my blog

brought to you by the letter k.

My computer is a piece of junk. This isn’t new information of course. Now to sweeten the deal even more, now I can’t upload any of the new pictures I’m taking, and since I’ve committed to blogging at least twice a year now, I’m forced to share boring old pictures (gasp) until we save enough pennies to buy a new computer.

Remember back in September when my kids had their first day of school? Didn’t you know all the cool kids save those pictures until January.

Just doesn’t quite have the same impact 6 months later huh.

Well, how about a fun project to keep you inspired. Remember how I talked about Mrs. King being my favorite teacher of all time. Well I wanted to show you the gift I made her for just being awesome.

I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy to put together. But she loved it, and she is worth all the time in the world. The whole thing cost me $1.25. $1 for the frame and .25 cents for the crayons. Not too shabby huh.

flowers by me.

Why is it that I feel insanely guilty if I don’t provide a legit reason for my blog absence. I wish I could say I was serving homeless people dinner every night or saving orphans and stray puppies, but really, I’m just lazy. Case in point, I spent 2 days watching all 3 seasons of Glee. Lets talk priorities people.

So way back in November I took a Wilton cake class, I can take them free because I work for Michaels. (Did I mention that?) Anyways, thought I’d post some pictures of my finished flowers, it was a gum paste and fondant class.

I made every single one of those flowers. I was pretty impressed and really enjoyed the process. Just don’t ask me to make you a wedding cake. As you can see my fondant skills suck big time.

This was fun, we should do it again in say, oh, 3 months from now?

halloween 2011.

Well, I guess I should preface this with, better late than never.

I just love Halloween as most of you know, and there is nothing I like better than going all out on our kids costumes. It gets harder and harder each year to “convince” the kids that they want to be what I want them to be, but I’m happy to say they are still making good choices when it comes to cuteness.

Hunter Potter. We recently let Hunter start reading the Harry Potter series, and we promised him when he finished reading the book we would let him watch the movie. He sped through book 1, loved the movie and has the rest of the Harry Potter books on his Christmas wish list.

I’m not sure just anybody could pull of this costume, but Lily certainly did it justice.

My mom and dad picked this costume up for Grey from Costco, and I must say it was my favorite this year! He looked SO, SO adorable in it!

Ava as a zombie bride.

My friend at work (did I mention that I work at Michaels?) made this bouquet for Ava’s costume, she glued in rats and spiders and all sorts of creepy things. The picture does it no justice, it’s just fabulous! Thanks Josie!

And last but not least, my little guy.

We had orange pumpkin part pancakes for dinner, which the kids thought were just awesome!

And Finn grabbed a quick bottle before we headed out the door.

We met up with some friends to go trick or treating, and the men got to take the kids out trick or treating, while us women folk stayed inside nice and warm with a big bowl of candy to snack on. Best idea EVER!

Once we got home, we did a huge candy dump and even weighed it this year. Each candy bag weighed almost 4 pounds!!

That’s equal to a lot of dental bills.

cleaning gas stove grates.

When I find something so incredible, wonderful and amazing I just have to share it. And when I was done crying my tears of joy over it, I ran right upstairs to blog about it.

So if you have dirty old gas oven grates, sit up and pay attention, I’m about to rock your world.

Start by gathering these 4 simple supplies.

• Ammonia
• a large heavy duty Ziploc bag
• an old cookie sheet
• and your dirty old gas oven grates.

(I had already cleaned mine before I took this picture, so just imagine months of yucky, greasy gunky build up all over it)

The next step. Pop the grate into the Ziploc bag with a 1/4 cup of ammonia. Seal it up and lay it flat on the cookie sheet. Take it outside, or somewhere it can sit without kids or pets poking at it or playing with it. The first time I put mine in the basement, the next time I did it, I just left it on my stove.

The ammonia doesn’t need to cover the grate, it’s the gases that loosen the dirt and grime.

After 12 hours pour away the ammonia (I poured water into the bag to dilute it first, and trust me, open a window and whatever you do, don’t breathe in when you open the bag. Next simply wipe the grime off with a cloth or sponge and like magic your grates are brand new again.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours I have spent scrubbing at these, when all it took was a $2 bottle of ammonia and half a day of stewing in it. Brilliant.

Just so you know, I’m not a genius, I found the idea via Pinterest and this blog.

Q and A.

It’s no surprise that I am terrible for getting back to people when they ask me to do something or answer a question. I know it’s a huge character flaw, but I’m trying to be better. So I’ve went back over the last 50 comments or so and found the questions that you have asked. Just so you know which post I’m talking about I’ve linked it at the bottom of each question.

So here it is, Q and A time.

Q. I'm loving this tutorial - just went out and bought some lovely flannel to make one for my friends new baby but no measurements (as you've used a baby blanket) any chance you can provide me with the measurements as my friend is in the UK and I'm in Oz it's a little difficult to work it out hope you can help.

A. The blanket that I used measures 30 inches X 40 inches, I placed my straps at 20 inches from the bottom and 11 inches in from the sides. (blanket dimension 76.2cm X 101.6cm) Let me know if you need any more help or clarification. Good luck! ♥

(LINK TO POST)

 

Q. I LOVE this!!! I would like to start something with my two boys.. They are 4 and 5. I would only have one question.. Do you have a list of chores that you started with? I am still trying to come up with a list:)

A. Here is the list that I came up with

Morning Chores:

• pack your lunch kit and backpack
• get breakfast
• make your bed
• get dressed

Afternoon/Evening Chores":

• help fold laundry
• load dishwasher
• help clean bathroom
• wipe down bathroom
• recycling
• put away your toys
• clean living room
• tidy shoes
• put away backpack, jacket and shoes
• mop kitchen floor
• dust living room
• put away laundry
• do homework
• unload dishwasher
• clean bedroom
• set table
• clear table
• sweep kitchen floor

I tried to add chores that I knew they weren’t old enough to do yet, but needed to learn how to do eventually, like help clean bathroom. Come watch me, learn how to wipe down a sink, toilet etc. and then eventually I can make a new tag that says clean bathroom sucker. ;)

Let me know if you need anymore help. Hope this works for you. ♥

(LINK TO POST)

 

Q. That was a very beautiful video tribute. Do you mind sharing the Song and Artist for the Piano Medley in the background!?

A. I downloaded it from www.ldsmusicnow.com

The song is I am a Child of God by Paul Cardall. A simply beautiful collection of songs. Here is the link to the CD.

Primary Worship

(LINK TO POST)

 

Q. what an awesome idea! i love it! might just make one of these babies for my kiddos! thanks for the great idea!! oh and i know your original post was over a year ago, but can you tell me your reward secret that you use? thanks so much

A. Gah! I just saw on that post that I promised to update you with how we rewarded them, and tsk, tsk… Amy failed again. So for real this time. What I did was I bought them each a gift that was a little more on the expensive side (around $25-$35 each) and I wrapped it up with wrapping paper 12 times. Each week if they did their chores, they got to unwrap a layer of paper. So I designed it to take 3 months to finally get their present.

Okay, it bombed, horribly. Kids are too impulsive and they want it now. Hindsight, I should have made it less expensive of a toy, and did it for one month. But by month 2.5 they were fed up. So, cute idea just not executed quite right.

(LINK TO POST)

 

Q. A very real concern is that this covering deprives the child of enough fresh air - please make sure there is plenty of airflow.

A. I know this technically isn’t a question, but I wanted to address it nonetheless. I never kept the baby covered over for a long period of time. It’s basically just a cover up to get them from van to store, or from van to inside house. I always made sure that they were not overheating under there and that it’s not left on for too long. ♥

(LINK TO POST)

 

Q. where are these boxes from???

A. The boxes are from Papertrey Ink website and you can find them here! HTH! http://www.papertreyink.com/mtt_milkmade_webview.html

(LINK TO POST)

 

Q. Hi There! My name is Lindi of Love The Day and would love to feature this party on my blog. It is absolutely fabulous! Let me know if that's ok

A. Just an FYI for everybody, you are always, always allowed to link from my blog. Pin away too if you please. Just make sure to give me credit and we can all live in harmony! ♥

 

If you’ve ever had a burning question, now is the time to ask! Just leave me a comment and I will get right to it.

I swear this time, I will.

Thanks! ♥♥

 

finn’s 1st birthday.

There are so many adorable themes you can pick for little kids birthday parties, especially for the 1st one (and really it’s more for Mom and Dad, since baby could obviously care less) I decided on a little farm theme.

I started by making these banners a few weeks before the big event. They were very time consuming, but of course always worth the effort in the end.

The bigger banner along the back wall had little tiny cowboy hats and golden cowbells strung along with it.

I just punched two little holes into the side of the hat to string it on.

Maybe you noticed, or maybe you didn’t, but since I’m going to point it out to you, it’s probably all you’re going to see from now on, it was like the elephant in the room for me, but whatever.

In some of the pictures above you might have noticed that my frame was empty. Well that’s because some people’s idea of 1 hour developing is approximately 2 days. So the frame sat empty for his birthday. But through the power of Photoshop I added in the picture I wanted. (Trust me, all you’re going to see in every picture is that darn, blank frame)

A red frame that I took out the glass and added a burlap background and a little metal 1.

We kept the food really simple and had hotdogs, corn on the cob, watermelon and macaroni cheese.

And of course, milk to drink. (and apple juice!)

(to make this milk bottle, I just bought a plain white bottle and added black letter stickers to the side)

I made him a little chocolate cow cake. (which was a nightmare… it always is. Words of advice, don’t buy the sheets of colored fondant, they are garbage)

Finn was very excited about his cake and of course the attention and singing was holding him captive…

Until he tried to reach out and touch the candle. (I’m actually looking forward to watching the video of this, because we all screamed at the same time as he reached for it)

He didn’t make as much as a mess as I thought he would, but that doesn’t really surprise me either, his personality isn’t really wild and crazy either.

I only got him one present (the farm to match his birthday theme) but then I felt kind of bad, so last minute I bought him a little phone and I am glad I did, because he loved it.

Ava made Finn all sorts of farm themed cards with red barns and door that swing open and closed to reveal a hidden Happy Birthday. She is very creative and takes birthday cards very seriously.

One very tired and very happy little birthday boy.

fall bookcases.

I still have a lot of blog catching up to do from the summer, but I just can’t get motivated when everything around me is turning all the beautiful colors of fall and the air just feels different, ya know. So I’ll do what I promised myself I wouldn’t and jump ahead to current blog time and share with you my fall bookcases.

Nothing fancy, and most of the stuff is a permanent fixture on my shelves year round, but I just took out the turquoise and yellow (my living room scheme) and added in my fall décor stuff.

The baskets on the bottom hold the baby’s toys, but I’m slowly moving that stuff out of my living room (finally). I still need to get 3 more baskets to finish off the other shelves, but I buy one a month just to keep the cost spread out.

I love this little orange owl, and had plans to spray paint him to match my living room color scheme, but now I know exactly where he belongs… with my fall stuff.

My favorite thing on my bookcases, our family picture. I love, love the frame. Now I just need to take an updated picture.

And that’s it. I’m really late getting my fall stuff out and poor Halloween will suffer because of it. Thanks for being so patient with me… I have SO, SO, SO many pictures to edit, it makes me mental, crazy, postal… you get it.  Slowly but surely I will get back on track and hopefully inspire you with something creative.

ETA: Since I know I will probably get asked, and I’m not very good at getting back to people and their questions, the back of my bookcases are covered with wallpaper. It’s a white almost puffy dimensional paper that I picked up from Home-Depot.

last day of kindergarten.

I only think it fitting to post pictures of Lily’s last day of kindergarten on the eve of her starting first grade. (We have some very excited children here tonight)

Here she is with the most wonderful teacher ever, Mrs. King.

We also managed to make some sweet little treats for Lily’s classmates. I think I got the idea from howdoeshe.com but I’m not sure… (it’s been awhile) I just exchanged the American “smarties”, what we call rockets for Canadian Smarties.

And for a comparison, here she is on her first day of Kindergarten.

ava’s baptism.

ETA: I fixed the video link. Thanks for the heads up!

In our Church you get baptized when you are 8 years old. So you can see we had been preparing for this very special day with Ava for quite some time. Going dress shopping together, and making the invitations, planning the day and having family from far away come to celebrate this wonderful event in Ava’s life.

We didn’t do anything fancy by means of decorating… I mean who could make orange walls and blue carpet look nice? But I did rent some nice white table clothes and what little décor we did was white as well.

We had these little glass bowls on the tables with little lily flowers from my garden.

After a beautiful service, we all got together to eat and celebrate the days event. The food was perfect and the day couldn’t have been any more special for our family.

After you get baptized, there is usually a 15 minute window of time where you are getting dried off and dressed in new clothes, and while the other people wait, sometimes they will play a video, or have a testimony meeting while you wait for them to be finished. I really didn’t like the idea of either one of these things, so I went ahead and made a slideshow of Ava, from when she was a baby all the way to present time. It makes me tear up every time I watch it. She is so grown up and such a beautiful part of our family.

I’ve uploaded a copy of the video for you to see, the only problem is that the quality is very poor. Every time I tired to upload it on our dinosaur of a computer, it would crash and I would have to start the process all over again. So for now (until we can afford a new computer-haha) here it is. I hope you like it. ♥

ava’s 8th birthday.

For Ava’s 8th birthday this year, we celebrated with a rainbow theme party. We knew Grandma and Grandpa Coates would be flying in on the same day as her party, so we were very excited to set a place for both of them at our colorful table.

Each spot had it’s own color, with matching placemat, plate and drink.

I also had a matching shirt rolled up and wrapped in ribbon for each party guest at their spot. (I got an unbelievable deal on the t-shirts!)

The birthday girl wanted her place setting to be purple, but got her own special rainbow shirt to wear.

I bought a plain white t-shirt and ironed on a rainbow, glitter transfer. It worked perfectly for the event!

Along with the matching plates, drink and shirts, we also had bowls of rainbow skittles, little glass jars of crayons and fruit kabob skewers.

And of course, what party would be complete without some pom-pom’s; in a rainbow arch above the table.

Presents galore…

And some very special scriptures from Grandma and Grandpa.

And of course the cake….

Which we are still eating… this sucker was HUGE! But super yummy…

And that was her party. A little more simple than we’re used to around here, but fun anyways!