Wedding Memories

My wedding bouquet had been sitting in a box for over a year. A few days ago Garrett and I were walking around Jo-Ann Fabric, looking for a frame for our canvas picture when I stumbled upon a display/shadow box. I hadn't been able to find anything that would work to put my bouquet in and this box looked like it would be perfect. It was also on clearance- marked way down. I brought it home and put my bouquet in it and Garrett's boutonniere. Here is the final product. While the bouquet isn't as gorgeous as on my wedding day, it's the memories that count. Right?

I dried some roses that Garrett gave me. Then I took a sparking apple cider bottle and tore a piece of paper into smaller pieces. Then I mod podged the pieces onto the bottle. This picture is poor quality. It looks better in person, I promise!

Quiet Book

Last summer I wanted to learn how to sew and work on a crafty project. After searching around on blogs I came across Oopsey Daisy's blog. She has a lot of examples of quiet book pages and they looked so adorable and easy (little did I know). A few days later my Aunt Jan mentioned to me that she also wanted to make a quiet book. So we got together and planned out the pages we wanted in our books, went shopping for all of our supplies, and got to work. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The first problem was that we were making a total of 7 quiet books! That's a lot!!!!

Aunt Jan and I cutting out all of the pages.

We spent many hours slaving away on these books. It was very time consuming and overwhelming. We decided to put the pages on hold and take a break. I started working on the pages a little bit in my free time. But they started to become a burden rather than an enjoyable free time activity. When my mom came to town she helped me finish up the pages. She is a life saver! I wish I got a fraction of her crafty talents. While the pages are nos finished, I haven't bound them into a book. I am waiting until I know who I am giving them to so I can customize the covers.

Shoe Page

Skill: Tying a shoe

Weaving Page:

Skill: Weaving (over, under, over, under), fine motor skills

Mailbox Page:

Skill: Imaginative Play, Writing letters
It opens, When I know who the book is for I want to make a little card and envelop and stitch a message on in.
Car Page:

Skill: Imaginative play, motor skills
Number Page:

Skill: counting, fine motor (moving beads)
Flower Page:

Skill: Buttoning, Tying a bow

Apple Tree Page:

Skill: Snaps (fine motor), counting

Shape Page:

Skill: Shapes

Mirror Page:

Skill: Looking cute ;) , facial expressions

Gumball Machine Page:

Skill: Colors

When mom comes to town...

My mom came to visit a while ago (January). While she was here we got a lot of projects done. My mom is soooo talented and crafty.

We made some baby shower gifts-

SOCKS: We put the bows, buttons, and hearts on the socks

ONESIES: We cut and iron on the tie, the hand stitched around the edged.

BURP CLOTHES

I love the heart on the bum!

We made some hair clips.

A while back I started making a quiet book, but got a little overwhelmed and stopped working on the pages. My mom helped me put the finishing touches on the pages. Here is one of the pages we completed.

Coupons!!!

A few months ago I heard about couponing from friends, family, and online sources. Everything I heard and saw made it look like couponing would save you tons of money and you could get tons of products for nothing or next to nothing. This didn't seem possible to me because in the past whenever I considered using a coupon on a name brand item, the store item still came out cheaper. One night, Sara McCarty, my cousin, showed me her coupon binder that was loaded with every type of coupon imaginable. She told me a lot of the secrets to couponing, but I still had a difficult time comprehending all the ways to get a steal of a deal. I started looking at a few websites: thekrazycouponlady.com and freebies2deals.com. These websites teach you how to coupon, share with you lots of ways to get deals, and link you up to great printable coupons. After collecting and printing coupons for a while, I had a container full or coupons. I went to Oregon for spring break and my mom had started couponing also. We went coupon shopping and thought we got some great deals (we were still very new at it). After coming back to Utah I decided that I needed to start getting the Sunday newspaper with all the ads and coupons. Managing my coupons was next to impossible and very frustrating when you are in a store trying to find a specific coupon. I decided to organize my coupons in a binder with plastic baseball card sheet protectors. (http://thekrazycouponlady.com/beginners/)

Now that my coupons are organized and I get the Sunday coupons I have been able to get some amazing deals.

Here are some of my deals from this week: Can you guess how much money I spent?

Total: $ 2.28

Walgreens:

2 sobe drinks: Free

3 bags of Chex Mix: $0.40 each ($1.20 total)

2 Nivea Shaving Gel: $0.50 each ($1.00 total)

1 Fish Oil: - $2.00 (I made $2.00!!!!)

1 Herbal Essence Mousse: $2.00 (This wasn't that great of a deal, but you can't use more coupons then you have items, so I bought this as a filler)

Total cost: $2.20

Rite Aid:

1 Crest Toothpaste: $0.22

2 Veet: Free

Total cost: $0.22

Winco Foods:

2 Lunchables: $0.48 each ($0.96)

Maceys:

9 Crunch Bars: -$0.40 (I made 40 cents)

Gillette Proglide Razor: I got it in the mail for free

Here was my first week ever coupon shopping:

I can't remember all of the prices but here are some:

2 Reach floss- $.06 moneymaker

Toothpaste- Around free or moneymaker

4 Butterfinger snackers: Free

Gillette proglide razor: $0.98

Tide: Free in the mail

Propel: $.060

Herbal Essence Mousse: ???

2 weeks ago shopping trip:

Shampoo and Conditioner: Free

Tylenol Cream: Free

Cottonelle toilet paper: Free

All other products: Under $1 each

Couponing is really enjoyable. It's fun to calculate prices and numbers in your head. It's rewarding to see all your great deals. The frustrating part is that a lot of the times I get to the store for a "free product" and they don't have any on the shelves.

Kool-Aid Playdough

At the beginning of the school year I made homemade playdough for all of my students. I made it with Kool-Aid and made a variety of batches that were different colors. I then rolled up small balls in one color and then wrapped the ball with another color so that you couldn't see the previous color of playdough. I put each ball into a plastic bag and gave each of my students a bag. I told them that if the play dough changed colors after they played with it then they were going to have a great school year. It was fun watching their excitement as they were amazed by the playdough changing colors.

Here is the Kool-Aid playdough recipe:

*2 1/2 cups flour

*1/2 cup salt

*2 pkg. of unsweetened Kool-Aid

*3 T. oil

*2 Cups boiling water

Mix everything together. It will be lumpy and sticky for a while. As soon as it is cool enough, knead it with your hands til it looks like playdough! If it is still too sticky, add a little flour and salt and work it in.

* Don't double the batch because it makes the playdough not turn out as well.

Homemade Sushi

Creighton and Amber

Sushi!

Garrett making Sushi

Garrett and my friends, Amber and Creighton, came over for dinner and games. Amber taught us how to make Sushi and Peruvian food. It was so much fun! The food tasted amazing.

This are the ingredients:

* Sticky Rice (Special Sushi Rice???)

* Chopped up carrots

* Pre-cooked shrimp

* Avocados

* Dry Seaweed

We took the seaweed and cut it into half. Then we put the rice, carrots, shrimp, and avocados on the seaweed. Next, wet the edge of the seaweed and roll it up. Wetting it helps the seaweed stay wrapped. Next, use a knife to cut the seaweed into sections. It was so delicious!

Creighton and Amber playing X-box, so intently ;)

Snowman Soup

I made this snowman soup for everyone I work with at School.

Snowman Soup: One candy cane, few kisses, hot chocolate, and mini marshmallows.