I Just Love Awards!

Yeah, I admit it..I just love getting awards!  But, I love passing them along just as much.  Recently, I've been honored to receive two awards, yay!

The first one came from the very lovely EllaBellaMozzarella.  I'd like to thank her mucho grande for bestowing the Beautiful Blogger Award on me.  See, isn't it beautiful...

 

The rules that came along with this lovely award are as follows:

• thank & link to the person that gave you the award.
• pass this award onto 15 bloggers you’ve recently discovered and think are fantastic.
• contact said blogs and let them know they’ve won.
• state 7 things about yourself.

I'm sure the bloggy police will come after me for this, but I'm breaking the one about passing it on to 15 bloggers.  My kids would like to eat and for some reason "Shhhh, Mommy's blogging" isn't quieting them.  So, I am passing the award on to these 4 fantastic blogs I've discovered recently (and that is a relative term):

• Betsy @ JavaCupcake (ok, so she's not a "recent" find of mine, but I think she's fantastic!)
• Jayme @ The TaterTwins 
• Shell @ Things I Can't Say 
• Tracie @ Stir-Fry Awesomeness

And here are 7 things about me:

1. I watch Wife Swap on Lifetime pretty much everyday because it makes me feel normal.
2. When my kiddos get really crazy out-of-control, I threaten to call Supernanny.  It works.
3. I am an English major and have always said I plan to be a teacher, but lately I've come across a lot of job postings for jobs that work with military families and veterans that interest me.  I think I might have even more passion for those jobs than for teaching (if that's possible).  None of them pay well, but I find myself not even caring (well, as long as they pay me enough to pay off my student loans and daycare expenses...)
4. My parents used to bribe me to stop talking, but my teachers always swore I was the quietest student in class.
5. I've been meaning to dye my hair for about 3 months now.  Gotta love mommyhood.
6. I really can't stand yippy little dogs, but have 2 of them.
7. I'm a cat person but we have dogs...somethings I will just never understand.

The second award was given to me by Tesa at 2 Wired 2 Tired.  It is the Happy 101 award and looking at it just makes me happy...

See!!  It has cupcakes on it!  Who doesn't get a little giddy at the sight of cupcakes?!  I'd like to pass the Happy 101 award on to these bloggers:

• Vicki @ Frugal Mom Knows Best
• Ashley @ Love Grows Best in Little Houses 
• Cheryl @ Blue & White Life 

These chickadees always make me happy so go visit them and put a little happy in your day.

Reading with Kids

Anyone who has been a parent for longer than 10 minutes has heard how important it is to read to your children.  I know there is tons of research out there in regards to exactly what the benefits of reading aloud to your child are.  For example, research has shown that children who are read to regularly have larger vocabularies and are more likely to become strong readers as they grow up.

For the past few months, I have been working with oldest kiddo's 2nd grade class.  Mostly I read aloud to one little girl and help her through story maps and that sort of thing.  I also work with some of the other students as they read stories and fill in worksheets about the stories.  Story maps vary a lot, but one constant is a spot for the kids to fill in the setting of the story they've read.  For the most part, the students are always able to identify characters, problems and solutions in the stories.  However, they have difficulty identifying the setting.  This got me to thinking.

I have read to my kiddos since they were babies.  I always ask them questions about what we're reading.  I'll ask them who the main character is or what the problem is in the story.  I'll read a few pages and then stop to ask them what they think is going to happen.  But I cannot remember having ever asked them questions about the setting of the stories we read.  I think it's something that I just take for granted.

Part of the reason I'm working with the kiddos is as part of my internship for school this semester.  So this issue with identifying setting is really perplexing me.  I definitely want to figure out more about it as I prepare to write my final paper about what I've observed.  Plus, as a future teacher, I just want to know more so I can better understand my students.

So here are my questions for you guys...

• Do you ask your kiddos questions about the stories you read with them?
• What sorts of questions do you ask them?
• Specifically, do you ever talk about setting of stories with your kiddos?

If you've got anything else, feel free to add it too :)

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday!

Ya'll know Tuesday is my favorite day of the week!  I get to be my completely random self and have a good excuse for it...

 

**I'm multi-tasking...I'm listening to a lecture for one of my classes and writing this blog at the same time.  Go me!

**I made myself a schedule for the day so I could catch up on my school work.  I got a little behind, but I'm very proud to say that I have stayed on task all day and made good progress.

**Yesterday I faxed off the application for the job I posted about last week.  Now I'm waiting.  The deadline for applications is Friday, so I kind of don't expect to hear anything this week.  Fingers crossed, though, that I will hear something soon!

**See over there somewhere ----> I have a little link thingy for MyLikes...middle kiddo, who is in kindergarten, has been playing that CarrotSticks math game and is rocking it!  He's adding big numbers like 392 + 129...I'm amazed and oh-so-proud of him.

**The volunteer work that I do with oldest kiddo's class is also counting as my internship for college...which totally rocks...as I go through it though, I think of all sorts of questions.  I've been researching for answers, which is great, but I also want some real world answers.  So, I think sometime in the near future that I'm going to post a blog with the questions and see what all you moms (or not moms, I know, some of you aren't moms but still have experience with teaching kiddos) out there have to say about them....

**My little dog snores louder than hubby.  Seriously.

**The snow finally melted!  But it's still cold and has been cloudy for the last few days.  I'm so ready for spring.

**Baby Girl's birthday party invites came in the mail yesterday.  They are super adorable.  Now, I just need to get them addressed and mailed before the movers come and pack them up.

**The movers won't be here for another month, so you'd think I could manage that...

**Movers will pack everything.  I'm not even kidding.  We've opened boxes to find that they packed the trash cans with trash in them.  I've heard of them packing up snacks left out for the kids.  And if you aren't careful, they will pack your luggage which let me tell you is no bueno.  (Yeah, they did that last time and I made them unpack about 4 boxes looking for it...no way was I going for the next 3 weeks with only the clothes on my body at the time...)

Anyways, I've gotta go get the kiddos off the bus.  Head on over to The UnMom for more random fun and have a great Tuesday!!

Yummy Yummy Cupcakes

Have you visited Java Cupcake?  If not, you totally should.  She has great recipes.  And who doesn't love cupcakes?!  This weekend I made some cookies-n-creme cupcakes using her recipe.  They turned out awesome!  The kiddos loved them and hubby ate about six of them in one night.  Yeah, he was a little hyper!  The recipe was really easy to follow.  The cake part was moist and delicious.  The frosting was AMAZING!  Seriously, you must try these out.  An added bonus is that you have to crush up the Oreos so you can get rid of any frustrations by beating them with a rolling pin.  I was able to make 36 cupcakes from this recipe...however, 6 of them met an untimely end when I dropped them taking them out of the oven...

Here are some pictures I managed to take before the kiddos and hubby devoured these scrumptious cupcakes...

Don't be laughing at my awesome icing skills...

I was supposed to decorate the cupcakes with some crushed Oreos, but I kind of ate too many of them to do that.  I also thought that sticking a mini Oreo on top would be cute, but we didn't have any of those.  I'm planning on making these again sometime, so maybe next time I'll do that.

Now, wipe the drool off your chin and go visit Java Cupcake for lots of other recipes and general cupcake fun!

Just so you know, I received nothing for writing this.  I simply came across this blog a while back, decided to try out one of her recipes and loved it so much that I thought it would be plain ol' mean of me if I didn't share :)

Finally Friday!!

I know, I've neglected you guys the past couple of days.  I have lots of excuses, but you know what they say about excuses...Anyways, I don't really have much to chat but I thought I'd write a few lines about nothing :)

**Hubby and I got to go to lunch today by ourselves.  With no kids.  It was awesome to sit at a table and not have to tell someone to quit coloring the table or to leave their shoes on or to stop wiping boogers on your brother's plate.  Awesome.  Then we went and got him a new phone.  Hubby joined the modern era and got a Blackberry.

**Thank you all for the support on my last post!  I'm working on my resume and letter of intent.  I plan to fax it on Monday.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

**I have a load of reading to catch up on for school.  Yuck.

**Just for the heck of it, because I love ya'll, here's a picture of me and my daddy from waaaay back in the day...

 

**I'll post a picture (as requested) of my new haircut just as soon as I find time to do my make-up and look like a real person and not someone's sleep deprived mom...should be soon.

Have a great weekend!!

Should I?

This afternoon I was checking out the job listings for the area we are moving to soon.  We've lived there before and I worked as a substitute, so I wanted to see what the listings were looking like for the school district.  I would really like to be a teacher, but I came across another job posting that would be perfect for me.  It is for a military family liaison in one of the elementary schools.  The position basically entails working with military families to make their transitions from place to place as smooth as possible for the students.  It requires knowledge and understanding of military transitional life, etc.  Duh, I'm perfect for that job!  Basically, it takes my life experience and my passion for working to ensure that kids get the best educational experience they can and melds them together.  Here's the problem: the application deadline is at the end of this month and we won't be there until after the first of April.  I really really want this job, but I can't start until mid-April.  Should I apply anyways and explain my situation in the letter of intent?  Or should I be totally bummed and let it go?  I'm so torn...

It is positively random!

I've been feeling blah lately.  I think it all comes down to the fact that the weather sucks and I haven't seen the ground in weeks because it's covered in snow.  Anyways, I've decided that I am going to do Random Tuesday Thoughts in a totally positive manner today.  Hopefully that'll cheer me up some!  So here it goes...

 

**I got my hair cut off yesterday.  It feels about a thousand pounds lighter.

**I found some really cute invitations for Baby Girl's first birthday party.  I think I'll order them today.

**I am on a mission to de-clutter my house before the movers come to pack it all up.  Over the weekend, I found a big trash bag and a small box full of stuff to get rid of.

**My parents have been married for 28 years!  I think that's awesome.

**Oldest kiddo made me a valentine this weekend.  In really big letters it says "MOM, YOU'RE THE BEST!!!"...not only did he spell the words right but he thinks I'm the best.  I love him!

**Hubby got me an external hard drive for Valentine's Day.  It is awesome because now I can organize all my pictures (seriously, like thousands) and my laptop will run faster.  Total score!

**I saw this Italian proverb the other day and I really liked it: After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.

**I just about have everything entered into the inventory system for the consignment sale I'm participating in next month.  I have tons of stuff, so I'm hoping to sell a lot of it.  The money I make is going to pay for Baby Girl's birthday party.  The theme for the party is little monsters...I figure she has plenty of years to demand princess parties and fluffy pink things so I'm doing the not-so-traditional theme while I still have a voice in the matter :)

Well, there are my positively random thoughts for this sunny Tuesday.  I'm feeling a little more sunny myself.  Hope you all have a great Tuesday!!

Feeding Time

You know how they say you should never mess with an animal during feeding time?  Well, the look on her face is the reason why...

Happy Valentine's Day

The extent of my Valentine's Day decorations...

 

My favorite valentines...

 

 

We've had a pretty good day around here...well, the boys have fought constantly and made me wanna pull my hair out, but I love them...Hubby got me an external hard drive to store my plethora of pictures on so my laptop will run faster.  He's such a sweetheart!  I got him Burn Notice on DVD and threw a roast in the crock pot.  I got all domestic and made a cheesecake (ok, so it was a 15 minute Jello thing, but still I had to mix something) and some biscuits.

Hope you've had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Baked Potato Soup

I made some fabulous baked potato soup the other night from some potatoes that we really needed to use.  My grandma taught me to make potato soup before she passed away.  Since then I've taken that basic recipe and put my own spin on it.  I think this recipe is finally "it".  It turned out with a fabulous consistency and flavor.  Plus, it was even better the next day.  I baked the potatoes and then immediately used them, but this would also be a great use for left over baked potatoes.  I left the skins on the potatoes but you could remove them if that's what you like.  Also, if you want it a little thinner just add a little more milk.  And of course, if you like more or less onion or bacon, adjust to your tastes.  Always remember that many recipes are just a jumping off point.  You shouldn't be afraid to put your own print on them.

5-6 small to medium baked potatoes, cubed
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
5 cups milk
2 green onions
6 slices bacon, crumbled
8 oz sour cream
1 cup shredded cheese
salt and pepper (to taste)

Melt butter in a pot over medium heat.  Stir in flour until mixture is smooth.  Gradually add milk and stir until until well mixed and starts to thicken.  Add potatoes and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Add onions, bacon, sour cream, cheese, salt and pepper.  Soup is ready to eat when cheese is melted. 

Enjoy and stay warm!

Sleep? Yeah, not around here...

Last night, the can't-sleep bug bit big time around my house.  Of the seven living creatures in this house, only two managed to sleep through the night.  It all started when hubby and I headed to bed around 11.  I went in to check on the boys and discovered that Oldest Kiddo was wide awake.  He got a drink, went potty and got back in bed.  I went to bed and stared at the ceiling for an hour.  Hubby went right to sleep, of course.  Meanwhile, I couldn't sleep so I planned our dinner menu for now until we move.  Right as I was trying to decide if red beans and rice for three nights a week was pushing it (what?!  it's on sale for a dollar a box at the commissary and I have $1 off 3 boxes...so that's like buy 2 get 1...), Baby Girl woke up.  This, of course, woke up the dogs.  Eventually, I managed to get everyone back in their beds and back to sleep.  Well, except for me and the dogs.  We fought over covers and pillows until about 3 am.  How hubby slept through all that I will never know. 

Soundtrack of My Kiddos

I often associate memories with a song.  I can hear a song and tell you what was going on in my life when that song was first released.  For each of my children, I have a particular song that was popular when they were born that always reminds me of them.  And oddly enough the lyrics to these songs each hold some particular meaning that I find specific to each kiddo.  The other day I was running errands and the radio station played the three songs in perfect order.  I'm sure that I'm the only one who nearly cried at these three songs grouped together, but, hey, I'm a mom, that's what we do.  Anyways, I thought I'd share the songs and a few lines of each with you...

Oldest kiddo was born when Good Morning Beautiful by Steve Holy was popular.  One part of the song goes like this:

I didn't see the light
I didn't know day from night
I had no reason to care
But since you came along
I can face the dawn
Cause I know you'll be there

These words are so true.  I didn't have a bad life before motherhood, but I never knew how much I could care about another person.  I had no idea until he came along that I would actually be willing to give my life for another person.

Middle kiddo was born when Wave on Wave by Pat Green was popular.  Hubby and I had some major problems while I was pregnant with middle kiddo but I decided to stick it out because I was pregnant (and I'm so glad I didn't throw in the towel when times were difficult but that's for a different post).  The chorus of the song goes like this:

You came upon me wave on wave,
You're the reason I'm still here, yeah
Am I the one you were sent to save?
You came upon me wave on wave.

Being pregnant is kind of like getting hit by a wave.  You can see it coming (sometimes) and you might think you're ready for it, but the reality is that no one is ever fully ready for it.  Marital problems are pretty much the same.  But I hung in there because of middle kiddo.  I honestly believe that he saved us.

Last year, when Baby Girl was born the song Best Days of Your Life by Kelly Pickler was popular.  (Seriously, the video played about a hundred times while I was in labor)  I love the message of being a strong woman and not letting a cheating man define your life.  I hope that Baby Girl will always remember that she is awesome and any guy who cheats (or is just a pig in general) isn't worth her time.  I love these lines in the song:

But, I've been told that a cheater
Is always a cheater
I've got my pride, and she's got you...

I hope Baby Girl will love them too.  Judging by her personality right now, I'm pretty sure that no guy is gonna walk all over her.  (Of course, she's got two big brothers and a daddy who owns guns, so they'll probably be a little afraid to!)

These songs make up the soundtrack of my kiddos.  I have lots of other songs in the soundtrack of my life, but these are the best because my kiddos are awesome :)

Valentine's Day = Torture

Honestly, I have never been a big fan of Valentine's Day.  In elementary school, I was shy and awkward.  In junior high, I had glasses the size of saucers and frizzy hair.  In high school, I was still shy and not all that confident.  I was never the girl that got tons of huge valentines from admiring guys.

Of course, now I am awesome.  I'm still shy sometimes, but I'm much more confident.  I got contacts and a straightening iron.  I also have the most amazing husband.  He doesn't shower me with huge valentines, but, bless his heart, he does his best.  But despite this awesomeness, I still think that Valentine's Day is the most torturous holiday of the year (closely followed by Groundhogs Day, because I'm not a winter girl and feel a lot of anxiety over the whole shadow or no shadow thing...plus, it is just a ridiculous holiday...kinda like Valentine's Day...oops, I digress....).

I have NO idea what to get hubby for Valentine's Day.  He needs another movie like he needs a hole in the head.  We have 3 kiddos and no babysitter, so a night out is not in the cards.  Truth be told, I really think he'd be perfectly ok with getting nothing.  (Less pressure for him that way.)  But I don't want to let the day go by without giving him at least a little something.  Ugh, I think I'd rather be waterboarded than try to figure out the perfect not-too-small, not-too-big, says-just-enough-without-going-overboard gift.

Ideas?  Comfort?  You in the same boat? 

Serving Up the Randomness

If you haven't been here for RTT, I basically throw out a bunch of random thoughts for your reading pleasure...

**I love the sitcomes on CBS on Monday nights.  Big Bang Theory cracks me up.  Who doesn't love nerds?!

**Remember the nerds on Saved By the Bell?  Did your school have nerds that looked like that?  Mine didn't.  We had nerds, but they didn't dress quite that nerdy.

**It snowed some more last night and today.  Surprise, surprise.  The kiddos got a snow day and are gonna get another one tomorrow.

**I'd love to have 100 followers of my little blog here.  I know that's not really that many, but it woud make my day month year.

**I've been working on a cake recipe.  It's almost there and quite yummy.  I'll share it when I'm happy with it.

**Ever notice how people who gripe about the government and taxes and all that never seem to gripe when they get a tax refund.  Suddenly, they're all happy to claim Uncle Sam as their own. 

**Remember back in the day when you had to blow on the video game cartiridge to get it to work.  I kind of miss that.  My dad actually still has his Nintendo from back in the day.  It still works.  Every once in a while we all play Mario Bros (not super, just the plain ol' version) and Duck Hunt.

**I made myself a cheese pizza for dinner and it was so good that I ate too much.  Oh well.

**Baby girl says "Dada", "Bubba" and "puppy" but not "Mama".  I wish she'd just say it already.  I think she's just messing with me.

And that's the randomness for this week.  Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!

Super Observations

Last night, I participated in a very American activity: I watched the Superbowl.  I was glad to see an exciting game.  The game really did come down to that interception in the last quarter.  Until that moment, I think both teams were playing really good ball and it could've gone either way.  I do think that the Saints had a little more momentum in the second half starting with their recovery of that on-side kick.  Personally, I think on-side kicks are a dirty trick.  But they're legal, so what are you gonna do.  Anyways, I made a few quick observations that I thought I'd share with you...

**The Doritos commercials were hilarious!  By far, the best of the year.  Really, other than those, the commercials pretty much sucked by Superbowl standards.  However, I expected this because I'd been hearing for weeks about how advertisers just weren't shelling out the cash for spots this year.  Darn economy!

**I think I'll apply for the job of bookin halftime entertainers.  Seriously, The Who?!  They needed wheelchairs to get on-stage.  Let's not even talk about last year's fiasco of booking the JoBros.  Two years in a row the halftime show has equalled a fail in my opinion.  Whatever happened to the good ol' days of Janet Jackson flashing her nipple or Britney Spears attempting to rock out with Aerosmith? 

**For some reason, the Saints Kenny-Chesney-look-alike coach gives me the creeps.  I don't know, there's just something about him that rubs me the wrong way.

**The Colts coach did an awesome post-game interview.  He was well-spoken, classy and had his cliches down pat.  (If you've never seen Bull Durham, then you totally didn't get the cliche thing...)

**I get that Hurricane Katrina was a tragedy.  It was horrible and I know that there are people and communities that are still struggling to recover.  However, that does not mean that the Saints "deserved" to win the Superbowl.  I have a hangnail but no one believes that I should win the lottery because of it.  The Saints played good ball, worked hard and beat a worthy opponent.  For those reasons, they deserved to win the game.

**They sell DVDs of the championship team...who buys those?  Who watches those?

Alrighty, well that's all I have for you.  Did you watch?  What do you think was the best part of this great American tradition?

Who's Awesome?!

ME!  Well, at least according to Tesa at 2 Wired 2 Tired.  She gave me this fabulous award...

...and ya'll know how much I love awards!!  Especially ones that say I'm awesome!  So, thank you so much Tesa!

This award comes with instructions to tell you 5 things I like to do and then pass it along to 5 deserving bloggers.

I like to...

1. Read...I can get totally lost in books...the state of my house proves this...
2. Cook...If I was going to be trapped on a desert island with only two things, I'd take my crock pot and a book...
3. Travel...When the hubby retires, I have big travel plans...Europe, Asia, any states I've not been to yet...
4. Watch mind-numbing television shows...Seriously, I have an addiction to Wife Swap re-runs on Lifetime that is probably not healthy...but it's like a train wreck, you just have to look...
5. Shop...groceries, shoes, new clothes...it doesn't really matter, I just love to shop...

I am passing this awesome award on to the following totally awesome bloggers...

1. Shell at Things I Can't Say...I just love her candidness, she even has her own word...go check it out!
2. Ashley at Love Grows Best in Little Houses...We're related, but better than that we're friends!  And she has a fabulous blog.
3. April at A Labor of Love...She and her hubby are waiting on the love of their life to come along, follow along on their journey.
4. Vicki at Frugal Mom Knows Best...She has such a lovely blog with humorous moments and touching ones too.
5. Cheryl at Blue&White Life...She's a Colts fan and her awesome blog always amuses me.

Go check out these lovely ladies!  And, again, thank you , Tesa, for this awesome award!!

Oh How I Love You, Friday!

Yay for Friday!!  This week has actually flown by, but Friday is still oh-so-sweet.  I wasn't sure this was gonna be such a great week.  On Monday, I overslept a bit.  I woke up at ten til 8.  We have to leave the house by 8:15 to get the boys to school on time.  However, this little conversation made me giggle and made me forget about having overslept...

Oh, first, let me set the scene for you...I woke up at 7:50 and freaked out that I'd overslept.  As I leapt out of bed, I hear cartoons in the living room...

Me (running down the hall, pulling clothes on): Boys, what are you doing?!  It's Monday!  Didn't you hear the school busses going by?  Why didn't you wake me up?!

Oldest kiddo:  We heard the busses, but we were going to let you sleep in.

Me:  Um, why?  You have school.

Middle kiddo:  Because we love you.

Oldest kiddo:  Yeah, and we thought if we let you sleep in that you'd let us skip school and watch cartoons all day in our pajamas

Me:  Wow.  Nice try.

Needless to say, I did not let them skip school and by some miracle, I managed to get them to school with about 30 seconds to spare.  Oversleeping is never a good way to start the week, but my silly boys made me giggle a little bit and the week's been good since then.  Hope it was a great one for you guys too!

Quirky Rules of Living a Military Life

I spent the morning fighting with my paper shredder.  Right before lunch, I gave up on it and decided I needed a new one.  It was then that I broke one of the golden rules of living on a military post...never go shopping around lunchtime...especially on Thursdays.  This might seem a bit odd to you if you don't live a military life so I'll try to explain it some, along with some other rules of living a military life.

1.  Never go shopping around lunchtime...especially on Thursdays!  The PX (it's like a department store on post, think Wal-Mart...the old school version, not the supercenter versions) on each post has a food court.  It is a popular lunch destination for Soldiers, so around lunchtime the PX is packed.  Thursdays (at least on training posts, like our current one) are generally graduation days for basic training.  So, on Thursdays, not only do you have to deal with hungry Soldiers in your way, but you also have to deal with newly graduated Soldiers and their families.

2.  Never curse all those moving trucks blocking your street because soon enough those trucks will be blocking the street in front of your house.

3.  Whatever you do, do not piss off the people at the housing office.  They can make your life miserable.  They can assign you to some horrible house, ticket you for leaving your Christmas decorations up until Easter and nag you to death over parking in the yard.  Happy housing people will ignore all these things.

4.  Make sure you have enough groceries to get through all Federal holidays, because they shut everything down.  Seriously, you can't go buy a loaf of bread around here on Columbus Day.

5.  Don't get caught talking on your phone while you're driving.  It'll cost you $500!  I was reading the court proceedings in the post paper the other day.  Talkers got fined $500 while speeders going 10-15 over in residential areas got fined less than $100.  So, by all means, speed...just don't do it while talking on your phone.

There are so many more quirks that you pick up on when living on a military post.  Many are the same from post to post, but many posts also have their own quirks.  For instance, where we're at right now, the commissary (the grocery store) is closed on Mondays.  I'm sure in many ways it's like living a normal civilian life, just with a lot more moving!

Quick, Cute, Crafty Project

Yesterday I was feeling the itch to do a little something crafty.  Now, here's the problem with that: I tend to lose interest in craft projects after about 30 minutes.  I have seen a lot of cute canvas wall hangings lately.  So, I decided that trying something along those lines couldn't take that long.  As I don't necessarily need more stuff hanging around my house, I decided to make them for my niece and nephew. (Yeah, my sister just loves me.)  It took me about 20 minutes to do each one, so I didn't lose interest and was actually pretty impressed with how they turned out...See....

 

Now, I suppose you would like to know how I made these impossibly cute wall hangings...Well, hang on to your horses, I'm about to tell you...

I printed off the letters I was going to use and an oval for the frog face.  Then I cut them out and placed them on the canvas I was using.  (I used 11x14, but any size would be perfectly adorable.)

I used a cheap foam brush and some acrylic craft paint I had laying around to paint the canvas.  I was really careful in painting over the letter (and the oval for R's) so it wouldn't move or get paint underneath it.  (I'm sure there's a better way to do that than mine...)  When I had the canvas completely painted, I removed the letter stencil thingys.

Then I took some Qtips and filled in the letters with a different color paint.  I used a small foam brush to fill in the oval for the frog face.

Next, I glued some sparklely crystal things I had on to L's and used a Qtip to paint some little embellishments.  I glued googlely eyes on to the frogs head and used a Qtip to draw a smile.  Then used a foam brush to do the embellishments on his.

These took about an hour to get pretty dry, but I did let them sit over night just in case before I shipped them off this morning.

I think they turned out pretty well.  They aren't "perfect" but that seems to be the trendy thing for children's decor right now.  Maybe if I can't find a job, I'll just whip up some of these babies and hit the craft fair circuit!

My Brain Works in Random Ways

It's Tuesday!  You know that means it's time to get random.  Read my randomness, then head on over to visit Keely and enjoy some more randomness...


**Baby girl has moved into that stage of life where she wonders around stealing food off plates.  She also puts everything off the floor in her mouth.

**I have a little crush on Kevin Costner.  I love him in Bull Durham (my fave movie of all time).

**I think Sean Connery is the greatest bond, followed closely by Roger Moore.

**I got crafty today and made a present for my niece and my nephew.  I'm considering posting pics and maybe a how-to.

**I should've been doing homework instead of being crafty.  Oh well.

**I really am a dedicated student.  I just spend as much time complaining about homework as I do actually completing homework.  I am sure it's one of my more unattractive traits. 

**One time when I was in 3rd grade, I watched the news and they said it would be 65 degrees the next day.  I thought that was really hot and meant I could wear a skirt.  After many hours of trying to talk me out of this, my dad finally gave up and let me pick my own clothes that day.  I wore a skirt and froze my butt off at recess.

**I took the Jeopardy test online last week.  I don't actually expect to ever get on Jeopardy, but it's fun to say I did it.

**I am still in love with my fancy pants Nikon D3000 camera.  I am also still learning how to use it.  I'm having fun with it and don't expect to be fully proficient for quite some time.  I'm taking it slow and enjoying the learning process.

**I totally adore Diet Coke with Lime.

**We are moving in 6 weeks.  6 weeks!!

**I'm thinking of a new comment system...any suggestions??

And that's the randomness for today folks.  I'm off to put Baby girl to bed then watch NCIS do some homework.