"Mommy and Me" Giveaway by Sugar Creations

Sugar Creations is going to give one random lucky commenter this "Mommy and Me" giveaway. A necklace set for mommy and hairclip set for the little one! Thanks Sugar Creations, this is fantastic.

How to Enter:

Mandatory Entry- Go To Sugar Creations etsy shop and comment back about another product from her store.

2. Comment here and let us know who you would give this too or if you would keep it for your self.

3. Follow this blog. And Comment Here about it.

4. Add my button to your blog. And Comment Here about it.

5. Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway. And Comment Here about it with a link.

6. Blog about this giveaway. And Comment Here about it with a link.

Giveaway Ends Febuary 28th at Midnight

Good Luck!

M.O.M - Mean Old Mom

My daughter came home from school one day, With a smirk upon her face.
She decided she was smart enough,
To put me in my place.


'Guess what I learned in Civics Two,
that's taught by Mr. Wright?
It's all about the laws today,
The 'Children's Bill of Rights.'


It says I need not clean my room,
Don't have to cut my hair
No one can tell me what to think,
Or speak, or what to wear.


I have freedom from religion,
And regardless what you say,
I don't have to bow my head,
And I sure don't have to pray.


I can wear earrings if I want,
And pierce my tongue & nose.
I can read & watch just what I like,
Get tattoos from head to toe.


And if you ever spank me,
I'll charge you with a crime.
I'll back up all my charges,
With the marks on my behind.


Don't you ever touch me,
My body's only for my use,
Not for your hugs and kisses,
that's just more child abuse.


Don't preach about your morals,
Like your Mama did to yo u.
That's nothing more than mind control,
And it's illegal too!


Mom, I have these children's rights,
So you can't influence me,
Or I'll call Children's Services Division, Better known as C.S.D.'
Mom's Reply and Thoughts

Of course my first instinct was
To toss her out the door
But the chance to teachher a lesson
Made me think a little ore.

I mulled it over carefully,
I couldn't let this go.
A smile crept upon my face,
she's messing with a pro.


Next day I took her shopping
At the local Goodwill Store.
I told her, 'Pick out all you want,
there's shirts & pants galore.


I've called and checked with C.S.D ...
Who said they didn't care
If I bought you K-Mart shoes
Instead of those Nike Airs.


I've canceled that appointment
To take your driver's test.
The C.S.D. Is unconcerned
So I'll decide what's best. '


I said 'No time to stop and eat,
Or pick up stuff to munch.
A nd tomorrow you can start to learn
To make your own sack lunch.


Just save the raging appetite,
And wait till dinner time.
We're having liver and onions,
A favorite dish of mine.'


she asked 'Can I please rent a movie,
To watch on my VCR?'
'Sorry, but I sold your TV,
For new tires on my car.




I also rented out your room,
You'll take the couch instead.
The C.S.D. Requires
Just a roof over your head.


Your clothing won't be trendy now,
I'll choose what we eat.
That allowance that you used to get,
Will buy me something neat.


I'm selling off your jet ski,
Dirt-bike & roller blades.
Check out the 'Parents Bill of Rights',
It's in effect today!


Hey hot shot, are you crying,
Why are you on your knees?
A re you asking God to help you out,
Instead of C.S.D..?

-Unknown

"The Monotony And Solitude Of A Quiet life Stimulates The Creative Mind"

"The Monotony And Solitude Of A Quiet life Stimulates The Creative Mind" -Albert Einstein

Boy is this ever so true. Snow+Cold+Small Town= Projects!

So this is what I’ve been up too the last few weeks and I finally have it finished! I paint like once a year. So here you go. My family and I went on one of our first family vacations last year to the Oregon Coast. And now we want to live there. I cant seem to say enough good things about Oregon. The best part is the absence of fighting... for a whole "NINE" days. Yes I said "Nine Days" including three days of being stuck in a van driving. Oregon people.

I painted this from 3 different photos that I took back to back and put them all together in this painting. These are my two little boys. They were 3 and 4 in this painting. They kept bugging me the whole time while I was painting this and telling me that they wanted me to paint them first. I always paint the people last. People are the hardest.

Art is a love/hate kind of thing for me. While it gives me great delight when I finish, the process is often long and painful. Im not an educated painter. I took a class in collage once and started out at an intermediate level and my instructer told me I need to move to the beginging class. Ouch! So that did not last long. Even now most of the time I dont know what Im doing. That is probably why It take me so long to get it done. But If I could give just one advice it would be this:

"Art Skills Are Learned. As with just about anything its all about practice."

No one ever started out great. Have you ever seen cave man drawings? while cool... complete rubbish.

Chandelier Pillow Cases- How To

The old brown pillows just weren’t doing it for me. So for quite some time I was trying to figure out what I could replace the old ones with... At first I wanted to do an iron on transfer or some image, but those crack over time. Than I thought about embroidery. But I lack that talent and do not posses a sewing machine that does. One thing that I can do... is paint. So why not use a dye cut template and some fabric paint... answer: no reason not to. And this is how I did it. For about a dollar and some time this is a great way to spruce up your pillow cases and your room for that matter.

Tape template down to pillow with just about any tape.

You can use a stencil brush, sponge, or even an old rag to apply the fabric paint. Your going to want to use a vertical stroke as if you were stamping the paint onto the fabric.

Once that side is dry and the paint on the template is also dry you can turn the template over and use it for the other side of the chandelier.

Be careful not to load your brush with too much paint or it will bleed and or leak under the template.

Give it about 10 minutes to completely dry. And your done.

I hope this inspires a little frugal creativity.

A Birthday, Winter Snow, And The Hot Springs!

We have a tradition in our little family that on your birthday you get to pick out what you want for breakfast... Your wish is our command. And Shantz was very adamant that we wanted a chocolate doughnut with sprinkles for his birthday breakfast. Last year he chose fruit salad. A lot can change in a year.

With their birthdays being so soon after Christmas (a with a very generous grandma) both my boys usually get a whole lot of clothes for presents. Aunt Marie gave the birthday boy this super cute chefs outfit and he runs to put it on every time he thinks mom is going to cook something. She also crocheted this beautiful scarf for him as well.

The birthday boy wanted to go to Mc Donald’s for lunch. And the manager gave him a free hat and kids ice cream cone. And boy was he protective of that paper hat... for like a week! He would wake up in the morning completely undone if he could not find the darn thing. No more paper hats from now on.

 After Lunch we were off to the focal point of the day. With snow about a foot high we took the kids "swimming outdoors"! We have this neat place here in southern Utah called the "Hot Springs" in Monroe Utah. And it has this natural spring were the water comes out piping hot from the underground. And the owner's of the land directed the water to a bunch of man made pools, tubs and water falls. Its like a whole bunch of natural hot tubs.

And here are some of our favorite pictures from the Hot Springs.

When we got home that late afternoon we washed up and had cake and ice cream with the rest of the family. And the best part for me was... The birthday boy slept in a whole 2 hours the next morning!!!

The hubby and I thought this sand castle cake was very fitting of activity we did at the Hot Springs. And made this the night before. The birthday boy was very impressed to say the least.

You can find out how to make this Sand Castle cake at http://www.familyfun.com/

FREE "La Push" Desktop Background and Special Free Offer!

Download "La Push" Desktop Background Here

So my husband has been asking me to make him a desktop background for his laptop for months now and I finally got around to it this week. I dabbled with several themes like a sports theme, and an auto theme, and finally I remembered how much he liked reading the Twilight book and especially New Moon. He is team Jacob all the way! I told you my hubby was awesome! A man who does laundry and reads twilight books with me. What more could a girl ask for? Anyways this is what I came up with for him and he absolutely loved it. The pictures I put in it were from a trip we took in 2009 when we went to the Oregon Coast on vacation with our kids.

So I thought since my hubby likes this so much I would turn it into a QP desktop backgournd and give it away on my blog. I hope you like it as much as my husband does.

Special FREE Offer:

I know that not everybody has a photo editing program so... For the month of February you can email me 2 photos that you want in this desktop background and I will put them in for you and email it back to you for FREE! Just email me the 2 photos at everydaymomideas@hotmail.com and I should get it back to you in just a few short days.

Some images used in desktop background was created by

http://honeydesignsandideas.blogspot.com/

Cute Valentine Box Monster

Just a quick post. I had to get this up before the big V-day. This is my sons first valentines party at school. His pre school class is doing a small party this Thursday. So we wanted to do something cute for him to put the Valentines in.

I got this idea from www.familyfun.com they have so many fun ideas there. If you haven’t already checked it out you should definitely stop by.

This little craft did not cost me a dime. I had all this stuff just laying around the house somewhere. Its made out of a tissue box, paper, and some pipe cleaner. And it took me less than 5 minutes to put together. 

What fun things have you come up with for Valentines?

Creamy Chicken Penne Bake- Recipe

This one is a new family favorite.

My picky 5 year old honestly asked for seconds! I know! Impossible you say. but nay... tis true!

Need:

8oz- Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1lbs-Penne Pasta Cooked

1lbs -Cubed Chicken Breast

1 jar- Spaghetti Sauce

1 jar- Alfredo Sauce

1/4 cup-Parmesan Cheese

1.brown cubed chicken in frying pan until no longer pink in the middle.

2. Mix cooked penne, chicken, alfredo sauce, spaghetti sauce, and mozzarella cheese together in a large bowl.

3. Spoon Mixture into a large baking dish.

4. Top with parmesan cheese.

5. Bake for 30 minutes on 350 F. Top of noodles should have a touch of golden brown at the top. Serve Hot and enjoy!

Valentine's Garland Tutorial

This craft took me about 10-15 minutes to do.

 Its super easy and I think it turned out cute. Here is what you need to do.

Materials:

1/4 yard of red felt

6ft of Ribbon

Fabric Paint

Hot glue gun with sticks

Scissors

1. Cut the hearts out of the red felt material.

Your going to want the hearts to be about 2 inches tall and wide.

2. When your done cutting out all the hearts that you want.

Go a head and cut out a slit on each side of the hearts.

3. When all the hearts have two slits on each side you are now ready to sting them up on the ribbon. Dont worry about having to fasten them to the ribbon the felt should stay in place.

4. And for the center heart You are going to want to cut out a heart from the felt that is about 3x the size as the other hearts. Hot glue a piece of ribbon to the back to use as a hook. And you can also glue a bow to the top of the hook to add a bit more flare.

5.You can now use the fabric paint to outline the heart and write a sweet little word in the middle. Let it dry for about 4 hours or more. And then its ready to be put up.

I just used thumb tacks to pin up the sides and the middle and then I hooked the large heart on over the middle thumb tack. And there you go!

"Creative Critter" Free Digital Scrapbooking Kit

Download Creative Critters Kit Here

Like most moms I have a lot of crafting/art pictures of my kids. And you cant find kits for arts and crafts... well not for free anyways. So I needed to make my own kit. This has fast become my favorite kid Ive made so far. I think that the noodles and the little artist were my favorite elements in this kit. And now you can download this full kit for yourself and its free. All I ask is that you leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

How To Get Started With Digital Scrapbooking

 Ive had a lot of comments from women saying they wouldl love to get started with digital scrapbooking but didnt quite know how or where to go. So I compiled this fantastic rescorese post to get anyone started. These are things I wish someone had told me before I got started so save me a lot of time and effort. So I hope this helps.


Five Top Reasons To Go Digital

• 
  
  Less Mess. No glue, scissors , or little embellishments that seem to grow two legs and hide under the most inconspicuous places in your house.
• 
  
  Cheaper. You can find software and kits for free. You can also get 12x12 print for less than $2.Plus with digital you can reuse any paper or embellishments over and over again.
• 
  
  Spell Check. I cant tell you how many times I finish a page and later I find out that half the words are spelled wrong.
• 
  
  More organized. You can put all your digital scrapbooking items in small little computer files under any category you need. Everything is easy to find.
• 
  
  Time. Digital Scrapbooking is vastly faster than traditional scrapbooking. There’s no cleanup. Your digi kits are just a click away. And you can shop for all you digi need right at home. That’s why I think digital Scrapbooking is perfect for the busy mom.

My 5 Top Tips for great digital scrapbooking

• Make sure your 12x12 digital pages are set at 3600 pixels and save as a .jpeg for quality printing.
• Add Shadows. Your pages will look flat and unrealistic if you forget to add a little shadow behind your elements and photos when you are making your pages
• Use a External hard drive. It provides a lot of extra memory for you to save your photos and scrapbooking pages too without slowing down your computer. Its portable so you can transport your project to use on different computers instead of having to save your stuff you a bunch of CD’s for transportation and saving.
• Getting inspiration for page design. I found a great way to get inspiration for page design is when you run across a digital scrapbooking page you really like save it to your computer and then pull it up next to the page your working on to help create a great page.
• When your lost for a page title or journaling idea add Quotes, Sayings, Poems, and or music lyrics.

Free Digi Scrap Software Downloads

http://www.paint.net/ Free photo editing software, that can be used for scrapbooking
http://www.scrapbookflair.com/ Beginner Level Digital Scrapbooking

Almost all digital scrapbooking programs will let you download a free trial. I recommend you downloading a couple of free trial digi scarp programs and finding the one that you enjoy using the most. Most all scrapbooking programs are compatible with your digital scrapbooking kits, papers, and embellishments downloads.



Free Digital Scrapbooking Resources (Free kits, papers, embellishments, and more)

http://www.digiscrapdepot.com/
http://www.scrapbookflair.com/
http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com/
http://digifree.blogspot.com/


Great Digi Scarp Blogs With Tons Of Freebies
http://www.shabbyprincess.com/downloads.asp
http://honeydesignsandideas.blogspot.com/
http://everydaymomideas.blogspot.com/
http://scrappity.blogspot.com/

Great Value Prints
 http://www.scrapbookflair.com/  -12x12 pages starting at $.99 cents + s&h
http://www.scrappingsimply.com/  -12x12 pages $1.99 + s&h


You can email me at everydaymomideas@hotmail.com if you have any questions. I think scrapbooking is a fantastic and valuable way to preserve your own personal and family history and I would love to help anyone in this endeavor. Happy Scrapping!

The Random winner is Sarah from  Spilled Sweet Tea! She won the hand crafted set of hair pins from Mia Beads! Mia Beads is generously letting this lucky winner pick out her own colors for this set!

You have 2 days to respond to this giveaway and email me your info.

Thanks Mia Beads!

Dont forget to stop by at the end of this month to enter in our next giveaway.