Baking Cookies Page

Here is another page I did awhile back. I got the pattern from Imagine Our Life. Stephanie truly has the best quiet book page and patterns I have ever seen!

The kiddos can "cut" out the cookie shapes and move them with the spatula on to the baking sheet, which has color coordination buttons. 

Oh and there is even a glass of milk to dunk your cookies in, because you can't have cookies without milk!

Charley's Quiet Book

Here is the quiet book I made for my little cousin Charley. She will turn one in a couple months and I really had to think about what pages I could do that would be appropriate and fun for a one-year-old.

Here is the cover of her book. I got the idea from a cover I saw on the internet, but for the life of me can't find the source. I put two rivets to bind in each page and they are kept together with a binder ring. I put the pages back to back when finished and just blanket stitched them together.

Here is the first page of the book. The ribbon pull page. I found this idea on Pinterest. I just used the picture to go by when I made it. I started out by picking ribbon of different sizes and textures. Then I made two tiny holes for each strip of ribbon and fed the ribbon through the holes. I then tied knots on the end of each piece of ribbon and used a lighter to "burn" the edges of the ribbon so it wouldn't fray. The key to this page is to start out with very tiny hole and make sure the knot on your ribbon won't pull through the holes. You can always make the holes bigger if your ribbon doesn't fit, but you can't make it smaller!

This is a page I came up with, but the little peacock came from Imagine Our Life. The original pattern is for a baby rattle and I kept everything the same, expect I used a little bell inside of my rattle instead of a rattle because I  didn't have any and I used a Smarties candy wrapper (the big ones you can buy at Joann's) for the crinkle material because I couldn't find any and I'm cheap! Haha You could use anything that makes a crinkly noise in you rattle. Before I sewed all the way around the peacock I sewed a piece of ricrac ribbon between the seams of the peacock and sewed the other end of the ribbon under the green hill pocket that I free hand cut out and sewed around three edges. I cut out some clouds and sewed them onto my background felt and stuffed them with a little polyfil to make them fluffy. The flowers on the hill are buttons that I sewed on very well so that Charley couldn't pull them off.

This page was my own idea. The little Mermaid is a puppet that I had previously bought the pattern for form here. I made her just like the pattern says, but sewed on the pieces rather than gluing since this was for a one-year-old who would probably have it in her mouth. I also sewed a piece of velcro on the back of the mermaid so she would stay on the page. I then cut out the "Sebastian" and "Flounder" using my "create a critter" cartridge and doubled the felt to make it stronger. I got the idea to do this from here. Since it is just a picture I had to figure out how to do this on my own, but it was super easy. On the crab and the fish I sewed a sleeve of felt on the back that the ribbon go through so you could slide the critters back and forth. I free hand cut out the seaweed and sewed them down with the ribbon under them. (make sure your critters are on the ribbon before you sew them down!).

The last page is the Jelly Fish page. I got the idea on Pinterest, here is what the original looked like. I cut out a dome shape of pink felt an sewed the cheeks and facial expressions on. I then curled the ribbon, here is the directions I used. I then sewed down each ribbon and then sewed down the jelly over the part of the ribbon sewn down. I really want to make sure the ribbon wouldn't come off so sewed them A LOT. I stuffed some polyfil in the jelly's head for dimension and made a bow and sewed it on. Then I was finally done! 

If you have any questions just comment below. If you have made your own quiet book pages I would love to see them!

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Here is one of my favorite quiet book pages I've done!  I got the pattern for this page from Imagine our Life. The pattern and directions are great that Stephanie did so I won't reinvent the wheel. Click here to find Stephanie's post about this page. 

I just love these little monkeys! You can't tell from these pictures, but each monkey has a number from 1-5 on their bellies that match the pillows on the bed. Besides this page just being just plain ADORABLE it would be great to use to practice numbers with your little one! 

Mama and the Doctor snap on to the page not to get lost and the little monkeys fit under the bedspread "pocket".  I would love to see your version of this page!

Barn and Garden Quiet Book Page

Oh my goodness, this month has been crazy busy, but luckily I was able to work on some more pages for the quiet book that I started. You may have seen the snowman page I posted about in December. I have several new pages that I am so excited to share with you. These next two quiet book pages are ones that I have seen numerous times on Pinterest with different variations. But with no further wait here are my Barn and Garden pages!

The garden page has carrots which can be moved with the ribbon to either be "planted" or "picked" the buttons are on the ribbon so little ones can grip better and so the the ribbon does pull all of the way through the hole. I cut out the carrots and the cloud on my Cricut (you can find the directions on how to do that here). I free hand cut the rest. 

I love the barn page, it has five little finger puppets that can be put away inside the barn like seen below.

I cut out some clear vinyl and sewed it down on three sides to be used as a pocket. The barn was also cut out on my Cricut. I free handed the finger puppets, which I think are pretty cute, but I recently bought some finger puppet patterns form Floral Blossom's Etsy Shop that I might replace these with.  If you have any questions let me know. I would love to see your version of this page or other quiet books pages so comment below. I will be posting more of my new pages this week that you will want to check out! :)

Remember to follow me on Pinterest to see all of the quiet book ideas I have pinned there!

Skinny Funfetti Cake Batter Dip

My new year's resolution (like almost everyone else) was to eat healthier. After Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas you might have noticed, if you are anything like me, that you might have put on some winter weight. I am determined to eat healthier now, but I have one tiny weenie problem. I have a wicked sweet tooth. If there is anything sweet in my house I want to eat it, so I decided I was going to find some healthier sweet options to have in the house. So I naturally went to Pinterest. I am sure you have noticed lately the craze with cake batter everything. I found a Skinny Funfetti Cake Batter Dip at Something Swanky. I was a little unsure about the recipe when I saw that Greek yogurt was one of the ingredients, I'm not usually a Greek Yogurt fan( I find it gritty). But I thought I'd give it a try anyway. So I got the Greek yogurt, lite Cool Whip and box of cake mix and made the dip and boy am I glad that I did! I love the stuff! I didn't think it would taste so much like real cake batter, but it seriously tastes like the real stuff. The best part is that you have cut out a lot of the calories. I have been eating my dip with some plain pretzel chips, Nilla Wafers and apples, but there are so many other options. On the same website I found a Skinny Brownie Batter Dip that I plan on trying soon. Just head to Something Swanky and check it out. I would love to hear about your favorite "skinny recipes"so comment below! :)

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas! My day was filled with many laughs, great food and even greater people. Have a safe and happy night!

Erin Condren Lesson Planner

I cannot believe it, but I am now an official college graduate! YAY! As part of my graduation gift from my parents I received something I have long had my eyes on.

 Yes it is the Erin Condren Lesson Planner! While student teaching I saw one of these wonderful planners and I fell completely in love with it! Then I went to Erin Condren's Website and fell in love with literally everything on the site. Today I am going to show what the Erin Condren Lesson Planner is all about and even give a link so you can get $10 off your Erin Condren purchases!

As you can see from the first picture the cover is amazing, you can personalize your planner and there are so many cute covers to choose from. One of my favorite things about the planner is the tabs on the side. You can so easily find what page you are looking for.

 The planner had so many amazing features, but I thought this would really come in handy. It is the absentee log where you can keep track of  the kiddos that miss school.

 There is a year at a glance page to keep track of those important dates.

 Then there is the weekly lesson plans. I personally love that it doesn't say the date on the page, you can make it to fit your schedule. I really like it because I don't have a classroom right now and I want to save this great planner until I have my own classroom. If it had the dates it would be off. This makes this planner an awesome gift because you can give it to that special teacher in you life anytime and they can decide when they want to start using it.

 Isn't the little owl just adorable!

A closer look at the weekly lesson planner.

Here is an example of why I think Erin Condren's  stuff is so special. This planner is full of inspirational quotes in cute fonts, which are in bright colors. Every time I look at the planner it makes me happy. I love cute organizational stuff!

This is a month at a glance page.

 Here are the stickers in the back of the planner you can put on the month at a glance pages to help remember important dates. There are even some blank ones!

 Here is the folder that is in the back of the planner to catch all those loose papers.

 I wanted to show you how sturdy this thing is. I am rough on my planners, I take it everywhere. With this planner I don't have to worry about the spiral bending or pulling out because there is a hefty one on this planner. The cover is also laminated with some think lamination, you wont be accidentally tearing this baby.

 There are even more amazing features to this planner, that you can see at https://www.erincondren.com/.You should really take a look at Erin Condren's  products. There is something for everyone, not just for teachers. I actually just ordered one of the Take Note! Notebooks to use on a daily basis and I literally want one of almost everything on this site! Haha For an organization freak like myself, this site is heaven!  So I know you have all been waiting for it, click here to get $10 off your next purchase. (to get the $10 off you purchase you will just have to create an account on the site)