Penny

Penny
Sweet Puppy.... as long as she's sleeping

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Missing In Blogging Action

I've gone 14 days without blogging.  I've really wanted to and had a few good blog topic ideas, but I just haven't had time.  I started substitute teaching so that I can continue working in a classroom environment while I was searching for a full time teaching position.  That's taken a lot of my time and energy away from fun things like blogging and watching TV.  So, I hope that this post will serve as a post to both catch up and update, all at once.

What's Been Happening the Last 14 Days:

  • I started typing a very passionate blog about my feelings toward the Komen Foundation and all of the bad press they were getting a few weeks ago, but I started substitute teaching and the post was left largely unfinished.  However, it was quaintly titled "I Thought We Were Saving The Ta-tas?".  Now that the media firestorm and public outcry basically strong-armed Kommen into renewing support to Planned Parenthood, no one has really heard anything about it since and it does not seem like it's worth getting up in arms about again.
  • My diaper cake was also a large success at the baby shower.  My husband even remarked that it "looked professional."  I had so much fun making it, I want to make more!  Friends, start having babies.  Or maybe I should start a little side business.  Hrm.....


What's Going on Right Now
  • Valentine's Day was yesterday.  My husband and I didn't really celebrate the holiday that much at all - I did make him picture frame that has our wedding vows and a picture of us from our wedding, but we decided to just veg out and will celebrate "Birthentine's Day" next week on my birthday.  While it bummed me for about a second seeing all of the pictures of flowers on facebook with captions that said "My boyfriend/husband/lover is the BEST.EVER", I realized a second later that my allergies are so bad I couldn't even smell them so it would've been a waste of $50.  My husband did attempt to get me some flowers, but there were no parking spaces at the local grocery store and he thought it would take too long to get the flowers and wanted to come home and see me.  Which I think is a super sweet sentiment.
  • Nationwide, we're experiencing an exceptionally mild winter, which has led to an early onset of allergy season.  Which means I'm miserable and can't breathe and basically hate my life right now.

That's about all I can think about right now.  But I have several ideas for posts coming up, so I promise to be more frequent on here!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The First Time I.......

Welcome to the second episode of "the first time I...."!  Today, I made a diaper cake for the first time, so I wanted to share it on my blog because I'm super duper excited!

I've wanted to make a diaper cake for a long time, but I've never been brave enough/taken the time & energy to make one.  However, one of my oldest and dearest friends is having a baby this Spring.  Hurray! We have been friends since 6th grade.  We lived together on two separate occasions.  I was a bridesmaid in her wedding, she was a bridesmaid in my wedding.  She is wonderfully special to me, by golly, so she was worth the effort it took to experiment with this project!

First, I gathered my supplies:


Then, I sat down and rolled up all 84 diapers.  To hold them in place, I used these clear plastic hair bands.  To roll them up, start at the bottom, small end and roll it up to the top, and then wrap it with the hair band.


                                                   
Finally, I had a nice, big, stack of rolled up diapers!


Next, I took a big rubber band and put it around a bottle of lotion.  This served as my base.  Then I just kept adding diapers until I had three layers around the lotion.  Then start level two.


For the first layer, I used a small bottle so it could also serve as a vase for the top.  To make it stable, I used a sticky dot to attach the bottle to the lotion pump.


Then comes the ribbon.  Hurray ribbon!  Now, you may say "why isn't this blue or pink or sea foam green"?  Well, the mamma-to-be went to VCU (go Rams!) and bleeds black & yellow.  Her theme for the nursery is black, gray, and yellow and her stroller set and car seat that she got are simply adorable!  So I am continuing the theme!  I put the ribbon around the cake layers, and then topped the cake with flowers!



Now, time for decorations!  I used the sticky dots to attach craft sticks to the mini-bottles.  Then I scattered them around the layers.  I also rolled up some mittens and socks to look semi-flower like and tucked them into the cake layers.

     
   

And - drum roll please - here is my finished project!!  The ribbons aren't perfect right now, and it's a little lopsided, but I have to transport it to the baby shower next weekend, which is 3 hours away, so I am going to take all the supplies with me and touch it up and make everything perfect then.  I am just so tickled and proud, I wanted to share it with you today!


Overall, this project was really easy!  It took me exactly 2 1/2 hours to do this.  I started at 11:40 and finished at 2:10.  The longest part was rolling up the diapers, that took me 35 minutes.  I had a lot of fun and would happily do it again!