baby care recipes: crafted by design

Short story: I.. The self-proclaimed Baby makin' Machine, found out making a baby isn't as easy as I had hoped. So to take my mind off baby makin' I'm spending a month raising money to help March of Dimes babies. Read the long story about how this fundraiser got started here!

Read my latest TTC update here.

I can't believe in two weeks we've already raised 75% of our goal! I couldn't have dreamed of this!! And not just that... SO many people have donated $15 or more, so I've been VERY busy making baby hair bows, and I'm sure I'll be making doggie bandannas soon too! I happily spend $50 at Hobby Lobby the other day getting supplies, so I could give back too!

It's crazy because originally I was just planning to donate baby bows to a charity, now, I'm still donating baby bows, but we've raised A LOT more money for the charity!

Now I'm not sure about you, but lately I've noticed a huge jump in the number of women carrying their babies in slings! At first I thought it looked a little strange, but now, the more I see it the more I'm like "Awwww CUTE!"

But I think one of the difficult things is finding affordable slings. I've browsed around and a lot of them seem overpriced to me. One of my best friends started making them, and she has been giving them away as gifts. If I ever get brave enough, I may try it myself. But until then, I'll be looking for people like KeriAnne, to help out.

KeriAnne is the woman behind Crafted By Design. But she doesn't just make slings, she makes a variety of things! Just look at some of this cute stuff!

She said she's always been into crafting, but never really thought about it as a way to make money until after she had kids.

"I enjoy being a stay at home mom," she said. "But with that come the challenges of raising a family on one income. So I started making small things to sell to help earn a little money. I made my first sling after I had my 5th child (I can't believe I didn't figure it out until then!)."

She was so happy with it, that she wanted to share it with others. So many slings are very pricey, so her goal was to create good slings at a reasonable price. She enjoys custom requests the most, because she gets to use her creativity and her talents and share them with others.

Get a behind the scenes look at KeriAnne by checking out her blog or her Facebook page.

She also is very generous and is donating a beautiful sling and matching pouch to one generous donor.

If you happen to donate just $5 to the charity I'll give you 5 free tickets to win this prize from Crafted by Design! Not only are you helping a charity but (for free) I'll give you 5 tickets in my GIANT drawing! You can donate by clicking the "chip in" button to the right or by clicking here. (Paypal is NOT associated with the drawing, just with donations. Questions about the drawing? Email me at babymakingmachine{at}gmail.com)

This is just one of more than 40 prizes (worth over $1500) that's up for grabs in the drawing! See the full list here. 100% of the funds raised are going to March of Dimes, to help save babies!

Read how this got started here!
Check out all of the prizes here!
Enter my 2nd Cutest Baby Contest here!
Have a giveaway? List it here! Offer extra entries to your peeps for donating!

The morning before my daughter's birthday party I had nothing ready. Sure, invites were sent out, but my "bug" theme was looking more like a non-theme, and I was beginning to peg it as my ghetto fabulous party. But alas, my mom showed up and saved the day.

Photos by Forever Bliss Photography

When I had went Dollar Tree shopping with my husband earlier in the week he rushed me the whole way through the store and asked why kids needed goodie bags anyway. Needless to say he just didn't get it. Luckily, my mom has 5 kids and dozens of birthday parties under her belt, so she knows how it goes and helped me get everything we needed. THANK YOU MOM!

My mom

Here's the invite for my party courtesy of April Showers. She's getting into party design and she designed some buggy decor to use at the party as well as Lil' J's party banner. THANKS APRIL!

So, the Dollar Tree was selling bug catchers and we picked up a bunch of those to use as goodie bags. We filled them with water guns, animal crackers, little snake toys for boys and butterfly hair clippies for the girls. We also added balloons, playdough and bubbles.

We got napkins, tablecloths and plates at the dollar store too.

We ordered 25 plain cupcakes from the grocery store, and my sisters and I decorated the cupcakes ourselves. My sisters were a LIFE SAFER! It's crazy how growing up we seemed so far apart in age, but now we can all hold adultish conversations and enjoy each others company. It was kinda nice to be a big sister boss them around again like the good old days. haha.

We made the cupcakes look like pink ladybugs, bumble bees, frogs (which eat bugs), and flowers. They were a lifesaver too because I wouldn't have been able to decorate them all in time.

I did make Lil' J's big ladybug cake. I tried to make a double layer but for some reason I couldn't get the layers to stack right. I need to practice baking more or something. Or maybe I was suppose to chop off part of the cake so it could sit flat. I dunno. It didn't matter because she didn't come close to eating most of it.

One of Lil' J's BFFs

Table decor by Aprils Showers

The party itself got off to a slightly awkward start because Lil' J was napping when we left. I told my husband to bring her in a little while and that my family and I would go set up the decorations. Well, she showed up about a half hour into her party. Luckily we had lots and lots of food to keep people entertained.

Photography by Forever Bliss

That stressed me out a little, and people joked about the party girl being fashionably late, but in the end everything worked out. She arrived and we all made our way to the splash pad, which Lil' J loved. At first I think she was like "what the heck is this?" But then she warmed up to the idea and played in the water. We also had a playground next to our pavilion so she got to swing in the swings. Another one of her favorite things aside from water.

My photographer, Tara and her hubby

I didn't have to work about taking pictures, I was able to just enjoy the party thanks to Tara who handled all of the photographs. THANKS TARA!

When everyone seemed to have had a good time in the water and I noticed people heading back to our pavilion I figured it was about time for dessert. Everyone gathered around and got ready to sing. We put the candle in the cake and we attempted to light it, but it was windy so it wouldn't stay lit.

My poor husband went through what seemed like half a box of matches when finally he got it lit, but when he blew out the match he also blew out the candle. After a few more tries we decided it was ok that she didn't have a lit candle since she couldn't blow it out anyway.

We sang and clapped, and she stared at her cake wondering what the heck it was, but once she got a tiny taste she was all about it.

This was her first taste of cake but she seemed to like it. Actually, she liked all the food we had, especially the grapes. Like her mama, that's her favorite food right now.

I made sure everyone got a cupcake and a goodie bag, and we took some more pictures of friends. We had a great turnout of so many friends and I was so happy to see everyone there. Having my mom, sisters and dad in town made me realize how nice it is to have family on hand. I missed them the moment they left.

My dad and three sisters

My mom took her presents to the car and we opened most of them at home. Except the one from my dad, so he could see her open up her box of cute clothes. She got adorable things from a Mr. Potato, to a homemade wooden box of puzzle toys, to books and purses and swimsuits, she loves it all.

After everyone left we went back in the splash pad and she had so much more fun than the first time. She begged me to put her down and crawled and splashed around. She grabbed at the water and laughed and snorted. It's probably one of her happiest moments to date.

I survived my first birthday party! If I've learned anything it's to start earlier to avoid last minute stressing. I think I'll start planning her second party in November!

Here's some more photos from the party...