Hello Monday! 4.30.12

Hello silly girl.  You make me smile.  

Hello new skills.  Changing and patching a tube is  a vital skill around here.

Hello sleepy head.

Hello peaceful Saturday night celebrating a family being sealed together forever.

Hello 90 degree day.  I can't wait until you are here to stay for awhile. 

Hello beautiful

Hello pedicures and a girl weekend!  

Hello we stayed up WAY too late chatting.  Silly girls.

The Friendship Bracelet Kit {with free download}

I have 8 nieces and they almost all have birthdays in the spring.  The younger girls were easy to get gifts for but the older ones needed something pretty cool.  Cuz I gotta be the cool aunty ;)  So I put together some friendship bracelet kits to keep them busy this summer!

They are quick and easy to put together.  You just need to head to the craft store armed with coupons and they are pretty cheap too. 

Since I made multiple kits I started with a huge value pack of embroidery floss that was about $10 on sale.  The pack had 150 flosses in it and I was able to make 5 kits.  I also got these awesome floss organizers that, after using a coupon were $2 each.  

I created a tag in photoshop {which you can download it at the end of this post!} and attached it to the lid with double sided tape.  I also added a bracelet that I made just for fun.  

I found clipboards at that one big huge store I don't like that has a ruler on each side which I thought would be perfect for measuring out floss and knowing how long to make each bracelet. I got it all tied up with some yarn and its ready to give to my nieces!

I've uploaded some tags if you want to print out for your own friendship bracelet kits.   Just click on the link under whichever one you want to download.    

Wouldn't these be awesome for road trips this summer?!

Pink

Brown

font: blackout

arrows: courtesy of Amy Morby

Hello, Monday {4.16.12}

Hello  insta friday that somehow keeps getting pushed back to Monday. 

Hello April and your way of making me feel very pale all of the sudden.

Hello longer days that are awesome.  Hello sunsets that are amazing.  Every. Single. Day.

Hello shiny pot.  Thanks for helping me get a head start on dinner instead of waiting until its almost too late.

Hello Party Rockers.  Everybody put your hands up.

Hello 70 degrees and dandelions.  Thank you for providing hours of entertainment for my child.

Hello Me on 15 #aprilphoto366.  

Other highlights from our week were getting our taxes done 3 whole days early WOOT!  Celebrating a sweet friends birthday and the general happiness that comes from multiple days of sunshine.  

Hello Monday!  

Insanity.

*** I know you guys really don't care about these exercise updates, but I feel the need to own up to it more and try harder if I'm putting it online.  Don't hate me!***

 You know how I finished P90x?  Well right after we finished that we jumped right in to Insanity.  Umm its insane, and I pretty much hate it!  It is a cardio workout from the same company that does P90x.  It is ALL cardio, so basically the complete opposite of what I had been doing before.  When we are finished I am all red faced and I stink and sweat is dripping down my face.  Want to know the most annoying thing?  I have to wash my hair every day.  I hate that, just sayin. ;)

For Insanity they have to do a fit test every two weeks and take your measurements.  Here are my results after two weeks...

Not bad for two weeks.  I have been trying harder to eat more healthy with this program so I think that has helped quite a bit, and my energy has been way up. Or it was until I got sick, BOO!!  I was down for about 4 days but I am still feeling so worn out.  Mandy and I both got sick at the same time and had the same thing, so luckily I'm not holding her back.  Ugh.  We did our third fit test yesterday and I really thought I was going to throw up.  I'm stuck in that vicious cycle of not having good energy because I'm not working out, but not being able to work out well because I'm so wasted from being sick.  So we are on "recovery week" three!  Hopefully we are fully back to normal by next week so we can finish the dang thing.  Cuz honestly I want it to be over, like yesterday.

These numbers are based off of week 2, not totals for the whole program, does that make sense?  For example after week 2 I had lost 1 pound.  I lost another 1.4 pounds by week 5.  So far doing insanity I've lost 2.4 pounds.  Not bad for taking a week and a half off I guess.  Although it might have been better if I hadn't of bought that  bag of cadbury mini eggs a couple of weeks ago. Those things are like crack, seriously.  

Thanks for letting me post this stuff.   It really does help to keep me accountable.  To say thanks I've uploaded a blank notecard I put together for keeping track of my progress.  Just right click and save the image above.  Then you can upload it to PicMonkey {an AWESOME Picnic replacement} or use photoshop and keep track of your own results. 

Hello {insta} Monday

Thanks Instagram for helping me keep track of my weeks!  As always you can follow along with me @ruffledsunshine.

Old Maid, princess style.  She ALWAYS picks from the same spot so I know I'll never lose!  But sometimes I do, just to be nice.

What?  The sun is shining?  Awesome!  

Since the sun is finally shining at home lets go to Portland where its always raining.  Seriously.

Poor little lady took such good care of me when I was sick it was bound to happen that she would too I guess.  You know its bad when she asks if she can take a nap.  And really does it.

Cherry blossoms are SO pretty.  I love the smell and I love that this whole town is filled with popcorn trees.  

My dad is a mean BBQ-er.  Best burger I've had in a long time.  Always with avocado. 

We don't get catalogs at our house so I always catch up at my mom's.  Pottery Barn and I are both dreaming of summer.  

Yay for Red Robin with my family!  The burger my dad made me was way better.  But the company was fabulous.

Hello Charming Charlie!   My sister and I did a bit of shopping Friday night.  She introduced me to a new store in town called Charming Charlie.  Its a huge accessories store and everything is displayed by color.  I was totally overwhelmed by how much there was but I managed to find a bracelet that I couldn't leave without.  

Pizza Schmizza.  Yumm...

I got home Saturday afternoon and was glad I did cuz my SIL got married Saturday night instead of Sunday like originally planned!  It was crazy, but what fun memories!

A new dress, a nice spring day, grandma's house with cousins. All. Day.  Long.   My little towhead couldn't ask for a better day.  I couldn't either really.  

Hope you had a fabulous Easter!  Talk to you soon.

{ps.  I got a new camera app I'm loving so I thought I'd clue you in.  Its PicFX and I can't get enough of the bokeh filters!}

How to grow grass in a can

Do you remember growing grass in a cup when you were little?  Its easy and perfect for teaching how things grow.  A little dirt, a little sunshine and some water and you have results in just a couple days!  Ivy has been faithfully checking how her grass is growing every morning.  Its even ready for a haircut!

All you need for this simple project is a couple of things you probably already have at your house, and a $3 bag of grass seed from the store.  We used tuna fish cans and some dirt from our empty planters outside.  {We are still waiting for that warm weather} Add some dirt to your can, then sprinkle a couple teaspoons of grass seeds on top.  Put your cans in a sunny spot, add a little bit of water and watch your grass grow!  

To cutify our cans a bit I cut strips of scrapbook paper 1.5 inches by 12 and wrapped the paper around the can.  I used double sided tape to adhere it to the can.   This step is easiest before you add the dirt to your cans.

After the grass grew tall enough to use as decoration we spread them around the house.  I took two small skewer sticks and made a little bunting with these two.  Just tie some string between the two sticks and cut some banners.  I  folded the tops over about a half inch and set them on the twine.  Its an easy way to decorate for spring!

If you want to get fancy you can also grow wheatgrass as decoration too.  Ours is just getting long enough to clip and start adding to our morning smoothies.  Wheat grass is just as simple to grow, using the same steps as above, but with hard wheat from your food storage.  If you don't have any hard wheat you can find the seeds at your local health food stores {sometimes called wheat berries} or online.  The only extra step is to cover your seeds lightly with dirt after you plant them.  Keep it watered lightly and in about 10 days you have wheatgrass to use as decoration and to add to all those green smoothies.  

Hope spring has sprung where you are!

When Insta Friday happens on a Monday.

I was laid low this weekend friends.  I don't remember the last time I've been this sick.  There is something nasty going around this town and it got to me Thursday.  So much for thinking we had been pretty lucky.  But here's a look back at what else has been going on through the eyes of instagram...

Woot!  My hair is barely getting long enough to do an up do.  It was precarious but this one made it all the way through three hours of church.  I think I was the most proud because I only used 5 bobby pins.  

When you get kindergarten shots you get to put whatever you want on your froyo.

These boots are the best $35 I ever spent.  Two seasons and they are still going strong.  Although they could use some TLC.  I always get a little sad when boot season ends.  But then I remember that its nice outside and I say peace out boots!

We watched this sweet little lady for a few hours.  Those curls!

The flu hit me like a ton of bricks.  I don't even remember the last time I had a fever.  It is NO BUENO.  I willed my craft stuff to my mom and my Our Best Bites cookbook to my sister.  I pulled through though.

I have a cough that won't go away though.  I sound like a barking seal.  Other than that I am feeling tons better!

I found tons of cool things to buy on Itunes while I was sick.  Did you know they have ringtones and alert tones now?  My Star Wars loving lady would think I was the coolest mom around if I had any of those ringtones.

Yesterday was a fabulous day to have church at home.   General Conference is always so uplifting and inspiring.  Here is one of my favorite talks...

Who needs cable when you can watch your parents cable?!  My parents have a slingbox, which means we can watch what is on their DVR online.  Last night we hooked it up to watch the new Discover Channel series Frozen Planet.  It reminded me of watching Marty Stauffer on Sunday nights growing up.  

Perfect end to a pretty good week!