I Won a Giveaway!

You all won't believe the CUTE package I got in the mail yesterday! I won an adorable necklace on Atlanta's site called Life(ish). She's a really fun mom and she's got a wonderful blog and a great affinity for cupcakes... and, get this, I won one of her giveaways! She made this cute little necklace and I have it in my hot little hands right now. It is really super cute! Thanks, Atlanta!

Look at that cupcake ribbon. How cute with that look on a handmade card or on a scrapbook page?

Tami

Sliding and Splashing

My boys both finally decided to try the slide. It didn't take but one try before they went down 50 times! They had so much fun! Next they decided it would be fun to jump off the diving board and then proceded to do that about 50 times. They were very tired last night. These were taken yesterday.

V. has a fever today. Nothing else but a fever. Not sure what is going on there. I've been listening to his lungs but no wheezing so far. I hope he's better tomorrow.

Tami

How to Make Glitter LolliPops

I posted this tutorial at Tip Junkie today. Enjoy.... it is a popular, oldie, but goodie.

I made some glitter pops today. I had this mold that I haven't used and wanted to play with chocolate. I bought mine at a cake supply store about a year ago.

These pretty pops are flavored with creme de mint.

Here is what you need:

Wilton Lollipop Mold

Wilton Lollipop Sticks

Wilton Candy Melts

Food Coloring

Creme de Menthe Flavor Oil (I get this at one of my local pharmacies)

Sanding Sugar (Found with cake supplies and toppings)

1) Add a tiny dab of shortening to a small microwavable bowl wiht about 15 of those little white chocolate disks that you can get at Michaels or WalMart and melt them in the microwave for about 20 seconds. I used about 15 per lollipop.

2) Stir (you may need to melt a little more) then add some food coloring and a few drops of mint flavored oil and stir again.

3) Fill the three molds and put the sticks in them and twist the sticks so they get coated with chocolate

4) Put them in the refrigerator for about an hour. Pop the out of the molds.

5) After I unmolded them, I stuck them under the hot broiler element in my oven for about 5 seconds and dipped them in sanding sugar. You are DONE! Easy Peasy.

They are so glittery and pretty! What kid wouldn't want to eat those? Heck, what adult wouldn't?

If you need to get the candy melts, you can get them here.  I couldn't find any blue ones, but they would look super cute in pink too... and they would be cheaper t!  I used white and colored them with neon food coloring.  The link is below if you would like to get them...

Wilton Pink Candy Melts

Wilton Candy Melts 14 Ounces Pink W1911-447, 3 Item(s)/Order

And here is the neon food coloring which created this pretty blue...

McCormick Food Colors & Egg Dye, Four Assorted Neon, 0.25-Ounce Vials (Pack of 6)

Wilton White Candy Melts

Sanding Sugar...

CK Products 4 Ounce Sanding Sugar Bottle, Opal

I really have to get the heart lollipop molds to try this with for Valentine's Day. The round one would be cute too, but I couldn't find the swirly one that I used.  I think I found that one years ago at a cake supply store.

Lorann Oils Candy Molds Heart Lollipop 5 Cavity L55-66, 6 Item(s)/Order

 Candy Making Molds-Happy Birthday Round Lollipop

Also, if you need lollipop sticks, you can find them here...

Sucker Lollipop Sticks 4 1/2 x 5/32 inch Package of 100

And bags to put them in....

Wilton Lollipop Bags

(Pack of 6)

Please show me your product if you make these! I'd love to see them!

Tami

Project with Tutorial In-Progress

Got stuff? I started sewing in February or March and in such a short time, I have collected a whole lot of crap for sewing. So, I needed a place to put some of it. I was going to get one of those shoe organizers for the back of a door, but then thought, I could probably make one of those. Well, one thing lead to another and this is what I came up with. Of course, I couldn't leave it without embellishments! Five of the pockets have smaller pockets on the front and 6 of them have floral embellishments.

For fabric, I started out with a used housecoat, valence and sheet all from Salvation Army plus lots of scrap material and embellishments.

It is really difficult to get a good picture of this project because the satin ribbon reflects the flash and the color turns to bright fushia. It isn't that bright, so I took it outside and took this picture on the back of my screen door. If you click on the picture, it will open bigger.

I hung this back-of-door organizer on a dowel from my kids' easel and then on a wreath holder. Once I get a dedicated dowel for it, I am going to hot glue some stuff to the dowel (like beads to keep it from falling off the ends). So, the project is not totally complete, but this is what it looks like. I may even have to make it a front-of-door organizer because I like looking at it so much!

The tutorial is coming soon!

More of Niagra

Bribery and Bikes

Remember when you were a kid and you got your first taste of freedom on your bike? You couldn't wait to hit the open road. Wind blew through your hair and you were more than 100 yards from home. It was exciting. It was a thrill. Learning to ride your bike was awesome because all of the other kids in the neighborhood were riding and you wanted to go to the store with them for some penny candy.

Did our kids WANT to ride bikes? No. Did they care? No. There are no kids in our neighborhood who can ride bikes with them. They have no interest at all. Jeff and I would like to be able to go biking somewhere with the boys, but that didn't interest them. So how did we get them interested enough to learn? Bribery. If you learn to ride, you get the video game of your choice. Works every time.

Both boys learned to ride their bikes today! Call me mean, but I just put them on the bike, gave them a push and away they went. Jeff has been helping them figure it out by holding onto them, and I was doing that with V. at first, but then I felt he could hold the bike up, so I gave a push and away he went. Of course, it helped that G. learned first.

You may want to turn your sound down before pushing play. My squeeky, excited voice is very loud on there. Why didn't someone tell me I sounded like that? Sorry.

It takes forever to upload a video.... so I'll post G's first and then upload V's as an edit.

Here is V's ride. It isn't as long because he needed more help, so it is hard to help and videotape.

Niagra Falls Trip

I am trying to get the pictures scrapped from our trip to Niagra Falls last week, but this is the only one I've managed so far, so I thought I'd share. Mom, I know you want to see them! If you click on the picture, you can see it better. That's the one thing I hate about Blogger. You can't post a full page picture. Grrr!

Most of the elements of this layout are from the Sweet Shoppe's Tango Bango kit.
The layouts below are pictures that I scrapped a while back.

The top one uses a Sweet Shoppe kit called Water Play Days.

This one is mostly from Shabby Pickle Designs kit called It's Bathtime and a from a kit called Summer Vacations by Jaelop Designs.

Tami

OMG! Homemade Bagels

You seriously have to try these. Come on over. Oh, you're busy? Sorry.
When you have time, check out my food blog and make these. They're so easy and tasty with the homemade butter I made. The directions {I won't even say recipe because there are only two ingredients!} are on my food blog too. The link is on the right.

Enjoy!



Tami

Homemade Challenge

I've challenged myself to make some homemade stuff at home that we usually buy at the store, so today I made homemade butter and buttermilk! It turned out SOOOO well! If you'd like the directions, go over to my Food Art blog to get the recipe. It is so easy!