A 4th of July special - When you get married, you start to like wreaths.

Oh hey there! It's been awhile. Moving is hard guys, don't judge me too much for my internet silence. :) I have a real treat for you today. But first! I have an update on my last post. I decided by ribbon wreath needed a little more "umph". You know. The type of thing that would make someone be like, "Oh that's so cute! Where did you get that?!" So I can brag and stuff. So here's my ribbon wreath plus a different hanger and an adorable wooden letter B.

I think it just really ties it all together. Don't you think? (This is where you just let me have my delusions, even if you think it's ugly, k? :) Thanks.)

I just used hot glue to attach the B to ribbon, and then tied the ribbon around the wreath. Super easy. The hanger wasn't quite as easy. That ribbon is really hardy so I thought it would be a good hanger. Which it is. But... Attaching it with hot glue wasn't cutting it. I tried that first, but it just couldn't take the weight. I shoved a teeny tiny nail through it into the foam of the wreath. So far, so good. It's been up for a day or so and it hasn't fallen off. I added a dot of hot glue on the head of the nail, just in case. 

I loved this Pinterest find before, and now I am even happier. Woohoo! 

Ok, here's the good stuff now. Apparently I'm a wreath person. I didn't know this until I got married. But I love wreaths! (Never thought I'd admit to that...) They're an easy way to decorate for holidays. Especially in my teeny tiny apartment that really doesn't have a ton of room for much else.

The 4th of July has never been a very big deal in my family. I guess we're bad Americans? No judgement guys. Holidays require a lot of work!  My hubby on the other hand, always did the same thing every year. And it's a BFD. (Big freakin' deal, for those of you who don't speak Taylor.) Like, I'm pretty sure that if we didn't spend it in his hometown the divorce word could come out. (JK, JK!) So I felt like I should get on the band wagon and get in the spirit of things. Pinterest didn't let me down! Here's the pin I found that I thought was awesome.

Link here. Funny, because she used a different pin as inspiration. 

I wanted to do this project as inexpensively as possible. I already had all the yarn on hand, so I just needed some stars, and a wreath. I went searching around my house. I had a giant foam poster thing I bought for a group project awhile back and didn't end up using. (AKA, I bought the wrong thing. Woops!) It has just been sitting around for awhile and I decided it was thick enough to  make a good wreath form out of. I really like that it's flat. It sits on my door better and it made it really easy to wrap. The only problem was getting the shape right. I got creative. :)

Why yes, that is a lid to a hamper and a dinner plate...

I also like this option because now I have the middle part to do another craft with if I want. 

I didn't like the idea of using so much hot glue and keeping the gun on the whole time I wrapped the yarn, so I just tied the strings together when I switched color.

This is the start. I just tied the string to itself to keep it in place.

The color switch!

My hubby is very particular about accuracy, so his input was that I should make it with 7 red sections, and 6 white. Fair enough. Gotta be patriotic AND educated! So that's what I ended up with. (He's still a little upset about the stars, 'cause "There aren't 50 of them! Or even 13 like the old flag!" My bad. I'm fired I guess.) The blue is a little smaller than I would have liked, but it looks good. Here's a tip for you. Since it's flat, you have to match the yarn up to the outside. If you line it up on the inside, you end up with spaces between the yarn. On a round wreath it doesn't matter as much because it evens out a little better, the flat surface made it so I had to pay more particular attention. Learned that one the hard way! I may or may not have had to basically redo about half of it...

There it is! For the stars, I was feeling a little less creative. I picked wooden ones up from my local Joann's and painted them white. I felt justified in this, because I still made the wreath for under $10. The stars I just attached with hot glue. While I was at the craft store, I saw the letters and picked them up on a whim. They're attached with fishing line, which I had on hand from this project. I tried to make sure you could see it in the picture, it's less obvious in real life. From start to finish, this wreath took about 2 hours. That with the $10 I spent, makes me feel like I rocked at being frugal AND crafty. Thanks Pinterest! It's a success!

That Time When Peggy Blew Stuff Up

Hello Internets! (I feel like I need a fancier greeting here..please submit your suggestions in the comments!) So remember that time when I told you we were going to make bouncing bubbles? Yeah, we didn't. Because I live in the Land of Bipolar Weather, it rained all day. And snowed in some places. And was a million and twelve degrees in other places. Who says there's no diversity in Utah??

So Bouncing Bubbles are still forthcoming. In the meantime, today we planned on making these cool exploding bags:

Okay, pardon my digression, but when I was making these I was thinking of my sweet friend Alise whose amuma (our ethnicity is Basque, amuma is what you call your grandmother in Basque) has the thickest Basque accent and one time she got in her car after Alise's dad had moved the driver's seat all the way forward and she scolded him saying, "What you try to do? You try to 'splode me???" HA HA HA!! Oh Amuma Gloria. Anyhoo..back to the pin.

So how fun does this look? I'm telling you, you need to go visit Crystal over at Growing a Jeweled Rose. I used her idea last week for the Squirty Sidewalk Chalk and this week, she does not disappoint with this Exploding Bag o' Paint (my words, not her's!) So we were planning on doing this when one of my friends asked if her kids could come play with us. Fun! Then I was trying to make plans with another friend (you remember Alisa, don't you Internets?) so I suggested she bring her boys over and we could have a big Explodabag party! I love a party. Of course she was in so we got to work!
First, Don Diego and I prepped everything. There were going to be 9 kids here and I wanted everyone to have fun so we decided to do 3 bags per kid. Once again, I failed to get a Materials Shot (Sorry!) but the materials are seriously things I am certain you have onhand..zip up sandwich bags, vinegar, cornstarch, food coloring (again, go for the Neon stuff..seriously a HUGE difference!), baking soda and paper towels.

 So I put a sandwich bag in a 2 cup measuring cup to stabilize it while I added the necessary contents and I added a heaping spoonful of cornstarch (no measuring here, kids! Flying by the seat of our sploding pants!)

I added enough vinegar to fill the bag about 1/3 way full

Some food coloring...

And gave it to Don Diego to squish and mix up. We set those aside, our friends came over, we had pizza and sent the kids out to play while we mommies made the Baking Soda Bombs.

This is Alisa's menacing "I Make Bombs" Face

Those BYU fans are a lot more dangerous than

they appear! Don't let them fool you. Trouble. 

Every. Stinkin. One. Of. Em!

Then Hercules wanted in on the action. That's

Athena hiding behind the straw.

So to make the Baking Soda Bombs, we put about 1-1/2 tablespoons of baking soda in a square of paper towel (I cut the sheets of paper towels into smaller squares) and then folded them up, enveloping the baking soda. We put them in a neat little pile and took them outside along with the bags Don Diego and I had prepped.

The kids grabbed their 3 bags and we were ready to play!

Look at those weirdos! I blame the fathers. Their mothers are

angels. Lovely and delightful angels!

 So at first I just opened the bag just a scosh and dropped the BSB in and super fast zipped the bag back up and handed it to a kid to place where they wanted it in the driveway. 

Thor got to go first because today is his birthday. Everyone

say "Happy Birthday, Thor!"

So we tossed it on the ground and watched it expand and expand and expand until...

...it (in a semi anti-climactic way) popped! Okay, if you think these are going to shoot into space, you will be disappointed. There are no explosions (sorry NSA to have freaked you out for nothing with all that bomb talk!) the bag just pops open and the stuff gushes out. So we did that for awhile...

 B-Diddy trying to fast seal up his bag before it explodes!

But then Thor brought me a bag to zip that he'd already put the BSB in and I couldn't zip it in time! GAAAA! It sploded me!

Well then we decided that was really the way to do it..well...Don Diego had some fun throwing his in the air just before it exploded but sadly I got no shots of that..

Our "other daughter" who happened to be

across the street with her brother and came

to play with us helped Poquito Tito

VA and Hercules

I tell you, this was a blast. (Snort! See how I did that there?) It was so much fun and it taught the kids some science and Don Diego will just have kittens if we don't do it again. This is what the driveway looked like after the adventure

Mmmm..okay. Maybe it looks a little like a My Little Pony crime scene...

Anyway, here is what some of the kids had to say about it when I asked them if they thought the pin was a success:

501: It was good!

B-Ditty: Awesome!

Bitty: It was great!

Thor: It was fun!

Hercules: It exploded all over my leg! It popped on the sidewalk!

Athena: Me spilled on my foot. It scared me!

Don Diego: Epic!

Mademoiselle: When you put dust in it, it explodes! I like it!

Poquito Tito: (says enthusiastically) SPODED!! (He's clearly been hanging out with Amuma Gloria)

So there you have it, Internets. 9 thumbs up. (12 if you include the Mommies. I think we had as much fun as the kids!) I'd say that's a success! 

So Much To Say! 3 Projects, One Post. Can You Deal?

Dearest Internets! I have been so busy, I haven't had time to sit down and blog our many adventures! We are in full on Summer mode here in our house. Lots of work, lots of play, very little extra time! I set a goal this summer to spend time teaching my kids how to do chores instead of just sending them to do various jobs and it's been great. I've also encouraged them to do chores and fulfill their responsibilities by giving them the opportunity to earn all of the fun activities we've been doing. It's been fabulous to give them some of the power--they don't do the work they don't get to do the play. But that's a post for another day. Luckily, I have some pretty great kids and we've had a lot of fun. So without further ado (because this is going to be an eternally long post anyway!) Here are some of the things we've done--we've made Kool Aid Taffy, we made Squirty Sidewalk Chalk and I made a cute stamped bracelet for a friend. How I LOVE Pinterest!!
Kool Aid Taffy

link found here

Before Pinterest provided the super helpful "Hey Smarty! You've already pinned this!" feature I pinned this easily two or three times! So I KNEW I had to give it a try. The pin took me to the food.com website where they proclaim that this can be made in 11 minutes using things I already have onhand. Fast! Cheap! Easy! By now, Internets, you know me well enough to know that when it comes to making a craft project, these 3 characteristics equal a winner in my book. We got out the stuff and got started. (I don't have a supplies picture--do you really want to see the 5 gallon bucket I keep my sugar in?) First, Don Diego and Mademoiselle buttered some cookie sheets. Er, a(n OLD kind of dang gross don't judge) cookie sheet and a pizza pan. My cookies sheets were out on loan at the time. 

Blurry action shot. Don Diego is clearly

a speedy butterer.

Then, in a pot, I put some sugar and cornstarch and mixed it up. 

Then I added the corn syrup, water, butter and salt. 

At this point, I started digging through kitchen drawers for my candy thermometer. It was nowhere to be found. I resigned myself to being forced to use the whole, "dump a little bit in a glass of super cold water and see if it's reached "hard ball" stage or not." I hate doing this, I never seem to get it right! Maybe this step  made me cuss a little. 

I let the syrup mixture cook and cook and cook stirring pretty frequently.

 Once it reached "hard ball" stage where, when you pour a little in a glass of cold water it turns into, well, a hard ball. (Not just a clever name, the "hard ball stage.") 

I turned off the heat and Mademoiselle poured in this little packet o' fun.

I mixed it up and then dumped it onto the cookie sheet.

The entire pot full fit on just one cookie sheet. I used a wooden spoon to smooth it out

Mademoiselle said, "Ewww! It looks like blood!" Muahahaha!

At this point, the instructions say to wait for a bit for it to cool enough to be able to handle it so you can "pull" it. So I waited, I used a scraper to sort of mess with it to see if it was hardening..

Nope. Not hardening. It cooled and I tried to get some up off the pan to pull it and it was gloppy and sticky. I waited a little longer...

Still gloppy. Spoiler alert: It never progressed past this gloppy stage, leading me to believe I didn't let it boil long enough. This stuff was sticky and gross, it got EVERYWHERE while I tried to work with it and was really just a frustrating MESS. But it tasted GREAT, right Boy?

He liked.

So this pin ended up being a big fat sticky fail for me! I don't blame it on the recipe, I blame it on my inability to judge the hardness of a ball of syrup in water. I wouldn't try this again for any amount of money in the whole wide world without a candy thermometer. Sigh. Bummer! Oh well. Moving on!

Squirty Sidewalk Chalk

link here

Here's another pin I have pinned maybe 3 kajillion times! I was super excited to try this one. I was in charge of the activity for a family night and thought this would be perfect! Here are the materials I used:

(water not pictured. Poor water.)

The blog author over at Growing a Jeweled Rose recommended using neon food coloring and I heartily agree! It makes the colors so bright and really vibrant! First, I added cornstarch to the squirt bottles (which I got at Walmart for .97 each)

Can we just pause momentarily to bemoan how POWDERY corn starch is? You guys, I made a HUGE mess doing this!

Then I added the baking soda

the water...

and the food coloring 

And then shake-a shake-a shake-a! 

Okay, the problem I had here is the cornstarch always settles at the bottom and gets all gloppy and it was hard to mix up. I had to stick a knife in and mix it that way. And it got gloppy again later. Next time, I will add cornstarch last.

So I made three of them so each kid would have a color

I put some vinegar in three more bottles

And we headed out to make a mess! I mean, some art!

Mademoiselle (with pink of course!) and

Poquito Tito exhibiting artistic awesomeness

The Boy and Poquito Tito

Don Diego wanted to play tic tac toe

Once they ran out of paint, I gave them the vinegar and we watched the paint erupt!

This pin was ABSOLUTELY a success. (I would put the vinegar in a spray bottle instead of a squirt bottle next time) I highly recommend it. Plus, the art has lasted a week so far in our driveway! This pin was awesome. I'm so glad we did it!

Finally...

Metal Stamped Bracelet

Funny story. So I often have insomnia and have to take Ambien to sleep. My friends and family know that if I post stuff on my Facebook or send text messages after like 9:30PM, chances are I will have zero recollection of it the next day! So one day, we get these in the mail

These are the little metal stampers used to make the cute 

stamped jewelry you see everywhere! Hooray!

It was like Christmas! Then, a couple of days later, the Boy is looking at our credit card statement and asked what we bought from Amazon for $30. Um...some little metal stampers used to make the cute stamped jewelry you see everywhere? One Click Shipping+Ambien is a bad combination for this girl! The upside is that when I see pins like this one, I can make it myself!

I am in love with this leather wrap bracelet and the personalization is just icing on the cake here! Materials shot:

So initially I was planning on using this wire wrapping technique to attach the clasp to the ends of the bracelet but that involved a skill level I clearly do not possess so pretend the wire isn't in the picture. I didn't end up needing it. I also ended up using different metal blanks, but you'll see those later. 

So I wanted to make a bracelet for a friend's birthday but didn't want to give her a gift that looked like they'd put a little somethin somethin in the Kool Aid in Kindergarten and then made a kid make stamped leather wrap bracelet. So I decided to make one for me first. First, I stamped the blanks with the initials of everyone in my family

I colored it with a Sharpie so you could see the letter better

and wiped it off with a silver polishing cloth

Okay, that's hard to read..here are all 5 of them

Then I measured how much length I wanted the bracelet to be and cut it

After abandoning the wire wrapping, I decided to just use regular jump rings to attach the clasps. I used a thumb tack (fancy, right?) to poke holes in either end of the leather strip and threaded the opened jump ring through the hole. 

I attached the clasp to one end

I threaded the letters on (I tied a couple of knots in the leather to keep the letter charms in one sort of area so they wouldn't slide all over the entire length of the bracelet) and then attached the clasp to the other end of the bracelet. Voila!

Once I had it on, I noticed that the weight of the clasp was really pulling on one of those strands so I ended up disassembling it, cutting it down to only wrap three times and then reattaching the clasp. Problem solved! Tada!

I think it turned out really cute. Because I'm a complete slacker (seriously! It's a problem!) I haven't actually given my cute friend her bracelet yet. I suppose I'd better hurry and do this before she sees this post! Act surprised, Jessica! Act surprised!

Okay, Internets. That is the end of my super long blog post! I am going to be better about posting here so it doesn't take all day to write the post and half the day to read it! Tomorrow we're doing...BUBBLES THAT BOUNCE! Are you so excited? You should be, but try to control yourself. The neighbors will talk!