PINspiration wrap from March...

We are entering the 2nd week into April and I wanted to give props to some amazing blogs and pins that I found inspiration from during last month...

I got our Irish LUCK on with these fun decorating and celebration items:

I emptied the Epsom "snow" from my mason jars that were decorated for Christmas and Winter and added dried split peas. Plus made these Shamrock pixie sticks.

Found inspiration from these two PINS:

staceyphotography.blogspot

 
and this photo:

I was inspired by these candy treats:

from this PIN: brilliant beginnings preschool utah blog

and I made Candy "Shots"

Got Matt in the act as we made these homemade Shamrock chips:

Found the inspiration and directions here: buzzfeed.com/ baked-alternatives-to-potato-chips
We received rave reviews of design but not everyone liked the taste...

On actual St. Patrick's Day before we went to church we had a Lucky breakfast:



inspired by : thoughtfullysimple.com a-lucky-breakfast

Moving into the next Holiday for the month of March, we celebrated Easter...

I changed out the shamrock sticks and added wooden eggs to the jars, plus found these sparkly wooden Easter tags in the $ bins at Target...

 My youngest daughter Naomi-Ruth and I had fun making some paper plate crafts during our Spring Break. I found the inspiration and directions off these two PINS:

love play and learn blog- easter-bunny

.the-preschool-professor

A few other Easter items:

This was the first year I hard boiled eggs in the oven, inspired by Pinterest. Overall it was a lot easier and didn't stink up the kitchen. But unsure if all the eggs cooked evenly through as some when cracked open to eat seemed undercooked. I will probably do again in oven, but rotate my pan 1/2 way through since I don't think my oven cooks evenly anyways.



we made Peeps Smores for the first time:

inspiration here: eclecticrecipes peeps-smores-for-easter

My youngest daughter has severe food allergies and intolerances, which can make Holiday treats difficult to match or make for her. I found this cute food serving idea on Pinterest:

I filled plastic eggs with fruit and treats she can have and brought in to Brunch with us. She was thrilled to have her very own Surprise treat eggs:-)

I also wanted to do a cute hairstyle for Naomi-Ruth and since I'm hair "dumb" and went to Pinterest and found this cute hairstyle in a picture posted and copied it:

If two Holidays in ONE Month wasn't enough....my family also celebrated the birth of my sweet new Nephew :-) AND my Mother's Birthday. We had PINspired desserts at my house:

Jello Orange slices sugar soiree deviantar Jell-o-Oranges-Tutorial

The hardest part was scooping the oranges out of the rinds. I just used a spoon. Be careful of small holes in your rind bowls, cause the jello will leak right out. We had to trim some peel off the slices after the jello set, since there is no way you can get a completely even jello line at the top of the bowl. The orange jello didn't seem to set right, I think that was a generic brand...so go with Jello brand for these. They were a HUGE hit, especially with my 2 yr old niece.





Happy Birthday Mom!

I also made Chocolate dump cake for the first time: my catholic kitchen crockpot-chocolate-dump-cake

I used a crock pot liner, which made clean up a breeze!the cake turned out quite well. I served it in plastic cups topped with ice cream...so EASY!



Well there you have it! Happy pinning, crafting, cooking and creating!

thanks for reading, Julie



Wordless Wednesday: St. Pat's Spirit

It's the FIRST Day of SPRING...although it still looks and feels like Winter...hopefully a little Irish green will brighten your day :-)

Preserving Christmas

Do you take hundreds of photos during the Christmas Season like I do?

Well what are you suppose to do with all those photos besides posting them on Facebook?

Do you ever journal about festivities or have post-it-notes galore lining your desk with notes about shopping, parties, menus, and other important Christmas to-do's?

How are you suppose to keep that all organized or better yet, how do you remeber the year that little Sally recieved her Chatty Kathy doll or the year Aunt Lucy gave everyone knit socks?

You can do all this by PRESERVING CHRISTMAS!

Preserving Christmas? That's sounds like a lot of work, not at all. Here are some simple ideas.

* Create a Photo Book with your favorite Christmas pictures.

You can do it completely by scratch with a small scrap book and Holiday inspired papers and embellishments OR cheat a little and purchase a Holiday Scrapbook Kit. You can find them at any craft store and even Target sometimes. Most of the time you can buy them already on clearance. Pick your favorite pictures, print at home or at a store and you are set. The trick is to do right away...believe me there is plenty of time during those cold days in January. I always set a goal to have mine done before Valentine's Day.

You can also do a digital photo book on sites like Shutterfly or Snapfish. This couldn't be easier! Simply upload your photos and either choose for them to arrange the pictures automatically or spend about an hour and do it yourself.

* Photos of your children or family all dressed up or with Santa

How many of you book a photo session at Sears or Picture People to capture that perfect memory? Frame it and then what do you? I buuy a new frame each year, I have a theme of silver frames (Khols is a great place to buy frames, always on sale). I frame each year's photo (I now have 13) in a silver frame and keep them in a Christmas bin. Each year the frames come out and I display my favorites from years past and always try to mix it up from year to year. Either which photos I choose or how I display them around the house.

* Keeping a Christmas Journal

I have been gifted two different journals over the years and have them filled with notes, menus, photos, memories and more from many of our past Christmases. The last few years I have just done the photo books, but plan on making a simple homemade journal similar to the Give Thanks Book I created for Thanksgiving.

There are some great journals out there or even more simple purchase a nice blank journal and add your own personal notes, and tape in a few photos too. Continue to add to it each year!

Here are some photos of entries from two of my journals:

As always, thank you for reading and take a little time to preserve your memories!

Julie