HOMEMADE GUMMY SNACKS...

I found this recipe a LOOOOONGGG time ago over at Six Sisters Stuff, and knew that someday I would try to make these for my boys, who LOOOOOOVE Gummy Snacks.

After getting lucky, a few months ago, at my son's pre-school's yard sale, and finding a Mold tray for just One Penny, I knew I was one step closer to getting these made.  Then this morning, during a routine trip to Walmart, I finally got the supplies - today would be the day!!

The supplies you need are some flavored gelatin and some unflavored gelatin.  

At Walmart, the Knox was $1.48 for (4)/.25oz packets, and the Jell-O was $.74 for a 3oz. box.  So all told, because I got two flavors - I spent just under $3.00.

Following the recipe from the above stated blog, this is how easy it is...

(1) 3oz. box of Flavored Gelatin

(2) .25oz packets of Unflavored Gelatin

1/3 C water.

Sprinkle all the gelatin over the water in a small saucepan.

Heat over medium heat and stir until all powder is completely dissolved.

Pour into molds

Let sit for at least 20 minutes. 

     When I checked them at twenty minutes, they were solid enough, but had a weird 

     texture when I tasted them.  I think I ended up letting them sit for a little over an 

     hour - by that time, they were the Perfect Gummy texture.

This is the Mold tray that I scored at the yard sale.  From the original blog, she said that they can be found at Walmart and craft stores.  I don't know if they're Jell-O brand, but anything with a small shaped mold would work.

For $3, I got (70), slightly larger than a jelly bean, Gummy snacks.  Not sure if that's
a savings or not, but they sure were easy to make.

 I'm sure we will be making a lot of these, in all different flavors, this summer.

POOL NOODLE RACE TRACK...

I'm pretty sure I saw this idea a while ago, but just never got around to buying the supplies.  But after reviewing projects to do this summer with my boys, I knew it was time to make the Pool Noodle Race Track...

So I went back and looked at this one over at Home Spun Threads, and this one at My Little Gems.  My initial intention, was to make it for cars, but the noodle I purchased at the Dollar Tree didn't have a big enough center hole, so I had to improvise.  Luckily, I had some 3/4" wooden beads in my craft supply stash - and they worked perfectly.

But of course, we couldn't just leave them plain wood... the boys went to town on them with washable markers, but after handling and playing with them for sometime, it seemed that their little hands were permanently dyed - thank Heavens for washable.

Normally, I would go over the top on a project like this... for instance, I would have had "Start" / "Finish" flags, and I probably would have covered the mailing box with something.  But instead, I actually took into account my boys track record of how quickly they can destroy something, so I didn't waste the time on things that would have looked great for photographs, but they could care less about.

It was a HUGE HIT!!  In this photo, I just know they are saying...

"Mommy, you're the BEST!!"

And of course, they totally proved me wrong and didn't destroy it... YET!

VALENTINE YARN WREATH

When I went to my Facebook page to post about my earlier blog posts from this morning, my Cover photo reminded me that I had forgotten about my Valentine wreath project.

Back in January, a good friend of mine decided she needed a "Girls Day", and thought it would be fun if we did a craft.  From a blog that she follows, she saw where a group of women had gotten together and made wrapped yarn wreaths.  So on a Sunday afternoon, we gathered at her house and started to do some serious wrapping.

I had always wanted to do a yarn wreath, and from all the ones I had seen, I really liked the Argyle style.  So I decided to integrate the Argyle style with the Valentine Holiday.

Here are the beautiful wreaths we all made that day.  Can you guess which one is mine?

It was a fun afternoon spent with good friends, yummy food, and amazing creativity.  

This type of wreath is really very simple, and doesn't take a whole lot of time to create.  So give it a try sometime!!

RECENT FOOD FUN

Back in March, here in Central Virginia, we were hit by a Major Winter Storm.  So major, that it caused us to be without power for EIGHT days!!  Anyway, on day One (not knowing I still have seven days to go), I was ambitious about trying to entertain my boys.  

I had recently Pinned this idea, and I knew I had all the ingredients...

The boys loved making these, and we now make them all the time.  My oldest son had just lost his First tooth the day before, so he made one of his to reflect his missing tooth.

Just two days ago, my husband and I celebrated our Birthdays.  Yes, we share the same Birthday!!  I had ordered him a gift online, but it still hasn't arrived, so he had nothing to open that day.  So after seeing these a couple of days before, I decided I would at least make him a special little Birthday Treat.  

My husband is from New Orleans and loves to eat Crawfish.  We actually have a Crawfish Boil every year around this time.  So when I saw Amy's Crawfish Cakes, I knew they would be perfect for him!

*note:  I did not use edible eyes, because grocery stores in the little town I live in, do not carry anything like that, and I didn't have time to run to Hobby Lobby 45 minutes away.

But still, I think they turned out really cute!!  The Birthday Boy enjoyed them and so did our little guys!! 

A SHABBY CHIC PRINCESS BIRTHDAY PARTY

Back before the CRAZY first quarter of my year (go here to see what I'm talking about), I was asked by my dear friend, Denise, to help plan her daughter's Seventh Birthday party.

With laptop in hand, we met one morning at a local coffee shop, and started scouring Pinterest for ideas.  We only had about a week and a half to pull this off, so we tried to keep it as simple as possible.  Once we had a plan, and had gone shopping for supplies, we divided up tasks and got to work.  

If I don't say so myself, I think it all turned out Beautifully.  And Princess Maggie had a Shabby Chic Princess Seventh Birthday she will never forget.

This is how crazy my friend is... right after we met, and had a game plan of the decorating scheme, she decided that her red hutch in the dining room, wasn't going to go with all the party decor.  So what did she do?  She painted it, along with the dining room chairs!!  Crazy, right?!!

Now on to the party details...

We strung pearls from the chandelier...

She had the pink ticking fabric bunting, and I had some leftover burlap, so we took her bunting apart, and I revamped it with some burlap bunting and mini clothespins.

She already had the letters, so I made some fabric, felt and tissue paper flowers and embellished them.

We found this chipboard crown at Hobby Lobby, so her and Maggie "blinged" it up with some silver glitter.

Same with the number Seven.  Then I made the Subway Art with my Cricut.  And for a little extra dazzle, I glued some pearlized sequins to the letters.

We also found these chipboard castles, which also got the glittered treatment.  They dressed up the hutch and adorned some of the chairs.

We had seen the tulle skirt idea on Pinterest, and it was one of her favorites.  So we were inspired to use that same detail on the hutch, and then finished it off with an adorable pink rag rosette trim that we found, also at Hobby Lobby.

The back of the slipcovered chairs were adorned with pink tulle bows and a little castle bling.

The food, we made simple, and kept it to finger food - fruit, candy, popcorn, and castle shaped jelly sandwiches.  We had seen the popcorn cones on Pinterest, so I tried my hand at recreating that detail.

I already had the drink dispenser, that I purchased for my son's birthday party, so we used that to serve, of course, pink lemonade.

I think my most favorite detail of the whole party, was how the drinks were served.  I just love the little faceted jelly jars with the pink striped paper straws that Denise found online.  But of ourse, I had to embellish them with some jute twine and paper crowns.

To entertain the party goers, we had two activities for them to enjoy.  First, they could decorate a hand mirror.  Denise found the unfinished wood mirrors at HL, which she spray painted pink.  Then we had all kinds of jewels that they could glue on.

It was a huge hit!!

Then we had a nail painting station... and if you know me at all, I couldn't just have polish and remover sitting there, I had to dress it all up.  So I used a white picture frame as a tray (with a little pink paper collage under the glass), and a small cake stand to hold the polish.  Voila!  Isn't it pretty?

What little girl doesn't love painting their nails?

As party souvenirs, we had two things for the girls.  First, what princess is complete without her amazing hat?  Sadly, none of them really wanted to wear one :(

And then, they all took home one of these adorable frames, which they could fill, once they received their Thank You notes...

...with a Party Photo Booth Portrait, taken by Denise.  We set up this little vignette down in Denise's studio, using just some kraft paper and pink streamers.

Rather than a cake, Denise made these yummy cupcakes, which we displayed in this cute stainless stand we got at HL.  She decorated them with pink frosting and edible pearls.  Then I embellished them with the crown toppers.

I think the Birthday girl enjoyed them!

What an Amazing Afternoon with 14 little Princesses, who all had Fun!!

Thank you to my friend for allowing me to be a part of her little girl's special day.

Here are links to some of our Inspiration...

Once Upon a Time
Brown Paper, String and Princesses

RAG GARLAND

WOW, I haven't been on here in a Long, Long, Long time!!  Sorry everyone.  But in my defense, a LOT has been going on in my life since the last time I posted.  

Since then (November), we had the holidays of course, then at the end of January, we decided to unexpectantly move!  I know, crazy right?  So literally three weeks later we moved.  

The house we moved to is a rental, and it hadn't been lived in in a while, so there were a lot of kinks to get worked out... the biggest one being, I wasn't able to do laundry for THREE weeks.  UGH is right!!  Then, literally the day after it was all fixed and I was able to complete ALL our laundry, a Huge winter storm hit, and we were without power for (wait for it) EIGHT DAYS!!!!

After that saga, we have, ever so slowly, finally been able to get settled.  And now after almost three months, it's starting to feel like home.  

Which means, I can get back to my normal crafting and blogging routine... YAY!!!

Now, despite all that craziness I just mentioned above, I did do a little bit of crafting, which I would now like to share with you.  Right after I took down our Christmas decorations, I put out the Valentine decorations (not knowing of course, we would be moved before that holiday even occured).  

Once I had everything out, I thought our fireplace mantle needed a little somethin, somethin!  So, I got out all my fabric scraps - picked through them all searching for everything in pinks and reds, and whipped up this little Cutie!

Using my rotary cutter, I cut strips 1" x 6".  There is probably 15 different patterns that I used, which I randomly tied to a piece of jute.  That's it!  Real Simple!!

I can't wait to hang it next year, here in our new house.