Thankful Garland

This may be one of my favorite Thanksgiving crafts of all time, I love that it looks pretty, is easy and it has meaning.

Thankful Garland:

What you need:
*Foam leaves
*Thread
*Sewing needle
*Permanent Marker

What to do:
*Have each person of the family write what they are thankful for on the foam leaves(how many each person writes depends on the number of people in your family and the size of garland you want)
*On one leaf write :”We are Thankful for: then leave 2 leaves blank
*Use your needle and thread to thread the leaves together starting and ending with the blank leaves and putting the I am thankful for leaf right after the first blank leaf,  in a straight line, leaving the thread loose enough for the garland to bend a little(make sure to tie off the ends)
*Hang up

As an added bonus you can then spend time discussing the things you are thankful for and why.

Thanksgiving Magnets and a Door Hanger

So between starting a business and being allergic to El Paso, which I am pretty much convinced of(I have been sick almost continuously since I have been here) I have been seriously slacking on my blog, and I have also been continuously promising that I will not be anymore, let’s hope this time it will actually happen and my blog will start being updated much more often.

Now since it is almost Thanksgiving I wanted to share a couple more crafts with you.

1st up is our TURKEY HAND MAGNETS

Here’s what you’ll need:

-Foam Paper
-Magnet Strips
-Glue
-Puff Balls(I know they are called something else but for the life of me I can’t think of it and googling puff balls only proved that other people apparently call them puff balls as well)

Here’s what to do:
-Trace your child’s hand print onto foam paper
-Cute it out
-Cut out a gobbler, nose and legs out of foam paper
-Glue puff balls onto the finger tips
-Glue a googly eye onto the thumb
-Glue Legs, gobbler and nose on
-Let Dry
-When it is dry turn over and glue a magnet strip to the back

The 2nd thing is a Thanksgiving door hanger

What you need:
-Table cloth
-Paint
-Paint Brushes
-glue
-leaves or any other decorations you may want to include

What to do:
Measure the door and cut the table cloth to preferred size
Lay flat on a table or floor
Let the kids decorate with paint, leaves, or anything else
Hang on your door and enjoy

I will be back tomorrow with one more Thanksgiving craft you don’t want to miss, so don’t forget to stop by

Turkey Thanksgiving Craft

This is a pretty simple craft that is lots of fun and cute to display for thanksgiving

All you need is construction paper, feathers, glue and crayons (we got our feathers at the dollar tree)

1. Cut 2 circles out of brown(or you could use white) construction paper)
2. Take a piece of construction paper and glue down some feathers (no exact amount whatever you think looks good
3. Glue your biggest circle so that the top of the circle is covering the bottom of the feathers
4. Glue your smaller circle above the bigger one overlapping slightly
5. cut 2 triangles out of orange construction paper and 2 gobblers out of red and glue on the head to create the face
6. Draw on your eyes, and your legs

   Now hang your Turkeys on the wall, or fridge and enjoy!

 

Giveaway fit for a princess

It’s that time as promised…time for a Giveaway! It’s been too long hasn’t it?  I think so.  I started my own business recently and am currently trying to get it off the ground, hence the lack of posting over here, who knew businesses took so much work?

Anyway this giveaway is sponsored by C over at C’s Chunky Creations

and by yours truly over at Crazy Crafty Chic Boutique

Wow that’s a lot of C’s huh!

I bet you want to know what you can win right?

1st place winner will receive:


This beautiful necklace from C’s Chunky Creations

and

This hand sewn flower hair clip from Crazy Crafty Chic Boutique

2nd place winner will receive
their choice of any basic bottle cap bow in my shop

So what are you waiting for?
Click the link below and enter now, don’t forget to do the 1st 2 things they are mandatory and you will have needed to complete both to win.


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Halloween Sensory Bin

As most of you already know we love sensory bins and and holidays around here so this activity was perfect:

What you need:
A Bin
Epsom salt
Orange food coloring
Plastic halloween toys(bats, spiders, snakes, bugs, eyeballs, ect)

What to do:
Fill the bin with epsom salt
Add a few drops of orange food coloring (C wanted hers to be light orange so if you want it darker just add more)
Mix until all of the epsom salt is orange
Throw in the plastic toys and mix up so your munchkin can dig through the salt and find them

Football chocolate covered strawberries

It’s game time again, so I decided to share this recipe for some yummy chocolate covered strawberries that are decorated in football glory 🙂

Here’s what you need:
Strawberries(bigger ones are easier to work with)
A bag of milk chocolate chips
White icing
Wax paper

Here’s what to do:
pour your chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl
microwave at 30 second intervals stirring after each 30 seconds, until there are no more lumps
Dip your strawberries into the chocolate and set on waxed paper
Use a ziploc bag(cut a small piece of one corner) or icing bag(with a number 2, 3, or 5 tip)
Fill the bag 1/2 way with the icing
Squeeze a line up the strawberry and then smaller lines across

Coping with redeployment adjustments

Ok so a lot of people told me on my last post about Honesty and Blogging that I should just throw caution to the wind and write my feelings, so here is the start of that.

Lately I have been feeling a little overwhelmed, and life has been pretty hectic, I have started some new ventures, the munchkins are back in school, and we are all trying to adjust to life with Daddy back.

A lot of people look forward to the return of their loved one from deployment and I am not unlike those people, I counted hours until the day I would see him again, I even decided to move back because I was sick of being away from him,  A lot of people will also talk about how great it is to have them home, and how much better life is with them home and in some ways they are right, of course life is “better” I mean you no longer have to sleep alone, you no longer have to worry about their safety, you no longer are a single parent, things of that nature, and of course it is nice to have them home, after all you love them, but what people don’t talk about a lot is the adjustment.  You see it’s not so simple when they come home because they are used to being without their family, they are used to being in a war zone, they are used to only having to think about themselves.  You are used to not having them there, you are used to your routine, you are used to doing things your way and by yourself. So when you come back together it is a little like first moving in with someone, you have to learn to live with each other again, and it is not always easy.  While they are away you forget about the things that drove you completely up the wall, and while they are gone they have usually missed you so much that they are convinced they won’t do those things anymore.  As an example my husband happens to be an xbox, tablet, computer addict, It seems like no matter what when he is not at work he has a controller or electronic in his hand, before he left for deployment I told him he would miss us and not his xbox, because he much of the time spent very little time with us.  and while he was deployed he told me how right I was and how much he had been thinking about it, and how he was going to change when he got home, and he did for about a week, then things went right back to the way they were before. He would come home from work and go straight to the game, and usually will stay on it for most of the night,  if we were having a conversation he would have his tablet in his hand doing something else. and I was frustrated, I am frustrated, For one I used to be a gamer too, I loved to play, but once we had children and responsibilities I stopped playing and I feel like I am the only one who had to sacrifice, and it frustrates me, besides that I get upset that I left my family in New York, made a 5 day drive home, and put a lot of work into being able to be here only to watch him play his electronics, I feel like I could have been lonely(maybe even less lonely) had I stayed in New York.  Needless to say this has been causing some tension and he keeps trying to work on it, but I have lost faith in that because he has been saying that for years.  I want to feel like I come before the electronics and I don’t.  With that said I do not think that he should never play, I just wish he could control the amount of time he does.  Another adjustment takes place with the munchkins, they are used to only listening to me, they are used to always coming to me, and he is used to not having to deal with children.  This can be tricky because it’s almost as if he doesn’t always know how to handle them, and he gets upset too easily, It’s also as if they don’t always know how to handle him, mainly because they do not really know what his expectations are because him and I have different parenting techniques( It may be a lot easier if we could get on the same page, but that has always been a hard part) this gets easier as the days go by, and eventually they will all be used to each other again, but for awhile it causes some frustration.  You also have to deal with the fact that your loved one probably seen some messed up stuff during deployment and it changes them a little, you never know how it will change them and you usually learn it a little at a time.  Not all of the changes are negative, but they are changes and some of them can be negative.  My husband tends to get upset and agitated so much quicker these days, and I usually have to find ways to adjust so that I do not end up aggravated and upset as well.  He also views things a little differently, some of them in a better way and some in a negative way, but rather the change is good, bad, or indifferent it is still change and you still have to learn, just like in the beginning of a relationship at about the time it has reached the comfortable time period and the very real part of your partner starts to come out and you learn new things about them a little at a time. Another adjustment is you yourself, because let’s face it chances are you have changed too, and just like you are learning about them again, they are learning the new things about you.

Yes I am thrilled he is home, Yes it is also difficult, there I said it!

I don’t usually write blogs like this, mostly because I do not want my husband to be upset about it, and I also don’t want people to view my husband as a bad person, because over all he is not, but I would like to be able to write them, because far too many people do not write or talk about it because they are afraid that they will look like bad people if they say anything negative about living with their partner again, and  I want other people to know they are not alone, and that adjusting to life after deployment can be hard even if you are extremely happy your loved one is home.

Mason Jar Jack o Lantern Halloween Craft

We did the Ghost Mason Jar Craft I posted previously last year, so this year my munchkins wanted to paint mason jars and make lanterns again and we decided to do Jack O Lanterns this time.  Still cute, a little less see through, but the munchkins love seeing them outside and in the window.

What you need:
Mason Jar
Orange paint (we used acrylic, but should have probably used glass I think it would have looked better)
Black permanent marker, or black paint
flame-less candles

What to do:
Paint the outside of your jar orange (use only 1 coat if you happen to use acrylic paint or it won’t be very see through)
Let dry
Once it is dry use your marker or paint to put a jack o lantern face on it
Drop in a flame-less candle

Viola all done!

My Oh so not fun day

Tuesday was quite a day for me, I mean seriously, it was so crazy that I am just now catching up and able to write about it.  Since people so kindly love to laugh at my misery, and I am not against laughing at myself I thought I would share 🙂

A little back story because you will need it
#1 I have a hard time sleeping at night, It’s awful, it’s not like I don’t want to sleep I just can’t sleep, I can be exhausted all day, put the munchkins to bed, lay down and my mind won’t shut off and I am up all night
#2 Behind Mayonnaise or maybe before it, it’s a close call my biggest fear is cockroaches, I am obsessive about it, they freak me out just looking the way they look and knowing they can completely infest your home freaks me out even more…yea okay my 1st biggest fear is cockroaches
#3 When we were living in houses I hire Orkin, especially since those big American cockroaches that everyone calls water bugs, except they are not water bugs they are Giant roaches are common here in El paso, I guess the good thing is they don’t really infest your home they just like to stop by and visit every once in awhile like spiders, the bad news is they are GROSS, seriously I had never seen one before I moved here and the first time I did, I was peeing and it was like 3 in the morning and I ended up in my bathtub with my pants around my ankles screaming bloody murder for my husband, who came in killed it and called it a water bug….smart man except google wasn’t his friend, Also last Friday they came to spray my apartment for bugs(not Orkin, the company the apartments hire, but apparently unlike Orkin I was suppose to remove everything from my cupboards and I hadn’t so they didn’t spray, told me to tell the office when I wanted them to come)
#4 There is a facebook trade sight here that I like to use a lot, it’s perfect because you can get rid of the things you don’t need and exchange it for the things you do, and I spend a fair amount of time meeting people for trades
#5 I am on a fair amount of medication at night because of my back so I have a very hard time waking up in the mornings

I think I have you pretty caught up at this time, so on with my play by play of the day

Monday night I couldn’t sleep at all, I was tossing and turning for hours, finally at about 4am I asked my husband to wake me up before he left for work, because I knew I wouldn’t end up waking up with the munchkins for school, and the schools here hire attendance nazis, seriously late 4 times in a year and they call the courts on you…

7:45 am(the exact time my oldest should be getting to his first class) The husband comes home during his PT break and realizes we are all still asleep, so I wake up to him yelling for them to get up, we are late
7:47 am Panic attack because HELLO we are late and the attendance Nazis are going to be on my ass
7:55 am Remember that C had been complaining the night before that it burned when she peed, and A had been coughing up a lot of mucus
8:00 am Hatch brilliant plan to bring both munchkins to the doctor…2 birds one stone right?
8:10 am fix the munchkins some cereal, go to set C’s down and see roach crawl across the wall
Toss C behind me, push table to the side, scream like I am gonna die and wait for husband to kill the little fucker.
8:15 am CRY…Yes a lot of crying for fear of my house ending up infested with roaches, all because they didn’t spray and of course probably one of my neighbors had them nasty things and now they got sprayed and are seeking sanctuary at my not sprayed house
Somewhere between sobs I asked the husband to call the rental office, and apparently they don’t open until 10 am…cue the tears
8:30 am Bring the munchkins to the doctor
10:00 am finally actually see the doctor, she was red and got cream, he has allergies and got meds and they both got notes for being late to school
10:30 am finally leave doctors, drop C off at school first then A
10:35 am Call rental office, they inform me that pest control can not come until Friday…FRIDAY? OH HELL NO  I ain’t livin with no roaches for a week we all know how fast they procreate…nope nope nope
10:37 am text the husband about the pest control
10:45 am Go to Kmart check bug sprays and realize if I use any of them I will probably murder my cat, decide against cat murder
11:00 am go get gas and run into the gas station, come out and realize I missed a call, drive home
11:10 am Return the phone call and find out it was C’s school nurse, apparently shortly after dropping her off she spilled her entire lunch tray down the front of herself, Do you want to guess what was for lunch? If you guessed spaghetti you would be correct
11:30 am head over to the school to bring C new clothes, because heaven forbid they keep some of those extra clothes around the nurses office
12:00 am head home Clean every crack and crevice in my house with bleach(this took awhile so just pretend in the next few time slots I wrote clean every crack and crevice with bleach along with whatever else I did)
(Also spend the next few hours randomly opening cabinets trying to find a roach, yes I am that AH HA Gotchya kind of person, did not find any)
12:30 pm husband calls to tell me the woman he was suppose to meet and do a trade with didn’t show and pretty much cost him his lunch break, we hang up and I remember I need to cry to him so
1:00 pm call my husband and cry about how I can’t live with roaches, how I am not going to cook in that kitchen, and I want ORKIN
1:15 pm  Call Orkin, schedule someone to come between 4-6pm that day…that’s better although the Orkin lady telling me every little thing about roaches, how they are treated, so on and so forth, no bueno people I was then relaly freaked out, so I spent the rest of the time until it was time to pick up the munchkins sitting on my door stoop
3:15 pick up munchkins, A is STARVING, take him to 7-11 for a hot dog
4:00 pm attempt to finally pay my bills and manage my bank account while impatiently waiting for Orkin to show up
4:15 pm knock on door(now people this was actually the good part of the day) Orkin GUY YAY! Bonus: It was the same Orkin guy from my last house
he inspects my house while I follow him around asking if he sees anything and pretty much tells me if I hire them I am wasting my money because I do not have a roach infestation, and I probably seen a baby “water bug” which was probably ran out of the sewer when they sprayed the other apartments
Still Skeptical
He goes out to the truck comes back in and starts spraying the hell out of my cabinets (keep in mind I am still standing behind him)
He looks at me and says “See?” Uhh no see what? “That was roach tear gas, if you had them they would have came running out”

WTF? You mean to tell me you were so confident I didn’t have them you were willing to bet my life on it, because let me tell you, had a bunch of roaches came running out I would have had a heart attack and died on the spot, right there on the kitchen floor surrounded by roaches and the Orkin man…what a tragedy that would have been.

Then to make me feel better he put some place and a little bait and told me I still wasn’t going to catch anything except maybe the American Roach (aka water bug) but that it couldn’t hurt because it would kill them too
Then he says oops I forgot this, and left me the bait

I am thinking the Orkin guy knew I was a spazz guys, and he was my hero, okay he is and probably always will be my hero

I’m not stupid though, pest control is coming Friday, those big fuckers are not welcome here either, nor are spiders, or any other freaking bug

5:15 pm Run out pick up munchkins prescriptions

5:30 pm Arby’s for dinner, because yea I am not friggin cooking

6:00 pm go to meet some lady for another trade: WAIT WAIT WAIT, TEXT NOTHING, WAIT fuck it, go into the store to do my shopping

6:40 pm  Get a text from said lady I was suppose to meet
Her: Are you still here?
Me: Yea I am in the store
Her: Okay I will wait a few minutes sorry my phone was dead and I forgot what kind of car your drive
Me: I can send my husband out with my phone and he can tell you where we are parked
Her: Ok

6:55pm See my husband back in store…with the stuff we are suppose to be giving her, Uh whats going on?

Apparently she decided to run in and get bread after I said I was sending my husband out, so husband had to find her in the bread section

7:00 pm Realize I am missing The Originals and freak out, shit that was the only thing I was looking forward to

7:45 pm pick up something from a friend

8:00 pm (15 minutes after 1 munchkins bed time and an hour before the others) get home

8:15 pm start A on his home work, get C ready for bed

8:20 pm Put C to bed

8:25 pm help A with homework, get frustrated, hand homework help off to daddy

8:30 pm C is up to tell me something

8:35 pm C is up to tell me something

8:40 pm C is up to tell me something (Are we seeing the pattern)

8:50 pm decide to put my powdered sugar into my canister, actually miss the canister almost completely and put powdered sugar all over my floor

8:51 pm C walks out “Hey mommy there is sugar on the floor

YUP that is when I just gave up on any hope of saving the day

Halloween critters craft

These were super fun to make and I loved that it was something different than your normal pumpkin, spider, bat, ghost, witch project 🙂

What you need:
Styrofoam cups
Paint(we used acrylic)
pipe cleaners
Googly eyes(optional, you could also use paint)
Glue
embellishments(optional)

What to do:
Paint your cup however you want your critter to look

Allow to dry
Paint your mouth and nose on if your critter is going to have one

Glue or paint on eyes
Stick pipe cleaners through the foam cups where you want the legs to be
Embellish your critter(optional)
We used pipe cleaners as hat edges, tails, and ears, we added gem stickers on some, you can make it as simple or as complicated as you like