“Mishka Mushka Mickey Mouse” – one of the most common phrases said in the Barker Household. Baby Girl Barker is getting very good at singing along and repeating what she hears on shows. 

One day we were driving around, running errands with friends and they handed their daughter a phone to watch her favorite show, My Little Pony. Of course my kids thought that was awesome and begged for my phone. I quickly had to download the Netflix app, sign up for a monthly plan, and find them a show to watch before a major meltdown happened. Surprise, no meltdown and it was so super simple.

Not yet ready to give up the high chair! On another note, Netflix on the phone has been a lifesaver for this first pacifier free day. #notsureifitsharderonmomorbaby

Now, my kids borrow my phone regularly, or sit infront of the computer for a quick cartoon, or a calm down movie. It even helped when we went “B Free” (pacifier) with Baby Girl Barker. When a meltdown would start, I would mention Caillou, Sesame Street, or even Jake and The Neverland Pirates which would instantly change her focus and brighten her mood!

One of my favorite features from Netflix (other than it being available on pretty much all devices my family has, xbox included!) is their dedicated kids section has family favorites appropriate for children ages 2- 12. All content is selected with help from Common Sense Media to provide ratings, reviews and information so parents can easily make choices for their kids!

What are you watching on TV with your family? Netflix has family favorites from Disney, Disney Jr., Hasbro, Cartoon Network and Dreamworks that are available to stream anytime, anywhere.

And streaming is easier than you think! Download the free app on your iPad, click on the Netflix app on any gaming device, go to the website on your computer – and you’re in business. Check it out here!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of NETFLIX.

If you like this post, you may also like my Healthy Eating tips for Toddlers or my Printable Chore Chart for Toddlers

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I am so excited that today I am jumping on board with a bunch of other bloggers who are sharing fun Summer theme posts as part of the amazing 31 Days of Summer Fun Series put on by McKenzie from Girl Loves Glam.

Now that it is warm outside, we have been taking great advantage of having a summer BBQ as much as possible. And with Memorial Day only a few days away, I wanted to share this AMAZZZZZZING Summer Spritzer (non-alcoholic of course!) with you.

It’s super simple, and you can make it ahead of any BBQ or party, and then just pull it out as guests are arriving.

 Pineapple & Strawberry Spritzer (non-alcoholic)

• Juice from 1 pineapple (making about 2 cups juice)
• ~8 large strawberries, blended in a blender to very small chunks
• 1 cup simple syrup
• 2 liter Sprite

To make a simple syrup

Bring 1 cup water to a boil. Add 2 cups sugar and continue to boil for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

For juice

Once all the strawberries are blended, add in pineapple juice and simple syrup and blend until well combined. The pour into a gallon ziplock bag, release all excess air, and place flat in the freezer.

Now you can do the above about 2 1/2 hours before your party and your juice will be frozen to a slight slush. Or freeze it far in advance and remove from your freezer 1-2 hours before to let thaw to a slush.

Pour all the juice into a punch bowl, and top with chilled Sprite. There will be small chunks of frozen juice, which makes it so much better!

Check out what everyone else is sharing as part of this fun series:

 
If you liked this post, you may also like the Pina Colada Pastry Bites and the Raspberry and Cream Cheese Partait 

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You guys, I am so excited to share with you a new feature I am going to be doing each week. I LOVE to find a new blog to follow, and because there are so many out there I know that if it weren’t for others sharing, I wouldn’t find some of my favorites. So I created Savor The Details. It will be a weekly feature post where I highlight one of my old or new favorite bloggers and the amazing details they share in their projects and recipes.

The post {Savor The Details} Redhead Can Decorate appeared first on Our Thrifty Ideas.

Well, Summer is almost officially here, so I decided it was about time to take down the mismatched decor I had on the “faux mantel” and make it bright and cheery for Summer. I will do a full reveal later this week, but first I thought I would share this quick and easy chevron fabric banner that I made. 

PS, apparently I have an obsession with Riley Blake’s chevron fabric, because this was just some of what I had laying around my house!!

So I started by putting a stabilizer on the back of all 3 fabrics. Then I cut out a template of the scalloped triangle shape from my cricut mini. Once my template was cut, I traced it onto the back of the stabilizer and cut out my shapes!

Once they were all cut, I made a slit about 1/2 inch in and 1/4 inch down on each side of the pendant. 

I used a bright orange 1/4 inch ribbon to string up the banner. Just weaved it in and out of the slits, in a yellow, pink and green pattern.

On the ends I wanted just a bunch of ribbon scraps. So I made a slip knot and put the ribbon inside. Then pulled the knot tight and did one more knot around it to keep it tight.

I then just taped it up in the corner’s of my faux mantel.

The brightness and colors are so welcoming right inside the front door, and I love how perfect they are for summer!!

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So, what have we been up to those 2 weeks?    You can keep up with my crazy life by following me on Instagram. But here’s some of the highlights.

1. The Little Man gave his first talk in church. Well, he said 4 words, then Mom had to finish the talk herself!
2. With Dad out of town, one of the only things that made these kids happy was to have a “Castle” in the house at all times.
3. I had a ROUGH day. But I laid on the grass and let them doggy pile to their hearts content. Funny how it brightened both of our days. (read more about that day here)
4. Baby Girl Barker in now in a big girl bed (at only 22 months!) and is doing pretty well at it.
5. Baby Animal Days was so much fun. The kids loved holding the baby bunnies and of course riding the horses was their absolute favorite.
6. We went to Letherby’s for dinner and celebrated Daddy’s birthday
7. My Mother’s Day/Daddy’s b-day breakfast. Definitely better than anyone elses!
8. Hubby had his tonsil’s out last week. We are now on day 4, and it’s been a ROUGH weekend.
9. Although he may be feeling under the weather, he still takes time to hold my hand throughout the day. LOVE HIM.

What have YOU been up to this weekend? I’ve got a couple fun posts coming this week. I just need to get them typed up!!

The post {A Gram of My Life} Hubby’s Recovery appeared first on Our Thrifty Ideas.

So a few months ago, I saw a baby blanket that was a herringbone pattern and fell in love. I saw it on my friend Erika’s blog and I knew that I wanted it for my master bed, and was determined to teach myself how to make it. You ready to learn along with me?

I started with 3 yards of Etching Slate fabric and 3 yards of Porcelain fabric. I then cute each into long 7 inch strips. From there, I cut it into 7 inch squares.

Once my squares were all cut, I then cut them again at a diagonal right down the center.

Then it was time to piece them all together. I got my hubby in on the action to help with this part. Taking one white, and one grey piece, I sewed with a 1/4” seam down the diagonal of the triangle using a straight stitch, and back stitching at the beginning and end of each triangle. Now, if you are making this with a patterned material, or one that has a “right side” and a “wrong side” you will want to put all right sides together before sewing. That way the seam is on the inside of the project.

Once ALL the triangles are pieced together, you will end up with a grey on one side, and a white on the other.

Open the triangle up and with the right side down, iron flat the seam.

Now you get to make your pattern. I did 13 squares per row for a queen size cover. You will lay out all of your squares to make your pattern as shown above. Make sure that every other row you rotate from an inclining pattern to a declining pattern.

Once you have it all laid out, you will sew it together one square at a time. leaving the two ends that touch together, place right sides together and sew with a 1/4 inch seam and straight stitch (make sure to back stitch at the beginning and ending of each square).

Continue this step until ALL your squares have been put into rows. Laying each row out on the floor to make sure you are continuing your pattern.
When you are done, you should have a pattern that looks like above.

You will then use the same technique as above, to piece together each row. Lay two continuous rows on top of one another, with right sides touching and sew the side that was touching when laid out. DO NOT SEW THE WRONG SIDES TOGETHER. This will mess up your pattern (speaking from experience!) I found the best way to do this was 2 single rows, then the next 2 single rows, then sew those two together. and so on. It was easier than 5,7,9 etc. rows at a time at the sewing machine!
Once you have ALL your row together (mine was 13 squares by 13 squares when I was done) iron all of your seams flat. This will help it to lay flat on your bed.

Now its time to put the back of the cover on. I purchased a queen size sheet for my backing. You can get them fairly inexpensive, but if you’d like you can also just use fabric pieced together to be big enough. You’ll need about 90×100 for this.

(excuse the baby feet in the picture, she wouldn’t move!)
With the right side of the herringbone blanket facing UP, lay the sheet on top of it with the right side facing down. Then pin each side together with a 9 inch overhang at the bottom. Now, the sheet is wider than the herringbone pattern so you are going to have a a bunch of excess in the middle you want this!
Then sew up the sides with 1/4 seam.

Once sewn, you will flip the whole thing right side out and lay the whole thing out again pulling the sides out as far as they can go. This should give you about a 4 inch border on the outside of your herringbone pattern. Iron flat

Then fold up the bottom to cover about 1/4 inch of the herringbone pattern. You will be sewing on top of the fabric since the sheet is already finished at the bottom and will leave a clean edge. (ignore that I took the above picture before flipping it right side out. Oops!) Then sew the bottom up with about a 1/8 inch seam from the finished edge of the sheet. So not the bottom, but about 1/8 in from the pattern.
You will also do a wrapping paper fold on the top and fold it to overlay the top of the herringbone pattern about 1 inch. Then sew around both side with a 1/8 inch seam to keep the crisp fold on your border and to hold down your top fold.
You are now just about done. All you need to do is attach either some snaps or Velcro to keep the top fold in place. I used some sew on Velcro that I had on hand.

Once that is done, touch up your loose threads (I mean cut them off!) and stuff it with your duvet. You are good to go for a beautiful new bedspread that you made all yourself

Now not only do you have a cute cover, but it looks like your bed is neatly made when you put it on because your sheet is folded all pretty over the top!

The post {Sewing Tutorial} Herringbone Duvet Cover appeared first on Our Thrifty Ideas.

I am so excited to share with you today that I am teaming up with a bunch of bloggers each month to share a fun tutorial, based on a specific theme each month. We are given our theme, and then do whatever with it. It’s going to be so fun to see what each of our creative minds comes up with. You will see the Crafting Challenge posts each 3rd Wednesday of the Month.

We have a sliding glass door on the back of our duplex, and although it ins’t very pretty, it’s the door that we use the most. So I have finally decided to dress it up, at least a little bit. To make it more appealing for us as well as those who come to visit and know us well enough to just go to the back door. So I made this quick, easy, and cute Flower Banner to go on the door.

I cut out a whole bunch of flowers using my cricut mini. The paper I used wasn’t double sided, so I needed double the amount of flowers that was needed for the banner. 

Once they were all cut out, I glued the very top of one to the ribbon using hot glue. Then put a small line down the back center of the flower, and attached another one on the back. 

This not only made the banner double sided, for my sliding glass door, but also gave the flowers some dimension.

I love how it turned out, and it’s just the little something we needed for our sliding door.

Next time maybe a “Welcome to our Back Door” sign?!

Make sure to check out the other blogger’s flower inspired tutorials this month too!!

Girl Loves Glam – Faux Pressed Flower Petal Art

The Happy Scraps – Dahlia Flower Decor

   
 

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I’ve mentioned in the past that getting my Littles to eat a meal can be worse than putting them to bed. Seriously, you’d think I had told them they were going to get teeth pulled when I say “time to climb up to the table for lunch”. They are so busy, that there’s no way they want to sit down for 10 minutes and put food in their mouth. Although grabbing a chicken nugget and running through sprinklers at the same time is their idea of a great meal or snack, I tend to disagree. I think that they need to settle down for a few minutes, actually chew their food, and eat their food before going back to play.

 I know, I’m a HORRIBLE Mom (in the mind of a 3 year old)

So yet again, this Mom has set out to find other ways to make eating more fun and enjoyable to a 22 month and 3 1/2 year old. 

The other day we headed to our favorite store (what, you aren’t here every other day?!) and got a new plate to make eating more fun for The Little Man. 

We found this awesome product that lets you draw your own design, and within 1 minute the image is dry and permanent on the plate. So of course, this kid wanted to draw a monster face that he can then recreate with his food. 

Sounds good to me!

How cute is that Monster with his massive eyes, squiggly arms and lets, and of course that crazy mouth!!

Well, the kids picked our newest chicken nugget purchase (see our fun pictures about buying them here) for lunch. And even this mama loves theTyson Chicken nuggets, so I couldn’t resist dressing up a couple plates with them.

Baby Girl Barker LOOOOOVED her butterfly, and even that might be an understatement! She thinks ketchup is it’s own food group, so to have it outlining the chicken nugget wings was like heaven for her! And The Little Man doesn’t like string cheese like Baby Girl Barker, so he got some broccoli hair for his crazy limb monster who’s eyes are as big as his head!!

I let them eat their lunch as a picnic before playing in the sprinklers, and they were so excited to soak up the heat while playing with their fun meals. Seriously, they sat and ate EVERYTHING the whole time…even with all the outside distractions around them.

Not only did we get to play with our food for lunch, but I let the kids play with Tyson’s nuggets app on their facebook page. You can virtually decorate your plate on the site. They loved it!

I’ve shared a few other fun meal ideas to get my kids to eat, and eat more healthy foods too. 

5 tips to getting your toddler to eat healthy

Heart Shaped pancakes

Salad In A Jar

   
 

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Ok, you guys. I am overly excited to announce to you that I am going to be at Breathing Space 2013!! I attended last year, and it was so much fun to have a night away with my girlfriends, eat lots of food, and even get a little pampering. 

This year Breathing Space is going to be so much bigger, and I’m sure will be just as much, if not more, fun and exciting. With everything from blogging tips, tricks and of course a little pampering and partying mixed in as well. 

The Conference will be held at Solitude Mountain Resort on September 26-28. Solitude is such an amazing resort, which will take the conference above and beyond!

• Full three-day blogger conference
  • Classes will be offered more than once so you don’t have to miss out on the class you really wanted or have to pick between two great classes.
  • All classes will be in walking distance of the hotels.
  • This year we will mix business with pleasure… fun classes like hair and makeup tips as well as business classes, like social media, copyright law, accounting, etc.
  • Hands on classes and workshops
  • Amazing teachers and speakers
• Accommodations/Venue
  • Solitude Mountain Resort
    • Beautiful time of year
    • Great deal on lodging, $100 per room per night + sharing with 3 friends = only $25 per night
    • Great rooms and meeting spaces
• Parties!
  • Breathing Space is famous for it’s fabulous parties and this year will be no different!  Be prepared for fun themed parties and yummy food.
• Registration
  • Opens June 1, 2013
  • Early registration before July 1 is $199
  • Cost after July 1 is $249

Make sure to follow Breathing Space on Facebook to stay up to date on the details and newest perks of the conference. Also, IKEA is going to be one of the fabulous sponsors at the conference. I can’t wait to hear who else will be sponsoring and joining in the fun!

 
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Sometimes a Mom can get lost in the “need to’s” and “have to’s”. There’s so many times that I will be at my computer and tell the kids “hold on, I need to get this done first”.

Tonight while doing dishes The Little Man was sitting in the living room and yelled in “Mom, is it snuggle time yet, PLEASE?”. To which I replied, “Not yet, I have to do the dishes”. The truth is, I don’t HAVE TO do the dishes. Is it really important to get it done right then instead of spending time snuggling with my kids? I am already lucky enough to have a 3 1/2 year old who still wants to be snuggling with me daily, and although I want it to, I’m sure it’s not going to last forever. So why not enjoy it now?

Yesterday was One Of Those Days. I could have locked the kids in one room, and me in another and called it a night (at 10:00 am). I really actually did lock myself in the bathroom for a minute and let out a good cry.

• An I have gotten no sleep this week cry
• An I miss my hubby cry
• A cry of self destruct
• A cry for peace
• and a cry of desperation

After getting out the great cry, I decided that I was going to listen to my kids. When they said they wanted me to chase them, i was going to do it. When they wanted to snuggle of course I was going to. And when they begged for 5 more minutes of reading a book before bed, I would give in. Because they are only little once, they are my amazing kids, and I have made the decision to be home with them 24/7.

So yesterday I let the kids doggy pile on top of me. I let them yell, jump and play to their hearts content, and when they were all done, I chased them until they fell and laughed while I tickled them. It was one of those moments that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. One of those moments that changed both my attitude about life as well as my outlook on being a Mom. 

It may have taken me 3 1/2 years, and 2 kids to really realize what the meaning of “Mom” is, but it couldn’t have come at a better time than just before Mother’s Day. Seriously, I will look at my kids differently each day, and hug them with a pure love and understanding of their needs and wants.

I hope that everyone has a Happy Mother’s Day this weekend and gets to snuggle both their Mom and their kiddos tight this weekend. I know I will be!

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