~bunny hair pretties for little girl~

I saw a cute idea for some Easter hair pretties

in the dollar store the other day. I would

have bought them but they were too big for

my little lady's head so I came home

and tried my own version.

See:

 

I love them with the little piggies on top 

of her head.  

 They were easy to make.

All you need is a hair clip, felt and

whatever you want to embellish it with.  

I was thinking of making a set and doing 

a giveaway but as I started thinking about

my schedule this week and next,

I realized I wouldn't have a chance

to make it and get them out before Easter.

Sorry.

  

It's Wednesday...the week is half over.

I've got a baby shower I'm throwing on Saturday

and a family Easter dinner on Sunday.

It's going to be busy....

I'll be posting pics of the table and decorations.

On a totally different topic....

have you seen The Hunger Games yet?

I'm interested to hear people's opinion

about the movie. I read the books

and LOVED them (surprisingly).

After seeing the movie the only word I 

can come up with when people ask me

what I thought is, "Eh."

I know, it's not really a word.

It just lacked the oomph that the book had.

For me, the emotion didn't come thru in 

the movie like it did so strongly in the book. 

Doesn't that always seem to be the case?

It was anti-climatic. 

However, the casting and the acting was

phenomenal.....superb.  

 Thoughts? 

Linking up with Kojo Designs 
and
Positively Splendid  

~wall art with a t-shirt~

I think I'm going to start a continuing post topic on 

here titled, "Things I've done with t-shirts."
I don't have much time this morning so

this first one I'm going to share is simple.

A couple times a year when my friend goes thru

her closet, she lets me rummage thru her

"donate" bag before sending it off. 

I find all sorts of treasures :)

This project is made from an adorable tank-top

she had that was stretched out and unwearable.

I loved the design and COLORS on it and

knew immediately what I wanted to do with it.

 I framed it and hung it on the wall

in my little lady's room.

It makes me smile each time I look at it.

It's just so bright and happy looking.

The design on the shirt was actually just the

tree and the hearts. 

The butterfly's are old vintage pins 

that were given to me by my Grandma and

a good friend. I just attached them to the 

shirt after I got it framed.

 Next time you have an old t-shirt that you

like....think outside the box before tossing it.

You never know what you might come up with. 

Tomorrow I am being featured on 

The Birthday Blog.

(click above to be directed)

It's a blog all about birthday parties!

It is full of ideas and a great resource for

planning a party. Check it out.

She is featuring my son's pirate party

and daughter's 1st birthday cupcake toppers.

Also.....maybe another giveaway later today?

 

~giveaway winner~

Congratulations Susie!

You won the Easter bunting.

I hope it will be a nice little addition

to your Easter decorations.

Thanks to everyone who entered :) 

~buffalo bleu chicken sandwiches...soooo good~

I have a board on Pinterest for food.

Pinterest is a great place to go for

food ideas. It's challenging to think of different stuff

every week to cook for the family. 

I made an attempt at a dish I saw on Pinterest.

It was AMAZING!

I didn't follow it exactly but used the basic idea.

 It's SUPER easy.

Here's what you'll need:

-crock pot

- 3 pounds boneless chicken breasts-frozen

-hot wing sauce

-ranch dressing packet

Put your frozen chicken in the crock pot on low.

Pour the entire bottle of wing sauce over the chicken.

The recipe I saw suggested Franks hot sauce...I used

another type of hot wing sauce we had on hand.

I don't think it matters what kind of hot sauce you

use.....as long as you like the flavor of it. 

Pour the packet of ranch mix into the crock pot

with your chicken and hot sauce.

Put the lid on and let cook on low for a few hours

until the chicken is done. 

I stirred it a couple times while it was cooking to

mix up the ranch mix. 

Once your chicken is cooked, remove the chicken

and shred with a couple forks. I hold the chicken 

with one fork and shred it with another fork.

This worked really well.

Once you have your chicken shredded,

put it all pack into the crock pot with 

the hot sauce mixture. Let it sit 

in there on low for another hour.

Serve it up on your favorite type of rolls

and top with bleu cheese (if you like it).

I'm warning you....

IT IS DELICIOUS!

Or-if you prefer less carbs you can 

top a salad with it, 

which is EXACTLY what I did the

next day with left overs. 

 Try it this week in your dinner menu.

You're gonna love it. 

If you are afraid of spicy....

try it with barbecue sauce instead.

~more zipper bracelets~

 

 I've been busy making zipper bracelets this week.

I've sold 20 so far!

I just finished another order of 10.

Have a look-see:

I have 3 more that I need to make for someone

and then maybe I'll actually get a chance to 

make some for MYSELF!

I'm off to brunch with my lady friends

but come back a little later today.

I have an Easter project to share with 

you and a GIVE AWAY!

BRACELETS ARE $10....

I STILL HAVEN'T HAD A CHANCE TO 

GET AN ETSY SHOP UP AND RUNNING....

HOPEFULLY THIS NEXT WEEK :)

~our leprechaun trap~

We made our leprechaun trap.

Want to see?

We made our trap out of a 1 liter soda bottle.

My husband cut the top off and then we used

scrapbook paper and a glue gun to decorate it.

We made the little ladder out of twigs from our yard.

It's primitive I know, but hey, it's our first leprechaun trap.  

We didn't have gold to bait it with so we

left pennies instead :)

We didn't catch the little bugger but

he did leave the kids a treat.

 Chocolate coins wrapped in green foil.

This was the extent of our green breakfast. 

I told you it wasn't going to be over the top.

I taped these Styrofoam shamrocks ($$ store)

to toothpicks and stuck them in the food.

Hope you all had a Happy St. Patrick's Day. 

 

~Pinspiration-St. Patrick's Day~

I've never done anything for my family for

St. Patrick's Day....other than dress them 

in green or pinch their cute cheeks :) 

I don't want my kids to think that every

"holiday" warrants a gift or a big ridiculous

celebration.  That being said,

I've found a couple cute things on Pinterest

that I think I might try this year.

I love the idea of a green breakfast.

I have to make them breakfast anyway....

I might as well make it all green.

This breakfast from the blog eighteen25 is so cute.

I'm not going to go full out with the 

printables and food labels but I'm definitely

going to be making the green food.

This is something I can't wait to do with my little guy:

Leprechaun traps!

How cute is this?

This idea is from Family Fun and it looks like they 

have a couple other cute ideas to catch those

pesky leprechauns! Check them out. 

How cute is this......

...pot o'gold at the end of the rainbow

from ourbestbites.com

Click on any of these pictures to be directed

to the sites mentioned. 

Do you do anything special for St. Patrick's Day?

I'm curious to find out if most people 

celebrate it or blow it off as another

silly holiday that isn't really a holiday.....

you know what I mean right?

 

~wonder bobby pins and a giveaway~

When it comes to my hair, I end up

pulling it up most days. Not just because it's 

easier but because I happen to love "up-do's".

 I have a secret weapon

when it comes to pulling up my hair......

mini bobby pins.

I get mine at Sally Beauty Supply for dirt cheap.

I think they're a couple bucks.

I think they work much better than 

a normal size bobby pin.

They are smaller allowing them to grip tighter.

I took a picture of a mini pin next to 

a normal sized bobby pin so you can see:

I have a board for BEAUTY on my Pinterest.
Click [here] to see the board.

Pinned to this board I have make-up tips,

hair tips, skin care tips, etc.

I found a simple up-do the other day and 

tried it today. Here's how it turned out:

 It was so easy.

Click [here] to view the tutorial.

(I'm unable to tell where the original posting 

of it was so that's why I didn't reference it here :(

Sorry....I know that's not proper 

Pinterest and blogging etiquette.)

It stayed like this the WHOLE day.

I just barely took this picture....after having

it in all day.

I'm sure you've guessed by now that I used 

my mini bobby pins for this. 

So....just because I love them so much

and I love YOU all so much....

I'm going to give a package of 

these miracle bobby pins away

to one of you lucky's!

Just leave me a comment telling 

me your favorite way to wear your hair

and you're entered....and become a follower

if you're not already. 

If you want a 2nd entry- post about this on your

blog or facebook page linking back to my blog. 

I'll pick a winner on Monday the 12th.

Trust me....you want some of these!

Have a great weekend friends!

I'm off to let my hair down.

The hot tub and a bottle glass of wine are calling my name.

~goldfish high-rise~

We finally let the kids get a pet.

Wanna see?

 Aren't they cute?

My son named his Dorothy (after the fish in Elmo's World)

and he took it upon himself to also name 

our daughter's, Nemo (obviously).

I can't do time intensive pets right now.

I've got enough going on.

It's not that I have anything against

having a pet.....other than hair.

I have serious hair issues.

Stray hairs make me want to vomit!

And hairless animals aren't really my cup

of tea either. So, where does that leave us?

Right here with this:

I do love the way it looks.

Instead of using a normal fish bowl or tank,

I used a really tall glass vase I had.

I like to say they live in a high rise.

I put some rocks and a fake plant in and

voila......80 cents later my kids each have a pet.

I spent more on the goldfish food than I did the whole set-up.

I got the idea of the vase from my OLDER sister.

This does require changing the water out on 

a weekly basis but I can deal with that. 

And just because I think it's such a cute picture:

 

 

 

~a display of old keys~

This project I'm about to 

share is a stark contrast to the failed

project I shared with you last night.

Funny thing is....I made them 

both one after the other, all in about an hour. 

This was what I made first:

 We've had these old keys for about a year now.

They were my husband's Great Grandma's keys.

We absolutely love them and have been trying to

figure out how to display them ever since we got them.

I was watching The Nate Berkus show the other

day and saw a project similar to this and thought

to myself, "Hey-that's exactly what I want to do!"

So...I pulled out the glue gun, used a frame I had

and started gluing. I'm really pleased with the

way it turned out and I was able to use all 

the keys. My husband likes it too, which is

a good thing since technically, they're his keys.

Let me add-in real life that you can't see the mat behind

the glass like you can in these pics....the flash

makes it visible in the pics. Darnit.

 It was so simple.

I used 12 X 12 frame I had and took out the glass.

I covered the glass and backing with fabric and placed

it back into the frame. I then figured out where

I wanted to place the keys and glued them on.

It was that easy.

I really love how you can see each key and 

appreciate them for their individuality and beauty.

I love displaying things that symbolize family history

and have sentimental meaning. This is one 

of those pieces for me :)

My husband remembers his Great Grandma using 

these keys in her house when he was a little boy.

Now they hang in our house....I love that.

I figured as long as I had the glue gun out

I would keep the creative juices flowing.

As we saw with the St.Patrick's Day 

scrabble subway art last night-I should have put down the 

glue gun and stepped away from the table.

At least one of the projects was a success. 

Linking up with kojo designs-Friday Fun Finds

~my St.Patty's day decorations~

 
 

Before I had kids, St. Patrick's Day was

just an excuse to go drink green beer with

my friends after work. Back then most of

the bars would hand out free green beaded

necklaces on St. Patrick's Day. I'm sure they

were getting them for free from the booze

companies because they usually had some

 cheap plastic pendant dangling, advertising

their product. I think I got them for 

every holiday. In fact, don't look too closely at

the pictures from my son's recent pirate birthday

party....you may see some of these necklaces 

adorning the tables. 

Who would have ever thought

10 years ago that the cheap plastic Jagermeister necklace

would become a favorite toy of both of my kids

and something that I would end up using

to decorate with at my own child's birthday party?  

Yeah....me neither. 

Whew...I got off topic there and now I feel 

O-L-D!

In the past I haven't really decorated for

St. Patrick's Day. I got a couple cute decorations

as gifts for Christmas and my birthday so I decided

to do a little decorating this year.

Here is the shelf in my living room that has become

the centerpiece of most of my holiday decorations.

I've been having fun decorating it for each holiday

and my son gets so excited any opportunity we

get to put something different and festive up. 

You probably remember the cute shamrock bunting

that my friend made me for my birthday.

Doesn't it look cute hung up?

I wanted to make one of these and do a giveaway

for St. Patrick's Day but I didn't get around to

it soon enough. We've all been sick here 

for the past two weeks and it's thrown everything

off schedule. Sorry :(

The other gift that you may or may not remember is

the framed St. Patty's Day saying..."keep calm...".

I got it as a gift for Christmas from a good friend

and she included something for every holiday 

that I can switch it out with.  

The random shamrocks you see on the shelf

are something I got at the Dollar Store. There

were several in a package and I just glued some

to a few dowels and placed them in an old

1/2 pint jar I had. The others I simply taped to 

my candle and plant. Nothing fancy.

 Wouldn't it have looked cute if I'd painted the

dowels gold? I thought of that but didn't have

the ambition to follow thru with it. I threw this

all together last night. I love old jars and this

is one of my favorites!

My new favorite St. Patrick's Day decoration:

The leprechaun my son made at pre-school

last week. Apparently he likes monster trucks.

This will be one that I keep :)

So, I have a project to share that I'm a bit 

embarrassed with how it turned out but

I'm going to share it anyway.

You can make one and learn from my mistakes.

Let me show you the product first

and then I'll tell you what I do and don't like about it. 

Don't laugh.

 You're laughing aren't you?

Either that or saying to yourself,

"I can't believe she's blogging about that."

This blog is a collaboration of my hits and misses.

This, my friends, is an example of one of my misses.

First off-I intended for it to look like 

scrabble subway art. The first thing

I did wrong was the fabric I chose to cover my

board. I think it would have been better had

I used a solid color. The polka-dots make it 

a bit busy....then throw in the zebra print

shamrock and it's a hot mess. 

Then let's add the way I spelled St. Patty-

I don't know if it's correct or not but when

I read it on here I think of Patty like a woman

or a beef patty. Hey-other than those

things.....I like it. I thought the rainbow

tiles colored were a cute touch and I 

like the words I chose. I even like the shamrock

and think it would look better if 

the background was solid.

 I suppose

I could rip all this off and re-cover the board

with a plain green fabric....I have some.

Uh yeah...like that's going to happen.

I was too lazy to paint the dowels-remember?

So, I'll leave it like this for now.

But next time.....