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Friday, February 10, 2012

Collecting or Hoarding?

I have a habit slight obsession of collecting empty jars and containers. I'm not quite sure if it qualifies as collecting or hoarding though...where do you draw the line? Anyway, I find myself keeping lots and lots of empty peanut butter jars {they are perfect for gifting cookies in}, empty pasta sauce jars {there are so many mason jar type crafts out there that I want to try}, and empty trail mix containers {because we might make our own trail mix one day}. 
 They usually sit by the sink for a few days until I decide to finally wash them. Getting the labels off some of the containers is difficult sometimes so I procrastinate cleaning them until I get a small collection going:) 
 I had been storing my collection in one of our kitchen cabinets, but it started taking over a little bit {I think this may be where my collection is borderline hoarding}. We are in the process of moving Eli out of the nursery, which will be turned into my craft room...so I moved my collection into one of the emptied-out drawers in the nursery/craft room. They are out of the way for now which makes me feel like less of a hoarder:)

 The point of this post isn't to embarrass myself with pictures of my jar collection, but to share the awesomeness that can be made with said collection! This is the happy that I sent to school with Grant today for his assistant teacher's birthday. Sorry for the not so great pics, but I forgot to snap a shot before we left home so these are iPhone pics {with Instagram which I LOVE} that I took in my car when we pulled up in the school parking lot.
 This was a trail mix container {probably from Target because we love their Monster Trail Mix} that I cleaned up, added some polka dot paper over the stickiness from removing the label, added a tulle bow, and a chalkboard label to the top with a little happy birthday note. And it turned out really cute. It is the perfect way to gift some yummy goodness like homemade peanut butter cookies {which is why we have so many empty peanut butter jars}.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who collects random thing that other people throw away!?! What kind of collections do you have at your house?!?
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Thursday, February 9, 2012

I Love You More Than Chocolate Marshmallow Hearts

Eli and I are heading to library story time today. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that my poor neglected third child has never been to story time. I took the boys all the time when Henry and Grant were little, but for a million and one reasons I've never taken Eli. A friend has invited us a few times over the past few months, and I had planned to start going in January....but I got sick, and it rained, and I had laundry to do...a million and one reasons! So we are going today! And today just happens to be the special Valentine party, which means if I'm going to show up for the first time I have to bring something cute with me:) Actually I probably don't have to take anything, but I bought these cute heart shaped marshmallows at Walmart a few weeks ago and I was kind of excited to have somewhere to take them!
So here are my SUPER simple, less than ten minutes to make, and really really really yummy
I Love You More Than Chocolate Marshmallow Hearts!
 I started with a bag of pink and white heart shaped marshmallows, melted chocolate candy coating, and a handful of toothpicks.
 Stick the toothpick into the side of heart shaped marshmallow and then give it a good dunk in the melted chocolate. Carefully shake off any excess chocolate.
 After dipping, place them on foil...
 ...and add a few shakes of some pretty Valentine sprinkles.
 After the chocolate hardens, carefully pull out the toothpick. You can dip another toothpick into the melted chocolate and covered up the hole where you pulled out the dipping toothpick, or you can just leave them as they are. 
Place your chocolate marshmallow hearts directly on a serving tray, or put them into cute papers cups like I did. They fit perfectly into mini baking cups that I picked up on clearance last year at Target. These were a big hit at our house yesterday {my boys begged to eat the extra chocolate marshmallow hearts last night after dinner}, so I'm hoping they will do just as good at story time today. What preschooler doesn't love sprinkles?!?
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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Project Airstream: A Shelf, Updated Bathroom, and All the Walls

We are still working on our 1977 Airstream Ambassador. Things are going slowly, but they are going. I honestly didn't think it had been so long since I had updated about our progress, but my last post was in July! Apparently last year flew by without me noticing. If you want to take a look back at where we started with this project, you can check out these posts here, here, and here

The outside of the Airstream hasn't changed much. Jason has repaired a few of the outside vents, and all the windows have been repaired and rescreened. Most of our time has been spent working on the inside though.
 This is a view of the front part of the Airstream {this will be the living room/mine and Jason's bedroom}. We actually started working from the back so this is the least completed part of the whole camper...and it has become a bit of a storage space to hold all of Jason's supplies and tools:)
 This shelf is the one big thing that has been done in the front though. There was originally a big plastic shelf here that had a few cracks and was a lovely aged yellow color. Jason pulled it out and repaired the wall around it, then built this wooden shelf in it's place. I just painted it this weekend with the green paint we picked out a few months ago. I think it adds a lot of fun color to a space that has pretty neutral so far...and it kind of reminds me of the 70's:)
 This is the space that will soon be our kitchen. Jason gutted the whole area and reworked the plumbing. We bought a big butcher block slab yesterday to make a countertop out of of and we bought a new sink and stove top. Jason is working on reassembling this section of the camper right now, and hopefully it will be done in the next few weeks.
 We bought a new fridge for the space and all of the camper walls are back in place. There was originally a big shelving unit attached to this wall. We are planning to putting a flat screen tv here with a small shelf underneath it to hold dvds and books.
 This is a view looking down the hallway towards the back of the camper. You can see that all the walls are back up. The closet is past the fridge on the right hand side, and the bathroom is on the left hand side.
 The bathroom was completely gutted, but Jason kept all the parts and refinished them. Reusing what was originally there was a lot more cost effective and a lot easier to fit into this really small space. The countertop and shower stall was repainted with a special plastics paint. We bought new fixtures and a new toilet. Jason has also been really busy spray painting all the trim pieces white {they started out a nice bronze color}. We still have to find lights and a mirror for the bathroom, but all the plumbing is fully functioning which was a big step!
 This is the refinished shower stall....if you look back at the older pictures you can see how far this space has come. I didn't even want to look at the old bathroom because it was so gross, but now everything is new and shiny white!
 This is the boys bedroom. We reused the bed bases, mostly because Jason liked the sleek almost airplane look of the original storage cabinets. Everything got a good cleaning and a couple coats of white spray paint. We have foam mattresses for the beds, but I am still working on sewing covers for them. 
 Jason rewired the old speakers and bought new covers for the electrical and 12 volt power outlets. Our plan is to add bunk beds above the two bottom twin beds, but that is still in the planning phase right now:)
 This is the view from the very back of the camper looking toward the front. It may not seem like much, but we have come a LONG way from where we started....and there is still a ton of work to do!

Next on our list of things to do is getting the kitchen completed. Then hopefully we can work on installing the vinyl wood flooring. I am going to try hard to keep you a little better updated...and be better about documenting our progress! Hopefully I can share a couple pics of the kitchen and new floor before February is over!
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Monday, February 6, 2012

Football, That Stupid Pig, Ice Cream Sundaes, and Airstream Progress

So did you watch the big game {and the commercials} last night? I have to admit that we really aren't fans of either of the teams that played last night, but we were cheering for the Giants...mostly because the Mannings have a little bit of Mississippi history and that history trumped the fact that Tom Brady's girlfriend is a supermodel {you know, because supermodels affect the teams that people cheer for}.

Anyway, we dvr'd the game because we had church last night, so when we got home Jason got busy with the fast forward button while I fixed dinner {aka put a couple of delicious slices of Papa John's pizza on paper plates}. We normally fast forward like maniacs through dvr'd games, but this one was different because half the fun of the Super Bowl is the commercials so we couldn't skip all of them! We did skip over most of the beer commercials and ALL of the Geico commercials {Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks that squealing pig is the most obnoxious thing on tv?!?}. We LOVED the M&M commercial, but honestly there aren't really many great ones that I remember:) Lots of celebrity cameos {Seinfeld and Leno} and two products in one commercial together {Chevy and Twinkie} which just seems kind of weird to me! 

Now everybody knows that yummy food is SUPER important for proper Super Bowl viewing. We had dinner covered with pizza, so that just left dessert...and I had something really fun planned for us this year! Last week I pinned these adorable ice cream sundaes that I knew my boys would love! They're called Super Bowl Sundaes and they were created by Katrina. I recreated {aka copied} her dessert without changing much, because really they were pretty close to perfect! The one thing I did change is that I used chocolate to attach my sprinkles and I didn't pipe on my chocolate, I just kind of smeared it on with a spoon. I figured my boys would devour these before they noticed that the audience wasn't perfectly placed:) Anyway here are a few pics that I took of the process, but head over to In Katrina's Kitchen to get a great step by step and see her {not quite as sloppy as mine} version!





Other than watching football this weekend, most of our time was spent working on the Airstream and planning for our big trip. Jason has been making pretty good progress lately. The bathroom is completely put together and fully functioning. We still need to get light fixtures and figure out what we are doing for a mirror, but all the plumbing is working and there are no leaks! We ordered our flooring a few weeks ago and it should be in one day this week. I am SUPER excited to get the flooring in because I know it is going to totally change the look of everything because right now the floor is white painted plywood! I helped out yesterday by painting a shelf that Jason built in the front of the Airstream. 
We had originally planned to paint the shelf white, but I remember that we bought some {almost avocado} green paint back when we bought the paint for the walls. So I made the executive decision to go with green and add some color, because up until now everything has either been gray or white {with the exception of the boys room in the back that is a pretty turquoise/blue color}.

We also sat down and mapped out our trip and decided where {and when} we are going. Using google maps, I added in all our stops from start to finish. The trip should take around 17 days and during that time we are going to drive more than 5,000 miles! That just seems a little crazy to me...but I know we are going to have such a great time and see so many amazing things! I'm planning to take a few more pictures of the progress we've made on the Airstream and share it later this week, and {if I can figure out how to do it} I am going to share the map showing all our stops along the way.

Now, I must go do laundry because this morning I was digging through a pile of clothes trying to find uniform pants for Henry...and because all of Eli's clothes are piled up in a basket in the living room and they have been there for almost two weeks...and because there is a load of mine and Jason's clothes in the dryer that has been there since last Monday. Sometimes I get lazy and leave that last load of laundry in the dryer:) 
Miscellany Monday @
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Friday, February 3, 2012

Valentine Mailbox Magnets

I'm still working on getting our house ready for Valentine's Day. We really don't have a ton of decorations out other than the cute Chalkboard Candy Boxes that I made a few weeks ago, and this really cute printable that I pinned and then downloaded from Oopsey Daisy. For the last few years, my boys have had some cute little metal mailboxes that I picked up at Target {don't you LOVE the Dollar Spot} and decorated with a paint pen...obviously before my days of owning a Cricut or Silhouette:) I pulled them out of storage and Eli promptly sat on two of them and bent them all out of shape! Needless to say, the last time I as at Target there were three new little metal mailboxes in my shopping cart. I decided to try something a little different this time. Instead of just decorating the boys' Valentine mailboxes with their names or initials, I thought it would be really cute to include a picture of them too...but I wasn't quite sure how to achieve that. Then I walked past our fridge and noticed two old magnets that I had saved just in case I wanted to craft something, and a light bulb went off! Those little mailboxes are metal which means a magnet will cling to it with no problems! So I set out to make some cute Valentine Mailbox Magnets!

Here are the cute {but oh so plain mailboxes} that I started with.
They look really cute {but oh so plain} sitting the edge of our stairs with the Chalkboard Candy Boxes...but they needed something to jazz them up a little and make them pop!
I started with two 4 inch by 4 inch magnets that I cut in half. I ended up with 4 inch by 2 inch magnets, so I opened up a few pictures of the boys in PSE and cropped their pictures to fit the 4 X 2 magnet. I printed the pictures out in black and white and made sure that they were the right size.
I used my paper cutter to trim the picture to the right size, and then I used spray adhesive to attach the pictures to the magnets.
After the spray adhesive dried, I grabbed a red Sharpie and added a little bit of fun Valentine graffiti to the boys pictures. The black and white pictures were kind of plain and this was a quick easy way to add a little color. You could also add some cute stickers or even attach some pretty Valentine scrapbook paper. 
Then to seal the pictures, I added a few thin coats of Mod Podge.
I also cut out some red vinyl initials with my Silhouette, but stickers or scrap book paper would work great here too!
After the Mod Podge was dry I simply stuck the magnet to the side of the mailbox and they were ready to go! Eli was so excited to see his face on the side of  his Valentine mailbox:) Now I just have to come up with some fun stuff to put inside their mailboxes!

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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Groundhog Day Craft and Recipe Roundup

Happy Groundhog Day!
{Apparently Phil did not see his shadow this morning which means 6 more weeks of winter.}

My boys were SUPER excited to get up and eat their yummy Groundhog Day Donuts this morning:)

I' m pretty sure Henry and Grant will be doing at least a few different Groundhog Day activites at school today, so I decided to look around and find a few things that Eli and I could work on too. Here are a few of the SUPER cute craft and recipe ideas I found. These are all linked to pins on my holiday pinterest board, so click over to them to get to the original posts for instructions and printables.









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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Groundhog Day Donuts

Groundhog Day has always seemed like such a strange holiday to me. Maybe it's because I live in the deep south and the groundhog seeing his shadow or not really has no effect on our winter {because we really don't have winter down here...it's been in the 70's almost every day since Christmas}! But I do remember the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray being hilariously funny though it has forever since I've seen it:) Anyway, we haven't ever really celebrated Groundhog Day at our house. I think the kids may do a little craft or something at school, but nothing big. Last year I saw the cutest cupcakes on the Family Fun website...but I saw them too late to make them. Luckily this year I remembered that Groundhog Day was February 2nd before February 2nd actually got here:) So here this is the SUPER fun Groundhog Day treat that my boys will be starting their day off with tomorrow:
Groundhog Day Donuts
{I'll make them eat some fruit too since this thing is loaded with chocolate!}
 Start with any kind of donut you like. You could even make these SUPER easy homemade donuts. I was being lazy so I just bought a dozen glazed donuts at the grocery store. You will also need some chocolate cookies, chocolate candy coating, and Nutter Butter cookies cut in half {or another oblong shaped cookie if you have peanut allergies to deal with}. I also used some sprinkles and a couple of chocolate chips to decorate the groundhogs face but they didn't make it into the picture.
 Start by crushing your chocolate cookies in a ziploc bag.
 Then set up an assembly line.
Donuts
Chocolate Candy Coating
Crushed Cookies
Foil to place the donuts on
 Dip your donut in the melted chocolate. Shake off the excess chocolate. Then dip them into your crushed chocolate cookies.



While the chocolate is hardening on the donuts, decorate your Nutter Butter groundhog face. Simply cut the Nutter Butter in half, then use a small dab of the melted chocolate to stick sprinkles and chocolate chips on to look as much like a groundhog as you can. I used some heart shaped sprinkles because that is what I had, but mini M&M's would work good here too.
 Stick the groundhog head down into the hole of the donut and you will have a SUPER cute groundhog sticking his head up to try and see his shadow!
These would be a perfect breakfast to start off Groundhog Day, or a really fun snack to sneak into your kiddo's lunchbox for school! Happy Groundhog Day...a day early:)
How do you celebrate Groundhog Day?
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