Fabulous Finds

I happened to catch an episode of I Want That on the DIY Network the other day for the first time.  They had some products that were pretty crazy, some crazy expensive and a few I just fell in love with.  I wanted to share the ones I found useful and interesting and a couple I found poking around in other places.

I save a lot of jars and bottles, many of which I don't know what to do with but just can't let go of.  This product cuts your glass to be used in so many different ways.  The Kinkajou Bottle Cutter starts at $49 and and can be found here.  When I visited their site they were sold out of all their cutters, however, you can be notified when they become available.  This will be on my next Birthday/Christmas list for sure.  

I love making new and interesting food when people come over so I have got to get my mitts on these.  They are molecular gastronomy kits which fuses food science with culinary art.  You can make different foods/flavors take on the texture and look of caviar, turn a liquid into an air foam and so much more.  The kits which start at $58.95 and additional products can be found at molecule-r.com.  

I stumbled upon these dishes and the planters below at metaphys.jp.  They are both so unique and two more additions to my wish list.  The dishes come in matte white, matte black or glossy white with a starting price of about $14 for the three partition dish.  The planters are about $29 each and perfect for a desk top.    

sunnylittlestudio.com turns your child's artwork into a huggable toy or pillow.  I can just imagine some of the boy's pictures coming to life through this amazing idea.  The price range for a custom soft toys is $75-$145, a little high for a stuffed critter, but a child getting one from their own design is just priceless.  

I organized my kitchen a few months ago, but it is currently in shambles.  Everything gets crammed in drawers and it drives me crazy.  The DrawerDecor is a system for keeping everything in its place.  Now, I will not put this on my list because I am anti-cooking/cleaning gadgets as gifts, but I would like to get it for myself.  The 16 piece starter kit is $24.95 and can be found at kmnhome.com.

I love kabobs and I love these double-prong skewers.  I have a set of metal skewers that get too hot to handle and the food spins when I'm trying to turn them over.  These little dandies keep food from spinning, have heat resistant handles and a slider to guide the food off when your ready to eat.  You can get a Slide & Serve set of 4 for $24.99 at quirky.com. 

The Nomad system is made from recycled cardboard and comes in ten colors or can have a custom image.   How great would it be if this was the entrance for a party or the backdrop for photos.  A 24 sheet pack is $56, while a custom set will put you back $175.  Check out these cool systems and other products at mioculture.com.  

A minature greenhouse for $20...stop it, I love anything minature!  You can get this little gem at IKEA, but it seems they don't sell it online so you will have to visit your local store.  

Perking Up "The Present"

Craig's friend has invited us to his daughter's Birthday this weekend so we got to shop for a girl for a change.  We found a super cute jewelry maker and I grabbed a couple extras while waiting in line (those sneaky displays always get me).  I really wanted to girl it up with the wrapping so we found a canvas bag for only $1.50 she can reuse, a pinwheel that acts as a big bow and clear pink wrapping.  It was so nice to be in my own little world putting together the pink, girly gift and escape my normal life surrounded by boys and consisting of boogers, farting and poop talk.  

I covered the large gift in the clear pink wrap and bunched the smaller objects together with the same.  The largest went snuggly in the bag first, I tucked the smaller one up front, slid in the pinwheel and wrapped one more bit of ribbon around the top of the bag tied off with a bow. It was so simple to make the gift look amazing!

Here are some other creative ideas for wrapping gifts:

I found these and other ideas from +Martha Stewart  here.  I wrapped Craig's white elephant gift for work in burlap using the style in the upper left corner of the first photo.  You can get a how to in pictures for wrapping with cloth here.  I also wrapped a few of the boy's Christmas presents using the woven method in the second photo which can be used for any occasion.  

I love this idea from brassyapple.com of adding jewelry to a gift bag, it looks so pretty and doubles as another gift.  

This idea is similar to the one above, but is done with a headband.  At simplyboldblog.com you can get the instructions for making this headband yourself or grab one you love from the store, slide it over your gift and you've got a great embellishment they can also wear.  

These are great ideas I found at linesacross.com for interactive gift wrap.  The tree includes rolls of stickers to decorate it with, which can be adapted to anything from a car cut out boys can design or maybe a princess for girls to dress up.  I think adding a photo would be great with stickers of  mustaches and different hats or accessories.  They also show a crossword gift wrap, I think is a great idea.  You should definitely check out the site, they have endless ideas for all kinds of goodies.  

How easy is this, a hole punch and paper...yes I can handle that, in fact I'm sure my two minions wouldn't mind annihilating some paper for me!  You can find this and other ideas at realsimple.com.

Getting Organized

The next season is coming up before we know it and with it comes the always cheerful chore of Spring cleaning.  I have to shovel through items way more often with mail, the boys school work and so on.    I found some super easy ideas for organizing and alternative uses for household items that may help keep you a little sane. 

My makeup is always a mess.  I straighten up every now and then, but my things are strung from a plastic organizer to a bag and I'm always riffling through to find what I'm looking for.  I found this picture with no description, but I'm sure if would be a cinch with some metal backing and magnet strips at the least.  The most time consuming would be attaching the magnet strips depending on how much war paint you have in your arsenal.   

I think this was originally a mail sorter, but I love the idea of using it for jewelry.  It looks super neat and something you could find at a thrift or antique store for a fraction of the cost of a jewelry box.

This is a mishmash of ideas from using binder clips for organizing your nest of wires, to a cereal canister as a trash in your car.  I tried out using the dustpan to fill a bucket (I didn't want any of you getting wet) and it actually works!

I bought an over the door organizer specifically for all of the boy's cars and it turned out to be a pain.  The door never closed correctly because of the metal claps on top.  They have way too many metal cars for this to hold all of them, but It's a great idea to keep track of their favorites or make cleaning their room quicker.

I'm never able to keep our laundry down to one little basket for the four of us, so I think this is a great idea to keep things sorted and tucked away until I'm ready to dive into the funk.

And finally, a clever idea for keeping track of what goes where.  We have a shredder that always makes me nervous with the kitties around so it would be great to have it marked without tracking down which plug it is when not in use.  

Cabin Fever & Paddy's Day

I'm starting to lose it here at home with the boys gone for the week and Craig at work during the day.  We are still down to one car for the moment so I'm stuck inside. The cats and I are starting to get on each other's nerves, they can only take being mauled so many times before they start becoming sassy cats.  I've also been spending way too much time on the computer.  I did find a great site, however, indulgy.com.  They have pictures of absolutely everything my crazy cabin fever heart could desire.  I found some great inspirational quotes and have decided to start every post with one, so here is the first...

Now, since St. Patrick's Day is coming up I thought I'd share some ideas I found mindlessly searching on the same site.  

I thought these would be a great way to add some green and stray away from the usual pot o' gold and other typical nonsense you see for St. Paddy's Day parties.

I may see if Craig is interested in us having a little Paddy's Day get together.  Although he may be a little worn out from all the projects that get strewn about our house during my party planning.  I'll try to work on him, after all, the quote above is so true.

Antiquing

The boys are on their mid winter break and also away for the week which means a little break for Craig and I as well.  Things can get pretty stressful so it's important to take advantage of the time we have together.  We don't have the best couches and there is no way we can lay together on either one so we lugged our king size mattress out to the living room.  We have been having a camp out in our living room since Sunday and plan to until the boys come back.  It's so nice to snuggle up, lounge together and watch movies.  It really is just the little things.

We also did one of our favorite things this weekend, antique shopping.  There is a great shop here in Bothell where we live, Not Just Antiques  that was our first stop.  Everyone there is so nice and they always have coffee and donuts or cookies for you when you stop in.  I found some great clothes and jewelry as well as a set of dishes for only $7!  It wasn't a complete set, but I couldn't pass it up and will definitely be on the look out for some items I can mix and match with them.  If you're in the area I suggest checking them out, you won't be disappointed.

We also visited Duval where I found a great jacket and summer dress at Tuxedo's Antique Mall, another one of our favorite shops.  The last stop for the day was Monroe.  I don't remember the name of the store, but since it was all of the owners things the prices were negotiable which is always good.  I found some little gems which turned out to be personal butter dishes.  They were $5 each but if I bought all seven he'd give me a deal of $20.  Craig wanted to know what I would use them for...well, I'll think of something for that price!  Maybe some wasabi when we make sushi or mini cupcakes, I don't know, but I just couldn't pass them up...

80's Extravaganza

I finally have the pictures from the 80's bash we threw for my mom's Birthday.  We ran into some car problems the days leading up to the party so I wasn't able to complete all the decor projects I had planned, but it was still a blast especially considering we put it together in a week.

Sara got caught in the crossfire while I was splattering paint for the photo backdrop.  

I printed out the pictures I had created by putting my mom's face in various 80's icons like Mork & Mindy, Dirty Dancing and Wonder Woman.  I cut the cardboard that keeps each picture in place to the size of the pictures and painted different 80's inspired prints and colors around them.  I did the same for her cake, putting her head on Madonna's body.  It was so hilarious and everyone enjoyed seeing her various alter egos.    

The best part as you can see was taking the photos of everyone in their great 80's gear.  We had a bin with extra props in case anyone didn't dress up or wanted a little extra jazz.  We stuck a mullet on my grandpa along with a dollar sign necklace, it was classic!

And of course, only Ronan would think of this...

Our Not So traditional Valentine's Day

Yesterday was a crazy day.  One of our cars is in the shop so the boys and I had to wake up and take Craig to work in order for me to help with Ronan's class party.  Corralling third graders is enough to drive me to drink.  I was in charge of a ball of hearts station where the kids stand in a circle and play hot potato with a tennis ball.  Well, after the game gets going I continue throwing in more balls and it just went down hill from there.  Of course I ended up with the rowdiest boys and the game went from hot potato to dodge ball then tackle football and finally wrestle mania.  I am not very good at asserting myself so those eight year old boys already all hopped up on candy, ran over like a train.  It was a menagerie, which coincidentally begins with the word men.  It was definately a spectical but I was entertained and enjoyed myself.  

I was able to do a few simple gestures for Craig yesterday.  Craig loves music and listens to it while he's hard at work so I made a playlist with songs that remind me of him and express my love for him.  I attached a note to his mp3 player for him to find in the morning

Last minute I saw a post on Facebook that you can donate $10 to name one of the 58,000 cockroaches in the Bronx Zoo.  I thought that was pretty unique.  The recipient is emailed a certificate of their roaches name and Craig got a kick out of it.

 Finally, I made a video with one of Craig's favorite songs, pictures of the two of us and reasons I love him to bits.




I woke up in the morning to a balloon bunch, a beautiful cylinder vase I am in love with and a burlap bunny.  After we picked Craig up from work he took us to a great Italian restaurant where there was a man in traditional gondolier garb serenading us with his amazing voice and accordion.  It was so special and the boys just loved it.

I hope everyone had a great day and made someone's day special whether it was a love, family or friend.

I used the following in the playlist I created for Craig in case you need any ideas for good love songs:

• Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus - Serge Gainsbourg
• Let's Stay Together - Al Green
• Fallin' - Alicia Keys
• Is This Love - Bob Marley
• Locked Out Of Heaven - Bruno Mars
• The Greatest - Cat Power
• My Funny Valentine - Chet Baker
• Suite: Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby, Stills and Nash
• Only You Babe - Curtis Mayfield
• Soul Meets Body - Death Cab For Cutie
• Your Song - Elton John
• Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley
• Misty - Erroll Garner
• At Last - Etta James
• Mushaboom - Feist
• You Make Loving Fun - Fleetwood Mac
• The Way You Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra
• It Had To Be You - Harry Connick, Jr.
• As Time Goes By - Harry Nilsson
• You've Got A Friend - James Taylor
• You Are So Beautiful - Joe Cocker
• Help Me - Joni Mitchell
• Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
• When I Fall In Love - Miles Davis
• Unforgettable - Nat King Cole
• Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
• Crazy - Patsy Cline
• You Do Something To Me - Paul Weller
• When A Man Loves A Woman - Percy Sledge
• You're My Best Friend - Queen
• Avalon - Roxy Music
• No Ordinary Love - Sade
• You Send Me - Sam Cooke
• Ooo Baby Baby - Smokey Robinson
• Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours - Stevie Wonder
• This Must Be The Place - Talking Heads
• God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
• How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees
• Just Like Heaven - The Cure
• Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police
• The Ghost In You - The Psychedelic Furs
• Blue Valentines - Tom Waits
• Someone Like You  - Van Morrison
• Always On My Mind - Willie Nelson
• Truly Madly Deeply - Savage Garden
• Love To Love You Baby - Donna Summer
• Let's Stay Together - Al Green
• If I Ain't Got You - Alicia Keys
• That's How Strong My Love Is - Alicia Keys
• You're The First, The Last, My Everthing - Barry White
• Lovesong - The Cure
• I Just Want To Make Love To You - Etta James
• Hope That We Can Be Together Soon - Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes
• Best Of My Love - The Emotions
• Favorite Song featuring Common - Colbie Caillat
• Brighter Than The Sun - Colbie Caillat
• Ring My Bell - Anita Ward
• I'll Stand By You - Pretenders
• Running - No Doubt
• I Honestly Love You - Olivia Newton-John
• Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me - Gladys Knight
• I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher
• Valentine - Martina McBride
• Marry Me - Martina McBride
• Turn Me On - Norah Jones
• Love You With All My Heart - Sara Evans
• Lovin' You - Minnie Riperton
• Real Love - Mary J. Blige
• Bless The Broken Road - Rascal Flatts
• 1, 2, 3, 4 - Plain White T's
• Feel Like Makin' Love - Roberta Flack
• The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack
• Stuck Like Glue - Sugarland
• You & Me - Dave Matthews Band
• I Found You - Alabama Shakes
• Hang Loose - Alabama Shakes
• Be Mine - Alabama Shakes
• Closer - Tegan and Sara
• Daylight - Maroon 5
• Just Like Heaven - The Cure
• Help Me - Joni Mitchell
• When I Fall In Love - Miles Davis
• The Greatest - Cat Power
• Howlin' For You - Black Keys
• We Got It - Eddie Hinton
• Here I Am - Eddie Hinton
• I'm Your Puppet - Dan Penn
• Tell Me - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
• I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
• The Book Of Love - The Magnetic Fields
• I'm In Love With A Girl - Big Star
• First Day Of My Life - Bright Eyes
• Everything I Have Is Yours - Billie Holiday
• 
  

All You Need Is Love

My cousin Melody posted some great pictures of her creativity at work after being inspired by Pinterest.  The shark Valentine box is awesome and her boy's Valentines are the best ever!  She has some great pins you can find at pinterest.com/singingamelody.

And now for a few more ideas to show your love:

For a sweet surprise, get something that reminds them of a special place you've visited along with a photo from your visit.  It could be the two of you at a beach or aquarium and you could include a necklace with a nautilus shell or you could get a t-shirt with an octopus, there's a great one for her here or him here.  If you went to a concert together, get something with the band's logo and give it to them with a picture you took from that memorable day.  Little things like this conjure up memories and tug at those heart strings.

Here's an example of a local attraction here in Seattle.  The Fremont Troll or Troll Under the Bridge is a favorite spot for Ronan.  At Christmas time they came out with a Chia Fremont Troll and that shot to the top of his list.  A photo of him with the troll along with the Chia and you've got the perfect gift.  Even better, 20% of the Chia proceeds go to maintaining the troll.

If they're an animal lover and you're ready for the responsibility, don't tell them where you're going and show up at a local shelter to pick out a new buddy together.

Surprise them with balloons!  The boys and I made a hammock from a garbage bag, filled it with balloons and attached it loosely above the front door on Craig's birthday so when he came home the balloons would fall down on top of him.  The picture below is a great idea from ohhappyday.com and there are many more great Valentine ideas there as well.  You could even do this in their car if you can sneak out without them knowing.

How about setting a picture of the two of you as wallpaper on their computer or phone.  You could take one of yourself holding a sign with a sweet message also.

Wake up early with them, drink some coffee and have a moment together.  When I can pry my eyes open at 5 am before Craig goes to work, I like to hang out with him a little before he takes off.  The boys are still sleeping so it's nice to have a little quiet time together.

Pack them a lunch and slip a love note inside or simply write I love you on a napkin.

Intimacy is an important part of a relationship.  Visit an adult store together and each of you pick out something new you'd like to try, you may learn something about each other.  If you've never been to one, don't be freaked out they aren't skeevy holes in the wall with men in trench coats and shifty eyes.  Most of them actually tailor to couples and their intimate needs.  On that topic, I read a book from the library The Kosher Sutra: Eight Sacred Secrets for Reigniting Desire and Restoring Passion for Life by Shmuley Boteach.  I am not Jewish and you don't have to be either, this book is for everyone.  It's a great reminder of the things you need to continue to do in order to keep you and your partner close.  It's especially a good read for men, just leave it in the bathroom and they will at least get a few good tips from thumbing through it (I know from experience).  I just checked out another book of his, Kosher Adultery.  The idea behind this is having that excitement someone would get with a new love, at home with their own partner.  I think he is fantastic.  You can read more about him and his works at shmuley.com.

I hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day and I will fill you in tomorrow with what I conjured up for Craig.

Valentine's Day Every Day

We took the boys to pick out valentines last night and they chose Fun Dip candy ones.  When I opened  up the box to get them ready to make, that was it, just Fun Dip.  I thought there would be a card or something with each one.  Being the resourceful creature that I am, I took some extra candy and paper bags I had left over from my mom's birthday and made the valentines a little better.

I've seen some pretty fancy DIY valentines online, however I wasn't going to get that crazy knowing the scamps are just going to rip it apart to get to the goods inside.  I think this was a happy medium to fill my ridiculous need to be crafty without ending up with hearts glued to the furniture and being covered in glitter.   I cut the paper bags down a bit, drew some quick hearts and the names with a marker, filled them with the Fun Dip and extra candy and used a hole punch in the top to string ribbon through.  

Valentine's Day is a day of showing your significant other how much you care for them.  I think, however, you should make a habit of showing your love all the time in unexpected ways.  Let's not get a case of the lazies and wait for one day out of the year day to do something special.  As far as flowers go, bring them home more often.  Flowers on Valentin'es Day or when you need to apologize...not so much, they're expecting that.  But if you grab some randomly on the way home every now and then it is so much more special because it lets them know you thought about them.  I'm a total sap and like to do little things to show Craig my love for him.  Here's a few ideas you can use to brighten up Valentine's Day and hopefully continue throughout the year:

Before we moved in together, I wrote notes and hung them all over Craig's ceiling with fishing line for him to find when he came home.  Here are just a few examples, but think of the quirky things about your mate you love or maybe some naughty ones too.  

 Receiving something in the mail is fantastic.  Get them something they've been wanting or just write a love note and drop it by the post office while you're out.  Even if you live together, they will be so surprised and touched you were so thoughtful.  While we were dating I  wrote Craig a list of 101 Reasons You're Amazing and mailed it to him (they were reasons I loved him of course, but could not possibly be the first to confess).  For our anniversary I purchased a little book from Etsy in which I wrote 40 more reasons.  You can get this book or other similar ones here.  You could also make your own book or write them out on sticky notes and put each one in a different place like in their car, the medicine cabinet or sock drawer.  As they're going about their daily routine they'll find these unexpected notes of love, and chances are they will being finding them for days.  

I also like to write sweet messages on mirrors around the house.  

Take your love out to dinner for no reason, browsing at their favorite shop or for a walk on a nice day.  The greatest moments aren't spending a ton of money, it's spending the time together.  I hate staying home, so when Craig has plans for us to go out for the day I'm elated!  Put in a little effort, remember all the wonderful things they do for you and reasons you have chosen them over all others and make them feel special every day.  

Nostalgia & Getting Down to Business

Yesterday since I couldn't find any pictures here at home of my mom, I thought I'd see if by chance there were any floating out there on the web.  I did a Google image search with her name and a black and white photo popped up of  her, my sister and I.  The link for the photo was on eBay.  I was shocked, why was a photo of us up for sale?  It turns out it is 1991 archive photo from The Seattle Times.  A story had been done on raising a family on $13, 359, which was our family.  My mom had just graduated from college and landed a job after a long struggle and help from public assistance, but still had many more years of tight budgets to come.  The photo must have been one they had taken but not used.  I had never seen the photo before and just thinking how hard my mom worked to get out of poverty and how far she's come made me an emotional mess.  So needless to say I bought that puppy up and I'm going to frame it and give it to her for her Birthday.  Below is the picture of us in our home I grew up in and the article about the struggles of being a single mom of three (it's a tear jerker) can be found here.

Cheryl gets a little help in the kitchen from her two daughters, Tiffany, 8 and Teniel, 10. far right

Okay, so now for getting down to business.  I saw a great use of neon with neutral on +Martha Stewart's website I thought I would use for the color scheme.

I grabbed some supplies at the local discount/party store last night so I can get started on creating the decorations.  I purchased brown craft or shipping paper which I plan on splattering with the neon paint to use as the backdrop for the photo area.  After tracing a cassette tape on the neon paper I glued it onto a brown paper bag for the party favors.  I'm going to shop around for the goods, but I think I'll throw in some mini Slinkys, Rubik's cubes, maybe some cool shades and various notorious 80's candy.

I also saw this great idea for fortune tellers, which are still big with my youngest Ronan.  They make a fortune teller garland, but I think I may just put them on the tables.  You can get the fortune teller tutorial at shakentogetherlife.com