Family Birthday Board

For this past Christmas, I made our grandparents family birthday boards. Not only is this is a great gift idea for grandparents, but it's a fun creative way to keep track of family birthdays instead of using a boring wall calendar. This is not a full on tutorial, because let's face it, there are many tutorials out there. I just wanted to share my version of the birthday board, a supply list, and where to buy said supplies.

Supplies Needed:
-(1) 8" wide x 6' long pine board (makes 3 boards) Cut to 24"
-walnut stain
-acrylic paint
-vinyl
-eye hooks
-s hooks (buy them here)
-circle/heart wood cutouts w/pre-drilled holes (buy them here)
-little baggies (found at Hobby Lobby in the jewelry isle)
-fine tipped Sharpie

First, I painted the front of each board. Next, I carefully stained the sides and back of the board. Be careful not to get stain on the paint. After all that was dry, I applied the vinyl. Next, I added the eye hooks to the bottom of the board. With that, the board was done.

I decided I didn't want to paint all the wood cutouts, so I limited my painting to the hearts which I decided were for the great-grandchildren (since there are less of them right now). The circles are for the grandparents, children + their spouses, and the grandchildren + their spouses. I got little baggies and put the number of discs/hearts representing each family member in each individual family. For instance, I have my in-laws (2), my husband and I (2), brother/sister in law + son (3), brother in law (1). So in our family baggie we had 7 circles and 1 heart + (8) s hooks. I repeated that for each family unit. I also added a baggie with extra circles for future spouses of grandchildren and also a baggie of hearts for future great-grandchildren. I found a container at a thrift store to put the baggies in. I also added a fine tip Sharpie for writing names and birth dates on the discs.

It was a lot of work, so I'm glad it turned out as awesome as it did!

The Adorable Pallet Snowman

Let me tell you the birth story of this project. My sister's friend bought this snowman in the midwest. Since she knows my sister loves stuff like this, she texted this picture to her. I believe this snowman is made out of a giant spool, unfortunately, that's all I can tell you about it. So, like all our other projects, we dove in and made a plan as we went.

First thing we did was cut 3 (5.5"x 6') cedar fence slats in half (used 5 of the 6 half pieces). We also cut 1 (3.5"x6') cedar fence slat in half. We laid the boards out, found the middle and drew a big circle as shown.

I used my bandsaw to cut each board. I also cut out of the scraps: 2 eyes, 6 circles for the mouth, a nose, star, and a hat. I sanded and painted everything. The face is whitewashed.

Here's a back shot to show how we put this thing together.

This guy turned out so cute! Like with the pallet turkey, I was apprehensive about this project, but with some gentle pushing from my sister, we were able to make a really cute winter craft to display on each of our porches. He is so big that we can see him down the street.

The Adorable Snowman...

My sister came up a few days later and made some snowflakes for her shelf. Each snowflake is different in size and design. We made the winter letters a few years ago.

Simple Dinner Recipes 2

Like I said a few months ago, I HATE to make dinner. But I have to, so I make sure to collect recipes that are fast and simple. Here are some more of my favorite dishes that I make often. Go HERE for more.

KFC Potato Bowls

Ingredients:
mashed potatoes
corn
turkey gravy
shredded cheese
popcorn chicken

Make some mashed potatoes. Add popcorn chicken and corn then smother with gravy and top with cheese.

Taco Ring

Go HERE for the recipe

Side Dish:
Spanish Rice

Vegetable Chowder
Serve in bread bowls.

Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 packet of onion soup mix
2 cloves of garlic
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz cream cheese
egg noodles

In a pan, combine the hamburger, onion soup mix, 1/4 cup of water and the garlic. Cook until meat is browned. Drain. Add cream of mushroom soup and cream cheese. Heat until warm. Serve over egg noodles.

Italian Chicken

Ingredients:
6-8 chicken tenderloins
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 packet of italian dressing mix
8 oz cream cheese

Put everything in a crockpot and cook on high for 3.5-4 hours. Serve over Rice

Shepherds Pie

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
mashed potatoes
15 oz of tomato sauce
1 can corn
cheddar cheese

Cook beef and drain. Cover bottom of 9x13 pan with mashed potatoes. Layer hamburger, tomato sauce and corn. Top with more mashed potatoes then sprinkle cheddar cheese on top. Bake uncovered @ 375 for 30 mins.

My Sister's Remodeled Master Bathroom

We spent a good part of this year remodeling my sister's master bathroom. We started this crazy project in February and finished in November. All the hard labor was done in July, but it wasn't until November that the crowning jewel, the shiny new glass shower door, was installed. With that being the last piece of the puzzle, my sister and her hubby can now enjoy their new lighter and brighter bathroom!

Before:

After:

We found all the materials (minus the shower door) at Home Depot.

Just an end note, my sister and I might as well become indentured servants for Home Depot with the amount of money we both spend there...

Article of Faith Flash Cards

I found this original idea on the blog called All Things Bright and Beautiful. I fell in love with these immediately, so I downloaded each card and had them developed at Sams Club. There was a problem though, they came out blurry and smaller than a 4x6 print. I found her Etsy shop, but didn't see the prints, so I contacted her to see if I could purchase the file. Unfortunately for me and her, the computer with the file on it died and took the file with it. LAME! I needed these cards for a project at church. So insert my husband with his mad Indesign skills. He recreated each card. By him doing this, the blurriness and size problems were solved.

My next problem was how to I protect each card? It was too costly to have them professionally laminated. I always thought that personal home use laminators were expensive. Plus I really didn't have a reason to have one. So naturally, I went to Amazon.com to see what I could find.

I ultimately bought Amazon's brand LAMINATOR and a pack of 100 sheets of laminating POUCHES.

I feel like the pictures are enough of an explanation of how to put the project together, so here you go:

I did try to contact the original designer about sharing these updated cards on her blog, but she never got back to me. So, I am willing to share the JPG files. Send me a request by email. I don't mind sharing as long as you use them for personal or church use. Please DO NOT sell them as your own.

Link to PDF

Pallet Turkey

A few months back, my sister found THIS pallet turkey on Pinterest and said we had to make our own. So we did.

Supplies:
(4) 3.5"x6' Cedar fence slats (cut in half = 36")
(1) 5.5"x6' Cedar fence slat
(1) 2"x2"x8' board
paint- orange, red, and white
paintbrushes
Dark Walnut Stain
Special Walnut Stain
nail gun + nails
drill + screws
(2) buttons

First thing we did was lay the boards out. Next, we drew the body of the turkey onto the boards. Once we had the design all figured out, we cut it out, board by board, using a bandsaw.

Next, we glued and nailed support pieces to the back of the body.


We also did this to the back of the head/front. Not only did this add support to the turkey, but it also gave it a 3-D effect.

Before we glued/nailed the two parts together, we stained the back piece dark walnut and front special walnut. We also added a whitewash layer to the front/head piece. Then we painted the beak orange and the snood red, then glued/nailed it to the head. I thought my turkey needed eyes, so I glued on two different sized buttons.

Then we screwed three screws into the back of the turkey to connect the front body/head with the back body.


I went into this project feeling hesitant, and came came out overjoyed with the final product. I love it when projects turn out better than you thought they were going to!

Simple Dinner Recipes

I struggle with making dinner. Always have, always will. I can tell you that making a plan beforehand, and thinking about it during the day, cuts down on the 6 PM mad dash around the kitchen trying to figure out what to make. If you are anything like me, you ultimately decide to go easy on yourself and go get a Little Caesars $5 pizza. That has happened more times than I care to admit. Another hard thing about making dinner is having a nice variety of recipes. I obviously can't make the same thing every night, so it takes a lot of time to go through Pinterest and find simple recipes that I know I can make without a lot of effort.

I found a meme that explains exactly how I feel about most recipes...

I sat down the other day, made a menu for October. I thought I would share it week by week, since I know I am not the only one that suffers with whattomakefordinneritis. Even if you don't struggle like I do, I hope you can find a few new recipes to add to your rotation.

I only make dinner Monday-Thursday. Friday is date night, Saturday is whatever you can find day, and Sunday my husband cooks.

If no recipe is listed, click on the recipe title and it will take you to the website I found it on.

Main Dish: Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich
Side: Fries

Main Dish: Pasta With Tomato Cream Sauce
Side Dish: Garlic Bread

Main Dish: Chicken Enchiladas
Side Dish: none
Recipe Comments: We don't like sour cream, so I substitute it with an 8 oz bar of cream cheese.

Main Dish: Lasagna Roll Ups
Side Dish: Garlic Bread

Recipe:
Coat the bottom of a 9x13 pan with pasta sauce. Boil eight lasagna noodles. Spoon some cottage cheese onto each noodle. Top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning. Roll each noodle and place in the pan. Smother each lasagna roll with spaghetti sauce. Top with more cheese. Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 for 25 mins. Take foil off, turn oven to broil and cook for another 5-8 minutes.