10 Days, 3 Cousins, and a Load of Projects

Rachel and I were lucky enough to have ten days together in Louisiana. Rachel and I normally go about six months at a time without seeing each other, so when we do see each other we get super excited. I had never been to Rachel's home in the South, so it was high time I made a trip. Before I arrived, we planned out a few projects we wanted to complete while we were together. Crafting, chatting, and chasing kids summed up our aspirations.

If there is one thing my sister and I have in common it's living life in high speed. We are always busy with a project, helping with an event, or running to catch a friend. This trip would be no exception. When I arrived we instantly went to work making memories.

On the way home from the airport we made a pit-stop for the kiddos to take a break from their car seats and, more importantly, use the bathroom. We chose Cabelas simply because it's basically awesome. Little O was psyched about looking at the fish tank, so we looked at the fish and the stuffed wild game before taking off.

The next day we hit up the swamp center, which is a type of city park that has been kept as a natural swamp. There are beautiful trails that weave in and out of the swampy waters with board walks along the way to keep your feet dry. We spent some time in the swamp center building looking at the tanks of swamp creatures. We even saw baby alligators!

 This is the first of many adventures during my trip that we used Rachel's double jogger stroller. Can you say "life saver"??? That thing is like driving a Cadillac. We put the two babies in the jogger for this trip and Little O walked alongside us.

On the way out we stopped to look at the turtles in the turtle pond and we were just in time to spot a baby possum in a tree nearby! After the possum siting we went home and geared up for the next outing.

I was able to meet Rachel's friends the next day at playgroup where we all met at the Arboretum. The grounds were beautifully kept and we once again busted out the double jogger to take the kids on a stroll through the gardens. The kids had a blast playing on the deck where we all ate lunch together. Activities with mommas and kiddos are always awesome because there is so much common ground for the moms to talk about. Its nice to get together with other women that are in the exact same situation and stage of life. Once the kids wore themselves out, we loaded up and headed out.

Rachel is pretty much the sweetest person you will ever meet. She is always worried about others and willing to do whatever it takes to help someone. This is something I have always admired about Rachel. She volunteered to help with a baby shower for a friend of hers in the ward and she had a few projects she needed to complete to prepare. I jumped at the chance to create and together we landed ourselves at Hobby Lobby with a cart full of babies and Little O to the side of us. Now, the craft store is one of my favorite places on earth, so to be with my sister, one of my favorite people on earth, in the craft store... I was in heaven!!! It was so fun. We browsed pretty much every aisle and when we left there we had everything we needed to execute at least three projects (one of those including 20 Christmas gifts). We do not take the craft store lightly. ;)

The rest of my days spent with Rache and her family consisted of lots of crafting, kids playing, the New Orleans Zoo, the French Quarter, checking out LSU, and walking around the gorgeous pond on campus.

Crafty-Crafts ;)
At this time we will let you in on a few of our adorable crafts. The first one was an adorable bunting created for the baby shower as a decoration for the fireplace mantle. We purchased the paper in a pre-cut bunting-shaped pad. That made it so easy because all we had to do was mix a couple other paper prints (which we cut in matching bunting shapes) in with those pieces and string them together. We used hemp as the string and the colors we chose for the paper were cream, green, blue, and brown. This was a baby boy's shower with a cowboy theme, so we used rustic looking paper along with our rustic-feeling string.

The next craft was equally adorable, but we can't take credit because we saw the idea on Pinterest. Rachel was trying to come up with a party favor idea and she thought that these "smores-in-a-bag" would be adorable to go along with the cowboy theme.

The last craft I am going to share with you was our biggest feat. We chose to make personalized kitchen towels for some of our family members using flour sack dish cloths and fabric paint.

We wanted each towel to have the kids' hand prints or footprints incorporated in a cute design. The idea seemed simple enough in our minds. Until we found ourselves surrounded by babies and toddlers with painted hands, 20 towels, and crying background noises.

 Have no fear, we do have a solution. This project is super cute and a useful gift so we suggest keeping the amount of hand prints on each towel limited and doing less towels at a time, this will make it simple. Once the towels were all painted we let them dry. Once dry, we needed to set our paint to ensure its durability. (Note: We chose to set our paint because we used fabric paint along with a couple colors of acrylic paint. We wanted to make sure the acrylic was going to stay on the fabric well. If you are only using fabric paint this is not necessary. Investigate the directions on the back of whatever type of fabric paint you are using.) We set the paint by following these steps:
A. Heat up a clothes iron to the highest setting for the type of fabric you painted on.
B. Place a pressing cloth over the painted design.
C. Iron over the pressing cloth (atop the deisgn) for 10 seconds.
D. Lift the iron and move to another section of the painted design with the pressing cloth.

The towels turned out so cute and we can't wait to give them as gifts. Now we will tie them up with some Christmas ribbon and they will be ready to go.

After my 10 days were up I was sad to go, but I am excited that the holidays are almost here and it won't be too long until my sister will be back for Christmas. Just in time to do some holiday baking together. :)

you may heat set the painted piece using a dry iron and a pressing cloth by laying the pressing cloth over the painted fabric and iron the painted design for 10 seconds, lift the iron and move it to another section of the painted design. Your iron should be set at the highest setting allowed for the fabric used. - See more at: https://www.plaidonline.com/is-it-necessary-to-heat-set-my-fabric-painting-pro/2602/faq.htm#sthash.9283oB7u.dpuf

you may heat set the painted piece using a dry iron and a pressing cloth by laying the pressing cloth over the painted fabric and iron the painted design for 10 seconds, lift the iron and move it to another section of the painted design. Your iron should be set at the highest setting allowed for the fabric used. - See more at: https://www.plaidonline.com/is-it-necessary-to-heat-set-my-fabric-painting-pro/2602/faq.htm#sthash.9283oB7u.dpuf

you may heat set the painted piece using a dry iron and a pressing cloth by laying the pressing cloth over the painted fabric and iron the painted design for 10 seconds, lift the iron and move it to another section of the painted design. Your iron should be set at the highest setting allowed for the fabric used. - See more at: https://www.plaidonline.com/is-it-necessary-to-heat-set-my-fabric-painting-pro/2602/faq.htm#sthash.9283oB7u.dpuf

Menu Planning: 4 Easy Steps + Bonus Menu Printable

When Mike and I headed to the grocery store for the first time as newly weds, I realized I had no idea what we needed to buy. When I was living at home, my mom did all the grocery shopping. If she sent us to the store, it was always with a list. When she went to the store, she's the kind of woman who just remembers what she needs in her pantry for what she wants to make that week. Now, jump to my husband and I wandering through the aisles of Albertson's. I quickly found that I am not that kind of woman! I'm the kind of woman who needs a written plan of attack when it comes to mealtime. So, I began to meal plan.

I've now been meal planning for our little family for 5 years.

I can't tell you how much stress, time, and money it's saved us! For this woman, it's the way to go.

At first, meal planning may seem like a daunting task, but it's really pretty simple!

Here is a step-by-step guide to meal planning done easy:

1- Scout out the pantry, fridge, and cupboards.

I always meal plan on Friday night or Saturday morning, so I can do my grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon. On the day or two leading up to Friday, I start thinking about what we might want to eat the following week. Then, as I'm prepping meals or digging through the fridge for a snack on Friday, I make little mental notes about what we have that needs to be used. I've found that it's easier to come up with ideas for meals when you have a base of ingredients you want to work with.

Optional 2- Check out the sales and flip through your coupons.

If you're wanting to start to meal plan to save money, then this step is a must! Just glance through the ads and come up with a couple meals around what's on the best sale that week. If you have some coupons, then it's even better!

2- Grab a pencil and your menu.

I've always used a good old-fashioned piece of lined paper for our menu. It's not always the prettiest on the fridge, but I'm kind of easy-going, so it's not a big deal to me. Plus, it's a great way to use up all those half-used notebooks you know you have lying around! However, if you'd love a little prettier option for your fridge, then I've whipped up this little menu for you! Just click on it and print the pdf.

Menu PDF

3- Start to fill in your meals.

As you get ready to fill in meals, keep a couple things in mind:

---What's on the calendar for this week? Is there a crazy night when you'll need something quick and simple? Any holidays or potlucks coming up? Guests coming?

---Do you want to plan for every meal, or just the ones where everyone is home?

---Do you have a space for leftovers?

Now, just plug the meals in where they fit best for your week. I like to do more simple meals on the weekdays and trickier meals on the weekend when Mike and I can tag team with the kiddos. I also like to plan one new recipe a week, so we get to try new things. If you plan new recipes, you might want to make a note about where you found them, so you can find them easily later. (I learned this lesson the hard way...)

4- Grab your grocery list and go through your menu.

I love this part, because it makes the shopping list so easy! Just run through your menu and write down any ingredients you need to purchase. Add any extra staples that you might be running low on, and voila`, you're ready to hit up the grocery store!

That's it! I told you it was easy, didn't I? Everyone has time for 4 simple steps, right?!

So, go for it and have fun planning!