Knitting Night Owl

Here is a cute knitting pattern from Simply Notable (cute blog as well) and it seems pretty simple! Try it out and post your pictures:)

http://www.simplynotable.com/2011/hooty-and-his-owl-pals/

Halloween

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday! Although I wish it happened more often, when do you ever have everyone outside walking their neighborhoods...together? Dressing up, acting a part, candy...?!? Yes, I have a sweet tooth like the rest of woman-kind:)

Dressing up for our family, usually happens more often due to themed birthday parties! For Halloween we plan out our costumes well in advance, since I am the ambitious mother, who likes to make the costumes from scratch. Here are some not so great pictures of past costumes.

Joslyn- Bumblebee (bought) Mom- Garden Fairy

Joslyn- Dorothy (bought) Mom (not pictured)- Wicked Witch

Tinkerbell, Princess Tiger Lily, Lost Boy, Peter Pan

Holden- Lost Boy

Tinkerbell, Lost Boy

Alice and Mad Hatter with Bama!

Queen of Hearts, Alice, Mad Hatter, White Rabbit

Darth Maul and Lord Sidious

Poison Ivy

With Uncle Bugsy

Bat Girl (I hate sewing vinyl)

Sally and Jack Skellington

Holden decided yesterday that he is no longer going to dress up as Jack Skellington, rather he would like to be a cowboy! Well, since I am awful at tailoring (no patterns for me), I only made to his coat as you can see....so I was very willing to let him be a cowboy (we have the components for that costume)!

Pinterest Inspired!

I finally made a pinterest inspired craft! I used an old frame added some paper and stickers....and a lot of ideas! I wrote on the glass with a dry erase marker and wa-la....summer fun!
My favorite idea is Holden's "lay in the grass and watch the clouds"! So precious...

Bleach Alternative

Alright...I was on Pinterest the other day and found a bunch non-toxic cleaning solutions, like I always do and I was inspired to try some! I already use vinegar and baking soda to clean, and I have also tried using a half of a lemon dipped in salt to scrub the sink. But let's be real, I don't always keep lemons around the house. So one did stick out to me the most, here is the link to the formula. There is also some information on the reasons why we should not use bleach! Chloroform being one of them!!!

I cleaned my bathroom counter, floor and toilet. Then I cleaned the kitchen counter, floor and trash can! It smells great, when I touched the solution it did not leave white burn marks, and it's super cheap...I found everything at a Dollar Tree!

What other solutions have you found helpful?

Decorating Easter Eggs!

We finally dyed our medium boiled eggs...bleh! I thought that I would use one of the links for a new way to decorate the eggs, but I got lazy...plain and simple!

So we used the good old fashion way of food coloring and water with a little vinegar! We did add a little pizazz, by coloring them with crayons first.





















After they were good and dunked (Holden dunked each egg in probably every color, why not?) we opened one to try, just case it was a fluke for that one before. Holden said it was jiggly and Joslyn ate all of it except the yolk. I hate wasting food, but I don't know what to do with 10 medium boiled eggs when no one likes them!!! HELP...Google I need you!

4/1-4/6 Google Search

Decorating Easter Eggs:


melted crayon eggs
9 Easter Egg Decorating Ideas
Embossed Eggs
Creative Egg Decorating

Easter Crafts


Egg Shell Votives
Funny Bunny Plush Doll
Confetti Eggs

Easter Cooking


Homemade Peeps
Chocolate Eggs
Boiling Eggs
Hot Cross Buns

M.I.A. Last Week!

Yes, I was M.I.A. last week! So here are some posts to catch up.... First off, I subscribed to a website called HARO. What a great website, you should definitely check it out! My favorite feature is an email they send out, about once a week with giftbag queries. People from all over the place can submit a request for your product to fill their gift bags or auction! Then you scroll through the list of requests and submit or pitch your product to them:) Of course it is a donation, but you get your name out there (sometimes with free press!)

Well, I decided that after getting this email for a couple of weeks that I was going to try to pitch my product. I submitted 3 different products to 5 different requests. Within 5 minutes I received a reply from 3 of them!!! Oh my goodness what did I get myself into...each event wanted 100-150 items! I am at the very start of my business, I don't even have 100 items, nor the materials! But being as optimistic as I am (translation--oblivious), I decided to go for it.

My first product I started is for a wedding planner event. 150 fluffy hair clips....except on the day that I was ready to send them, I decided to double check my deadlines with a hunch that this might not be the product that was due on April 1st. Was it? NO! 100 pinwheel hair clips due April 1st, at this point it is March 28th and I have 2 of them:) So I stayed up late (4:00 in the morning, I guess is early not late!), and finished all of them in one night and a day. I shipped them off drowsy and proud!

This week I ship off the wedding hair clips-deadline April 7th and then mini pocket notebooks-deadline April 13th!

Pinterest Cooking!

My week of Pinterest cooking went...okay. I had fun making new things, but the kids were not that impressed! I realize that the link I used did not work, so here are the individual links to the recipes I used:
Chicken Rollatini , Fajitas, Mac and Cheese and Gluten Free Crepes (I didn't get to these)

Fajitas were tasty! Joss ate the steak and I cut up some fruit, Holden was being a punk and asserting his "authority" by refusing to eat (actually all week)! I made him eat a couple bites of steak and he ate some raw bell pepper slices.

The Chicken Rollatini was scrumptious! My husband and I were wowed with the flavor. Joss loved it and when I told the green stuff was shredded zucchini, she said 'I didn't even know I liked zucchini!' (10 points for mom) Holden had refused again and I had to make him eat it:( He cried, he screamed, he sat in time out....I told him that he could not do anything until he ate all of his chicken. I did allow him to scrap off the cheesy zucchini stuffing! Still a fight...it wasn't until he saw Joslyn and I playing heads or tails with a coin that he finished his dinner, so he could join us. Who knew?!?

Macaroni and cheese was supposed to be a real hit....due to the time change I got a late start on it! We ended up eating at 8PM (eek!) and I think I was not patient enough for all of the cheese to melt. It took what seemed like an eternity since I was so hungry. I thought it the taste was great, but the texture was strange. I see a redemption night in the near future!

Pizza night was yummy! I did actually post pictures for that night....come on don't be hard on me, I'm still new at this thing!

Instead of eating out at our thai restaurant, we went to the brand new In 'n Out that opened up down the street from our house:) Dangerously close!

Instead of crepes on Saturday, we had corned beef and cabbage sliders at my cousin's engagement party!

Sunday was supposed to be the mystery night and we actually had ESPN Zone with my family!

It's always fun to mix things up...although this week we went back to our staples! Check it out next week when I go on a mission to use foodie blogs for my recipes. I wonder if the average mom can pull them off and have their kids like it too!

Participate in a project!

f r e s h a r t • donate and volunteer
Here is a great opportunity to your talent for a cause. Whether you are a new or a veteran to crafting...this site gives you a tutorial on sock monkeys and a cause to give it. Try it!