Top 10 PINS from Pinterest

I was inspired by my friend Leslie's blog topic today and took the challenge:

10) easy peasy banana bread...baking, tempty desserts, and more...love my food pins!

http://www.artsyfartsymama.com/2011/11/easy-banana-bread.html

9) Crock pot Lasagna? Yes! This is a life saver meal, quick and delicious

http://www.creatingthroughlife.com/2011/10/crock-pot-lasagna.html

8) chore cards...who knew chore Saturdays could become easier...

http://organicfamilies.blogspot.com/

7) charts for my children and myself, what to do,lists, practicing, routine...has helped a lot!

http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/chorecharts4-10.htm

6) calm down kit....these have been a great tool for my children ( and Mama)

http://blogs.utexas.edu/utes_socialwork/2010/12/

5) faith...I love the verses, quotes, and reminders of God's Promises

4) Disney...from touring ideas, pictures, crafts and more; helps keep a bit of the Disney Magic in my day

3) laughter....I seriously find myself cracking up hysterically sometimes...great pick me up!

2) scrapbooking Disney! Two of my favorite things

http://scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com/2011/12/super-sketch-club-add-ons.html

1) house fix it up dreaming :-)

http://www.housetweaking.com/2010/09/02/feature-friday-my-kitchen/

February recap and March on

Here is a quick recap of how the last month went in terms of my "Pinterest" goals

a look at my calendar page as the month began

and how the month progressed into my Sick-bruary BOO!

somehow I did have some energy midway through the month to get a few things done, like SCRAPPING! whoo-hoo and create a cute Valentines table for my family.

the last week of February proved creative as I looked over some Magic Monday and Fix-it-Friday goals I had not met. I also went thru my Pinterest boards and set up some new goals!

These early days of March have shown at least my creative mind is healing ;-) if not this lingering cough and congestion.

Here's a wrap up of some projects I have caught up with and given me the boost I needed despite the SNOW, Chicago is finally decided to dump on us

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MAGIC Monday: Bored Can

inspiration found here: shabbybeachnest.com -im-bored-jar and thehappyhousewife.com im-bored-activity-cards

Since I couldn't find my stash of wooden craft sticks I just printed out the list from the happy house wife. Cut them out, wrote a few notes on some and eliminated a few ideas, like make mud pies (sorry I'm just not that mom) laminated and trimmed them into smaller rectangles

took a tin can from my up cycle stash and this is what I came up with:



the labels I created on the Martha Stewart card making app; printed, laminated, cut and attached them to the can. There is an up cycled package ribbon tied around the can too, that you can quite see in the pictures.

The can has a new "home" in our kitchen/family room area and has already seen some use. This is my son Nate picking from jar today and laughing at his pick "Water gun fight" as we are having a SNOW day.

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MAGIC Monday: Disney inspired paper dolls

Sorry I don't have any pre production photos, I accidentally deleted them off my camera whoops! However I found this image while I was browsing Pinterest. The PIN doesn't work, but I was able to just save the image to my pictures and print two copies off my printer.

After I printed them, I cut them cut and secured each princess together with adhesive, laminated and trimmed them out. But then I was stuck, how do you play with them? How do they stand up?

My original thought was Popsicle sticks, or a plastic straw, none of which I had enough of and was determined not to purchase anything for these Magic Monday Projects. I then saw this on Pinterest:

LIGHT BULB! that will work...

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Fix-it-Friday (or on a Tuesday Snow day)

Scarf hanger

Do you have a collection of fashion scarves? I do and this how it looked before in my closet:

all piled around a hanger

so now armed with that hanger and a box of shower clips

 (which I found in my linen closer re-organization)

I now have this:



sweet, easy and a no cost fix it!

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Looking ahead for the rest of March, I hope to work on some deep cleaning fix it's in the kitchen and bathrooms, plus add some St. Patrick Irish cheer to our home as we move toward my favorite Holiday of the year!

Hope I inspired you and thanks for reading,  Julie 

Special DISNEY craft

Hello to the Blogger World,

I know it has been sometime since I've been on here...but after my Sick-bruary coma, I'm excited to March forward and get crafty for the coming Spring and some upcoming Disney trips :-)

before I get back to regular schedule posting, I have been invited to be a guest blogger on violetimperfection

My Disney friend Leslie is having a Special DISNEY week on her blog YAY!

I offered to do a simple Disney craft. I got started by thinking about what do I have in my craft room (you know I like to reuse and re purpose), what would be something fun and unique, and of course checked out some inspiration on Pinterest ;-)

I have a plethora of these

and a have a collection of frames waiting to be used. Hmmm?

I found this great idea on Pinterest scrappingthemagic.com art-with-park-maps

and was able to  complete this craft in less than and hour and as in my guest blog's title I'm all about "imperfection" so if its not lined up just right and however it turns out...the point of CRAFTING is to bring some MAGIC and JOY into your home and life :-) I hope you agree.

Before I get to the craft, here are some fun Disney questions and answers to get to know how my Disney brain ticks...

1) When was your first Disney trip?

I went as a kid, when my family in the mid 1980's. It was a big deal trip, we even flew! Stayed off site, before I even knew what that meant at a Ramada Inn and we went to Magic Kingdom and Epcot (besides some other unmentionable theme parks in the Orlando area). I remember the now gone World of Motion Ride being my favorite attraction. I still have a few souvies from that trip too.

2) If you could have any Disney attraction in your backyard what would it be and why?

The tea cups...LOL

I love to laugh and have a good time and this ride always delivers, besides who wouldn't want one of those cups in their backyard, purple and green please.

3) What is the one Disney food that you must have on a trip?

Believe it or not, this "food" really is a newer addition to my Disney obsession...a Dole Whip Float please. Vanilla and Pineapple. YUM!

4) What is your best Disney tip or advice?

Truly enjoy the little and special spontaneous moments that happen there...I'm an avid planner, but never let the itinerary or schedule over rule the day. From special character meet and greets, pin trading, or just plan talking with a Cast Member...those end up being some of my favorite moments.

Now back to the maps and a frame:

You saw my maps and here is a simple white 8 x 10 frame from Target and piece of card stock

I started by taking the fake photo out of the frame and folded into 16 equal rectangles

 then I made a small template out of a piece of card stock

I used this to trace out the image from my maps and times guides

once I had them all traced out, I cut them with a small paper cutter and arranged them on the fake photo template

 then I transferred them to the piece of card stock trimmed to fit in the frame

I had to hand trim a few of the rectangles to fit better. Then I outlined each piece with a black flair pen

Here is a look at the finished project:

Not only is it neat to look at but serves as a mini trip down memory lane from several past trips to WDW. I had another matching frame, so decided to make one more:

After my eldest daughter saw my map art, she pulled out her collection and is inspired to do a map project herself!

Some other map craft ideas are:

* using as a decorative cover to an old box or bin to keep your Disney trip stuff in

* cut maps to fit the outside of a 3 ring binder to have as a trip planner, journal, etc

* use in your scrapbook layouts

* create coasters with them

the ideas are endless....Happy Crafting and thanks for reading, Julie

This is not the February I ordered...

( editing note: using blogger app so photos are in order but not in the text...)

February is suppose to be getting close to the end of Winter not the start of it...but here in Chicago, Mother Nature can't quite make up her mind, a week ago we had 3 of the 4 seasons in a matter of days and NOW the snow comes...ugh well at least my daughter was able to finally play outside and make this sweet snowman

(snowman picture)

My original pinispiration goals were to keep up with my Magic Mondays and Fix-it Fridays plus the overall goal was focusing on making better and healthier choices for myself in terms of snacks and excercise ...I wanted to be doing this

Getting fit:

(exercising picture)

And making healthier snack/lunch choices

But unfortunately I've been sick

( kleenex picture)

And dealing with other household illness like the cashew attack on my youngest, don't worry she's ok now and I have a new accessory in my purse...her epi pen.

( Naomi-Ruth in hospital picture)

Hoping to get on the right track soon, so hang in there with me.

Thanks, Julie

Fix-It: Home Command Central: operation fridge information

Here is the conclusion to our home's new Command central area....the fridge information highway :-)

Reminder of how it looked before:

a bit messy, disorganized and items on fridge that really were not in use or helping with home function (ie the chore chart...its under those notes)

To start any fix-up project...you need two things:

A Clean Slate

and some inspiration, mine came from pinterest (but of course)

 thecardswedrew.com fridge-reorganization

 achievingcreativeorder.blogspot kitchen-command-center

 notjustahousewife. command-center

bhg.com/decorating/storage/organization

My Finished Project:

it may not look as fancy or a cute as my inspiration photos above, but so far it is working out quite nicely! I want to expand the area to the walls on either side of our Laundry room. I have some boards up, but now i have new plans to make this how entry way work better for all of us.

 After pulling everything off, sorting into piles, and deciding want i needed to be on the fridge; I basically added another magnetic file/paper holder (found at Target), a magnetic flip sorter, a magnetic list maker, some pictures and inspirational/happy thoughts.

The flip chart holds our basic master weekly calendar, a family chore chart and the "What's Cooking?" for dinner. plus room for a few other items. I found the various printables on pinterest...it truly is amazing what other people have come up and share their ideas for you to implement into your daily lives :-)

The two magnetic file holders are split into 4 sections:

take-out menus

school/activity calendars

phone books (school, clubs, church)

chore/practice charts

***Note I will share more on these cool charts I found on freeprintablebehaviorcharts in another post, but lets say so far the kids and Mom like them!

Well get busy and get organized.

thanks for reading, Julie