So here is how. You need to buy a big can of tomato juice, V8 or Pineapple Juice. Empty it {by using it…waste not want not!} and then wash it out. Now you have a new bread pan!! Cool huh?
Make your bread dough, you use a little less than a normal loaf in these pans. Spray the pan really well and plop the dough down inside.
{Guest Posting} Crustless Bread – Who’d have thought?
{Guest Posting} Fruit and Yogurt Parfait
{Guest Posting} Do you ever feel a little overwhelmed reading blogs?
Welcome Kendra…blogger from The Things I Love!
A few months ago I read a blog titled The Super Mom, or something like that {I will not post the real title in case some of my readers know this person}. It had a lot of amazing ideas for any woman that has 400 extra hours during the day and $400 extra dollars to spend daily. I wrote this post a while back on my family blog and wanted to share it with you…..
Do you ever feel a little overwhelmed?? I did yesterday. I had a friend send me this link, The Super Mommy Blog saying how awesome this blog was. So I went to it, and then started scrolling down, and down, and down, WOW, by the end of page 3 I was thinking I am such a slacker mom. Don’t go look at it if you want to still feel like you are a good mom. I have always wanted to be a “super mom”, you know the mom that has crafts and food and decorations and an amazing scrapbooking contraption to make cute things for my whole house, but it just is so expensive, and time consuming. Then I started to think of all the food blogs that people have and wished that I cooked like them. I was on this “Wo is me” kick and turned the computer off.
I laid in bed that night and started thinking about it, and where we could get the money for me to do stuff like that, and then the thought came to me that those things are fun, and it is okay to do fun crafty things every so often, but it doesn’t need to consume me. I don’t need to decorate and bake and make tons of crafts for every holiday. Then I got to thinking that most people are not like this “super mommy” {the super mommy probably has her days of not being a super mommy}, but we are all super mommy’s and daddy’s in our own way. I started to think of things we do to help our kids everyday. Sure it would be fun to make amazingly cute crafts, bake yummy treats, and go on fun trips, but kids really don’t care. They care that we sit next to them and read to/with them, they care that we feed them good food, and a treat every so often, they care that we are teaching them about right and wrong, and about God and his plan for them. They care that we do fun things as a family, and they care about how much time we spend with them. They care that we have a warm house and a nice bed for them to sleep in. Then I realized, I may not be like this “super mommy”, but I am a “super” mom to my kids. I can not compare myself to other people and especially their blogs 🙂 So thank you Super mommy for your cute craft ideas, you keep them up and maybe one day I will make something from your blog!
I just read a couple of blogs today about how blogging posts can sometimes make the readers feel like the author is like Mary Poppins, Practically Perfect in Every Way!! I was just discussing this with my husband recently, and told him that I hope my readers don’t think I am some perfect mom that cooks and has a clean house, and perfectly well behaved children {My neighbors can attest to this} I do try, but we are all human and none of us are perfect. We all have hard days. Life is hard. I try to stick to a schedule, a menu plan, and be super healthy. I really wish that every day I could have time to cook perfectly healthy food from scratch for my kids and get take away all eating of high fructose corn syrup, white flour, white sugar and have it be all organic everything, but that will probably never happen. I wish my days went by perfectly. But they don’t…Strange huh. Not one day goes by as planned, I give in and make Yellow Death for lunch, I eat not just one but 6 chocolate chip cookies when I was trying to just do a treat a day. My kids talk back to me, I yell at my kids, my husband and I miscommunication and are frustrated with each other. I want you all to know I am in no ways perfect at everything put on here. I am just like you, a normal person trying to make my family life as good as I can. We sometimes miss Family Home Evening, Morning Prayer and reading scriptures. I have days where I get frustrated at my kids way to much. I have moments where I just go to my room and shut the door and cry because I am stressed out about finances and wish money grew on trees or my kids are being super naughty and I just can’t handle it anymore! Know that just because I home school does NOT mean that I was born with way more patience than you. I have my days where my kids and I butt heads and I just want to give up. I have hard days, don’t we all? I do think though, that we can make progress and work on things a step at a time. I know I will never be perfect at home school, dieting, crafting, feeding my kids healthy food or even being a super mom, but I do love to blog, and who really wants to hear about the hard things going on in my life. My blog, for me, is a time to look at the positive and to work on being a better me. I hope you enjoy what you read and keep coming back, and feel free to comment or email me if you have any question, I am happy to help!
{DIY} From The Blue Chair
I’m so excited for this next guest posting, because I actually know her personally and she’s awesome! I know that you are going to find her to be just dandy! She crafts, she quilts, she photographs, she blogs… I told you she is awesome! This particular guest posting doesn’t pertain to her quilting, but I LOVE her quilts. In fact she is entered right now in a Halloween quilting contest and you can vote for her fabulous Spooky Wonky Log Cabin HERE. It’s quilt #1 so get voting! :)  And here is my friend and former roomie, Kati…
Hi! I’m Kati from the blue chair. Thanks so much to Tara for letting me do a guest post today about my blue chair. Tara and I were roommates in college. I certainly have some good stories, but we’ll stick to refurnishing chairs today.
I have a thing for chairs. I like to get them from Goodwill for around $5 and paint them. It’s become a bit of a problem. My husband even asked me recently to stop. I guess no more Goodwill chairs for a while, but at least I have my favorite chair to use every day while I sew. This is the chair that inspired my blog name—from the blue chair. This was a pretty sad little Goodwill find, but sturdy. He definitely had some potential, but needed a lot of love.
When scouring for chairs I look for a few things—sturdy, solid wood, relatively good condition, and character (you don’t want just a plain old kitchen chair). Sit in it. Wiggle the back. Flip it upside down and make sure those legs are well attached. Once you have your chair, get it ready to paint.
Painting prep:
This guy needed some work, but it wasn’t too bad. I filled the deep scratches with wood filler then sanded the edges a bit to smooth things over. I cleaned it and wiped all surfaces down with an everyday kitchen cleaner. Then I wiped it with a clean, damp cloth.
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Replacing the seat:
I removed the original seat by flipping it over and unscrewing it from the bottom. Then I cut a piece of high density foam using the seat base as my template. My foam was 2†which is pretty thick but I sit in this guy while sewing. I wanted it to be comfortable. I used a little hot glue to adhere it to the seat base.
The seat fabric is Tufted Tweets in Grass by Laurie Wisburn. I chose the fabric for the seat cover because I adore it, but it’s quilting weight fabric and not available in décor weight. To strengthen the fabric, I fused it to heavy twill using Ultra Heat and Bond. This made it a bit more difficult to work with than normal décor weight fabric, but it made it durable for long-term use. After getting the fabric ready, I started stapling it on using a craft staple gun. I did the sides first and then the front and back, pulling the fabric as tightly as I could.
Painting:
To paint this guy I used Pacific Sea Teal in gloss by Bear from Home Depot. I chose to brush on the paint rather than spray painting because I was a bit particular about the color and there aren’t a lot of color options in spray paint. I used their Ultra paint with primer in it, making painting one easy step.
Finishing:
After allowing the paint to cure for a couple days, I attached the seat using the original hardware. After a little work, some new paint and fabric, I have a funky new sewing chair that I love!
Painted chairs make a fun accent in any room or a fabulous photography prop. For a super funky look, collect an assortment of chairs and paint them each a different color for your dining room table. My next chair project might be a pink one. My three-year-old has requested a pink chair for the dinner table. I just might indulge her.
{DIY} Hairstyling Tips From The Wright Hair
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I just wanted to let everyone know the story of The Wright Hair…
I am fairly new to blogging about hair but I have been doing my oldest daughters hair since the day she was born almost 7 years ago. The first thing out of the doctor’s mouth was I hope you ordered a girl with a full head of hair. My oldest has the most gorgeous thick brown hair. Doing her hair was a so much fun and her hair always turned out so cute.
When my 2nd daughter arrived we were not so lucky with the hair genes. She has very thin straight hair. Her hair doesn’t grow very fast either. She is 3 now and her hair is cut into an A line. It was with the frustrations of my youngest hair that I started The Wright Hair Blog.
I figured if I struggled this much doing her hair there must be others struggling too. I am a working mom and getting my girls ready every morning is the best time of the day for me. This is our quality time without other distractions. Right now my girls and I are enjoying our time together. I am sure it will only be a short time before my oldest wants to do her own hair. But for now we invite you to join us on the Wrights Journey through hair. Because of being a working mom, sometimes we will do fancy dos and sometimes quick dos, other times are do’s are don’ts but we welcome everyone to come along for the ride.
I also want to share a few tips I have learned along my journey of doing hair.
Tip 1. For a smooth hairstyle especially for braids it is always better to do the hair while it is wet. So either right out of the tub or spray the area with a squirt bottle.
Tip 2. Remember that bobbie pins are your friends. If a style is not working exactly how you want use bobbie pins to move the hair and keep it in place. On the market now is bobbie pin that is about half the size as the old ones, these are perfect for little girl’s hair.
Tip 3. For infants use Karo Syrup or a stick of Glue to attach bows onto their head. Both of these are easy to use and will come off with water or during their bath.
Tip 4. If you want to use sponge curlers remember to make smaller parts if your daughter has thick hair. Otherwise the hair will not dry by morning.
Tip 5. For ringlets I use a special curling iron that has grooves in it. When using this curling iron the ringlets stay in all day and can be used for a 2nd day style (with a few touch ups)
For more tips and cut hairstyles check out my blog at thewrighthair.blogspot.com.
I would also love for all of you to share your styles and tips with me. You can post your pictures on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Hairstyles-for-girls-The-Wright-Hair/117955318220916?ref=sgm.
{DIY} Bat Shirt with Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
We are so lucky to host Sumo, from Sumo’s Sweet Stuff today here at Dandy Giveaway! Here’s Summer:
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Thank you Summer! I love this bat shirt — I think it’s equal parts hilarious and adorable. I will be making one for my own little guy for Halloween for sure — I just hope it’s as cute as hers. We’ll see, huh?Â
{DIY} Photography With Belle Petite Photo
Do you like to take pictures of the kiddos, but could use some helpful tips? Well then our next guest posting is sure not to disappoint. Ready for the dandiness? Here you go!Â
Hi! My name is Sarah and like many of you out there, I LOVE taking pictures!Â
Especially of my husband and daughter :0) People often ask me when I started out with photography and I tell them that I was the girl in junior high and high school that always had a camera! Thankfully digital cameras came around so that I can now take pictures to my heart’s content without paying a fortune. After the birth of my daughter I started taking even more pictures and before I knew it I had started a blog, Belle Petite Photo, and was taking pictures for family and friends and clients. I still have a LONG way to go with my photography, but I’m enjoying the journey. For those of you who are looking to take your photography up a notch, here are a few simple suggestions:
1) Take lots of pictures. (Even very experienced photographers take a lot of pictures…it gives them options to work with after the photo shoot is done.) Especially when you’re taking pictures of your kids in action….the more you take, the better chance you have of getting a great one! Plus, sometimes it is fun to put a series of pictures together.
2) Try a new perspective. Too often we document our cute-kid moments the same way every time, from above. Try getting down on THEIR eye level or even laying on the ground to capture moments. (i.e. your infant learning how to crawl). More interesting perspective = More interesting picture.
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3) Zoom in, zoom out. Try zooming completely out to get the whole scene then zooming in to focus in on what’s happening. Then, try capturing the same scene from a different angle or area of the room. Each picture will paint a different part of the story.
4) Use whatever you have. My first few photo shoots were done with my Canon 3.2 point and shoot. (I was a little sheepish to accept $70 for such a photo shoot, but hey…that was all I had at the time and it worked! Don’t worry folks, I only use my Nikon DSLR for photo shoots these days :0)) If I’ve only brought our camcorder to an event I’ll take still shots with that and call it good. Really, it doesn’t have to be an expensive piece of equipment to capture great moments :0)Â
If you have a second, click here to see my blog! If you have two more seconds, I’d love to get a comment too! Most of my time is spent with my sweet little family, but if you do live in the St. Louis area and are interested in booking a photo shoot, I do have some available sessions. Email me at: bellepetitephotographie@gmail.com