Love and Be Loved

Well it's not really my normal day for posting, but I just had a thought and wanted to share anyway!  As you all know, tomorrow is Valentine's Day.  A day that's supposed to be all about love and showing your loved ones how much you care about them.  For the most part I've always liked Valentine's Day (perhaps just because it's 3 days away from my birthday), but mostly just because I think Valentine's stuff is so cute!  Flowers, chocolates, adorably useless fuzzy stuffed animals, yummy treats, and of course people everywhere going out of their comfort zone to try and tell someone they like them.  It's just cute!

So this year will be the first Valentine's that I'm actually with someone.  Sure I've gotten Valentines in the past from friends, but I've spent every other V-day of my life as a single lady.  There were definitely some years where I felt more like calling it Singles Awareness Day, but there have also been times when I've had tons of fun just being myself or hanging out with friends.

Our eyes look crazy...but we're still cute!

Valentine's Day my junior year of college consisted of my best friend and I dressing up in obnoxious amounts of pink and red, making ourselves a fancy dinner complete with candles on the table, and having a couple other friends over for chocolate lava cake.  We were both single at the time, but we didn't want to waste our whole day moping!  Why not make a day of it just because?  You can love yourself on Valentine's Day, too.

OR you can make someone else's day, even if it's a complete stranger.  By far I think my favorite V-day activity was one year when I was home from college and helped make deliveries for a local floral shop.  It's one of the busiest days of the year for them, of course.  So I got up early and spent the entire day driving around town and back and forth from the shop with a car full of flowers.  And it was actually really fun!  The best deliveries were going into businesses and hearing the teasing and heckling for the floral recipient as soon as I said their name.  It was so fun to see how surprised and happy people were that someone thought enough of them to spend way too much money to have flowers delivered.  So what did I do on my favorite Valentine's day?  I served!  It was so much fun, and it made me happy to see others happy.  I would highly recommend it to anyone, single or not.

Of course, what you decide to do is completely up to you.  Whether you're loving yourself or showing your love to someone else, also don't forget about how much you are loved by your friends, family, and your Heavenly Father.  So by all means, go spend the day with someone you love...I know I will be! :)

Homemade Microwave Puffy Paint & Associated Messes

I know, I know...it's Tuesday.  Sorry I'm late.  But I have a fun DIY kids activity to write about today!  So maybe you'll forgive me.

This picture is not mine.  I just didn't have any good pictures to introduce this amazing activity!  This is from the blog where I originally found the idea.  You can get there, too by clicking the link below.

Ok, so I found this idea for homemade puffy paints on Pinterest probably close to 2 years ago.  I pulled it out one day while I was babysitting my friend's 4 kids with my (at the time) 2.  The kids LOVED IT!  In fact, my friend's daughter requests it every time she comes over!  And I hear no complaints from anyone else. ;)

Here's the recipe:

• 1 cup flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt 
• Enough water to make it about the consistency of pancake batter

You will also need:

• Sandwich sized Ziploc baggies
•  Food coloring
• Some kind of paper (in my experience: the thicker, the better!)

So all you do is mix all these ingredients together until you get most of the lumps out (at least, it has lumps when I do it...you might have the magic touch...haha!).  Then you can separate it into however many Ziploc bags you want to (I usually do 4).

I just thought of this amazing mug idea the most recent time I did this.  Just place the bags inside the mugs and fold down the sides.  It makes the separation step SO MUCH easier!

Then you can add a few drops of food coloring to each bag to make whatever colors you want.  Once you drop the food coloring in and seal it, let the kiddos do the hard work of mixing them in.  They love squishing the baggies around until all the color is mixed in!

When you're ready to paint (aka: when the kids have squished the bags for so long that one of them has finally busted open) just cut off a tiny bit of one corner in the baggie.  Keep in mind: you can always make it bigger if needed, but it becomes problematic when you try to make it smaller...so start small!

Then let the kids have at it!

(No pictures...sorry...I fail)

When they have finished one masterpiece (because let's face it, they're gonna want to make multiple of these), put it in the microwave and cook it for 30-45 seconds (or more), depending on how thick the globs of paint turn out to be.  Just keep popping it in the microwave a little at a time until it has "cooked through".  When it comes out it gets all puffy and feels really cool!

If it smells a little bit like pancakes in your house, you're doing it right! ;)

Here are a few of our creations:

Now, if your kids paint similar to the lower picture (one big glob on the paper), you may run into this problem...

Yes...that's an ink stain on my finished wood table...I found several the last time we did this project.  I may or may not have had a minor heart-attack.  They weren't wiping off, and I had no idea how to resolve this problem.  Thank goodness for the age of the internet and search engines!  (Google here I come.)  I just typed "how to get ink stains off finished wooden furniture" into my search bar.

This is what I found as I was freaking out, but trying not to look like I was freaking out:

I was told to make a paste out of baking soda and vinegar, and scrub the stains with that and a damp rag.  So that's what I did.  I got a damp rag, sprinkled some baking soda on it, and poured a little vinegar on that until it seemed 'paste'-like.  Then I rubbed it over all the stained areas.

Before...







 ...and after!






Would you believe it actually worked?!?!?!  (Whew...luckily I figured that out before I had a real heart attack with 7 kids in the house!)  I have become amazed over the past year with the plethora of uses for baking soda and vinegar.  Cleaning your stovetop, getting cat pee out of mattresses and blankets (remember that time when I made S'mores Bars?), and so many other things!  I finally decided to buy the stuff in bulk from Sam's Club.

Best. Decision. Of. My. Life.

Except maybe for marrying my husband...

And having my kids.......

Ok, so there are other more important things, but you get my drift!

I hope that someday these ramblings help somebody on a rainy day!  Happy Tuesday to you all!

<3

Everything is AWESOME!

Ok...how many of you have seen the Lego Movie?

I hadn't seen it until Christmas break, when my family showed it to us while we were visiting.  My kids LOVED it!  It's all they wanted to watch for the rest of the break.

So, you know that song..."Everything is Awesome"?

If you haven't heard it before...you should seriously watch the video below.

Well...that is now my kids' favorite song.  Seriously, my 4-year-old sings the chorus EVERY TIME I say the word 'awesome' (which, I am coming to realize, I actually say a lot).

Aside from this new-found knowledge of my word usage, I have learned a few more things from this experience in my life.  For example: that my kids internalize more lyrics than I do. 

About 2 weeks after being introduced to this song, my son asked me, "Mom, are allergies awesome?"

I, of course, answered, "No...they're not really."

And he says, "Yeah, I think they are!"

I think we discussed it for a few more minutes, resulting in him continuing to insist that allergies are awesome.  And I pretty-much left it at that.

That was before I had listened to all the lyrics of the song.  When I found the above YouTube video for an impromptu dance session with my kiddos, the words "You know what's awesome? EVERYTHING!  Dogs with fleas, allergies..." flashed across the screen.  I suddenly realized where that question had come from days ago.  My son looked right at me and said, "See?  Allergies are awesome!"  So I admitted that he was right, and made a mental note to listen more closely to anything that I might be letting into my home (music, movies, tv shows, etc...).  Dang, kids are smart!

I also learned that a lot of things are awesome!  The song talks about how losing your job gives you more time for your community, or how stepping in the mud and getting your shoes dirty gives you a pair of new brown shoes (Pete the Cat, anybody?).  Sometimes, when life gets rough (because it does...for all of us), I forget to look at the positive side of things.

I am one that believes that everything happens for a reason.  I believe in a Heavenly Father that loves us and has a plan for who we can become.  That's why life is hard.  Just like a stone being tossed and bumped and thumped along the bottom of a river...all that thumping and bumping makes the rock smooth and beautiful.  Without our trials how would we grow?

We just need to LOOK for the silver lining in each cloud.

So when a trial comes your way, just remember:

Everything is awesome!

*Sorry...no DIY tips today...just thoughts that have been running through my mind.  The silver lining?  Now your anticipation will be building for next week when I have an amazing recipe or DIY project for you!  ;)

Newlywed Life & a DIY Word Necklace

Precious, aren't we?

As a follow up to Lauren's post last week, yes I love the Christmas gift she made for me! It was really the only thing I actually got to open Christmas morning since Jared gave me my gifts early and we did late gifts for everyone else in our family.  It's absolutely adorable and I use it every day!  (I was going to take a photo of it, but I'm super duper lazy and I always forget when I'm home!)

Married life has been fantastic so far!  Getting to spend every day with your best friend really can't be beat.  I do find it funny that we can agree on some things (like how original spaghettios are the only good ones, and if we ever have twins they'll be named Luke and Leia hands down) and not on others (chocolate or vanilla shakes, and which kind of pizza we prefer).  But overall, this first month has been great and I'm told it only gets better.  Those of you who may be "old timers" will probably just chuckle at my giddy gushing, but I can't help it! ^_^

So now I've got another craft for you!  We're all so crafty shmafty around here.  These necklaces I made were my gift for my bridesmaids to wear at the wedding.  I almost bought them for $17 a piece from an Etsy shop until I realized there was another shop that sold all the supplies to make them!  Here's what you need:

• Necklace chains
• Pendant trays
• Glass stones
• Mod podge
• An old dictionary or encyclopedia (or any other book you're willing to cut pages from)

*You could also use pictures instead of words from books!!!

They're SUPER simple to make.  I found a word to describe each of my bridesmaids in an old dictionary and cut out a little circle around the word using the glass stone as a template for size.  Oddly enough, not all of the words I originally had in mind were in the dictionary! Who knew!

Once you've got all your words cut out, use a small foam brush to put Mod Podge on the inside of your pendant tray and put the paper circle on top.  I let mine dry for a couple minutes before adding another layer of Mod Podge and the glass stone.  BOOM! Done!

 All in all, it cost me less than $20 to make all six of my necklaces, although I bought enough for ten just in case I messed one up.  They were so easy and turned out so cute!  And now I even have extra supplies to make more if I ever wanted to. :) 

So there you have it!  I've finally posted again...I started to feel like a bum after Lauren's last two posts!  Slowly getting better....very, very slowly. :)  Thanks for reading, all you lovely people!

An Activity Day Christmas

Monday again?  Is anyone else surprised?  I think I am every week!

Okay...okay...I know that we're all over Christmas by now.  But I did this project with our Activity Day girls in December, and I couldn't just leave it out!  I love my calling with these girls.  We have so much fun!

So this is what we made, as a little reminder of the reason for the season.  It's a Bible made of Hershey's Treasures candies!  I found the idea here. If you click on the link, it will take you to my Pin of it, and then you can go to the website through my pin.  I have not included the printable that is shown in this picture, so I would refer you to that website if you would like to use it.

This is what you need:

Hershey's Treasures Candies

Black Cardstock

Red embroidery floss or ribbon

The Printable

Elmer's glue & a glue stick

Luckily, the process is pretty self-explanatory. I paired up all the candies from the bag to see how many I would have (and, of course, to eat the odd one out...haha!).  You don't have to glue the two together.  Just glue both of them next to each other on the black cardstock (which you have cut to size, leaving a little extra on the edges to look like the cover of a Bible) with the Elmer's glue.  Don't forget to glue the piece of red embroidery floss to the cardstock first.  The end of it should be sandwiched in between the cardstock and the candy.  Then use the glue stick to glue the printable right on top!

They turned out so cute!  The girls made some for themselves to give out to family and friends, and then we made more to send in a care package to a Sister Missionary friend.

Sadly, I didn't get to be at the Activity when the girls made them.  I had all three children at home with pink eye...so my partner in crime (aka: my AMAZING Assistant Activity Days Leader), Connie, ran the activity for me that night.  She said the girls had so much fun!  So I'll take her word for it.  All I know is: the ones I sent out the the Sister were really cute!

 Well, I'm off to go cuddle my two sick children. (Seriously....what is with this winter and sickness???  This is too much.)

Wishing the rest of you a happy (and healthy) Monday!

Pinterest and Christmas Gifts

Happy Monday!

Okay, so it's actually Tuesday, but since yesterday was a holiday and my hubby didn't have to go to work, it totally feels like a Monday, so let's go with it!

Happy "Monday", everybody!

I'm so behind in my blogging, and I apologize.  But it's okay, because I've been anxiously engaged in the good work known as "parenting"! (That's an acceptable excuse for anything, right?)

So even though it's been just barely a month since Christmas, it seems like it was already forever ago!  But I just had to show you what I made for my newly married sister, Chanel, for Christmas!

Ta-da!!!  A wedding ring holder!  (For use by the sink, or wherever you might take your ring off frequently.)  I was super happy with how it turned out.

I found the idea on Pinterest, and thought it would be perfect for her!

Now, in the example it was made with a much smaller picture frame.  But, true to form, I had no luck finding just what I wanted, no matter how many stores I went to.  So I wound up just getting a 4x6 frame, and making it bigger than anticipated.

So I got the frame, bought a "pearl" necklace that had multiple strings of beads of different sizes, and a decorative hook.  Also a small piece of fabric (more about that later).

I forgot to take a ton of pictures, but here it is in the middle of the creative process...  I love hot glue!  You all should ask my sister, Chara, about our other Christmas adventures with hot glue this year!  ;)  Seriously, I think you'll think we're crazy!

So I simply hot-glued a ton of beads to the picture frame, and super-glued the decorative hook to the glass that came with the frame.

Then I took some gray fabric that I had (but you could totally use paper, or paint, or whatever kind of background you want) and put it on a piece of cereal box that I cut to size, and put it in the frame.  But I soon realized the frame was so big, it needed a little something extra...

So I found this idea for using a home printer and wax paper to transfer images to fabric.  I wish I had taken pictures of this part, but I didn't.  Basically you cut a piece of wax paper to the size of a typical piece of printer paper, print a design on it, and then flip it over and press it into the fabric!  The ink doesn't stick to the wax paper, it just kinds sits on top in little droplets, so it just stamps right on to the fabric. It took me probably one practice run to get it right.  It was pretty easy!  (Except for getting the wax paper to run straight through the printer without wrinkling....that took a few tries.)

By the way, according to the website I got the idea from this will only work with inkjet printers, not laser printers.  Just to make you aware.

Then I added a ribbon that was tied to the necklace I bought, and voila!  I declared the project officially finished.

Sadly, Chanel and I didn't get to spend Christmas together...she stayed in Utah, and I went home to Oregon.  I was so sad I wasn't going to get to watch her open it, because I was SO EXCITED to give it to her!  But I sent it out to her, and I can only assume she loves it and is using it. ;)

Oh. and by the way, guess what Chara gave me for Christmas?

I guess great minds think alike!

The first thing I said to her when I opened it..."Where did you find such a small frame?!?!"

<3 <3 <3

P.S. I use mine every day!

10 Days Until Forever

Well we really stink at this whole blogging thing...forgive us for our downfall!  I apologize for falling off the grid, but that's bound to happen when you're planning a wedding in two months!  With the wedding now 10 days away, I'm experiencing mixed feelings; a combination of excitement, nerves, and hoping I don't forget about any last minute details.  I'm sure my big sister and anyone who has ever participated in the planning of a wedding can relate. Surprisingly, though, I have felt relatively calm for the last couple weeks and even still I don't feel like I'm overly stressed (I may change my tune in a week or so!).  Most of the big things are taken care of, so all that remains are minor details.

It's really interesting to look back at the beginning of this whole process and laugh at how stressed I was for the first few days after we got engaged.  The list of items that needed to be taken care of was overwhelming, and having people ask "So what are you doing for this or that?" was really freaking me out.  I kind of wanted to just dig a little hole, crawl in and say "Someone else plan it...I'll come out in a couple months for the ceremony."  But then the control freak designer in me would never be able to do that...haha it's just not how my brain works!

I think it took me about a week (and lots of calls to my mom, sister, and maid of honor) to get over the initial freak-out.  The Saturday after Jared and I were engaged, I spent the day dress shopping with my best friend and we magically found a dress that I fell in love with.  It was the last dress I tried on and it was PERFECT!  And the best part?  NO alterations whatsoever.  I got to buy it off the rack and take it home that day!  Needless to say the relief of having found a dress so easily helped me calm down and take things one at a time (not to mention the fact that Tori is the best and made me a wedding binder complete with checklists and a countdown).  Since then the planning has gone fairly smoothly for the most part.  With each new element came a new set of worries, but we're now in the home stretch and I'm just ready for it all to happen!

In the midst of all the planning, though, almost everyone who helped me has said that all of this stuff doesn't matter so much, and the really important thing is that Jared and I love each other and we're going to be together for eternity.  And I couldn't agree more!  I think that perspective has helped me keep my focus where it needs to be instead of getting all caught up in the unnecessary details.

All in all, I feel so grateful, excited, and extremely lucky that I get to be with Jared for the rest of my life and beyond!  He is the love of my life and I couldn't be any happier! (Pardon the cheesy gushing...but it's true!)  Here's to 10 DAYS LEFT until the best day ever!

P.S. Photo credit goes to our awesome brother-in-law A.J. Jones!