St. Patrick's Day 2010

St. Patrick's Day is kind of a crazy day in our home. Actually all the craziness happens while we're sleeping the night of the 16th. Our family wakes up the morning of March 17th to some strange things.

Like chairs upside down on the stairs and little green footprints on the walls.

Green milk for our cereal.
And this is a little awkward, I never thought I'd show my toilet on here but I am. We have green toilet water.
Those leprechauns are crazy little guys, aren't they? This whole thing started when my Tall Man was a little boy. His mom always made sure there was evidence of leprechauns on St. Patrick's Day. We've decided to do the same thing with our girls. It's a lot of fun and I love seeing our youngest chicks face when she discovers something is green that shouldn't be.

This year I'm thinking about going all out. I'm thinking green eggs and pancakes for breakfast, green mashed potatoes for dinner. We'll see, that may be just for the kids not sure I can bring myself to eat green mashed potatoes.

Blessings.

Clientele Box

I don't know about you, but I don't trust many people with my hair. Not like I protect my hair like JLo protects her rear end. I've just had a few mishaps with my hair over the years. My hair isn't straight but it's definitely not curly either. It's just kind of in between. Once when I was in the 8th grade I was having the front of my hair straightened, well the stylist started chatting it up and forgot about me under the dryer. She ended up burning off a patch of my hair!! It was awful!! Obviously I didn't go back there again.

Through high school and my wedding I had an incredible lady named Shelley who could work wonders with my hair. But one day when pregnant with my second daughter I was informed Shelley had been promoted to salon manager and was no longer doing hair. Boo hoo. Luckily Shelley set me up with another stylist she thought I'd love, Liza. She was right.

That was almost eight years ago. In that time Liza has done my hair every time I've had something done. Except one time and my hair didn't turn out right. Teaches me for wanting instant gratification and not waiting for Liza to have an opening.

Anyway, recently she moved into a house with a full basement where she has her own full salon set up. I wanted to do something nice for her because she has always been so nice to me and well, she just deserves it. There's no way I could get her a new straightener or chair (those things are spendy!) So I decided to make her a clientele box. This way she can keep track of every one of her customers and how they like their hair. Whether Bob wants a 3 or 5 cut? Or does Sue like her hair dyed to a 5 or an 8? I'm not completely sure what all that means, but I've heard it said in the salon world.

I picked up a recipe box from the dollar bin at Michael's and painted the edges with black craft paint.

While the paint was drying I cut out my black and white scrapbook paper to cover the rest of the box with. I used a little Mod Podge to apply it.

Then using my Wall Decor and More Cricut cartridge I cut out an L in bright pink for the front of the box. I applied the L with a little Mod Podge as well.

Then gave the whole box a thin coat of Polycrylic. I figure there is a possibility the box may get a spritz of water or spray gel so I wanted it to be protected. Here is the finished clientele box.

I was excited to give Liza the box that fateful Tuesday afternoon, the day I got my first grey. Ack! She seemed to really like it too. I hope so!

Blessings.

Happy....

Just want to say...

and

Happy Day After Pitchers and Catchers Report to Spring Training!

Blessings.

Valentine Favorites

Valentine's are all ready to go for Monday's classroom parties! Yay me! I thought I'd do a little cruising through blogland and show you my favorite Valentine finds. Here we go, in no particular order.

I absolutely love these "pillow talk" pillows from This Blessed Nest.

Crafts & Sutch printed up this lovely reminder.

I've always wanted to make ice cream cone cupcakes and I love House of Hepworths mini cones.

I've seen different versions of these Valentine's and I think Craft-O-Maniac did great, I'll be keeping this in mind for next year.

I'll be remembering Brown Paper Packages thumb Valentine's too.

So there ya go, five of my favorite Valentine finds. I hope you've found some inspiration in my crafts and the ones I've shared above. Happy Valentine's Day!

Blessings.

Valentine's Tree

Last fall my sister and brother-in-law were doing some yard work and had a bunch of branches to give me. Thank you so much!! If you've followed my blog for any amount of time you've seen these branches placed in my living room as well as our half bath. The branches from the living room had to go to make room for baby Jesus and friends however the branches in our half bath are still there. And they've changed with the seasons. Remember them in autumn?

And in winter?

Well now it's almost Valentine's Day and the branches are ready. I used my George cartridge for my Cricut and cut out several small hearts.

I used a dark red and ivory card stock. Then of course I had to use a book page or two. I folded each heart in half and used Elmer's white glue to put them together. I used one heart in each color for this craft.I glued two hearts together then before I added the third heart I used a little bit of hot glue to attach some jute to hang the hearts with. Finally I added my third heart.

The final product is a 3D heart hanging from my still sparkling branches.

I'm not sure what I'll do when baseball season officially starts. Hang baseballs? Not sure that would work out so well.

Blessings.

Changing Things Up a Bit

I apologize for the craziness going on here at My Northwest Nest. I've been wanting to paint my down stairs a lighter color but I can't do that right now so I'm lightening things up here instead. =o)

Please be patient with my indecisiveness. And leave your comments if you see something you like.

Thanks so much!

Blessings.

Valentine for My Tall Man

We've made Valentine's for my little chicks classroom parties and now it's time to make a little something for my Tall Man. Like I said before, we're not big on Valentine's Day. I know this upsets some people and they think I'm a bit of a grinch but that's not the case at all. I have never been a big fan of the day and I've had some very nice ones. I remember in 6th grade I was "going out" with a boy named Donny, he was the new kid from California, and for Valentine's Day he got me a stuffed animal, roses and a sterling silver ring with an abalone heart. Kind of overboard for sixth grade I think but it was sweet, I actually still have the tiny little ring in my jewelry box. About five years ago my Tall Man surprised me with diamond hoop earrings on Valentine's Day. At least we think it was for Valentine's, neither of us can honestly remember. See, I've had some very nice February 14th's.

We've discussed whether or not we're the bah humbug type and have decided that we like to do all sorts of sweet things for each other throughout the year, we don't need one designated day. Plus our wedding anniversary is just a month later. I have saved nearly every single little note from my Tall Man. Little sticky notes telling me the coffee's ready or he loves me or thank you for supporting him. I have movie tickets, baseball ticket stubs, concert stubs all sorts of little sentimental things. I'm not cold hearted, really.

I did however decide this year I was going to make him something for Valentine's Day. Just a simple card. After seeing Polka Dot Thought's card for a bachelorette party I knew I had to make one for my Tall Man.

Here is the front:

And the back:

Cute right? I love it! I used a plain piece of ivory card stock and folded it in half (hamburger way, not hot dog.) Then drew the top portion of a heart and cut it out. When you open the card up it should look a little like a butterfly. I had to do a little trimming here and there because I couldn't get it perfect, but lets face it, none of us are "perfect" in that department. Don't you wish you could "trim" like this?

I picked out some pink and white scrapbook paper for the bra and panties since this is for Valentine's. I cut the paper into a bra shape, I've decided this is definitely a balconette style bra rather than full coverage. Hee hee. Then embellished it with some thin pink ribbon along the top, for straps and a little bow in front. For the panties I just cut the shape of a thong and glued it on. I also drew a pink heart on the rear, just for fun.

I think this is such a fun and cute way to tell your man you love him. It's not over the top mushy and it's not too racy either. I can already hear my Tall Man saying "bow chica bow wow" when he opens it. Hope you like it!

Blessings.

Linking to: Tip Junkie, Get Your Craft On, Just A Girl, House of Hepworths

Valentine Heart Crayons

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I first told you about making heart shaped crayons with my littlest chick. The Valentine's are finally complete. Believe me I took WAY longer than I should have to finish this project. It really is quite simple. You can look back at my first post/tutorial here.

To finish these Valentine's I put two crayon hearts into a small clear treat bag and stapled it to a piece of card stock. At the bottom of the card it says "Be Mine for 'Crayon' Out Loud!" and "Be My Valentine for 'Crayon' Out Loud!" I don't consider myself to be good with words so I borrowed and tweaked How Does She?'s cute little phrase. Lastly I used a dot of hot glue to secure the red bow, it covers where the staple is.

I am happy with how they turned out and my little chick loves them. She asks every couple of days if it's the day to give her friends crayons. Maybe being prepared three weeks in advance wasn't such a good idea. Oops.

Blessings.

Linking to: Just A Girl, House of Hepworths

Dum Dum Valentines

Every time I hear dum dum I think of Night at the Museum "Dumb dumb, give me some gum gum." My girls love that line.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, dum dum Valentines. I talked to all three chicks about making their Valentines this year and showed them some ideas I have seen in blogland and in magazines. They each wanted something different from the other, so I was super excited. I could create three different blog posts just on making Valentine's. Doesn't every blogger think to herself "This could be a blog post!" when a new project is about to begin?

Instead of three posts I am only making two because my older chicks both wanted to use dum dum suckers. I am sure you have all seen the the little flower Valentines with a dum dum sucker in the middle. I have always wanted to make them for one of my little chicks and this year I actually thought far enough in advance I have made it a reality. So we have flowers, cupcakes and ice cream cone Valentines.

My middle daughter loved the simple flower design so I used my Cricut to cut a bunch of hearts. I used the George cartridge but several cartridges have heart shapes so you could use whatever you want. Next I put her to work using a single hole punch to put a hole about 1/4 inch up from the bottom point of each heart. When she was done with that she took three hearts, lined up the circles and glued them together with a little Elmer's glue. Once they dried we popped the sucker through the center and bent the hearts up a little so they looked more like petals. And we were done. Now all she has to do is write names and hand them out.

As for my oldest, she knew she didn't want the same thing as her sister, however she did want to use the dum dums. I went through my Cricut cartridges looking for something that might work. On the Straight From the Nest cartridge there are cupcakes and ice cream cones with cherries on top. I thought "Well, that might work." So we cut a bunch of cupcakes and ice cream cones, punched a hole where the cherry was and put the dum dum in. Now instead of a cherry on top there's another sweet treat.

They're not real fancy but they're cute, just like my girls and we're happy with them.

Blessings.

Linking to: Get Your Craft On, Tip Junkie