LOOK AT THAT!!! ^ I made that! Holy cow. I never thought I'd figure it out but I did! It's still got to be resized a little and tweaked a bit but I DID IT! Thanks to a very easy tutorial found at Clover Lane.

I don't love it yet. Too many pictures, the text is too small and it needs to be resized. It will have to be wonky for a while. The babies are awake and it's time to make dinner. I'll try to get it fixed as soon as possible. It's really gonna bug me til I do. Meanwhile, I figured out how to resize it and made a few changes and now I really like it. I'm so proud! I'm doing the happy dance because I DID IT! I made my own photo header! :)

OK, OK, I know what you're thinking. Lately I've changed the look of this blog more often than I change my clothes and you're probably getting kinda tired of it. Sorry! What can I say? I'm fickle. I am ready for SPRING and if I can't have spring-like weather, I just had to get a little dose of that here on my blog. Don't worry. If you don't like this one, stick around. I'm sure I'll change it in a day or two.

Want to know how to change the look of your blog?

For some great free layouts and instructions, go to:

Hot Bloggity Blog
or
Shabby Blogs
or
The Cutest Blog on The Block

Have fun!

I am sitting here surrounded by one heck of a mess. Nothing unusual...just the normal state of affairs at my house on any given day. Dishes in the sink, laundry to be done, homework to be done (DUE TONIGHT!), sewing to be done (and covering every flat surface in my kitchen and dining room), toys to be picked up, etc, etc. Ugh! How does my house get like this?! Both babies are in bed and I really should get off this computer, off of my hiney and get busy. I'm still in my pajamas! I'm drinking cold, left-over-from-this-morning coffee. I'm a mess. But I had to stop a minute and write this post before I forget.

You know, before we had Easton, I knew I would stay home once he was born. Financially it just did not make sense for me to go to work when I would basically just be working to pay for daycare while someone else raised my child. I mean I loved my job and all but it really didn't pay enough to make it worth going back to work after he was born. So we freaked out a little and then got busy making cuts. Expensive (but fun) weekly dinners with friends? Gone. Pricey home phone package we never used anyway? Cancelled. 160 something channels on our satellite package when we really only watched a hand full of channels? Cancelled those extras too. Buying whatever groceries I thought sounded good whenever I felt like grocery shopping? Nope. Time to use what you've got. Now I take stock of what we've got on hand and build meals from there. (Hmm...I could probably do a little better job with that but it really does help!) Paying full price for clothes? Never! Especially now that I have kids, I am always looking for bargains, even if that means shopping consignment stores or buying 2 to 3 sizes bigger and saving til they fit the kids. I've bought size 4 and 5 T jeans for each kid for around $2 at Target. Who can say no to $2 jeans?!

But what surprised me and what has really been our biggest secret money saving tip recently? Our bank's saving program. Every time we use our debit or checking account, our bank transfers $1 into our special savings account. At the end of the day, if you've used the account once, one dollar is transferred. If you use it 10 times, it's ten dollars. We've had that account open for 29 days and already we have saved a whopping $56. I can't believe we use our debit/check cards that much!! But it really adds up. $56 a month ends up being a yearly savings of...get ready...$672! And when you add interest and the yearly bonus the bank pays, we're talking about $724 that didn't hurt us one bit to save. NICE! And if we make an extra monthly transfer of just $25 into this account, by the end of the year we could have $1,047 in that account!

We honestly haven't missed those extra few dollars here and there. If your bank has a program like this, you really should look into it.

Now off to get a shower, make a fresh post of coffee and get busy!

How to "Follow" your favorite blog

Ok first let me just say, I am probably gonna mess this up because I totally do not know all of the right technical lingo. But my sweet cousin asked a good question about this topic and I thought I would attempt to help. Please excuse me if I call something by the wrong name…I'd LOVE if anyone sees something wrong, please let me know so I can correct this post. Thank you!

Some blogs (a lot of those on Blogger) have the "follow with Google Friend Connect" application. To follow a blog all you have to do is click the button that says "follow". Then you will be asked to sign in. I have a Google account so I click that and then I type in my email address and password. Then a box pops up that says "follow this blog" and allows you to choose from 2 options:
1) follow publicly - which I do so that the blog owner knows I'm following their blog
or
2) follow privately - which I guess anyone can do if they want to but feels a little stalker-ish and creepy to me because I am keeping up with a blog but not telling anyone about it.

Now other blogs (like my Aunt Lynna's over at Okie Sister) don't have the "follow" button because they use a different type of application. She has a button on her blog that says "subscribe" and if you want to subscribe to her blog feed you type in your email address and click subscribe. When you do that, it brings up an email subscription request. Just type in the verification code and click on the button that says "complete subscription request". Then you are done. Now you will receive email updates when their is a new post on her blog.

BUT if you're like me, you probably get about a bazillion emails a day. And while I definitely want to know when my favorite blogs are updated, I would prefer to check my favorite blogs on my own instead of receiving an email about new content.

In that case, if you have a blog then you can customize your blog template and add a section kind of links to your favorite blogs (like in the right column here that say "Friends and Family's Blogs"). This is where it gets a little tricky. Right now I have a little one that is saying "Wants to pick you up please Mama". I'm guessing he needs my attention.  I'll do a post next about how to make simple modifications to your Blogger template.
Hope this helps, Sara. Stay tuned.

Finally something in this blog about a craft project! Here's directions on how to make a baby diaper "cake". I saw this on tv and thought I could copy it.

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Step 1 - The Supplies You'll Need to Get Started
Here are the supplies you will need to get started "baking" your diaper cake centerpiece:

Approximately 50 medium size disposable diapers. The cake I completed used 48 diapers, but since diaper brands vary in size, I'd keep a few extra on hand just in case. You can always give the extras to the mom-to-be.
A large platter on which to build the cake. I purchased a 16" disposable cardboard platter in the party store.
Approximately 70 feet of narrow ribbon for tying the rolled diapers (1 ft. per diaper), and tying together the tiers.
Approximately 8 feet of 1" wide ribbon for finishing the tiers.
One tall baby bottle.
Small candies to fill the baby bottle.
Adhesive tape.
Assorted baby necessities such as pacifiers, teething rings, combs, brushes, rattles, bibs, etc.

Step 2 - Roll 'em Up
This next step is the most time consuming portion of this project.

Cut 48 feet of the narrow ribbon into one-foot lengths.
Decide whether you want the printed decoration on the diaper to show on the cake. If you do, roll each diaper from the fold outwards, keeping the decoration on the outside. If not, roll with the decoration on the inside.
Tie each rolled diaper with a length of narrow ribbon.

Step 3 - Assemble the Tiers
You will be creating three tiers for this cake. It would be helpful during this part of the process to have an extra pair of hands helping you hold things together as you tie.

Begin with the top tier.

Fill the baby bottle with the purchased candy. Stand five or six diapers around the bottle and tie them tightly around the bottle with a length of narrow ribbon.
Create the second tier with approximately 15 diapers. Once again, tie tightly together with the narrow ribbon.
Create the third, and largest tier using approximately 27 diapers. To make the tying simpler, first tie an inner circle of diapers together. Then stand the final row of diapers around this circle and tie once again.

Step 4 - Finishing the Cake
Now you're up to the fun part!

Place the largest cake tier on the platter. Using several pieces of adhesive tape on the underside of the diapers, tack them to the platter. Don't use so much tape that the diapers will tear when the mother disassembles it.
Place the second tier on top of the base and attach with tape to the lower tier.
Place the smallest tier on top and attach as you did the other tiers.
Tuck the various baby accessories inside the ribbon, all around the cake. Make sure they fit snugly, and tie with more ribbon if necessary to keep them from falling off.
Finish the cake with the one-inch ribbon wrapped around each tier to help secure the accessories and provide a finishing touch.

Directions borrowed from www.about.com Search for "craft project diaper cake" and this is what you'll find.
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The baby cake I made cost about $25.00 plus tax and took about an hour and a half to make. Pretty easy and my friend who will be receiving this knows I love to bake and do crafts, so she'll be expecting something "from scratch". Hope she likes it!

Just a note if you attempt this: Make someone help you! All they need to help with is tying the stuff, but an extra hand or two comes in very handy!

Now it's off to clean house before we leave for the holiday weekend.
See ya later, baby cakes! :)