The Scrapbooking Housewife

Construction Theme 3rd Birthday Cupcakes!

2012-01-25T21:38:00.000-08:00

My boy sure knows how to party!! He celebrated his birthday not once, but twice! Lucky guy! I posted yesterday about his Construction Themed 3rd Birthday Party; that was his family party which was held on his actual birthday.

The weekend before, he had a special party with a few of his little friends at a local place with a great indoor playing structure. However, not 15 minutes into the party the electricity cuts out due to the storm we were having at the time. This was a huge disappointment, but one of the Mum's suggested trying McDonald's as they have a small playing structure inside. So we packed everything up and headed on over in the wind and pouring rain! We made the best of it and the kids had fun!

Instead of making a cake for both parties, I decided to make Construction Themed Birthday Cupcakes using miniature versions of the big cake I had in mind for his family party.

The cupcakes were topped with a chocolate icing "dirt pile" on one side and grass on the other then I sprinkled "dirt" cookie crumbs over the top and added chocolate rock candies! YUM!

The three tiered tray was fitted with handcut yellow cardstock with black stripes, and a sign made with my Silhouette machine reading DANGER! LEE TURNING THREE! And was topped with a personalized road sign with the number 3. I also printed off lots of little road signs to decorate throughout the tiers.

Sometimes having to make two cakes for two parties is a bit much; but I do enjoy it! Am I the only one that has two separate birthday parties for my kids, one family and one friends? What do you do?

Construction Theme 3rd Birthday Party!

2012-01-24T23:01:00.000-08:00

My "little baby" turned three today!! So bittersweet for me. Since he is in love with large machinery, I decided that this year we would have a construction birthday party theme for him!

I scoured the internet for days ~~weeks~~ trying to find some great cake ideas. I started this Pinterest board for that purpose; and boy were there ever tons of ideas out there!

Here is the cake and the Birthday Boy in all his glory!

As for the construction birthday decorations, I could have easily went crazy with beautiful printables from etsy or making my own banner, etc. But with my husband away the week leading up to the party and my daughter ill, I figured I'd just go with a basic birthday banner, balloons, black/yellow streamers, some stray traffic cones and construction decoration pieces from the local party supply store.

And what was most important was that my son loved it, he didn't care if Mummy made it or not!
Sorry I couldn't share more photos! I was much too busy to take many photos, and the ones my husband snapped with our simple point-and-shoot turned out very poorly.

Check out the Thomas the Tank Engine birthday party theme I did for his 2nd Birthday last year!

What themes have you done for your children? Which were their favorites?

Things to Do With a Toddler - Water Table!

2012-01-10T16:21:00.000-08:00

Most days ~~Everyday~~ I have a hard time trying to keep my almost three year old busy! He has always been super active, so I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with him! I have been doing a lot of searching on the internet for ideas (see my Pinterest Boards here) and have finally decided that this is the year I will implement more fun, more education & more meaningful play. Since his birthday is in January, he won't be starting kindergarten for another 2 1/2 years; so I must find ways to help keep our days busy!

Today Lee is having a blast with the water table I set up for him. I really didn't have much to put in as it was just a spir-of-the-moment idea, but he is having so much fun with it and I love watching him use his imagination. I do have an outside water table for the kids, but it's just too cold to play with it outside this time of year! Brrrr!

I started off with our sensory bin and added warm water with some soap bubbles; the bubbles don't last too long, but it's always fun to start off with a bunch of bubbles!! I cleaned off the water wheel from the outside water table, and added some measuring cups, a pitcher & a cup from their play kitchen, a mini ladle and a few other items to make it a bit more interesting including some decorative rock I've had sitting around for years!

After that it was tool time, then we had to grab a healthy snack, then back at playing with building blocks this time!

I hope you are having a wonderful day! If you have children, what activities do you like to do with them?

School Lunch Ideas for Kids - Free Printables

2012-01-05T18:48:00.000-08:00

School Lunch Ideas for Kids - Free Printables

So the kids have been back in school for all of three days here (after a wonderful Christmas break!) and I have already noticed my daughter is bringing home half-eaten lunches if not more! She has been eating (and loving) her cheese sandwiches for as long as I can remember, but lately she hasn't touched anything else in her lunch kit.

It seems as though her tastes are changing, so I decided to sit down with her to go over some school lunch ideas. I'm so glad I did!! It's nice to know that I will be sending her off with school lunches she will love!

I came up with so many other options that were turned down by my daughter, so I thought I would share some of my ideas in hopes you can use them for your kids (see below)! I have created a PDF version you can download here. As well as a blank School Lunch Ideas for Kids PDF for you to download here; just list your own favorite lunch ideas! Have fun!

School Lunch Ideas for Kids - Free PDF (click image to download)

School Lunch Ideas for Kids - Free Blank PDF (click image to download)

I love my lists and this will make a perfect reference to keep on the fridge or in my Household Family Binder when I make her school lunches!

What are some of your kids' favorite school lunches? I'd love it if you shared some of your ideas as well!

Check out a list of other Free Printables available!

FREE New Year Resolution Printables!

2012-01-02T08:56:00.000-08:00

Credit

I came across these awesome free New Year Resolution Printables that I just had to share with you!! (Though I did share these on my Pinterest board, are you pinning yet? Check out my Pinterest tutorial post here then follow me!)

Mique, from 30 Handmade Days, created one for children and one for adults, so cool! Check out her post with "instructions" for the adult printable.

We currently don't have our printer hooked up from moving things around in our house (finally!); but I plan on printing these lovely printables and framing mine to remind me daily what my goals are for this year. I can't wait to get started!

Go here to download the adult version, and here to download the child version. Have fun!

Do you have any New Year Resolutions this year? Check out a list of other Free Printables available!

Top 10 Christmas Scrapbooking & Altered Projects

2011-12-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

Our booth at Kris Kringle Christmas Market

It's hard to beleive that four years have gone by (2007), since myself and my friend attended our very first Christmas craft market as vendors!! We were up many late nights making pre-made scrapbook albums & altered items to sell!! And at all of our Christmas markets, these Mini Christmas Scrapbook Star Albums were the star of the show...

Mini Christmas Scrapbook Star Albums!

To give you an idea of how mini these little guys were, here they are hanging on a mini Christmas tree. Just fill with photos and it's a perfect Christmas ornament!

We attended another Kris Kringle Christmas market in 2008, with me at almost 9 months pregnant! I'm not sure how we survived! It was crazy busy preparing all of the pre-made scrapbook albums and altered items; not to mention preparing for another baby to enter our lives!

Over the years I have made literally hundreds and hundreds of scrapbooking and altered products for markets & workshops; and today I have gathered my very favorite Top 10 Christmas projects:

1. Mini Star Albums!

2.    Christmas Photo Coaster Magnets

3.    Cookie Sheet Christmas Advent Calendar (see photo below)

4.    Christmas 3-in-1 Explosion Box Scrapbook Album

5.    Christmas Ornament Voice Recorder

6.    Cluster Photo Frame Necklaces

7.    Quilted French Memory Ribbon Boards

8.    Imaginisce Polar Expressions Christmas Cards

9.    Scenic Route Christmas Cards

10.  Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses Christmas Cards

Check out more Christmas gift ideas.

How about you? Do you have favorite Christmas scrapbooking/altered projects you like to make for gifts or deecorate your home with for the Holidays?

Look for instructions for some of the above projects coming soon!!

Organize Christmas with a Christmas Planner & Free Printables!

2011-11-21T12:13:00.000-08:00

Download Christmas Planner from http://www.organizedchristmas.com/

There are only 34 more days until Christmas, can you believe it!?

I was looking to get myself a bit more organized this year and I came across the Organized Christmas website and fell in love!! They even have entire Christmas Planners available for download, three to be exact! I just printed off a few Christmas Planner Pages to put in my Household Binder.

Some of my favorites are the Master Gift List, Favorite Holiday Recipes, Recipes to Try, Gift Closet Inventory, Christmas Card List and many, many more! Perhaps next year I will look at building an entire binder just for Christmas!

Master Gift List from http://www.organizedchristmas.com/

Check out my previous posts on Christmas gift ideas!

Are you ready for Christmas? How do you organize for the holidays?

Check out my list of other Free Printables available!

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2011-11-10T22:21:00.000-08:00

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Pinterest Tutorial - Get Ready to Start Pinning!

2011-11-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard of Pinterest before, you are possibly missing out on one of the greatest internet tools out there! And it is completely addictive!! Think of it as your virtual inspirational bulletin board (instead of your binder/file/notebook/scrap pieces of paper) where you can pin pictures of inspirational projects, recipes, craft & party ideas, etc., that you find on the internet. The possibilities are endless!

And the great thing is that it links back to the original photo, so I often use Pinterest as my website bookmark. Say, for example, I found the best cupcake recipe ever - instead of bookmarking the site under my favorites (there is a high chance that it will get lost with the thousands of other websites I have bookmarked, not to mention I will forget I even bookmarked it for future reference!), I pin the photo of the cupcake and can refer to that whenever I get the desire to make the cupcakes! Easy peasy!

How Do I Sign Up? To sign up you need to have an invite from someone on Pinterest. If you are interested, please leave a comment below with your contact info, or contact me directly and I can send you the invitation.

What Categories Should I Use For My Pinboards? I like to organize my pins in categories, so I have multiple pinboards including: Home Inspiration, Crafts, Education, In the Kitchen, Kids, Organization, For the Holidays, Scrapbooking/Card Making, Teacher Gift Ideas. And I am constantly adding more. Your categories and the number of pinboards you have will vary depending on your interests and the intensions of your use of Pinterest.

How Do I Start "Pinning"? This is a crucial step. Once you get your account set up, you will want to add the "Pin It" button to your toolbar at the top of your screen. Click on the About tab at the top right of the page. Then click Help> Goodies. Follow the instructions for adding the "Pin It" button on your toolbar.

This button will let you grab an image from any website to add to your pinboards. And the source link will automatically be intact to credit the original creator.

How Do I Pin Something? When you see something you'd like to pin on a website, click your "Pin It" button on your toolbar. A new temporary screen will pop up where you can select the photo you wish to pin. A smaller pop up screen will appear asking you which board you'd like to save your pin on. Then add a description of your pin (i.e. "Must try this cupcake recipe!"). You can also re-pin something you see on another pinboard.

Before you know it you'll be finding all sorts of inspiration on the internet and pinning like crazy!

Do you Pin? Please leave a comment with your Pinterest link, I'd love to check out your pinboards!

Free Halloween Photo Card Template

2011-11-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

Halloween 2011 - Halloween Photo Card Template by Living Locurto

I hope you had a spook-tacular Halloween yesterday! The kids had a great time and brought home lots of candy! Must get it back out of the house as soon as possible!

The Halloween photo card template is free from Living Locurto!

Check out my list of other Free Printables available!

{Free Printable Halloween Lunchbox Jokes}

2011-10-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

Free Printable Halloween Lunchbox Jokes - Photo Credit http://www.allfortheboys.com/

I found these super cute free printable halloween jokes for Ella's school lunchbox over at All For The Boys! Click here to get your free halloween joke printables, too!

I have printed them off and will include some in Ella's lunch at school tomorrow, along with some "worms" for lunch. Check out the recipe from Life Made Delicious (General Mills) here.

Barbeque Worm Sandwiches - Photo Credit http://www.lifemadedelicious.ca/

Check out my list of other free printables here!

{Organizing a Homework Station for Kids}

2011-10-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

Now that my daughter is in Grade 2, she is required to do homework. So to keep things organized I have created a mini homework station for her. To start I have found an old white board I used as part of my own homework station when I went to college (the poor old board is showing its age!). I am a visual learner and I found it helped me tremendously! So I thought I would bring it back out and try it with my daughter for her school homework.

Organizing a Homework Station for Kids - White Board

She has spelling tests each week, so I use the white board to write out her spelling words. I use multiple colors of markers to break down the word, this works especially well if the word is a compound word. One of the goals is that she will visualize the board during her tests and be able to recall the spelling of the words.

This is how I help Ella practice her spelling homework using the white board:

Print out the words on the white board (use multiple colors if desired)
Ella practices writing out the words beside my printed words
Ella makes a sentence using the word (we do this for each word)
Ella underlines the word in each sentence
Optional: Create story to write on the white board using all of the words from the spelling test
Erase board and do a mock spelling test
Work on words that she needs help with (this is where I go to town using multiple color markers!)

Making up a short story is entirely optional, and we don't do it all of the time. But Ella just loves it when we make up stories for her! And I love that she illustrates the story at the bottom of the white board.

Organizing a Homework Station - Lee's Turn!

Lee had to get in on the action as well! Turns out that the white board is a fun playtime activity for both of them! They love to draw and erase; and I have used it to help with Ella's reading. She is having difficulties with reading so sometimes I will craft up a story on the white board and she will illustrate it! It's great fun!

Organizing a Homework Station for Kids - White Board Play!

The other thing I have organized for her is a designated basket filled with her library books, workbooks & flashcards, which lives in the family room. It is very important that she reads every day and to have the basket available to her at any time is really important! It also is a great place to corral all of the library books so I'm not searching the house to find a book when it's time to return them!

Organizing a Homework Station for Kids - Book Basket

I am most definitely not a trained educator in any way, shape or form; I am just sharing my tips that I have found work for us.

I would love it if you shared any tips or tricks you have with helping kids with homework! Especially reading! Does your child have a homework "station"? What have you found that works for your child?

{Happy Thanksgiving!}

2011-10-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for many things including my wonderful family, friends and you, my readers! I am also thankful for the shelter, food & safety we are blessed with daily.

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

{First Day of Grade Two!}

2011-09-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

Summer break has finally come to an end, though it seems we are just now getting the hot summer weather! I was sick for a few weeks during the summer break, but managed to catch up with all of the activities I wanted to do with the kids near the end. :) And I have so much catching up to do with you all, too!

Today was officially Ella's first day of Grade Two, even though she was only at school for an hour!! Here she is on her first day (pink & black seems to be her theme this year!):

She's looking so grown up! She's quite pleased that she's lost 7 of her teeth so far! :)

I know I'm looking forward to the routine again, but will also miss having her home. Do any of you have kids going back to school? Elementary, High School, College or University?

Creative Space - Part 4

2011-06-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

Finally, the 4th and final part of my Scrapbook Room Tour!! Many thanks for sticking with me!!

I have to say that I am as busy as ever these days with family life but I have also been dealing with health issues for quite some time now, so have just not felt up to doing much other than surviving!

However, I have been trying to get a grasp on time management skills and will hopefully be devoting some of my spare time to useful hobbies once again which I hope will bring me more fulfillment. At this point, I am getting "back to basics" with scrapbooking, which for me includes a photo album and journalling blocks. :) This way I am printing the photos and getting them in albums; the kids just love looking through the photos and they bring back so many great memories!

Without further ado, here is the 4th and final part of my Scrapbook Room Tour:

This is where it all happens, or is supposed to happen!! LOL! I have actually never created a page on this desk! I have everything set up just waiting for me to do some creating and I honestly can't wait to get back at it!

My husband made the "hutch" including a light under the shelf. It feels a little boxy for me, but it works for now. And I'm not sure I like the white board there anymore, my goal is to make a huge quilted memo ribbon board along the back.

I love my Making Memories spinner organizer as well as my "spice rack" spinner where I hold all of my bits and pieces including metal charms, brads, etc!

The basket on the top shelf holds some of my many mini albums, and on the other end I have a magazine stand which holds my most recent scrapbook pages.

And I just love the spinner (in the corner to the right)! This is another display I decided to keep from the business and it houses my alpha stickers, flowers, rub-ons, chipboard & other packaged embellishments. LOVE IT! :)

I realy hope you have enjoyed taking a peek into my Scrapbook Room and hope you gleam some inspiration! I would love it if you commented below, or even share your Scrapbook Room with me!!

{Scrapbook Room Tour Part 3}

2011-02-16T20:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Part 3 of my Scrapbook Room Tour! Click here to see the full reveal as well as Part 1 & 2.

This is the feature wall where I have the majority of my scrapbooking supplies stored in the Expedit Unit from Ikea. (Click here to see the post detailing how I organized my Expedit Unit.) I just love the Eiffel Tower metal art piece I purchased at Winners...love that store!!

The top of the unit houses photo boxes full of photos, negatives and collections from various vacations. The large basket (Michael's) is my secret basket which houses gift items that need to stay hidden away! I also have some decorative pieces up there such as a small bird cage, potted silk gerberas and a large letter A monogram.

The Making Memories Wall Unit is perfect to store various small and frequently used items.

First row: The contents of the glass jars (love these!) on the top row include metal bits and pieces (binder clips, bottle caps, hinges, etc.); small opened packages of bling & pearls; mini ribbon spools; mini brads (each color is stored in a mini zip bag).

Second row: Mini glass jars full of buttons orgainzed by color; as well as shot glasses storing decor pins.

Third row: My most used rubber stamps & favorite paint colors.

Fourth row: The plastic container holds a set of foam stamps; Glimmer Mist; Stickles & the other plastic container holds various colors and sizes of flowers that I never got around to putting away! But it looks pretty and colorful! :-)

Then I have my most favorite ribbons which are on a spool organized by color.

Directly under the unit is my plastic drawers & containers. The first three containers are my patterned paper scraps, which I mostly organize by manufacturer or theme as well as any co-ordinating sticker sheet scraps, which are then stored in XL zip bags. Christmas gets its own bin, as I have a lot of Christmas themed products and like to keep it all in one place.

The first six drawers are dedicated for cardstock scraps, which I have most of them packed full! (Though I am getting good about not keeping the tiny bits anymore!) They are organized by color red, orange/yellow, green, blue, purple/pink & black/white (which includes browns and creams, too).

The last three drawers are where I keep some of my alphas; journalling cards & tags; and specialty paper such as mulberry paper & vellum.

Hope you have enjoyed Part 3 of my Scrapbook Room Tour! Check back for Part 4, coming soon!

{Happy Valentine's Day!}

2011-02-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

My husband and I celebrated Valentine's Day early and headed out of town for a night away on Friday night! We had such a great time! :-) We are so lucky to have had the Grandparents stay overnight with the kids!!

And yesterday, my daughter had a small Valentine Party where she wanted to do a treasure hunt and decorate cupcakes with some of her friends. She had a vision of what she wanted the invitations & decorations to look like, so I helped her out and am quite pleased with how it all came together!!

We made a heart banner with sparkly foam hearts (from a Valentine wreath kit at Michael's), punched out holes and strung them through some thin red ribbon. I then had an idea to knot various types of ribbon between the hearts, then Ella added some digital printables (free download from Living Locurto) & small foam hearts, also from the wreath kit. I just love the way it turned out!! A cute Valentine's Day banner that can be used year after year! :-)

Ella also decided she wanted the girls to decorate their own cupcakes, so I had it all set up and ready for them with lots of icing colors and tips to choose from, as well as cupcake toppings! I used the digital printables for cupcake toppers as well.

There were some great creations, and most looked like the leaning tower of Pisa with the amount of icing they piled on! lol! It was so fun to see the girls having so much fun decorating their own cupcake!

All ready for the chaos to ensue!

Lee getting in on the cupcake action, too!! He ate my "demo" cupcake! :-)

Lots of concentration going on during the decorating process!

The final result! Ella's cupcake! Yummy!

More yummy goodness!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

{Scrapbook Room Tour Part 2}

2011-02-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is the hub of the operations! Ideally the printer would be somewhere other than on top of the desk, as it does get a bit crowded, but I need to work with what I have! :-)

I have boxes from Ikea on top of the desk storing things like photos, negatives, computer CD's & pre-made gifts. I also have a basket displaying some of my mini scrapbook albums! There is also a little stereo/CD player up there, but it doesn't work too well and the sound quality is poor so I'd like to replace that eventually.

This desk is also where I store my address and post supplies, computer paper and financial info such as banking records, cheque books, etc. The bills and mail are all kept in magazine holders (again from Ikea) to the right of my desk on top of the kids' toy unit. I have to say that for a very long time, when I had the business, the mail was just piled up unopened in almost every room! It was a disaster! So I finally made up a mail centre, which does it's job for now!

I also have a basket on my desk which holds papers to be filed, I'm way behind on that!! Eekk!

To the left of my desk is where I keep my cardstock and patterned papers. I love these wire racks, so easy to get to my papers and see what color cardstock I am getting low on. I find I need to keep my supplies out in the open otherwise I will forget I have them! lol!

Some of the patterned papers are sorted by manufacturer and some are sorted in themes such as school, summer, girly, boy, baby, Halloween, Christmas, etc. I have a completely empty paper rack beside these two, however, I make up for it with my kit stash (more on that soon!)!! lol! They were perfect when I had the business, but I'm trying to use my stash not collect stash!!

Well, there you have it! Thanks for reading! Look for Part 3 of the Scrapbook Room Tour coming soon!

{A New Look for The Scrapbooking Housewife Blog!}

2011-02-10T06:00:00.001-08:00

I am very excited to show off the new look for The Scrapbooking Housewife blog!! Being a brand new year, I wanted a brand new look for the site and I found it at Shabby Blogs!

A huge thank you to Shabby Blogs for the fantastic blog background and beautiful blog header!! They have an amazing selection of new FREE blog backgrounds, headers and all sorts of other free goodies!! Click here to view their website!

Grab my blog button below for your website or blog! Just copy and paste the link. I have two sizes, small (200px) and large (300px). If you would like more sizes, please contact me! Thanks!

I hope you enjoy the new look!

Small (200px) blog button:

{Free Printable Valentine's Day Downloads!}

2011-02-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this blog post by Amy at Living Locurto! She has listed over 40 free printables from various sources for Valentine's Day!

Amy also has an awesome free download for a limited time available exclusively when you "Like" her page on Facebook. Isn't it just beautiful? (picture shown below) We plan on using these for Ella's Valentine Party this weekend!

Photo Credit: Amy Living Locurto

Check out my list of other free printables here!!

{Valentine Love Mini Album in a Box}

2011-02-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

I made this album a few years ago and just love it!! It makes a beautiful display as well! I thought since we are getting close to Valentine's Day I would share this in hopes that it may inspire you to create your own version of this neat album!!

The first thing that inspired me to do something like this was a little box I found at the dollar store! I immediately thought of a love theme album for my husband and I knew I already had the perfect papers to coordinate! There was no special occasion for the album, other than my husband and myself having a great talk that weekend and it sparked the creative drive to do the album.

From there I laid out all of my paper and embellishments that went with my theme & color. I actually made the album first, then went and searched through my photos to see what I had. I ended up pulling out a few of our wedding pictures from 8 years ago as I thought they went well with the theme (and I found we don't actually have a lot of pictures of the two of us together!). I then re-sized and printed off other photos to put into the album. I then decided to embellish a bit more with rub-ons.

I absolutely loved making this album and love to flip through it often! My husband was very touched at receiving this album!

Click here for a free download of the instructions and products used to create this album!

For more free downloads, click here!!

{Kids Chore Chart}

2011-01-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

We were trying to figure out a fun way to get Ella doing more chores around the house, so what better way to get her more excited about her chores than a fun chore chart! Let me first just say that she loves to help with the chores, especially cleaning the windows and the bathrooms...hello, why don't I take advantage of that more?? lol! Even our 2 year old son likes to get in on the window cleaning action and they both just love to vacuum!! But I will hold off on his chore chart for a while! He's more likely to get a potty chart! lol!

I made a chart in MS Excel and kept the chore boxes empty so I can easily change chore lists if need be (I had the chart laminated). I also printed clip art crowns, which I had laminated as well. The idea is that once she completes a chore, she can attach the crown to the square. I will likely hang up this chore chart in the kitchen underneath our family calendar.

We also have a new reward system for Ella which implements stickers (and seems to work somewhat!), so I am thinking that if she has all of her crowns up for each day, she will receive a sticker on her calendar. Once she hits 10 stickers, she will be allowed a "reward." This is all still very new for us, and still figuring out what works and what doesn't. We are still trying to figure out the rewards as well. I will eventually make up "coupons" or "tickets" and have her choose her reward that way. We're not sure if we'll make each reward "worth" 10 stickers or have some that are worth more and that way she can save up her stickers for certain rewards.

I have thought about all of the things she loves to do and here are some reward options I have come up with. I understand that the reward system doesn't work for everyone, but again, it's what works for US that matters and she finds it so much fun to do! And I'm all about having fun!! :-)

* Crafting with Mummy (one of her very favorite things to do!)
* Swimming
* New (inexpensive) Toy [I may have some on hand like I do with the birthday gifts]
* Rent Movie
* Go see a movie at the theatre
* Bowling
* Cyber City
* Treat
* 15 minute delay of bedtime
* Game Time
* Skip one chore
* Shopping at Claire's
* Out for a treat
* Baking with Mummy
* Arcade Game Fun
* Playdate party!
* Girl's Day
* Tea Party

I would love to share my chore chart with you! Click here to download a free blank chart I created just for you!

Check out my list of other free printables available here!!

{Scrapbook Room Tour Part 1}

2011-01-29T09:30:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my Scrapbook Space! I thought you may like to have a look around and see how I organize my space! I just love the Expedit storage units by Ikea and use the large one to store most of my scrapbooking supplies. This one is in my scrapbook space, and two smaller versions hold the kid's toys which are also used to separate the playroom & my scrapbook space!

Today I'd like to show you a closer look at how I store my scrapbooking supplies in the large unit. I love the baskets and boxes that fit right into the cubby holes; we also purchased some drawer inserts. It has taken me a long time to figure out how I'd like to store my supplies, though I seem to be constantly changing and rearranging things!! So here it is as of today...

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Hopefully you are able to read what is in each cubby hole! I also store some office supplies as well as some of the kids craft supplies that I want to keep out of reach! I am starting to collect seasonal craft supplies for the kids, so I will pick some up at the out-of-season clearance bins. We have some great crafts for next Christmas already!

{Thomas the Tank Engine 2nd Birthday Party!}

2011-01-27T23:39:00.001-08:00

My son has just turned two, and we had a wonderful time celebrating with all of his little friends! The theme of the party was Thomas the Tank Engine, as he just loves trains (& pretty much anything with wheels!).

First off, the invites were made to look like tickets, so fun!! I had the invitations custom made from Fun Invites on etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/funinvites). For the price of two packs of regular invitations, I was able to get a customized invitation including Lee's photo! She rocks at customizing invitations to suit your needs! Here is Lee's invitation:

I enjoyed making Lee a Happy Birthday Lee bunting banner which we hung on the wall; and I also made a mini version on the Thomas the Tank Engine cake I made for him! The chocolate "rocks" on the cake were a huge hit and every child had to have one, too cute! Thankfully, our local party supply shop had lots of Thomas the Tank Engine party supplies!

I was able to find cute little train frames for the goody bags for the boys!! The girls received a butterfly or flower magnet frame. I think I will add a magnet on the back of the train frame, so cute! I added a few more goodies inside the bag being careful to avoid cheap toys, especially with my two year old!

And so the terrible two's begin!! lol!

{Scrapbook Space & Playroom - REVEAL!!}

2011-01-27T23:13:00.000-08:00

I thought it was about time that I let you have a peek at my "new" scrap space!!!! I say "new" even though it's been almost one year since I moved my scrapbook space into the kids' playroom! The space never did get organized like I wanted and it became a dumping ground for everything. I have managed to do the odd small craft project & I turned my space into wrapping central for the holidays, but other than that nothing else has been happening in here. The playroom has been much of the same with toys strewn about haphazardly. But, finally, I am happy to say that I finally took the bull by the horns and organized my scrapbook space as well as the kids' playroom!! Whew!

There are still quite a few things I would like to do in here, but time is so precious these days that I likely won't get it done anytime soon. So it is with that realization I decided to finally share my space with you all!! Finished or not! :-)

I have a great little craft area set up for my daughter, as she is just very artistic and I wanted to give her her own space for creating! I have given her ample amounts of craft supplies and have organized them for her, so she can create away as much as she wants! I am excited that Tuesday afternoons have been designated Mummy & Daughter Craft Day, as the little guy is in daycare for the day so it is just her and I once I pick her up from school. (I will definitely try to share those creations with you!) There is hardly enough time in a day but I am happily enjoying spending it with the kids creating memories!

Without further ado, here are the before & after pictures...enjoy! Perhaps I will go into greater detail on my organizing, but for now I will just let you have a look around!

Before & After
View 1 - looking into new scrapbook area

Before & After
View 2 - looking at the play area

Details of New Scrapbook Studio
Office Desk, Ikea Expidit Storage Unit & Scrapbook Desk

Details of New Scrapbook Studio
Wire Paper Racks for Patterned Paper & Cardstock
Turnstall for Embellishments
Embellishment Storage Unit & Mail Sorting System

Playroom Details
Play Kitchen & Play-doh Centre
Ella's Creative Centre
Ikea Expidit Units for Toys

And now for a truly before before photo as it was getting painted. You can't see the new lighting in the above after photos, but the small lighting fixture in the photo below was replaced with two natural flourescent light fixtures; so the lighting in here is super nice!