Easter Art

 I finally finished it. After creating a design I liked, I got stumped. "Maybe I should have cut it out in black vinyl instead of white." "Can I really make paint a sunrise that I won't mind others seeing?" "Maybe I should just put it on a solid color background instead." Anyway, done is better than perfection, so today I pressed forward and although my attempt at a sunrise is far from perfect, it's the best sunrise I've ever painted.

"He is Risen" is my favorite Easter hymn. And one of my favorite things about spring is new flowers. The first ones to come up are the daffodils that I transplanted from my parents yard. Here in the South they have already bloomed and gone, but they still say spring to me. Right now we have irises and bluebonnets and the redbud tree is blooming too. Happy Easter!

Scripture App

I'm not sure if this counts as being frugal, but it has been a BIG help to me in my spirituality (and that's worth a lot), so I'm passing it along.

I have struggled for years making scripture study and journal writing part of my daily routine.  At one point I even devoted the first 15 minutes of my elliptical machine use to reading scriptures.  That one flopped - I can't imagine why:)

My latest, most successful attempt centers around my computer.  I've noticed over the years that my life in large part revolves around my computer.  It is a very, very rare day that I don't turn on the computer at least once.  And now that I'm helping my husband with his business, I spend even more time with my keyboard.  So, the idea was this: I found a scripture app that I liked, (I chose www.ldsscriptures.com, but there are lots of them out there).  Then, I put the program in my start-up folder.  (A suprisingly simple process - in Windows 7/XP, click your "Start" button, select "All Programs," find and open the "Startup" folder, and drag/drop your program into it! - I've since switched to Windows 8, which I don't understand, so these instructions are subject to the limits of my rather-limited-memory).

This means that, each time I start my computer, LDS Scriptures opens up.  I have a personal rule that I can't shut it until I've written a short note in the journal section and read a least a few verses.  So far, it's been quite successful.

Homemade Gifts - Quiet Pages Counting Book

This idea came off of pinterest somewhere, but has been very customized by me. I think quiet books are awesome, but the thought of creating page after page and putting it into one big book is intimidating (i.e. takes too long). I've opted to do Quiet Pages. Same concept as a quiet book, but in individual page format. Plus if you have multiple kids they can each have a page instead of one person having the book.

Supplies:
stiff felt cut to 8 X 12
small ribbon
wider ribbon
twill tape (or wide ribbon would do)
assortment of beads
number beads

Counting Page in progress - notice marks 1" apart for ribbons

Toddler Tested - Mother Approved

Counting Quiet Page

Counting Quiet Page

Most of my beads came from my daughter's discarded collection (the garage sale box) so my cost was minimal.

I won't make a detailed tutorial, but I will say that super glue isn't a good idea. I started out gluing the ribbon down to keep it in place while I sewed, but ended up just hand placing each ribbon as I got to it (worked much better and didn't leave super glue residue on my sewing machine).

The title on the front is in heat transfer vinyl. There are some advantages to having your own online business!

Love the Red Number Beads

Homemade Gifts - Funny Faces Quiet Page

Spoiler alert: If I drew your name for Christmas in the sibling exchange stop reading now!

This is my favorite quiet page of all time (at the moment). In the process of making it every kid in the house ended up playing with it. The boy hair became a beard, a mustache, a crown, etc. The yellow center for the flowers became buttons, eyes, earrings, etc.

I contemplated sewing some pieces together like the yellow center onto the flower, but didn't. Rather than telling the kid what the piece was intended for it's fun to see how they interpret or use the pieces.

Warning: not for small kids who put everything in their mouths!

Funny Face Quiet Page

Roll to Store Funny Face Quiet Page

Funny Face Quiet Page ready to go in ziplock

Funny Face 2 Quiet Page

Inspirational Screen Saver

I recently fell in love with all those cool printables on the internet. Only problem is - I haven't printed a single one of them. And if I did get around to printing them (professionally or using all my color ink to do so) where would I put them. I'd have to get frames and make holes in the wall...... (excuses, excuses, excuses).

Enter: THE INSPIRATIONAL SCREEN SAVER. I made a folder in my picture files just for my inspirational printable downloads and I set it as my screen saver! LOVE IT!

So here are some links to my favorite "screen saver" printables:

It Works for Bobbi Free Printables

 
 I liked the door so much it is currently my desktop background.

A Lifetime of Wisdom  tons of inspirational images no necessarily printable


And Proclamation pictures blogspot



Next project - go through my Quotes Board on Pinterest and add to my screen saver!

HINT - Pinning your pics to a pinterest board will help you find them again if you want to find the source.

Balloon Pinatas

For my daughter's birthday party I thought it would be fun to fill a balloon with candy for each kid.  Kind of a mini-pinata.  Plus we were doing a princess party and someone online had the idea to do it and say that the candy was under a spell and they had to break the spell (and the balloon) to get their candy.  Cheesy, but it fit the theme.  After getting candy and trying to stuff it into an deflated balloon, I realized there had to be a better way.  Back to the internet!  This is what worked for me:

1. Get a tube.  The bigger the more candy you can put it, but you have to be able to stretch a balloon across one end.  What I found was a vacuum attachment tube. 

2. Get candy.  Make sure it fits in your tube.  You can also get confetti, but since I didn't want confetti all over my house, I didn't.

3. Get balloons.  The big kind.

4. Stretch the balloon over one end of the tube.  Fill the tube with candy and confetti, and blow up the balloon using the tube.  So you have your lips, tube filled with candy, and then the balloon.  (I did wash out my vacuum tube before doing this!)  When the balloon gets pretty big the neck of the balloon expands enough that you can tilt the tube down and all the candy falls into the balloon.  Then you just take the balloon off, let air out till it's the right size, and tie it.

The kids had a great time with it, especially since they were 4 year olds and actually had a bit of a challenge popping their balloons.  Great fun and faster than the papier mache pinata I made for the last birthday party!  give it a try just for fun!

The End of Bathroom Towel Wars

Two Towel Rods = War

 When we moved into our house we were a family of 4. The builder graciously? gave us one towel rod in each bathroom which we soon upgraded to two towel rods in each bathroom. Now we are a family of 7 and everyone seems to want a dry towel after their bath (recycling anyone? - just kidding I prefer my own towel too).

It seemed that the kids bathroom had a chronic condition called towel-apathy. The towels always wound up on the floor looking very pathetic or when they were hung up the bathroom looked like a laundry mat with multiple towels on the same rod and towels over the shower rod too.

Six Towel Hooks Plus Rod = No Towels on the Floor?

This morning with my miniature assistant I put up this nifty towel hook contraption courtesy of Walmart clearance (otherwise I would have been making it and it would have taken longer). I opted to leave the lower rod in hopes of teaching our children to use a hand towel when they wash their hands. Besides, you can never have too many towel rods in this house.