Mapping Photo Mats

Things I love .. being crafty, especially when it's an easy project that packs some emotional/sentimental punch.

What You Need:

- A Map

- A Frame

- Mod Podge

- Paint Brush

- Scissors

What To Do:

Disassemble your picture frame so you can retrieve the mat board. Lay out your map on a flat surface and place the mat board on top. Trace the outline with a pencil (dark enough so you can see). Take your scissors and carefully cut out the outline. Once you have your piece, take your mod podge and put a nice layer on top of your mat board. Now being extra careful place your map onto the mat board. Gently place another layer of mod podge on top.  Allow to completely dry, patience grasshopper. Once the mat board is completely dry, place it back in your frame along with your selected picture.  Viola!

My favorite part about this project is you can use this for just about anything; your favorite vacation destination, the city you/your spouse was born, the possibilities are endless. This project also makes a great gift .. an old family photo for Mother's Day?!

Gold Polka Dots

Gold and Polka Dots .. now that's a beautiful combination!

This was such a quick and easy project for the amount of whimsy and fabulousness that has been added.

 After briefly entertaining the idea of painting circles onto one of my hallways, I realized finding a removable option, ie. vinyl wall decals would be the best option for my fickle self. 
 No painting.  No cleanup.  Sold on vinyl.

After a quick internet search I found polkadotwallstickers.com.  The various sizes and color options left me momentarily overwhelmed (in a good way).  I decided upon 72  3" stickers in gold (because I'm fabulous) which after shipping and handling only cost me $31.  So this project was wicked inexpensive too.

I debated on lining up the circles and making sure everything was perfect and symmetrical, but then my brain started to hurt.  Instead I asked my two youngest children to join me and gave each a sheet with 24 circles and asked them to go to town help me.

Yes it's a horrible iPhone pic that does no justice to my polka dots

15 minutes later we were done.  I wish I was able to capture the shine from the gold as it is gorgeous.  It looks SO much prettier in person.
I LOVE it. 

xo - Shana

App for my Apps

IT. IS. AMAZING.
 (I'm talking angels singing sun shining kind of amazing)

CocoPPa App, which you may or may not have heard of, has transformed my phone.

 

OK, so seriously is that not awesome?!

CoccoPPa is loaded with tons of cute icons, you're just using shortcut links to the original app.

So it's VERY important that you don't delete the original app.

I may have learned that the hard way.

 I grouped similar apps in folders and moved those to the back of the phone.

You can even create a shortcut so you're able to email, call, or text someone from your contacts. 

Did I mention the CoccoPPa app is free?!

Disclaimer:

The icons do not display notifications.

When I click on one of my new icons it does take a second longer as I'm not opening the app directly, so far the slight delay isn't driving me crazy.  ;)

xo - Shana

Canstructures

This past Saturday the boys and I ventured off to our local 3rd Annual Canstruction event, which is being held at the state museum. 

Canstruction is a friendly design competition that helps fight hunger in cities all over America.  The "canstructures" were assembled by teams of architects, engineers, contractors and students who came together to create some really innovative structures using only canned goods.  Visitors can vote for their favorite canstructure by bringing canned goods to the exhibition and using them as ballots.  At the end of the event all of the canned goods go to the food pantry. 

Of course when I asked my boys to grab some cans from our pantry so we would be able to vote, they picked various canned vegetables.



The Hungry Caterpillar




Mario




Emerald City



 The canstructure that received my vote was:



Einstein

My boys all voted for the Despicable Me Canstructure

The Despicable Me team also offered face/arm painting which I think really helped to ensure their win.

After our votes were cast we wandered around the rest of the museum.



Of course we waited in line to ride the carousel



Taking in the local architecture



My youngest would REALLY like one of these as a pet



Glow in the dark minerals .. awesome


All in all .. we had a can-tastic Saturday.
I couldn't resist



Summer Fun 2012 List

It's that time of year again.

School is almost out and long summer days are ahead. 

Sandals. The beach.

I present to you my families Summer 2012 Fun List: 

(cue the fanfare) 

I am sooo looking forward to the next few months.

 Soaking it in and living it up. 

 xo - Shana

Black Gold

So maybe not real gold but that is what my great grandmother used to call finished compost.  My goal to celebrate/honor Miss Earth on her day (this past Sunday) was to come up with a project that would interest my four lil' hellions darlings with tangible results.  So Sunday morning (and by morning I mean 3:30 am, I love having insomnia) I decided to google composting.  NO (sane or logical) idea why I thought composting would be a good idea to research at 3:30 in the morning, other than it's something that has appealed to me.  Practical and rational Shana would like to briefly point out that I've always been hesitant because seriously it seemed kind of dirty and gross not to mention I don't have a degree in chemistry and I have a brown thumb, but whatev. 

Any-who I did some research online (organicgardening.about.com, backyardgardener.com, eartheasy.com) got freaked out as some options were super intense and way too hardcore for me.  Suddenly the clouds parted as the sun rose and I found this easy peasy guide (the winning tutorial was found via treehugger.com). 

 
OMG ... it is SO easy.  Seriously .. every household should as least try their hand at composting. 


Step 1: You need a plastic bin with a lid that's at least 24" high.  I took the kiddos for a trip to Lowe's where we purchased a rubbermaid container with said lid, I want to say it was like $8. 


Step 2: I used a drill to make small holes (it's recommended to make 8-10 so I made 9) in the bottom so everything can aerate.  Extra smiles because I always feel a lil more tough when the power tools come out.

Step 3: I had the kids round up some dry leaves (I believe I have at least 4 seasons worth of leaves in my side yard) so we could fill the bottom almost 1/4 full. 

Step 4: Using dirt (there is PLENTY of that at my house too) I filled the container another 1/4 of the way.  Which as my 6 year old son (he's starting to work on fractions) pointed out our bin was now half full. 

Step 5: It's time to now add your food scraps or paper products.  Which means any and all organic waste in your house (no meat or dairy) can go in your compost bin.  AMAZE-BALLS .. seriously.  So we threw some banana peels, an orange peel, and lint from the dryer

Step 6: Mix everything around and spray (and really I mean mist) with warm water.  You do NOT want it soaking wet.  Wet compost is smelly compost and ewww that's gross.

Step 7: I put the lid back on our bin and broke out the drill for round two.  Again to help with aeration you want to drill between 8-10 holes in the top (again, I did 9, I like being in the middle)

Step 8: We moved our bin to a shady spot in the backyard off our deck.  I keep all our other recycling bins on the back deck so it seemed the most convenient and logical. 

Now hopefully (fingers crossed) sometime within the next 2-3 months I should have some fab potting soil/lawn conditioner. 

This could totes be me ... minus all the brown and flared pants

xo - Shana

Heeyyyyy

Was I missed?

-crickets-

Yeah I didn't think that anyone had noticed that I've been an absent blogger.

　

So during the past few weeks:

- I celebrated my birthday (FYI it's a week long event with much fanfare and alcohol)

- Vacationed in a foreign country which resulted in a bacterial infection from said country

side note - when they say don't drink the water.. that's fo reals

As for fluffing the nest:

- I organized all my kitchen cabinets

- Painted my sons room (thankfully I no longer need to wear sunglasses in his room, it was LEMON yellow.. my foot went down at the same time I put the rail molding up and painted his room a calming blue and green)

- Started a gallery wall with the kiddos art work (luv that wall, seriously like amaze-ball idea)

xo - Shana