We are. . .adding on!

So. . .
I just put our Etsy shop on vacation for a while. Maybe a little while, maybe longer.


"Why," you ask?

We are. . .  well. . . expanding!

And by expanding I mean I will be expanding. Not Cantaloupe Corner.

Yep, you guessed it.  Baby #3 will be making an appearance sometime next summer!

But,
Me and pregnancy just don't get along.

I get sick. I mean really really, all day long, laying on the couch, puking up everything I eat,  type of  sick.

Managing a business, taking care of 2 little boys (and my father-in-law),  and trying to keep up with other motherly and wifely duties has become way more than this one little girl can handle. 


So, for now, I'm putting Cantaloupe Corner on hold so I can take care of myself and our soon-to-be new addition.  And because I am having a hard time prying myself off the couch. ugh.



After having 2 little dirt-loving, wrestling, bug-chasing boys, it sure would be nice to have some sugar and spice in our house. And think of all the adorable girly crafts, dresses, hair bows. . . *sigh*

So I'll secretly wish for a girl.

But boys are nice too. 

My boys.

 You know how it is. The cobbler's kids have no shoes. They roofer's house leaks.  The screenprinter's kids wear clothes from where ever they are on sale for cheap (or the screenprinted mess ups).

But, I found some extra minutes and put together some shirts for my own little munchkins.

Little guy's "i fight bad guys" shirt was designed after this adorable tee at I am Momma Hear Me Roar (One of my new favorite blogs.) She does tons of cool boy crafts. And all of you who have boys know that boy crafts are HARD to find. 

My oldest boy's shirt is inspired my my hubby's new  baby. A 1960 something VW Bug! It is his project car that is in a million pieces in our garage right now and this kid loves "helping" his dad fix the bug.

The slogan came from an old silly song that we used to listed to on my grandma's record player.  "Hug hug hug hug a bug bug bug" (sang to the Duke of Earl tune).

You won't be seeing these in my shop but I am so excited to show them off. My kids have some personalized hip shirts just for them. I think I deserve some mommy brownie points.  yes?

Snacktime: "Oreo" Dinos

These scrumptious cookies are so good that no matter how many you make they never make it to the neighbors house.

This is arguably my new favorite roll-out cookie recipe.

 Impossibly simple and undeniably delicious! 

These were a special treat for my son's preschool class. They were having a lesson on dinosaurs. I think I'll make more of these for Halloween! Bat cookies!

This is my own spin on the classic "cakie" (cake mix cookie) recipe.  I prefer to use devil's food cake mix because I'm a chocoholic, but you can use any kind of cake mix you love.



Ingredients:
1 box cake mix
1/2 cup shortening
3 eggs
cream cheese frosting

1. Pour cake mix into a large mixing bowl and cut in shortening and eggs using a pastry blender.
2. Use your hands to push dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 min.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4. Roll dough onto a floured surface and cut with your favorite cookie cutters. (don't forget to make 2 of each shape so you can make it into a sandwich.)
5. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes.
6. Cool 5 minutes on pans before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

7. Frost cookie with cream cheese frosting and add another matching cookie of top for a cute and delectable sandwich. 
8. Enjoy! Make sure you save some for your hubby and kids.

These cookies will stay soft for days. So you can make a double batch and have some tomorrow too!

These kids are Way Tutu Cute!

These cute little models are some of the winners of the WayTutuCute.com model contest. Merideth Rowlen Photography worked with these little cuties. If you are in Alabama and need a photographer look her up! I promise you won't regret it.

 I can't get over how adorable these little faces are. Oh. My. Goodness.

I am in love with the color orange. That orange couch is to dye for!

 I can't get over how stinkin' cute his freckles are.

Thank you to WayTutuCute.com and Meredith Rowlen Photography for giving us cute pictures to stare at!

All of our toddler and baby items are available at WayTutuCute.com. And just as the name says, everything on their site is waaaay too cute!

~ dem bones, dem bones ~

Things are getting SPOOKY around here.

Don't let those faces fool you! They are little monsters.

With Halloween just over a month away we though it would be the perfect time to introduce our re-vamped Argyle Skulls t-shirt.

This design has come a long way from the first hand cut stencil I made almost 2 years ago. Me and my x-acto knife did not enjoy the 2 hours it took to cut out the stencil. But now I have improved the design and stuck in on a silkscreen!!

(I can't express how happy I am that I will never have to hand cut another skull stencil. Woo Hoo!)
But seriously, 2 hours of cutting and blisters were worth it.


Now you can get your own spooky Argyle Skulls tee for your toddler! He'll be the coolest kid in pre-school.



Boy's Argyle Skulls toddler tee - Black





Boy's Argyle Skulls toddler tee - Orange



And you can personalize this shirt! Add your son's name to the back.  Just add the distressed name upgrade to your cart when you check out.

Savvy? 

Make your own Laundry Detergent

How much do you spend on laundry detergent in a month?
How about a year?


The last bottle of detergent I bought was $13. It lasted me about a month.
1 bottle a month = $156 a year.  Yikes!

When I was a little girl my best friend's amazing mom always made her own laundry detergent.  I thought she was a magician because I far as I knew that stuff only came from the grocery store, and the grocery store got it from some factory far far away.

She would break out the lye, the rubber gloves, the whole sha-bang! She was a genuine domestic diva!


I'm not so good with making the soap from scratch. . . so I'll give you a recipe for laundry detergent that most of you can make right now.

And it is a lot easier than "make your own laundry soap" sounds. 


Baking Soda Laundry Detergent recipe:

1/2 bar of mild bar soap (I use Ivory. Fels Naptha also works Great!)
1 gallon hot water
1 cup baking soda  (not washing soda)
1/2 cup borax

(Please forgive the terrible pictures. These are from 2 years ago.  In digital years that's like 50 years old.)

1. Finely grate your 1/2 bar of soap.

 2. Put your soap and a little bit of water in a small sauce pan and melt over low/medium heat while stirring.

 3. Heat your gallon of water. Boiling water is optimal because it will dissolve the soap quicker. I use a canning pot. You can also heat the water and pour it into a bucket to mix.

 4. Add your melted soap. Stir well. Then add the baking soda and borax.  This is the fun part! Watch it foam as you stir.

I feel like a mad scientist. Or a witch.

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

 5. Let it cool.  Stir occasionally as it is cooling down.

6.  Pour your concotion into a jug. Make sure there is some room left at the top. You are going to need that space for shaking.

This is what it looks like after it has sat for a day. The soap seperates from the water.

 7. Shake Well before each use. 
1/2 Cup per load. (1 Cup for heavily soiled or extra large loads)


It doesn't look like the stuff you buy in the stores but you know exactly what is in it. There are no dyes, perfumes, or chemicals added.  


How does it compare?  I have noticed that the homemade detergent performs just as good, and in some cases better than the $13 bottle I used to use. 
Your cost =  from .60 to 2.00 depending on your soap.

I have used it off and on for the past 3 years and I LOVE it!

Sacrifice vs. Giving

Life changes so rapidly. Yesterday I was 16 and getting my drivers license and going to the homecoming dance with the football player I am now married to. Today I am driving my oldest son to preschool and teaching him how to write his name.

Being a mother is the most wonderful and difficult job out there. We have the important job of sacrificing of our time, energy, skills, (not to mention boat-loads of sleep) for these beautiful beings that God has entrusted into our care.

Then it hit me. 

Sacrifice? This isn't sacrifice!
I willing give my time, energy, skills, and sleep to my kids.  The word sacrifice is all wrong. It emphasizes that we really don't want to do it but we have to so we do it anyways.

The correct word is . . . Give

We give of ourselves to make their world a better place.

Giving is not just for the other person.  I have been taught this principle in church and at home my entire life but it never really sunk in until this past year.
You give to others to help them, and in the process you help yourself also.

It is amazing what giving can do to your physical, mental, and emotional health.

In a talk I was listening to today the speaker said that giving has Scientifically been proven to help you live longer. It also makes you a happier person.  AND, get this. . . . It is the worlds best diet plan!!


Yep, giving to others can actually help you lose weight!

Makes sense right?  We eat when we are upset, bored, sad, lonely. . . (at least I do)
When you are giving of yourself you rarely experience these emotions.  That's where the happiness kicks in.


I  have been touched by the lives of others who have served me, and those who have been my examples (Thanks Becki). 

So who's with me? Couldn't we all use some more happiness in our lives?
Let's give back in any way we can.  Volunteer, join a good cause, or even better : help your family, friends and neighbors! That's the best place to start.

My first order of giving. . .  Making bread for unsuspecting neighbors. 

Now it's Personal!

We celebrated Little Monster's b-day last week and I printed his very own personalized Choo Choo I'm 2 shirt with his name on the back!  And I added embroidery thread stitching on the sleeves and hem. (inspired by I am Momma Hear me Roar!)

I've been waiting SOOO long to use this design for my own kid!

I love the name on the back so much that I wanted to make personalized shirts available to you too!

 Oh Yeah!

You can have your child's name stencilled on the back of the shirt using this unique technique that makes it look distressed and faded.

It is also done with our gentle dye remover. No ink and no paint!

Just add this item to your cart along with the shirt you want to personalize.

(Perfect for birthdays!)

________________________________________________________________________________

For Ry's birthday I got to give my craft cutter a workout. But I thought it would be fun to make personalized invites for his party!

 I searched frantically though the internet to find the perfect train cupcakes and found nothing! So I had to improvise.
I cut cream cheese candies into cute little trains to top off the cupcakes. A little green grass and orange sprinkles and voila! you have Choo Choo cupcakes!
I'll have to share the cream cheese candy recipe! It's super easy, fun, and YUMMY!

Mmmmmm!

I also made a train pinata for the party. It is made out of cereal boxes, an oatmeal canister, a toilet paper roll, tissue paper, tape, and TONS of CANDY!!!!

After all my hard work on this thing I didn't even get a good picture. I guess this isn't one of those "I'll get pictures later" projects, because now it is smashed into pieces in a trash heap somewhere. But it was fun while it lasted! The kids were in candy heaven.  :)

Here's a picture I snapped while we were in the White Mountains for the party.

 It was so beautiful I had to share.

Have a sunny day!

Momma Go Round - Giveaway

Most of y'all have probably sent your school-aged kids off for the first day of the new school year. You may have diligently searched every store for deals and steals on hip new clothes and shoes to send your kids to school in.

The older brothers and sisters are all decked out in their new school gear, now it's time for pre-school shopping!

Dress up your toddlers in some new duds.

Today Momma Go Round is starting a round of features and giveaways for all of your back-to-school needs. And not just for toddlers. (Even though we really really love toddler clothes!)

AND Cantaloupe Corner is giving away a "Little Mister" toddler tee! Check out the Momma Go Round blog to enter.    Now your little guy can get all dressed up for his first day of preschool.

And. . . there just might be a coupon code for our Etsy shop.

:)

 

Doily - licious

Remember how doilies used to get a bad rap for only hanging out in old folks homes or only coming out at Christmas time?

The doily is back and they are everywhere.

(And I suddenly have the desire to put them on everything. )

This morning, How About Orange put up a collection of simple  doily projects. I am in love with all of them and I am pretty sure that I need to go buy some more doilies today.

I am in love with this one in paticular from TidyMom.net :

Doily stencils? How cool is that?!

The whole tutorial is available here.

Need some more doily awesomeness? How about something for your naked kitchen table.

What better way to dress it up than with doilies!

I know what you're thinking. You have to have one!

Go hit up your grandma, or local yard sales for some vintage doilies or pick some up at your neighborhood craft store and get the tutorial here.