Towel Rug

 I am sure you have all heard of the weather we have had in the south lately.  Thankfully we are in Texas and although we had tornadoes touch down all around us none were close enough to do any damage in our corner of Texas.  If any of you are in the other states that were affected my heart goes out to you!

 After I packed a couple of bags in case we need to run to my MIL house.  (ya know tornadoes and double wides don't mix) I sat in front of the TV for the next 4 hours to listen to the weather man tell different towns to get into a small windowless room.  While I was listening I finished my rug.  I found the tutorial here.  She did a great job with the instructions.  I do have a few tips to add.

 It makes a very big mess cutting the towles.  I am guessing when I wash it it will be a mess as well.  I will wash and dry it by it's self.  The same as a rag quilt.

Also, it works best to lay it flat on the floor while you sew the back, and when it gets big enough sit on the other side.

I did use a printed towel.  I wouldn't do that again!!!  The sold ones look the best.

The last tip is that you need a big sharp needle.  Like one you would tie a quilt with.

I made mine smaller than the one she made.  The space I put it in is pretty small.  The color in the photos didn't come out very well.  It is a sage green, a lighter sage green, and the printed on white.  I am planning on making another one.  This one is going in the kiddos bathroom. Best part is that if you use towels you already have it is FREE!

By the way these are the new floors in my bathroom.  I will do a full post on the redo later.

Teacher Appreciation Day

I am so excited for this post.  To be perfectly honest I never remember this holiday and would have forgotten this year if it wouldn't have been for this post.  It was the inspiration for the gifts we gave.

Lady bug's teacher is retiring after 40 + years of teaching.  So I did want to do something for her.  Well if there is one thing that is universal about children it is that if you do something for one you better plan on doing something for all of them.  Thankfully only two of my children are in school.  However oldest monster is in middle school and has a rotating schedule so he has 4 teachers to give gifts to.  Believe me more that once I have wondered what I had gotten my self into!!!!

Porter(oldest monster) had a million ideas so we ended up making each one different.  (It's not what I had in mind) I was going to do them all the same and pretty simple.  I have to admit though he had some pretty good ideas. 

 I think they turned out really well.  You could easily make them for any holiday.  Mothers Day is right around the corner and I think the polk -a- dot pot would be a great gift!!!

 This is the original idea.  You can download the saying from here.  It was supposed to be used as a card but I shrunk it down and mod podged it on the pot.  It says "thank you for helping me grow".  I also painted the rim to match the label.

A tip about mog podgeing.  I just printed this on my printer at home.  The first time I put it on I applied the mog podge like always.  info on that here It looked horrible.  It had air bubbles that wouldn't come out and the ink started to run.  So I printed out another one.  This time I painted a thin layer of mog podge on both sides of the "label" and let it dry.  I did this before I cut it out to make it easier.  After it dried I cut it out and applied like normal.  It worked beautifully!

I am going to have oldest monster make a card for this teacher.  Because the saying is already on the pot I think a homemade card from him would be nice.


This next one was all Oldest monster's idea!  He is so creative!

 Obviously this one is for a math teacher.  We spray painted it cream and painted the numbers and symbols with black acrylic paint.

The card to this one says Mrs.Teacher + Math = knowledge. We printed the saying on cute scrapbook paper with the home printer.  He will write a handwritten message after.

 After a while I did start to get into it.  So I came up with this one. It is one of my favorites!

The card for this one will say Thank you for helping me grow and have a hand written message from Oldest.

 This one was Oldest monster again.  He wanted it to look "super heroish".  His teacher's name starts with a "M", obviously.  The blue has a shine to it that is hard to see in the photo.

This card will say Mrs. Teacher, Super science teacher.  Making science "stick".  (because she is getting a cactus)  Again with a hand written note from oldest.

 This is the one we made for Lady bugs teacher.  The only requirement she had was that it had pink or purple on it.  It is my favorite.  I love the way it turned out.  I think I need one for my self!

 We glued the card on a popsicle stick and wrapped some hemp around it.  Just like the pot only a different color.

We did a hand written note with the same saying of "Thank you for helping me grow".  Lady bug colored and wrote a note on it as well.

We haven't finished all the cards.  They will be done the same way.  We are of course also putting plants in each of the pots.  We choose impatiens  because they like shade and don't take a lot of care. (we will include care instructions)  However in science they just went over drought resistant plants and the teacher mentioned that she loves cactus so that is what she is getting. I had most of the materials already on hand.  So, with buying plants and one more pot this project was under $5.  Not to bad! So go on make one for a teacher you appreciate.






I party here:

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Cake Cookies

Ok so these have been every where lately.  So I thought I would throw my hat in the ring with my version.

The main recipe stays the same.



1 boxed cake mix

1egg

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup oil

Bake at 350 for 10 to 13 min.  My oven cooks a little hot so adjust time as needed.


That's it.  I know, how simple is that. If you can find your cake mix on sale it's totally cheep too.  LOVE THAT!  My family's favorite is the chocolate.  I used a dutch chocolate mix and the above recipe.

Mix all ingredients.  Then roll into balls.  I make these smaller than normal cookies.  About the size of a quarter.  Then roll in sugar.

Don't the look pretty.

Straight out of the oven they look pretty but a little plain.  So lets put cream cheese frosting on them.....

and stick two together. Like homemade Oreoes.

Cream cheese frosting:

1 8oz. package of cream cheese softened
1 stick of butter
3 to 4 cups of powdered sugar(depending on humidity)

They are so yummy.  After my husband ate one he said "oh you are so making these again!"

Our next favorite are made with French vanilla cake mix.  We tried white cake mix as well.  We didn't like them as well but still enough to devour them before a single photo was taken.  Made with the same recipe as above.  Roll into balls about the size of a walnut.  You can dip these into sprinkles or roll them into cinnamon and sugar.  We love the cinnamon and sugar.  The kids love them and they are great ones for them to help with.  You should give them a try.  Then search every where for cake mixes on sale and blow half of your grocery budget on them.  Not that I would ever do such a thing.:)

I linked up here , here.

Easter Egg Shakers

 Lady bug came home with this idea from school today.  It looked very fun so we sat down for a quick activity before dinner.

 She was very excited to teach us all how to make our own.  These are the steps she showed us. First you pick out what ever color egg you want!

Make sure it is washed.  Ours were a little dusty from being in the cupboard for a year.

Next count out 15 no 20 beans. She was very specific on this.  (What ever kind you have, rice would work as well.)  Close them and tape around the seam.

Next decorate them to your hearts content.

We used foam shapes and letters that we had on hand.  Oakley's has his name written under all the shapes  Wyatt didn't want any letters but the W.  It was fun and quick and cheep my three favorite things for a craft!
All the kids loved them. Lady bug enjoyed showing us something new.  And they all  made beautiful music for the rest of the evening.

I linked here,and here

Everyday craft.....

I like to introduce different art elements to our everyday crafts.  Don't get me wrong we do our fair share of cutting and pasting and coloring in coloring books.  But every once in a while it is nice to use something different.

This time we used modeling clay.  It was interesting It sticks together better that play dough and is easier to build with.  It does color your hands a little and I wonder if you got it ground into clothes or carpet if it would stain or be really hard to get out.  It if for sure a parent supervised activity.  And not for really young children.

We made a dog and a cat and an octopus.  I love the octopus because we put 8 legs and then Oakley thought it needed more legs, red ones, and blue hair, and big eyes!  I love it when my kids are creative.  He got a gold star for the day!!!!

For more art inspiration this is a wonderful blog.  She focus on art for preschool age kids and has so many great ideas!!!

Next is finger painting.

Crafty Can

 I needed a trash can for my craft corner: enter the Crafty Can.  Corny, I know, what can I say I'm cool like that.

 I started with a wood trash can looking thing from Hobby Lobby.  It was a little over $5.00 with my 40% off coupon it was only a couple of dollars.

 I used some cream spray paint to paint the top half.  Then I mod podged on some paper.  I didn't take any photo's I wasn't thinking.  These are the steps I use, I don't know if it is right, but it is how I do it.  I put a layer of mod podge down first.  Laying the paper on over it and working all the air bubbles out.  I use a metal ruler and my fingers.  High tech, I know!!!

 I used a different paper for each side.  Then cut 1" strips and put them over the corners to finish them off better.  I put 3 or 4 coats of mod podge over the entire thing.  Then I found some black rick rack and hot glued it around the seam at the top.  I put a bow where the rick rack met to cover the seam.

Here is a shot of the back.

I love the way it turned out.

Everyday craft.....

I try to do a craft or activity everyday with middle monster while littlest monster and baby bug are napping.  Here is one that is simple and teaches him letters and his name.

I down loaded these letters here. (we did the pirate pack)  They are great because they are open so you can trace them and they are FREE.  LOVE FREE!!!! 

Did you know that if you laminate them with contact paper you can use dry erase makers on them?  They work fantastic.  So now Oakley is learning the letters in his name and how to write them.  He just needs to work on the order of the letters!!!

I linked here

Mod Podge

My honey was in Florida last week. He brought home a bag of shells for each of the 4 older kids. So we had to think of something to do with them. Enter the Mod Podge. My middle monster loves treasure boxes. That is what he calls any box. So I let him pick out wooden box (on sell) and the paper to go on it.

I didn't take any photos of me mod podgeing. On the top I just cut it to size and put it on. The bottom I did a mosaic thing. Meaning I cut up the paper and over lapped the paper while gluing.

So after we got all the paper on we hot glued on a bunch of shells. I know they will come off and break but we have 4 big bags of them. I figure we can replace them if we need to. Then I used scrap booking letters to spell his name on the top.

Middle monster loved it.

X marks the spot for treasure.

The littlest monster loves shapes. His favorite lately is a hexagon. Funny for a 1 year old I know. When he found this box he was so happy!

We cut out a dinosaur and pirate to put in the inside. It is the perfect size for his pacifier.
So there you have it two treasure boxes. The big kids are next. We'll see what they pick out!

New love and a Giveaway

a bird and a bean: spring garden markers giveaway

Another great give away. For those of you in the north that have not been able to plant your gardens yet these would be great. Also the tutorial she has on making your own is very good! In fact her entire blog is just really cute!


On another note. My sewing machine broke the other night. As in wont move! That's right I can't even get the needle up far enough to thread it!! Right in the middle of a project.

It is the only machine I have ever had. It was like loosing a friend. Sad :(

Hopefully I will have one back soon and can finish said project and start on the mile long list of others that I have!!!

But for now I have found Mog Podge.

I know it is shocking but I have never really used it.

I really love it.

It is so much easier than I thought it would be!!!

LOVE THAT!

So I have a few really cute projects that I am working on. I will be posting about them soon.

Spring Giveaway

So you all know how I love a good giveaway!! This one looks fantastic so I am sharing the love head over and enter your self!!

Amanda Anderson design

Garden Update

My garden is growing! To be honest I didn't have the faith that I could grow anything in my corner of East Texas.

We have blackberries,
blueberries,


raspberries,

red onion, shallots,
peas,
green beans,

watermelon,
and corn. I am pretty stoked to see how much food we actually get. I also planted strawberries and rhubarb but I think I killed them. I have some dill and basil coming up but it is very small and didn't photograph well.

Happy gardening to you!!

Inspiration

Are you in need of inspiration? I just found this blog! All the ideas are so amazing! What great talent. Go check it out! What do you think are you brave enough to enter the contest?

http://onemonthtowinit.blogspot.com/