Diaper cakes!

One thing I'm ALWAYS getting invited to is baby showers (could it be I live in South Eastern Idaho??). I'm not complaining I think they are a lot of fun! I babysit kids all the time so even though I don't have kids of my own (yet) I still can feel like I have something to add for the new mom. I don't even mind the games at the parties, some of them are a lot of fun! I'll have to post some game ideas later.

The one thing I HATE about baby showers is shopping for a gift! I swear there's always one or two people that end up buying the same gift! Plus I can never decide what to get them! Everything is sooo cute (I'm a girl I know you feel the same way!)!!! And it seems like you never see the kid in that cute outfit you bought for them, who knows if they even get to wear it!

Well, one day I found some pictures of a diaper cake and the wheels started turning! It was such a great idea! It's simple, not that expensive and it's something I KNOW the mom is going to use! I've made quite a few diaper cakes over the years and they are always a hit at the shower. There has never been two diaper cakes at the parties either! I think it's because they are so expensive if you buy one from someone else instead of making one. Trust me they are so easy! I just can't seem to remember to take pictures of each step but I'm going to walk you through it today. If you have any questions please let me know and I can explain it differently or I'll just make one and post some pictures.

How to make a diaper cake

Ingredients:
One package of diapers you can use more but I find that one seems to be just enough. It's
about 48 diapers. Any size will do but I try to stay close to size one or two.
Rubber bands regular sized
Big round plate or cardboard to place the cake on
Stick or dowel
Ribbon choose ribbon that is kind of thicker, like 1/2 inch or more. Choose any color or pattern
you'd like
Straight pins this is a maybe if you want you can use them to secure the ribbon.
Some extras you don't have to get these but it's kind of fun!:
Onesies (you know the undershirts for babies), binkies or pacifiers (what ever you call it,
Find out if the mom wants to use it. I have found that there are a few people who will not use
it.) Rattles, Blankets, stuff animals, teething rings, bottles, bibs, whatever floats
your boat.

Directions:

1. Roll all of the diapers. Start at the open end of the diaper and roll towards the bottom or folded end. Rap the rolled diaper with a rubber band. Make sure the rubber band is in the middle of the diaper roll. Repeat until all the diapers are rolled up.
2. Creating the foundation of the cake. Place the plate or cardboard in front of you. I bought plastic cake plate from the dollar store; it's one of my favorite bases. If you are using cardboard you can cut it into a circle later when you know how big your cake is going to be.
   
3. First tier of the cake. This part will be easy if you have those large hands that you can palm a basket ball with, but I don't have those hands so it's harder for me. Place four diapers together in the center of your cake. They should be standing up and down (tall). Hold with one hand and start adding more diapers to the circle. Once you get to the point that you can't hold anymore with your hands stretch a rubber band over the group of diapers. Now add more diapers by pulling the rubber band out a little and fitting the diaper in the circle. Try to keep the general shape of a circle. Once you think you have a good sized first tier then you can go on the the next tier. You can always add or take away diapers later on.
   
4. Second tier of the cake. Same as the first, just not as big. I like my second tier to be about one end of the diaper roll smaller then the first diaper tier (Hope you guys get that...). Once the second tier is about the right size you can move on to tier three.
5. Third tier of the cake. Same as the first, just not as big. I normally stop here but you can keep adding tiers.
   
6. Shaping the cake. Now you may have some extra diapers or not enough diapers, you'll just have to move them around and fit them into the different tiers until your cake looks right. Now place the tiers on top of each other in the correct order and place it on the plate. If you are using cardboard this is where you can cut the cardboard into a circle.
   
7. Frosting the cake. Even if you got the cute colored rubber bands, it still looks funny so let's cover it up. Circle reach tier with the ribbon to measure them cut at the right length. You can either secure the ribbon by tying a bow or by using straight pins. The ribbon should cover the rubber bands. Sometimes you need to move the rubber bands around to make this happen.
   
8. Decorating the cake. If you bought some of the extra stuff this is where you decorate the cake with it! The onesies you can take a diaper or two out and replace them with the onesies (just fold them to be the same size of a diaper then roll it up). You can use extra ribbon to tie the extra stuff to the cake.

Something extra you can do is buy the big cellophane gift bags from the dollar store they are just the right size. I would first put in the plate, then the first tier then the second then the third. It helps to have some one there to help you. Then gather the top of the bag and tie with a ribbon.

Here's a picture of the last one I did.



This cake was for a little boy that is suppose to come into the world this Saturday! Good luck to her! I did use cardboard with this one. I like adding a little animal on the top of the cake. This rubber ducky was only a dollar from Wal-mart!

I love making these then seeing the look on the mom-to-be's face! It's fun to be able to personalize the cakes too, they can be for a little girl (pink or purple of course) or for a boy (blue or green) or if you don't know the sex of the baby it can work too (yellow or white)! If the parents are in to sports you can do a sport's theme cake. You can match the cake to the nursery too! The possibilities are endless!

Have fun making this gift for your next baby shower!!!

MS, aka Multiple Sclerosis

We just found out that my mother in law has MS or Multiple Sclerosis. I really don't know much about MS and what I can tell not very many people know about it either. So of course I went to the trusty rusty internet. I thought I'd post a few facts about MS I learned yesterday.

I think I'll just do some bullet points so it's a quick read but you can still learn something.

• It's a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS).
• MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease. Which means your body's immune system attacks your CNS.

(You can click on the picture to enlarge)

• The places where your CNS is damaged is called legions.
  
• The symptoms of MS aren't the same for everyone.
• Some of the symptoms of MS are: fatigue, memory, thinking, mood, depression, muscle spasms and stiffness, and speech difficulties
  
• An estimated 2,500,000 people in the world have MS, it is more common in countries further away from the equator. (So they believe that Vitamin D might have something to do with it.)
• Three women have MS for every two men
• There is no cure for MS but there are now drugs which can modify its course for some people and many symptoms can be successfully treated or managed (my Mother in law is looking at taking Rebif.)
  
• MS is not directly inherited, but genetics play an important role in who gets the disease. While the risk of developing MS in the general population is 1/750, the risk rises to 1/40 in anyone who has a close relative (parent, sibling, child) with the disease. Even though identical twins share the same genetic makeup, the risk for an identical twin is only 1/4—which means that some factor(s) other than genetics are involved
• Multiple Sclerosis actually means "many scars."

I looked at these websites for this information:
UK MS society (I know this is the UK site but it was a fun little website with lots of info.)
National MS society (This site was the first I found and I sent a lot of time here.)

While I was researching this information I found some blogs that are written by people with MS I think I'll start a blog roll with them. Let's show them some support and visit them every once and awhile.

http://myjourneywithms-kimberly.blogspot.com/
http://my-ms-and-me.blogspot.com/
http://mymsjournal.blogspot.com/
http://navigatingthejourneyofms.blogspot.com/
http://livingdaytodaywithmultiplesclerosis.blogspot.com/

I hope you have learned something about MS that you may not have known before. I know I have and I'll continue to learn about it.

Food storage!!!

Just being married over a year ago I'm just barely getting into food storage. Yes I buy extras of everything we eat so I think we're sitting ok.... We do need more tho. I am always looking for more ideas on food storage and today I ran across a great thing: a giveaway!!!!!!!!! Check out Shelf Reliance's blog by clicking here. Every other Friday they are going to have a give away! How cool is that??? This weeks give away is the Harvest 72″!! This thing is pretty cool! You'll have to go check it out!

You can get 5 entries in the drawing by doing different things... This is the final one for me!

Apron

I've been making these aprons for almost a year now. It started off as a Christmas gift for all my husband's siblings and now I think it's a great bridal shower gift! They are really easy to personalize. On one of my in-law's aprons I had pink camo on one side and regular green camo on the other, they love being outside and hunting so it totally fit their personalities!

I did this apron for a friend of mine who was just married this weekend. The apron matches their wedding colors since those are her favorite colors.




I used the zig zag stitching around the edges.



Here's the pocket, I think it looks pretty cool to switch the fabric up on the pocket.


I couldn't make it to her bridal shower because of work so we added it to our wedding gift. It was set of silverware that we own and Kelsey fell in love with it! Luckily they are still selling it at Target!


This is how I fold the aprons I think it looks pretty cool!


I think they are really fun to make! I'd post the pattern but I bought it and I believe it's copy righted. I think aprons are a really great gift idea. For Christmas I put together a basket with the apron and some dry mixes in jars, I also added some cooking utensils. It was a fun gift!

I promise

I'm sorry that I started this blog and kind of dropped it.... I promise I think of it all the time! haha I am working on TWO new projects (craft-wise) that I'll post soon! One is a gift for a friend that is getting married this weekend and I don't want to give away the surprize too early! The other is Luke's quilt. He asked me to make him a quilt using his old jerseys!! I'm pretty excited because there are only four colors!! haha He didn't jump teams too much did he...

The one problem I've been running into is the price of fabric! Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about and $8.00 a yard is a good price.... Where do you go for fabric? What's a good price to you for fabric?