4th of July Hair Bow

This 4th of July we will be spending time with my husband's entire family. That means my little one will get to see all 10 of her cousins (all under the age of 8!) There are 8 girls. I decided they all needed matching hair bows to mark the occasion.

What you need to make the hair bow: 

• plain barrette 
• wooden 1/2-inch dowel rod (I used 3 wooden skewers)
• clothes pins
• 3 colors of ribbon (1/2-inch thick)
• 3 inch long (not curled ribbon)
• needle and thread
• hot glue gun
• oven

First get out your ribbon and secure it to one end  of the dowel rod with clothes pin and wrap it around. Secure the bottom end with one more clothes pin. (repeat for all ribbons you plan to use)

Place in the oven at 220 degrees F for 15 minutes.

Once cooled down, unwrap ribbon. 

Cut it into 3-4 inch pieces.

Collect 3 of each color, curled ribbon and stack them, so they are flared. 

Use needle and thread to sew the center, so all the pieces stick together.

Use the 3 inch long ribbon and hot glue one end where you just stitched.

Wrap it around and secure with more hot glue.

Place a drop of hot glue on the center of the barrette and attach the center of the bow. 

Wrap the straight ribbon one more time, this time including the barrette. 

Secure with hot glue. 

Let cool!

Here are all 8 of them:

Have a happy 4th of July and enjoy the fireworks!

7 Quick Takes Friday (5)

One

I did my first guest post ever on marrying young and going to grad school! Head over to Catholic Newlywed to check it out!

Two

It was my daughter's 3rd birthday last week. We had a great time opening presents, making and eating cake and we went to a football game. Which she actually loved, once she got the ear plugs in her ears :)

Three

We looked at our first rental house on Monday. It was such a disappointment. I have heard horror stories about how difficult it is to look for a house to buy, but didn't imagine that renting a house was equally frustrating. I guess we are back to the drawing board. We have just over 2 months to find a new place!

Four
So my OT class has a Facebook group and we often sharing inspiring things we find online with one another. A few days ago, a girl in my class sent us this link: A Love Story In 22 Pictures. It was so awesome I had to share it with all of you!

Photo Credit: Tim Dodd Photography

Five
Have any of you seen the new show Revolution? What do you think? I am obsessed with it! There is some violence, but I am addicted to the story line. It is basically a "what if" kind of show. All the power goes out in the entire world, and there is no way to turn it back on. No internet, no phones, no nothing. Then US government goes under. It is the story of one particular group of people on a search for one of the character's brothers.

Six
We have been cleaning a lot around here, because my in-laws are coming into town!

Seven
I can't think of anything else, so happy Friday!

Head back over to Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!

A Butterfly Birthday

Sunday my little one turned 3 and we opted not to do a birthday party. Instead she got butterfly wings and I made a butterfly cake.

And of course we opened presents.

I used yellow boxed cake mix. I feel a little bit like a failure for doing so. Unfortunately there has been little success in our household in finding a good cake recipe from scratch. Oil, butter, shortening have all been tried. It always comes out too dense and bread like.

I did make the frosting. My mother-in-law sent me this recipe which she said was on the back of her cocoa container. So I feel like it is fair game to share it with you!

• 3 C. powdered sugar
• 2/3 C. baking cocoa
• 1 stick butter
• 5 to 6 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

It turned out delicious! Then I made some marshmallow fondant. It was easy to work with, but I was not crazy about the taste. It did get the 3 year old stamp of approval though, in case you were wondering.

My goal was really to create a cake that turned out like this, but I think I am fairly happy with my first attempt at fondant.

Today I'm linking up with Creative Blogger's Party Hop and We Are That Family.

Have any of you had great success with a from scratch cake recipe that turns out nice and airy? If so, I'd love for you to share it with me!