Sorry I’ve been a little MIA. Three kids is no joke.  A fun no joke.

I have a quick post of an idea my husband had because my 2 and 4 year old ALWAYS leak popsicles all over themselves and their clothes AND they become a sticky mess.  Here’s his genius idea:

He took a cupcake wrapper and put it on the stick to help with the leaking everywhere!

Yeah, he’s kind of smart.

We decided to take the girls to build-a-bear.  We chose the Fair Oaks location in Fairfax, VA.  Husband went online and got a $5 off $30 coupon and we had part of a gift card leftover, so we left out of there pretty cheap.  However, this was mainly because we didn’t allow them to get all the extras.  This was a great experience and all the staff were so friendly!

First, they chose their unstuffed bears.  Anna’s pink bear was $16 and Ella’s black bear with stars was $20.  It was pretty easy to steer them away from the expensive bears (you can get one for $40 for the bear alone).

Next, they went to a computer, scanned their bear and put their bear’s hobbies in.  After this, they got to stuff their bear and kiss their bears heart and place it in the bear.

It was cool because they got to step on the machine so it let out the bears stuffing.

Then it was bath time!

A little more bath time fun!

Lastly, they named their bear and got a certificate as well.  We could have chosen clothes, shoes and even roller skates for them, but all of that was so expensive and we could have ended up spending way more than double our original cost.  They were happy with what they had.  The clerk boxed up their bears into a little house.  They loved them!

Even the baby loved them too!

It was a great and fun activity!  I think it would be a great idea for a reward.  A little advice is to spend a good amount of time at each station.  Let your kids make believe and pretend.  It makes great memories!

 

 

Again, with the beat up furniture from the move!  Ha.  I am slowly moving from project to project as I get settled in the new house.  I got this buffet about 6 years ago.  It was one of my first pieces of furniture I was able to buy after graduating from college and getting married.

I sold a lot of my stuff before the move, but I always loved this piece.  It got really beat up in the move… maybe because we pack all our stuff ourselves, or maybe because it drove from Virginia to Florida in an open trailer secured with ropes and bungee cords.  Oops.

Oh well… I actually LOVE the new look.  It fits in much better with the colors of my house.

 

I started out by sanding all of the little dings until they were nice and smooth.  After that I used Furniture Refinisher with steel wool to give me a good start on getting the top finish removed.  I wanted to stain the top so I really needed all the finish completely gone.

This had a really thick finish so I used the Furniture Refinisher to keep me from sanding my life away.  Make sure you use gloves if you decide to use this product for your project.

 

Then, I took an electric sander and used a medium grain sand paper to take off the rest of the finish.  After I dusted off the rest of the mess from sanding, I was ready to put on another coat of primer.

I like to use Zinsser Oil Based Primer from Lowes.  Sand lightly between all coats of primer and paint to remove any clumps or paint drips.

Next, I put on two coats of white latex paint in a satin finish.  I added a little floetrol to my latex paint.  This helps condition the wood and slows down the drying time so that there are less visible brush strokes.

I used a a dark stain called Kona on the top of the buffet.  I actually did 3 coats of this stain to get it as dark as I wanted it to be.  You can always get it a shade or two lighter using less coats.  I also sanded between coats to make sure it was extra smooth.

After 24 hrs of drying I started the poly coats.  I like to use a water based poly in the satin finish.  The oil based poly’s will yellow over time.  This might not show on a darker piece, but would be terrible on this white.  I recommend Minwax Polycrylic.  Again, make sure to sand between coats to make it extra smooth.

 

 

 

 

Check out my antique turquoise armoire I did as a recent guest post here.

 

We are finally settled into the house enough for me to start doing some crafts!  Yay!  I hope to never ever move again.  It is so much work and its seems that all my furniture gets a little bit more beat up with each move.

Anyway, you might have seen this project floating around pinterest from shopcraftwarehouse.blogspot.com.  I love it!  I love how easy it is to change out the pictures!  I have such a hard time choosing between pics anyway so this display makes it super easy to switch out picutres.

The original blogger used spray paint, magnets and metal sheets, but I didn’t want to deal with that so I used cork board under mine so that I could pin up the pictures instead of put them up with a magnet.  It just seemed a lot simpler.

SUPPLIES

• 3 Square frames (I used 10 x 10 with 8 x 8 photos, but 12 x 12 would look great too)
• Wood letter of your last name (found at any craft store)
• Acrylic paint color of your choice (I used beige)
• Cork board roll or squares (found at any craft store or on Amazon for $5.94)
• Burlap roll (found at any craft store)
• Hot glue gun

*** Paint your letter.  Carefully remove glass from all three frames.  Cut cork into squares to fit your frame and glue to inside cardboard backing of the frame.  Cut burlap to fit the frames you picked out and glue the corners unto the previously glued cork board squares.  Glue your wood letter to the middle of own of the cork squares.  Put your frames back together again and use any thumb tac to put up your square photos.

One of the many challenges of being a stay at home mom is balancing the home finances.   Each month we sit down as a couple to review the expenses and our income and determine what we need to do to make sure the house runs smoothly for the next 30 days.  This can be an adventure in itself.

The summer always seems to be the most challenging months.   Weekly summer camps for our children quickly add up and before you know it we’re in a situation where we’re looking for additional sources of income.   Luckily, there are always additional ways to make more money.

Part Time Work

I’ve been known to grab some part time work in the spring and early summer to help cover the costs of summer. Tutoring, being a waiter, and helping the local businesses balance their books have all been tasks that I’ve completed to make some extra income. Craigslist is often a great source for finding part time work opportunities near you.

Sell Your Stuff

Let’s face it, as Americans we have way to much stuff. I’m sure there is close to $1,000 dollars of goods in your home that aren’t being used and that you could sell for the summer. Put them up on ebay, have a garage sale, or just sell them to family members that would use them. This can quickly help you come up with the money needed for the summer.

Learn to Trade

This last item requires a bit more planning than the other two, but a great way to increase your income as a stay at home parent is to learn to trade stocks. With the internet allowing you to manage your own funds you can quickly make transactions and earn additional money throughout the year. If you’re looking for training or information about how to trade stocks, Online Trading Academy, looks like an organization with a solid history and positive reviews. In fact, favorable Online Trading Academy Reviews has helped the organization grow quickly and offer it’s services to people all around the world.

What ever way you do it, making a bit of extra income is something that will require planning and hard work but the benefits will be a health balance in your bank account through the expensive times of the year.

I am so excited about my newly redone dresser! It went from old and beat up to bright and beautiful!  I used a pre-tinted antiquing glaze to give it a really cool finished look.

Check out the tutorial on keepingitsimplecrafts.com where we featured as a guest blogger! Yay!

 

 

 

Isn’t it fabulous!  I am so in love with it!  Previously all my earrings were thrown all together in a jewelry box drawer.  I would have to shuffle through them digging for a match and could hardly even see all the earrings I had .

I admit, I probably spent more money on this than I would have liked.  I do LOVE it though and once I committed to making it work there was no stopping me.

I went to homedepot planning on getting chicken wire for this project and ended up finding this aluminum sheet in the roofing section that I loved instead.

I had the frame made to fit the 12″ x 24″ aluminum sheet at Michael’s using a 60% off coupon.  I had them make the frame, but told them not to cut any glass for it.  Then I used a glue gun to glue it in place before mounting it on the wall.

One thing about moving that I love is starting fresh and getting organized.  I organized both my spices and cooking utensils using these inexpensive drawer organizer from Walmart.

 

 

I was so sad that it rained on Ella’s party day.  We have this awesome water slide that I wanted to use along with so many other outdoor fun stuff.  We were literally scrambling the day of to move the party inside and find fun things for the kids to do.  It all ended up great BECAUSE I made it simple, oh so simple!  If you recall, last year we did a pancake and pajama party (awesome theme!) for her.  This year, I went with the outdoor fun theme, but she insisted on pony plates and a cupcake piñata.  I did it on a Tuesday afternoon because I live in NoVa and everyone here is so busy on the weekends and only had stay at home mom friends and their kids.  Because of this, it was so chill and so much fun for all the kids.  Here’s my little princess ready for her party!

Husband, the balloon maker, did balloons for all the kids when they arrived!  They also jumped in the bounce house and played with toys in the basement until everyone arrived and got settled in.

Luckily I had a game leftover from her party last year that we didn’t use, so I brought it out.  It was pin the heart on the necklace.

I also had bought this little fun face kit for Anna’s party that we didn’t use, so I brought it out too.  These are my nephews and niece!

Next, we went upstairs for food and cake!  I got pizza, watermelon, gogurts, capri suns, animal crackers and goldfish.  There were 14 kids inside my house, but it really couldn’t have gone any smoother.  Luckily, all the moms are my friends too so they all helped with serving food.  As a host, I ALWAYS suggest feeding the parents that come.  They take time out of their day to bring their child to your party as well as buying the gift.  I also always serve a meal or at least a semi-meal.  For me, it’s party throwing etiquette.  Kids shouldn’t leave parties hungry.  Of course, I convinced Ella to get a cookie cake.  Oh so delicious.  It was from Sam’s Club ($16 !).

Oh, since I made a last minute trip to Wal-Mart for any party ideas, I bought these blow things for $1 and some change.  The kids LOVED them!

After cake, we went to our garage and did the piñata.  I hope piñatas never get old.  The kids LOOOOOOOVE them.  Trust me on this one.

Lastly, and I’m SO mad, I bought each of the kids a bubble wand as a favor and my phone somehow deleted the pics or maybe I did it.  Okay, the wand was $1 and it was PERRRRRFECT.  They all opened them at the party and played with them in the driveway because of course it stopped thundering at the end of her party.  They had so much fun with the bubbles.  Do it at your next party, trust me on that one.  That and for sure a piñata.

A few tips:

These kids are 4.  They love the cheapo things such as party hats, blow things and bubbles.

Piñatas are always a hit.  They do cost a bit (approx. $20 for piñata and $20 for candy)

Don’t clean your house before a kid party.  Of course pick up, but be ready to do a deep cleaning afterwards.  No one cares, trust me.

Try to have help.  I’m telling you, my friends were beyond amazing.  They all chipped in and helped so much.

Why not do a play date?!  It was great that so many people could come and I bet it would have been a lot harder on a weekend.

Try Sam’s Clubs cookie cakes… Bwhahahahaha.  SODANGGOOD!

 

This was another successful party!  Love her!

 

 

 

 

 

Michael’s Doller days is this week!  Yay!   This is like Christmas for a crafter like me!I have already gone twice this week!  My favorite deal this week is the two pack 16in x 20in canvases for $5.  If you dont like that size, you should know all the other canvases are 40% off this week.  Check out their dollar deal sale here.

So I bought a canvas for each of my boys to have fun with and then a pack for me to play with.

I made these easy tropical leaf prints for $8 total.  $5 for the canvases and $3 for the spray paint (after using my 40% off coupon found here).  My guest room walls were pretty bare so I am thrilled to have something to put on them and give the room some more color.  They took all of one minute to make.

1.  Pick a leaf with come good texture to it and grab your canvases.

2.  Put your leaf on your canvas

3.  Spray paint around it

 

Seriously, that is it.  Quick, easy, and inexpensive.

 

Here are the boys’ creations.  I hung them in the toy room.  They look great and the boys were excited about having them hung up.

Does everyone have their dish planned for your 4th of July BBQ?  Just in case you haven’t made a decision yet, I thought I throw out ten of our favorite potluck sides for you.  These are tried and tested recipes that you can’t go wrong with it!

1.  On of my all time favorites is Loaded Baked Potato Salad!  Its a different twist on potato salad and is so yummy!  With all that bacon, how could it not be a hit!?!?!

 

2.  Broccoli Grape Pasta Salad is an easy side to bring.  It can be made ahead of time and is served cold, making it the perfect take-a-long dish.

3.  I love these Mini Cucumber Sandwiches.   They are so cute and are always quickly devoured.

 

4.  I love bringing trifle to a potluck.  They are always so yummy and can feed a large group! Strawberry Short Cake Trifle and Red, White, and Blue Trifle are two of my favorite festive trifles!

 

 

5.  This Orzo Pasta Salad is also a big hit.  It is something a little different from the standard potluck dish and will be one of the first dishes to go when served in a crowd.  It is a no fuss dish that throws together easily.

 

6.  Fresh fruit is always a yummy BBQ side.  I like to serve mine up with this yummy fruit dip of cream cheese and marshmallow fluff.  It really dresses up your fruit.  I have been told that this fruit dip is addictive!

 

6.  These Watermelon Rice Krispies are so much fun!  I like to bring these along if I know there will be a lot of kids.  It is always a big hit with the kids.

 

7.  Try this Avocado and Tomato Salad.  This always tastes so good paired up with a good burger.  It is fresh and healthy!  Try adding crumbled bacon and cubed mozzarella cheese to it as well!

 

8.  If you are serving some fresh veggies, you could really glam them up by serving them with this yummy Avocado Hummus.  This is delicious with Pita slices as well.

 

9.  These fancy deviled eggs go great at a potluck.  Use a crinkle cutter to slice the eggs and a pipe the yoke  mixture into the eggs to really make them look good.  We also like to sprinkle them with crumbled bacon.  What doesn’t taste better with bacon?!?!  This should be my motto.

 

10.  Chocolate dipped strawberries sprinkled with blue sprinkles look especially festive for July 4th BBQ.  It also helps that they taste AMAZING!