Summer Bucket List

Wow it has been awhile! Whoops! My new shop is keeping me pretty busy.

I just created a Summer Bucket List for my family. It will mostly be me and my little bug, but we'll involve Daddy when we can. 

This is our first year making an actual list. It should be fun and keep us even busier! We'll just cross things off as we do them. 

Mother's Day Coloring Sheet!

I love giving my Mother's a homemade card for their special day aka Mother's Day! Now that my little bug is older he is able to make it for them. Here is a coloring sheet so your little one can color their own. Click here.

~CJ

Egg Button Art

Is it just me or is button art all over the place? I've mostly seen it with monograms and hearts. I wanted to incorporate it in my house someway, but wasn't sure how. I liked the monogram, but wanted something unique. Brainstorming upcoming holidays I decided to make an Easter egg.

What you need:

1 frame. I bought the frame from Michael's that they sell for a buck.

Paper cut to a little bigger that 4x6 inches. I went for a green to kind of act as grass...

Buttons- white for the outside and then different colors for the design. I wish I had a more variety of size, but I still think it turned out nice.

Glue dots to put the buttons on with (click to learn to make your own)

Paint if you used a wooden frame.

The first thing I did was paint the frame. I choose a pastel purple color because it is Eastery and it wasn't used in the buttons.

While the frame is drying cut your paper.

Arrange your white buttons in an egg shape and glue dot in place.

"Decorate" your Easter egg and glue dot. 

I did 2 coats of paint.

Then add your paper to your frame and display.

This would be a fun activity to do with your kids. And it looks so nice displayed! Love it!

Be sure to follow me!

~CJ

Sesame Street Party

I just threw a Sesame Street Birthday Party for my 2 year old! He's getting so big. He had the time of his life. Unfortunately I didn't get the best pictures as usual. Here is the problem with planning parties I'm finding. Only I know what is going on so I have to do everything and I don't think about things like pictures when I'm doing a billion other things. No matter what, I never have enough done before hand.

So here are some pictures from the party. Hopefully I can explain enough without the pictures. This is the overview. I'll do a couple of more specific posts.

***Update- You can see games here.

MLK Day

It's Monday already?!?! I can't believe it. Since the Hubs works for the school district which means he had a day off from work and school today! So we enjoyed a nice (long) bike ride! We biked to a park that is a little over 6 miles from our house, ate a picnic lunch, tried feeding the ducks but they wouldn't come close enough. Ryder got to play with his cousin on the playground and then we biked the 6+ miles home. It was tough and I am pooped! Luckily my little bug is taking a nice nap so I can relax. Hence the not so exciting blog post.

January 21st is always a fun day. It kicks of the Birthday's. My brother is turning 30! We'll be going out tonight to celebrate. As if that weren't exciting enough, my grandparents are celebrating their 68th Wedding Anniversary! I love that! We had a party for them Saturday, it's always fun to get families together to celebrate!

My little bug is turning 2 in less than 2 weeks! He is getting so big and is so smart. I can't believe how much he knows. He impresses me everyday. So in a few weeks I'll post party stuff:) It's Sesame Street! It's going to be so much fun!

New Years Goal: Weight

This is post #3 about my New Year Goals. If you are just joining please start here to get the full scoop.

I make a loss weight goal every year and every year I am disappointed. Ever since I can remember I have always had problems with my weight, never happy. It's effected me in some ways and kept me from doing things at times. Now being married and having a sweet boy my weight is out of control!

So every year I make a goal to lose a bunch if weight, but it never happens. So this year I'm keeping my weight goal simple: DON'T GAIN WEIGHT. I know this sounds silly, but if I could just not gain any weight this year that'd be nice. It could be hard thought because we are trying to get pregnant.

We signed up for a gym membership and like 7 other family members (9 including us) go there too. So we'll have a lot of encouragement. In addition to that we are still biking every once in awhile. When it warms up a tad Ryder & I will probably bike more. Also, we inherited Wii Fit from a sibling and have been doing that about 4-5 times a week.

Food is where I need to make the big change. Chase & I get into really bad habits, especially when he is off from work. We've been staying up late watching Netflix and snacking on junk! He's done with his winter break so we should be better.

What are your keys for losing weight?

~CJ

Advent Calendar Update- Tucson Zoo

For Dec 8th advent activity we went to the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson AZ. It is a tradition we started our First Anniversary to go there every winter with our family. This was year number 3.

Why we like the Tucson zoo:

It is a smaller zoo. It takes us about 2 hours to do the entire thing.

It is a people friendly zoo, meaning the animals don't have much room to hide.

It's less crowded

Cheaper (although we have a membership this year so it doesn't matter)

It use to have a Polar Bear, but I guess it died so they didn't this year.

The main attraction: you can feed the Giraffes!

I thought Ryder was going to be scared or want to eat the carrot himself, but he knew what to do and loved it! It cost $2 per person for 2 carrot sticks. We think it is well worth it!

Part of our Tradition is going to A&W rootbeer restaurant  However we can terminating that part of the tradition and vowing never to go to A&W unless it is a stand alone building and not in a gas station. That was the most expensive crappy sandwich I've ever had! SO in the future we'll be packing a lunch and having a picnic. So much more fun!

What is your favorite Tradition?

~CJ

You can see the whole list of activities for our Advent here.

Candy Bar Boquet

***OLD POST

Are you still needing a gift for your sweetheart for tomorrow? It's not too late, this project only took about 15 minutes once I had all the stuff gathered.

When Valentine's Day first started appearing at the store I noticed this candy bar bouquet. It looked like a fun gift for a guy. Immediately I thought I could so make that! So I took another challenge, could I make one cheaper than what they sell them for??? I decided to make one for the hubs!

 This one was at Fry's. It came with a vase, Dove chocolates, 3 Hershey candy bars and one of those $1 box of chocolates that aren't really any good. (personal opinion). Then of course the cellophane and ribbons... This particular one was selling for $16.99.

So I set out to make mine... I gathered all of my supplies. Most of it I already had on hand I just needed the candy and the foam to stick it into.

 You will need:

Vase

Skewers

tissue paper or cellophane (I only had tissue paper on hand)

tape

foam (I bought it from DollarTree)

Your filler I used the Crunch heart shaped chocolates.

Candy Bars I decided to use 6- Crunch, Kit Kat, Heath, Almond Joy, Hershey Almonds, and 100 Grand

Ribbon or tulle

First fill your vase with your filler. I didn't even use an entire bag.

 

Then tape your skewers to the candy bars. I was first rolling the tape and sticking it on with the stick in between, but later they would fall off so I would recommend just putting the tape on the normal way.

 Then get your form. I never realized how messy these were.... then stick your candy bars in. I laid it down because it wouldn't stand up straight.

 Wrap your form with tissue paper and stick into vase... Tie with ribbon or tulle.

Then add your own personal message

Now for the price match up. I think it might be close...

Frys to buy it was $16.99.

For me to make mine cost was...

candy bars- $3.75

filler candy- $3 have some left

foam form- $.50

Total= $7.25

However that was because I had a majority of the stuff, If I were to buy everything estimated cost would be...

Vase- $3 (cheap ones from Walmart)

Skewers- $1 for a pack of 100

Candy filler $3

Candy bars $3.75

Tape $1

Tissue Paper $1

Total= $12.75 

You would still spend less AND have stuff left over. Sounds like another win to me! I understand that when buying from stores you are also paying for the employee to assemble it together for you, but seriously this took very little time. 

So if you have a craft closet like mine you could make out with a nice gift for your valentine for under $8. Are it is more customized because you can choose his favorite candy! This would be perfect for any gift giving holiday or just because. Men love surprises too, almost as much as chocolate:) Or maybe I'm thinking of me...

I've also seen these with different snack items that would be fun also. Do you have any out of the ordinary bouquet ideas? One of these days I'm attempting a fruit bouquet.

~CJ

Burlap Banner

I cannot wait for Fall! I may or may not have gotten some of my fall decorations out today. I have made my first fall craft of the year and I'll share it with you today. I made a Burlap Banner!

I've been wanting to make something with Burlap for awhile now, but never knew what. Burlap seems so fall-ish to me so I thought a banner that said "fall" was perfect. Here is what you need to make your own.

Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach costumes

To kick start fall posts I thought I'd start with our Halloween Costumes from last year. We were Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach.

I like trying to avoid store bought costumes. It is so much fun to throw together yourself and sometimes cheaper. Here is how we made them. Goodwill was our friend:)

Mario: We found a pair of NEW overalls at Goodwood for $1.50! Also the red shirt. The hat is an Elmo hat we bought at a kid resell store. We made the buttons on the overalls out of yellow felt, we just taped them on and they stayed pretty well. The "M" symbol on his hat is made from felt. My husband just drew it and cut it out. The mustache was drawn on with eye liner. I think we ended up buying costume make up for Halloween, this picture was taken at a Neighborhood carnival a few days before the 31st.

Luigi- Basically the same as Mario. We found the overalls at Savers and a green dress shirt and hat at Goodwill. For his 'stache we used felt and taped it on with double sided tape. It stayed on ok. It did come off a few times. It got pretty sweaty...

Princess Peach- The dress was my PROM dress from High School. It didn't quite fit still hence the jacket (It's not zipped up all the way) also the sleeves aren't very modest. The pendant on the chest was made with felt as well as the crown. You also can't see it in this picture, but I had blue felt earrings taped to my ears.

Treat bucket- I loved this and everyone thought it was the perfect touch! I just found a square box and covered it with yellow construction paper. I then drew out a question mark on white paper, cut and glued. I attached a handle from ribbon.

Everyone loved our costumes! It was a great First Halloween for Ryder! How do you think we did?

Photo courtesy of geeksugar.com

Something fun to consider. Ryder was only 10 months old for Halloween, obviously too young for candy (But he wanted it!). We saved all of his candy and used it in the favors for his Birthday Party 2 months later.

Want more Fall/ Halloween ideas,  follow me! I have a few different projects lined up:)

~CJ