Wordless Wednesday

Make It Monday

Well, I know what I am making today:

Mommy's Little Stinker

 A big kid tool belt for Drake! As soon as Barnes and Noble opens this morning, we are going to go get that felt book. I showed Drake the tools in there are he wants them so bad:) I already have tons of felt and stuffing, so why not? He doesn't have school this week, so there is 6 more hours that we need to keep him occupied this week. I think this will work. If not, there is something else at the end of this post that will keep both kids busy for hours. Okay, 30 minutes? 10 minutes? Fine. 2 minutes tops, but they will be laughing the whole 2 minutes.

Crafty Hair

I think this little hanging vase would be so cute for the kids in primary to make for their moms for Mothers Day. If I can find something small and cheap for the vase, I would be willing to donate the cardboard (or run to the store and pick up some apple boxes) and scrapbook paper. The only other expense would be the clear sticky velcro.

I need to go and get some sand so we can color it, like she did at fun on a dime. As soon as it is warm enough outside. Otherwise, I will need to get a couple of tablecloths from the dollar store to put under the table. Add some paper, glue, and a drawing, and you get sand art!

This hat is for Drake:

Sew much ado

 

This hat is for Chloe:

Me Sew Crazy

And here is the much anticipated, 2 minute laugh inducing activity:

2 little hooligans

Marshmallow catapults! I have everything except the marshmallows. I am sure chocolate chips would also work really well. Or the millions of green army men Drake has scattered all over his floor. Animal crackers would also be a hit. Cheerios, rice chex, and gummies are also good choices. I think we, I mean, I will make these today. There may or may not be a wordless Wednesday post about our catapult endeavors. Depends if I can remember to charge the camera battery.

Eggs Rolls (sorta)

These are so good! A little time consuming, but easy and worth it!

Egg Rolls

1/2 pound pork or chicken, cooked, diced small.

2 cups diced cabbage

1 cup shredded carrots

3 green onions, chopped

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

2 TBSP low sodium soy sauce

1 pkg. egg roll wrappers (usually near the mushrooms and/or tofu)

! TBSP oil

Heat frying pan very hot and add meat and oil. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until lightly browned. Add vegetables and cook for 2 more minutes. Stir in ginger, salt, and soy sauce. Cool for 5 minutes.

Using 2 TBSP of the mixture, place in an egg roll wrapper and fold/wrap accordingly (the back of the egg roll wrapper package has excellent directions on how to do this).

Fry a few rolls at a time at 350 degrees, turning occasionally, for 2-3 minutes or until lightly browned. Since everything is cooked on the inside already, all you are doing is making the outside nice and crispy. Drain the egg rolls on paper towels and then eat and enjoy!

My Notes: In the pictures posted, I used small round wrappers. I think they are for won-tons. They were much easier for the kids to eat, but a huge pain in the butt to fill. There is probably only a teaspoon of filling in them and there are 60 wrappers in that package. There are 19-21 in the regular egg roll wrapper package. It took me 2 1/2 hours to do it this way. If you prep the chicken (that is what we use, anyway) and the vegetables the night before or that morning, it will go much faster. We always have fried rice with it. I cheat and buy the seasoning packet for fried rice and use brown rice instead of white. These, unfortunately, can't be made ahead. If they are fried ahead of time, that works, but you can't get them prepared and not fry them. We tried this once and the wrappers soaked up the water that was used to seal the edges and stuck together. The wrappers tore when I tried to  take them off the plate and fry them. We use the pink sweet and sour sauce to dip them in.

Finally!

I finally got some material to extend the cuffs on my red coat. I couldn't find the right color of red for it, so Lot suggested that I use black. I really like how it turned out.

Close up of one of the sleeves. The other looks just like this one. Imagine that:)

And the hem.

 All I did was get some black felt (because the wool felt was expensive and didn't look or feel right), and ruffled it and then pinned it on and sewed it to the jacket.

These nest 2 pictures are of some fabric that I bought last night to make shorts for the kids and Lot and capri's for me for our family pictures this summer or early fall. These were NOT supposed to be on sale, but were, so I did not get to use the 2 50% off coupons I had. Therefore, I paid WAY more for them than I normally would have. But after waiting to get them cut for 45 minutes and waiting to checkout for 20, I just wanted to get out of there. What really gets me is that there was NO sign anywhere near the fabric saying that is was on sale. It was regularly $14.99 a yard and on sale for $11.99. I got 3 yards of each. You do the math, because it makes me cry. I could have bought shorts and shirts for all 4 of us for less than I paid for the stupid fabric. Since is was so expensive, I need to go find a sheet or something similarly large at DI to make dummy shorts/capri's with. Since I can't find a pattern for what we want, I will be winging it and don't want to screw up with the good stuff:

More Curtains!

These are the new curtains I made for the kitchen. I needed new ones because, if you look at the best picture I could find below, you will notice that the curtains are cafe style. I like this look, however, my eyes don't. In the evening, in the summer, when the sun shines, it shines directly through that part of the window that is not covered. And it is BRIGHT! After looking everywhere at all kinds of red material, I found the material at Home Fabrics.

This is a close up of the material. I had a hard time deciding which way to position the curtains. The design looked good this way and sideways. I decided on this way because when the fabric is the other way, the two tear dropped shaped things in the middle of the circles looked like eyes on an African tribal mask. I think that would creep me out occasionally.

I haven't actually made any curtains with this fabric, yet. I got it for the kids' room, also from Home Fabrics.

Wordless Wednesday

EVERY time there is a pitcher in the dishwasher, when I go to unload it, Chloe does this. Every stickin' single time.At least it is clean and sanitized, right?

 

 

Make It Monday

Make It Monday is on Tuesday this week. There were a ton of things that went into my 'Things to Make' bookmark this week. Here are a few of them:

Make your own crayons, as found on make it and love it. (I even have the silicone molds, great DI find).

I LOVE this skirt from Once Upon A Thread:

I could always use another bag pattern. From The Purl Bee. (Same site I got Drake's tie pattern from)

I think Drake would like to have his own shopping list, courtesy of She Wears Flowers:

Cinnamon and Sugar Breakfast Puffs

Mmm. So yummy and they make the house smell sooo good!

Breakfast Puffs
2 cups baking mix (bisquick or similar)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 TBSP butter, softened
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 cube) butter, melted

Topping:
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Pregeat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a mini muffin pan. (Does not work with muffin liners) Mix the baking mix, sugar, nutmeg, butter, milk, and egg. Beat for 30 seconds. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 10 minutes or until tops are lightly browned.

While baking, melt the 1/2 cup (1 cube) of butter. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl. When the puffs are done, quickly roll them in the melted butter and then the cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Makes 24 puffs.

Road Signs for Drake

Drake wanted some signs for his road rug, so his cars would know where they can and can't go. So we came up with these:

I googled road signs and Drake picked the ones he wanted and printed them and cut them out by himself.

He wanted them to stand up, so we went through my piles of stuff to recycle and cam up with this. Several months ago, Mountain Dew had a Halo:Reach promo. There were things on the lids that you could win, so Lot collected a ton of them from people at work and I was going to do something with them, I just wasn't sure what. So they have sat in a bag since then. I was looking for some milk lids that I had saved when I came across the pop lids. I used a small screw driver and a hammer to make a hole in the middle of the lid and then we taped a toothpick to the signs and pushed them into the hole on the lids.

Tada! Road signs for Drake and his cars! Several more were made after this, as per Drake's request:)

Things I Made This Week...

I actually made 3 things for me this week. 3 headbands! The aqua/brown one is just strips of material that I tore and hot glued to a headband that gave me headaches, but not anymore:)

The black one is also torn fabric around a headband that no longer gives me headaches, with more torn material that I braided and hot glued on the head band. The pink one is small ribbon wrapped and hot glued to a dollar store headband. The beads also came from the dollar store. I threaded 75 together and hot glued the ends so they wouldn't fall off. Then hot glued the beads in a circle on a scrap piece of gray felt. Cut those out and, yep, you guessed it, hot glued those to the head band. I love that they were easy and fairly fast to do. I have had several good comments about them when I wear them, but not all together. That is what Chloe does. Seriously. She gets into the drawer that I keep the head bands and puts all of them on her head and thinks she is a princess, which she is:)

I wanted a quieter watchband than the one I made with chunky beads. So I used fabric and velcro. And now I have 3, so far, watchbands. I plan to make more, as they are easy and I can make them with scraps of fabric.

Sorry!

Sorry for the absence! I have been busy and Drake has been watching WordWorld (PBS show) all the time on netflix watch instantly. The first 2 seasons of the show are on there and Drake is learning to spell words, so I can't complain, to much:)  I have made a few things, baked a few things, and seen many things that have gone into my to-make file. I will post more tomorrow and the next few days to make up for it. Oh, and I have a funny picture of Chloe and the dishwasher. You will just have to stay tuned for Wordless Wednesday to find out what she did:)

Jewlery Holder

I needed something larger and more convenient to hand my earrings and necklaces on. Lot got me the earring thingy (that is the technical term for it:)) for Christmas. It was an of white-ish color and said Live, Laugh, Love on it. Wasn't wild about that, so I finally got around to painting it. The shelf was something I bought several years ago for something. It has been hanging above our closet door since we moved in. Because it was on the inside and up high (I am vertically challenged)  I forgot it was there. Until a week ago. So I got it down and also decided to paint it. After finding a paint that worked on wood and metal,(shelf is wood, earring thing, metal) I set to work. Which means that I took both outside and laid them on a tarp and spray painted them, 3 times. 5 times for the top of the earring thingy to cover up the words. I don't know what the color is, but the 3rd picture is a very good representation of it. The shelf is also big enough that I can place my bracelets and watch on it without interfering with the earrings.

I honestly did not realize how many pairs of earrings I own. The thingy is filled up. I could squeeze in a few more pairs, but after that, I would need another thingy. I chose the yellow because I thought it would be a good accent color to the green on the walls and the chocolate brown curtains. I think I will need to find, or make, a bedspread with this yellow as the main color.

I found these small hooks at Lowes. I was going to go to Walmart, but Lowes was closer and I figured that they would have a much better selection of hooks. There were 5 in a package, so I bought 2. There are 8 up, and I need to put the other 2 in. Also didn't realize that I had more than a handful of necklaces. This is hanging next to Lot's closet. I wanted to hang it by the door for convenience, but then Lot or I (mostly me) could run into it and knock it down or get a black eye. Then I though about by the bed. that was a no go because if Chloe was on the bed, she could reach it. And she loves to put mommies necklaces on. About the only girly thing she does at the moment.

Wordless Wednesday

Make It Monday

Awesome word game from the snail trail.

Drake needs new church pants. Chloe could use some more pants as well. I think these would be perfect from Made.Also on that blog, there is a link to make adjustable waistband pants.

The kids would love these and all I would need to buy are the file folder rubber bands. Check it out and Make it and Love it.

I have everything to make one of these head bands from lee la la. Just need to find the motivation to do it.

Grumblings from our house.

I usually post a recipe today, but I have been so tired and the few things I have made this week did not turn out how they were supposed to. So today, I am going to grumble.


It has NOT been the best week for us. It was one of those weeks where I can't wait until Drake goes to kindergarten in the fall. I will only have to deal with 1 cranky kid for a few hours. The kids are finally over being sick, but I think that is part of the problem. Now that they have energy, their attitudes have taken a nose dive. Drake has been especially difficult. He won't listen, screams WAY to much, bugs Chloe more times in a minute than I can count, and is just a pain. There have been days where I just want to break down and lock myself in a room and cry. I don't know what to do with him anymore and Chloe is picking up on some of his bad moods and mirroring them. At least I can get her happy by blowing some bubbles or reading a story to her. I think part of it is also that we are tired of being cooped up in the house. On those 2 nice days that we have had, the kids are outside. It looks like there are going to be 1 or 2 nice days this week, as long as the rain/snow/wind hold off until nap time.

Friday and Saturday were especially bad days. I am not sure why Drake is acting up so much and feels the need to poke us and touch us constantly. Church today was also really bad. Drake whined his way through Primary, which would have ended him up in the hall, but I was doing sharing time and he will not go with anyone else, and it is not worth the ear piercing scream that he WILL let out. The president tried to take him out and it did not work. To make it worse, we had ward conference today and the stake primary presidency was there. Oh, and Lot had to take him out of Sacrament meeting, twice.  The only bright spot at church was that the kids sang the new song, If I Listen With My Heart so well, that I had to stop helping them because I was tearing up, they sang it so good.

Chloe has been pretty moody this week as well. I think she is picking up on mine and Drake's bad moods. She helping to clean up more, though. But, she is also really quick to pull all the books out of the bookcase and movies out of the entertainment center. She knows how to open the dvd cases, so I know that we will be replacing some movies soon. Unless she ruins the Thomas movies that are older. Drake doesn't like them because they don't talk. The new Thomas shows are computerized, so the trains and people actually talk.

Despite all of this, I am truly grateful for my kids. And for the most part, those good days are worth the bad. I am hoping that our babysitter doesn't fall through for Thursday night so we can go to the temple on a "date." We need it. I honestly cannot remember the last time Lot and I went on a date. The kids are always with us.

Anyway, thanks for staying with me. Hopefully, I will be up to par this week. (At least after I can sleep for more than 3 hours. I woke up at 3:30 this morning for no reason and could not go back to sleep. Not to mention the stupid time change that doesn't actually save anyone any worthwhile amount of money).

Easter Wreath & Wall Art

This is the Easter wreath I made for the front door. It took all day to do because of sick kids and a little girl that kept pulling off the glitter foam eggs and only those ones. She left the plain eggs alone. Not sure why.

I was planning on using those huge flowers, but it just did not look good. I got all of that at the dollar store. 2 sprigs of orchids, I think, 1 bag regular sized eggs, 1 bag of small eggs, 1 bag of the glitter foam eggs and an 18 inch wreath. I also used a ton of hot glue. Because it took all day to do, I forgot to take pictures of the process. But all I did was start gluing on the bigger eggs until I liked it, then the small eggs. I filled the wreath in with the orchids. Tied a ribbon on the top to hang it and then decided that an 18 inch wreath leaves too much room in the middle. So I found an oval piece of wood that I was going to use for something else, once upon a time, and painted it oyster white. I didn't  like the fonts on my cricut for this, so I found one online, somewhere, and a clip art bunny, also from somewhere (goggled Easter and scrolled through until I found something I liked), and I cut then out. I did not want the lines that mod podgeing would produce, so I used a pencil and heavily traced the lines on the back, and then flipped the images over, placed them where I wanted, and then traced them again, transferring the pencil lines onto the plaque. I just filled in the lines and then used a marker to outline the bunny and words. When I sprayed the clear coat on, the pen I used to outline the bunny, ran, bad. I cleaned it up the best I could and then sanded it down to hide the rest. For the most part, it just looks like I really distressed the plaque:

I made these canvases last week, to bring in more purple accents to the living room. I used an 18x24, 11x14, and an 8x10 canvas.

I sprayed the canvas with silver paint and then used painters tape to tape it off and paint various shades of purple.

I attempted to mod podge paint chips onto this one. It did not work. I used a glue stick instead and flipped it over and put several heavy books on top to help them stay flat until the glue dried.

I used baby food jar lids and milk lids to get the circles here. there are a few smudged spots because I had a little girl that just had to hold it.

And this is the wall that I hung them on, for now. I made that wreath last year with a bunch of 2 and 3 inch circles pinned to a 12 inch wreath. I am still not completely satisfied with it, but it will do until I can dream up something else.