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30 September 2010

Slowly looking like Halloween around here!

We are still recovering from Finnley's party! Seriously! I think I have found green frosting somewhere in here everyday since the party! Halloween stuff IS coming.. most of it is up already, but needs to be arranged or moved! I hope to have some more posts soon.. But this is the most recent project! Saw it first on Be Different.. Act Normal. I added some rhinestones and a silver glittered spider to mine! Such a easy and cute project..Pretty sure I will need one for Christmas too!






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25 September 2010

Red Wagon Themed Birthday Party!

ok, I didnt take ANY pictures of the actual party.. but thankfully lots of other people did... so for now, I am sharing the before party pictures!

First are these wagon wheels aka whoopie pies! Seems like they are starting to be popular!. I only went with them because they are round and the colors were right!

And of course, I used as many little wagons as I could get my hands on!

I made the little water bottle wrappers and got the toddler "wheels" cause they were wheels!
I was trying to stick with the same colors, yay for apples.. with caramel.. YUM!


Chips and RED salsa, a tiny tiny little wagon with matching MnM's and the pinwheels and lollipops were favors

I had some leftover sugar cookie dough.. decided to make some little cookies.. I am no frosting pro.. but they kind of look like wagons, and in a wagon!



 And here is Finnley's cake! I didn't think I could frost a wagon well enough, so I used a cookie instead!




And these are the cookie favors! At first I felt bad spending so much on the cookie cutter ( do you know how HARD it was to find a wagon cookie cutter)  But these turned out SO cute and in the end it was totally worth it!
I made the bag tags to match too!


And I forgot to take pics of the cupcakes. but grass frosting on some and some were white, used the cute cupcake pics I made a while ago!

I was SO SO bummed about his party clothes.. usually in Oregon it is NOT 80 degrees the end of Sept. I was pretty sure we would have a cloudy and 60's kind of day. So when I searched ebay for this
I KNEW he needed it!! And it would look SO cute on him.. too bad sweat isn't a good look on babies! But now we have this cute little sweater that should get lots of wear this fall!

That's all I have for today but there should be some real party pics soon! 
And who is ready for Halloween? I am working on it now that the party is over!  Maybe I can start sharing this week!

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21 September 2010

Fall Cleaning Bedrooms!


The bedrooms are the easiest for me, so I save them for last. Fall is almost here, I can't tell you how good it feels to almost be done with the cleaning already!

I am a fan of sleep! Having a cluttered or dirty bedroom is not going to help me sleep at all! I start with the clutter, go through clothes and anything I don't need or want goes to donation pile, for the kids, anything they have outgrown or will be in outgrown soon and are way out of season gets moved out of the way! The shorts and tank tops get moved to the back of everyones dresser and closets, while the sweaters and jeans make their way to the front!

~Getting rid of any books we are done with and all the little things that collect in nightstand is next.
~Mattresses need to be turned/flipped every 6 months, now is a good time to do it, and while you are at it, if you have a portable steamer, use it! I do the mattress on both sides and the box springs! Steam is great for killing allergens and dust mites! We put our electric bed warmers on now, just waiting for the cold days!
~Washing the curtains and chair cover, and while they are in the wash, I am cleaning all the window tracks, windows and steaming the chair (ours is old, my Great Grandpa made it and I am scared to use anything other than steam on it!)
~swapping out the pictures in the frames, making sure any candles that are past their prime are dealt with. And that is about it, other than the list for every room.
Hope I can get all 4 of our bedrooms done by Saturday! The weather here has been nice, and staying inside to clean has not been easy!
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16 September 2010

~Corn Pop Treats~


I love Fall! Ready for a few trips to the pumpkin patch and corn maze! Thinking I can bring these for a snack on the way home. Kids can help which they will love! Easy to make, marshmallows, a little butter and corn pops cereal. I didn't measure but I'm sure you could use the rice crispy treats recipe. I just lined a cookie sheet with wax paper ahead of time.Microwaved the marshmallows and butter then mixed the corn pops in. Once they were kind of cooled I just tried to form them into little corn cob shapes and let them set on the wax paprt. They are too big though, smaller next time for sure! And maybe wrap them in some cute little papers!



Working on birthday stuff! 1 week from Saturday! Got some last minute ideas I'm trying to squeeze in there too. Might have one more sneak peak before his party!

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14 September 2010

Fall Cleaning Bathrooms

Like I said.. they are my least favorite!! But ignnoring them won't make me like cleaning them anymore!
Not much different from spring cleaning!

What IS different this time for me is


~getting a warm smelling candle or plug in, and

~Finally getting rid of ALL the kids bath toys.. they can use their own bath now that it's all prettied up, in case you missed it it's HERE!

~Instead of just stocking up on q tips and bandaids.. also making sure I have the right shampoo for winter and crazy staticy hair!

~I am also going to make sure we are all set for the colds and nasty bugs that come with back to school and fall/winter! We shouldn't have to do much since (knock on wood) other than strep throat for me NO ONE has been sick in our house since before the baby was born! But checking in case some have expired!
 
Trying to get them done by the end of this week! Just a week and half to go for me to get everything done!
Bedrooms next week!
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10 September 2010

More Fall Cleaning!

Family Room

Picture is a link to my post from last year.. I don't think much has changed!


So I'm going to work on the family room today and a little over the weekend! Then the bathrooms, not my favorite, and having 3 takes a little time, but worth it in the end! Got some new plug in's for the bathrooms, Bath and Body works wall flowers in Nectarine Mint!
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07 September 2010

Halloween birds 'n' cages

I love Michael's craft store, LOVE it! I go a few times a month and always find something I can use. This time I found these little bird cages.. little and in the $ section!  Not colors I am interested in but they also had spray paint on clearance for 99 cents!!


I am in a Halloween mood already so I spray painted 1 silver, 1 alluminum (color on the can) and 1 black!

And I had a little bird and bat already, I just grabbed the little owl and hoped he was small enough to fit!
Stuck em in there and put one on the tree, the tree is new and hasn't been out of the package enough for the limbs to relax, but you get the idea!  Here are some pics of them done, I am excited to actually get Halloween stuff out soon, 2 weeks!


Linking up with

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06 September 2010

Fall Kitchen Cleaning


I always start with the kitchen, it gets the most abuse! Luckily weekly maintenance will keep the kitchen nice and sparkly for all those big holiday's coming up! What things in the Kitchen take the most abuse? The Fridge, Cabinets, Oven and the Pantry here! So those are the things I am focusing on because everything else (dishes, outside of cabinets and the microwave) gets handled every week and aren't too bad.
My method is start with the things that need to soak or take a long time and I work from the top down! I take the screens out of the vent, the shelves out of the fridge (usually 1 side at time) and wash them in the dishwasher!
The cabinets are my 2nd least favorite job, but maybe the most rewarding!

~First the top of the cabinets if they don't go to the ceiling, I use a swiffer duster and the vacuum!

~Once that is done I take everything out of 1 cabinet at a time, wipe down the shelves and put ONLY stuff I will use back in! Purging clutter might be hard sometimes but it is SO much better in the end! I just go around the kitchen 1 cabinet at a time until it's all done and put back together!

Once all the cabinets are done, I move onto the Fridge.
~While half the fridge is empty, I go through ALL those condiments and toss anything that is expired or about to.

~Then I use a magic eraser and some vinegar/water mix and clean the side that is empty. I do the other side when it's empty too.

Same thing with the freezer, anything that is close to expiring will be dinner soon, no need to waste it! All those left over otterpops (pretty much all purple and green here) get moved to the deep freezer.

~I empty everything out and give it a quick wipe down with the vinegar and water and magic eraser. That's it for the inside of the fridge and freezer!

~Once that is done, get the fridge pulled out and vacuum the coils and behind the fridge, if the coils are dusty, your fridge isn't working as well as it should and costs more to run!

~I wipe the sides and top down with vinegar/water mix

~And lastly, fish all those toys out from underneath!

Then the Oven  

If you have a self cleaning oven, go for it! We do, and I am scared to use it still! I've tried 1 time and it was SOO smokey, I am afraid to use it with the kids at home and I am not about to leave the oven on when we aren't here.. so instead I use the spray oven cleaner and some elbow grease!

Since the oven has to be heated up first, I start that then work on the stove top!

We have a glass stove top and I ALWAYS let stuff boil over, seriously just about everyday! So ours is usually in need of a deep clean!

~First I start with a sponge and get all the big loose stuff off.

~Then the scraper (razor blade) to scrap all the burned on stuff, takes some work but will look great once you are done!

~Once ALL the stuff is scraped off I use baking soda and water paste to finish the job.

There are some commercial cleaners that work well, but they stink and they are expensive.
The Pantry!

Lucky for me, mine is done already! I have a 5 year old who would rather "organize" something err anything, than play with toys or color or play outside! He really is a great little helper and had been begging to organize the pantry after every nap for the last week, so I gave in and let him help me! But if you can't find the flour, or don't know what is IN your pantry, now is a great time to get it holiday prepared!

~Take everything out

~wipe down the shelves

~use some baskets or cute boxes if it helps keep stuff in the right area for you.

~ When you are putting stuff back make a inventory list so you don't end up with 5 cans of sweet potatoes!

~ Check the expiration dates and make a plan to use what is close to expiring.. Find anything that expired in 08?! I did the last time I cleaned ours out!!

~Make foods that are ok for your kids to eat for snacks within their reach! We keep our fruits and snacks just at their level, they sure think they are grown up when they can get their own banana!

~Having all the baking stuff together, all the breakfast stuff together and the canned goods together makes it MUCH faster to make a grocery list, meal plan and let the littles help!
Then lastly if you are going to use vases anytime soon for your holiday get togethers or because they haven't been washed well in a while, do it now, while you don't have to worry about what is in the oven, the kids are getting into or anything else! Now is a good time to take care of silverware, holiday linens the toaster full of crumbs and give your mixer and coffee pot a good scrub!!
The kitchen usually takes me 3-4 days if I am good and a week if I am lacking motivation! I don't clean ALL day, I clean while my kids are napping or when I find an activity near me they can do while I do what I need to. The only thing I don't want them around is the oven cleaner, it's nasty smelling, everything else they can usually "help" with. It's much less stressful if they are involved, I don't feel guilty for wasting time instead of spending time with them, and they learn that it takes a little work to make things nice. Their jobs this time are going to be fishing out otterpops (and maybe having 1 or 2) and I think their silverware needs an overhaul. I will probably set them up on the island with a basket and dump their basket out, so we can get rid of the baby spoons and anything with a wobbly handle!
 
And once I am all done with the cleaning I usually pick up a couple new candles or plug in to get in the yummy fall smell! My personal favorite is Bath and Body Works Caramel Pumpkin. They change the name of it every year, but it smells about the same, creamy caramel, vanilla pumpkin.. one of those!  I can't wait to start baking and having the kitchen all nice and clean and organized makes it even better!


Come back Wednesday for what I think will be my favorite project for Halloween this year!
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02 September 2010

Halloween Countdown Blocks

I really like all the blocks, initials, names, sayings, all of em. I do not like the price usually. Figured I might as well attempt my own for Halloween since I like kinda rustic whimsical Halloween stuff, they wouldn't have to be perfect! Hubby bought a 4x4 at the home store (which aren't really 4"x4" but close) and cut me few blocks off the end (about 4") and then sanded em for me so they dont have sharp corners and are pretty smooth. I sanded them a little more with a fine grade paper but not to super smooth, I like the woodgrain to show a little, you could spend more time sanding and get them much smoother if that's what you like. I just used some black acrylic paint, gave them a couple of coats and then some modpodge to cover and make it shiny! I used the Cricut machine and some Halloween scrapbook paper to cut the numbers out, then mod podge them on too. I didn't add anything else to them or rough the paint up at all. I might, but I want to see them out with the other Halloween stuff before I decide!

My blocks have 1 block with 1-6 and the other has 1,2 7,8,9 and 0. I can do a 32 day countdown, since I don't have 2 3 sides! I put the numbers on random, so they aren't all the same way or in any order on the block. I wasn't worried about them looking too perfect, I have a feeling some little people at our house will enjoy finding the right numbers!  There is still a lot of 4x4 left and with how fast and easy this was I am pretty sure there will be a Thanksgiving and Christmas set coming soon! 


Linking here
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