The Help: aFree Printable

Let's talk about movies today. I absolutely love to watch movies and there are so many great ones! I love action films, suspense movies, comedies and of course a good chick flick or even a bad one really. I just love to watch movies! There are so many great ones out there. My all time favorite movie is Remember the Titans.

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I could watch this one 100 times and still enjoy it every time. And talk about an awesome soundtrack, I love the music in this movie!
Besides my all time fave, my top 5 favorites are:
The Italian Job
A Knight's Tale - another awesome sound track
The Mask of Zorro
Pride & Prejudice - this version is the best
A Walk to Remember
And a bonus: Holes

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So who has seen The Help? Didn't you just love it???!!

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This one was such a great movie! Everyone I have talked to lovesit. It is sooo good! and I just love Emma Stone, she is hilarious.

Last year for Mother's Day I thought it would be fun to make a print from this movie for a gift.
I went to the DI and got a few old wood frames.

I sanded and then spray painted the ugly frames with Krylon Ivory.

I designed the print after the colors on the movie cover.

I just love this cute little bee :)

Feel free to print. (for personal use only)
Click here to download.

Have you figured out what you are giving for Mother's Day this year? What are your top 5 (or 7) favorite movies?

Happy SPRING!! with a Mother's Day gift idea.

I am sorry I missed posting last week, I have a good excuse though: I was out of town. It was only for a few days but I was pretty much checked out all week in vacation mode. Still am, if we are being honest. I just want to look out the window at the pretty sun and the very sweet just blooming flowers and daydream that it is summer and I'm driving around town in my jeep with the top down and the sun warming my shoulders with a warm breeze blowing across my face and my hair blowing backwards in the wind, looking gorgeous and on the way to the lake with Danny and our puppies. Of course if you have ever ridden in a jeep going faster then 20 mph you know your hair is never blowing in the right direction and if you know me at all you know my ideal speed would be much faster then 20 mph. But a girl can dream right?

Soon enough it's going to be 90 degrees and I'll have my hair in a pony, driving around, top down with sun kissed cheeks and big shades shielding my eyes from direct sunlight. AND. IT. WILL. BE. MAGICAL!

So in the spirit of warm weather and pretty things: I love SPRING!!! I'm so glad Spring has come to Idaho!

Today I am going to show you some spring photos! This is my mantle from a couple years ago. I got a bundle of tulips for Easter and they are so beautiful!

I should probably go pick up some fresh flowers for my dining table; pretty flowers always make me happy! (as long as there are no bugs, I can't handle bugs...)

Have you ever grown grass in a can? OH MY GOSH, SO PRETTY! And so easy!! I love to watch things grow, although I'm not that great at keeping plants alive, I love to see the little daily growth.

For Mother's Day a couple of years ago I decided to get some seeds and plant some wheat grass. I found these cute little cans at Target in the $1 section and they were perfect! I got some dirt and planted the seeds and I was so excited to get those first little sprouts coming out of the dirt and this grass is a fast grower too. My kind of plat; I get very impatient.

The only down side is it doesn't last super long and once you trim it it's done, at least I found this to be the case when I grew it. Maybe it's not always like that, I don't know, I only grew it once. But while it's growing it's so pretty and so cute! I found my seeds at a craft store but I'm guessing you can find them at your craft store or any nursery if you would like to grow your own wheat grass. Just looking at these pictures makes me happy, I think I may just plant some grass tonight!

I also saw this fun Tin Can Treat idea on OurBestBites.com that I wanted to give along with the grass that year for Mother's Day. Follow the easy toot from Sara to make your own! I used fruit cans, washed them out, found this darling paper at the craft store to cover my cans and I used lots of fun ribbon to tie on the tab.

They look so cute with just the paper on them. I also decided to create my own label and taped them to the front of the can. They are super cute and I love how they turned out! There are Peanut M&M's inside! One of my favorite treats!

I hope this inspires you to plant something, cut some flowers for your home or create a fun Mother's Day gift to give this year! Have a beautiful day!! Now I'm going to go out and enjoy this sunshine!!

I'd love to see what you are giving this year for Mother's Day! Let me know in the comments!

PS: I stopped by Ikea last week while I was in Utah, I can't wait to show you what I brought home!!

The Evolution of a Room: Part 3

A few weeks ago I Instagramed this photo:

I was so excited when I brought my new bike home I had to put it up and show it to the world!
I love having pictures and art hanging on the walls in our home, it makes it feel so much more homey and ours. I have a hard time with plain blank walls...

I have plans to make a washi tape frame around the bike but until I find a tape that I like or actually start looking for tape, I just used regular old masking tape on the back side and taped it in several different spots to make sure it stayed up.
I have plans to hang more things in here (that means you characacher!) but so far this is what I've got and there are also plans in my head for lighting but that will have to wait a little bit as well.

I am very happy with the makeover my bed received. Thanks to Christmas and my hubby for getting me the duvet I wanted. I was happy to see this duvet cover on my way out of JCP while Christmas shopping one night. I love the colors and pattern and the price was too good to pass up, I didn't know I would get the duvet for Christmas so that was a very happy surprise and a wonderful Christmas morning!

For those of you that are interested here is my source list for bedding and bike:
I have a really hard time spending a lot of money on anything so this whole room makeover was super duper inexpensive, like less then 100 bucks!

Art:

Bike print from CaravanShoppe
Printed at Staples with a 40% off code.

Bedding:

Sheets at JCPenny similar here (and on sale)
Duvet Cover at JCPenny clearance (no longer available)
Duvet at Overstock.com here 

I love the new colors going on in here now and I can't wait to add more stuff to make this room feel even more ours. It is evolving into a space that I love!

Valentines

I love giving and receiving Valentines, it is my favorite thing about this holiday! So I wanted to share with you what I did last year for my Valentines.

There is one of the cutest little Etsy shops called Paper + Pip and they create some of the cutest little printables. I was able to get these when they were running a deal on GroupDealz last year.

I just fell in love with all the different designs and the cute little pictures. They are too sweet!

These went together pretty quick.

I whipped up a batch of cookies using Valentine's M&M's instead of chocolate chips.

Purchased these paper CD sleeves and put a little red napkin in each one and then put a cookie inside.

I wrapped the Valentine's I printed out around the cookie sleeve and tied it up with twine.

They are so darling and yummy! I couldn't wait to give them out!

I hope this helps you if you are searching for a cute Valentine idea!

My Planner

 Last year I made a goal to be more organized. Typically before when there was something scheduled or something I wanted to remember I just made an appointment in my phone for it and set a reminder to go off. But there is something wonderful about using a planner and I am loving it! It's very convenient to write things down and see everything on one page in one glance. Smart phones are very helpful and I still use my phone for appointments that I need to remember so the alarm will go off and remind me that I need to be someplace in a half hour. But things like birthdays or other things that I want to remember or need to plan for, I love having my planner and looking ahead and constantly see that so and so's birthday is coming up and I need to get something for them.

I purchased this notebook last year and glued my calendar and to-blog lists inside. I was planning on posting pictures of it last year and I am actually so glad that I never got around to it. :) Really!

It worked so well for me last year and I'm happy that now I can share with you what I love and what I would change.

First of all, I cut out the calendars and lists and glued them into the notebook. I started with the month on the first page and on the next page added the to-do list. I decided to glue the calendar over on the left side so I would have plenty of room to write notes and things on the 2nd half. This has been extremely helpful! I'm so glad that I did this and also love all the space on the 2nd page next to the to-do list.

I would suggest for anyone that does the same thing is to use Rubber Cement. I didn't even think of this last year. Do not use a glue stick, I thought it would be easier and smoother then regular glue, which it is, but it also pealed up all the time and I would have to keep re-gluing every. single. page. So annoying! So don't forget about your old elementary school friend and go with Rubber Cement, you will be so happy you did!

Reinforce your binding on the outside. I just used electrical tape because it's what I had on hand and it is black, I didn't want it to stick out. I've never used washi tape but if you have cute washi tape try it, I'm sure it will work just fine. I was planning on covering the front with decorative scrapbook paper but I never got around to that ether. The plain cover has grown on me and I like it so I probably wont change it anytime soon. 

Don't tear paper out. It is nice to have the notebook paper and write a note to pass to someone or to spit your gum in or whatever else you might use it for but this type of notebook looses it's integrity when paper is removed. The pages are bound together with string and when paper is ripped out it can put stress on that string and when several pages are ripped out it will loosen all the others and your book can fall apart. If you must tear a page out do so without ripping it from the center of the page, it may not be perfectly straight but if you try ripping on that little pink line it will keep your book intact and your binding safe.

(I wanted to show you the same pages I took pictures of last year so you can see how much use I got out of this planner. It got a little worn, a lot thicker and rough around the edges throughout the year.)

During the year you pick up little trinkets or papers and you may just throw them out because you don't have a place for them. I'm sort of a pack-rat in that regard and I hold on to a lot of things because "maybe one day I'll want to look back on that day and having this will be fun to remember it." I love pictures and they are an awesome way to remember days and to reminisce about fun times but still having that concert or movie ticket is special for me. Sometimes I forget when I'm in the moment to take a picture but it's pretty cool to hold that original ticket. I have an entire jar filled with movie and concert tickets but if you're not quite as crazy as I am you could staple or tape them into your planner. My favorite things I taped into my book last year were the Valentines I received from my niece and nephew and our wrist bands from the Kids Day Carnival. I love looking back at those things!

(I'll explain all about Kids Day and what we did last year, this July when we are closer to Kids Day 2013 - 07/06/13!)

One thing I didn't think about last year when I started this project is that this notebook is huge! Way more then 24 pages :) so it will last me longer then one year. I didn't use too many extra pages, if I wrote anything down in here I mostly stayed to the month I was in. So because of that the first part of the book is very well used but the entire back two thirds of my notebook are pretty much untouched. I have dedicated the middle 3rd to this year and I have added the calendars and lists for 2013, this time using rubber cement.

The great thing about this planner is that it's not a full size notebook so it fits in whatever purse I may be using. The tabs and flags stay at home or at the office but the planner is very handy to have with me all the time, so I rarely leave it at home and I always keep a pen and pencil in my purse.  I just toss it in my purse every morning and take it to work with me and carry it with me all day.

I love that I can still go back and see what we did last year and I am excited to fill this baby up with things I accumulate this year! I love that this keeps me on track and I can have a schedule. And speaking of schedules, I've already added blog posts to my calendar! It is one of my goals this year to post on this ol bloggy every other week. (February is an exception, that month will be 3 weeks on, 2 weeks off. I gotta get all my V-day stuff in before V-day ya know!) But things are pretty well planned out and I'm going to try to stick to that plan. So stay with me and look for a lot more fun ideas/crafts/recipes/projects from me this year!

I hope this was helpful for anyone that is trying to be organized. How do you stay organized? Do you use a planner too? I'd love to hear about what you do!

2013 FREE PRINTABLE!

I've waited all year for this!! It's The Tomkat Studio's 2013 calendar!!!

Isn't it just beautiful! I didn't think she could top last years because I really loved that one but this is so pretty and so fresh! I'm loving it! And just like last year I need a to-do/to-blog list to go with it. So here it is if you would like it too:

These were made to print at 5x7 size page. Just cut them out and use as needed! I'm going to put mine in my little planner I made last year along with my calender. I will show that on the ol bloggy a little later.
HAPPY 2013!! Enjoy your New Year's Eve celebrations!!

to download the calendar go HERE!
to download the to-blog list go HERE!
to download the to-do list go HERE!

ps: If you download these leave me a comment or send me a link, I'd love to see how you use them!

Sunbeam Play Dough: a Recipe

For anyone that reads this blog that doesn't know what a Sunbeam is; no it is not a beam or ray of sunlight. In our church the Sunbeams are the children age 3 that will turn 4 in the coming year. This year is the first year they are out of Nursery and in Primary with all the other big kids. They are the cutest and best class on the planet! I get the opportunity every Sunday to be in the Sunbeam class with another teacher and we get to teach this great group of kids. There are 8 kids in our class and I wanted to do something special for the kids on their birthday. The only guidelines I wanted to follow were:
1. Quick
2. Easy
3. Inexpensive
The kids are 4 so this shouldn't be too hard right? But with my lack of experience and having no kids myself I didn't quite know what I should do. So I asked a girl at work who in my opinion is awesome with kids and she has four of her own that were 4 once; what would a 4 year old like to get for their birthday that fits my requirements?
PLAY DOUGH!

And from there it was just too dang easy! I pulled out the book, threw together some dough, got a ton of pretty awesome cookie cutters, made a few tags and I am ready for the year baby!!
The first child's birthday was last week so I had to get on this little project pretty quick. I decided to go ahead and make all the tags at once so I have them all and they will be ready when I need them. This will totally come in handy if I forget a birthday is coming up and don't have time to recreate this on the computer. I love it when I think ahead.

Aren't these just so stinking cute, I love it when an idea in my head comes out so well in real life! I decided to use some Mod Podge to glue the label to the jar so it would stick like a real label.
The play dough recipe I have makes a ton of play dough so I only made a quarter recipe and also made it bright blue for Andrew.

Play Dough @ Max Power                          Recipe @ 25%

1 1/2 C. Salt                                                 1/4 C. + 2 T. Salt

5 C. Flour                                                     1 1/4 C. Flour

1/4 C. Oil                                                     1 TB. Oil

2 TB. Cream of Tartar                                 1 1/2 tsp. Cream of Tartar

2 3/4 C. Boiling Water                                 1/2 C. + 3 TB. Boiling Water

Food coloring (optional)                              Food coloring (optional)

Combine salt and flour in a large bowl and mix.

Add oil and cream of tartar.

If desired, add food coloring to boiling water; then pour water into salt mixture.

Mix completely and knead into dough.

Add more flour as needed until dough has reached desired consistency.

Store in an airtight container or bag. (In my case a darling birthday jar.)

 

The only thing left to do now is decide what cookie cutters you want to give away. This was the most difficult part for me because they were all so stinking cute! My advice for anyone wanting to do a project like this, buy a pack for you and a pack to give away. I got this awesome pack of animals at JoAnn's and was able to use my 50% off coupon. Talk about a steal, it was fantastic! Andrew ended up getting a dinosaur and a I believe this one was the cow.

I'm so happy I've got an entire year of Sunbeam birthdays planed and ready to go; the only thing left to do now is wait for May when the next birthdays roll around!

PS: If you would like this gift tag/label shoot me an email: abenchproduction {at} gmail {dot} com and I will be happy to whip it up for you! :) Below is one I made for my niece's birthday coming up.