It's official then...

I'm a student again! After my year and a half MBA trial, I didn't think I'd ever go back to school, but I guess this makes it official! Here's to nights spent reading books I'm not interested in! J/K ;)

I'm taking a certification course to become a Career Development Facilitator this summer. There are other requirements needed to actually become a GCDF, but this is my first step. I'm actually doing it in conjunction with my job, so it should bring about an advancement at work, too.

Well, here goes nothing!

You craft with that?

So, I like to craft on the cheap... we all know this and should come at no surprise. My husband and bil thought my crafting items combined were quite hilarious yesterday, so I'll leave you to decide.

I'll show you what I made soon!

John Deere for Her!

I spent all week/end with two of the most awesome kiddos I know and we got to do lots of fun things -- from baking cakes, to making chocolate covered pretzels and fortune cookies, to painting magnets, painting fingernails, watching movies, playing with the "goggies," etc.

We also got to spend some time shopping for and crafting for a certain someones upcoming special 3rd birthday party. We bought about everything we'll need and we got the invites mailed out, we made a banner, we made the favors, we made decorations for the cake table and we made her a hat to match her get-up! I don't want to show you too much quite yet, I want to wait for the party, but here is the invitation we picked out!

As you can tell, the party is at the farm and the theme in pink John Deere. Too cute. I still have to make tractor crayons, but other than that, we're good to go for the party!

DIY -- Fortune Cookie Tower & Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I saw this a while ago and I knew immediately that I would do this for J at some point in time because of his love of fortune cookies... especially chocolate dipped and sprinkled fortune cookies. I decided his 28th birthday would be a great occasion!

http://www.semihomemade.com/gathering/452#3

I scorched my white chocolate (that I had dyed orange), so I used all milk chocolate instead. Not as orange, but just as tasty!

 First melt the chocolate for a minute and a half, stir, and melt and stir in 15 second intervals until melted and creamy. Or, dippable, as J says. Note: When you think you need to cook it for just 15 more seconds, you don't! Just stir and stir and stir. Otherwise, you will meet the same fate as my white chocolate!

Start dipping! We set up a sprinkle station, too. Sprinkle as soon as you pull out the chocolate so it sticks really well! We had three different sprinkle options to choose from.

Then start stacking the cake being sure to fill in the middle as you go so that it doesn't collapse in on itself.

Build up until you're satisfied with the size and shape of the cake. Let them firm up overnight.

With the left-over chocolate, we dipped pretzels. Follow the same procedure as above, just place the pretzels on wax paper. We re-heated the chocolate for 5 seconds when it hardened. Worked like a charm!

And, trust me, these are just as good as they look!

I Feel So.... Trendy!

I was browsing the interwebs the other day and found this great decor, wedding, party site. Anyway, as I was looking, things were looking vaguely familiar to things I had just done for L's shower!

Looking at what you can buy for lots of money and what I did it for made me feel a. Trendy and b. Frugal! Double goodness!

The pom-poms. The circle garland. The pennants. The pinwheels. The glitter numbers/letters.

What do you think? I feel like I am so now!

Special Delivery Tonight!

I am so happy to see his face tonight! He misses me and needs to meet the "goggies."

I can't wait to have him in my arms... either him or his big sister! A fun, fun weekend awaits full of the zoo, picnics, parks and playtime!!

DIY -- Make Your Own Paper Fortune Cookies

I saw this super cute idea and thought it would be perfect for our Friday night birthday activity for my husband who loves fortune cookies!

The longest part of making these was getting responses from family and friends. Once that is complete, you can get down to business!

Start by cutting out your circles (about a 3 inch diameter), print and cut the fortunes, and gather up small rubber bands (optional).

Fold the circle in half wrong side out and gently crease a small portion of the middle.

With wrong side up, glue along the edge perpendicular to the crease.

Fold the fortune and place it in the middle of the fortune "cookie."

Fold the paper in half without creasing the other edge. You can either hold the paper together until the glue holds or get crafty and use household items like me (clothespins also work well).

 Once the glue dries and hold them together, you have little taco looking things.

Now you use that little crease you made to fold the "cookie" in half. It helps if you push in on the crease while you fold the edges in. To get it to maintain the shape, I used small rubber bands to keep them in place.

For storage, I used a clear baggie with each guy's name on it. This way they stayed protected until the big day.

The day of the party, I took them out of the bag, removed the rubber bands (they held their shape beautifully) and displayed them in the party area (aka the kitchen table).

Viola! It was so fun hearing them read their fortunes. A lot of inside jokes were shared!