Valentine Kissing Ball

This craft was on my original "Valentine To Do List" that I made back in January. It is such an easy craft that someone who thinks they have zero craftiness can do this with no problems! The fun part about this craft is that there are no special tools {not even a hot glue gun} required!

 Supplies:

Styrofoam ball

ribbon

tissue paper

paper clips

Start by adding a hanger to the top of the Styrofoam ball with a piece of ribbon and a paper clip.

 Cut your tissue paper into strips {mine were approximately 4 inches long by 1 inch wide} and then crumple the tissue paper up a little.

 Feed about three pieces of the crumpled tissue paper halfway through a paper clip and then fold the ends up...you will probably have to fluff the tissue paper a little after squeezing it through the paper clip:)

 Stick the paper clip into the Styrofoam ball until the tissue paper is flush with the outside of the ball.

 Continue filling in with your tissue paper. Put them close together for a fuller kissing ball and further apart for a not so fluffy look.

 Hang on a door knob to add a little Valentine fun to your house.

These are even more fun hung up high so you can actually use them as Kissing Balls, but everyone in our house has had the crud so I figured a door knob was a safer bet:)

**Tip Junkie has a whole post on different kinds of Kissing Balls...go check them out here!**

Wordless Wednesday:A Little Boy with Big Boy Toys

{I'm guest posting over here today...come over and visit!}

Tax Time Means New Furniture....and a CSN Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed! Congrats to Tanya @ Miller Racing Family!!
I know not everyone loves tax return time...but when you have more than a few kiddos and some great deductions, tax time isn't too bad! I actually love that we usually get a pretty big chunk of money around this time of the year. Jason on the other hand hates that we overpay the government throughout the year and basically give them interest free use of our money.

Because we almost always get a refund check, this is also the time of year when we do a little shopping for things we wouldn't normally buy during the rest of the year. I got my embroidery machine and my DSLR camera {Jason got a welding machine one year} after refund checks:) The top thing on Jason's list this year is a new TV. He has all kinds of technical reasons for wanting one...I'm just excited that a new TV equal the possibility of new furniture. I'm thinking we may just have to replace the old console table under our TV for a new LCD TV stand. Because if he gets a bigger TV, I will probably need a bigger table to make sure things in the living room look even:)

I hopped over to check out all the great TV stands that csnstores.com has and found these beauties:

Now I'm sure that if any of you have filed your taxes you know that there is a delay because of some technical/political mumbo jumbo. We filed our taxes a few weeks ago and they told us it could be toward the middle or end of February before we get our refund...so for now that new TV stand is on hold!

BUT I have great news for one of you because CSN Stores is partnering with me again to give away a $45 gift certificate to any of the their 200 plus stores:)

To enter:Mandatory entry: Head over to csnstore.com, come back here and tell me what you would spend the $45 gift certificate on.  For another entry, tell me if you LOVE or HATE tax time:)
For another entry, follow my blog and leave me a comment telling me that you do.
For another entry, follow me on twitter, and leave a comment telling me that you do.
For another entry, tweet about this giveaway and include @SUPERMOM_Kelli and a link http://tinyurl.com/4unmcrz to this giveaway in the tweet.
For FIVE extra entries, subscribe to my blog via feedburner...click on the icon in the right sidebar by the facebook and twitter icons. Make sure to leave 5 separate comments.
Please be sure to leave a comment for each thing that you do. This giveaway will end next Sunday, February 13th at 12:00 am. I will use random.org to pick a winner! Good Luck and thanks for entering!

Love Note in a Pancake!

I saw this really cute idea HERE a few weeks ago, and I knew it would be perfect for a fun Valentine's Day breakfast...or maybe even breakfast for dinner. While Henry and Grant were at school, Eli and I tested out the "recipe" and had a fun pancake lunch:) 

To make the Love Note in my pancakes, I added some red food coloring to a little bit of the pancake batter and my little helper stirred it up.

Then I put the colored batter into my squeeze bottles.

Here's a little tip....don't leave your opened squeeze bottle of red batter near your "helper"! They might just dump it all out and then you will have to remix your colored batter...and someone will be eating a giant red pancake for lunch.

I squeezed out the design on my griddle and let it cook for about a minute.

 Then I filled in the rest of the pancake with the un-colored batter, cooked it a few minutes {until the top is all bubbly}, and flipped it.

You can make shapes or letter....I even think some of the sayings from Conversation Hearts would be adorable! Just make sure to write all the letters backwards because they are reversed when you flip the pancake over:)

This is such an easy and fun way to serve up a plate full of love notes to your family {in the form of pancakes}!

Blog Swap with Stacy from Not JUST a Housewife!

Today I'm over at Not JUST a Housewife....and you get the pleasure of meeting the awesome Stacy! After you "ooh" and "aah" over all of Stacy's awesome-ness {I mean seriously check out that stenciled ceiling}, hop over and say "HI" to me too:) And don't forget my SUPER cute Valentine Dish Towels giveaway ends tonight, so get in those extra entries!

Hi! I'm Stacy from Not JUST A Housewife and I am so excited to be swapping with Kelli today!!! I just recently found her site and fell in love! She has so many cute ideas. So thanks Kelli for letting me post here today :)

I am a stay at home mom to 4 little boys and I love it! It can be challenging being a stay at home mom and keeping my sanity though. Creating things and sharing them on my blog helps.Here are some of the things you can find on my blog.

I refinished this antique desk. You should see what it looked like before! I have a tutorial on how I did it HERE.

I needed more lighting in my front room but my hubby was unemployed at the time and I had zero budget for one. So I made this one out of scrap wood left over from other projects. Then I hand painted one of my designs on a lamp shade I had. I did have to buy a $10.00 lamp kit but I think it was worth the splurge! See the complete tutorial HERE.

With 4 busy boys I am always looking for fun activities to do with my kids. They love this felt face activity! I cut out a bunch of different noses, different eyes, mouths, etc and they can make their own faces however they want over and over. See how to make them HERE.

If I can't find the right fabric I just paint my own!

See how I fixed up our old bathroom for around $75.00!

I also recently stenciled my entire bedroom ceiling. It took 4 days because I had 49 million interuptions, but it was worth it. I love waking up to a pretty ceiling! You can see more picture and how I did it HERE. There is also a tutorial on how I made the Chandelier HERE

 

I host a linky party on Tuesdays called Show me what ya got! So come party with me on Tuesdays :)

I have an etsy shop called The Housewife Boutique, too. I recently added a ton of necklaces, hair clips and headbands.

You can visit my shop by clicking HERE.

I also sometimes chat about "mom" things like BABY WEIGHT, bad days, traditions, cleaning, etc. So come and visit me sometime at Not JUST A Housewife :)

Buckets of Love

I mentioned a few weeks back that both Henry and Grant are escorting little girls in their elementary school pageant. Well apparently getting fun gifts at the pageant is half the fun...so I set out to find something fun for my two boys and their girls:) I've seen these cute clear paint buckets before in gift shops {and in our local gift shop that is sending gifts to the pageant}....but being the crafter that I am, I always think "I can make that for so much less than they are charging!"

So my quest for craftiness began {and ended} at Micheal's were I found these large buckets for $4.99 each. They also had a cute smaller size for around $3.

 I used my Cricut to cut a few initials and some small dots out of vinyl. {You could totally do this with scrapbook stickers if you don't have a cutting machine.} Then I filled the buckets with pretty shredded paper and some goodies: a teddy bear, an activity book, decorative pins, and just little bit of chocolate:)

 I decorated the top of the lid and tied a small ribbon on the washer attached to the handle. It took me a while to figure out that you use the washer to pop off the top of the bucket:)

 Here's another one using white vinyl. I think it kind of looks like a white M&M!

 And here is the boys' version...less colorful and no polka dots:) I think my boys will approve, especially since there will be a DS game tucked inside their buckets!

These would be SUPER cute for Valentine's Day full of fun heart shaped candy and toys with a pretty red or pink bow tied to the handle!

Wordless Wednesday: A Few Years Ago...

{Grant, Henry, and cousin Emma February 2008}

Old-Fashioned Caramel Cake

My grandfather's 75th birthday was last week, and he requested an Old-Fashioned Caramel Cake. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a single bakery in our area that actually makes this yummy confection...maybe because they are kind of difficult to make. I the awesome granddaughter that I am offered to attempt to make it. Very ambitious, but also doable...even if it did take me two days and make a huge mess of my kitchen! It was totally worth it!

I couldn't find the recipe that I was looking for online, so I ended up calling an older lady that I went to church with a few years ago. She was thrilled to share her recipe with me...I think it may be an adaptation of a Southern Living cake, but she read it to me over the phone so I'm not really sure. And the instructions may be a little vague because of that too.

Old-Fashioned Caramel Cake and Icing

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs
8 oz. sour cream
1/4 cup of milk
2 ¾ cups AP flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter in an electric mixer. Add sugar. Cream together until smooth. Add eggs one at a time. Mix sour cream and milk in a small bowl. Combine dry ingredients in another small bowl. Alternately add in the dry ingredients and sour cream mixture…start and end with dry ingredients. Stir in vanilla.

Bake 350 for 30-35 in a two 8' round prepared pan. I recommend lining the pans with parchment paper. After the cake has cooled, cut each cake round into two pieces...or more it you can. The thinner the layers the better.

Icing

3 cups sugar, divided

¾ milk

1 egg beaten

½ cup butter

Add ½ cup sugar in sauce pan {I used a cast iron skillet}. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until sugar melts and is golden brown. Combine sugar, milk, beaten egg, and then stir in butter. Slowly add the mixture into the melted sugar.

Cook over medium heat until 230 degrees on a candy thermometer. This step should take about 15-20 minutes. Cool the icing for 5 minutes then beat with wooden spoon....I actually put the icing into my mixer and beat it with the whisk attachment for a few minutes.

{**I ended up doing a double recipe of both cake and icing**}

The cake is very pound-cake like and the icing is SUPER sweet...just in case you couldn't tell that from the 3 cups of sugar. I need to work on cutting my layers a little more evenly, but all in all I think this cake was a big success! The most important part was that it was exactly what my grandfather wanted:)

Have you baked anything lately?

This is the Stuff...

...That Drives Me Crazy!

*Got out of bed 30 minutes early because all 3 boys got up early*

*Had a battle before school because of socks...and probably not why you would think*

*Dropped the boys off*

*Walked a couple laps with a friend, while Eli begged to go home*

*Burned my egg for breakfast*

*Quick trip to Target for a few weekend items*

*Browsed the Dollar Spot*

*Bought Eli popcorn and an icee...he is much a much better behaved shopper if he has food*

*Stole a few pieces of popcorn even though I'm still on my diet*

*Looked for sugar...Target was out of sugar*

*Browsed the little girl's section at Kohl's with my friend*

*LOST (like really lost) Eli when he ran off in Kohl's*

*Ran around like a crazy person trying to find my child who thought he was playing a game*

*Found him in the back of the store smiling and waving*

*Got a call that my grandma was in the hospital*
*Headed home to unload grocery and put Eli down for a nap*

*Showered...because I really needed it*
*Got ready to go the hospital and Jason left work early to pick up the kiddos*
*Got a call that everything was fine with my grandma and that she was probably going home soon*
*Looked for a video of the song that inspired this post, but couldn't find one*
*Listened to some music on the computer*
*Looked again and found a video to share with you:)*

This post was inspired by the song "This is the Stuff" by Francesca Battistelli and my SUPER fun Friday:)

This is the Stuff You Use!

Valentine Dish Towels and a Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed! Congrats to Kelly!

I spent most of the morning yesterday avoiding laundry working on these SUPER cute Valentine Dish Towels!

 I love having an excuse to make something pink and girly and ruffley! Plus this was the perfect first project for me to finally put my ruffler to work:)

 One of the best things about these dish towels is how easy they are to make....and it doesn't hurt that they are pretty inexpensive too. I picked up a couple different kinds of white dish towel/sack clothes at Walmart and Target a few weeks ago, and I found some really cute pink/red/Valentine fabrics and ribbons at Hobby Lobby. A few ruffles, a few snips with my pinking shears, a few straight stitches and I had some SUPER cute Valentine dish towels:)

 But the very best thing about these SUPER cute Valentine dish towels is that I am giving TWO of them to one of you!

To enter:Mandatory entry: Leave a comment telling me what kind of Valentine's Day decorations you have or plan to have at your house this year.
For another entry, follow my blog and leave me a comment telling me that you do.
For another entry, follow me on twitter, and leave a comment telling me that you do.
For another entry, tweet about this giveaway and include @SUPERMOM_Kelli and a link  http://tinyurl.com/4vrhmrg to this giveaway in the tweet.
For FIVE extra entries, subscribe to my blog via feedburner...click on the icon in the right sidebar by the facebook and twitter icons. Make sure to leave 5 separate comments.
Make sure to leave a comment for each thing that you do. This giveaway will end next Friday, February 4th at 10:00 pm. I will use random.org to pick a winner! Good Luck and thanks for entering!

Wordless Wednesday: Accidental Bean Soup

Just in case you weren't sure...the best way to make Accidental Bean Soup is to leave the lid of your dried bean filled sand table open during two days of rain:)