Highlights of 2011

Best of 2011

Seeing everyone else do it, I figured I might as well hop on the wagon and share some my favorite and popular posts from 2011.

Hand Painted Family Last Name Established Art

Hand Painted When I Grow Up Sign

Unicorn Knock Off from Rosenberry Rooms

Painted Restoration Hardware Inspired Pillows

Branchlers Tutorial

Butterfly Mobile Tutorial

Personalized Baby Name Hanger

Newborn Tutu & Headband

Glowing Rapunzel Hair Tutorial

Gourmet Nutrageous (gluten free and dairy free)

Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets

Dairy Free Chocolate Ganache

Coconut Ice Cream

Blueberry Lemon Muffin with Coconut Streusel Topping

Gluten Free and Dairy Free

Grilled Onion and Potato Slabs w/ Grilled Honey Dijon Chicken

DIY Baby's First Haircut

Pillowcase Dress Tutorial

Prince Cape for Boys

Matching Mommy Daughter Aprons

Mom and Baby Portrait

My Demand Media Promo/commercial

Scrappy Saturdays 14

Welcome to the first Scrappy Saturdays Link Up of 2012!  I have enjoyed all of your great projects this past year and can't wait to see what the new year holds in store!  Let's get the inspiration for the new year flowing!  And before we start linking up, here are a few of the great projects from the last linky.

Candle Jar Makeover @ Ode to Inspiration/ DIY Accessory Holder @ Khadjia's Creative Mind/ Scrap Triangle Scarf @ Av Susanne/ Tote Tutorial @ About Blogging Time

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Link up your awesome projects using scraps (of any kind), upcycling, redo/makeovers, and anything you made including materials you found or had on hand.  We love thrifty, resourceful creativity!

Make a Bubble Machine!

Make Your Own Bubble Machine

On another winter day last week that was sunny and beautiful looking but had some nasty freezing wind we were looking for some fun.  I found this old better homes and garden activity book that my MIL gave me that my mom also had for us growing up.  I remember when I was a kid with my brother, pouring through the books getting ideas for crafts, activities and experiments, my brother’s entire birthday party was doing almost everything from the outer space book.  Nowadays we just go on pinterest and find a million awesome ideas for anything and everything!!!  But it was fun to pull out the old book and read the page and tell my daughter we were going to make a bubble machine.  They loved this, even my 20 month old figured this out quickly and didn’t even accidentally suck on the straw which I thought might happen…yuk! 

Watch it in Action

To Make a Bubble Machine

You’ll need a empty and clean plastic bottle, milk carton, sour cream container or other container with lid.

Using a knife, cut a small X on one side and then make another X on the opposite side. 

Add some dish soap, about 1-2 tablespoons and fill with water halfway.

Insert a straw into one of the holes and have your child blow and make as much bubbles as they can! 

To extend the activity, when they got tired of making bubbles, we used all the suds on the table to finger paint!

Finger paint with soap suds!

(I needed to clean the table anyways!)

Later that day they got to go to Bounce U.  They needed to get out….I thought it would be fun….wow….we rarely go to places like that and yes it is fun for the kids…it’s also kind of like being in hell! Lol!  However, despite the pushing, shoving, crazy maniac kids and the getting knocked down by bigger kids and accidental bumps to the nose...it was worth it in the end just for the precious moment of Big Sister coaching right before we left.  Bronson kept watching Jordan climb up and go down the big slide but he was too timid...I mean he's 1 and 3/4, I would be too!  But she kept encouraging him so he went for it, but it was hard for him to climb all the way to the top so she stood gaurd behind him, not letting other kids scramble by or jump around and coaching him all the way up, just hearing the way she was encouraging him and talking to him and keeping her hand on him to help him make it to the top, even at times when he got reluctant and wanted to come back down was worth the trip!  I was impressed by her big sistering.  Of course once they got to the top there were two slides to choose from and whichever one he went for was not the one she wanted so she would grab him by the arm or back of his shirt and drag him over to the other slide! lol  

Official New Years Post

Happy New Years!!!

I know I'm behind the times already, but I wanted to do an official new years post so Happy New Years to you all!  I hope you rang it in the best way you know how, whether that's dancing with glow stick wands to Barbie Girl Aqua station on Pandora (like our kids) then passing out on the couch before the ball drops once the kids are in bed....or actually doing something more adventurous or glamorous, I hope it was wonderful and that you all have a year filled with joy, blessing and accomplishment!

So what are your New Years Resolutions? How about a little Pinterest Inspiration?

I have a print out I made with 8 different things on it that I am actively working on, but they aren't new year's resolutions per se, it was my Christmas Gift to my husband as he didn't want me to spend any money on him as his gift....so I wanted to give him a better version of me starting with all the obvious things I needed to work on or that would be nice first.  Maybe once these things are all integrated into my lifestyle without having to actively think about doing them, I'll work on some other things.  

Some of the things are

Waking up with Hubby in the morning (he always gets up before me and a lot of the time I wake up and he's already gone to work and I was in such a deep sleep I didn't notice him getting up and getting ready.  So I've been trying to wake up when he does, make his lunch for him and spend a little time together in the mornings before the kids get up. 

Juice Everyday we recently got a Juiceman Juicer and haven't used it yet but just started and it's been great!  I let Jordan help me and she things it's so fun and she also thinks it's the best juice ever in the world.  And today, Bronson drank half of mine, which excited me because he's been so picky lately it's been hard to get anything besides applesauce and cereal in him!  It's good for me too...I've never been a good veggie eater but I have no problem with the juice.

Work out at least FOUR days a week and use the sauna Before the move, this was part of our routine and I loved it, it was such a stress reliever but after the move we got out of the workout routine and we also have a sauna in our basement and I haven't been using it as much as I want to.  So far that's going great, I have been doing Yoga and using the Elliptical and doing a little bit of free weights and then sweating it out in the sauna.

Stay on top of my vitamin/supplements regimen I've had some pretty crummy health this year due to hypothyroidism, anemia and low vit D.  I got to a new doc and got on NatureThroid and now my thyroid is finally doing much better but I still struggle with fatigue physically and mentally from the low iron and vit D....and I mean REALLY REALLY LOW...off the charts low....and I have the supplements I need but I am forgetful about taking them....so I made a chart that I keep out so I can check off at the different times of day when I'm taking my supplements to make sure I don't forget.  

Keep our Room Clean Not that it's super messy (mainly my closet) but I did tell him I would keep our room clean...I don't always remember to make the bed and he doesn't know how to hang up his dress pants the right way, they always end up twisted, but then I  never hang them up either so they get draped everywhere...and sometimes I let the laundry pile get  a little too big (you know I'm just trying to be green and conserve energy by doing less frequent, large loads rather than lots of small loads!!! lol)

Meal Plan Daily so I have dinner figured out and either ready or in the process of getting ready or at least know what I am going to make so I have what I need by the time he gets home from work.  I've been good at this in the past but for a while now it always seems like a scramble last minute what to have for dinner.

Pray for him Daily I pray for the kids ALL THE TIME, but I wanted to make an effort to be praying for him every day too.  There's a book called "The Power of a Praying Wife"....um...I haven't read it...but the title inspires me :P

Anyways, these are some of the main things I'm focusing on right now...I've also been enjoying having all the Christmas Decorations put away and working on decorating the house and everything...Since we moved I just hadn't gotten that motivation or inspiration I needed to really decorate the new house, but after putting Christmas stuff away, it was a lot more bare looking and the motivation and inspiration came!  PLUS it's been fabulous weather, I feel like I'm still in Texas with this mild winter weather we've been having...I've been loving all the sunshine, it spills in through all our windows and warms the house up I don't even have to turn on the heater sometimes!

Next Up...a recap of my favorite posts of 2011 and more so stay tuned.....

Felt and Pom Ice Cream Cone

Felt and Pom Pom Ice Cream Cone

Up until today we have been enjoying lots of time at home “not going ANYWHERE!!!” as my daughter surprisingly exclaimed with glee each morning of Christmas break.  We enjoyed lots of little activities aside from the kids just enjoying their Christmas gifts, and in Jordan’s case, some of her new craft supplies….such as these jumbo pom poms.  She got a big bag of these pom poms and wanted to make something, and being that the plush cake and strawberries I made are one of her favorite playthings, we decided to make more play treats and whipped up this triple scoop ice cream cone using felt, pom poms and a glue gun.

 Yummy Triple Scoop Rainbow Ice Cream..."mmmmm..my favorite mom!"

And although Christmas is truly over, she suddenly gasped one day and exclaimed to me “MOM!!! We didn’t make gingerbread cookies!!!” Which I had no idea she even knew about them because it’s not  anything we have done before, so we just made these paper gingerbread men and J enjoyed using her new glue (who would of thought glue in a stocking was so exciting!) googly eyes and craft scissors.

Like the Christmas Clothespin Magnet holding the paper gingerbread man?


And since I haven't been keeping up with the things I've wanted to post, here is another after the fact picture from Christmas...makes me laugh

And a few more from the day while I'm at it...