lots of hats

Our dinner conversations are almost always entertaining, and most times hilarious...I guess that is what you get when your eating with a 4 and 5 year old.

Tonight's conversation went something like this...

4 yr. old - "Mommy, this is really good...you should be a chef!"

husband - "she is a chef"

me - "yep...I'm a chef, and a nurse, and a teacher, a housekeeper, and more, I have LOTS OF HATS because I am a Mommy"

4 yr. old - "do you have a hat with a flower on it???"

an accidental break

I didn't intentionally take the ENTIRE summer off from blogging...it just happened. I can't really tell you why I didn't blog except that I was just enjoying my summer with my family and I never felt like sitting down and taking the time to do it.

So here I am AGAIN...ready with several things marked off my to do list that I can tell you about, along with my usual kid crafts, funny stories, and recipes (now they will be calorie cutting recipes, I have changed my eating habits).

better than a thrift store...

What's better than shopping at a thrift store? "Shopping" at your grandma's house! In the last view months I have scored canvas' that I used for homemade artwork, frames that I will use soon for a jewelry hanger (I'll blog when if I ever get it done), tons of peanut butter (she keeps us stocked with Reese's), and this week...my favorite find...a turquoise necklace that belonged to my great-grandma.

(this is Great-Grandma Pearl)

My great-grandma was a FASHIONISTA! She was so much fun and so was her jewelry. She had all kinds of big, crazy, costume jewelry, when we were little we thought it was all for dress-up. When she passed away I was in high school, my grandma got all her jewelry and tried to pass it on to all of her granddaughters. While I thought it was fun as a kid, as a high schooler (who didn't have a ton of fashion sense) I didn't have any use for it. Little did I know 15 years later there would be an explosion in the popularity of "chunky jewelry" and that I would have to host parties just to get free pieces that looked just like what my grandma tried to give me. My cousin (who is 2 years younger than me and has a personality just like my super fun great-grandma) on the other hand thought she might have a use for all those fancy baubles one day, so she grabbed up pretty much all of it. It's not a total lose for me, she lets me borrow it sometimes :).

(this is me and my cousin(in red), she is wearing one of Great-Grandma's necklaces)

This week, I lucked out though, I happened to stop my my grandma's house after she had found a piece of great-grandma's jewelry that my grandpa had held on to. He probably kept it because it was turquiose...he loved turquoise. So when my grandma told me she found a necklace of great-grandma's and did I want it, I jumped ALL over it.

I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some silver polish to clean it up.

So for $3 I got this beautiful, unique necklace that I will wear very proudly and often!

Father's Day Idea - 2

This is what we did for Father's Day this year

for the grandpas - personalized popcorn bowls with "homemade" caramel and kettle corn.

What I did:

I bought bowls at Walmart and wrote on them with paint markers, then I made a BIG batches of caramel and kettle corn (I started with microwave popcorn which is why I put homemade in quotes earlier), I separated them into gallon size ziplock bags, took a picture of the girls with aprons and kitchen utensils and made personalized tags with them to hang on the popcorn bags.

I think they turned out cute, it was and easy project, the girls loved to help made the popcorn, and hopefully the Grandpas will love their special snacks

for their daddy - personalized snack bowl

What I did:

This is pretty much the same project except lately my husband has been downsizing his calories, so his snacks are pretty much limited to 100 calorie packs and special k bars. On his bowl, I wrote "Daddy's Snacks" and filled the bowl with yummies, a card, and artwork for the girls.

Father's Day Idea - 1

Where my Mother's Day crafts almost always have to do with flowers, my Father's Day Crafts almost always have to do with food.

I love to make crafts with Mason Jars because I always have them on hand. Last year we made candy/cookie jars with them and filled them with each grandpas favorite treats (no bake cookies, fudge, jordan almonds). I let the girls write the Grandpa's name on the top of the lid, embellished them with ribbon and a picture of the girls (they were in princess outfits and the card said happy father's day, love your Princess').

I thought they turned out cute and the Grandpa's loved their yummy treats.

Tomorrow I will post this years gift - personalized snack and popcorn bowls.

Grad Gift Idea

My sister graduated from High School last week so I googled grad gift ideas. I found that a lot of sites were recommending banks, since I used to personalize kids banks I didn't think of doing a "grown up" version. I was excited because I already had all the supplies. Once I settled on doing a piggy bank many different ideas came and went.

Here is what I came up with...

Of course, to make this gift more appealing to an 18 year old, I put cash in it!

Celebrating a Little Progress

Sorry for the little break, but we have been busy, busy, BUSY...softball, dance recitals, pre-school graduations, etc...

I am, however, making a little bit of progress on my MASSIVE to-do list here at my house. When you have such a huge list you have to celebrate even the small strides.

Here is one of those projects...painting the frame of my big print and starting to fill the shelves in the living room. I think even though it was small and easy it made a BIG difference. I only used things and supplies for this project that I already had, starting to accessorize a room is always fun and feels good...but doing it for FREE makes it even better!

BEFORE

check out the original demo pic here

AFTER