Thursday, July 30, 2009

Easy & Cheap Bridal Shower Gift!

One of my MANY cousins is getting married next month and her bridal shower is tonight. So par for the course for me, I was up late last night making her gift. But luckily it was super easy and the whole thing cost under $10! I made one of my famous aprons for her and the card will read something like, "Show your husband and in-laws how domestic you can be and look super cute in the process!" (I'll have to work on the verbiage today.)

Saturday, July 25, 2009

I Blame it on Better Homes & Gardens

I know I said I would take some time off, but let me tell you how hard that has been! I have enjoyed my family, started potty training my 2 year old (which feels like I have been camped out in the bathroom for the past few weeks) and have endured many a meltdown with my 6 month old who is getting 4 new teeth all at the same time. I have still been able to make some fun things and I'll post those soon.

Do you know what today is?! Today is July 25th. Which means that Christmas is only 5 months away! GULP!!!!! I have been getting the Better Homes & Garden emails and they started sending Christmas related ones and I instantly got heartburn! Last year I was on bed rest for all of November and all of December (baby boy tried to come out at 31 weeks, but then when he was supposed to come any second he chose not to, so I forced the doctor to induce me... I'm not the most patient person around) but I had all kinds of time to make my presents for my family. I crocheted hats and scarves for everyone. I would like to apologize to my family for the copious amounts of yarn things they all received, but while I was doing that I realized that I had made 15 gifts for less that $10!!! So I have made the choice and my in-laws are all on the same page that Christmas will be totally handmade this year!!! So be prepared to see Christmas projects up the WA-ZOO right after Thanksgiving... possibly before then!
But for now it is baby central at my house as I have a bunch of baby showers that I have been invited to in August along with my home business going a little nuts this month too. So posts will still be few and far between this month, but I will check back in when I have a chance!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Taking Some Time Off

So for the past few months I have been spending an incredible amount of time online looking at all the wonderful and creative things I could do here in Blogland. Now while I was doing that I was also allowing the summer months to just pass me by! So have decided to cut ties for a few weeks with my beloved computer so I can really focus on my kids, having fun and just being silly. I won't be doing nothing as I have big plans for fun crafts and maybe start painting my kitchen cabinets, so just think of all the fun things I will have when I come back!!!

I will still be checking my email to see if I have won anything and for my business as August is filling up fast! So I will talk to all of you soon and I hope everyone takes time to enjoy all that sunshine! Take Care!

Kelsee

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Jungle Party

So this isn't something new that I did. This was my daughter's 2nd birthday party that was back in April. I felt that the state of the economy and how tight every one's belt is now, that it shouldn't hold us back from throwing a very fun and cheap party! Now I got most of my ideas for the decor from Familyfun.com, more specifically this link. But some of the things were a little too advanced for all the 2 year old's that were going to be there so I made some little twists.

For the invitations I just used some Green card stock paper and cut them into Palm Leaves (helped to set the mood:)

Then for the favors I made "backpacks" out of 2 paper bags, some cardboard and some jute twine. I decorated the outsides with foam letters and shapes:


Inside I had made "binoculars" out of toilet paper rolls, saran wrap and construction paper with a twine strap, stickers, fruit snacks, little animals that I found at Michaels in a tube for $6 and split them up, and these fun animal hats that were at Michaels. Now these were the most expensive things that the kids got as they were $6 a piece as well (luckily my mom purchased those which helped a lot, but I was planning on making paper masks, but these were a big hit!)
Then at the end of the party we gave the kids these (which my mother-in-law and sister-in-law made). This way the kids weren't hopped up on cake and cupcakes:


Now for the decorations, I called my former employer and asked if I could borrow their "Jungle" for the weekend. We picked up all their bushes and trees Friday late afternoon and brought them back on Monday morning.


We also made vines out of 2 rolls of craft paper ($1.50 per roll). You just cut out strips and crunch and twist them. I wanted lots of them, but after a while your hands start to burn a little, so brace yourself for that. And finally we cut out big leaves from poster paper.

Now the cake was probably my favorite thing to make. I am not a cake decorator by any means, but this cake was so easy to make and turned out so great! Here is the link for all the directions. I just took a cheap cake mix and some cheap frosting and made the cake in a square pan. The scene on the top is made of Milk Duds, Runts, Tootsie Rolls, Laffy Taffy, and a Cow Tail.

You roll the monkeys out of the Tootsie Rolls and form the bodies, legs, faces... everything out of the Tootsie Rolls. The leaves on the trees were supposed to be Green Fruit Roll Ups, but we could not find it for the life of us!!! So we had to improvise and I used the Laffy Taffy.
This was so easy and so fun to make! All in all this party cost under $100 including all the decorations and the favors for 8 kids. Most of the stuff was free like the paper bags (thank you Fred Meyer in Coeur d'Alene), toilet paper rolls, and tress. Everything else was as cheap as we could possibly get it and I'm sure you could do it for less, especially if you didn't have those animal hats.

And yes, I even enjoyed myself at the party too:

Monday, July 13, 2009

For Kristi

First off I want to apologize for the lack of posts as of late. Life is a little crazy here what with a teething infant, potty training a toddler, dieting and exercising. Go ahead... feel sorry for me. Now that that is done here is the real post:

So about a week ago I said that the person that finds the picture of a few chairs that had been turned into a bench would receive something crafty from me (here's the link if you want to see that post). Well here it is! I didn't do a tutorial on it because it was incredibly easy and it didn't cost me ANYTHING!!!! We love those kinds of gifts!


Here's what I did:

I found an old piece of wood in the garage that was left over from something my husband made. I sanded it down to make it smooth, but it was kind of beat up (which I think adds to the character). So then I wiped it off and painted it cream. I sanded the edges down to make it look more weathered. While the paint was drying I printed off the letters off the computer and I taped them to a piece of scrapbook paper that I had. I cut each letter out and then cut the back pieces. Then I Modge Podged them all on, layer by layer. Then I got out some chocolate colored ribbon I had and used my glue gun to put it on there. Isn't it fun?!

So Kristi, you actually get to see your gift before I deliver it, sorry about that, it should be either this evening or in the next couple of days. Hope you love it! Thanks for finding that link for me so I didn't go nuts!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Upping My Chances!!!

Ok, so my friend Marie at Emma Calls Me Mamma posted about her sister's new crafty blog, and I am a sucker for anything crafty, and how her sister is doing a "Craft Tote" Giveaway!!! So to up my chances of winning (as I never win anything) I am posting about it and look forward to all the fun things that Lyssie will be making. If its anything like Marie's page, then you won't be disappointed! So go on over to Life Of Lyssie and you could win this:

Tote Bag 2

But if any of you win it because I sent you to her page I am going to hunt you down!!! Lol Totally kidding... or am I?

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

You Reap What You Sew

I will never boast at being a great gardener. I am more of the, "Let's put this in the ground, water it and see what happens," kind of gal. This year we expanded our garden so we could plant more things and live off the land... well not really, just be able to not have to run to the store every time we want some veggies. So we planted corn, eggplant, peas, squash and zucchini. Well, our corn is growing like its on steroids, no eggplant at all :(, 8 pea plants, 2 zucchini plants and no squash :(. Not sure why the squash didn't come up, we have done squash before and it almost took over the whole garden, but this year it went on strike.


Here is our "trees" of corn. I swear the stalks on these are bigger than the actual trees we planted in the spring!


My little sweet peas. Growing so nicely (don't look at the weeds! The veggies are growing like they are on steroids, but so are the weeds! I have declared open war on them!)


Here are my two lonely zucchini plants. But we look forward to eating them when they are ready.


My lilies were planted before we moved in. I haven't touched them in the 5 years we have lived here and they just keep coming back and look so pretty. I am not a big fan of lilies, only because I think they smell like cat pee. Lol But they are fun to look at.



I wish I had taken pictures of the columbine when they looked so nice, they are going to seed now and are looking a little sad. But I love the yellow and the purple of the mint together. So pretty. I planted more flowers in the front, but I am not sure what they are called or what they will look like, so I will post pictures when they finally bloom.


And I am not sure what these are, but we got maybe 3 or 4 little starts of them. Seriously, they were about 3" tall and I didn't think they would make it, but look at them now! Holy honk!
Well, there's the tour of my gardens. I can't wait to have fresh corn and peas. The only thing about the corn is that ear wigs love them and I am scared of them! But I will muffle my screams so I can eat.

Monday, July 6, 2009

MY HERO!!!

Kristi, my old friend, you rock my world! I have been looking for this picture forever!!! So you will be getting something crafty from me shortly!

Here is the picture:


And here is the link if you want to look at the real project. It was on Country Living's website. I have been on the hunt for some chairs to make this. Stay tuned!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

All American 4th!!!


I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th! Our family continued a time honored tradition that has been going on for over 20 years. We all headed to the Coeur d'Alene 4th of July Parade! When I was little it was my mom, her sisters, our grandma and all of the cousins that would go and sit outside of a little place called Zips that has the best Criss Cut fries and huckleberry milkshakes! Well as the years go by, people move away, but this year was fun to see how everyone is growing up. Instead of us kids out on the curb waving our flags it was our children. I saw on Bloggin' It that she made these festive wands, so I decided to make them too! I made 6 of them, one for each of the kids and let me tell you, they were a big hit!!! Well, a hit with all but one, he is 6 and looked at it like it was weird, but other than that, they loved them. Here is a picture of some of the kids waving them as the floats and bands went by!

These were a great idea! Thank you Melissa for the fun and festive creation!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Not a Total Giveaway, You have to Work For It!

Ok, I am putting this out there as I am hoping someone knows where I found this and can point me in the right direction. If you find it, I will make you something crafty and send it to you!!! I found a few months ago, while looking at blogs, where someone had turned 3 wooden chairs into a bench for their kitchen table. They took the seats off of the chairs and then made a long bench and added all the backs of the original chairs onto the new seat. I have searched and searched and I cannot find it at all!! And being the impatient person that I am, its driving me CRAZY!!!! So if you find it let me know and I will make you something fun! Happy hunting!!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Finally Finished!!!

After 5 months, this room is finally finished! Here is our journey!

This was the color before the room was painted. It was a fun girl room but in the sun this room was a little too pink. (I was just really excited about having a girl!)



You can see the chandelier a little bit here. But little boys and chandeliers just don't mix well.

This was the finished paint job. Nice and clean.


And here it is! This is Zoe's bed (yes with an Elmo and Zoe pillow, but she just loves them!)


These pictures were done by my sister-in-law. We just printed off some characters online and gave them to her and she went to work! Aren't they amazing?!






This one is my favorite, but they are all so good that it is hard to pick!

These are from Kohl's. They were $5 and went to charity. So the next time they have them I will stock up and get the ones that we don't have. I just love them!



I wrote this above their closet. Might need a little more color up there, but for now I am happy with it.





I just love doing kids' rooms! You have so much freedom to do all the fun things that you can't do in your normal living space. I might just have to have more kids so I can do more rooms... Well, maybe not that. Let's not get ahead of ourselves!


Kreativ Blogger Award!!!!



I just received an award from Jen over at "The Thrifty Home"!!! I had to do a double take and make sure it wasn't a fluke, I never get anything, but I must have done something good! Thank you Jen! You have totally made my day!

The Rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Blogger.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

7 Interesting Things... (Might be difficult for me!)
1. I come from a HUGE family, huge with a capital HUGE!!! Ever seen "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding?" Well, that is my family, just minus being Greek and roasting a pig out in the front yard. My mom is one of 5 kids and so is my dad. I have 4 brothers, 1 sister and over 30 first cousins. I told you it was big!!! But we don't all get to see each other often but thanks toFacebook, I talk to most of them almost everyday.

2. I got married 2 months after I graduated high school at age 18. No, I wasn't pregnant, I just have always known what I wanted and didn't think that waiting would change anything. This August will be our 6 year wedding anniversary! I truly married my best friend and we have had one crazy ride these last 6 years, including adding our two children.

3. My favorite color is red. I have red EVERYTHING! A big red wall in my living room, red polkadot shoes (a must have in any girls wardrobe!), red purses, and my personal favorite, my red crock pot!!! My husband got it for me last year for my birthday while I was pregnant with baby #2 and got a lot of flack from the family about getting me an appliance for my birthday. But I was so excited when I opened it! I use it all the time and it is my favorite thing to use in the kitchen.

4. I know the lyrics to every Disney song ever created. And the sad part about this is that I knew them WAY before having kids! I was banned from bringing my music to work on Friday's for music day because no one wanted to listen to, "Its the Circle of Life," with me singing in the background using my scissors as my microphone.

5. (It's getting harder to think of things about me now!) I have an aversion to things in between my toes. I can handle flip flops, but anything in the other toes will warrant getting kicked! I cannot get a pedicure for this exact reason because I would boot the nice lady touching my feet. Just thinking about it is making my skin crawl!

6. My family (on my mom's side) and I have this very strange talent to watch any movie and be able to quote it moments later. Even when I was a child I would do it. Have any of you seen the movie, "Roxanne" with Steve Martin and Darrell Hannah? I used to wander around the house yelling, "The ladder... Is up!" as a child. Anything with Tom Hanks are my personal favorites, like "A League of Their Own." "Are you crying? There's no crying in baseball!" Classic!

7. As I am a stay at home mom of a 2 year old and a 5 month old, I have acquired a new title other than mom: Diaper-Changer-Extraordinaire! I feel like some days I am swimming in a sea of diapers, but let me tell you, I am like a cattle roper! I get the assembly line going and I can change both diapers in under a minute and yes, I do throw my hands in the air like the cowboys do after roping their calf! And yes, I do get strange looks from both of my kids because they are usually the only ones that watch me do it.

(Whew! That was harder than I thought it would be!)

7 Kreativ Blog Nominations:
1. Suzi at Suzi Homemaker
4. Lindsay at Living with Lindsay
5. The Nester at The Nesting Place
6. Ashley at Make It and Love It

I look at these blogs almost every day and I just love them! There are so many others that I look at, but it is so hard to narrow them down to just 7! Thank you again Jen, this has been one of the most flattering things anyone has given me!

Remember when...


This was a project I did over the summer, but I still love them as much as I did then!!

Do you remember these?


Well, now they're these! Yes, I painted them in less than a month. Because I have so much red in my living room, red tables were just a little much. As much as I loved them, they just needed to be changed. So I painted them a very dark brown, looks almost black and sanded them down.

And my favorite part about them is that the red is still peeking through!!! I love them.



As we were watching HGTV's $250,000 Challenge, a designer said to cut open a fruit or veggie and look at all the shades in there. Nature doesn't clash colors. So I love red, and I did this with an apple and got totally inspired. This room is going to be red, cream, green, and dark brown. But now this chair needs some help. SLIP COVER HERE I COME!!!
Another little project that I did, that I have been on my husband to do for months but just has never taken care of it, is I took care of an eye sore.

Exhibit A:
Yes, you do see the surround sound speaker wire. Its been there for years.

Exhibit B:
My Handy Work (only took a nail and throwing away that AWFUL little shelf.)
Whew! Had a busy day! Now off to bed to dream of my next project. I'm thinking about windows!!!!



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