I Heart Target!

It was a Target day today, we had to buy snacks for E's Kindergarten class and get some socks for the kids (which begs the question; WHY do the kids never have enough socks?). Anyway, B was very excited about his new socks and was convinced that the bright white ones were glow-in-the-dark. There was no convincing him that they weren't~ he had to check it out himself and go downstairs in the dark.  He was okay with it and we made a game of matching the socks.

I am now the owner of a bright shiny Target card, did you know that you get 5% back EVERY time you use your Red Card? It makes up for the penny difference in prices between Walmart and Target. I would much rather shop at Target, Walmart just makes me SO crabby! I love that I can sign up for a portion to go to my kids' school and if you want you can even get it as a debit card right from your checking account!

An Original Idea?

I have been on the hunt for a cool, vintage, or vintage-inspired dress form for jewelry display. I have been searching online and looking at local auction sites for quite a while but just couldn't bring myself to spend $200+. I was about to buy small handmade version on Etsy on Friday morning, but decided to wait a little longer. Lucky for me Friday afternoon the hubs and I checked out an overstock store in the area and there was the cutest little child's dress form with a cool base. Of course I forgot to take before pictures so here is one just like it from the web:

So, after working on it off and on throughout the weekend here is what it looks like now:

I am trying to decide if I want to add something more, maybe some bling or ribbon, tacks,spray paint the top and base black,etc. Truly, it will never be done because I'll always tweak it a little. I am bothered by the rod being off-center, the hubs told me it would be fine but it's just not sitting right with me. What do you think?

I loved working on this so much and thought other artists, store owners, etc would like something like this for their displays or as cool art for the house. I thought I was so creative and original until I was perusing the latest Where Women Create and there is an artist featured with dress forms similar to this and to what I want to do with my other forms! So that took my excitement level down a little but at least I thought of it BEFORE I saw it in the magazine-so I can count it as an original idea right?

Daddy's Creative Too!

The hubs is very creative too, and such a great dad. One of their favorite activities is the Lowe's Build and Grow Clinic. The following is a picture of the window bird houses they made the Saturday before Easter.

If you haven't been to one yet I highly recommend it! There is one tomorrow so click the link above for more information and to sign up.

Artsy Girl!

I love to create with my kids, and my daughter loves it too. She really thrives when it comes to art/craft projects. Here's her latest masterpiece:

How cute is that whale? She accessorized it with a yellow flower on the side....such a girly girl!!! She made this out of Crayola's Model Magic, our family's favorite. It is much less messy than Play Doh and more preferred by my kids. It even keeps B busy for almost an hour! It's also my favorite gift for birthdays. We usually buy ours at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon (there isn't one this week but hopefully next week).

Notice the dress she's wearing? Mama Peacock (my mom) was so smart to save some of my clothes from childhood and I love to dress E in them!

Adding Color

I have blogged before about the sad state of my kitchen table. Mostly because the kids and I have created masterpieces of art on the table. The top was painted white and the legs were wood, the white top was stained with paint, ink, etc so really wasn't white anymore.
I have been wanting to repaint the top and add a good coat of polyurethane to make it easier to clean. Well, last week I was at the Junk Jubilee in Des Moines and saw a really cute square table with a wooden top and turquoise legs. I knew the hubby would veto buying the new table so I used it as inspiration to transform my table.
The chairs also got a fresh coat of white and new colorful cushion covers. It is outdoor fabric so I am hoping it stands up to the spills and stains from my kiddos.

Here are some photos, excuse the dreary light-we woke up to a thunderstorm that went from rain to hail to SNOW!! It is April 19th, right?

 

Valentine's Day Prep

Last year for Valentine's Day E was in preschool for the first year and we actually had to make something. So, my mom helped us by cutting out hundreds of hearts out of pink and red construction paper. Don't worry she didn't do it by hand, she cheated and used her Cuttlebug. Last year we punched a hole in the point of two hearts and slid a tootsie pop through the hole and made a "flower". They turned out really cute.

This year we have so many hearts left over we could have done the same thing. But, we changed it up a bit. We made butterflies by gluing the hearts point-over-point and taping a sucker on top. A sharpie was perfect for adding the eyes and antennae. A few random pieces from foam stickers- the perfect embellishment for the wings.

Here is E working on writing the names of her classmates and her own name on the back of the Valentines.

I wish my "night vision" pictures would turn out better-any advice on this would be greatly appreciated!!! :)


The final result:

Mama Tip: The Creative Connection Event

My tip for this Monday is for all of you creative types, or wannabe creative types; whether you have your own business, want to start your own business or just want to let your creative juices flow.
The Creative Connection Event is only a month away and still has room. What is The Creative Connection Event? It's "a three day conference, crafting extravaganza, shopping emporium for creative women, women entrepreneurs, 'mompreneurs', created by Nancy Soriano and Jo Packham from WHERE WOMEN CREATE."

"The Creative Connection will bring together women who are passionate about being creative in their everyday lives as artists, mothers, bloggers, cooks, business owners and crafters. Come learn, create, market, shop, connect with like-minded women from all across the United States!"

I will only be attending the first day but am so looking forward to it! I highly recommend attending if possible. Big names like Lisa Leonard, Amy Butler, Mary Jane Butters and of course my favorite...Ree the Pioneer Woman! The classes look awesome and so does the smart bar and panel discussions. I am going to take the "distress for success" class by Carol Kemery.

I have shared before how much I love me some junk, well I am really excited to let you in on a great junk adventure: the Junk Bonanza!!! It is running the same weekend as The Creative Connection Event: just icing on the cake if you ask me!!

Modge Podge + Food Coloring= SO COOL!!

As promised here is my post about my first auction score, the glass soda bottles. Below is a picture of the bottles all cleaned up; I just used hot soapy water nothing special. That is my four year old in the background, of course she wanted to get in on the action! I had an old frappuccino bottle, and that is what I used for her. I had to use Goo Gone to get the label off so I really made sure that I had all the residue off for fear the Modge Podge mixture wouldn't stick.

Above is the cast of characters; Modge Podge (I used the Matte indoor Modge Podge), food coloring, a variety of brushes, and the bottles. I used foil over a plate for easy clean up. I started by mixing the Modge Podge and food color together and started painting on the bottle with no rhyme or reason. This was really simple and fun, my daughter really enjoyed it!

I just used a paper towel, Target brand, to achieve the stippled effect. You can play around with the two sides, they have different patterns and you can create different looks depending on the side you use. In the pictures below you can see the difference between the stippled green one and the blue one I tried using the brush to create the effect. It didn't really work as well so I stuck with the paper towel method.
I am really excited with the end result and don't have a plan for these, other than looking pretty in my window! I definitely want to do this again and think there are so many possibilities for gift-giving ideas. I am already thinking of how cool this would look on some vases and filling with flowers for teacher's gifts, grandmas, endless recipients! I bought more food coloring because we only had red, green, and blue and I mixed the red and blue for a purple that turned out pretty good. I found a set of neon food coloring, wonder what that looks like!

This is a great project to do with kids too, just know it's messy and probably not going to come out of clothes. Remember how I wrote about trashing my table in the previous post? You should see it now!! Here are some pictures of the final result after a night of drying. Can you guess which one is my daughters? She is so proud of it!!

Mama Tip

Before I started a blog I always thought of great ideas and things to blog about and now that I have one I am continually drawing a blank! I am working on it though. I am getting ready to be a part of Jo Myers-Walker's booth at the Iowa State Fair and have been super busy getting things completed. More on that in a later post.
My tip today, excuse the absence of photos and slight lameness, is parchment paper. I only recently started using parchment paper in cooking and it is so handy for baking and cooking if you don't want things to stick in the oven. About five years ago a good friend asked my husband and I to babysit their two boys and Tom made us pizza to eat that night. It wasn't just any old pizza it had shrimp and other toppings that I can't remember and probably couldn't pronounce. Tom baked it in the oven with parchment paper covering a paver that normal people use to landscape with but, Tom is an engineer with a chef's soul and created his own brick oven flavor that way. So, I didn't know about parchment paper back then and tried something similar using wax paper, which DOES NOT work!!
But, what I really use my parchment paper for the most is my crafting projects. Especially my jewelry making, the glaze I use is very strong and so while I am making my pendants I always, after learning the hard way one too many times, line my trays with parchment paper so the glaze doesn't glue the pendant to the tray.
There you have it my first Mama Tip, and now off to do the laundry and go to bed. It took me about five or six tries to log in to post this because I can't type or spell tonight-sleep deprivation makes you stupid-another great tip from me! :)