4th pf July weekend

There is nothing better than celebrating the 4th of July than spending it with your friends and family.   Even though it was a rewarding 3 day weekend for all (going to your families cabin) or staying in town, it is what matters most, our freedom.

The only thing that our family of 6 did was sit around the house while Abby took her nap, play outside with the neighbors and just had a little Barbeque.  Ribs, brats and a turkey burger with a side of potato salad was on our menu. 

Samantha and Emma had Matt's full attention on Friday so he took them to the water park near by while I stayed with Abby until Zack came home from his friends house.  But the piece and quiet always does a mother wonders. even if it's for a short time.

 

From all of us Spoden's to your family/friends, have a safe and Happy 4th of July!!!!

3D lashes? Yes please!!

Alright ladies I am sure that you are making big bucks with mascara and eye shadow let alone lip gloss.  My dear friend Stephanie Guzman is a make-up sales rep for a company for Yonique.   Stephanie also has a private Facebook page plus a make-up consultant at Yonique.  But let me tell you all, I am inspired by the 3 D mascara.  With all the pictures of mascara I am going to say,"Good bye"to Cover Girl or other mascara that you use on a daily basis.

So I am giving my friend Steph the opportunity to explain and give you make-up tips on what to do with your make-up. But please, if you would like to order from Stephanie, just inbox her your info from Yonique.

She will be the guest speaker on my blog so you and your friends can spread the word on the 3-D Lashes.

Until next time

Nicole   
   

Home made moon sand

The past summer week has come and gone.  But that does not mean that there isn't enough time to be creative with your kids, especially on rainy days.

About a year ago I needed a recipe for something for my preschooler's/kindergartners on a rainy day.  So 4 nights before I was teaching the class, I went on Pinterest to see what can make a 4 and 5 year old happy for more than 45 minutes.  If you have your own molds you can use those or any cookie cutter molds.  The sky is the limit, use your imagination.

So I typed in "Home made Moon Sand". On Pinterest there was many blogs that had recipes that just used baby oil and flour.
Yes friends, just 2 things that you really need to make moon sand: baby oil and flour.  The only thing I would suggest is combine baby oil with essential oil and flour.
If you are using your favorite essential  oil, make sure you use a drop or two until the fragrance is to your liking.

The only thing that I did was using 1 cup flour with a half cup of baby oil with a 1/2  teaspoon of essential oil.   
While mixing the baby oil with flour; add 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup flour until the mixture sticks together.  If the flour does not mix with the oil add more oil or flour.   Once the flour and oil holds together, the kids are ready to have fun.

If you have a play dough mat that you have laying around, let the kids have fun.  The "homemade moon dough" would last for months.  Please add different colors of food coloring to make your child's imagination take flight.

What other things can you make with flour and water or oil?

Till next time: Happy Crafting and use that imagination

*Nicole*

Summer time starts NOW!!!

Since I haven't blogging in a few more months, it was time for me to let everyone know that I have been really busy.  With 2 kids playing traveling softball and baseball and a 6 year old in t-ball with a 16 month old watching on the side lines it's a lot of work.  Not to mention Matt and I working and making sure that Samantha, Zack and Emma gets to their practices, or games on time. We try to make ends meet when it comes to our kids. With the in-laws helping out to team-mates picking up, we are grateful to have supportive people in our lives.  

On a side note from practices, games and work Matt and I proud to announce that Samantha will enter the 7th grade, Zack in the 6th grade, Emma in the 1st grade and Abby waiting patiently to learn from her siblings.  But Abby does keep us on our feet no matter what she may get in to.

When I think of summer, I think of being outside and playing until the street lights come on. Samantha, Zack and Emma like to be out until the sky gets real dark and the mosquitos come out.  Abby is trying to figure out why her older siblings gets to stay up later.  Explaining to Abby that Samantha, Zack and Emma have a few minutes to play outside makes her a little more at ease but she wants to be with the big kids.   

Since I am doing my blogging on our lap top while Matt works on our "main" computer for sweepstakes, I will do my best to down load pictures of different recipes, Pinterest  hacks and my personal likes from Pinterest or in store products.

Thanks for being patient with me.

Nicole

Countdown to Christmas

 

Can you believe that Christmas is less then 10 days away?  Have any of you bloggers finnished or even started with the shopping for your children or family members? 

Well,  if you said 'yes' to any of this, a Matt and I are about done with everyone, exept for 2 or 3 people in our family.  If you said 'no' to both, I am sure you are not alone to many individuals that like to wait until the last minute to get that "great" deal.  

No matter where you may be within the United Sates or anywhere in the world,  you will have enough time to get your family the "best" gift.  Just make sure you research the best deals within your area.  If you go to your favorite store. 

P

For teachers and directors for child care, your child can decorated their own Christmas card and hand made gift.  If your child is in elementary school, you may want to do the same thing as far as making a card or going to your local dollar store/dollar tree or dollar general and purchasing a glass cup,plate or making a little gift basket just to wish the teacher a "Happy Holidays".

Another idea is to bake cookies for the individual that have made your year or if the individual has been around for many years.  Since allergies to nuts,dairy or other ingredients for their favorite cookies, there are many alternatives to replace the allergic ingredients.  But make sure you do your homework first.  

Tomorrow I am going to share a "egg free" sugar cookie recipe that I have found.  Stay tuned for tomorrow.

Happy Holidays

~Nicole

Peach crisp...

This past weekend was very productive by baking up the rest of the canned peaches.  (All 9 1/2 cups of it). I am sure many of you baked apple crisp before, the ingredients will stay the same but the fruit is a little different. 

Once you get all the ingredients together such as the brown sugar, butter and oatmeal in the bowl, stir everything up until it's combined.  Since Emma wanted to help out she decided she wanted to pour everything in the bowl and stir away.  

I must admit that she did great, minus the flinging of the spoon,  it looked good.   Since my recipe called for 2/3 cup of butter ( which I used) next time when I make something like this,  I would use 1/4 cup or couple of tablespoons.  

Since I wanted to think outside the box a little bit,  I used one of my many large bowls instead of a shallow casserole dish.  Yes it worked out jut fine, but I made sure that the oatmeal topping was divided instead of having all of it on top.  

After spraying the dish with cooking spray,  I put about 1 1/2 cups of peahes in the dish topped it with 1/2 cups of the oatmeal topping, poured the remaining peahes and topping for the top layer.  Threw it in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes or until the topping was crisp and brown. 

I know the picture above looks a little like oatmeal with peahes, but it turned out pretty good,  despite the fact that there was a little too much butter in it. 

Share with me some other "fruit" crisps that you have made.  And what were the pros and cons when making it and serving it to the family?  I would like to hear from you.

~Nicole 

               What you need:

2 cans of peaches

2/3 cup of butter at room temperature

1 cup of dry oats

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 cup of brown sugar packed

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix sugar, butter cinnamon,  dry oats and butter until it's completely mixed.  Spray pan and add peaches then the oatmeal mixture.   Bake for 40-50 minutes.  Or until golden brown.  

If I missed some ingredients,  just follow the apple crisp recipe that you use.  

Happy baking

Cricut Mat and Tacky Spray. A Pinterest keeper

I am sure many of us own a Cricut machine.  Wether it may be the mini or the newest Cricut Expression, but the 9.99 and up cutting mats can be a little expensive even when the mat is used all the time.

A few months ago I needed to save a little bit of money and reuse the mat in some way, especially keeping the adhesive side sticky.  So I decide to look on Pinterest to see what I can do to make use of the Cricut mats.  Low and behold, I found that using Krylon Tacky Spray and blue painters tape does the trick.  

Rubbing a magic eraser to get the old adhesive off the mat and spray where the current adhesive was and wait 1 to 2 hours to dry before using the mat.  Well since I had no magic eraser to take off the unsticky adhesive, but I did have the painters tape and the spray adhesive I wanted to see how it worked.

Well, it worked just as good even if I had no eraser to work on the mat.  But if you have extra Mr. Clean magic erasers, go right ahead and use them.  (Before taping and spraying of course)  When using the spray, make sure that you do this in a well ventalated area, like outside or in the garage.  (when living out in the Midwest, the weather likes to make tricks on us especially during the fall and winter months)

The life time when using this spray will last just as long as purchasing a new mat.  But please make sure that you place the plastic on so dust or other small things will make the mat less sticky.
Feel free to comment on this and let me know what other adhesives you have used in the past.

Until next time and happy crafting!!

~Nicole