Saturday, April 23, 2011

And the Winners Are...

You know how you sometimes go to bed thinking, "There was something that I was supposed to do today..." Yeah, I forgot to do the drawing last night. Hopefully you will all cut me a little break, we have had visitors for the last 6 days and a 2 day turnaround before more guests arrive this afternoon! Anyway, I used a random number generator at Random.org and here are the results...

True Random Number Generator 2Powered by RANDOM.ORG

True Random Number Generator 4
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Congratulations to Elle and Tommelynn, the winners of the Purex Laundry Detergent! Please email me with your addresses at awelsh30@yahoo.com and I will send out your coupons for FREE Purex with Zout laundry detergent! Please claim your prizes by May 10th!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

A Dress Up Space (And my First Giveaway!)

Mistress Monstress is a typical 2 year old girly girl. She loves to dress up. The only problem is that her dress up clothes and accessories are usually found all over the house. If I hang them in her closet, she can't reach them. If I put them in the toy bin, they get tangled and those beautiful princess dresses get ripped. I started thinking about a dedicated dress up space a while ago, but I wasn't sure where or how to do it. Then one day I noticed that her dresses are so short that it left a nice large space at the bottom of her closet. Since she has double doors that open up, there was plenty of space to transform it into a dress up area! Here's what I did...

To begin, her closet. A nice bare wall just begging for a dress up space!
See? Plenty of room! I added a 24x36 mirror with a smooth edge to keep her safe, and two packages of hooks for all her "pretties."
By hanging the mirror horizontally at her height, she can check herself out while she is dressing up. The hooks make a great place to hang all her princess attire...
...and another couple of hooks make a great place for purses, bracelets, headbands, and other smaller things. Finish it off with a bin for the non-hangable thing like pompoms and you have a great dress up area!
And here you have it! The total time was only around an hour. It probably would have been less, but I had two small helpers who slowed me down a bit and I kept having to chase Mistress Monstress when she ran off with the screws and drill bits.
Total cost breakdown:
Mirror $23
Mirror brackets: $2 ish
Hooks: 2 packs at $2.48 each.
I probably could have found a mirror on Craig's list or something for less, but we have company coming and I just wanted to get it done!
Total cost: Around $30
And now for the giveaway!
I blogged a few weeks ago about the new Purex Laundry Detergent with Zout and how great it was. I have two coupons good for a free bottle (Up to a $7.50 value) to giveaway! All you have to do to enter is become a follower of The Southern Stitcher. Become a follower and leave a comment on this post to let me know, and on April 22nd I'll use a random number generator to select the two winners. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment and let me know that too! One entry per person please, I'll be checking! Good luck to everyone and thanks for following The Southern Stitcher!


Thursday, April 7, 2011

Diaper Cakes

Several years ago I was walking through an upscale boutique and noticed an adorable cake made out of diapers. I was throwing a baby shower for one of my dear friends in the near future and thought it would make an adorable centerpiece so I looked at the price...and almost choked. $100 for a two tier cake made of diapers.

Unbelievable.

I knew I could probably figure it out, and here I am six years later still making these adorable decorations. Here's a quick how-to in case you are planning a shower for someone!

Supplies: One box or 2 large packages of diapers. Personally I like Pampers Swaddlers, not only were they my favorite newborn diaper to use on my kiddos, but they also have a very important quality in a diaper cake: They are white! That makes it easy to personalize it to any gender or leave it gender neutral. One exception, on the occasion I am making one for a baby boy, I do like the Up and Up diapers from Target. They are blue and green polka dot, and paired with blue and/or green ribbon it makes for an adorable combination. You also need some sort of yarn or string and a pair of scissors, and whatever ribbon you want to tie around your layers.
I like to start with the bottom layer. Take 5 diapers and roll them into a round shape. Tie tightly with string.
Now start layering your diapers around the bundle of five. Don't worry about making it too even right now, you can adjust it when your layer is tied off.
Continue layering around in a circle, building up your bottom tier of the cake. You will feel like you need 12 extra hands. This is normal. I would probably suggest you have a partner to help you the first couple of times. I would also suggest laying it flat on a table, I tried to hold it up to show you the process better and ended up exploding the layer in my lap. Also, having a two year old helper to hand you one diaper at a time is great to speed up the process. (Ha)
Once you get all the way around, use string to tie your layer tight. At this point you can turn it on it's side and go around adjusting the diapers to make them even.
Make two more layers. I start the middle tier with three diapers in a bundle, and the top tier with one diaper rolled up. My first cake turned out looking like a marshmallow, don't be discouraged if you have to take a layer apart and add or subtract to make it the right size.
By this point in time, The Professor was home from school and 'offered' (cough *insisted* cough) to take a picture. Apologies to all for my scary lack of makeup. It was a crazy morning.
When the three tiers are done, choose a ribbon to tie around the middle which will hide your string. For boys, I like to forgo the bows and use a diaper pin to fasten the ribbon around the middles. You can also add a topper of a small stuffed animal or blocks.
And there you have it; a simple shower decoration that only costs about $20 to make, but that can be used by mom to be when baby finally arrives. Have fun making one for that special bundle of joy on his or her way!



Pink Hippo Party