A collection of my home décor projects, interior design inspirations, creative things from the blog world, mommy creativity, kid crafts, holiday traditions, gardening, family memory making ideas, family-friendly recipes, free fun stuff, parenting, and an occasional mother rambling.
We rejoice in the precious gift of our son. What a sweetheart he is and I am so elated to have him here and a part of our family. All glory be to God.
I made blogging goals in January 2010 and one of them was to take the summer off from blogging to be with my kids and new baby. I will miss this hobby of sharing creative and fun free things with you. It's my calling right now to be a full time mommy and wife to my hubby.
I hope you all have a wonderful summer and feel free to view my summer topics on the tabs on the right hand side of the blog. Some are: gardening canning garden produce foods Disneyland back to school crafts family reunion ideas baby showers home decor our basement remodel (still incomplete!)
Welcome and Hello to my Tip Junkie blog hoppers looking for my princess cake tutorial! Scroll down on the left hand side of the blog and click on my princess cake (you'll find more cake ideas on there too!)
Here's the post of Tip Junkie--I am #17!
Check out my #17 idea and many other neat princess and fairy party ideas on Tip Junkie!
I love watching my husband help raise our three daughters. They have a special father-daughter bond from infancy but we are in a new stage--school age girly girls. They needed a new fatherly connection and interaction.I strongly encouraged him this year to coach her 7 year old all girl softball team. It was going to be a challenge with a new baby boy on the way but I knew my oldest needed that special one on one time. Thank goodness is a patient man to take on nine 7 year old girls. I encourage you to encourage your hubbies to have something that they only share together this summer. It's precious to watch them develop a bond of their own in this new stage of parenting school age girly girls. I am happy to report on the season--so far so good!
Redbox’s free summertime movie Monday is coming up in a few days. Are you signed up to receive text messages with a unique code? Now a days they text you the code (it’s a one time use code), so make sure you have signed up for the alerts here (plus you get a free rental for signing up!).
Don’t know what a Redbox is? Get the details here.
I'll list them here just in case the Studio 5 link goes away:
Quoted from Studio 5:
Theme
Graduation parties do not have to have a specific theme other than graduation. However you might wish to coordinate a theme around school colors (from the school graduated from or the one they will be attending for higher education), interests of the graduate (sports, hobbies, talents, etc.), area a college grad has finished in (medical, construction, teaching, finance, etc.). Remember that teens might like input into the party because what you plan might not be what they enjoy!
Invitations
• Print invitation on nice paper. Roll up like a diploma and tie with a ribbon. • Make invitations using a photo of the grad. Be creative - maybe a baby photo or a cap/gown photo altered with photo editing software using some artistic effects. • A cd invitation with photos of the graduate put to music might be a fun way to invite people. You could be creative with this as well and include fun quotes, tidbits about the grad, etc. • A tassel would be nice with a tag attached as the invitation or attached to a paper invitation. • There are a lot of free graduation invitations that can be printed from online. Simply Google "free graduation invitation printables" and you will come up with a lot of options.
Décor
• Coordinate décor with the theme you have chosen. Remember colors (school colors, grads favorite color, etc.) can be a theme itself and lend to easy décor. • Place photos of the grad through the years on a table (or as a banner) creating a unique timeline. Guests love looking at how they have grown and progressed. • Thing big and simple. A large banner for the grad can be made easily and inexpensively using roll paper and acrylic/poster paint. Hang outside or inside on a wall for a big statement. • Hang balloons from ribbons attached to the ceiling so they hang don just below head level. You won't need helium and will have less expense. Favors would be rolled inside and at the end of the party have each guest pop a balloon to get a prize inside. • Purchase a life-size cardboard cutout of your grad. These are so fun! You can find pre-made grads in gowns locally at Zurchers party stores with cut out faces for photo ops. You can also order them online of your graduate with options with word bubbles or even of them doing sports, etc. Very fun and unique and a fun conversation piece. See: http://www.shindigz.com/catalog.cfm?cat=45679 • Place disposable or small digital camera on tables so guests can take candid shots of the fun. • Have music. Use the graduates favorite music or playlists from their IPod. Play the school song. • Make a centerpiece using photos of the grad - simply place in small frames down the center of a table or place on picks that can be placed in vases of flowers or plants. • Choose a creative venue to add to the décor: park, patio, poolside, etc. • Have a display table with items representing the grad. Include awards, art work, favorite books, photo albums, sports equipment, etc. • Create atmosphere by using strands of lights.
Activities
• Make a time capsule with wishes for the future: have everyone write a wish and place it in the time capsule for the grad to open at a later date (maybe for a high school graduate when they graduate from college). • Have a tree branch set up ("tree of wisdom") where everyone can write "wisdom" on a paper and attach it to the tree. This could also double as a money tree guests can attach money to for the grad (this is a good idea for family parties). You could also make a "wisdom box" instead of a tree and ask guests to place inside words of wisdom for the grad or secrets of a successful life. • Ask guests to sign a book, photo frame, quilt, poster, etc. for the grad. • Ask guests to bring a favorite memory to share about the grad. Record the guest telling the memory or have them write it down as a keepsake. • Show a dvd/slide show with photos of the grad through the years. Include clips form school experiences, sporting events, concerts, etc. Set it to music. There are many easy software programs you can do this on. • Create a fun dvd to show that has advice from former teachers, friends, family, etc. for the grads future. • If having a party with high school grads, fill a piñata with money (paper and coins), gift cards, candy, etc. • Write a fun story that covers the grads life, but leave blanks. Have guests try to fill in the blanks and give a prize to the person that gets the most correct. • Play charades with school related words. • Rent a photo booth. • Teens love karaoke. Set up a small stage and fun colored lights.
Food
• Serve the grads favorite foods. • Coordinate food with the theme. • Color coordinate food using colors of the high school or college. • Cupcakes - place fun quotes or photos of the grad on picks in the tops of cupcakes. • Cookies - frost sugar cookies or cover with fondant. • Use a Cricut Cake machine to cut out gumpaste of the grad's initials, name and graduating year on cookies. • Another option would be to print photos onto wafer paper or icing sheets using edible ink (many bakeries will do this for you) and place on cookies. • Make cute edible grad hats by turning over an unwrapped peanut butter cup candy and adding a flat square chocolate or chocolate covered graham cracker on top adhering with melted chocolate. Add a tiny round candy and a tassel made from fruit leather. Serve as is, place on a cupcake, cake or on a lollipop stick. • Have a food bar: taco, baked potato, hot dog, salad, ice cream, sandwich, pasta, dessert, etc. Teens love this. • Rent a popcorn, cotton candy, snow cone or soft serve ice cream machine. You could also have a station where they can get fancy non-alcoholic drinks. • Order personalized Jones Soda using a photo of your grad at: www.myjones.com You can also make your own personalized drink wraps for much less cost. (These would make fun favors as well.)
Favors
• Favors can be simple food items wrapped in cute ways. • Fortune cookies with personalized messages or thank you notes, inspirational quotes or future predictions. • Candy bars wrapped in dollar bills. All graduates and their friends will love money. • Candy leis are fun favors to send home with guests or used to greet them as they come. • A favorite way to give favors is placing them in balloons (see idea in décor section above). • A cd/dvd of the grad thanking everyone might be a fun favor as well. • Also make sure to take photos at the event. Photos can be a favor to the guests. • M&M Mars company can print photos or messages on custom m&m candies: http://www.mymms.com/
My sweet sister-in-law and mother-in-law hosted a baby boy shower for me last weekend. I wanted to share some of the food with you. A fresh fruit bowl, chicken salad croissant sandwiches (chicken salad was purchased from Costco), homemade mini cheesecakes, and neat sweet treat favors!
She used a baby mold to make the white chocolate suckers.
Hershey bars for the It's a boy wrappers. The green boxes are in the shape of a bottle with almonds, peanuts, and candy binkies in them. I am pretty sure she got them at Zurcher's Party Store.
It was fun to share our joy with other ladies in my life in a group setting. Babies are a wonderful blessing and a gift!
This jar of yummy chocolate cover nuts could replace a card this year. I got the idea from Studio 5 a local Utah TV station. Go to the link for more ideas!
Materials:
A huge jar for a few dollars at Ikea or Michael's craft store
Biggest bag of Peanut M&Ms at Costco
Tag reads: To my nutty but sweet Dad
Lid top: Use some hardware store letter decals from the sign department to create the "DAD" on the lid.
Jar decoration: She used some vent screening around the jar and aluminum tape to edge my it around the jar. It makes it look more manly!
My aunt made me this diaper cake for me. Isn't it cute and simple? She wrapped the diapers in rubber bands tight and covered with ribbons. I like practical cute gifts too.
My daughter and I attended this Dinosaur Party. It was pretty cool!The basement decorated in streamers. They had dinosaur sounds playing which created a great ambiance.
Here we are looking down to the streamer volcano that covered up their TV unit.
It's a dark photo but you get the idea of the erupting volcano!Check out the neat dinosaur and erupting volcano cake. The 5 candles are on the table below.
The dinosaur cake plates, mask, and safari hats. Each child had their picture taken with a dinosaur too.
A great tip-Write the party guests names on their cups to prevent germ spreading and wasting cups!
An Erupting Volcano Activity Every child gets a cup on a plate with sand surrounding it (each child did that part out of the sand box). A parent pours baking soda into the cup. Then another adult pours white vinegar colored with red food coloring and the "volcano" erupts. You can do it over and over again. Fun!
I enjoy and look forward to entertaining in the summertime and having fun with family and friends. I have 5 ways to do this on a family friendly budget. 1) One year I organized a 4 person monthly Supper Club with friends and/or church members – We had 4 other married couples (no kids) take turns hosting the monthly meal Sept-Dec and Feb-May. There are two ways to do this: Each couple takes a turn to do the entire meal preparation OR the hosting couple provides the main dish & drinks--then the other 3 couples bring a dessert, side, and appetizer. We made some great memories doing this with friends and had lots of fun getting to know some new acquaintances better at church. This is a great way to save money in your dining out budget. Plus, you get to hang out with other adults. We sometimes played cards after dinner but not always.
2) I organized a couples only card night monthly at 7 pm with appetizers at my house. I decided since I came up with the idea I hosted it every month. It was a good thing because I deep cleaned my house once a month! :0) We hosted between 3-4 couples (a good number for cards) and we had drinks, cards or dominoes, and potluck appetizers. We hosted it from Sept-Dec and Feb-May mostly. We felt summers were too busy to keep a regular routine and babysitter. It was fun to laugh and joke around with our friends in the midst of a serious parenting life! My kids spent the night at my mother in laws on the night of cards. We got pretty loud so it worked out great.
3) Eat a Fancy Meal IN – Instead of heading out to a restaurant for a date out, consider making an extra special meal in at home, instead. We have done this as a family or as a couple. Valentine's day is one time we do this often. Yummy crab legs and steak go on sale that time of year so it's a lot more affordable. I of course, use coupons and watch the sales for these evenings in. The groceries for the evening were always cheaper than a meal at a restaurant, the food was so much better, the time spent together was more intimate, and we usually had leftovers (so our dollar was stretched a bit further). I also decorated the table with items from my "party" box to make it extra special.
4) Swap with Friends – trade babysitting nights, DVD's, games, etc. Why spend money renting a movie when you can just swap with friends? One note: Make sure when asking to swap make sure they are interested in loaning them out and swapping. Some people are reluctant to loan or use your stuff. If you break it or scratch it replace it!! I recommend doing it on a monthly basis, that way you always have new movies, new games, and a set night out with a free babysitter lined up. Some friends of ours swap babysitting nights every-other-week, that way one couple goes out on a Friday night while the other couple watches their kids, then two weeks later, they swap. This way, each couple gets one night out each month and one night as a “play date” for the kids per month.
5) Get Creative with family or couple dates – Dates with your spouse don’t have to be expensive and you can have fun for less $$. I have a list of fun and cheap dates in a file in my filing cabinet. The sky is the limit and have fun being frugally creative. It's a game for me to find something cheap to do with my husband! For indoors: Spend the night watching old movies (borrowed, of course), giving back rubs, playing your favorite game (we have 20-minute monopoly and scrabble games). If you don’t want to spend the evening in the house: Head to the mall with a $5 spending limit and surprise each other with what gifts you can buy, pack a picnic and head the park, or be active and go on a bike ride or hike. In my town there are so many free things to do. I subscribe to the paper and seek out those events downtown ex. free museum admission, community events, fireworks, festivals, etc. As I said, go for it be creative!
I hope you all find these 5 tips inspiring. It's just the tip of the iceberg. Don't be shy share with us what you do to have fun and save money this summer as a family, with your adult friends, or your spouse?
Attention Moms and caregivers here's a simple list of 100 summer boredom busters from the Sisters Stuff blog (I added or changed a few to fit my likin'). I plan on printing it off, adding some new ones, and having it handy when I hear the words--I AM BORED. I doubt we'll do them all but it'll be fun to see how many we check off this summer with a new baby.
Have a great time checking some off this summer!
1. Go for a bike ride
2. Make homemade ice cream or visit an ice cream parlor
3. Bake a double batch of cookies and deliver one to another family
4. Learn a few magic tricks and produce your own magic show
5. Have a picnic at a park
6. Hike or climb trees
7. Make popcorn or maybe even caramel corn
8. Blow bubbles
9. Go swimming or water skiing
10. Plan a scavenger hunt for outside. Or plan one for in the house using every letter of the alphabet.
11. Make, roll, and bake a loaf of homemade bread together
12. Make homemade playdoh
13. Read a good book aloud to your parents or grandparents
14. Look through photo albums or view family movies, or videos
15. Make a collage from magazine words and pictures
16. Collect some canned goods for the food bank
17. Draw pictures with chalk on the sidewalk
18. Go fishing
19. Plan a family game night
20. Work on a jigsaw puzzle
21. Go roller skating
22. Paint a picture
23. Have a candy treasure hunt
24. Work on a crossword puzzle
25. Try origami (Japanese paper-folding) or make a paper airplane and fly it
26. Make an obstacle course in your back yard
27. Visit a tourist spot near your home
28. Write a poem
29. Make a bird feeder
30. Walk around your block and pick up all the litter you can find.
31. Go to the zoo
32. Go bowling
33. Make your own homemade pizza
34. Invite another family over for a game of charades or "Guesstures"
35. Listen to your favorite music and dance around
36. Go without TV for a day
37. Make a collage using seeds, rice, cereal, old buttons and sewing scraps
38. Run around the block 3 times
39. Paint your toes and fingernails
40. Go camping–or stay home and camp out in your own dining room.
41. Build with LEGOS or blocks
42. Make puppets out of lunch bags, old socks, felt, wooden clothespins. Put on a puppet show
43. Have a bonfire outdoors or in your fireplace and roast hot dogs and marshmallows
44. Write a letter to your best friend or cousin
45. Visit a shut-in or an elderly friend or relative in a nursing home
46. Pick wild flowers and take to someone you love
47. Make a double dinner and surprise someone with dinner
48. Sketch a picture of your house from the outside
49. Play educational computer games
50. Find a joke and tell it someone else
51. Make a piece of art out of objects you have around the house or yard
52. Sign up at your local library for their Summer Reading Program
53. Color a picture or write a letter to send to grandparents
54. Make a list together of all the things in your house that use electricity. You might do this when you lose power sometime.
55. Plant something
56. Enjoy a shopping trip for something little, but fun like the dollars store---a jar of bubbles, stickers, paper dolls, a matchbox car
57. Play store, library or school
58. Visit a petting farm. Milk a cow, help to feed the animals. Take pictures.
59. Play a new sport- badminton, volleyball, tennis, Frisbee, yard darts or ping pong
60. Tour where Dad works
61. Play hide-and-seek (inside or outside)
62. Help wash the car
63. Share a favorite movie with a friend
64. Draw a family tree on paper and complete it as a family. Add old photographs if available
65. Go jogging or take a walk together
66. Give each person a large piece of paper and take turns tracing the outlines of their bodies on it. Color in the outlines to look like you.
67. Jump on a trampoline
68. Go to the library
69. Gather a variety of leaves and identify them
70. Rearrange the furniture in your bedroom
71. Memorize something meaningful: a psalm, a poem, a passage from the Bible, the Gettysburg Address
72. Make a sweet treat
73. Fly a kite
74. Jump rope
75. Learn how to harvest veggies from a garden
76. Visit a friend
77. Make a summer healthy snack
78. Read favorite poems aloud
79. Put together a scrapbook describing a favorite vacation or any special event (pictures, writing, souvenirs)
80. If it's warm outside, turn on the water sprinkler and run through it
81. Make a lemonade stand
82. Water the yard, houseplants or flowers
83. Play with sand toys and trucks in a sandbox
84. Swing
85. Play a card game
86. Go to a ball game or play one---football, kickball, softball, baseball, basketball, soccer
87. Finger paint with chocolate pudding
88. Make a milkshake or a smoothie
89. Have a real tea party with some friends
90. Take a trip to an amusement park, a museum or a planetarium
91. Clean out your closet
92. Practice playing a musical instrument. If you don’t play an instrument, try learning to play one, maybe the recorder or the harmonica.
93. Make a yummy salad and eat it
94. Build a fort
95. String beads or fruit loops to make a necklace
96. Write and illustrate a short story
97. Build something out of empty boxes of all shapes and sizes. Oatmeal and salt boxes work well
98. Volunteer to help a neighbor for free—just because
99. Play with water guns
100. Make your own list of things of more things to do when you're bored
Hello! My name is Staci. I am a Christian, a busy stay-at-home mom of 4, a wife, a part-time Interior Designer, coupon clipper, bargain shopper, garage sale shopper, intermediate level cook, weight watcher, garden food canner, organic gardener, digital scrapbooker, car-pooler, choc-o-holic, sister, friend, daughter, a family "event planner", wanna-be Latin dancer, and an amateur photographer. Being creative, saving money, being with my family, and dreaming of vacationing keep me ticking through the daily life of staying at home with my 4 kids. Welcome to Designing and Motherhood as I see it in Utah!
Hello. This blog is my effort to share and inspire other mothers to be creative, have fun, and enjoy the journey of mothering. Feel free to copy any of my ideas at home. I would love to see your copied or expanded ideas so leave me a comment or email me at designingmotherhood (at) hotmail (dot) com so I can enjoy seeing your projects. But, please DON'T copy my photos or text without first asking my permission. It's just NOT cool. Thanks!
Baby shower ideas galore from blog world!
Click on the bootie for tons of unique ideas
Staci's frugal and practical ways revealed!
Click on the picture to read them in a 4 part series!
My favorite cake-A princess cake!
Click the picture to view all my cakes!
My favorite theme party
Adopt a puppy party! Click the picture for the full details.
We rejoice in the precious gift of our son. What a sweetheart he is and I am so elated to have him here and a part of our family. All glory be to God.
