Tuesday, April 10, 2012

twitter party + giveaway!

twitter party - they're giving away a limited edition !

Monday, April 9, 2012

diy maxi dress - easiest dress EVER!

in a previous post, i mentioned making this dress. well, i did it! lessons learned: i should have gotten just a LITTLE more fabric so it would be longer, and i should have used 2 packets of dye instead of just 1. i have enough fabric to make a 2nd dress, so i'll at least try the 2 dye packets w/ that one so i hopefully get a deeper, richer color. if it works, i'm going to redye this one w/ the same color so it deepens too. i also want to cut the neckline a little lower b/c it felt just a tad too high for my preferences. lastly, the people at joann's insisted i needed to use ball point pins and a ball point needle on my sewing machine to keep the fabric from tearing, and they recommended using the stretch stitch instead of a straight or zigzag stitch or my serger. well, none of that worked out so well for me. i have little holes all along the side seams of my dress from the ball point needle, so for dress #2, i'm going to try using my serger instead. either way, here's a picture of my dress:


i got so many compliments on this dress when i wore it to church yesterday! everyone seemed impressed that i made it (even after i told them how easy it was). i was impressed w/ the fact that i was comfortable in it. normally i HATE wearing dresses and skirts. i'm just not comfortable AT ALL in them. i wore this dress all day (unheard of for me - usually i'm back in my jeans as soon as i get home from church) and felt great! i am definitely a fan of the maxi dress, this one in particular, since it's modest and i didn't have to fuss w/ it all day to get it to sit right on my body. double win!

easter eggs hunts!

normally we just do an easter egg hunt on our own. since we live in an apartment and have no yard, this generally means going to a local park and hiding eggs while the kids are playing and not paying attention. this year we were invited to hunt for easter eggs at 2 different friends' houses, and since they were on different days, we went to both. the kids had a BLAST and loved being able to play w/ other kids while doing their "egg hunt" (as trevor called it).

friday we got together w/ some other families from church and had an easter egg hunt for the toddlers and preschoolers:

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on sunday, we went to visit another friend and had an easter egg hunt w/ their kids as well:

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then, since it was SO HOT (forecast said it would be around 70. it was actually 85!), they broke out the slip'n slide and the hose:

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overall, it was a great weekend, filled w/ fun and friends. i love getting to spend time outside w/ my family - i feel like it just brings us closer together while helping w/ the inevitable cabin fever we all get this time of year! :)

easter: resurrection rolls

so yesterday was easter, as you all know. we had a GREAT weekend here, filled w/ fun and friends! :)

on thursday, jon took the day off work for my birthday. we went to ihop for breakfast - free meals for jon and i, wahoo! so we only paid $14 for all 4 of us to have breakfast (the kids split a meal, plus we all got drinks). then we got things for scott's birthday party that's coming up, and took trevor to swimming.

that afternoon, we made resurrection rolls. these are seriously my new favorite thing! it's a great object lesson on the real meaning of easter for kids, plus the end result is INCREDIBLY delicious! here's directions:

preheat the oven to 350 F. read st. john 19 (we paraphrased, since there was NO WAY our kids would sit through listening to it all any other way).

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reading st. john 19


unroll a can of cresent rolls - the rolls represent the cloth used to wrap jesus' body.

hold up a large marshmallow (you'll need 8 per can of crescent rolls). explain that it represents jesus - white, clean, and pure.

dip the marshmallow in melted butter. the melted butter represents the oils used to annoint the body in preparation for burial.

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dipping marshmallows in melted butter


roll the marshmallow in cinnamon-sugar. the cinnamon-sugar represents the spices used to preserve the body prior to burial.

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rolling in cinnamon-sugar
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scott wanted a do all the marshmallows himself!
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trevor got to do a few too


wrap the marshmallow in the crescent roll dough, making sure to pinch together all the edges so the marshmallow is completely covered. the dough represents the cloth used to shroud the body.

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wrapping the marshmallows


place dough-wrapped marshmallows on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. place the cookie sheet in the oven. the oven represents the tomb where jesus was buried. bake for 12 minutes.

while the rolls are baking, read st. john 20:1-18. open the "tomb" and remove the rolls. when the rolls are cool enough to handle, break one open and see what happened:

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HE IS RISEN! HAPPY EASTER!