An Adorable Doily Shirt

Sometimes I surprise myself and actually follow through on a craft idea I find. This month, I took my lead from Disney's Family Fun magazine (February 2012) and made some adorable doily shirts for some cute girls in my life.

Generally speaking, I followed the instructions they shared in the magazine and online, but I didn't need to use nearly as much glue as they suggested. For me, a few well placed dabs was plenty so long as I was careful about dabbing the fabric paint on the shirt.

The great thing about this craft is that it was very inexpensive. I used t-shirts and doilies I found at the local Dollar Tree. I did buy the paint and brushes from Jo-ann's. Fortunately they were on sale and I was able to use a 20% off crafting supplies coupon. That means I was able to decorate 3 shirts for less than $12 (including $5 for a 9-pack of brushes). Plus, I have enough paint and doilies to make, oh, 20 more shirts!


The pink one above is for Mary to wear with leggings and her favorite boots. When she wakes up and sees it in the morning I know she is going to like it a lot!

These next two are for Charlotte and one of her friends. They watched me paint these tonight and would have worn them to bed if I let them. But I was mean and told them they had to wait for the paint to dry.

(Those are not spots on the shirt. They were on the paper I used to protect the back of the shirt.)

Have you made any Valentine's or heart-themed crafts recently? Are you planning on making any?

Mary's Progress

Tonight, Mary uttered her first 5 word sentence - "My daddy drink my milk."

That's the kind of thing that only a parent can appreciate. This happened towards the end of dinner tonight and when her declaration was over, Bruce and I just looked wide-eyed at one another. "Five words." We both had silly grins on our face after we watched Mary pull this off.


It's possible that no one else will see how big of a deal this is, but we do. We've watched her explode in language over the last two months. There are few words that she is no longer willing to attempt. We get to have real conversations with her now. Her pronunciation often needs to be translated by me, but I don't mind. It just thrills me that she is trying to make more noise. (Well, in theory it thrills me. Not so much when we are in a confined space like our car.)


Also, Mary might be one of the funniest children around. There is not a week that goes by where someone doesn't tell me, "Mary cracks me up." Apparently, while she's hanging out in the nursery at church she is making them laugh. I'm just glad she shares her sense of humor with us at home too.

Here's an example of her humor. We have this conversation a couple of times a day:

Me: Mary, what time is it?

Mary: Ee ti (sleep time)

Me: What does that mean?

Mary: No um, No kai (no jump, no cry)

Me: What are you supposed to do?

Mary: imitates snoring sounds

My Mary is too adorable for words! She is adventurous and loves to laugh and I love spending my days with her!

5 Driving Tips You Don't Want to Follow

A while back, Esurance posted 5 "mom-inspired driving tips," and while they are good, I thought they needed a little re-touching to make them more real world. So, here are my 5 driving tips sure to  get you a ticket  cause an accident  result in injuries entertain you.

1 - Only wear your seat belt if it is comfortable and convenient for you. After all, it might choke you in a car accident. And if it doesn't, it could still leave you with a diagonal bruise across your chest. That's way better than having your head crash into the front windshield.

2 - Hurry up. Nobody likes being behind the slow poke. So, instead of responsibly driving the speed limit, hang out in the left lane and zoom past everyone. Then, no one can complain about your driving. While you are at it, add a few zigs and zags to your driving pattern. That will make sure everyone notices you as you blow past them. Maybe they'll feel bad and stop to offer you some cool water when they see you pulled over later.

3 - Ignore the weather. All those sissies driving with their blinkers on in the downpour need to mom up. Real moms can get their kids to soccer practice on time despite wet roads. And they can also make sure those fancy dance clothes don't get lost in the fog.

4 - Tailgating isn't just for football games. That's right! You can tailgate on the road too. The driver in front of you was hoping you would come a little closer so they can see that new scarf your sister gave you. Fortunately for them, you're also blaring the newest Lady Gaga cd so they can hear you as well as see you!

5 - Learn defensive driving. Using colorful language in a defensive way is an excellent way to let the other driver know you are unhappy with them. And you can defend your car's honor by suggesting drag races at the next light. Or, try some defensive hand signals. Those always work at letting other people know who's top dog on the road.

Actually, don't follow any of this advice. Really. It's bad advice. Instead, read the real 5 Mom-Inspired Driving Tips over at Esurance to make sure you are being as safe as possible, especially when you have precious cargo in the back seat!

FTC Disclosure: “I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Esurance blogging program for 8,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”

Review: "Homemade" Handwriting Worksheets

A child who is 4 years old should be learning how to write out their full name. This skill is standard kindergarten readiness and even if you plan to homeschool, as we do, your child should still work to attain this skill in a timely manner. Why? Well, in our house at least, Charlotte spends time with her peers at church and they often bring home worksheets and art projects that need her name on them.

More importantly, it imparts a great sense of pride when a child can successfully write their name on their own. With that in mind, I want to start our handwriting homeschooling instruction by teaching Charlotte how to correctly write her own name.

She is already pretty close to having it down. But, since she has 9 letters in her name, someone still has to spell it for her. And her 'e' is always backwards and upside down. To the right is a sample of her handwriting from the thank you notes we made for her Christmas gifts. I don't think it's that bad, but with practice I know it could be better.

In my search for the easiest way for her to practice writing her name, I found The Amazing - Incredible Handwriting Worksheet Maker!. It lets you create handwriting sheets based on what your child need to practice. Print style, D'Nealian, and Cursive handwriting fonts are all available.

On top of the style options, there is also a wide variety of practice sheets that can be made - name & sentence, single word, multi-word, and paragraphs. Each is easy to create and print from your own computer.

Once you choose which type of handwriting practice your child needs, there are several options for customizing it. Here's a screen shot of the sheet I created for Charlotte's handwriting practice.

My plan is to have Charlotte complete at least one of these sheets a day. Once she is accustomed to doing them and further along in her reading, I'll make sheets that match her Bible memory verses or the stories we are reading.

Let me know if you try this out as a resource and what your kiddos thought of it.

FTC Disclosure: This is a non-sponsored review. It was written without any consideration other than that of my readers who might find this useful.

Recipe: Dirty Omelets

Once a week, we eat breakfast for dinner, aka Brinner. Why? Because breakfast is the most awesome meal of the day! When else can you eat cake (i.e. pancakes) and call it a meal? No one even bats an eye if you serve panCAKES, especially when they are these awesome Pumpkin Pancakes. In fact, if you were at my house, you might even get cheered by the under 5 crowd when you announced cake for supper!

Another brinner that I love to make is affectionately known as "Dirty Omelets," so called because it, well, because it looks dirty. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)  Now, I'm sure someone out there is going to want to argue the point that, technically, this isn't an omelet. And before you go there, I'll admit, this is not, officially, an omelet. But it captures the essence of an omelet, at least in my opinion.

(Let's pretend that plate has a warm biscuit and a pretty fruit salad on it, okay?)

Everyone has their preferences for omelet fillings, but if you want to make an actual "dirty" omelet, then you must include mushrooms. This is what gives it that "dirty" appearance.

In this house, we happen to like onions. A lot. We go through a lot of onions around here. I always start my dirty omelets with a generous serving of butter in which to saute my veggies.

Then I let it all cook down until it has a lot of color. Leave enough in the pan for one or two omelets depending on how many hungry folk you'll be feeding.

And here's where we depart from typical omelet preparation. I just dump the scrambled eggs right on top of my sauteed veggies. After adding some more butter of course.

Oops you caught me... I a messy cook! But look, I have that cool salt cellar like Alton Brown!

Once that has cooked down a bit, I dump a bunch of cheese on top. I've yet to find the amount of cheese that is too much. Really, I don't think you can add too much. You could even get fancy and add different kinds of cheese. Me? I keep it simple and use sharp cheddar straight out of the bag!

And there you have it folks. This is how I make dirty omelets.

What is your favorite brinner recipe?