She's One Busy Bee

We've been nice and busy this past week! We got to go down to the Tri-Cities area and spend some time with Tim's family. Tim spent the majority of his time out on the boat fishing with his uncle and I got to do card making with Regan while Allie hung out with Michaela and Jordan. Then the next day Tim did more fishing and Allie and I snuck off with Melissa. She even treated me to a pedicure while she took Allie out for lunch. Did I mention it was Tim and I's birthday's? And that we got to see Eclipse? Best movie out of all 3 of them. The acting was WAY better, the special effects were awesome and they actually looked "pretty" instead of really washed out "fake" vampires. I'm excited for Breaking Dawn. :-)

Anywho, even though we were only there for 2 1/2 days Allie was one Busy Bee! Here are some pictures from her adventures this week...

She Swam just about every chance she could...

She drove around like Big Girls do...

We had to say hello to the Moo Cows!!

Of course we picked flowers!! ;-)

We spent a morning picking Raspberries with Melissa and Oh man did she LOVE it! :-)

So yummy!

We soaked up some summer sun...

The kitty was missing it's twin girls who were off visiting there Dad. So Allie got to step in and let the kitty snuggle and play with her...she didn't mind! hehe ;-)

She could not stay away from the horses!

Thanks for looking! Hope you're enjoying your summer!

Courtney

Toddler Blocks

This is WAY late. But the beginning of June I came across this shop on Etsy. Really cute shabby chic toys and decor for your little one. And I'd been wanting blocks for Allie to play with so she could stack them and of course throw them around a little...ya, NOT! LOL That's probably the only bad thing about them. Giving her the ability to throw in 2" blocks everywhere. And then of course trip over them when you've got a arm full of laundry! ;-)

Unfortunetly, I wasn't really happy with the seller. It took me alomst a month to get my order. :( I wrote her about 2 weeks after i put my order in and she hadn't even shipped them yet but didn't let me or any of the other buyers she had she was very overwhelmed and couldn't pay attention to her shop. So another 2 weeks later I finally got my order. BUT, I really like the blocks and the fact that it came in a cute little kit so I'm not really complaining to much. The wait just stunk. ;-)

Anywho, I thought I would do a little tutorial on how I did them. Because they were SO easy! And you can probably get everything you would need at Micheals or a local craft store.

Here's what you need:

- 2" Raw wooden blocks. (I got 12)

- 72 images to make your set.

(You can use anything from family pictures, to the letters of the alphabet)

- Glaze and Varnish

- A sponge brush to apply the Glaze and the varnish

- A file to sand the edges

Now, before you get stared lay out all of your images. And put together what you want on each block. I messed up and just started putting what I wanted on the blocks and so i have like 3 blocks that just have numbers on them instead of a mix of numbers, letters and pictures.


Then take just a little drop of some of your glaze and brush it onto your block. Then place the image you want onto the surface. Rub until all of the bubbles are gone. And repeat on all 6 sides. Let the blocks sit for a good 30 minutes before you continue.



Once you're done with that set your blocks should look like this:

Now from here you can just leave the paper the way it is and add the varnish onto it a couple of times. Wait a good 15 mintues in between each layer of it and then you would be done. Or you can follow these next directions:

Take a regular nail file and file the edges of the paper away. I liked mine file off a lot but you can do it just a little bit too. File each 6 sides and repeat on the other blocks.

Once you're done this is how your block should look. I even filed a little on top of the picture to "age" it even more. Wipe excess dust off with a dry rag and clean your work area a little.

Okay, ya with me so far? ;-)

So the last big step! You'll take the Varnish and add just a little drop again, (I would wrinse the brush out you used with the glaze first) and apply to all sides. Let sit for a good 30 minutes between applications. I applied the varnish 3 times just to make sure the paper was good and covered...

And here's your final product!

Aren't they so adorable? Well, I love them. And we've used them a lot since I put them together. This was a really fast project. Once I had everything it just took me the day. And I mean "day" by: put the varnish on, wait 30 minutes, do a load of laundry, then come back and do it again "day".

Happy Craft Day!

Courtney

Common Kindness

For those of you who coupon you have to check out this site. For every coupon you print (and yes they're free to clip) CommonKindness.com will donate 5 cents to a charity of your choice. :-) It's very awesome. And you feel like you're doing a little bit of good by saving you money! Even better.

Have fun saving!

Courtney

Spoiling my Kitchen

So I mentioned in a couple of posts before that I would share part of my anniversary gifts my husband bought for me. So for the past couple of weeks I've been using them and Oh man were they worth every penny! They weren't really that cheap...which isn't something I would normally buy but hey, It was my anniversary without a little one so I felt completely okay with buying something tooo expensive that I normally would have never done and ended up spending my money on something for Allie instead! Sound Familiar? ;-)

Anywho, something that I hate when I'm cooking is getting food on the counters because you have no where to put your spatchula. Or you put it in a laydle and you still end up having another step for clean up (having to wash it out). So most of the time you end up having you counters that look like this:And especially if you're already limited on counter space. And in this apartment we are definetly short on counter space.

So when I came across this obvious space caver kitchen "tool" I couldn't resist!

Isn't it the coolest thing ever! Works amazing and now I don't have anymore kitchen counter mess to clean up after I'm done cooking. And I feel kinda horrible since I cannot remember what store we went into and I threw away the packaging so I have no idea what it's even called. LOL But, I'm so glad it's mine and I get to brag about it! ;-)

Now onto the next thing! ;-) I LOVE LOVE LOVE to bake. I would bake something everyday if it wasn't so bad for you. hehe I love the way your house smells when you do! (including doing laundry) It's so inviting to smell something yummy being baked when you walk into someones house! So I picked up these silicone molds for cup-cakes.

I loved the summer colors of this set. They had a bunch of different ones you could choose from but I thought these were cute and fun for the summer season. So, I whipped up some yummy blueberry muffins and got baking.

It says on the back to make sure you spray with Pam first before filling them with your batter.


Filled them up and got them in the oven. YUM.

And then I pulled them out and...WHOOPS:

I filled them up to much!!! LOL They were still yummy tho.

So a few days later I made some healthy banana bread with wheat flour and wheat germ (SO GOOD BTW) And they were "healthy" so I didn't feel bad about eating almost all of the cup cakes I had made! hehe ;-)

SUCCESS! :-)

The yummy banana chunks melting over made them even more yummy. The best thing about the molds is they are so easy! The bread just slipped right out. No more flipping over the pan and watching as all the cup cakes go flying everywhere, no more forks trying to pry them out of the pan. Just easiness...lol is that even a word?

To cute. Way worth getting. And it's been lots of fun in our kitchen.

Hmm...what's next for dessert?

Thanks for reading! Have a fabulous day! :-)

Courtney