felt bows with sticky back Velcro. I added a little hot glue for added hold. The reason I did this is because I already have a drawer full of headbands and really didn't want to add more to it. The idea for me was to simply make the felt bow interchangeable.

The other difference is that I simply used craft felt because it is what I had on hand and haven't the foggiest idea where to get better felt. It would most likely require a trip to a larger town:)

Thank you Kierste, from Brown Paper Packages, for shring your cuteness!

I applied the same idea of interchangeable hair pieces when my third baby girl was born a little over a year ago. I didn't want to have millions of elastic headbands cluttering a drawer so I used the circle sticky back Velro again adding a little hot glue for extra hold.

That way I just had to change out the flowers to match outfits and when her head grew, I only had to replace one elastic headband.

Front of the flower:

Back of the flower!

Happy Crafting!
XOXO,
Amy

Delicously Easy Party Fruit Side Dish!

Berry Fruit Salad, oh how I love your sweet tasty goodness! I also love that you are so easy to make. I promise to serve you at every party, rain or snow, Winter or Fall!
The absolute best thing about this fruit salad is that you absolutely cannot mess it up! You can combine almost any fruit together and be pleased with the results. The key to the goodness: one can of cherry pie filling and one small tub of cool whip! MMMM! (note: when I make this I actually mix the tub of whip cream in with the fruit in a large bowl instead of using it as a garnish, but the garnish made for a better picture:))

So here are a few of the variations you could use:
Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, cherry pie filling and whip cream

peaches, mandarin oranges, pineapple, strawberries, grapes, blueberries, cherry pie filling and whip cream

You see, just throw in your favorite fruits and away you go. You could even substitute a different pie filling. Fresh or frozen works in most cases. Drain any juice from canned fruits and make sure fruit thaws before you mix it with whip cream. Got left overs? Either save them for tomorrow or mix it up in a smoothie! SO yummy!

Happy Mixing!
xoxo,
Amy