Storage Stained Clothes

When going through Kye's baby clothes to put aside things for the new baby I discovered that a LOT of his stuff had gotten stained in storage. It was this strange yellow discoloration on many of his clothing items, especially the white ones. I took EXTREMELY good care of everything he owned and never packed something that was stained so this really made me mad!

Like any girl would do - I called my mama ;) She has a Stainbuster's Bible and it said that the discoloration from storage is caused from the clothes having stains on them but the stains being so deep in the clothing that you can't see them until they sit in the dark for a long time and they come to the service. It's mostly caused from washing clothing in cold water...which I do, every load. I mean who can afford to wash all their stuff in hot water??? That's expensive! 

To get rid of the stains it said to soak the clothes in an Oxi-Clean type stain remover.  I soaked all the colored ones together and all the white ones together (I did end up throwing out all the plain white burp rags and onesies, why go through the cleaning hassle for stuff I can buy so cheaply?). I let them soak for several hours.

Next wash the clothes using bleach and hot water. I didn't use bleach on the colored clothes, but I did with the whites.

A few of the badly stained ones are still stained, and I could do the process again but I probably won't! Thankfully the swaddles, some of my favorite outfits, and some cute sleepers all came out clean! I'm so thankful that I didn't just throw it all out! Hope this helps some other mommies too :)

Stepping Stone

I feel VERY bad that I can't give credit to the blog where I got this idea from...I simply can't remember whose I saw it on, but I loved the idea and totally copied it!

Supplies I bought:

• box of stepping stone concrete mix from Hobby Lobby - $8.99 (it had enough to make two stones as I plan to make one for myself too!)
• small round concrete mold (also from Hobby Lobby) - $2.99 (can reuse when making another one as well)
• decorative stones (from the Dollar Store) - $1.00

How To:

• I really just followed the instructions on the box.
• Zach mixed the concrete with water then poured it into the mold
• I let it set for awhile b/c you don't want to put your kids feet (or hands) in it while it's too moist or it won't set
• We put Kye's feet straight down in it (pressing them down pretty deep) then straight back up and it turned out pretty good!
• I waited a little longer then put all the stones around (making sure to press them down enough to really stay)
• And I waited even longer to carve Kye's name and the year in the stone. I continued to check it throughout the day and carve the letters over and over to make sure they were really deep. 
• It took about a day to fully dry and popped right out of the mold no problem! 
• The mix must be a special type of concrete because the bottom of the stone is very smooth.

This made a WONDERFUL Mother's Day gift! Inexpensive, easy, and something she'll always cherish. I'm excited to have one for myself!

Chocolate Golf Ball Favors

In searching for golf themed items I stumbled across this site (www.countrykitchen.com) that has a TON of great ideas and all the supplies you need to make those ideas a reality! I loved the idea of these chocolate golf balls for favors for the party. I've never made any chocolate goodies myself but thought I'd give it a try!

To make the golf balls I ordered all the supplies listed on the site (super white coating-merckens, squeeze bottle, two golf ball candy molds, and 30 truffle boxes). To make them I:

1. melted the chocolate (a 1 lb bag was enough chocolate to fill ONE candy mold tray...so it made 1/2 of 8 balls)
2. poured the chocolate into the mold. At first I tried to pour the chocolate into the squeeze bottle then squeeze it from that into the mold but what a joke! It's MUCH easier to melt the chocolate in a large class measuring cup and just pour directly from there. It's also important to make sure no chocolate gets outside the edges of each ball mold or it'll be stuck there and it's a pain to scrape it off later
3. put the mold in the freezer. I waited over night but you can probably just wait a couple hours-they freeze pretty quick
4. to make the other side of the ball you first remove the now frozen halves from the molds (CAREFULLY they break pretty easy). Then melt chocolate again and refill the molds. CAREFULLY (lots of things to be careful about with this project) place the already frozen halves on top of the melted chocolate halves and place back in freezer. You want to make sure a bunch of chocolate doesn't overflow all over the trays or you have a mess and a not-so-ball-looking-ball once it freezes. But at the same time you want to make sure there is ENOUGH chocolate for the pre-made half to cling to or you'll have holes in your ball!
5. Once frozen they are done! Mine never looked as good as the one pictured but they were cute enough for favors for the party. They were more expensive and time consuming than I planned so I'm not sure I'll do them again...but if I do I probably will not be doing a 3D thing like this as I think that made it even more complicated and tough!

I topped the truffle boxes with custom stickers I had made at Chickabug on Etsy!

They turned out cute and were a big hit for sure!

Chocolate Covered Donut Holes

As you know I got a lot of my inspiration for Kye's golf party from How Does She? and these were one of my favorite ideas! They made adorable "golf balls" but the idea could EASILY be translated to other party themes!

Here's how to do them for your next party:

1. We bought 4 dozen donut holes the morning of the party. Next time we'll buy them the night before. I actually think the freshness of the donut holes made 'em tougher to work with b/c they were SO soft!
2. Mom helped out by melting white chocolate (you can buy BIG blocks of it at Walmart for much cheaper than the little white chips I used for the favors) in a double broiler on the oven
3. We dipped the balls in the chocolate, covered them in white ball sprinkles, then set them on wax paper to dry
4. When almost dry we put them on white sticks!
5. We used green foam stuff used for flower arrangements as the base. I put that on a regular old cookie sheet then we stuck all the sticks in it and covered in green shredded paper. (I bought both the flower arrangement pieces and green paper shreds at Hobby Lobby for half off!).

These were SO SO SO YUMMY. Like seriously DELICIOUS! I will be making them at many more events in the future. They are easy, adorable, and super good. They were a HIT for the party! I do think next time they will look more "ball like" by buying the donut holes in advance because they were just so FRESH that they melted right along with the chocolate ;)

Golf Ball Cupcakes

When looking at the golf party on How Does She? I thought the cupcakes she made were adorable but my first thought was green food coloring on my carpet. Um no thanks! Instead I got creative and ordered some supplies from Country Kitchen. I ordered brown cupcake liners, green long sprinkles (called jimmies...who knew?!?!) and the white golf ball toppers. 

All I did to make them was use a simple chocolate boxed cake mix then frost them with vanilla frosting and dip into the sprinkles (a 1 lb bag of sprinkles had MORE than enough for 48 cupcakes). If you have cupcakes for an event I highly recommend making them the night before. I invested in a nice cupcake holder/carrier (I have this one from Crate and Barrel actually) and I put all the cupcakes in there after I make them (I need to get another one because I have to store the extra 24 cupcakes in random tupperware!). It makes them SO moist and ultra yummy for the event! 

I think these turned out super cute and were VERY simple to make!

Decorative Sandwiches

Of course I got this idea from How Does She? and it's something that I will be using again and AGAIN in the future. It can work for ANY theme and it's cheap and easy (which are my two requirements of crafty diy type things!). 

1. I bought scrapbook size paper (12x12) and we cut them into strips.

2. We made the sandwiches (wheat bread, some with turkey, some with ham, american cheese, and lettuce!) and tried to keep them as neatly contained within the bread as possible. Then we simply wrapped the paper around each half

3. We stuck a custom golf tee (thanks to MidTownTees on Etsy) through each one and they looked ADORABLE!!! 

You could mix it up for a different theme with different paper and something else for the "tee" part. Or even just get colored tees to match your theme as they are not expensive at all (plus we kept all the tees people left and Zach will use them on his golf outings)

Starr Studded Dip

I love when friends share recipes with me! I'm not creative enough to think up things on my own and I enjoy getting to taste test stuff before spending time and money making it. At my first Stella and Dot Trunk Show, Brooke Starr introduced me to this yummy sweet dip and I am pumped to use it tonight when I go to a neighborhood ladies game night and attempt to win over my neighbors ;) I think it'll be a hit!

I'm pretty sure Brooke will be happy to have me share this recipe of hers since she did hand it out at the Trunk Show and since we all helped her name it!!! :)

Ingredients
1. 8 oz cream cheese
2. 1 stick butter
3. 1/4 tsp vanilla
4. 2 tbl brown sugar
5. 3/4 cup powdered sugar
6. 3/4 cup mini choc chips (I used a whole bag though...I mean choc chips are one of those things you can't have too much of!)
7. graham crackers

Directions
1. I set out the butter and cream cheese for awhile to soften some
2. Put everything in a bowl (other than the choc chips) then whip with a hand mixer until smooth
3. Stir in choc chips
4. Keep in fridge until ready to serve
5. Serve with graham crackers

SUPER easy and AMAZINGLY yummy!

I had Zach do a taste test and he approves! Thanks Brooke :)