Diaper Cake

These are the two diaper cakes I made. The top one is the first one I ever made for my friend, the second one is the last (as of right now) and was made for Mike's sister. The top one was made with Huggies Little Snuggler and Little Mover diapers. The second one is made me with Huggies Pure and Natural diapers, simply because I wanted all white and that was the closest I could get.

You will need...

• Diapers--I believe I bought four jumbo packs for each cake. This number can vary depending on how many layers you want. Always err on the side of more, because you can give the mommy-to-be the leftovers. I got two different sizes, but having all the same size is OK too!
• Clear hair rubber bands
• Regular rubber bands--Multi-size pack
• Empty baby bottles--Two minimum
• Ribbons and bows
• Cardboard circle--You can buy cake platters at Hobby Lobby, or use a cardboard box. The first cake I used a box I had and wrapped tissue paper over it. The second one I bought the cake platter to use.
• Double-sided Scotch tape
• Any goodies you want to include--Mine all came from Target

The first step is to roll each diaper up and secure them with a clear rubber band. 

Next, you need to place the rolled diapers around the bottle and secure them with a plain rubber band. This is your inner-most ring of diapers. Once there are five or six diapers around the bottle (depending on the size, this number may vary slightly), You can put another plain rubber band around the first ring, and add diapers into it for the second ring. Repeat for the third ring, and be sure to use an appropriate sized rubber band. I was surprised at how many rolled diapers I could get into the biggest size that came in my bag. I didn't have any snap on me, and I was really worried about that!

To make the top layer, you stick the second bottle into the first (upside down) and add the diaper rings. If you know the mom's favorite candy, you can fill the bottles as a surprise. 

The first cake I made was a three-tiered, so I have a three-ringed layer on the bottom, two-ringed in the middle and one-ring on the top. The top layer was added so the giraffe blanket thingy would drape over and look right. I didn't use a third bottle, but the second bottle in the cake stuck up a bit to help keep the top layer in place. The layers are just set on top of each other, using the bottles to keep them from sliding off.

The outermost layers will be secured by a plain, ugly colored rubber band, but that's OK, because you place pretty ribbons over them. The bows in both of my cakes are children's hair clips. Otherwise I chose some rattles, small food jars, Nuks, teethers and lotion to spruce my cakes. It's not shown in the photo, but the second cake I made I ended up filling the jars on the outside with some candy. The rattles, etc are just stuck into the diapers--no adhesives used. To secure the ribbons around the layers of cake I used double-sided tape. 

Sorry there were no step-by-step pictures! Any future projects I'll be sure to take pictures as I go, but I'm just archiving the ones I've already done. If you have any questions, just ask in the comments! 

Closer

Life has been crazy with all this house stuff! We're getting closer to being home owners though. We almost have our insurance squared away, and we are still on track for closing May 31.

Most of the rooms have their paint color chosen, and I cannot wait to get our puppy soon after! I'm super pumped to not have to drive through 15 miles of highway construction every time I come into work. I think I'm more excited about that than being a home owner!

Our inspection had some downs though. Standing water in the basement. Thank God we got so much rain so we'd know! It didn't scare us away though. We have some easy fixes we'll try first to see if that helps. Otherwise, we'll need to re-grade around the house. Yuck. Messy. Expensive.

Before Mike and I become consumed with home expenses and repairs, we are taking off this weekend for a little getaway. We decided last night. So, kinda spur of the moment. We're taking advantage of my full weekend off, and heading to Baraboo for a winery tour. Spending the night in a hotel with a hot tub, and checking out the House on the Rock Sunday before we head home. Very short and rather uneventful, but it should be nice! I've always wanted to do a wine tour/tasting, so I'm pretty darn excited. Plus, who doesn't love a nice hot tub?

Before we settled on Baraboo, we originally were going to go to Door County, but since I work until midnight on Friday it wasn't ideal since the drive is a bit longer, and it's an expensive place to stay and do fun things. Then we were going to do the Leinie's Tour in Chippewa Falls, but that was all that was in the area, so that's on the back burner too. Mike mentioned how he always wanted to go to Wollersheim Winery in Baraboo. Since the House on the Rock isn't far from that, we decided Baraboo it is!

For those of you who don't know, the House on the Rock is simply a house on a rock. There's an inn, golf course and spa. But, we're just going to the "attraction" which is a tour of the house. Mike's elementary school used to take field trips there, but he missed it. I hope it's fun! You can check out the details here if you're interested: http://www.thehouseontherock.com/.

Accepted Offer

Michael and I put in an offer on a home we found, and it was accepted! We gave them a deadline of my  birthday to respond, so that was a pretty darn good present! It's a small starter home. Not what we were expecting, but it's cute. I think they recently flipped it because everything is updated. It's about the same size as our apartment now, but it has an attached garage, basement and a yard. Plus it's OURS. And our mortgage and insurance will still be cheaper than our rent.

I can't wait to actually do the things on my Pinterest For the Home board! Finally! My mind is in a frenzy trying to think of paint colors and furniture layouts. I hope the home inspection goes well, because we already ran into too many bumps in the road on this journey!

My Dos and Don'ts to Home Buying

I heard buying a house is one of the top three most stressful milestones in your life. What I didn't know is that it would actually be stressful.

Here's what I've learned so far on my unsuccessful venture to buying our first home.

1. Property taxes matter--the higher they are, the higher your monthly payments will be. Even if you're getting an amazing deal on a house that's listed for half of what it's worth and is now in your price range, the property taxes may not fit within your pre-approval budget.
2. Do not be a temporary employee
3. Do not have debt
4. Do have great credit (you'll need debt to have good credit; it's a fine line and a not fun game. Fortunately both Mike and I have outstanding credit.)
5. Do not get attached--Seriously. I don't know how to not get attached, but I advise you to do your best to hate or mildly like houses.
6. Get a pre-approval in writing up front so you know what your price range is. Don't deviate too far from this.
7. Have an awesome real estate agent; we love ours!
8. Do have patience. 
9. Know all your loan options--We have a loan originator who is working her butt off crunching numbers for each house we're interested in, and doing her best to get us our absolute maximum loan amount. I realize this conflicts with #6, but we're a special case in that I cannot be on the loan because I'm a temp, even though I'm the one that has a higher income. So she knows we can afford what we want, but the underwriter can only do what they can do. It is what it is, folks.
10. Unless you're rich, you'll need to compromise and make trade-offs. You can't always have everything on your wish list.
11. Don't settle. We have seen so many houses that are really close to what we want, but aren't quite right. Yes you need to compromise on your wish list, but do not settle for less than what you want or deserve. You'll be mad and full of regrets every day you come home, and most certainly every month you right your mortgage check!