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!

Beware of Rolling Trash Cans

I can only imagine what was going through Scoobs’ mind as we were walking out of the shelter. I can tell you for certain one thing, there was no way in hell he was going to get into my car. There I am, in the parking lot, asking the dog to get into the car, who doesn’t really know his name yet, and he won’t jump in. I am thinking for sure they are going to come back out and get him. Thankfully, the volunteers who introduced us to Scoobs were outside walking another dog and she told me that when she put him in the car, she had to lift him. Ah…got it. So Scoobs is finally in the car and we are on our way home. First we need to stop at my ex husband’s house because he and his wife have graciously decided to watch Scoobs for us while we went away to Colorado. This was offered before we knew we were getting him. I had some concerns on how this would be for him but seeing as though the shelter told me that taking him home and then boarding him while were away was a better option than the shelter, I felt like we were ok. This was all contingent on Scoobs getting along with their dog. Did I have a back up plan if this didn’t work? No not really. THANKFULLY the dogs got along great. My daughter was off to dinner with them so I was flying solo on bringing Scoobs home. Now I clearly remember bringing my daughter home and feeling somewhat scared and clueless but this was a bit different. I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea truly what kind of dog he is or what happened to him. As soon as we got home I kept him on the leash and let him explore, which he did a lot of. Then I gave him some food and showed him his blankets, crate, and toys. As I was making myself some dinner he decided to park in the kitchen with me and lay on the floor.

I thought it would be fun to take him for a walk. We did a loop around the neighborhood and all seemed to be going well. I was thinking, ok maybe I got this. Then we were walking and there was a dog running around the neighborhood without its owner and didn't have a collar or a leash. I start to panic because I know Scoobs will want to play with him but I have NO clue what this dog is like. Fortunately one of my neighbors was outside, knew of this dog and called its name to go away. Eventually the owner came out and brought him back inside. I was talking to my neighbor for a bit and then went back to the house. It happened to be recycle day so I thought, ok, I will bring up the recycle can from the street. BAD CHOICE. Scoobs started FREAKING out. I kept moving which was not the best idea and he wiggled out of his collar and started to run away from me. OMG! So here I am running through the streets of my neighborhood calling for a dog who has only known his name for 2 weeks. He of course keeps running. Finally, he stopped, I walked calmly towards him and he sat and let me put on his collar. As I have told this story others have told me their dog feels the same way. So maybe this story can help you. My next item of business was to give him a bath, I wanted to wash the shelter off of him. To my surprise he just stood in the bath and let me wash him. After all of this fun, I was exhausted. He went right into his crate and we went to bed. It was this night that I realized I needed to start writing all of this down, because I had a feeling this would be the first of many hilarious Scoobs adventures!

Life comes as you fast!

After spending some time getting adjusted to the fact that we might not get Scoobs I decided to call the shelter and check on the status of my application and inquire about the puppies they told me about. I called on a Monday around 3:30, she asked for my name and said “Well your application says approved pending a meet and greet with the family”. Um, excuse me? The shelter point blank told me yesterday that I had no shot at getting this dog and now you are telling me he can be mine! A wave of excitement fell over me followed very quickly by a wave of fear…yep straight up fear. The shelter was closing so we had to do the meeting the following day. THANK GOD!

After work I went directly to PetSmart armed with my “What I need to have at the house when I take home a dog I have no clue what to do with list” that I ran by pretty much everyone I know that has a dog. I wandered around the store for about 2 hours. I started with leashes and collars and I am annoyed that there are no good boy dog collars (a new Purplelicious dog line might be coming out as a result of this). Then I wandered to food, picked out a few toys, and then stared at the dog beds for close to an hour. First of all, why do they cost as much as a human mattress? Why are the patterns SO ugly? And the better question, what the heck size bed do I get? Feeling very overwhelmed the store dog trainer walked by and I asked for help. She talked me off of the ledge and said I didn’t need a bed right away and just to give him one or two blankets to lay on. Whew! She also gave my cart the once over and said I was in good shape with what I purchased for his first night at home.

Then I get home and my house looked like a tornado blew through it. Christmas still has not been put away, there is a staging area for all of our ski clothes (oh I didn’t mention we were going away? I will get there), and really just general mess because I am single mother who works full time and also has an accessories business. What I “should” have been doing that night were some Purplelcious orders and those 45 cheer bows I was on the wild ribbon goose chase for, instead I cleaned my house top to bottom. I threw stuff away, folded clothes, vacuumed every room, mopped the floors, and made sure there was not one thing a dog could chew on the floor. I was up until 2am. I don’t think I have ever cleaned this thorough for anyone. Before I went to bed, I laid out all of the things I bought, set up his food bowls, found a place for the dog food and treats. I grabbed 2 of my daughters old fleece blankets and brought them into bed with me. I felt myself becoming a “dog person” and I didn’t even technically have the dog yet.

The next day I could barely concentrate at work. I was so excited at the possibility of getting Scoobs but also very scared. Could I do this? How will I know what to do? What if the meet and greet doesn't go well. I picked Bella up right after school and we went to the shelter. The meet and greet was awesome! He had so much fun running around the yard. Easily warmed up to Bella and really just wanted to play. You can tell he had enough of shelter life and wanted a place to run around! We were out there for a while, I am not sure if this is standard. The whole time I was thinking, "Are we good? It seems he likes us. What more do they need to know?" Finally the volunteer told us he thought we were all a good match and we could finish his paper work and take him home! What was ever more fun is the volunteers who were with Scoobs when we met him came to the shelter during our meet and greet. They said they wanted to say goodbye to him since they saw he had an adoption pending. It was cool to see them there, right at the moment we knew he owuld definitely be ours! I signed the paperwork, got the folder with all of his medical stuff, and was given the leash. Shaking with nerves and excitement we walked out of the shelter doors and our lives with Scoobs began.

The Application Process...and what a process!

Trust me, I get it. The application process to adopt a dog is a big deal. After what these dogs have been through, its important to make sure new owners will give them the life they deserve! I also learned that adopting a dog is bit like real estate. You have to act fast! I needed references since I have never had a dog. I was really hoping that would not hurt me. I envisioned them flipping to that page and saying, Ugh NO WAY, she’s a dog newbie. BUT thank goodness for amazing friends, especially ones that went above and beyond in telling the shelter how good I would be with a dog. They may have had a little too much confidence in me.

The night after meeting Scoobs I felt this very new feeling of emptiness. I missed him and he wasn't even mine. Then I felt myself checking my email every minute to see if the shelter replied to the follow up I sent via email because they were closed when we got home. I didn’t hear anything back so I called them when they opened the next day. I was basically told that the application ahead of mine looked really strong and that the chances of them getting Scoobs was really good. I felt my heart sink. Then it sunk even deeper when I had to share this news with my daughter. My daughter declared that she wanted to go to the shelter to see him anyway. And that is what we did. I thought maybe if I turned on my charm and showed that we were serious about this (were we?) maybe that would work in our favor. Visiting an animal shelter has got to be the most depressing thing ever. Seriously. Those poor little puppies, looking up at you with those eyes, silently screaming, “pick me, pick me!”, confused about why they are there and wondering what happened to them. Then there are the more aggressive ones that scare the crap out of you by jumping up on the cage. Understood hyper doggie, I don’t blame you for wanting out. We found Scoobs and he came right up to us with his tail wagging. Then he walked to the back of his kennel, grabbed the toy we got him the day before and showed it to us. Did you get chills? I was amazed and it made me want him even more, if that was even possible. His sheet said he was abandoned and animal control picked him up. Poor little guy. While we were looking at him one of the volunteers started talking to us. I told him we were the second application on him. He told me that to date everyone that was supposed to come pick up Scoobs has ended up not showing up. The volunteer at Petco told me the same thing. I couldn't imagine!! And to hear that, being the second application I couldn't help but hope that it would happen again with the people ahead of us so we could be the ones who show up and take him home! After our visit we looked around at some of the other dogs but we didn’t want anyone but Scoobs. I spoke with the people at the shelter, asked if maybe we could do the meet and greet since we were there and they basically told me to try to look for another dog. More heartbreak! They told me they transferred a poodle mix to another shelter and that they had some Bischon Poodle mix puppies set to be fixed that week. They said once my application was approved I could find the dog I wanted. We left the shelter, I was sad and my little one was filled with a bit of rage. I gave her the long talk in the car headed to the other shelter that Scoobs might not be our dog but the right one for us will come. Yada, yada, yada, she wasn’t buying it, neither was I for that matter. I always knew she was smart.

We arrived at the next shelter only to find out that said poodle mix just got adopted right before we got there. Of course we looked around, felt the ting on our hearts looking at more sad puppy eyes. I decided to take her to one more shelter and again, same story, same tears, and we just didn’t like anyone better than Scoobs. I knew the application ahead of ours was set to do their meet and greet the next day and to be honest I went to sleep hoping that it wouldn't work out.