Summer Painting Project

We decided to paint outside the other day and the rules were that we could only use things we found in nature to use as our paint brushes :0) Sticks, leaves, weeds, grass….you get the idea!!!

I thought he would love this, and I think he did for the entire ten minutes that it held his attention until a grasshopper came by and he HAD to chase after it lol.  That didn’t stop me from having fun ha ha.

Zip lock baggie Ice cream

It is finally getting warm enough around here to make a cold treat. So I decided to make my son work for it lol. Have you ever done this? I was shocked at how well it turned out.

You will need a large zip lock and a smaller one. First in the small one mix:      

1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)

1 Tbs sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

Seal the small bag well…..Now fill the large zip lock 3/4 of the way with ice and 6 Tbs of rock salt then place the smaller zip lock on top of the ice. Next seal the large bag and get your kid to start shaking the bag.

 

 

After about 15 minutes we had this and guess what it actually tasted really good! I am sure you could add all sorts of flavoring and toppings but this time around we kept it simple :)

 

 

I Linked up here!

Inside BruCrew Life

Extra Sugary Sugar Cookies

I saw this amazing idea for adding color to regular sugar at Homemade Mamas and I couldn’t wait for an excuse to mix some up.

You use regular sugar and put it in a zip lock then add a few drops of food coloring…..

Next shake it and squish it around to disperse the color…….

After the color is mixed well dump the sugar out on parchment paper to dry out….. (Did you know you could do this? I love it)

But the fun can’t end here right?! Now you have to make sugar cookies and use the sugar to decorate them.

Do you have big plans for the 4th? Well tomorrow is my birthday so I have a good excuse to eat a bunch of these cookies and be lazy lol. And then Sunday we plan to have a BBQ with our own little fire works display. Have a fun and safe weekend!

Magnetic Picture Board

I know I am so late posting this but hey better late than never right (wink wink). My friend Janna had this amazing idea for fathers day and because she asked my opinion on her project I decided to copy her and we did it together (yes I am saying I basically stole her idea lol). She went to a local metal shop and had some large pieces of sheet metal cut out. She measured hers but I had more of a “wing it” approach and am really glad that it still fit on the wall ha ha. We spray painted them black and had a little help drilling some holes in them. I had to have my hubby help hang his but Janna was brave enough to get crazy with her hammer (she is my inspiration :)

I had a bunch of pictures developed of my son doing all sorts of fun things with his daddy and a few of the fun things we have done together over the past few months. Then I stole Janna’s other great idea  to hot glue magnets to some pretty glass rocks to make it more decorative.

I know this is not the best picture on earth but you get the idea. What do you think? What did the dad in your life get for fathers day?

Summer Bubbles

Hey friends! Well it stopped raining just long enough to have a little summer fun. I found this amazing idea for bubbles at How does she..... It is one of my favorite sites filled with crafts, activities, recipes and all sorts of useful tidbits. 

All you have to do is cut off the bottom of a plastic bottle and cover that large hole with a cloth or an old sock. Make sure it’s tight to the bottle, we used a rubber band to hold it up. Then you dip it in dish soap (I added a little water to make it last longer) and blow some killer bubbles.

My son did this forever and had a blast, and yep we had a bunch of extra neighbor kids in the yard wanting to check it out lol.  Do your kids love bubbles? Do you have a favorite brand or way to blow them?

Have you met Bree Tanner?

Okay so I am sure you already know this (especially if you are a Twilight fan), the new Stephenie Meyer book came out over the weekend. It is a short novella about Bree Tanner, one of the newborns from Eclipse.

 

I loved it. I got sucked into the world of Stephenie Meyer all over again :) I thought it was way too short (hello novella) and I was sad because obviously I knew how it would end, but nevertheless it was fantastic.  Have you read it? Do you plan to?

I will leave you now with a pic from our little detour to Forks last year (and I know the hair was not a good color for me but we all make mistakes ha ha).

VELVEETA Cheesy Pasta Casserole

I have a new favorite recipe!! We had it last night and loved it. I actually saw a commercial for it and jumped online to find the recipe then ran to the store to get the ingredients. What can I say I love food and RO*TEL tomatoes ha ha!

1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

4 cups  cooked rotini pasta

1 pkg. (1 lb.) frozen Italian-style vegetable blend, thawed, drained (I used the Birds Eye brand it worked great)

1 can  (10 oz.) RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies, undrained

3/4 lb. (12 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

 

HEAT oven to 400ºF.

COMBINE ingredients in 13x9-inch baking dish; cover.

BAKE 40 min. Let stand 5 min.; stir until sauce is well blended.

 

Time saver: If you have leftover chicken? Prepare recipe as directed, using 5 cups chopped cooked chicken and reducing the baking time to 20 to 25 min. or until VELVEETA is melted and casserole is heated through.

Quirky Pickings and Randomness

My bloggy friend Jenn (AKA Criticalcrass) over at Quirky Pickings did a little spotlight on me and let me ask her a few random questions then she said it was my turn to answer my own questions lol.

First a little about Jenn…..her blog is a fun place that always makes me giggle. She likes Coke and Never Pepsi, and Pringles but not Hostess products. She also shares my love for books and is a fellow fan of Nora Roberts. We also have the same embarrassing fact from our past in common. Yes we both played the clarinet in grade school ha ha. How did we get roped into that?!!

Here are my answers to the questions I asked her. You should go check out what her answers were to the same questions!

1. If you had a giant yacht what would you name it? (I stole this answer from the hottie hubbie)  401k

2. Is it ok to wear socks with sandals or to bed? Never ever on both counts ewwww

3. If the president was calling you with an emergency what would he need your help with? He must have heard I have mad scrapbooking skills :)

4. If you had a super power what would you want it to be? I think I would like to be able to fly (wouldn’t errands be so much more fun?)

5. What can you hear right now? HLN news concerning the oil spill DISASTER (so sad)

6. Would you rather be way too hot or way too cold? I would rather be too hot next to a cool pool, with a cold drink, and a good book

7. What would your dream vacation be? That’s easy….FIJI

8. If you had an extra $100 to be selfish with what would you get? I seriously need  a new curling iron but I want a good one and I am way to cheap to buy one lol.

9. Would you ever sky dive? Nope I am a chicken, although I am considering paragliding

10. What is your all time favorite book? I am a huge Twilight fan (the book not the movie) and I loved the book The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Ok there you have it!!  Now I put it to all of you: What is your dream vacation?

Oh and on a side note I apologize for having to turn on word verification for comments but the spam comments have gotten out of control. Have a great day!!

Life is good AWARD!!

My friend Lisa over at Smell the Coffee Lisa has brought sunshine into my day by giving me this cute award!

(I think the bowls I made out of cooking CD's put me over the edge lol)

What do you do when you're bored?
Blog surf or read

Are you an Autumn or a Spring?
Spring!!

Quick! You're stuck at an airport for hours, and the only options are crossword puzzles, or an old novel no body's ever heard of. Which do you pick? As much as i love to read I would probably pick the puzzle ha ha

Jane Austen or Emily Bronte?
Jane Austen

Do you feel prepared for the five other questions coming your way?
Bring it on ;)

Who’s your hero?
I have a few but my husband ranks pretty high. I have never met anyone as hardworking and loyal as he is.

Favorite word?
Because I have a five year old boy I say “dude”, “sweet”, and “awesome” way more than a normal person should. But I love the words serendipity and surreal.

Are you one of those “checklist” people, or are you a “wing it and hope everything goes well” sort of person?
I have lists everywhere and I am learning to actually use them

What phrase has stuck with you in your life?
”Don’t worry about the people in your past, there is a reason they didn’t make it into your future” This one makes me happy and sad but reminds me that there is a reason for everything even if I don’t like it or understand it and it reminds me to be grateful for the loving supportive people in my life.

If you were to choose between coffee and tea . . . which would you go with?
How about option “C” diet Dr. Pepper

Who do I think deserves this award?

Together We Save (because she helps me find the best deals ever)

Quirky Pickings (because she makes me laugh)

My Minds Eye (because she inspires me)

Ma What's for Dinner (because she helps me feed my family)

The Idea Room (because she helps me decorate)

Guest Bogging and Melted Bowls

Today I am guest blogging over at Everyday Mom Ideas!!

I had a blast getting this project ready so come on over and see how I made these bowls out of regular CD’s and one out of fabric!!!

Pretty Purple Tissue Flower

I have seen these amazing tissue paper balls and flowers all over the web and I couldn’t wait to make some myself. I thought Mothers Day was the perfect reason to use my new creation.

I used this fantastic tutorial from All Things Thrifty…..if you haven’t visited this blog before you are in for a treat they are amazing ladies.

So what do you think about the flowers cheezy or cute?     ***Oh and heads up to all my girlfriends and friends with little girls you will most likely see these on the next gift I give cheezy or not ha ha ha!

A Touch of Spring

Well since spring just won’t come to my part of the country yet I decided to bring a little bit of sunshine to the offices I delivered to this month. Most of you know by now that I am in marketing and get to do this sort of thing every month (best job ever).

I wanted to get the flowers from our local farmers market but like I said spring is being slow here, so I got an assortment of flowers from Costco…….

I decided to use a mason jar as my vase and my goal was to have them be simple and classic. I was really happy with the outcome. I am thinking that I should put a disclaimer here and say I am certainly not a florist but I had fun pretending for the day lol.

   Have you ever delivered flowers to people before? If you haven’t I totally recommend doing this, especially on a day that you might be a little down. It is an uplifting experience. I would love to do this again and go to a hospital or nursing home and just pick some random recipients. 

Fabric Flower Bandwagon

It’s official, I decided to jump on the rosette bandwagon! I have seen these amazing fabric flowers on everything from headbands, rings, and purses, to picture frames, t-shirts, and necklaces. Then my sister tells me that she is opening up an Etsy shop to sell her version of these amazing flowers (trust me hers are way cuter and sturdier than mine) so I will let you know as soon as she is up and running.

After absorbing all of this wonderful inspiration this is how mine turned out!!

 

I cut some fabric into strips and twisted the strips around a barbeque skewer to make my flowers. Then I hand stitched some of the pieces of the flower together so that they wouldn’t fall apart. Lastly I used some hot glue to attach felt to the backs.

I couldn’t decide what to do with my pretty little flowers and then I remembered I had a stash of old magnets that I could cut up and glue to the backs….

I love how they turned out!!

What is the best use that you have seen for these flowers?

The best homemade play dough and an apology

I have to start with an apology to anyone who has left me a comment and waited for a response. The entire time that I am been blogging I thought that when a comment was posted and the notification was sent to my email that I could simply hit reply and shoot a comment back to you….guess what? It doesn’t work that way :)

When a comment comes to my email it is just a notification and has a “noreply-comment” address (most of the time). I am so embarrassed that I didn’t know this sooner. So I guess what I am saying is that I always try to reply or visit the blog of every comment I get and I thought I was doing so good. If you have a question or comment that I have never got back to you about please please resend it and I promise to reply properly :) (I know I am such a dork)

Now moving on to the best play dough we have ever made……We took out our play dough the other day and it looked like this

It was hard and crunchy and yep all mixed together. So I searched some of my favorite bloggers and found This Amazing Recipe from The Idea Room.

We mixed it up and it is not only the softest best homemade play dough ever but it smells soooo good. Ours was cherry flavored yummmy!!

  Now go get the recipe and make it because you will not be sorry!

Last but not least I am wondering How do you reply to comments on your blog?

Why didn’t you tell me?

Do you ever have those moments where you are in shock with information that you just got and you literally have to say, why didn’t you tell me about that? Well I had a moment like that over the weekend. I said to my BFF how much i hated my dirty, sticky, laundry soap cap….

 

and she said, “ I just throw it in the wash with my clothes and it comes out clean”. I sat there and thought Duh that is so simple.

So I thought I would share some of my favorite little tricks and see if anyone else wants to share what they know so we can all learn something and have less “why didn’t you tell me?” moments!!

I clean my lint trap with the used dryer sheet that just got ran through the last cycle.

I am obsessed with disinfectant wipes especially in the bathroom and kitchen.

The magic eraser changed my life when it comes to cleaning bathrooms, especially the shower/tub floors.

This one might be completely in my head but I read that a large part of what dulls a razor (other than regular use) is the water that sits on it after it is used, especially if you have hard water like me. So while I dry off after a shower i take my towel and dry off the edges of the razor as well. Like I said this could be all in my head but I swear my razor lasts longer.

To help a blemish heal faster I put a little dab of Neosporin on it. I have no idea if this is even a good idea and I am certainly not a skin expert but I always think if it is supposed to help cuts heal faster and healthier doesn’t this just make sense lol.

 

I blog using Live Writer and if you have never tried it I couldn’t recommend it more!!

What tips/tricks do you have?

**I was not paid, prompted or asked by any of these companies to blog about these tips!    

Card Swap Party

I am so lucky to have the friends that I have!!!

In honor of one of my best friends in the world visiting me we gathered up some of my other most amazing friends ever and had a craft party/card swap.

We had five of us crafting. We each picked a category and made 25 cards. Then we divided them up so we each left with five of every different design (was that a confusing enough explanation LoL).

It was a great night filled with food, giggles, and crafts. Here is the result of the fun….

Made by the talented Janna

 

 

Made by the talented Natalie

 

Made by the talented Molly

 

Made by the talented Brandi

 

Made by ME!!!

What kind of craft parties do you have?

***I should add that I have other amazing crafty and non-crafty friends that I would have loved to invite all they have to do is let me know they are interested! As for my bloggy friends that can’t make it to my hometown well that is why I post the pics so you can be a part of it lol.

Robin Egg Cookies (yep still using them up :)

First I have to say thank you to all of my loyal readers and followers….I can’t believe anyone would be interested in what I have to say but here you are and I am flattered. I plan to do a giveaway soon in honor of my latest follower goal being reached so come back and see what I come up with {wink}.

I am excited that I finally finished my new cookbook, so I thought it would be a perfect time to share a recipe.

Remember how I have been trying to get rid of use up these?……

As yummy as the Whopper Shakes were, it was time to move on.

I found a new blog that I love called Cast Sugar and she had a recipe for Whopper Cookies, and I put my Robin Eggs to good use yet again.

 

These were chewy and delicious with that to die for malted milk “whopper” flavor baked right in!

Whopper Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 c. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. butter, room temperature

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 c. roughly chopped Whoppers/malted milk balls

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in milk and vanilla, then gradually blend in the flour mixture. Do not overmix; stir only until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chopped Whoppers/malted milk balls.

Drop into 1-inch balls (Tbsp.-sized balls) on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes, until lighty browned.Cool on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Do you have a favorite cookie recipe?

Attempt One Failed, Do I get to keep the Awards?

Well after all of THAT can you believe it failed miserably? i plan to find another recipe and try again so stay tuned :)

View Full Album

Do you see that not even one sugar crystal ha ha!

But now I am worried that I may no longer deserve these amazing awards?!? lol

It must be blog award season because look what I have been honored with. I am feeling lightheaded with excitement over these three awards from three amazing blogger……

Should be Cleaning                        

(I pass this one on to Bobbi, Disney, Allison, Kimberly, and Jill)

The Practical Mom guide

(I pass this one on to Ammie, Molly, Aubri, Lisa, and Leslie)

Both of these awards ask for………

Ten things that make me happy:

1. The sound of my hubby and son laughing together

2. Going on adventures with my family (camping, hiking, etc……)

3. Reading

4. Crafting

5. Loyal friends

6. Good food

7. Cookie dough

8. Tight hugs and snuggles from either of my boys :)

9. Family movie night

10. Lazy mornings

 

Ma What's 4 Dinner 

(I pass this one on to Stacie, Stephanie, Jandy, Amber, and Krystle)

This award asks for…………..

Ten honest facts about me:

1. I am so not a morning person

2. I hate falling asleep/napping during the day, I wake up feeling so groggy

3. I only wash my hair every other day  (is that gross?)

4. I loooove a good bargain

5. I am obsessed with the show Gilmore Girls and watch back episodes everyday while I work :)

6. I really hate cleaning our bathrooms (don’t worry I still do it)

7. I am the middle child of three girls and the hubby is the middle child of three boys (meant to be huh? wink wink)

8. I am a big fan of Twilight but I am part of team Edward when I am reading the book and team Jacob if I am watching one of the movies ha ha

9. I love to sing but not in front of people

10. I love video games especially anything Mario related and of course guitar hero (now you know)

What is something honest about you?