Homemade Microwave Popcorn

Guess what I learned last week.  You can make your own microwave popcorn.  Seriously.  After intensive research, I found that the best results were had from the combo of 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Orville Redenbacher popcorn kernels and a kraft treat bag, about 6"x9".  That's it.  Just put the popcorn in the bag, fold the top over about 1/2", 2 or three times and secure with washi tape or a staple.  Pop for 1 and 1/2 minutes.  (That was the magic time in our microwave.  You might have to adjust for your own microwave's idiosyncrasies.)  Your bag is just the right size for an individual snack, or you can share if you are both feeling really generous.  Or not very hungry.  We sprinkled melted butter and salt on ours.  Yum.  Here's a printable label to add to your bag if you want to give it away.  

popcorn label link

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cs lewis printable

I love CS Lewis.  I find him extremely inspiring and very pragmatic about the gospel.  I was messing around today and this is what I made:

I don't know why  part of the d got cut off in the jpeg, but you can go here to download the pdf.

This quote reminds me of this talk by Elder Christofferson about our daily bread, found here.  It's a great reminder of why we need to rely on God every day.  

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Hanging Advent Tutorial

I don't even know if I would call this a tutorial, because it was so easy!  I went to Hobby Lobby and bought this driftwood frame, using my 40% coupon.  I know lots of crafty/thrifty people out there would go find a pallet and take it apart and make their own, but I am lazy.  And I don't know where to find pallets.  Or how to make a frame.  So... I just bought one.

Then I took a length of jute twine (like in the picture above, which can be found pretty much at any craft store), and wrapped and knotted it around one side of the frame.  Then I stretched it across and knotted it on the other side.  I did two "clotheslines", but if your frame is bigger or taller, you could do more.  Also, I really procrastinated so we did the 12 days of Christmas instead of a 24 day advent countdown.  

Then I added these:

Mini kraft envelopes and mini clothespins, both from canvas home basics line of scrapbooking, found at Hobby Lobby.  I just clipped the envelopes on to the twine with a clothespin.  

Then I slipped a little card with an activity on it in an envelope.  Oh!  I almost forgot!  I printed off numbers 1-12 from different fonts that I liked and cut them and glued them to the front of the envelope.  

See how cute it is!  Don't forget some baker's twine!  It makes everything cute.  Even brown paper bags.  Especially brown paper bags.  I just tucked some berry picks around each corner, and it was done!  Easy-peasy.  Seriously, the longest part was cutting out the numbers.

Here is my calendar hanging on the wall. What fabulous pix my iphone takes.  Sigh.  Maybe next year Santa will bring me a nice d-slr camera.  :)

There you have it!  If you want to see what we did, here is an example of some of  my activity cards. If you want to use my numbers, here is a file of cards 1-24.  You can just print off whichever ones you need.  I just bubble cut around each number.   You could also buy stickers, but I was too cheap to buy 12 different kinds of number stickers!  Plus, I got to create my own.  Enjoy!

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Ellie's Mustache Bash!

So the other day I gave a sneak peek of Ellie's birthday party  with this invitation.

party pix

Here are some pix from the mustache bash!  I found lots of ideas for baby boy showers and little boy parties, but nothing for a little girls mustache party!  Go figure!  Anyway, I put on my thinking cap and this is what I came up with.  We picked one color to go with black and white, and she loved the lime green.  I found some great houndstooth ribbon and some lime and white striped ribbon and we went to town!

I had only my iphone to take pix with, so they aren't the greatest, but at least you can get the idea!

 Clear glass votives with ribbon glued around the bottom.  Added a mustache for flair!

Not only were these mustaches on a stick a cute centerpiece, but they were a hit with the girls.  We spent about 45 minutes taking mustache pix! You can get the template for these mustaches from easy makes me happy.  I used sticky back felt and cut two of each, then stuck the dowel in the middle.

Even daddy got in on the action!  Here he is with the birthday girl.  Doesn't he look like Mario?

The girls also wanted to do some mug shot style pix.  This is the rear shot!  :)

Our food table.  I tried super hard to come up with lots of puns!  Or mustache-y names!  We had Black Tie cupcakes, Puttin-on-the-Ritz crackers with  dip, Walking sticks (pretzels) with 24 K dip (cheese dip), Rainbow suspenders (extreme sour strips), and Mr. Goodbars (peanut butter bars).  I also set out some candy for the movie in little buckets-tuxedo buttons (jr. mints) and mother-of-pearls (green sixlets), plus chocolate and cherry twizzlers.  I had no creativity by this point, so they just got labeled twizzlers.  :)

                                    

For decor I used black and green and white.  Mostly tissue poms and streamers.  My pix didn't turn out, so use your imagination!  But I did put these mustache posters all over the mantel.

  You can get these mustache posters here!

We played stick the mustache on the man for a game.  It was so easy- I drew a face on my dry erase board.  The girls pulled down a hat over their eyes and stuck on their mustache.  They kept playing this through the night.  Simple is best!

It was a great night! We sent the girls home with these favors made out of clear candy tubes, filled with sixlets and decorated with ribbon, mustache sticker, twine and tag.

The favor bags were just simple green bags with a mustache sticker on them.  We also put in a chocolate mustache, a wax mustache and tootsie rolls!

I have to say this was my favorite design element.  I just took a clear cup, put on a mustache sticker, made a bow tie out of ribbon, and topped it off with a green stripey straw!  The best part-each mustache/tie combo was different so the girls were able to keep track of their drinks through the night.  Thanks for coming to see our 'stache bash!

linking up to tatertotsandjello

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Chinese New Year Singing Time

from photobucket-robinkingcullen

I decided to put my singing time ideas on here.  Or the ideas I got from looking at everyone else's fabulous blogs!  :)  Tomorrow we are going to have a Chinese New Year singing time.  I got this great idea from i heart primary music and added a few twists.  She suggests we play rock, paper, scissors with a child and if the child wins, we let him pick a gold coin with a song on it. If we win, then we all review As a Child of God.  Since I could not find any gold coins on a Saturday night, :(  I thought I would make a few of these:

from marthastewartliving.com

Felt Fortune Cookies!  I do have felt around from one of my many craft project remnants!  I am going to put the names of different songs inside as fortunes.  We will probably sing As a Child of God with some different "ways to sing" cards, just to mix it up.  I also thought it would be cute to put these in a takeout box, so I picked one up at Hobby Lobby.

After primary is over, I am going to give the kids one of these:

I am putting a fun size starburst on there.  Once in a while it is good to reinforce learning with food, right?  :) If you want to make some for yourself you can download the file here>  Also, you can download the fonts from here and just make your own!  I used Shanghai and Chinese Zodiac.  Have fun!

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