Pins of the Week

Life has been nothing short of CrAzY lately with the end of preschool for one, end of a soccer season, opening of our beach club and finally...end of the school year for my daughter tomorrow.  Woo Hoo!  I need to get on a better schedule than we've been on.  We've been burning the candle at both ends for a few weeks now running from activity to activity, staying up way too late enjoying the weather and sunlight, visiting with friends and it has caught up.   We even had an impromptu play date in our PJ's yesterday.   Needless to say, I ended up sick last week with an ear infection and so forth and finally feel better this week.

So, with that said, I have been very negligent of this blog.  I have been very busy with teacher gift order of beach bags and other bags and I am soooo grateful that the shop is nearly sold out.  I need to re-stock soon, but still have a few more orders to fill.  Thank you to all who have supported my business...we're nearing a year already and I'll keep you posted on a big celebration sale in July.

I thought I'd do a quick "Pins of the Week" post today before I run to my daughter's school to deliver some teacher gifts (homemade bags  and zippered pouches and gift cards of course).  

(and yes those are play handcuffs in the background...lol)

So here you have it...I've even been neglecting Pinterest if you can believe that.  The nerve.

CRAFTASTIC

We love to make friendship bracelets in the summer or really in any down time we have.   I recently found a very cool kit with these cardboard wheels that you use as a guide to make all sorts of really neat bracelets.   I thought this is super fun too and simple directions.   Last summer as one of my very first blog posts HERE I mentioned that we were knee deep in bracelet making at the beach.

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CRAFTASTIC- FATHER'S DAY

I had been planning on doing an entire post dedicated to Father's Day ideas, but since time is slipping by...I thought I'd just share some of the 'Tip Junkie's' great homemade ideas.   We are working on finishing up our crafts today in time to celebrate our favorite daddy this weekend!

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FOR THE HOME

I have been pinning tons of stripes in rooms lately and I guess I really want some in my house.  I think I'm sold on this idea for my daughter's bathroom that I truly despise right now.  We have not painted 1 wall since moving in 6 years ago this July.  Oh, wait, that's not true...my daughter and I painted her room last year.  Besides that though, not 1 wall has changed because when we moved in we were happy with the colors and I was soon expecting the rambunctious boy I now have and expected many dinged and chipped walls.  I think it's finally time to get rid of the peach bathroom (no offense to those of you who like peach) and bring in a more beachy feel to my daughter's bathroom.

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FOR THE KIDDOS

A step by step guide to turn an ordinary sock into a teddy bear.  So cute.  I love up cycling too!   I think this is a great rainy day project for us this summer.  I'm hoping the past week's weather is no indication of our summer weather to come or we'll be making tons of sock animals...lol

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GREAT TIP

No explanation necessary other than...who wouldn't want one?  I do not like putting the DEET sprays on myself or my children so this is perfect.

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RECIPE

Oh my this is GOOD!  We had my in laws for dinner a few weeks ago and decided to grill outside (Mother Nature of course had to ruin it for us).... I digress.  We decided on grilled fish, grilled zucchini and this Fiesta Lime Rice.  SOOOO GOOD and SUPER simple.  We will definitely be making this one again...OFTEN!

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QUOTES TO LIVE BY

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Poshed Up

Happy Mother's Day...a few days early!

I always feel a little selfish at Mother's Day because my birthday is only a month earlier so it's a whole lot of celebrating me in a short period of time.  While I totally appreciate the love from my family, I really do not enjoy being the center of attention.  I would much prefer to plan a party or mini-celebration for someone else.
 I guess I can endure one more :)

Here are few things I found that I think are so special for Mother's Day
(just in case anyone here at my house is reading).

Flowers....flowers are always associated with Mother's Day because
1- what women doesn't love receiving flowers and
2- Mother's Day falls at the beginning of Spring when flowers are so abundant.

I love this personalized idea for a custom made flowerpot.  A little Mod Podge and you have a really great keepsake that any mom or grandmother would adore!

I think this idea for a "flower" arrangement is so creative.  This would be great for a grandmother or a mother of a big family!  

And how about a dozen cupcakes made into a flower arrangement? 

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I personally love the homemade cards my children make me.   They are 1000 times more sentimental and special than anything Hallmark could write...and they are from their hearts.  I think these ideas for handmade cards are so fun!

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Jewelry....you can never go wrong with jewelry for a woman.   I have a personalized necklace with my children's names on it and I love it.  Here is what it looks like....with different names (lol)

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I get tons of compliments on it as well.  Here are a few others I love besides the one I already own!

I think the family tree charm on this is so special.

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This version would be great with the children's birthstones.

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And last, but not least, by far my favorite gifts for Mother's Day are the ones that their teachers do almost every year where they answer questions about me.  The younger the child the more hilarious the responses of course, but they are great from any age.  Here are a few you can use if you want to see what your own might say.

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Whether you are a mother or celebrating someone else this Mother's Day, I hope the day is filled with love and sunshine!

    

Poshed Up

Some Easter FUN!

We're less than a week away from Easter and the candy aisles at the grocery and drug stores are showing it!  I stopped by my local pharmacy today to pick up some last minute candy and they were WIPED out!   The only good thing...everything was on sale.  So...if you have yet to buy your own candy for baskets, do so quickly.

Growing up I remember getting my Easter basket on Easter morning and pouring over it to see what the big bunny brought me.  I remember candy...and that's about it!   I'm sure there were other things in there, but for some reason it was the candy that I remember.  Even though I'm sure my kids would say the same, I try to put only a little candy and lots of other goodies.   So much for what they want, huh?  Lol...

So in my quest to do less candy, I pinterest-ed across, I mean stumbled across some really fun ideas.   Check these out!

Jessica at 'Mom Creative' is filled with great ideas for the baskets.  Some of my favorites include: a toothbrush (they'll need it after all the candy), flower seeds, bike accessories and movie tickets.  So fun!  We must think alike because so many of my non-candy ideas are on her list!

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This site is also filled with great ideas including filling your eggs at your egg hunt with different clues to a bigger prize or puzzle pieces that once you find them all, you can assemble the puzzle.  Cute ideas!

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And I love this out of the box idea to use a toy dump truck for a little one as the basket  to hold all of the goodies!  And I suppose baking/cooking things on the left side are not for the little guy, but someone else...lol

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And here is a picture of some of the loot my little ones will find Easter morning...besides candy of course.

For the little guy in my life...

Oh how excited he'll be with the Power Rangers watch!

For the tween girl in my life (she's getting harder and harder, but still believes or at least she's smart enough to pretend she does)...

I also love that Santa and the Easter Bunny ALWAYS bring our family a game for our Family Game Night that we try to do at least once a week.  Here's our new one...

I do have a bunch of other goodies for each of them and I plan on filling a bunch of eggs with quarters because they are both saving their allowance for our upcoming trip to Disney!

I also do a mini Easter egg hunt for them outside (assuming we have decent weather).  They LOVE this the most of anything.  I try to fill the eggs with a little candy, a few coins here and there, and sometimes some other small stickers or goodies.  It's not about what's inside, it's about finding them!

Here's a cute Easter egg hunt...

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I love this idea and I'm thinking about trying it myself this year,  my kids had such a ball with the St. Patty's Day hunt we did even if my son couldn't read it and went totally out of order and ruined the surprise for his big sister.  Isn't that what being a little brother is all about?

This site has some great printables for you if you are hosting and Easter egg hunt and want something to spruce it up a bit.  I adore the vintage feel of the signage.  Just click on the link below the picture for the details...

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And this one is JUST PLAIN FUN especially for the bigger kids!   If you can wait until the evening of Easter to do your hunt or if you're an extremely earlier riser...this would be so much fun for kids of all ages.  Genius!

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If you are looking for some goodies to give out to your children's classmates, friends at church, playgroup or some of your little visitors this Easter, check out these fun ideas!

Some more free printables for you....to top a bag filled with any Easter candy or other goodies!

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I love this idea especially since I always buy the Reese's Pieces version for my daughter's basket each year.  So cute.

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And another take...

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While I despise marshmallows and peeps for sure...this really is such a cute idea!

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And last, but not least...these are just so darn cute!  These would be a fun surprise on Easter morning at the breakfast table too.

Donut bunnies!

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Just a few fun ideas to help you with your shopping this week if you're like me and still pulling together the contents of Easter baskets.   I have some fun crafts, snacks and other goodies to share this week as we lead up to Easter so stay tuned!

Poshed Up

Some St. Patty's crafting fun!!

We are busy, busy, busy around here crafting away for St. Patty's day.  There may be only 3 more days until St. Patrick's Day, but that is PLENTY of time to whip up some fun crafts!  We don't start our crafting too far before the holiday or my little one will ask every day if the holiday in question is here yet.  I can only handle that question for a few days, so we start right before the holiday!

We hadn't really done too much crafting lately so we are all very excited to be busy again.  We are sprucing up our leprechaun trap and you can see some great ideas HERE from yesterday's post if you are interested in making your own.

Our trap will be set on Thursday night in case the leprechauns come early this year ;)    In the meantime, I found some really cute ideas for shamrock, rainbow and leprechaun crafts that I wanted to share!

Shamrock...not to be mistaken for the 4-leaf clover (as my friend reminded me) is the official symbol of Ireland.  It is said to be used by St. Patrick to illustrate the Trinity in Christian doctrine while the 4-leaf clover is thought to be a symbol of good luck because they are so rare.  According to legend, each leaf represents something: the 1st for faith, the 2nd for hope, the 3rd for love and the 4th is for luck.   Speaking of 4-leaf clovers, my daughter found this today in our backyard...hope it brings us some luck!

Here are a few fun shamrock crafts...

Shamrock Jewelry

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Shamrock Hat

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Tissue Paper Shamrock

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Tissue Paper Shamrock with a Rainbow

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Tissue Paper Mosaic Shamrock

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My son made one just like this last year an I LOVE it.  It's hanging again for this year.  Here it is...

And I loved this idea.  A similar take on the "thankful tree" I showed you HERE for Thanksgiving.  This instead is "I am lucky because"....love it!

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Rainbows - It is said that if you follow a rainbow until its end, you'll find where the leprechauns have left their treasures.  ;)   So...nothing says leprechaun more than a fun rainbow craft.

Here are a few of my favorite rainbow crafts...

Cereal Rainbows

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Cereal Rainbow with the Pot of Gold

A Yarn Rainbow

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And some tissue paper rainbows...

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And my most favorite of all...

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Leprechauns-  is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief.   We love the leprechaun mischief that can happen around here when those pesky leprechauns visit!

Here are a few cute leprechaun crafts....

Leprechaun Hats from Tupperware containers..for the leprechauns to fill with gold.

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Hand Print Leprechauns

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And a great paper plate leprechaun...

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That rounds out my favorites for St. Patrick's Day crafts.   I have some fun snack ideas and treats to share tomorrow!

And I leave you with some Irish words of wisdom...

"May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go."

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