Running for a Reason

Maybe you read my profile, maybe you didn't...  Maybe you just pinned/searched for a craft and found my site, maybe not...  Maybe you are one of my regulars?  In any case, you are here and I am glad you are!!  If you are wondering why I haven't been blogging so frequently lately, there is a very good reason...  I am running for a Reason, specifically, I am on the Run for a Reason team raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in the Half-marathon in Houston in January, 2014.

I have been training at least 5 days a week through the cold, wet, and sunny days as the weather in Texas changes by the minute.  Running, running, running...  Why on Earth did I chose to commit to a half-marathon race when the longest race I have run in was a 5K several years ago?  Or the furthest I had run so far was about 5 miles and no, no one was chasing me, there were no zombies, no Apocalypse... (Don't worry, that was prior to training.)  Well, my youngest son has Cystic Fibrosis and when the CFF Gulf Coast Chapter sent the email in early 2013, I thought for a minute about it and wanted to run the race.  I knew that I need to run this one, it chose me...

I had to get in that race because I have been very lucky in my life and when I say that I don't ever mean that my life has been easy...   Like all people, I have had my share of difficulties growing up and while I could not control the situations I was in, I have chosen how I would overcome the difficulties.  I took every experience as a learning lesson, either deciding that is how I would want things to be or making certain that I did not repeat the mistakes I saw being made.  I remember these things almost every day of my life, through every action I complete.  Now, that doesn't mean if I could that I would trade them for an easier life, because then I wouldn't be the person I am today, warts and all! But I have been lucky because I look at my life, my husband and my children and wonder what I ever did to deserve such happiness and think all of those challenges were worth the trouble to have what I have now...

Despite the past and the hand I have been dealt, I think it pales in comparison to what my son with CF goes through and will go through in the future.  If I had a magic wand, I would wave it over his sweet head and the CF would poof go away, but then he wouldn't be the person he is either...  Even at his less than two years of age, he is such a character!  He has the brightest blue eyes you have ever seen and he uses them to his total advantage!!  While we have been very lucky, so far with his condition, we are diligent and unapologetic in making sure we do everything necessary to make certain he maintains a high quality life and out of the hospital.  The toll of being one of his sole caretakers (my husband is the only other person who takes care of him like I do) can and does weigh on us as it does for many caretakers.

So instead of actively blogging, I am concentrating on training and completing the half-marathon and raising funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  If you are interested in making a donation, you may do so at this link.  I am very appreciative of any donation, large or small.  No pressure though, I know times are tough and you certainly don't need another person asking for an already dwindling set of funds, especially at this time of year.

If you want to see some more posts, I have been working along the way...  I expect to have some scheduled posts coming out in the next couple of weeks and am working on a whole 'Inspired by' or Knock off series to come.  I will have another binge blogging session to get these out to you, so keep in touch and I will be back soon!!

Take Care,
Morgan

Surprise!!

Surprise!!  We are getting a dog!!  No, not really!  But I love this idea to surprise your kids and family with the news that a new family member will be joining the family!  Or, you can make fido his own treat container like this...

This is super easy and cute as can be!  I found the little Labrador puppy at the store and used one of my old jars and voila: a not so subtle surprise!!

Materials:

Dog (or other surprise animal)
Jar
Chalk vinyl/Chalk pen
Appropriate Snacks
Adhesive (I used ES 6000)

Instructions:
1.  Clean Jar.
2.  Attach dog to lid with glue.
3.  Fill up jar with snack.
4.  Label jar with vinyl/chalk pen.
5.  Leave on counter and see when they figure it out!

 How do you like to surprise your family with big news?!

Take care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
I Heart Naptime 
Time to Sparkle Link Party 
Tip Junkie  

Easy Homemade Clothes Detergent

Now, I know a thing or two about making homemade clothes detergent...  With three boys 7 and under, we do unholy amounts of laundry every day!!  We consistently wash 3 loads a day of clothes, towels and another load which varies every day, so I have been making the homemade stuff for years, actually...  The only problem-o?  Never used it for cold water items; yep, that's true.  We have washed all of our HOT items in homemade detergent because that mean, old hot water can melt the shredded up soap, but...

I just never really bought into the whole using it on cold water items.  Not because I didn't think it would work or clean our clothes, but I didn't think the chunks of soap would melt and rinse off of our clothes.

Well, I made up my own recipe and by golly, it's a keeper!!  Now, I totally lucked out as the clearance gods were pointing me to a name brand cold detergent, but this recipe, it's quick and easy-peasy!!  The best part is, that I can't tell a difference between my homemade version and the liquid (off brand, store bought) detergent I used before!!  It still smells great and I have clean clothes!  The real difference is in price, even though I used a third of the amount suggested on the store bought, liquid detergent, by stretching the powder detergent and mixing in the other cleaners it will last longer than my old, liquid did.


Even better than saving money, though you don't have to shred a thing!! I opened all the boxes, mixed them in a garbage bag and poured it into my containers!!  It's that easy!!  It took me a total of 10 minutes, most of which was spent trying to open the boxes?  Really, they are dangerous to get into with scissors!  :)

Look at how nicely it's mixed up! 

Now, you don't just have to use this on cold water items only.  This is a good starter recipe if you want to start stretching your money (and detergent) when washing ANY of your laundry.  

I will include a tute, just because some people really need it, but I love this recipe!

Materials:

1 box Borax
1 box Coldwater Detergent (powder) or your favorite, all-purpose Detergent in powder form
1 box Super Washing Soda
1 bucket Oxygen Stain Remover/Cleaner
1 big container to mix - I used a double bagged, garbage bag
Containers to store
Scoop - mine came in the Oxygen Cleaner.  There was also one in the detergent, but it's way too big...

1. Open all boxes/buckets and pour into mixing container.
2.  Mix, mix, mix.
3. Pour into smaller storage containers.
4.  Use 1 to 3 scoops per load.  My washer has it's own powdered soap spot, which is actually the same spot as liquid, so I put it there.  If you don't have a 'special' place, you can sprinkle it where you would normally put a powder detergent.

Love, love, love saving money on something like this!!  I am stretching our dollar even further, because I bought the detergent on clearance AND am maximizing the cleaning power and savings!  A great way to save money and not feel like we are scrimping in any way!!  How do you like to save money without making it into a four letter word?

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Craft-O-Maniac
I Heart Naptime
Time to Sparkle Link Party 
Tip Junkie 
Free Pretty Things for You 
Cheerios and Lattes Saturday Show and Tell
The Grant Life: Life of the Party

Many Uses for Wooden Blocks

So, I have grouped some easy projects together because it seems to make sense...  Wooden blocks and their many crafty uses!  Now, you don't have to cut wood to make these blocks (though I did), you are more than welcome to use a coupon and get some from your favorite craft store.  I found it cheaper to get a long board and cut it up, less than $3 bucks for untreated wood from the Depot, who stamped the wood from Sweden and I made LOTS of these sets!  Plus, I rounded ALL of the corners, you know, because I have too much free time!

The first two of these, I used plain old stickers (one set on clearance!) and the last one has vinyl chalkboard labels (which you can find anywhere) that I found at the dollar spot (more like $50 spot) at Tarjay.

The whole set!  Now little fingers can't ruin your fancy nativity!

Cute little package

See the Clearance sticker!  Bought these during the summer!

Now wouldn't these be cute placecards?

 Now, I did the first two with a Christmas theme, but you could certainly do other themes...  I have one in the works for when I can begin crafting again, after the blog post binge!  :)  If you would like one of the nativity sets, I have extra from a craft fair I went to...  Just contact me and we can work it out!

What extra uses can you find for wood blocks?

Take Care,
Morgan

Date Night Wine Birthday Gift

Ok, so I don't know much about wine, but I know how to gift!  My friend's birthday (earlier this year, cough, cough) called for a more sophisticated gift, not your average - here's a box of wine and call it a day gift...  But the major problemo?  I know nothing of selecting wine... 

My most expensive wine, you know, in the ten dollar range, tastes just as good as the 'good' wine my husband gets from his work for Christmas...  With my very good friend being such an eonophile (wine lover for you and me), I was too embarrassed to even try to get her wine.  So, I did the next best thing, I got her a date night gift basket and everything but the wine!

This came together super quick and looks great and with her bottle of wine, she can have a great evening with her boyfriend (after just the girls go out for dinner!)  :)  Anywho, here it looks and I just love getting her a gift like this!!  Besides, I was getting a rash just thinking about buying the wine! 

What do you like to give your best girlfriend on her birthday?

Take Care,
Morgan

Easy End of Year Teacher Gift

So, you know I love a good Teacher gift as much as the next person and I HAD to give my boys' teachers gifts for the end of year, last year (cough, cough).  They are finally showing up here!!  Ta-da!

Basically, I wanted to give the teachers a movie night - minus the movie...  They got popcorn, candy, cookie mix, drinks (all specific for the teacher, since my eldest could tell me the drinks and candies he saw the teachers with during the day,) and the made clipboard in this post.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any clear wrap, so they got red wrap and a personalized tag made like these.  All in all, the teachers were happy with their movie night gifts (from the prompt thank you notes I received!)

These were very economical because I was able to purchase most with coupons and on sale as the end of year approached. What do you like to give your favorite teachers?

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Cheerios and Lattes Saturday Show and Tell 

Knock Off and Better Bag

So, I always seem to need bags, which can stand up, to pack my boy's stuff in for campouts, overnighters and what not.  Well, you know me, I didn't want to pay for one, so I found some clearance, heavy weight fabric from Hob Lob and sewed them up, easy peasy. 

Well, not really easy-peasy, because I didn't have a pattern I was going by, but basically they are mitered bags with interfacing and lining.  I eyeballed a lot of the placement of straps and pockets and just folded over and held the lining as I sewed, but since there isn't a tutorial, I didn't want to totally make you think it was a walk in the park. These are lined, have a zippered pocket and have stiff interfacing to stand up at attention like good, little soldiers.  These took an afternoon and I don't have any pictures...  I just wanted to show off these beauties!

Enjoy!

Knock Off Toybox

Okay, so I LOVE crafting, but not so much the taking pics and blog posts... I really am trying to get better about this, but it's really hard, you know, with life getting in the way and all... So, needless to say, I will be binge blogging for a while because I have made the resolution to not begin any crafts until I have posted the ones I have worked on thus far... So, it's getting to be time to craft for the end of year, so momma is going to bust out some blog posts! :)

Anywho, so I was driving down my street three months ago the other day (ahem) and saw this wooden, storage box and knew I could make something cute with it.  I don't have any before pictures because apparently that is how I roll...  :)  Plus, as you can see the pics are in the garage and I just had to get busy with it! 

Now, it had great bones, but saw the love of three boys and was 35 years old!  It had LOTS of dings and missing parts (especially on the lid.)  My neighbors just didn't have the room or use for it anymore.  Well, momma snapped it up!  I knew that I didn't have any room for it either, so I decided to give it some love and personalization for a friend's daughter who was turning one.

After sanding, wood filler, sanding, painting and a little more sanding, I wanted to find the perfect monogram font for a girl.  I don't get to do anything too girlie around here, so it had to be perfect and I found it!  I found it on Graphics Fairy here, and used this same technique with paint pen and a couple of coats of sealer later...  Tada!!

Finished!

See the paint pen and pencil!  Decided to do the K bigger because it looks puny...

This was virtually free because I had all of the materials: paint, paint pen, wood filler, spare wood for easy drying.  Virtually because we had to purchase more discs for our sander, but I don't really consider that part of the gift, you know, it's the cost of doing business.  Still for a solid wood, antique, vintage-y vibe, this toy box was utterly enjoyed by the gifted family.  I really enjoyed making this renewed for my friend's daughter, who has since filled it with her toys and stuffed animals.


It looks similar to the Land of Nod one here, but luckily mine was smaller, fits perfectly in the little girl's room and was virtually free!  What do you like to remake for gifts?

Take care!
Morgan

Easy Decorated Clip Boards

I love teacher gifts...  You know this, I know this, so there it is.  I have done them here, here, here, here, here and here.  This actually didn't start out as a teacher gift, but inevitably turned into our end of year gift's for my eldest son's teachers.

Here goes: OK, I had the clipboards because we went on a family trip earlier this year and I thought my boys would like writing/drawing in the car...  I have to constantly remind myself that I have boys, because they TOTALLY did not like these.  Nope, they never used them.  So as I was watching these clipboards gather dust, I knew I had to do something with them...

Then as if by craft providence, I saw the cutie pie apple scrap paper (only needed one 12 by 12 sheet) and the apple sequin sticker (on clearance several months ago) and knew together I could put together a cute teacher gift.

The sticker and name are on the back.

Apple paper on the front.

So, decorating clipboards has been done all over the blogosphere, so I am not adding to that.  Besides, if you want to know how to mod podge the paper and clean up the edges, you can review this post.  I do it there on the signs.  I will; however, talk you through how I got the teacher's name around the apple.

Ok, so I have a fancy cutter machine but because I have too many hoppers in the fire, I have not been good about reading the manual (though I did several months ago) and it doesn't seem to want to work well for me.  :(   So, I used the software to make a circle a tad over 3 inches round and picked a font for the teacher's name to go around it.  I used this method to put the name onto the clipboard, then colored the name in with paint pen and let dry.

Found these tiny clipboards at Michaels and had to use them!!
They were in the dollar section, but they weren't a dollar.
I used my paint pen for the sayings.

Used a glue stick and extra decorative paper to
cover the top of the notebook paper.

 These took no time at all to do and were pretty inexpensive!  What cute teacher gifts do you like to make?

Take Care,
Morgan

Baptism Gift

Have you ever made a gift for someone and wished you had made it for yourself?  Be honest...  This is truly a gift I wish I had made for my littlest one, but I didn't.  I couldn't even make it because I only found one of the most important items (the Cross,) which I found by chance!  I am really proud of how this baptism gift turned out and surprisingly the finished product is actually like I imagined it would look!  That never happens for me!

So, I have seen tons of stamped hoops with sewn bunting all over blog land, but I didn't need a gift like that, especially for such a solemn occasion.  I did want a hoop gift though, so I spent a lot of time trolling searching for the applique, charm and perfect font/wording for this gift.  I am so glad I did (cough, cough, though the gift was late...)

This was super easy and if you have to make one, will be super quick for you!  :)  That's what I am here for friends!  I have included a tute, though you all are smart cookies and would hardly need one! 



Materials:
Scrap of Fabric for Hoop
Paint
Wood Hoop - mine is 6 inches across
Applique Cross
Iron on Transfer Paper
Thread/Needle
Ribbon (optional)
Charm (optional) Mine said 'the Lord be with you,' but you could easily do a dove, angel, I saw so many options at the store
Font/Printer/Computer
Embroidery Scissors (optional)

Instructions:

1. Paint outside of wood hoop your desired color.  Try two coats and let dry.
2. Find the perfect font/wording, then print out on regular printer paper.  
3. Cut the wording out and put to the side for now.
4. Place fabric in the hoop.  Place wording in desired area to determine if font size is appropriate.  Place applique in desired spot too.  Rearrange if needed...  In my example, I could have easily put the wording over the cross.  See what looks best to your eye. 
5. If wording looks good, print mirror image on transfer paper according to package directions.
6. Iron wording first, then iron Cross applique.  Ok, my applique wouldn't stick, so I ended up hand sewing a couple of stitches on the top and bottom of the cross.  If you don't have any ribbon/charm, then do the sides, too.  Never remove the fabric from the hoop at this point.  Trust me!  :)
7. Cut a couple of inches of desired ribbon and put the charm on the ribbon.  Fold the ends under the sides of the cross and do your hand stitching.  This is a two-fer because the ribbon stitching also holds the applique, too.
8. Cut excess fabric away from the hoop.  I used my embroidery scissors because they cut real close to the hoop.  I tried using my standard fabric scissors and they didn't do as clean of a job.

I found all of the items (hoop, cross, and charm) at the same store, while I had all of the other items from leftover projects.  When I got to it, this didn't take long and like I said, I wish I had one (or three, actually) of these for my boys.  Yes, I am that person who when I find an awesome gift for you, I buy one for myself, too!  At least people know I do buy other people things I would want...  :)   I am working on it...  Ok, I am not, but I felt like I needed to say that!  :)

What do you like to make for baptism gifts?

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Made by you Monday - Skip to my Lou 
Trendy Treehouse 
Craft-O-Maniac 
http://www.iheartnaptime.net/link-party-palooza-22/ 

Easy Summer Crafting Project with Boys

Ok, so I constantly have to remind myself that I have boys, especially when it comes to crafting.  This time, I got it totally right!  My boys LOVED this project and want to do more of them...  It couldn't have been easier.  I bought some fabric markers for a buck (with a three dollar off coupon from a couple of weeks ago) and a two pack of pillow cases...

I will include a tute, but this is easy, peasy and can be done however you want...   So, for less than $5 bucks, my boys had a fun project they can enjoy for weeks to come.

Materials:
Cereal Box - cut open to lay flat
Pillow Cases or T-Shirts
Fabric Markers
Print outs
Ribbon, fringe, embellishments (for girls, perhaps?)

Instructions:

1. Look for images online and print out in black and white.
2. Place the cereal box in between the layers of the pillowcase, then place the printed image on top of the box, still under the first layer of fabric.  
3. Now, I had to help with this part:  hold the layer of pillowcase taut, so that your kiddo can trace the image with the markers.  My son chose black for the outlines and I did the tracing for my younger boy's image.
4. Color at random, while moving the cereal box to be under the spot being colored.
5. Set the colors according to the package directions.

My boys really enjoyed this project and want to color more things.  They constantly ask for the coloring pillowcases, so it may be a good idea to do two for each kiddo (one for the wash and one for use?)

Anywho, hope your boys enjoy this craft, too!

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Made by you Monday - Skip to my Lou 
Trendy Treehouse  
Craft-O-Maniac 
I Heart Naptime 
Time to Sparkle Link Party  
Cheerios and Lattes Saturday Show and Tell 

Easy Teacher Appreciation Gift

So, these were easy, peasy.  All I did was print, cut and stick.  I found the gumballs at my warehouse store on clearance and I put them together for Teacher Appreciate Week.  Yes, I do know we are in the middle of summer, but I am a bit behind...  I had the sticker labels from eons ago and that's it.  The gumballs came with the elastic ribbon, it couldn't have been better!  A five minute teacher appreciation gift.

Take Care,
Morgan

Lego Tray

What is wrong with me?  Why can I not just buy a gift and do nothing 'crafty' with it?  Why do I have to think about it, obsess about it, figure out a way to make it 'perfect?'  I am not sure, but I think it has something to do with not having bucketfuls of money, but still wanting to give an awesome gift...

Anywho, not something I plan on changing about myself, so I guess I should move on right?  :)  Here it is; I made this tray from these plans.  I didn't use the exact wood Jaime used, because I wanted to use my scrap wood, but used the overall plan in my design.   I used the wrapping inspiration from here.

 
I decided to use the Lego font (search for it, there is no special site) and used paint pen to color it in.  I used the same process for tracing it on the wood as I used here.

I got the cool drawer pulls at the Depot.  I thought they looked great with the tray and they were the cheapest!

Unfortunately, I could only make two trays (one for the birthday boy, who is friends with my oldest, and one tray for us) which means my boys will have to share until I get more wood...  For ours, I did our last name so that no one could say it was his.  Just trying to head off future fights...


What crafty gifts do you like making for little boys?

Take Care,
Morgan

Boy Graduating High School Gift

Ok, so I don't remember any of the gifts I received upon graduation from High School (or College, by the way.)  I know, I am a terrible person, or maybe the gifts were not that memorable? Well, this gift should be memorable for our upcoming graduate...  Personalized towels! 

Useful - check. Needed?  Probably, since he will be staying in the college dorms and not the comfort of his family's home...  You know, I still have the towels I went to college with, well minus a few that were 'borrowed' by roommates to never be returned...  I am certain that if I had monogrammed towels, those towels would be in my bathroom cabinet, not in someone else's...

I have five body towels and two hand towels for our guy.  That way, he can at least make it through the school week without doing laundry...

Used PB font I downloaded.  Not from a special site, you can find it anywhere on the internet.

This is centered on the towel, my cropping on the pic is not...

If you have embroidered before, these were not that difficult.  I mean, really, the machine does all the work...  But, you do have to make certain the monogram is straight and you don't run out of bobbin thread and the thread gets cut at the right time (I did my cuts, while the machine was doing the monogram - I didn't wait till the end.)

I really wanted to get one of those fancy, schmancy tools that would tell you right where to do the monogram, but I didn't want to spend even more money to buy a tool that I may never use again, so I just did this old, school style (you know, print out the monogram on paper and eyeballed/measured where it looked best.)  To make sure everything was centered, I folded the towel longways directly in half and used two pins to mark the center.  I had the center of my monogram 7 inches up from the bottom (I folded 7 inches up from the bottom and used two pins here on the sides,) with my letters being 2.25 inches tall and 3 inches wide (I only have a 4 inch hoop.)  I used the reference marks on my hoop and lined them up with the four pins. I used rip away stabilizer on the back and the water soluble on the front, both were in the hoop.  FYI...  You don't need to rip the stabilizer away on the back, mine all came off in the wash after...

I am really pleased with the way these turned out!  They look just like the fancy ones you can get from a PB catalog, but not the price.  I found these on clearance at my Tarjay and in the color scheme he likes! What an exciting time, the transition from High School to College!  I am very excited for our graduate and hope he enjoys these towel and in (cough, cough) twenty years, he is still using them.

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Made by you Monday - Skip to my Lou
Trendy Treehouse   
Craft-O-Maniac 

Wedding Invitation Sign

Not too long ago, I received a wedding invitation in the mail that was really pretty.  Now I know that most people don't care about the invite, except for the Bride, of course, but it was really pretty.  I just knew that if I could do it right, that it would make a beautiful sign the couple could keep for years to come.  Here it is:

I hope they enjoy the reminder of their wedding day!  What have you made for a wedding gift?

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking up to:
Skip to my Lou 
Trendy Treehouse  

Tabletop Chalkboard

This was yet another item I made for my son's birthday in this post.  I first saw it here and used these plans.  Easy peasy...  So much fun to make!  I didn't use a handle, but it's totally up to you if you need it.

I used some clearance paints (chalkboard and acrylic) I found a while back which is why I hoard buy things with the intent to do something with them someday.  Sealed this sucker up just to make sure the acrylic was on there for good...  For some reason when I would wipe it with a damp paper towel, the acrylic paint kept on coming off...  So the sealer is doing what I need it to, especially with the boys, I just know they are going to try and use the chalk on the wood part, not the chalkboard part...  Got three good layers of chalkboard paint for both sides, so not bad for a buck clearance paint!

Anywho, if I can make this, so can you!  I even used the jig and everything.  Just a word to the wise, make certain your nails for the hardboard are less than the width of your 1 by 2/3...  No reason, just from experience you may need to touch-up where the nails poke through...  No biggie!

Take Care,
Morgan

Chocolate Covered Earth Oreo Cookies

So, to go along with my son's astronomy themed birthday party, I wanted something really special for the cupcake toppers...  These guys were really simple and each covering/decorating session only took 30 minutes (and that was with the baby playing in his highchair!)  With drying time, this will take you overnight to finish the oreos.  If you have ever decorated cookies, then these will be a breeze for you.  If you haven't, then don't worry, these are very forgiving and you will be able to do it, too!

These beauties tasted as good as they look!

Drying after their dunk...

Don't worry about the holes, they still taste awesome!

Done!

Materials:
Package of Oreos (only use unbroken ones, take the broken ones and put them in your mouth quickly - less time for sharing!) I got 25 usable cookies from one package.
Two packages white chocolate morsels (I like the flavor of the white chocolate, but if you have candy melts, then go for it!)
Chocolate food coloring - blue and green (I am sure you could use regular food coloring, but I haven't tried it.  We have a local food craft shop, so I buy it there cheap)
1 to 2 Tbsp. shortening
Sandwich baggie
Silpat or wax paper

Instructions:

1. Only use the beautifully intact cookies, you do not want crumbs in your white chocolate.
2. Melt one package of chips in a four cup mixing cup in microwave according to package directions and your microwave. (I way over cooked them in the past, so make sure and stay by your machine.)
3. I put a couple of tablespoons of shortening in the melted chips to thin them out for dipping and add your blue coloring.
4. Using a fork, plop a cookie in the white/blue chocolate and turn over.  Lift up with the fork and allow the excess chocolate to drip off.
5. Tap your fork on the side of the measuring cup, scraping the excess chocolate off the bottom of the fork and place gently on the silpat.
6. Allow to dry overnight.
7. Use about one cup of the second white chocolate morsels package with some shortening mixed with green coloring.  
8. After heating and getting a nice, not too runny consistency, place it in a sandwich baggie.  Cut off a small, tiny hole from the corner of the baggie.  You can always cut it bigger, go small at first.
9. Then start your outline of the continents.  After outlining, color in with the chocolate.  
10. Work one cookie at a time and keep your hand moving.  If someone asks if that's Australia and it's really Africa, they're cookies, it's ok...  :)

 They looked great and didn't last long.  They are very rich, so perfect for the cupcakes.

Hope these inspire you!

Take Care,
Morgan

Linking to:
Craft-O-Maniac 
I heart Naptime 
Skip to my Lou 
Trendy Treehouse 
Time to Sparkle Link Party 

Boy's 7th Birthday Party

So, has it really been almost 7 years since we brought our first little boy home?  It makes my heart ache that I would give him kisses all day to such sweet giggles and now he runs away from the car during drop-off after saying that more than two kisses from mom are too much... Well, that's how it goes, I suppose...

This was his 7th Birthday party and we found a discounted deal at our local museum for members (otherwise it would have been an at home party.)  Be sure to look for deals, even if birthday parties at a particular place are usually pricey.  If I hadn't of looked just to see, then I wouldn't have known about the awesome deal.   One of the stipulations of the deal was that it had to be held during the month prior to my little boy's actual birthday, but it turned out great because we have a busy couple of months ahead of us.  He chose an Astronomy themed birthday, so that's why we have 'Earth' toppers for the cupcakes...

Anywho, I made a few items for the party and they will all be listed here...  The tute's will come in individual posts and sources...  But for now, here goes:

I tried to have food items that were individual (read: didn't want grubby hands touching my food) and easily portable for the party.  The bonus of this party was that it was during a normal snack time, not meal time, so no worries about feeding an entire meal.  Well, we learned a lot and had a good time and are ramping up for the quickly approaching first birthday of our youngest.  So, I hope you get some ideas for your next birthday party.

Take Care,
Morgan