Wednesday, August 18, 2010

My Take on Temple Blocks

For those of you who might read this blog, I am LDS or a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (for more info go to lds.org).  So for me this idea was just awesome, which I found at Lil' Luna.  It's for Temple blocks, that she made for her Young Women group and I thought it had such a great thought to it, by using some of the words to the Primary song "I Love to see the Temple". The great thing is she has several different temples to choose from and she notes on her blog that they are not copyrighted pictures so to feel free to download for personal use.  (click HERE for the tutorial) 
I wanted to make one for my daughters room but realized that I really didn't have a place to put it, so I came up with my own take on this great idea.  My daughters room is white and pink striped all the way around except for this one wall where there is a kind of shelf built into the wall.  I left the top of that wall white because I thought it was the perfect frame for something special to be put up.  The problem being that I have been having the hardest time trying to figure out what that something "special" was.  I've thought of "word art" and tried to find some kind of picture(s) to put up there but nothing ever seemed right for the space.  I finally found a couple of metal flowers but they were not enough to fill the wall, so....I thought that since these pictures where not copy righted I would just have one printed off in a larger size and frame it.  I had to make the file bigger giving it more pixels in Photshop so that it would print off clear but it worked out so great.  It just completes her room so wonderfully and gives her a reminder of a goal that she can achieve.  She loves it especially since I let her pick out the temple.   She picked the Salt Lake Temple since that is where "Mommy and Daddy" were married although she almost picked the Alberta Temple (I'm originally from Southern Alberta). 
Thank you so much Lil" Luna for such a great idea, you made my day and my little girls year!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Back to School

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks since I posted anything.  It's been a little crazy at my house trying to figure out things for school, which for my kids starts a week from today.  Boy, did summer go fast...
So in honor of "Back to School" here are a couple of really cool ideas I can across.
The 1st is a School Lunch Kit for Mom at Moments to Live By.  I don't know about anyone else but I remember when I was I kid and I always envious those kids that had a fun lunch packed by their Mom.  This little kit makes it so easy to BE that cool Mom so that maybe my kids can be "that kid" I wanted to be. 
Some of the fun things that she suggests stocking it up with are party napkins, sandwich cutters, stickers, fun sandwich bags, prizes, preprinted notes/jokes and markers, both paper & food.  You can put all your fun stuff in a neat tote to keep it all together.  For the full tutorial click here.
I have also seen those cool Keebler snacks that have a spot on them just for writing notes on (I'm sure you've seen the commercial).  I will me adding paper bags to my kit as my 7 3/4 year old has told me it's a big pain to take a lunch box because he always forgets it and with paper bags he can just throw it away.  If anyone else has any ideas of other neat stuff,  let me know. 
The 2nd thing I found are these adorable cupcakes I found at Kara's Cupcakes.  You can make them for a fun after school surprise, dessert for after dinner on the first day of school or whatever. I just thought they were such a cute idea.  For the full tutorial on how to make them click here.  
I hope that everyone has great fun getting ready for school and getting your kids excited for school because all I know is that I am not only ready for them to go back but SO VERY excited too!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Killer Deals

I have a few websites that I check almost everyday that I love because of the deals I can find there.
My first one is Woot.com.  There are 4 new deals every day that starts at 11 pm each night.  I found my sons Leap Frog "Star Wars" Didj with game for 29.99 last Christmas.  The trick to this site is that it is $5 shipping no matter the item, which is good for big things, not so good for small things.
Next is PinchingYourPennies.com.  I "like" them on Facebook so I don't have to check their site constantly for great deals because they are always posted to Facebook.  They let me know of the deal that buy.com was having on the new Harry Potter Lego Wii game ($32.99 + free shipping) which I jumped on because even Wal*mart had it for $49.99.  Awesome, eh?
Then if you want some GREAT deals on name brand shoes check out 6pm.com.  Some of their shoes are 75% to 85% off.  With school coming up that is the first place I go before heading to my local shoe store because I can often find good quality shoes for less even with shipping.
And lastly, for those who like to fix thing up/ redo/ reuse/ refurbish, whatever you want to call it you have GOT to go to publicsurplus.com.  It is where public schools "auction" off old items that they don't use anymore.  Most auctions start at $1 an item.  You just have to be sure to click on your region, and then be willing to go pick it up if you win the auction.  I got an overhead projector that I use to paint my "wall art" for just $2. Love it!!!  (so much cheaper than those sticky decals that start at $50, but that is for another post).  Right now in the Utah area were I am they have full wooden cabinets for $1.00! With a little love these could be turned into such great things.  I want them bad but they are too big for my mini van, but I'm sure they will find a good home. 
Awesome, Awesome, Awesome deals everywhere.  I will also put the links on my side bar for quick access, so go check them out and if you have any websites you like let me know because I am always on the look out for a great deal!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Messenger Bag

With school fast approaching (at least for my kids) I thought this was the cutest thing, especially for little girls.  A messenger bag instead of a back pack.  I found it on a blog called "Diary of a Quilter" (their picture of the completed project to the left), although it is not quilted. All the kids have a back pack and something different is always nice, at least while kids are still little.  For the full tutorial click here.
My daughter is starting kindergarten this fall and hasn't gotten into the whole "I have to be just like my friends" yet so I thought it would be the perfect "special" thing for her to start her elementary school experience.   I am going to try it out this week I think, I'm on my way to the store today and will let my daughter pick out her favorite material, Tinkerbell no doubt but she might surprise me.  I am also thinking of adding a pocket on the front or maybe doing a couple of things a little differently but I will let you know how and if it works out.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Hand Trees

So for the 1st thing to write about on this blog I thought I would start with a project I actually tried...Mod Podged Hand Tress, (their picture of the completed project is to the right). I found this project on the blog Mod Podge Rocks, which linked me to the full tutorial on At Second Street:a creative blog which you can find here. As you can see they are these really cool trees you make out of your kids hand prints, and they can help you make them which is a big plus.  They look cool and they also preserve a moment in time with my kids hand prints. My kids are always putting their hands up agaist them to see how much their hands have grown even though they only did them a few months ago. 
Here are pictures of how our project went:
Here are all my supplies out and ready to start.  I did one thing differently then what she did at, At Second Street.  I went to Lowes' and got one long 12 inch wide board and then cut it into 3 pieces, then painted them with black acrylic paint. I followed her instructions from there.  Another tip is that I wanted all the greens in the leafs to not clash with any of the other greens in my great room ( I have a lot of green) so I went to JoAnn's Fabrics where they were nice enough to group the "like" greens together. ;)
My kids had a blast using the Mod Podge.  As it dried on their hands you could peel it off like dried white glue.  Does anyone else remember LOVE putting white glue on your hands as a kid and letting it dry just so you could peel it off? I know I sure did which I told my kids all about (bounding moment).
Then the finished project, which hangs proudly on the wall behind my kitchen table.  It was the perfect place for it as I have a great room (living/kitchen/dinning room all together) of which I have a HUGE wall.
I just love how they turned out and they are such a conversation piece as well.  The best thing of all is that my kids and I made a great memory that they will always remember.