Cupcake Cake with Gum Drop Flowers

It will be my sisters birthday next week but we were with her in AZ this last week so we threw her a surprise b-day party. I made her a really cute cake with the wilton cupcake cake tin. 

It is called the Giant Cupcake Pan. So much fun with a huge impact. 

 You can find it here (Amazon Affiliate Link) and most stores that have wilton have this pan.

Stroller/Shopping Cart Caddy Tutorial

I absolutely adore my stroller.  It is a +phil&teds Jogging Stroller.  It can be a 1 seated stroller or a 2 seated one.  It is lightweight.  Its easy to push. Its divine!  The only problem...not much storage space.  So I have devised a little stroller caddy to help with the storage issue. This tutorial will also work for umbrella strollers and a shopping cart if needed. 

Click the picture above to take you to Amazon. AD

The caddy features easy snaps to attach the stroller handle bar.  Also, large pockets so that you can take whatever you need!

It even includes little loops to hook toys to for the little one riding in the back of the stroller.

Pockets with elastic so that your stuff doesn't fall out when you are running around.  Super important!

I designed this with the Phil and Teds Stroller in mind. My stroller has a seat that sits below the
front seat. This is where my baby sits. So I put the ribbon rings at the bottom so that I could attach toys to it. It will help to keep her entertained.

How to sew a Stroller Caddy

Items needed:

snaps

fabric (about 1/2 yard of 2 colors)

grosgrain ribbon (about 32 inches)

1/4 inch elastic

Instructions:

1. Measure how wide you want your caddy to be. Mine was 21 inches.
2. Measure how long you want your caddy. I wanted mine about 13 inches (if I were to do this again I would make mine 9-10 inches long)
3. Cut 2 pieces of fabric the width and length that you would like. I had two different colors that I was working with.
4. Cut a piece of fabric 5 inches smaller than your width measurement. Mine was 21 inches so I cut mine 16 inches. So cut the piece of fabric 16 (or whatever your number is) by 6 inches.
5. Cut 2 strips of fabric 1 inch wide by 24 inches. Sew those two strips together and turn and press. Cut into 3 equal pieces. These are for the straps that attach to your stroller/shopping cart so if you would like them longer then cut them longer.
6. Turn the ends of your strips inside and sew them so that you have a nice finished edge
7. Cut your ribbon into 4 equal strips. Heat seal the ends to prevent fraying. (I use these to attach toys to for my baby to play with.
8. Turn you big pieces of fabric right sides together and pin your straps in the proper place. Sew around and make sure to leave a big enough space to turn it right side out.
9. Turn right side out.
10. Take the elastic and sew it across the top part of your smaller piece of fabric as close to the top as possible. While sewing stretch the elastic as much as possible to create the gathering.
11. Turn the elastic under and sew. Repeat again so that you have no raw edge showing.
12. Attach the piece of fabric to the larger piece of fabric and turn the raw edge under as you are sewing it.
13. Sew straight lines on the pocket to create smaller pockets. make sure to leave enough space in the middle for later
14. Fold over the big piece of fabric leaving an inch or two space at the top. Sew down the sides to create one big pocket.
15. Sew down the middle to create two pockets.
16. If you would like the toy rings at the bottom then sew the ribbon on at the bottom
17. Attach snaps to the straps at the top

And now you have a fun shopping cart/stroller caddy.

This would work great with a phil and teds stroller, an umbrella stroller, a jogging stroller, and a shopping cart. If you have any other uses for it, it would be great to hear from you.
Another idea I have is to make this into an apron. The only thing that you would change is to make straps to go around the waist (or you could use ribbon). I tried this on my 3 yr olds waist and it would fit perfectly (could be a few inches shorter). I just need to make it for her.

Fabrics can be found at:

Heart Applique Rag Quilt Pattern by A Vision to Remember

A simple and beautiful rag quilt pattern featuring appliqued hearts.  This rag quilt is made with several different sizes of squares and rectangles.  Its not just your boring everyday square rag quilt. 

I just love the way that this blanket turned out. It was so much fun to do. I love coming up with new designs.

Even the back of the rag quilt is pretty with the heart appliqued stitches showing through.

You can purchase the quilt pattern in my Etsy shop or Craftsy Shop






Fabrics can be found at:

Butterfly Applique Rag Quilt Pattern by A Vision to Remember

Butterfly's remind me of summer and spring. I am a huge fan of warm lazy days, hanging out with my family, and enjoying life.To me that is what this quilt represents.  Love, Family, and Beauty.

This rag quilt pattern features large appliqued butterfly's.  It is gorgeous and perfect for that special little girl!

Flower Applique Rag Quilt Car Seat Tent Pattern

UPDATE: This was the first rag quilt car seat tent that I made. I still look back on it fondly! It was my daughters. The colors may not be the style for today, but I love it!

Introducing the Flower Applique Rag Quilt Car Seat Tent Pattern by A Vision to Remember

Look at how cute that flower is on the handle

Sorry about the sideways picture.  Gah!

When my daughter was first born my mom and I were walking through Walmart with the Cream Flower blanket over the top of my car seat. I did not want people to see that my baby was only a couple of days old and I wanted to keep her as safe as possible from germs etc.

People were stopping and staring at the car seat and asking if I made it. It gave me an idea to convert the blanket into a cover for the car seat and later the blanket will be used in the stroller and whatever else suits our fancy.

Pregnancy Belly Band Pattern by A Vision to Remember

This pattern is coming to you from desperation!

I am 32 weeks pregnant and I cannot find anything to help cover up my growing belly without going out and buying an entire new wardrobe!

The Simple Belly Band Pattern is available in my Etsy Shop

There are a few really awesome things about this pattern....

Homemade Pretzels Recipe

I love having simple and easy recipes to make, that are also fun for kids to do.  This is definitely one of those recipes.  A great thing to make with little kids.  They can make their own creative pretzel shapes with this pretzel recipe.  

Tuesday night my husband, daughter and I went to the local baseball game. It was really fun. We left right before it got over so I don't know who won but we were one behind. I could smell the pretzels and I really wanted one, but then I remembered that I would be babysitting a neice and nephews on Wednesday, so I decided that in order to pass time in the small apartment we would make pretzels.

Homeschooling Toddlers Ideas

I have a 2.5 year old that I am teaching her numbers, letters, animals, sounds, and Spanish words in order to help prepare her for Pre-K and Kindergarten. These are a few things that I have created for her to help in the journey

With my Cricut I cut out the letters and numbers.  Then I cut out 2" squares and glued the letters and numbers onto the squares.  I then had them laminated and used sticker sheet magnets to cut small pieces of magnets. 

ABC's and 123's



For the colors I hand cut out these crayons and then wrote on each one the name of the color.  I then had it laminated.  I recommend purchasing your own laminator machine.  They are really cost effective if you plan to laminate very much.  I use mine all the time

I also used my cricut to cut out shapes, then wrote the names of the shapes down and laminated as well. 




I don't really know what to call the "stuff" that I have made for my daughter. I heard from a friend that taught 1st graders that they needed to recognize words like shapes (circle, triangle, etc), colors, (red, green, etc). So I have taken that information to the extreme.


A few more details:
1. I first cut out with my cricut and by hand different shapes. I just used regular colored printer paper, I think that construction paper or cardstock would work perfectly as well. I did a circle, rectangle, square, oval, diamond, star, and triangle. I should have also done a hexagon and a heart and there are probably more that I should have done, but you get the gist.


2. I then wrote the name of the shape and did a border around the edge. I did it with a regular black marker.

3. Then I laminated them. If you have a machine its really easy or you can call your local print shops and get quotes. 

4. I repeated this process with the crayons ( in the picture you can see that I did the black crayon with white out, I know there is a better way, I just didnt have it available to me at the moment).

5. When I got done laminating I cut them out again and put a small magnet on the back of each paper. The magnets that I used were in a 10 ft rolls of 1/2 inch magnets that are like stickers so they can stick to the paper. I cut the magnets into 1/2 - 1/4 inch magnets and then took the paper off the back of the magnets and stuck them to the papers.





ABC's and Numbers


1. For the ABC's and numbers that you see that are really small I cut the letters and the numbers out using the Keystone cartridge (size 1 1/2) and then I glued them to 2 inch squares in a different color.

2. Laminate and add a magnet to the back. ABC's and numbers (they measured 2 inches square)

Word Strips
1. I did word strips that measured 3 inches by however long the word was. I don't have a picture of this but if you would like a pic let me know and I will post it. The words had things like different types of clothing, different everyday objects, food, body parts, and important sight words (and, the, in, above, etc) and spanish words. The spanish words also have a matching color of paper that has the english word on it.

2. I cut the papers down to size after writing the words on them

3. Take to the laminator and follow the above directions.

Spanish Words and English Words
Gracias-Thank You
Porro-Dog
Gato-Cat
Por Favor-Please
Leche-Milk
Aqua-Water
Vaca-Cow
Chango-Monkey
Pollo-Chicken
Serpiente-Serpent
Oso-Bear
Leon-Lion
Padre-Daddy
Madre-Mommy
Hermana-Sister
Hermano-Brother
Mas-More
Un Poco-A Little
Jugo-Juice
Hola-Hi/Hello
Adios-Bye

Animals
1. On the cricut cartridges that I own that have animals on them, I cut out the different animals and layered different colors on them to make them funner for the kids.

2. I made sure that I had word strips to match the animals that were cut out. I think that using any picture that you have found on the internet or in magazines or even old books would work. The one thing to keep in mind is that if it is a magazine picture you might need to reinforce it on some other paper or cardstock. I think that I might do this so that I have more pictures to choose from. Continue as above to finish.


My daughter is only 2 1/2 but I think that it is never to late (or early) to start teaching your children.

Update: my daughter is now 9 (holy cow!  Where did the time go?)  Anyway, she is an awesome student.  She is currently in 3rd grade and is reading at a 6th grade level.  I definitely attribute some of this to the work I did with her before going to preschool and kindergarten.