My Baby turns 12!

OK since I was going to post this 2 weeks ago and did not, I will go ahead and add this now!

MY BABY TURNED 12! My little Y2K Millenium baby is 12 years old. In one more year he will be a fledged teenager! I am WAY TOO YOUNG to have a teenager! Even worse, he already beginning to act like one sometimes. I would post a picture of my baby from his party, but alas, we had battery problems with the camera, so I used Cole's camera, but the card I used in it has mysteriously gone missing, which is code for, it is probably hiding on my craft desk and I cannot find it! But when I do find it, I will put them up.

We had a lot of fun, my boy has an awesome group of friends and we did his party with a Mission Impossible theme because we went to see MI at the theatre for his birthday. So in honor of that we had a Mission Impossible Hot Dog Bar.

As much as my boys loved the elaborate birthday parties I threw them as younger kids, the older they get the less elaborate they want them. I am hoping that this passes soon so that I can do another BIG BANG UP PARTY!

Here are some menus we had for the kids to make different dogs, and I sure wish I had pics to show you the HOT DOG BAR! I renamed all the items to secret agent names!

So Since I do not have party pics because I need to find that other card, I'll just show you his BOMB cake!

I cooked 2 cakes in a bowl, but I took it one step further, I made one batter Black and one batter Green , then I layered the cake batters into the bowl so it had a striped effect when you cut into it.

Here is top view of it after I cut the end off of it so I could level it on the cake board. the inside cut looks way cooler, but again it is on the missing party card!

So anyway here is the cake before it was done, obviously. Since I still had Pneumonia when I made this I did not want to fool with Fondant, so I iced it real smooth with some buttercream and bough black Spray paint for cakes and I was just going to spray it black and save me a lot of time, mess and nasty flavor of black food coloring. Well that was an epic fail, it only turned the cake purple and I was sinking fast with being tired. So I Improvised, and I will say that I paid a little more at Michael's for some Duff Brand food coloring, but it was so worth it! That stuff is amazing, it has no funny taste like wilton's and he has an awesome black, but I digress, so back to my problem at hand, a purple bomb! I got inventive and did not have any more icing so I mixed up some black food coloring with lemon juice and used a pastry brush and painted it black, and it worked like a charm! I also added a touch of silver glitter for cakes to the mixture which I think helped. If you looked closely you could see the brush marks, but ass Cole said, that made it look more authentic like brushed steel painted black :) I love that kid! I added some pipe cleaners for the fuse and VIOLA a bomb. If I had not been sick, I would have gone and gotten some sparklers and lit them when we sang but I was too tired, but I will say that cake was the BOMB! And a group of 12 year old boys agreed!

Craft Masters Competition

WOW! So much has happened since I last posted!Ok, I did not go away, I was just so overwhelmed with what was happening in my life that I could not form the words to post! About 2 weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Michael's advertising for a new show they were doing called Craftmasters. It was a crafting type reality gameshow. They wanted a 30 second video submission for anyone who was interested. I deleted the e-mail and went and took a bubble bath. By the time I was out of the tub, I 2 Facebook messages and 3 forwarded e-mails from friends telling me I should try out. Ok, I thought, what the hey. They were only looking at the first 300 submissions to come in and the deadline was 2 days away. thinking I probably would not even make it into the top 300, I sent a text to my sister asking her if she would come over to film me. Well she had a stomach virus so would not be able to come over and I thought that was an omen I should not do it, but then Matt came home with a fancy video camera that night to film me. Took me a bit to get it 30 seconds and not 2 minutes long, but I described my new menu board and ended it with "There ain't nothing I can't craft" So here is the video I submitted I hope it shows up on here, I am a little computer illiterate:

So, thinking I was too late but still holding out a glimmer of hope I checked my e-mail relentlessly all day Thursday and friday, even though the deadline was Friday the 8th. Matt and I went out friday night and when we got home I logged on to check my e-mail, do my usual prowl of FB and Pinterest and then I was going to bed. I saw I had an e-mail from Michaels and before I read it I was sayin"Oh look, an e-mail from Michael's I bet they want me on...." and then I just stopped short because it REALLY WAS AN EMAIL SAYING I HAD BEEN ACCEPTED TO BE ON CRAFTMASTERS!

I can honestly say getting to do this show marked a few things off of my bucket list.

Now Fast Forward one week to this past Tuesday and that was the day of the competition. Now I cannot post all the pics, because you cannot know who the winner is until it airs, but I can tell you a bit about it and show you a few pics.

The premise is, there are 3 contestants. We are brought into a room and each given a box inside each box we are given the same items and a theme and we must be overly creative to do something with those items. we are also given a Gift Certificate and 10 minutes to come up with an idea and shop for other items to help us to complete our project.

Well our theme was OFF THE PAGE because most of us were paper crafters. inside our box was a plain shadowbox and 6 skeins of Yarn. We must use those items. We have about 2 minutes to formulate a plan and then they handed us each a $50 Gift Certificate, other groups got $100 and some got $30 it just depended on the theme. We then had 10 minutes to shop in Michaels to get anything else we might need to complete the project. My first thought when opening the box was "OH CRAP" I put in my write up I can't knit or crochet but can do anything else. But then I quickly formulated another plan. I had gone to scope out this Michael's the day before and saw some knobs I liked. I decided I was going to turn it into a jewelry display and possibly use the yarn to help be earring hangars.

So they set us up with a basket that has a camera on it plus my own camera man to follow me as I run through the store shopping, he kept encouraging me to talk so I did even though I felt silly. When they announced time is up, whatever was in my basket I got to keep if I had something in my hands I had to drop it. then we went to check out. I knew I had more than $50 worth of items n my basket, so I made sure to put up what I wanted first in case I ran out of money before I got to all my stuff and sure enough I was left with 5 items in my basket and I was not all that upset about that, but they made me refilm myself being sad about it :) I had $1.73 left on my card when done, one girl had $20 left on hers!

Then we headed off to the studio and walked into what I like to call a Craft room on Crack! We had every tool imaginable to us, including power drills ( which BTW led to me have a very blonde moment on the show, I won't go into detail about it here, you will just have to watch)we had toaster ovens, pasta machines, every color imaginable of Martha Stewart Glitter, paint, punches. Tons of ribbon, papers and adhesives!

That last table there was my workstation and I messed it up quiet well! They gave us 90 minutes on the clock and let us go at it!About 30 minutes into the competition they threw us a curveball. they told us to open up our tool chests because we had another element we had to add somehow to our craft. It just so happened it was another Michael's gift card and it was not in my pallet of colors!

You see that Butterfly? Well I cut that puppy down to be pretty small and made it an unobtrusive embellishment.

When time was up they let us explain our project then sent us away to do interviews while the judges deliberated.

Well, Win or lose, I cannot tell you, but I can say I had an absolutely FABULOUS time! Met some great women and got to hang out with Jo Pearson, the face of Michael's videos!

She is an absolute doll!And I might dare say, a WHOLE LOT like me!
I also ended up with another Gift card, all the left over supplies I did not use, my project and lifetime of memories! I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and went for it! I have really grown as a crafter I can tell and am ready to get that ETSY store up and running and I might just start making my own crafting videos to put online! Here is my final project hanging.

The Boys New Chore Charts

So with the New Year, comes some new responsibilities for the boys. We have tried different chore charts but they normally become forgotten, get messed up, or we need more spaces for chores than are allotted. So, being laid up left me alot of time to peruse the internet for a great chore chart that would fit our needs. Guess what there aren't any, but with a little ingenuity and ideas from several places I came up with one for us.

Now, first off, let me say, I think these are cute, but I was really wishing my boys were girls so I could have added some polka dots or flowers or even smaller so maybe I could have put a baseball or a dinosaur on them, BUT since they are TWEENS I could do nothing about that, but I did get some ribbon on it!

So I will explain how I made them and then explain how it works incase you want to make your own, OR I CAN MAKE IT FOR YOU! ESPECIALLY IF YOU WANT FLOWERS OR POLKA DOTS! LOL

I started with a $.96 cookie sheet from Walmart and a few cans of Krylon spray paint. I have mentioned that I am really into spray painting right now, haven't I???

Here is a hint when doing these, you may want to alot 2 days to the spray paint process, ALSO if you would rather, you can use the chalk board pray paint on this and just write your chores in chalk and not have to deal with the magnets, but I like the magnet idea. Paint your first coat, your main color all over cookie sheet, I did one red and one blue.

Then after it dried over night, I used painters tape to tape off the area that was to be painted black and then added press and seal to cover the rest from over spray.

then I added some white detail to the trays on the edges, wrote to do and done. Painted some chipboard letters and adhered them with E3000 glue.

the next step I probably could have done easier by going to buy some round disc and using my printer on clear labels, but I did not have those on hand and I couldn't leave, so I made chore buttons out of Sculpey, some magnets and a sharpie. I made a ton of different ones because sometimes I need them to mow the yard, but not every day. Here are a couple of pics of them done and the best is I can store the extra chore magnets on the back of the cookie sheet and trade them out!

I also made 6 days of the week buttons ( because Sunday is Jesus Day, according to Peyton, so no chores on that day) without magnets that I glued on and 6 Good job magnets.

The final part to the chore chart is the money jars. yet again, I could not add bows or flowers or polka dots, but I did match the ribbon to their chore charts, so take that!

So here is how it works:

Each day the boys will be giving 5-6 chores to do when they get home, one of them will be homework or reading. They also start each week with their full allowance in their jar. $1 for each year old they are. Once they have completed all of their chores, they move the magnet to the done side. If they have done their chores to our satisfaction, they will get a good job magnet under that day. If they decide to not do all their chores, or do a poor job of it, they do not get a magnet for that day and money will be deducted from their allowance jar, so Cole would loose $2 since he is 12 and Peyton will loose $1.50 since he is 9. With the allowance jars sitting out they can see that money stay the same or diminish. At the end of the week (Saturday) once all the chores are done they can get their money from the jar. I will refill the jars on Sunday night.

So what do you think? Is it ingenious or what?!?! The boys are excited about it right now, but we will see how they feel 2 weeks into it...LOL

Have a Happy and Blessed New Year!

Sparkle Wishes,
Heather

Cowboy Caviar Recipe

So I kind of over did it yesterday, all by just going to Walmart. I thought I was doing better since having the Pneumonia, but about 10 minutes into my shopping trip I realized I was wrong, so I turned tail, waited 109 minutes to check out, headed home and gave Matt the rest of my grocery list. Tonight it a big night, it is Cole's ANNUAL Birthday party/ New Years Eve Party, he is turning 12, his last year as a non teenager. Where did my baby go??? Anyway we are having a Mission Impossible themed birthday party for him because we are going to see Mission Impossible tonight, but before then we will be having a hot dog bar. Pictures from the party will probably be up around 1:00 a.m as I am sure they will still be too loud for me to sleep. Anyway, I made some Cowboy Caviar, that probably only Matt and I will eat, but Oh well. I saw the recipe on Pinterest so of course I made it and it is super easy and YummY!

i should probably let Matt take pictures of my stuff, sine he is the professional, but I get to anxious and i do it myself so sorry if it does not look that appetizing. Here is the recipe in case you want to make it. I ti s really easy and would be great for you to take to a party.

2 cans of Mexi Corn
1 can of Rotel
2 C of shredded cheddar cheese
1 c of Mayo
1 c of Sour cream

Mix together and there you have it.

I think next time I will add a little chili powder and some fresh jalepeno, but all in all it was good, especially served with Fritos.

My new Menu Board!

So saw this Weekly Calendar on Pinterest a few weeks ago. A lady had gone to Walmart, bought a $10 Frame, added some scrapbook paper inside the frames and writes on it with a dry erase marker. So I pinned it, thinking hmm.. I could make this better and Blingier, because, well, I do everything with more BLING! Fast forward to Christmas break and I sitting on my butt for hours on end with Pneumonia and nothing to do but watch movies and surf Pinterest. So one of the many early morning hours that my medicine woke me up I stumbled on Menu boards and decided sine I was working on redoing my kitchen little by little and I cannot afford the Giant knife and Fork from Pier One I would start trying to add those things to my kitchen as well as add a Menu Board. Now Being ADD means I am not the most organized person, well let me rephrase that, I am organized in my own Chaotic way; in fact my class laughs at me when I clean my desk up at school because they know I will not be able to find the next worksheet we will be working on, os I try to just keep my piles neat looking and confined to 2 areas so at least you can see wood on my desk top when tours come through. But I digress... I made this because I have been getting really good at planning our weekly meals, so I save money at the store, PLUS I am teaching my boys to cook and I make them each cook one meal a week, which means we get a lot of Sloppy Joes,Chicken and Dumplings, Hot Dogs and Pizza bites.

So anyway, I decided If I can't leave and I can't do housework, I must craft instead, so I set out his week with a few Pinterest inspired crafts. My first was to marbalize my fingernails, the next was to make a menu board. I snuck over to Walmart after a doctors appointment to find a frame to fit my needs, not intending to use this one, but I am standing there in a steroid daze, inspiration struck and I grabbed it then ran over to the flatware dept. , bought $ worth of forks, spoons, and Knives and then grabbed 2 $.96 cookie sheets for the chore charts I will be making later today.

I got it home, spray painted it black, it was an ugly brown color, ( did I mention I am addicted to spray painting crafts ever since I found the Krylon craft website?) Then I roughed up the edges to make it more Chic, or used looking. Sent Matt to Michael to buy me some scrapbook paper since I was not allowed to leave the house.

With a few sheets of scrapbook paper, some pearls, ribbon ( did I also mention that I am a ribbon whore? yes 97 spools and counting) and some hot glue and I have a brand new Menu Board! i am thinking about selling these on Etsy and at the store in Sangar for $25- $30. If you want one, let me know I can make it in any colors or style you want.

Sparkle Wishes,
Heather

A gift for a friend

So my partner in crafty crimes, aka my sister April, and I needed to make a gift for one of our friends for her birthday. Ok, so we will be almost a month late in getting it to her, but I think she will be happy once she gets it.

With that being said, our friend just moved into a new place and know ing her roommate, we figured she needed something with style to add to her place. With it being right after Christmas, and April saving money to buy her house and me not having money because I spent it all on my kids for Christmas, we decided to refurbish an expensive mirror my parents had, with an idea I saw on the Krylon craft websites. OK did you know Krylon (yes the spray paint) had a craft website? Well I found it this fall and since October I think I have spray painted a few 100 crafts :) Ok, so back to the craft. Here is a picture of the mirror, pre refurbish:

See it is in great shape with the exception of the corners where the nice espresso color paint had chipped off. Not having paint in that color, I knew we would have to repaint. so I taped the mirror part all up. and took it to my now, spray painting table out back.
I sprayed it with one coat of Satin Black and let it dry, since it was already painted nice and I knew we were going to rough up the edges so it would look more Shabby Chic, that is all it needed. I sent April out for some knobs to add to it and some Vinyl.

we roughed up the edges with some sand paper, had Matt drill us 4 holes for us to add these great square ceramic knobs april got, and then added some vinyl quote that April got on Sale at Hobby Lobby, so that saved us time I did not have to cut any Vinyl with my Cricut. Here are the pictures. Now I do have a warning my husband is a photographer, and no he did not take these pictures, and no I have no talent in shooting pictures, besides do you know how hard it is to shoot a picture of a mirror?? Everything shows in it!

The final product

The Vinyl at the bottom of the frame

Live Laugh Love!

Sparkle Wishes, Heather

Homemade French Vanilla Coffee Creamer

Hold the Phone people, Heather is posting again! I think I was inspired by watching Julie and Julia Last night. I am sure I won't post this often once school starts and I have crafting dry spells, but hey, I am here today. And speaking of which, you see that wonderful mug of Coffee above??? I am enjoying that mug right now as I type! I got a Kuerig for Christmas. Now I am not much of a coffee drinker, but I am a drinker of hot beverages such as tea and Hot chocolate and some coffee to go along with my creamer (tee hee) The problem with liking coffee with my creamer and my two boys liking coffee with their creamer is that we run out of creamer really fast. So this past Fall, I decided since I did not have anymore Starbucks gift cards and I could not find Pumpkin Spice creamer on the shelves at the Grocery store to make my own ( OK that will have to be another post without the pictures) but it turned out so good I began trying my hand at other syrups and creamer flavors. well a few days ago i stumbled upon a recipe for French Vanilla Creamer and decided to try it out today and I have to say Cole and Peyton Approved it, so it has to be good!

Here is what you will need:

14 oz. of Sweetened condensed Milk
14 Oz. Of milk (I used 2%)
2 Tsp. Vanilla
1 Mason jar or a bowl with a blender but Jar works best.

You pour all these into your jar.

The you Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake yo Booty! Till it is good and mixed up.

Now if you know me, you know I am not going to serve this out of a mason Jar, because that is not just pleasing to the eye. So, Since for some UNKNOWN reason, I have like 40,000 Salad dressing cruets, I just poured mine into one of those, corked it and put it in the fridge. this should be good for 2 weeks, if it last that long. ENJOY!

Sparkle Wishes,
Heather