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27 June 2012

Wordless Wednesdays (almost?!?!) - Coming soon!



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PS: Just a reminder to my printables followers!, Nitro PDF allows you to type text into ANY pdf, save, and/or print it, or even create your own. Best of all... It's FREE!!! Check it out HERE. I'm not an affiliate, so I get nothing for sending you to it. I just love it and think you will too!

22 June 2012

Home Journal: Printable Children's Chore Charts

This one was mainly done for Kaelyn.

She always asks what she can do to help, and I can't ever think of anything on short notice. However her new bedroom is now divided in "stations". We made a "book club" under her bed, and she got a used barbie sized princess castle at the local thrift store after losing her first tooth, and then there is the dress up area, her desk, etc. Right now it is her desk, the book club, and the castle that catch hell so That's what her chore chart focuses on, and I added "Ask Momma for a Chore" for when the other areas need picked up.

Screenshot
I am still working on a boy/neutral one and a teen one but for now here is  MS Office .docx and a PDF.

DOWNLOAD
Pink/Hello Kitty Chore Chart, PDF

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  PS: Just a reminder to my printables followers!, Nitro PDF allows you to type text into ANY pdf, save, and/or print it, or even create your own. Best of all... It's FREE!!! Check it out HERE. I'm not an affiliate, so I get nothing for sending you to it. I just love it and think you will too!

Summer Fun 2012 Pressed Flower Art

Remember the Summer Fun post where she wouldn't reveal what she drew? It was "Movie Night"., since she drew it that meant she got to pick the movie. She was excited, but that left a space of boredom during the day, because she's had a heat rash of some sort so I was keeping her inside... drowned rat sad faced kind of trauma I'm telling you!

So I let her pick another one to see if it was something we could do NOW. (Next jar I think I'll color code: crafts,  trips, indoor, outdoor.. or something like that so I can give her a few color options to choose from based on time span.) She picked pressed flower art.

We really don't have a lot in our new yard yet, some purple flowers I haven't identified and a lot of dandelions. Does anyone think Kaelyn cared? You got it! Not at all!

I thought it might be something you'd like to try, and I did get pictures, so I decided to blog it. There are lots of fancy ways to do this on the web, but here's how we did it:

Step 1: Pick flowers & pretty leaves

Step 2: Put a napkin in a book, and place flowers to press. Cover with another napkin.
Step 3: Cover your book with some junk mail....

Step 4: because you'll be covering it with the heaviest pot you own. In our case, this is cast iron and no amount of cleaning prevents the black ring. Press for at least an hour
I had to take this pic twice.. I got in trouble, because
I wasn't fast enough to get her struggling to pick the pot
up the first time...so she faked it for a retake LOL!








Step 5: Get out your fun stuff and decorate some paper blanks. We decided to make book marks by folding some card stock scraps in half.
Step 6: Lay your pressed flowers out on your decorated card stock and press them down with a strip of wide clear tape or clear contact paper.
Step 7: Since we used folded card stock we taped it down and trimmed.

Step 8: My favorite part! Ask if they had fun, because this IS for them... and get tackle hugged because you are an awesome Mommy :-)
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PS: Just a reminder to my printables followers!, Nitro PDF allows you to type text into ANY pdf, save, and/or print it, or even create your own. Best of all... It's FREE!!! Check it out HERE. I'm not an affiliate, so I get nothing for sending you to it. I just love it and think you will too!

21 June 2012

Summer Fun - in a fun way!

I have discovered a new favoruite website. Wordle. You can use it to make subway art. You know the fun abstract shaped random words? I used it to make a Summer Fun list for our family.

I took a list of summer fun to do: crafts, trips, foods, activities, and more for indoor and outdoor fun on rainy and sunny days and created my own Wordle :-)


I printed it on plain printer paper and will be framing it in a regular glass frame to make it dry erasable.

Here are a few things to know about Wordle:
  • You can't save from the site, but you can "print screen" or use your snipping tool and paste into a photo editing program to print. See their FAQ for more info.
  • A space means a new word. So "Summer Fun 2012" would print in 3 separate places, but "SummerFun2012" prints together, so plan accordingly with your words. All of mine are Capitalized OnTheFirstLetterOfEachWord. :-p
  • If you want certain words to stand out (mine are summer fun, Freitas Family, and to a lesser degree, Get new Library Card, Rainsticks, etc), List the word more than once. The more you repeat it, the bigger it is. My word list looked like this:
FreitasFamily
FreitasFamily
FreitasFamily
FreitasFamily
SummerFun2012
SummerFun2012
SummerFun2012
SummerFun2012
Farmer'sMarket
Farmer'sMarket
SprinklerFun
SprinklerFun
Bubbles
Bubbles
SidewalkChalk
SidewalkChalk
FairyHouse
FairyHouse
GetNewLibraryCard
GetNewLibraryCard
NakedEggs
BeachTrip
CampOut
Smores
PuppetTheater
TieDye
Sunprints
SeashellGarden
HammeredFlower
LeafPrints
PaintedRocks
PaperBagWindSock
Hopscotch
FlowerPinwheels
Kaleidoscopes
PressedFlowerArt
TissuePaperButterflies 
ClothespinDolls
VacationMemoryJars
TinCanStilts
RainSticks
RainSticks
Checkerboards
BulletinBoards
FriendshipBracelets
RainbowJello
FruityLemonade
NatureWalk
Swimming
WaterFight
MovieNight
SockPuppets
TeaParty
Picnic
PIZZA!
TourCapital
VisitMuseums
Windchime

Each stands for a thing to do, go to, make, experiment with, etc.

  • You can choose custom colors. Colors is the ONLY attribute you can change without the format changing. So make sure you like your shape and then set your custom color pallette.
  • Play with all the nifty buttons & the menu links at the top of the button - It's COOL!
  • Have fun!
See my Summer Fun 2012 page to follow along as we complete our list!

I also put them in scraps of card stock in a jar so she can pic then randomly for us! Today we get...
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I guess she's not telling? :-)

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PS: Just a reminder to my printables followers!, Nitro PDF allows you to type text into ANY pdf, save, and/or print it, or even create your own. Best of all... It's FREE!!! Check it out HERE. I'm not an affiliate, so I get nothing for sending you to it. I just love it and think you will too!

20 June 2012

Cheesy Fiesta Chicken

Kaelyn asked for this today. Apparently "Cheesy Chicken" was a hit! There is a similar recipe in the P90X cookbook but we've modified it for us, as usual. I am using all of the standard "ok ingredients" and rules. Like "Cheese isn't an ingredient, it's a condiment". As in don't drown your foods in cheese and other dairy based products. Just add a little for flavor and move along.

Please ignore the fuzziness... I didn't realize the lens got steamed till it was too late!

Home Journal: 15 Minute Clean Kitchen

The Kitchen. 


It is the room I love the most, yet hate the most... when it comes to cleaning that is. I could spend all day in there cooking, experimenting, drinking coffee, and the like. But I hate cleaning up my mess! :)


I have come across several "quick clean" posts, articles, and printables on the web but none were quite universal. I wrote this one at the apartment, and I've reviewed it here at the new place with the larger kitchen - with less storage... how does that happen??? Ah well, that's another post! Anyway... It still works.


This one is practical, not pretty. I guess I could print it on fancy paper, but it's functional, and really, does anything else matter?


Here's the steps I'm using, and hopefully I've made it universal enough to work for you, too.

18 June 2012

Grown-Up Yum Yums: Midori Sour

A good friend introduced me to Midori. It's a melon liquor with a fruity, highly sweet taste. Once I made my Sour Mix I wanted a fun drink to go with, and I had midori so I started searching for Midori Sours, like you'd do an amaretto sour? I found about a dozen indvidual recipes and I came up with a mix I liked, and several friends agreed. After tweaking, here's what we came up with!

Midori Sour


Note: I used a 1.5 oz shot glass for this, but the ratio will stay the same no matter what size unit you use to measure.


Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 parts Bacardi Gold Rum
  • 1 1/2 parts Midori
  • 2 parts Sour Mix
  • 2 parts ginger ale

Directions:

  1. Mix over ice in a tall (16oz) glass.
  2. Stir.
  3. Enjoy!

As with any of my recipes, I say make it your own. My original was Bacardi Gold Rum, Midori, and diet ginger ale. I'll be trying it soon with Bacardi 151, and I'll probably take it to 1 part rum & 2 parts Midori since 151 is stronger flavored. I tried it this weekend with the Bacardi Gold and cherry lime-ade - IT TASTED LIKE A JOLLY RANCHER! A friend prefers vodka and is going to try it that way.

So choose your favorite liquer base (rum, vodka, tequila, etc), and the Midori and Sour Mix, and top it off with your favorite sweet mixer (ginger ale, cherry limeade, sprite, orange or pineapple juice, etc) It's your party! The sky's the limit!

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Grown-Up Yum Yums: Sour Mix

So one huge factor in our move is it brought us closer to friends to hang out on the weekends without it being  practically a vacation or road trip! Because of this we've had lots of impromptu weekend get-togethers, dinner parties, and movie nights.

So, for fun's sake, I'm starting a "series" called Mixology.  I'll start today with 2-3 seperate posts, then they'll come as I find something new!

I'll have the full list on my new Mixology page!

First post is something we've all used and really I am now wondering WHY I ever bought it: Sour Mix, or Sweet & Sour Mix. You know the stuff you use to make Amaretto sours and the like? SOOOOOOO easy to make!

Plus, it's the star in the first drink!

Sour Mix


Ingredients (can be halved, doubled, or more to fit your needs!)

  • 1 1/3 cups water
  • 1 1/3 cups sugar (working on a splenda/low cal option, too!)
  • 2 cups lemon juice *see note*

Directions

  1. Bring sugar and water to a boil over medium high heat and boil for 5 minutes.
  2. Cool to room temp.
  3. Add juice.
  4. Pour into a container with a lid (a capped pour spout bottle works great!)
  5. Chill unused portions for several weeks.

Note: If you want a mix for margaritas, try lime. For a great all around mix, try half lemon, half lime. Make it yours!

 Simple, Easy, TASTY!

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04 June 2012

FINALLY MOVED!!!!

Well we are finally IN the new place... now just to get everything situated!  I still have a lot of work to do but I hope to spend at least a few minutes a day catching up on my blogging and finishing up the Home journal with you as well!

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day (since I missed wishing that before) and I pray you took a moment to thank a military veteran in your life for what they have done for our country in war and in peace.

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PS: Just a reminder to my printables followers!, Nitro PDF allows you to type text into ANY pdf, save, and/or print it, or even create your own. Best of all... It's FREE!!! Check it out HERE. I'm not an affiliate, so I get nothing for sending you to it. I just love it and think you will too!
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