QAMom

IC 2: Hearts!

2012-02-01T08:47:00.000-05:00

For the second Iron Craft challenge this year we were to do something with hearts.
My daughters and I made this heart garland. We took a piece of the stiff glittery felt and cut them in half (so they were approximately 8.5x5.5) and then each half I cut into strips (about one inch wide). Then, my daughters sewed (they're working on learning basic hand sewing, you could use hot glue or even staples if you wanted) the narrow end of two strips with the right sides together (this becomes the top center of the heart). Then, we sewed the other two ends wrong sides together. The felt needed a little shaping still after doing that, don't worry about it for now. We did that with all of the felt.

I got out some pink, white and red heart shaped beads and some fishing line. One girl worked on one end of the line and the other worked on the opposite end. They strung some beads and then using a needle threaded with the fishing line would add a heart. We went through both sides of the heart as well as the inner point of it, it's better if it's a bit closer to the top, I think, so it's less likely to flip upside down. Then more beads and more hearts until we were done with the hearts. On the ends of the fishing line, I threaded one more bead and made a loop around that bead (so the bead is trapped in the loop) to keep everything from sliding off the end and to give me something to hang it with.

After doing that and hanging it, I noticed the beads had a tendency to slide and squish the hearts, so I got out my glue gun and put a little dot of glue on the heart where the fishing line went through to keep it in place. This also helped a bit with the tendency to flip. Start in the middle and work your way out to both ends. They still flip some, so I'm going to add some weights to the bottom (one I glued a bead in and that worked pretty well, but you can see it, so I'm going to try to get some fishing weights and hide them a bit more).

Overall the girls did it in a few hours and had a lot of fun doing it.

IC 48: Wreaths!

2011-11-29T22:02:00.000-05:00

Iron Craft Challenge 48 is to create a wreath.

I decided to make an ornament.

Take a sheet of green felt. Cut it into 4ths lengthwise so that you have 4 long strips. Then, cut those strips into squares. Mine were about and inch or so, not perfect, but that's ok. Take each square and cut it into a circle. Just free hand it, if the circles are uneven, it will look better in the end.

If you held several pieces of felt together when you were cutting, separate them and out into a pile, so they get mixed up.

Then with a needle and thread, string the circles by inserting the needle half way between the center of the circle and the edge (If you do it in the center, you'll need more circles to have enough to make a wreath, doing it offset, allows for the center to be bigger with this amount of circles). Once all of them are strung, tie them in to a circle. I sewed around one more time just to make sure it was secure.

Then, I sewed a bow of red ribbon on the front and then I sewed a loop of ribbon between two of the green circles to hang it from.

I considered adding some beads or fabric paint ornaments, but decided not to.

IC 45, 46, 47: Fall, gift, and for the table

2011-11-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

For the first time since I started the Iron Craft Challenges, I missed posting my craft. It was for the Fall Contest Challenge. You know what the sad part is? It was one of the few times that I knew right away beyond a doubt was I was going to do. And I actually did complete the challenge, I just never got around to taking a picture of it! Things are really starting to pick up here for the holidays!

For the Fall contest, I decided to do a Thankful Arrangement. I cut out leaf shapes from scrapbook paper, punch a hole in them put some string through the hole and then gave them to my daughters to write things they're thankful for on them. Then, I hung them from some branches that I placed in a vase filled with silk leaves and tied with a ribbon.

For Iron Craft Challenge #46, I got back in the game and made some fabric fortune cookies for my grandmother.

I bought a plastic Chinese take-out container to put them in. She'll be able to open one each day in December, or would be, if I had gotten them in the mail on time!

Iron Craft Challenge #47 was "For the Table". My favorite center piece for the table this time of year is really simple. I take a glass bowl (usually a crystal one), fill it with water, pour in some cranberries and then float about 3 floating candles in it. There should be enough cranberries to cover the top of the water and I think that white candles look best. But is that really a craft? I was going to do anyway, but I forgot to take a picture of it before guests arrived for my party early on in the week and didn't have any more floating candles left to do it again. So, all I had was this really bad picture.

Now, I think I'm back on track. Stay tuned for my craft for IC 48!

IC 43: Nothing to fear but...

2011-10-26T07:19:00.002-04:00

This week's Iron Craft challenge is "Nothing to fear but...". I have nothing to fear, but these:

They're feet for my sewing machine. My mom's friend gave them to me (this is only a portion of the ones she gave me) along with a 2 inch three ring binder of instructions on what I can do with them. It turns out that the binder only covers what I can do with some of the extra feet I was given! Very intimidating for this girl who feels adventurous using the foot that makes a rolled hem!

Couple that with my thriftiness (ie not wanting to pay to have things quilted), the three quilt tops I've got almost ready and this post at Crazy Mom Quilts. Surely with all those fancy feet, there was one for free motion quilting? There was!

So, this week, I tackled my fear of the feet and my fear of machine quilting on my little old sewing machine.

Fortunately I had enough sense though to do a small sample first, because I'm not very good at this:

I think that's it's probably something I'd be able to do if I had a lot more practice, but in the mean time, I'm going to look at alternatives for quilting the quilts I've got.

Check out the IronCraft Flickr pool to see what everyone else was afraid of!

IC 41: Boo!

2011-10-12T08:28:00.000-04:00

This week's IronCraft Challenge theme is Boo! Halloween crafts.

I saw this hanky tutorial and liked the way the edges were done. So, I decided to adapt it a bit.

Materials:
1 yard of fabric
Thread
sewing machine
scrapbooking stencil with a neat edge
sharp scissors

Cut the fabric into squares I did fat quarters, but in looking at them compared to store bought napkins, they're a lot bigger, so you could do something smaller.

Then lay the stencil on the fabric and with a pen or pencil trace the edge of the stencil around the square of fabric about half an inch in from the edge.

With your sewing machine set to a zig zag stitch that's pretty narrow and close together, sew on the line that you just drew around the edge of the fabric.

Next with sharp scissors cut the fabric away, as close to the stitches as you can get without cutting them.
And you're done!

I also did my nails for Halloween this week:

But my nails don't often stay painted for long since I do a lot of typing. So I did them again later in the week:

Do you have any fun Halloween craft ideas?

IC39 - Hold it! Cell phone case

2011-09-27T21:56:00.000-04:00

Over at Just Crafty Enough, the Iron Craft Challenge is Hold it. We're to make a case or a bag.

I recently got a new phone. It was a new model that had just came out and there aren't many accessories for it. The only case that Best Buy had when I bought it was a black one. I really was hoping to get something a little more fancy since I couldn't do that with my old phone. So I started thinking about making one, not one that is a pocket for my phone, but one that I can leave on while I'm using it.

So, I looked through my fabric stash, found a piece I liked and decided to try making my own.

First, I took a piece of paper and traced around my phone. Then, I took a ruler and added two inches to the top and bottom and one inch (twice the thickness of my phone) to each side and drew a larger rectangle around the tracing I had made before.

Next, cut out the rectangle and use it as a pattern to cut out the fabric.

Fold the long edges down 1/2 inch (the thickness of my phone) and sew both sides.

Next lay the phone in the center of the fabric, with the RIGHT side facing up. Bring the sides up and hold them there with a couple of rubber bands.

Next fold up the ends to where you want them. Ideally, not covering the screen or any buttons, but in my case in order to stay on, it has to cover the buttons, but I can still keep it from covering the screen.

Now, with needle and thread sew the corners and up the side a bit so that the bottom is closed. Then trim the excess fabric.

Next, I took it off the phone, turned it right side out and tested the fit. It fit pretty well, so I did the same thing with the other end.

Then I turned it right side out and checked the fit.

I was surprised by how easily it comes off and goes on.
I was also surprised that the buttons work ok even through the fabric (including the non hard ones). So I don't need to cut a hole out of the bottom piece like I was originally planning to, unless I have problems remembering which one is which. I'm planning on cutting holes out for the camera on the back and the top.

IC 38: Black and White

2011-09-21T08:05:00.000-04:00

This week's Iron Craft Challenge is another color challenge. I almost did some silhouettes for this week, but didn't have the time. So I decided to do one for Halloween that I did last year.

Materials:
White plastic shopping bags
string
black permanent marker
Scissors
needle

Cut the front off the bag and trim off the handles. Ball up the front of the bag, the handles and another bag, and wrap the back of the bag around it. Then tie just below the ball with a piece of string. With the marker, draw on a face. Using the needle, run a piece of string through the top part of the ball to tie it to the tree.

Usually, I make a bunch and just tie them to the tree in my front yard and then cut them off after Halloween is over.

What's your favorite Black and White craft? Check out the Iron Craft Pool for other ideas.

WFMW: Filling out school forms

2011-08-31T08:01:00.000-04:00

We've gone back to school here and with it came an onslaught of forms to fill out. This year I've got two kids in school and I'm filling out the same forms for both of them and they're also the same forms that I filled out LAST year. So, I scanned the forms using my scanner and then filled out the forms on the computer so I could just change the stuff that was different between each child. I just used a photo editing program on my mac to do it (MSPaint would work on Windows), but you could OCR the form, if your scanning software supports it, and then edit it in Word or OpenOffice.org. Then I saved a copy of each form so I can just update the new stuff next year.

Alternatively, if you're not that computer savvy you can fill out the common information for the forms, make a copy of the form and then finish filling it out for each child. I did that last year, and saved a copy for this year, but realized it would be easier to read if I typed it. My handwritting isn't very neat anymore now that I type pretty much everything!

This has worked for me for school forms and other forms as well, anything that I need to fill out for both kids. It works best if the form is on white paper too.

For more great tips, check out Works for Me Wednesday over at We Are that Family.

IC 35: Done Reading? phone book craft

2011-08-30T21:59:00.000-04:00

This week's Iron Craft challenge at Just Craft Enough was to use a book. We're all readers here at this house, even my kindergardener who can't read will have us read to her over and over. So the idea of crafting with a book, even one that I didn't care for wasn't something I could bring myself to do. (Although afterwards I realized I think I've got some with water damage that might not be readable anymore I could use.) I do however get an excessive number of phone books each year. I need to look into asking them to stop but haven't gotten to it yet. So I took a phone book and loosely followed these instructions.

And made a pencil holder:

Originally I was going to paint it all blue with a yellow center, but my daughters saw it and decided they wanted to decorate it, so for now, I've left it as is.

Any other creative uses for phone books? I used to cover them with paper and then contact paper and use them as stools for the kids (I even personalized them), but our phone books here aren't as big and the girls no longer need stools as much. I also use them as a working pad when I'm cutting or gluing.

IC 34 - On the Go - Candy Airplanes

2011-08-23T21:34:00.000-04:00

This week's Iron Craft Challenge at Just Crafty Enough is On the Go. So I made some of the candy airplanes that my Mom used to make for party favors growing up.

For each airplane you need:

1 rubber band

1 roll of Smarties

1 stick of gum

2 Lifesavers (they need to have the hole in the center, Breathsavers and some of the other brands do not)

Step 1: Feed the rubber band through the holes in the Lifesavers.

Step 2:
Hook both ends of the rubber band over the ends of the stick of gum.

Step 3:
Use a finger to spread the Lifesavers apart and slide the roll of Smarties in between the lifesavers and in between the rubber band and the stick of gum. Slide it so that the stick of gum is about 1/3 of the way back the roll of Smarties.

And you're done!

IC 33 - UFOs

2011-08-17T20:18:00.000-04:00

This week at Just Crafty, the Iron Craft challenge is finishing unfinished projects. Boy oh boy, is this one right up my ally! Proof of that? I didn't find out what the challenge was until yesterday (Tuesday) but, still managed to have three things to share!

I finished my backpack make over.

I finished this blanket for my friend who is collecting blankets to send to Mexico. She's been making the no sew fleece blankets with some other friends and saving the scraps of fleece. I got a box of them over a month ago and started several quilts with them. This one was pretty close to being done I just had to add a little bit to the sides to make it wider and then add the binding.

Then, I had this fleece blanket which was just a piece of fleece that I started to blanket stitched around the edge a few years ago. It's been hanging out in my laundry room waiting for me to finish it. I'd bought it to make a blanket for my youngest to use for naps at Day Care. However, she's going into Kindergarten this year and no longer taking naps. Now, it's going to the same charity as the other blanket.

Had I found out about the challenge theme earlier, I might've picked the knit socks I've got hanging around, or maybe my Pi shawl, or maybe the quilts I'm making for my daughters, or maybe... Ok, I think we need to do this challenge again LOL.

Backpack Makeover

2011-08-17T20:17:00.000-04:00

A few years ago, I found some brand new backpacks at Good Will for $2.50, but, I didn't like the design that was on them. I picked up a couple of them anyway though intending to give them a make over.

This year, I was intending to get some princess fabric to decorate one for my youngest, but she decided she wanted a ballerina backpack. So, I bought some fabric with ballerinas on it, cut it to size (with about a half inch extra on all 4 sides to turn under), then I sewed around the edges turning the raw edges under as I went. I did the stitching by hand because I wasn't sure that I'd be able to manipulate the backpack with my machine enough to do a good job. After I finished sewing it, I sprayed it good with Scotch Gaurd. The fabric will attract dirt faster than the canvas part of the backpack, so I wanted to counter act that.

So, now my daughter has a backpack with the design of her choice and there's not likely to be anyone else in Kindergarten with one like it. This would work well too for the times when your child out grows the theme of their backpack but it's still in good shape.

IC 32: Summer Contest

2011-08-10T10:02:00.000-04:00

This week's challenge is the summer contest. I decided to make a sun catcher. A friend gave me a big box of little jars of the plastic pellets left over from sun catchers. It looked like someone had saved all the leftovers from various kits. There were only a few of the metal frames in the box, mostly it was just the plastic pellets. I'd been thinking about what I could use them for, various ways of making my own frames, etc. I saw where someone had made frames out of soda cans. Problem is we don't drink much soda here and didn't have any cans. So I decided to improvise.

Supplies:
1) Extra plastic pellets left from the sun catcher kits
2) A metal cookie cutter
3) Foil
4) ribbon
5) A study cookie sheet (not shown)
6) Hot glue gun

Instructions:

1) Take the foil and lay a piece on the cookie sheet (at least the size of the cookie cutter)
2) Take another piece of foil and line the cookie cutter with it (I took strips a little wider than the cookie cutter was tall and ran them around the inside, wrapping the foil over the edges, trying to get it as tight against the cookie cutter as possible.
3) Sit the cookie cutter on the cookie sheet and fill it with the plastic pellets. Since there's no frame to stabilize this when we're done, I filled mine pretty full (1cm deep).
4) Bake according to the instructions with the suncatcher plastic pieces. I did mine at 375 for 20 min.
5) Cool enough so you don't burn yourself when you touch it
6) Pop it out of the cookie cutter and peel off the foil
7) Glue the ribbon to the back with the hot glue gun

8) Hang it in the Window! (funny how you don't really notice the screen, until after the picture's taken!)

IC 31: Sculptural - Peanut Butter Playdough

2011-08-03T08:05:00.001-04:00

Iron Craft has moved to Just Crafty Enough and this week's challenge is Sculptural. We were to make something with clay. If you recall, I used polymer clay back for the Hometown challenge. And while I'm not opposed to making beads or some other kind of jewelry, I was trying to think of something different to make. That's when I remembered this playdough that I made a few years ago. So I decided to make some of it and to make a teddy bear out of it.

Here's the recipe:

1 package (1/3 of a box) of graham crackers, finely crushed
1 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar (or to taste)

Soften the peanut butter in the microwave
Add graham cracker crumbs and sugar, mix well
Refrigerate before using.

You might need to add more graham cracker crumbs or powdered sugar to keep the dough from getting too sticky.

I embellished my bear with M&Ms, Chocolate Chips and a sprinkle (for the nose).

Back to School

2011-08-02T21:04:00.001-04:00

It's getting close to that time, stores have their back to school supplies on sale. I took my youngest shopping for a new outfit for her to wear the first day of school. We hadn't even left the store yet before she was asking how many days until she starts school. She's just a *wee* bit excited about this next step!

After getting asked a number of times the rest of the day, I finally asked her if she wanted to make a chain to count down. So, that is what we did.

I've made it into a pdf for you to print.

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Some of the graphics are from WebWeaver.

IC 29: Button Up

2011-07-19T22:40:00.000-04:00

This week's Iron Craft Challenge is Button Up.

I start out on Thursdays with all these possibilities, intending to do more than one thing each week. Then reality hits and it's pushing me to be able to get ONE thing done.

This week I was going to create bookmarks this week and crochet a bracelet in addition to the bracelet that I actually managed to complete, but I never made it that far. Apparently getting the glue gun out is too much LOL.

I actually ended up making a bracelet. This was actually very simple to make, I just connected the buttons with jump rings and used a clasp to close it. Very easy!

I found my button collection rather limiting for this challenge. I think I'm going to be keeping an eye out for buttons at garage sales and thrift shops.

While I was doing this I ran across a button bracelet that I made back when I was younger and in my Laura Ingalls Wilder phase. The one I made this week is quite different!

IC 28: Reuse - Reusable Sandwich Bag

2011-07-13T08:37:00.000-04:00

I'm not the most green person in the world. Don't get me wrong, I DO recycle and try to reuse things before tossing them, but I don't allow a product's packaging to influence my decision to buy it.

One of the green things I do though is try to keep the waste from my daughter's lunch to a minimum. I've sewn several cloth lunch bags, we use a thermos for her drink, a cloth napkin, a heavy reusable plastic utensil and I've made a few cloth bags for the stuff inside the lunch as well.

I've been needing to make a new sandwich bag. So, when Iron Craft announced Challenge 28: Reuse, I knew right away what I was going to make.

For this you need:
thread
the bag from a box of cereal (empty), cut open so it lays flat
fabric

I don't have dimensions right now but the fabric was about 7 inches by 16 inches, it was a scrap left over from another project so it wasn't cut straight, but it didn't really impact how this turned out.

Lay the fabric down and place the bag from the cereal over top. Trim the bag to be the same size as the fabric.

Next, sew the two pieces together. I just did a zig zag stitch around the outside edge.

Then, fold the bottom up with the fabric sides together so that the bottom edge is about 2 inches from the top and then sew (using straight stitch) along the sides.

Now, you're ready to turn it right side out and start using it! I've washed the other one when it got particularly messy in the washing machine and it's held up pretty well for two years.

I just tuck the open end down in the bag once the sandwich is in there to close it. You could use velcro if you wanted.

For more great tips check out We are THAT Family and their Works for Me Wednesday post.

For more great crafts that reuse, check out The Iron Craft flickr pool.

What do you do to reuse?

IC 27: Stars and Stripes

2011-07-06T06:00:00.001-04:00

This week's Iron Craft Challenge is Stars and Stripes. I decided to do the obvious and go with the patriotic theme and actually did two things this week.

Earlier in the week, I'd done my nails for the 4th, once my daughters saw mine, they wanted theirs done as well. I wasn't going to count mine for the IC challenge since I'd done it before the challenge, but since I had to do 4 other hands, we'll just count them :)

We started with a plain coat of red.

Then we took some white and drew on some stripes.

Then, we painted the tips blue and followed that with some white dots for stars.

In between each step, we left the paint dry well.

For this challenge I also created some new hair bows for the girls to wear. In the center of each one I put a star shaped cupcake topper (I trimmed off the pick part).

IC 26: Camp Crafts

2011-06-29T08:17:00.000-04:00

This week over at Iron Craft, the theme is camp crafts. I did several crafts this week.

T-shirts

I found these color change paints at the store last week and knew I had do make my daughters t-shirts with them.

So, I printed out some Hello Kitty coloring pages, put them in the T-shirt and then using regular black fabric paint, I traced the design. Then, I took the color changing paints and filled in various parts of the t-shirts.

I'm a little disappointed with how light the color change is, but reading their website, it says that the paint needs to be applied thickly, so maybe I didn't put it on thick enough and need another coat.

Sand Bottles

When we were at the beach earlier this month, we collected sea shells. Most of the shells we found were really tiny and a number of them broke on the way home. My daughter saw bottles with sand and sea shells in at the souvenir shops but thought they were too expensive. So, I offered to make her one. Due to not having a whole lot of seashells and not being able to find any good sized bottles I opted to use some mini ones. I then labeled the jar with the name of the beach and the year.

Tajar pins

One of the last years that I went to camp as a camper (and not a counselor/aid), our leader told us one of the Tajar tales about an animal that is part tiger, part jaguar, and part badger. In the story she told, his tail came off and he used tape, string and a pin to fasten it back on with. Then, we each received a tajar pin. While I was looking up this story to go with the Tajar pin, I found that other people are actually using tape, string and a pin to make theirs. Ours were made by wrapping wire around the closed side of a safety pin. I'm sure she explained the symbolism behind it, but that was a long time ago. I've still got my pin though!

IC25: Scan This!

2011-06-22T20:50:00.001-04:00

They're popping up everywhere. I saw them on my cup from a fast food restaurant, I see them in ads, on the cover of my phone book, even on signs at the zoo and a concert. What are they? QRCodes!

I'm a little behind technology wise, right before we went on vacation, I got an app for them. Unfortunately, my beloved Centro is getting to be old technology, so I could only find one app and it worked fine the first few times then refused to recognize the codes, furthermore, it messed up my camera app, so I've unfortunately had to remove it. (just one more pro in favor of an upgrade!)

I haven't done too much with QR Codes until this round of The Iron Craft Challenge. But the inner geek in me, was intrigued. It turns out that to allow a lot of devices to read these codes, there is a lot of redundancy and error checking built in. What does that mean? It means that some people have started to exploit that by doing custom QR Codes that incorporate an image, or a style to help convey their message. So I decided to give it a try.

I started with QRStuff.com and generated a QR Code that just has text (it turns out there are different types of information that a QR Code can contain, in addition to just URLs).

This code has the text of John 3:16.

Then, I decided to modify it a bit and changed it to have a cross:

Due to the redundancy in the codes, you can change them some without breaking them for most QR Readers. Now, the software tester in me kicks in here and wants to point out that they're no longer up to the 'spec' for a QR Code so it's very possible that there are readers out there that will not scan them correctly. But what's the fun in that?

Now that I've got the code, what should I do with it?

It'd be cool on a T-shirt, even just on a piece of card stock. It's an interesting outreach method. As a geek, I'd scan it to at least see if it's a valid code. Some websites are selling QR Code temporary tattoos for people to use to exchange info at trade shows. (It'd be an interesting twist on the kid tattoos for contact info too)

I decided to follow the directions here and transfer it to a piece of wood to make a necklace. Can you say fail? LOL

Next time, I'll try to paint the wood first that will hopefully make it more distinguishable and will keep the ink from soaking into the wood so much.

So, I was back to what to do with the code after I made it. I originally was going to try to print it on shrink plastic but wasn't sure it would still be scanable afterwards. So I thought I'd try it. I tried to print on a small piece of shrink plastic I had left from another project. Fail again! My printer jammed LOL.

By this point I had a number of the codes printed out in various sizes, so I decided to just frame one.

I've got a smaller version that I printed out that I'll probably attach to the wood with modge podge to make necklace.

Can you think of other creative uses for QR Codes?

IC23: You Are Here

2011-06-07T22:35:00.000-04:00

Actually, no I'm not "here", I'm on vacation, but I left after the challenge was posted, so I was able to complete it before I left!

This week we were to craft with a map. Recently, when my husband and I were planning our vacation we were talking about all the states that we've visited and that our girls have visited. We decided we should start keeping track. So for this week's challenge, I made a map of the US and colored in the states that my daughter has been to.

First, I found a simple map of the US via Google images. I printed it out to the size I wanted it to be (mine was half a sheet of paper). The map I picked had a boarder around the edge, so with the paper on top of the fabric, I sewed the border. This helped to keep the paper from sliding around later. Then, I very slowly just sewed around each state until they were all done. I messed up Maryland a bit as you might be able to tell, I might go back and fix that.

After all the states were outlined, I very carefully tore away the paper. I used regular old white printer paper this time, but I'm thinking next time I might use something a little lighter, like onion skin or tracing paper. When I was tearing it away, some of the stitches pulled out.

Lastly, I took a non-washable crayon and colored in the states she's been to.

Iron Craft 20: To a Tee

2011-05-17T21:52:00.000-04:00

T-shirts are pretty much a staple in my wardrobe. I wear them well over half the time. So I've got a number of them and I've also got a number of them that are sitting there unworn because they have holes in or are stained. So, I was really looking forward to this round. I just needed to decide what to do. I googled a lot and found this site. Perfect the shirts there actually look a little more dressy afterwards. So I gave it a try. I took a blue t-shirt, put it on, marked where I wanted to cut it and then broke out the scissors. I encountered a few problems in the process. One, I only ended up with enough "yarn" to go half way around the shirt's neckline, but fortunately I was able to finish the front.

Two, my stitches don't look nearly so smooth as the ones in their picture, I don't know if it's something with the way I cut the strip or if there's something else I did wrong.

The neck opening it a little larger now than I really am comfortable wearing. I knew it would be wider when I made the decision on where to cut, but I was planning on having several rows of crochet. My daughter tells me how much she likes the shirt every time I have it out though so maybe I'll try wearing it some time.

I really would like to try the one at this site too. I've got a shirt in mind, but need to double check that it fits right. Or, maybe one of the other Iron Crafters will submit something even better!

Iron Craft 19: Spring Craft Challenge

2011-05-15T10:16:00.000-04:00

Over at the Iron Craft site they had a Spring Challenge. We could do anything related to spring. Well, around here, we broke out the flip flops as soon as spring hit. But, my youngest had out grown hers from last year.

So, I found some for $1 and decided to embelish them.

Materials:
Ribbon (less than a yard)
Two buttons
Thread and needle
Hot glue
Fabric paint.

I cut 4 lengths of Hello Kitty ribbon (from Target's Dollar spot!) just slightly longer than the length of each side of the straps.

Then, I hot glued the ribbon on each side, just to hold it in place for the next step.

Next I took a thread and needle and made a small stitch in one side of the ribbon, ran the thread under the strap and made another small stitch in the other side of the ribbon, essentially whip stitching the ribbon to the flip flop. (click to see a bigger version of the pics).

Then, I was afraid that the thread would break and the ribbon would come off, so I took some fabric paint and painted the inside of the straps with it. I think it gives it a bit more finished look too. I also sewed a flower button at the point.

I've done every challenge since I started the IC Challenge, but haven't blogged about them all. I'll try to do a post for the others a little later.

Iron Craft 16: Taxman

2011-04-20T07:22:00.000-04:00

This weeks Iron Craft challenge was to create something dealing with money. I took the opportunity to knock out one of the other crafts that I've been wanting to do, but haven't taken the time. We use a lot of gift cards and I'm always struggling to figure out if I have one for a particular restaurant. So, I decided to keep them in their own wallet.

Start with two rectangles of fabric that are about 6.5 inches by 4.5 inches and two rectangles that are 2 inches by 4.5 inches. (You'll also need about 1.5 inches of elastic and thread).

Turn down a narrow hem on the long edge of both smaller rectangles and sew.

Lay one big rectangle down (right side up) then lay the two smaller rectangles down at each end of the bigger rectangle (right side down with the hemmed edge towards the middle), lastly lay the other big rectangle on top right side down.

Sew a seam around the outside edge making sure to catch all three layers where applicable and leaving a place to turn it. Clip the corners.

Turn, close the opening and then top stitch the whole way around. Take a small piece of elastic, form it into a circle and sew it to the middle (I closed it up to see where that was).

Then, I put in a mini Sharpie and a set of Wallet windows that I bought. I'll get another set for the other side.

Now, I'll have my Sharpie handy to mark the gift cards and I wont need to search through my wallet for them.

WFMW - Keeping Track of Gift Cards

2011-04-20T06:59:00.000-04:00

We use gift cards quite a bit around here. The schools do a fundraiser with them where they get a portion of the profits from the sale. Our credit card gives us rewards in gift cards. I'm a member of MyPoints.com (interested in joining? let me know, I can refer you and we'll both gain!). And Oh yeah, I get gift cards as gifts!

With all these gift cards, it's pretty much impossible to remember the balance on each one. It's even worse when you consider I've got some for my kids as well and I try to let them choose how they're spent. I tried keeping the receipt that they gave me with the balance on them wrapped around, but a lot of the receipts would fade over time.

Finally I came up with the idea of using a Sharpie to write the remaining balance on the card right away so that way I knew what was left on the cards. Here's where I'm going to start keeping them.

For more great ideas check out the Works for Me Wednesday post over at We Are That Family.

Iron Craft 15: Bunny or Chick? Marshmallow Topiary

2011-04-10T02:00:00.001-04:00

This week's Iron Craft Challenge is to use Marshmallow peeps or bunnies in a different way. Since microwaving peeps with toothpicks so they joust really isn't a craft, I had to think of something else.

So, I present my Marshmallow Topiary.

Materials
Square vase
12 inch long dowel
8 Peeps Bunnies
Bunny shaped marshmallows (half a bag)
Glue Gun
Shredded green paper (not shown)
3" styrofoam ball
2" styrofoam ball or cube
Ribbon

Directions
Put two Bunnies on each of three sides of the vase, (facing outward). If you're using a ball for the base, put some hot glue on the bottom of the ball and put it in the middle of the vase then squeeze in the remaining two bunnies (I used a knife between them and the vase to squeeze them in and avoid messing up their faces).

Next use the hot glue gun to cover the bigger styrofoam ball (3") with the bunny marshmallows. I found it was just as easy to put some of the glue on the ball and then put a bunch of marshmallows on. But if you're having problems with the glue melting the ball you can put the glue on the marshmallow and then put it on the ball.

Next take the ribbon and wrap it around the dowel rod and secure each end with a bit of glue. Then, put a dab of glue on one end of the dowel and insert it into the ball that is in the vase. Put glue on the other end and put the other ball on that end. Then, finish it up by covering the base ball with shredded green paper or Easter grass.

Do you have any great crafts to do with Marshmallow peeps? Check out the Iron Craft flickr pool for more ideas!

IC 14: Easter Post card

2011-04-06T07:55:00.000-04:00

This time of year, Easter is on my mind. So when the challenge for the week was announced as a post card, I immediately decided that I wanted to make an Easter one. The decision on what medium to use wasn't so easy. I wanted to do something that looked like a stained glass window. But, I couldn't decide if I wanted to do it in fabric (either with stitching or black fabric paint for the leading) or if I wanted to do a project similar to one I did in Elementary school art class with black paper and tissue paper. In the end, I ran out of time and ended up with just my prototype which is just a digital image. But digital versions were allowed, so here you go. Feel free to use it as you like, just don't use it to make money.

Iron Craft 13: Best in Show

2011-03-30T06:33:00.000-04:00

This week's iron craft challenge was to be Animal related. About half an hour before I read the challenge, I saw this post over at mmmcrafts and saved the idea to make for my future nephew. I love the face on Larissa's even more than the cute one on the one she used for inspiration. I was so anxious to start making mine, that I ended up finishing it Thursday night!

Mine didn't turn out quite as cute, but I'm happy with the results. Hopefully my brother and sister in law will like it as well.

WFMW - Gift bag alternatives

2011-03-30T06:32:00.000-04:00

We've clearly hit Birthday Party season in our household. Between my two girls, we averaged about one a week so far in March. I don't like gift bags. They're not fun to open and it adds to the extra waste. I don't consider myself a very "green" person, but it really does bother me how much extra packaging toys are packed in these days. And they don't make it easy to recycle it all either. While I can't do a lot to control that, I can do a bit to eliminate some of the extra waste by not using gift wrap or a gift bag. What do I do? I make a pillow case, and wrap the gift in it.

And as an extra bonus, since I often buy the fabric on sale, it usually doesn't end up costing more than a gift bag would anyway. I usually choose fabric that has characters the kids will like on it, or one that goes with a holiday that's coming up (Valentine's day, St Patrick's day, etc).

I've also made draw string bags for some of the kids. For more great tips head over to We Are that Family!

Iron Craft 12: Wanna Get Lucky?

2011-03-22T22:06:00.000-04:00

I don't have a good luck charm. I pray when I want "luck". So, when Iron Craft issued this challenge, I was actually pretty stumped. Most of these challenges, I've had more problems narrowing what I want down to one item, but with this one, I really struggled. I thought about doing something with the cross, but couldn't come up with something that I liked. I thought of a Wordle or Word Cloud. I thought of doing something printable, and actually had a quote picked out Monday night. But I struggled with the design that would go around the quote (I'm not a graphic artist, I wish I were!). So while I was Googling luck I ran across a reference to the Felix Felicis potion in Harry Potter.

So I found a small bottle and was planning on painting the inside gold and decorating the outside. But, when I opened my gold paint, I discovered that it was all dried out. So, change of plans! I decided to just decorate that bottle instead. So I glued some ribbon and sequins to it.

After this challenge and the Time Turner challenge, everyone's going to think I'm obsessed with Harry Potter, I'm not really. But I do like the books and my daughter's reading them right now, so they're on my mind. Maybe she'll want to play with this once she gets further along in the series.

Iron Craft 11: Easy Bein' Green

2011-03-16T06:02:00.000-04:00

Iron Craft Challenge #11 is to create something green. The problem with this challenge is that green is one of my favorite colors! In fact, it was the color I used for my wedding. I had a little bit of trouble figuring out one thing that I wanted to make. And with St Patrick's day coming up and my list of cool crafts I'd like to do for it, I had an even harder time picking just one item.

So, I made these shamrock earrings for my daughter:

This headband out of left over fabric from my IC#10 project.

The reverse of this headband is a scrap of dark green fabric I had leftover from another project.

Then I created a shamrock hair clip using these instructions.

Check out the Iron Craft Flickr pool for more great green projects!

WFMW: Decorative Pillows

2011-03-09T16:45:00.000-05:00

I like to decorate for the most of holidays, it provides a nice change of pace and helps me get in the "holiday spirit" and since kids tend to look forward to holidays as well, it helps them too.

The problem is there's a lot of things to store. So a long time ago, I started to use slip covers for my throw pillows in the living room to help decorate, without the added expense of buying another pillow that I'd need to store most of the year anyway. Besides it gives me the chance to use some of the cute holiday fabrics I've seen at the store.

So, up until now, I've been missing one major holiday in my collection of pillow covers and that's St Patrick's Day. I think it's mostly because often St Patrick's Day and Easter fall so close together there really isn't time to give them each their own decor time and Easter is far more important at our house. But, this year it's nice, Easter is much later and actually gives us over a month between the two, so we can decorate for both!

This week's challenge for Iron Craft is a Fat tuesday in the Quarter challenge and when I heard that I immediately remembered this giveaway, which I won! The fabric has been aging in my stash for a while now waiting for the perfect chance to use it.

So, here's one of the fat quarters I won:

For the challenge we're allowed to use one Fat Quarter and notions (no other fabric, other than something like bias tape). I wanted to make a cover for my pillow but when I folded the fabric over it just wasn't the right dimensions, I'd have to cut it and piece it together to get it to fit right. Then, I remembered that sometimes when I'm wraping gifts, I'll do it diagonally and bring all the corners to the center back of the gift. Often I can then wrap a gift with a piece of paper that I couldn't wrap normally.

So, I trimmed up the FQ to be a square and sat the piece I trimmed off aside for another project (hopefully I'll get some time to do it before St Patrick's day comes!).

Then, I folded the square in half (outside in) and sewed up the two ends. (Sorry I forgot to take a picture of that!) Next I found some coordinating ribbon and sewed it around the open edges (note: I sewed two lengths with the ends being at the seams, DON'T do that! Instead sew one long piece and it would be better to start midway between the two seams).

I marked the mid points of both sides (between the two seams, these will be the pillow corners). Then, on one side, between the two marks, I made some button holes pretty evenly spaced through both the ribbon and the fabric (the ribbon here is working as part of the button band to reinforce it). Lastly, I sewed the buttons to the ribbon on the other side of the openning.
Here's the back:

And the front:

It turns out the FQ by itself was just a bit too small for my pillow, unless I wanted to use the piece I cut off for the button band, so I used ribbon (I didn't have any bias tape that matched). There's also a little bit of a twist to the fabric due to the bias, but the pillow keeps it to a minimum.

I love the fabric and the people over at Captive Illusions put cute little sayings on their FQ packs like "Sew many quilts... Sew little time!" and "A messy house is the sign of a happy quilter." (I must be REALLY happy then! LOL).

I can't wait until tomorrow to see what the new challenge will be at Iron Craft.

Pillow covers are definitely working for me. For more great tips, head over to We Are That Family and check out this week's Works for Me Wednesday!

WFMW - Helping your kids learn more about God.

2011-03-02T06:15:00.000-05:00

This year, we decided to start the year off by doing devotionals daily with the kids to help bring them closer to God and to get them more in the habit of learning about God and reading the Bible every day.

I had The One Year Book of Devotionals for Preschoolers to use with my youngest daughter (she's 4), that I'd picked up at the Salvation Army store a while back. But it was a little too simple for my older daughter (she's 7). So I went to the Family Christian book store and looked at some of the devotionals they had there. They'd advertised one for mothers and daughters that I was looking to get. But after looking through it, I decided it wasn't for us. The stories that it had were targeted for girls that were a little older than 7 (they talked about going to the mall by yourself, etc). After a little searching, I found God's Little Devotional Book for Girls. It has a short story, a Bible passage and a few sentences to tie it all together.

So, every night, before bed, I read the story from the devotional, she looks up the Bible passage and reads it and we talk for a few minutes about it. The devotional does have part of the Bible passage in it, but I want my daughter to get more comfortable looking up passages in the Bible, so I have her look it up, read it and then we discuss the meaning and relate it to the story. She's loving it.

My younger daughter isn't reading yet. So my husband reads the preschoolers devotional to her. It's nice because it starts with a question or two, to catch her attention and then talks a little bit about God and includes a scripture verse and prayer at the end. She also likes the cute illustrations.

This is definitely helping us talk more about God.

For more great tips, head over to We Are THAT Family and this week's Works for Me Wednesday.

My Time Turner

2011-03-02T01:00:00.002-05:00

In Harry Potter, Hermione used a time turner to go back in time and take twice the number of classes as everyone else. Ever since I read about her Time Turner, I've wanted one. Just think, I could craft what I want, craft with the kids AND work full time. Almost as good as cloning myself (maybe even better since *I* would be the one experiencing it all). And working in the software industry, where we're always struggling to meet deadlines, it would definitely be useful!

So, when Iron Craft announced challenge number nine, "And the Oscar goes to..." where we're to craft something that reflects a movie that is special to you. The Harry Potter movies immediately came to mind, but I tried to think of something else (since they used that as an example). Is it really a "craft" to paint my stapler red like the one in Office Space? How can I create an entire planet on a giant holodeck like in Star Trek Insurrection? The first movies my husband and I ever saw together were the Indiana Jones movies, could I do something from those? No matter how much I thought about it, I kept coming back to Harry Potter. I thought about Mrs Weasley's clock and some day, I might make one, but I couldn't find a cheap clock to cannibalize on short notice. So I ended up back at the Time Turner.

The book doesn't say much about what this Time Turner looks like, other than it has a small hour glass and was gold. I envisioned something smaller than what's in the movie figuring she had to hide it all semester under her robes. But I could not come up with a way to make an hour glass that was small. I was going to try glueing two clear glass beads together, but I couldn't find any that were clear, shaped the right way and hollow. So I ended up having to make a faux hour glass by wiring two pony beads together. Originally I was going to put glitter in them so it would move back and forth, but the glue wouldn't hold them together tight.

So, here's what I did:
I took two clear pony beads, ran an eye pin through them. both ends of the eye pin were fastened to a small gold ring. Then, I took a piece of 20 gauge wire wrapped it around the center (between the two pony beads) and then around the small gold ring as well, leaving the ends and fastening on a small bead at both ends. These ends need to be long enough that they'll extend past the sides of the larger circle. So, I have something looking like this.

Then, I took the piece with the pony beads and placed it so that one end is in front of the larger circle and one end is behind the larger circle (with the beads outside the circle) and I wired it with 32 gauge wire. To do that, I took a segment of wire (about 8 inches or so) found the middle, placed it at the joint and repeatedly made an X over the front of the joint, then I did the same for the other side. The idea here is that the smaller circle will be able to pivot inside the larger circle.

Next, I took some seed beads and strung them on one of the tails that was left and used the other tail to wire that string of beads around the outer circle. I ended up having to do this with both sides to get the full circle covered. Here's how it looked when I finished.

I don't have a gold chain to put it on right now. I'm kind of hoping that someone else makes one for this challenge so I can see what they do for the hour glass. Now if someone can tell me the proper enchantments that I need to get it working, I'd appreciate it!

An Adventure into Polymer Clay

2011-02-23T19:18:00.002-05:00

I grew up in central Pennsylvania, right by Penn State and just over the mountain from a number of Amish communities. So, when Iron Craft presented this week's Hometown challenge, I wondered what I should do. Should I do something with some of the PSU fabric I've been saving? Should I make some whoopie pies? Then, I got to thinking about one of the other projects I've been thinking about even longer than the wire angels.

The little town of Boalsburg isn't far from Penn State either. This little town claims to be the birth place of Memorial Day (there are other towns that make that same claim, but that's another story!). Every year they close down the streets in Historic Boalsburg for a craft show and festival on Memorial Day weekend. Many years ago there was a person who sold polymer clay figures of Amish boys and girls every year at this festival. I always looked at them, admired them but being in High School, I really wasn't into spending money on something like that. The one year that I decided I was finally going to buy one, I went and the vender wasn't there and I haven't seen them there since then (although I haven't gone every year, since I no longer live in the area).

So, for Iron Craft's hometown challenge, I decided to try making a little Amish girl out of polymer clay. I have NOT worked with polymer clay much at all. I used it to make some handprint keepsakes for my mom and mother in law when the girls were babies, but that's about it. I couldn't find the Sculpey that I had bought for this project several years ago, so I ran to Michaels and bought some Craft Smart Polymer clay in purple, black and a fleshy color. I took a few pictures of my process.

First I took two balls of the purple clay, about the size of a walnut.

Then, one I mushed slightly to make it more wedge shaped. the other I rolled out into a trapezoidal like shape (it doesn't need to be perfect).

Then, I took the trapezoide one and draped it over the wedge and kind of made some gathers at the top.

Next, I took some more purple and made a snake out of it and then placed it across the top.

Then, I switched to the black clay. I rolled it out and used a toothpick to trace the outline of an apron.

Then, I draped the apron over the body. The bib part of the apron ended up being big enough to go over the top and down the back to the waist. I tried to smooth out all the seams.

Next I rolled a ball of the flesh colored clay and put it on top for the head Then, I rolled out some more black and roughly covered the head with it. I added another piece (which was a ball that I'd rolled out and cut the edge off of) for the brim. The head didn't seem like it was too stable, so I took a tooth pick and stuck it down through it into the body and covered over that part with clay again to hide it.

I took two really small balls of purple, flattened them and put them at the end of each sleeve for cuffs. Then, I took two small balls of flesh colored clay and put them on the ends of the cuffs for hands and brought them together in front.

Then, I baked it following the instructions on the clay wrapper.

Here's a picture of the finished girl.

She looks nothing like the ones I saw at the craft show, so I'll still keep looking for one like that, but this was a fun project. The Crafter's Choice clay seems to soften up easier than the Sculpey did which makes it easier to work with. One thing I didn't think about was washing my hands in between working with the black and working with the flesh colored clay. As a result, the flesh color ended up with some black in it. Lesson learned. I'm looking forward to seeing what Iron Craft's next challenge will be.

Wire Angels

2011-02-16T11:04:00.002-05:00

I've been contemplating this idea for years (litterally), but never took the time to do it. Ever since I first tried crocheting with wire. Priscilla has these really neat angels that are granny squares, I made them one year for Christmas gifts (out of yarn). But I got to thinking that they might look really neat if they were crocheted out of wire and as a bonus, you wouldn't need the pipe cleaner to help with the shaping.

Then, over at Iron Craft, they have a weekly challenge (announced on Thursdays) and I've been wanting to participate for a while but haven't been inspired, until now. This week's challenge is to make something gold. Ah Hah! I've got gold wire and a bit of time. So I present to you my first ever Iron Craft challenge project. I'm hoping to be able to keep doing these this year, I love the idea.

I didn't actually follow Priscilla's pattern, just used the basic idea.

I made two grannies with 32 gauge gold beading wire (I got this at the craft store a while ago).

Then, I took one of them and made it into a cone (so I took the top side and the right side) by wiring them together (I just used the tail that was hanging there). The other one, I folded in half to make a triangle and ran the wire down through the holes in the middle to help it stay folded in half. For the head, I crocheted a circle with three rounds of dc and then wove the wire through the stitches in the last round to gather it. And for the arms I chained the length I needed and then went back and did a sc in each stitch.

Then, I used the tails to fasten them all together.

Again, I need to work on my pictures, sorry they're so blurry, but my camera battery died so I need to charge it.

Personalized Flash drives

2011-02-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

I work for a software company and needed a gift to give my coworkers. I was looking for something that was "techy" but I was trying to keep the cost to under $10 a piece. And I wanted something that would either be useful or amuse them.

So, I decided to make custom flash drives.

It's really hard to see (sorry for the poor picture quality, but I can't retake it now!) but they say:

"Bad Code isn't really Bad, it's just confused"

"Bugs are not an option, they're bundled with the software"

"We don't create defects, we just find yours"

"Upgrade - v. Take old bugs out, put new ones in"

Here's how I did it:

Materials:
Tacky Glue
laser print out of saying trimmed to size*
Modge Podge
paint brush
USB thumb drive

I printed the sayings out on a laser printer using white text on a black background (to match the case of the drive), trimmed them to size and then used the Tacky Glue to glue the saying on to the side of the drive. I removed the cap so I didn't accidently glue it on. Leave it dry well.

Once it's dried well, coat it with Modge Podge. I coated the whole side so that it wasn't as obvious that it wasn't on there originally. Let it dry a few hours and then add another coat, repeat a few more times. I put at least 3 coats on.

*I used a laser printer because ink jet ink will run with the modge podge. I also used a background color to match the thumb drive. Scrapbook paper would work well too!

Valentine's Day Exchange

2011-02-14T07:14:00.000-05:00

Today's Valentine's Day! Did you get your loved ones a gift? I ran to Walmart this morning for some tissues and paper towels and stood behind a number of men with candy/trinkets waiting to check out at 6:15 in the morning LOL.

I participated in a Valentine's Day Exchange and last week my package arrived from Brittany. She made me this awesome Valentine's day Apron AND got me some heart shaped cookie cutters!

I'm sorry the picture is so blurry. Lately I've been having problems taking pictures. My 4 year old was kind enough to model for me :)

Thanks Brittany! I love them!

WFMW: Organizing and storing ribbon

2011-01-12T07:26:00.000-05:00

Ribbon is an inexpensive way to dress things up. I've made hair bows with it, decorated towels, embellished dresses and even used it to hang things up on the wall. I have a decent size collection of ribbon and was running into issues storing it. The spools that it comes on are bulky and they were taking up a lot of space. It was also difficult to see what I had when I was looking. So I did what most crafters these days do. I googled! I found special ribbon storage boxes (too expensive for the amount that I had, still bulky and most of them would lend to tangling unless you're really careful because the ends of the ribbon hang out). I found people using paper towel holders or dowel rods through the center of the rolls. That would work great if I worked where I stored my ribbon, but I usually work in my living room and I store my ribbon in the basement. So that would mean that I'd either need to pull off lengths and cut it down there, or take half the spools off the dowel to get to the one in the middle so I could take it upstairs, not ideal. Then I saw this idea for wrapping it around the springless clothes pins. That was more like what I was looking for! Compact, portable, and inexpensive. Then I tried it. It was ok, but most of my ribbons didn't lend themselves to wrapping around the clothes pin and those that did, were difficult to keep put once it was on there (they had a tendency to unroll even when pinned). In my Googling, I ran across someone (I think in a comment on one of the other storage methods) who wrapped their ribbon around cardboard they'd cut to the size of their drawer. So, that's what I did. I've wrapped them around cardboard and pinned the end so it doesn't unravel and I keep all the pieces of cardboard in a drawer in one of those three drawer rubber maid storage carts.

I can now carry the ribbon I want to where I'm working on it. I can easily see what I've got. Before the drawer was pretty much full of ribbon and hard to open and close. Now the ribbon only takes up about a quarter of the space, so I've got room for more!

This is definitely working for me! For more great tips head over to We Are That Family and Today's Works for Me Wednesday Post!

Advent Calendar

2010-12-15T08:02:00.000-05:00

I was hoping to do this last year, but never got around to it. I saw this muffin tin idea on a number of other websites and the first time I saw it, I knew it was a great idea for us since most premade advent calendars have chocolate in them and my oldest doesn't like chocolate.

You take a muffin pan (or several) and create covers for the cups (I used sheets of magnets and then glued scrap book paper and embelishments on them). This way I can choose what goes in AND the holes are big enough that I can put two (or more) things in each one so that both kids get something (since I used a regular size muffin tin, you could use a mini one though if you want). And that's what I was originally planning on doing, adding trinkets for each day (I'd rather not encourage my kids to eat candy every day). But then, I got a better idea, a Puzzle!

First, I put the puzzle together:

Then I carefully took it apart, starting with the edge

and putting connecting pieces into each cup of the muffin pan (most cups had 4 pieces, some had more since there are 100 pieces in the puzzle and only 24 cups).

Once all of the cups were filled I placed the magnets over the holes and hung them up on the wall. Since the muffin cups were strategically filled, the pieces will always fit in somewhere, the kids just need to figure out where.

The only problem I ran into was that the magnets (which were ones I was recycling, not actual magnet sheets I'd bought) weren't quite strong enough in some cases so the pieces fell out while I was trying to hang it. Now that it's up and we're not fiddling with it, there isn't a problem.

The nice things about this is that it was cheap (the puzzle was $1 at the dollar store), we don't have a lot of cheap trinkets floating around, the girls are working together on it and we can re-use the puzzle.

This is definitely working for us! Even my youngest is working on the puzzle. For more great ideas head over to the WFMW post at We Are That Family.

Gift Ideas

2010-11-18T08:36:00.000-05:00

Well, it's getting to be that time of year, the time where I'm searching for the perfect gift for my kids. It seems like most of the time when I pick it, it's not something that they actually play with later. But a surefire hit around our house is stuffed animals! And if it's a dog, it's a definite love! Which is odd since neither of my girls are big dog fans.

One of the gifts I'm considering this year is a PawParazzi dog for my oldest or a cat for my youngest. Have you seen them? They come with cute bags/purses. And the best part (in my opinion) is that they're small, so they dont' take up a lot of room and they can easily come with us when we're on the go.

Their website has a link to find them in a store near you. Or you can enter to win one at Wee Share.

What gifts are you getting your kids?

Halloween Swap Box

2010-10-27T07:24:00.000-04:00

It's arrived! Well, it actually arrived last week and I'm just now getting time to blog about it. Sorry!

We got a great box full of Halloween stuff from The Monkey House. Check it out:

There is a house purse that opens up with two peg ghosts to go inside, some lollipops, two felt pumpkins with candy corn in them, a bag of foam stickers two wooden masks, a box of dots, a bag of cookie cutters, some cool playdough and two necklace kits. The girls immedaitely dove into the playdough with the cookie cutters as soon as they saw it, have been sampling the candy corn and have since made their necklaces.

This swap was a lot of fun. I hope to do it again sometime!

WFMW - Taming Flashcards

2010-10-12T21:32:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure where I got this idea from, it might've been someone else's WFMW post, but it's working so well for us that I thought I'd share it. If you think you know where I got the idea from, feel free to comment with the site.

Flash cards are a great tool for kids to learn with, but they're essentially a deck of cards and have a tendency to get separated and you end up finding them everywhere. So, I've been taking them, punching two holes in the top of all the cards and then I put binder rings through the holes. You can get a pack of binder rings at Office Max.

This way, my girls can carry the flash cards around with them, they don't loose any cards and there's no clean up. They have a tendency to pick them up when they're playing and just start flipping through them. They can also take them in the car on long trips to quiz each other a lot easier.

For more great ideas, head over to the WFMW post at We are THAT Family!

Pumpkin Yogurt Parfait

2010-10-10T21:43:00.001-04:00

Ingredients:
1/4 c vanilla yogurt
1/4 c pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1 T maple syrup
1/4 c Pumpkin Spice Granola Snacks
whipped topping (optional)

Combine yogurt, pumpkin and syrup in a bowl. Layer yogurt mixture in a glass alternating with granola. Garnish with whipped topping.

Variations:
Coffee flavored yogurt with Kalua Luau Granola snacks

Halloween Swap

2010-09-12T21:54:00.000-04:00

I love swaps and exchanges. My friend over at Mind Games is doing a Halloween swap for kids. Head on over and check it out!
I'm excited to do this, the girls are going to love it and I'm already starting to think about things that I can put in our box. I can't wait to find out more about who we're going to swap with. It'll be a great way for the girls to "meet" someone new!

Back to School bargins for the non-school aged and Box tops

2010-09-01T13:59:00.000-04:00

The theme over at We Are that Family for this weeks' Works for Me Wednesday is Back to School tips. I'm late posting and actually it's been a while since I've even posted here to my blog let alone a WFMW post! So, I was struggling with what to post that wasn't already covered, routines, task lists, etc.

Then I remembered that even before I had kids, I'd hit the back to school sales! Why? Because thats when stores put things like underwear and socks on sale too. So I can get multipacks of socks for cheaper and as an added bonus, you can often get a pair or two "free" in that pack! Just watch though because the packs without the bonus free pair are occasionally intermixed with the bonus ones.

Oh and one more tip, if you shop at certain grocery stores and you clip box tops, check out http://www.rewardyourschool.com/. You can link your frequent shopper card with your school and get bonus box tops!

WFMW - My Centro

2010-03-10T08:13:00.000-05:00

Many years ago, I bought a Sony Clie (a PDA much like a Palm Pilot), at first, I used it a lot, but then as I had kids it was one more thing to carry around and I stopped using it for a while. Fast forward a few years and technology has changed, and the phone/PDA combo devices are much better, so I take took the plunge a few years ago when I upgraded my phone and got a Palm Centro (it's a cell phone but runs PalmOS operating system so I can use many of the applications I used on the Clie). It's a few years old now, but I still love it.

Here are some of the applications I use:

HandyShopper - this is a database program, originally designed to do shopping lists, which is what I mostly use it for. It let's me organize things by store (and aisle if I want) and can keep track of the prices things cost. I also have a separate database for gift ideas, so when I'm struck with a gift idea, I can note it down and remember it later.

Countable - I knit and crochet. Lately since I have so little time, I do a lot of it when I'm in the car travelling (hubby's driving). Countable is a counter that let's me keep track of rows, increases, decreases, pattern repeats etc. Mostly I just use it as a row counter. With kids, I get interrupted a lot while I'm knitting.

Bible+ - The Bible on my cell phone, so I can have it with me all the time. I can download different translations, jump to book and verse, and search for keywords. Even see different translations in parallel.

Memorix - I stumbled on this one this past Christmas. It's a memory game where you "turn over" the cards and make matches. Great to entertain the kids when we're waiting in the store, at a restaurant, etc.

IM+ for Skype - I'm not sure if you're familiar with Skype, but it's a service that allows you to make phone calls from your PC. If you're calling to someone else who has Skype, it's free. There's also a text based chat/IM method of communicating. (I think I might talk about Skype next week, tune in!). We use it a lot at work, since our offices are spread out, we need to do a lot of conference calls and we use the chats a lot when we need to ask quick questions of each other. IM+ for Skype isn't made by the people at Skype, but they don't have a PalmOS client, so I had to turn elsewhere. It's nice because I can answer questions from my employees while I'm away from my desk (ex when I'm at the pediatrician's office with my kids). IM+ for Skype is one of the few programs I've actually purchased for my phone.

Pocket Quicken - Pocket Quicken is the other program I've paid for. It's a version of Quicken (accounting/financial software) for Palm OS. Hubby likes to keep track of all our expenses, receipts etc. I was TERRIBLE with loosing receipts and not getting them to him. I'm still bad when I'm in a hurry, but with Pocket Quicken, I can enter them into my phone right away or while I've got a spare minute and then Hubby just sync's my phone with his system (which has the full version of Quicken on it) and imports the data. He's much happier now :) Unfortunately, it wasn't made by Intuit and Intuit has terminated their agreement with the company that was making it, so you can't get new versions that work with current Quicken software.

Unit ConPro - At work, I frequently need to convert between bytes, megabytes, gigabytes with byte accuracy (1 GB = 1073741824 Bytes) I could memorize the numbers, I could use the calculator in Windows, or I can use a unit converter like Unit ConPro (I also use the WWW Unit Converter, but lately ran into a bug with it). It also will do conversions for Volume (cups, pints, teaspoons, etc) which comes in handy when you're doubling recipes, or trying to figure out which item at the grocery store is bigger. It also does a whole pile of other unit conversions. If you can think of it, I bet it does it!

pssh - An ssh client for PalmOS. For us tech folks. I don't use it often, because most of the systems I need to ssh to aren't accessible via the internet and I don't want to install a VPN client on the phone (although they are available).

Documents to Go - I actually don't remember if I paid extra for this (I did for my old Sony Clie) or if it came with my phone, but this allows me to create/edit Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and plain text). It also allows me to view pdf files. I mostly use this for recipes. I've got recipes that I store as plain text files on my computer and when I'm planning on making one, I put it on my phone so I don't need to print it out to make it. You can also get some books from Project Gutenberg in plain text, although I find them a little hard to read that way.

Google Maps - We don't have a GPS, but I can get easy access to Google Maps from my phone and it can approximate where I am (based on which cell tower I'm using), sometimes with better accuracy than others. But it's nice having access to the maps that Google provides when I'm out and about.

The other software I use is stuff that came with it, mainly the email client (which does pop and IMAP, although I've been having issues with it lately), the web browser (nothing special really), and the MP3 player (which I talked about on my audio book post).

Overall, my Centro is really working for me. I'm hoping that there will be another good PalmOS based phone out when I'm ready to replace this one. Check out other Works for Me Wednesday posts at Rocks in My Dryer.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 32

2010-03-09T10:57:00.000-05:00

I'm getting back in the swing of blogging, now I need to start picking up the other things that I dropped at the same time. Mainly reading my Bible daily. I'm going to add that back in today. Please pray for me, that it'll be easier to stick with it this time.

Day 32

The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. —1 Corinthians 7:3

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-03-08T08:44:00.000-05:00

The theme this week is Yellow and truth be told, this was a meal from last week, but I wanted to post it before I forgot that I had it and since it didn't go with the theme anyway, I figured I'd just do it.

Mandarin oranges, chicken Lo Mein, broccoli, pasta alfredo and an open spot for cake once everything else was gone. It doesn't look very appetizing, but the kids sure ate it ('course maybe the cake was a pretty good incentive! ).

Head over to Muffin Tin Mom for more great Muffin Tin Meals!

Love Dare Challenge - Day 31

2010-03-08T08:17:00.000-05:00

Once I stop something that used to be a daily habit it's very easy for me to let it go and never do it again. I'm afraid that's what's happenned with the Love Dare, illness hit my family and then by the time it was over, I was out of the habit and I never got around to starting back up, until today. But, I really do want to finish the Love Dare, even if it does take me twice as long to finish as it should. So, I'm going to pick up where I left off and make it a point to go back and review what I've done this far.

Love Dare Day 31

A man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. —Genesis 2:24

This is something hubby and I have talked about a bit in the past, I have a tendency to ask other people opinions on things, particularly that of my father and brother before his. After we talked about it, I have tried to work on it, but it's obviously something that still needs some work. He doesn't seem to have as much of a "Lingering" issue with his family. Sometimes I wish he was a little more close with them.

Games, Games and More Games....

2010-03-01T07:13:00.000-05:00

We love games at our house and try to have game night at least once a week. Each game night a different family member gets to choose the game. Some of our favorites are:

UNO - This teaches color matching and numbers

Dominoes - This can teach numbers, counting, color matching, etc depending on the set of dominoes that you have. We have a Care Bear set and a standard dot set (the different numbers of dots are also color coded). I really want to do an alphabet set, but I'm waiting for hubby to cut the wood.

Boggle - I got boggle for my 6 year old at Christmas. She loves it. I don't know if you've seen it lately, but now it's all self-contained, even the non-travel version, so there aren't any loose pieces. She was even playing by herself, mixing the letters up and then trying to form words. It's not something my 3 year old can play though.

Scene It - We have the Disney version and it's a favorite of both my kids because you can watch little snippits of movies and they love movies. I like it because you can fold the board differently to adjust the length of the game for the nights when there isn't a lot of time.

Memory - Fun for all ages. There are different versions out there, some with different shaped cards for younger kids to make it a bit easier. My brother used to love playing memory with a regular deck of cards.

Over at Mind Games, they're having a contest for another game that's fun for all ages. The game is called Walk the Dogs and looks like it would be a lot of fun to play. Go check out the contest and while you're there, take a peek at some of the other great stuff she has on her blog. Lots of great activities for kids!

Love Dare Challenge - Day 30

2010-02-11T11:24:00.000-05:00

I think I've mentioned that I pray for my husband every day, but often times, it's generic, asking God to be with him and guide him. But yesterday's challenge asked for a specific prayer and since he wasn't feeling well, I prayed for that.

Day 30 - Love Brings Unity

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

WFMW - Audio Books

2010-02-09T23:00:00.014-05:00

My kids love to read and be read to. Especially my oldest. They also get bored easily, while sitting in the cart shopping and in the car. Pretty much when they're not doing anything other than just sitting. Sometimes they find things to do on their own, but more often then not, they end up fighting. So a while back, I went to LibriVox and downloaded some free audio books to put on my phone (which also plays MP3's without a headset needed). They're older books, classics like Alice and Wonderland and Peter Pan, but my kids love listening to them and they're FREE! So, now when I'm shopping for a while and they're getting bored, I hand over my phone with an audio book playing, quietly and the trip is a lot less stressful.

There are other places that have free audio books as well (feel free to post sources in comments!). Or you can get audio books on CD from the library, one of our local ones even lets you check them out on an MP3 player if you don't have one! Another great resource that more and more libraries are offering is downloadable audio books that you can listen to for a certain amount of time and then delete. And of course you can buy them online from places like Audible.

Audiobooks are definitely working for us! Head over to our We Are that Family for this week's Works for Me Wednesday!

Love Dare Challenge - Day 29

2010-02-09T08:04:00.000-05:00

He hasn't been feeling well the past couple of days so I've really been focusing on trying to make things easier for him. Running downstairs/upstairs to get something for him, trying to get the laundry all done myself, getting the girls ready for bed/school as much as I can. Yesterday I took the youngest to day care so he wouldn't have to leave the house.

Love's Motivation

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 28

2010-02-07T21:00:00.001-05:00

On the weekends, I tend to avoid computers since I work with them all week. So, I'm posting twice today since I didn't even turn my computer on yesterday.

Day 27's challenge couples with Day 26's for me. I feel like he wants me to be better at keeping the house neat and clean but at the same time I found myself wondering why just me? Why can't others help me as well, they live here too. And really that is one of the biggest issues I have in our marriage. I feel like I'm doing all the work sometimes. But throughout this challenge at some point, that no longer became how I feel. I'm okay now with doing the work I do and even trying (and wanting) to do more. The unrealistic expectations that I had of him splitting the housework 50/50 with me is truly unrealistic. He does more of the outside work, especially during the winter months. Yesterday, he spent the morning shoveling the drive way. I've come to terms with where we are and what we're each contributing. Our pastor pointed out, during our marriage series last year, that we should be careful listing out each others duties in order to see who's doing more, because you might be surprised, it might be that you're the one doing less!

It looks like maybe they've revamped the Love Dare website (maybe gearing up for Valentine's Day?). So, unfortunately all the old links I used aren't working and they no longer have the comments from the people who did the challenge last year. But on the bright side, you can still see what the challenges are.

Day 28 - Love Makes Sacrifices

He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.
1 John 3:16

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 27

2010-02-07T20:44:00.000-05:00

My husband doesn't complain about me that much, at least not to me. Occasionally, if he doesn't feel I handled something appropriately with the kids, he'll let me know, which is good. But sometimes I'd really like to know if it's just that he's not voicing his irritation or if he's just not irritated. I do think though that my lack of housekeeping skills can be a frustration for him. And actually it is for me too. So that's what I apologized for yesterday and I'm working on it. I've been trying to tackle one room at a time. Yesterday, I spent the better part of the afternoon folding laundry and getting some things in our room put away.

The Love Dare site is currently down, I'm hoping it's just temporary because I really have been enjoying reading other people's comments on what they did for the challenges, even if they are a few years old.

Day 27 - Love Encourages

Guard my soul and deliver me; do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You.

Psalm 25:20

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 26

2010-02-05T07:38:00.000-05:00

Each day, I read the comments over at the Love Dare site (click the link below) to read how others have completed their dare. On Day 1, there were 152 comments, on Day 26, there are 5. I really hope that it means that people ran out of things to say or were so focused on doing the Dare and improving their marriage that they didn't have time to post, rather than meaning that 147 people gave up.

Day 26: Love is responsible

When you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.

—Romans 2:1 HCSB

I don't do intimate talks well. It takes me forever to get up the courage to bring a topic up, so pray for me, as I ask for my husband's forgiveness.

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 25

2010-02-05T07:25:00.000-05:00

Day 25: Love forgives

What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ.

—2 Corinthians 2:10

It's hard not to hold a grudge, at least for me it is. Back when I first heard of the love dare, our preacher did a series on marriage and one of the things he talked about was not holding a grudge against your mate, don't keep a tally of the things they've done wrong. I realized then, that that was exactly what I was doing. Every time I got mad at him, I'd sit there and silently stew over what he'd done wrong that time and all previous times. I've been working on that, and I wont say that I don't do it at all anymore, but I do find that I turn to God more in those situations and remind myself to forgive and forget. It's still hard, but as soon as I turn it over to God, I do feel better.

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

WFMW - Saving Valentines

2010-02-03T07:11:00.000-05:00

Valentine's day is quickly approaching, can you believe it? In the past my kids have loved looking through the valentines they get from their friends over and over, but it usually ends up with them all over the house. Last year I tried something different and it really worked well, so we'll do it again this year.

I took two pieces of contact paper that was clear (about 18 inches each) peeled the back off of one for each (I turned the corners a bit so they stuck to the table) and then left my daughter (actually they each made their own) place her valentines down on the contact paper how she wanted. Then, we put the other piece of contact paper over top and they used them as placemats for a while. Eventually they forgot about them and I was able to put them away, but in the mean time, they were still able to enjoy the valentines and I didn't have them all over the house.

It's been a while since I've done a WFMW post, but I've been thinking of them! For more great ideas head over to We are that Family, or click the graphic at the top!

Love Dare Challenge - Day 24

2010-02-02T21:50:00.001-05:00

How's everyone doing with the Love Dare? Have you seen the movie yet?

Day 24: Love vs. Lust

The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

—1 John 2:17

I was about to say that I can't think anything and had actually typed that but then I went over to the love dare site to read the posts from others (click the link above to go there). After reading the posts there, I've got to agree, I do lust after the 'dream' husband rather than accepting him for the way he is. I wish he were more affectionate, I wish he would be more thankful outwardly towards me, and so forth. I burned the list earlier on in the challenge, but clearly it's still with me, but I will say much less than it was. So, while I don't have any lusts such as desiring other men, reading pornography, etc, I do tend to focus more on my husbands weaknesses than I should. This too, I'll work on.

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 23

2010-02-02T21:30:00.000-05:00

Day 23: Love always protects

[Love] always protects.

—1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV

I've been thinking about this one a lot. I don't really think that that there are things I do to inhibit our relationship, but rather things I don't do. I don't do things around the house as much as I should. So, I've been working on doing more cleaning. I mopped the bathroom floor, mostly got caught of laundry (still need to fold it though) and swept the garage. He noticed the bathroom floor at least (but that might be because I didn't get the rugs back down before he went in :) ). I also tend to not have the confidence in him doing things that I should, I don't support him. I'll work on that as well. I think I need to go back over the dares again to review all that I'm working on!

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 22

2010-02-02T21:11:00.000-05:00

I've been reading my Bible every day, sometimes more than others. Sometimes it feels like I've been squeezing it in but I HAVE been reading it, which is a start. My kids have been seeing me read it too, which I think is important as well. I've noticed my husband reading his more as well.

I'm a little late getting these posts up but for the most part have been doing the challenges.

Day 22: Love is faithful

I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord.

—Hosea 2:20

My husband and I say "I love you" frequently. I don't think it happens every day, or as often as it should though so I'm going to make an effort to say it more often. Hopefully, he'll start initiating it more often as well.

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 21

2010-01-30T09:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was not a good day. I got so frustrated with Hubby and everything else for that matter. Nothing was going right at work, my daughter was sick with an ear infection, I wanted to get to the store and wasn't able to due to work and the sick one. I never even got to read yesterday's dare, let alone complete it! After work, I was still frustrated with hubby and annoyed with him. So, when I finally decided I had to go to the store to get the prescription, I remembered an earlier dare and picked up something for him while I was there. After doing so, I felt much better.

Day 21: Love is satisfied in God

The Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire.

—Isaiah 58:11

There are no coincidences and these dares are just driving home the point. I've been wanting to read the Bible regularly, but just haven't been making the time for it like I should be. So, I'm going to be working on that, starting today.

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 20

2010-01-28T12:22:00.000-05:00

In thinking back through the dare so far, Day 5 was a particular challenge for me. But I made it through and I don't doubt that God had a hand in it. I see evidence of his love everywhere I turn. The Day 11 challenge where I cleaned around the bathroom sink wasn't particularly challenging, but I'm still glad I did it. The sink area is still clean and I'm hoping to keep it that way. It's a nice reminder to me of the Dare and I think that's a good way to start out the day.

Today marks the halfway point. I don't think he's realized that I'm doing the dare, and I don't really see much difference in him, but that's ok.

Day 20: Love is Jesus Christ

While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

—Romans 5:6

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 19

2010-01-27T13:51:00.000-05:00

Last night's dinner went alright. He liked the food, we talked a little about our day and that was pretty much it. I think I mentioned that we ate a little later so we could be alone (we waited for the girls to go to bed). I made lamb, asparagus and some baby baked potatoes.

Day 19: Love is impossible

Let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

—1 John 4:7

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 18

2010-01-26T08:58:00.002-05:00

Day 18: Love seeks to understand

How blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding.

—Proverbs 3:13

I've started preparing dinner. I approached the subject with hubby suggesting a dinner for two tonight and he didn't seem that interested, since it means waiting until the girls go to bed. Check back tomorrow to see how it goes!

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 17

2010-01-25T07:40:00.000-05:00

Day 17: Love promotes intimacy

He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

—Proverbs 17:9 NIV

We don't have too many secrets from each other and ever since we did the small group Fireproof study, I've been working VERY hard to not discuss things that I know bother him publicly. We work together, so I almost spend 24 hours a day with him, 7 days a week. Due to school right now, our work schedule is skewed a bit so there are three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon we're not together, but that's it. Certainly wouldn't be easy to have secrets from each other. But we're not the kind that have much to hide from friends and family either.

I've read ahead to tomorrow's challenge. I'm glad I did because I need to go grocery shopping!

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Muffin Tin Monday - ABC's and 123's

2010-01-25T07:20:00.000-05:00

I've been looking forward to this one (I'm weird like that) because the theme was ABC's and 123's. I actually even did this one a bit early so that I could make sure to get it on my blog!

A - Alphabet yogurt
B - Banana
C - Cheerios Cereal
E - Egg
D - Donut

The girls liked most of it. The one hasn't been eating much lately at all, so she just sampled, but I sent it with her to day care. The oldest ate everything but the banana (and her banana was a bit over ripe).

Head over to Muffin Tin Mom's Muffin Tin Monday post to check out more ABC and 123 ideas!

Love Dare Challenge - Day 16

2010-01-24T20:24:00.000-05:00

Day 16: Love intercedes

Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

—3 John 2

I've been praying for my spouse and every member of my family, for years, but this challenge speaks more to a specific kind of prayer. I've prayed several times today and will continue to do so in the future.

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 15

2010-01-22T08:28:00.000-05:00

Thursdays are usually the night I watch TV. He has practice for the Worship team at church, so I usually end up watching Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Ugly Betty. I DVR them, and am usually a week or so behind (because sometimes, he doesn't have practice). So, last night rather than continuing to watch Grey's when he got home, I stopped, handed him the remote and layed down on the couch with him.

Today is:

Day 15: Love is honorable

Live with your wives in an understanding way . . . and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life.

—1 Peter 3:7

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 14

2010-01-22T08:24:00.000-05:00

I didn't discuss the rules of engagement with hubby last night because I didn't want to rock the waves. So, I took the suggestion of coming up with a list of my own.

1) Don't be so definsive and admidt my mistakes
2) Don't try to redirect the guilt to someone else (very close to #1)
3) Talk about it rather than claming up (this is what he said I need to work on on day 5).

On to:

Day 14: Love takes delight

Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life.
—Ecclesiastes 9:9 HCSB

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 13

2010-01-20T13:29:00.001-05:00

I'm going to have to come back to Day 12 later. We didn't fight yesterday and we so rarely do that it doesn't make sense to wait until we DO fight to continue. So, on to day 13:

Day 13: Love fights fair

If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

—Mark 3:25

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 12

2010-01-19T07:51:00.000-05:00

I'm still going to need to work on tracking down the source of the funky html, but for now I'll do it by hand.

I completed day 11 and actually got a Thank You! Last night I was going to give him a back rub, I'd been planning it all day the day before, but then we had an argument right before we went to bed and it didn't happen. So, yesterday I was going to do it last night. Well, I was really tired (due to lack of sleep from the argument the night before) and ended up falling asleep before he was done reading. BUT, unlike most nights, when he turned out the light, I woke up, so I gave it to him then.

I have a pretty good marriage, I'm not doing the love dare because things are bad. But, I do feel there's always room for improvement. So the argument we had the night before last was a rare occurance which is why it bothered me so much. And it wasn't really an argument which made it all that much worse, we both just went to bed without talking it out.

I noticed something yesterday that really bothered me. I was going to Google to look for Union 28's website. I'd tried union28.com and it wasn't right (I'd forgotten it was a .net) so I thought I had misrememberd the company name and decided to Google "my husband rocks" because I was wanting to check out their T-shirts. I got as far as "my husband" and was struck by the suggestions that Google had (which are other top searches, I'm pretty sure). Look at this:

I was struck by how negative all of these are. I truely am blessed that I was Googling "My husband rocks" instead of "My husband is a jerk"! Although sometimes I do need the reminder.

By the way does anyone know of other shirts similar to the ones that Union 28 sells? The designs I like there are on the weird cut T's and I'm not sure they'd fit. I do have the "i love my husband" t-shirt that came out with the Fireproof stuff, but was looking for something else too.
Wish me luck with Day 12!

Day 12: Love lets the other win

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

—Philippians 2:4

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Muffin Tin Monday - No Theme

2010-01-19T07:13:00.000-05:00

No theme this week (but personally, I'm looking forward to next week's ABC's theme. I still need to get some new muffin tins though so the kids aren't eating out of my good non-stick ones, until then, I've just given them plastic silverware (which goes over just as well as the muffin tin by the way).

Mondays are usually leftover days for us, so Muffin Tins work well.

The Top one was for my 3 year old, it had Milk, spaghetti squash with peas, ranch, chicken (x2) and banana.

The bottom one was for my 6 year old, it had Milk, spaghetti squash with peas, spaghetti (x2) and banana.

Head over to Muffin Tin Mom and see what others did for Muffin Tin Monday!

Giveaway from Delicate Expressions

2010-01-18T10:58:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted here about a giveaway, partly because I've been doing the whole Love Dare thing. (Yesterday didn't go well we ended up having a small argument, so I'll do yesterday's dare today).

But, I have been trying to win some Vinyl wall sayings for a while now. I've finally decided what I want to say and where I want to put it. But I've never seen the one saying in the stores and I really don't have good luck ordering online (I ordered three Christmas gifts online, one came late, one was the wrong item and we ended up having to return it). So, I thought I'd try to win some.

Over at TodaysGiveaway.net they're giving away a $25 gift certificate to Delicate Expressions. I'm hoping to win so I can buy:
Faith-Hope-Love
And
Faith isn't believing that God can, but knowing that He will.

The first will go on a board over my TV and the second will go over my front door (I haven't decided if it will go directly on the wall or if it will be on a board too.

Go check out this cool giveaway!

Love Dare Challenge - Day 11

2010-01-17T10:30:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I cleaned the area around the bathroom sinks for him. I know it bothers him when it gets really cluttered. It was really dusty too. I neatened things up, put away the stuff that doesn't get used every day and wiped it off. I even cleaned the mirror. He hasn't said a word about it though. Oh well, I didn't do it for him to praise me, I did it because I love him. On to the next day....

Day 11: Love cherishes

Husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies.

—Ephesians 5:28

(Click the title for the challenge to go to it).

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Note: The HTML for this post got really garbled by bloggers' editor so sorry if you see this post come through your feed more than once. It's rather fitting though since I need to repeat this day of the challenge!

Love Dare Challenge - Day 10

2010-01-16T10:15:00.002-05:00

Day 10: Love is unconditional

God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

—Romans 5:8

I've got some ideas on what I'd like to do for this challenge so, check back tomorrow and see which one I pick!

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 9

2010-01-15T22:14:00.000-05:00

Well, I burned the list yesterday. And honestly, I really have to think about what was on it. There were only 2 or 3 things though. I'm hoping to work on a Valentine's Day gift that involves the "good" list.

So, we're to day 9 and I'm back to reading the book since this is beyond where I've made it previously.

Day 9: Love makes good impressions.

Greet one another with a kiss of love.

-1 Peter 5:14

I'm later blogging today so I can tell you that I've done this and greeted him with a hug. I'll be working on greeting him when he comes home from work more cheerfully and affectionately over the next week.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 8

2010-01-14T11:28:00.000-05:00

Day 8 - Love is not jealous
Love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire.

—Song of Solomon 8:6 NIV

As you saw yesterday, I made the lists, I actually had to go back and add one that I had thought of when I was originally thinking, but was away from the computer and that's that he's a great father. Last night I thanked him for helping with the kids.

Tonight, I will burn the list.

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 7

2010-01-13T09:55:00.001-05:00

Well, we did better getting to dance yesterday than previous weeks, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. And working on getting the girls ready earlier was only one of the things I need to work on, so that will be an ongoing goal.

Day 7 - Love believes the best

[Love] believes all things, hopes all things.

—1 Corinthians 13:7

Ok, I'm not going to publicly post the negative list but I will post the positive one. Here goes:

Christian
Caring
Patient
Tender
Slow to anger
Rarely raises his voice
Great eyes
Generous
Understanding
Musical
Reader
Likes to fix things
Loving
Smart
Funny
Forgiving
Father

I will say though that the negative list isn't as long.

Follow others that are doing the Love Dare by checking of Mama to 3 Blessings' post and Linky.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-01-12T07:26:00.000-05:00

Chicken, broccoli, brown rice, ranch, Mickey Mouse cheese and ketchup

This is my first Muffin Tin Monday post, but not my first Muffin Tin meal. I missed though that there was a theme this week. My kids love these meals, but I'm not sure why I don't do it more often. I guess I'm a little afraid of the novelty wearing off. If I'm going to do this regularly though I'm going to need to get some silicone pans so they're not using silverware in my good non-stick muffin pans. This night, I gave them plastic wear. Previously, when we'd done Muffin Tin meals, it was because we were on the go, our church was having Movie night each week and we had to be there early to set up, and my oldest was going through a Lunchable phase where that was all she wanted. Nevermind the fact that she doesn't actually eat Lunchables! So these were her "Lunchables".

For more Muffin Tin ideas check out Muffin Tin Monday.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 6

2010-01-12T07:05:00.000-05:00

I did it! I asked him and he came up with one thing, not three, but we'll start with the one. (In all honesty, I'm not sure it's really fair to put him on the spot like I did, it's definitely a question that you need to think about the answer to.) He said that when I get mad, I don't talk. It's true. Part of the challenge is excepting what your partner says and not rebuking it, so I'm going to leave it at that.

Today's challenge:

Day 6 - Love is not Irritable

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.

—Proverbs 16:32

Areas where I need to add margin:
1) I need to get more sleep. My level of patience with everyone around me is directly related to how tired I am.
2) Allow more time in our schedule for getting ready and getting places. I'm certain it is no accident that this challenge is today (Tuesday) since that's where our schedule is tightest. I'm always underestimating how long it will take the girls to get ready to go.
3) Spend more time one on one with each family member.
6) Spend more time each day with God.

Wrong motivations:
1) I need to be more grateful for the help he provides around the house and focus less on what he's not doing.
2) Don't worry so much about whether he notices that I'm trying the Love Dare again.
3) Stop thinking about myself so much and think more about those around me and what I can do for them.

I don't think this is something I can do in single day, but I'm going to start working on today. I did give myself more time to get to work and last night hubby and I spent a good bit of time just chatting. It'll be a good day if my 3 year old doesn't tell me that I'm mean because I had to raise my voice to get her moving so that my 6 year old could get to dance on time.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 5

2010-01-11T09:17:00.004-05:00

Between the weather, school cancellations, working with my hubby and everything else, I've spent almost all my time with him (even more than the usual 20 hours a day). So, I had to mix things up a bit.

I did buy him some Sprechers Root beer (for Day 3). It's only available at one store here that I know of and it's one of the high end grocery stores, so we don't get it real often, even though it's his favorite root beer. And I did call him (for Day 4) one of the few times we weren't together, he was getting ready to call his mom though so we didn't talk too much.

Day 5 - Love is not Rude

He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be reckoned a curse to him.—Proverbs 27:14

(click the link to see the challenge)

This is the day I've secretly been dreading. It's not easy putting yourself out there like this challenge is asking you to do. Also, my husband up to this point doesn't know I'm doing the challenge. But this will tip him off, I'm sure. I've started the challenge before, I think I mentioned that. The first time, I skipped day 5, the second time, I stopped at Day 5. For some reason in addition to not wanting to open myself up to criticism, I really would rather he not know that I'm doing the challenge. I guess maybe I'm afraid that then he'll be expecting something from it (and me) and I wont fullfill his expectations.

Pray for me!

Love Dare Challenge - Day 4

2010-01-08T08:21:00.003-05:00

Well, yesterday didn't work out that well, due to the snow I couldn't actually get out and buy anything, so I'm going to try to do that today as well as today's challenge of calling sometime during the day to see if there's anything he needs.

Day 4

How precious also are Your thoughts to me. . . .How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.—Psalm 139:17–18

I found that the love dares are posted on the Offical Love Dare Journal website, so you can go over there to check out what Day 4's dare is (I still recomend the book though).

If you're blogging about the love dare, check out Mama to 3 Blessing's site and Join her Linky.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 3

2010-01-07T09:46:00.002-05:00

They're calling for snow today in our area. So yesterday, I worked in the garage rearranging everything so that it would be done when he came home and he could put the plow and chains on the tractor easier. Then, I also helped him when he did it.

1/7/10 Day 3 (Love is not selfish)

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preferance to one another in honor.

Romans 12:10

Due to the snow today, school was cancelled and we car pooled to work. So, I'm not sure how I'll be able to complete today's challenge, but I'm going to try. I read somewhere that suggested taking the "Love Language" of your spouse into consideration when doing these things too, so for example if their love language isn't gifts (and gifts aren't important to them), then instead of buying a gift as a dare might say, maybe do something that's more targeted towards their language (Quality time, etc). That might be what we end up doing today.

(Note: Since I'm not sure of the legality of publishing all the dares fully, I'm going to stop, I've only thus far posted ones that were in the movie anyway. I will say though if you haven't bought the book there's much more to it than the dare itself. Each day has discussion leading up to the dare. And in truth, you could Google the dares for each day, but I'll play it safe).

Love Dare Challenge - Day 2

2010-01-06T06:28:00.005-05:00

Well, day 1 went pretty well, I think. There was one time where I did stop myself from commenting negatively on something he did, but I just let it go. Really I need to work on this a lot sometimes I let my temper get the better of me and not just with my husband, I especially need to work on it with the kids because I definitely was NOT patient with them yesterday!

Day 2's Dare: Love is Kind

Ephesians 4:32

Do at least one unexpected gesture as an act of kindness.

We're also to continue with Day 1's dare of not saying anything negative.

You can check out how others are doing with the Love Dare (and join in!) over at Momma to 3 Blessings.

Love Dare Challenge - Day 1

2010-01-05T10:19:00.005-05:00

I don't know how many of you have seen the movie Fireproof. If you haven't seen the movie, you should. I actually asked for it for Christmas, I didn't get it, so I'll probably buy it for my self. All of the films done by Sherwood Baptist Church are really good, I'm looking forward to their next movie Courageous.

Fireproof is about a couple (Caleb and Catherine) that has hit a rough spot in their marriage, neither partner is putting their "all" into their relationship and they've reached the point where they're considering a divorce. Caleb gets a package in the mail from his father which has a 40 day challenge in it. During the forty days, Caleb embarks on a journey to improve his marriage.

The 40 day love dare is available in book form you can get it at pretty much any book store, I bought mine at Walmart. It's called the Love Dare.

Over at Mama to 3 Blessings, Mama is doing the Love Dare and sharing it on her blog. I thought I'd join her. If you haven't done the love dare, or even if you're doing it again for a second time, join in. What a great way to start out the New Year!

Day 1 (Patience)

Be completely humble & gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Eph. 4:2

The Love Dare is to demonstrate patience & to say nothing negative to your spouse at all.

Check back tomorrow to see how I did and to see what tomorrow's challenge is!

Crafty Christmas Decor

2009-12-03T08:16:00.007-05:00

Where did November go? If anyone's seen it, please let me know, I blinked and missed it! So, over at Blue Eyed Blessings, Heidi is doing the December craft challenge, and the theme is Christmas decor.

Since I missed November and I'm now trying to get everything ready for Christmas, I didn't have time to make anything new, but do have a number of older crafts to show you.

Gingerbread Boy Garland
This first one, I need to appologize for the quality of the picture, due to the lighting, I had some issues getting a good picture. It's a garland I made to hang on the wall.

To make it, I cut 6 Gingerbread boy shapes out of a brown paper bag, sewed 3 sets of two of them together with white thread and a little stuffing inside. Then, I used a black marker to draw on faces and buttons. Then, I took some brown paper twist (raffia would work too) and cut it into narrow strips. I tied the gingerbread boys on in the middle (I ran some thread through their backs) and added a bow at each end.

Nativity Scene

This next craft is a nativity scene. This particular one was made by my Mom, but I've made them too.

To make this, you need:

three small clay pots (one is a little smaller than the other two)
paint
scraps of fabric
yarn scraps
two large wooden balls (these particular ones have a flat side, which makes it easier to fasten to the pot but a regular one works if you're using hot glue)
one smaller wooden ball
glue (hot glue is easiest)
straw
a pipe cleaner

Paint the pots the colors you'd like them, paint the wooden balls a flesh color and then add a face (either with paint or markers). Glue the two big balls to the bottoms of the larger flower pots, add a little yarn for hair, and then the scraps of fabric for the head coverings (I think these were squares folded in half diagonally). Joseph's has a little scrap of yarn in a circle as the band to hold his head covering on. Mom glued the sides of the head covering to the pots to help them stay in place. Take the pipe cleaner and bend it for the shepard's hook and glue it to the side of the pot. Then, for Jesus, put some hay in the smaller pot, filling it to the top. Then, glue the little wooden bead to the hay. If you want, you can add a little circle of yarn or pipe cleaner for a halo.

Lighted Snowman Jar
This is a lighted jar that I made a few years ago.

For it, I used:
1 glass jar (quart size, I used an old mayo jar) white, black and orange paint ( I can't remember but I think I used paint that's designed to go on glass like Perm Enamel)
Two large black buttons
An old sock with a cuff
Small amt of thread
glue
a light bulb on a cord (like you would use for a Christmas village house) - I think I got mine at the dollar store or Walmart, with the holiday houses.

Paint the jar white and paint the nose and mouth of hte snow man. Glue the buttons on or eyes. Then, take the sock, cut off the end (you might need to experiment with this a bit, I think I used from the heel up) and use the thread to tie or sew it shut about 3 inches from where you cut. Then take scissors and cut the three inches into fringe. Put the light in the jar, leaving the cord hanging out and then put the sock "hat" over the openning of the jar. I had to use some tape initially to get the sock to stay on and the light to stay in, but now that it's been that way a few years it's not needed anymore.

Santa Candle Cup

This next one is an idea I saw somewhere on the internet a long time ago.

For it you need:

1 wooden candle cup
a red candle (this works best if the candle fits snugly in the cup)
paint
a cotton ball
glue

Paint a Santa face on the candle cup, the back is all white. unwind the cotton ball, trim it and glue around the top edge of the candle cup. Put the candle in. I wouldn't recommend actually burning the candle (especially mine since the candle doesn't fit tight, so it's prone to tipping over), but they're pretty cute to look at.

For more great craft ideas, go check out Heidi's site!

WFMW - Cleaning coffee Stains

2009-10-06T08:22:00.005-04:00

Over at We Are THAT Family, there's a themed Works for Me Wednesday this week. We're to share a cleaning tip. The one I'm going to share is one my mom taught me when I was really little (she gave me the task of going through all the mugs and cleaning the coffee and tea stains out of them, probably to keep me occupied), so I thought it was something that everyone knew. After looking around last week on the web, trying to figure out how to get the sour milk smell out of my daughter's lunch box thermos, I discovered that a lot of people were asking about getting the coffee stains out of their thermoses.

My suggestion: Baking Soda!

Make a paste of baking soda and water and rub the coffee stains with it, they'll disappear almost immediately and then rinse. It works on mugs, sinks, coffee pots, etc. The nice thing is that baking soda is safe to ingest if you happen to not get it rinsed completely.

For more great cleaning tips, check out the WFMW post over at We Are THAT family!

Craft Challenge

2009-10-06T07:00:00.009-04:00

Over at Blue Eyed Blessings, Heidi does a monthly craft challenge. This is my first entry in the challenge. Unfortunately, I was a little late reading her post about it, so I didn't have much time to do something.

This first one is one I did yesterday. I took some of my washable paints, mixed them with a little dish soap and then painted on the sliding patio door. I don't remember where I saw it, but the soap is to make it easier to come off when we're done.

This one I did a few years ago, I took a regular clay flower pot and painted it with acrylic paints and then sealed it with a clear spray paint. I think I used a Sharpie for the face. I usually use it as a candy dish on my desk, this year I sat a yogurt cup in it and put cut flowers in it. I've done a pumpkin like this too, only I used the saucer that goes under the pot as the top of the pumpkin and I painted a jack-o-lantern face on it. I haven't gotten it out yet this year.

That's it for now! I'm hoping to do more crafts for Halloween, but haven't gotten to it yet. I'm also hoping to do more Monthly Craft Challenges when Heidi posts them.

WFMW - Making closets easier for kids

2009-09-23T07:02:00.003-04:00

Today for WFMW, I'm going to share a tip I've used with both of my kids. I've got two girls who love to wear dresses and like to pick out their own clothes (no, they don't always match, but I'm hoping that will come in time, I just don't feel it's worth the daily battle of trying to make them wear something that they don't want to).

The thing is, their dresses are in the closet and way above their head and out of reach so I ended up having to get them down for them. One day while I was at Kmart, I discovered the Closet Doubler. It hangs below the main rod, so the kids can reach it. Now I can put the girls really nice dresses (that I don't want them wearing to school) and out of season dresses on the top rod and leave the ones they can wear everyday on the bottom where they can reach them. As a bonus, they can also put them away on their own now too!

The Closet Doubler is working for us! For more tips, head over to We are THAT Family.

Book Give away

2009-09-14T12:10:00.002-04:00

I've rediscovered my love of reading lately. Reading a couple books a week, ranging from Mysteries to Romances.

Over at Not Entirely British, they're giving away two books by Sherry Ann Miller. I've not read any of Miller's books, but this would be a great way to check out a new author!

Good Luck if you enter!

WFMW - Tomato Mozarella Salad

2009-07-01T11:23:00.003-04:00

Today over at We Are that Family they're having another themed edition of Works for Me Wednesday. It's a summer recipe edition! I can't wait to see all the yummy recipes!

Mine's a quick one, but one that my whole family enjoys, even the kids (if you get them in the right mood!)

Tomato Mozarella Salad
(the amounts here aren't real important)
10 oz grape tomatoes
4 oz mozarella cheese in small cubes
1/8 cup Italian dressing
1 clove minced garlic (optional)

Cut the tomatoes in halves, combine with the cheese, garlic and dressing. This is better if it's refrigerated a little bit before serving, but I usually end up putting it right on the table.

I've also used string cheese cut up (which is often mozarella anyway).

For more great recipes head over to Works for Me Wednesday!

P.S. My post for WFMW wasn't in Mr Linky when I went back to look this weekend. I don't know if it was deleted or if it didn't work right since I did it from my phone, so check out my Laundry tips.

I'm still looking for 2 people to do my Craft it Forward.

WFMW - Laundry tips

2009-06-19T20:40:00.006-04:00

Today for WFMW, I've got some laundry tips to share:

Lingerie bags - they're great for keeping little socks together. At some point in our various moves, we got away from using them. Now I've got a clothes basket full of socks in my room that are missing mates. Every so often, I go through them and mate them, So we really need to get back to using them for socks. But, the original reason I bought them was for my clothes that I didn't want to go through the dryer. I put my hand knits, bras, etc in them and told hubby that when he saw that bag it was stuff that didn't get put in the dryer. It made it much easier for both of us. I've seen different colored bags so you could use one for socks and one for the line dry clothes. Or you could tie a ribbon to one to tell them apart.

Laundry markers - I hate pairing socks. Not so much the colored ones, but the white ones that all look the same. I use to put a little colored thread on the toe, a different color for each pair. But then hubby came up with the idea of numbering them with a laundry marker (Sharpie makes a good one). He numberd them on the bottom for a while, but has switched to doing it on the inside of the cuff where it's less likely to wear off. They're so much easier to pair now!

Odo Ban - I've got a bed wetter and her sheets always smelled until I started putting odo ban in the wash too.

Shout - This is my all time favorite stain remover. It rarely let's me down. The few times it has are either with permanent marker or something that missed getting treated the first wash. I keep a bottle in each bedroom and one in the laundry room. I buy it by the gallon at Sam's club.

I hope some of these tips help. For more tips check out WFMW by clicking the banner above.

Check out my craft it forward post. I'm still looking for a few people.

Going Dot.COM

2009-06-19T11:22:00.003-04:00

I'm a little behind in my blog reading. But Tip Junkie is one of my favorites. She's been doing this for 2 years now and has moved to a .com address. To celebrate, she's having a party, go check it out!

WFMW - Weekend Breakfasts during the Work Week

2009-06-17T08:30:00.005-04:00

It's Wednesday once again and over at We are THAT Family, you'll find Works for me Wednesday.

Around our house, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, if for no other reason than the kids eat it consistantly (every day, and all of it). But I don't like to buy a lot of the sugar loaded cereals AND I work full time, so mornings are a little hectic around our house. I do buy cereal, but I try to stick to ones that are lower in sugar (Cheerios, Rice Crispies, Chex, etc), occasionally I'll buy something a little more exciting like Cinnamon Toast crunch, but it almost always goes stale before the box is finished (which doesn't bother the kids, but it tells me that they don't like the sugar coated cereals much either). So, they get tired of the same old cereals and like something different. Here are a few things I offer them:

Muffins - These can be baked on the weekend and either kept in the freezer or in the refrigerator so they can have one during the week without the hassle of baking.

Oatmeal - I've stopped buying the "Instant" Oatmeal packets. We were only getting the regular flavor anyway (they didn't like the flavored ones). And they were often eating more than one pack a morning anyway. So I've been buying a big container of Quick Oats and just making them the same way I did the "Instant" ones. I like a little more flavor to mine, so I often add something to it (chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, raisins, etc).

Waffles - When I make a batch of waffles, usually there's way more than we can eat in one morning. So, I use whatever recipe I want to use (or a mix) and then make them all. The ones we don't eat, I lay flat in a Ziploc bag with wax paper between layers and pop in the freezer . As long as they're flat, they can then be put in the toaster to heat up. (This is a lot cheaper than Eggos and you can control what goes into them if you make them from scratch!)

Pancakes - Same as for waffles, except I usually make them a little on the small side and microwave them instead of toasting them.

Eggs - I take two eggs, scramble them (sometimes with a little milk or water), microwave them in a bowl for 30 seconds, stir then put them in for another 30 seconds. You can add cheese too for the last 30 seconds.

Hopefully you'll get some ideas from this. Next I want to try to find an alternative to frozen "French Toast Sticks" which really aren't much like french toast, but my kids love them. I want to try to find a way to make them myself.

For more ideas and tips head over to We Are that Family (click the image above).
If you like to do crafts, check out my Craft it Forward, there are still a few spots available.

More summer activities

2009-06-04T18:53:00.002-04:00

I found the list of summer activities that I'd saved over at an unpink life. There are a lot of great ideas there!

Today's the last day of school around here. Since I work full time the girls are in day care and I don't get the "I'm bored" nearly as often. But I kept this list on my phone so I've got it handy when I do get it. Part of me wishes that I did get the question more often, because that would likely indicate that the girls were spending more time at home.

Just a reminder, there are still opennings for my Craft it Forward.

T-shirt to Hobo Bag

2009-06-04T09:01:00.008-04:00

I got several t-shirts from work that I do not want to wear (I don't like what they say on them). But, there's too much fabric in them go unused. So I took one and part of another following the instructions here, I made a hobo bag to carry stuff to and from work in.

Craft it Forward

2009-06-03T08:55:00.007-04:00

Over at Caldwell Cuties, Kim did a craft it forward and I'm a lucky recipient!

Check out these cute notecards and notebook she sent me:

And she made me a little purse to keep them in!

I'm envious of people who can create cards like these! I can knit, I can crochet, sew, etc and given a design/layout, I can copy that, but I cannot come up with ideas like this on my own! (Hence why my blog is so plain!). I just don't have the "eye" for it. Kim also sent me some dark chocolate Peanut M&Ms. They're gone, so I can't take a picture, but trust me, they were YUMMY!

Thanks Kim for the great package! And as promised, I'm crafting it forward!

Here are the rules:
1) Be one of the first THREE bloggers to comment on this post.
2) You then agree to share your snail mail address with ME (leave me your e-mail in the comment and I'll contact you) so I can send you a small gift handmade by ME!
3) When you receive your gift, you then blog about this game & link back to my blog in that post. (dont' do it before!)
4) And most importantly, you ALSO AGREE to "craft it forward" (or just pay it forward if you'd rather) and send a small gift to the 3 people who comment on your blog post...

Remember do not post about this until you receive something from me in the mail.

Summer Bordom Busters

2009-06-03T08:15:00.007-04:00

Over at We Are that Family, they're having another themed edition of Works for Me Wednesday. This time they're looking for answers to "Mom, I'm Bored". I've come up with a list of 10 (you could do one every week day for two weeks and then repeat!) but, I know in my files I've got a list of other ones somewhere. Check back later in the week, hopefully I'll get it posted.

1) Visit the library - Our library has a summer reading program where the kids (and adults too!) can win prizes. They also have story time where the kids hear stories, sing songs and do a craft. There are multiple libraries in our area too, so we could hit more than one if we wanted to.

2) Go to the Zoo - We've got a zoo pass, it's paid for itself in two trips to the zoo. The nice thing is, I don't feel bad, if we only go for an hour, or if we go and it suddenly starts to pour. Most of the passes offer reciprocation at other zoos too, so we can get into other zoos in the country for half price or free (which makes vacations cheaper!) There are children's museums and aquariums with passes too.

3) Movies - A lot of Movie theaters have a discount kids day (sometimes with special movies) during the week. Check the theaters in your area.

4) Go Bowling! - Check out if your kids can bowl free in your area!

5) Do a craft - My kids have art boxes with all kinds of different supplies in it that they can use pretty much whenever they want. This morning, my daughter made a book bag out of paper, while she was waiting for everyone else to get ready. Crafts don't need to be structured, just give them the supplies and see what they come up with!

6) Make Playdough - Here's my favorite recipe.

7) Make a snack - My kids love helping in the kitchen. Last night, my picky eater ate an entire enchilada because she helped make it. Even if it's not time for a snack, maybe they can do something to help prepare for dinner: make bread, make jello, snap green beans, etc.

8) Make crayons - Take old, broken crayons and give them new life by taking the wrappers off and melting them in a muffin pan (in the oven, or try it outside!).

9) Plant a garden - I'm giving a small section of my flower bed to my daughter to plant in. She's already got some daisies that we're going to transplant to there and a few other seeds. I was hoping to give her some tomato plants too, but I don't think I'll have extras now.

10) Play with water - When my youngest was one, she had a blast when I gave her a bowl of water and an old yogurt cup to play with outside on the patio. Older kids can play does it sink or float with various objects. They can also learn about volume by guessing which containers hold more water. You could always try making paper boats too!

For more Summer activities check out Works for Me Wednesday over at We Are THAT Family.

(For the record, I know I misspelled boredom in the title, but if I change it now, it'll break the Mr Linky, and I HATE broken links)