Valentine’s Décor and Girl Scouts

I haven’t posted here in a long while.  It’s been since mid-November, but it certainly doesn’t seem that long ago.  The months are flying by in a blur these days!

I wanted to share a couple of Valentine’s projects I copy crafted from Pinterest.  Don’t you just love Pinterest?  I do, I’m sorta addicted.  Sometimes copy crafts don’t turn out at all like the originals, but I’m thinking this time they turned out almost just as cute. 

My Blue Heart Bunting is a copy of this one. 

It’s hard to see the contrasting stitches in the above pic, but you can see it below and I think it adds a nice touch.  The felt hearts I just sewed on with a stitched X. 

My Burlap & Hearts wreath is a copy of this adorable argyle yarn and hearts wreath.  I originally started with yarn, but it just wasn’t working on the straw wreath form I was using.  I realized I had some left-over burlap from a fall bunting so I cut that into strips and wrapped it around the wreath form.  I pulled out burlap “threads” from one of the strips to tie the hearts on.  I’m loving the aqua blue and red color combo.  Oh, and I also added a felt flower…I just happened to have a button in the right color, so things just came together on this one!

For this Hugs & Kisses sign, I just used wooden letters from Michaels, painted the edges blue, and covered them in scrapbook paper with some glittery stripes on it.  I painted the edges of a wooden board in red, covered it with scrapbook paper leaving a border and then attached the letters using pop dots to add some dimension. 

I knew when Lauren started kindergarten I also wanted to get her started in scouting.  Now I’m a Daisy Girl Scout troop leader for this school year and we have a troop of 8 kindergarteners and first graders.  They are a great bunch of girls and totally adorable in their little Daisy vests.  We are right in thick of cookie season right now, and I wanted an activity to help the girls learn the different types of cookies.  I remembered seeing a blog post at one point suggesting a game of Twister, so I created the game below complete with a spinner.

The girls had a lot of fun trying to find all the cookies and keep their balance while tied up like a pretzel!  If you’re local and selling these types of cookies, email me at the link in my right sidebar if you would like JPEG’s of the spinner/arrow or cookie images.  I would be happy to share.

Artwork and Homework Display Gallery

I’ve seen these boards around Pinterest and really liked the idea of making one for the hallway so Lauren can display her school and art work. 

I picked up a piece of 1/4” thick particle board at Lowes and we cut it to 50” x 4”.  I painted the edges and the top 2” of the board with several layers of green craft paint.  Then I cut 2” strips of scrapbook paper and used Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the bottom half of the board.

I covered the edges where the paint and paper meet in the middle with some ribbon using hot glue and then glued on some clips I picked up at Staples. 

Then I pulled out my Cricut and some vinyl I bought ages ago on Pick your Plum.  I’ve never cut vinyl and was a little nervous to try it.  I set the pressure on high and turned the blade setting to 6 (the highest).  It came out great on the first try.  For those of you who never tried it, I peeled up the vinyl and was left with just the words stuck to the paper backing.  I used the little Cricut spatula to remove the little centers from the “a’s” and “e’s”, then I stuck a piece of clear Contact paper on top of all the words and lifted them up off the paper.  Now I had a sheet of Contact paper with all the words stuck to the back of it.  I cut each word out, positioned it where I wanted it, rubbed the vinyl letters down, and carefully lifted the Contact paper to leave the letters behind.  Worked like a charm…no need for expensive transfer paper from the vinyl shops!  I got a huge roll of clear Contact at Walmart from the shelf lining display for next to nothing.  

Best part of all is that Lauren LOVES her new gallery!

Weekend stuff

Last weekend my brother and sister-in-law’s niece got married and it was a beautiful wedding.  Here’s the bride and groom with my mother.  They are a gorgeous couple and have such a bright future together. 

Here’s a couple of pics before we headed out.  I found Lauren’s cute dress at JC Penney…the bright pink looks really nice on her.

Here’s grandma with her two youngest grandkids…

Lauren had a blast on the dance floor.  Here she is with her cousin, Emily, and with Uncle Jim and Aunt Stephanie…

and she danced with the bride for the money dance…

She sat still just long enough for a quick pic with Daddy…

This weekend we had a garage sale.  It was the first really chilly morning here in the Phoenix area, so Lauren’s lemonade stand was converted to a hot cocoa stand.  Now who wouldn’t buy cocoa and cookies from these two cuties…

Actually, Grandma, who was supposed to be the assistant hot cocoa sales person, ended up manning the table most of the time and made the majority of the sales.  There’s now $10 more dollars in her piggy bank. 

I had SO many of Lauren’s old clothes bagged up in the garage and was so happy to get rid of them…

After seeing all these clothes go out the door for next to nothing, her fall and winter wardrobes for this year will be MUCH smaller!  Oh, and same thing for the toys this Christmas…

The girls had a blast playing and goofing around.  Here’s Lauren with our good friends, Nancy and Lily…

Ruby, our best doggy friend, was the official garage sale mascot…

Halloween

Another great Halloween in the books.  Lauren had an amazing time trick or treating with three little friends. 

My pretty little Minnie Mouse…

With Grandma before heading out for the night…

I was talking to a friend of mine while we were out with the kids and we were both reflecting on all the years of handing out candy and feeling so jealous of all the parents with their little ones.  It was one of those moments when we were both so thankful to finally be parents and we were just enjoying every minute of watching our kids have so much fun.  I think waiting so long to become a mom has really made me live in the moment and enjoy all the little things…nothing is taken for granted. 

Faux Roman Shade

We have one of those dated, glass block windows in my master bathroom over the tub.  It’s the only window on the west side of the house and the afternoon/early evening sun is way too much. 
About 5 years ago I made a real roman shade for this window.  You know, the kind with a pulley and strings, wooden dowels, and plastic rings that you can pull up and down?  Well, I’m kind of giving my bedroom a mini makeover and the old roman shade just isn’t in my color scheme or style any more.  Isn’t it amazing how you can love something one day and a few years later you’re wondering what the heck you were thinking?  I do that all the time.   
I bought curtain panels at IKEA a while back for my bedroom and bought an extra package thinking I may need them later.  On Sunday, I decided I was going to get rid of the ugly roman shade and use one of the curtain panels to make something new.  Remembering back to the day when I said NEVER AGAIN am I making another roman shade, I knew it needed to be something much faster and easier.  After taking a few quick measurements of the old shade and the IKEA curtain panel, I knew just what to do…a faux roman shade.  I already had three tension rods tucked away that I bought for another project and never used…perfect.  So, here’s what I did…
  
The curtain panel was lined and just happened to be almost the exact width (total luck out).  I used the hem already on the curtain and cut to size from the top.  Then I measured and marked to sew three 1” casings (one for each tension rod).  I just cut little slits close to the edge on the back side (liner side) to slip the rods through.  Then I stapled the top to a wooden board that fits in the window casing at the top.  My curtain was a tiny bit too wide, so I stapled in two pleats (one on each side of the shade) to take up a little slack. 
Here’s a side view…you can’t even see the tension rods, since I cut the insert slits in from the edge about the width of the rubber stoppers on the rod. 

I’m REALLY happy with the end result!  It matches the bedroom and it’s such a bright, pretty change from my old dark roman shade. 

   Simply Designing

Pumpkin French Toast…yum!

The other day Lauren and I decided to make breakfast for dinner and I remembered I had some leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge.  We put this together and both really enjoyed it.  Hope you do to…

2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1/4 cup milk or half & half
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
4 to 6 slices of bread (depending on the size)

Whisk together the ingredients while the skillet is heating up.  Dip both sides of bread and cook on the skillet until browned on both sides.  Serve with syrup or butter and cinnamon sugar.

Disney trip

We took Lauren to Disneyland for Fall break and had a GREAT time!  She is the perfect age and absolutely loved it.  We had three day hopper passes and spent two days at Disneyland and one day at California Adventure.  Disneyland was decked out for Halloween and the Haunted Mansion was transformed into The Nightmare before Christmas.  It's amazing the work they put into changing up this atttraction for the holiday...we rode this one twice. 

Lauren loved any fast ride including the new Radiator Springs Racers, Thunder Mountain and the Matterhorn.  She also loved all the rides in Fantasyland with Peter Pan and Dumbo being her favorites.  She was thrilled when she got to ride up front with the driver on the Monorail.  I think the most fun she had was the Minnie Mouse & Friends character breakfast at the Plaza Inn on Main Street and at the Jedi Training Academy show in Tomorrowland.  She got selected to "train" as a Jedi during the show complete with brown, hooded robe and light saber.  She got to fight up on stage with Darth Vader (video below) and got a certificate at the end. 

You can see all our trip pics on my Shutterfly site.  Here are some of my favorites...