Pantry Paint for the kids.

There is nothing worse than hearing my kids tell me there is "NOTHING TO DO". Really? Because let me tell you...the 2 full playrooms we have in this house, say otherwise. So does the backyard with the swing-set/slide/fort combo. Nope. Not having it. I whipped up a batch of PANTRY PAINT as I have named it and had them go out into the driveway in the backyard and play/paint.
It entertained them for about an hour, for me...that's a WIN. I managed to mow the front and back yard while they were creating. K made a painting of Ariel the mermaid and then her little brother A destroyed it. typical :) But, they they had fun dumping out the cups of leftover "paint" afterwards too. Whee. Total cost, $0 since I had both items on hand in my pantry (hence the name), but you can buy corn starch, dish detergent and food coloring for under $4 in most stores.
I made ours using 2 cups of water and 2 cups of corn starch and about 1.5 tablespoons of natural liquid dish detergent (the kind for hand wash not dishwashers. duh) and then played around with different color combinations in paper cups. You could really have fun with this. Hopscotch, basketball shot circles, I even thought about mixing in some of the glow-stick liquid for glow in the dark fun. Maybe a late night hopscotch game?




Ariel!!!
And, the little artist:
ps - what's up with all of the pins on pinterest that don't work? diamond glitter, huh? :)

My garden.

School Lunches.

Preparing school lunches is a big deal in this house. I don't allow just anything into my 6 year olds lunchbox. I like there to be a perfectly balanced meal. I like her to always have a fruit and a veggie. I also only give her a treat on Fridays. It works out for us and I hope she will keep letting me dictate her school lunches for many years to come...and not start with the craze of trading for a friend's Lunchable or Twinkie for god's sake. Oh, especially since Twinkies (and snowballs, and many other snack cakes) CONTAIN BEEF FAT. oh lord. beef fat in cake?! Yes, it's true. Also, we don't eat beef in the house. I like to use reusable containers as much as I can for her lunches. On a rare day I'll use a brown paper bag and give her throwaway bags or plastic wrap with her food. She'll always come home those days and remark on how it was so weird to throw away her lunchbox (and not have to bring utensils or thermos home). A few shots of some lunch stuff:

the band is to keep it closed obviously, but kitty just looks so much more badass with her headband, I love it. What's inside?

If it makes her sing "My mommy is the best", I know I'll try it again.

I've been using up all of the fiance's shaving foam lately...not shaving. I mix it up with food coloring and give it to the kids to play with in the bath. It's so simple and so fun for them.

photo creds: all me except 1st one from here.

Most viewed.

I have posted many pictures of my house over the past 4+ years, but this is the most viewed from Flickr (the stats there are so perfectly detailed!)




I love the lack shelving by Ikea, what can I say? And, I custom made this paint shade with Valspar paint. I picked out a red, added orange and then white. In person, it's like a creamy tomato soup. wonderful color for inspiration.

When I was a kid...

Instead of sharing with Kaya how hard I had it (wah wah, I will leave that for MY mom to share with her) I want to instead show her the fun I had. This week, I already made her a "cootie catcher" (paper fortune teller) to play with and now I am thinking about seeing if she is old enough for threading bracelets.



I want to teach her how I used to spend hours and then I'd beg my parents to take me to Treasure Island (remember that magical store?) for more thread.

A little handmade for the holiday.

Of all the ornaments I made this year, my favorite ones were the most simple. Sure, I could have been fancier and got out the hot glue gun and attached a permanent ribbon hanger, or added a little bit of glitter...but I really enjoy the end result here. Just a plain glass ornament filled with artificial snow. Simple, elegant, beautiful. Here it is pictured on my tree.




This year, in addition to some lovely store bought goodies and a few fantastic Ebay & Etsy scores, I gave out several handmade gifts. I got the urge to buy a bunch of plain glass ornaments and fill em with different things.




Adam, being the wonderful man that he is, even went out on Christmas Eve to get me more fake snow, ribbon and glitter. I love him. Here, I will show you what we did, and hopefully you will get some ideas and inspiration to make some for yourself. Out of 20 made, I believe I kept 2.






I like knowing that my craft will hopefully don several Holiday trees or windows or mantles next year.




Here are our salt dough ornaments. I had a lot of fun with the kids doing them this year.