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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Wrap It Up!

This last week of February is full of birthdays. Honestly, I can not tell you how many Instagram birthday pictures I have seen over the past few days. It's going on too many, if you ask me. The good news is, I actually get to celebrate some of these birthdays with my own friends. I think that's what getting me through this.

When it comes to my best friends' birthdays, I get almost as excited as I do for my own. I love the feeling of getting a present for someone that you know they will love! Cali had her birthday today and Bailey has her birthday tomorrow. That's two best friends in one week. Man! On another note, tomorrow would also have been my grandpa's 90th birthday who recently passed away, so I'm sending some birthday wishes up to him as well.

I have been very busy lately and needed an idea for a blog post. I guess everyone's feeling the birthday rush this week because Bailey suggested that I do a post on wrapping presents. Thank you for the idea! I actually found more things than I thought I would that I could post about. It's not like my usual crafty posts, but is still a way of being crafty. 

It's always fun to give and receive gifts, but it's even more fun if they look cute! In this post, I'll show a few ways of wrapping different things along with some tips for gift giving. 


I'm sure you received a gift in a box or a cute little bucket before. If you're like me, you have tons just lying around the house! Even if I don't think I will use a gift "holder",  I keep it so I can use it for other gifts later on. 


Don't fret if you don't have any cute containers to give. You can make your own! Making food containers is especially easy because food can look pretty on it's own. Find something around the house that can fit your gift. Get creative with it! I found this breadcrumbs container that could hold cookies, for example. There are endless possibilities. You could even reuse an empty wrapping paper tube to hold a poster or something! Nifty, huh?

Of course, you don't just want to give someone a gift in a breadcrumbs container. That's a little weird. All you have to do to make it better is take some wrapping paper and wrap it all up! Cut a piece of wrapping paper that can fit right around the container. You can even use the same lid if you want! I probably wouldn't use this one because it doesn't match my paper, though. Tape the wrapping paper on the container and make sure you tape the bottom so it doesn't slip off. If you want your cute container to be used again, you could mod podge it too! That would be really cute!



If you only have a little bit of food or a lot of little pieces, like candy, or just a gift that you want to see while it's still wrapped, like a gift basket, then wrap it in cellophane! If you don't know what that is, it's like tissue paper that's clear. Again, don't worry if you don't have it because you can make something similar. Take a Ziploc bag and cut the ugly part off. This would be the zipper part and anywhere that it says "Ziploc". Make sure it's all clear. Put the food in the bag and bunch the top. Tie it of with a ribbon either curled or in a bow and you're done. This one was made with a gallon freezer bag and a good amount, but not a lot, of yogurt-covered raisins. If you are debating on what size bag to use, always go bigger because you can always cut some of the top off at the end. 




The same goes for wrapping buckets and such in tissue paper or cellophane as well. Pull the paper around the sides, bunch it all at the top, and tie it off. Unfortunately, the bag trick probably wouldn't work with this. You would need a really big bag. 




If you don't known how to curl ribbon, it's easy! Most scissors have a skinnier blade and a fatter one. Open the scissors and place your thumb on the inside (or the sharp part) of the skinny blade. Take the end of the ribbon closest to your knot and put it in between the blade and your thumb. Press down hard enough for it to stay in place, but not too hard, or you will rip it. Pull the ribbon through until you reach the end and don't go too fast. It takes some practice, but you will get the hang of it in no time at all. 




Hopefully, you known how to wrap a box. It's one of the simplest things you'll ever do. Follow the pictures below if you don't know how. If you ask me, they're pretty straight-forward. I always like to wrap presents in boxes if I can because they look much neater and are much easier. Save old clothing store boxes and all of those boxes from Christmas and birthdays, so you don't have to go buy some every time you wrap. 












Some things, though, are boring if you put them in a box, like clothes. It seems like every time you get clothes, they are in a box, unless you get it from me! I'm not saying that I never have wrapped clothes in a box, because I have many times, but I invented my own way of wrapping clothes, or anything tubular for that matter, that I like to call the "giant candy" method. Actually, I just made that up on the spot, but I kind of like it! In order to do this, you have to roll your clothes. Place your clothes or tubular object on your wrapping paper and measure it so there are about 4-6 inches on each end. With the wrong side of the paper facing towards you, roll your object in the wrapping paper and tape it to hold it all together. Bunch both ends and tie it off with raffia (it's like stringy straw) or ribbon. It should look like a candy shape, hence the name. :)






If you don't have a gift and are relying on the gift card route, don't just give your friend a gift card in an envelope. I have one word for that... lame. I found these gift card boxes at the store (Walmart?) and they are just as easy and not near as lame. They are magnetic, so they can be reused over and over again and come with a cute bow that you can make on your own by just pulling some strings. Easy enough, right?



I hope you'll get creative when wrapping and giving your next gift. I always like finding new ways to wrap. I know this was pretty long and there were a lot of pictures, so congratulations to those of you who made it all the way to here. Have fun and happy birthday to my buddies!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Winter Weather Calls for Warm Drinks!

Lately, in Park City, the weather has been super weird. Last weekend it was snowing. Then it started to warm up again, and now there is a thunderstorm happening right outside my window! What a weird winter...

When winter comes along, what is on everyone's mind? Of course, there's Christmas, snow, skiing, snowboarding, sledding, warm pajamas, fires in the fireplace, but most of all, warm mugs of hot cocoa and apple cider. I know I always look forward to them. However, I'm sure most people know how to make hot cocoa and apple cider, so I'm not going to be writing about how to make those. I WILL be writing about two new warm drinks that I just tried for myself and turned out super yummy!





I remember someone telling me that she LOVED to drink warm vanilla milk and would bring it to school in the morning a lot in the winter. It sounded pretty weird and kind of gross when she first told me what she was drinking, but after she explained how much she loved it, I have always wanted to give it a try. I ended up completely forgetting about it until researching warm drinks for this blog. Ever since, I have been craving it and it was SO easy and SO good!


You will need:

1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp sugar
a mug


To start, warm up the milk either in a mug in the microwave or on the stovetop. Either way works, but I used the microwave because it's much faster and easier. It took about two and a half minutes, in case you were wondering.


After you have warmed up the milk to your desired temperature, stir in the vanilla and sugar with a spoon.


Top it off with a pinch of cinnamon and you're already done! Easy right?



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This hot cocoa recipe that I found sounded really interesting and worth trying, so I did! It's just like normal hot cocoa with a little bit extra. This one was also easy and yummy!


You will need:

1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbsp hot water
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp almond extract


This recipe is kind of in two parts: the cocoa mixture and the actual drink part. Make your cocoa mixture by combining the cocoa powder, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Now, I didn't have a 1/8 teaspoon (who does?), so I had to guess by filling half of the 1/4 teaspoon and it turned out that I added a little bit too much for my liking. I would just add about a pinch of nutmeg instead. Anyways, mix the ingredients together after you have added them all.


The recipe also asks for a tablespoon of boiling water, but who wants to boil an entire pot of water for only one tablespoon? Not me, that's for sure. Instead, I used the hot water from the sink, which worked fine. I actually think cold water would have worked as well. Pour that water into the cocoa mixture and stir it until it is smooth.


Heat your milk up, again, either by microwave (but don't heat it in the same mug) or the stovetop.


Pour it in with your chocolate. Stir everything together well and top it off with some whipped cream and chocolate sauce and you're done! We didn't have chocolate sauce. Darn it! :(





I hope I inspired you to make a new drink on your next cold winter's day! Enjoy!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

A "Pocket" Full of Sunshine

Lately, on Pinterest, there have been a lot of tutorials and pictures of these DIY pocket sweatshirts and t-shirts that are super cute. Honestly, that website is full of cute EVERYTHING! I found a pin of these shirts that I loved sometime last week and it inspired me to make some!

So, the other day, I went to Walmart to get sweatshirts, t-shirts and pocket fabric. Evie and I made tie-dye sweatshirts out of the ones from Walmart one time and they turned out awesome and were very comfy, so I thought they would be perfect for these too! It was fun mixing and matching fabric squares with the sweatshirts to find a combination that looked good. The fabric squares I found were only ninety-seven cents! Plus, you get more than enough fabric than you need for the pocket, so you can make more later!

Now, let's get started! Here is how to make your very own pocket sweatshirt or t-shirt.


STEP 1 - Gather all of your materials. You will need:

  • a t-shirt or sweatshirt (prewashed, if possible)
  • fabric (cotton)
  • iron-on adhesive
  • fabric scissors
  • pencil, pen, or marker
  • iron
  • cardboard or paper
  • embroidery thread (or just regular thread)
  • needle
  • ruler

STEP 2 - Make a pattern for your pocket. First, start out with a square. The one I made was four inches on all sides. Next, measure half way across the bottom and make a mark. Then, measure 1/2-3/4 of an inch up from the bottom and make two more marks. Draw lines from your marks on the sides to the mark at the bottom in the middle and cut the extra triangles off. You should have a pattern like the one below.



STEP 3 - Prepare your fabric for tracing by laying it flat on a hard surface. Trace your pocket pattern on the wrong (not pretty) side of the fabric. I ended up tracing through two layers to make sure you couldn't see through the pocket. If you want the pocket to be the same size as your pattern, leave roughly a centimeter on each edge when tracing. If you use a ruler, you'lll be sure to have a nice, clean line. Cut out the shape you traced.



STEP 4 - Heat that iron up! Fold all of the edges in about a centimeter and iron them down to make a crease. Do you see why you left room when tracing? In the last picture with the blue pocket, I did not add any extra around the edges, that's why it is the same size as the pattern. This pocket ended up being smaller than the pattern.


STEP 5 - Grab your iron-on adhesive. I used the Heat n' Bond Ultrahold Strips, which worked well. Cut your strips to your desired width and length. Paper side up and adhesive side down,  iron the strips onto each edge of the ironed-down fabric EXCEPT for the top. If you iron the top on, your pocket won't be functional, and who would want that? However, because I did two layers, I used a thinner strip to hold the folded edge down, so it would look clean. After your strips have cooled, peel the paper off. 



STEP 6 - Find out where you want your pocket to be by trying it on, having someone else try it on, or just eyeballing it. If you have someone try it on, make sure you mark it somehow because you can't really hold it there while they take the shirt off. 

STEP 7 - Place the pocket where you want it on the shirt and iron it for around ten seconds. Then, turn the shirt inside-out and iron the pocket from the back. For the most part, this held the pocket into place. 

STEP 8 - Notice how I said "for the most part?" On the shirts I made, the corners started to stick up a little bit. If you put your strips really close to the edge, this might not happen, but I can't make any promises. Because I didn't want the pocket to come off at all, I turned this "no-sew" project into a "little-bit-o'-sew" project. On all of the corners, I just sewed a little loop to hold it in place. To do this, I used embroidery thread, which should match considering it will show, that I split in half. Embroidery thread is the string you use for friendship bracelets, if you didn't know, and is really like six pieces of regular thread together. I split it in half so I could fit it through the needle hole. I only had to loop it around three times before tying it off. I guess that's a plus of using thicker thread!



STEP 9 - Trim any excess thread on the inside and outside to make everything look neat.


STEP 10 (t-shirt only) - If you're like me and went to Walmart for a t-shirt, you most likely got a men's one. Sewing a pocket on doesn't make it look less like a men's shirt, but there is something you can add that will make it look a little bit more feminine. Roll the edges of the sleeves up twice and add some more of your iron-on adhesive underneath the last roll on the front and back to hold it in place. This adds to the shirt more than you would think.


And you're all done! Go rock that new sweatshirt or t-shirt you just made!