Gold at the End of the Rainbow Pretzels

I don't generally keep sugar cereals around, but when I saw these Rockin' Xtreme Colors Fruity Pebbles, a light bulb went on. They are very brightly colored, almost neon even. With St. Patrick's Day coming, I thought these would make a fun little treat. This holiday can get over-greened very quickly, so this is a fun way to add some color, and the kids can help too!
With my 3-yr old and 1-yr old eagerly climbing up the counter, I was able to snap a few quick photos. This is the quick version.

1. Melt the yellow chocolate.
2. Dip (this is my 3-yr old helping)

 3. And roll in the pile of Fruity Pebbles (you can crush them a little if you want a finer texture). Lay on wax paper or parchment paper until dry. (Now Ezra is getting interested too).

 4. Share. They have a fun fruity flavor. I almost felt like I was eating Pop Rocks!

And if you have a little more time, you can sort the colors into separate piles. After you dip the pretzel in chocolate, sprinkle and lightly press pink cereal bits onto the chocolate. Repeat with each color in rainbow order, leaving a little "gold" chocolate at the bottom.

 

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Valentines Cupid Krispie Treats

This week has been crazy, so Ava's Valentines needed to be fairly simple. And what is simpler than Rice Krispie Treats? (I mean as far as homemade goes....) I used pink marshmallows and some heart cookie cutters.

You could make a pan of Krispie Treats and cut out the hearts with the cookies cutters, but I didn't want those rough edges. So after stirring the cereal into the marshmallow mixture, I just spooned it into the greased heart cookie cutters and packed it full, one at a time. Add some stripey paper and toothpicks, and violá.
Happy Valentines Day to you all!

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More Chalkboard Art (Plus a Free Printable!)

Last night I participated in a church youth event called New Beginnings, and the theme this year was Stand in Holy Places (taken from a scripture). So once again we hauled out our oversized chalkboard and I drew up some lettering. I forgot to get photos before the tassels were up, so you get tassels in this picture too.

We had some giant pink balloons flanking the dessert table as well, and they were super cool. I want to fill my house with them. My friend, Camille, made all the tassels and always does a fantastic job with decorations.

I drew this up digitally as well, so that we could use the same image for our programs. You are welcome to use it for any non-profit purposes as well. For the link, click HERE.

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DIY JCrew Heart Tee

A while back I saw these cute purple and red oversized-heart shirts at JCrew and they were super simple. (Now they've moved on to sequins). So being the DIY kinda girl I am, I decided to just make one. JCrew had the solid colored kids shirts on sale for like $6, so I bought the purple shirt from them. Then it was just a matter of another freezer paper stencil and some fabric paint!

Here's a tip: I bought 2 different colors of red fabric paint because I couldn't decide, but one turned out to be a "pearl" finish. Fortunately I put down one layer of the matte red color first, because the pearl paint is a bit transparent. I wish I had put down 2 layers of matte and then a layer or two of pearl over top. I like the shimmer/glitter the pearl gives, but it took about 6 layers of the stuff to get an even, solid, professional-looking finish.
Ever since this project, Ava is obsessed with Valentines Day and asks me every day to show her on the calendar when it is! Pin It

Improvising (DIY Bed Rail Cover)

About a month ago my 18 month old started climbing out of his crib. He was very excited about this new skill, making bed times and nap times even more challenging. After hearing a loud thud from his room, followed by crying, I realized something had to be done.
I'm not ready to put him in a real bed yet (nor do I have one for him), but I had an extra long bed rail that I had used on Ava's bed. And his crib has a removable drop-side rail. The bed rail cover started falling apart after just one wash in the machine, so I figured I'd have to make another cover. I discovered, however, that the extra long rail was too long for the crib. It was a 3-piece deal but they didn't make it so you could link just 2 lengths instead of three.
I didn't photograph the process and it's hard to explain, but essentially I bought some wooden dowels and shoved them inside the hollow aluminum pipe frame then duct taped around the pipes so they couldn't slide. After all, this had to be toddler-boy-proof. I took the older cover, adjusted the length and stole the zipper from it, and traced around it onto my new fabric cover. I still can't believe how quick and easy of a fix this was. And cheap too! (about $5 total).

Now he can easily get out without falling, but not roll out while sleeping. And this was much cheap than a new bed, a good short term solution. I did realize though that it wasn't as stable as it should be, so I threaded some cord through the under rails (they had a good hole for that) and gave it extra securing by tying it (under the mattress) to the wooden rails on the opposite side. That thing isn't going anywhere, let me tell you. I did have to also put a child lock on the door... It took a few days for him to just stay in his crib, but now he does consistently.
And here's the little trouble-maker himself, in his jammies and excited for the change. He loves being in pictures.

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DIY Magic Wand

A good friend of mine sent a book for my kids called Room on the Broom. My daughter loves it. We read it almost every night. The rhyme is great, the story is fun, and the illustrations are perfect for kids.

The witch has a grey and yellow wand which appears on nearly every page. So I decided that my Ava might also enjoy having a wand. And by the way, these would make great party accessories for a fairy party, a witch party, or a wizard party.

So let's get started. You'll need cardboard and a striped paper straw, some yellow paint and a hot glue gun.

1. You need a star template. It should look something like the image below (minus the dashes) and be about 3.5 inches in diameter. Print it out and cut it out using an exacto knife and ruler. Or you can use a digital cutting machine or punch, and that saves you time of hand cutting. 

2. Trace your template onto your cardboard and cut out 2 of the same star.

3. Score the stars along the invisible dotted lines on the unprinted side - going across the middle from inside corner to opposite outside corner). (I recommend using the sharp side of your blade lightly, along a metal ruler edge for less rough carboard).

4. Fold and bend on the score lines until it looks like this.

5. Using a hot glue gun, run a bead of glue along one or two sides at a time and glue all the edges together except the bottom.

6. Wrap a sandwich bag over the paper straw so you can now paint the star. Use acrylic or craft paint and paint both sides of the star and allow it to dry. It make take more than one coat of paint. (You can also coat it in glue and glitter, but just know that your house will be covered in glitter if your children actually play with it).

7. Remove the plastic and load up the end of the straw with hot glue. Quickly reinsert it into the cardboard star as far as possible for maximum stability. You can add a little more glue here and there if you think it needs it.

Now go make some magic!

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Chalkboard Art

Some neighbors of mine, who are sisters, are throwing a 50th Anniversary party for their parents and asked me to do some chalkboard work for them. Another friend of mine has a 10 foot tall board that has been painted with chalkboard paint (and used many times for many parties!) This is the design I drew up for the Anniversary party. Congrats to them for 50 years of marriage!

It has come to my attention that the inspirational piece I was given to base this off of can be found here.

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