Play with Your Food

Even though the play kitchen still needs to be finished, and the hour glass to Christmas Day is quickly running out of sand I couldn't help but make these for Jayna's Kitchen.

Santa's Workshop is Now Open

It's official Santa's little elves are hard at work at the Hutchings home. Jayna loves little play kitchens and since she does not have one of her own to play with at home we decided that is what we would get her for Christmas this year. Shhhh!


Of course you know me I couldn't just go out and buy one...So this is post one of the home-made play kitchen we are making Jayna for Christmas.

Lemonade Anyone?

The Lemonade stand went well last week with the girls. The weather cleared up just long enough for us to get a good hour of selling in. Only two out of thirteen girls showed up, but I am sure it was because a lot of them probably thought it was cancelled due to the weather. When life gives you Lemons you just make Lemonade though right? Or in this case Rosemary Lemonade and Pink Lemonade Cupcakes!

June Giveaway: Frog Tape

 Giveaway!

The winner of the Giveaway will receive a Frog Tape gift bag that includes two rolls of Frog Tape, and a Frog Tape T-shirt and Tote.

 FrogTape® is the only painter’s tape treated with PaintBlock® Technology. PaintBlock is a super-absorbent polymer which reacts with latex paint and instantly gels to form a micro-barrier that seals the edges of the tape, preventing paint bleed.

To enter Giveaway click "Read More" for further details.

One Year Older and Wiser Too

This last weekend we threw together a quick party for my brother-in-law Devin's 24th birthday. You would think someone who loves throwing parties would be better about remembering when her relatives birthdays are, but my husband and I are horrible at that.

Daddy O Ideas: Video Flip Book Tutorial

Fathers Day is coming up soon so I wanted to share some fun gift ideas I found via Martha. I added my own little twist to some of them and a tutorial so 
"Read On".

Pantry Makeover & Cansolidator Giveaway!

Cansolidator Giveaway!
Giveaway is now Closed

The winner of this Giveaway will receive a Shelf Reliance Cansolidator of their choice.

Featuring SmarTrac technology, the Cansolidators are a front-loading system that automatically rotate up to 60 cans. The adjustable, expandable, stackable system takes the hassle out of can rotation and allows you to organize cans the way YOU want. The Cansolidators are easy to assemble and guarantee a more organized pantry in minutes. Sturdy, compact, and reliable, the Cansolidators are the perfect stand-alone solution for any pantry.

To enter this Giveaway and see my pantry makeover and experience with Shelf Reliances Cansolidator System click the Read more button below.

Signage 101: "A" Frame Wood Chalkboard Sign Tutorial

 Sometimes I come up with some crazy, but perfect last minute ideas and this was no exception.

 Last Saturday we were trying to figure out what kind of signs we were going to put out on the street corners for the Bake Sale, and after calling a couple of print places we decided we did not want to pay $7.00 each for a blown-up versions of the flier. Left with no other ideas I told Ryan that I would just rather make signs. He was not too in-favor of the idea, but I assured him it would be do-able and that I would be-able to use the signs again. Some elbow grease and $50.00 (so long to $7.00 each) later I had my signs and they are just how I envisioned. 

I LOVE THEM!

Semiprecious Candies

I am gearing up for next weekends Bake Sale and have one more item to sell checked off my list. 

I made these cute bags of candy jewels with custom labels to match my Bake Sale flyers. 

And the Winner is... / April Giveaway

Jessica Hills from A Few of My Favorite Things !

Jessica is a fellow Salt Lake City mommy-blogger and a part-time photographer. 

Utah Shopping "Flight" Map

With all the new changes to my blog I was not sure if you all noticed the new button I have added

This Utah Shopping Map includes all my favorite shopping destinations and secrets. I will continue adding to it and will update each location with photos and possibly even some video as I go visit them again. I tried to make the location descriptions as informative and interesting as possible so I encourage you to read them. 

Let me know what you think of the map and if it was helpful for you. I love feed-back so I can make my blog better for YOU. 

Hope you enjoy the new blog feature, and hopefully I will see you around town!

"All is Safely Gathered In": Family Home Storage

I am so excited to announce that the Bird and the Berry will be partnering up with a local Utah company Shelf Reliance. We are still working out all the details, but are both excited. I can tell you that there will be awesome giveaways and a chance for everyone to save on their products in the future.

SHELF RELIANCE is a company that specializes in food storage, storage rotation, and emergency preparedness products. If you are Mormon or live in Utah those words are old hat, if you are not check this out to learn more about how you and your family can become self reliant. It is less about religion and more about being prepared.

With Shelf Reliance that task may have just gotten a lot easier for all of us. After months of planning, testing, and experimenting, Shelf Reliance has come up with the perfect answer. I introduce to you …

April Giveaway: Citristrip

Our first Giveaway starts NOW!

Brought to you by...

The winner of this Giveaway will receive a half gallon bottle of Citristrip Stripping Gel.

Which is a powerful, industrial-strength remover. It is easy to use because it stays wet and active for up to 24 hours, allowing stripping of multiple layers in one step. It contains no methylene chloride, is non-caustic and is safe for indoor use. This special orange stripper has a pleasant citrus scent and is also biodegradable. I have used it for many of my projects and have talked about it on the blog before. I am so excited for one lucky reader to be able to try it out! Citristrip products are available for purchase at both The Home Depot and Lowe's and can be purchased online at The Home Depot.

This Giveaway will end on April 17th at midnight mountain time.

Open to United States residence only.

How to Enter Giveaway:

1. Become a follower of the Bird and the Berry to obtain one entry for this Giveaway. If you are already a follower of this blog you will gain an entry as-well.

2. Visit the Citristrip website to learn more about their products and leave a comment on this post to obtain a second entry to this Giveaway.

The winner of this Giveaway will be announced on Monday April 19th.

Good luck!

Cowgirl Cookie Mix

I am busy working on making these wonderful cowgirl cookie mixes from Bakerella for my Bake Sale coming up next month. I am trying to make it easy on myself since I will be the only on baking for it. I thought these would make a great Mother Day treat too, since the Bake Sale will be right before Mothers Day. Now I just need to print her labels out and slap them on the jars and I am done. So fun and easy! See you tomorrow!

Bakerella has full instructions on how to assemble and make this cookie mix if you are interested in making them yourself.

Our First Giveaway!

I am so excited to be announcing that the Bird and the Berry will be having its first giveaway next month! Brought to you by my sponsor

I will be giving away a half gallon bottle of citristrip gel.

Which is a powerful, industrial-strength remover. It is easy to use because it stays wet and active for up to 24 hours, allowing stripping of multiple layers in one step. It contains no methylene chloride, is non-caustic and is safe for indoor use. This special orange stripper has a pleasant citrus scent and is also biodegradable. I have used it for many of my projects and have talked about it on the blog before. I am so excited for one lucky reader to be able to try it out! Citristrip products are available for purchase at both The Home Depot and Lowe's and can be purchased online at The Home Depot.

The giveaway will start on April 12th and end on April 17th at midnight. You can secure one entry for this giveaway RIGHT NOW by becoming a follower of this blog (button located in the side bar).

More information on rules and how to gain other entries for this giveaway will be provided in the official contest post on April 12th.

Bake Sale Baby!

I keep forgetting to share this on the blog. Awhile back the Husband and I decided that we wanted to take a trip to Southern California this summer. We had even more incentive since Disney was doing their day of service campaign, where if you signed up to do a day of service with a registered organization you could get free tickets to one of their theme parks. So I got online and signed up for a day of service that sounded right up my alley. A Bake Sale! It is a bake sale with Bake for Hope, which benefits Susan G Komen for the Cure. Anyone can be apart of it and you can make it as big or little a deal as you would like. We are going to be holding ours for our neighborhood and are just going to set-up in the front yard.

I plan on passing these flyers out door to door a couple days before the bake sale and then baking my little heart out and hoping for the best.

I really want the husband to make this for me for the bake sale (I found it online, but can't remember where, sorry). Out-look not so good though. When I told him what my ideas were he just looked at me and said "I might as-well just buy our Disney Land tickets". Which would probably be true if I did everything I wanted to. I just have big visions. Hopefully I can scale back a bit, but still have the cutest Bake Sale the neighborhood has ever seen. Mark my words though one day I will build that. Jayna would love it, and so would I.

Side Note: You have to know how many projects my husband helps with and does. He makes all my visions and dreams come true. We are always teasing each other and anything I say about him is all in good fun. Just wanted you to get the tone I was saying that in.

I plan on mostly making cupcakes.

Then having fun side things like chocolate dipped pretzels with sprinkles, bags of candied jewels, maybe some cake pops, jars of pre-made cookie mix, etc.

I just hope people come. So come if you would like.

*For information on where and when the bake sale will be, or files for the flyer shown in this post click here.

Knock Off Wood

If you have not heard of the Blog Knock Off Wood you need to get with it. In my opinion it is the biggest thing to hit the DIY Blogging world in a long time.

Ana of Knock Off Wood an Alaskan mommy and wife to a carpenter handy-man took things into her own hands one day when her husband wasn't getting around to fixing some porch steps, and just fixed them herself. Ana has been doing woodworking ever since and now her passion for knocking off high end furniture lines (hmm hmm Pottery Barn hmm hmm) has spilled over into the blog world and is inspiring everyone. Ana has full how to plans for beds, dressers, dining-room tables, office systems and more available on her blog, for get this... FREE!

My list of things to build off her site is a mile long. Starting with all the furniture for my soon to be craft-room of my dreams. However I did see this cute little kids picnic bench on her site and had to build it for Jayna.

It was a great starter project to get my feet wet, and went fairly well. I only needed the Husbands help to cute four pieces, and am sure that what I learned while doing this project will just make me better on the next. It is all about not underestimating yourself or your abilities, and that could be the single reason why Ana's blog is so popular.

I have already ordered my Milk Paint and Exterior Top-Coat in Buttermilk Yellow for the picnic bench, and with the help of Jayna have already distressed it a little. I didn't know a two year old could do such damage banging an old hinge on wood. Oh-well.

I encourage you to check out her blog, but only if you are ready to triple your to do list.

How To Clean Out Your Dryer

The clothes in my dryer have not been drying like they used to. I have been finding that it is taking me more than one cycle to get things dry even with the lint trap all cleaned out. Today when I started her up it just didn't sound look or smell right and I got worried. I called the husband and work to inform him of the pending housewife dilemma and he said he would work on it when he got home. I know his night is going to be busy though, because he will be attending to his youth church calling like the good man he is. So I jumped online found out what to do and went to work. I documented it on video for everyone so that you can see that it is possible to do on your own with a two year old wondering around. You just might have to hold the tools with an Elmo puppet on your hand that's all.

Christmas Party Invitations

Here is a quick sample of the Christmas invitations I will be sending out for my party. Those of you who will be receiving one please dismiss this post and act surprised when you get it in the mail. If any one wants the file for this invitation I would be more than happy to email it to you along with the links to the fonts I have used. I am excited for Christmas despite the fact that I still do not have a single Christmas decoration out in my house. We are getting a late start in my opinion. Tomorrow I will put up the tree and get to work on spreading Christmas throughout the house.

Free Custom Blog Headers

My background on my family blog went MIA the other day, so I decided it was time for a change. I was not sure what I wanted, but knew I wanted something unique and different. So I made this little nifty header for myself. I found a website that has a ton of free Ps brushes, and went to town downloading them. Then I used the brushes to my liking to make my header. Now I just need to widen my margins and decide if I want to make a matching background. Either way I think it is a vast improvement from what I had before. Then since I was on a roll and wanted to keep on creating I made two others.

They are both made for family members blogs, but I just did them for fun. I have no idea if they would want to use them or not.

So here is my offer since I am having fun making these headers. If you send me an email with a link to your blog address and your blog has a "the Bird and the Berry" button on it I will make you a free blog header. I will leave this offer open until Friday the 13th at midnight.