Quotes to Remember... 6/29/09

I am a collector of quotes. I love it when I read something that inspires me. So in honor of the quotes that I love I officially name Mondays "Quotes to Remember..." day

Here's your quote for today

"Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy."- Cynthia Nelms

Share your favorite quotes with me and it just might show up on Quotes to Remember...

Wordless Wednesday: Weekend in Virginia

Daddy (aka The Fish) teaching Ali to kick her feet

Lea lounging with Sharon

Zoe (my little Mermaid)

Daddy with Ali and Mia

Mia swimming towards me

Lea pooped out

Lea after I made her more comfortable

Sharon with Ali

Duke

view from the pool

Quotes to Remember... 6/22/09

I am a collector of quotes. I love it when I read something that inspires me. So in honor of the quotes that I love I officially name Mondays "Quotes to Remember..." day

Here's your quote for today

"Things will work out. Keep trying. Be believing. Be happy. Don’t get discouraged. Things will work out." - Gordon B. Hinckley

Share your favorite quotes with me and it just might show up on Quotes to Remember...

Going to go pick up my girls

Today I am heading back up to Virginia to go pick up my girls and bring them home. My husband and I have been missing them terribly and are ready for them to be home. I know that they have been spoiled rotten these past few weeks and when we get home I will probably be ready to send them back (just kidding).

It usually takes a week to "detox" them from the grandparents and it is the hardest. But we will be back in the groove of things before long.

Are your kids extra rotten after spending time with their grandparents?

Kid's lantern

My kids are always bugging me to buy these cute little rollie pollie kid's lantern when ever they see them at Wal-mart. But with a high price tag for something that probably wont last I can't get up the gumption to do it.

So when I saw this



over at Made By Cynthia Rae I knew I had to make it. She made a great tutorial so I am not going to repeat it but I will show you what I did different.

For the handle she used what looks like a plastic coated wire. Well, I didn't have that on hand so this is what I used

picture hanging wire and air tubing that you use in fish tanks.

I had bought that awhile ago to use in a different project so I had it laying around.

I cut the tube to the length that I wanted the handle to be and then I threaded one end of the wire into a hole on one side of the lid and tied it off.



Then I slid the tubing on to the wire and then threaded the other end of the wire into the other hole and tied it off and cut the excess wire off.



Then I finished gluing everything together and viola

(I really need to find a better place to take my pictures)

A lantern that my kids can use and even destroy and it hasn't cost me an arm and a leg.

Here it is lit up in the dark.

Wordless Wednesday: mmmm, That must be a good ring pop

Kids say the darnedest things: "I am not a fish..."

OK, ever since my children where little I have wanted to record the little cute things that they say but have never really done it (shame on me). So now that I have a venue to record these things I am going to start.

My kids love to swim any chance they get. They just love to be in the water. They get that from their dad. He grew up loving the water and had many opportunities to have access to a pool and stayed weeks at a time at the beach. I have always said that he was like a fish. Me? Well I am lucky enough to just float. I am good at floating and doggie paddling.

Some of you know that a few weekends ago we stayed in Virginia and had access to a pool. A nice big pool. Zoe, my 7 year old, is the worst as far as staying in the pool. She gets in as soon as we get there and would never get out if she didn't have to. I have to drag her out every few hours to reapply sunscreen.

But she will get out long enough to be thrown back in.
(This was taken last year and yes she is as high up in the air as it looks

So Zoe goes to the deep end of the pool and says "Look at me mommy I can swim the whole way." I then watch her do it and am very impressed because I certainly couldn't do that.

So she gets to the shallow end and says "Did you see me?" and I tell her how proud I am of her and that she is just like her daddy, a little fish.

She then matter of factly informs me "I am not a fish, I'm a mermaid." I then laughed and said "Oh yes, you are my little mermaid."

Who knew?

Tackle It Tuesday

Janice created Tackle It Tuesday back in 2006 over at 5minutesformom.com to help her dig herself out of a houseful of clutter. This is how it works

Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week. The project can be little or big – whatever you want.
Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done.
(It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)

I thought this was a great idea and could really use some incentive to help get some projects done.

For today's tackle I am working on turning this




into these so that I can start listing them in my Etsy shop.



They are called a Child's Coloring Wallet and they are the perfect size to keep in a diaper bag or purse for when you are on the go and need to keep little hands busy. They would also make a great gift for your special little one. They will come with 8 crayons and I will be finishing it off with a pad of paper.


You can check out my shop here and I will have these listed in the next couple of days and you will be able to see the different fabric choices.

Is there something you need to tackle. Well go visit Janice over 5M4M to join in.

Quotes to Remember... 6/15/09

I am a collector of quotes. I love it when I read something that inspires me. So in honor of the quotes that I love I officially name Mondays "Quotes to Remember..." day

Here's your quote for today

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

Share your favorite quotes with me and it just might show up on Quotes to Remember...

Small Talk Six A DIY Brag

A new weekly meme on MomDot called “Small Talk Six!” where each Saturday has a topic and you can respond to each topic with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, or 6 photos.

Today's topic is “6 things you’ve made during your lifetime that you were proud of (can be a craft, a dish, . . . anything).”

1. Cake I made for my daughter's American Idol party. (Those things around the outside were supposed to look like microphones)

2. beaded Christmas Tree.

3. beaded robin in a glass ornament

4. cake I made for daughter's Movie/Hollywood party. (It is supposed to be a director's clapboard)

5. tri-fold coloring wallet folded up

one side open (I also made the pad of paper to put in it.)

open all the way (bty: I am going to start making these to sell on etsy)

6. My husband is a huge Carolina Hurricanes hockey fan and I made this removable window decal by painting it with fabric paint on a plastic baggie. Once it was dry you can peel it off of the plastic and stick it onto just about anything

Wooden dolls

Today's craft started out with me finding these at the craft store

they reminded me of a blog that I had come across awhile back that I had put on my to do list. You can go here to check it out.

So I set out to make my own family of peg people

I started by painting the head and top part of the body a skin tone. The color that I chose was very close to the color of the wooden peg but it also serves as primer so to speak for the hair color. It also gives your family a uniform skin tone.

I then penciled in how I want the hair line to look. I get inspiration from here, here, and here

Then using my very thin brush I out line with the paint along the line I have drawn







Then using my larger angled brush I cover the rest of the head. I usually do two coats.







Then using a pencil I mark where I want to put the eyes and mouth







Then using a toothpick I paint in the eyes and mouth








Now we accessorize. You can paint little bows or do like I did and make it look like little hair clips



There they all are. But wait, they need clothes!!



For the clothes I used scrap booking paper and mod podge



Then I finished it off with a little paint and one more layer of mod podge over the whole doll. Here they are all dressed and ready to go

Now they need a little house to live in. Also at Grace Violet's blog you can find a great tutorial and even a free printable pattern on how to make one.

Here is the one I made. I haven't finished decorating it yet but will be finishing that up real soon