street paint

The weather is gorgeous here today, so I decided I should do something fun outside with the boys. Thanks to Pinterest on which I found this, the boys and I headed out to paint our driveway.

This "street paint" is super easy to make: Mix equal parts water and cornstarch, then add food coloring.

Told you it was easy!

We mixed up the cornstarch and water and then divided it into 4 containers to add the coloring.

5 minutes later we were out the door having fun.

My kids loved it! We will definitely be doing this again over the summer. Next time I think I'll put the paint in balloons so they can splatter paint as also suggested on that site.

awesome invitations

With graduations quickly approaching, many of you may be looking for some great quality invitations at an awesome price. I recently found a site with invitations ranging from $1.11 each to $2.34 each that are beautiful,  and have a huge variety to choose from! If you're looking for graduation invitations they have a section for boys, girls and gender neutral. You can also search by class color or type of degree. Just to name a few, they have college graduation invitations for law school, dental school, nursing school and medical school.

You can find cards that simply match your school colors or your personality, or you can go all out and personalize your invitations with a picture of your gradating star! After you choose what type of invitation you are wanting you can choose from a variety of themes to further personalize your card. Themes include books, cap and diploma, class of …., polka dots, silhouettes and swirls. There are several more to choose from, but you’ll just have to check out the site to discover them all.

The site doesn't stop there though. You can find invitations for bridal showers, baby showers, birthdays, parties, weddings and rehearsal dinners. On top of that they carry birth announcements and graduation announcements.

Invitation Box also has an Invitation Box Green section for those of us who want to be environmentally friendly. Cards in this section are made from recycled paper, and a portion of the profits goes to the Conservation Fund!

This site caters to celebrating all of those special, monumental occasions in our lives. Don’t waste money on over priced, lower quality invitations. Get it right the first time with colors that are vibrant and fun. With so many styles to choose from, you are sure to find something that fits your needs perfectly!

photos

I've been taking a photography class and am learning a lot about how to take good pictures with my camera so that I don't need to do as much editing later. I didn't have a fancy photo editing program anyhow, but there is one online program that I love. Sadly they are shutting it down. The site is picnic.com and it was probably the easiest program I have ever used. I click could completely change and enhance my photo.
Hopefully I get really good at taking pictures so that I don't need a program, cause PhotoShop is waaaaay out of my price range!

Aunt's mountain cabin

Content by Sol Rosales

My aunt has the most fabulous mountain cabin. It has a great view of the mountains behind it, and the whole back side of the house is covered in windows from the roof to the ground. Each level of the three story house has a wraparound porch to further enhance your viewing pleasure. I don’t know why she calls it a cabin because it is so huge she should call it her mountain mansion. Inside the house is a beautiful stone fireplace in a very large great room. Our family has had many gatherings there over the years. And even though the house is so secluded there is still internet service through satelliteinternetbroadband.com. The kitchen is open to the great room and dining room. With those areas being so open, it makes the room look that much bigger. The oversized master bedroom is on the main level. There are four bedrooms upstairs along with a media room. The basement has a den with a large screen television. There are three more bedrooms down there which are made up with bunk beds to accommodate all the children in our ever growing clan. The house is not her full time residence so she lets us use it whenever she is not there.

Living in Portland

Guest post written by my buddy Lavern Small

Living here in Portland has been so good for my family! We came here because of my husband’s new job and though I thought the kids would have a harder time adjusting than they did but they actually really seem to like it here. What I like best is that we are eating much better, lots of fruits and vegetables, and we get outside and exercise more than we ever did back in Arizona. It is because the weather is better in the other parts because it's such a biking culture here and everyone just walks or rides bikes everywhere they go. My kids love it because it's more freedom than they had back home. I got the house all set up though it feels like our old one with a Portland direct tv connection and even the furniture from our old house. We even painted the den the same color as it was in Phoenix so the kids wouldn't get too homesick! I think we're really going to like it here in Portland.

good moms

I found this via Pinterest.

Source: pinterest.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

It's so true.

the power of citrus

I've started cleaning with vinegar a lot lately. It's so much safer around the kids, but tends to leave an unpleasant smell. I don't really mind the scent of vineagar, but my husband and kids hate it. So, I found a solution via Pinterest. (click the photo for actual blog source)

Infusing your vinegar with orange peels! Phenomenal! Pour vinegar into a jar and add orange peels (make sure it is only the peels or it will get thick and slimy). Let the vinegar and peels sit for about a week and you'll have  cleaner that is not only effective, but also citrus cented. Even after only 1 day of sitting my vinegar was smelling better. Plus, citrus has some awesome cleaning power as well. Double yay!

Bittersweet Baby

Contributed by Milford Woods

We are expecting our last little bundle of joy in a few months. It is hard to believe that as of this summer, we will have 4 kids. My husband and I decided 4 was a good number to stop at so this will be it for us. Bittersweet. With all the fees that come along with a labor and delivery, we decided to start making cuts early in order to try to save a little nest egg for this one. With our third, we weren’t so wise and it seems like it took us forever to finally get the hospital bills paid off. So we looked over our budget to see where we could cut costs. One thing I did was I started using coupons. It only saves us about $10 a week but every little bit helps. I also researched Bounce Energy Information and switched our energy provider. I am buying diapers and formula a little at a time when I have a coupon for them so that will not be an expense we have right after the baby gets here either.

Grout Cleaning

The grout in our entry way has been less than appealing for quite some time now. I've seen expensive grout cleaning kits but really didn't want to spend the money on it. I did some research online and rediscovered my old favorite for cleaning. Vinegar and Baking Soda. I used to clean with it all the time but my husband hates the smell of vinegar. It seriously cleans everything.
So I decided to try it out on the grout in the entry way.

Here is what it looked like before.

 Here are my weapons.

 I sprinkled baking soda on the grout and then sprayed vinegar on it and let it sit for a couple minutes. Then I scrubbed with an old toothbrush and wiped it away with a rag.
This is what it looked like after.

It's not perfect, but a vast improvement.

Become...

a smarter online shopper! Become.com is a website that will make your online shopping stress free, and probably more fun! I have used this site several times in searching for items at halloween and items for my crafting addiction. This site is a way to shop and compare similar products from different stores. Simply type in what you are looking for, say "car Christmas ornaments", and the site will bring up a list of matching items, a picture and price, from many different retailers. Instead of searching 5 different online sites looking for that celtic bedding you've been dreaming of, just go to Become.com and search once! In one afternoon you could comepletely redecorate your living room. Find drapes, rugs, end tables, cheap accent chairs, and artwork all in one stop! Before you spend all day searching online, check out Become.com. You'll get all your shopping done, and still have time for the more important things in life.

Doing some fun office caroling

Guest post written by Anna Willows

I don't work in a very large office and there are lots of office suites on our floor. We're all pretty friendly with the other people that are on the same floor as us, sometimes we even just go out to lunch together and stuff. So I got a really good idea for people from our office to go around caroling with everyone else. My coworkers were really into it, so now I'm in charge of it.

I was looking online to find some lyrics to print out of Christmas carols and while I was doing that, I ran across the site http://hearingaids.miracle-ear.com. I'd been thinking about hearing aids for a while now, so I'm going to go and get a hearing test.

I'm even putting together some caroling covers for our lyric booklets. IÕve also already sent ahead some emails to people in the other office to give them a heads up. I would hate to come around and interrupt an important meeting or phone call. WeÕve even practiced caroling a few times in the conference room to get ready!

Did you know?

Did you know that you can use baby oil to remove sticky residue from empty bottles (and I'm sure other stuff). I was making a sensory bottle for my son and had to peel a very resistant label off of the bottle first. After I had removed the label there was an extremely sticky residue left behind that would not come off using soap and water. Growing up we always used Avon Skin So Soft to remove the sticky, but alas, I did not have any. So I went to the cabinet in our bathroom to look for something comparable. When I saw the baby oil I thought I'd give it a try and holy moly it worked! (Okay, I'm probably not the firt person in the world to realize this, but humor me, okay?)
Anyhow, I rubbed the oil in for a few seconds and then washed the bottle with soap and water and voila! It was clean and sticky free! I'll be sure to keep a bottle fo that in my cabinet from now on!

Busy Busy Airport

I posted here about a fun Busytown game that we bought for my son on his birthday. For Christmas my 2 (almost 3) year old received another Busytown game that the boys are equally in love with. This game is called Busy Busy Airport and is for ages 3-5.

To play this game each child gets their own airplane and rolls the dice to see if they are going to pick up passengers or drop them off. There are 4 destination to carry your passengers to which you are to place in different areas of the room so that the kids have to actually get up and move while they play. Each time you drop off  a passenger you pick up a souvenier card and when all of the passengers have arrived at their destinations you add up your souvegniers to see who wins.

My boys have had so much fun playing this game. It's been a great game for us all to play together.

addicted to Pinterest

Have you tried Pinterest yet? I absolutely love this site and find myself addicted to it at times. If you haven't heard of Pinterest  it is a photo pinning site in which you create boards of related photos to organize thoughts and ideas. You can pin items directly from the site, or you can pin them from other websites as well.
I have found that the most popular boards among the site are about food, fashion and fitness. It's a great way to orgaize your goals for the new year and create a board of inspiration to help you keep those goals.
Some photos are linked to websites with more information on the product, recipe, or project. I have found it awesome for pinning craft ideas to do with my children.
To start using Pinterst simply click on the link. Once you are there you will have to request an invite, or ask one of your friends who is already using the site to send you an invitation. Once you are in (everyone is accepted) you can follow all of your friends pin boards, and even find other pinners via facebook.