Busy!!

Whoah - how many parties do you attend in one weekend?? Three?
That's right. In one weekend, we were invited to four parties. Three were at the same time and the fourth on the next day. I failed to remember the one on Sunday, but a member of my family attended each of the other parties.
A good friend of the family was celebrated their sons fourth birthday. My MIL took the younger two boys to the baseball themed party. I was hoping to come late, but I didn't make it. Jason took oldest to a party for a boy in his class. Andrew had a blast! Meanwhile, I attended a baby shower. I loved my gift! I took a wood crate and requested hubby to paint it. He did an awesome job! Then took white letters and added some glitter!! The small frame is done the same way! The onesies turned out great!! Inexpensive thoughtful gift!!

Valentine's Day - Celebrate Goode Style!! ha ha

I know - cheesy title.  I heart Valentine's Day. 

But to be completely honest, I love any holiday I can decorate and make different things. 

Back to V-Day.  I love it!

I saw this post I thought last year, even though it was updated in January 2013.  I knew I wanted to do the mailbox thing.  My mom picked up the mailboxes for me from the Target Dollar Bins.  They mostly had pink and red, but she was able to find a few blue and a white.  Yippee!  I used my Cricut and cut out some vinyl lettering.  The front has their initial, xoxo on one side, and a heart on the other side.  The back has the inside of the heart.

 

My plan is to fill them up with a love note and a treat every day from February 1st to V-day.  Hopefully I start writing and collecting this week.  :)

 

The mailboxes currently are on my mantel.  I got the block words from Target ($3).  I still have one in the wrapping, because I didn't realize it was covered in glittered.  I don't like glitter - I like bling, not glitter.  :)  And yes, there is a difference.  The banner is also from Target dollar bin.  Tyler and Colton each made a V-Day inspired picture which hangs on each side.  Lastly, there are two Yankee Candle bear things holding yummy smelly candles.  **My current favorite scent is actually from Bath and Body Works, "Marshmallow Fireside".  It is perfect. I LOVE it! 



Kitchen Table window has a nice banner.  I used some red crepe paper to make the banner work across the whole window.

 Nice heart table runner!!  Anytime I can have an excuse to decorate my house in pink and red, you know I'm going to use the opportunity!!  ha ha

And of course, I had to put some pink and red in the nice new bathroom!  I would love to make what my girl Mackenzie made over at M&M (#1).  hmm...I wonder where I could hang it?!? What do you think?  :)

Long Break - OvEr! (well hopefully anyway)

WARNING!!  WARNING!!  PIC HEAVY!!  **had a lot to catch up on!

I took a break - a six month break.  I'm not sure what happened, but life.  I want to keep blogging so I have to make it a point to post!!  The last six months have been crazy!  Here is a quick summary:

-June 2012:  my dad was told he had two weeks to live.  I spent as much time as I could with him.  Turns out, he is more stubborn than anyone I know!  Cause he is still alive and going strong!!  I'm so proud of him. He has survived through so many things which should have killed him, I'm not sure I'll ever be prepared to lose my dad.  I'm a daddy's girl - all the way.

-July 2012:  *I hosted my SIL (my husband's sister) baby shower.  It was an airplane themed with the colors blue and brown.  My wonderful neighbors helped me make the tissue balls (can't think of the name - ha ha!),

*My brother and sister-in-law welcomed a handsome healthy little boy to our family, Leland.  I love his name! 
*Colton's 1st Birthday Party!  The theme was "A Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.  My wonderful neighbors helped me make the invitations and all the wonderful decorations. 

Caterpillar cake made from cupcakes and a small cake!  I placed it on a piece of cardboard wrapped in white tissue paper.  The ears and legs were hand-drawn by my awesome neighbor!  (They also made and decorated the cupcakes and cake!)

Some of the decorations...

 

All decorations made using a cricut!!

I'm thinking I took these pictures after the party cause the Colton cupcake is missing a "wiggly" eye!  :)

A book for everyone to sign! And the favors were adorable!! My neighbors helped me make thank you bags. The main sheet says "happy 1st birthday Colton! -thank you!" and there were M&Ms inside! Tied with a bow!

 

-August 2012: *Andrew's fifth birthday party was batman themed.  AMAZING!

Homemade banner with lots of bats everywhere!





The kids had capes made out of trash bags and masks.  The trash bag capes were the biggest hit.  I took big black (or maybe they are a dark green) trash bags.  Cut down the seam on each side and the bottom.  I ended up cutting about 12 inches off the bottom as they were too long for 4-5 year olds.  The tie part of the trash bags were used to tie the cape around!  It was awesome!  The kids decorated their masks and capes.

-November 2012:  Tyler's 3rd Birthday party! It was safari themed.  I'm not sure why I don't have more pictures.  The kids had some safari crafts all with stickers. 

Dirt Cake

 

-December 2012:  My wonderful hubby was put to the test and built two AMAZING things for our house.  Check it out!!

*First Project

This was the first thing he we made!  It's a shelf hanging in our hallway.  It reads:  Children hold our hands for a while, our hearts forever.  I did the vinyl work.  Turned out awesome!

*Our next project was a new shelving unit in our family room.  We needed something to mainly hold the box for cable. 

On New Years Day, we went searching for items to place on our shelf.  Turns out, we found an awesome antique gone crazy shop.  It's the kind of shop you have to know what you want and ask for it.  If not, it's too packed with stuff to just look through.  We ended up getting two coke cases (bottom left and upper middle right), the lantern (upper middle left) and the jug (upper center) all for less than $50. 

-January 2013:

*We moved to our current house October 2011.  Jason and company painted the whole house from ceiling to floor within a week of us moving in.  The only room not touched was the powder room.  It was covered in wallpaper.  I didn't mind the wallpaper, so he touched it up for me and we left it alone.  We finally figured out what we wanted to do with it.  We wanted a"pallet wall" behind the toilet.  I'm not sure how I found the blog post, but as soon as I showed it Jason, we made up our mind.  Here is the after:  (I'm sorry - I failed to take the before, but imagine wallpaper from floor to ceiling in a maroon color with flowers)

I'm pretty sure that sums it up until this past weekend.  My next post will be all about V-Day!

Teacher Appreciation Day!

It was Teacher Appreciation Day at the boys school the other day.  I had so many things I wanted to do, but I ended up not doing any of them!!!  I just couldn't get the "supplies" I needed in time.  So, I opted to do the following...
-Made four banners (that's right, FOUR banners! one for each boys classroom and then one for the main hallway).

The banners for the boys classrooms were all different colors and only said thanks.  I used my cricut to cut the letters.  I wanted to go with more of a color scheme in the main hallway.  Black and white always looks good, but I didn't have enough black sheets.  I thought of their main colors and decided red and blue letters would look good.  I think my favorite is the blue as it looks like it stands out more.  The night before I went searching for something else to add to the banner.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to cut something else out; finally, deciding on the ribbons.  I think it turned out great!!!

-The parents committee decided on a "dessert lotto".  This is where parents would bring in a treat for the teachers.  The teachers would then choose a number and choose a dessert based on their number.  I think it went over well.  We had a great turn-out of desserts. 

I really think my banner and "other project" really made the table stand out! 














-And finally - THE PENCIL VASE!!  I got the bendable flower from the dollar tree a while ago.  I knew I wanted to use them for something, but just didn't know the exact project.  I saw the pencil case a while ago on a blog - can't remember the exact source at this time.  So I decided to make it my own. 
**I made this craft before thinking about documenting it step-by-step.

Supplies:

-empty toilet paper roll
-bendable flower
-20 pencils
-hot glue gun
-hot glue sticks
-ribbons (optional)
-gift tag (optional)

Make sure all toilet paper is off roll before starting project.  Make one line of hot glue on the roll and place a pencil on it.  Add another line of hot glue above the first pencil and place another pencil on it.  Continue putting hot glue and pencils until complete.  It took me 20 pencils per roll.  I added a cute ribbon and a tag (made with my cricut).  On one side of the tag it said who it was for.  The other side said:  Thanks for helping me bloom!  -Andrew, Tyler, Or Colton.  I made a total of 12.  It was a little crazy, but I think they liked it.  Don't forget about your "lunch lady"!  I'm sure there is an official, more political term, but I can't think of it right now.  Mrs. Cindy who handles the food at my boys school does an amazing job.  I think she does more work than most people realize.  I like to thank everyone!!  :-)

Opening Day!

Opening Day 2012!!  What a blast!!

Andrew is currently participating in T-Ball through the local rec council.  He LOVES it!  I love how fast boys make friends.  We were not even at the first practice for more than 5 minutes and he meets his "best friend".  I volunteered to be the team mom even though I wasn't sure what the role entailed.  I asked around and got the following similar answers:
-make drink/snack schedule for practice and games.
-take pictures.
-help coach with any paperwork (picture papers, fundraiser)
-help organize kids.
-make t-ball banner.
-organize end-of-season party.
I did the schedule right away - that was easy.  I love taking pictures and Jason got me a fancy camera for Christmas, so that was good.  I'm detailed-oriented and don't mind paperwork (as long as I have it under control!).  I think I'm fairly good with kids and I love planning parties.  I was only worried about the stinkin' banner.  What the heck am I going to do??  I did what any other mom would do - I googled and pinterest'd it.  I only got ONE good hit.  Disappointing to say the least...but the banner was good and it gave me a starting point.  I couldn't believe there were no other blogs discussing banners for baseball which I could find!  I thought opening day was the most important part of baseball!?!?! 
So I wanted to do a paper banner for the 4, 5, and 6 year olds to display.  I had a couple of great decorating ideas in mind.  But the paper banner was quickly nixed by a teacher at boys school.  She said "do you think the paper banner would hold up with a bunch of 4, 5, and 6 year olds all trying to hold it?".  Good Point, Mrs. Laura!  I went to Joann's and gathered my materials.
I grabbed a yard of red felt, a couple sheets of black, grey, and white felt (the stiffer felt), a package of dimensional fabric paint, and 3 yards of baseball ribbon.  I followed the directions for cutting and sewing the banner from my ONE good hit.  Then I used my cricut and cut out the team name:  Muckdogs.  I chose to cut the name twice - once in black and once in grey to match the logo.  The cricut also cut the bat and baseballs.  I drew "laces" on the baseballs.  My advice - don't worry about the laces matching.  No one will notice.  Don't use a pencil to draw it first - just do it!  It took the longest to figure out the positioning of everything.  It just had to be perfect!  I used spray adhesive to glue everything down just to find everything coming off the next day.  I ended up using hot glue and it worked good.  Their names are around the outside of the banner with their number on the inside.  The kids were very proud carrying their homemade banner on opening day!!

Opening Day was a blast!  The Rec Council did an amazing job.  There were games, food/drinks, music, and even bouncy houses!

Maybe I'll start documenting step-by-step instructions in future crafts...

I leave you with some brotherly love...