Pinterest Project: button art

I'm still trying to put together my bedroom. Right now we have blank walls with pictures leaning up agains them. I saw a Pinterest project where they made a Christmas tree out of buttons. It looked so quaint and fun. I've been rolling the idea of button art around my head and this is what I came up with:

1. Find a font that you love and print it off. Tape it to a window with lots of light behind it. 

 2. Find the material you want to use for your canvas. I used canvas! Tape the material on top of the paper with your font, making sure to center it where you want it. Also, make sure the ink you use won't show up when you're done gluing buttons, or make sure the buttons cover all the ink.

3. I laid out the buttons before I started gluing. This taught me two things. 1) I didn't love the modge podge of random buttons I pulled out of my bag, I definitely needed a color palette. 2)the middle of the "L" needed to be open, not filled in. Thank goodness I didn't glue them down the first time!

4. The final product.

This little button art is going to paired with another Pinterest project that I'm almost finished with. It is pallet art with my favorite love song from Mulon Rouge: All You Need is Love. Anyhoo ... check back soon to see that finished project!

brown paper packages follow-up

Do you remember the Favorite Things Summer Swap? It was super fun and easier to host than I thought; there will definitely be a Favorite Things Summer Swap next summer! 

I got my package and this was what was inside:

The nail polish is this incredible stuff that dries pretty much instantly. Amazing! The book is "Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand" by Carla Kelly. I was a little doubtful, but I LOVED THIS BOOK! It's full of romance, adventure, humor, sadness, and every other emotion one human can have.

This was super fun and I can't wait to do it again next year.

beck cave birthday

Calling all Superheroes! 

Do you remember the invites I made for Corban's birthday? I finally get to show what I've been preparing for for the past couple of months!

I hung up the decorations. I used the colors from the old school batman of blue and yellow and the classic black. I strung balloons across our arch, taped up a shredded, black table cloth for our bat cave, and cut and pasted many many MANY bats across our wall flying out of the cave.

Party goers donned their masks.

We played games. As we were waited for all the kids to arrive, they colored pictures of the Joker and I hung them around the living room. Each of the kids put on the batman masks and I gave them a can of silly string. Then Joe brought out masked bad guys and they attacked! 

We then played musical bats.

And pin the bat in the signal.

We ate cupcakes.

Corban made a wish.

And opened presents. Joe and I gave him the Wii game "Pikmin2" which he has been watching shows about it for THE longest time! This was his face:

I'm pretty much the luckiest mom to have had this little boy for the past 5 years! Happy birthday!!

book review: Made to Last

Things I liked: The characters were cute and fun and supported each other. I could see each character and their personality very clearly in my minds eye. I thought I knew how Miranda was going to FINALLY tell the truth and I was surprisingly wrong!

Things I hated: Why would someone chose to put their life in such disarray? It bothered me that supposed adults would abandon truth for the easy, self-supporting lie that just caused more turmoil and drama. But I guess that is exactly what the author intended. Job accomplished then. Next time, make the book a little shorter. It also bothered me that the author would introduce cliff hangers and not answer the questions until pages, even chapters later!

Good clean read. I would give this book a C+.

**I received a free copy of this book to review.

back to school

I love deals! I hate paying full price for most things! What I usually do is buy things at the end of their season for next season. I was shopping and decided to check out the Back to School and End of Summer sales and scored. 

I got 6 outdoor solar lights for $1.50 each, 10 lunch box ice packs for 30¢ each, and I found 2 backpacks for 50% off! 

Jovi and Corban were so excited about their backpacks that they immediately put them on and kept them on for two full days! Corban kept asking if we could go on an adventure with no maps and no where to go. He went around the house and put most of his toys in his backpack and even wanted to sleep with it!

I bought the backpacks for Jovi's and Corban's 72 hour kits. I have gotten most of our kits put together. All I need is some odds and ends, food, and water! So, they're basically worthless until I get those last two items.

What do you put in your 72 hour kits?

bucket list

Do you remember this picture on my Instagram account?

This is our community's water park that is open during the summer. It has a lap pool, slides, a kiddie pool, and this little water park, complete with this little beauty:

 THE BIG RED BUCKET!

Corban saw this water park and instantly wanted to go in. Joe and I made a deal with him that when he was potty trained we would go to the water park. Right when he got potty trained the park closed and he had to wait until the beginning of summer of this year! So sad, but kind of funny. 

I digress ... I saw this bucket and honestly was a little scared. It is a HUGE bucket that takes 3 minutes to fill. It literally knocks people over! And I HAD TO DO IT! Especially before the water park closed again on Labor Day.

I told Joe my goal of getting under the big bucket so he would make me before we left the park on Labor Day. I asked Corban to be my buddy and he agreed. 

The amount of water that came out of the bucket really surprised me! In fact, I was so surprised, I pushed Corban out of my way which made him stub all of his toes and fall in the water -- I'm a great mom, what can I say! I can still see my face in my mind's eye and the expression that I had. There was people around the rim of the pool watching and they laughed at me! 

Joe was going to get video of my excursion. He didn't get it the first time--the water came faster than we all expected--so I had to do it again. Corban had sworn off the water bucket, so I took Jovi to be my buddy. 

She hates hates HATES getting her face wet and totally gave me the stink eye after the water cleared.

Labor Day was a great day full of volleyball, water, and a BBQ! We were all pooped by the end of the day and fell asleep pretty fast and deep. Man, I love holidays!