April showers bring May flowers art project

Rain Rain go away....oh wait it's good for the flowers. Here's an easy fun art project. Draw a flower scene with crayons. Get out some blue paint and wax paper and splatter some rain on the wax paper. Then glue or tape the wax paper on the front as if it was raining. Then glue some cotton balls for clouds above the sky. Lift the wax paper and talk about the rain outside!
Have a great rainy Utah spring day.

Daffodil flower picture

Isn't this Daffodil flower picture cute? You might have the materials on hand to make it today. Construction paper, a half of a Dixie cup, glue, and 2 egg carton cups painted.

I love spring art especially when it's raining outside!

Wood table + a glass top= No fork marks in the wood top!

We got a kid-friendly wood table in November and it's been great so far. When I bought it I knew my kids would end up carving their names into the wood or banging their forks into it. So I spent about $70 to have this glass top made to fit on top my wood kitchen table. I like the thickness so you can write on a hard surface. We will take off the glass (maybe) when we put in the leaf a couple times a year. I had a local Ma and Pa glass shop cut it for us from my measurements. We picked it up in my husbands' truck to save on a delivery charge. Here's the edge profile and thickness.I had the edges rounded.

I'll admit the glass is a pain to keep the glass clean and with all the spills and food at each meal. It's better than a ruined table in my opinion! We are wiping it a lot and sometimes under the glass when they spill. But I have found a compromise for myself and here's my tip for all you busy moms! Wipe the grime and don't stress over the glass streaks, cover it with a pretty tablecloth. Then when my neighbors stop by or my friends come over it looks nice (a little wrinkly but oh well)...but don't lift it up!When it's time to eat we lift up the clean tablecloth and use random kid place mats. Then I do a quick wipe on the place mats and then I straighten the tablecloth back. It's an instant clean looking table for me and then every so often I do a deep scrub!

My day of mall freebies (almost)-Monday, April 26th! UPDATE

My Monday freebie (actually I paid $1.xx) trip out to the mall!

1. I am picked up daughters' free dance collage photo up at Sears shown here with the 2 items from #2 stop at the mall Bath and Body works.Here's what I did and why! I saved my $ on those cheesy background dance studio pictures and really captured my daughters' dance personality at Sears instead for FREE!! Read below on the details.
Sears has a great offer expiring June 30th, 2010 one per family per visit. This would be great for Mother's day or Father's day too. A $44.98 value for free in a character collage. No it's not with a Mickey Mouse background it's catching your child in "character". No additional purchase is required either (but I think only 1 kid in the photo).

I like to do these for my kids' birthdays or dance photos. I don't buy over priced school pictures either-I want to capture their personalities on film not a goofy generic pose or smile from waist up. This is perfect for me as their proud mommy.
For details go HERE

2. Then I am headed over to Bath and Body works for a FREE signature collection travel size item with any purchase (up to $5 value)! Just head on over here to print a coupon! It expires on May 19th. Remember, this coupon states ANY item, so I got a $1 small lotion by the register. I plan on using the two items shown above in the picture for Mother's Day or my daughter's teacher, I haven't decided.

Thanks, Hip 2 Save

3. Then while at the mall we sang Happy Birthday to the lady at the Pretzelmaker and got 2 free pretzels. Hurry, it's only offered TODAY Monday, April 26th. Go here about the promotion only offered Today, Monday, April 26, 2010. Call and make sure your store is participating. You can read all about it here.

Diaper tote for the living room

Supplies for Ribbon Diaper Tote (great for a living room changing area):

• Ribbon: 3 – 3ft long pieces or 1 long 9ft piece, any color
• plastic basket with holes – mine was from the good ol’ Dollar store

Go here to Make and Takes for a complete tutorial

Thanks,Make and Takes

Decuttering my home- UPDATE

Well, my decluttering my life and whole house effort is going well considering I hate bending down now to pick stuff up. I was not able to follow moneysaving mom's room by room challenge but I took my own twist. I am getting organized, decluttering, moving stuff to the garage, moving garage stuff to the basement storage area, rotating summer and winter clothes, and GETTING READY for the baby.

1. My husband and I cleaned up the basement junk from the remodel. See here!

Before
(yes, I allow deer heads in the basement! Compromises!!!)

AFTERIt doesn't look like much basement progress but this is all new stuff to sort and go through from the garage. Sort of like Phase 2 of my decluttering! Man, I am beginning to think I am a pack rat! Wish me luck on my continued work in progress this week.

2. I have been rotating the winter clothes, snow boots, snowsuits and purging some clothes that need to be tossed. I have been putting away the spring/summer clothes in their new basement room. I love my new kids closet shelves. I am looking forward to more independence for them!

3. I put away the Easter decos. No picture of that!

4. I ran a load of clothes to the trash or Salvation Army. No picture of that!

Yes, I am NESTING!

5. My husband and his co-worker built these shelves in our garage last Saturday. I am so happy to have the stuff up off the garage floor. This is great progress!

I wanted the shelves to be higher in this location to keep the kids bikes, strollers, and scooters accessible.
We have 12' ceilings in the garage so we took advantage of it. I recommend strong and tall shelves for garages!
We used these large hooks from Home Depot for strollers and our wagon (see other photo). Anchor them in the studs! Ahh...I love to organize and get rid of stuff!

White dress shirt into a onsie bottom- It won't come untucked!

I heard this is a worthwhile sewing project for mom's of active young boys!
Convert a white church dress shirt into a onsie bottom.
No more constant tucking in their shirts! Great idea.

Go to I am momma hear me roar for a tutorial!

Happy Earth Day everyone! We all can do more to make a difference-big and small!

I do love our wonderful Earth and it's creator. As a mom I am always looking for ways to reuse, reduce waste, and recycle outside the normal ways such as: recycling aluminum cans, growing a garden, buying organic, recycling newspapers, and buying used items at garage sales (which I love to do).

I like the phrase USE IT UP, LIVE WITH IT OR DO WITH OUT! I am trying to live more simply and use up what I have and NOT buy more stuff--period (besides food storage). I am not a perfect "green" person by any means but every little bit helps the Earth. I encourage you today to do more.

Here's a few of my former blog post ideas that I have done simply to be more "green".

1. Trading in electronics

2. Reusing baby wipe containers and newspaper/grocery bags

3. Reusing Classico spaghetti sauce jars

4. Reusing milk jug containers for picking berries in the summertime

5. Reusing egg cartons

6. Frugal landscaping & plant dividing (free mulch from the city)

7. Drying clothes outside in the summertime

Go HERE to see the pictures and details.