Make Your Own Hunger Games T-shirt

I had this t-shirt from Old Navy and I decided to give it a little Hunger Games makeover.  The shirt already said "LOVE" but I wanted it to say "LOVE changed the game" with a mockingjay.

I ran a piece of dark t-shirt transfer paper through my cricut machine and cut out all the letters I needed. When you iron the letters on the shirt, they just remain white.  If you wanted a different color letters (or if you don't have a cricut) you could use your computer to print the letters onto the transfer paper and cut them out with a scissors.

For the mockingjay, I found the image online and printed it on regular paper first.  Then I taped a strip of dark t-shirt transfer paper over the printed picture and ran it through the printer again.  That way, I didn't have to mess up a whole sheet of transfer paper for my little one-inch image.

Once you get everything cut out, you just line it up where you want it on the shirt, and follow the directions for your t-shirt transfers to iron it on.

Then you can wear your new t-shirt!

Who's excited for the Catching Fire movie coming out this fall? This girl!

Easy Brave Party Food

My mother-in-law let the boys pick her birthday party theme this year and they went with Brave.  So I put together a relatively simple menu and gave each dish a Brave-themed title.

For the cake, I baked round cakes and frosted them to look like Merida's archery targets.

I used a couple bamboo skewers and some cardstock to make "arrows" to stick in the bullseye.

It came together pretty quickly and was eaten quickly, too!

Happy Father's Day

We were travelling on Father's Day so we didn't do anything elaborate.  But I found these free printable Dad glasses and thought they were great!  I printed them on black cardstock, cut them out, and taped them together.  All done!
Printable Glasses for Father's Day from Mr. Printables

My boys with their daddy

My brother and I with our dad

My brother with his two girls

So blessed to be with family on Father's Day!

End of the School Year Card

The end of the school year arrived in a flurry of field trips and soccer games so I didn't have time to make fancy teacher gifts this year.  Hooray for finding free printables on Pinterest.

Our PTO bought iPads for each classroom this year, so I bought iTunes gift cards for my boys' teachers and made a tag similar to this one from eighteen25.

My diabetic son has an aide who helps keep an eye on him at school.  I bought her a gift card from the gas station and made this card to go with it.

I've had the stamp sets forever from StampinUp.  The truck is from the "Loads of Love" set.  The "thanks a melon" sentiment was from the "Little Phrases" set and the watermelon was from "Mini Icons".

Black and White Graduation Card

June means graduation parties and I was invited to seven of them this year!   Here is the card I made for my friends in the Class of 2013.

Since I was making seven cards for grads from several area high schools, I decided to make them all black and white instead of using the grad's school colors.  

The patterned papers are from Close To My Heart (For Always Paper Packet from the Spring/Summer 2013 Idea Book) The stamps are also from Close To My Heart.  I bought the 2013 silver charms from Oriental Trading.

May The Fourth Be With You

Star Wars was a big part of my childhood.  Same with my husband.  So, of course, we've passed that quirk on to our kids and we like to celebrate Star Wars Day every Spring.  Star Wars Day is celebrated annually on May 4 -- as in  "May the Fourth be with you".  Nerdy, I know.  But fun.

It was a busy day, but I managed to pull together a few touches to make our evening more Star Wars related. I  made "regular" food, but presented it in a different way to make it feel more festive.  Hamburgers became "HanBurgers" and grapes stuck on skewers became "FruitSabers".  I added blue food coloring to our milk to make it look like the stuff they drink in the movies.  

The cupcakes were the only menu item that took extra time, but I've been wanting to make Leia cupcakes ever since I saw a picture of them online.  I'm a (gluten-free) box mix girl, so they came together quickly. The mouths are heart-shaped sprinkles and I purchased the candy eyes in the baking aisle at Michael's.  The side hair buns are (gluten-free) oreo cookies stuck on with frosting.

 It's always a treat for the boys to eat dinner in the family room in front of the TV.  I told them to put out a few of their Star Wars toys to decorate the family room.  They were very enthusiastic about that project.

We watched Revenge of the Sith - which the boys had never seen - while we ate.  (We skipped the part where Anakin gets burned because I didn't want them to have nightmares!)

With  just a few easy modifications to our normal routine, I turned a normal day into a family fun day.  It just goes to show you don't have to create an elaborate party to make a memory.

Caution: Wet Paint

Something about the arrival of Spring makes me want to refresh my home.  This year, I decided that my bedroom walls had been blue long enough (12 years!) and it was time for a change.

We had remodeled the master bathroom during 2010 and had painted those walls a nice toasty beige.  The color is called Roman Plaster and it's by Behr.  The online picture makes it look more "greige" but it's actually warmer in real life. I decided to paint the bedroom walls that same color.

Good-bye, blue.  Hello, beige!

Here are a couple "before and after" shots for you.  Just a warning, even the "after" shots show my room in "everyday mode".  I didn't fancy them all up for the internet.

In addition to the paint, we rearranged the furniture and even bought some new pieces.  The two white bedside tables and the lamps are from IKEA.  And that's my dog, Carl.  He's the reason I don't have fancy bed linens.

The old chair was thrown out (it was older than I am) and I moved a different chair into my bedroom from the living room.  The cedar chest is a family heirloom refinished by my mom and my grandpa.

I put up the same blue curtains and kept the same sheets and throw pillows.  And nothing is on the walls yet. So this is still a work in progress.  I'm keeping my eyes open for some art and some linens!  What should I get?  Should I change up the color?  Decisions, decisions.