Easter Basket Essentials Every Disney Princess Should Have

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Easter is right around the corner.  And if you're like me, you're probably DIYing your kids' Easter basket.  Growing up my mom loved putting together baskets that were specific to me and my siblings instead of purchasing the pre-made baskets.  She always made sure to incorporate things that we each loved.  For example, she'd always get me a new piece of heart-shaped jewelry and book because I loved hearts and reading. 

Now that I'm a mom, I'm continuing the Easter tradition that she started.  JJ is still debating on whether he wants a Thomas & Friends themed basket or Lightning McQueen.  Meanwhile, Moo knew right away that she wanted a Disney Princess themed basket.  So, we headed out to our local Walmart to see what goodies they had.  No worries, I'm making a second trip without her to pick up some surprise goodies  

50+ Disney Easter Basket Fillers For $10 or Less

When I was a kid, Easter was one of my favorite holidays because it meant homemade/DIY Easter baskets from my mom.  She had five kids and made sure to customize the fillers of each basket to match our likes and interests.  While Jay prefers to purchase premade Easter baskets for the kids, I enjoy carrying on my mom's tradition of customizing small baskets for Moo and JJ filled with goodies I know they will love.  Since both of my kids are huge Disney lovers (like me), I decided to hunt down some Easter basket fillers that are not only Disney themed, but also easy on my wallet.

YGM2: DIY Vow Renewal Series

A about a week ago, I announced that the Mr and I have decided that we want to renew our vows.  If you didn't see that post you can check out the re-proposal here!  Anyways, it got me to thinking that maybe I should chronicle this journey here on YUMMommy.  Now I had already planned to write about the important stuff like finding my dress, what our new wedding bands will look like and all that other good stuff.  But then I saw from the comments and a few tweets that a few you wanted me to do a whole series.  And I thought 'why not?'

Behold YUMMommy Getting Married: DIY Vow Renewal Series!  I'm really excited about this series because for starters I love all things wedding and love related.  I'm a hopeless romantic at heart and when the Mr and I decided to elope instead of having a wedding, I was a little bit heartbroken about it.  Every woman has dreamed since she was probably 4 or 6 about what her wedding day would be like.  I was no different.

But when we first tried trying to plan a wedding after we got engaged there was just way too much going on in our lives.  Then I got pregnant with Moo.  And from there y'all know stuff kind of fell apart and we ended our relationship for a year.  But when we decided to get back together, we were so determined to make it 'official' that we just kind of skipped over the idea of planning wedding and just eloped.   Not to mention, I had found out that I was pregnant with JJ.  So, I wasn't really going to be in the mood or shape to plan some huge affair.

This time around though is different.  We're in a good place.  Our third wedding anniversary is coming up next month.  And the best part of all is that I'm not pregnant and don't plan on being pregnant until the end of 2014 or early 2015.  So, no worries there.

However, the one worry that I do have is budget.  Weddings, even vow renewals, are known to be a bit on the expensive end.  And we're not ballin'.  Not yet anyway.  It's like as soon as you mention the word wedding prices for flowers, cakes and clothes doubles and in some cases triples.  So, I've decided diy and hustle as much stuff for this vow renewal as I can.  

Part of the reason is because I really want to be able to splurge on the reception location and food.  At the end of the day if nothing else goes right on the day of, I want to be comfortable (not too hot, not too cold) and I want to be able to eat my share of delicious food.  We're keeping it kind of small and intimate in terms of the guest list.  So, I'm really confident that things are going to fall into place.  

I will be using my blogging/networking connections to get deals and hookups anyway and anywhere I can.  There is no shame in my planning.  And speaking of networking, if you're currently blogging (or have blogged) about your wedding/vow renewal ceremony be sure to let me know here.  I'd love to show you some love and spotlight your posts in the YUMMommy Getting Married Facebook and Google+ albums.  I'll also be giving out retweets and blog shoutouts.  Think of it as my way of spreading the bloggy love!

Whelp see ya next week for another YGM2 post!

Hand Imprints With Homemade Playdough

We've had rain for 17 days straight here.  No, I'm not exaggerating.  Seriously it's been raining for over two weeks.  And many days, it has rained off and on all day.  While this rain is good in the fact that we're not in a drought like we were last year, it also means that we've been couped up in the house.

So, Moo has started up her "I'm Bored" song.  Trust me, she can sing that song for a very long time!  Last week I posted about our Arts & Crafts Bucket List and what better way to relieve some boredom around these parts than marking off a craft from our list?  Moo is absolutely nuts about playdough.  Therefore, I already knew she'd love the Hand Imprint With Homemade Playdough craft.

And I loved it because it only needs 3 ingredients-1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt and 1/4 cup water.  We did modify the recipe a little bit.  I found that using the 1/4 cup of water like the directions said wasn't enough.  All of our flour and salt didn't get wet enough. So, we upped our water to 1/3 cup and it was perfect.  However, I do recommend that you start off with 1/4 cup of water and then add more if you need it.  It could have just been the brand of flour and salt used.

With enough water in the mix, our playdough finally came together.  We did make two batches.  One for Moo, one for me.  I didn't want to take any chances on doubling everything, especially the liquid and mess it up.  Of course, we did roll our dough out and make our hand imprints right away.  We had to play around with it first.  We made shapes, letter and pretended to make our favorite foods.

Hard at work on her creation.

Once you're ready to get started on your imprints, simply roll out your dough.  You want to keep the dough a little thick because you'll be pressing your hand in it.  When it's at the desired thickness you like just press your hands down in the dough really good and remove.  If you're happy with the imprint flour a cookie sheet or line it with foil and place your dough in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 3 full hours.

Moo's hand imprint

When our three hours were up, I just let the dough cool down with the oven overnight and removed them in the morning.  Then we pulled out our paint and got creative with the decorating our hands.  

I think I have an artist on my hands!

Now, we haven't had a day dry enough to coat them with a clear coat of spray paint yet.  However, once we have both sides sprayed down twice I want to mount them in frames and hang them on the wall.  So, if you're looking for a great weekend craft or an anytime craft, this is it.

Have you ever tried making homemade playdough?

Wordless Wednesday

In case you're wondering what I've been up to....

My Blog Button!!!

Let me first start off by saying that I'm super excited about many things this week. I got my first fellow Blogger follower from my What I'm Making Monday post!!  And it seems my page view counter has confirmed my suspicions that I have more than a few SBS (Silent Blog Stalkers).  That's great because it means that somebody out there actually gives a hoot about what I have to say and is coming to visit my page.  And now to top it off, I created my own blog button!!

I thought it was going to be super hard to do, but thanks to this really easy to follow tutorial from April Showers Blog Design, I was able to create it in under ten minutes.  I already had a custom created avatar that looks very much like me saved. So all I had to do was upload to Microsoft Paint, add the purple background with pink polkadots, a text box and save it to Photobucket.  From there I just followed the tutorial.  I couldn't believe how cute it turned out.

I mean it doesn't have that complete cartoonish look like some of the other buttons, but it's me.  And I'm sure that as I experiment more and more with Microsoft Paint that I will create a better button.  I even felt inspired to create a button for Etsy shop!!  I am in no way a pro and ready to start creating buttons for others but I might one day.  I feel like  I can finally tackle creating a logo for my Young Urban Modern Mommies brand.

You'd really be surprised at how much quitter people reply to you when you have a logo or face for your brand.  This has just totally made my day.  I can only hope that the rest of this week goes just as well.  I will be trying my hand at making a favicon and eventually a completely customized background for my blog. Wish me luck.  And now the words I have been waiting to say, Grab my buttons from the right and add them to your page.