DIY cloth training pants!

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

**update: These cloth training pants are now available for purchase at my shop www.etsy.com/shop/theflannellamb

 First of all, I have an important announcement: Abbey slept in big girl pants all night last night!! Yaaayyyy!!!

She slept in these:

Snow Dough

Hi friends!

Need something fun to do inside on a snowy day? Or a too-stinkin'-cold-out-there day? Or a we had snow yesterday, but now it's 40 and thunderstorming day? This is good for all of those! Even when they all happen in one week. Welcome back to Chicago, Heather.

1LW Wednesday #4

Hi Everyone! I am so excited that we have Andrea (aka retrohipmama) of she*sCRAFTY with us here today! She was our most viewed link up for the first 2 weeks of 1LW, so you guys must love what she has to say! I know I do! 

So, without further adieu....Andrea, and her 1LW: ENJOY!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

  via
 honestly, no one's really looking at you or talking about you or thinking about you like you think they are. so you know what? do whatcha like! i wore pink sweater tights to work. i enjoyed myself and paid them no mind. (even though my office gals said i looked super cute.)
 
 i took gibson out for dinner to Buffalo Wild Wings. he sat on the same side as me in the booth. sometimes quietly watching the only tv with football on. sometimes joking around with his chicken strips. sometimes quiet. sometimes dancing a little crazy to that stupid milkshake song. we enjoyed ourselves and paid them no mind.
 
 gibson told me that he and matt were driving last week in the car and they were having a shouting contest. (this happens often in our house. matt will holler, then gibson will holler louder and they go back and forth getting louder and louder and more ridiculous, each of them trying not to break into laughter.) but matt topped the charts of hilarity when he rolled down the window and yelled out at the top of his lungs. i asked gibson if he enjoyed himself and he answered yes but it was a little embarrassing. then i reminded him to pay them no mind.   marshall wanted to sleep in his cowboy hat the other night. he says he's not a dirty rotten scoundrel so i let him enjoy himself and we paid no mind to conventional sleeping arrangements.
It's what we enforce and re-enforce with gibson (and soon with marshall) so often is 'just do you'. don't be anyone else. don't let anyone else suck the joy out of you. if you like your purple skinny jeans, then wear them and tell those little a-hole kids to shut up if they diss you. enjoy your good friendships. allow other people to enjoy being around you. be the ice cream cone and not the gallon of ice cream. enjoy your life. enjoy being a kid or a parent or a friend. do what makes you happy. (except stealing cars and doing drugs.) make good decisions so you can enjoy your life the way God intended you to. making Him the center of your life and doing things He would be proud of you for. He is really all that matters. now go ENJOY something and pay them no mind.
hugs to you...drea

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
Thanks so much Andrea!
Alright ladies (and gents?) what have you got for us this week? I want to hear how you're doing!

Please link back to this post if you're playing along!

Grab a button:

<br /><center><a href="http://itsourlongstory.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p92/heather-kate/th_OLWbutton.jpg" /></a</center><br />
A text link is fine too, if you prefer that!

1LW Week 3 Round Up

You guys were quiet this week! I hope you're just too busy living out your words to write about them!

Lucky us, we get to feature all 3 of our wonderful linkers this week. We got some fantastic link ups!

Heather's Pick

I actually found this post at another linky party, and fell in love with It's Overflowing by Aimee.

Lucky for us, she came over here to play too! Go take a look at her post about her word: SPARKS!

Chrissy's Pick

My favorite was from Lani over at It's My Life and I love it. I Love how she shared the struggles she encountered and how she overcame them by being positive. I find her open to share her struggles comforting and inspiring!

And now...our most viewed link up for this week....

Another blogger who is new to 1LW: Katie from Intentional Pursuit! (Intentional? I like her already!)

Katie wrote a beautiful post about an incredibly important word. Go over there and check her out!

Thank you ladies, for playing along this week! I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone this week! This week's linky party will be up this afternoon, along with a post from a special guest!

Be blessed!

Valentine's Day Treat Tray

In case you missed this over at Fancy Little Things...

I've got a super easy project to share with you all today. I love going to thrift stores and finding old things that can have new lives. So when I found some mini wine glasses (do they have an official name??) at the Salvation  Army, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them. 

What we're making today:

Isn't it cute?? I've been seeing these all over Pinterest, and have been dying to make one. Most of the ones I've seen are made out of 3 plates, but I liked the idea of putting a bowl on top. Perfect for little chocolate goodies, or conversation hearts, or whatever you want!

What you need:

The 3 layers of your tray

Something to go in between the layers. I used the glasses, candlesticks would work too!

Heavy duty glue: I used E-6000

Note: When buying glass from the thrift store, check for stickers of an unknown age and origin. This little bit of stickum took me FOR.EV.ER to get off!

gah!

Anyway...moving on...

Now all you have to do is line up your layers and get to gluin'!

I have that heart shaped plate in the middle, so I knew that one was going to be a little off kilter. To keep everything lined up, I started out by gluing the glasses onto the bottom plate, and the bottom of the bowl first. Those had centers, so I knew things would line up. Then I sandwiched the heart plate in the middle, made sure everything was ready to go, and then glued! 

That's it...done! See? I told you it was easy!

Some notes about E-6000:

It STINKS! Definitely do this project in a well ventilated area...outside if you can.

It is not an immediate seal, so you can move things around until they're in the right spot...very nice!

It dries clear.

Once it's dry, you can either rub or scrape off any excess on your plates, so no worries about mess ups!

There you have it...your own little treat tray! 

Mine is already full of my favorites...

yum!

I'm linked up! Come play with me!

What Do You Get...

When you give a toddler a camera?

a little birdy told me you might be hearing about this stuff soon!

She was actually doing a really great job getting things lined up in the screen...then she would look down to push the button. Haha! Good stuff.

1LW Wednesday #3

Hi everyone!

I have been enjoying reading your link ups so much! I am thrilled to be on this journey with you, and I hope we can continue to keep each other accountable for the rest of the year.

In my first post there were a few things I mentioned wanting to be more INTENTIONAL about.

One of those things was my time with God, and another one of those things was myself. This week I want to tell you a little bit about how I'm working on both of those at the same time!

I've struggled with my weight, well....pretty much forever. The stay-at-home mom transition wasn't helpful with regards to that, and I'm still, 2 1/2 years later, trying to get back to my pre-baby weight (let's not even discuss my wedding weight.)

I had heard about the book Made To Crave by Lysa TerKeurst (of Proverbs 31 Ministries) on the radio, and it sounded intriguing. Cravings are something I deal with all. the. time. and I thought this might be a good read for me. 

Photo: www.madetocrave.org

As I started reading it, I knew that I needed to be going on this journey with someone. I asked my incredibly fantastic friend Karly to be my accountability partner. Karly and, I met each other in Phoenix, and were part of the same church community. Even thought she has since moved to Spokane, and I have moved back to Chicago, I consider her one of my best friends, and I knew she would benefit from this book as well. 

Each week we read a chapter and send each other our responses to the discussion questions at the end. This book is rocking my world! I've always asked God for help in my weight loss journey, but it's always felt like "my battle". This book is showing me that God should be part of the process every step of the way. By making good choices and taking care of the body I have been given, I am glorifying Him. He wants to walk through this with me, and He wants to set me free from this cycle. I have to do my part now. There are some  logistical ways that I am keeping on track with my weight loss, but I'll post about those another day. For right now, I am focusing on keeping God at the center of this experience, and allowing Him to grow me (and shrink me! *snort*) in the process!

How are you living out your 1LW this week? I want to hear about it! 

Please link back to this post if you're playing along!

Grab a button:

<br /><center><a href="http://itsourlongstory.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p92/heather-kate/th_OLWbutton.jpg" /></a</center><br />
A text link is fine too, if you prefer that!

1LW Week 2 Round Up

We had another week full of wonderful posts!

Here's a quick run down of my and Chrissy's favorites, and then we'll get to this week's most viewed post.

Heather's Pick

This week I loved Lani's post over at It's My Life. She has such a great support system in place, which is so important when you are trying to work on anything in your life. Great job, Lani!

Chrissy's Pick

I chose the post by Nay from Cover to Cover. I feel it's such a hard action to live out it not only frees the one who wronged you it frees you!

Make sure you head over and read these inspiring posts if you haven't already. They're fantastic!

And now...here it is...this week's most view post!

We've got another post from retrohipmama at she*sCRAFTY!

You guys must really like her! Maybe we can talk her into guest posting...what do you think??

This week's linky party opens up this afternoon. I can't wait to hear about what you've been doing this week!

Getting Some Input

Have you ever wondered what people think when they first arrive at your blog? I know I have! I'm still just a baby blog, but I definitely want people to like what they see when they get here. This is why I was thrilled when I found out about the Rant & Rave About My Blog linky party over at Randee's Organized Chaos.

Here is what Randee has to say about her party:

"This linky party will give you a chance to link up your blog and then have a fellow blogger critique your blog ANONYLMOUSLY!!!!! Doesn't that sound GREAT!!! You can take their advice to heart or with a grain of salt!!! It is TOTALLY up to you!!! The comments will be between me and you!!!!! ;)"

Doesn't that sound like a great opportunity? 

I'm linking up, pop on over there and link up too!

1LW Wednesday #2

Hi friends! Chrissy is here with you this week to share her 1LW. If you haven't been to her blog, Boerman Ramblings, you need to run over there....like, NOW! Ok, maybe not now. Read this post, then run over there, k?

Take it away Chrissy...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

I am so excited to be here today. I am so glad that I get to enjoy this weekly linky party with Heather. 

word on the street is I may even get to meet her in real life this weekend.. 

I wish I could say that I prayed and meditated for weeks

Listening for the God to tell me what my One Little Word should be.

Be that is not the case. Well not in that order anyway.

I chose my word for 2012 and then prayed about it.

I do feel the Lord agreed with me that this is a good choice for me.

So WORDS are my focus for 2012.

Why WORDS?

It’s something I struggle with in my life.

I struggle with what to say, how to say it, when to speak, speaking too much/too little, speaking God’s word when prompted.

I really want to apply this discipline of WORDS to all areas of my life.

What does that look like?

My Family:

Less yelling, less bossing, paying attention to my tone when speaking, using more words of grace, asking for forgiveness, admitting when I am wrong, using more words of affection and compassion, being more intentional of speaking God’s word to my children.

For my friends:

More words in texts, emails, facebook messages, more words on the phone!, better explanations, more honesty, more being silent and listening, being more intentional with encouraging words.

My Blog:

More words about my life, my struggles, my accomplishments, what I believe, why I believe what I do, more spiritual stories, and more posts about the awesomeness of others.

My spiritual Life:

more reading God’s word, sharing his word more, meditating on it more, memorizing his Word, (a to z challenge), being more intentional to live by his word.

I am still trying to decide how I will display my OLW in my house.

Wooden Letters: Yarn wrapped?, decoupaged?, painted?

Paint or vinyl on the wall?

Or maybe I will stitch it on fabric and hang it in an embroidery hoop?

How about you? How would you display your word? 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 


What a fantastic idea! I love the idea of keeping your word visible and in the forefront of your mind. Link up all the fantastic ways you're showing off your word. Not planning on displaying it, share how you're living out your word this week! Haven't shared your word yet? We want to hear it!

Please link back to this post if you're playing along!

Grab a button:

<br /><center><a href="http://itsourlongstory.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p92/heather-kate/th_OLWbutton.jpg" /></a</center><br />
A text link is fine too, if you prefer that!

1LW Round Up: Week 1!

First of all, I have to say that I am so incredibly blown away by the response to our very first 1LW linky party. I know that, in the grand scheme of things, 12 link ups is not huge, but for me it is ENORMOUS! I'm just a baby blogger, and this was my first linky. I was terrified that no one would link up, so thank you!

ok...sappy stuff over...let's get to the fun stuff!

Chrissy and I loved all of your submissions! We want to share some of our favorites with you, and then I'll let you know who our top viewed post was.

Heather's Pick
I had to go with Lesley's post about joy. Besides the stinkin' adorable picture she linked up with, I love the idea of finding joy in all things. It's so easy to get lost in negativity, but finding even a tiny bit of joy in life can make all the difference.

Go check her post out at her blog, Fabulously Flawed.

Chrissy's Pick

My favorite was from Jennifer at The Kindle Crew. I chose this post because I feel her ONL is really difficult. Wait, she chose wait. how many times do we try and rush things, hurry around, and get it done. but to wait, wait for the Lords timing. Yikes. You are a brave woman Jennifer.

Go take a look at Jennifer's post:

and now...the one you've been waiting for...our TOP VIEWED POST! Yaaaayyy!!

Our winner this week is Andrea aka RetroHipMama from she*sCRAFTY!

She shared her word Enjoy. It is a beautiful post about taking time to enjoy what is happening in life right now. Those little moments are here and gone so quickly, and having a 1LW like "enjoy" will help keep those moments special.

Go check Andrea out, she's seriously awesome! You'll love her! Oh wait...you already do!

This week's linky party will start this afternoon, and Chrissy has a great challenge for you! Can't wait to hear from you!

Flannel Infinity Scarf

I may or may not have a extreme mild obsession with scarves. I may or may not have an entire dresser drawer full of them. I may or may not still want more. So, when I got some awesome plaid flannel from my Gram in a stash busting session in her basement (aren't grandma's the best?) I knew exactly what I was going to do with it!

I used this tutorial by The Cottage Home, and it couldn't have been easier. I've had it pinned forever and I was excited to try it out! Straight lines and a teeny bit of hand-sewing...right up my alley! My measurements weren't exactly the same as hers. My scarf isn't as wide, which is why it's not as bulky. I love this thing! It's warm and snuggly, but light enough to wear indoors all day.  It makes me feel very collegiate, maybe because it's my school's colors (GVSU! Go Lakers!)

It also happens to be perfect for 55 degree days in January and trips to the zoo!

Please ingnore the fact that I look EXHAUSTED in this picture. 

Oh, and can we stop for a second and talk about my black sequin TOMS that I got for Christmas. 

I'm pretty much in love with them!

I'm linking up to: The Pinterest Challenge, Positively Splendid, Tatertots and Jello, Sugarbee Crafts and I Heart Naptime

My One Little Word

Here it is...our very first One Little Word Wednesday! I'm so excited for this new adventure. Chrissy and I are looking forward to hearing about all the ways people are living out their OLW's! You'll hear from Chrissy next week, but this week I wanted to share my word with you.

My One Little Word for the year is...

Intentional

I want to live my life with more intention in several areas. It is so easy for me to just get lost on pinterest and facebook go with the flow, and let my days slip away from me. How many times have a made it to the end of the day feeling like I've accomplished nothing. Now, granted, some days are like that regardless of plans, but for me they happen too often. There are several specific areas of my life that I want to be more intentional about:

My time with my family: I want to be more intentional with both my daughter and my husband. Abbey is at the perfect age for all sorts of fun activities. With winter weather setting in, I want to make sure that I am providing her with fun, stimulating activities whenever I can. As for my husband, we need to spend more time together, just the two of us. We live in a large household, and "couple time" is hard to come by. I want to commit to (at least) a monthly date night!

My time with God: This is a discipline that I have not mastered. I go through bits and spurts of being good at spending time in the Word, but I have gotten out of the habit lately. I have a wonderful small group at my church, but time spent with just God and I needs to get back to a daily occurance. Whether it's a formal bible study, or 15 minutes of reading before bed, I need to make sure it happens. My life is always better when it does!

My Household: Even our little basement home needs some management! I can't spend quality time with my family, if laundry is piled up all over the place. My mom and I share cooking duties, and I know that I'm always in a better mood when I've done some meal planning. These are not things that come naturally to me (at all!), but they are things that make me feel better when they happen.

Our finances: We just recently finished Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (more on that later!). We finally feel like we are in control of our finances, but we need to make sure we stay there.

My projects: Oh my goodness...if you could see my unfinished project stack, you would cringe and run away! Time to be a big girl and get some stuff done!

This blog! This little project is part of me becoming more intentional about this little ol' blog. I new I wanted to start a blog, but I never could have guessed how much I would love blogging! Hopefully my last goal will help out with this one as well...I can't do more blogging if I don't have anything to blog about!

and last but not least...

MYSELF: Right now I work 2 days a week, and one of those days involves jeans and a t-shirt. (Yes, I get to go to church every Sunday in jeans and a t-shirt. Not gonna lie...it's pretty awesome!) On all the other days, I spend way too much time in yoga pants and a tank top with my hair in a pony tail. Watch out...there may be some What I Wore posts coming your way!

Ok, ok....so this is a huge list. I know. However, that's what I love about One Little Word. It's not a resolution that is either kept or lost. This isn't Pass/Fail. My OLW is a mindset, a motivator, a way of keeping me on track. I may will not succeed at all of these things all the time, but I can be intentional about them, and try again another day. Over the next year, you will be hearing about the ways I am working on all of these things. You will also be hearing from Chrissy, and all sorts of fantastic ladies around blog land! We will also be featuring the most viewed OLW from our linky party each week...so get to linking!

I can't wait to hear from you!!

Please link back to this post if you're playing along!
Grab a button:









<br /><center><a href="http://itsourlongstory.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p92/heather-kate/th_OLWbutton.jpg" /></a</center><br />
A text link is fine too, if you prefer that!

Dinosaur Slippers

Are you playing along with the Pinterest Challenge?

If you're not, what are you wating for?? Get on over there and link up any Pinspired project you've made in the last month. Here is what I'll be linking up...
I finally get to check something off my to-do list! 

                                                                       Source: made-by-rae.com via Heather on Pinterest

My nephew, Hayden, loves dinosaurs. I mean really...what 4 year old boy doesn't love dinosaurs?I meant to make these slippers for his birthday in November. The pattern is by one of my FAVES, Rae from Made By Rae. The first attempt ended up WAY too small, and will probably be salvaged into slippers for Abbey. I was extra cautious about the second attempt and ended up with slippers that are probably too big, but he's 4...he'll grow!

I'm pretty proud of them! I gave them to him with a very cute pop up book I found at Barnes and Noble. One of the dinosaurs in the book is even POOPING! Bahahahaha! Dinosaur slippers and a book with a 3-D pooping dinosaur?? Little boy heaven! I was hoping to get a picture of him wearing his new slippers, but you get a 4 year old boy to hold still and pose for a picture on Christmas. Go ahead...I dare you!

Besides the Pinterest Challenge, I'm also linking up to SugarBee Crafts, The Polkadot Chair, Tatertots and Jello and Boerman Ramblings. 

Come play with me!