The First Day of Summer!

The kids and I made a list of 70 things to do this summer.  Today we chose make play dough.  It was fun to make, and fun to play!

Here is our awesome recipe: 2 cups flour 4 tsp cream of tartar 1 cup salt 2 cups water mixed with  1 tsp food coloring drops 2 T. oil Cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes until it forms a ball.  Remove from pan and knead it with your hands.  Store in a plastic bag. Have fun!

Patio Potato Salad

Is anyone else planning a Memorial Day BBQ this weekend?  My hubby will be gone to scout camp, but we are still going to have a fun little party.  I'm thinking of grilling some tenderloin (If you haven't tried this yet, what are you waiting for?  SOOOO good!) We also have a family favorite potato salad.  This salad has a little sugar in it, coupled with vinegar.  Yes, I said sugar.  It's kind of sweet and absolutely addicting. It's no secret I HATE mayo, so of course I switch it out for non-fat greek yogurt.  It's healthier, yet keeps that same creaminess you need in potato salad.  If greek yogurt isn't your thing, well feel free to use mayo instead!

Patio Potato Salad (from Taste of Home, tweeked by me) Ingredients: 1/3 cup sugar 1 Tablespoon cornstarch 1 teaspoon ground mustard 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup milk 1/4 cup vinegar (I wouldn't use red wine vinegar.  I tried it once and it was weird.) 1 egg 1/4 cup butter, cubed 1/4 cup finely chopped onion 1/4 cup non-fat greek yogurt (Make sure it's plain and not vanilla!  haha!) 7 medium potatoes, red or regular.  Both are good. (cubed and cooked) 3 hard boiled eggs In saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, mustard and salt.  Stir in milk, vinegar and egg until smooth.  Add butter.  Bring to boil, cook and stir until think and bubbly.  (about 2 minutes.)  Cool.  Stir in onions and yogurt. In a large bowl, combine potatoes and hard boiled eggs.  Add dressing and toss to coat.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  I would suggest at least an hour. Enjoy! Linked today at: Blue Cricket Lil' Luna Somewhat Simple Someday Crafts

Teachers End of the Year Gift: Personalized Clock (with some bling)

With next week being the last week of school (yay!) I wanted to give the teachers a little gift to say thanks for a great year.  I saw these clocks and decided to make them my own style.  The great thing about this project is it can be used for any gift, really.  I am picturing a cute baby gift with the name and birthday on it.  Or a fathers day present for dad's office with a more masculine touch.  Lots of possibilities!  Best part:  only $3.99.  Yes, you heard me right.  $3.99!

Time it took for project: 1st project was 1 hour.  2nd and 3rd were 15 minutes.  Hopefully my pictures and steps will save you some time. Supplies needed: -clock from target.  These are only $3.99  They have these in every color. -Scrapbook paper (we all have some laying around, right? -Any embellishments wanted.  I used some old rhinestones I had lying around and some vinyl cut with my Silhouette, but stickers would work or you could simply print it with your printer! -glue stick

Part 1: Taking apart the clock

Step 1: Remove cardboard. Honestly, I felt so dumb.  I was trying to cut off the cardboard, etc.  Oops. There are these little screws for a reason.  Remove them.

Step 2: Push the tab in with a flathead screwdriver or a knife or something to pop off the plastic cover

This is what you will have Part 2: Clock face

Trace around the plastic cover and cut out circle.  Cut on the inside of the circle so it is a little smaller.

Cut out a small hole in the center.  Cut a line about 1 1/2 inch coming out of the circle.  This is necessary to get the hands of the clock through the hole.  

Test the paper before you glue it to make sure it fits.  Put the 3 hands through the hole and carefully put the ends in through the slit you cut.  Mine was a little too big, so it was a good thing I checked.  Trim it down if you need to.

Using a good, acid free glue stick, glue the heck out of the clock face

Slip the paper back on.  Looks great so far!

Part 3: Embellish

Using e-6000, I glued some rhinestones on to bling it up a bit.

I also used vinyl letters and numbers

But ewwww!  Look how horrible the middle looks!  My other two did NOT have that problem.  To fix this, I cut and extra  "o" out of vinyl, and put it around the center.  FIXED!

Be sure to stick a battery in and make sure it works right before you put the cover on.  I had troubles with my "B" clock.  I had to play with and adjust the hands a bit.  Whew!  I almost had to fork out another $3.99 for a new clock!  (wink) Pop the cover  on and Finished!

Here are the other two I made.  I love them!

Cutest onesie ever (4th of July baby shower gift)

My youngest is now 3, so I don't have any more babies to make fun things for. When I was invited to a baby shower I was so excited to make this idea that was floating around in my head!  Inspiration from here and here. Materials needed: onesie Red ribbon (I used grossgrain, but anything washable would work) blue fabric coordinating thread Step 1:  Measure your ribbon to three times the size of the ruffle you want

Step 2:  Sew (with matching thread) a line down the middle of your ribbon.  Pull one thread to gather into a ruffle.

Step 3:  Use fray check on ends or use a match to melt the ends.  Be careful not to burn the ends or catch them on fire.  ;)

Step 4:  Pin the ruffle across the bum of the onesie.  Don't go through both sides!  I am not a pinner.  I HATE pinning, but it really needs to be done with this.  Trust me.

Step 5:  Sew the ruffle onto the onesie. Step 6:  Repeat with 2 smaller ruffles.

Step 7:  Measure out a piece of fabric to about twice the size of where you want it to go.

Step 8:  Sew a line down the middle, just like with the ribbon.  Pull one thread, just like with the ribbon. Step 9:  Pin onto onesie.

Step 10:  Sew around edges. Step 11:  Using your seam ripper, take out the middle seam you originally made.  This will give it the cute ruffled look.

That's it!  So cute!

I also made a cute ruffle for the front and a matching hair clippie.

Then, I rolled them up and tied with a ribbon.

I also added this cute onesie.   I found the idea on the Silhouette blog, using heat transfer.  Cute!!

Linked at Michelle Paige

How to: install shelves on board and batten and more secrets from my bathroom redo

Remember this wall?  I promised I would show you how easy it was to install the shelves, but for some reason blogger was down last week.  Better late than never, right?

Below is the picture of the wall after we nailed the 3" boards to the wall.  In case you are wondering, NO it isn't real wood.  It is pre-primed fake wood.  :)  It looks so real, though.  There are a couple of other thoughts I wanted to share with you, as well.  For example, when we took off the baseboards to install the floor, they were unusable.  It seriously destroyed them.  So we decided to use the same "wood" for the new baseboards.  I have to say, I like it better.  Also, I would recommend painting the wall and boards before you put them up. I think it would be REALLY difficult to do it all after.

First step is to nail the same 3" board directly on top of the top rail.  We borrowed a nail gun from a neighbor and it was SO worth it.

Next, we purchased some crown molding.  This was even less like real wood.  In fact, it kind of melted when we cut it.  I guess it's kind of a plastic?  But it definitely looks like wood.  This molding gave it such a nice touch!

Doesn't my hubby look young?  We were at a soccer game and someone asked me who the younger man I was with was.  HAHA!    He'll never let me forget that one!

Next, we just used a ton of spackle and caulking.  And that was it! We thought we would do this bathroom in one weekend.  I'm being real.  It took like 3 weeks!  I felt so bad we had someones miter saw and air compressor that long!  But it was worth it because the bathroom is just gorgeous. Helpful hint for painting cabinets:  I did NOT remove the cabinet doors.  I just taped the hinges and had at it.  Saved me tons of time.  Also, using the Sherwin Williams Adhesion Primer means no sanding.  Just clean and dry the cabinets.  Since it was a full gallon, I have a TON left over.  Definitely enough for my kitchen when I get ambitious enough.  And I did use a Minwax rub-on Poly that I already owned after I painted the color on. Another helpful hint.  If you plan on installing knobs (like I did!) similar to Shelley at House of Smith's, make sure you remind your husband BEFORE he puts the panels on the wall.  Because he may NOT remove the "wood" and may just tell you to deal with it.  Even if you bought some super cute knobs at a boutique up the street and can't take them back. Here was the cost breakdown: FLOOR:  antique hickory laminate flooring from Costco - $39/box.  It took 3 boxes.  Also needed was the $10 black waterproof underlay and a $10 laminate floor pull bar from Lowes (total about $140) PAINT:  $35 for the cabinet primer from Sherwin Williams, $5 each for 4 different color to go sample from Sherwin Williams (total $55)

HARDWARE:  $3.50/per knob or handle from Lowes (Total of  about $25) DOOR KNOBS: $20 a piece at Lowes (total of $20) WOOD PANELING: about $75 (or maybe a little less.) Knobs that my husband wouldn't put in:  $14.  Wasted. Ways to save money: 1.  Borrow tools if you don't have them.  I was surprised how many of my friends have things like miter saws and air compressors. 2.  Use the paint samples from Sherwin Williams.  You can't beat the $5! 3.  Try using GiftCardRescue.com or a similar site to get a gift card to Lowes or Home Depot.  I won a $50 credit from A Little Tipsy (yeah, I know.  I win a lot.) and it really helped using that at Lowes! 4.  Recycle items you already own.  I planned on buying a new shower curtain, rings and rugs.  But then I remembered how expensive those items are!  And I don't think they look too bad!

Please email me with any questions! And if you feel so inclined, Pin It

The Kids Finished Bathroom

 I am so excited to finally have bathroom #1 finished!

Here is a closer look at what my naughty one is doing while I am taking pics.

Do you love the walls?  I know there are a ton of tutorials out there on them, but later this week I will show you how we did the shelves.  My husband is pretty great!  Oh, and sign tutorial found here.

Here's a couple of befores:

This is the sub-floor after my little one flooded the toilet.  Yes, that is mold underneath.

 Here is the BEAUTIFUL linoleum.  So sad to see it go.  The cabinets are primed here...

But this was their original color.  Honey oak or whatever you want to call that builder grade beauty.

Total cost - under $300.  No JOKE!  I'll give you the low down with the shelf tute later in the week!  And did I mention the little one flooded my other bathroom, too?  Can't wait to show you that one.  We're going a little more modern in that one...grey's, silver and black. 

Book Marks (last minute Mothers Day or Teacher Apprec. idea)

I am hosting a House Party this weekend for Singer and JoAnns and wanted to pick an additional sewing project besides the assigned one.  This house party is for beginners who want to learn to sew, so I decided to make some super cute book marks.  These are made out of scraps and super easy!

My 10 year old made a couple all on her own.  Didn't she do a great job?  If she can do this, so can you!

Project time:  15 minutes (for me, that is GOOD!)

Step 1:  Grab a couple of scraps and cut them out.  Mine were 11" by 3".  The third piece of fabric was just enough to make a little stripe across for embellishment.  You could also use ribbon.  The purple strip on my daughters was just ribbon that we gathered.

Step 2:  Embellish one of the pieces however you want.  I took that little scrap and folded down the edges and ironed it.  Then I sewed straight across.  (It helps that Singer is lending me their super cool sewing machine.  If I didn't have it, I would do a straight stitch with my boring one.  In this case, however, I chose a decorative vine stitch.)  Fold and iron the excess over the sides.  I also added a button so it wouldn't slip down the book, but you can see my daughter added pearls on one of hers.

Step 3:  Sew 3 sides, right sides in.

Step 4:  Snip the edges, being careful to not cut the thread, and flip it ride side out.

Now I wanted mine to be a little thicker, so I cut a small strip of batting and just gently placed it inside.

Step 5:  Fold the unfinished edges in and iron the whole thing so it looks nice.

Step 6:  Top stitch around the entire thing.  If you wanted to add ribbon to the top (like my daughters), stuff a couple pieces of ribbon between the unfinished sides before you sew.

That's it!  A great (and easy!) present coupled with a favorite book!