Once upon a time bookmark

Project 10 of 52 
Update: I have fixed the download so daughters is spelled correctly.
 I just didn't retake all the pictures. 

I have been putting together projects and crafts for our upcoming girls camp. It isn't until June but I have to plan ahead. Between PTA, Cub Scouts, and Girls Camp...yeah, I am just a wee bit busy.
I love it!

This is the bookmark I made for my girls going to camp. Our theme is Camp ROYAL.
Reflect On Your Amazing Light.
The youth leaders came up with it. It's perfect. The each group will have a Disney princess and a scripture heroine. We drew Cinderella and Sariah. It's going to be a wonderful time. As a mom of all boys it is fun to get to do some girly stuff in pinks and purples.

 These bookmarks are just one of the projects I have been working on. I can't tell you how much fun this has been for me. I am excited! So many ideas and I have to narrow it down to fit into 3 days.

The quote is from President Uchtdorf's talk "Your Happily Ever After."
"Be strong and of good courage. You are truly royal spirit daughters of Almighty God. You are Princesses destined to become Queens. Your own wondrous story has already begun. Your once upon a time is now."

 I am thrilled with how these turned out. The bottle cap glitters and sparkles, the ribbon shines and the thought moves the heart. I love this inspired talk by President Uchtdorf. I want the girls to feel as special as they are. I want them to feel the love of their Heavenly Father. I want this to be a week they will remember.

Here are the instructions and printables to make your own.

Punch out the crowns with a 1" punch. Watch the corners because it is close, sorry.

Glue them into your bottle caps.

Paint a bit of glitter paint on the crown then let it dry.

Once it's dry smooth a thin layer of glossy Modge Podge.

Secure the cap to a large paper clip. I used super glue.

 Let it dry completely. Add a bit of ribbon.

Then add to the printout.

I made these, printed, and laminated them.

I love to see someone's eyes light up when they are given something. My sweet mother in law has taught me that even simple things can bring a smile to anyone's face. 

My hope is that at the end of the week the girls will know they are loved, they are valued, they are a Daughter of a King, a Princess!

Recipe Organization

Project 9 of 52

Ever notice how much of a difference even little things can make in our lives. The crazy thing too, is sometimes it doesn't take that much time to accomplish. It's more a matter of just sitting down and doing it.

Well, this is the dilema I have been facing for a while. I love to try new recipes. You know the down home kinda cooking recipes. The ones with ingredients I have in the pantry; NORMAL ingredients. I print them off and give them a try. Most of the time they are successful. There have been a couple that we tossed and ordered pizza but hey, we tried something new. And my boys are great sports about it too. They have their favs and eh, not so favs but all in all the taste it all.

I toss the recipes that are anything but a big hit. I just put them in a sheet protector in a 3-ring binder. Until recently that binder was quite a mess. I didn't have enough sheet protectors and too many untried recipes. So I sat down one day, soaked in the vitamin D and fixed my problem. I didn't take a before picture but trust me...it wasn't pretty!

 I added the sheet protectors....tossed unwanted recipes...added page dividers and labels....

 I even typed them up in a fun goofy font.

 

 Such a simple thing but ahhh, it feels so good to have my recipes neat and tidy. It makes me smile to pull it out and use now.

 

I also love to plan my menu. I always have, even before we had kids. It frustrates me to start a recipe and find out I am missing 1 ingredient. Not to mention how it helps the budget and grocery shopping. 

I found these menu plans on Pinterest. They are 4 weeks at a time and slip in the front of my binder. 

I put the current menu plan on the fridge and leave the blank ones in the binder to be filled out next time.

I even color coded it with corrdinating tabs. I had to make it simple for my hubby and oldest son. They help stick with the plan more if I make it easy for 'em. ;-)

Now I just have to grab the post it for that week and do my shopping.

LOVE IT!

Bathroom organizing

Project 8 of 52

One of my goals for this year it to get organized. You know how it goes. You organize then the kiddos come behind you and undo your lovely work. Yep, well, it's time to re-do that work. Each room of my home needs a little attention. I live by the motto "a place for everything and everything in it's place". I hate having to search for something. That is probably because I am so incredibly busy but I digress. 

I have a few problem areas to focus on first. The rest will come throughout the year. One blogger put it nicely that it takes time to learn organization (mostly for the boys) so doing it all at once won't help to KEEP it organized. Hey, sounds good! We are giving it a go this year.

 First up...under the bathroom sinks. Mine was a mess. I don't have a lot under there but it still looked a mess.

I know there are deals at the Dollar Store but I liked these bins from Walmart.

Taking care of hygiene stuff made a HUGE difference. I tossed a lot of stuff too. 

These bins come in different widths that stack nicely together or separate. I plan to get a couple of narrow ones for the other side but they haven't come in stock yet. (Our Walmart is the only game in town and they are slow to restock). The pipes got in the way of my original plan but I am still happy with the results. The real test? My sweet hubby was pleasantly surprised at the improvement. He always comments on my projects but he was extra excited about this one. Huh, who knew. ;-)

The 52 Week $ Challenge

You know how some years are spendy and then you have some where you save?! We have had a couple of spendy years so one of our goals this year is to pay of debt and build our savings. There are lots of ideas on how to do this, we are doing Dave Ramseys debt snowball but also this idea.

I found this on Pinterest. The idea is each week you add money to the jar. $1 for week 1, $2 for week 2, $3 for week 3 etc. By the end of the year you will have over $1300 in savings. It could get tricky come next November and December but we are committed to the challenge. Think of how good it will be to have that in savings!

 I quickly learned that I needed a way to keep track of the weeks and if my hubby had put in the weeks savings yet or not. I simply printed the plan off, put the Sunday dates by each week then put it and a pen in the jar. I keep this on our bathroom sink so we see it all the time. We are several weeks into this challenge and still going strong. I get psyched to see the dollars building up in the jar.

Here is the original pin if you want to give it a go too. The great thing about this challenge is you can start anytime, just go for 52 weeks from when you start. And don't forget to add the dates so you can keep track.

A Jayne Cobb hat for a Sci-Fi Fan

Project 7 of 52
So a while back my sweet hubby greeted me at this door like a kid begging for ice cream. He is a fan of the show Firefly. On it is a character named Jayne Cobb. He apparently wore this home knit hat that my sweetheart decided he wanted to wear to the next Comic-con. 

 

He begged me to make him one. He had even found a couple of patterns I could use (yep, he was begging). He knows how busy I am so he was ready to pull out all the stops.  Lucky for him, his wife is crafty and loves him enough to spoil him. Unlucky for him, I don't know how to knit. I tried but uhm, no, it wasn't happening. We found some crochet patterns but I liked the knit look better, I just couldn't get the hang of it fast enough. Still, the crochet pattern turned out great. I actually used 2 different patterns. The first I didn't like the earflaps on and the second I didn't like the crown portion. Here is the result...

 He was like a kid at Christmas.

 He loved it.

 Even the twisty earflaps. He said it was perfect.
Glad you like it dear.

Pinewood Derby

Project 6 of 52

We had a wonderful Pinewood Derby this year. I used Disney's Cars as our theme. We talked about positive attitude and the difference you can have. 

Once again we had Pit passes. You can find the download for them here.

For concessions we had safety cones.... (bugles)

Spare tires....(donuts)

And running boards....(waffer cookies)

I printed the signs and just laminated them. Then wrote on it with dry erase marker. That way I can use them again next year. Click on the picture for the download. 

(I don't remember where I got these but when I find out I will give proper credit)

My pit crew was hard at it again this year too...

My sweet hubby manned the "crew" not only during the ran but days leading up to it. We had the official scale so dads were stopping by all week to get a pre-weight check. The derby always brings out a bit of healthy competition among the dads uhm, boys. ;-p

I put a note out to my leaders to bring any spare tires or car signs they may have. Lucky for us my committee chair used to work at Goodyear. He brought some amazing signs that really set the scene.

I picked up 20 balloons to add around at each of the tables. We had a table for treats, pit crew, check in, and the medal stand.

Once the cars were checked in they had to be placed on the table. We had the boys write their name on a numbered paper plate. That made the order random, as the boys finished weighing in, and helped us to keep track of how many we had. With all the cars lined up we were able to assign the various awards. 

Aren't these cars AWESOME! I love to see what each of the boys come up with.

After the race each boy recieved a ding-dong medal and a certificate.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place also got a trophy. 

(Can't believe I didn't get a picture of them but hey, it was a bit crazy).

The boys all had a fantastic time. Parents too. It's always a lot of work to pull the derby off but I love to watch how excited the boys get. They are so good about cheering each other on. It makes it all worth it.

Here are the Pit Passes if you want to download them.

Have fun and good luck.

Pinterest FAIL: First aid tubes

So we all know that not all Pinterest ideas turn out. I wanted to share on of my fails. I actually deleted my pin (I don't want clutter on my board) but here's another one I found.

I had hoped it would work for a first aid class I was teaching our ward youth. 

I had everything I thought I would need. Antiobiotic ointment, straws, sealer, lighter, and Pinterest link.

Test after test failed. The straws melted to the outside rather than inside sealing themselves. I even tried my food sealer but the moist ointment prevented it from sealing at both ends. I tried sealing one end prior to putting the ointment in but then it would go IN. The air left in the straw prevented the ointment from going inside. I tried various size tubes, trying to keep the moisture away from the seal, nope, still didn't seal. After numerous attempts I passed on to another idea.

Just chalking this up to a Pinterest FAIL!

Hope you have better luck. ;-p