Feeling blah at work? Grab a random tool from your desk and PUT A BIRD ON IT! 3 minutes and I felt 1000% better.

I drew the owl on some white card stock that I had in my desk, cut out the body leaving a 1 inch tab under the feet to fold under, and taped that tab to the staple remover.

Now I can pretend the owl is using it's talons to remove staples. 

This makes me ridiculously happy.

I hope you feel that way, too.

Ninja Jewelry Holder Tutorial

Oh, look, it’s me!

Need a jewelry holder? Well, you’re in luck because I did too and, because it’s me, you know it had to involve ninjas or mushrooms.

Even better, it resulted in a tutorial for you!! You know, because I’m cool like that. :)

Ninja Jewelry Holder Tutorial

Step 1: Assemble your supplies.

For this jewelry holder, I used 2 thrifted crystal plates that I got for $2, an old shot glass, and a ninja toy. Make sure that all of the pieces are thoroughly cleaned and dry. You are also going to need some glue. We had some E6000 at my house, but you could probably use any glue meant for glass and be cool, too.

Step 2: Glue.

Put glue on the center of the plate that you are using for the bottom of the jewelry holder and on the bottom of the ninja.

Step 3: Apply ninja.

Put the ninja in the middle of the plate (on the glue you just put there) and press down for at least 10 seconds to secure the bond of the glue just a little. :)

Step 4: Glue the glass.

Put glue all around the edge of the shot glass. Be careful not to put so much on that it drips down the side of the glass. It’s not the end of the world if it does--it just creates more work for you because you’ll have to clean the excess glue off before it dries.

Step 5: Encase the ninja.

Lower the shot glass over the top of the ninja being careful not to get glue on the ninja. Press the shot glass down against the plate for at least 10 seconds to secure the bond of the glue.

Step 6: Glue, again.

Put glue on bottom of shot glass and bottom of the plate that you are using for the top of the jewelry holder. 

Press down on the middle of the top plate for at least 10 seconds to secure the bond of the glue.

Step 8: The Waiting Game.

Let the jewelry holder dry for at least 24 hours.

Step 9: Enjoy!

Put your jewelry on your new jewelry holder and enjoy!

Have you tried this tutorial? Post a picture of what you put inside your shot glass! :)

Sewing for Kindergarten

My daughter is going to kindergarten.



My daughter is going to kindergarten.


Okay, I'm recovered from the shock of writing that sentence.

But seriously, how is she 5 already? Sheesh. People aren't kidding when they say time flies!

Moving on...

She's super excited and I know she'll do great. She's the most excited to meet new friends. She is really good with other kids and makes a new friend where ever she goes, so I'm sure school will be no different.

I'm the most excited to pack her lunches. My friends assure me that this will pass and soon I will dread lunch making, but I'm still looking forward to it. I was a hot lunch buyer for 95% of my elementary school years, so maybe this has something to do with the drive to make her lunches for her.

My dad worked up north on the pipeline for 8 weeks on the job and 2 weeks off, so my mom was pretty much a full time working single mom. She didn't have time to pack lunches. I do not fault her in any way, shape, or form! But it did make this something that is important to me to do for my daughter since I am in a different situation than my mom was.

The 5% of the time that I had a home packed lunch were the days that we stayed the night at my grandparents' house. My Grandma would always pack our lunch and put a little note wishing us well hidden somewhere amongst the fruit, veggies, and sandwich bags. I still have one of her notes in one of my momento boxes. :) I hope it means as much to my kids as it did to me.

Any how, enough with the blah blah and on to the projects!

All this lunch talk has a point. It gave me an excuse to make some napkins and snack sacks for my daughter's lunch box.

For the napkins, I cut 8 inch x 8 inch squares and used a tutorial from Skip to My Lou for making mitered corners for the napkins. You can't really see them in the pictures, but those corners turned out quite nicely...if I do say so myself!

For the snack sacks, I hand embroidered her first name on the front and made a simple zippered pouch. It's just big enough to fit a medium sized apple or just enough snacks for a kindergartner's hungry-for-a-snack stomach.

I'd say we're all set for the big day!

Are you doing anything to get ready for school? Any back to school projects? Share them! I'd love to see!

Pokeball Birthday Cake

The kids had a joint birthday party for friends and they love Pokemon, so we had a Pokeball cake!

I used boxed cake mix and added oreo cookies to the mix before baking it in a baseball shaped cake mold. After the cake baked and cool, I frosted half of it with white icing. Then I tried to make red icing, but it turned out pink no matter how much food coloring I added.

Since there was less than an hour before the party was going to start: DISASTER!! But only temporarily.

Luckily, I spotted some cherries that we had in the fridge and they were exactly what the cake needed. And let me tell you, the fresh flavor that they added to the cake made me want to find a reason to use them on cake again!

The black banding part of the cake is made of crushed oreo cookies.

There were no leftovers.

So it was a success after all! Whew.

After we ate cake, the party was pretty much over. So. I cleaned up the yard. 

Moms always get stuck with the clean-up duties, but I made the best of it:

ABC's of Me for You!

Elycia, who has a cute little blog and shop that I’ve been spying on for about 6 months now, did a series where she shared 28 things about her in 28 posts (sort of). At the end, she still had things left that she wanted to share so she made a post with the ABC’s of her. 

So, since this blog is newish and I’m just coming back, I thought it would be fun to play the ABC of me game, too. Here goes…

A. Age: 29
B. Bed size: California King…and yet I always end up with about 18 inches of edge to sleep on…thanks, honey.
C. Chore that you hate: Handwashing dishes. I washed thousands of dishes (no exaggeration there) by hand growing up. My mother fancied herself a gourmet cook and used TONS of dishes doing it. We didn’t get a dishwasher until was in high school. I remember that glorious day… Any how, we had to do so many dishes growing up that both my sister and I have sworn off of doing them unless under extreme duress (or lack of eating utensils) now that we are adults. I can load a mean dishwasher, though.
D. Dogs: Will always have a spot in my home and life. Current dogs are a 7 year old rottweiler named Berry and a 4 year old pit bull terrier named Kitty.
E. Essential start to your day:  Brush teeth, drink caffeinated beverage
F. Favourite color: Orange
G. Gold or Silver: Silver (which is weird because it used to be gold. I don’t remember when that changed…)
H. Height: 5'7" on a tall day
I. Instruments you play: Piano, drums, flute when I was in elementary school. I can kind of read music as an adult, but not really.
J. Job title: Human Resources Coordinator for Student and Temporary Employees. I help the temps and students for the second largest research institute at our local University get employed, paid, and terminated.
K. Kids: I have 2. People keep asking if we’re going to have more and the answer is a firm no. Once they outnumber us, it’s going to be all over. Right now we are at least 2-on-2. I can handle an even match-up.
L. Live: In Fairbanks, Alaska.
M. Mother's name: Is two names squished together. It drives her nuts when people call her by only one of the names, so of course my grandmother (dad’s mom) used to do it all the time. Good times. Good times. Her friends call her Aly.
N. Nicknames: I’m one of those people who seems to acquire a new nickname with each new group of people I become acquainted with. The most consistent one is Jewels, though.
O. Overnight hospital stays: 2 total. 1 for each baby I had. :)
P. Pet peeves: It's not as bad as it looks. I have two (underlined if you don't want to read about why) and I have a lot to say about them... Rude sales associates/customer service reps (it’s your freaking job to be friendly and courteous to customers no matter what kind of day you’re having--and you can’t fool me either, I worked in retail for 8 years. If I can provide friendly, courteous service after being elbows deep in a fish tank that needs cleaning to take the customer across the store to the cat toy section to spend 15 minutes chatting about FiFi’s toy preferences, you can suck it up and ring out my groceries with a half-way friendly demeanor) and people who get rid of their pets for the following reasons 1) A new baby has arrived and we just don’t have time anymore. (BS. Babies grow up. There will be time for the pet again. They’ll wait for you. That’s the cool thing about pets and the whole unconditional love thing.) 2) We’re moving and it’s too hard to find a place that allows a (dog, cat, etc). (Keep looking. You made a commitment to the animal to take care of it FOR IT’S ENTIRE LIFE not just when it’s convenient for you. After the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, I saw a picture of a woman holding her dog in the middle of a pile of rubble. No one has an excuse any longer. She can do it, so can you.) 3) They’re old or getting old. (When I was 17, my family adopted a dog who was 13 years old and was left at the pound by her family because she was getting old and was starting to need some extra medical care. She didn’t have cancer or any major illnesses, either. She just needed to be groomed more often and for the infections that she had in her eyes to be medicated. They thought she was deaf, but it turns out she just had matted hair in her ears and could hear just fine when the matted hair was clipped out. Within 2 months, she was a happy, healthy dog and lived for another 3 years with us until she died of old age. She lived with that family from puppyhood to 13 and they left her to rot at the shelter with 3 more good years in her. That’s pretty low, if you ask me. Think twice. Don't take the easy way out. I'm not saying it won't be hard, just that pets deserve our loyalty. They give us theirs, after all.)
Q. Quote from a movie: “Where do thoughts come from? They just appear.” –Empire Records
R. Right or left handed: Right
S. Siblings: 1 sister
T. Time you wake up: 6:30 am on weekdays, 7-8 am on weekends
U. Underwear: Should be changed daily.
V. Vegetable you hate: Most of them. I think it would be easier to ask which vegetables I like. I was always told as a kid that I would learn to like them as an adult. I’m still waiting for that day, guys.
W. What makes you run late: Procrastinating and thinking I can squeeze more things into 10 minutes than is physically possible.
X. X-Rays you've had: Back/Neck (fell off the deck—no breaks!), Leg (fell off my bunkbed—no breaks!), Teeth (for check-ups), and lots more times for my back (I have slight scoliosis-n-old sports injuries-n-junk)
Y. Yummy food that you make: I make all kinds of yummy foods! My favorite dinner to make right now is Mongolian Beef. My husband’s favorite for me to make is biscuits and gravy. I also bake a mean cake and love to play around with different cupcake creations. I grew up cooking and baking with my mom and grandma, so I attribute my food’s yumminess directly to their influence on me at that young age.
Z. Zoo animal: Giraffes and bears. I know they’re big animals, but I’m always surprised at exactly how big they really are in real life. Also, sea otters, but I prefer to see them in the wild over the zoo. I still go visit them at every zoo I go to, though.

And that’s the ABC's of me. If anyone else wants to play, please put a link in the comments section so I can see yours, too! :)