Nothing too new or exciting for today...

Hey blog world, this is Rachelle, I wanted to just drop in and say hi. I have nothing new or exciting for you today. I was working on some onsies for our Etsy shop (coming soon) but after burning my arm pretty good on the iron and having to take my stitching out twice I gave up and decided to call it a night. Hopefully tomorrow Andrea or myself will have something really cool to share. Hope you all have a great night!

Sidewalk Fun

It has been so nice out this week that I wanted to get my kids out of the house so we decided to make some homemade sidewalk chalk and beautify our condo complex.  This is such an easy inexpensive recipe and it is lots of fun.

Ingredients needed:

• 4 cups of water
• 2 cups of corn starch
• Food coloring
• Plastic bowls
• Paint brushes or fingers for painting : )

With my recipe

1. I filled up a plastic bowl with about 3-4 cups of water 
   
2. I then mixed in about 1 1/2 cups of corn starch (it should have a thicker consistency but all the corn starch should be mixed in, you don't want any clumps)
   
3. Then I poured the mixture into 4 small plastic bowls
   
4. Add 2-4 drops of food coloring to each bowl
   
5. Take outside and have lots of fun
   

The kids painted for about an hour and and then starting coving their hands and feet and the dogs with the paint.  When we wee done I sprayed everyone and everything off with a hose and we are all sparkly clean.  Easy, fun and quick clean up what else could you ask for?

I am working on a few new things that I will have up as soon as I am finished.  Oh and sorry about the crapy pics, my camera is being repaired so I am having to use the built in camera on my laptop for all my pics : (

~Rachelle

E - Onsie

Still working on the baby gifts - here is a onesie that I decided to make after seeing a tutorial for the ruffle butt here. I'm happy with the way it turned out - originally I gave it three strips of fabric for the ruffles - but I went back and added two more later because I wanted it fuller.
The E was a little work because I was trying to cover up a design on the onesie and if you look close a little pink shows through - but I'm not too concerned about it.
I know Rachelle's going to be putting together some sweet onesies here in the next couple of days. Be prepared to see some tie-dye :)

~A

Yuuuummmm!!!

Hey blog world, this is Rachelle here to share some pure awesomeness with you all. I saw this recipe for oreo truffles a while back and have been wanting to try it. So tonight after dinner my kids and I busted out the oreos and cream cheese (sounds gross but isn't) and we had at it. They are pure deliciousness! The kids each gobbled one down and licked every spoon and bowl that had chocolate on it clean before bed time. Which is probably why they are full of energy and have gotten out bed like 50 times already. I couldn't help but eat like 4 of them before letting them cool and now I am waiting for the rest to cool in the fridge before devouring them. They are probably horrible for you and packed with 1,000 calories each but they are so yummyyy that it makes the extra time at the gym worth it!
The pic above is how mine turned out. Keep in mind my presentation isn't the greatest simply because I had a 6 and 4 year old helping and I knew we were going to eat them all within an hour. Also I cut the recipe in half and made a smaller batch, after trying them I am kicking myself for doing that but I will be glad I did when I am trying to get in a bikini next week ; )

A Couple Fun Projects :)

Hey Bloggers!

It's me (Andrea) representing Wisconsin style :) I've been working on a couple more gifts for my friend Audra's twins-to-be. I LOVE this blanket! I found the idea to put the ric-rac between the two sides on this blog -- she has an easy to follow tutorial. It's folded in half twice so it's a descent size receiving blanket. Did I mention that I love it?! The huge orange ric-rac is making me smile every time I look at it.
I'm also obsessed with making hair things for Ava (my 3 year old). Here are a few of the most recent -- there are always more being added to the stockpile around here. You never know what she'll need to match with. Sometimes we change them 2 or 3 times a day ;)

Alright - peace out ladies! I'll be showing you all an awesome onesie that is about to go in the dryer and will be ready for its photo shoot tomorrow.

~A

Kid trouble?

Hey, this is Rachelle and I thought I would give you all some kid tips cause after moving my kids all over the country and having no real schedule or stability I thought I was going to lose my mind. My kids were not picking up their toys and throwing fits and bed time was... well, hell! So after getting settled in to our new place and discussing things with my husband we decided to make some changes. I got an idea from my friend Vanessa over at V and Co. after a few tweaks to make it work for my family we got the ball rolling!


First, I created chore charts for both my kids. You can go here for a free down loadable chart. They are 6 and 4 so there chores are basic and I wanted to make sure they would help clean rather than make a bigger mess for me to clean.

The chores I chose are for Madalyn (6)are:

• Make the beds (her and her brothers)
• Feed Guinea Pigs
• Clean bathroom (pick up clothes and clean the counter off)
• Brush teeth

The chores I chose for Preston (4) are:

• Clean up toy in their bedroom
• Feed Dogs
• Clear the table after breakfast and lunch
• Brush teeth

Now for each chore they earn a chip. These chips are valuable and are used to pay for privileges. We also have a behavior chart that can cause them to lose chips

• Throw a fit or talk back they lose 1 chip
• Bite or hit they lose 2 chips
• Don't go to bed when asked they lose 1 chip

For the rewards we chose things that the kids enjoy but that we wanted to limit their time on.

• 5 chips buy you 30 min of computer time
• 5 chips and you can stay up an extra 10 min when it is bed time
• 10 chips gets you a toy from the dollar store
• 5 chips gets you an extra dessert

We then got some jars from Wal Mart and I let the kids decorate them while I explained how the chore and behavior charts were going to work. I made it very clear what was expected of them so that when something happened and I had to take a chip away they wouldn't be screaming that they didn't know they weren't suppose to be doing it.














We have been using this system for 2 weeks and it has worked wonders. My kids are picking up their toys and making their beds and putting their dishes in the sink. When it comes to throwing fits, I take away a chip and they stop screaming right away. Every night before bed we go over the chart and I hand out chips for chores that have been completed. They get so excited when they earn all there chips. I have also been giving out chips for good behavior through out the day. If they say something nice or I see them cleaning up after themselves without being asked they get extra chips. So far this has been a win win situation.

So, if you are losing you mind like I was give it a try and hopefully it will help!

-Rachelle

Ahhh...

So, it is 9:45 am and I am just making it back from the local swap meet. What an adventure! Let me give you a little background on why I was there. My awesome husband made it back from Iraq in December and decided to get out of the Army so we made the move from North Carolina to Arizona about a month ago. We moved from a 4 bedroom house with a double garage to an 800 sq ft apartment with a carport. It is amazing how much junk we had accumulated. Having the house with all the extra room we slowly filled the space with junk.

Once we made it to Arizona and into a small apartment (long story how that happened) we figured we would make the best of the situation, save money, get rid of junk and de-clutter our lives. We started going through every room and every closet and if we didn't need it or didn't use it then we put it in a box to get rid of. I found that there was a local swap meet that charged $5.00 for a spot so we decided that would be a good way to make some extra money off our junk. We had to be there at 4am to set up and they opened the gate at 6am. It was crazy! The people were like vultures tearing through everything and talking me down on the price. I didn't real care about any of this stuff so I was happy to see it go even if I only got a few bucks for it. Just about everything sold and we were out of there by 8:30am.

The best part of the whole swap meet was the lady across the way form us. She had a good size set up with all this stuff that was new still in the packages. She had tons of glade plug ins and Johnson baby lotion and reach dental floss and post it sticky notes. You name it, she had it! So I asked her if she did this often and she said, no that this was her first time. I was like wow, how did you get all of this stuff? Come to find out it was all stuff she had bought and her husband is mad that the garage is full of it all and he said that she needs to sell it. She said she loves coupons and that she can't pass up a sale so if it is on sale she will by 50! It was crazy a bin of 200 packages of post it notes because it was a good deal. Now, here is the kicker, she was selling this stuff dirt cheap. I bought baby wipes, floss, glade plug ins, and Windex from her. Retail I had at least $30.00 worth of stuff and I got it all for $8.00. It was all stuff I needed to buy this week at target so I saved a ton. I do give her kudos for selling the stuff to try and get some of her money back, but that sucks. Anyways it was awesome for me! We have made it home and being that this is dusty Arizona the kids were tired, hungry and dirty! We all took baths and ate breakfast and now we are doing movie/nap time!

Ohhh and Mrs. Andrea, I am pleased to announce that I found my camera in all those boxes. The movers misplaced it so I have been without it for a month and it has killed me. So I will have lots of pics and maybe a tutorial or two up in no time. I am off to take a nap so enjoy your Saturday!