Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #12

 Dress, Tights - Forever 21

shoes - Cents of Style 

Divergent "Four" necklace - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Tee - ThatBearIsKnitting on Etsy
Cardigan - Charlotte Russe

shoes - Cents of Style 
Bracelet - Gift

Dress and Tights -Forever 21
Snitch Necklace - my teenage dream (why yes I do have two different snitch necklaces)

shoes - Old Navy

Thanks so much for linking up. We had a great turn out. I was a little nervous about how our first week without a reminder email would be. Oh and a few of you asked about my Potter Necklace I shared in last week's party post. I"m still waiting for my sister to tell me. I'll bug her again though.

Your turn, let me see your favorite fashion, crafty, helpful, or delicious posts. 

Fine Print: 

Please be a follower

I'd love you to add my button anywhere on your blog (I'm not picky) 

Link as many as you want and I don't mind if they are older posts
Also I WILL NOT be sending reminder emails any longer. Hopefully the button or following will help you remember about the party.

Please Note: I will not be sending reminder emails about the party any longer. Hopefully having my button, following, subscribing or something else can serve as your reminder.

Etsy Life: Shipping Tips

(my sister posted this on my fb I laugh out loud, this is so my life, oh how I can relate. my hubby does post office runs all the time! hand made ryan gosling)

Looking at a lot of the comments I've received people seem a little anxious about figuring out what to charge for shipping. I have good news, it's not that hard.

•  Get your item, pack it up how you would if someone bought it and weigh it. If you make a lot of different items you may want to buy a postal scale (you can get a postal scale for around 10$) but if your items will be similar enough in weight it may be fine just to go weigh it at the post office. Make sure to always round up.
• Paypal's multi-order shipping tool is free and super helpful. You can print labels from your home and either hand them to your mail person, drop them off in a blue receptacle, or at the post office. And you don't have to wait in line. You can only use this for US orders. I use it even if I'm only printing one package since it's easier/quicker to use than the other set up. Since it automatically loads the addresses this will save tons of time writing out addresses and purchasing postage. Also it includes delivery confirmation so you can track the packages. It sends your customer an email to let them know it shipped with the tracking info and it gives you proof of shipping if for some reason there is ever a dispute. (It's always good to double check that the paypal address and the etsy address match up before shipping.)
• International shipping is scary to a lot of people but don't let it stress you out it's not that hard. You can enter into the postal calculator the weight of your item and determine the shipping to any country and it will tell you how much it will be. For me I ship a lot to Canada, the UK, and Australia. Much much fewer and further between would be the Philippines, Spain, Brazil, Germany, and a few others. For me most of my international orders have not been much expensive than shipping to Australia I think Israel was the most. On etsy you can set your shipping to "everywhere else" I have three options: domestic, to Canada and everywhere else.
• What to charge. Technically shipping costs involves the cost of shipping, the cost of printing the label (paper, ink), your time packing and taking things to the post office, your gas to take things to the post office, your envelopes and tape, and usually more. With the exception of extremely heavy items my philosophy is to charge a just little more than what my envelope plus postage costs are.  For me adding 50 cents to a dollar to what the postage is has worked for well. So if the post office charges me 2.50 I'll list my price for 3.50 because I buy my envelopes in bulk and I know that will probably cover the rest of my supplies but it is still reasonably low. If you're using more expensive envelops or including other stuff that might not work for you. Some people have success with rolling the shipping price into the cost of the item. This seems to work particularly well when items are expensive to ship or when most of your customers are in a different country (cuts that barrier of  'oh do I want to pay for international shipping?' potential costumers might have).
• You could make it easier on yourself by just using flat rate priority packaging. They make envelopes and boxes. It's one price and the packaging is free/included in the shipping cost. You can pick up a stack and bring them  home to pack and then either print  up the labels at  home or pay for the shipping later at the post office. I use these a lot when people order multiple items. This cuts out having to buy envelopes and tape and you don't have to figure out how much to charge since it's a flat rate.

Hope that's helpful to a few of you. Let me know if you have any questions about this or have other topics you'd like to hear my two cents about.

Treasury Love: I Love You Baby

Fellow EtsyKid's team member handmaidencanada (who makes super darling dolls and doll clothing) created this lovely treasury featuring one of my new wrap around strawberry ruffled bloomers as well as a number of other great creations from other team members (how cute is that little whale?). Click here to see the collection up close and to get links to the items and to see more from these talented artists.

What's for Dinner: Week 114

(Seafood Mac and Cheese)

I really liked the coconut beef stew that I tried last week it's definitely going into the circulation. Yea for trying a new recipe and really liking it!

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Seafood Mac and Cheese and salad	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: Spinach, Salad, Green Beans Fish: Tilapia, Shrimp
Monday	Teriyaki Salmon Cous Cous and Wilted Spinach
Tuesday	Turkey Rice and Corn Chowder
Wednesday	Bangers Mash and Pesto Green Beans
Thursday	Creamy Risotto with Sausage and Peppers
Friday	Eat Out
Saturday	Shrimp and Grits (if you have a good recipe send it my way!)

Guest Posting: Love Pillow Case Tutorial at Ruby Jean

If you liked Big Bow Pillow Case tutorial from earlier this week you'll want to hop on over to Ruby Jean where I'm guest posting today and sharing my Love Pillow Case tutorial.

If you are visiting from Ruby Jean welcome it's great to have you! I hope you take a second peek around. If you've got a blog of your own I would love to have you link up a few projects, recipes, outfits or whatever to my What We Wore and Made link party. Here are a few of my favorite posts in case you need a sparing point for peeking around.

• Sequenced Heart Headband Tutorial a quick and cute hair accessory just in time for Valentine's Day
• My (long) Etsy Journey how I started and the whole stinking trip I took to making my Etsy shop a full time gig
• Quick Apple Pastry Recipe an easy tasty recipe with lots of stuff you can keep on hand all the time

Customer Appreciation Pic: Watermelon Birthday Girl

It's that time again yup time to look at another stinking adorable little baby. This darling picture if from the very talented Kristine of Kristine Kraft Photography. I love that facial expression she caught. And isn't this set up so cute! Seeing cuties in my little creations like this pair of watermelon bloomers is seriously one of the best parts of the job. Keep em coming.

Etsy Life: Setting Up Shop

I was surprised to see how many of you really resonated with my "Etsy Journey" post. I had lots of comments from people either with very young shops or who have been strongly considering opening an etsy shop. In my opinion, if you've really been wanting to try Etsy out, go for it. At 20 cents a listing it's very inexpensive to try if you sell something etsy and paypal each take a small percentage but if not all you're out is the initial 20. Here are a few tips I have for those of you who might be just getting things started or re-started.

• Put all your information up. Fill out the shop policies section, the profile section, and every other section there is to fill out on Etsy. This will help you think through many possible scenarios you may encounter as a shop owner and it will answer important questions for your potential costumers. Also don't forget to add a banner, featured items, profile pic etc.
• If you haven't already, buy something on etsy and leave feedback. This serves afew purposes. It teaches you how things work and puts you into the mindset of a customer so you can better anticipate what questions your potential customers may have and gives you the opportunity to get feedback. Hopefully your experience will be good and you'll leave good feedback. If the shop owner doesn't leave you feedback send him or her a message explaining that you are trying to build up your feedback and asking if they would mind leaving your feedback for the purchase you just made. That way when customers get to your shop they will see a positive percentage (sometimes having no feedback makes people nervous).
• If you haven't written up a listing write one up. Then look at it from the view point of a customer. Are there multiple pictures that show different angles, sides and details? Is the sizing, color, etc. clear (write it in words in the listing AND if possible show it in a picture)? Do you explain what the turnaround time is? Use all your tags.
• Fill up your shop. The short of it is that most successful shops have many pages of listings. Each page has 24 items. I'm tempted to suggest trying to shoot for a full page of items to start. But unless you just have stuff sitting around you probably don't want to make up a bunch of things that you're not sure will sell yet. So I think 10 would be a solid start. On the other hand I have purchased something from a shop that only had 4 items. Part of filling a shop is to let potential costumers know that you're serious. Unless you have a ton of good feedback a shop with just a few items might make customers doubt how serious to take the shop. While all the shops I've seen that are really successful on etsy have pages of items I fully believe that it's possible for a shop to just sell only a few and do well. One shop I saw that sold seasonally just had a few items she'd relist over and over and remake them and that worked well. Another option would be to make multiple listings of the same item (assuming you either have multiples made or are prepared to make multiples).
• Etsy will let you write up a bunch of listings and save them as drafts so you can post them later when you're ready. I like to stagger listings so that they are at least an hour apart. While it's tempting to put all your listings in at once if you stagger them you have more of a chance to hit different groups of shoppers that are on the site at different times. 

Also please understand that all of these"tips" are based on my personal experiences so please take them with a grain of salt. These are just things that I've noticed have worked for me but one of the great things about etsy is how different each shop and approach can be. 

To see more of these etsy related post check out my etsy life tag (I will be adding more regularly so check back in, next week I'll share a little bit about shipping).

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #11

 Top, Jeans - Forever 21

Boots - costco

Potter Necklace - PrettyLittleCharmsUK on Etsy

Top and jeans- Forever 21

shoes - Jelly Pop
Scarf - ??

Cardigan - Charlotte Russe

jeans -Forever 21
Potter Necklace -Gift (I'll find out though)

shoes - Le Sport Sac

I'm running out for a full filled night, birthday dinner for the musicmaker's grandma and a Rotten Musician concert so I know this is up early but I hope that's okay.

Tutorial: Big Bow Pillow Cases

I finally got around to making some more pillowcases. Just in time for Valentine's Day I made a bunch of festive pillow cases using and tweaking my trusty 10 minute pillow case tutorial.
 
Today I want to share how I made the big bow one. It it only takes maybe 5 minutes (max) to add the bow to the basic pillow case. Cool right?

What to Do

1. I used 17" square pillow cases so my measurements are based off of that. If you have different size pillows check out my basic pillow case tutorial for info about how to get the measurements for different sizes and add 11 inches to whatever you need.
2. For a 17" pillow you'll need  28" of fabric (by the width probably 44" or 60"). 
3. For a 17" pillow case you'll need fabric cut to 17x38 (pillow case), 9-11x38 (bow), 6x6 (bow tie). My red pillow case I used the 11x38 inch bow and the pink one was a 9x 38 inch bow. 
4. First sew the bow. Fold the bow piece in half so that it's 11x 19 and sew the long sides. Flip it right side out and iron.
5. Make the bow tie. Fold the 6x6 piece in half and sew around three edges. Flip right side out and iron. Tuck one end into the other to make a little tube (like a napkin ring kind of) and fold under the edge of the top layer and sew shut. I had to sew from one edge to the middle cut it and sew from the other edge to the middle. 
6. Finish the short edges of the pillow case piece.  I did this with a serger or you can just fold the fabric under twice and sew.
7. Slide the bow piece through the bow tie. And arrange on the pillow base. Find the placement by folding the pillow base so that you have a 17 inch space and the flaps should fold over in the back (if you only finished one edge like me make sure the pretty one goes down first. You can iron the edges so you know where to fold them. Mark the middle of the square with a pin at both the top edge and the bottom edge. Open up the flaps.Then pin the middle of t bow edges to where the pins are. put the flaps in place making sure the pretty side goes down first. Then pin the edge of the bow so they are sandwiched between the pillow from and back.
8. Sew the two edges making sure to catch both layers of the pillow case, the bows and the flaps.
9. Now flip it right side out, stuff a pillow in and arrange the tie so it sits in the middle of the bow.
10. Stare at it and say, that was so easy and quick and look how cute my pillow case is. 

I hope you like it. As always I'd love to see pictures if you try it out. Feel free to email them to me or link them up to my What We Wore and Made Party if you post them on your blog. I'll be sharing my Love Pillow case tute soon too.

What's for Dinner: Week 113

(Broccoli Slaw with Baked Chicken)

Hope you all had a good week. I did a soup round up from a bunch of recipes people shared at my link parties. I'm excited to try one of them this week. So many scrumptuous looking recipes. We've kind of got a lot of stuff going on out this week so we'll see if I make all of these. Oh and today my mom will be making our annual Chinese New Year Feast, it should be super tasty!

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Chinese New Years Feast	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: Spinach, Salad Fish: Tilapia, Shrimp, Scallops
Monday	Grilled Cheese and Whatever Soup is in the Freezer and Salad
Tuesday	Coconut Beef Stew
Wednesday	Eat Out
Thursday	Chicken and Two Potatoes
Friday	Seafood Mac and Cheese
Saturday	Lemon Tilapia, Wilted Spinach and Cous Cous

Round Up: 5 Soup Recipes Perfect for Winter (and a couple extras)

I have been drooling over a lot of the tasty treats that have been linked up in my What We Wore and Made Link Parties over the last few weeks. I'm such a fan of soup and sandwiches and there have been so many good ones that I figured I'd share some that especially popped out to me.

1. This Coconut Beef Stew from Turtle and Tails  is definitely on my too try soon list.

2. I've never tied to make my own but I love Butternut Squash Soup (on it's own and with ravioli). This delicious looking one is from Young Living Oil Lady.

3. I love a good Hamburger Soup and this one from Wellness Hammock looks like it would hit the spot when you just need something safe and tasty.
 
4. This Hearty Minestrone Soup from Path to Wellness looks like a great way to cram in a bunch of veggies into a delicious meal.

5. This Dairy Free Potato Soup from Real Food Allergy Free looks fabulous as written or could easily be adapted to be vegan or to use regular dairy products.

6. And because every bowl of soup needs either a super tasty roll or a delicious sandwich here are some tasty Cheddar Bay Drop Biscuits from Stella B's Kitchen

7. And and amazing Green Monster (avocado filled) Grilled Cheese Sandwich from Everything Under the Moon.

Shop Update: New Girl Rufflers and Boy Romper

I've had a few, ahem a lot, of bolts of designer fabric that I haven't done anything with so the last time I was cutting out some Retro Ruffler (my vintage inspired sunsuits) I made on out of each of them. Most of the fabrics were purchased with that in mind but I just hadn't gotten around to it.

I'm so happy with how they all turned out. I'll be adding all of them to the shop over the next few days including two new boy romper. I say they are for boys but obviously I think they'd be really cute on girls too and both of these styles I can do in custom colors. Oh and I've got one of each of the ruffle ones ready to ship if you're in a rush (most of them are either 12-24 month size or 6-12 month size or of course you can order them made to order in whatever size you need).

I'm Back and No More Reminder Emails aka holy heart attack

I just wanted to let you all know that I will not be sending reminder emails about the party any longer. From the pure number of participants gmail disabled my account and blog last night. So even though I didn't break their rules (since I had a preexisting relationship with everyone messaged) and everything is up and running they obviously have some automatic thing that freezes accounts when you email too many people. So hopefully having my button, following, subscribing or something else can serve as your reminder. I'm not sure if the party people would like me to post a reminder status on the Rae Gun facebook page but I could if there were enough people who wanted that.

Sorry if you stopped by and got the "this blog has been removed" message. I had a total freak out and heart attack last night as I was getting ready for bed let me tell you. Thank goodness it's all back (I wish I had received an explanation though I'm just guessing on the reason since it makes sense, they never sent any info just shut down and turned back on).

Link Party: What We Wore and Made Wednesdays #10

Dress Tights - Forever 21

Boots - Wet Seal

Belt - L.A. garment district (not sure which shop)
Best Accessory of all an AWESOME BOOK - Divergent

Top -Old Navy

Scarf - Forever 21

shoes - Cents of Style 
Skirt - Ross
Tights- Nordstrom Rack

Cardigan - Urban Outfitters

jeans -Forever 21
Potter Shirt -Made It

shoes (love them!) - Cents of Style 

Hope you're all have a super fantastic week. I've had so so much fun looking through all your creations, ensembles and tips. I'll be doing a round up later this week so be sure to check back in to see if you're featured.

Q&A: My Typical Work Day and Some Great Selling on Etsy Resources

 I hope it goes without saying but just in case you need the invitation I want you all to know that I love getting emails and questions from you guys (fun, serious, whatever).  

A few weeks ago Krissa of the super adorable Etsy shop  Mish Mash Clothing sent me an email asking a bunch of questions. I hit on a few of her questions in my last post about my Etsy journey but I thought this one was kind of fun and to be honest I was kind of curious about the answer myself.

I stumbled across your blog today, and had a look around. I see that you are a very successful Etsy seller, and I have a few questions if you have the time.... I would like to know how you divide your time. Do you set a certain amount of hours per day or per week that you work?

First I have to say I spend A LOT of time working. A LOT. My hubby and I both work from home and we both work a lot. We both set our own schedules. And while we could do things in the middle of the day in the middle of the week most of the time we keep normalish work hours. Where he works on his 'day' job (social work-y stuff) and his music, I work on my shop and the blog. I see the blog as part of my business but I also see it as something separate. When I need to cut something it's always the blog side that gets cut. I'm not writing this as 'advice' by any means I just thought it was a fun question and I know a lot of people are curious as to what the day of someone who does Etsy full time is really like.

Typical Work Day (I do this or some variation of this probably 4-5 days out of the week)

9:30 am Wake Up - Check email, shop and blog. Respond to questions, relist items that have sold, comment on treasuries I've been featured in, respond to blog comments and submit to link parties that weren't
up the night before while drinking juice and eating a granola bar

11-11:30 Make or consult my "to do today list" start cutting or sewing or getting things ready to ship (printing labels packaging yup that takes a whole lot of time too). If I have new items I'll photograph them as well.

1:30 have some lunch, tidy up the kitchen minimally while lunch is cooking, and take my What I Wore pictures. After food is cooked I usually eat while I continue to work or while I check/respond to computer stuff again.

2:00 get back to product making. At some point I start packing items up that are ready to ship. People don't realize how much time this part actually takes (and that's after you've gotten someone to buy something and made the item)

3:30 go to the post office on my way to the gym. if it's a cardio day I read during my workout

6:00 get home, shower, and start making dinner or stop at the market (or fabric store) to pic stuff up. While I'm making dinner I start submitting to more link parties and check/respond to computer stuff again.

7:00 eat dinner, watch tv, and submit to link parties (this is kind of my down time). I never just sit and watch tv. Even though I consider this down time I'm still on the computer, or doing hand sewing or something else that is kind of relaxing and mindless but productive.

9:00 get back to work for real. About half the days during this time I'll write blog posts, write shop listings and do other computer stuff that I can do while sitting on the couch. The other half I get back on the sewing machines.

12:30 submit to the last of the link parties, print shipping labels for the next day and make sure the blog is set for tomorrow. Make my to do list for tomorrow.

1:00 - 2:30 get in bed and read. I love reading plus it helps me to shut my mind off (I usually fall asleep between 2 and 3:30). I'm not going to lie I wrote my times down last week to prep for this post and I didn't get in bead before 2 am. That's totally normal for us and half the time when I head into read my hubby is still on his keyboard making his tunes.

The weekends I usually work half days which means probably a couple hours of actual sewing, cutting, making the product type work and a couple hours (to many hours) of computer stuff and a post office run. Even on an off day I probably work at least 3 hours but a lot of times that's late at night. But I normally do less product making on the weekends.

A couple nights a week we'll go out to dinner or do something during the evening. But I usually still work for a couple hours after I get home. Sometimes we play like 6-10 ish or 9-12:30 ish. Yup we're night owls.

I tried to do a kind of half day during the week where I'll go do what I want like shopping for fun, or shopping for supplies or make something for myself or try out a new recipe for the blog. But I don't stick to it that well.

To me I work a lot so that when something fun comes up I can just do it. If my family or friends want to go out for lunch or watch the nieces or go do something fun 99% of the time I'll do it. I do regular craft days with my friends and my husband I go out a lot. But then again I'm someone who likes being busy and since there's always plenty to do work-wise, when there's not much going elsewhere on I'm usually working. But again I really do enjoy it. And if people come into town I usually will do a week full of half days. After all if I wanted I could just take less orders, it's my business I can do what I like. Like right now I've been on the computer for like 4 hours and am getting antsy and even though I'm pretty far ahead on work stuff it sounds appealing to do a bit of serging while listening to my Divergent audiobook (and it's 11:30 pm on a Sunday). It helps that I really like watching my shows and listening to books while I work ;)

Top Tips?

So I know I said that I was going to write a top tips post but I sat down to do it and after about 2 hours of typing and thinking, I was totally overwhelmed and felt like I had barely touched on anything. I figured if I'm overwhelming myself then what hope do I have in getting my ideas across to some of you who are just barely starting out. So instead of trying to cram a bunch of tips into one manageable post I'm going to hit on one topic at a time and make sure to do etsy tips regularly (like once a week). Definitely let me know if you have any specific topics in mind.

And for those of you ready to dive right in here's a ton of reading material for you.

• Etsy's official tips blog post I'd start here. It's chalked full of many links on many topics. 
• And also be sure to check out Handmadeology's great post full of tips with lots of linked articles under each tip for more info. 
• And last I found this Newbie Guide to be helpful when I was starting out. This looks like it's the newest version (still 2.5 years old) but some of the info will be helpful. I know there's a lot of info. 

Try not to be overwhelmed just read a little here and there. If you have any questions or suggestions of topics you'd like me to talk about feel free to let me know in the comments or shoot me an email.

What's for Dinner: Week 112

(Cobb Salad with Chicken Sausage)

I've been kind of striking out with trying the new recipes. I tried 3 new ones last week and they ranged from blah to okay. I'm not sure if I'll make any of them again. Bummer. I've been wanting to try more crockpot recipes since a couple nights a week my day ends a little later than I'm used to so it would be great to have dinner already started/cooked, but I've been really disappointed with the recipes I've tried. So if you have any slow cooker favorites I would love love love you to leave me links in the comments. I know there are many good ones out there but the ones I've tried have just not been very flavorful.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Beef and Wonton Noodle Soup	Grains and nuts: granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: salad Fish:Tilapia
Monday	Ravioli and Meat Sauce
Tuesday	Baked Chicken with Ramen Broccoli Slaw
Wednesday	Dinner with the girls
Thursday	Lemon Tilapia, Wilted Spinach and Cous Cous
Friday	Eat Out
Saturday	Islands Tortilla Chicken Soup

Things I'm Loving: Beside My Bed

I woke up this morning and saw this view. It made me super happy so I thought that I would share. These are a few things that I'm loving that reside beside my bed.

• My night stand. I used to have a stool with a plastic tub on it that I threw my glasses, chap stick and whatever book I was reading in when I went to sleep. This is so much better. (p.s. Ikea is discontinuing this line if you've been eying their pieces like I have)
• My tiny mercury glass lamp. I used to have an ugly student table lamp that sat on the floor since I had no place to put it. I've got a super low watt bulb in this one and it's perfect for my nightly reading.
• My big pile of books. My own copy of Divergent came in the mail, that lives below a neat devotional my inlaws gave me for Christmas that I've been loving as well. I'm currently reading The Graveyard Book (it's too early to have an opinion) and as is always the case ALL the books I requested from the library came off the hold at the same time. Don't they look pretty? I'm so excited about every one of them.
• My inspiration fabric. For a long time I've been wanting to do something to our boring tiny bedroom. I think I've found the fabrics I'm planning on using. They've been sitting on my night stand so I can decide if they feel right in there.

Guest Post: Monster Gift Card Holder

I just wanted to let you all know that I'm sharing a tutorial on how to make a fun monster gift card holder today over at The Ivy Cottage.

For those of you visiting from The Ivy Cottage welcome, it's great to have you. I hope you takes some time to peek around. If you need some place to start here are a few of my favorite posts.

• My upcycled book page wreath tutorial
• Hunger Games Mockingjay shirt tutorial (are you as excited as I am about the movie?)
• Finally, I've got a What We Wore and Made link party going on and would love you to add some of your favorite posts from your own blog. 

TUTORIAL REPOSTED BELOW

What You Need

• Piece of fabric 3.5 by 12 inches
• Batting
• 2 buttons (different sizes are a plus)
• Ribbon (if you want it to be a girl)
• Small scrap of felt (or other fabric for teeth)

What To Do

1. Cut fabric pieces. You need 2 body pieces about 3.5 x 5.5 inches. 1 lower body piece 3.5 x 4.5 inches. Arms 2 pieces 2 x 2 inches. Cut teeth
2. On the lower body piece turn under the short edge and sew down. 
3. Arrange the teeth and sew down.
4. Fold each arm part in piece and sew one two two edges leaving one side open. Then flip them inside out so that you have two little arms.
5. Sew on your eyes on one of the body pieces leaving adequate room around the edges to allow for you to sew.
6. Lay all the front pieces like shown above with the hands facing inward. Next lay the back piece on top and pin making sure to catch the arms and lower body pieces. 
7. Sew around the edges leaving a hole in the bottom edge to allow you to right side out the monster.
8. Stuff the monster and sew shut. 
9. Tie a bow and sew it on.
10. Add a gift card and you're good to go.

The possibility are endless. It would be cute with all sorts of fun fabrics. You could even use it as a little jewelry pouch. I'd love to see if you make your own little monsters.

Recipe: Cream of Mushroom Soup

Until a few years ago I was a mushroom hater. But after one fantastic mushroom risotto I can't get enough. We love this quick and easy recipe for cream of mushroom soup. It's pretty light since the cream is really minimal but it's super tasty and great for a weeknight meal.

Ingredients

• 1 8 oz pack of mushrooms (I usually use whole mushrooms but they were all out this time)
• 1/2 small onion
• 1 potato peeled and diced
• 2 TBS butter
• 1 TBS chicken granuels
• 1/4 C heavy Cream

What to Do

1. Chop mushrooms, onion and potato
2. Saute with the butter in pot big enough for the whole recipe.
3. Add 4 C hot water bring to a boil and add chicken granuels
4. Blend with immersion blender (or you could use a regular blender)
5. Add another 4 C water
6. Add cream and stir
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper

So easy right? It goes perfectly with Cheesey Jalapeno Rolls. I know it's really basic but it's good old comfort food perfect for when you don't know what you feel like.