Make your own door hanger

So, I couldn't find my wreath/door hanger and decided to construct one myself.

A roof shingle is a workable metal material for crafting =) I drew out a 1 1/4'' x 12 piece and cut it with my tin snips (which I got in my stocking last year - my very own pair - must have been because my husband had to go searching for his tin snips too often? hehe I love them!) Then I bent it over my front door with about 3 inches on the back side and again at the other end the opposite direction just about an inch.

I cut 2 pieces of paper about 1 1/2'' longer than my hanger, one piece went directly into the smaller bend and one piece was for the smaller bend. I used mod podge to adhere it and for the finish coat. I cut in the corners of the paper so I could fold it over neatly.
If I make another one, I would do the smaller section FIRST.

And I didn't want a wreath for my door, I wanted something a little different. So I made a 8x8 picture of a lot of sayings that I love - perhaps the ones people use on their walls as vinyl wording ;) I saved the image link as a PNG so you can work with it and any digital scrapbook paper. The white lettering does show up better once you have a color under it.

Link for sayings here.

And on my front door - the completed projects:

Easter Eggs dyed raw

Oh yes, you can dye all your eggs without hard boiling them first:

I've been dying raw Easter Eggs for 10+ years and it really just makes more sense to me - I mean how many hard boiled eggs can you eat in 2 days before they start tasting funny? I remember only getting like 4 eggs to dye because there were 5 kids. If you dye them raw you can dye all the ones you usually buy at a time. No, I've never hidden these eggs - that's what plastic eggs are for =) And the best part is opening your fridge and seeing all the happy colors for weeks because they just keep longer than the hard boiled ones ;) I've used vinegar coloring tablets and they don't make the eggs taste funny nor do they ever get colored on the insides.

Yup, sometimes you lose one or two because you drop them and they crack, but lower the eggs with a spoon and it should work beautifully for little helpers.

General Conference afternoon session on Saturday:
Better to do it at home than at the church building for Priesthood session I suppose ;)

Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Crust:

1 box cake mix (white or yellow)

1 cube butter, melted

1 egg

Mix and press into bottom of lightly greased 9x13 pan on bottom and sides

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cube butter, melted

2 cups powdered sugar

Mix cream cheese until fluffy, add eggs and vanilla, then butter and last powdered sugar - beat until smooth. Pour into crust.

Bake 45-50 minutes

Add Sliced Strawberries:

Whip Cream:

Add some fat free half & half and devour ;)

Ummmm, yummy!

VT Message April 2010

I made a key chain (surprise, surprise {wink}) using scrabble tiles instructions here of this quote:

Lock & Key digital graphic. Tile graphic in green, pink, blue and purple.

Visiting Teaching message for April 2010 is Seeking & Receiving Personal Revelation.

One message is on one side of the scrabble tile and the other message is on the other:

Or a handout:

Brady's Tolo

I get a phone call 'Hi Brady's mom, what is Brady's favorite kind of cake'. She wouldn't tell me who she was, but this was dropped off at our door later that evening:

Brady just lifted up the cake and saw a picture of Emma:

And Brady made a little scavenger hunt for Emma to do on Sunday for his reply:

The first clue was on the YW bulletin board - Acts 5:15 which told her to look by the couch

The clue under the couch was Genesis 16:7 which told her to go to the drinking fountain

The clue by the fountain told her to look up D&C 121:40 which said to look by the phone

The clue by the phone was Malachi 4:1 which told her to go to the kitchen (oven)

The clue we put in the oven said Alma 46:12 which told her to go to the flag pole

And that said to look up the first 8 words of Ezekiel 20:41

They met up at 1 house as one big group:

And went to the mall to do a photo scavenger hunt:
They ate at Red Robin and then went to the dance, but mostly just for photos because the kids all dance inappropriately at the High School and these kids didn't care to be surrounded by that! Awwww =) The theme was neon-glo:They played games and watched a movie and got home around 2 am.

Smartie Pants

I saw this idea in the Family Fun magazine while I was waiting for Brady at his doctor appt. I gave these out for our get-to-know you activity with the Bishopric. They are 'Smartie Pants' for our game competition:

I printed out 4 pants to a sheet and then took a blank sheet and cut them out, stapled the 2 together, added glitter around the belt and bottoms of the pants:

Then added flowers:

And 2 big rolls of Smarties:

The Bishopric ones are just plain, no glitter or flowers ;)

We asked the Bishopric members and the girls these questions:

- What famous person do people tell you that you remind them of?

- Tell us 2 truths and 1 lie.

- What are 2 things you were not good at when you were a missionary?

- If you could have a room full of anything, what would it be?

- If you could only see black and white plus one other color, what color would you choose?

- What one personality trait do you hope to pass on to your children?

- What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?

- If you offered the world 1 piece of advice, what would it be?

- Tell us an embarrassing moment.

- What is a favorite birthday memory?

- What age would you like to be and why?

- Which bad habit drives you crazy?

- If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

And then a few random ones they didn't know about:

Make your funniest face ever!

What is your favorite song? Now sing it =)

Tell a joke.

What are the names of the 7 dwarfs?

What is something you like about your mom?

What is your favorite scripture story? Now tell it =)

What is your favorite meal? When was the last time you made it for your family?

If it was legal, what animal would you own and keep as a pet?

Then at the end I wheeled out small paper plates filled with whipped cream for the Bishopric members to throw at the girls, one plate for every point they earned. The girls loved it - it was so funny! Then I wheeled out big paper plates with whipped cream on them to throw at the Bishopric. In the midst of all the excitement, no one even noticed that the plates of whipped cream were on bigger plates for the girls to throw - LoL

Here's a photo from a cell phone, so the clarity is not that great - I forgot my camera at home =(

Happy 16th Birthday Keaton

Both Brady & Keaton are 16 until Brady's birthday April 19!

Keaton doesn't want to go to golf today since it's his birthday. And for YM tonight, they were going to do a service project and it got postponed, so they are meeting at the church to play games, but Keaton didn't want to go to YM's at the church. But if they would have done the service project tonight he would have gone! What a great kid =) But I made a huge oreo ice cream cake for the YM, so I asked him if he'd go so as to not waste it! So he agreed, although he did say he would eat a slice a day and assured me it would not get freezer burn - yeah right, I made this cake in a jelly roll pan and it's huge!

Unwrap 22 ice cream sandwiches and place in pan lined with aluminum foil:

Spoon out 1.5 quarts of oreo ice cream softened over tops of ice cream sandwiches:

Spread it around evenly & put in freezer:

Make Ganache - 1 cup heavy cream, 2 cups chocolate chips and 4 tbsp butter - melt, whip and cool:

Then spread ganache over ice cream layer:
Make whipping cream (or buy some): 2 cups heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla & 1/2 cup powdered sugar:

Whip together until fluffy:

Spread evenly over ganache:

Take 20 oreos and put them in a zip lock bag:

Crush by rolling a glass over the top (uhhh, yeah a rolling pin would be great!):

Sprinkle the oreos over the top of the whipped cream and place in freezer for 4 hours or more:

8 Doves

I thought Doves stayed mostly in twos, although I've seen 4 at a time visiting our feeders. Today, there were 8 doves eating from our feeder - okay, so only 3 could fit (which is amazing because this feeder is designed for SMALL birds!) and they were flicking the seeds all over the deck and providing a great meal for the rest of them. When I grabbed my camera one dove was already in the trees and another dove was on the railing - so this is a photo of only 7 doves:

I took this picture through the window and sure enough when I opened the sliding glass door they got spooked and all flew away =( Between the woodpeckers and the doves, I have to fill up 3 feeders every 4-5 days!

And this guy let me walk right up to it. I'm thinking someone has a little nest in my tree ;) It's in the tree every time I look out the window.

And just bloggin the old plastic bag fetish the cats have:

An hour later:

And Cannella sleeping - ahhhh, pets are just like children, so precious and irresistible when they're sleeping ;)And what are these insects? I went out back and they were flying everywhere - maybe they just hatched? And will all fly away out of my yard? ;)So yeah, a lot of randomness in this post =)

Topiary

I wanted to make a topiary, this is just a practice set since I had these buckets and haven't used them and had these decorative balls that weren't being used either:

They look kind of lame - LoL But they look cuter where I placed them on my bookshelf ;)

But I want to make a different style - I like the look of topiaries and the options are numerous!

Dangling Charms, camp craft

Maybe I will let the 1st-3rd years make charms for their purses/scripture bags/backpacks and the YCL's can make key chains since they're driving (or soon). The 4th years typically don't make crafts because of their big hike requirement.

I scanned my new purse so I could get the color match for my tile pendant on the computer. I put the image on both sides so when it's flipped over, you can still see the cuteness. I covered the sides of the tile with ribbon & I used a bead as a bail and then an eye pin through it.

What are a few good sayings I could use on the tiles - like 1-4 words? And don't say 'Team Jacob' - LoL I'm thinking of having images or sayings for the girls to pick from once at camp.