A giveaway

Been wondering how you can get your hands on something perticular from my shop? Well now is your chance! Minnesota Mama is having a big baby shower bash and she is giving away a hat set! Plus a special discount to her readers (hint hint) so pop on over there and enter and see the cute things I made for her! Dont forget to email me your Halloween pictures for the costume contest!!

Costume Contest

I am going to have a costume contest on THIS blog! SO snap some cute pictures tonight and tomorrow and send them my way! Send all costume pictures to ohbabyboutique@live.com and I will put them all up on Monday morning with a poll and we will have a week to vote! The winner of the contest gets bragging rights, as well as their choice of anything they want me to make them! :) SO hurry, get me some cute pictures of your kids!!!

Things im working on Thursday

As the weather has been turning colder my crafts have switched to cold weather musts! I have made a lot of warm hats including a special one for DH- he was pretty excited!

Also lots of pairs of warm longies! I am working on 4 pairs right now... I know, if I worked on 1 at a time I could finish them, but having 2 crocheted and 2 knit projects means when I loose my crochet hook (like when DH finds it in his backpack LOL) or when I run out of yarn, then I can go onto another project! hehe. Pix of those when they are finished!

I have also been making lots of sets of warm jammies! I have a few more to make and a bunch for CHristmas, but I am waiting until the big $2 flannel sale on black Friday- which I am going to have to brave myself this year because DH has to work! :(

ALso how could I forget Minnie's costume! I just think she looks SOOO cute in it! Her most favorate things to do right now is the "hot dog dance" (if you have seen Micky Mouse CLub house you know what I mean! ) It is SOOOO funny!

SO what have you been working on this week?

You can make this!

I came across this FABULOUS website a couple of months ago. It is called You Can Make This They have some of the most darling patterns I have ever seen, and patterns for everything! For the rest of this week they are offering free downloads of a couple of their patterns, including a to die for cute "recipe" for filled tutu's! SO head on over there before Halloween and pick up your free copy!! Let me know what you think!

Wordless Wed

Happy Halloween!

bLOG HOP- FAMILY FUN

Today's blog hop is all about family fun, and since this fits into the theme of my blog I have decided to give you a few ideas I have on how to have family fun for cheap or free!

**The first thing is an idea I talked about HERE and I am VERY sad to say that in my neighborhood I must have picked 2 dud families because it just completely stopped- yes, I was hoping for every door in the complex to be complete with a darling little ghost and have the pride to think I started the whole thing- but no, the people I took them to didnt even put the ghosts in their windows, let alone pass it along- SAD!

**This costs a little bit of money but is SOOO fun! When my DH was growing up his mom owned a day care. Every Halloween they would go trick or treating on a big trailer and then they would come back to the house and have crumb donuts and "Witches Brew". He was kind enough to share the recipe with us! 1 bottle of apple cider, 1 pound of dry ice. Make sure your container is big enough and put the dry ice in the bottom of it and pour the cider on top. It will bubble and smoke and make the cider carbonated and SO yummy! Kids think this is GREAT! Try it, I promise your kids will love it!

** Carving pumpklins is a no brainer- but everything is more fun with a contest involved! (This works with costumes too!) Go to the dollar store and buy each of your kids a small treat or toy then tell them you are going to have a contest for best family pumpkin or best costume and let them go to town with their creativity. Once they are ready to be judged hand them all out a special prize! It is also a blast to have your kids come up with their own costumes that just come from random pieces around the house!

**Going apple or pumpkin picking is always a favorate activity! Get your kids involved in the process from harvesting to preserving (or whatever you happen to do with your harvests!) Most towns have orchards and patches that will let you pick your own stuff and pay buy the pound, check around because it is MUCH more fun that getting things at the store!

Those are just a few of my ideas! Cant wait to hear what you have to say! Make sure you sign up and leave me a link to where I can find your ideas! And if you are new- dont forget to become a follower and say hello!

Think about it Sunday

Todays topic- How did you meet your husband?

I met my husband when I was in Southern Utah going to college. We were in the same institute (religious study) class, but we never talked. He sat in front of my friend and I, and we just figured they were stuck up guys who were always talking about Vollyball! hehe. So the summer came and went and we found ourselves back at school but in a different apartment complex.

My BFF Brandi were sitting on the porch in my porch swing ( yes, we were THAT cool that we had a porch swing on our balcony! lol) And we were being silly and eating Rhodes dinner rolls. (She is extremely picky and only eats about 10 foods...) It was the week before school started I think, maybe the weekend before- anyway, we were hollaring and being idiots at the people walking by. SO we are yelling and being dumb and these boys walk up the stairs and come and sit in front of us and start talking to us. The one is saying things like- "I know you guys" and we were all creaped out and wondering how in the world.... But if you know my husband (which 99.9% of you DONT) You would know that he looks 100% different when his hair is long and when his hair is short! (His hair had been neck long in class and was now VERY short) So anyway, we decided that maybe he was the same guy (after he had told us over 10 times!) My friend decided that she would just start hanging out with him because he asked her for her # so they could study for their sign languadge class.... Turns out she was NOT happy when she thought she had a date with him and it turned out he set her up with a friend and wanted to hang out with me!

She is over it now though- I hope... hey- some things are just ment to be!

I cant wait to read all the stories about how you met YOUR husbands!

Need some new recipes?

Today was a pretty productive day as far as food is concerned.... I havnt been doing so well laterly on that front, but I decided to redeem myself today! I made Crockpot Chicken Parm past as well as Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies! Want recipes?!?! How could you not! So here they are!

Chicken parm Pasta-
Ingredients-
Crock Pot
Chicken Breasts
Parmasean cheese
Motz cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
Bread crumbs
Spagetti sauce
Spagetti Noodles

6-10 hours before you plan on serving....
Take as many chicken breasts as you would need for your family and trim them how you like them. Then you Take the egg and the milk and beat them together in a large bowl. Pour bread crumbs into a bowl as well. (I just buy the $0.97 italian ones at Walmart, but you could make some if you want!) Now you will dip the chicken into the egg wash and coat it, then into the bread crumbs making sure they are coated. Now throw it into the bottom of the crock pot and continue with all pieces. (I like to cut my chicken into smaller pieces.)

Once all pieces of chicken are in the crock pot you will cover the chicken with motz cheese and sprinkle parm cheese on top of that. Then pour in a can of spagetti sauce and top with more of both cheeses. Put on top, turn to low (5-10 hours) or high (3-4 hours) and wait!

About 20 minutes before you want to serve it put the spagetti in a pot and boil as normal.

Serve sauce and chicken mixture on top of spagetti and enjoy! Think of me as you eat it! :)


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients-
1 box of spice cake mix
1 egg
1 can of pumpkin
1 bag of chocolate chips
Mix all of these together. Spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 15-10 minutes and enjoy! You can top with cream cheese frosting! Once again- enjoy!! (p.s. I stole this one from Kelsey Nixon's (ala next food network star) blog- and it is a winner for sure!!)

Wordless Wed,

Family pictures!

Crunchy Tuesday

Sorry it has been a while since I have done one of these! Today I want to talk a little bit about food storage. If you are a member of our faith (The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints or the Mormon church) then you have been hearing about this your entire life probably. I know I have! But I think food storage is such an important thing for all people, not just Mormons, so I would love to share a little about it with you.

We have been asked to have a food storage so that when hard times come we will be able to provide for ourselves. This can mean a couple of days of storage or 2 years worth of storage! Many people think this means wheat, flour and sugar type things, but in reality, you really should be storing things you plan on eating- what is the use of having 500 pounds of wheat and not know how to cook with it!

Many of us have found ourselves in the position where buying food is the last thing we dare spend our money on- no matter how hungry we may be! This is where the idea of food storage comes in. Buy a few extra cans of green beans when they are on sale or an extra box of cake mix. Buying things you will actually eat makes it much easier when the pantry is empty and you need something to fill your tummy! I would suggest not putting these "extra's" in your pantry, but putting them on a shelf out of eye site so that they really are there when you NEED them and not just when you are craving a can of peas (which is ok too as long as you replace them!)

The church we went to last year had a great program where every week they had 2 different things they suggested you go out and buy to put into your storage. I thought this was a GREAT idea because it helped you know when certain things would be cheapest (for example condiments around July) and also kept in perspective how much of these things a family would need for an extended amount of time. I think this is a GREAT idea and would love to start doing this if anyone would like to join me!

I know that my family could be doing MUCH better with our food storage, but as we are getting on our feet we are getting a few things stocked up. We have always had a couple of boxes stuffed in our storage shed for hard times. THIS is a great web site that offers gourmet food storage food at reasonable prices! The LDS welfare cannery is the best place to get flour, sugar, wheat, potato pearls, dried fruits, hot cocoa mix, spaghetti and MUCH more at wholesale prices and in BULK. Click on the link and it will take you to a web site explaining it and it can find locations for you. Keep in mind you DO NOT have to be a member of the LDS church to get things from the cannery and I have heard of MANY women just going there to get their essentials in bulk at a great price!

So do you have a food storage? What do you think about the idea? Let me know! And if you have any more questions about anything I talked about feel free to coment or shoot me an email at ohbabyboutique@live.com

Think about it SUnday

What kind of candy do you give out for Halloween?

When I was growing up my parents would do king sized candy bars! Not many kids would come down our lane to trick or treat, but once they found out we had those we were having more people we had never seen than kids from the neighborhood! Someday we will do this too, but for now we just have a bunch of leftover stuff from the sheep club get together.... hahaha- (Halloween candy, I assure you!) So nothing too amazing, just nerds, laffy taffy and smarties- DH ate all the chocolates already! :(

Come enter my contest- PLEASE!

I promise it will be fun! See post below!

Mom contests- to peel an apple

I really want to start a new feature- one that is all about us! Where we can show off our talents and even win some prizes! So today marks the day of the first contest- here are the rules.....
#1 Read over what is going on
#2 Go do it for yourself
#3 Go make a blog post about it
#4 Come link up with McKlinky so we can all come and ooh and awe over what you did!

Since today is the first installment I wanted to do something that has been on my mind since I was in college! I had a job as a nanny for a couple different family's and it seemed like most of the kids would only eat apples, mac and cheese and drink apple juice. (Now that I have my own kid I realise this is just a normal kid! hehe) Anyway, I ALWAYS wanted to be the one who could peel an entire apple with a knife in one swipe. I have now come to realize it is IMPOSSIBLE!

So here is my challenge- Get yourself a nice big apple, get a knife and go to town peeling it in the biggest piece you can possibly make! Once the piece gets cut, take it and measure it, and of COURSE take a picture and post it along with your blog post! I want to see if anyone can do this! If you can, I will bow down to you- as well as award you with a really fun prize of your choice of ANYTHING from either of my shops! (That is almost 100 things to choose from!)

SO come on moms, grandma's, aunts, cousins, nanny's- get your knifes and apples ready and show me what youve got!!! Make sure you leave me a comment so I can come check you out too! And make sure to leave a mention to this post and the contest in your blog post! Entries will end next Tuesday night- so let see how you do! :)

Wordless Wed

Great giveaway I want to win!

Brandy over at The Buzz is having an awesome giveaway for not 1, but 3 sets of super cute PJ's from Dillards! I have won 1, count it, 1 giveaway from a blog before, and I REALLY want to win these! SO here is the deal, go over there, put in your entry and PLEASE please PLEASE make sure you tell her that I sent you over there so I can get another entry! I NEED these and want some SO so bad! If anyone was wondering what they could gift me- PJ's would be it! I mean seriously, I wear pj pants every single night for the past 10 years and some of them expose my entire leg! or entire butt..... But regardless! hehe (and I am currently doing 3 pj swaps right now! That is how badly I need new ones!

McKlinky blog hop Tuesday

Today's blog hop is something to make you feel good!

I dont have a great joke, good news or an inspirational story I can think of off the top of my head- so whats the next best thing? Pictures of the baby right?!? Enjoy! Please take a second and click HERE and vote for her in the cutest baby contest! She is #14!

Cute baby contest

One of my favorite blogs is having a cutest baby contest! Of course I had to enter MY baby in it! SO please go vote for her! If you dont know which # she is, its #14! Thanks so much!!

Baby makin machine contest

Think about it Sunday

The holiday season is quickly approaching us! So my question tonight is "how do you get ready for the holidays?" Make a blog post on your site linking your awnser to here, and make sure to leave a comment telling me where to find your response!




Here is what we do! Halloween is all about costumes and fun for us! I am still trying to convince my hubby to take us to one of the 6 corn mazes in this town.... he hasnt given in yet! Once that is over we kind of fly by to Thanksgiving and try to get through school and finals. Thanksgiving is spent with family- not sure what we are doing this year!

The morning after Thanksgiving we are up early and ready to set up all of our Christmas decor! We spend the whole day putting up the tree, lights, ornaments, our plastic train ect ect. Then we usually make some sugar cookies, hot cocoa and sit and look at the tree! SO fun!

I am so excited to start all the prep work in a few weeks! And I am excited to hear about what you guys do to prepare!

Im an auntie again! :)

So I have been a aunt for a while, to these two little cuties....

The youngest is only 3 weeks old but we havnt gotten to see her yet :(


But I got a new little niece yesterday and I am SO excited! Tressy Shae Allen- she was 8 pounds 16 ounces! (HUGE for how tiny her mom is!) And 21 1/2 inches long to boot! But she is darling and we are super excited to have her in our family now!Being an aunt is So fun!

Crochet #1

Today I am going to teach you how to crochet! I realize videos would be better, but I dont have that much time or space on my computer! We are going to be making either a scarf or a dish cloth- either is equally easy, but obviously the scarf will take longer because it is at least 6 times longer, so you may want to try it for a second project! As for hook size and yarn, it really doesnt matter for this progect, but I would say to go with a RED I sized hook. Go to yoru local craft store or Walmart and ask someone how to find one. Then you will be able to tell where the sizes are and the differences once you have looked at them!

So here we go, lets get started!

Start with your yarn in your hand like this. You are going to make a slip knot.
wrap it around your fingers and pull it through. Now stick your hook it in and pull it tight.
Now you will take your hook, wrap your yarn over top of it and pull it through the loop. This is called a chain!
Continue until you have your desired size. Which is 30 stitches for a wash cloth and 20 for a scarf.
You now have a chain!
Always chain 1 more stitch than you will need, because this will now be put into the next stitch. So now what you are going to do is turn your hook so that the hook part is facing your left hand. Now put the hook into your second loop of your chain. wrap the yarn around the hook once it is through the loop, and pull through both other loops. (Leaving the last loop you wrapped)


You have just done your first SC or single crochet! You are now crocheting! WAY TO GO! Keep doing this down the entire row. Then make 1 chain stitch and turn your work.

Now you will do your first HDC or half double crochet- Wrap the yarn over your hook and put your hook through the next loop in your work.
Wrap the yarn over one more time and pull through the loop in your work. You should have 4 loops on your hook.
Now pull the last loop (The last one you just wrapped) through all 3 of the other loops.

You have just done your first HDC or half double crochet!

Now comes the DC or double crochet!
Wrap the yarn around your hook, put it through the next loop, pull through.
You will have 4 loops on your hook. Now pull through 2.
Then wrap again and pull through the last 2!
You have just completed your first DC or double crochet!

Now I want you to continue in a pattern of a row of single crochets, a row of half double crochets and a row of double crochets until you have your desired length! Look at you! You are crocheting!! Come back next Thursday for a lesson on tripple crochets, how to crochet in the round and how to read a pattern!