Fixed Freebies

 

I have had some comments pointing out to me that my free printables for the the Book Labels, Robot Pattern, and Menu/Shopping List no longer work. I have moved them to a different site, so they should be available again. I am sorry for the inconvenience!

Fairy Blog Mother

 

Fairy Blog Mother is a site that vows to make all your bloggy dreams come true. I know there are some of us bloggers that can’t figure out how to make their blog look fabulous to save their life. Well, stop worrying! For an amazing price, Fairy Blog Mother will totally make over your blog!

And guess what? Over at one of my favorite blogs, Oops I Craft My Pants, Fairy Blog Mother is giving away a new blog design plus all the extras!

Enter the giveaway here! Good luck!

Fun & Easy Chore Charts

I stayed up until midnight working on these adorable chore charts. First I sketched out pictures for each of the chores that I wanted the boys to be responsible for. Then I scanned them in, and shrunk them down a bit. I made them a little chart, and printed that out and laminated it.

Then I cut out my pictures and made them into magnets using THIS tutorial from Little Miss Momma.

I think they turned out great! The boys actually got excited and did some chores this morning. Woot woot! They love moving their magnets over to the “all done!” section.

Every chore completed gets them 10 cents and 7.5 minutes on the Wii. If they complete them all, they (well, D3 does…D4 doesn’t care all that much yet.) get an hour on the Wii every day, and by the end of the week D3 will have $5.60, and D4 will have $2.80. We may round up for them if they do every one of their chores every day for the whole week. I guess we will decide that if the time comes when the time comes!

I Resolve…

Happy New Year, bloggie buddies! I hope your 2010 was awesome. Mine was, but I am very much ready to see what 2011 has in store for us! I (of course) have a long list of Resolutions for the new year. I am making them public in hopes that I will feel guilted into it will motivate me to keep them.

Ahem.

1. Get back on my low carb diet, and hit my goal weight
2. Plan a weekly/monthly cleaning docket, and stick to it.
3. Do at least one load of laundry a day.
4. Get organized!
5. Play more with my kids.
6. Do a devotional as a family. Every day.
7. Have 'learning' time every night with the kids.
8. Have a family togetherness night once a week.
9. Make new chore charts, and make the kids stick to them.
10. Try my best to stop yelling!
11. "Pay it Forward" several times throughout the year.
12. BLOG AT LEAST 5 DAYS A WEEK!

I’m sure there are more things I need to do to better myself, and my family…but that’s all I can think of at the moment. So there you go. Hold me accountable.

Mantel Makeover

My mantel was sad. Very sad. In fact my whole living room was in major need of some color. I needed to do something about it. But what? I began to look around my house for things that could be recycled. Even UPcycled. When what did I find? This little beauty:

There it was just sitting in the back of my closet. Screaming "Help me!". And help it I did. Just a little bit of Rust-Oleum American Accents in Aqua, and voila!

I painted a few picture frames...

...and added a little wooden "happy".
Just look at the difference.
Color. EEP! I just stood and looked at it forever. Now for some throw pillows. {Dot dot dot}

Framed Fabric Menu Board Tutorial

I am still loving this Michael Miller fabric. Especially this "Bite Me" print. Love. It. So, I decided to make use of it in my kitchen. Hence the framed fabric menu board tutorial. Say that five times fast. Moving on.

You will need:
*A picture frame. Mine is 11"X14".
*Fabric the same size as your frame plus a little more than 1/4" extra all the way around.
*A glue gun.



First you need to take the back off of your frame. This is what you will glue your fabric to. Lay the inside of the back (does that even make sense?) on the wrong side of your fabric. Center it.



Then fold the extra up and over. Glue.


Do this all the way around.



Flip it over and admire your amazing work.


Put the back on the frame, and write your menu. I used liquid chalk that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.


Isn't it cute? Now, if I can actually remember to use it every week!

Fabric Covered Coaster Tutorial

Here is the first thing I did with this fun Michael Miller fabric. Fabric covered coasters. Mine used to be Arkansas Razorbacks coasters. But then D4 broke one. They also began to look stained, and well, very unattractive. You can see just how ugly they were in the picture below, but enough rambling. Moving on.


You will need:

• Coasters that are in serious need of some cuteness.
• Fabric - cut to the shape of your coasters with 1/2 inch extra on all sides. (or more if your coasters are really thick)
• Heavy interfacing cut to the size of your coaster. You could use some other type of thin padding, but this is what I had on hand.
• A glue gun

Ready? Let's get started. First you will need to glue your piece of interfacing to the top of your coaster. I forgot to take a picture of this part. Sue me. Then turn coaster upside down and place it on the WRONG side of your fabric. Like this:



Then glue down two sides of the coaster and wrap your fabric up and over the glue. Press firmly to make sure it's adhering ok.


On the two sides that are not yet glued, turn your corners in (like when wrapping a present) and then glue it like you did the other sides.

It will look something like this:


Then flip it over, and voila! A new coaster!

My Hogs coasters had come with a black holder. I spray painted that baby aqua, and because of the extra height the fabric and interfacing gave the coasters they fit nice and snug in the holder. Cute, huh?