Cupcakery Menu

 

I recently moved around our playroom after our Texas addition. If you haven't seen what we added you should check it out here! In the process of moving things around though we shifted the bakery to the corner near the laundry room entrance. If you remember from before in that same corner we have the book sling I made a while back. Here's the link to that if you want to catch up.

Anyways, after moving the cupcakery in front of the book sling I was tempted to take it off because what kid is going to go in behind the bakery to find a book to read? Well, not me if I was a kid. Then I though about another way I could repurpose the book sling and thus, we created our Sweet Sisters Bakery menu.

I have experience using InDesign since I used to design wedding albums for a photography business. I also still design on occasion for our church. So, I used InDesign and pieced together some graphics and set some easy pricing for the items so they can practice counting dollars here shortly.  I will probably in the sometime future make a menu that actually counts down to the penny that will challenge them a bit more and we can use it as more money practice as they get older.

(Crease before you laminate)

Here are a couple pictures of how the menu's turned out.  As you'll see I used my EZ Laminator (which I love!) and laminated them to help them hold up to the rough play of kids.

We put them in the temporarily unused book sling behind the bakery. So, now when you visit the Sweet Sisters Bakery they will turn around and grab you a menu to look through before you order.

I hope you enjoy!

Heather Joy

Book Sling

I finally make one of those book slings that everybody seems to have.  At first I thought that it would be a lot cheaper than investing in another bookshelf, but come time to buy those double curtain rod holders, I might be second guessing that.  But either way it is a super cute and easy way for books not to get destroyed in our house. 

What you'll need to make your own: 

-2 dowel rods, that are pretty thick to support the weight.

-Canvas material, however long you want it to be, but cant be longer than your dowel rods)

-Ribbon, if you want to spruce it up a bit.

I actually had some random couch cushion pillow covers that my mother-in-law gave me and they are a canvas material of some type, so I thought I could finally use them up.  I just cut the largest rectangle I could out of one side.

Then you need to have some test books and figure out how high you want the books poking out.  I didn't want my small books to disappear too.  It's hard to get those little suckers out sometimes when they fall down!

Measure how tall you want it. Remember this number.  Add about 3 inches (which will become the casing for the dowels to go through) Cut off any excess fabric you're going to have.

Fold down and pin the short sides. Sew. Then fold down and pin the long sides (not necessary as this will be turned inside but it still makes it cleaner inside for books not to snag on) and sew.

Here's what it will look like:

Then taking that measurement from earlier, make sure you fold down the long edges enough that when you fold it in half (as if it were hanging) your books will sit as tall as you want them.  If it's too short, fold it in more, if too high then let more out (making sure you still have enough room for the dowel to go through).

Simple sew on the edges, leaving an opening in the middle. Place the dowels through and let your toddler test it out.

"Wow Mom, this is awesome!"

You can add a large ribbon under the casing if you want to and then buy the double curtain rod holders at Lowe's or Home Depot. Hang it up and now you have the perfect reading center for your kiddos!  Now I just need to have my hubby cut down the dowels and it's prefect. Happy book reading and 

God Bless!

Our Texas Playroom Addition

Recently I have been obsessed with something called New Braunfels Mom's Shop 'N Swap. It's like a craigslist for New Braunfels' moms. You can post to sell something and if it's fairly cheap just leave it on your porch and send the address privately to the person requesting to buy. They pick up and leave the money under your door mat.  It works great because being a busy mom I don't have all the time in the world to put together a garage sale, but I can find the time to post a couple items here and there and when they sell just place them on my porch.

I have been obsessed with the Shop 'N Swap because it's a great way for me to find decor and furniture for our house really cheaply. The people on there are looking for a good deal, so the sellers know they need to post it for a good deal or it won't sell. Hence, I get some killer deals on awesome stuff!!

Want to know my latest find?
---Of course you do!

Well, I was browsing one day and came across something that made me smile, something that warmed my heart, something that made me happy to be a Texan.....a roping steer!

Yes, we found a used roping steer for a smoking deal! When I lived in Arizona there was no way you'd find a used roping steer, well at least not in Phoenix. Now though, we have an awesome roping steer set up in our playroom and we are loving it.  Of course this meant I had to shift everything around once again to make room in our playroom for this big beast.

The main reason we got it, besides the fact that it makes my heart happy, is the fact that we have already been blessed with two horses.  So the girls on a normal basis sit side by side on their horses and race each other.  Well, now after we've rearranged the room they can sit side by side and practice roping the steer.

I also plan to put it outside as a fun activity when we host parties. We are always trying to use our house to bless our church family and whoever the Lord wills. Our playroom is set up nicely for the ages of kids we've had in our circle of friends from the church, however this last party we hosted we had a few new families and our age range went up to the teens. So, I thought that if this was set outside with some real lassos then they might have some fun and it's more fun to keep them outside which keeps the parents happy.

Here are a couple more pictures of the roping steer in action:

I used to have the cupcakery where the horses are and on the wall it was the sign for the 'Sweet Sister's Bakery'. Since, we changed it up I created the western show sign below.

Hope you've enjoyed another peek at our ever transforming playroom from here in Texas!

God Bless!
Heather Joy

Welcome To Our Pizza Parlor!

If you've seen my post about our cupcakery then you'll love to see how we've transformed our Sweet Sisters Bakery into our Italian Pizza Kitchen!

Like so many of my posts, I have the best intention of taking lots of pictures and then posting it that week. This one, like so many others just got lost in the business of life. However, I thought I'd take the time to show you what we did even though it's a bit late.

Last Summer we made our Summer Bucket List. If you haven't sat down with your kids ever to make one, I highly recommend it! It was fun just have the discussion and seeing how we could incorporate some fun time with friends, as well as family time. One of the ideas Kara came up with was to make pizza. I thought it was a great idea. Sure. I'll buy a couple english muffins, some cheese, some sauce and bam! Done! Until, we started talking about how maybe we could invite some friends over. And then it progressed into well maybe it would be fun if the kids could make pretend pizzas and serve each other and learn the different toppings and how a pizza is made and then they can make the real thing. How do these things always progress so far?....

Well, here's pictures of the kids making there english muffin pizzas at the party and keep reading to see how I was able to transform our cupcakery into the pizza place.

  

 

Anyways, so our pizza making day became a pizza party with our closest friends the Markley's and I was set on the task of somehow converting our cupcakery in to a pizza parlor.

I went for quickness, rather than quality on this one. The cupcakery took quite a bit of time and I didn't have enough time for that with our Summer schedule being kind of full.  So, I decided to use some plain cardboard as our crust and painted a red circle on one side (if they want sauce) and left the other side blank (if they didn't want sauce).

Next for the toppings I simply cup up the different shapes out of felt. You could always double up for durability but with the fact that this wasn't a permanent switch I just used the regular thin sheets of felt and it's held up fine.

The toppings we included were: green peppers, onion rings, black olives, pineapple, mushrooms (or you can call them marshmallows like my girls if you want) and red tomato slices (or for our non- vegetarian friends you could use them as pepperoni). I also added a old spice container and labeled it Pizza Seasoning.

I used some ivory or cream colored yarn as the cheese and just cut it up into reasonably sized pieces.

For the fun part, I asked a friend who works for Papa Johns if he could get me a couple empty boxes and he gladly did. We have two sizes (the cardboard crusts match the two different sized boxes).

That's pretty much the details so let me just show you some more pictures so you can get the full picture.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and here's a close up of the sign I made for our Italian Pizza Kitchen!

 

I hope you've enjoyed our bakery transformation. Let me know if you have another idea of what we should transform our bakery into.

Happy Pizza Making and God Bless!
Heather Joy

P.S. I recently made some bakery menu's to go along with our cupcakery but I have plans to make a menu for our pizza kitchen as well. I'll post a link when that happens.

Playroom Transformation #7: Bakery Canopy

I previously posted about the Sweet Sisters Bakery stand that my husband and I had made for our girls for Christmas. The entire thing was just an experiment but we're happy with how everything turned out. I wasn't really sure how to do the canopy. I just winged it really. So, for all of you really gifted at sewing I'm sure there might be an easier way to what I did but just know I go for the results and I'm learning the techniques along the way. I made it with a scallop edge on one side with four straps underneath to tie it to the two dowel rods that it rests on.

Start with your fabric cut to the length you need it to be. I just threw a piece of fabric over the two dowels to where I would like it and then doubled it. Place it right sides together.

Draw your scallops onto one edge. This is the wrong side of the fabric so you don't have to worry about it showing. I did this by measuring my width dividing by how many scallops I wanted (it ended up being 8) and then you get the approximate width of what each scallop should be. I drew one that length and then just traced it repeatedly next to one another the whole width of the fabric.

After you trace it's time to sew along your scallop edge.

Next, you need to cut all the excess fabric off from around the scallops. Now this is where my novice ness shows and it seemed to bunch up for me, so I REALLY had to go in there in the little nitch between each scallop so it didn't gather up. It took some time but after working at it and then ironing it down I think it turned out okay.

 

Next, I top stiched all the way around, leaving a large gap open, so I could sew on the tie backs.

For the tie backs you just need a long, fat rectangle. Sew down the side. Cut the excess off, flip inside out and iron flat. Then flip the ends underneath and top stitch those down. Now make 3 more.

Now take those 4 ties and take your piece of fabric. No rocket science here, but place the fabric over the two rods see where you want it to sit and then pin them where you want. Make sure to pin in to one side. Then sew them on, only going through one side.

After you sew the steps on turn the whole canopy inside out and then turn in the last edge, pin and straight stitch the seam closed.

I should have taken picture when I attached the ties but what I did was throw the canopy on the top.  Lined up where I wanted them to be and just pinned them on.  Then I just opened the large piece up and stitched the ties onto the back side only, so not stitching shows on the top.  Once my four tie backs were sewn on I turned last edge under on the side and top stitched it all the way closed.  And viola!  All done!

 

Happy sewing and God Bless!

Heather Joy

Playroom Transformation #6: Mailbox

Here's another addition to our playroom transformation: the mailbox. Here's a nice picture.

I had my wonderful husband use his jigsaw and cut a metal mailbox in half.

Then he found a thick piece of wood, placed the cut mailbox onto it, traced it and cut it just a bit smaller so it would slip right in the metal mailbox.

Pre drill the holes into the wood.

Paint the wood piece. I chose pink. I thought it would be fun to see a pop of pink when you open the mailbox. I painted black around the sides in case the mailbox doesn't lay exactly flush to the wall.

Then, let your muscles do the work for you. :)  He pre-drilled holes in the wall.

Then he screwed the wood piece onto the wall.

Next, he drilled screws all around the sides of the mailbox.

Looks pretty great! Now, I just have to eventually add a pole for it to stand on and maybe even a flower bed underneath it.

Happy Crafting and God Bless!

Heather Joy