Monogram Wreath

Currently I'm procrastinating.  Potatoes are baking in the oven but the rest of dinner hasn't been prepared.  There are a couple loads of laundry waiting to be folded.  And I really should work on a menu and grocery list for the week so that I can pick up anything we need while I'm in town taking Kaitlyn to dance class tonight.  But I'm really happy with the wreath I finished a few days ago and since I got some decent photos thanks to the great weather today I'm anxious to share it with you.  (and I don't have a clue what to make for dinners this week so I'm hoping inspiration hits while I'm typing)

I had this wreath in the entry of the old house, but since we've moved it's just been sitting on a shelf in the garage.  And a few months ago I saw the cutest monogram wreath idea on pinterest.  Eventually the idea hit to reuse the wreath and turn it into something fun I can use during the times of the year when I don't need/want to put out something holiday/seasonal on the front door.

My front door is black and I'm in love with red so the first thing I did was spray paint the wreath red.

Then I scavenged the house for fun things to add to the wreath - like old Christmas ornaments that I painted then added some vinyl design to and covered with Poly to make them shiny.  It worked surprisingly well, except for the larger diamond shape, which didn't want to conform to the round ornament so that one was discarded.  I had already picked up a wooden letter C, which I painted with stripes on the sides then covered the front with patterned paper.  It got a coat of poly on top of the modge podge as well, as it would be hanging outside and modge podge goes all sticky again when it gets wet (how did I discover that?  silly me left some blocks outside drying overnight a few months back and it rained on them!)

Add a little hot glue and some fun ribbon, flowers, and feathers and - Ta Da!  More than anything I have created lately, this wreath is very "me" and I'm very happy with it.

 As I said, original inspiration was this photo from pinterest.  (link here)

Linking to:
Saturday Seven Party @ Positively Splendid

Picky Eating Chronicles #2

Success!  If you remember from my earlier post (here), we have been diligently working on getting the kids to try new foods.  Part of the deal we made with them, was that if both tried 30 new things we would take them on a trip to Great Wolf Lodge (I know that's a huge reward and normally not something I would offer, but we were planning the trip anyway ;)  ).  And they did it!  Sometimes it was a struggle and we were a little concerned that Tyler wouldn't hit 30 before we left, but all in all the kids were actually a whole lot more willing to try new things than we had expected.  In fact, once Kaitlyn got on a roll there were days when she would try 2-3 new things in one meal!

So, last week found us on vacation at Great Wolf Lodge - yay yay yay!  It was a great trip and we all had so much fun, not just at the water park (though that was great and took up most of our time) but with all the activities offered there as well.  I absolutely recommend taking a trip there, if you've been thinking about one.  It's a great way to break up the winter blahs.  (And don't forget to ask about the military discount!)

Even better, family meal times have gotten easier.  Tyler has expanded the list of items he will eat, which gives us a little more freedom.  Kaitlyn is doing even better, and will eat (or try) almost everything I make for dinner every night - such a huge improvement!  And as we discovered while on vacation - eating out with the kids is now a pleasant experience again  :)  Both of the kids are now willing to keep trying new things so it's time to sit down again with the husband and start plotting a new motivational technique...

Love Day

Ahhh Valentines Day.  Another one of those days that just screams "Celebrate Me!"  And I never pass up the opportunity for one of those, right? ;)

I don't know about you, but today I seem to be moving in slow motion and accomplishing not much of anything.  Thus the reason it's taken me two whole days to upload all the photos for this particular blog post!  But better late than never.  Here is what our Valentines Day looks like so far.

The Valentines cards I worked on last week include little valentines for the kiddos

with fun pop up hearts inside

and one for the hubby (inspiration found here)

As well as a couple of crafting sessions for the kids to work on cards to send out in the mail to all the granparents and other special people in our lives, including their teachers.

 I really liked the idea of some of the fingerprint cards I was seeing on Pinterest so I googled a whole bunch of fingerprint doodle ideas and let the kids pick their favorites.
Tyler's fingerprints, my "artwork":

Kaitlyn everything herself, design, fingerprints, doodling, writing - all of it.  It's so nice when the kids are big enough to just let them loose and watch them create.

Oh, and I printed out a pop up robot template (from Martha Stewart here) and let them each make one of those.

 And with that, we were all set for Vday - yay!

This morning was great. The kids are always so excited for special days and I do my best to make them extra fun. Kaitlyn was the first to bring out the cards she had made - she's such a sweetie when it comes to that kind of thing.
Breakfast was heart-shaped orange rolls and a "chocolate shake" (carnation instant breakfast fortified with a banana and an egg)

which the kids happily ate while I rushed around throwing together lunches. Can you believe I hadn't given them any thought at all? I ended up going with heart shaped Nutella sandwiches, red juice, red jello, applesauce, and some candy hearts. Luckily I had Valentines napkins left over from last year. And had remembered to print of Valentines lunchbox jokes (Kristen Duke comes up with great one for all the big events lately. Love them. You can find them here) and stuck a couple in Kaitlyn's bag (Tyler got another valentine picture since he can't read yet)

Oh and let's not forget the heart hair! I changed it up this year and went with a different technique than I've used the last few years. (instructions can be found here)

Then I happily took photos and got the kids off to school - still in my pjs I might add! The morning routine on holidays is a little crazy. It took me until 10:00 to get in a workout and manage a shower. And I've been in slow motion ever since. I'm going to do a big 'ole happy dance when I get this post posted, as that will be my biggest accomplishment of the day since then lol. That and going through all of Tyler's Valentines from school and helping him eat some of them - his suggestion, by the way. Who am I to refuse such a cutie?

Plans for the rest of the day are pretty low key. Neither Sam or I wanted to fight the crowds at a restaurant tonight so we are staying in. In fact, I offered to babysit for a friend, who took me up on the offer but they decided to go to the shooting range Saturday (some girls really know romance, right? haha) instead of out on the town tonight. So I repeat, we are staying in and keeping it low key. I printed off a Valentines maze (found here) to keep the kids busy while we cook dinner. Kaitlyn requested steak (heart shaped if possible hehe) so Sam will be in charge of that, and I will be trying my hand at making heart shaped french fries. We have a yummy dessert waiting for us in the freezer. And I might send Sam out to get a movie from Redbox. Sounds like a good night, right?

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope you all have a lovely day!

My First Crochet Pattern! Ruffled Baby Legwarmers

Good morning!  I'm feeling all productive today because for the second morning in a row I manged to work out and shower (woohoo) before having to get the kids ready for school. It's amazing what you can cram into a couple of hours when the motivation and energy are flowing.

I thought I would share a crochet pattern today - my very first attempt at writing one!  I made up a set of these baby legwarmers with a matching hat a couple months ago and when I got a custom order (you can visit my etsy shop here) for them this past week I decided I'd take the time to actually sit down and write up the pattern (as opposed to my chicken scratch notes I kinda sorta remembered to take when making the originals) and let you be my ginuea pigs pattern testers, ok?  Please, please try them out for me and let me know what you think, share photos, etc.  Thanks! 


Ruffled Baby Legwarmers – **Pattern  was available for free for limited time only, and will shortly be posted for sale.  (I'll add the link for that when available)  Enjoy the photos!

Linking to:
Making Monday Marvelous at CRAFT

Getting in the mood for

Valentines! That's right, I'm trying to stick to my goals and get ahead of things and that means getting a jump on Valentines Day. I actually have all the Valentines for the kids' classmates ready to go out - but that's another blog post. Today I wanted to show off the crafty cuteness from yesterday's little get together with a couple of my friends. Actually it was our second attempt for the month. Life being as it is, our first craft day last week was kind of a no-go and our reschedule only worked for half of the ladies that were originally in on the plans. No worries, I'm learning to take whatever life gives me (and use the no shows as excuses to have fun one on one with them later) and roll with it. And we all know that crafty with buddies, be it one or ten, is always a lot of fun. Yesterday was no exception. I really enjoyed myself and the crafts turned out super cute.

I did 2x4 pumpkins for October, and trees for Christmas, so when a friend asked if we could do Valentines crafts this month my first thought was "what can we make with a 2x4?" :) This is what I came up with.

I always regret not taking out the camera before everyone goes home because each one has it's own special look. This time in particular I really loved how the other sets turned out too. Remind me to take photos next time, someone, please!
I like my set so much I'm pretty sure I need to list some on etsy and share the love, doncha think?

And for our second craft, a Valentines themed shadow box. I'm really in love with this concept. Don't be surprised if you see a green version in a couple of months...

Linking to:












Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou

Picky Eating Chronicles

I'm on a quest. A quest to get my kids to eat a wider variety of foods, so they can lead healthier lives, and possibly turn dinner time into something fun again. That's not too much to ask, right?

I have to admit that in the area of picky eating, we were doomed. I'm a picky eater. My husband is a picky eater too, only about different things. Where I won't eat ground meat or anything resembling eggs and would be happy to eat vegetarian more than half the time, he loves hamburger and steak but won't touch squash or strawberries and apples. Yes, I said STRAWBERRIES. He's the only person I know that doesn't like strawberries. Other than my son, of course. So as I said. We were probably doomed to have picky children, both through genetics and the fact that because we know how it feels to be on the other end of it, we don't pull the "eat what is put in front of you or you don't eat at all" card.

We do, however, realize that life could be much easier if the kids are willing to expand their horizons. You know, so we could go out to eat and actually have everyone find something on the menu that they like. So the littlest one doesn't rely quite so heavily on "dinner cereal" (our solution to not being a short order cook - if the kids don't want the meal we have fixed for dinner they eat the one (super healthy) cereal we have designated as the dinner cereal). And because they are both getting old enough that trying to reason with them actually works once in a while.

After much discussion and research we have now set out on our quest. Our first plan of attack is a series of rewards and a sticker chart. We want to go really heavy on the rewards here at the first, while they are really enthusiastic and willing. Later we'll switch techniques. I have a few up my sleeve and I'm sure I can find more as needed. For now, this is the sticker chart, which we have taped to the inside of a cupboard door in the kitchen. The kids add a sticker on the calendar each day that they try something new. We track which foods they have tried and whether they liked the food or not. Any food that doesn't go on the Like column will be tried at another time (see I've done my research and I know that sometimes it takes many exposures to a new item before a child is willing to try it or like it). We make a point of offering them something new to try every night at dinner (sometimes more than one) and sometimes at other points during the day. Sometimes we decide what will be the new item, sometimes they get to choose one.
The rewards are:
-Trying a new food 3 days in a row = they get to pick a dessert
-Trying a 5 new foods (doesn't have to be in a row) = fun activity
-Liking 5 new foods = $
And once both kids have tried 30 new foods each we get to take a family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge (indoor water park - it looks really cool and they'd better earn it soon because what's the point of going to an indoor water park in the summer?!)

And guess what?! It's actually WORKING! Tyler surprised us by jumping on board right away and trying more foods than Kaitlyn in the beginning. His enthusiasm has fizzled a little and she is now ahead of him in the new food count. But despite a little more nudging than I would like to have to use at times, and having a hard time sometimes handling our own disappointment when they won't try something we know they will like, I'm pretty happy with their progress. As of last night Kaitlyn had 16 things on her list (and only 1 or 2 she didn't like) and Tyler was up to 12. That seems pretty good considering we are only 23 days into the month.

I'll update with our progress and new ideas as we go. And if anyone has any additional suggestions of ways to make it fun, foods that I may not have thought of as kid friendly, or anything else along those lines - please share!