Making a Personalized Travel Quillow

I don't know that quillow is the correct term. It's basically a mini-quillow. What the heck is a quillow? It's a quilt pillow. They're usually much larger (think throw pillow) and quilted with a heaver material. I wanted to make a travel version that was a more comfortable blanket. Blallow? We'll stick with mini-quillow... 

I had a friend who was moving overseas, and I wanted something super functional, but personal. I made an open call to our friends to text/email/drop off very basic messages in thick sharpie. I color corrected them to black/white and added them to a Photoshop file. When I did the color fill I liked how the hearts stayed white. Her favorite color is green, so I went with that! The inside of certain letters stayed white as well, but I filled that in. Who wants a travel blanket with lots of white?! Here's what my square psd file looked like:

I picked a hex code that I knew Spoonflower could use, then I uploaded/ordered some custom fabric from www.spoonflower.com - I don't get any perks from sending you there... just wanting to share a great company! They let you choose the repeat, so I did an offset one. I also ordered custom fabric from them for a first birthday party. They have wallpaper, and all sorts of fabric. I got 2 yards of the modern jersey. This is what the fabric looked like (a bit darker than the image shows):

I found some coordinating minky at JoAnn's Fabrics as the backside.

This is the point where I really dug in and focused on the project, so I didn't take many good pictures. You can find many quillow tutorials online, here are the basic steps I took:

POCKET:

-Measure out 'pocket' to be 2in wider and longer than you want your final pillow to be. 

-put fabric face-to-face and sew them together 1in from the edge(leaving a spot to flip inside out). I added a rope handle so it could go over a roller bag handle. You do not need to top-stitch this mini-blanket (pocket) because it will be sewn down to the blanket.

-It is optional if you want the fabric to match or contrast the blanket. I did one side of each so the pocket blended to the signature side but was the minky zig zag when flipped inside out.

BLANKET:

-Make a standard blanket; face-to-face good sides, sew around (leaving a hole to flip it inside out), and DO TOP STITCH this bigger blanket.

-The blanket should be just under 7 times the pocket width and just under 3 times the height/length.

COMBINE THE TWO:

-Sew down 3 sides of the pocket to the blanket. Leave the side in the middle of the blanket unsewn (this is also the side where the handle needs to be).

Sorry again for missing the 'in the process' pictures! It's basically a tiny blanket on a bigger blanket.

The trickiest part about a quillow is folding it. 

FOLDING:

-Pocket down.

-The 7x width of the pocket is because you want to fold each side into 1/3s and pile it on top of the pocket It's going to be tucked in, so if you can make it ever so slightly inside the pocket, it'll make your life easier!

Then, fold it down into 1/3s so you end up with a fat pile on top of the backside of the pocket.

Then, you simply invert the pillow. If you make the blanket too big, this is more difficult. The corners will always need a bit of finessing; I find it easiest to put my whole hand inside the pillow and push it to the edges of the pocket.

I ended up with enough fabric to make two, so they got a set of mini-quillows. Here they are at the going away party! We will all miss our friend, and even though we can't all go along, we can be with them in spirit!

Both fabrics are super soft and I'm thrilled with how it turned out!!

Super Easy Valentine's Day Cards

I'm a sucker for Valentine's Day… it's so cute and fun for the kids! Last year I had some serious mommy guilt because it slipped my mind and I forgot cards for their class party. They were too young to notice but mommy guilt usually comes from ourselves anyway.

This year I wanted something simple; so when this idea popped up on my Facebook feed I knew it was a winner! I didn't save the link, so I can't give proper credit.

I took a picture of each kiddo with a fist in the foreground, printed them at Walgreens for 40% off, took an Exacto knife and made a slit above and below the fist, and inserted a DumDum (the kids' favorite treat and free of all allergens for other kids in the class).

I'm super thrilled with how they turned out, and for the 60 cards and candy I spent less than $10. With hindsight, I would have dug out my serious camera (these came from my phone) and taken better pictures. These capture real life, and they're likely headed straight for the trash once the Dum is consumed, so I'm not too bothered by the pictures.

Have an awesome day! 

Cheap & Easy Teacher Gifts - Holiday Scent Stew

I wanted to make something special for all of the ladies at daycare. There are at least 10 people who interact with both kiddos on a daily basis, so it needed to be something economical.

I decided to make some Holiday Scent Stew for them!

The ingredients are cheap and easy. Each bag contains:

• 3 Cinnamon sticks
• 1 tbsp of Whole Cloves
• 1 Orange (large or small)
• 1 Cup Cranberries
• 1 Bag

You can get as creative as you want - with cellophane bags and raffia ribbon. I went with the pre-decorated Ziploc bags on sale at Target! I would recommend putting them in something you can see the components in - it's as beautiful as it is yummy-smelling.

It took only about 10 minutes to assemble 16 bags. I took them all to daycare to share with any admin/teachers I had overlooked. I would recommend placing sticking labels on bags before filling them - they adhere better on a flat surface. 

If you use large oranges, I would suggest cutting them into 1/4 sections instead of half. 

I made a page full of labels on stickers (again - get as fancy/basic as you want). You could do printed tags and cut scalloped edges and attach them with ribbons.

I gave the gift to our teachers as a Thanksgiving/Christmas present so they could enjoy it the whole holiday season. There's definitely a scent to this time of year.  The mix can last up to two weeks once they add water, so it will fill their house with the most delicious smell for a while.  

One of my fondest holiday memories as a child was sticking whole cloves into oranges - something about cloves/oranges just triggers happy Christmas memories!

I've already heard from four of the teachers that they made and LOVED them! One of the ladies even said she made a batch for her relatives to give as gifts.

What are you doing for teacher gifts this year?

Valentine's Day Gifts

A few weeks ago one of the moms groups I belong to had a spa party.  One of the activities was a 'make your own bath salt' table.  It was so pretty I decided to put my own twist on it and make Valentine's Day gifts for the babe's teachers. Can you believe Valentine's Day is just over two weeks away!? 

I picked up some supplies: Epsom Salt, Sea Salt, Small Glass Jars, Dried Lavender, Dried Rose Buds, Red Ribbon, A paper bag, Essential Oil, Red Glitter Paint

I cut the side of the paper bag to make gift tags and added a giant glitter heart:

I mixed 2 parts Epson Salt to 1 part Sea Salt:

I mixed in the dried lavender:

I created a 'junk mail funnel' to fill the jars:

I then added the dried rose buds on the very top:

TADAA!! Teacher gifts ready to be delivered:

Budget breakdown:

• Epsom Salt - $16 at Target 
• Sea Salt - already had
• Small Glass Jars - $1 each at Michael's (x10)
• Dried Lavender - $1.99 at a local market
• Dried Rose Buds - $1.99 at a local market
• Red Ribbon - had on hand
• A paper bag - had from groceries
• Essential Oil - had on hand
• Red Glitter Paint - had on hand

Totaling $30 for 10 gifts or $3 each, but I have about 90% of the Epsom Salt/Lavender mix left.  You better believe I'm going to be taking LOOOONNNG baths.  :)