Menu Board

I made this a very long time ago - probably over a year ago. But I realized I never posted anything about it. Along with many other crafts I found in my picture folder...  So maybe I'll post them soon.

Now, Steve and I can cook, but we are not great cooks. We follow recipes and hope it comes out alright enough to eat. We are also not great at variety (mainly because of my picky eating). So one day I got tired of asking "what do you want for dinner tonight?" and getting the answer, "I don't know, what sounds good to you?" Steve and I both got very tired of this conversation every night.

So my friends at work and I decided to try something like this pin. I am all for simplicity, so I went for a very similar design. I've seen those ideas for people that plan meals for months or a year at a time, but that was waaaay too overwhelming for me.

Here was my particular inspiration:

Where I got the idea (from Pinterest)

So I got my cheap frame from the dollar store. Then I picked some paper I liked. The picture frame was not a square so I needed a second piece of paper to fill it. I also wanted a spot to put a general shopping list for the recipes we were making that week.

I typed up the day abbreviations, put some red paper behind them, and glued them on. Then I used stickers for the word menu on top of the glass.

TA-DA!!! I love it. It is one of the few things I've made that I have actually used. So we have used this for over and year and it's still been working for us.

The 12 Dates of 2013

This year for Christmas Hubby and I set a rough budget to spend on each other. After I felt I had spent enough I wanted to think of a gift for Hubs that was something that wasn't a "thing." I had been on Pinterest (of course) and saw a few different ideas I liked:

http://followinginmyshoes.com/life-as-i-know-it/wifedom/hubbys-gift-a-year-of-date-nights/ 

http://www.thepoefam.com/2012/01/year-of-going-out-by-staying-in.html 

www.thedatingdivas.com



I love the dating divas - they have so many cool ideas for date nights, that include going out or staying in. And you can adjust the ideas to whatever suits your time and liking. (Not endorsing them because they told me to. I just really think they have awesome ideas.)

So I just chose 12 of the dates that I thought sounded fun, adapted a few, and made a book out of scrapbook paper. I made little tickets for each date and then I added any explanation for the date on the page for the month. I made sure to leave room for any pictures we took on the date. Then I left the inside of the page open like pockets and used brown paper bags at pockets for pictures. Then I can also write details on the bag. I looooved it! And Steve enjoyed getting it. It was a really nice and cheap way to make sure we have at least one date night a month in our busy schedules.

Here is what it looked like:

Here is a picture from our first date in January to the Jazz Game. (This one was technically another one of Hubby's Christmas gifts, so that was easy to plan.)

Elephant Ear Bread Pin

Here we go! More feeds.

Want to know a secret? Maybe I have like 6 more things I have tried, but didn't take pictures and/or you guys might or might not think I'm obsessed.

It's fine. Here is the original:

http://www.recipesnobs.com/2012/03/cinnamon-and-sugar-pull-apart-bread.html

 And here is my attempt at duplication:

Pretty good, eh?

3 Facts about this bread:

    1. Yes, This really has some cinnamon-y goodness qualities.
    2. It is not a light, fluffy bread though. Don't expect that.
    3. You will be disappointed if you think it is light and fluffy.

Maybe I ate a lot of it... Maybe.

Mickelle

Crash Hot Potatoes Pin

Why yes, I am alive...
 I have several pins that I will be adding right this very second.

So I was on a food kick.

Here is the original:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/

Here is my hour in pictures:

Maybe we added cheese to these... because cheese makes everything better!

Really. If you follow the directions; It works.

Mickelle

Crochet Snowflake Garland

This is not necessarily a pin... but let's pretend, k?

I have recently taken up the obsession hobby of crocheting. It is so fun to make things with my hands and I love how it feels to finish a project. I also love crocheting because I can make things for others and serve those in need or those in my family.

I was having the urge to create something Christmas-y for our first Christmas in our new home. So I went searching on the Red Heart website. It's great because it has so many projects for all kinds of skill levels. I eventually found something I liked and wanted to try - The Snowflake Mitten Ornament. I went to work, and after finishing I did not love the mitten. But I did love that cute little snowflake!! So I decided to make a bunch and make it into a cute little garland for my mantle. Off to work I go!

So stinkin' adorable!

I forgot that it would overlap with my stockings, but I am leaving it for now. Next year I'll find a better place for it.

I plan to make our fireplace lovely and perfect whenever we can paint our living area. But it is what it is for now - and I actually am okay with it. I could have made the garland a little longer, but like I said - I like it for now. So cute and it wasn't too hard to make.

Sorry it's not really a pin - but I hope it inspired you a little bit to go and create something lovely!

Lynnette

12 Days of Christmas pin

The hubs and I bought our first home this year, so this is our first Christmas in our home! I decided to try out a new tradition to go with our new home this year. It helps that I'm not worrying about homework or finals right now. I have always loved the idea of the advent calendars that have a little thought/activity leading up to Christmas. It just helps get me in the Christmas spirit.

A while back I had pinned this pin. Source: 12 Days of Christmas to Christ

 

You need to know that this is from LDS Living. So this may not be exactly matching up with your belief system. I also pinned some other cool ideas, like ... 50 Things to do at Christmas, Reason for the Season Devotionals, Christmas Symbols, The 12 Dates of Christmas. Take your pick - these all rock. I'm actually probably going to take ideas from all of these. But for this project I focused on The 12 Days of Christmas to Christ.

 

I decided I wanted to make it an advent-type thing, so I made little pocket-ornaments for each of the 12 days. I simply took cute Christmas paper, measured it about 2 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches, folded it in half, one staple on each side, hole punched the two top corners, and strung ribbon through. I typed the little thought/lesson in pretty fonts, and folded them up and stuck them inside the pocket. Then I traced the numbers on the ornaments and colored them in. Not too fancy, but cute and simple.

Don't you love our little Utah Jazz ornament? Us too.

So I plan to start on the 13th so we'll end on Christmas Eve. I hope it's fun and that we can keep doing it every year, and maybe even add new things as our family grows.

Lynnette

What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

Watermark Tee Pin

 Well today I am talking about this REALLY cool idea - the Watermark Tee. Here is the watermark tee tutorial that I found. My family was taking a reunion vacation to Disney World and I thought it would be so cool to make shirts for my family. I heard that everyone having the same color shirt in a crowded area like that is helpful, especially when trying to wrangle children. So this was a great opportunity to try it out, right?

I got the shirts, the GEL glue (which the tutorial says is essential for this project), the Rit dye, a stencil (specific to my project), and the paper "stencil" to put under the shirt so I can trace it without marking on my shirt.




Got the supplies all together.

 You need to get the shirt damp, and then put something in the shirt that will not absorb the water or glue when you put that on there. You don't want the front and back of the shirt glued together. And if the glue gets on other parts of the shirt, that part won't get dyed and it will look weird. I used old textbooks I didn't care about, some plastic dividers, and bin lids. I put a towel under my shirt so the carpet didn't get soaked.

I stenciled the letters onto the shirt - the family name is Enz. :) I tried to use little dashes, so if the pencil didn't come out all the way it wouldn't look weird. This was time consuming.





Then I followed my stencil with the gel glue. It was hard at the beginning to get the pressure right so it didn't come out globby. But I got it eventually. I did a crown on the back for all the girls and a sword for all the boys.

 

I forgot to take pictures of the dying process. But do it just how it does on the tutorial. Make sure you use COOL or COLD water with the dye!! This is important. The first batch of shirts I did in hot water like it says on the Rit bottle. But that made the glue dissolve and it dyed where the glue was. So those shirts did not come out as clearly as I would have preferred. So use cool water with the dye. Then rinse all the shirts with cool/warm-ish water to get more of the glue and pencil off.

Then I set the shirts out to dry over night. I put them outside ... then it started to rain. So I had to bring them in the garage.

 

After the shirts were dry (to help the dye set), I washed them in the washing machine like normal. As you can tell from the difference in color from the picture of them drying to my hubby wearing it - the color came out QUITE a bit. I was VERY frustrated with that because I wanted them to be orange, not yellow. And I even used extra dye in the water to make sure they came out darker. And it still didn't work out how I wanted it. So ... maybe if I used even more dye? I'm not sure what would have made this work out darker.

 

 

 

Lessons learned from this:

1. Do this project WAY in advance to take into account for drying time of glue (over night) and dyed shirts (over night).

2. Use cool/cold water when dying the shirts.

3. Use the right amount of dye to make the shirt comes out the correct color.

4. A color that will have a good contrast - I wish I would have used green or blue...oh well.

5. This was an all-around time consuming project.

Cool things about this shirt:

1. SO COOL to be able to customize it - you could even use your own handwriting, like in the original tutorial.

2. These turned out to look really cool in blacklight - the whiter parts were very visible. So if you want a shirt that would look neat in blacklight, this is a fun technique.

Lynnette