DIY Little Girls Haircut At Home

Just a few years ago...Geeze...I guess more like 10 almost now...I was a licensed Cosmetologist...I loved it but decided it was time to move on to something else...
Ok so ENOUGH about ME!!!
I thought that since this is a DIY blog and it's about saving money and family....and our Granddaughter Sammy needed a REAL haircut...that I would...well...Share it with all of YOU!
This is a super easy hair cut...the key to this hair cut is keeping your little ones head TIPPED in the OPPOSITE direction of where your cutting. This will automatically put the hair in position for whats referred to as an UNDERCUT. Basically what that means is the layers of hair will fall into position to give it a really soft and subtle bend UNDER. This works GREAT on just about all hair types, lengths of hair and it's not just a tip for little ones...it works great on all ages for people who want that soft bend at the end. Oh...and the boys that want that Justin Bieber look! HAHA!
I hope you enjoy the video...we will be posting another one here really soon with my other Granddaughter Jazzy. Also...we will be doing a Video showing how to do a fade with Clippers!!! Lots of stuff planned here at The DIY Family!!!
Have fun with this haircut! Oh!! Don't forget to use haircutting scissors!!! No dull scissors or the scissors you use for your sewing room...or for Pete's sake YOUR SCRAPBOOKING scissors!!! No Funny EDGE Scissors!!!! LOL
Here's the Video...Hope you like it!!!

The Secret To Happiness

Is there a true Secret To Happiness?? Is this secret supposed to last a life time? A minute? A day?
I sometimes wonder if I am making EVERYONE happy?? By that I mean my husband Steve...our 3 girls...the granddaughters...the lady behind me in Zumba...well not really the Zumba thing... but you know what I mean...EVERYONE!!!
They say it's typically women that just do this...that we have all these proverbial balls in the air that we juggle and we are so busy making sure that everyone else is taken care of and happy that we sometimes forget about ourselves. We are worriers...it's true. Women tend to worry more than men do too... we worry and process things over and over so much more then men tend to do. Men have this crazy insane way of mentally filing things away in some odd and secretive compartment in their brains. Why women didn't get this fancy compartment I don't know...was it after market or are they born with it? I do know that if I had to choose to have envy over this after market magic compartment and the little thing called penis envy...I would be guilty of after market magic compartment envy!!! 
So how do we as women handle worrying and making sure everyone around us is happy! We WORK at everything every day...we wipe questionable things off of our little ones faces...and things up off the bathroom floor that we are convinced should be put into bio-hazard but in some odd way, but yet we just wipe it up and move on...we can cook with a child on one hip a phone on our shoulder while supervising another child with spelling words and homework. We are able to make 100 cupcakes at 9:00 at night the night before a bake sale because our children "forget" to tell us that their teacher gave them the notice 2 weeks ago. We have "magic" kisses that can heal almost any "boo-boo" or skinned knee.  We can settle a squabble between our children with just a look...and on occassion we are even actually able to do all these things in a day and still have time and energy not to mention piece of mind...ok maybe not the piece of mind thing...but we are still able to get cleaned up pull our hair up and be presentable enough to go out on the town with our amazing husbands.
So is this the Secret To Happiness?? The fact that God has blessed us with all these magical abilities to share and use on a day to day basis with our families and our loved ones??? 
I think if I had to make my own happiness...I couldn't come up with anything else that could make me THIS HAPPY!!! I think happiness is in perception...and its the way we choose to look at it.
SO for me...I Thank God for my Happiness...for today....for tomorrow...and for this year and my lifetime. I have been truly blessed. I had my Secret to Happiness right in front of me all along......

Easy Pulled BBQ Pork Roast

So it's no secret that I....Christine...am sooo NOT good in the kitchen department!!! So when I cook the kids always make fun of me and say that they know dinner will be ready when the smoke detector goes off! Ok Ok...so ya...that HAS happened a time or two...or umm more! Anyway...this is one recipe that I CAN do and it's a NO Fail for even ME!

Pulled BBQ Pork Roast
All you need is a crock pot and a pork roast for starters. So just take your pork roast and place it in your Crock Pot and turn it on high for about 2 hours to begin.Then turn it to low to cook the rest of the way. You can add seasoning if you want...but we don't! Just the Roast...THAT'S IT!
If it's still frozen a bit...leave it on high for about 4 hours! Depending on the size of course!

So let this cook for about 6 hours or so. You will know when it's "Done" when you can pull it apart with a fork. When it gets to that point pull it out of the crock pot and place it on a plate. Dump all the stuffies that have been left at the bottom of the crock pot out...get rid of that stuff....and leave the crock pot on low....
Take 2 forks and just pull the roast apart by kinda tearing at it criss cross style with the forks. Place the pulled apart pork back into the crock pot! At this point you can add your favorite BBQ sauce!!! My hubby is spoiled so we order this sauce from a place called Haywards in Kansas...we can't buy it here in Nevada. So grab a bottle of YOUR families favorite BBQ sauce and just add the whole bottle...well depending on the size of the roast! You can also leave a bit in the bottle for serving time if you prefer. The roast will soak this up though just so ya know! Let it sit in the crock pot in the BBQ sauce for half hour or more. The longer it sits in the BBQ sauce the better it tastes and this makes for a great left over for the next day for lunches as well!
You can serve this on hamburger buns or just on the plate with a salad and another favorite side dish of your families!!!

That's it~!!!! See??? So EASY even I CAN do this one!!!!

Random "Mommy-ism" ~ Nightmares and Little Ones

Along the years I have come up with what we in our family call "Mommy-isms"...meaning...goofy or silly things that I have come up with to help our kids or friends...or whoever needs it at the time...to get through the moment...or with three girls...THE TRAGEDY at hand!!!!
So this one works when your little one comes to you in the middle of the night and says "Mommy....I had a nightmare"
One night...I was just completely exhausted and...not sure where this one came from...told her to turn her pillow over. I told her she had her pillow on the wrong side!!! That she had it on the NIGHTMARE side! I told her to go and flip her pillow over and she would have good dreams!!!! Believe it or not this works like a charm!!!
It even became a night time ritual for our youngest daughter for a while...when tucking her in...she would have me make sure it was on the "Sweet Dream Side" She didn't come to my side of the bed anymore in the middle of the night...as a matter of fact...they all became self sufficient in this area and if they woke in the middle of the night....they would tell me in the morning...that they had to flip their pillow over...that they had it on the wrong side!!!
 For the past 20 yrs it has worked not only with our 3 daughters...but with our Granddaughters as well. It's fun to hear our Daughter and Son in Law use it on their girls now! We have passed this on to other friends and family as well and EVERYONE says it worked for them too!
So next time your little one comes to you and says..."Mommy....I had a bad dream" just tell them to flip their pillow over....to the good dream side!!! Everyone will have a better night sleep!

DIY Burp Towel Tutorial

So with our new Granddaughter due to be arriving any day...I decided that instead of my daughter purchasing a TON of adorable Recieving Blankets and using those as Burp Towels...that there HAD to be a better way. I think we found it!

Heres what you'll need:
Some Fat Quarters or other fabric of your choice in approx 10x17
Some Flour Sack Dish Towels (found ours at Wal Mart in the kitchen section)
Thread
Rotary cutter or scissors
Ruler
Iron
Sewing machine

Step 1  After pre-washing and drying your material and your flour sack cloths go ahead and iron them if need be. You will also notice that the flour sack cloths become more dense and compacted after the washing. Cut down your sizes of material to the size mentioned or to a size you prefer. There are really no wrong or right sizes here...it's more of a personal thing!

Step 2  Pin the right facing side of your material to your flour sack cloth. Sew around the edges at about the typical width...I always use the edge of the presser foot as my guide! But that's just me!! Sew all the way around LEAVING an opening of approx 2 1/2" ( this is for step 3)

Step 3  Time to clip the corners at a diagonal so that when we turn the towel right side out we can get a nice sharp point in our corners. Then Turn the towel right side out as shown in the photo with the Pink Monkey Material

Step 4  Press your Burp Towel with your iron and when you get to the spot we left open for turning just tuck those edges in to match the rest of the towel and press that spot really well too.

Step 5  Sew around the edge around the towel. This makes the towel have a really cute finished appearance and will hold the two pieces of material together a bit stronger.

There you have it!!! WASN'T THAT EASY??? These turn out sooo cute and would make TERRIFIC Baby shower gifts!!!! Stack a few of these and tie a cute ribbon around them for gifting!!!

OPTIONAL....you could do some additional stitching all around the towel to give it a "quilted" appearance. I did do this on a few of them and our Daughter Kaylen loved the look!!! Just don't sew any buttons or anything like that on these. A hard button is probably the last thing we want on our little ones face while we are cuddling up and trying to burp them!

I would LOVE to see what your Burp Towels look like!
Have fun...and remember...make some memories with YOUR family TODAY...we only get this oppurtunity today...this moment...this second. We don't get a second chance to get this moment in time back!!!!

DIY Burp Towels ~ Making the Video

Well today we made our first official DIY Video! How to make your own BURP TOWELS!!!
I have to tell you it made me nervous!!! YIKES!!!! I kept goofing it up and tripping over my words!!! I am surprised I didn’t get my fingers caught in my sewing machine!  We also took still shots so that I can create a step by step tutorial so that is in the works as well and I will get that up and loaded as soon as I can. I will be showing you how I used some cute fabric and some flour sack towels from Wal Mart and made some adorable and functional Burp Towels at half the cost of purchasing them would be!!! They were super easy to make and didn’t take long at all and I had 6 of them made!!! Had I not been stopping and starting and creating all the different steps for the video production I probably would have knocked out a whole dozen in no time at all. That’s how easy they are to sew and put together!!!!
Next project will either be these cute Decoupaged letters I am making for Addi’s room or the new baby blanket for her! We will see how that goes and which one makes it up first!!!

The DIY Family

Our goal is to share with you easy and fun ways to saving money by doing everyday projects in and around your home!!! Turn recyclables into gifts…or Decoupage a simple item and take it from drab to fab!!! We will be sharing videos and uploads of how to make your own crafts, from sewing to painting…jewelry making…yardwork tricks and tips…how to do the basic automobile maintenance along with recipes and how to save money on every day items. ALL whle having fun…and savin money….because if we can do it…so can YOU!!!