Getting My Craft On

Although, I started planning Valentines Day projects in January….here I am procrastinating on the night before the big Valentines party at school.
I spent numerous trips to the craft store and many hours on Pinterest looking for cool ideas.
Here is a recap of my crafty valentine’s.

Here, I made a custom wrapper, using Stampin' Up Unfrogettable stamp set, to cover a teachers favorite candy bar:

I used a blender pen with old olive, pixie pink, and chocolate chip Stampin' Up ink to decorate the frog. When I was finished, I cut out each item and glued googly eyes to add character.

For another teacher, a fellow Starbucks addict (like myself) I got a Starbucks gift card and a 'buy one get one free' coupon that the baristas were handing out. She also loves junior mints so, I filled a valentines treat bag with junior mints and included an 'I Dig You' valentine tag.

I found these cute magnet guitar valentines at the store and picked up some small pop rocks candy at the party store. I think they look so cute!

My biggest challenge was making Ethan's valentine box.

He wanted a Florida Gator football themed one and I hunted down all these items to make it for him. I found mod podge, football beads, alligators, UF fabric, football field and grass scrapbook paper at Joanne's fabric store. I found football the cake toppers at Party City to make this box.

Here is his completed Valentine box and he loves it.

Another Sweater Party

Last night one of the doctors threw a Ugly sweater party so a bunch of the L&D staff went. This marks the third, Michael and I have attended this December. I actually really like them. There are so many UGLY/TACKY sweaters out there and I feel like it puts people in holiday mode.
Shopping for a tacky sweater, borrowing it from grandma, or making one yourself, is the best part. People can be so creative: Nikki took tinsel garland and sutured it to her neighbors sweater then she took window cling reindeer and stapled it to Wades sweater, Sam had to outbid people on eBay for hers and I found ours at the Gooodwill.
With every person that walked in the door, I think we all laughed harder and harder.
It was a GREAT night!

Let Them Have Pie

My kids picked out pies for their teachers to share with their families over Thanksgiving break. We were originally going to buy one 9 inch pie for theier entire family to enjoy but, I could not decide what kind to get. Just then, my kids stubled across these (adorable) individual pies. What a great idea to send the teachers a variety to choose from. They turned out pretty cute!

Home Sweet Home

I came across some old photos of our last house. I can still remember buying it just to totally remodel it. Unfortunately I have no before pics, just the after ones. It was everything Mike and I wanted.....

This was my home, and I loved it.

It’s where all the people I love are.

I loved my red door, that many friends have entered, I love my flowers, and I even love that old graveled driveway that held the smell of rain.

This was the first house Mike and I remodeled together.

This was the house my kids couldn’t wait to “explore” when we finally got to move in.

This is the home where we laughed, talked, and played.

This is the house that has seen more tears than any other and the one where hearts have been mended.

This is where I feel at peace. When I see my old house I don’t just see a house, I see my home. I see my family… I see the man that I love and our three amazing children. We live in Texas now and we are loving it but, every now and then, I wish I was back home.

NOT an Easy Bake Oven

I knew this day would come. After years of making the kids stay out of the kitchen while I am cooking and making them stay at least 200 feet from ANY flames, here I am teaching my kids to cook.

YIKES!

My kids love helping out in the kitchen: pouring and mixing ingredients. But, once the oven or stove goes on, the kitchen is off limits.

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day who informed me that her 11-year-old makes herself scrambled eggs in the morning and makes cakes, start to finish all the time. Well, Sydney is ten and a half. And I remember cooking all by myself when I was twelve. I realized that I needed to start sometime and now is as good time as any.

After much thought, I decided that teaching my kids how to use the oven first would be much easier than going right for the stove, and cookie baking season is coming up so, I went for oven lessons!!! I cheated, I had them bake their own pot pies. I needed to start out as basic as I could for my own sanity.

I didn't realize how many buttons are on my oven and the preheating process, which takes 6 minutes.... took ALL of that to explain why we preheat. What an ordeal!!!

So once we get passed that, the kids put their pot pies in the oven and set the timer according to the package.

30 minutes later, when the timer goes off, they all run for the oven. This could be a problem!

Finally, pot pies ready.

I was happy to see that they each were very careful and remembered their oven mits!

The kids were so proud and no one got burned!!!


At first I felt like I cheated them out of a REAL cooking lesson, but pot pies are not always easy to make.

Just click here to read my crazy pot pie story!!!

It's worth a good laugh!

We Got Boo'ed

A Halloween tradition is spreading rapidly throughout the culture. Called "Getting Booed," it involves a family making a Halloween gift basket and leaving it anonymously on a neighbor's door step with a sign "You Got Booed." The receiving family's job, then, is to make up another gift basket and play the trick on another family in the neighborhood who doesn't have a 'got booed' sign on their door.

Last night we had a mysterious knock on the door. When the kids opened the front door, they found a bag of sweet treats along with a paper ghost and poem instructing them to do the same to two other neighbors.
My kids love this part of our Halloween tradition.

But there's been a little debate about whether or not this booing business is plain fun or plain inconsiderate. Is it spreading the Halloween spirit or just a glorified chain letter?

The truth is that it's both.

I still dig it, but I don't want other parents with children on the receiving end of a "You've been boo'ed" ghost to feel pressured to participate. It's hard enough to get Halloween costumes together and prepare for school parties. This I know. But since we ‘got booed’, it’s on!

Here is a BOO basket I found, made by Jennifer at The Buck Stamps Here

that I want to make.

I Made a Diaper Cake

I spent days surfing the net trying to find decent free information on how to make a diaper cake. There is so much stuff out there that is just plain gibberish that left me with no clue how to actually make a diaper cake. Diapers are really expensive so, I wanted to make sure that I didn't ruin ANY of them. A good looking diaper cake costs a lot of money and was wondering why I decided to make one by myself.

After much research (online) I was still stumped but, I was determined! I really wanted to make one for a good friend of mine for her baby shower. So I just let my creative juices flow and here is what I came up with:

So, Here is a simple way to make a Diaper Cake

Diaper Cake Ingredients:

Baby bottle or empty cardboard towel roll

8 feet of 1” wide ribbon

8 feet of 1/2" accent ribbon

2 thin wooden dowelsRubber bands

Safety pins

Glue gun

50-90 newborn diapers (depends on the size and the number of tiers you desire)

Decorative baby items (bibs, socks, toys)

Cake Topper

Assembly:

When rolling your diapers, have them opened lengthwise with tabs tucked in Secure your diapers with a rubber band so they stick together

Bottom layer: use larger size diapers. Wrap one layer of rolled diapers securely around the baby bottle or towel roll. Continue to wrap diapers around in rows, until your desired bottom layer is the size you want it.

Middle Layer: will start off the same wrapping around the top of the baby bottle or towel roll. continue until you reach the size you want (about two rows smaller than the bottom layer.

Top Layer: Your top layer will be rows of rolled diapers smaller than your middle layer. I used two thin wooden dowels that went through all layers and served to just hold the top layer in place.

Use a safety pin to hold ribbon around your diaper layers. Your 1" ribbon should cover and hide the rubber bands around your layers. Do this to all layers. Use an accent ribbon 1/2", hot glued over the first one, as a decorative touch. This also helps hide the rubber bands even more.

Assemble your tiers on top of eachother

Tuck your baby items in the ribbons, or flowers as decorations

Top your cake off with something fitting the theme of your party. Whether it be a small stuffed toy, a baby bottle or slippers

This project took me less than an hour and I had a lot of fun making it.

Most people see diaper cake making as a difficult task, but it doesn’t have to be that way. I found it very fast, easy, and fun. And the best part...no wasted diapers!!

Scarecrow Cupcakes

I found this recipe online at culinary.net and thought I would share

Ingredients
2 (13-ounce each) bags Cookies & Snickers Fun Size Bars, unwrapped
1 (13-ounce) bag Twix Caramel Cookie Fun Size Bars, unwrapped
1 (14-ounce) bag M&M'S Peanut Butter Chocolate Candies for Halloween or M&M'S Milk Chocolate Candies for Halloween
1 (13-ounce) bag Snickers Fun Size Bars, unwrapped and chopped
1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 (16-ounce) can vanilla frosting
6 shredded wheat biscuits
1 tube brown decorator's icing
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with paper cupcake liners.
Prepare yellow cake mix according to package instructions.
Fold chopped Fun Size bars into batter before transferring to cupcake pans. Bake 18-21 minutes. Remove from oven, transfer to wire rack, and let cool completely.
Tint vanilla frosting beige by blending with 1 tablespoon brown decorator's icing. Spread beige frosting on cupcake.
To decorate cupcakes, use photograph as guide - Hats: Place 1 Fun Size bar at top of each cupcake, and top with Caramel Cookie bars to resemble rim on hat.
Hair & Neck: Arrange strands of shredded wheat under hat and around neck.
Face: Use Peanut M&M'S for eyes and nose. Create mouth with remaining brown decorator's frosting.
Serves Makes 24 cupcakes
Notes, Tips & Suggestions Tip: Consider using cut licorice laces, snipped fruit chews or shredded coconut instead of shredded wheat biscuits for "hair."

Loads of Fun

We’ve been using our brand new front load washer and dryer for over a year now and I’ve got to tell you I LOVE THEM. I actually don’t mind doing laundry any more because walking into our NEW utility room it feels like walking into my own personal laundromat, minus the rolling baskets and lined up chairs.

Of course I still hate folding and putting away laundry, but that’s another story.
If it is possible to truly adore your home, then I have it.

I actually enjoy doing laundry now because my laundry/mud room is so neat and organized. Mike worked really hard getting it to work.It's one of the only rooms in the house that we have mastered. I'm loving the storage bench and long row of hooks that keep all our shoes, backpacks, and jackets tucked away. I have three busy children in sports and activities so, this room is definitely serving it's purpose.
I know, I sound a bit crazy to blog about such a thing.