Easter Countdown

I don't know about your little kiddos, but mine get down right giggly over counting things down. Days till Auntie Amanda gets home from her mission, hours till daddy gets home from work, their required bites of food to get dessert, and of course number of days till the upcoming Holiday! I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to do a fun Easter countdown until I saw THIS post from Lyndsey-who was guest posting on Lolly Jane Boutique. Thanks girl, you just gave me best mom of the month award from my little ones!


She used a cookie sheet with magnets for hers, but when I found this beauty at the DI for .50 I decided to go in a bit of a different direction.


Spray paint and I had a spark the first time we met and I just knew we'd be together for aLONG time. I use spray paint on anything and everything and it's just as much a staple in this house as milk and bread...and Oreo's. So I showed this tray some sweet love by giving her a nice coat of white paint. (the direct to plastic kind by Rustoleum)


When I first scouted out our DI and couldn't find a cookie sheet I was super bummed that I wouldn't be able to do this project, but as I sat and stared at the dusty, over-piled shelf of knick-knacks, inspiration finally hit and I realized I could get the same thing with plastic and velcro! So I cut 12 little squares from velcro I already had and spaced them-as evenly as I could; i'm too impatient to measure-in 3 rows. (The words on top are vinyl cut from my cricut using the font BoyzRGross)


I picked up 2 packages of plastic eggs from the dollar store (they only came in packages of 8) and stuck a small square to the back of each egg. (The velcro has an adhesive on the back) and then stuck the eggs to the tray!


It sits on our kitchen table just waiting for April 13th so the COUNTDOWN can begin!


The activities our eggs have in store for us are (and yes I stole some of them from the blog):

• Get Easter books from the library
• Color Easter pictures
• Play pin the nose on the bunny
• Easter scavanger Hunt-I already know this will be the favorite! :)
  
• Dye Easter eggs
• Make Tissue paper eggs
• Easter treat for the neighbors
• Make Easter bunny cupcakes
  
• For FHE study the story of Jesus Christ's resurrection
• Make Easter cards for grandparents
• Go on a Spring Nature walk looking for birds nest, bugs, flowers, etc. (if it ever stops snowing that is!)
• Make a bunny mask

Have a wonderful weekend, I'll be back Monday to share a little jellybean fun!

Candy Jar

I first saw these cute DIY candy jars HERE and thought to myself, Hey that's cheap and easy, I could totally do that! So I did!


For mine I picked up a glass candlestick at the dollar store (as well as a bag of Easter chocolates!) and this pretty jar at DI (also $1).


First I spray painted the candlestick and the lid of the glass jar bright squashy yellow (not the real name of the paint color) that I had left over from THIS project. Then I used hot glue to glue the jar to the top of the candlestick. (most people use E6000 but I didn't have any)




As you might be able to tell, I have a slight obsession with bright pink right now so when my yellow jar asked for some spicen' up I new just what sweet love she needed!


Then I gave her a nice, comfy home on the mantel. (Subway art from LollyJane Boutique)


I'm linking this to The CSI project!


Thanks for dropping by! Here's what's comin' up for ya tomorrow...



(sorry I think the hint for the candy jar was a bit too easy so this should keep ya guessing! :))

Burlap Spring Wreath

As I mentioned in the post where I made my St. Patricks wreath, I think if you do nothing else for a holiday, a wreath is the perfect simple thing that brings in some fun without being overwhelming. So to kick off our spring/Easter goodies I thought the first thing I'd show you is my fancied up dollar store wreath!

I started with this 13" wreath picked up at the dollar store, and some burlap from the HL (theirs was $3.99/yd. and you'll only need 1/4-1/2 yd-depending on the size of your wreath).


I cut the burlap into about 2 inch strips (x the length of the fabric...about 45 inch if I'm remembering right) and wrapped in directly around the wreath slightly overlapping it as I went.


I only needed about 3 strips to cover the whole wreath.


Next I made some rolled flowers and hot glued them to the side of the wreath. (after rearranging them countless times throughout an entire episode of traffic light-watch this show. you will LAUGH!)


Recognize this fabric from the last post?! Yep, I had enough left over of everything to make these and a few other flowers that are on a different wreath I made for the inside of my house (a few posts down the road). I finally have a fabric stash! Eeeek! Am I legit or what? (and yes people actually say that word...my sister for one-which makes it cool.)


Next I added a little sweet love to their centers...




I think if you wanted to stop there, it would still be a door-worthy hanging wreath, but I loved this idea and had to copy it! What I didn't think about before I bought the letter B ($1.50 using a 40%off coupon from the HL.) is how in the world I would wrap this-in a presentable way-using jute. The girl's I copied (sorry I don't know her name) used a letter A...no curves. Oops.


So stand back really far from your computer and this will look perfecto. And would it really be ME if I didn't add a jeweled princess crown button? Nope. It wouldn't.


And now she's complete. And it IS a she. I think the princess crown sorta gives that away people.


Tie a BOLD pink polka dotted ribbon (dollar store) to hang it and you're finis! (that's "finished" in french. I googled it so I'm sure.)


Thanks for stopping by...here's what's in store tomorrow!



My wreath and I will be attending my first linky party's ever on Thur. at these fun places!

Baby Girl Gift

I've seen a few adorable homemade baby gift ideas around the blog-o-sphere over the past couple months so when my sweet next door neighbor (and visiting teacher-love UT :)) had her- most kissable baby cheeks ever- baby girl awhile back, I knew just what I wanted to give her! And the fact that it was under $15 to make it all (total right around $11-including the gift packaging) didn't hurt either. ;)


I started by making this Q-tip jar I found on one of my favorite blogs Less Cake More Frosting.


The top of my jar is a little different than hers, so in case you wanted to know how I made my flower, here ya go!

I started by cutting 4 circles, the same size, out of felt-about 3 inches, as well as a small square (not pictured, but you'll see it below).


Next you fold each circle in half once and then in half again. (I like to lay a strip of hot glue down the crease of the fold when you fold your circle in half the second time so that it holds its shape a little better)Then you hot glue your folded circle-which now looks like a triangle-onto your piece of square felt by placing a drop of glue on the tip of the "triangle" and placing the point in the center of the square felt, like so...


...doing the same for each of the 4 pieces so it looks like this when all four triangle shaped pieces are glued down.


Then fluff them up a bit so they have some volume!


Next I cut 2 "wavy" circles out of felt just a smidgen smaller than the 4 circles were (how do you like that for a measurement?!) so that when they're glued down on top of the 4 triangles they look a little more flower like. These circles you only fold in half once and glue down on top of your folded triangles.


And then again...FLUFF! "It's so fluffy I could die!"-name that movie and get 10 cool points!


I chose to put a little hot pink pom pom on top, but you could do anything-button, bow, jewel, etc.


Then I hot glued my pretty flower to the top of my jar (from Hobby Lobby $1 on sale). I found some fun yellow colored Qtips for $1 at our local grocery store and printed out the label on black vinyl using my cricut and it was done!

* I first made the flower for The Princess's hair several months ago and they're just attached to an alligator clip. They look super cute in her hair, so if you need an easy, cheap hair accessory try it out!

The next part of the gift was a wipes band, which was linked in the above Qtips jar tutorial on the same blog.

I was nervous to try it since it involved sewing (small freak out) but thought it seemed like a good beginner sewing project. I was totally right and I love love love how it turned out! (Her tutorial is perfect so hop over there if you want to make one too, just click on the word wipes band above!)

I found the fabric at Hobby Lobby-on sale for $4.90/yd and I bought 1/2 a yd. So it was a little less than $2.5 and I have enough left that I could easily make another one...or two. :)


I'm sure everyone knows how to make these rolled flowers because I have seen them everywhere, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how on my own! I finally found a good tutorial on Studio 5 (local UT show), so if you're interested in making your own rolled flowers check it out!


The flower on the bottom is called a fabric yo-yo which you'll see on the wipes case cover below.


So with these two done..


...the last thing I wanted to add to the gift was the wipes case cover I found on Make it and Love it.

I drool with envy over her creativity! Seriously check her out-AND she just had a precious, precious baby girl that almost makes me think pregnancy might be worth suffering through again. Almost.

Her tutorial is also really detailed so I'm just showing you a few shots from mine cause I think it's helpful to see as many pictures as you can when trying to re-create something. Well, that's true for me anyways because I copy tutorials word. for. word. I'm not cool enough to be able to come up with adjustments on my own yet. YET, being the key word in that sentence cause a girls gotta have hope! :) ha ha.


The fabric yo yo is really easy to make. Try it, you'll see.


I'm so proud of my little sewing project! Ha ha, oh the simple little joys life gives me! :)


Picked up a cute little basket from the dollar store (cheaper than a gift bag and much more practical for a new mom right?!) to package it all in and it was a wrap!