Yee- Haw a Barnyard Baby Shower!

This shower was for my sister Tiffany. She was pregnant with her 3rd boy. However, it has been around 10 years since she last had a baby shower and she has done so much for me, I felt like it would be nice to treat her to one even though she didn't want it.

We decided on doing a barnyard theme. I thought it would be so much fun and Tiff chose either barnyard or frog. The shower was at my house and since it was beginning of June in AZ it was indoors. Here are pics and I'll explain each thing a little bit.

Here is the out side of the invite. I bought the paper from michaels when it was a 5 for $1. I made around 12 invites so it wasn't so bad. The white I originally was going to cut out strips for the lines and glue but one was a lot of work so I bought a white marker. I made templates out of cereal boxes so I just had to trace. It went really fast once I knew what I was doing.

The barn doors opened up to the party info. Here is the info on the inside. The bling cow was from Michael's for $1 but I always used a 40%-50% off coupon. I got all different animals cow, chicken, sheep, horse and pig. Unfortunately this was a seasonal item and they no longer have them.

(For invites with the chicken bling I changed wording to Oink,Cluck, Neigh, Moo) 

          

   

The napkins we got the horse ones from michaels in the $1 bin, but used a coupon. The brown ones were leftover from My brother & sister-in-laws wedding. We used the zoo pal plates that are barn animal shapes. They were so cute and fit the theme. My sister-in-law purchase these so I don't know what the cost was. Around $5 maybe? They have different animals not just duck. The cup for the silverware was michaels $1 bin also. The checker cloth was just a piece of fabric from Joannes cost me around a buck.

FOOD!!! Always the funnest part:) I decided to give each item a name and it turned out so cute! Everyone loved it!

Deviled eggs

   

BBQ Beef sandwiches

How I made these was I made a dough and rolled in a ball. I placed them in a mini cupcake pan and pushed a Mini tart shaper (pampered chef item) and it made them hallowed out. I filled with pudding and put a squirt of whipped cream. They kinda melted a little and were runny. It was pretty tasty still.

We did a punch bowl for water and I bought rubber duckies that were barn themed. I got these from hobby lobby It was 6 for $3.99 I think. It was short notice so I didn't have a coupon. But I gave them to Tiff after so it doubled as a gift:)

These are a fav in my family! It is just the little smokies wrapped in bacon and then sprinkle in brown sugar and bake! So good!!!

 

Typical veggie tray. We arranged in rows to look more like a garden. We also had a bowl of watermelon. (One of her cravings at the time and Dr.'s orders to eat watermelon)

   

We did a diaper raffle which in my opinion is one of the greatest ideas ever! She got a ton of diapers. We gave away 2 prizes and $15 Walmart gift card and a $5 gift card to Bahama Bucks.

The shower turned out wonderful, everyone was generous and she received a lot of fun stuff to welcome her new baby boy!

Linking up to these fun parties:

Chicken Ranch Pasta

I almost missed another day for my goal of a post a day in May. Weekends excluded of course, who wants to "work" on weekends???

Here is another recipe that is a huge hit. Every time my mom has it she says, "you have to give me the recipe!" This ones for you Mom!!!

Chicken Ranch Pasta

1 Pkg. Pasta (Bowtie and Penne are my favorite for this)

2-3 Carrots, chopped

1/2 package of frozen broccoli

1 1/2C Ranch Dressing (Add more if seems dry)

(This recipe is the basic version. Add different veggies and see what your family likes. Zucchini, peas, etc.)

Cook pasta according to packaging.

Cook broccoli & other frozen veggies (I throw carrots in too)

Mix everything together and keep in fridge for around 30 minutes or longer. Serve cool.

(Sorry for the pictures, I'm so bad when it comes to food. I eat and forget pics!)

~CJ

Water Day

My goal was to do a post a day in May, but I have been feeling sick lately that it has been hard. I'm still feeling sick, but I didn't want to skip 2 days so here it is.

If you live in Mesa, AZ or have ever visited you know that it is HOT here! To cool off one day Ryder hosted a water day for his cousins. Because of fevers and schooling conflicts it only ended up being 2 of his cousins.

One of the activities I had planned was colored ice cubes. 

I bought the tray from Ikea for a buck (any ice cube tray will work). I filled up each slot with water and placed in 2 drops of food coloring. 

My plan was to have the kids get out of the pool and then when I say go they have to find their assigned color cubes. Since the kids ages ended up being 5, 15 months and 11 months we just worked with the older one. I put all the cubes in the pool and would say a color and he had to pick them out.

He seemed to enjoy it and it practiced colors and practiced taking orders:) Ryder obviously is too young to know colors, but he had fun trying to catch the cubes. Maybe we'll try this in his tub sometime.

The only downside to this is the cubes did not last very long. Pretty much just lasted long enough to play our little game and that's it.

We ended the day with a yummy Popsicle. Can't wait for next time!

Homemade Glue Dots

***Hello visitors! I'd love for you to look around, and I'd really love for you to stick around and follow me if you like what you see!

As promised here is the tutorial for homemade glue dots! They are super easy and way cheaper than the store bought stuff. They run for around $4 for 200-350 depending on what size you get. I would always go skimpy on them because they cost so much. Not anymore! I use glue dots like there is no tomorrow!

I first saw this idea through Pinterest about CardMonkey's Paper Jungle's post on making glue dots. Here she tested 2 different kinds of glue to see which worked better. I decided to just try one. Here is what you need. 

Something you put your glue dots on. I used the leftover paper from past glue dots. Once I saw the idea I knew that I had to try it! So I started saving my paper. Other ideas are transparencies and CD cases. However I like the strip idea because others seem like it would be harder to place the glue dot exactly where you want it.

A weight or tape so your paper will lay flat. I used little marble things. If you did the transparencies or CD case you would not need this.

Aleene's  brand tack it over and over glue. The only place I found this at was Michael's for around $4 I think. Don't forget your coupon!

Card Challenge-Celebrate!

I love cardmaking! It is so much fun. I'm not very creative though to come up with layouts on my own sometimes. I have come across a few websites that have challenges. They will give you a sketch and you create something based on the sketch. My 2 favorites are Mojo Monday and Pals Paper Art. Pals Paper Arts will sometimes change things up and give a color combo instead which it fun. Both challenges are laid back and very supportive. If you want to feel good about your creations link up to these websites!

This weeks challenges are somewhat similar so it worked out. I was able to create something using both layouts. Here are the sketches for Mojo 241 and PPA135 and my creation.

I actually created 2 cards because I had enough supplies and I couldn't choose. However I think they are similar enough.

They both use the same papers purchased at Joanns

Glittery Orange

Light Pink

Yellow

Happy Birthday

Everything was held together with homemade glue dots see how to make your own here.

The stamp is used from INKADINKADO #97628 Birthday Cupcake in black ink.

The card on the left is embellished with a light blue button and a white bow tied with embroidery floss.

The card in the right is embellished with green, orange, and blue glittery brads from the brand We R Memory Keepers- Peep

I think they turned out nice and colorful. I picture it being for a DIVA, but really what girl wouldn't love a glittery birthday card?

Here they are again...

Linking to:

Cook-A-Thon

***Hello visitors! I'd love for you to look around, and I'd really love for you to stick around and follow me if you like what you see!

So I have seen on Pinterest about all these women (I'm sure there are men out there that do it too) that do once a month cooking. WOW! Wouldn't that be so nice?!?! Well I decided to give it a try in a smaller dose. We have refered to it in our house as the cook-a-thon, where I turned a bunch of ingredients into 23 packages of meals. 

 Keep in mind 23 packages, not meals! For example one package is a 9x11 pan of lasagna. That would feed my family 3 meals.

Really these can't be called meals because we'll probably have a side with them and some of them are to be served over rice or noodles. On the blogs where I got the reciepes they said it fed their family of 3 (2 adults and a toddler) dinner and lunch the next day.

I started around 8am and wrapped up just in time for the Hubs to be home from work around 5pm. OK here you do the math in your head... 9 HOURS! Yes, but then minus an hour because we went and bought a washer and dryer, lunch break, diaper changes, Little Bug attention breaks. So if someone asked me how long it took I'd say more like 6 hours probably. 

***Update, it also was my first time, I have gotten a lot faster at it now. Also, a lot of these were cook before meals, the dump and go ones make it a way quicker process!

Hey World!

CJ is here and ready to share my craftiness with the world!

 Here will be my craft journal. I hope you enjoy my creations and can learn something here. I love to get ideas from others so I'm hoping I can help spark an idea in your world. To see some of my past crafts you can see them on the website ourdiydiaries. It is such a fun website so be sure to follow them. Thanks for reading and I hope you come back soon!


I would love for you to follow me! I'll return the favor! And grab a button if you so choose!

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