A super easy sewing project that’s also really inexpensive if you shop correctly. They’re also a little classier than the no-sew fleece blankets where you tie the edges together. These are great, quick gifts for baby showers.

Piece o' cake

I call them floor/car blankets because their ability to go into the washer on hot make them suitable for use as floor pads or emergency changing pads and they’re just about the right size to cover kiddo up in the car seat.

Supplies:

Zig Zag Stitch

• 1 yard fleece
• 1 yard flannel (snuggle flannel if you like)
• matching thread

Directions:

• Pre-wash your fabrics. Since these are intended for babies, use a non-scented detergent and skip the softener.
• Cut your fabrics to size and pin right sides together.
• Either serge the sides or use a wide zig-zag stitch and then trim the edges. Leave a few inches on one side to turn the fabric right side out.
  

  Top stitch the right sides to finish the edges and create a strong seam.

• Turn fabric right side out and re-pin edges together. Turn the un-serged/zig-zagged edges under and pin together.
• Top stitch the edges.
• That’s it.

Fleece is generally sold in 60″ widths and flannel tends to be 48″ so you’ll end up with extra fleece. If you’re feeling extra creative, you can cut the extra fleece into a monogram or other appliques. To sew on the applique, use a zig-zag stitch.

Another fun embellishment is to use a fun piece of ribbon as piping. Pin the ribbon sandwiched between the fabrics and with the bulk of the ribbon towards the center of your fabric when you are pinning the right sides together in the beginning.  When you flip the blanket right side out, the ribbon will extend past the seam.

Popularity: 10% [?]

I was going back through some old entries and realized that I promised to write this post last year, but never did. My bad.

Since this is the coffee post, you will obviously need a coffee machine for some and an espresso machine for others.  If you really like fancy-pants drinks, an espresso machine is a great investment. If you only drink 3 or 4 a year, go ahead and hit up Starbucks, it will be cheaper in the end.

On another note, most of these are the more classic recipes. If you’re used the SB’s coffee, you may need to make them sweeter.

Making Your Favorite Hot Drinks at Home Part One

Basic Simple Syrup Recipe (you can add flavorings for vanilla, mint, etc. to make flavored syrups.)

Cafe au Lait

• 1 part coffee
• 1 part milk

Irish Coffee

• 6-8 oz. hot coffee
• 1 jigger whiskey
• sugar, to taste
• 2-3 Tbsp heavy cream

Pour coffee into glass, sweeten. Add whiskey. Pour cream over back of spoon so it floats on top of coffee. (May take a little practice. Have the spoon almost, but not quite touching the top of the coffee.)

Americano

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz hot water

Cappuccino

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz frothed, steamed milk

Pour in espresso. Half fill cup with milk, finish filling with foam.

Latte

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz of frothed, steamed milk

Pour in espresso. Fill most of cup with milk, finish filling with foam.

Cafe Mocha

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz steamed milk
• ~ 2 teaspoons chocolate syrup

Pour chocolate syrup in bottom of cup. Add espresso and steamed milk.

Starbucks Style Macchiato

• 1 shot espresso
• 6 oz frothed, steamed milk
• ~ 2 tsp vanilla syrup (vanilla flavored simple syrup)
• ~ 2 tsp caramel sauce

Put vanilla syrup in bottom of cup. Fill cup most of the way with milk, finish with foam. Pour espresso over milk. Pour caramel sauce over top.

–

If you’re serving these drinks to guests, you may want to finish them with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon/cocoa powder or some homemade marshmallows.

For a fun tasting party, make a couple pots of coffee and get the espresso machine ready to go, set out a couple of bottles of flavored syrups and let people mix their own concoctions.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Add Home Depot to the list of places we won’t be getting installation from (the other offender is Lowes).

Now, in Home Depot’s defense, they did order the right carpet and pad and rectified the issue with the installation company immediately once we notified them, but a) we shouldn’t have had to deal with it in the first place and b) they’re the ones that hired the crappy installation company in the first place. Contractors ARE responsible for their sub-contractors.

Also, first, the discount story. When we went in the first time, there were two employees working with one couple. I guess this couple must have been spending major $$$, because instead of one of them breaking off to either help us or take down our order, they sent over the lady from the blinds department. She took 20 minutes to write down 10 lines of info and screwed up on both our installation (we needed carpet and pad removal and she only marked down pad removal) and on what carpet we wanted.

The next day, the employee in charge of the carpet department (who’s only in 9-5) called us up and basically informed us that we were getting a very basic carpet for a non-sale price and would we like to come in and look at the carpets on sale. Well we did, and got a very nice carpet for cheaper than what the basic carpet was. It would have been nice if we got this kind of customer service the day before, but I can’t fault this woman for not staying late.

Blah, blah, blah, carpet guys come to install. (Did I mention they called that morning to give us an installation window. At 7:30am they told us they were coming at 8am. Fortunately I had nothing to do that day.) They get here and point out that the carpet and pad were still in the room. Well, no duh, we asked for removal and haul away. Were they expecting my pregnant butt to do it? Of course this isn’t on their work order thanks to the Home Depot foul up and they have to wait for their boss to call Home Depot and get the okay.

They finish the install and ask me where I want the carpet. I wasn’t aware that Mr. had asked for haul away so I just told them to put in the garage. When I call Mr. to tell him that they were done and to watch out for the mess in the garage, he has to figure out what’s in there because they were supposed to take it all away. A call to Home Depot (the manager here was actually pleasant and helpful) and 4 hours later, they come get the carpet.

After dinner, Mr. happens to look up at the ceiling over our stairs and realizes that the installation guys have scraped a sizeable chunk or plaster off of the ceiling. What happened is instead of bringing up the carpet with two people, one idiot dragged it up doubled over and whacked the ceiling. Thanks, jerks. We wouldn’t have really even minded if the guys had been honest about it, because we’ve put in several dents along that hallway ourselves dragging things up and down the stairs.

So yeah, no more installation companies that we don’t contract with ourselves. Between the Lowes hired guy that wanted over $1,000 just to remove and replace a laminate counter (took Mr. and friend maybe 2 hours to do and that’s because they’d never done it before) and this company, we’re lost all faith in the companies around here.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Just got the call that the installers are coming at 8am, so I don’t think I’m going to actually get to write a post today. These are the second to last floors to be replaced (one last bedroom and the vinyl in the bathroom to go), and it means I can finally get all this baby stuff into the nursery and out of everywhere else! (I’ll tell the story of how we got a discount on this carpet later).

In any case, enjoy this picture of my pregnant butt in a Penguin Mario costume.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Slowly but steadily, I seem to be moving away from actual products and am replacing everything in my bathroom with ingredients from my kitchen. It’s a) cheaper and b) it works, so I’m not complaining, but I do get some weird looks when people ask me what product I use.

This video on making your own Rice Toner is from Michelle Phan. I’m not that big on her actual makeup looks, but she does give great advice on the actual application of products.

Popularity: unranked [?]

I got this idea from a catalog, where the silly thing was close to $60. I took one look at it and said ‘I can do that’.

Baby Onesie Bouquet

This project requires no artistic or crafting ability. If you can fold your own clothes, you can make this.

The whole project cost me about $22, although I did go whole hog and buy fancy flower stems at full price. If you wait until they go on sale (usually 50% off every few weeks) or until you have a coupon, I’m sure you could do this for under $20.

Ingredients:

Pack of onesies – I actually chose 8-12 month size because everyone gets newborn sizes.
Pack of baby washcloths – You can also use socks, burp cloths, etc. the cloths just happened to be on sale.
Artificial Flowers/Greenery – I used baby breath, whatever those blue things are (never claimed to be a florist) and fern leaves.
Floral Wire
Ribbon – I bought the $1 a roll grosgrain. You only need maybe 8 inches so scraps are fine.
Clear adhesive tape.

Step one: Roll your onesies. The goal is to get them into a nice spiral/rosebud shape so you might need to rearrange a few times to get it right. Use a little piece of tape to secure the roll. Reserve one washcloth/burpcloth for the outside wrap or find a nice piece of scrap cloth.
Step two: Arrange the onesies in bouquet. Use the floral wire to wrap around and secure them.
Step three: Add in floral pieces. Try to avoid putting dark flowers next to white or light fabric because the dye could rub off. Use floral wire as necessary to secure.
Step four: Surround bouquet with greens. I had to chop off a lot of stem to get the fullness I wanted. Secure with more floral wire.
Step five: Wrap base with reserved cloth. This just hides the stems. You could also just wrap the stems in ribbon. Use tape to secure.
Step six: Add ribbon band/bow. Secure with more tape.

The whole thing took me an hour, and that’s because I kept rearranging things. It’s simple, easy and pretty inexpensive, especially if you know the shower is coming and can shop sales ahead of time.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Sorry for the big breaks between posts. It’s just lately I don’t feel like I’ve got anything to say and I hate blogs where you can tell the owner is just posting for the sake of posting.

We’ve finished the floors on the first floor. And by we I mean Mr. because I sure wasn’t doing anything besides supervising.

Anyways, the end cost turned out to be a shade under $1,200 for 700 square feet (we did the foyer, the hall, the kitchen and the dining room all at once.) That price includes the laminate, the pad, the quarter round trim and all the assorted other minor things you need. We were fortunate that we were able to borrow the miter saw and other tools from a friend and several friends came over to help lay the actual floor down.

We went with laminate over engineered or true hard wood because of a) durability and b) cost. From what we understand, engineered isn’t as durable as laminate and in order to get one of the truly durable hardwoods (not all hardwoods are the same hardness) we’d be looking at around $5 a sq.foot and up. For that money, we could replace the laminate 3 times. To be honest, the laminate isn’t as good looking as a really nice hardwood, but I don’t really stare at my floor.

We also went with self-installation because we’re cheap (installation started at $1.99 a sq.foot, which would have doubled our cost) and because we choose a ‘floating’ laminate with click installation. Click installation laminate is not only easier to install because it snaps together, but you don’t have to worry about what’s underneath unless it’s remarkably uneven or you are working directly on the subfloor.

I wish I had some better pictures of the before floor (nasty, white vinyl laminate that hadn’t been taken care of so the stains just wouldn’t come up) but here are some shots.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Still not 100% done with the kitchen. We still need to install the sink (it has to get here first) and seal the tile on the island, but that should only take a few hours at most.

Mr had already ripped off the tile.

I wish I’d take some shots of the rotting caulk for the before. I’ll go into how badly they installed the counters when I do the full right up.

Instead of installing the tile properly, they just covered up the gorgeous piece of stained wood that was on the island before.

Even if you don't like my taste, I'm sure you can agree this looks a thousand times better.

Sealed up the whole where the ants were coming in, too.

Popularity: 14% [?]

We ripped out the counters today and we’re putting in the new laminate counters/tiled backsplash today and tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures for you and some more about our experience.

Altogether, the counter, tiled backsplash, new sink, new faucets and supplies to do all the installation cost us roughly $1,500. Not too bad for a renovation that will completely change the look of the kitchen.

Doing the labor ourselves (with the help of a knowledgeable friend) saved us about $1,000. We should be finished by tomorrow afternoon (except for the sink, which won’t arrive until the 9th) so it’s definitely a job that could be tackled on a weekend.

Popularity: 13% [?]

We decided to replace the rotting (no, really) counter in our kitchen. Since we are not rich and there are lots of other projects in the house that require urgent work, we decided to pop into our local Lowes and purchase a custom laminate counter.

After selecting the style and having our counters measured, we were told it would take three weeks for the counter to be manufactured and shipped.  That was three months ago.

Screw Up One: We get the call from Lowes to come pick up the counter. Mr. gets there, rents the truck and discovers that the counter was made with straight edged instead of rounded like we asked. Upon reviewing the order sheet, the counter salesperson realizes he made a mistake and reorders the counter. Mr. returns rented truck.

Screw Up Two: We get the call from Lowes to come pick up the counter. We gets there, Mr. rents the truck and discovers that the counter was made with both edges rounded instead of just the front, making it unusable for us. Upon reviewing the order sheet, the counter salesperson claims that the factory manufactured it incorrectly. Mr. returns rented truck.

Screw Up Three: We get the call from Lowes to come pick up the counter. Mr. gets there and remembering the pattern, asks to see the counter before he rents the truck. There is no counter. Some idiot called us to pick up the one they had f-ed up 3 weeks earlier.

Screw Up Four: We get the call from Lowes to come pick up the counter. Mr. gets there, examines the counter,  rents the truck and they manage to tear off a hunk of laminate while loading the counter into the truck for him. Loader tries to pretend nothing happened, but Mr. notices the piece of laminate fluttering to the ground and calls him out. It’s a minor piece, but it still needs to be glued on. Tired of waiting for a counter that looks like it may never show up, we decide to take it after they offer us a $200 discount.

All I can say is WE WILL NEVER SPECIAL ORDER ANYTHING FROM LOWES AGAIN.

We had also bought a lawnmower from Lowe’s about the same time we ordered the counter. The oil compartment was broken, something that we were unable to tell until Mr. started the engine and the damn thing spewed oil and gasoline all over the lawn. That wasn’t our main problem, because we had purchased a warranty for the machine, this was about 2 horus after the original purchase and, well, sometimes crap happens.

No, the problem was that we played phone tag for an hour with Lowes telling us to call one number. That number telling us to call a different department. That number telling us to call the manufacturer. The manufacturer telling us to call Lowes.

Then, Lowes wanted us to bring the now oil, gasoline and grass covered lawnmower that was still leaking back to Lowes. After patiently explaining to three representatives that we did not own a pick-up truck and there was no way we were putting that thing in our hatch back, Lowes decided we should rent a truck from them. Not ‘come borrow a rental and they’ll reimburse us’. So Mr. spent another thirty minutes convincing the repair department to schedule a pick up the stupid thing. We had to purchase a gasoline syphon in order to drain the tank so they would pick it up.

Ugh. And they say Home Depot has poor customer service.

Popularity: 21% [?]