Sharks Say Thank You!

What's a mama to do when she cannot find anything shark related that is not super kiddy themed and great for a just turned six year old boy?

Well, apparently she gets crafty!



I took some striped scrap booking type paper, cut out some shark shapes (from a shark template I had drawn up previously), used a glue stick to glue 'em onto some blue card stock. Then, I took some of my zig-zag scissors (as my son calls them) and cut around the edges.



And Voila! Simple and, cool enough for my six-year old, Shark Thank You Notes!

Now, to get them written out and mailed.

Shark Cupcakes

Here are some post birthday bash photos of the Shark Cupcakes I made for my son's birthday this past weekend.

I had some leftover cupcakes without frosting on them, so I decided to make some more (frosting in a can with food coloring) icing and put it on them. Then I decided since I hadn't gotten any photos at the party of the cupcakes before they were gobbled up (apparently Duncan Hines is a hit with it's dark chocolate fudge and french vanilla moist cake mix turned cupcakes!), I made some more chocolate sharks and topped them.

I have to say, the icing was rather tricky and had a mind of it's own. It took the food coloring great, but it sometimes went all melty on some cupcakes, but not others. Odd. I put it in the fridge before frosting them and it seemed to do a little better that way. Oh well, they tasted good anyway. That's what counts, right?!

The blue ones ended up a little darker blue than the ones I made for the party. I like how they turned out, but boy does it make a mess on the face!

No matter. It's all washable.

For the chocolate molds, I used a Wilton lollipop mold that has five different designs, including the shark, a fish, sea horse, turtle and starfish. I really just wanted the sharks, but I gave in and made all the different ones (all solid colors cause HA! all that detailed work would have killed me!.), since it would have taken me days to make enough sharks. Yeah, no.

It made me laugh at what an impression these cupcakes made. Honestly, it was not THAT much additional work for the chocolate lollipops. And it's what my child requested and it was totally within reason of being able to be done, so I did it. Plus, they made great toppers that were edible. :)

It was a fun party and my son had a blast. I still cannot believe he is another year older....if I think too much about it I will cry! So, I will stop here.

Happy Tuesday!

Sharks!!!

Bet you can't guess what I've been up to again!


What?! Freezer Paper Stenciling? How did you ever guess?!


It can't be that I am totally addicted to it, can it? Well, I am. It's just so simple and fun! Especially when my son asks me to draw things like a Hammerhead Shark. He's always keeping me on my toes in challenging ways. Seriously, for whatever reason it seemed difficult to draw this one!


But, I like how it turned out. Even if I couldn't get a decent picture of it. Could be the model was hardly holding still and just wanted to go play in his new mamamade shirt.

And tomorrow, he turns six years old. I am so not ready...

TV Timeout Fun!

Last week I decided we needed a little "TV timeout". Sometimes I wish we didn't have a TV at all. Just such a time-sucker at times! Especially during the Summer. Lately it's just been too stinkin' hot to do much outside at all. Even swimming in the afternoon feels more like someone put us in the oven to cook than a cool and relaxing time. Ick.

So, since we had watched just a smidge bit too much TV the previous week and it started becoming a battle to turn off more than a treat for my child, I decided the following Monday was our first official TV Timeout day.

AND, it was awesome!!!

We planned a little ahead and went to the craft store together to pick out some fun projects to do. For this particular day, the boy chose these:



We brought them home and almost immediately opened the packages and dumped out the sticks. I forgot how much fun and simple these things could be! We sat there at the table for over an hour just building and playing. Using our imaginations.



It was so much fun.

Then we read a bunch of books and the time seemed to fly by until dinner time. Mmm, love days like that.

It apparently was such a hit, he requested we do it again the next day! So, we did.

Great Wall Space Filler...With Silhouettes!

I seem to have this thing about rearranging a bazillion times. It's just something that's been with me since I was a little girl. Can't help it.

In the case of my most recent *rearranging* of the family room, once I finished moving some things around, I was left with this terribly blank wall. It just starred back at me begging for something.

I needed something QUICK and not terribly expensive or time consuming.

SO, I had seen it somewhere about family silhouettes and thought it would be just the thing to add to that wall for the time being! I had actually planned to put these in our hallway, but they will go there at a later date, with the added one of our second child when they come home from Russia. Can't wait!!!

This plan totally worked out to a serious advantage for the simple fact that I had all I needed on hand. How awesome is that?! I guess that is a benefit of having crafty stuff hanging around like painted shelves (from another project), plain old IKEA picture frames that just need a little paint (that is also on hand from another project). And the pictures? Well, as long as you can get a good shot of everyone, then the rest is easy! Right?!

Even if one did not have all on hand, it would not cost much to get the needed supplies to do this.

Here is my version of things:

First, I took some simple 8x10 picture frames I had gotten at IKEA.


Then I painted them black.

I then took each family members photo, including our siberian husky, making sure to get as good a profile shot I could. It's hard when dogs and kiddos just don't want to stay still....

I then printed them out on just plain old printer paper. Now, here is where I changed it up from my original intent to do black silhouettes on a white background in black frames.

Instead, once I printed and cut the first silhouette out that I then had planned to cut out again in the black craft paper, I left it as is. The white paper on black just seemed to work for me, so that is what I did. You can do it however you want and use purple paper if you like! Whatever strikes your fancy, really. Go for it.

Then I framed them. Tada!



Then, after the hubby hung the shelves up for me, I simply placed the framed silhouettes on the shelves and VOILA! No more blank wall space.





Ahhhh. I feel better now.

Non-Wishlist Wednesday

Wow, I took a little bloggy break and totally didn't mean for it to end up being two weeks! But, sometimes one has to take a breather.

Things have been so crazy about behind the scenes here. With our international adoption in the works and all, there just isn't always enough time to sit down and complete a blog post! In addition to our adoption, it's Summertime! Which means lots of fun family things going about and precious time I must spend with my son. That I want to spend with my son. Life is short and so is Summer....and childhood. I wouldn't miss these moments for anything.

I had all these grand plans of getting my Etsy Shop back open by June and putting some new and fun things in there. Thinking Summer would allow for a little flexibility....haha! What was I thinking?!

Now, it's July! My baby (baby?!) is about to turn six years old. I love it and am sad about it all at the same time. Sad that he no longer fits in my lap when snuggling, but loving the boy he is becoming. He is such a blessing from God. I cannot imagine our lives without him! And God knew he was the child to be with us. He is so excited as well about this adoption. He has an understanding about it that blows our minds sometimes. Maybe it's because we have explained about it since he was so little. Who knows, but he gets it and thinks it's completely normal to grow a family this way.

Just the other day while in the car he said, "I can't wait to have a sibling.....I just can't wait to know who they are!". In his own little way he has been processing this whole adoption journey. I actually wrote a post about it over on our adoption blog. It's not just us going through it, but our family.

It's an amazing, albeit tough, journey.

Have I shared our adoption blog with you? I know I have tweeted about it ( I seem to tweet more than blog these days...). If you are not following me over there yet, take a moment to if you want to see what I am up to other than just this here blog.

Anyhoo, here is our adoption blog if you'd like to check it out!

Here to There

There's the welcome page as well as other areas, so check 'em all out! And let us know you've been there by leaving a comment or two!

Oh, and check back here later this week for a fun and simple weekend project I conquered a couple weekends ago! Simple and fun...can't wait to share.

Happy Wednesday!!!

Wishlist Wednesday

Ah, how I have many things on my list.

Today though, it will be a picture-less kind. I know, kinda boring...

My wishlist today:

1. That our adoption paper work was finished and we were waiting for our referral. But, still just a little more to go....

2. I wish that I felt a little more inspired this week. I have grand plans, but I feel a little like a hamster on a wheel.

3. I wish that there were actual laundry and house cleaning fairies and that they would come visit me....today!

4. I kinda wish I were traveling to the beach this fine day. I love the beach.

5. I really wish there were just a few more hours in this day. I have so much to accomplish!

6. I definitely wish that all lovely visitors would let me know they came to visit by leaving a nice comment! That way, I could go visit them in their part of blog-land! :)

7. I wish that I could get all these crafty things finished before our trip this weekend. I have grand plans ya know! Wait, I already said that. Hehe...oh well, I really do have grand plans!

Alrigthy, that is all. I know, totally boring wishlist today! Sorry, I will try to do better next week.

I will be leaving town tomorrow and will not be back until Monday. However, I want to wish everyone a very happy Fourth of July! I so LOVE July 4th! Fireworks are my favorite.

I also have some other things going on behind the scenes, so I might not reappear here until later next week. However, I will tweeting away on twitter here and there, so you are welcome to pop in there and see what I am doing! Do you follow me? If not, come on and join the fun!