Color my Heart!

I have had this bag of broken misfit crayons laying around for a while. I have been hoarding them to some day make those cute little shaped crayons. We were shopping the dollar section at Target and I came across the heart shaped silicone trays and I thought it might be a fun activity for the weekend. Its not like we have anything else to do (sarcasm). I thought they would make cute Valentine's giveaways at school. As I was searching for my bag I realized we have a LOT of crayons. I caught my child hoarder "saving" some of the broken ones. I did a batch of the hearts when she wasn't looking, don't get upset with me, she has PLENTY of crayons.

To figure out what to do I did a google search for how to make them. Basically you have to unwrap all of the crayons. This step I did not enjoy, neither did my 8 year old. I recommend using scissors or a razor blade to cut the wrappers, this helped a lot. Despite the effort, it makes a cool pile.

Then you break them up into small pieces.


Then you put them in the silicone trays. I realized later that we were using an ice cube tray. Probably not so smart on my part but it didn't melt...too bad. I also put the trays on a baking sheet. Bake them at 325 degrees until the crayons melt. Let them cool completely, have patience! I broke one because I don't have patience. This is what you get! So cute right?

I am going to put these in little plastic bags and tie with cute ribbon. I don't know why I can't just give out paper valentine's like everyone else. Then again if you read anything in this blog I am sure you are not surprised that I don't do those! Happy Valentine's Day!

The Cheer Bow Saga

Yes...it is a Saga. My daughter shocked me last year when she asked to cheer at her school. I had thought she would want to play basketball but she really wanted to cheer. Well she LOVED it! So much so that I signed her up for competitive cheerleading after that. She had more of a love/hate with this but I think this was more because it was a LOT of hard work and she never had to work that hard for anything in her life up to that point. Coming off of a long competitive cheer season and looking at many different kind of cheer bows I knew that her school squad's bows could use an upgrade. They were cute, but they were pieces of ribbon tied to a ponytail holder. I was on a mission to get the girls cuter cheer bows this season until they told me their was no budget. Of course there isn't. I said to the coach, you know what, I will just make them. I can get the ribbon cheap. Ugh why? Why do I volunteer for these things! I used my daughter's cheer bow as a guide, her squad was the youngest so they have more of a pinwheel type bow. I struggled with this, I'm not going to lie. I was doubting my crafty skills but then I remembered that I had a mini Bowdabra! That saved me and I created this. The school colors are Silver, Blue, and White.


Then I found out I had to make 43, no 45, no 46. Yes the number kept growing. After I ordered all of the ribbon I found a pair of last year's bloomers. Look at the pic, you know what happened next. I had the wrong blue and opening day was in a week. AND I had no idea how to match up that color to the ribbons on line. Hence the ribbon adventure when we met Scoobs!



I FINALLY got the right ribbon but ran out of time before our trip to Colorado to finish them. The next week I was up until 3am making all 46 bows. It snowed that day and I was praying they would cancel so I could have more time. Not so much. I took this pic of the bow in my daughter's hair and realized I forgot to fray check the edges. Ugh this project is never ending!!!


The following week I had to add the fray check to all of the bows which I had to do between games and while they were in the cheerleader's hair! Then I sat at the game and fixed all of the ones that hadn't been passed out yet. This is the final fray checked cheer bow.



The bows look so cute in the girl's hair. Though next year, I am going for a much simpler design, the double layer took a lot of time. 46 doesn't seem like a lot until you start making them. I may also be adding some more ribbon hair bows into my Etsy shop. The possibilities with that Bowdabra are seriously endless! Haha.

Crazy 8's and Megaphone Cakes!

It seems the only thing I have been consistently doing with this blog is recapping my daughter's birthdays. This past weekend was her 8th birthday. I begged her the night before to stay 7. I told her she could still grow but always needed to stay at age 7. She said, "Mom, I can't do that. But don't worry when you turn 65, you can stay 65 forever." I find it hilarious that kids have no concept of age, however I had hoped that I looked younger than 65. Guess not!

My life has been crazy hectic since January 1. The addition of Scoobs has added to the fun. I feel like I have a newborn. I am not doing well adjusting to my new schedule and my time management seems to be on vacation somewhere far from here. The ex wanted to take our daughter to NYC for her birthday to get her an American Girl doll for his house. Fine. Well that meant she was not going to be at school on her actual birthday and I needed to do her school treats a day earlier then I had planned in my mind.

I am going to take a break from this story to talk about my baking cabinet. It's relevant I promise. Growing up my mom always had baking cabinet. An entire large cabinet dedicated to baking supplies. Within the cabinet was pretty much the supplies to make any baked good you could think of. My sister and I both have baking cabinets. Keeping them stocked is typically part of grocery shopping, key word, typically.

After a fun night at Chick Fil A with one of her friends we get home at 9pm and I had nothing made for the birthday treat. I had purchased supplies to make cool magephone shaped cake pops but I was too tired. I convinced the little one to let me just bake her cupcakes. She picked out her cake mix (yes there were 3 options in the cabinet), her sprinkles (yes there are SEVERAL varieties), and I was relieved. Until I started looking for cupcake liners. Here is what I found: St Patrick's Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. What I didn't find was any plain. It was 10:30, the kid was sleeping and there isn't a husband around here to send out so I could go to the store. So I started thinking of plan B. Why wouldn't I just use the other liners? Because that's not how I roll. I have set a high baking standard at her school. Out of season cupcake liners will not do! Then I thought I would make her a chocolate chip cookie cake, but I didn't have chocolate chips. I was frantically texting my sister for ideas to which she replied, "What is going on over there". I replied, "Poverty and lack of time". Recent personal budget restrictions and lack of time to actually grocery shop have caused the baking cabinet to not get replenished. My next idea was cake in the perfect brownie pan. Has anyone done this? I chickened out, it was 11pm at this point, I didn't have time for a failed experiment. Fine I will make brownies, crap, that pan only makes 18 and I need at least 26. And of course I only have 1 mix. Then it came to me! I had mini muffin pans and I did have plain white mini cupcake liners, and christmas, st patricks day and halloween ones too. :-) I had a can of tub icing that was supposed to be for the cake balls. And her birthday treat was created. Brownie bites, with a swirl of icing, pink sugar sprinkles and a heart sprinkle on top. Whew! I now have a nice long list of items needed for that cabinet to avoid such crisis in the future. Do you have a baking cabinet?

The Saturday after her birthday I decided to throw a small party for her. Her real present was Scoobs, upon getting Scoobs I informed her that she wouldn't have a friend party but my parents were in town so we had a little get together. I surprised her with her cake. This cake was probably the easiest I have ever made. I used an 11x16 sheet cake pan. I cut diagonal lines starting at the corners of one side. Then I used the remaining cake to cut out the handle. I tinted the buttercream hot pink and smooth iced the cake. Then I piped the premade Wilton black icing for the design.

It was a jam packed weekend with parties, cheer leading, and the Super Bowl but we had fun and I think I successfully gave Bella some pretty awesome birthday baked goods despite having an amateur stocked baking cabinet. I am not even going to start thinking about her next birthday. At least I know I am good to stay at 65! :-)

What is sexy about skiing and what is not

I am going to interrupt the recent posts about Scoobs to talk about my ski trip last month to Breckenridge Colorado where my sister and I came up with a list of not so sexy things about skiing. Not to forget about Scoobs, we left for this trip 2 days after we brought Scoobs home. I was so relieved that my ex husband stepped up and watched him for me so we could get Scoobs and still go on our trip. I'm not gonna lie, getting on that plane was a little harder than I thought it would be. But Scoobs did great with them and to my surprise was thrilled to see me when I got back.

Ok, back to skiing. Here is my list:

1. Sexy: Wearing long underwear under your ski stuff to stay warm while on the slopes.
Not Sexy: How you look when you are only wearing your long underwear.

2. Sexy: The cute guy who looked like Chad Smith and was so sweet fitting my daughter, niece, and nephew in their ski boots. see pic below. :-)
Not Sexy: Walking in Ski Boots. I mean seriously, I tried, there is nothing sexy about walking in those things, even when you unbuckle the top straps.

3. Sexy: Rocking a Ski Helmet on the slopes. Smart is the new sexy on this, and no worries, your sexy sunglasses still look great with the helmet.
Not Sexy: Well not wearing a helmet. I am shocked that people not wearing helmets is the minority these days.

4. Sexy: The view of the mountains as you are riding up the ski lift.
Not Sexy: Trying to get off of the ski lift, falling, and having the ski lift worker pick your pathetic butt up before the next group gets off. Ski Lifts = my nemesis!

5. Sexy: Ski Instructors teaching kids how to ski.
Not Sexy: Trying to teach your own kid how to ski. I don't recommend this.

6. Sexy: The view from 10,000 feet.
Not Sexy: Altitude sickness. Seriously I might be more of an ocean girl than a mountain girl

and Finally:
7. Sexy: Totally rocking a challenging Blue Trail.
Not Sexy: Not so gracefully falling and eating a mouthful of snow when you get to the easiest part of the trail and then blaming it on your son. Oh I wish I had that on camera! (Thanks for the laugh on that one sis!)

Overall the trip was fantastic, it was great to spend quality time with my family and it was awesome watching my daughter learn how to ski for the first time! Colorado is beautiful, if the altitude and I got along better I would consider moving out there some day. What can I say, I am sucker for those colorado guys in their plaid shirts, scruffy beards, and North Face Jackets. Now that is sexy!