iPod Nano Cake

Check out this amazing cake that my mom made for a cake auction fundraiser.  She did a great job, even adding ear buds.  If you are up to date on your Primary songs, then you'll recognize the song titles too.

My List Board

I've had some requests to see my wonderful "white" board hanging in my kitchen.  I bought it at IKEA on a bit of a whim and I am so glad I did.  I use it every day to make my grocery lists and if I remember I need to call or email someone?  BAM!  I can write it down quickly so I won't forget.  (And trust me, if I don't write it down...I will forget.)  I am list maker, so I love my List Board.  It is also nice for displaying kids artwork as you can see.

I'm thinking of getting a cool black and white photo to put behind or maybe some fun patterned paper.

Valentines 2011 Wrap Up

My YW made a bunch of these for our mid-week activity, just in time for Valentine's Day.  I found the tutorial HERE and we couldn't resist.  The girls really liked them.

My bookclub is doing a Valentine gift exchange this month.  We have to choose an object to represent one of our favorite books, $10 or less.  I chose Pride and Prejudice (as if there was ANY other choice), bought a cute mug, a Porcelaine pen at Michael's, and wrote one of the most famous quotes from the book on it.  Stick the mug in the oven at 300 degrees to set the ink and your are done!  This idea was a combo from HERE and HERE.  For my first try, I'm pretty happy with it.  I think with some practice I could make some really cute teacher/friend/birthday gifts.

That's it for me and Valentine's Day this year.

I promise.

Class Valentines 2011

All three of my boys are in some kind of classroom this year, and that means making Valentines for a lot of people.  I'm not a big fan of the store bought kind, although I have used them in the past.  This year, we've managed to get ahead of the game a bit and make some handmade Valentines.

FOR THE FIRST GRADERS:

(photo via Skip to my Lou)

Alas, these Valentines were already sent to school to be put in the big Valentine class box and I forgot to snap a picture of our version.  We found this great template at Skip to my Lou and my six year old had a great time cutting out the wings and writing his classmates' names on them.  We changed it a bit and wrapped each lollipop top with black tissue paper and added pipe cleaner antennas.  We also did orange and blue wings for the boys in case any of them thought these were too "girly".  That's a big deal in first grade, ya know.

FOR THE PRESCHOOLERS:

I fell in love with this idea as soon as I saw it on Thirty Handmade Days.  Great for my younger two who go to autism and speech therapy preschools, both classes which are all boys.

I love the back of the label with the tire tracks.

FOR THE TEACHERS:

Took my bottles from Austin and Tyler's birthday party (the snowmen), washed them out, filled them with candy, spray painted the lids, and added a ribbon with a tag.  Wanted a little something more on it....

There, much better!  Cream vinyl heart cut from my Silhouette.  We are ready for the class parties to begin.

Preschool with a Silhouette

I love my Silhouette that I received for Christmas last year.  I put it to good use the other day when we had "preschool" over at our house.  We did the letter A and D.  First, a line of glue in the shape of an A.  The kids put little apples on the glue to make their letter.  All the apples were cut with my Silhouette.  Would have taken forever by hand.

We also did the letter D.  (We were playing catch up with the letter A due to illness a few weeks ago.)  The girls chose princess outfits for their paper dolls.  I helped glue them on.

Tyler, of course, did not want a princess dress.  He was content with just regular clothes.

Preschool is so much fun.  They are so eager to learn and participate.

Paperwork Pileup: An Organization Attempt

 

I have a problem with paperwork piling up all over my house.  Between school papers, sports, speech therapists, doctors' stuff, and, of course, bills, I can't keep it all straight.  It's been driving me crazy for a while and finally I decided to do something about it after I saw this: 

Jen at Tatertots and Jello did a guest post at Brooklyn Limestone and I was inspired.  I threw in a desire to use some Modge Podge thanks to Amy at Modge Podge Rocks.  I love checking out others' blogs and ideas and making them my own.

I started off with a clear wall hanging file ($2.99 each) from Target.  I grabbed the last two in the store.  I hope they get more soon.  I mounted mine on the wall with 3M strips because this will not be their permanent location.  Once my new computer desk is in place, they will be moved across the room.  This works for now and those 3M strips are amazing.

Here's the look with some files in them.  Not bad, but not my favorite either.

I loved Jen's idea with the pretty die-cut paper in her file, but decided I wanted to wrap this fun fabric around mine instead.  This fabric was purchased at IKEA a while ago and I have not seen it there since.  

Modge Podge directly onto the plastic file, press and wrap your fabric around tightly.  Pretend like you are wrapping a present and be liberal with the Modge Podge. 

When you are done, trim off excess fabric, give the outside of the fabric a liberal coat of Modge Podge and let dry completely.

Hang it on your wall and you are organizing in style.  I'll report back later on my paper filing progress.  I hope this will help solve the problem!

Mini Valentines Cupcakes

 

I made these last week for my YW girls activity.   Deceptively simple to make.

 

Vanilla cake mix cooked in mini cupcake pans.  Canned chocolate frosting, microwaved for 30 seconds.  Dip the top of each cupcake in the melted frosting and cool until set.

 I had some red fondant left over from my boys' birthday train cake, so I pulled it out thinking I would make some cute Valentine hearts.  I didn't have a small heart shape cutter and I wasn't about to cut out a bunch of hearts by hand....so I improvised.

I found a small leaf cutter amongst my stash.  Roll out your fondant with powdered sugar and cut our your leaf shape.

Take a small, sharp knife and cut out the stem part of the leaf.  Discard the small stem piece and now you have the rough shape of a heart.

 

Shape your cut out with your hands until it's a cute little heart.

 

 Top your cupcakes with your hearts and you are done!

 Looks like I spent all day in the kitchen when I really spent less than an hour...with baking time!  The girls loved them and they were gone in minutes.  Happy Valentine's Day everyone!