PLEASE READ!!!

 

Hard Work Pays Off!

Well, I haven't done a creation in a while...but I have a VERY good reason. Yard work. Yep, good old fashioned, rake and shovel, yard work. This really isn't a creation, but I wanted to share with you all how our yard turned out, I even took before and after pictures! It took me just under 5 months to get it completed, I worked through menu boards; shuffling kids to school, dance, piano and doctors visits; rainy, windy, freezing, and sweltering hot weather; and I even put myself back to work within a week of having surgery on my left kidney! It was seriously a daunting task, but I am so happy with the way things turned out! Check it out!

Before...

After...

(Sorry about the messy rocks right there on the edge...we weren't quite done cleaning up yet and I wanted to get the picture taken before it started getting dark.)

Before...

After...

Before...

 (By the way, this is what took me almost the entire 5 months...raking out all of the old rock so we could lay down weed control fabric and put in plants...)

After...

Before...

After...

(Did you notice the house color changed? I LOVE the color! It's kind of nice when your husband sells paint for a living and used to be a painter!)

(The stairs were my idea out of the entire yard...I originally wanted plain old concrete stairs, but my husband and a landscaper buddy of his talked me into the flagstone steps...they were cheaper and I am so in love with them! I'm glad they talked me into them!)

(Here is a top view of the steps.)

Before...

After...

(We broke up the monotony of the hillside by planting pink and white hawthorne bushes in strategic places around the hillside of our yard.)

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

(The reddish-orange rocks look kind of ugly in this picture, they are actually a really pretty jewelish looking red, but they were muddy when we laid them down, and like I said earlier, I really wanted to get these pictures taken, lol.)

So, I hope you are all very understanding as to why I haven't had a new creation up in a while, and I may not for at least another month or so, as we are now going to tackle the back yard...I'll add those pictures when that is done! Thank you for you patience, and please note that my yard working will not in any way affect my making Menu Boards and getting them shipped out in time to you!

Mini Menu Board Giveaway!!!

***Contest has ended! Congratulations to:

TARA THOMAS!!!***



On April 26th, 2013, the Menu Board will be celebrating it's 2nd birthday here in blogville! As a special gift from me to you, for all your support, I am going to be giving away a Mini Menu Board with 200 Recipes for 2 absolutely FREE! This is a $70.00 value and I can't wait to give this away to a very VERY lucky winner! Below are the 5 steps REQUIRED to be entered into the contest. Sorry if it seems to be too much, but this is a large giveaway, my biggest yet and I want to get the word out! Best of luck to all of you!!!

DIY Disney Autograph Books

I'm back again! For the THIRD time in like 2 weeks or less! I hope you don't mind! I've had some free time on my hands lately to create and I'm absolutely LOVING it! A few days ago, I posted the Disney Countdown and mentioned in that post about DIY Autograph Books, well here they are! I don't know how much it costs to buy your own autograph book at Disneyland, but these only cost me $9.00 each (the way I did them, but I know you can do it for less) and I love that you can put whatever pages you want in it. So if you ONLY want to see the princesses and Mickey and the Gang, that's all you put in your own autograph book. Rather than standing in line in Disneyland waiting for autograph's so you don't have any blank pages in your book. Anyways, so here is just a short and very easy tutorial on how to make your own Disney Autograph Book.

So first you will need the following:

*The "Background" template (template provided in tutorial below), printed onto black card stock, don't worry, the ink will show up and you will be able to see where you can cut. Look closely in the picture and you will see the lines too.
*Scissors
*Sharpie Marker
*Your choice of Autograph Pages, printed out (I chose to have shutterfly.com do it because the prints are already loaded onto their website, and because I got 50 free prints just for signing up, making it only $7.11 for the 69 prints that I ordered, including shipping! You can, however, download them to your computer for free and print the pages you want off at home!)
*You choice of Cover/Title Page, printed out (As you are looking through the autograph pages, you will see some blank ones as well, I used those pages as the cover page for the autograph books.)
*Clear Adhesive Dots (picture in tutorial below), or Photo Tape (I know I have a hot glue gun pictured, but I didn't realize until my books were halfway done that it wouldn't be the smartest idea to hot glue pictures lol.)

So, the first thing you need to do is print out and cut out your background pages. Here is the template, sorry I don't actually have a picture of cutting the pages out, it completely slipped my mind in all the excitement of putting these together!

Next, get your books binded. You can do it yourself if you want with regular old binder rings, but since I intend on making these out to be little mini-scrapbooks, I took mine to our local copy shop and had them spiral binded, including a clear plastic cover and a hard plastic backing for the book. Total cost for that was $3.99 per book.

Now that you book is binded, using your clear adhesive dots (or photo tape), tape the autograph pages to each of the pages.

Side Note! See this blank page right here at the top? Use these pages to put the pictures you take of your kids with the characters on. Making this the ultimate autograph/vacation mini scrapbook! Pretty cool huh? I can't wait for our vacation so I can put our pictures in!

Finally, just one more step and you're done! Using your Sharpie marker, write your child's name on the front cover page of your book. You don't have to write it if you don't want, you can always you alphabet stickers or something like that.

And you're done! I hope you and you're kids enjoy them, and continue to enjoy them again and again, cause guess what??? These would also make AWESOME quiet books for church!

The Orange Rhino "Up-Count"

So, a few weeks ago, I discovered this website that has completely changed my life! I am not being dramatic, I promise. If you knew just how badly I wanted to changed this part about myself, you would understand what a HUGE deal it was for me to find The Orange Rhino!

This is slightly embarrassing for me to admit, (but he, the first step to solving a problem is admitting it, right?) Anyways, I have a yelling problem. I don't really discipline my children other than yelling, and I know a large part of that is because that is how I was raised, but the other part of that is because I don't think I ever consciously made the choice to NOT yell at my children.

To this day, I still tear up (almost instantly), if someone even begins to raise their voice at me. My parents never had to ground me or take anything away because yelling was enough for me, it will always be enough for me. However, with that being the case, I know just how scary it is to be yelled at. I don't know why I would yell at my children, I am 100% positive they feel the same way.

Unfortunately I have yelled at my daughter to the point of crying, and my son to the point that he closes his eyes, covers his ears and sometimes even hides under his blanket in his bedroom. I HAVE to stop! There is no other option! And the Orange Rhino is just that extra push I need to make sure I accomplish this seemingly impossible task.

So, along with purchasing orange nail polish and posting orange rhino's all over my house and in my car, I made this "Up-Count" Wreath. I call it up-count because I am counting up to how many days I go without yelling. This is just a small tutorial to show you how to make your own Up-Count Wreath to help you out in achieving your goal to not yell as well.

So, first you will need to gather the following items:

A Small Foam Wreath

Orange & Pink Yarn

Orange & Pink Toll Paint

Wooden Letters

Up-Count Numbers Printed Onto Orange Card Stock (Template at the end of this post)

Scissors

Paper Hole Punch

6 Binder Rings

Un-Sharpened Pencil

Foam Paint Brush

Hot Glue Gun

First, start by tying the end of your yarn to the wreath, then wrap it around. Then do the same with the pink.

Now, before you paint your letters, position them on your wreath so you know what letters need to be painted orange and what ones need to be painted pink.

Then paint your letters and glue them to your wreath.

Now wrap up your pencil in the orange and pink yarn.

Now, glue your pencil to the inside of your wreath. Glue both ends, stick it in the wreath, then add extra glue the the front and back ends of the pencil.

Finally, add your up-count numbers to the pencil.

And your done! Now, if you want to add some more reminders around your house to help you not yell, then I suggest printing out these adorable rhinos I found online onto orange card stock and place them all over your house or wherever you think you need reminding.

I even put some orange rhino's on Popsicle sticks for my children to help remind me, especially when I am just beginning to get stressed, frustrated, or annoyed. I'm hoping for all the best for me, and for you! Good luck!

Oh! Here are the up-count numbers! Sorry! LOL

Countdown To Disney

In less than a week after my children get out of school this year, we are off to our Disney vacation! They are beyond excited, and so are my husband and I. I'm adding to my children's excitement by making their very own Disney Autograph Books, "Mailboxes" to hang outside our doors where we are staying, because we are traveling with family, I think it will be fun to pass notes back and forth to each other (blog post soon to come on that one too), and finally, and countdown for my children so they know just how close they are to seeing Mickey and The Gang again!

This countdown was so much fun to make! I had all the supplies on hand already, which means, you don't have to use the same things I used, use what is around your house, or what is cheapest. Don't stress yourself out on this, let is be a fun activity for you AND your children! 

So for this little craft I gathered the following supplies:

1 Black Foam Poster Board

Wooden Craft Letters (Basic Elements Brand from Wal*Mart, you can get a bucket of 208 letter for only $6.00!)

Toll Paints

Red, White, Black & Yellow Construction Paper

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Characters printed onto white card stock (link provided in the steps below)

Markers (or crayons, or colored pencils, I prefer markers)

Pencil

Ruler

Foam Paint Brush

Hot Glue Gun

Scissors (and/or Exacto Knife)

Ribbon

Tape

Stapler

First, for the Mickey Mouse head, you will want to find the largest circle in your house you can find, for me, it was my Interchangeable Wreath. Also, you will want to find a small circle for the ears, I used my biggest Pyrex bowl. Using these two items, trace 1 large circle and 2 small circles onto the black poster board. You can use a pencil and it will show up just fine on the black.

Next, using scissors (or an exacto knife, which is what I ended up using) cut out your three circles. (Once you have cut them out, you may need to use a nail file or sand paper to help smooth out the edges of the circles if need be.)

Now, using your hot glue gun, glue the ears to the head. I glues the actually edges together, then I put a thick strip of glue along the top of both the front and back of the ears. Allow adequate drying time to your ears don't fall off, or stick to your working surface.

This is where I had the most fun....painting! Now, using your toll paints, paint your wooden letters, you will only need to do one side as you will be gluing the back sides down to the Mickey head.

While your letters are drying, glue your ribbon to your Mickey head.

Then glue your letters to your Mickey head.

Now, it's time to color the character to put on your countdown. You can go to the Disney Junior website to find them, click here to get them. The characters I used are on page 3. Once you have printed out your characters onto white card stock, color them with your choice of coloring tools, cut them out, then hot glue them (and their names - from the coloring pages also - if you want) onto the Mickey head. Now the "hard" part is over! What do you think so far? Are you having fun?

Finally, we are going to create the countdown chain. Using your ruler, "trace" the ruler to make your countdown strips onto the construction paper. Since we are leaving in 60 days, I did 30 black strips, 10 red strips, 10 white strips, and 10 yellow strips.

Once you have traced all your strips, cut them out:

Using a "scrap" strip from all that you cut out, create "loops" for your chain to hang from. I used tape to secure mine to the back of the board, but you can use hot glue if you want. Just be careful not to burn yourself as the construction paper is VERY thin.

Now your last step is to staple all your chain links together and your done! Now, every night before bed, you can rip off one link to help your kids know how much closer you are to your family vacation! Enjoy!!!