Keeping it Simple

Motivate me Monday #111

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Sponsor of the week: Craftvinyl.com

A huge variety of vinyl at super low prices! Plus this Friday, you can get free shipping!

Hi everyone!!!! I can't believe that it's another week! I got spoiled this past week, my husband had Monday off and he took Friday off for my birthday, so it was a three day week! It was awesome and went by so fast! Since Monday was a holiday this week, I didn't have a chance to go through the links, sorry!!! We were busy spending time with the kids and checking out the children's museum in SLC.

Here is the most viewed link last week:

A home remedy to help with headeaches. As I sit here with headache, I'm thinking I might have to try this!!

I can't wait to see what you did this past week!

Check out these sites!

A little glimpse

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Today is a very special day to me. You know why? Because it's my birthday!!!

source

The day has only just begun and it's already been a good weekend. Back at my husband's old job, he always got a day off of work for his birthday. I was always so jealous of him, because I would love a day off from my "work" on my birthday. It just wasn't possible at his last job, he's an accountant and worked at a CPA firm. With my birthday being right in the middle of tax season, not only did I not get the day off, but my day was usually super stressful because it was tax season and he worked long hours.

This year was different, now that he has a new job and works in corporate accounting, he can take the day off. Since this year it is on Saturday, I asked him to take Friday off from work. So he did just that. He took care of the kids and I spent the whole day scrapbooking. I'm so far behind and I really needed to do some. He was awesome, he cleaned for me and let me have a day off of my "work". Yay for a good weekend! :)

I hope that you have a great weekend!! Now I'm off to scrapbook so more!

Check out these sites!

Soulmates Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:03:00 +0000

It's the end of February and I'm sooooo ready for spring!! I'm so ready to be able to send my kids out in the back yard without have to bundle them up. I'm especially ready for warm weather so I can wear flip flops again!! I cannot stand shoes. Really, it's not the shoes that I don't like, it's the socks. Socks drive me crazy!! Especially washing them, they always seem to get lost and folding them takes longer than washing them. Anyway, I lost my train of though. Oh yes, flip flops!! It's about that time of year again and I'm so excited to be able to wear these super cute pair from Solemate Sandals!!

They have a ton of super cute "mates" that are interchangeable for their sandals. The best part about them, they have three buttons, so they will not fall off (I've lost some from another type of sandals before.

One pair of sandals with lots of different mates, so much fun!!!

There are several mates to chose from. They even have little girls!!

Go head over to Solemate Sandals and find a pair of flip flops so you can wear them this spring!!

Check out these sites!

Tot Thursday: Legos

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:42:00 +0000

We are HUGE fans of Legos at our house. There isn't a day that my boys don't play with them. They just love them. Because they love them soooo much, it seems like I am always picking up Legos. Is it like that at your house? I spend at least 30 minutes a day just picking up Legos!! And still end up stepping on them or finding more in a different room. One day I went over to a friend's house and she had come up with a great solution, put the Legos on a blanket!

So I did just that, I put the Legos on a queen size sheet and let them play on that.

And when it's time to clean up, I just picked up the blanket and put the whole thing in the container.

I'm sure I'll still find Legos here and there but at least I won't be spending as much time putting them away.

Check out these sites!

Whatever Wednesday: Etch Glass Vinyl

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:36:00 +0000

So I have had this mirror for about 6 years. I got it for $1 at a garage sale and I have always loved it. I have always wanted to do something with it, but never knew what to do. I painted it brown (it used to be cream) but it still needed something. I got some awesome etch glass vinyl from Craftvinyl.com

and decided that it would look good on my mirror. It added just the right touch!!

Craftvinyl.com has 5 different colors of their etch glass vinyl, gold, silver, pink, green and blue. I used the silver, green and blue.

Here's how I made it:

1) I took an image from the Silhouette online store and ungrouped (ctrl u) the image. I wanted the branch to be longer than 12" so I put it on the diagonal of the mat.

2) Using my CAMEO, I cut the vinyl. Blade 2 and thickness 12.

3) I removed the vinyl.

4) I then transferred the vinyl to the mirror. Cool ceiling, huh? :)

And just like that, my mirror has a little design and color.

I love that it's subtle and gives a little color.

Check out these sites!

Tutorial Tuesday: Ruffle skirt and reversible wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:38:00 +0000

Does anyone else have a TON of clothes? I find that I collect clothes rather than wear them. I keep shirts that I wear only once every 5 months or so. Lately, I have wanted to get rid of some of them but at the same time I don't want to. It's a problem, I'm attached to my clothes.... I have a shirt from 8th grade just because I can't get rid of it.

I finally decided to refashion 4 shirts, because I haven't worn any of them for at least a year. I saw this cute skirt that Sew Fantastic made for her little girl and I wanted to make one for myself!

This is how I made it:
1) I took four brown shirts. One will be the skirt and three will be the ruffles.

2) I cut off the sleeves and neckline of the shirt, this one will be the skirt.

3) I cut the remaining shirts into 4" strips

4) The strips weren't long enough, so I sewed two together.

5) Using elastic thread, I made all the strips ruffles

6) Starting from the bottom, I put the ruffles on. The bottom layer went all around.

7) I then sewed the rest of the ruffles on. I only put them on the front because the back will be covered.

8) I then added some cute elastic to the top.

Now for the wrap

9) I used two different fabrics, so the wrap will reversible.

10) I cut the sides, 6" from the bottom at an angle.

11) I then put the front together and sewed the two pieces together.

12) I then top stitched the wrap. (My craft room is in my laundry room.... like the sock).

Here is what the wrap

13) I put a button on each side of the wrap and then made a hole for the button.

Here is it buttoned up.

And now I have a wrap for my ruffle skirt!

I love that it's reversible!

Check out these sites!

Motivate Me Monday #110

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Sponsor of the week: Scentsy

Find the best scents and warmers at Scentsy and this month they are 10% off!

Another great week for links!! It's so fun to go through the links and see how creative you all are!! It always gets the wheels turning in my head and my project list grows more and more... which I love :). Now that Valentine's Day is over, is it time for St. Patrick's Day? I'm not quite ready for another holiday, so many other projects have taken the back burner. Plus, I have one more birthday to do, so that's what on my to-do list. How about you, what are you making this week?

Here are a few of my favorites from last week:

Pregnancy shirt by Helping Little Hands

Chicken wire frames by Dumped and Discovered

22 activities to do with kids by Lifestyles of the SAHM.

Fleece hats by Bear Rabbit Bear

Diaper Bag by Snugasabugbaby

Grab a button if you've been featured!! Now onto the party, can't wait to see what you've done!

Check out these sites!

A little glimpse

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:10:00 +0000

We are finally on the mend, yay!! Only one kid missed school this week for sicknesses and that was just one day, a huge improvement!

One of our favorite things to do here is take the train down to Salt Lake and walk around downtown. Our kids love the train and love riding it! It was a beautiful day last weekend, so we packed up the kids and went down to Salt Lake. The weather was just prefect, it felt like spring!! We usually don't do a whole lot down there, just walk around and look. This time we walked around temple square and looked around there.

The majority of the time, we go to the gateway and walk around the stores there. When it's warm again, we might even pack some swim suits and play in the fountains there. Hopefully in the near future we will go the children's museum! It's so fun to be in a bigger city. This is the first time in my life that I have lived somewhere with a population more than 30,000 people. It definitely has it's ups and downs :). But I love all the things that you can do!!

Check out these sites!

Angry Birds Party!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:00:00 +0000

At the very end of January we had an angry birds party for this little guy:

It was a very low key birthday. We still don't know many people here, so we just invited the cousins and played a few games. The boys seemed to enjoy themselves though and everything turned out as planned, so this party was a success!!

The first game we play was the angry bird can game

The game was a hit and all the kids loved playing it. The best part, the older kids would set it up so I just got to sit back and watch the action :)

Next we played another game with angry bird pom poms and sling shots.

The boys took turns shooting their birds at a pyramid of plastic cups.

What's a birthday party, without a fun craft? Everyone got to make a paper angry bird or pig.

And lastly, the boys got their very own angry bird mask and got to run around pretending to play Angry Birds!

Once the boys were done playing, it was time for cake and ice cream.

Here is the cupcakes that I made for the party. I just used an angry bird game we had for the pieces. The front cupcakes were supposed to look like grass..... I need to invest in some cake decorating equipment.

There were 8 kids eating the cupcakes. I thought that we were going to have leftovers, but those kids ate most all of them! That's what happens when you leave 8 kids alone with cupcakes :)

And finally, the kids left with this party favor.

I got the printable here.

To see the tutorials of the games, just click on the links :)

Check out these sites!

Tot Thursday: Angry Birds Pom Pom

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:14:00 +0000

I'm always looking for fun boy crafts, and it seems like Angry Birds are all over the place. When I saw this idea, I thought that my boys would love to make them.

This is how I made it:

1) I took 10 yards of yarn and wrap it around a semi circle. I have a little plastic one but I've seen people make them out of cardboard. Altogether, I used 20 yards of yarn

2) I put the circle together and then cut the yarn around the edge of the circle.

3) With another piece of yarn, I tied a knot around the middle of the yarn. I did this a couple times to make sure the pom pom won't fall apart.

Here's the pom pom

4) I decorated it to make the angry bird

Then I made several others.

I made enough so everyone could take one home.

For the party, we used a sling shot and shot a pyramid of paper cups.

Check out these sites!

Whatever Wednesday: Angry Birds Cans

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:19:00 +0000

For my son's birthday party, the theme was angry birds!! I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew I wanted to do it for the party. It was perfect and so much fun for the kids.

This is how I made it:

1) I got some regular cans, washed them and removed the label.

2) Next we painted them green.

Here they are green. Spray paint would have been easier, I didn't have any at the time though.

3) With my CAMEO, I cut out some pigs out of black Expressions Vinyl. I just used the pictures from my Angry Bird shirts.

4) Then I put the vinyl onto the cans

I stacked them up

And just like that, it's a fun game! I just used a plush bird that I bought at the store.

The kids LOVED this game during the party.

We even got some wood out and put the cans onto those.

My six year old got super creative with building them!

My boys liked it so much, they played for days after the party!

Check out these sites!

Tutorial Tuesday: T-shirt dress

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:15:00 +0000

Happy Valentine's Day!!! I hope that you are feeling loved today and I hope that everyone has a super hot date tonight, I do! :)

Now that Valentine's Day is over and Easter is a month away, I can start working on somethings that I have wanted to do for awhile now. Like this dress, I have wanted to do this since October but I have been busy doing other crafts since then.

So this next month or so I'm going to try really hard to not spend any money on my crafts. I spent all of my spending money on the cruise, so I'm going to have to use what I have. We'll see what I come up with :)

Now onto this dress for my little girl.

This is how I made it:

1) I took a shirt (it was a size small in girls) and 1/2 yard of fabric.

2) I cut the sleeves

3) I made the sleeves shorter and the shoulder smaller.

4) I then made the shirt smaller, but I still made it A-line.

5) I put the sleeve into the hole, and then sewed the sleeves back on.

Here are the sleeves back onto the shirt.

6) The shirt was a little long, so I cut off the bottom.

Next for the pleats at the bottom.

7) I cut two strips, 5"x45"

8) I folded the fabric in half and ironed it.

9) Then I ironed the fabric to make pleats.

10) I put the pleats under the shirt and sewed it on.

11) I then made another pleated strip (I cut the fabric 2"x45") for a flower. I sewed it onto the shirt.

12) I made a rosette with the extra shirt fabric and then glued it into the center.

13) I added a little tie in the middle.

And now she has a fun and comfy dress!!

Isn't she so cute?!

Check out these sites!

Follow Me and One Last Valentine

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:01:00 +0000

By now I'm sure all of you have heard that Google is getting rid of Google Friend Connect soon. By March 1, non-bloggers it will be gone. Luckily for me, I have a blogger blog, so it won't affect me, yet. But it does affect how I follow other blogs because a lot of them will lose GFC. I'm not sure how I'm going to follow them yet.

I hope that all of you hope to continue to follow me when this all happens. I will keep my GFC until Google gets rid of it for good. But there are other ways to follow me.

-You can sign up for my emails (left sidebar)

- You can follow me by Facebook. I get a lot more personal on my Facebook page.

-You can follow me on Pinterest

-You can use Google reader

I just added Linky Followers to my blog, so if you want to follow me with that you can too!

How are you planning on following the blogs you love to read?

I was really hoping to get this Valentine's Day post done by Friday, so people could have the weekend to work on it if they wanted to. But then I starting feeling sick and just didn't get to it until yesterday. So here is another Valentine's day the day before Valentine's day :). I got both ideas from Mom on Time Out

This is how I made them:

These are the supplies you'll need:

Saran wrap, leaves, floral tape, kisses and pencils

1) I put two kisses together and wrapped it with the Saran wrap.

2) I put the pencil on the bottom and wrapped it with the floral tape.

3) I added some leaves to the top and wrapped the tape all the way down the pencil.

4) Then I added a little poem. Super easy gift for a teacher!

I had a lot of kisses left over, so I made some little rings to go with their roses.

I added a little saying to it.

Both crafts were super easy and quick, so you still have time to do it before Valentine's day! :)

Check out these sites!

Motivate Me Monday #109

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Sponsor of the week: Craft Vinyl

Happy day everyone!!! I'm so excited to see everyone's projects this week. You all are truly amazing and really inspire me! I hope that everyone has Valentine's Day plans. I get to help out with parties this week, it's so fun to see all of the cute boys and girls! :)

Here are a few of my favorite projects from last week:

Ruffle skirt and wrap by Sew Fantastic

Quiet book by Adventures of our Family

Cardigan by Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom

Ruffle heart shirt by Polkadots on Parade

Tabletop chandelier by Make the Best of Things

Custom board book by One Dog Woof

If you've been featured, grab a button from my sidebar!

Now for the party, yay!!!

Check out these sites!

A Little Glimpse

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:50:00 +0000

Did you notice the change in my blog? What do you think? Yesterday I just decided that I needed a change and just did it. I have been wanting to do it for awhile now but have been too lazy. I just used my scrapbook software, My Memories and had fun with it! I think it really brightens up the page :)

There are two words that describe my week..... sick kids!! Remember when I said that they were on the mend, I was totally wrong!! They were acting better but they were not better at all. My baby and 5 year old both had to go to instra care on Saturday to get a shot of antibiotics because the medicine that they were on didn't work on their ear infections. Plus, they both had an infection (not pink eye) in their eyes. We went to the doctor 6 different times within a one week period. My daughter's eye was so bad that she had to go three days in a row, to make sure it was getting better not worse and to get another shot.

Here are a couple of pictures of her

The poor thing still hasn't completely recovered. Her eye is better but still swollen. Once the two kids were getting better, my oldest son came down with tonsillitis and missed three days of school. I'm definitely ready for my kids to recover and not be sick anymore! I promise that the posts about me won't always be me complaining.... it's just been a long two weeks!

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

Check out these sites!

Pinterest Picks

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:36:00 +0000

It's the last weekend before Valentine's Day. Are you still looking for a cute idea? Good thing there is Pinterest, you can find a ton on there! Here is what I found this week:

Mustache Valentine by Craft Monkey

Rockin' Valentine by Zakka Life

Superhero Valentines by Crossing the Bugger

Rolo Valentine by Family Fun

Monkey Valentine by Fiskars

Eye on you by Dandee

Robots by Seasonal Expressions

Plane Valentine by A Little Tipsy

Check out these sites!

Angry Birds Valentine

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:25:00 +0000

Now that my 3 year old in preschool, I have three kids in school. That means that they each have to bring a valentine. It also means three parties to help out with... good thing they are at different times. Anyway, I had to make an angry bird one with all of my boys bring obsessed with them. So I just decorated a sucker. Super easy and fun, plus my boys got to help out too :)

Now that I'm done with my sons' valentines, it's time to think about their teachers, oh and my husband. I have no clue what to do for him. Any suggestion would be awesome! :)

Check out these sites!

Tot Thursday: Valentine's BINGO

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:11:00 +0000

One of my favorite things about being a stay at home mom is that I get to help out at the school for my sons' parties. I love going in and meeting all of their friends and finally putting a face with a name. I usually do some kind of craft but this time they asked me to do a game. Bingo is a super fun game that I personally love, so I made one up for Valentine's Day. Just a side note, I was asked to be in charge of my oldest son's party, but turned his teacher down because of having three younger kids I didn't think I could handle it, is that bad of me?

For the bingo cards, I just found some clip art on DaFont.com and then printed them out. I made up 10 different sheets and then a set of cards to call out. FREE printable here (let me know if it doesn't work!).

I'm going to give each kid a little bag of conversation hearts for the markers. I just realized that the "real" conversations hearts are so much brighter and cooler than the ones I got at the dollar store for my wreath.... shouldn't have gone cheap.

Check out these sites!

Whatever Wednesday: Star Wars Valentine

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Remember that I'm Scrooge when it comes to Valentine's Day? Luckily I'm loving making these Valentines for my boys and I'm starting to enjoy the holiday a little more :)

One of my favorite things about having this blog is all of the other bloggers I have found and seeing the amazing talent you all have. I especially love when I find the prefect Valentine for my 5 year old!! Megan from Brassy Apple made a light saber with a glow stick and I knew that I wanted to do just that for him!

This was so easy to do and I love how they turned out!

This is how I made it:

1) I took a picture of my son, holding his light saber.

2) I then put words on picture

3) I printed the pictures out and then put a slit at the top of the light saber and inserted a glow stick.

Crack the glow stick and the light saber actually glows, I love it!!

I also found some Star Wars fruit snacks, so my son will give those to his class also.

Check out these sites!

Tutorial Tuesday: Superhero Sucker Valentines

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:12:00 +0000

Valentine's Day is fast approaching! All the other blogs seem to be on top of everything and have already posted Valentines. Remember when I said that my kids were on the mend? Well I was wrong!! My baby had to go to the doctor's three days in a row over the weekend because her eye was infected and so swollen she could barely opened it. Plus her ear infection was still there. So I am finally getting to Valentines. This whole week is going to be about Valentine's Day because I'm a procrastinator...

It's always hard to come up with a great idea that will work for boys. I've seen these superhero suckers on Pinterest and I knew that they would be prefect for my boys!!

This is how I made them:

1) I printed a saying onto some cardstock. I just put "Have a SUPER day!" but you could get more creative. Like, "I'm BATy for you." I was just too lazy and tired to think...

2) Next I traced and cut out the shape of the cape.

3) Have you heard of DaFont? They have awesome fonts AND clipart. I got the DC Comic one and then used my CAMEO to cut the images. I used my Expressions Vinyl instead of paper because it's so much easier!

4) I put all of the vinyl onto the little capes.

5) I punched a hole into the cape. I wrapped the bottom of the sucker with tape and then put the cape on.

6) I put little masks on the suckers.

And just like that, my boys have some awesome Valentines to give out to their classmates!

Check out these sites!

Motivate Me Monday #108

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Sponsor of the week: Crystal & Co

Crystal has a lot of great Valentine's Day crafts right now!

Melt down crayon into hearts!! There is even a free printable!

Last week there were some awesome links! It seems like each week you gals just keep getting better! Here are a few of my favorites:

Valentine's day pillows by Rae Gun Ramblings

Valentine Ring by Mom on Timeout

Argyle Hoody by Melly Sews

Ruffle skirt by Suburbs Mama

Valentine kisses by Makoodle

Happi Meal by Repeat Crafter Me

Dinosaur hoodie by Vixen Made

If you've been featured, grab a button! Now it's time for the party!

Check out these sites!

A little glimpse....

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:48:00 +0000

This week started out so good and promising. It ended up being very long and a hard week.

This week my 3 year old started preschool!! I am super excited about him going to preschool, I get a little break from his craziness. He is my busy boy, he is constantly "on" and never has a down moment. So it will be nice to have a little quiet a couple times a week. Sadly, he wasn't so excited. I left him crying and so sad. It's so hard to do it but it is definitely needed.

This little guy has speech problems. Pretty bad actually, so hopefully going to school will help him. This is actually my second son that has done speech before going to kindergarten. Did you know that they had early childhood programs? They are great! If you have a child that you think might need speech, don't wait until they go to school, do it now. I started him at the age of 2 and it has helped a lot!

Half way through the week, all four of my kids got sick. On Wednesday, I had all four of them home sick.

2 had double ear infections

3 had pink eye

1 had a cold

1 was throwing up

Yes that equals to 7, two of them had ear infections and pink eye and my 5 year old was throwing up on top of everything. We had sleepless nights. My baby and 5 year old were the worse, their fevers wouldn't break and were just miserable. She just wanted to be held, day and night. My 5 year old missed the whole week of school. They are finally on the mend and hopefully will be completely better soon, I'm ready for more than 4 hours of sleep.

Check out these sites!

Shabby Apple Dress Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:24:00 +0000

If you don't know by now, I'm HUGE fan of Shabby Apple!!

Use code NEWYEAR for 20% off

I love their dresses. I love how simple they are, but so elegant at the same time. I love all of the colors and the different styles.

I have four dresses from Shabby Apple and I love them all. I love that whenever I wear them someone compliments me. I love how I feel in them. I have so much more confidence when I wear them and I actually feel pretty (that doesn't happen very often). There is just something about my Shabby Apple dresses!

My new dress is the Nothin' Like a Dame dress.

I just adore the red color!! I love red, it makes a statement, so bold. Red is the color of power :). This dress is just prefect for Valentine's Day! I'm totally making this a Christmas dress too!

This dress is so comfortable. I'm all for wearing it in the week. But at the same time, I could really dress up this dress and go more formal if I wanted to. It was prefect for my cruise too! Have I mentioned that Shabby Apple dresses are modest too? It's great, I don't even have to wear a tank top underneath :).

I think every girl deserves a dress that they just love. This one and my Bali Ha'i are my favorites!!

Shabby Apple just came out with a new line, called Mad Hatter

There are some super cute dresses:

Go check out their dresses and find one that is perfect for you! :) Use the code NEWYEAR for 20% off.

Check out these sites!

Love Notes

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:54:00 +0000

Go check out how I made this Valentine Decor on the Expressions Vinyl Blog

Tot Thursday: Paper Angry Bird

noreply@blogger.com (Kaysi) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:28:00 +0000

Angry Birds are huge right now and my boys love them!! So for our craft this week, we made paper angry birds. I cut out the pieces and they glued them together. Super easy!

Check out these sites!