Twine Letters!

A few weeks ago, we made these fun
twine letters at a craft night with friends!

We picked up cardboard letters at Hobby Lobby, and then basically just wrapped them in twine, hot gluing every so often on the back of the letter to make sure the twine stays in place. (we all know I love any craft that uses hot glue) This was a fun simple craft, other than the corners and turns which were a bit tricky. :)

Painted Wood Sign!

After falling in love with the idea for this sign over on Pinterest, I looked everywhere for one to hang in our bedroom. Since they were all way more than I was willing to pay, I got to work planning my own version.

It was so quick and easy, I don't even have pics to show the progress. Basically, I picked up a thin square pine board at Lowes for $4, and cut it down a little to make it the size I wanted and rectangle. I used black acrylic paint to paint the board. I thought about stenciling the letters on, but wanted the painted look, so I ended up just tracing my own letters on and then painting them with a good old paint brush and offwhite paint by hand. I was going to put a clear top coat on to protect it, but since I'm not to worried about it getting worn, and I was in a hurry, I skipped that step. :)

I LOVE how it turned out, it is exactly what I was picturing in my head. I'm still considering distressing the edges a little bit. What do you think?

Ta Da! Here is my finished wall art for less that $5. Not perfect by any means, but perfect for us!

Olivia the Pig Birthday Party!

For Nora's 2nd birthday in Feb. we had an Olivia party. Nora loves the Olivia books and movies, and after she was Olivia for Halloween, we knew we had to plan that for her birthday!

Here are a few of the fun decorations we made for the party!

Here are the water bottle labels we made for this party! I love making these, they are such an easy touch to add. These ones are just computer paper printed with Happy Birthday Nora and a picture of Olivia on them. Then I just cut them out, and put them on the bottles with packing tape.

We had lots of red and white (Olivia colors), but I loved these red and white striped straws I picked up on clearance after Christmas; apparently they were candy cane. :)

Dessert area was more red and white. I love making cakes, but for this party we opted for make-your-own brownie sundaes and cupcakes.

It's hard to see in the pictures, but we made little cupcake toppers of Olivia characters.

I made these yummy reindeer noses for the party too. Let me tell you, they were NOT as easy as everyone says they are to make! It took me three failed batches before I learned the tricks!

Red and white decorations were easy this time of year since Nora's birthday falls right before Valentine's day. One of my favorite red touches, was putting red licorice in collin's glasses around the house. Yum!

And even thought this isn't a great picture, we sewed these cute paper garlands to hang up!

And of course pictures of the birthday girl up on the fridge!

Here's Nora enjoying her birthday lunch with dad!

Getting good at blowing out her candles!

She was very spoiled by family and friends, and loved opening her presents!

Along with little Olivia boxes and stickers for all the kids, we laminated activity placemats so they could color them with dry erase markers.

Nora had a great birthday, and we are so happy we could have friends and family over to celebrate her turning 2!

Sock Buns!

I think I am the last to find out about sock buns, but, Holy Cow they are AWESOME!! Look at this adorable sock bun on Molly. :)

I followed this simple tutorial from Three Pink Dots, and started with a pony tail.

Then rolled the hair around the sock top, and just kept rolling. I did use a little kids sock, since it was going on little kids hair.

And, Voila!!! Love it!!!

Doll Hair Makeovers!

If you have girls, I'm sure you have a bunch of dolls that look like ours. :) Seriously, my girls carry these dolls around by there hair! In Molly's words, "It was totally time for them to have a makeover!" I saw this great tutorial on how to fix doll hair from the blog Cookie and Claire.

I used a spray bottle filled with 2 Tablespoons of liquid fabric softner, and the rest water. Then I just sprayed the hair, and combed it out using a metal wig brush! I was AMAZED at how well it worked, and how much better their hair looked. I was worried the hair might be greasy from the fabric softner, but it's not.

Here is Rapunzel's crazy before!

And after... ahhh, much better!

And Minty's (yeah, not sure how Molly picked that name) messy do before!

And after! I am happy to say this has worked great. We are busy giving hair makeovers to all the dolls, barbies, ponies, etc. we can find. :)

A Few New Sweet Recipes!

Last week I tried this AMAZING new recipe for Carmelitos. We were having some friends over, and I was a bit nervous to make something I hadn't tried before, but they turned out fantastic! Seriously, SO yummy! And to make things even better... the just put a Biggby by Molly's preschool. So the next day I got to enjoy the last Carmelito and a Coffee!

We also have been loving these No Bake Energy Bites. They are a perfect snack when you are craving something sweet and filling, and since they are so rich, you only need one or two. Perfect!

DIY Scratch Off Cards!

Today I made a few of these DIY scratch off tickets to try them out, and make sure I knew what I was doing. We are planning on making these at MLife, thinking it would be so fun for when kids are bored this Summer to get to scratch off a card and find a fun activity to do! I used this tutorial from ArtMind.

I made a winter one as a test, and love it so much, I am going to make a bunch of them tomorrow so we can use them this Winter. Here are a few of the activities I am putting on our Winter cards:
-Go Sledding
-Build a Snowman
-Snow Inside
-Bake Cookies
-Build a Blanket Fort
-Living Room "Movie Theater"
-Frozen Bubbles

-Paint