Back to School

First day of 1st grade- first day to be gone ALL DAY at school! So is she scared?

"I'm not scared mom, because i have my best friend with me, and his name is "Backpack!"

Ok then... Well how are little sisters doing without her here?
For the most part, just fine.

Sweet Birthday Pocket Tutorial

I have to give credit to Leslie who teaches Love Notes for this great idea. And thank Sam for his photography skills! I think these would make really cute shower favors, or teacher gifts too.

Ok- first step, get a 6x6 inch square of carstock, turn it over (to the side that will go inside the pocket) and put double stick tape down the right hand side and along the bottom.

Next, place your candy bar (the Hershey's with Almonds are nice and flat and a perfect fit for the 6x6 size and much yummier than just plain chocolate if you ask me) Then fold the right side over the left so the tape holds it together. Pull out the candy bar and press the bottom flat so it sticks together. Run the bottom half inch or so through a paper crimper to give it that fun professional look. (these are sold at Joanns or Michael's for around $10- save your Sunday coupon!)

Then load the top half way into a circle punch and punch out a half circle through the front and back. (I used 1 1/4")

Slide in the candy bar and attach a little tag to the top of the candy bar wrapper with a mini safety pin, and tie on a little ribbon.

Then you can decorate the pocket however you like, or leave it plain. I used a 2 1/2" scalloped circle cut with the Mini Monogram's Cricut cartridge, stuck a flower on the side with a brad, and then wrapped it around the side of the pocket attached with double stick tape.

I hope that gives you the info you need! Let me know if you have any questions and if you make some, post a link to the picture- I'd love to see what you come up with!

What is up

We got the devastating news that some friends (Robby & Melanie) lost their new baby to SIDS- my heart has just been breaking for them and it's been hard to really think about blogging. My thoughts haven't been far from them since. I don't know how people go on after things like this, but I know they do somehow. I find some comfort in the knowledge that they will see their precious son again, and because they have been sealed together for eternity in the Lord's temple, they will have the opportunity to be a family forever.

One of my best friends (Shauna) said goodbye to her husband for the next 7 months as he was deployed to Iraq. I don't know how these families do it either- you are amazing!

Now for the least of my sorrows, Miss E dropped my camera and it is not working now. I will see if I can borrow one to get pictures and do a little tutorial of those candy bar wrappers for those who were interrested- I loved the idea of making some Halloween ones!

We went to a Jimmy Eat World concert and it was amazing! Really, their music is powerful to me and it was a great experience- they are so talented and fun to watch, and the best part is I was able to stay sitting down for most of the show! (if that isn't proof I'm getting old, I don't know what is!) Is that music still called Emo? Because it makes me quite emotional- I think I felt the full range there, it was that good.

I was released from working with the Young Women at church and will now be working with the primary children- I am really excited about this but I will miss the young women I had gotten to know and love. No more girls camp!

Sorry for the lack of illustration in this post, I don't have a camera you know.

Sweet Birthday Candy Bar Pocket

When your Young Women's budget is spent, I think these are a really cute thing to give for birthdays! We made the one on the left in the Love Notes class at the scrapbook store a while ago, and I tried to recreate it with things I could find now!

Re-discovering Etsy

This is really fun- Etsy is a huge online place to shop for hand made items and original art. And there are lots of really pretty, quality things in all price ranges. I just discovered this Search By Color- you scroll your mouse around and click on a color and it selects something that color for you to look at! Look at all these fun things:

Every seller has a feedback score, like on ebay, and there are other ways to search too- click HERE . Oh, and if you find a seller you like, you can click on their "favorites" and see who their favorite sellers are! Hours of fun.

Monsoon

This is my second favorite time of the year.And yes, those are Christmas lights hanging on my house. We call them holiday lights and Sam tries to turn them on for all holidays and birthdays.

Blossom

Did Blossom wear hats like this? (remember that show?) That's what I think of anyways when my kids pull this out of the dress-ups. Miss G is my least girly girl but it's in there.

"I could never marry you!"

When I was in high school I remember being at a friends house and we were making pizza's. I spilled a little cheese on the floor and continued making my pizza when I looked up to see one of the guys looking at me shocked- "aren't you going to clean up that cheese you dropped?" he asked, I was a little surprised, and I said "well, I'm probably going to spill something else so I'll just clean it all up when we're done." He kept that same shocked (maybe a little disgusted too) look on his face and said, "I could never marry you- 'why should I vacuum today, it's just going to get dirty tomorrow!'" I laughed and picked up my spilled cheese, but I was pretty mad about it. He didn't know anything, what a jerk to say something like that! But I have come to realize, he was pretty right about me! I totally feel like that now- why sweep the floor after lunch when I know in a few hours it will be covered with dinner! Why do I bother shining the bathroom sink and cleaning the mirror when someone is going to go wash their rocks in the sink and get muddy water all over the counter and mirror before I even get to enjoy it being clean? My days are an endless cycle of re-doing the things I just did! My kids make messes faster than I can pick them up and sometimes it just seems really pointless. (Can you tell it's been one of those days???) I know that every mother has to deal with this, and I am quite sure there are even some that can do it cheerfully and just whistle while they work but I'm not there yet.
Ok, now the reason I'm sharing all this, I got my Monday Morning Motivator e-mail from Hannah Keeley and I swear, every week it's like she's been spying on me and her messages are directed to me! They are always uplifting and encouraging and sometimes pretty funny too. Here's the part that struck me today:
"[Life's] a process, not a product. There's no joy in letting things remain static. The image is just an illusion. Groceries were not meant to line shelves. Floor were not meant to stay clean. Life is messy, and if you're not getting messy, then you're not really living." then "In every action and in every reaction, we are creating something huge, something great that will last beyond our own lives. The activities that we do as moms, day in and day out, are meant to be impermanent. But what they are building will last forever. "
Well, that sums it up! I highly recommend joining her MMM list, I only get one e-mail a week from her and it's always awesome. Click HERE to sign up! Thanks for making it through this long post!

I've been away for a couple days...

***UPDATE! I accidently linked to the wrong bean salad recipe below! Click HERE for the good one! Sorry about that!***It's been too hot to blog. And I needed to get some stuff done around here- it's been hard to get back into a routine after being on vacation. I made this yummy black bean salad the other day to go with dinner, and it was even better for lunch the next day scooped up on tortilla chips and I was excited to share it. You can get the recipe HERE. (sorry about my crappy pictures, I need to take a class or something)And I went and saw the Harry Potter movie and it was really good! From someone who doesn't usually like "that kind of stuff" really, go rent or borrow the first 4 and watch them, then go see this one! You readers really have me thinking about reading the books too, but only after I have seen the movies because I don't want to be disappointed! I love the mystery and adventure, and like to think about all the spiritual parallels of good vs evil, finding your gifts and using them for good etc- good stuff!

Lighted Fabric Flower Garland from All Sorts- and bunko secrets for Shauna

Oh no, it's nearly midnight and I am going to have to force myself off the computer- I've been surfing through craft blogs for hours now and my head is spinning with fun pretty ideas! I just had to share this fabric flower garland from All Sorts: I learned how to "Pop Lock and Drop it" at bunko tonight thanks to Gina. Well, ok, I can't actually do it, but I'll be listening to her hip hop cd and working on my moves. Shauna- Debbie and Lindsey missed you when they performed your old dance routines!

"Miss E's just curious mom, like George."

What if I squeeze some toothpaste in the drawer?
and how about on the floor?
OR wouldn't it be great in the bathtub?
or on the side of the bathtub?
I wonder if I could fill my whale?
And we must have some on the faucet!
What a lovely hat it would make for Ms. Purple Ducky.

You seriously have to check out Glitz!

I am not just saying this because Ginger is my sister in law- these girls are seriously talented and have come up with some GREAT products! My favorite is their CD's. Look at these cards all created using the printable card cd. (borrowed the pic from their blog)Click the picture to find out more. They also have cd's that have their paper collections and embellishments and you can print them on your own textured cardstock, transparencies, vellum or whatever you want to use- how fun is that? Go check out the Glitz It Now Blog HERE and leave a comment to be entered to win the Summer Crush collection on CD. I haven't seen cd's with designs as beautiful as this. You don't need to have fancy editing programs to use them. Good luck in Chicago this week Ginger, Laura and Erin! I can't wait to see your products on store shelves!

I might be a Harry Potter fan

I decided I really want to get into Harry Potter. For some reason I had not been able to make it through an entire movie without falling asleep so this week we have been watching them- and Sam made me stay awake. (well, I fell asleep at the end of #2 for a bit) BUT I really liked the last one, the Goblet of Fire, and now I actually know some of the characters names besides Harry, and I am ready and excited to go see #5 for date night this week! Has anyone seen it and want to give me their review? Maybe when Miss B gets a little older we can read the books together. I don't usually like movies with weird looking people or creatures but I think I like these ones now.

Super Cute Desktop

Shabby Miss Jen has the prettiest blog- I downloaded this Summer Desktop from there a while ago and finally got around to sticking some pictures on it and putting it on my desktop and it's so fun to look at! You can get it FREE from her website by clicking HERE.

Christmas in July

I came home from vacation to a big stack of catalogs hoping to get me. I started going through them last night and got some good inspiration of things I want to make. The first one is a ribbon garland from Current:

I think you could make a really cute Halloween garland with the same idea, just dangle some chipboard pumpkins or something? I don't know but it got some ideas rolling. Then I saw these: What a cute way to package popcorn for your neighbors or something- it seems like the Target dollar spot always gets cute buckets that would be a good size for something like this. Anyways, I realized last year, that if I plan to get crafty for Christmas I need to start much earlier than December, like July I guess.

More Maui: If you plan to visit...

I was a little out of it yesterday with the 3 hour time difference and a short night spent on an airplane so I left out some fun stuff! We spent a lot of time on the rainy side of the island because that's where we stayed. My inlaws live near the beginning of the road to Hana- just past Paia. (You guys are the best- thank you so much!!!) It's cool and rains a lot over there and it's so green! We haven't driven down to Hana yet but I think it's something you should do if you don't have kids with you. It's a beautiful drive on windy roads and when you get to the end there is the 7 Sacred Pools and my brother said that was his favorite part of their trip- hiking the pools and waterfalls. We only got as far as the Bamboo Forest which is amazing and fun & easy to hike through. I think honestly my favorite part of the whole trip was sitting out on their upstairs porch on the swinging bench reading. It's an amazing view- I wish I took a picture of it! My favorite places to eat over there are Colleen's in Haiku, Cafe De Amis in Paia, (yummy crepes!) Flatbread Company in Paia, and the Fish Market also in Paia. Everyone says Mama's Fish House is divine too but I like most food and that place is a splurge so we haven't tried it yet.

I paddled a canoe! The Kihei Canoe Club lets visitors join them and for a donation and you get to paddle out and look at the sea turtles. I was a little nervous about it but it was really fun- along with some awesome, huge sea turtles, we even got to see a dolphin swimming all around us. They say that's rare so it was pretty cool. When we were over there, we drove down and saw the lava flows. I love that stuff. There is really good snorkeling over there too but it was pretty cloudy and we were tired so we skipped it.

Then we had breakfast at Longhi's in Wailea and everything was so good!

There were a lot of places to shop but my favorite mall was Whalers Village in Lahaina. They have a couple really fun stores I haven't seen anywhere else- Cinnamon Girl and Sand People & Sand Kids.

Being in Hawaii, I really wanted to have the Luau experience and Sam's parents said that the Old Lahaina Luau was the best one so we did that and it didn't disappoint! They give you lei's and tropical drinks as soon as you walk in, then you can walk around and see some of the local crafts and listen to a great band. We forgot our camera but luckily there were people taking pictures you could buy.Then there is a huge dinner including the pit smoked pig. If you like seafood you will especially like it. And as many fancy drinks as you can handle- our favorite was the Lava Flow. (ours were virgin of course) After dinner there is dessert and a fun hula show that tells some of the history of the island.

A really awesome show you should see is Ulalena. We took the kids last year and they even enjoyed it. It has beautiful music and amazing dance, and tells some history of the island too. I don't know how many times Larry & Michal have gone but they have to take everyone who comes! We ate at Bubba Gump's over there- which is one of the only restaurants we found that actually has Dr. Pepper so that was a big plus!

Ok, now I think I covered everything! I can get back to the piles of laundry...

Back to the heat...

We're home! We lasted a week away from the kids and everyone survived! I have to admit, once I stepped off that plane in Maui, I really didn't miss the kids until I got to the airport to come home. Sure there were a few fleeting moments when I saw a mother with small children at the beach or something, but it was great! It is nice to be home with them again though. We brought home t-shirts, hula costumes and clip on earrings.We had a great time- Maui is so beautiful! Mountains, desert, rain forrests and beaches... We did a lot of relaxing, some shopping, and good eating.Besides spending time at the beach, we hiked the waterfalls in the bamboo forrest. (and got totally rained on!)We drove to the top of Haleakala (10,000 ft volcano) Up above the clouds we had a great view of Maui and could even see over to the big island. We also went over to the Iao Valley, another beautiful spot. (Kyle and Ashley here)And did you know where pineapples come from? They grow in these fields- not on trees like I thought. Kyle found this guy running around one night:Besides catching creepy crawlies, Kyle is the guy to have around if you happen to be in the market for some "Maui Wowee"- he had people trying to sell it to him everywhere we went! Only one guy offered it to Sam.