Quiet book/felt book

My mom and I made this for my nephew. We had no idea the extent of the task we had taken on. It took over twenty hours total. Of course, it was worth it, but things could have been changed to make it easier on us. However, here are some ideas if you want to make one!!!

The clock on the hands rotate!

We used a real collar on the puppy, and his ears and tail move.

You can unlace the football.

The kitty is velcro-ed to the page, and the vegetables come out of the dirt.

This car was supposed to be a Mini Cooper... but anyway, the tires come off the buttons!

The mailbox opens...

 And a letter fits in!

The opposite page has envelopes to mail and envelopes to open!

Two envelopes have letters from Nonna and Aunt Lee-Lee!

This pages have velcro-ed letters so 

my nephew can learn how to spell his name! It also has his birthday. 

It also has a face with his hair and eye color!

The shapes page teaches him to match his shapes! Since there is no velcro on the page, the shapes are kept in pocket on the back page.

This is modeled after my nephew's house! And if you open the windows or door...

Tada! Hobbes sees a baby picture of himself! And a picture with his daddy too! (There is one with his mommy too, I just didn't feature that one.)

There is a refrigerator! Which opens to reveal...

A sandwich with lettuce and tomato!

And on the facing page, a plate and napkin, with a picnic background!

The last page features an apple puzzle! The pieces velcro on and off!

 Any pieces can fit in the back pocket!

And tada! I hope if you were looking for any inspiration for your quiet book, these pictures help!

Makeup

All right, I'm not a makeup artist. This isn't outstanding, but I did do it all by myself!

Brown and gold shadow with black liner on top and teal on the bottom!

Brown, pink, and red shadow with black liner, layered with pink sparkles, and thin brown liner and sparkles on the bottom!

Nothing too fancy, just done by me!

Almond Sugar Cookies

These are some of the softest, yummiest cookies I have ever had. Like eating a cloud. I took them to my boyfriend's house when I met his family, and it was one of the best decisions ever. There is nothing like taking these delicious cookies to a party when you are meeting people for the first time; it's an instant "keep her around". Here is the best recipe option I've found: http://www.daydreamkitchen.com/2012/09/soft-almond-sugar-cookies/

They are so pretty too!

When you get to Step 3, and you go to roll the dough in the Sugar in the Raw, you can add colored sugar or sprinkles and roll them in that!

Seriously, these cookies are perfect for the holidays. Make them, you won't regret it!

Nailed It

These are a couple of simple manicures that I've done:

These are my football nails. I just used a toothpick to make the "laces" on the brown nails!

Christmas manicure! I actually used a tiny nail with this one. I used the head for the berries and the pointed tip for the leaves. 

Simple white and mint manicure. I used a bobby pin to make these polka dots. 

This was my sorry attempt with galaxy nails. I suppose it failed as galaxy nails, but it was still nice and sparkly!

This was purple glitter over black nails: one of my favorites, for sure!

Silver glitter over mint polish.

This one takes a little time. First you paint on your base coat (the gray), then you wait until it drys COMPLETELY. Then use tape to mark your lines!

This was my first water marbling attempt (also, my sweet dog, Hero, modeling in the background). It's not atrocious, but I've seen better! Youtube is FULL of fantastic tutorials on water marbling. But basically, all you need is a cup, three different colors of polish, a toothpick, and tape... nothing fancy! 

And that's all my nails! Whoohoo.

Very First Post: Redone Toms

Here goes my first post!

Well, my sparkly silver TOMS were faithful and strong for two whole years before a hole appeared on the toe of them one day. I was pretty sad.

But then! My day brightened when I saw a picture on Pinterest that showed how to recover TOMS! The link didn't work, so I had to eyeball it, but it was fairly straight forward.

It is easily done with a yard of fabric, some yard, a glue gun, and an hour or so of your time. Basically, for each panel of your TOMS, you recover it with the new fabric using the glue gun. After you have recovered the shoes and trimmed the edges of the fabrics, glue a piece of yard over each raw edge of your fabric (this discourages fraying).

Easy as that!