Thrify Finds

We ventured out Monday for a trip to the thrift store. The little buddy insisted he didn't need to use the bathroom but added, "the frift store has a toilet." I told him I wasn't sure (after all I do my best NOT to find out). Of course we had only been there for 10 minutes when he announces "I have to use the toilet!" Lo and behold they did have a bathroom-through the sorting "back room" up a flight of stairs and at the end of the hall. We finally get there and the buddy says, "Is it scary?" I don't know what prompted that. Other than the bright pink walls it wasn't too scary, it could have been worse.

But the thrifting was pretty good. I got some good vintage sheets, and the gingham yellow on the bottom of the stack is actually a set of curtains. My mom had yellow gingham curtains in her kitchen when I was growing up. I hadn't really planned to do the same, but when I saw those I decided in the first place we move that actually has a window in the kitchen-they're going up! Then we found that awesome mirror for only $2.50! I was pretty excited. The little silver plates I'm debating whether to spray paint them or not. Either way they are fun pretend props. I also got a bunch of books. I'd never realized how cheap the books are at this thrift store: on Mondays (every thing is half off) the hardback are 50 cents and the softbound are 25 cents! And since I've decided to start collecting Nancy Drew and  The Hardy Boys books this is pretty awesome! I can't tell you how much I love thrift stores. Seriously. It's a toss up between that and Target clearance!

Yes, I also have a yellow gingham plastic table cloth. . . . that one was from a different thrift store :)

Freebie Friday: Thank You Tags

I apologize for not being around much lately. I want to blame it on the little sweeties frequent night wakings, but despite being up several times every night I still don't want to go to bed early! It's hard giving up my "free time." So, my lack of sleep is making me pretty unproductive. Any ideas on how to get her to sleep through the night?


Anywhoo . . . these thank you tags match the birthday printables I made last year-I thought they would be easier than the thank you favor boxes. They would also be fun as thank you tags for teacher gifts (if you're still in school :) And lots of other thank you opportunities!

You can now find these tags as part of the Primary Colors Birthday Package available in my etsy shop by clicking here.


enjoy!

Freebie Friday: Graduation Toppers

So my Freebie Friday's have been a little hit or miss lately, you probably noticed, eh?

It's been an entire year since I started the Freebie Friday posts. I'd kind of planned to give them up after a year. They are often quite time consuming and I'm trying to be better at prioritizing (hence the hit or miss-I do apologize).

But I don't feel ready to abandon them. I like having a little something germinating in my mind through out the week. It's the weeks when I'm too busy to have time to think about it, and then the late Thursday night scramble that isn't so fun. . . so with the new year (for freebie fridays) I plan to post them as often as I can, but I'm not promising they will be weekly. It's for fun right?

For today it's graduation toppers. Can't believe it's almost June!! I think they could be fun turned into badges, a big ribbon award, cupcake toppers of course, and with some fun bold colors or prints behind them they could even be fun for a kindergarten or joy school graduation eh? 

This is a simple strip of paper accordion folded and taped at the end. It's pretty easy-just use hot glue to secure it. (yeah tape doesn't work). 

enjoy!

the party is over and a couple of free printables . . .

Well, the buddy's birthday is done. It was fun to plan and the party itself turned out great. All week the buddy kept telling me as he helped me make stuff "this is going to be the best party ever!" And that is why I love being a mom. He is so sweet and he was so happy.

Favor Boxes: I used a pattern from the only craft book I've got: Home Paper Scissors by Patricia Zapata, which I already blogged about.
Inside: I made these fun little notebooks to go inside-they usually use a paint chip for the outside (google paint chip notebooks for a plethora of tutorials). A simple label wrapped around the outside finished it off. Threw in suckers, crayons, green army men, and fruit snacks to round it out.

GET A PRINTABLE OF THE THANKS SPACESHIP LABEL HERE
GET A PRINTABLE OF THE NOTEBOOK LABEL HERE.

A couple games:
 
"The Claw": a simple magnetic fishing pole to pull out a space ranger badge  (I mounted them on green craft foam and hot glued a pin on the back.

GET A PRINTABLE OF THE BADGE HERE.

Star Command Wings: decorated wings made of spray painted cardboard with adhesive foam and crayons.

"Woody's Round Up": a cake walk with printable coloring pages colored by the buddy and I. (Yeah, my kitchen floor is the only hard floor in the house-lovely vinyl I know).

The cake: The buddy picked a picture off the internet and I attempted to re-create it. Considering it was my first tiered cake, and my first time working with fondant, I think it turned out rather well. I used this marshmallow fondant recipe, and spent a good 8 hours making it from start to finish.

********* intended freebie friday: **********

This wasn't for his party, but for his dinner that night- a special birthday plate. I plan on making it a tradition-on your birthday you get to use the special "birthday plate." It was suppose to be the freebie on Friday, but with blogger down I never got it up. After messing up the first attempt I realized that for it to work it's really important to spray it with an aerosol hairspray to keep the ink from running. Then use a thin layer of modge podge between the plate and the print, and SEVERAL layers over the back. Then try your best to not get too much water on the back when you wash it.

GET THE PRINTABLE HERE.

Homemade Granola: Yum

So I always have a "be healthier" New Years Resolution. Who doesn't right? But this year while I was still thinking about "being healthy" (isn't that so specific :) I ran across this blog called Word of Wisdom Living. Immediatley I was impressed. It's mainly about eating healthier, but he also touches on exercise a bit. He has a weekly "goal" to help you be a little bit healthier and has so much great information. I have continued to love it and it has kept my New Year's resolution alive and helped to not only hone in on what exactly I want to do to be healthier, but I've also learned alot and am excited about it. (We even tried tofu for the first time this week--but don't let that scare you away. . . he doesn't really talk about tofu).  He reads lots of research studies and really knows a lot. But the thing I love most about his blog is that he doesn't make you feel dumb or bad about what you are doing. He just makes you want to be better. So, go read his blog. NOW! You'll love it.

Anyway, so on that note I've stopped buying "sugar cereal" for our breakfasts. Lately we've been eating a lot of bagels and fruit and granola. Homemade Granola. I called my mom and got her great recipe-which I have no idea where she got it from. But it's super flexible. Here it is.

Granola

7 1/2 cups rolled grains (oats, wheat, rye, barley, whatever you've got on hand--in the pictures I just did 6 cups of oatmeal and 1 1/2 cups of puffed millet-which isn't rolled at all-but you get my drift).
1 c. wheat germ (this makes it good and healthy :)
3/8 c. sesame seeds (didn't add because I didn't buy any-but I added 1/2 c. ground flax seeds instead)
Any other nuts or seeds you want to add  (peanuts, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, etc . . . )

For the "sauce"

1/2 c. honey
3/4 c. brown sugar (or just do it all honey and cut down to 1 c.)
1/2 c. oil (sunflower or other seed oils are healthiest, but I didn't have on hand so I just used canola)
1/2 c. water
1 1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla

Heat oven to 225 degrees. Mix grains and seeds together. Mix the sauce together and pour over granola. Stir until evenly coated. Spread a thin layer across a baker's half sheet (I filled 2) and put in oven for 2 hours, stirring half way through.


If you want to add dried fruit once you are done and it's cooled that's yummy too. Really the best part about this recipe is the flexibility of what you can put in it.

enjoy!

mother's day hot pads

So I waited to post these until after Mother's Day because my mom occasionally visits my blog, but then it got crazy and now it's

Tuesday night? Alas, I'm still posting because I thought they were fun, and the Grandma's (and great-grandma's) loved them.

I was going to post a tutorial, but there seem to be lots already out there, and well, my seam binding capabilities are clearly lacking . . . so I'll leave it to the pros.

I will mention though, that I was going to have the buddy paint on the fabric for the back, and was so glad I decided to use permanent markers instead. It worked so much better! I cut the squares out first and had him decorate them and then after the hand prints dried I sewed them all up. Tada! I had him do a couple extra ones too that I will eventually sew into some hot pads for me too! (yeah right!)

birthday party planning

Just so you know,  May is a busy month for me. A couple birthday's, our anniversary, mother's day, and Memorial Day and I feel like all I do is plan and run around frantically. . . . so I'll do my best to post here and there. This is what I've been up to tonight: I used the box pattern from "Home Paper Scissors" by Patricia Zapata and added a few elements of my own. I think they'll be fun favor boxes. . . best part of all, I had all the stuff laying around so they were free!