Butterfly's Everywhere

One of my favorite Pins since day one on Pinterest was this adorable home made butterfly mobile, as we don’t intend to have another little one and its not likely to Bruce would like this I chose to make it for Taylors big girl bedroom redo.

Supplies Used:

· Craft Rings (3 pack) $4

· Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch- $10

· Fish twine - Had on hand

· Swatches from Home Depot for colors - Free (my favorite word)

· Glue Gun- Had on Hand

· Glue Sticks- $6

· Glue Stick- Had on Hand

Total Cost- $20

To begin I started punching butterflies, Depending on the size of the paint swatch I found a got 4-5 on each color.  Warning this took FOREVER I would say easily 5 hours of just punching butterflies over a four day time period. 

Below is an image or my supplies about mid way threw punching out the butterflies.

Once all the butterflies were punch I then slightly folded them all in half to make it easier to glue.

My brilliant husband suggested having 4 butterfly’s glued together (instead of my original idea of one n each side of the fish twine to hold it between them) this way you could see a butterfly no matter where you are in the room. While I loved this idea for end product results this does me more work for me.

Now comes the time to glue the butterflies together first I chose to glue all but one side of the 4 sided butterfly together with the glue stick. This does get sticky so I suggest taking breaks to wash hands or just walk away for sanity’s sake. Now comes the time to glue the butterflies on the fish twine. I also knotted the fish twine where I wanted the butterflies to sit to help hold the glue as it dried. I suggest letting the butterflies dry on the fish twine overnight to ensure they are all secure before hanging.

See my battle scar below from my evil glue gun.

Next, I wrapped the craft ring with ribbon and tied another ribbon to help hang the mobile; I made this into a large bow for a little extra girly touch. J  Now time to secure our butterfly strings to the craft ring. I chose to tie them in knots around the ring as well as press the string between a hot glued butterfly and the craft ring. I also chose to decorate the craft ring with my left over butterflies.

Below is the end product.

 I’m very happy with the outcome and best of all was the reaction I got from our sweet girl when we showed her. Kids really make EVERYTHING worth it.

UPDATE (March 31st): I have added an additional picture of the one I made for my friends baby shower. It is very similar to Taylors except we faded the colors and I used beads to hang the craft ring. I hope this brings a big smile to sweet Lexi.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Just a quick update. While on my trip to California I got some great news, I accepted the position as a Business Analyst at Zale’s Corporation and will start on Feb 26th! Gonna miss the good times at Microsoft but all the others will just become a distant memory. I’m really looking forward to being challenged for the first time in a long time! I’m so thankful for my time at Microsoft as I learned so much and met some really amazing people but it was time to move on and this position fell into my lap so I had to take it! As today was my last day at Microsoft I was overly spoiled which made it even harder to leave!!!

They made me this wonderful cake!

My team even got me a plant , card and gift card! Purple Pride!!!!

And they gave me all these wonderful goodies as well!

One of my co-workers even made me this E-card which made LOL

So everyone knows I cry at everything, every sappy movie or cheesy commercial so of course the waterworks were in full force today. I’m very thankful that my boss requested I rebuild the server before I left as this let me work up until almost the minute I had to leave. So needless to say I cried most the way to pick up the kids from daycare and hugged them extra tight today.

Now on to our  family update Bruce is seven months and officially a Tasmanian devil! Something I have learned from having a boy is their energy never ends!! From the moment he wakes up till he is in bed again fighting sleep he is constantly on the move. No wonder he eats so much he needs fuel for all this energy he is constantly burning. Bruce is also teething which is always fun in our house. Taylor is such a great big sister and loves to help with Bruce, she is always there for feedings and lets us know when we’re not doing it right J They finally are truly getting along and even share toys from time to time. Taylor is being Taylor as she does best, running the house, being silly, and refusing to eat everything. I’m so proud to call these two mine, in my eyes they are perfect in every way possible!

I'm 7 months now and think my sister is funny!

Proof they can share!

and they really do get along!

Yummy Crownies!

This is just further proof that pinterest really does have the best ideas! Our family project today was a sweet one, Brownie/Cookie Muffins AKA Crownies! Yes they are as AHHH-MAZING as they sound. For anyone who doesn’t know I DO NOT cook, bake or anything else. My husband is the chef in the family and he makes the most killer fajitas and burgers but in a attempt to become more well rounded I chose to give these a try. Now don’t get too excited, I used store brought brownie mix and cookie dough. To begin I made both the mix and dough. Bake teaspoon’s of your favorite brownie mix in a mini muffin pan at 325 for 6 min. Then add a teaspoon of your favorite chocolate chip cookie mix on top and bake another 8-10 minutes (or until center isn't gooey).  The best tip I can give is don’t do the math, it’s really best to not know how many calories there are in these as it will make you cry since they are so good!

This really was as easy as it sounds, heck even I could do it! 

Operation lose the baby weight, BEGINS!

I am a mother, a wife and a women in those orders. I pride myself that my husband and kids need's always have and always will come before my own. To go along with the happy marriage and the privilege of carrying two of the most beautiful children this world has ever seen, I also have gained quite a bit of weight. I like many women chose to indulge myself in my pregnancy’s (especially with my daughter as she had a sweet tooth upon conception) and the pounds liked me so much they chose to stick around. Since my husband and I have made the decision that we will no longer be having kids it’s time to nip this baby weight in the butt (literally!). So today’s project is a quick and easy one. To help spark visual motivation I have created two jars to show pounds lost vs pounds left to lose.

Many people know I LOVE a good deal, when you have 7 mouths to feed (fur babies included) its hard not to like a little money savings. So to do my jars I went to the dollar store, as I often do before starting a craft project and purchased two jars I liked. Next I used some scrapbook letter stickers I happen to have on hand. This is my final product.

We are going out later today to find some marbles that will help give me visual motivation to see what I have accomplished and what I have left to do.

My current plan for weight loss is as follows:

·         (1) Fewer Calories (1200-1800 depending on activity level)

·         (2) More Water!!!! 6-8 glasses NO EXCUSES!

·         (3) Less Sodas ( this will be no soda’s but for now less is more)

·         (4)Less Sweet ( one sweet a day less than 200 calories)

·         (5) Be more ACTIVE!!!

I know it’s not much but it’s a start. It’s time to become the role model my kids deserve!

Pizza Muffins

In a attempt to get our 3 year old to eat a real meal for once I tried to re-create some pizza muffins I found on Pinterest.

Ingredients:

• Pillsbury cresent rolls
• Pizza Sauce
• Cheese
• Any additional pizza toppings - we used turkey pepperonis

Everyone knows im not a cook so I LOVED this receipt since it was so extremetly easy. If she takes to them im also thinking about adding veggies in with the sauce next time.

1. Form the cresent roll into the muffin tin
2. Add a teaspoon of Pizza sauce to each muffin
3. Add desired toppings

Below is our princess helping to make our Pizza Muffins, further proof how EASY this receipe is!

And now the End result. They were as AMAZING as they look.

Angry Bird's

Today’s Pinterest project is a mobile for our little boy. We thankfully still had the parts for the mobile from our daughters room but didn’t feel like the animal print fit well in Bruce’s Guitar/Space/Comic book theme (if you can call it a theme) so I came up with the brilliant idea to make our own. I have now spent 5 months trying to find the perfect item, only to finally settle on angry birds; which I believe Deric suggested when we were still pregnant.  

Supplies Used:
Parts from old mobile- include motor and hook as well as plastic hanger.
Angry bird pencil toppers - $10

Cloud theme fabric for cover - $4

Needle and thread – Had on hand.

Springy (yes this is my technical term) yarn- $2.

Hem Tape- $3

First, I measured the length I wanted the birds to hang and cut the “springy” yarn according to size. I then tied a knot in one end and threaded the other end with a needle. I was able to push the needle and yarn threw the pencil hole of the bird, so it was able to come out the top. I then tied and knotted the birds to the plastic hanger I had from Taylor’s old mobile.

Next I measured and cut the fabric for the mobile cover. I simply made a square that was large enough to cover the plastic hanger at all four points then I added an inch and a half for over hang to give a more finished appearance. I used hem tape to make all the sides have a nice clean finish and snipped all the corners so they would hang down for the desired look.

Below is the mid process result at this point I just need to sew up the edges and hang it. J Were very happy with how its looking and cant wait for our little man to enjoy it.

Half way Mark

It's hard to believe our little man is already 6 months old today. Some of his favorite things to do are eat, eat and sleep. Yes Bruce has a one track mine (as many boys do) and his is set to food. Here are just a few ways he is different from his big sister
(1) Size- while no one would call him small (EVER!) he is proportionally different from his sister. Taylor had rolls on rolls and our little guy is just "stalky" there is no better way to describe his thick body type.
(2) Personality- Bruce is so quite and likes to observe things more then his sister, he will just sit back and watch everything that is going on where as Taylor enjoyed being in the middle of it. Maybe this comes with being the second child, maybe this is boy vs girl I dont know but he sure is adorable.
(3) Likes- Taylor's all time favorite thing at this age was watching her #1 movie Bolt. Yes she was a movie critic even at such a young age however Bruce doesn’t want anything to do with TV. While I’m sure this will not always be the case for now he is the "odd" man out in our house as that’s one of our favorite past times.
 Below is a picture of him today - yes he is about to eat again.

 

Were 100% in love with our little man and feel so privilege to get to watch him grow up.

Spray Paint the new Duck tape

My latest project was to give a few items I have found at craft stores or consignment stores a new life, and I accomplished this thru several coats of spray paint.  Spray paint has become my favorite addiction I use it in many of my projects and it always seems to make a large impact. Today’s paint project was some baskets and statues.  Below is the before images, as you can see these items are well made but kind of BLAH (for lack of a better word)

To list the items (from left to right) and what they will be used for  

(1)    A large basket, for additional storage in our living room. Since the latest addition of our sweet boy our house just doesn’t seem to be big enough and more than anything I need more places to put all this crap I mean treasured items.

(2)    Buddha Statue for Taylor’s new big girl room- although it may be slightly ironic to put a Buddha statue which signifies calm or tranquility in our 3 year olds room;however I found it at the dollar store and wanted to add some cute cheap pops of color.

(3)    A bird house for Taylor’s Room- again this is a dollar store find that just a little extra decoration for contrast.

(4)    A small basket for Taylors Room- I believe I will be putting in her dress up corner to help store her Jewelry.

(5)    Last but not least an old file folder holder which will be repurposed into book storage for Taylor’s new room, since we need more room for our continually increasing library this seemed like a good alternative to keep her "must read" books close to her .

Now the After – I admit the purple is very vibrant but that’s what I was looking for so it would match her bedspread and be a nice pop with all the white and green.

My blue basket was inspired by a picture we recently got for our living room, it’s hard to tell but the blue matches the color of the birds.

Here are a few things I have learned about spray paint

(1) DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT spray on a windy day, I made the mistake thinking

the wind wasnt "that bad" and ended up with it all over me. It never fails Id wait

till the wind ended and just as I got a good spray going, here comes a giant gust.

(2) I highly recommend investing in some gloves we got some at our local hardware

store and they made clean up much easier the first time I did this was on a windy

day no gloves with my wedding ring on, I almost died when I realized what I had done.

Our Little Man is Growing Like a Weed

Its hard to believe how independent he is already getting, I swear I just had him! At almost 6 months our little man has really taken to standing/pulling himself up. Here is a picture of our little night owl bright eyed and pulling himself up when he should be in bed.
I know many parents out there will be in shock that we allow our little ones to be up at this late hour (coming up on midnight), honestly I would have been one of them just a few short years ago; however we have come to the realization we would rather have more time with our kids then demand they maintain a schedule.Since our time is already so limited with our busy work and school schedules family time is treasured in our house, we try not to rush it, we try to get individual time with each of the kids so they know how special they are and we try to make sure our kid's are having fun. I believe this topic falls into one of many in which my opinion is "to each their own" I dont need anyone to verify our decision, Id just rather not be questioned on how we chose to raise our kids. -End Rant
Some fun facts about our little ones:
Taylor-Just barely 3 years old and already such a drama queen. She knows she runs the house and shows it every day. Some of her favorite things are Dora, the color purple(actual color not the movie - that would be weird), singing/dancing and her pediasure for Breakfast.
Bruce- What to say about our big boy, he is such a sweetheart. He is always all smiles and constantly looking for things to get into. People are not kidding when they say boys are TOTALLY different then girls.Some of his favorite things are Cars, balls, food in general, and "dada".

Donna Reid Wannabe!

As many people know I have recently found lots of motivation on Pinterest and found many different projects I’d like to try. The first project just happened to be really good timing for my little girl’s 3^rd birthday. I decided to try and make cupcakes made to look like Ice cream cones. I may be known for many things but cooking was never one of them. Baking does seem to be a lot easier to me so I figured I’d give it a shot. I decided to start with a box mix for the cupcakes and pre-made frosting (Which I barely had time for that). I chose to try and make fluffier cupcakes by adding Jello, and if I do say so myself they turned out AMAZING! They were moist and fluffy and had a great taste!!

So now on to the actual project, time to decorate the cupcakes to look like ice cream cones. First we decided to bake cupcakes into the actual ice cream cones, this turned out great and the girls liked that they each had one. Now time for frosting …WOW! I don’t know why Icing cupcakes looks so easy on TV. I should have made a few extra for practice but considering I didn’t start decorating till after midnight it was more about getting thru it before I fall asleep standing up. After teaching myself a few techniques that I found to work best, It may not have been exactly what I envisioned but in the end I’m happy with how it all turned out.

One thing to keep in mind , the girls all asked for Ice cream after seeing the cupcakes so clearly they decided to take the ice cream cupcakes a little more literal then I had originally intended.