Lego Table

I really wanted to give my son some Legos for Christmas, but I felt like the little legos were not enough.  So I wanted to find a Lego table. The Lego brand table at Toys R Us on sale was $159.99. Crazy! I wasn't going to pay that much.  So I went to IKEA. I bought a $9.99 side table which was PERFECT! Then I bought a Lego base plate for $18.99. All I had to do was put the table together and use gorilla glue to put the Lego base plate on top. That easy. You could do it.

R.A.C.K.'ed for Chrismtas

Have you heard of R.A.C.K.ed?  
Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.

This year instead of a normal Advent we are doing an act of service each day.  With each act of Service we we will leave a little Christmas note (picture above). I have made a list of acts of service and put them in my advent calendar.  I am excited to see the affect that this tradition has on each family member in my home. 
Here are the things that we are going to do each day:  1. Take Gymnastics teacher a thank you card and treat.2. Rack neighbors leaves 3. Tap quarters to a vending maching4. Take Primary teachers Thank You Notes and a treat5. Take some change to the Salvation Arm Bell Ringers6. Take treats to the post office workers7. Take Ms. Chesnek a Thank You Note and treat8. Take treats to the front office at school9. Tape. quarters to a toy machine10. Hand Out flowers to random people at the mall.11. Take Hot Chocolate to the Salvation Army Bell Ringers or other outside worker.12. Take Preschool teachers a gift.13. Take Neighbors Trash cans back in after they have been emptied.14. Take Breakfast in to everyone at Eric's work15. Put some $ in bag and tape onto machines at laundromat. 16. Tape candy on cars at temple and thank them for their service. 17. Go visit Great Grandpa Jim at the VA.18. Write a Letter to all Grandparents and Thank them for their examples.19. Take doughnuts to constrction site20. Tape money up in random places at the dollar store. 21. Take a treat to a neighbor.22. Hand out gloves at an outdoor holiday event. 23. Take Wendys dinner to Homeless.24. Make Cookies for Santa.

So, if you would like to join the bandwagon, you should.  What a great way to celebrate the holiday season.

Christmas Door Hanging

I wanted to make a Christmas Wreath for my door, but I didn't want anything expected or traditional. Since I am on a budget, I went on a scavenger hunt in my craft closet.
I found some moss scraps, some red leaves, an old frame, ribbon and a merry chrstmas gift tag from last year.
Here is what I came up with:

Desk Update

I forgot to take a before picture, so there is not as dramatic of an effect, but here is Emma's new homework desk.  It was an old dingy dark stain with lots of scratches and  I even found '4:20' carved into the edge.   I'm glad that I got that out.  

I was going for the weathered look. Emma got to pick out the color.  My favorite part is that the drawers are lined with an old newspaper.  

Christmas Snowflake

 Okay, I had a few requests on how to make these beautiful Christmas Snowflakes.  You can make them any size that you want.  All you need is:

6 square pieces of double sided decorative paper
A stapler

That's IT!

Okay, here is a step by step picture instruction sequence:

Start with your Square pieces of paper

Fold each of them into a triangle

Start by making two cuts parallel with the edges up until they almost form a triangle, but don't cut it all the way up.  Leave a 1 inch gap in between the cuts.

Repeat two more times until you have a total of three cuts parallel to each side of the triangle.

Open up your square piece of paper.  Grad the open edges of the smallest triangle and pull together.  Staple them so that they stay.  

Flip your paper over and do the same thing with the next triangle and staple. 

Continue alternating sides and stapling. 

 

Until it looks like this when it is laid on its side.   Repeat until you have 6 of these pieces of paper.

To assemble, start by stapling two together by starting at the bottom and then stapling the middle as well.   

 Once you have 2 halves (with 3 leaves each), then attach the halves together and walla!, you are done!

 You can make these in so many different sizes and colors.  They are great to hang or put as a center piece. Good Luck!

Beautiful Spices

I have been saving up baby jars, for this project. I think spices can be beautiful. But I hate all the bazaar packaging. I will post a picture when I am done, but here is part of it.

Cheap personalized schedule board

What you need:
Scrap wood
Scrapbook paper
Metal shingles ( $.98 each, I used 3 cut in half)
Gorilla glue
Spray paint


The project is pretty self explanatory. Paint wood, glue metal on, let it set, use scrapbook paper to label days and personalize how you would like.

Football Cake

 My little boy loves sports. On his birthday he couldn't decide if he wanted a football cake or baseball cupcakesSo, I decided to do both.  They looked great and tasted delicious too!   

Football season

Here is a cute idea for a football party. Delicious!

Wedding Cake

Black and white wedding cake for my father in laws wedding. I learned a lot and thought it turned out pretty good.

4th of July wreath

This wreath was so easy (and cute...right?!?).   All you need is 1 foam wreath, about 6 small sheets of felt in each color (red, white and blue ), some hot glue, siscors and a pen.
Use the top of a cup or can to trace circles onto felt.  Cot out about 30 circles for each color. To place them on the wreath I folded the circle in half and then in half again.  Then place the pen in the center of folded circle and push the pen into the wreath. I just pulled the felt back out and then hot glued it and pushed it back in with pen again. That way it is more permanent.  I then just eyeballed where I wanted the colors to be place and continued around the whole wreath. Add a couple of stars and you are done.

M is for Moss

I saw this Moss letter on a blog the other day and loved it. I finally got around to making it.

Here is a quick and easy tutorial on how to do it.

I used sheet moss. Laid it out with my letter and trimmed the excess.

Cut slits in between openings in the letters.

Fold the moss over and glue.

And walla! So simple.

Menu Plan Monday 5/16

I know that I have not been very consistent with my posting...Sorry. My husband and I are trying to eat healthier so I feel like our meals are not too desirable. As I searched for more healthy recipes this week I realized that there was a lack of them on blogs. So I am going to make an effort to share some of them with you.

Monday- Healthy French Toast

Ingredients

• 8 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup skim milk
• 4 slices whole-wheat bread
• Cooking spray
• Sugar-free syrup

Preparation

Whisk egg whites, vanilla, nutmeg and milk together. Dip each slice of whole-wheat bread in the egg mixture and brown on each side in a nonstick pan sprayed with cooking spray. Top with a little sugar-free syrup and serve with turkey sausage or scrambled eggs.

Tuesday: Salmon, Roasted Asparagus and Baked Potatoes

Wednesday: Grilled Rosemary Chicken, Salad and Sweet Potato Fries

Thursday: Turkey Burgers (Costco Premade), Roasted Black Bean and Corn Salad

Friday: Healthy Egg White Omlets

Saturday: Free-day...Eat out or whatever is around the house.

Sunday: Whole Wheat BBQ Chicken Pizza

I will try and take pictures this week and include some recipes that I have planned. Have a wonderful week.

My Favorite Banana Bread

Over the years I have tried many banana bread recipes. I received one from my sister in law a couple of years ago that I have been using and have tweaked along the way.

So without further adieu here it is...

Tamber's Moist Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (Or 1/2 cup blended light colored beans*)
1 cup Sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
4 bananas, finely crushed
1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup crushed walnuts or mini chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
1.) Cream sugar and butter together.
2.) Add eggs,crushed bananas and vanilla.
3.) Combine well.
4.) In a seperate bowl sift (or wisk) flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture.
5.) Pour into greased pans.
6.) Bake at 350 degrees. For mini loaves 20-25 minutes, full loaves 60 minutes.

Ruffle Bum Onsie.

Here is the Ruffle Bum Onsie in use.

A simple headband.

I wanted to make a quick headband for my daughter.

I started with a 30" strip of fabric.

I cut the ends thinner so that they can tie behind her head.

Make sure both ends are the same by lining them up and cutting them together.

Then I hemmed each edge about 1/4" all the way across. You could just use that as your headband, but I found a few scraps that I made a flower and two peddles with. Just sew them right on and you are done.

ps... are you sick of the black polka dot fabric yet? I have been using it on all of my projects lately.