Summer time things to do with the girls

We are in a year round school 

 our calendar is weird

We are in 9 weeks (called track/ed in), 

off 3 weeks (called track/ed out)

We love it

Most people who have never lived the year round calendar

cringe when we say we are in school year round

But really, it is AWESOME

I love track out time

except

sometimes I panic.....

like today

today is the last day of school

I am in panic mode....

did I say that already?

I feel like I am Julie the cruise director

....without a clipboard

OK, so we only have a week off between grades-

aka-summer vacay

weird... 

I know

we track in on July 9th

(first day of school)

...weird

We track out July 27

for 3 weeks

...weird

then we track back in

August 20th 

...weird

SO rather than popping Xanax like its candy I turned to my trusty old Pinterest to get me through trying moments Track out

Here are 10 Pinterest inspired Summer Ideas 

I am going to do with the girls during our 1 week "summer vacay" & our 3 week track out in August

Animal Drawing

My girls are not the most artistic but every once in a while they will find a picture & try to copy it, they will love this site!!!

Glass Pebble Bracelets

I am pretty sure you can use the glass pebbles for this, 

with my Michael's coupon loaded on my iPhone

after we have gathered a few supplies 

we are ready to rock these out in no time!!!

Hopscotch, Tiddlywinks & 4 Square! Game on!!!

Identity Grids

I personally L-O-V-E these!

I am going to make one!!!

In the sprinkler, this could count as a bath right??

For little ones its Tattle Monstesrs.....for 'tweens we can make it Mean Word Monsters

DIY tee-pee-tent

OK, a little more adventurous 

but would be a fun activity for dad to help us with, 

right, dad?!?!

Dad??

Yoo Hoo...

Dad???

Miss Mary Mack, anyone???

Button Hair Ties

Pretty!

Flower Pretzels

There isn't a link for these 

but it is just stick pretzels, hershey white chocolate kisses (Hugs) & M&Ms

Bookmarks

The link to these was no longer available 

but these are sooooo cute!

OK so I said 10, which turned into 11

if i don't stop now, 

I will be sitting here 

DREAMING 

up amazing things to do with my  kids 

rather than 

DOING 

amazing things with my kids

So I am stepping away from the computer

and Pinterest for now

Leave a comment if you have found any other fun things to do with your kids this summer!!!!

Canvas Art with Pencil Transfer Techinique & Winnie the Pooh Quote

So for a while now my Bestie has been asking me 

to make a plaque of some kind 

for her daughter's HS graduation with the adorable quote:

“If ever there is tomorrow, when we’re not

together, there is something you must always

remember. You are braver than you believe,

 stronger than you seem, and smarter than you

think, but the most important thing is, even

if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you”.

-Winnie the Pooh 

Typical procrastinator/ADD/perfectionist/staller 

that I am it took me a while 

to figure out the perfect way to do this.....

Being left to my own creative devises 

I had a color scheme, the quote 

& a pic of the dorm room comforter 

Like with any task in my life now, I started scouring through Pinterest to find inspiration

I used a pencil transfer technique 

that was so frikkin easy 

I just have to reshare and show you what i came up with

I tried a few transfer techniques out there

-wax paper;  mod podge 

But I just couldn't get it right

Then I found the newspaper transfer idea

 I changed it up a little to make my own, 

and it worked!!!!

I think I learned this somewhere along the way in 

an art class or in a scrapbooking class!  

It is not an original idea.

OK 

so, back to the project

PENCIL TRANSFER TECHNIQUE

So here is a pic of the comforter set 

Loved the vines design so we went with that

(her set is fushia/black, doesn't look it here)

First step I "colored" on the back of the pic

 with a pencil

it's tricky, tricky, tricky

(90's hip hop song reference, sorry)

Next I flipped the paper over and placed it on the canvas where i wanted the design to show up

Then using a ball point pen, pressing firmly 

to make sure the transfer of the pencil marks showed up,

 I traced the outline of the vines

see, you can see them

really difficult technique here, ha!

Then I went back with my old scrapbooking markers

(Marvy-Artist)

and colored in the vines

TA-DA!!!

Glittered Unicorns & rainbows sprouted in my craftroom!

you could easily use a sharpie

I had one on standby if Marvy didn't work!

And this is what it looked like when I was finished with it!

I think I just heard angels sing

I love it

I think it came out so cute & it was really fun to make!

Supplies:

 canvas  

acrylic paints

ribbons

ink

card stock 

pencil  

marvy pen

WOOOO HOOOOO!

Here is me & Bestie with the graduate on her special day!

Congrats, B!!!

A Cookie Scoop

OK, so I am not really a baker, really.  
It is too precise for me.
Too exact, I am not exact with anything! 

So when I find tools that make me a better baker I get REALLY excited.

A few birthdays ago this arrived on my doorstep

from my mom & sister

I had been talking about one for years
and they totally surprised me with it!

SEE THE STORY HERE


I love my kitchen aid mixer
It makes me smile when I walk into my pantry to see it!

I love it so much that it has motivated me

to bake more
(don't get me wrong, I have always baked, it just hasn't always been as fun for me)

Back to the blog post




I have recently discovered a brand new (to me) product that has changed cookie baking for me


It's the Oneida Trigger cookie scoop  

And it can be found at your nearest 
Walmart 
on the kitchen aisle

It has enables me to make perfectly even cookies that are all the same size
Hello, my cookies are never even, they are total misfits & not pretty like this!

In my previous life this never happened!

It makes it so easy to scoop cookies out

Even my girls can do it

So if you are a Mama who only bakes for holidays or if you are forced 
Head over to your local Wally World, 
go directly to the kitchen aisle & buy yourself one of these
The cool thing about being at Walmart is that while you are there 
you can: 
 1)buy all the ingredients you need to make these delish toll house cookies  
2)  pick up all the hardware supplies you need to rewire your house
3) pick up barbie underpants for your kids!


Everyone wins!

Very First Pinny Party!

I hosted my very first Pinny Party!

What's a Pinny Party???

It's a party where all of your Pinterest Pals 

get together & create 

If you have been obsessing about Pinterest for as long as I have,

you know you have a board of crap that you want to create!

Well, we actually did it

We had been talking about it for a while

and I finally made it happen

Here's what you can do to make your Pinny Party happen too!!

FIRST:  Pick a project

You know there are things you have that you are just dying to make

You know it maybe something with mason jars or burlap or both

and certainly glue guns are involved

Here's where we started:

http://www.thenshemade.com/2011/01/pink-pink-you-stink.html

We wrote up a list of supplies & sent everyone on their way to gather up all they needed

Many emails went back & forth about what supplies to get etc.

In the end we all came up with unique to us versions of the board we wanted to make.

Second: Pick a date, time & place

So we all came together on a Saturday night at my house to get our "craft on"

Third: Plan a menu

In addition to "amazing stuff I want to create" boards 

I also have "amazing stuff i want to eat & drink" boards too

I chose 2

Cake Batter Truffles

found here

http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/03/cake-batter-truffles.html

Strawberry Mojitos 

found here

http://kokocooks.blogspot.com/2011/03/strawberry-mojitos.html

although I was the only one who indulged in the strawberry mojitos "salad" drink

(I added way toooo many mint leaves)

Fourth:  Get your craft on

 We headed up to my craft space to get the party started

So the honest truth-

this was pretty adventurous project to make in one night

I don't think any of us finished in one sitting

With a room full of this many creative women it was great to

bounce ideas off of each other

We had a lot of laughs

We definitely wanted to pick another project and do it again

The most common phrases of the night were

"I saw it on PINTEREST"

OR

"Well if you were on PINTEREST you would have seen it"

(one of us wasn't on Pinterest at the time)

"OWWWWW"

or

"Mother f@*(!$*@, SH*t, Son of a B*tch" 

when we burned ourselves with the glue guns

More Ttuths:

This is what mine looked like at the end of the night

This is what mine still looks like

Will post pics as soon as I am done

In 6 months, I am sure!

BUT Here is K's

GORGEOUS!

She ended up using elmers glue to finish it!  LOL

Here is A's

It was an amazing night

we all had a blast

We are in the planning stages of party number 2

and I am thinking of starting a 

Pinny Party blog too!

Let me know if I have inspired you to start your own party!

It looks like Christmas around here!

Can't believe it's that time of the year already!

Christmas for me  has always been so exciting and joyous!

I love listening to the music, seeing all the lights up around the neighborhood.

I love any excuse to eat drink and be merry

Unfortunately I sometimes get into the mode of being completely stressed out, wanting things to be perfect; never feeling like there is time to do all the baking  the decor and the entertaining that I want to do.

I do LOVE decorating the tree & I have an obsession 

with ornaments & decor

Almost every piece of decor that goes out has a story

I love telling the girls about the history of the person that gave me a Christmas trinket or the story of how it came to be in our collection of Christmas Favorites!

Here are some of the treasures we have collected 

over the years and the stories that go with them

This is a 2 Tiered Tray 

that I picked up at Suzanna's Antiques Store

I love that it is crazy green & not traditionally Christmas 

The ornaments are a hodge podge of vintage, pinks & silvers with some silver disco balls thrown it

Glitter santa hats

These were such a steal from Walmart last season (2010)

I don't think I paid more than a dollar for the hats ( all 4)

The "WISH" Plaque too

Precious moments Nativity

 since we have been married I have collected pieces to the 

Precious Moments Nativity

The first year we were married we were given Mary, Joseph & Baby Jesus.

over the years Ebay & Craigslist have helped my collection grow

Ballard Designs Stockings

These are from Ballard Designs (i think it was 2009?)

I want my house to be decorated in everything from their catalogue

I drool over each page

I love these stockings

They make me so happy!

My friend Debbie designed this plate & surprised me by sending me one

I love it so much

Contact Debbie at Debbies Doodads