Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
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I have NOT had a pretty cruddy week. It did NOT start out pretty good and then quickly go down hill from there! It is NOT finally starting to get a little better this morning.

The week was NOT cruddy because all three of my boys were NOT sick. They did NOT run a fever, cough, throw up, and just plain old act sick for the majority of the week. We did NOT stay in our PJs all day at least twice last week. And we did NOT stay in the house for three days straight except to go to the mailbox!

On top of all three boys being sick, I have NOT been having a major flare up with my RA. My hands are NOT the size of King Kongs right now from all the swelling and inflammation! I have NOT been a little concerned that if the swelling doesn't go down, I may have to cut off my wedding ring!

I did NOT spend a while looking around at Target {during mine and Karen's SUPER fun mini girls night out!} for foods that are supposed to help with inflammation. I did NOT come home with some yummy orange juice and a bag of scary looking flaxseed {which Karen thinks looks like something birds would eat}. I am NOT completely lost as to what I can do with the flaxseed other than sprinkle it in my yogurt or cereal.

We did NOT have a very busy 4th of July despite all the cruddiness! We did NOT see almost every single person that we are related to {my family and Jason's} at least once over the long weekend. That did NOT seem to make the weekend even LONGER!

We did NOT have two BBQs, go swimming, watch fireworks, and go to two birthday parties in just three days....there is NO way that we would try to cram that much stuff into one long weekend....especially when the boy and I are not feeling our best!

I am NOT feeling a little better today, and I am NOT hoping that this week is a little better than last week!

I am NOT going to remind you to enter my GIVEAWAY for a free 3 month JumpStart membership and one of my SUPER cute personalized towels!

Applique Towel Tutorial

I have been having a ton of fun with appliques lately.

So I thought I would share some of my {non-professional} techniques, so you can make your own SUPER Cute Personalized Towel!

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Start with a towel of your choice! I made one for each of my boys.

Henry's towel is blue

Grant's towel is green

Eli's towel is orange

Using my computer, I found a font that I liked and printed out an H, G, and E. {You can make the letter as big or small as you want.} You can use any font you like, but the simpler the font, the easier it will be to cut out and sew onto the towel. I cut out the letter, traced it onto some interfacing, and cut it out again.
Then I used spray adhesive and attached the cut out interfacing to my fabric of choice {make sure to attach the letter upside down so that the fabric will be on the top and the interfacing on the bottom}.
Next, I cut out the fabric letter and use more spray adhesive to attach the letter to the towel. This helps keep the letter in place so that it doesn't move around while you are sewing! The next step is to sew the letter onto the towel.
You can use either a zig-zag stitch or a straight stitch. I have tried it both ways, and they both work pretty well...it is really just a matter of preference. The zig-zag stitch is a little harder to master, but once you finish sewing you are basically done. If you want to do a straight stitch {which I did on these towels} you will have to wash the towel after you sew it, and then trim up any of the frayed edges with some scissors.
Basically with both stitches, you just follow along the outline of the letter to attach the fabric to the towel.
And you end up with a SUPER Cute Personalized Towel!
I hope this was helpful and maybe inspired some of you to get out your sewing machines! If you have any questions or need {non-professional} help with anything just let me know.

Photo Story Friday: Camp Out In

Last weekend the boys had a camp out....except they were really camping in the playroom!

We started the afternoon with hot dogs on the grill. It was SO hot outside that we decided not to build a campfire, so we just made our dinner and dessert on the grill instead. Jason cooked some hot dogs and sausage for us and we had a nice dinner outside on the patio.




After dinner, we made S'mores! The boys used some wooden shishkabob sticks and held their marshmallows over the grill. Not quite as good as a campfire...but it worked good enough to make a few ooey-gooey S'mores!

Jason helped Henry and Grant set up their tent in the playroom and they got out their sleeping bags and pillows! They had a great time camping....{even if it only lasted until 10 pm because they still weren't asleep when Jason and I were ready to go to bed}!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek