My oldest son Jake is very stylish. Today I am sharing his very own creation, a DIY Denim Tie. This year he is in 7th grade and accidentally got put in Home Economics. It actually suited him quiet well, and the girls in his class quite liked having him around. He started off with a skinny tie that he already had.
Then he took an old pair of his dad's jeans and laid them out on the counter. He looked around till he found the worn marks and whiskering that he wanted on the front of the tie.
He turned them inside out and placed the tie over the desired parts of the jeans.
Then with a marker he traced the tie with about a 1/4 of an inch extra all the way around. The jeans were not long enough for the tie, so he traced the extra needed right next to the main part of the tie.
Then he cut them out and pinned Read more [...]
A good friend of mine was in charge of our schools Read-a-thon this year. She asked me if I could design a "Passport" for each of the kids in the school. Inside they could fill in their information and have a place where they could write down the min. they read for each week. This is what I came up with.
On the inside, the students can glue a picture of themselves (or some times teachers can print them off from their class pictures). There is a note from the "Principal" and a place for them to sign their name, just like a real passport.
There are 12 spaces for "stamps", stickers, signatures, or recording their minutes or "reading miles traveled". You could also encourage the students to read books that talk about other countries around the world.
To download the PDF printable for the Passport to Reading, Read more [...]
I love taking the family trek to Disneyland. But when you are a planner like me, it is best to know as much as you can before you get to the parks. The following are 25 of my top Disneyland tips for making the most of your Disneyland vacation.
1. Go for the Park Hopper ticket. If you are trying to decide whether to do one day at one park and another at the other park, I suggest the Park Hopper ticket. On our latest trip we found this to be the best way to get on the most rides. Plus, depending on the ages of your kids, California Adventure probably won't take you a full day to do all of the rides you want to ride. I usually buy my tickets before we leave for our vacation. I have bought them from GetAwayToday.com and Disney's Travel Agency. Once you have traveled with Disney's agency, they Read more [...]
This project started like so many others, with a great deal. I had seen these cork pendant lights at Lowe's and really liked them.
My basement was far from being finished at the time but I knew I had the perfect place for them. That was when I noticed the price...$7! I threw three into my cart when I realized that they were hard wired for Compact Florescent Light bulbs. BARF! I HATE CFLs. Actually I hate all florescent light bulbs. I wouldn't even allow our builder to put them in my garage. The slow warm up, the flickering, the blue hue, no thank you. Something had to be done.
I loved the pendant and couldn't let this amazing price go to waist. Could I change them over hold a warm incandescent bulb? You betcha. I hustled over to Lowe's lighting parts department. I picked up a multi Read more [...]
While hunting around on Pinterest, I found a great site called "Better than we Deserve" where Ramona made "Girl on Fire" t-shirts for YW camp. I loved the idea of merging pop culture (The Hunger Games books) and the gospel. I think it grabs the girls interests and transforms it into a new way of looking at the world. Anyway, I took Ramona's idea and turned it into our bulletin board for 2013.
You probably recognize the logo in the center, it is the Young Woman torch that has been around forever. I also found a pin on Pinterest that called the logo "The Original Girl on Fire". Below the torch are matches or what I call fire starters. The Young Women are on fire with the Holy Ghost and the matches are ways they can start their fire or keep it burning strong and bright. All of the values are listed as well as a Read more [...]
In reflecting back over the past year (and a few months) since I started blogging, I realized that I usually share a cool project, list the how to's and send it out into the blogosphere and the world of Pinterest, but rarely share what happened to all of those projects over the next days and months. Instead of giving you a glammed up version of my best projects of 2012, I thought I'd share a few mistakes, changes, and fails that came AFTER I hit the "publish" button.
1. My pantry. While I love my pantry, I wrote that post mostly to show my organizing abilities in order to land a spot on a local TV program. It worked! And my pantry went crazy viral. I don't have a "fail" for my pantry, but some of the comments were hilarious and worth taking a look at. Especially this one "Your pantry is gorgeous Read more [...]
Last week I was in line at Costco when a woman came up to me and asked me what I thought of the wrapping paper she was debating buying. It was bright green with little cartoon animals all over it. Honestly, I was taken aback when she asked me what I deemed a very "personal" question. I stuttered "It's .... cute". Then I proceeded to explain to her that I choose my Christmas wrapping paper to match my holiday decor. That was NOT what she was expecting, she shrugged me off like I was some type of major weirdo. Since I have very thick skin and confidence in my ability to "Wrap up Christmas" I left determined to keep up my tradition and start wrapping up all of the presents that were hidden throughout my house.
When I am wrapping Christmas presents, I like to lay out all of my supplies on our kitchen island. I Read more [...]
Nothing says Christmas morning like Caramelized Baked French Toast. It is a sweet sugar fest for the senses. I also love that you can prep it the day before, pop it in the oven Christmas morning and enjoy a warm tasty breakfast together (unlike crepes where I'm standing over the griddle while the kids are crying "more" before I've even tasted one).
Click HERE for the PRINTABLE RECIPE
Ingredients:
1 Loaf of French Bread
6 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Milk
1 1/2 cups Half and Half
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
3/4 cup Butter
1 1/3 cups Brown Sugar
3 tbls light Corn Syrup
Start by cutting the french bread into 6 long strips. Then with kitchen shears, snip off chunks of bread until the entire loaf is in a greased casserole dish. Set aside (since I live in a dry climate, I leave it uncovered to allow the bread Read more [...]
So I was loving all of the faux taxidermy found all around the internet. I searched for life sized paper mache, plaster, even gilded deer heads. They were all very expensive, $150 plus. Then, since I live in a prime hunting state, I figured I'd check our local classifieds at KSL.com. I looked up taxidermy and that's when I fell in love with this buck. The owner was asking $50...yep, $50 for the REAL DEAL! We met up at a convenience store and she pulled it out of the back of her Jeep. It was even prettier than the pictures on the web. I was giddy the whole way home. As I began showing it to friends, family, and anyone who would listen I started getting a lot of street cred among people I didn't know were hunters. They all seemed a bit dissapointed when I told them I bought it off of KSL. Ha ha. I'm definitely NOT Read more [...]
So earlier this week I shared my Christmas Tree crate. Today I'm going to share with you my entire tree. I changed it up this year and went with a natural, neutral, burlap, and champagne theme.
I started by putting my tree in the crate. Then I wrapped burlap fabric around and around the entire tree.
Then 5 champagne tinsel garlands that I picked up at Target this year. I LOVE these. They are almost matte and the perfect mix of silver and gold.
Next I added the driftwood garland that I made earlier this year. I love the natural wood element infused into my very faux tree. I should have added my Merry Christmas burlap ribbon now, but I forgot and added it at the end working it in around the ornaments.
I continued by layering in all of my ornaments. On the left are collected pinecones that I simply Read more [...]
Artificial Christmas tree or Fresh Cut? I'm Artificial all the way. And, if I'm not hosting a Thanksgiving feast, I like to put it up the week before Thanksgiving. Yep, I'm one of those people. Don't get me wrong, I respect the bird, but why not enjoy your Christmas tree as long as possible, another reason I love artificial. This year was no different. I was so excited to put my tree up this year, mostly because of a crate that was repurposing.
I made a usual stop at our local ReStore and purchased a huge classroom chalkboard. I had to pull around to the back for the guys that work there to load it in my van. That is when I spotted this amazing crate. It was huge, wrapped in plastic, and stacked out in the yard. I asked the guy loading my chalkboard how much it was. He said "how about $5". I went Read more [...]
Recycle & Reuse 
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