Sunday, February 26, 2012

Pinterest Inspirations

What I do appreciate most about Pinterest is having all the sites and things I like in one place, as opposed to having tons of blogs in my favorite folder on the computer. But at night when Drew and I are watching King of Queens I do browse Pinterest for craft and food ideas mostly. It's been a lot of fun.

My cousin, her mom, and her cousin all have a blog that they contribute to and they post strictly things they have done from ideas found on pinterest. She was here this last weekend and talking to her about her blog I thought I could do a simple post about things I found on that site too and she said she would link it. :)

These are in no particular order. I am not going to do it chronologically or by catergory. It's just going to be by how they load. :)

DONUTS
My cousin originally had plans Sat. morning and when they got cancelled I said "Oh good. We do a fancy breakfast on Sat." Fancy wasn't the right word, but we do breakfast outside of cereal and oatmeal on Saturdays so that's "fancy" to us I guess. We always do Eggs, Hashbrowns and either bacon or sausage. I had cans of biscuits and said I could make biscuits or doughnuts as well. My cousin said making donuts out of biscuits is something her dad does, I had just seen it on Pinterest and together we created the most delicious breakfast treat ever. And so inexpensive. 16 donuts cost me $1. :)
Pulled them out of the container. Used a measuring scoop (broke off the handle) to cut out the center.
 Fried them in oil.
 Kaycee glazed them for me. Donut holes were the kids favorites. We are anxious to experiment with different frostings next time.
 I'm not kidding. The easiest and most delicious donuts I've had in awhile.

REINDEER CHRISTMAS GIFT BAGS
With 2 kids I knew I had a lot of teachers to cover for Christmas gifts. (Autumn has 4 alone at preschool) I decided to make turtle pretzels, which are my go to treat for activities, gifts, anything, I saw these on Pinterest and knew I had everything already at home, even better.
 I used my Cricut Expression and cut out all the shapes. We got a lot of compliments on them. A friend saw them and ordered a kit for her kids teachers.

SHREDDED CHICKEN
We eat a lot of chicken at my house. For the last 30 years I have assumed chicken was shredded manually with 2 forks. I have never thought to do it a different way. It was always particularly painful when I would make chicken salad for 50+ people at a church function. And then Pinterest had a pin for shredding chicken in a KitchenAid mixer. My life has suddenly become much easier. :)

BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN
I had just ordered 15 lbs of bacon and 10 lbs of chicken and desperately needed new recipes because all the sudden my deep freeze was almost completely full and I needed to use foods I had. These looked sooo good. All wrapped, covered in brown sugar and ready for the oven.
 And they were delicious, .

DUCT TAPE WREATH
I never actually saw this pin on Pinterest. I am apart of a craft group page on FB for women in the city I live in. We exchange craft ideas, some sell kits, others ask for advice. Well one of the women posted a red rose duct tape wreath they had made, from a pin on Pinterest. It was really easy. Just super time consuming. Autumn has asked for one for her room, but I am waiting till I move her into Baileys room so I can make them matching ones to hang above their beds.
I originally planned to make an all pink one but when Drew went to Target for more duct tape they were out and got white, so I thought 2 colors would be okay, but then it was too light, red gave it the right amount of balance.
 All done. I have since shortened the ribbon since taking this pic but this was right when I had finished and I was so proud. It took 4 days. I don't usually do projects that take that long.

TURKEY HANDS
Around Thanksgiving I was looking for a crafts or something to do with the kids. I really liked this one. I love anything that can totally shed light on the child's size at the time of the project. And I had everything already at the house. Autumns is on the left and Weston's on the right. Autumn didn't spread her fingers quite as wide as I would've liked so she got an extra hand print.

TEMPLE BLOCKS
I work with a committee to plan and prepare activities for the women at my church. Leaders had asked us to have an activity centered around Temples for the March activity. I got the permission to make it a craft night as well, and we are using a temple block from a pin I had pinned months ago. These are the displays I made. Everyone has shown a lot of excitement over making them.

BAKING SODA TOILET CLEANER
All last week we potty trained Weston and between him and his 4 year old sister I noticed the toilet wasn't getting flushed as often as it needed to. Resulting in this. (Sorry Kaycee that I didn't notice it until the day after you left...I am embarassed!)
 So I saw on Pinterest 1 c. of baking soda left to soak for an hour would leave your toilet sparkling white. So I added a cup and waited...so skeptical the whole time too.
 And wouldn't you know it...it came a long way.

DREWS VALENTINE
I needed something simple and fun for Drew for Valentines, and he enjoyed recieving this, except for the Good and Plenty, they're still unopened in our panty.

PARENTS CHRISTMAS GIFTS
I had seen on Pinterest vinyl and tile being put together. When I saw this particular song quote I knew I had to make it for Drews mom. She sang this to them as kids, she sings it to my kids, and Drew sings it as well. She has found the perfect spot for it at her house. It sits on a easel on a shelf surrounded by pictures of all her kids and grandkids in silver frames.

 I just loved this quote when I saw it on Pinterest. Now I wish I had done different colors and font...but live and learn. This one was for my mom.

NAME BLOCKS
I needed a craft idea for a friends bridal shower. I had already etched her name onto a baking dish, but wanted something a little fun. I knew her decor was black and white and the kitchen was red- so I implemented the colors in the name block. Thank you Pinterest pinners.

VALENTINE CRAFT
The week of Valentine's I had Westons preschool group. We made these for the parents. The weekend before we made these for the grandparents as well, but used one of Autumns handprints, one of Westons hand prints and Baileys foot print. It was really cute and the perfect Valentine for them.

What's funny is seeing all of these I realize how much inspiration I've gotten from Pinterest but there's lots of other crafts and things I have done but since this is a Pinterest only post they won't be on this post. The best part, is aside from the duct tape, everything I have done I already had on hand.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

3 Year and 1 Year Well Checks

My little man turned 3 Jan 13th. We had such a great time celebrating him that weekend. Bailey turned one back in Dec. but I decided to wait and do her well check when I did Westons because our pediatrician is 35 min. away.

Westons stats:

Weight- 37.8 lbs. 90th%
Height- 40 in. 95%

When the doctor looked at him she said, "He's the size of an average 4 year old." I knew he was a big kid, but that really put it into perspective. And it's true, he wears the same size clothes and shoes as his 4 1/2 year old sister.  Love this kid. He is funny, talkative, sensitive, affectionate and my favorite son. :) He loves his dad and is always asking, "Where's my best friend dad?" when he is at work.

Baileys stats:

Weight- 19 lbs. 13 oz. 20th%
Length- 30 in. 55%
Head Circ. 45 1/2 cm 75th

Bailey is on the smaller size but she has remained consistent on the growth curve and so we don't need to worry. :) She is smart, loves digging in the trash, plays really well with Autumn, and is very funny. Being the baby this girl holds a special place in our heart.

I am glad we have break from birthdays until May. Between Baileys birthday, Christmas, New Years, and Westons birthday I am exhausted by the middle of Jan.