St. Patrick's Day Preschool Goodies

Last week, my task was to create little goodies for L to take into preschool for his pals and teachers.  They were super simple to make and took no time at all.

For the kids:
I came across these adorable tags on Etsy.  I figured rather than wasting the time to try to recreate them, I would just pay the $5 and have them emailed to me.  Needless to say, I had them in about 15 minutes after I ordered, so that expense was a no brainer for me!!

Then, I gathered up my "ingredients"...

...placed the cereal in bags....

...and stapled the cute little tags on top.

It really doesn't get much easier!!

For L's teachers, I made up little silver pails with gold wrapped treats (Rolo's, Hershey Nuggets with Almonds and Toffee, and Twix.).  I mixed the candy in the pail, dropped the pail in a clear treat bag (bread loaf size), and the used some green ribbon to close it up.

I found the adorable tags here, and used some ribbon to tie them on too.

Doesn't get much easier than that!!  Stay tuned for Easter goodies :-)

Pretty Little Camera Strap

I recently purchased a DSLR camera.  I have used said camera one time because I have no idea what I'm doing with it (this girl needs to take a class big time!!).  But, that one time I used it, I realized that I was not a fan of the strap it came with.  It rubbed against my neck and was annoying.  This had to change, and when I came across this tutorial on Pinterest, it looked easy enough.  For once, I was right and flew through this and had it together in less than a half hour.  I love the fact that there is a little pocket to hold the lens...

 ...and I just LOVE the fabric, as it's in my two favorite colors....green and blue.

This strap looks much prettier and is so much more comfortable.  You better believe I'll be making a Mickey themed one too :-)

Disney Countdown....it's on!

Our trip is officially booked, along with our airfare.  Now....we wait, ugh!  I went through our calendar and wrote all the days left till the trip on each day and when I realized it was 200+, I knew for sure I was losing it.  But, then inspiration struck.  Why just look at a boring calendar each day, when you can look at something like this?

I won the Mickey block on the top (and the Minnie block as you will later see below) on an online auction at Crafty Moms 'R' Us.  I bid on them when the trip was in the works, but, not officially planned.  I had no clue what I was going to do with them.  But low and behold, I won them, and then it hit me....I can turn them into little countdowns by painting over the Mickey and Minnie heads with chalkboard paint.  "Brilliant, Tricia", I thought to myself.  But then I decided that was not enough.  So I went to the maker of the mouse block, Around the Block, and asked if I could buy unfinished blocks from them.  They said they never had anyone ask (go figure) but were willing to do it for me.  Score!  So I got four unfinished blocks in the mail and painted them with black paint.

 

For the "Days Til" block, I glued black cardstock to the block and then using my Cricut and the Mickey Font cartridge, cut out the letters and glued them on with glue dots.

 

For the "Disney" block, I glued scrapbook paper to the block and then used my Cricut and the Mickey Font cartridge to cut out the word and layered and glued to the scrapbook paper.

 

And then that was it.  I have two sets of block...one for us and then one that I'll be giving to my parents as a surprise this Thursday when they come to visit.  L loves to point at the blocks and say "Did-ney"....wonder if he knows what is in store for him!!!

 



St. Patrick's Day

I'm pretty sure I am one of the rare ones that actually decorates for St. Patrick's Day.  This month, with Easter being just 2 weeks after, I am finding myself quite busy with getting decor made and displayed, just to take it down.  But, at least it'll be ready for next year!!

First up was some festive table toppers.  This seems to be a recurring event as each holiday nears.  I have big toppers made for pretty much all the major holidays for my kitchen table, so now I'm tasked with making smaller ones for the living room.  I'm also trying to be a little more creative with the patterns, so for these, I found a quilt that I liked and just made a small portion of it to make it end table sized.

Next, was the mantel.  Ever since last month, I've been obsessed with making a fabulous mantel display.  I have to admit, most of the St. Patty's Day decorations out there are pretty hideous (like the ginormous green shamrock below), but, I think my selections worked.

I made the banner across the front with fabric and my Cricut machine.  I cut 7 triangles out of fabric and then spaced, pinned, and sewed them into a piece of 2" fabric folded in half.  I then used my Cricut to cut out the letters and shamrock from cardstock, and adhered them to the fabric with Mod Podge.  For winging this one, I am quite pleased with the outcome and I'm sure you'll be seeing many more banners following this pattern in the future ;-)

Finally, I made the cute little danglies like I did last month, for the playroom.  Again, I hit up the paint section, took a bunch of green paint swatches, and used my Cricut to cut out the shamrock shapes.  I placed them back to back and stuck them together with glue dots.  Then, fed them through the string I used previously and voila, instant decor.

So that's it!  We are ready for St. Patrick's Day!  Hope you have fun celebrating this fun, Irish holiday.  And just know that next Sunday, it's ok to have your favorite beer or Irish Coffee for breakfast!!

A Simple Slipcover

One of my big project this week has been getting L's playroom organized.  Before, it was a mish-mosh of G's medical textbooks, comic books, and other random stuff he had in there when the room was used as his office.  We got everything out, except one big piece- his grandmother's old record player.  This thing is a beast and it's one of his prized possessions, so moving it to the basement where it could run of the risk of being attacked by leaking water or whatever rodents decide to set up shop  down there (hey! we live in the country!), was not an option.  I also knew leaving it wide open in the destructive path of a 2 year old was an equally bad option, so we came to an agreement....I would make a simple slipcover for it.

I decided to use a heavier fabric from the home decor section of Joann's.  Man....this stuff is flipping expensive!!!  Thankfully it was 40% off.  Jeez!  I ended up getting 3 1/2 yards of it, which was more than I needed, but, it was the best figure I could come up with trying to do math on the fly since I forgot to plan this all out before I went to the store (spoken like a true crafter!!). 

I began cutting it- a top piece, two sides, and a front and back.  I made sure to leave a little extra on the ends to account for seam allowances and to help slip it over a little easier.  There was no need to make it a skinny slipcover!  Then, I sewed the sides to the top piece and the front and back to the top piece.  And then, sewed all the sides together.  It really came together quite easily...less than a half hour!  I think it turned out pretty good (for totally winging it and not having a pattern!!) and is very kid friendly.

Mousekeeping Tips

Alright, I'm going to be upfront and honest here.  I NEVER tip housekeeping in a hotel, ever.  And it's not because I don't want to, it's because it honestly never crosses my mind.  The only time I ever think to do it is is Disney because there is just something special about the housekeepers Mousekeepers that clean up your rooms, leave little towel animals on your beds, and turn down your blankets at night and leave chocolate on your pillow (seriously, this does happen at the Grand Floridian!).

As I was searching around on Pinterest looking for tips and such to plan our trip, I saw that people were getting pretty creative with how they presented their tips to their Mousekeepers, so I decided to make my own version!

I had a Disney font saved from L's 1st Birthday, so that got me started on these little tags.  I used red cardstock and the font to type a message and then put a little Mickey head below.  The tags measure 2"x3", roughly.

Since we have general housekeeping during the day and turndown service at night, I made two different cards.  Then, I trimmed the upper corners to make the cards look like a tag.

I punched a hole in the center...

Tied a cute black ribbon with white polka dots...

And then put a yellow paper clip on the side.  That's how we'll attach the tip to the card.

Easy peasy!  Is it necessary to do this....not at all.  But, Pinterest puts bad over-the-top ideas in my head and I just can't help myself!

We're Going to Disney World!!!

In case you didn't catch on, we finally booked the vacation I have been waiting years for.  I have been to Disney probably 15-20 times over the course of my life, but, this trip is going to be so special as it will be L's first trip to the House of the Mouse.  He's going to go bananas!!  Since birth, I've tried to brainwash sway his TV choices to those revolving around Disney.  So far, so good. 

But, with this trip also comes MAJOR anxiety on this mamma's part.  Doing Disney with adults....I've got that down to a science.  Throw a toddler with a mind of his own into the mix....sheer panic.  Thankfully, I found a ton of great information on Pinterest that is helping to put my mind at ease.  And, I will be sure to report all of my tips upon our return (or during our stay if I need a break from the madness).

So, first things first, we are going to be traveling with my mom and dad too.  My mom hits a milestone birthday this year and she is an even bigger Disney fanatic than I am.  She too has been dying to take L to Disney, so this works out to be the best gift she could give herself! :-)  The five of us will be staying in two rooms at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.  This is by far my favorite Disney resort, and, consequently the most expensive.  We are REALLY hoping a discount comes out in the next few months.  My parents have been staying at this resort for 20 years now and there is just nothing like it.  A few years ago, my mom discovered an even bigger (yet, pricey) perk....Club Level.  This is a great way to stay, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary to stay on Club Level.  It is nice to have concierge services right in your lobby and the wide array of breakfast, munchies, afternoon tea, happy hour (including beer and wine), and dessert all included.  I think this trip will make us get our moneys worth because I'll be able to pack up some snacks for L to take into the parks.

Which, brings me to the next thing I discovered....the Garden Grocer.  It really is a brilliant concept.  Go online, shop for groceries, and have them delivered to your resort.  Since L will still be 2, we aren't required to buy a ticket for him (yay!) and therefore he won't be on our Dining Plan.  But, Disney is one of the few theme parks that allow you to bring outside food into the parks.  So, my plan is to pack up yogurt, cheese, and fruit from the resort, and then I'm going to get stuff to make PB&J sandwiches, juice, and other munchies that might otherwise get crushed in my suitcase delivered so we have it.  The hardest part is figuring out how much we really need, since I hate to see it go to waste.  But, I have time to figure that out :-)  For the rest of the meals, L will just share whatever G or I are eating.  And...did you know, if you eat at a buffet, kids under 3 can eat free.  Score!  I think we have 3 of these planned! 

We have to wait until the end of April to make our dining reservations, so, between now and then I'm going to be gathering more information to make this trip go as smooth as possible.  Pinterest has been a great source of crafty things Disney-related, so you will be seeing lots of them in the very near future.  Because let's face it...I am SO flippin' excited to go on this trip!