Happy 4-0 to the Mr. T

T1 and T2 are at a church retreat, T3 and T4 are at grandma’s and I’m helping the Mr. T celebrate the big 4-0.  We are taking a day to ourselves, shopping, eating and a movie. (bad iPhone pic)

Happy Pres. Day, the party, and the Valentine box

Happy President’s Day.  I’m enjoying my day off from school with my kids.  I probably should post the surprise birthday party pics, a week later.  It was my MIL’s 60th birthday and I was in charge of frugal decor.  She loves shabby chic so I went with mason jars filled with tissue paper poms.  We used turquoise, red and cream and I made tags for the jars.  It wasn’t the most “done up” party I’ve decorated, but she loved it none the less. I had big tissue paper poms to hang from the ceiling, but when we got there, they told us we couldn’t hang anything from their ceiling, so we laid the poms on the tables instead.

Update on the Valentine box for T4.  He got LAST PLACE.  Yes, they told him he was last.  How horrible for a 2nd grader to be told his box was last.  I was not very happy about the situation. The Lincoln Memorial got first place (what?) so T4 wanted to know if we could make the White House next year.  Too much for a Valentine party in my opinion.  T3 got 2nd place for her Valentine box and she took the locker from last year.  Again I say “what?”  I HATE stupid competitions like that when it’s the parents making the boxes anyway.

Canvan for T2

Right after Christmas I bought a package of two canvasses from Hobby Lobby.  They’ve been sitting in my living room since then.  I knew I wanted to use at least one for T2’s bedroom.  She needed something above her bed. I still have plans for a headboard, and after seeing the artwork on the wall, she REALLY needs a headboard.  I used my Silhouette and cut out dandelions a put them on the white canvas.  I spray painted pink and orange.  When it was dry, I added the words and sprayed the spaces a blue that matched her wall.  I think it may still need to outline the words; they didn’t “pop” as I had hoped.  I picked the verse from Jeremiah because she is starting to think about where she wants to go to college (as an 8th grader??) and I wanted her to know that she doesn’t have to have it figured out right now because God does. This seems a bit small in scale for the wall, so I may need to make the other to balance the space.  It will have to wait a bit though, today was the last 70 degree day for about a week 😦

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http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2011/02/weekend-wrap-up-party-and-accessories.htmlTator

Are you reaaady for Valentine’s Day

**Imagine the title in the “are you ready to rumble voice.”**

Finished up T4’s Valentine box when we got back from Nana’s surprise birthday party.  I’ll post pics of the party later this week; I was in charge of decorations. His box goes along with his valentine’s he’s giving out.  They are having a contest (which I greatly dislike) so now he want’s to win and we didn’t put “win” amount of time into this.  Hope he’s not too disappointed.  It’s cute enough. We used some leftover material from the Ben Ten jacket and we tied the frog to the lily pad so it wasn’t damaged.  We stuck heart stickers on the frog. The LEAP has accordion fold paper attaching it so it “leaps” off the box.  All the letters were cut with my Silhouette – go awesome machine!

Remember T3’s request to make upcycled pouches for Valentine’s Day?  Well, crazy mom did it.  We only used the first initial and made them smaller.  We put a Hershey bar in them and called them treasure pouches.  The saying on the front of the card reads “Valentine you are a treasure.”  The back says “this treasure pouch was made for you from recycled t-shirts” and has a heart made with the recycle arrows on it.  It took about 5 hours, but T3 was super excited when they were finished.

With the surprise party and such an ambitious valentine project, I’m exhausted.  Have some papers to grade though.

Wishing all of you a very happy Valentine’ Day.

Headband Valentine

T2 had a Valentine party with her friends last night and we made headbands  for everyone.  The card read “good friends band together-Happy Valentine’s Day”  I didn’t spend much time on the cards, so they are NOT great, but the idea was good.  I can’t wait to pick T2 up this morning and see how the party went.  We also took love potions like we made last year.  I have attached the love potion label if you would like to download it for your Valentine.

I didn’t use a tutorial, but here are some links to others if you like. Reversible Headband :: elastic covered :: list of headband tutorials

Click on the label picture above and it should open a bigger image to right click and save.

Re-Vamped Valentine Exchange

You may have noticed the sign on the side of my blog for the re-vamped valentine exchange sponsored by Craft Goodies.  This was my first exchange and I thought it was very fun.  I exchanged with a very talented lady from Utah and received a re-vamped flour sack pillow. Thanks Kimberly!

I sent her a re-vamped plate, a re-vamped tin and a basket (no it wasn’t re-vamped).

Thankgs Craft Goodies and Kimberly for a fun exchange.

Re-Vamp link party

froggy boy valentine

T4 found some cool frogs at the dollar store and wanted to make some valentine’s out of them.  After some thought, I decided on a lily pad wrapped mini Hershey bar, the ones in a pack 8 for $1 at Wal-Mart.  He sat with me as we typed in all the names and he helped put the frogs on with glue dots.  His name is written on the back with sharpie.  I have included the free printable if you want some froggy valentines of your own.

Click on the image below and it should open full size for you to save and print.

If not, put it in Word or Photoshop and make it 8.5 x 11.

The green polka dot paper is cut at 2.75 x 3 to fit the mini Hersheys.

I changed the saying so to My heart leaps for you.

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burp and a bag

That title could conjure soooo many mental images….

So, before your mind runs away with you, I’m talking about a burp cloth and another upcycled pouch.

The burp cloth is what I gave with the basket I’ve already shown you, but I’ll post it again.  We have a TON of pregnant ladies in our church, so I’ll get my practice with making them.  I made this one after seeing a similar one on esty.  I used the same fabric as I did on the basket.  The denim was a little tough to work with and I had to zig zag stitch it instead of straight stitch – turned out ok thought.

The next picture is of another upcycled pouch.  I have sold 3 so far, unsolicited I might add, since making some for my kids.  I enjoy making them and my kids are pretty sure I should advertise the pouches and baskets.  I love it when your kids think what you do is awesome!

I have some more projects to work on.  T3 wants single letter bags for her class for VD.  Still debating if it can be done.  I’ll have the check the stash (I did make a trip to Goodwill for a few more t-shirts) and see if I have enough.

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unexpected twist for snow day 4

I sometimes  have “internal shingles” which can be very painful, but I never break out in the rash.  When I went to the doctor yesterday to get medicine for  it, he also found a lump in my breast.  He told me it felt like a cyst, but he wanted to have it checked.  After two mammograms and a ultrasound, everything was fine.  But, I wanted to blog about it to remind EVERYONE to have your mammogram and catch things early.  They said they found a tiny spot in a 35 year old this week who was having her initial mammogram.  It was caught early and she will most likely be just fine.  I would rather it be caught early!  Go have your mammogram, thank God for when it turns out fine and pray for those who find something.

mammogram paraphernalia

 

*No crafts to share because I did freak out a little and did NOTHING since my appointment yesterday.  May have something to share later tonight.

more snow-more projects

I’m feeling much better today and have crossed a few projects off my list. First project was a PB Valentine plate knock off. They are floating around blogland and PB has sold out (not that I would have purchased one from them anyway.) So I found this super cute red polka dot plate at Target and decided it would make a perfect backdrop for the Pride and Prejudice saying.

DOWNLOAD SILHOUETTE CUT FILE

I have attached the cut file that I used.  The saying is from a book, so I think it’s ok to share it.  Let me know if this is breaking some kind of copyright law and I’ll take the link off.  The cut file is designed for a 9″ plate.

The next project is one I’ve had in my mind for awhile.  I ordered some chalkboard vinyl from Expressions Vinyl and have been saving it.  I used some of it to create a chalkboard sword for T4’s wall so we can write his memory verses on it.  I didn’t make it as big as I should have, but it works for now.  I might need to rework it later.

Project 3 was a cooking project with all my kids.  I saw these cute heart pies the other day and wanted to make some for us. Everyone had a part, and they turned out cute and YUMMY! I used the French pastry crust recipe from allrecipes.com.

T1 spent some time outside taking pictures in the snow.  She realized blizzard conditions are not conducive for picture taking, but this one did turn out good.

Last project is the start of another baby gift.  I got the basket finished and need to work on the burp cloths and a little something else tomorrow.  Yes, we have another snow day in the wake of the blizzard.

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