If you are looking for a few last minute Easter crafts over the weekend, be sure to see our full page of Easter Crafts at Idea Queen.
I know I’m guilty of not pulling out the egg decorating kits just yet, but it’s something we plan to do over the weekend. On the page linked above you’ll find some additional craft ideas, including a different way to color eggs, plus some traditional crafts for Easter.
Have a great weekend!
April Fool’s Day is my favorite holiday next to Halloween, mostly because I get to torment my kids freely without any backlash. I’ve had several fun pranks on this day, but I’m always looking for more.
Here’s a few successful pranks of the past:
- Tape down the sink sprayer
If you have a sprayer on your sink that only turns on when you turn on the water, then put a piece of clear tape around the handle. Last year I asked my son to water the plants for me after school, and he fell for it! The look on his face was classic, and one I’ll never forget.
- I’m moving
This one was played on a friend one year, who knew I’d never leave the area. Play this one on family members near by to freak them out a bit. This works especially well on family members.
-SOLD!
While this is more business related, you can still pull this on a spouse, friends, or family. One year Anita from Mommy’s Helper and I hatched a scheme to tell everyone on her message boards that we had sold her site and one of mine as a package deal (for some ungodly amount of money, of course). It worked! For those of you without this kind of set up, you can always tell a spouse/family member you sold the car an/or house for some large sum of money.
- Inside-out Clothes
This prank has stuck in my head since I was no more than about 5 or 6 years old. Together with my aunt, we turned all my dad’s blue jeans inside out. This is a great prank to pull on slightly older children who don’t need your help picking out wardrobe. This would have to be done at night after they are in bed, or early in the morning before they get up. That way while they are getting dressed for school the prank hits them. 
- April Fool’s Dinner
A few years back I came across this excellent idea for a perfect April Fools Day dinner. It LOOKS like a cake, but really it’s meatloaf with mashed potatoes “frosting”. You make the meatloaf in the shape of a cake, then “frost” it with the mashed potatoes. The kids think they are getting a real treat for dinner!
That’s it for my list of harmless April Fools Day pranks - now let’s hear yours!
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to make heart shaped brownies for my daughter’s kindergarten Valentine’s Day party. Well I’m proud to say I succeeded without any mishaps. This may be a first!
What I did was take a box of brownie mix and make it according to directions (it says to make them cake like to add another egg, which I did). I cooked them at the same temp and time, with one minor change. Instead of the recommended 9×13, I used a 11×14 glass pan. I was a little worried they would get over cooked, especially using the cake-like directions, but as it turned out they were just fine at the top temp.
Once out of the oven, I immediately used a heart-shaped cookie cutter and got 12 average size brownies out of it (with some scraps, of course, which we’ll be munching on for the next few days). Now this is important - I did NOT attempt to take the hot brownies out of the pan after I cut them. All I did was cut and let cool for 20-25 minutes, THEN took them out of the pan.
I’ve left them to cool off for a few hours before I try to frost them, which I’ll be using pink frosting that’s been heated up a bit (I’ve found out the hard way with cake disasters that warming up the frosting is a must!).
I’m so excited these came out just like I pictured them, and may do them again for Valentine’s day next year. =)
Now I know, it may be one of the oldest resolutions out there (and the easiest one to fail on), but that’s what I made this year. Mostly because I’ve already been at it for over two months now with huge success. My goal? Another 15 pounds, making me less than I have been in nearly ten years.
It started somewhere in October. I weight a whopping 170 pounds, and I just felt fat. Who’s really comfortable being overweight? Not me, that’s for sure. Especially when my own mother is a good 50 pounds under me. Yes, she’s a toothpick, and I remind her of it daily. I no longer go clothes shopping with her, and if she tries, I tell her perhaps my kids have clothes she can wear.
Back to my own weight issues…….
Being a tad on the short side, I really should be around 130 lbs or less. That was my BC weight (you know, “Before Children”). Those days have come and gone though, so I’ve given away my boxed up size 6 jeans who’s only purpose now is to mock me.
So my first goal, set around Halloween, was to drop 15 pounds by New Years. That would put me at 155, which I haven’t seen since before I was pregnant with my second kid. And guess what? I hit it, dead on, with a brand new habit of eating less.
It was simple really. All I did was keep track of how much I ate and how many calories I burned. More burned than intake. Easy. I ate a minimum of 1200 calories a day, but some days I was hungry. Especially at the beginning, but my desire to lose weight squashed the craving and eventually I wasn’t even able to eat that much.
My eating habits didn’t really change, but rather were rearranged. I still ate my ‘mountain pizza’ at 500 calories per slice (yeah that was a shocker), but only ate 2 slices instead of 4 and didn’t eat any more meals on those days. I cut down on my morning cappuccino from 6 heaping tablespoons to 3 normal sized teaspoons, and from 2 glasses down to 1. I also cut down on the pop, and somehow ended up cutting it out of my diet all together with (wasn’t intended, but I ended up replacing it with one vitamin water a day instead of 2 or 3 bottles of pop). There also wasn’t junk food in the house, even though there never was before, but rather those 100 calories packs of various foods (Oreo crisps included!). That way I still got “snacks”, but didn’t go overboard or over eat.
Now as for exercise, I still couldn’t seem to pry my lazy rear out of the chair. Much to my surprise though, it didn’t matter. At my current weight, I manage to burn an average of 2300 calories a day doing my normal daily activities. So all I did was make sure I didn’t eat over 1300 calories a day, and I managed to burn 1,000 every single day. That’s 2 pounds a week, the max of what you can be burning unless otherwise directed. So 8 weeks later burning 2 pounds a week (taking breaks for Thanksgiving and Christmas overeating, which I really just broke even on those days), I dropped 15 pounds. TA DA!
I’ve been coasting for the past week to see how I do with my new smaller appetite, and so far I’ve dropped another pound. Next week I’ll jump back in and just do some calorie counting to see where I’m at, then get fully back into this. I have another 15 pounds to go, so by the time my class reunion rolls around I’ll be dang near at where I was in high school. Fantastic, right?
So to recap, my “method” is nothing more than burning more calories than I take in, and keeping good record of it all. I write down EVERYTHING from the 130 vitamin water to the 200 calorie fun size candy bar (and yes, those are a rare treat when I can spare the calories for the day). If it doesn’t have a label, you can look up just about any food online (like eggs, fast food meals, and veggies).
To keep track of what you burn, I highly suggest this website:
http://www.caloriesperhour.com/
Good luck!
Here’s a fun craft for kids that I stumbled on today: Paper Start Wreath
Not only does it look easy, but it’s pretty too! I check this site often for fun crafts, but especially for sewing projects. There’s just so much to do with not nearly enough time.
Have fun!
It’s that time of year again! Time to pull out the fabric, hunt for deals on sewing supplies, and make a list of who’s getting what. As much as I dread this time of year, I do enjoy making all kinds of different projects.
For the last few years I’ve been sewing pillows for my kids. It started with just picking up fabric of their favorite characters, but now it’s taken on a life of its own. Last year I took quilt blocks and made pillows out of them, which they thought was pretty cool (for my daughter I had found a block that looked like a cat, which she thought was special). This year I thought maybe they were getting tired of the pillows, and thought maybe I should do something else. Imagine my surprise when my daughter says to me one day “Am I getting another pillow for Christmas? I want another one!”. So that sealed it. What started as just a neat gift idea has turned into a tradition.
This year I found Hanna Montana fabric, and decided to make a heart-shaped pillow out of it. It didn’t turn out perfect, but I think she will like it all the same. I folded both sides of fabric in half and traced a tear-drop shape so the heart would be even, so that part was fine. Actually it did come out pretty good, and I may just post pictures.
For the boy I haven’t decided yet. Since he’s now eight, it’s hard to find fabric that’s “cool”. He’s informed me he’s too old for Disney’s Cars, and I assume Spiderman as well. So what I put together for him will most likely be solid shapes in some unique fashion. I may end up doing another quilt block pillow for him, since that would be the easiest way to make something “cool”.
My mom told me she wanted a new purse made from old blue jeans. I went on a hunt last night for a pattern or instructions, which I did find. Actually it was so simple that I had it done in just a matter of minutes. All you do is cut off the top part of the pants, sew the bottom, then use the extra fabric left over on the legs for the strap. It’s a bit difficult to sew on the straps because the fabric is thick, but a hot glue gun works nicely to secure lose ends.
The majority of our family is getting something my daughter found in her Highlights magazine. I’m sure most of you have heard of gift jars, which make excellent gifts. This is the same concept, but uses a paper bag that the kids decorate and a hot cocoa mix (2 cups instant dry milk, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa, and 1 cup sugar with a recipe card that says 3 Tablespoons of the mix with one cup boiling water). I’m taking this a step further and will be sewing gift bags and putting the mix inside them. We’ll use an easy gift bag that uses a pretty bow around it.
That’s all I’ve got on my list so far, but I’m sure I’ll be adding to it!
After changing his mind several times, my son finally decided he’s going to be Garfield for Halloween. We had already decided to make our costumes this year, but this one we really had no choice on. Sure we could probably find one if we looked hard enough, but why bother? It shouldn’t be that hard to make (although I said that about the airplane cake, and it really wasn’t).
Luckily, so far, it’s been pretty smooth. I went on a hunt earlier this week for a large orange t-shirt or sweatshirt, and did a little happy dance in the middle of Target when I found one on the discount rack for $2.50. HURRAY! The plan with the shirt is to strap a pillow under him and put the shirt over top. I just have to figure out what we are going to do for stripes, but it will either be fabric paint/markers or black fabric.
Next I went looking for mask ideas. What I ended up finding was a wooden zombie mask with a handle, and foam craft sheets in orange and yellow. I used the orange to cut out the face that goes over the wood mask, then the yellow as his mouth. Then I painted his eyes white, nose red (I know it’s pink, but I didn’t have any), and used permanent marker to draw on the details. I’m not the greatest artist, but it worked. It doesn’t look exactly like him, but there’s no mistaking it’s Garfield, and the kid is happy.
Finally, I got orange fabric for the tail. This was so super easy and again, the kid was pleased. I just took a strip, folded it in half, sewed it together and turned it inside out. Then we stuffed it, sewed the end, and used a marker to draw on his stripes. On Halloween we plan to safety-pin it to his rear.
Now all that’s left is deciding what to do with all that extra fabric. I got a yard of the orange and only used one small piece, so I’m thinking of attempting my own quilt block. The boy absolutely LOVES Garfield, so I’m going to try a quilt block Garfield on a pillow or wall hanging. I drafted the block already, and it just might work. Should it come out the way I hope it does (and I’ve got my doubts), I’ll post pictures and maybe even the pattern. Crossing my fingers it does work!
Hope you are finding everything you need for Halloween!
I was at Walmart the other day, walking past the Halloween fabric yet again, thinking how absolutely adorable it was and how badly I wanted a project to use it for. Actually, it wasn’t even really that Halloween specific, but was black with little crescent moons and stars in a yellowish-orange, but it was CUTE.
Then, it hit me. Halloween candy bags.
By the time I actually bought the fabric, it had been marked down to $2/yd. SCORE! So I bought it, and am planning to make the bags.
I hunted for awhile for a good tote bag tutorial, but didn’t see one I really liked. I suppose, if you sew, then making a tote isn’t that big of a deal. All you need is 4 sides and a handle, then sew it all together. The size is going to depend on how much candy your kid rakes in, so really I guess you don’t need one.
Point is, if you had your eye on Halloween fabric and didn’t know what to make, now you do. Just make a tote to hold all that candy!
Yes, we are getting close to that time of year again! I couldn’t be more excited, since it’s my favorite holiday. Halloween is coming soon! Hurray!
This year, my daughter tells me she wants to be a “dead bride”, which she came up with on her own (she’ll be 6 in a few weeks). I am so very proud. *sniff*
Now I could go out and look for a costume, but why do that when I can just make it? For the last week or two, I’ve been working on the dress and snagging the accessories when I see them.
The pattern for the dress - Simplicity 5645, in case you want it - was a little more expensive than I wanted it to be ($5.97, although it was still cheaper than the ‘real’ costume patterns), but that’s alright, because we decided to make more dresses with the same pattern.
To go with the dress, we picked up white gloves for a buck, cob webs as a veil for 75 cents, and white face paint with fake blood (I forgot how much those were, but I’m sure it wasn’t much). The fabric for the dress was cheap, costing us only $1.50 for 2 yards. Would I use this fabric for anything else? Probably not, but it’s perfect for a costume (real flimsy, almost sheer, white fabric with a glitter glue design of flowers - yeah, costume is all it is good for).
In all, we’ve spent less than $15 for her complete costume, with the bulk of the cost in the patter which will be used again.
Now we just have to figure out how to make a zombie out of the other kid, and we are good to go. *GRIN*
Here it is, almost Easter and we still don’t have our Easter eggs done yet. Gasp! No worries, we plan to tackle this project on Saturday right before Easter.
Today I found an articled about painting eggs instead of dyeing, which I thought was rather interesting. The thought never crossed my mind that we could actually use paint instead of those messy dyes. Not a bad idea at all! The article goes on to give ideas for different ways to paint, which I also thought was very useful.
This got me thinking - exactly what do we want to do this year? Do we want to paint them or dye them like we always do? Well I think we are doing a little bit of both.
Usually we get the kind of dye kits that come with little sponges which allow you to “paint” the dye onto the eggs. This has always worked pretty well and kept the mess to a minimum (thank goodness for black counter tops that don’t show stains!).
Regardless, there’s some pretty good ideas for painting on that page that I believe we can use with the dye. I especially like the Tie-Dye idea with the paper towel. We might give that a shot with the regular dye instead of the paint and see how it works.
Have fun!
