$$ Saving Laundry Color Catchers and Up-Cycled Container

Hey just a fun thing that I did the other day to help save $$.....

We have lots of reds, oranges and bright colors and always hearing about the color catchers from friends but  I just can't see spending the extra $$ to keep my colors from bleeding and luckily they don't that much, at least I don't think so but I'm going to find out after I give these a try!

I bought some Arm and Hammer Washing Soda and cut up some white felt squares I had into 4 pieces
and so out of 3 felt white felt sheets I have 12 squares!  Awesome to see if they work well will be a test and
I'm already to do that!

I will let you know how that goes and link up to the blog I got the recipe from if it in fact does a good job later.   For now, I wanted to show you the container that I made out of a cute little wooden bucket I received several years ago from my sweet sister in law on my husbands side.  I've had it as a decoration in our utility/laundry room for at least 5 years but with no purpose; until now.  So here it was:

So it was a nice afternoon, I saw my paint from Kendall's $$ earning Chore Chart and light bulb moment; this would be perfect color for my laundry room.  I love the Ocean Blue/Turquoise color!  I'm finding I use it more and more.  So before the sun went down I untied the rope that you can hang it by and removed the twine band that was glued from the pot and painted it.

I didn't sand it or prep it other than removing the cord and ring decor.
It took about 3 to 4 coats and:

When it was dry, I put the decor back on up to the original glue mark and next got out my hot glue gun and glued it back.

All glued on, gotta love hot glue it dries so fast you can do tons of crafts in a short time frame!  I love the quickness!

I added my white felt color catchers and loved it but still needed something and another; ah ha moment!
Yes, the same vinyl letters I had used for the Chore Chart and Laundry Loot would be perfect; if I had enough and well;

I did!!!  I did have to use the lower case in order to spell correctly but my laundry room is coming along nicely!  I look forward to sharing it's transformation after I'm through but sharing the crafts I do as I move along with inspiration to up-cycle things I already have to transform them to things that I didn't use; to things that make everything about doing laundry better!

May you have a day filled with SunShine, Joy and Smiles........share your crafts with me..... and I will link the color catchers in the next few days!  God Bless you!

Serving Others & My Freak Accident! God Has My Back

Friday, February 8, 2013
Today was a beautiful sunny, nice day.  I woke up to see Kendall in the kitchen with the special tray

making a breakfast and she said Mommy, I was making you breakfast in bed!  I asked her for what?  Why?

Because "I love you and just wanted to, I just felt I needed too, but why are you up?" Yes, I was a little taken by the "I needed too?" but we just enjoyed the start of our day.....then...

I asked her the same thing, why are you up?  She proceeded to tell me that Saji our 4 year old indoor outdoor kitty wanted outside.  He in himself is a cool cat to say the least.  He comes in at night, around her bed time and follows her to bed, where he proceeds to make biscuits/knead a certain pillow or stuffed animal on Kendall's bed until he's comfortable to settle in for a good nights sleep.  This day he decided he wanted to go out at a little early so she was up!

So my precious girl had not completed her special surprise but we enjoyed a perfect breakfast together and she completed all her school work and did her chores all before 11 am!  I love my sweet girl and her awesome spirit, full of wonder, delight, love and joy to share!  :)  ( also she is a tween and we do have our days, thanking God today was not one! )

Okay, so leading up to my accident was "Our day was all about serving" and I didn't get that until blogging our day!  Thank you God; He has my back!  Serving others; being a blessing, a light to others without realizing this is how our entire day went.  This is the prayer that I pray as we drive away from our home but we didn't this day because we had my best friend/sister Kendall's godmother with us.  She called and wanted to go see mom with us today and at the same time we could then take her to pick up her truck from being worked on.  We were ready to leave and was excited as we were eating to fix a little snack lunch for her as she rode with us on our journey into town.  

We all 3 went into to see Mom, who was not having a good day but did say upon my entering the room; she loved me.... :)   We spent a little over an hour with her.  We left and made a couple of stops and then took her to her truck.  

Kendall and I then headed down the road where we stopped at Walmart for the items to make the Black Bean Enchilada Casseroles 1 for our friend who lost a family member and have a funeral tomorrow and 1 for us.  Kendall and I came home, unloaded the groceries and I remembered I had a bowl of scrap bones and meat I'd had in the fridge to take down to the tank to feed the wild critters, since I don't do that from our back fence anymore.  

Our driveway is well, almost 1/4 mile long, curves in a couple of places and is a white, dusty, rocky road.  It is a white rock gravel that over the years only outlines the path we drive, and creates a dust cloud when we drive down it, much like the Road Runner chasing the Coyote in the cartoons, leaving our cars filthy no matter what we do.  Texas has been in drought for a couple of years and the tank only filled a little this last December/January from a couple of quick but drenching storms.

We drove down the drive 1/2 way to the tank, parked the car and walked around to see the tracks of each animal that visits.  We left the food, and I hopped back into the car, but Kendall wanted to walk the driveway.  I always follow behind her so you know it's slow.  I'm looking out the window, following and felt the back right of my slip and jolt me?  I felt something and before I knew it; I heard a loud noise, felt my steering wheel jerk, scrapping I can hear but can't see!!! The tree I used for guidance was now 4 feet off the road;  I could see Kendall turn around; she was about 20 feet in front of me to see her running back to me.  I was stunned.  I looked at Holly, my Pomeranian who was in the seat beside me and realized I had hit something.  

I was starting to get out of the car and my husband was calling, I answered and was telling him just what happened as I was getting out of the car and walking around to survey the damage.  I could not believe my eyes!!!  The 2 trees that line my drive have always had ample amount of brush surrounding them and I have backed up our driveway like " Lightning Steve McQueen from Cars" as I have done for over 10 years but this time was going extremely slow, and Kendall wasn't with me.  

I was so upset by this, how in the world could this happen?  Really?  This day all we had done is help a friend, spend time with Mom, talk about her treatment and make sure she's getting everything she needs, use our limited grocery budget to bless another family, then come home to relax, fix dinner then remember we need to feed the wild critters with the food I'd been saving for today's feed to only then have the back end of my car almost be wiped out!? The tail light is is the little tree and it shattered into many pieces!  I thank God we are okay but still very upset by what I see.

I tell Kendall to get in the car, finish explaining to David just what had happened.  He and my daughter both said,  "the enemy is trying to ruin your day!"  Kendall said it first, then David; almost word for word my precious family kept me from losing it and being so caught up in anger and emotions as they were all over me.  It took me about 20 minutes before my spirit heard what they were relaying to me.  God has my back!  No joke, He is always with me, protecting me, showing me grace, love and forgiveness.  I need Him to show me why am I so stubborn I jump to other emotions before realizing His undeniable compassion and mercy.

My car was hurt, my daughter was not in it, she was fine.  My little Holly was fine and so was I.  

This day was about serving and Kendall started the day blessing me; as I moved through the day being a blessing to completing the final good deed of feeding wild life.  Thank You Father God for saving me, helping me realize You and only You can.  God has my back!

May your day be filled with SunShine, Joy and Smiles........ may God bless you and remember He has your back!

$$ Earning Chore Board for extra responsibility's

So we all know how money doesn't grow on trees!  Oh, how we all wish it did!

Our 11 year old daughter has an array of things/responsibility's that she has to do daily such as feeding the cat's that she willingly wanted the responsibility for along with keeping her room clean, making her bed, and replacing the trash bag in the kitchen if there is not one already there, on top of getting ready for the day.

Kendall has always dreamed of owning a Persian Kitty.  She has seen the pictures of the Persians that I had and of course has heard the stories.  She also loves Build A Bear and has quite the collection, along with loving and collecting Littlest Pet Shop everything...... along with her heart of gold and wanting to share everything with her friends we realized it is time that she do some extra things to help around the house to earn extra money to save for some of these things she loves so much.

This really hit home for us as a family when my precious husband brought it to our attention that we had spent almost 300$ last November at Build A Bear as we were on our 2nd visit around Christmas in December!  I am just as guilty of loving the little Holiday babies, and I know sometimes I tend to over compensate being that she is our only child.

I've been plagued with "how do I help her get the things she wants without caving in all the time and respecting our financial situation?"  With that in mind, regular allowance wasn't cutting the line, it flat out didn't work for us.  I have seen many Chore Charts in the store, on Pintrest and just couldn't find things that pertained to us.

Well, I did see a chart on Pintrest for Chores where the idea for using a cookie sheet and making holes in the top to hang with ribbon gave me the idea for how to make one for Kendall.

Here's my tutorial on how I did this and you can pick and choose to make it your own, any way, any chore but very excited about it and she is too!  There are a couple of chores that will teach her home skills, responsibility and even 2 that will take away $ for not completing/doing them.  Let's take a look!

Yes, I had a can of paint from what project, well, I can't actually remember :) and an old stained cheap jelly roll pan/cookie sheet!   So on a relatively warm afternoon I took this outside, lined some news paper onto the ground and sprayed the old cookie tray into a beautiful blue one!

I highly recommend putting the holes in the top to hang with a ribbon before painting!  You will see what happened to mine when I repainted from the dust in the later pictures but perfect.... doesn't matter, the goal is to get it up and working to move us along to financial gain/responsibility's nothing more!!!!
I had my husband drill holes in the top so there is no picture, use your imagination and or a hammer an nail, or super glue a picture hanger on the back or have the chart lay flat.... 

Next, you need to find some magnets that will hold your chores onto your board.  I got this pack at Hobby Lobby and they were for another project that I didn't do so I used them for this Chore Chart and for My Valentine Car Bingo, plus, I still have over 1/2 the pack for whatever else I can come up with!

I have vinyl letters from scrap booking that I also used in my Laundry Loot post and now for the $$ Earning Chore Chart.  I had my husband drill the holes into the top, picked a fun grosgrain ribbon I had and put it through the holes and tied a bow where it will actually hang.  ( this was done after I painted, I warned you before and you will see why in a minute or two!)

So, we have the holes drilled, ribbon in place, the old cookie sheet painted and another piece of scrap book stuff that I thought would be cute glued onto the magnets.  I don't have a machine to make all my perfect lettering, don't really have the ink to print everything so plain old hand writing on the ones I want to use for Kendall's board.

So I punched out the shapes I wanted.  ( I also had some really cool scrap book paper I thought about ) but went for these as they were a little more sturdy and carefully decided the things my husband and I discussed to put on them, what we wanted her to learn and do and wrote them onto the shapes.

Next, I used the glue gun and put a dot onto a magnet, attached a chore and moved onto the next one until they were all finished.  ( we have room for add more in the future also! )

Hung it to see needed a place to put them after they were completed and so with the same ribbon I glued
a completed line onto the board.

I use my Iphone for all my pictures; this is that cool blue even though it looks like yucky pea green!

See the difference?  Same one!  Anyway, there is the completed line....ribbon....glued down.....

You can see the handwriting, the magnets keep them raised off the board

2 carefully, selected things to do that IF not done will take $$ away!!!

What kid doesn't want to play outside on a good day?  That's an easy one!

Bible Scriptures should not be up for discussion and if not completed 1$ will be taken from

all the chores completed.

My husband and I love these as we know our daughter and it is important to understand give and take.  Completing a job = pay     Not completing a task = losing something

I will say this was her least favorite but is working perfectly.... doing both with a joyful heart!

I sure hope this is something that you want to do for your child or maybe we could even tailor them for ourselves?  Your imagination is a gift from God.....use it well and have fun!

Comments welcome; help me build my blog :)

May your day and project be filled with SunShine, Joy and Smiles ...... God bless you!

Valentine Inspired Car Bingo Recycled Tin Tutorial

We live in the country and well, frankly, getting down our driveway is a mini road trip.  Our rock driveway is about 1/4 mile down to the actual Highway for us to go anywhere.  We are always on the lookout to see what we can see and, honestly, we can see a lot.

We have trees, telephone poles, our donkey GusGus, a pond which is a host to a lot of wild life not limited to but often seen:  Red Tail Hawk, an array of other birds, the tanks Blue Crane, Racoons, Skunks, Armadillos, Deer and Bob Cats to name a few!

I am always searching for Kendall to do something in the car on our drives other than play on her phone.  She likes to play games or text but if she does it for too long it makes her head hurt and not feel very good.  The car bingo we've had before engages her to look outside and keep her mind searching so with that in mind I created a special one for her.

My youngest brother years ago gave me some Brighton Cross Earrings that I just love.  The neat lime green heart shaped container they came in with fun writing on it was just to cool to not do something with.  There came the Valentine Inspiration as it is February 2, 2013 and this container is in the shape of a heart!  :)    So here is what I did to make this.  Realize, you can use any size tins to make it compact with a lid, I'm thinking an Altoid Tin for the next one Christmas inspired  ;)

I will give you a complete supply list at the end of this tutorial, enjoy!

Get some scrapbook paper, open your tin and cut out section to fit for both lid and base.

Open your tin and decide how many magnets you want to use so you can still see the pretty/fun paper.

Turn your tin upside down on the backside of your paper (easier to see on white ) and trace your shape for both bottom and top.  Cut out your shapes.

Next I used Elmer's glue and glued the paper into the top and bottom of my tin.
Then I went to Google Images for Road Trip Bingo and picked the one I liked and chose the things that would keep her looking for a while.

This is the one that I used and the website link is on the bottom of this picture!  She did a great job and for us it was the most easy to recognize via picture because my tin is so little I had to import the file and shrink it down to 3 x 3 and 3 x 4.   I printed 2 copies.
1.  I cut out the bigger ones to glue to the magnets
2.  I cut the smaller ones to glue stick to the base of my tin.

Now the hard part is just letting these dry for our next outing in the car.  Kendall is 11 and she loved the bright paper and the special tin made just for her.  She can keep it in her purse for use when traveling with friends or in our car; her choice.  This was just so quick, fun and easy I felt really good making it for her with things we had just lying around!  No $$ spent that's the way to have some free fun!

Supplies:
Tin of your choice
Pack of magnets ( craft section Walmart or Hobby Lobby )
Sheet of Scrapbook or any other paper you like
Elmer's School Glue and Glue Stick
Scissors and a pen or pencil for cutting and tracing your shape
Images or Stickers of what you want your little ones to look for

May your day be filled with SunShine, Joy and Smiles............. Have fun & God Bless!  

Crafty Fun Bird Feeders....recycled TP rolls

My Grandmother used to always feed her birds and we would just watch them for hours at the kitchen table through the window.  She taught me so many birds by the way they looked and or the sweet sounds they make.  I have grown up and have my own little girl and have passed this love of birds and God's majestic nature to her.  

We love feeding our birds and watching them enjoy their meals.  The fun thing is different ways of feeding them besides the regular feeders and just throwing it on the ground.  Winter here in Texas is off and on with temperature fluctuations but even with that the natural bug selection Thank God is scarce!

With that said I like to give the birds a little something extra to help fatten them up and supply much needed warmth.  In a magazine I have seen about peanut butter etc., but also the less expensive route in which we are using this winter is:  LARD!  I have to laugh, I don't cook with it but actually buy it for the protein for the birds!   Here is what we have on our tree branches/sticks now:

This is so easy here is what you need to complete this cheap, quick, easy, fun craft 

Bird Seed     a small tub of LARD     something to smear it on with, my $ store silicone brushes and TP empty rolls.   I absolutely love these little recycled things they make many cheap, fun crafts!

Next, get a roll, get some Lard on your brush of choice and paint/smear away!

Now for the FUN part!  When completely covered put it into the birdseed.

Just move it around and push it in a little with each turn

OK, now it should look like this! 

Now just decide where you want to put them and enjoy watching the birds have fun!  Our 6 rolls were ready to be replaced in less than a week once discovered!

Sure hope to inspire you to have a little craft fun and at the same time enjoy some of God's wonderful creatures!