Saturday, July 28, 2012

DIY Decorated Onesies

We have been busy over in the Mayhem household. Getting things ready for the baby, traveling, and having out of town guests. One of the best things that happened this month was I had my first baby shower! It was organized by my cousins and sisters and it was held in a small lake community in Northwest Iowa called Okoboji. My family has had a cabin there as long as I can remember, and I love it up there. It was the perfect place for my little man's shower. :-) (My bridal shower was there, Mr. Mayhem and I were married there!)

The hostesses know me so well and knew that there had to be a craft event at the shower. So in addition to wonderful food, fun games, and a whopping pile of presents, everyone made me an adorable onesie! I have been to showers where you draw/paint on onesies and they usually turn out kind of ghetto except for the 1-2 extremely artistic people in attendance. These onesies, however, turned out awesome!

 

Instead of using paint or fabric markers we used this wonderful product that up until a few weeks ago I did not even know existed! Fabric mod podge! Shut the front door! I'm in love!
 

 The hostesses brought and assortment of fabric choices and stencils to help every one get creative. It was really a great craft for all levels of crafters. For the general crafter, using a stencil to trace and cut out a design worked well, like this car.


For those who were a little more unsure of themselves, there was some animal fabric that they could just cut out an animal and glue it on. My grandma picked this kangaroo and my aunt made the zebra/bee onesie.


 For the more advanced crafter, the sky is the limit. My sister free handed this adorable little necktie. I think it is one of my favorites! I call it his dressy onesie. :-)


 I did I hybrid of the stencil/free hand method. I used a sail boat stencil then free handed the word "boji" which is short for Okoboji the city where the shower was held. A little memento of the day.


I ended up coming home with a few unfinished onesies and the extra mod podge, so I can show you how it is done. The first step is to coat the back of the fabric with mod podge and let it dry. (At the show the hostesses had pre-mod podged all the fabric so it was ready to go.)


 Slip a piece of waxed paper between the layers of the onesie so that they don't stick together if things get goopy!


Spread a thin layer of mod podge  over the back of the design.



 Press on to the onesie. Be sure to get out any wrinkles or air bubbles.


You are all done! Be sure to wait 72 hours before you launder them. After the first wash there may be some edges that come unstuck, just reapply a little mod podge and they should be good to go after that!


A lot of work has been done to the nursery. Paint, paint, paint! I can't wait to post an update. Until then have fun making onesies!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Heavenly Strawberry Dessert

My parents came down for a visit so I decided to bust out one of Mr. Mayhem's favorite dessert recipes for the occasion. It is a little bit of work to make this bad boy, but soooooo worth it in the end. Especially this time of year when fresh strawberries are so good (and cheap)!

Crust:
2 C crushed butter pretzels
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C chopped pecans

Filling:
1(8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 C sugar
1 C frozen nondairy whipped topping

Topping:
3/4 C sugar
2 TBSP cornstarch
1 1/2 C water
2 (10 oz) packages frozen strawberries, thawed and drained or 20 oz. fresh strawberries, stemmed and sliced.

Final Topping:
1 C. frozen nondairy whipped topping

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. For crust, combine pretzels, butter, sugar, and pecans. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish. Bake 10 min. Cool. Beat cream cheese, sugar, and whipped topping until smooth. Spread filling over crust and refrigerate. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until clear. While still hot, add berries. Pour over filling. Spread reserved non dairy topping over strawberries. Serves 12.

Here is a photographical run down of the layers:

The delicious crust. This, for me, is what makes this dessert special. I'm a sucker for the sweet/salty combo!


 The creamy filling. Ohhhlala!



And the delicious strawberry topping. 


Since I am a bad blogger there are no pictures of the final topping or the final product. I guess I was too busy stuffing my ever growing pregnant belly to snap a photo. I guess I'll just have to make it again to update this post with proper "after" shots. Anybody wanna come over for dessert?