Spring Wreath

Create your own Pussy Willow Wreath!

Materials:
Pussy Willow (you can get this from your back yard, or maybe even a nearby river area... being legal of course)
A thick wire (an old wire hanger will work)
Hot Glue gun
Thin Floral Wire
Wire Clippers



Step 1. Form a circle with your wire. I used a thick gauge wire, but an old hanger would work great too!
Step 2. Wrap the stems around the wire, secure with wire. (you only need to use wire for the first layer)
Step 3. Repeat the process. You will want to weave the branches in and out of each other to hold



Your wreath will start to look like this. Just keep weaving in and out and making sure all sides are evenly full.



As you get closer, use your glue gun and smaller pieces of the pussy willow to fill in gaps and hide any unwanted wire. When you're finished you'll end up with this! I hung mine up inside so that I could bring the spring in! I love it.



I made two. One for me: below and one for my mother-in-law: above.



Do you like the bow? Check back later this week... I'm going to have a tutorial on bow making!

Check out other great crafts:

Bow Tutorial

Remember the post I did on my pussy willow wreath, and I told you I would do a tutorial on how to make the cute teal bow in it? Well, today is that day! I am going to show you how to make a classic florist bow. There are a lot of variations on how to make this bow, but I'm just going to show you how I make mine

First off, you will need the following materials: Ribbon, scissors, wire, and wire cutters

 

For this tutorial, I am using a single faced satin ribbon. It is the most common type of ribbon found at your local craft store. Mine is 7/8. You can use any size ribbon though. Let's get on to making it!

How to Make a Bow

1. Hold the ribbon between your thumb and fingers (I'm right handed and I do so in my left hand). Have the shiny satin side touching your fingers and the dull side facing up.

2. Make a loop around your thumb. The looser you make it, the bigger your loop.

3. Twist the ribbon under your thumb. (if you are using a double sided satin or a sheer ribbon, you can skip this step)

4. To get the shiny satin side facing up.

5. Make your first loop. The wider the ribbon you have, the longer you want to make your loop. Just make sure it looks proportionate.

6. Twist the ribbon behind your thumb again to get the shiny side facing up.

7. Make your second loop.

8. Repeat as many times as you would like. This particular bow is a 5 loop, meaning there are 5 loops on each side of the bow.

9. Stick your wire through the middle thumb loop and twist around all of the ribbon.

Fluff out your bow by adjusting the loops to how you want them, and you're done with your 5 loop bow!

This is what a 3 loop bow looks like.

For those of you that learn better by seeing it in action, I created a video tutorial! Can't wait to see all of your beautiful bows on projects!

Picture for Baptism Program

"We see baptism as the starting point in our journey of discipleship. Our daily walk with Jesus Christ leads to peace and purpose in this life and profound joy and eternal salvation in the world to come."

Feel free to save this image for personal use for baptism program. Quote taken from President Uctdorf's Talk, Come, Join Us.

Primary Ideas

Primary ideas will be coming soon!

Chalk Night

This week for our class activity (for the girls youth group at my church) we had a chalk board night!

The girls would write positive qualities about each other on the board. While they were doing the drawings, my adviser and I took that girl out to and talked to her on how she was doing with personal progress.

It was a fun activity. I had to keep reminding the girls to list qualities they liked in that person, it was turning into funny quotes and inside jokes. Which is fun too.

Added bonus about this project is that it helps the girls fulfill a personal progress project, individual worth #7.

The next day I emailed them (and their parents) the picture and a reminder to finish the project at home.

I got the idea for this activity from this Activity Idea. They used white boards.

Save a girl, Save Generations

One of my favorite talks from the April 2013 General Young Women Broadcast was Sister Mary N. Cook's  talk When You Save a Girl, You Save Generations

Enjoy this free 4x6 printable quote for your YW or YW leaders. 

Or, if your like me and don't want to fork out the cash to print a cute hand out for everyone, here is a PDF version that allows you to make black and white copies at your local building.

Save a girl Save Generations

Baby Clothes Size Charts

It's crazy how fast babies grow! It seems like just yesterday I was switching baby boy from newborns to 0-3 month clothes. As I was sorting through his clothes, I realized he wasn't going to be able to wear some of the outfits for very long! Each brand has such different sizing and babies grow so fast it is easy to get confused!

I kept wondering when he was going to fit in it (it looked huge), until I looked up Gymboree's sizing chart and realized the 3 meant 3 years old. In hopes of not making that mistake again, or the chance of missing and adorable outfit I looked up the sizing chart for the most common baby clothes.

Carter's and OshKosh B'gosh (which also includes these brands: Child of Mine, Just One You, Genuine Kids, and Precious Firsts). size their clothes by only one month listed. This drives me crazy. You'd think that 6m means that the baby would start wearing the outfit at 6 months, not that he would wear it until he was 6 months old. Gymboree and Gap/Old Navy have a larger range for their sizes in baby clothes. One of Doran's cutest outfits is a 6-12 month... can't wait!

***UPDATE 2/20/13*** This post has been gaining a lot of pinterest traffic. I just wanted to let you know that all sizing guides came from the companies websites. Gap and Old Navy are grouped together because their website's have the exact same listings. Hope this chart helps you stay organized!

Here's a more practical guide (not so cutesy).

Does anyone else have a hard time moving their babies up to the next size clothing? I do! It is just so hard to admit he's growing up that fast! Baby Boy has high water pants and stretched bodysuits before I finally switch him over. It is fun to see him in new outfits though!