“Print out tons of words in different sizes and fonts.
Rub chalk on the back of each word, tape it in place and trace it with a pen. (A trick I learned here.)
Hand paint every single one of those words with a tiny brush!
(This took me 3 days!!! No joke!)”
Love it, such a great tip!! Ok, I’m off to get a whole bunch of paint and some wood so I can make my own!
This Halloween sign, might just be my favorite so far. I’m trying to think of ways to recreate it without having to buy the vinyl from her, how cheap is that, it’s only $10! {Found at Poppies at Play, via The Creative Crate}
Written by Elizabeth Gilbert
352 pages
At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for "balancing." These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert's exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, "It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work.'" (The New Yorker)
I have been stuck in somewhat of a rut lately. After reading the first Percy Jackson, I became totally obsessed with reading the next books in the series. The wait at the Library for the second book was FORVER long, so I finally gave in and decided to buy it. Then NO PLACE had the second book (this was probably just the universe telling me to be patient and wait on the on the hold list). I finally found it at Costco, in St. George, and my husband talked me into, well more like suggested, it didn’t really take much talking into, getting the third book too. So I read both books in like five days. Now I am burnt out/stuck in a rut. I am waiting on the hold list for the fourth book, I needed a little break from Percy Jackson, so meantime I have been trying to read Eat, Pray, Love. I say trying, because well, I’m just not that into it. I’ll be honest, I made it through the “Eat” section/chapters, but have had a really hard time getting up the umph to read the rest of the book. I’ve heard lots of good things about the book, but something about it just hasn’t hooked me. Do I sound crazy? I am interested to know, have you read Eat, Pray, Love? Should I finish or just throw in the towel and try again with something new? And if I do give up on finishing, what do I read next? Maybe part of it I would rather just watch the wonderfully fabulous Julia Roberts movie version . . .
Some highlights, and lowlights from my weekend.
{The Good}
On Friday my bestest girlfriends came down from Logan to visit me. We went shopping, at Target I found these cute sandals for $3.00!! Woot Woot! So excited for next summer when the Two Year-Old can wear them!
After the friends left and the Two Year-Old was taking a nap I went out to check the mail and found . . . . my Martha Stewart Living for October. Words cannot describe how much I have been looking forward to this wonderful arrival!
{The Bad}
Remember these cookies, via Real Simple, I told you about? Well, I finally got around to making them. They just might be my new favorite cookie ever! Divine! I almost ate the whole entire batch by myself!
Tips:
Use real butter, you’ll thank me. It’s worth it.
And put the bag of peanut butter cups in the fridge when you start making the cookies, just in the fridge so they get a little cold. I found if you do this, they are easier to cut, or just break apart with your hands.
{The Ugly}
Before I baked the cookies I turned the oven on to preheat. The Two Year-Old was taking a nap so I was downstairs doing a few things, soon I started to smell a weird burning smell, wasn’t paying too much attention. The oven beeped signaling that the over was ready to bake some cookies! I opened the oven and remembered that I had put some Sam’s muffins in there earlier, the plastic was totally melted to the cookie sheet, the cardboard was scortched, and of course the muffins were inedible! And also a lovely picture of my sink after making dinner and cookies.
{The Best Thing EVER!!}
I’ve been dying to get a sewing machine! So excited to get sewing. The first thing on my list: Halloween costumes!
My hubby and I are soo excited for our favorite shows to come back. Tonight kicks off a week of picking up where we left off before the summer break.
Some of our favorites:
House {Can you believe House and Cuddy FINALLY are together?}
Chuck {Glad it came back last season, but it’s sort of losing it’s intrigue. Not a huge fan of the way Chuck wears his hair now, I miss his goofier do.}
Modern Family {So funny! I am always trying choose a favorite character, but I never can! Manny, Mitchel, Cam, Phil, they are all awesome. If you’ve never watched Modern Family, start, it will change your life.}
Glee {What can I say? It makes me want to get up and dance!}
The Office {All I can think about is how this will be Micheal’s last season *tear*. But you never know what will happen next!}
Bones {Booth, so hot. Can’t believe the cliff hanger from last season!}
Do you ever think, “Oh my goodness, other people are so creative!” I am in LOVE with these cute treat holders from Parents.com. I LOVE that they are simple, no hunting around for crazy supplies, everything is versatile and so simple. I love that my toddler and I could put these together together. So many to choose from . . . To see how to make your favorite treat holders, you can click on the picture, they’re linked back to the instructions. For the whole slideshow of these and many more Halloween treat holders, you can click HERE.
I’ve been saving my old used milk jugs for about two weeks now.
My collection is growing, they’ve been well rinsed (I like to use a little diluted bleach), just a few more and I’ll be ready!
I just hope we can find our Christmas lights, we seem to have “misplaced” (read as were not very organized when we moved recently and can’t seem to find anything!) our Christmas decorations during our recent move.
{Idea and pictures found: Eighteen25}
illustrated by Brian Selznick
written by Barbara Kerley
Caldecott Honor Book 2002
Confession: Sometimes I check children’s books out from the Library for my self and not my daughter. I have been checking out children’s books for some time now and always worry what the person helping me is thinking. But I don’t care, I love to take them home sit in my favorite chair and take my time enjoying each word and picture. I’ve checked, The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, out about a million times. It is such a fascinating true story accompanied by magical full page illustrations.
One look at this amazing-but-true picture book introducing the little-known artist Hawkins and his dreams of dinosaurs, and kids may well forget about Jurassic Park. As a child growing up in 19th-century London, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins discovered his passion: drawing and sculpting animal figures, especially prehistoric dinosaurs. His artistic talent and his goal--to build life-size models of dinosaurs envisioned from scientific fossils--led him to work with noted anatomist Richard Owen and complete a special commission from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, an installation of dinosaur statues, much of which still stands in contemporary Sydenham, England. During the project, Hawkins courted the scientific community by hosting a lavish New Year's Eve dinner party inside his life-size model of an iguanodon (the bill of fare is reproduced on the final page). Selznick (The Houdini Box, see p. 94) builds to the dramatic moment by showing readers a peek at giant reptilian toes through a parted curtain. Kerley (Songs of Papa's Island) leads readers into further exploration of Hawkins by presenting copious but never dull details of the stages of his life and works, including efforts in the U.S., thwarted by Boss Tweed. Throughout, she suffuses her text with a contagious sense of wonder and amazement. Selznick enthusiastically joins the excitement with his intricate compositions, capturing Hawkins's devotion to his art and depicting the dapper man with wild white hair as a spirited visionary and showman. The elegant design on tall pages gives the dinosaur models their due from various perspectives, and scenery of the period additionally grounds the work in historic context. Extensive author and illustrator notes denote the extensive (and fun) research both undertook for this extraordinary volume. Ages 6-up. (From Publishers Weekly)
For some great book related activities to use in a classroom or at home you can visit:
American Museum of Natural History: Dinosaurs website. Play the Dino Name Game, draw, color, and explore all things Dionosaur.
Barba Kerly (the author of The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins) personal website. Has lots of ideas about how to get into the mind of Waterhouse Hawkins.
Last month I became an aunt for the first time! So of course the next natural step was to go completely bow crazy! I love(d) having bows to but in my little girl’s hair. So I decided to make some bows to go with an interchangeable headband for my new little niece.
I found these somewhat cute flowers at the Dollar Store and thought they might work for some bows.
When buying silk flowers to make bows, I look for bunches that have a variety of sizes, so later on I can layer them, I just like the way it looks. You’ll see what I mean in a sec.
The first step was to chop off a few flowers and take them completely apart. Here I have one big flower and one small flower.
Next reassemble flowers using two pieces from my big flower and one piece from my smaller flower, line up the already made holes, and inserted a scrapbooking brad.
After finishing the basic reassembly it’s time to put it on a clip so it can go on a headband or in your hair. I bought this box of alligator clips at Sally Beauty Supply for about $5.00. The first time I bought clips, I bought like 12 for $3.00 because that was all I saw. But when I went back I looked down and saw that I had been ripped off, the $5.00 box has 10x’s as many clips! Look lower it’s there! I like these kind of clips because they are wider, which provides more surface for gluing and attaching, and my bows seem to stay together better.
Cut out some felt circles, glue to the back of your flowers. I like to cover my clips with ribbon, I think it gives it a nicer finished look, but it is not necessary.
Glue flower to clip and you’re finished!
These are the other bows I made, I love how they all turned out and love that they were a nice inexpensive gift. All the flowers I found at the Dollar Store, the ribbon and clips I already had on hand. (I made two of some because now that my little girl is older and I can actually fix her hair, when I do two pig tails it’s nice to have two bows to put in.)
Hello, and welcome to Peanut Butter Heaven.
It’s no secret I love a good peanut butter and chocolate treat.
Example A: Muddy Buddy recipe post
Example B: THE BEST Peanut Butter Bar post
On Monday night for Family Home Evening we were planning on making cookies, I was sick of the plain old chocolate chip, so I went in search of a new recipe to switch things up a bit.
And I found two, that of course have peanut butter and chocolate in them. They both sound so good.
I have recently come across the cutest blog EVER, House of Smith’s!
Shelly, is just too cute! She not only has great projects, lots of pictures, but is so fun to read!
A great blog full of endless projects! Confession: I spent a whole entire naptime, a precious two hours, browsing through her blog. Before I knew it naptime was over and I hadn’t even had a chance to look through her vinyl shop . . . Don’t worry I went back later, and oh my! I couldn’t just choose one thing. I am going to vynilize everything with her cute stuff!
