Felt Nativity

 

I liked the idea of this Felt Nativity, it took me a while but I just finished!

I started this almost 2 weeks ago. It takes time to make this many pieces. I was already feeling overwhelmed with crafts I wanted to do. I ended up saying forget it, no more crafts, I want to enjoy time with my hubby and kids. But I still really wanted to do this Nativity. So I decided to do a 12 days of Christmas, that way I only had to make one or two pieces a day. Our Elf on the Shelf delivered one or two pieces a day and it made it extra fun for our son to be able to get a little Elf gift each day and it gave me a chance everyday to tell him a little bit about the birth of our Savior. This will definitely be a fun tradition each year!



 On a simple scale of 1-10 this gets an 8, pretty simple, just time consuming. The templates are awesome. I made my own donkey though, and I strayed a little bit from the templates for the beards and mustaches and wise man gifts. I also put the stable on a large board, just because I wanted to.

Holly Jolly Olliblocks

I couldn't resist the Winter Olliblocks! I discovered them a little late in the season but I am just glad they exist!

Click here to go to my Olliblock post...

Noel

I loved this idea for my Christmas shelf! Noel

The blog it came from is not in English but she has some cute pictures on there. Mine did not turn out as cute, but I still love it! I just used letters from Hobby Lobby and a twig wreath. I wrapped the L in Jute and I used a metallic blue paint for the E and just a cream for the N. I bought a fake twig branch that had some sparkle beads on it and then intertwined some of the branches into my wreath to add a little bling, then for fun I added some lights.

On a fun scale of 1-10 this got a 10! I love, it was crazy easy and looks nice on my bookshelf!

Christmas on Canvas

I made these super easy canvas decorations using these pins: O Holy Night, Singing Loud, and

Cheap Canvas

 

 

This was such an easy project and I love how they turned out. I just downloaded the free printables, there are a lot to choose from if you explore free Christmas printable on pinterest. I got some 11x14 photo prints made at Costco for $2.99 each. I took my canvas and painted the edges to match the photo. I had to trim just a sliver off of each photo edge and then I put a thin layer of mod podge on the back of the photo and placed it on the canvas. I then turned the canvas over and pressed all along the back of the canvas to make sure the photo stuck. I waited about 10 minutes to let it dry and then I painted a nice layer of mod podged all over the front and especially the edges. I used a wide sponge brush for one of them and a roller sponge for the other. They both had a different texture when dried. The roller left a smoother texture with tiny tiny bumps and the sponge brush left a bit of a lined texture, but both are only noticeable up close. Since the top layer was thicker it took about 20 minutes to dry. I know a lot of my friends have mod podged pictures onto wood, this is the same only canvas is much lighter and easier to hang.

On an easy scale of 1-10 these get a 9, super duper easy and its a cheap and quick way to add some Christmas cheer to your home.

We are making these for our pinterest club which is why I ordered the canvas online. It is cheap, but the shipping is more than its probably worth if you are just ordering a few, but if you want to do a group order I think it is a good way to go. And if you donate $5 to the art group on their website standard shipping is free!

Kid Mode

My life just got so much easier thanks to this pin: Kid Mode

Sometimes it gets so annoying when I let my kids play with my phone and I get it back and some of the apps are moved around or missing. It is also annoying when they click on ads every 30 seconds,  and I have to help them exit out and get back to the game. On the other hand it is so nice to be able to distract them with the iPhone and keep them quiet in public, and there are so many fun learning games for toddlers that the kids like to use. I had heard rumors that there was a way to lock the phone or iPad so kids couldn't roam around on it but I was never able to figure it out, until last night, and I am so so happy that I know how to put my stuff in kid mode now!!
Click to the link for more details instructions, but basically you go to your Settings, tap on General, scroll down to Accessibility, once in Accessibility there is a section titled Learning and underneath you can click on the Guided Access. Turn the Guided Access to ON and set a pass code. Once that is done all you have to do before giving your kid your phone is go to the app, push your home button 3 times quickly and that will pull up the guided access screen, you can circle any parts of the screen (like ads or volume) that you don't want the kids to be able to touch, and then hit start.
On a makes my life easier scale of 1-10 I am giving this a perfect 10! Wish I knew about it sooner!

Fall Pears

For our November Pinterest Club we made these cute little pears

The picture tutorial pretty much explains it all, these were so easy and they are so cute, I am going to be making a few more today to decorate my Thanksgiving table and when I am done using them for fall decor I am just going to display them in a fun vase, they are fun year round!

We used the Natural Jute, in both the light and dark color, from Hobby Lobby, it is only $3.29 for 400 feet and you need about 6 yards of the dark for 1 pear and about 8 yards of the lighter color for 1 pear.One roll of twine of the dark will make over 20 pears! The darker is much easier to work with but its fun to have two colors. I thought about using some red and yellow yarn to add more color to the table but I don't think I will. You could probably paint them though- I will be trying that after I make a bunch more. I thought my light bulbs looked a little too narrow at the top so I just went back and wrapped a double layer of twine over the skinny part and I liked that look a little better. We used hot glue and just glued as we wrapped. On the skinny part I just glued a few lines for about an inch vertically down the bulb and then twirled and wrapped really fast but along the wider part the twine slips so you need to glue more horizontally as you wrap.
On an easy scale of 1-10 I give these an 8.5 for super easy, it just can get a little tricky around the wide part- but you can go back over bare spots!! On a pain scale of 1-10 they get a 4, I had little glue blisters all over my thumbs from the hot glue! Ouch! It was worth the pain though, I love them!!

Ollibird Blocks

 

From this Pin: Olliblocks

 

I had seen this pin but didn't pin it. Then a friend recommended this for our pinterest craft night and it was so fun and cute, however when I went back to find the pin I couldn't find it. But it is a cute craft and super duper easy. I was very impressed with ollibird.com the PDF for three sets of blocks: boy, girl, and animal was $12. I was a little concerned that each person would need to purchase their own set to use but I read all the fine print and they actually encouraged sharing the PDF for a craft night or activity, with as many people as you want, as long as you didn't use it for commercial use or profit. They also gave excellent instructions and links to places to buy blocks and label paper. I didn't have time to order blocks for our pinterest club night, so I got a few 2x2x8 pieces of wood from Home depot for $1.49 each. I pulled out my husbands chop saw, took about 10 minutes to figure out how to get the safety latch off, and got to sawing. I discovered that the 2x2s were actually 1.5x1.5, which was fine because the PDF comes with labels for the 2x2 blocks and the 1.5x1.5 blocks, and it meant that one piece of wood made 60 1.5 inch blocks. I didn't worry about sanding the blocks too much because the sticker covered them, I just rubbed the edges of the blocks on the cement a few times to smooth out the splinters. The website recommended printing the copies at a professional printer so that the ink wouldn't bleed when mod podged so I went to Office Max. I bought my full sheet white label paper there as well. The label paper was about 50 cents a sheet and the color copies were 49 cents each. We had 12 people coming to craft night so we all chipped in $1 for the PDF and then $1 for each sheet of guys and then $1 for blocks and supplies so for $5 each person got a set of 9 darling blocks.  It was a little more time consuming to cut all the squares and trim them to fit the blocks just right but it was so worth it in the end!

 

Look how cute all these little outfits are!! I love them!

 

I ended up giving my set as a birthday gift the following day and my son keeps asking when he is going to get his blocks! I think I will be making them for birthday and Christmas gifts for nieces and nephews as well as baby gifts for a few friends!

On a difficulty scale of 1-10 I give them a 3 mostly because it was time consuming and I had to use a big saw! But we had a big group of girls all on different levels of craftiness and everyone seemed happy with the end result!

 

 

Halloween Door

I got the ideas for my Halloween door from these pins: Spider Magnets and Boo Wreath

 

I love the spidey door magnets, but I could only find a few big spiders around my house and I keep forgetting to get little ones at the store but soon enough I will have some baby spiders on my door as well! I just used little magnets I had laying around and tacky glue. My magnets are a little too powerful so for the next round I am going to buy some different magnets that won't tear off the spider because they are too attached to the door. For my wreath I just used an old black bed sheet that I had bought at one point for a back drop or something. I also used a hay type wreath I found on clearance and I didn't paint it or even take it out of the plastic. I turned on a show, and started cutting strips of fabric. Then I tied and I tied and I tied until it was all covered in raggedy messy fabric. Then I modge podged the paper to the letters and attached them and added some google eyes because it looked like a monster. My husband didn't want me to re-paint the door orange just for the season, and I was okay with that.

 

 

The spiders had a deeper well in the body so I filled it with hot glue before using tacky glue for the magnet. It is holding up okay.

On a scale of 1-10 these were a 10, so easy it was scary. The wreath too, just time consuming but so easy anyone can do it!

 

Pinterest Night

 

Two months ago a friend and I decided to started a Pinterest Club. One night a month we have a girls night to do a pinterest craft and try out some pinterest recipes. It's a little crazy, but its been way fun! This month we got our craft from this pin, Pumpkin Book, and the recipes from these pins: Owl Smores, Coconut Banana Bread, and Pumpkin Crescents.

 

Pinterest night is great. The host pics a craft, prices it out and gets all the supplies. A few of us signed up to bring a treat and then everyone just shows up to snack and craft. We had 16 girls there for this project so it got a little crazy but it was a blast. The host had cut out several stencil shapes for the pumpkins, some were shorter and more round, others were taller and straighter. We also had several book sizes. I think you would want at least 400 pages in your paper back book. Some girls had 800 -1000 pages. Some girls used scissors to cut the pages others used razor blades which gave it a bit more of a shabby look. After the entire book was cut we softened the binding by separating the pages maybe 10-20 at a time and bending them back at the binding. Then we used either copper, orange or brownish paint and just painted the edges of the book, some soaked theirs more than others so that the painted seeped further into the book. Then we took some branches and hot glued the binding around the branch and topped it with a bow. Easy and very inexpensive!

And the treats were delicious. I made the coconut banana bread and had I not been distracted and over cooked it, I think it would have been my new favorite. Even over baked it was still moist and delicious. The pumpkin crescents were super easy. The recipe said to cut the crescents in half before filling them and rolling them so that you would have 32 in the end. I had a hard time not making a giant mess so I made 16 rolls and then after they had baked I cut them in half and by cutting them it pressed the middle closed so the insides didn't goo out. Also I added 5-6 big chocolate chips to each roll and I am glad I did. They are not very sweet so the chocolate was a nice touch.
Both recipes were super easy, and on a yummy scale of 1-10 I give them an 8. The books were much easier than I thought, on a tricky scale of 1-10 I would give them a 3.5 and on a messy scale they get an 8. Cutting up books is messy!! And pinterest night  on a fun scale of 1-10 always gets a 10! If you have friends who like to eat and talk and craft I highly recommend starting a pinterest club!

 

Earthquake Cake

This delicious recipe is from this pin: Earthquake Cake

 

This is my new go to recipe for when I take dinner to a friend. It is so good that I could eat the entire 9x13 pan! So at least if I take it to a friend I can make it in two pans and then I only end up eating all of an 8x8 dish. It is like an upside down German Chocolate cake. The coconut, pecans and chocolate chips are a delicious gooey surprise and I love that the frosting is basically cooked into the cake so its just extra gooey. I have made this cake 3 times in the past couple and last time while I was baking it I found myself singing This Kiss by Faith Hill, only I was singing "This cake this cake!"

And it is so EASY I don't even look up the recipe anymore! Sprinkle desired amounts of pecans, coconut and chocolate chips on the on the bottom of the greased pan, then make a German Chocolate cake mix and pour it on top. Then melt together a block of cream cheese, 1 or 2 sticks of butter, and about 3-4 cups of powdered sugar and then drizzle that on the cake and bake it. YUMMY!

On an easy scale of 1-10 its a 1.5 and on a delicious scale its a 10! Its the way you love cake, its a feeling like this, its centrifugal motion, its perpetual bliss, its that pivotal moment, it ah, subliminal, This cake THIS CAKE! Its criminal!!

Pregnant Skeleton

 

I got this fun costume idea from this pin: Pregnant Skeleton

 Last year for Halloween I was pregnant and I wanted a fun costume for my family's Halloween party so when I saw this I thought it would be great for the cooler Utah Halloween and nice and comfy for my pregnant state. I didn't use freezer paper as a stencil like she did on makeit-loveit.com but the reason I thought of this project was because this past week I used freezer paper as a shirt stencil as some friends and I made matching tank tops for a race we were running. It was amazing and would have made this project much easier. By placing the freezer paper shiny side down and ironing it to your clothes you can paint onto your clothes without the paint seeping through. Honestly, I don't know how crafty people figure this stuff out I don't even know what freezer paper is really used for but it makes an amazing clothing stencil! So last year I just cut out paper and traced it and then outlined the bones with the fabric paint that has the small tip for writing and then filled it in with paint. It took a long long time and I just free handed the baby skeleton and it was tricky. For all future painted costumes I most definitely will be using freezer paper! I actually think I may start making my own super hero shirts for Cooper to wear every day because using freezer paper is fun!

On a tricky level of 1-10 I give this about a 7.5. It was a little tedious and I had really hoped there would have been a skeleton stencil. I wish I could provide a stencil here, but I don't have one. The bigger bones were not to bad to make free handed stencils of but the baby skeleton was pretty tricky, It may be easiest to blow up the picture on the computer and print it out and then cut it out of the freezer paper. On a comfy costume for a pregnant lady this got a 9 for super comfy and I wished I could have worn it with out feeling silly for more than just Halloween parties and Halloween.

Monster Jars

I loved these cute jars from this pin: Monster Jars

 

I was "organizing" my cupboard the other day and I had two jars that just kept getting in the way, and then I saw that I had green and white acrylic paint and I thought of these jars. I opened up one jar and squeezed in some green paint. Then I put the lid on and shook the jar until the jar was all green. Then I logged onto Pinterest, pulled up this pin, and read the instructions on how to get the black faces on. Well once again I learned that I need to read the pin before I start the craft! She didn't use paint for this project, she modge podged tissue paper to the outside of the jar and then she modge podged the faces on, and then she can put a votive in the jar. Weeellll I had already started and I didn't have any tissue paper that wasn't pink so I just decided to go with the paint. I put the white paint in the other mason jar, shook it till it covered and then I found a smaller jar for my orange pumpkin. I didn't have orange acrylic paint so I used my sons crayola washable paint and it is holding up okay. In case you are wondering, painting the insides of jars with leftover house paint didn't work for me, it looked good for three days but then it just separated and dried out funny and one day I looked at the jars and they looked really bad, it was a shame. Anyways, once the insides of the jars were colored I grabbed a black sharpie and started to draw on the faces. I copied how hers look because they are darling, but I didn't use her template because I was lazy. But if you don't feel comfortable drawing on the faces she has a cute template you can print out for the faces. Now because I painted the insides I don't know if light will shine through as well. I definitely won't be putting a candle in them but maybe I will pick up a few battery votives and try it out. Also I need a bit of ribbon for the lids.  But for now they just sit on my shelf looking Halloweenie and I am just fine with that!

 

 

On a tricky scale of 1-10 these get a 1. So So easy and quick and if you use her stencil your jars can look just as cute as hers!

Dino Dress Up

 

I fell in love with these pins last year: Dino Tail and Dino Hoodie

I really wanted to make these for Cooper last year for Halloween and after reading the Tail Tutorial it seemed doable. It is always interesting when I pull out the sewing machine but once the spikes were sewn it really wasn't too bad. Mine definitely don't look as nice but it works. I made a few changes in mine. For the tail I used an elastic waist band and made it scrunchy style (I became somewhat of an expert scrunchy maker during my high school sewing classes). I attached the kind of clasp they use on dress pants, I don't know what it is called but I used a couple different hooks to clasp it to so that he can wear it for a few years. For the Hoodie I was not very confident in my patience for hand stitching so I make a set of spikes like I did for the tail, I cut the hoodie in half and I just sewed it all together, it doesn't look near as nice but it worked. Maybe in the future I will make a better one and when I do I am going to use a stiffer felt or fabric for the spikes or I am going to stuff them with batting so they stand up more.

 I hot glued on some eyes for Halloween but I peeled them off afterwards so that he could wear the hoodie on a more day to day basis because I thought it was so cute and call me crazy but I like to see kids dressed up as part animals on a day to day basis, it adorable.

 This is nearly a year later and Cooper still loves the dino outfit, maybe I can starch the spikes...

 

This is how it looked after I cut it in half and sewed it back together, my sewing skills are embarrassing but no one really sees this part anyways...

On a difficulty scale of 1-10 I would give it a 7. Anytime I have to pull out the sewing machine it automatically  adds a few difficulty points because I just don't sew very well, however the tutorial are amazing and made it fairly easy, especially if you love to sew (I'm guessing).



Lesson Learned

I saw this pin and was super excited to make this Pumpkin Treat on this crisp cool day.

The description underneath the pin said this-

Pumpkin Frozen yogurt: 1 Cup Greek yogurt, 1 cup pumpkin puree, 1 T. Sugar, 1 t. pumpkin pie spice. {substitute pure maple syrup for sugar}

Easy enough, and I had all the ingredients!! Without even clicking the pin to take me to the link of instructions, I started mixing everything together. I figured I would just mix all the ingredients and put it in the freezer and in a few hours enjoy my delicious skinny treat. As I was stirring it just didn't look right. It wasn't pale orange and smooth. It looked a little curdly and no matter how fast I whisked the yogurt wasn't smoothing out. This is the part where I learned an important lesson as I clicked on the pin to take me to the link for instructions. The first problem was that you need an ice cream mixer to make this, however I had seen somewhere that you can put the mixture in a Ziploc and freeze it and every 30 minutes squish the bag and mix and mix. So I thought I would still give it a whirl. I got out my immersion blender and gave it a good blend to get it nice and creamy. I pulled the blender out, licked it clean and discovered my second problem. The recipe on the website calls for non fat vanilla yogurt. The description under the pin calls for Greek yogurt. The two are not the same at all, I thought the Greek yogurt would give it a subtle zip and would pair well with the pumpkin, like pumpkin and cream cheese. Not so. The Greek yogurt made the mixture too too tart and it just didn't go well together in my opinion, and I am a huge fan of Greek yogurt so I was disappointed. I still wanted to freeze it and see if it was better frozen. I don't know if Greek yogurt freezes differently than plain vanilla yogurt or if it was my method of freezing without an ice cream mixer but it just comes out a little on the icy side and not so creamy, and the tartness was still overpowering. All was not lost. I mixed the pumpkin yogurt with a big ol' scoop of vanilla ice cream, blended it with a touch of milk and had myself a tasty not so skinny shake.
For the future ALWAYS click on the link for the correct ingredients and instructions, I think I would have really liked this treat, maybe in the future... once I get an ice cream maker.
I can't rate this on a scrumptious scale because I blew it but I am sure that it is delicious when made correctly!

Caramel Apples

There is no pin for this. So maybe I am cheating a little bit crafting something I didn't see on pinterest. I actually was looking for a pin to learn how to do this last year and when I couldn't find one I asked my craft hero Melissa if she could teach me how to make these. It is so simple its ridiculous.

 

You will need:

Fake Apples, what ever color you choose

Sticks, I used tree branches but craft sticks, lollipop sticks, striped straws are all cute too.

 Tacky Glue, its in the craft stores in the gold bottle

Acrylic Paint, we used a color from Walmart called Cinnamon

Ribbon

 

Bore a hole in the top of the apple for your stick. Don't make it too big, just big enough so that you can shove the stick in. You can secure it with glue if it isn't holding tight.

To make the caramel put the Tacky Glue into a cup and add the paint until it is a nice caramel color. I wish I could say how much of each but it just needs to be eyeballed.

The caramel can either be drizzled like I have done or it can be dipped like a traditional caramel apple. If you choose to dip it you want a wider bowl for the glue mixture and you will need more glue mixture to dip into,  but if you want to drizzle it you can just mix the glue and paint in a paper cup and you will just need probably about 1/4-1/2 cup. To drizzle it on just pour the caramel around the stick and let it do its own dripping. The caramel will drip down a lot so you don't after the top 1/5-1/4 of the apple is covered. Put the apples on a plastic baggy (I prefer the freezer ziplocks that are a thicker plastic but just make sure you put the apple on the back of the bag and not on the label part) . Watch it for a few minutes, if it isn't drizzling like you want you can pour a little bit where you want the drizzle and as it drips down it will blend. If you choose to dip the apples dip them in the glue, you may need to roll the apple in the paint so that the caramel reaches as high as you like. Hold the apple so that it can drip off and after the bulk of the paint has dripped scape the bottom of the apple off on the edge of the bowl and place it on a plastic baggy to finish dripping and drying. The Apples need to drip and dry overnight. Once they are dry attach any ribbon you want to. We thought about coloring some glue a chocolate brown and doing brown and white chocolate looking dips or drizzles but decided not to but you can go as crazy as you'd like. I don't know if sprinkles or candies would hold up or get super gross but that could be fun too.

I did say these were simple, but its more because it is just glue and paint on an apple. There is a little bit of trickiness in getting the glue just right with the drizzle and dripping. Just remember that it may not look right but it drips a lot. On a tricky scale of 1-10 I give this about a 3.5, easy enough to tackle and you feel like a crafty rock star afterwards.

Banana Cake Bars

 I got this yummy yummy recipe from this pin: Banana Bars

We had some guests over for dinner on Wednesday. Over the weekend a nasty stomach bug came for a visit so by Wednesday I was craving some serious comfort food. I wanted cheesy soups and fall desserts, but I just couldn't bring myself to make Autumn weather food when it was 100 degrees out. So I made a chicken broccoli cream dish over rice and these banana bars. I fell in love a little bit. These are so good!! I made half of the recipe and baked it in a 7x11 glass dish. Then I made half of the browned butter icing and poured it over the top. Next time I will half the bars but make the whole icing recipe. The icing is so goooood!! I am sad to say that I have not browned butter since I was in culinary school! Shame on me, I have really missed out! I had forgotten how good browned butter smells and the taste of this icing! Oh man it's a little nutty and oh so buttery and sweet and pairs perfectly with the banana bars. And now to give some credit to these bars, it is banana bread taken to the next level of deliciousness. It has the texture of a really good Texas sheet cake. Not as dense as a banana bread and I like that. I made these in the morning and as soon as the icing had set up enough to cut without drizzling I tasted it. It was warm and delicious and I felt happy. Later that night when we had them for dessert I was a little disappointed because I didn't love it as much as I had earlier. But then I popped it in the microwave for 12 seconds and I was back in my happy place! Eat these warm! Part of what makes me happy when I eat these is that I feel like its the perfect bridge dessert between summer and fall. Living in Texas we miss out on the crisp fall weather and the leaves changing. Its hard for me to get excited about soups and pumpkin treats when its sunny and in the 90's, but this is kind of summery and fallish at the same time, so its great for a warm September treat.

I almost forgot to snap a picture as I sat down to eat the last piece for breakfast!!

On a scale of 1-10 this gets a 9 for Yummers and is about a 4 for difficulty to make only because she isn't lying when she says browning butter can go from nice and brown to burnt in seconds. It can be hard to see the color of the butter because the butter fat sits on top as its boiling. You will start to know it's ready by the smell. It will start to smell very buttery and a little nutty, check the color then. It should be a nice golden brown. I had the milk and vanilla in a little bowl on the side to pour in immediately to cool down the browning process as soon as it was ready.

Wall Flower

I figured out how to do this craft from this pin: Dahlia

This project was so much easier than I expected. I thought I would be rolling paper cones for hours but I had the entire thing done in about two hours! I had been waiting for over a week to find the time to do this, so last Friday once the house was all cleaned and I finally got both kids to take a nap at the same time, I knew it was finally the right time for this craft. I pulled out my old copy of Les Miserables, turned on my guilty pleasure show (The Bachelor Pad), and I started rolling paper. I used my old copy of Les Miserables because I had dropped it in the lake over 12 years ago and the edges were yellowed and I knew I wouldn't be reading this copy again. I also like the paper size, 4x7. I rolled about 100 cones. Sometimes when I focused on rolling I seemed to mess up, really its just a simple mindless roll, fold the edge up, roll the extra paper around to form the cone, then unroll the edge and apply glue and finish the fold. I used about 15 mini hot glue sticks for this.

 Once I had about 100 cones I cut out a piece of cardboard. I used my 16 inch cake pan and traced the circle, I cut out two circles and glued them together so it was a little more sturdy. Before I began to glue the cones on I poked two holed on opposite edges and tied a string along the back of it so that I could hang it when it was done. Then I began gluing on the cones. I was not looking at the pin when I did this so instead of gluing the tips to the board I just glued along the back of the cone with only about two inches of the cone hanging off. I also started placing the cones too close together so after about six cones that were side by side I started leaving about a 1/2 inch in between. As I began to glue on the inner layers I continued to glue the back of the cones and just glued them on top of the other cones so I really only glued the very first layer to the cardboard.

After gluing the third layer around I was having a little trouble with the tips of the cones getting in the way so the top part wasn't laying flat. So I just cut the tips of the cones off and placed the cone to sit where I wanted it to. I was worried at first because I could see through the cone and the cardboard was showing but then as I squished more cones into the middle the holes closed up.

 

As I was finishing up there no longer were rows of cones I really was just squeezing them into the middle part where ever it needed it and in the end I don't know that you can really go wrong, its just fun to look at!

On a tricky scale of 1-10 I give this a 2, I was pleasantly surprised at not only how easy it was but how quickly I was able to finish it. And with a fun show on in the background it didn't even seem that tedious!

Work Outs

Got some great work outs from these pins: Treadmill Run, Killer Kardio, Arms, 30 MinTreadmill, I couldnt link to all the pins because many of them were just photos with no links.

After having a baby I found myself pinning a TON of different work outs and healthy recipes to motivate me get back in shape. There were some really great and inspiring blogs and some super fun looking work outs, I was excited, BUT.... For me the problem with pinning a workout was that in order for me to remember what I needed to do I needed to pull up pinterest to find the pin. Too often I just got sucked into pinterest and before I knew it I no longer had time to work out. As a solution to my pinterest addiction coming in between me and my workout I just typed out a few of my favorite workouts so I can keep these cheat sheets on my treadmill and get my workouts done. I don't know how to upload a link to a file so here is the list of my favorite works outs. Check out the blog links because they are full of fun workouts and recipes and motivation!

Beginners Treadmill Work Out From ittybitsofbalance.com
Minutes                 Speed
1-3 min                  3
3-5 min                  3.5
5-7 min                  5.5
7-8 min                  3.5
8-10 min                6
10-11 min               3.5
11-13 min               6.5
13-14 min               3.5
14-16 min               6
16-17 min               6.5
17-20 min              3.5
 
Intermediate Treadmill Work Out from ittybitsofbalance.com
Minute               Speed
1-3 min               3
3-5 min              3.5
5-9 min              6
9-10 min             3.5
10-14 min            6.5
14-15 min            3.5
15-19 min            6.7
19-20 min           3.5

 Advanced Treadmill Work Out from ittybitsofbalance.com

Minutes            Speed
1-3 min            3
3-5 min            3.5
5-8 min            6.5
8-9 min            7
9-10 min          3.5
10-13 min         6.7
13-14 min         7.2
14-15 min         3.5
15-18 min         7
18-19 min         6.5
19-20 min        3.5

 Minka Kelly’s Crazy Treadmill Work Out from shape.com

1 minute at 5.0
1 minute at 5.5
1 minute at 6.0
1 minute at 6.5
1 minute at 7.0
1 minute at 7.5
1 minute at 8.0
2 minutes at 4.5
 Repeat 5 times or however many times you have the strength and energy to do!!
 
Killer Kardio from fantasmo.blogspt.co.uk
Jump Rope       1minute
High Knees      1minute
Butt Kicks       1minute
Burpees           20
Run 10 minutes
Repeat but substitute Burpees with 10 Push Ups and 10 Triceps
Repeat Set one and add 1 minute of Mountain Climbers

30 Minute Treadmill Workout from pbfingers.com

Minutes                   Incline                     Speed
0-5                           6                              4
5-7                           1                               7
7-9                           8                              4
9-10                         1                               8
10-11                         1                               4.5
11-11:30                     1                               10
11:30-14                    1                               4.5
14-16                        1                               8
16-18                        1                               4.5
18-19                        1                               9
19-20                       1                               4.5
20-20:30                  1                               10
20:30-22                  1                               4.5
22-24                       1                               8
24-26                       1                               4.5
26-27                       1                               9
27-28                       1                               4.5
28-28:30                  1                               10
28:30-30                  1                               4.5

Strength and Cardio Combos

The 100 Workout (I LOVE THIS ONE!)
100 Jumping Jacks
90 Crunches
80 Squats
70 Leg Lifts (35 each leg)
60 Jumping Jacks
50 Crunches
40 Squats
30 Leg Lifts (15 each leg)
20 Jumping Jacks
Run for 10 minutes

The Ninety and Nine Workout

99 Jumping Jacks, 99 Crunches, 99 Leg Lifts,
99 Second Wall Sit, 9 Push-ups.
Repeat with 88 of each, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22, and finish with an 11 minute run…
This is a little too intense for me. I start with the run and work my way up in hopes that one day I can make it. I also do a variety of sit ups and since I am not really sure what type of leg lift workout is intended I do a variety of those as well. Easy to remember and mostly fun.

STRENGTH/TARGET AREAS

Thigh Pyramid Workout: Repeat this 3 times

10 Split Leg Squat on Each Leg
20 Regular Squats
30 Lunges on each Leg
40 Toe Touches
50 Second Wall Sit
100 Jumping Jacks
50 Second Wall Sit
40 Toe Touches
30 Lunges on Each Leg
20 Regular Squats
10 Split Leg Squat on Each Leg

Nice Legs

20 Squats
30 Lunges
40 Calf Raises
50 Second Wall Sit
100 Jumping Jacks
50 Second Wall Sit
40 Sumo Squats
30 Leg Raises
20 Squats

Sculpted Toosh

50 Squats
30 Walking Lunges
20 Jump squats
30 Side Lunges
50 Bridges
Repeat 3 Times

Arms… from lifeisblyss.com

60 Second Plank
15 One-Armed Rows
15 Chest Press
15 Seated Shoulder Press
15 Flys (laying on back)
15 Reverse Flys (laying on ball)
15 Lateral Raises
15 Chest Press (on ball)
15 Triceps dip (on bench)
15 Alternating bicep curls
15 Lying row and Rotation (on ball)
15 Chest Press (on ball)
15 Reverse Flys (on ball)
15 Laying Triceps Extensions
60 Second Planks

Dont let this happen to you!