I had some extra craft sticks, a.k.a. Popsicle sticks, left over from another craft so I thought I'd put them to some good use. So I grabbed a bottle of Mod Podge (but school glue would work too) and a photo. Here is what you will need: craft sticks a photo (or a colored picture) mod podge (school glue) scissors Carefully attach the photo of your choosing to the craft sticks (line them up all nice and neat). Glob on a good layer of glue or mod podge and let it dry over night. After they are completely dry you can use a scissors or a blade to cut them apart. Then let your child see if they can put the puzzle back together again. My 5 year old son loved this...the only correction he gave me (ha ha ha) was that he wanted a photo of himself rather than his brother and sister. … [Read more...]
Crappy Closet turned Crafty Closet
I am a craft-a-holic....yep it's true, although I haven't found a 12 step program for it. I am not sure I'd care to change either. I find sewing, knitting, and crafting to be soothing, calming, and therapeutic. I really enjoy using the skills my grandma taught me too! I love sitting down with my kids and creating fun projects together (and for them). We have a junk closet.....much like a junk drawer but bigger, and it certainly needed to be revived with life. Because I do so many projects at once I thought it might be a good idea to get all my craftiness supplies in one central location rather than strewed about the house. Want to know how I turned my closet into this lovely thing? Well, then read on... Like I said, I started with quite a junky looking mess. It was actually embarrassing for me to take a photo of it to share but I am doing it for the greater good. (tee hee hee) Here is what I started with. A heaped pile of disorganization! Oy that is so sad looking and completely … [Read more...]
Fun Stuff Fridays (#12)
Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn’t hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I’m not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I’ve let my link up subscription lapse so you can’t get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016… Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. We had 305 submissions last week! Ohmigosh! Do you wonder if we look at them all....and the … [Read more...]
Staying organized with kids
Staying organized is one thing I work really hard at. For me, I find that it keeps the stress levels down, frees up more time to spend with my family, and just plain works! With four kids organization is mandatory (if you ask me). Our mud room is one room that I use as a family organization room. I'm going to share a few of my tips and tricks to staying organized with kids! First up....the embarrassing BEFORE photos. Now here is what I did. First thing I did was make the mess even bigger! I took EVERYTHING off the shelf and out of the cubbies and tossed them on the floor. I made three piles- Save, Store, Sell. Once you have your piles then you can start figuring out what you need to do to organize. I realized that some extra baskets and buckets would help me a bunch. I taped off an area above the hooks on the wall and painted with some chalkboard paint. Right now it just has one of my favorite quotes on it but in the future I plan to use it to keep the kids reminder notes … [Read more...]
Fun Stuff Fridays (#11)
Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn’t hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I’m not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I’ve let my link up subscription lapse so you can’t get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016… Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. We had over 300 submissions last week! WAY TO GO! You might wonder if we look at them … [Read more...]
Hosting a Winter ONEderland Party
Planning birthday parties is one of my favorite things to do! With 4 kids I get the chance to get creative every couple of months (tee hee hee). This past month my baby boy turned ONE! I threw him a Winter ONEderland Party. I thought this party turned out so cute that I'd share it with you so that you too could be inspired! The first, and most important part of the party is the cake....of course! It just so happens that our local bakery offers a FREE "smash cake" for their 1st birthdays. Thanks to them I didn't have to pull out the pans and make one, yay! Check with your local bakery to see if they offer the same. (Note- I didn't blot out my sons name because it would have taken a long time to do...this will be the only post in which I will share his name). I asked them to add blue and white dots to the cake to coordinate with the colors. I also had them make a "winter- themed" sheet cake for our party guests. My lovely friend made the gorgeous fondant igloo, penguins, and polar … [Read more...]
