One Person’s Trash is Another’s Treasure

I absolutely love to “upcycle”!  It’s so fun to transform something from just okay to fab!

I had to pick these outdated, ugly bill organizers up at a second hand store. They brought back memories of my Auntie Ellen’s house.  She had a bill organizer like this full of envelopes and hanging tons of keys.   I had grand plans to transform them into stylish bill organizers!  I am totally in love with the way they turned out!  Makes me want to organize some bills…kinda…

Have any great trash to treasure projects you love?

Jaimi

Dreaming of Warm Weather and Sandy Beaches!

Anybody else dreaming of a vacation?!  My first choice would be the ocean.  Ahhhh, the beach…  My second choice and true love is the mountains.  Beautiful, glorious mountains!  Where would be your ideal vacation?

The other day I told my husband we should make a trek to Yellowstone this summer.  He looked at me like I had lost my mind…he gives me that look often I’m afraid!  We seriously talked about it, but decided maybe to stay closer to home this summer and try for Yellowstone next summer.  Give the girls another year.  I will have to share my “Yellowstone Vacation” story with you some time.

Beyond just dreaming of a big vacation I am dreaming of small vacations on the weekends – going camping!  I  I can’t wait until it gets warm enough to start packing up our gear and camping for the weekend!  Seriously, one of my most favorite activities!

I am inspired to make a quick album about our camping trip last fall.  And it just so happens I have a coupon for Shutterfly which expires tomorrow.  (Am I the only one who puts these off until the last minute?)  So, off to document the girls fishing, J eating the worm dirt, s’more making, and memories!

Jaimi

Project Life

Becky Higgins has long been one of my favorite scrapbookers because of her simple and manageable approach.  I absolutely love her Project Life project.  If you haven’t checked it out, you should!  You can use the kit to document an entire year, a lifetime of pictures, just anything you need!  It’s now available in digital or traditional — how exciting!!  Tater Tots & Jello is providing the chance to win a starter kit!

I have wanted to do this project since the first year she developed it…but I was scared I would spend the money and not stay committed to finishing the project.  Well, this is the year!!  A friend and I are going to both do the project and keep each other on track!  Yay!!  I feel as though I let life get away from me and don’t take the time to appreciate the blessings of our every day life..and this is my wake up call to myself — to make me open my eyes to the beauty of our every day life!

Seriously, you just have to check it out!

Jaimi

For those super heroes in your life!

Super Hero Cape and Mask!

*I apologize for the orange chair background!  I finished up way after midnight and just wanted a picture!  Didn’t think it through…sorry!

I am excited to be linking to the Pinterest Partayy on one of my favorite blogs, Mrs Priss.  She challenged us to quit just spending millions of hours on Pinterest and actually make something we have pinned!

We have a couple little boys who are very special to us and for Christmas I whipped up these super hero capes and masks!  Even my super hero husband tried them out for size and I think secretly wants one for himself!

I had pinned the idea from http://mineforthemaking.blogspot.com/2010/07/super-cool-cape-tutorial.html

I pretty much did exactly what she suggested on her tutorial, just made the capes a little wider, made the eye holes bigger and used fold over elastic which is softer.

I delighted in making these and really can’t wait to make more!

Have you been making things you have pinned??  Meals, hair-do’s, organization, cleaning tips, crafts, etc?

Jaimi

Girls Night!!

Tonight I had a girls night with my daughters and one of my nieces.  What a great time with these awesome girls!!

I have to tell you this…they were totally cracking me up–they were taking turns spelling words with their eyes closed acting as though it was the toughest thing in the world to do…does it really make spelling words harder if you shut your eyes?

We treated ourselves to pizza, wings, and ice cream!  Then craft time!  We took empty toilet paper rolls and made them into fantastic bracelets!

Now let me tell you…I tend to be a bit of a control freak…I know some of you are not surprised!  So I tried really hard to just let the girls go with it!  These were their creations after all!

The three older girls enjoyed being let loose with paint, the youngest enjoyed eating a few foam brushes while no one was looking, and I enjoyed burning my fingers with hot glue!  (In case you are concerned, J just likes to take a bite out of the foam brush and spit it out — I now have several “V” shaped foam brushes…)  It was great quality time spent with the girls and I loved seeing what they came up with!  We still have some painted ones drying waiting to be finished tomorrow, but here are three that we finished tonight.

Aren’t these cute?!  Gotta love toilet paper rolls!

Do you have a favorite toilet paper roll craft?  How about a G-rated Girls night activity?

These girls exhausted me!  Off to bed!

Jaimi

 

I Love Felt and Pinterest!

I seriously love felt!  It is so soft, versatile, easy to work with, and cheap!  I have made many things with felt including food, headbands, bean bags, etc.  I will show you my latest felt project in just a bit…

Let me just say some days are just not as productive as others…

Today I spent my free time on pinterest.  I choose to think it is productive — so many GREAT ideas!!  My sister and I like to call it “Research”!

I chose my 4 favorite felt crafts off pinterest to share with you…There are sooo many awesome ideas out there and of course I loved so many of them, but I tried to narrow it down to multi-functional and easy creations!  My 5th pick is the one I created and can’t wait to show you!

1. Felt Scrap Bracelets from Bugs and Fishes

                   

http://bugsandfishes.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-felt-scrap-bracelets.html

I am totally in love with these bracelets!  Definitely on my to do list!!

Her blog is full of wonderful felt crafts!

2. Great Flowers from Make it and Love it

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/03/baby-hair-accessories-wool-felt.html#more

Beautiful hair pieces made from wool felt…she provides patterns, wonderful directions…just wonderful!

Yep, on my to do list as well!

3. Simply Cute Bows from Ruffles and Stuff

http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2011/09/simple-projects-week-bows.html

She does a great job showing how to make these!  I love how cute and simple they are!  Definitely see these in my future!

4. Rolled Felt Flowers from Mrs Priss

http://mrspriss.com/2011/11/03/tutorial-rolled-felt-flowers-no-sew/

I have made these and another of her rolled felt flowers and they are super cute and addictive!  She also has many other felt friendly crafts!  I absolutely love to read her blog!  She totally cracks me up!

5. Felt Hand-Stitched to Shirt from yours truly!  (I mean me…Rhinestone Raindrops)

As some of you might know, K-State played in a bowl game last Friday.  So, H needed a new shirt to wear to school!  Since I planned ahead waited until Thursday night to think of something we pulled a purple shirt out of her dresser and I excitedly hand stitched the letters on since I have been dying to try this! She of course requested bling as well!

I am so in love with this!  I hope to have more felt stitched shirts to show you soon!  (“Felt stitched shirts” seems pretty clunky to say, but I don’t know what else to call them!)

Ahh, I really do love felt!  And who doesn’t love Pinterest…except maybe my husband…

What are your favorite felt creations??

Jaimi

Organizing one pile at a time!!!

Today I spent nap time organizing school papers I would like to keep for our oldest two daughters.

I made these books 5 years ago –oh my goodness, I can’t believe it’s been that long ago!!  Man, I had such great ideas…

The album!

The inside of the album...

I was planning an envelope a month.  I had a book just for H’s pre-school year….I was doing awesome — I had September, October, and November looking great.  I had her hand print, favorite things, her handwriting, pictures, a little scrapbook each month.  Then…Reality sets in and I think – there is NO way I can do this every month for every kid – and a book for each year – NO way do I want to store 13 books for each of my children!! Geesh!

Ahh, such lofty ideas!

So, I decided to remake it so there will be an envelope for each year of school – one book for each child’s entire school career!

A much better idea!!  Too bad it has only taken me 5 years to revamp it!  I have had a growing pile of their papers waiting to be organized!

The beginning paper mess!

Well, I have finally had enough!!  The papers are sorted – a gigantic pile to be taken to the trash dumpster before the girls get home from school and an amazing two slim books siting in the whole space that used to be filled with papers!  YAY!!!

The papers “sliding” into the envelope!

I do still have to make a few adjustments to H’s book – - but *sigh* papers are finally dealt with!

(oops-forgot an “after” picture!  Trust me, I reduced this pile by at least 3/4 and it is all neatly placed inside the proper envelopes!)

This makes me so sad as I look through the great job I did for a few months of capturing our oldest daughter’s life at that time…then nothing…I guess it’s time to start doing a better job!

Love a productive nap time!

Jaimi

**Anybody else feel as though sometimes its faster to search online than dig through your craft junk stuff??!  I wanted to remember where I had seen how to make these books and I know I have the article somewhere…I found a really great adaptation of this album used for Christmas cards at http://www.angielucas.com/yeahwrite/2010/12/christmas-card-keeper.html.  The author of that blog said we both used an idea given by Donna Downey in Simple Scrapbooks magazine approximately five years ago.  (Sorry, but that article is buried deep – it has been 5 years after all!)

***I used 11 x 14 manila envelopes, mat board, 18×18 scrapbook paper and/or wrapping paper, and ribbon to make these.  If you would really really really like to know how I made them I will tell you…

Making Homemade Noodles…

Every time I make homemade noodles it makes me feel all warm and domestic inside.  I start dreaming of spending a day cooking, making noodles, canning, and then reality crashes down and all I hear is blah blah blah…when will you have time to do that??!!

But my point of sharing this is truly if I can make homemade noodles – SO CAN YOU!!  Give it a try anyway!  I have to admit I called my mom in a panic several times while making them the first time…

The recipe I use is a family recipe.  I always at least double the recipe and always add at least one egg it seems.  And by always – I mean the first two times I have made noodles!!  This is my third time—so that totally makes me a pro right??!

 

HOMEMADE NOODLES

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 large egg, beaten

Measure and sift dry ingredients.  Add gradually to egg.  Mix until blended.  Roll paper thin on floured board.  Allow to stand 20 minutes.  Roll up and slice 1/8″ wide.  Toss lightly and spread to dry.  Makes 1/2 pound of noodles.

Today I made a quadruple batch as I made two pots of chix and noodles – one for us and one for friends who have had the flu. (And I don’t know how to cook for less than 6.  I just don’t.  Sorry!)

Let me just tell you now… I know I may not be making them “correctly”, but they taste good.  So my family doesn’t really care that every noodle is a different size!  You can tell they are homemade that way, right?!!

Today I tried really hard to do a good job making these – since I had been tossing around the idea of putting them on here…well, I had good intentions anyway… I of course ended up adding more eggs at the last minute, then had too much egg, so added a bit more flour…geesh…you would think I could get it right!  (I do have a recipe after all!)

I have never before (by that I mean the other two times) waited the 20 minutes the recipe called for – my mom told me I could just keep going when I called her in a panic because I didn’t have that much time!!!  AHHHHH!!!  And I have never let them dry…just scooped the noodles and extra flour into the pot of boiling chicken and stock.  Today I let them sit for about 5 – 15 minutes and I did let them sit out and dry until supper since I made them during nap.  Because nap was ending soon my noodle size ended up more random than usual!

Here are some of my noodles drying.

I apologize for the lack of pictures — my hands were all gooey and I hated to grab my camera!  If you would like a full blown tutorial I will do it — just let me know!

The finished soup!

Give noodle making a try — see how domestic it makes you feel!!

Good Luck!

Jaimi

**By the way I know this picture looks a little drab, but my family prefers their chicken and noodles without veggies added…sorry!

 

No fish sticks today!

Instead of eating fish sticks for lunch I started a blog!  Yay!

A blog is something I have been wanting to start for such a long time…so with the new year comes a blog! There are so many thing to learn…be patient with me!  A name was amazingly difficult to pick!  Just when I thought I had the perfect name, somebody else already had it!  So after about 100 name picks we came up with Rhinestone Raindrops which I love!  I am so looking forward to sharing our everyday crazy with you!