Last Minute Easter Treat!

O.k so I seriously doubt anyone is scrambling for a last minute easter desert at 2:30 on Easter Sunday but....I never got around to posting this after I made them last weekend..So better late than never right?  At least you could do it next year anyway.  These little gems have been all over blog land and there is a reason.. They are cheap, cute and oh so quick!

 Call them what you will..birds nests, easter nest...or 

Easy Easter Birds Nests 

All you need is:

1. one bag of Chow Mein Noodles
2. 1/2 bag of mini marshmallows
3. 2 tablespoons of Butter

I melted the butter on the stovetop then added the marshmallows until fully melted.  Threw in the noodles

Formed them into a greased muffin/cupcake pan

Shaped them like nests with my fingers and pressed peanut butter easter eggs in the middle.

Let them sit in the fridge for 30 minutes and then they can be easily removed.

So Simple!

Oh the anticipation!

Happy Easter from our Crazy Crew to Yours!

Mothers Day is May 8th! Need a gift?

Have you guys thought about what to get mom this year?  I am sure you have!  I have never seen such a proactive group of women before blog land!  Well if you don't have the time or energy to make something gorgeous then get her a Scentsy warmer and some awesome scents to go with it!  What mom wouldn't like that? Visit my Scentsy webpage to view all the warmers and scents. If you need help choosing a scent let me know.   I am about to put in an order so if your interested email me with "Mom's Scentsy" in the subject line.

Have a wonderful Easter Weekend!

Huge Yet Inexpensive Art

A while back I posted here about our living room revamp.  I have had a few questions about the art behind the sofa so let me take this opportunity to turn that into a blog post!  Otherwise today I might be posting about how to get rid of the "tee tee" smell in the bathroom that seems to be ever present when you have preschool aged kids.  Or how to keep your lab from shedding, or how about how to load the dishwasher with out little 16 mnth old people grabbing for the knives or climbing onto the dishwasher door.  Those posts would not be informative at all...Just a multitude of questions from me really. So let's move on to a more lighthearted subject.

Big /Huge Inexpensive Wall Art

O.k. Before I go any further...forgive the overzealous use of watermarking here...Not sure what happened but don't have time to fix it at the moment...Mommyhood is calling;)

I know lots of people in blog land and elsewhere struggle with how to fill this massive space of nothing behind the sofa.  You can spend a pretty penny decorating this space if not careful.  Here is what we came up with that suited our thrifty budget and provided something a little different that suited us a bit more.

We purchased 3 of the precut 2 x 4 sheets of wood that you can find at home depot, lowes, etc..

I believe they were about $10 a piece.  This pic is no good but I was trying to show the dimensions and it looks like it is 1/2 inch thick.

We stained it with some wood stain we had on hand.  We then planned out the design.  I knew the look I wanted so we just used cans to draw some perfect circles and plotted out a good flow between the two panels and drew it all on with a pencil.

Then came the messy and time consuming part of using the dremel to carve out the design.  This really was time consuming and the hubby just did a little bit at a time after work.   This is not our dremel layed out all nicely  but I think he used the bit that is the 4th in from the right.   

Here are a few close ups of the detail.

and a side view..

And the finished project!  

We attached the little alligator teeth looking picture hangers on the back and used the ol' stand back and see method to get them all lined up.  We actually attempted to sell these on etsy but due to the time to carve and the cost to ship it was a hard sell so I guess we will just keep them for ourselves!

 I have learned to love the precut wood section at home improvement stores.  There are endless opportunities for wall art without having to break out the saw!  Have you done anything similar to this?

Linked to the great parties at:Tater Tots and Jello, Green Door Designs, Home Stories from A to Z

From Laundry Tomb to Laundry Room

How many of you out there love your laundry room?  The place where most of us could spend several hours a week. But also the place where we want to spend as little time as possible.  I am literally in ours for seconds at a time. Loading and unloading as fast as I can so I can get out!  Now that is mostly because our now 16 month old is never far behind and ready to play in the dogs water, see what is in the cat litter box and/or trying to climb in the dryer.   If your anything like me the laundry ends up dispersed ALL over the house.  If the dryer is full but I have to get something in and there is no room left in the room then the clean stuff gets thrown in a pile on the sofa. Or if it actually gets into a basket, then it is moved to the formal dining room table(once again so the baby doesn't disperse it for me).  Eventually all of those piles end up in the master bedroom on the bed.  Gone are the days of semi keeping up with it all in the chaos of having 3 young kiddos.  So I can't help but to dream of a place like this....

Isn't she all bright and shiny and huge?  

Or can you imagine having a place to cut flowers for all your little fresh flower arrangements that you have around the house...Ha Funny! It is magazine worthy though.

And oh my goodness...I have really been dreaming of a white laundry room but this stopped me in my tracks.  Love this color!  When trying to think about the design of the house that we are hoping to build..I have thought that some sort of double or bigger door to the laundry would be nice..It is always a pain to get in and out with a big load..Petty yes...dreamy yes!

And then there is the whole organization thing that is so lacking in my world of laundry.  This is a good idea!  Most front loaders seem to sit on a pedestal.  This one actually serves a good purpose.  I love the thought of labeling everything in the laundry room.  Hopefully it will help when getting the kids involved...and anyone else that wants to help too!

Look at this hidden gem!  This may be a great solution for us because I would love to have an office/laundry.  This would keep it from quickly becoming all laundry.

Oh and here is another splash of bright fun laundry color...The laundry is a room that you can totally get away with something like this and it not feel overwhelming.

And then there is this little island that I have had in my home inspiration folder for a long time now.  I picture different baskets than the ones here with the kids names labeled on them so they now who's is who's and don't go digging and throwing things all around looking for that one sock.  And...when I say "honey go get your basket of clean laundry and take it to your room" and they say "yes maam"  there will be no question as to what goes where.  Have I ever mentioned that I'm a dreamer?!

Oh man..I am obviously in love with gray right now but I hadn't thought about it for this room. this is unexpected and fun!

My pile is similar in size yet not so organized!

I am getting a bit off of the "room" subject here but these called my name.  Since we are slooowly staging the house to sell I have been trying to figure out a way to keep the piles of dirty clothes a little prettier so to speak..(yes I am ill).  Thinking about something along the lines of the picture below..I might make something but if these little guys are in my acceptable thrifty range I might just have to order these..I mean really who has time to make stuff when trying to sell a house with 3 kids, a husband, a dog, cat,  part time job and blogging addiction. Crossing my fingers!

uh oh...I have never been much for ruffles..but how can a girl resist?

Little and yet still lovely

This has been my favorite room yet!  I tucked it away in the ol folder a while back and I still LOVE it! The windows, the color...the windows, the color..

My first thought when I saw this.."they must have 3 kids too".  MUST resist the urge to have more than one set of washers and dryers.

And we will end with this light and lovely laundry.

nothing like having a place to hang things to dry and windows, windows, windows!

Thanks for dreaming with me!  All pictures can be found and linked to through my Pinterest Account!  Have a wonderful, relaxing, laundryless weekend!

My What A Pretty Thermostat You Have

It's official..my priorities during nap time are all messed up..  Really..who needs a pretty thermostat?   Well this little white thing has driven me crazy for the almost 4 years that we have lived in this house.  I guess it could have been in the middle of the wall and that would have been worse(or would it?).  Not to mention that this wall is just short enough that a sofa doesn't fit on it and allow for another sofa or any reasonable seating to be on the wall next to it.. See more about the layout of this room in this post. So I have stared at this blank wall for years now..

Yes I think I could have figured out some decorative shelves and just put something in front of it but this whole..."we are going to move soon" thing has really kept me from wanting to spend the money on or put the effort into really addressing this blank space.  So we just kept it simple for staging purposes.  

Here is a side view so you get the idea of the thickness because if you have a huge chunky thermostat this may not work for you

So I was at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago and came across this

It is just a little wood box with a sliding lid..that comes all the way out. 

I had often thought that I would be able to paint a canvas and hang it over the thermostat but most canvases aren't thick enough, wouldn't allow air circulation and they aren't that cheap either(in the grand scheme of things they aren't expensive but I like most of you am cheap thrifty).  So when I saw this I had a lightbulb moment.  As you can see in this post about scrapbook paper I have a thing for decorating with it.  There are so many beautiful papers that I just can't resist that isle even though I am far from a "scrapper".

You can see in the above pic that I had placed it across my wood box thing to make sure it would completely fit over all the sides.

So with a 3.99 wood box, some .59 paper and some mod podge that I had at home

I ended up with this!

Now my plan is to attempt to drill some holes through the top and maybe the bottom(although there is already a small gap on the bottom where I slid the top off) to help with circulation so it won't affect the way the thermostat monitors the temperature..(I hope!)  I guess we shall see how it affects it.  I literally just applied the mod podge to the box, folded the corners like I was wrapping a present and cut the excess paper off.  Ihad originally planned on adding a little hinge to one side so we could open it up, and then I thought I would just place a nail above the thermostat to hand it, but ended up just hanging it on the thermostat to avoid putting anymore holes in the walls.

That being said...this tiny piece of art on the wall looks uber silly all by itself so I still have some work to do to balance it all out but it is a start!  The possibilities are endless.  I have seen boxes like this that are part of an "art wall" so to speak for much more than $4.50.  Adding more to this could be fun!  I will keep ya posted! Ha! 

Linked to:Just Something I Whipped Up

Tip Junkie

Todays Creative Blog