A few fun and easy crafts!

I have been meaning to post pictures of some crafts that I made a little while ago but haven't had the time to. The first one is a Valentine rosette ball that I just love. I have seen these in a few blogs and decided it was time to try them out. They were very easy to make and I was was so happy with how they turned out. All you need to make some of these are some Styrofoam balls, crepe paper and a glue gun. I used two different sized balls. I took a piece of crepe paper and cut it at about 18-24 inches depending on the size of the ball. Then I folded the top half down and just started rolling it up until I got to the end. I put a dab of hot glue to secure it and glued that pretty rosette onto the ball. You will want to smoosh them in and flare the edges out as you glue them on. They were so easy that even my nine year old son was rolling them for me and then I attached them! (They go much faster with a little help)!!The next project took less than a half hour and I made it while sitting in my van waiting for my son! Oh, and another bonus is that it cost less than $4 to make. SCORE!!!

All you need for this one is a Styrofoam circle(dollar store), push pins or safety pins and coffee filters. I went with the brown ones instead of white and just love the antique look.Take a filter and push your fingers in the middle making a cone shape around your hand, do the same thing with another one and stick a pin through the tip of both of them. Then push that into the foam. I did this all the way around the wreath and it came out very full. I used about 75 filters I think. Try it, you will love it!!

Bring the snow inside!!

My kids were all sick this week again and that meant staying home from school. They had no energy to go out in the freshly fallen snow but kept asking to go out. It was also one of those days when your house looks like a toy tornado has gone through it. So I decided to grab a large plastic container and fill it with snow. I then called the boys to the kitchen table and they just looked at me like I had lost my mind. When I told them that they could play in it they were very happy! They got their gloves on and dug in, making snowmen, tunnels and Evan got out all of his winter animals and made a play area for them. The lid came in very handy and it served as another place to put the snow in.

It was good packing snow too so that really helped with making things and it didn't melt fast either. If you have younger kids, give it a try.

Transformed $10 gun cabinet... just look at her now!

I actually finished this project quite awhile ago but just haven't been up to blogging lately! It is a cool way to re-do an ugly old gun cabinet. I have to give all of the idea credit to this blog. She inspired me to do it and I searched for months on Craigslist for a cheap gun cabinet and found this one for $10!! Sorry for the horrible pictures but as you can see from the window we have a lot of snow but NO sun! It makes for some pretty lousy photos.
Here are some lovely before shots:

Mine came with the glass still in the door so I decided to keep it. I just had to use a lot of wood filler on the door and drawer where the old locks were. We made the basket part similar to hers.We had most of the wood and the bead board left over from other projects so it really didn't cost me much to finish it. The hardest part of the whole thing was painting it. I decided to try spray paint and it didn't go well. I just couldn't get it to cover really well and it ended up bubbling up in some spots. It was worth a try but I think I will go back to good old latex and a brush for the rest of my furniture projects!

Keep checking good old Craigslist, you never know what good finds are out there!

Caramel apple fun

We had our friends over and their kids to make caramel apples the other night. I haven't made these in years and it was fun!
Next time I would make my own caramel sauce instead of melting down the little packaged ones. They only took an hour to peel off all of the dumb plastic packaging!! They didn't melt right and the toppings wouldn't stick very good. Despite that, the kids had a good time making them and I know they liked eating them!


It was a fun night of carmel apples, popcorn and a movie!!

My house smells like apples!!!

Wow, that was one long break I just had from blogging! The summer and start of school was really a little bit more crazy that I thought it was going to be. While I have been reading your blogs everyday, I haven't been keeping up on my own. So finally this week I decided to get back at this. To start it off I have spent the week learning how to can things. It's been years since I have done it and thanks to my neighbor Kate who asked to do it with me I have figured it out.

We took the boys apple picking the other day and it was a lot of fun. Of course they filled up those bags so quickly that we weren't actually there that long!

I have made applesauce many times but have never canned it so that was the first thing to try. It was very easy and came out great. I even made another batch of strawberry applesauce too that turned out to be my favorite. My kids request a lot of cinnamon in theirs so that is why it looks very dark! This is Aiden helping to peel the apples! He had so much fun but I think he ate more than he peeled!

Today I made apple butter. Again very easy but mine too forever to thicken and in the process made a mess of my stove, floor, range hood, etc. Next time I will use the slow cooker! The final result is so yummy though so it was worth the work! I hope that you are enjoying the fall and apple season too!

Where oh where did August go?????

I think the title sums up things. I have been so busy this summer and it's been great. I really don't want to see fall this year even though I love the season. I am ready for school in a way to get back to some routines and the kids not killing each other all day. I am not ready for tired mornings, homework, major anxiety with my 1st grader who I know is not going to get on the bus until about week 2 of school....Not ready for gray days and bare trees, and no more flip flops and pool!
Well, it's coming and there is nothing that I can do to stop it! We better enjoy the last 2 weeks of summer and cram in all those little trips and adventures that I wanted to do with the kids. See you soon!!!

Odd Goodwill piece made over!

I found this odd little shelf at Goodwill a few weeks ago for $3 and carried it all through the store trying to think of somewhere to use it. I figured for that price it just had to come home with me. So I tried it here and there with no luck! It was always too short or too small. I thought it would be great to store books on in my son's room but his picture books are so tall that they wouldn't fit. So, I decided to turn it into a towel holder for our bathroom. Here is the before picture:
After I knocked out the middle shelf and sanded it down I got out some old paint and gave it a new look. The only issue was the paint was a wall color so it's in a satin finish. I might try spraying it with a clear gloss spray paint when I get to the store. For now, I am happy with how it came out and it works great. Here is the after:

I have another project that I am starting today and I can 't wait to get going on it!!! You know when you see a piece of furniture that someone has taken apart and totally redone and you love it? Well, that is what I saw months ago and I finally found one to start on. Hopefully it won't take me weeks to complete it but it's summer with 3 boys at home!! That means getting very little accomplished everyday!

4th of July pics

We spent a great day at the cottage that I spent all of my summers at. I have tried explaining it to my kids many times but they didn't really get it until they experienced it for themselves. We got to see a lot of family that we haven't seen in years so that was great. This is my mom's side of the family and since she has passed away I have really lost touch with everyone. My kids had a wonderful time!! Here are a few pics of the day....

This one should be last but I don't feel like moving them around!! Just another beautiful sunset over the lake. Aiden was very hesitant to get in the water because there were quite a few waves! After a while he was more daring and went in a little further.

This is Trevor using a raft that has a built in mask so that you can see what is in the water. They loved watching the fish under them!

Here are Karl and Evan taking the plunge together!

They jumped off again and again for hours!

Oh, here is a birthday picture thrown in! The boys help me celebrate a few days ago!

Another try at getting Aiden to smile for the camera. This one didn't go so well!! :)

I hope that you had a great 4th of July!!!

What's the BUZZ around our house????

So yesterday I decided to trim some of our bushes AGAIN. We have had so much rain in the past month that everything is growing like mad. Anyway, as I am cutting away I kept having those pesky June bug beetles fly in my hair and they were driving me nuts. I figured I had to just keep going or I was never going to get done. I started on another bush and cut cut cut and then I was swarmed by about 50 yellow jackets! I was still thinking that they were just the beetles(which never were actually beetles) and luckily I am a huge wimp and ran away. As I walked back over I realized that they were yellow jackets and spotted this...............

Yuck!! That's all I have to say :)

New look for the powder room!

I decided to tear down the wallpaper in our powder room last week because it was driving me nuts. The kids kept picking at a spot and it was growing larger and larger! What a mess!!! That paper did not want to come down and it took me 3 days to completely remove all the sticky glue and paper. I swear we had glue and little bits of paper stuck to all of our feet and throughout the house for days.

This is what the bathroom looked like before:

Now, after(sorry for the bad pictures and colors, there is no natural light):

This room sits at the end of a hall and is always very dark. I need to turn on a hallway light just to show someone where it is! So, I wanted to do a paint color that was pretty light and bright. I found a towel at Target that I liked the colors in so I used that as my starting point. The bright blue color kind of scared me because normally I use the more dark and warm colors in my house. I had an issue with the paint though because when I put it on the walls in that dark space it looked awful. It was way too bright blue and I knew that I couldn't live with it that way. So after I dumped a bunch of white paint with it I came up with a color that I liked. We decided to put up bead board and go pretty high with it. I love that way that it turned out. It looks very clean and bright in there now. I still can't find a nice picture for the walls or something to take up the space so it's not finished yet. I have a knack for starting projects and not finishing them so I need to find something quick! I am also looking for some glass knobs for the cabinet because the old ones just blend right in. Overall I am pleased with how it came out and now will start on painting the hallways which REALLY need some love!

Kids in the park

Here are a bunch of pictures from our day in the park. It was a hot Memorial Day here so we decided to go for a little hike and eat lunch at a beautiful park. Here is Aiden smelling some roses. I couldn't resist posting one of the rose pictures that I took. The smell of the bushes in that area was sooooooooo amazing! All I could think of was my great grandmother's house because growing up I spent a lot of time there and she had the most wonderful rose bushes. I would come home with bunches of them with the ends all wrapped in wet paper towels and then in foil!

The kids enjoying the little water fall. There were kids there who caught a turtle, frogs and a fish.

I had to throw this one in because Aiden cracked me up when I got home and saw this picture. He was hot and tired and wanted NO part of a family picture!

Hanging out on the bridge looking for frogs.

Oh 2 year old boys and cameras are not a good mix! I was thrilled to see we finally got a good one!

Hope that you enjoyed your Memorial Day!!

Making clay name tags for vegetables

Here is a simple project that you can do alone or with your kids to dress up your vegetable garden a little. My son and I took out our left over clay and made up little name tags for the plants. I let him use some cookie cutters or just free hand the shape. Then I used a toothpick to make a hole and spell out the words. Then we baked them and gave them a quick shiny glaze coating and they were almost done. The next part was the hardest! Finding a wire hanger in my house is impossible these days. I took the last remaining two we had and cut them up to make a simple hook and placed them in the ground! It was that easy and he loved to help me out!
Linked up with Hope Studios, Tutorial Tuesday