In the Mail on Monday

Mail makes me happy, like really really happy. I don't even care if its a bill (ok i try not to cry over spilled milk bills are inevitable so I enjoy the surprise of how much energy we wasted... errr ... enjoyed while leaving lights on:) ) But I looovvveee letters. There is something magical about opening a letter and not knowing what is inside. Earlier this year I was blessed... ok my kids were blessed with getting pen pals. Each of the 3 older kids has two pen pals. Some of our pen pals are amazing, they often write and send fun things, but a couple well... i think they enjoyed the novelty of it and the light has since faded. But that is neither here nor there. This post is to share the fun thing we Mailed On Monday! We mailed our favorite pen pals a snow ball fight!! Yup you read me right, we mailed them a snow ball fight.. because frankly the lack of snow this year has just been depressing. Here is our awesome snowball fight ready to make its voyage across this great country of our:

To make out snowballs we found a pom pom tutorial online and made a larger version of it. (Disclaimer...white yarn is INCREDIBLY hard to photograph so please accept these pictures..)
We used some white yarn and a foot. (laterally see the picture below)


First make sure your foot is clean, the wrap said yard around about 100 times (No feet were harmed in the making of these snow balls but please realize if you wrap the yarn tightly you may loose a toe)

Next remove yard ball from foot. (I do recommend using this opportunity to tickle them until the pee their pants.. because who just hands a mom a free foot and expecting tickling not to ensue?)

Moving on. Cut another piece of string about 6 inches long. Lay foot wrapped yard ball on top to the string.


Tie as tightly as you can creating a mushroom cap effect.

Fallowed by cutting loops around the tie.


Finish it up to trimming up the pom poms... errr.. snowballs.You will see a few pieces that are longer.. and if you are like me they will drive you mad.



Tada!! A pile of snowballs.


Now here you are thinking that was so amazing how in this world could we top that?! Well we can put it in an awesome package and mail it to our pen pals!!
For the container you will need


Pile of snowballs (yarn ones would be best as the real ones would surely melt)
2 plastic water bottles
sharp scissors
and packing tape

Cut the tops off the two water bottles.


Stuff the bottles with snowballs.


Slide the two pieces together and packing tape the middle. Add label and stamps (sometimes we get cranky mail people who don't like us to send fun thing, so we either ask for the manager or just go to another one.)

Tada !!

(Disclaimer 2 and 3... the snowballs will leave little stings around the house, after we sent these ones I realized it might be a big flaw if your baby eats everything off the floor, mine doesn't but to be on the safe side use a jean needle and sew a few times over the mushroom cap part. AND yes I realize my daughter is dressed like a complete creep show.. but to be fair we were on our way to taekwondo and she dressed herself. )

Merry Christmas... and happy birthday to me!!

Oh my this month has just been crashing down around me. I did a wonderful challenge with my friends with some amazing good deeds that were done. Challenging them to make the last 27 days of me being 27 a random acts of kindness over load.. and over loaded with awesomeness it was! We had a steller nutcracker birthday party...


the fallowing day my big brother took his own life :(....
that pretty much put a giant hault in everything else of grandness that I had planned for the month. My head was and still is in a fog.. I keep sitting down then forgetting what I am doing or what I have done. We had a VERY VERY SMALL cookie party because we had already had plans for it and figured the kids needed to be around people who were happy since we have been so so sad.It was a nice gathering of our close friends and it was a happy time
Brooklyn has her first ballet recital. Which was so cute and she was so so excited! after words we went out to dinner .. because we all deserved a treat.

. We threw my side of the family christmas dinner and that was very very somber. Each day we keep getting better but loosing someone like my brother was a very hard and very unexspected blow. I didnt take the time when making christmas gifts to blog about them or make tutorials but I have lots of picture that I will upload soon. For christmas my hunny got me a new super awesome mixer... oh yeah look for baking madness to over take my blog here shortly. And then for my birthday, which was yesterday (the 27th ) I got a serger. Yeah for sergers... but to be honest it scares me so Im just going to look at in sitting in the box imagening all the wonderfullness that Im going to make with it :) Well I better get back to cleaning up from out crazy christmas but I will leave you with a glimps of cuteness
Christmas morning! Look at those cute matching PJ pants and New hoods I made.. oh and those happy kids!

baby dress up so cute!

My best friend making christmas wrapping awesome!

With 4 kids santa had to put the tree in a new spot to get all the gifts around it


My birthday gifts

last 27 days of being 27

Someone once told me that your golden year is when your birth age and day are the same. My birthday is december 27th and I turned 27. Disappointingly this year has been pretty sucky (mostly October but the whole year didnt really pan out either..) I have actually spent more time in the last few days, more then I should probably blog about, thinking about the golden year concept. First off I would like to point out that im sorry for people born on the 1st! My poor cousin was born on the first, of April to boot, but she wears her birthday with pride (and often a stuffy nose) Second I dont want to look back on my 'Golden year' and all I see is faded bronze, so I have decided to change life's plan and make my own Goldenness appear! While trolling Pinterest (like the addict I am) I came across this blog post. I was very inspired by her compassion and selflessness. So I have decided that for the last 27 days of being 27 I would like to preform 27 random acts of kindness, one a day more if I come across a random opportunity to do one. Here is perhaps the best part of my whole concept, I would like to challenge everyone to do the same. The holiday giving season is already in the air and I would like to have you help me pass it around. There are lots of great ideas on the Internet and tomorrow I will link up to some of my favorites. In the mean time, I challenge you to open your eyes to the world around us and for the next 27 days pass on as many random acts of kindness as you possibly can!



And because I cant help by share our skipping school for the day adventure, we ditched and went and saw old st.nick!!

Im 'sprakling' with genius!!

I like my crafts like I like my men... glittery!! ha ha ha ha ok a lame twilight joke but still can you tell im extra excited for the movie tonight? I dont know why I dont blog more about the things I do... I think it has to do with the fact I come up with a great idea then google and realize everyone else already had the same great idea. Not that im not a crazy 'pinner' and recreated of all things wonderful, but sometimes I feel like because someone else did it I shouldnt blog about doing it. But that all changed last night when I was smacked with a great idea, actually I was trying to come up with some holiday stuff and this ran me over. I was almost like a deer in head lights when I googled and didnt see anyone else doing it, then I thought BLOG IT!!

I love this time of year! I go straight from my fall/halloween high right into Christmas joy. I love baking and the music and the magic the season offten offers. But my favorite thing is when they forecast snow. I get that happy crazy feeling inside me and seriously cant sleep even if its a light dusting. We dont get snow like we did when I was little but every time it does snow its like magic, the world get so quiet. Snow also smells amazing, it smells cold and special. So while we patiently wait for our snow to come we make paper snowflakes from printer paper and dream. My kids love making them. Every snowflake just as different as the real ones. My house off ten looks like a blizzard hit it during the winter, so why not capture that fun more permanently?

So in all there awesomeness here are our snowflake shirts!


Here is what you need:
Heat and Bond
Glitter
scissors
an iron
and something to put it on (we did shirts but im doing hand towels and scarf for christmas)

Cut the head and bond into any size squares, fold in half then in half again (Ok im assuming you know how to make a paper snow flake but just in case lol)
Cut out your design, making sure not to cut off the folds.
See how pretty!


Now Lay on your shirt and iron over heat and bond (Iron on the paper side, just in case that wasnt apparent


When it cools, peal off the paper. You should be able to feel your snow flake.
)





Pour glitter on printer paper a little bigger then your snowflake and a pretty thick so the paper doesnt stick to your shirt


lay shirt down over glitter and iron on back. I ironed a little longer then I normally do since it was two layers.

I let it cool then lifted my shirt up and shook off the extra glitter
(NOTE: I HAVE SINCE FOUND THAT IF YOU PUT THE GLITTER ON YOUR SHIRT (NOT SHIRT ON GLITTER) AND IRON ON THE PAPER IT STICKS WAY WAY WAY BETTER)

TAAAA DAAAAA


Glittery snowflake and mine didnt come off in the wash!!!
(Note since you glitter in on the paper just slide the extra back in the tube for the next one!!)





And I bragged about myself here: