Fuzzy Sock Puppets

Summer Fun-Fuzzy Sock Puppets

This was a fun one. I already had fuzzy socks & lots of fun things to add to them to make fun puppets.

The idea came from this post. She has great, easy to follow instructions. So I will just post pictures of our puppets.

Landon's

Savannah's

My only recommendation would be to use a different type of glue than hot glue.  We've had several pieces fall off and we used hot glue.  Using a different type will mean you can't play with them as fast and have to wait for glue to dry, but the puppets should stay together longer. I would recommend Tacky Craft Glue.

Easy & fun!!

Crayon Hot Rocks

Months ago, I started a Pinterest board titled "Summer Fun". I had big plans to do fun activities to keep the kids busy and blog about it.  It's July 11th...we've done some activities but I haven't blogged about it like I meant to.

School will start in a month. I start back to work next week. Suddenly, summer is coming to a quick end.

So here is the first post of some of the fun activities we have tried.  Some were good, some have failed.

Crayon Hot Rocks

On our Spring Break trip to MO we brought back a bucket of rocks from the lake with his project in mind.

(At least it was in my mind, my kids just like to collect rocks...)

I pinned the idea from this post. It's super easy. The worst part was peeling the wrappers off the crayons. To make peeling easier, cut a slit down the crayon with scissors & it should peel off easier. 

Place on a foil lined cookie sheet. The blog post says to heat at 350 for 15 minutes. The notes on the Pinterest post says 220 for 10 minutes.

I think I did the 220 for 10 minutes. They were plenty hot!

The rocks are hot!  I gave the kids a wooden skewer to help hold the rocks still while they colored them.

This was a fun project! The crayons just melted right on the rocks!  Except for the sandstone rock we had brought home. So don't use sandstone :)

They weren't overly creative with the rocks like I hoped they would be. But the rocks still turned out pretty cool with the melted crayon colors on them.

The one in the back, he colored silver...not a big change in color, but you can tell up close that it's colored.

Fun and easy activity...we recommend it!!

(PS--don't judge my cookie sheet...)

Dinner--Chili Lime Mahi Mahi with Sweet Corn Quinoa

Well it has been a long time since I wrote a post!! Guess I should write a post about our vacation. We also did lots of fun art projects today. So while I work on other posts later, I will start with what I made for dinner.

I keep reading articles about all the crappy stuff that is in our food.  Ingredients that are illegal in other countries. Yuck. While I know our habits won't change overnight, I thought I would try to move us in a better direction.

I made a trip to Costco this week for meat. While there I bought some Mahi Mahi.  While surfing Pinterest this week, I saw recipes for Quinoa & decided we should try it.

So dinner tonight was....

Chili Lime Mahi Mahi with Sweet Corn Quinoa

Doesn't it look yummy?  That's because it was!!

The fish was easy.  We had a Stubbs Chili Lime rub. I wanted to use a recipe found here that called for McCormick's Mojito Lime seasoning, but our Kroger didn't have it. So if you need a recipe, I'm betting this one is good. I will try it next time or when I can find the seasoning.

Our side dish was the quinoa. I really didn't know much about it other than it has a lot of protein. I used this recipe, found here. The only change I made was using frozen corn instead of fresh corn.  I used nearly a whole 12 oz bag.

So that's it.  Kevin & I loved it! And if our kids weren't picky and more willing to try new things, they would have liked it too :)

Happy Birthday Sweet Savannah

Today we celebrated Savannah's birthday with a party at a local church's playground. Earlier this week, the forecast was for a high near 90--yuck, but it's June what do you expect??

Then the forecast started changing...a storm front would be moving in.  We had no Plan B.  

I prayed & prayed for no rain from 10am-noon.  Just let us get the party in, then rain/storm all you want!

Woke up to a great forecast, the party was on!!

Breeze was blowing & it was about 82 degrees. Perfect!

Let me backtrack just a bit to tell you how the party came together...

At some point, a few weeks ago, Savannah decided she wanted a Bubbles party. This was after she said she wanted a jelly bean party...not sure where her ideas were coming from. Of course, I searched Pinterest for ideas for a bubble themed party.

I made invitations using Excel. It was easy. This isn't the best picture, but I can't find a printed copy so I'm trying to take a picture off my computer screen. You get the idea. They were cute!

Used this idea and make it my own.

Here is the birthday girl with her cake & cupcakes.

For the cake topper, I bought a wooden "5" from Hobby Lobby, painted it pink and glued gumballs on it. 

Found the idea here for the topper & cake decor.

Got to use my cupcake stand!! If you didn't see that blog post, find it here.

I used candy to decorate the cake. Two sizes of gumballs and Sweet Spots. Found them a the Dollar Tree.

I made mini strawberry cupcakes for the kids and a large layer cake for the adults. Each layer was a different color. 

(Got the idea from here.)

We hired a local girl & her mom to make balloon animal/creations for our party guests.

The kids loved it!! So did Kevin :)

The party was lots of fun. I'm thankful to Bellevue Baptist for allowing us to use their park & pavilion. And I'm very thankful for God that the storm front moved through at 11:45 just as the party was wrapping up. Answered prayers!!

And here are the bubble wands we sent home with each guest.

Tonight, we had a family cookout at our house. More presents and sweet stuff! I made a cookie cake and made an "S" on top out of M&Ms.

Find idea here.

I made the cookie recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. The key is to use Butter flavored Crisco. (It's a birthday, there are no calories on birthdays...) I cooked it in a smaller sized pizza pan. YUMMY!

Even if we weren't fans of Duck Dynasty, this shirt would still be perfect for Savannah. She is Happy, Happy, Happy almost all the time. So blessed to have her for a daughter.

Successful and exhausting day. It was a great party day!!

Black Magic Art

Welcome to the first day of summer--or at least our first day of summer. 

We spent the day being absolutely and completely lazy.

And it was Great!!

A few weeks ago I tried to start getting ready to occupy 2 kids all summer.  Last year, they squabbled alot and it wasn't much fun. I'm trying to be proactive and have what I need for fun activities.

While I still have some supplies to purchase, I had everything we needed to try this activity. (find it here)

Black Magic Art

You've seen the scratch off art things. I don't know how else to describe them :)  They are black, but you scratch off a design and reveal pretty colors underneath.

This post is how to make your own.

We started with light colored card stock. Pink & white for Savannah/Blue & white for Landon.

The kids colored each piece entirely with crayons.

Aren't they pretty?

Next, we painted 2 layers of black acrylic paint.

We let it dry while we ate lunch & had nap/rest time.

Then we went to work on scraping off the paint and make pretty designs.

We used a screwdriver, plastic fork & knife and toothpicks.

It worked, but was more difficult to scrape off than the ones you buy in stores.

It wasn't a bad 1st day of summer/lazy day activity.

Fun & fairly easy. Wish the paint had scraped off easier.

I would recommend trying it though!!

(The blog linked above gives more thorough instructions. Click the link to learn more!)

Cupcake Stand--an up-cycle project

UPDATE: Here is a picture of the cupcake stand at the party today.  We figured out we need a bigger base to make it sturdier, but it worked great!

Keep reading below to find out how I made the stand. :)

In 2 short weeks, our baby girl will be 5.  A few weeks ago, I started searching Pinterest for party themes & ideas.

Somehow, I started searching for & finding ideas for cupcake stands. I came across several, including one made out of an old chandelier. While this one was my favorite, I didn't have a chandelier to use, so I started to work on a different one.

THEN, I saw a post on my favorite FB resale page. An old brass chandelier for only $5!!  I bought it & got to work. Here is my first attempt at a tutorial. (The picture I pinned on Pinterest did not link to a blog or tutorial so I can't link it here. You can see the picture on my Party Ideas board.)

How to make a cupcake stand out of a chandelier.

(I bought the one in the front. I forgot to take a before picture once I got it home. First attempt at a tutorial and I forgot to take the first picture I needed, good grief.)

First, you need a chandelier. It was surprisingly easy to take it all apart so don't be afraid.

Take the glass globes off, you don't need them for the stand. 

Unscrew the top portion where the chain is that would hang the chandelier from the ceiling. This will expose the top part of the wiring.

Next, you need to unscrew the lightbulb sockets and pull the wires out. This was also easier than I thought it would be!

In the socket, there is a small screw. Loosen the screw completely. Use wire cutters to snip the wires. (On the top where that mass of wires is.)

Pull the socket out and wires will pull right out of the chandelier. Repeat that until all the sockets are removed.

The middle of the chandelier is one long screw with a decorative piece that goes over it.

I wanted the piece that would have capped the ceiling to be the support piece for the stand since it's bigger. That piece had a bigger hole in it than the screw. So I doubled the stand using the smaller piece that capped off the electrical top part of the chandelier since it had the smaller center hole.

Here is the stand so far. As you can see, my outer pieces curve down too much.  That was fine for a light, but they obviously won't hold cupcakes like that!

My wonderful husband helped me straighten the end pieces just a little so the plates I will be adding would sit level.

If you have to do this, be careful, the pliers will leave little marks on pipes.

All better and level now!!

Now I needed to find plates or pieces to add to the tops for cupcakes to sit on.  For my chandelier I needed small plates that were 6-7 inches wide and a center plate that was 10-11 inches wide. 

I searched Wal-mart and the Dollar Tree before heading to a thrift store. I would recommend a thrift store. Most likely things will be less expensive and you may find unique pieces that will be perfect for your stand. If not, Wal-mart has 7 inch wooden circles for 97 cents or the Dollar Tree has small & large plates that would work.  

In Memphis, we have a thrift store called Helping People God's Way. It benefits several charities. After not really finding what I wanted at WM & DT, I headed to HPGW.

I found a set of 5 small glass plates for $2.80. They are 7 inches wide and perfect. 

And a large glass plate for 50 cents that is about 10 inches wide.

At Wal-mart, I picked up the spray paint & primer I wanted. This the first time I have used this type and I LOVED it! The color I chose is called Lagoon. I had just enough using one can of each. You may need/want more than one can.

I took the stand apart and covered all pieces with primer.

(If you notice in the picture there is a small glass to the left of the top small glass plate. Ignore that for now. It was an idea I had that didn't work. I'll explain it later.)

After spraying both sides with primer (and allowing to dry as needed), I sprayed with the Lagoon color spray paint.

Once everything was dry (I waited a couple of days. Use your judgement & read the back of your spray paint can for directions), I put the stand back together.

I used this glue to hold the plates on.

I bought this at Wal-mart awhile back. I think it's their version of E-6000 glue. Use either one, they are super strength types of glue.  This tube even says--bonds forever.

Here is the stand with the small plates added.

The plate for the center was too low to just put right on the chandelier. I had purchased that small glass (from picture above) thinking it would fit down in the center and add height to the center plate. It didn't work. Undeterred, I searched our kitchen for a different option.

I found a small Pyrex custard cup. Ah Ha...new idea!

I decided to glue the custard cup to the bottom of the bigger plate. It fits right down over the top of the center part of my stand.  I decided to keep it as a separate, removable piece.

So here it is, a finished Up-cycled Cupcake Stand!

The only thing left to do is spray it with a clear coat to help seal it.

I cannot wait to use it at Savannah's party in 2 weeks!

(See how the custard cup fits down over the center piece? Perfect! Adds just enough height.)

Like I said it was surprisingly easier than I expected it to be. If you want to make one, don't be afraid!!

NOTE: Don't rush the spray paint process.  I always do & end up with bubbles. Slow, even coats. (You can only see them if you look closely, so don't.)

Each chandelier will be different, so you may have to tweak these instructions to fit your needs.