Funny Stuff My Kids Say

Not sure if you all are on facebook or not, but one of my favorite things about the social network is when my friends post funny things their kids say on their status. Let the record show that I'm not all about posting your every move during the day, but if you have funny kids...post away. I think I love it because it amazes me how smart kids are and i love it because my kids say some funny things.

Whenever I post something cute my kids say on FB (that's text talk for facebook) guarantee someone says, "Make sure you're writing those things down." Which I do...on facebook. Then every few weeks or so, I look at my status updates and record the really funny ones in my journal.

As a treat or a fun game, my kids love for me to read the funny things I've recorded in my journal. They laugh and laugh and laugh. So I thought of a great gift for grandparents, stocking stuffers for spouses (YES....I did just make a Christmas reference) or even a fun gift for that child to have.

I just got a small photo album from michaels for $2.99 or so and I made a cover page. Then I put pictures on one side and funny quotes on the other. I'm sure you really crafty types could scrapbook those quote pages, but I'm lucky I printed them out.

Here are some of my pages...I'm sharing because I think they're funny.

Thanks for indulging me. For the record both Debbie and Melissa have the funniest boys. They are always saying great stuff...I'd actually love getting a book from them :)

I'd love to hear some of the funny things your kids say!

P.S. I made this for my mother, but the kids won't stop stealing it!

You've Been Framed!

I'm currently in the middle of an awesome sewing project. I'm super excited about it! I'll share more next week. The problem though was that I needed something to share for this week. I had some extra material from my project and thought of something that would be perfect.

A frame.

Those who know me well, know I love frames! This was fun and quick to do.

I started with some left over material, a wooden frame ($1.99 full price), and some trim.

I ironed the material to make sure there weren't any wrinkles. I then traced the frame on the back side of the material. This material has a pattern that I wanted to make sure would come out straight. This way, I would know where to lay it when it was wet with glue. Before I started, I cut an X in the middle part of the material. This made it easier to work with after the frame was on and wrapping the material to the back.

I pulled out the trusty mod podge. (Melissa should be proud!) I brushed the front of the frame and then laid it on the material. I used the mod podge to keep the material flat and not see any glue bumps coming through.

I then pulled the material up on the back opposite sides. I brushed the mod podge on the back of the frame. (I did not put mod podge on the material on the front of the frame. I wanted to keep it looking soft).

To do the corners, I pulled out the glue gun. I wanted it to stick quickly. I folded the corners in and then down. I then covered the back to finish it off.

I also used the hot glue to apply trim to the frame.

And here's a look from the side:

Now... Back to my other project!

Frankly My Dear....

I made a dress for my daughter. Here's a picture of the material. Look closely. Yep! Those are tabs. I made the dress from curtains!

I was channeling Scarlett O'Hara! Or Carol Burnett....



It started when I found this cute pattern for a sweet little dress from Leila & Ben. I love simplicity when it comes to sewing and this fit the bill! When I started thinking about material my mind wandered to a pile of things that were ready to be dropped at Salvation Army. I had one long, pink panel that I had bought a while back. It's a lighter knit, not canvas or upholstery feeling. Perfect! And it didn't stop there. Also in that pile was a skirt I no longer wear and the colors were perfect.



I printed out the pattern, did a little snipping, a little sewing and I created this:



Of course my daughter was being a crabby, uncooperative toddler and wouldn't let me get a picture of her Scarlett O'Hara inspired fashion. So if you can see beyond the apple and the blankie.....





Who needs a fabric store?! This was so much fun, I'm now tearing through the closets to see what else I can repurpose!!

Have a good weekend!

Face Lifts and Falsies

Nice title, right? Let me explain. As you can see, we gave our little blog a slight overhaul...a face-lift if you will. We really hope you like it. It makes us feel all grown up to have a custom face and we really like the birdie.

Soon we're going to have our own buttons, a little ad space for you self-employed-crafty-types, and we're even going to have give-a-ways. So stay tuned! There are exciting things happening in The Idea Attic. We're even toying with a blogger challenge, were you guys challenge the three of us to think of ideas using a specific material, or for a special event. That should be fun...like our own little reality show. All this is coming once us moms can find a spare moment to collect our thoughts.

So I explained the Face Lift part...let me explain the falsies. Last night my husband turns to me and says, "Oh, I forgot, (our son) needs a cake for the cub scout cake auction tomorrow. Can you whip up something fun?" NICE...I set out trying to find something fun. So I quickly threw this together. What do you think?

I promise that this was a really easy cake to make. In fact here is the link to the instructions I found on the Family Fun website (click here for step-by-step instructions). I think it's pretty clear that they used a store-bought pound cake and if I was thinking clearly in the store, I might have done the same. But I only purchased the twinkies, the sour patch kids (for the relish) and some white frosting (I already had food coloring) and didn't want to run to the store again.

So for those of you who do not want to buy a pound cake, or got scared off by all the butter and eggs of pound cake recipe, here's the recipe I used and it was yummy. I call it a half-pound cake. I like this recipe because it perfectly fits in a loaf pan.

2/3 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. flavoring extract (I used vanilla...but lemon might be yummy, too)
2 eggs, beaten
1 2/3 c. enriched flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. milk
Cream butter, sugar, and flavoring together until light; beat the eggs and add to mixture. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together; add alternately with the milk. Beat 1/2 minute or about 30 strokes. Bake in an oiled and floured loaf-cake pan 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees.

The hardest part of this cake is getting the frosting to look like a hot dog, mustard and ketchup. So I tried to keep track of what I used with the frosting.  I divided one container of frosting in three sections. I actually didn't need that much "mustard" and "ketchup" but oh well.

For the hot dog color  - 6 drops of red, 3 drops of yellow and 1 drop of green.

For the mustard - Just a lot of yellow and one drop of red.

For the ketchup - I ended up using A LOT of red, then yellow and green. Basically, it was a darker version of the hot dog color. I kept adding red and then a small amount of green to make the red darker.

Another tip is I frosted the twinkies before I placed them in the "bun" and I lifted them off the cutting board with a long knife and placed it in the "bun" that way. To make it look even more real, I took a butter knife and carved the wrinkles in the end of the hot dog.

And lastly, I used coffee filters, left over from our coffee filter flowers, to place under the hot dog and french fries so it looked extra real.

Hopefully you did not notice that I burned the "fries" by accident...they don't need to broil very long.

There you have it...the falsie! It really was one of the easiest cakes ever. I think it was even easier than frosting a regular cake. Shhhhh...people will just think you're a genius.

Simplicity

I may or may not have a split personality.

Some days, I love the frills. I love everything done up just perfectly.

Other days, I thrive on simplicity. I like no clutter, vacuum lines and space.

This personality affects my daughters hair. Somedays, we love the flowers and ribbons and buns and ponies.

Others day, I just want a simple clip to keep the hair out of their eyes.

But simple doesn't have to mean ugly. Nor does it mean I can't have ribbon in their hair...because I love ribbon.

So today we're making simple ribbon clips. No bows. No flowers. No beads. No frills. Just a clip and a little ribbon.

So we start with these:

Materials Needed:

* an alligator clip (bought at Sally's Beauty Supply)

* ribbon of choice (3/8 inch)

* glue (I chose E6000 to save my fingertips from hot glue, but that works too)

Process:

Cut your ribbon to about 4 and 1/2 inches. I ran the ends of my ribbon through a flame to keep them from fraying.

I then applied glue to the back of the first part of my ribbon. I opened up my clip and placed the ribbon underneath the top part of the clip. I then folded my ribbon over the top of the clip and held it together.

After that part of the ribbon dried, I then proceeded to use glue to wrap the ribbon around the side of the clip. I chose to push my ribbon down on both sides.

And then I finished off by glueing to the back side. I chose not to have the ribbon go all the way down the back. I think it makes it harder to clip into the hair with the ribbon there. I like the raw clip on the underside.

And then it's complete:

And look...You can see those sweet eyes!

Here are some other clippies I've made:

Dresser Makeover

Here’s the dialogue going on in my head when I see a large piece of furniture at a thrift store: “Wow! That’s nice! That would be so pretty painted (insert color choice here) with new pulls or knobs. Oh. It’s solid and built well. That means it’s HEAVY! Hmmmm….I’d have to get Husband here with his truck. I wonder if he and I could unload it. I am pretty wimpy. Will he be mad that I have ANOTHER project that I may or may not get to? When would I have time to paint it.......” And then there's a whirlwind of thoughts about kids, laundry, dogs and work ….. I walk away and pick up a picture frame that’s much easier to sand and paint.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not 100% lazy. I have done large furniture projects in the past. I’ll probably share those in a future post. They were all done pre-blog. And they were done before I had two active kids and a full time job. But I can’t put it off any longer. I have so many grand ideas that involve furniture and paint and the furniture is not going to paint itself! So I finally got my butt in gear!

My sister’s best friend generously gave her a couple dressers from a family member that had just passed. My lil’ sis is going to have a baby and so she’s been doing some reorganizing and has plans for those dressers. Only problem was that the dressers were a little dated and a little too fancy for her décor. That’s where I came in. I don’t remember if I volunteered or if she asked me but I was eager to get to work! It had been quite a while since I did furniture and I was excited to get going. But of course my project was thwarted when we experienced a major heat wave with temps of 100 degrees and 95% humidity for several weeks! I digress….. Fast forward to September and we FINALLY have decent enough weather to get out into the garage and get painting!

I started by sanding off as much of it as I could. (With a little help from my new DeWalt Orbital Sander!)

Instead of priming it before painting I decided to try out Home Depots paint with primer. I used an off-white called Café Cream.

You can see that I have no loyalties to any hardware stores!

The Behr premium paint does a pretty good job in one coat. But there were some spots where the dark showed through that needed a second coat. I used a 220 grit sander between coats.

After the second coat and more 220 sanding it was as smooth as glass and gorgeous! Since distressed furniture is the big thing right now I did some heavy sanding to bring out the original color in spots. I also wiped some watered down glaze onto the drawers.

I sprayed the gold pulls with oil rubbed bronze spray paint and then I got carpal tunnel when I had to screw in all of the pulls!

I finished with a coat of Minwax Finishing Wax to protect it. Pretty darn gorgeous if I do say so myself!

You may have noticed that I mentioned that my sister received 2 dressers. The second one is still in the works so stay tuned for more!

Happy Friday!