Week 12- Hippity Hoppity...

One of my favorite things about preparing for a face-to-face work meeting with my fantastic team is dreaming up a few gifts. I have an awesome group of co-workers that make gift giving a ton of fun. In fact, I had so much fun at Christmas a few of the ladies decided that 'they suck at Christmas'! Lol!!!!

Since Easter is only a few weeks away, I decided to go with a Spring/Bunny theme. I found both Pinterest ideas easy to do. The first one is using Peeps (my favorite Easter candy) in a brownie mix jar. I didn't alter the recipe at all because it seemed so simple. You can find it here. I'm going to tell my team to 'hop to it' when we go over new goals. :-)




The next project was one I could NOT resist since it uses Peeps in a clever way. I actually combined two Pinterest ideas since I dipped the Peeps in chocolate and then sprinkles as seen on a different pin. Then I bundled them and attached the saying below: "You're one of my favorite Peeps!" How cute is that???!!!!




The highlight of my day was when Zoe stopped to see what I was making and said that the Beastie Boys' song, "She's Crafty" should be my theme song. Lol!!!! I'll take that as a compliment!

BTW... I received my ViewFinders on Friday (last week's post). They are INCREDIBLE! Well worth the money, quick, and super cool.

Week 11- Mermaids and more-oh my!

My absolute FAVORITE thing to do is plan and prepare for parties. I swear, if I were rich I'd host a party each month JUST for the planning part. Pinterest has been awesome for planning for Sadie's third birthday. The theme? Mermaids! Look at all I've posted so far!



One site gave me the idea of including scuba divers, too. This works perfectly since there are several boys attending. The very first few Pinterest ideas that I've been working on (with the help of my Mom- Ms. Pinterest herself) are for the invitation and a party favor.

The invitation is a compilation of several pins. Sarah B gave me the idea to do a message-in-a-bottle invite, which I love! We worked on the wording and my mom worked her magic. As a result, we came up with this as the invitation.

Supplies:


Message:

Dive deep into the ocean blue,
with mermaids and scuba divers, too.
Here we will celebrate under the sea,
as Miss Sadie is turning three!

Insert (plus crushed shells, pearls, & tiny seahorses):

*Instagram effect makes this appear more vintage than it actually is.


Finished product (kind-of):


I'll mail each family a plastic message in a bottle with the invitation. I hope the kids get excited about Sadie's upcoming birthday party!


Next, I saw this pin and fell in love.


It's not near as a easy as it looked, though! I followed the directions here, but found that it took a TON of time. Not sure anyone besides Sadie will be wearing a koi fish in their hair! :-)




SOOOO much to do before her party. It's going to be the best one yet!

Week 10- Still on Vacation Time

I can't believe I missed a post last week! I tried to search practical Pinterest Projects while traveling...not easy to find! So instead, I decided to try out one of the coolest pins I've ever pinned.

I saw this pin and knew I was going to have to do this with one of our family events. It's a site for making your own viewfinder reels!



Zoe and I recently took our very first trip to New York City. We were so overwhelmed with the excitement of the city and so COLD that neither one of us took very many pictures. Because of this, the viewfinder idea would be perfect for capturing the images that we did take and making them fun to look at.





The Image 3D site is very easy to use and is pretty intuitive. I was able to upload, edit, and create my reels within an hour.




That's it! The viewfinder and reels should be here by the end of the week. I can't wait to see!

Now on to the 'reel' Pinterest project for the week. :-)

Week 9- Clovers & Cream Cheese

The hearts have all come down and clovers are moving in around our house. I've always liked St. Patrick's Day because I love the month of March. I love warmer weather and the green that comes with this time of year.

Pinterest has a banner for every holiday, every month, every occasion, and every thing else! I saw this banner a few weeks ago and knew it would be fun to make and look great for St. Patrick's day.





My newest kitchen banner was made completely with scraps found in mom's craft room. Thank Goodness for mom's craft room! I used an old phone book, recycled card stock, and buttons.




So about six months ago Zoe (my 15 year old) made the comment that "good mom's bake desserts each week". She didn't mean it as a putdown, but it really got me thinking about how my grandmothers (especially my dad's mom) ALWAYS had cookies, Texas sheet cake, or something totally yummy around her house. Granted she never worked, but still. I can't say that I've done it EVERY week, but 90% of the time I bake something yummy on Sundays. Pinterest has been great for finding new recipes. I found this one for White Chocolate Butter Bars and knew our family would love it. They are fabulous!!!




Later this week Zoe and I are headed to New York City. I've got to tie in this week's Pinterest Project to the Big Apple. I better get to searching now! :-)

Week 8- Bedroom Makeover (kindof)!

It's hard to believe but July marks our 6th anniversary in our home. There are rooms that I want to redo completely and several that need a quick refresh. I LOVE the colors and patterns of my bedroom and bathroom. Spa blues and greens with worn mirrored furniture and damask makes my eyes VERY happy. So why change, right? Can't stand things to be exactly the same for too long. :-)

I decided to play around with the bedroom furniture. Its a small room so there's not much to play around with, but with Aaron's help we did and it looks much better. I saw this idea when I first joined Pinterest. Lucky me I already had an old, rustic window and wonderful Amy Butler printed paper. I'm happy with the result (the back-lit photo doesn't do it justice)!



This week I'm taking down Valentines and hanging up shamrocks! Pinterest makes the holidays so much more fun. Have a great week!

Week 7- Gifts for Less!

I am so excited about this week's post because these items literally took less than an hour to create! I made a personalized bridal shower gift and Valentines for my coworkers all for less than $20 and I think they look fantastic!

First, I saw this project on Pinterest. It looked so cute and easy. I'll admit I was reluctant because usually things that look so cute and easy AREN'T! Well it just so happens it is! I used my Cricut machine to cut the bride-to-be's new last name out of contact paper in order to make a DYI stencil. Then, using the etching creme for 60 seconds, it made this!



I'll include a great recipe and a few hot pads and that's it! Less than $10 and I'm able to give a great personalized gift.


Next I wanted to try this project as a Valentine's gift for my coworkers. They looked so cute with the tiny shovels. Using the site above, I printed sticker labels, ordered inexpensive plastic shovels, and used clear baggies of M&Ms for the rest. In fact, the candy was the most expensive part.





Have I mentioned that I LOVE Pinterest! It really has enabled me to get a ton of cute stuff created for my family and home. Now I even have a great resource for gift giving too!

Week 6- Cooking Up Trouble!

This week I decided to try out a few of the recipes that I so appropriately pinned to the board, "Delish Recipes." And boy were they delicious!

The White Chicken Enchilladas were super easy and VERY yummy. The entire family (even Sadie) loved them. This recipe is definitely a keeper.




I've been dying to try out the Cake Batter Truffle recipe I recently tagged. Sadie asked to help. I have no idea why she wanted to do so in the nude, but I thought it made for a cute pic.




Not only were these truffles delicious, they looked great too! One thing I would change next time is how long I refrigerated the balls. Since they were really cold and the candy dip was really hot, several of the balls cracked. Cracks or not, they were delicious!





So the need for the last project originates from about 12 years ago when Zoe was in day care. Much like today, my mom (aka Anny) made sure that Zoe got to day care and often times picked her up since I was in school full time and working part time. Any one who knows my mom understands that while she is an incredibly gifted artist, her wardrobe centers around comfort and necessity rather than style. One day she had a terrible time finding Zoe's shoes. You can imagine my surprise when I picked up Zoe from day care to find her wearing BIG PURPLE Barney slippers rather than shoes. My mom's response? What difference does it make?!? Her feet were protected and that's the purpose of shoes, right? LOL!!! We still laugh about this.

My current job requires a fair amount of travel so here we are 12 years later and mom's at it again. The difference this time around is that I am trying to be more organized so that finding matching outfits and shoes isn't a challenge- it's just ready to go. When my mom saw the next project, she rolled her eyes! I actually think its pretty clever and pinned it on my "Great Idea" board. :-)





Week #6 and still going strong! If only exercise were this much fun. :-) I've got two projects to work on later this week- a bridal shower gift and Valentine's cards for my coworkers. This will be a fun week!