Valentine Decorations

I wanted to add some new "love" day decorations to our house this year, but I wanted to make them myself. I just feel so accomplished when I've made something to decorate our home. With little money this year, I set out to the dollar store again. I bought this little beauty. It's a small cookie sheet, but it's the perfect size for what I had planned.I then scored these cute babies on sale at half-off. I can make something else with them too, because I only used half of them for my project.
I love countdowns for holidays, so I made this little beauty.

I mod podged the conversation hearts and some scrapbook paper and stickers I had on hand. I love when I have free supplies.

And here's our countdown all displayed on our desk. I filled half the containers with activities and the other half said, "You've got mail." I made 2 little mailboxes, one for the girls and one for the boys. I hit the target dollar spot for little trinkets. The kids loved getting their mail. I forgot to get a photo of the mailboxes, so next year I'll have to get a pic of them. They are all packed up now, because I just decorated for St. Patty's Day today. This was one of my favorite craft projects I've done for awhile.

I then made a love bouquet. I already had the rose petals and the basket. I just picked up these cute heart picks at the dollar store and put them in some styrofoam. Later on I added a little "lovebirds" sign to the front.

I also made these cute little frames. One is made with conversation hearts and the other two are actually soap roses. I got them at the dollar store too. They smell pretty. I had the hubs spray them with a sealant so they won't break over the years. I just placed cute love words in each one.

My last craft I made were these two love topiaries. They are made out of, get ready for it, bath sponges glued together. I got the tin pails from the dollar spot at Target and filled them with candy. I think they turned out so cute. I had a lot of fun making these new decorations this year and I'm now onto the next holiday-St. Patty's Day.

New Crafts and improvising!

This fall I wanted some new decorations, but with the times I couldn't spend much money, so enter my improvising and the Dollar Store. I made this cute swag with some berry garland I already had and glitter foam leaves from my scrapbook supplies and chipboard letters hot glued to the leaves spelling out GIVE THANKS! I loved it, the picture doesn't due it justice though. I also made some wreaths for our bar stools. Again my supplies came from the dollar store and with a coupon and half-off deal at Roberts. I got the wreath forms from the $ store, and some big buckets of silk leaves that only cost me $3. I also scored some fall floral picks for only $2 for all 6 wreaths I made.
All 6 wreaths for under $20. Score, and now I have new wreaths for years to come.
I love making my own stuff. I just can't buy anything now, at least it takes a lot to get me to BUY decorations. I keep seeing stuff, looking at the price tag, rolling my eyes with "I can SO make that for cheaper" look, and then end up not buying anything but supplies to make something similar-but ending up with a way cuter decoration.

I also made Bella a Thanksgiving shirt this year. I was quite proud of myself. I am in LOVE with Heat N Bond and making my kids' shirts cuter. I can't wait to show them their Christmas shirts.

And here she is showing off her shirt and having some fun with lit'l trees just her size. Can you see the trees off to the side. They are my pride and joy this season :) ! Just kidding, but for reals, I'm quite proud of my porch trees. I have wanted 2 porch trees since... FOREVER! I just think it would be so cute to have a tree on each side of the front door on the porch. I was gonna buy some way back when, BUT... when I found out that they were like $40-$50 each(for the really nice, fluffy/full ones)I decided that was WAY too rich for my blood. So, I put it out of my mind-yeah right, well at least I thought down the road I could buy them. In enters a BRILLIANT idea- I could try and make some. So, I set off to tackle them and here's how I did it...

Bought some planters at half off, filled with some sand(so as no wind blowing over would happen), used our old tomato cages as the structure/shape of the tree, and bought some rope garland at Home Depot(75 ft for only $5). I just place the tomato cage over the planter and began wrapping my garland around it.

This is where I had to add another rope garland.

My two trees almost done, aren't they cute? I think they are WAY cuter than store bought porch trees. Now on to the last step for my cutie patootie porch trees.

Wrapping my extra strands of clear lights around them. GORGEOUS, I tell you! And Bella just couldn't stop oohing and ahhing over them. They were just her size and she loves them! I had a lot on hand, and in the end, these two beauties only cost $7 a piece. Not bad, if I do say so myself! Don't you just love when the picture you have in your head of a project outcome actually works out in the end. I LOVE it!

Here's another lit'l decoration/craft/gift you can do. We made these for the family and Eric's side as well this year. You just take 2 candy canes and wrap them with yarn around the middle. We glued on eyes and a nose, and VOILA...

Christmas reindeer! So simple, yet SO cute!

And since I made wreaths for Fall, I needed to make some for Christmas. I decided one day walking in the craft store that I really wanted to do something with bells. I have seen these bell wreaths all over the place, but holy-moly, are they ever SO expensive! Well I'm cheap, not really, but my money ALWAYS goes to the kids, so enter my need to CRAFT! I purchased 3 buckets of bells(again, half off) and went to crafting. I made a wreath shape out of some heavy duty wire I had and strung on two bells of the same color until my wreath was full. I tied a bow at the bottom with some wire ribbon I had in my stash, hung them on the bar seats again and just LOOK....

B-E-A-U-T-I- FUL!!! I love these even more than the fall ones. Every time the kids sit up at the bar they all ring the bells. I love hearing jingly bells! I made 4 of these and it only cost me $10 for all of them. I couldn't even get ONE of the store bought ones for that price, so call me Mrs. Happy!





My last new craft from this past week was another improvising decoration. Since the hubs and I moved into our first house we have had a kid tree and a nice tree. My nice tree was gold, glittery, and white. While the kids' tree had all their ornaments and mine and the hubs' on it. Then when Christian got sick a tree was done in his honor for the Festival of trees. The hubs' parents bought it and the hubs brought it home(kinda sneakily)from them and put it up in Christian's room-where it remained until he passed away. Well now, we just do the kids' tree and Christian's Peter Pan tree. I have had all the decorations from my pretty tree just sitting in a box in the storage room for the past 5 years. What a waste I thought, so I repurposed some of the ornaments into this...

A pretty ornament ball wreath. Again though, the picture doesn't do it justice. I didn't even have to spend a dime on this decoration, because I had everything already. Don't ya just love repurposing, I know I sure do!

So this is why I haven't kept up with my journaling lately. I've been busy CRAFTIN' my patootie off. I've also done a lot of other projects, but I can't post anything quite yet, 'cause they are all gifts for people that just might read this. Although, I don't think many read my rantings anymore, but that's okay. I do it for myself. It's like journaling and scrapbooking all rolled into one thing. I can't wait to publish my blog/journal into a book. It's the new way to keeping a journal. I just love it! Well, here's to wishing and hoping a very Merry Holiday Season to all!

And a shower for a new mommy

Eric's cousin Candice was expecting her first baby in October, so our family of gals decided to throw her a shower. She now has her cutie patootie, Drew, in her arms. We all pitched in and I took decorations and desserts. My favorite things to do.Lovely gals chit-chatting in the front room.
I made a bunch of these pom poms in her colors she said she was doing in her babe's nursery. Her colors were black, turq, tangerine orange, and green.

Here's the cutie-baby bump and all- opening some gifts. I wish I looked this good with only 1 week to go. Man, I look this way like when I'm barely 2 months. Good genes, that whole family has them. None of them ever look that pregnant, then they bounce right back right after the baby is out. I need to take a lesson from all these gals.

I made some party favors using blow pops.

This was one of my favorite decorations. A diaper wreath. Candice got to keep all the decorations as gifts from the shower.

The dessert bar.

I made reese's quiches, baby booties with trail mix, and chocolate cookie dough cupcakes.

I also made some cute wrapped candy decors too. They are washcloths made to look like starlight mints.

I had fun making this lit'l guy too. It's a diaper baby, made entirely out of diapers then dressed in boy clothes(since baby Drew was coming soon).

Lollipop receiving blankets. I had fun making these too. I chose colored blankets that would go with her baby room. I love cuddling babies in blankets-you can never have too many. The shower was a lot of fun both during and the preparation for it. I love my crafting and when I have a purpose-such as a shower, it's even more fun.

Craftin', Bakin', and Pluckin' the garden, make this woman VERY satisfied!

I love being busy! And man, have I've been busy with tons of stuff and it's only getting busier for me and my bunch. You would think summer was our busy time, but nope, come August, we don't stop until the end of January. I guess that's what ya get when you have four birthday children within 2 months. Then we have the 3 major holidays and closely followed by the oldster's birthday(and it's a big one, she'll be 12 ya know-insert tears welling up). Anywho, I love creating new things out of old and trying my hand at new things. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE finding treasures at the D.I. I found this lovely beauty... It used to be a cork message board, but the cork was all scratched(knifed up is what the hubs called it) and it had drawings and some sticky stuff on it. I saw its great potential and for only $8 it was a steal! It is really big and thick and I had to have it for our new craft room.

So began the transformation. I took it all apart so I could cover it with fabric and spray paint the frame. The frame was in really good condition, It just didn't match the decor in the room.
Here's the piece all covered and ribbon on it to make it my new message board. I love the birdie fabric. I love it because Bella says "birdie" everytime she sees it.
And here it is all done. We hung it up on the wall in the dining/new craft room. I love it and can't wait until the room is all done!

I also made up some stuff for Kaleigh's party. We were going for some summer water fun. What's better than buckets of water and throwing homemade sponge balls. This was so simple, but the kids LOVED it so much. I just went to the $ store and bought a pack of sponges.

You cut each sponge into 3 long strips

Then you stack 9 strips together and tie with twine and VOILA...a homemade sponge ball! I let the kids pick their colors so each one was unique and it was a craft project for them at the same time. I just did this one to show them how they would look.

I have also feel in love with the corker hairbows that we see everywhere. However, they start to add up when you have 3 girls who love hairstuff. These bows are sold in boutiques and at kid to kid, but cost about $5 for one. Way too rich for my blood these days, so i decided to try making them myself-guess what, they are super easy!

You just wrap your ribbon on dowels and bake them!

Then you unwrap them after 25 minutes of baking and this is what I had. I cut each strip into 3 pieces(4 inches) and just sewed a bunch together.

Then I wrapped an alligator clip with ribbon and hot glued the corker bow on top and voila... the cutest little hair bows ever. I love making things that my kids wear and I'm getting really good at it. The hubs says I should sell them because I like making them so much.

Oh how i love fresh garden veggies. Aren't these gorgeous! Unfortunately, the rest of the garden didn't turn out so well, but we did get about 10 lovely zucchinis. Maybe it'll go better next year when I have more time to help with the garden. Poor hubs, he was so frustrated with the garden that he nuked it a week ago with weed killer. Oh well, we'll just try again!

I have also been trying out my new recipe concoctions. I've had this one in my head and wanted to try it out. I think I have finally come up with the best blueberry muffins! I've been trying at this for awhile now. They have been either too dry or too sweet, but this one is so YUMMY!

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

3 c flour 2/3 c oil

1 1/2 c sugar 2eggs

1 tsp. salt 2/3 c whole milk

4 tsp. baking powder 3 c fresh blueberries(Costco's are great)

Topping

1 c sugar 1/2 c butter 2/3 c flour 3 tsp cinnamon

Mix sugar, eggs, milk and oil together. Add salt, flour, baking powder, into the wet ingredients. Fold blueberries in. Drop into cupcake liners and fill about half way. Mix the topping ingredients together until crumbly and sprinkle some over each muffin. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Eat and Enjoy!

This is one yummy, easy dessert that is quick too.

Ice Cream Cake

24 ice cream sandwiches

16 oz tub of cool whip

whole bottle of magic shell

In a 9 X 13 pan lay out 12 of the sandwiches(unwrapped in case ya didn't know), you need to kinda of squish them so they all fit. Then spread half of the cool whip over the top, then layer the next 12 sandwiches on top. Spread the remaining cool whip on top and then pour the magic shell on top. Put it in the freezer for at least an hour. Slice and serve. People will be amazed at how easy and DELISH this is. There are so many flavors of ice cream sandwiches, you can make all kinds of cake. This one was Neapolitan layer and a vanilla layer with heath topping.

Eat and Enjoy!

I've been a BUSY lit'l bee!

I love the feeling of accomplishment! I love de-stressing! I love seeing my kids' smiling little faces when I complete something for them! I have been able to do this all this week. I've been busy with some small crafting projects for my kiddos. I have loved it so much that for Christmas I'll be doing almost all of their presents. Here's some of the projects I have done this week...

We got these stickers for free in the mail and the magnets are off the phone book-also free. I put the stickers on the magnets and then cut them out into...

These! The boys love playing with them on the fridge while I make dinner. I love them, because I'm not tripping over the boys and their toys while I make dinner.
Gotta love a new, FREE, toy!

I also made another trip to the dollar store and bought a wreath form, and some curly ribbon bows and made this...
Isn't she lovely? I saw one like this in a store for around $25 and thought, "I could so make that," and so I did. Mine, however, only cost me $8 for the whole thing.

I have also made some more bows and hairbands for Kaleigh and Laney. This one is a felt pom-pom bow that can interchange on different headbands. She loves it! Making these things inspired a present for Christmas, but I can't show it yet-they sometimes look at the family blog. I have had some really stressful days as of late, so all the crafting has brought me down a bit. Good thing, the hubs is stressed out himself, so someone has to have their head on right to run the house.

Some of the fabric flowers I made and put on headbands. The girls have been in need of some cute, girly, hair accessories due to their new hair(more on that later). I love these flowers, they are the no-sew kind. Just a hot glue gun and scissors. Gotta love me some easy crafting!

One of thee cutest headbands! I just sewed on some buttons to an elastic headband to spice it up a bit. The girls again love it and want all kinds of different ones. Good thing I have lots of buttons in my craft supplies. I don't think I'll ever buy another hair accessorie again, I'm having way too much fun making my own. So that's just a snipit of what I've been up to lately, plus school starting for the girls, new haircuts, boys going to the dino museum with cousins, making 4 batches of jam, making all kinds of bread, and oh yeah, keeping the house running! Busy, busy, busy lit'l bee I've been!

Crafts and Girls' Night fun!

I finally, I mean we finally got a night just us gals. The hubs took the boys up to the family cabin for a fathers and sons night and that left us girls to have some fun. I don't get much time with just the older girls due to the boys always wanting in on our fun, so it was nice to be able to get the paints out and have some undistracted, creative, fun. I kept to the true nature of a girl night with junk food, movies, rootbeer and some crafty fun. When I was younger our girl nights included eating just tons of junk food for dinner while watching a movie and gabbing, so that's exactly what we did. I rented Tooth Fairy, the girls have wanted to see it for awhile, and we had nachos, candy, rootbeer, and some rice krispie treats we made earlier. They wanted popcorn and ice cream too, but that was just too much for me to handle. I didn't want our night and morning of fun to end with tummy aches so I held back a bit. I picked up these unpainted, cute bird houses at the dollar store( I just loooovvve that place)and we went to paintin' up a storm.

Just look at how cute they came out...

Laney, Kaleigh, me, Alexis
The backside of them
A blast was had by all and the girls want to do it again soon, now I just need to figure out a way to kick the boys out again. I must admit, eventhough we had Bella, it was way fun and calm in the house. I enjoy the calm for a little while but about 9 in the morning I was missing my boys a ton! They may be loud and crazy, but I couldn't live life without them.


I have been busy doing all kinds of little crafts to keep my stress level down and thought I give you a peek at some. My kids love to take my pens and they never seem to make it back to the pen storage, so I made some of these...
Super easy and now they don't run off with my pens, or at least they get put back in their new homes. It helps to make them look dressed up, it's too hard to hide them now.

Here's their new storage home

I have also been learning to make some hairbows for my girls. These ones are super easy and because I'm falling in love making stuff, I've decided to make Christmas this year. I have a ton of cute ideas for all the kids, but will probably need to start soon given there are 6 kids to make stuff for.

I got this 6 pack of ribbon in the dollar section at Target last Christmas and it has been sitting in my closet ever since. Enter in the thought to make a hair bow. I just cut each ribbon in half which game me 12 pieces. I just glued the strips in circles, yep that's just using my hot glue gun(my new lover, haha).


Then I just hot glued them in the middle making figure 8s. Now if you do this, I suggest using very little glue or you'll end up with a big gluey(is that a word?)mess.

Then just glue three of the strips(each different one)in a criss cross and do the same with the other three.

Then I just glued them together, again criss crossing the two bows, so it looks like this...

I am going to get a cute button and put it in the center of the bow, I just haven't had the time to get to HobLob yet-ya know 6 kids keep me busy and all. And I found out a tip about alligator clips,which this beauty will be going on. You can get 80 of them at Sally's Beauty Supply center for like $5. SCORE! SWEET! So that means I can make tons of cute bows for all of my girls for Christmas, well at least 3 of them, the oldest would so NOT love that! I tallied the cost and I made 2 bows(the other ones not pictured)for only $1.14, that's WAAAYYY less than buying one at Kid to Kid-which is usually $3-$5. Yee-haw, won't be buying bows anymore! I love making stuff! The joy and satisfaction I get is SWEET! I think I need to start a crafting club that meets once a month and we can all do a craft and teach everyone how to do them. Sounds so good, I just may have to do it.