Homemade Dry Erase Board

We had to make some menu board changes at our Restaurant. With the Restaurant Menu we like to change things and it was a challenge to always change the vinyl wording. So when I found some wood at Lowe's to use as a dry erase board, I was so excited. For a 4'x8' board(could be labeled as:"white panelboard" or "mark-r-board wainscot"), it's 11.87.

I used this saw to cut them up into the measured pieces I needed.

Because the edges frayed a bit, I used my palm sander to sand the edges smooth. Then wipe the board off with a wet paper towel.

Homemade Dry Erase Board.

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Kids "Daily Duties" Board

Pretty soon we will have to get back into the swing of things with school starting. The paper chore charts we have done in the past have not worked out so I thought I might change and try something new.

I built these boards(13"x13") with plywood and beadboard and attached some 12"x12" magnet boards with E6000 glue.

Adhere the vinyl.

For the "duties" I used the glass pebbles, paper & mini magnets.

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My Organized CookBooks

After many months of looking at my Cookbooks in three different places I finally had time to fix that problem.

Here is the cabinet I'm going to use that is in our dining room.

My many cookbooks.

I measured the cabinet and cut the wood accordingly to fit.

Finish off the edges with thin wood (lathing).

To hold up the ends I just used some 2x4's until I can build some bookcases to go underneath.

 the Finished project. I reused some of my wire baskets for the magazines. The hard bound books are stacked on the shelf in the cabinet. The daily binders are in the kitchen cabinets.

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My FAVORITE Doughnut

Our family recently went on vacation to the Oregon Coast. On the way back we stopped in Portland to enjoy some Good Eats!

We went to this Doughnut shop and had to wait 20 minutes in line to order. 

This is now my favorite doughnut(I might have to "heatherize" a Krispy Kreme doughnut so I can have this on a more regular basis-since we only go to Oregon once a year). 

It has chocolate icing, crushed oreos, and peanut butter drizzle. Now it just needs a bunch of coconut and it would be perfect!

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ABC Summer "Z" Day

Today is the letter "Z".

1. Eat "Z" Foods: zucchini
2. Zoo Animals (scavenger hunt)
3. Zipper crafts.
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Waffle Muffins

I had some bulk blueberry muffin mix in my pantry. One morning recently, we were out of cereal. So I got out my waffle iron and mixed up the blueberry muffin batter. I sprayed the waffle iron with non-stick spray and cooked the "muffins" in it. They turned out delish!

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ABC Summer "Y" Day

Today is the letter "Y".

1 Eat "Y" Foods: yams, yogurt
2. Wear the color Yellow.
3. YMCA.
4. Yo-yo contest.
5. Yarn wrapped around wooden letters.
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Make-Shift Sewing Storage

My mom has a really nice, super durable, vintage sewing caddy that holds everything she needs for sewing. And it fits nicely on a shelf in the closet. I've tried to find one just like it, but to find one like my mom's I think a thrift store is my best bet. I've been checking in thrift stores for a while without success, so I settled on a fishing tackle box at the Goodwill for $1.50 and thought I would give that a try.

It will work for now until I find something better. The tackle box isn't quite right for thread storage, nor does it have enough compartments for all my thread. But it works okay for now. Pin It

ABC Summer "X" Day

Today is the letter "X".

1. Eat "X" Foods: hot X buns
2. Xtreme sports (rock climbing, etc..)
3. "x" marks the spot (treasure hunt)
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Scripture Tote Makeover

When my daughter turned 8 we got her new scriptures and a scripture tote in her favorite color, green. It was kind of plain and not real girly-looking, so I got a pretty pin with her initial and some bling to try and it up a bit. It wasn't quite right by itself, so I found some grossgrain ribbon that matched perfectly to add.

I used floral wire to hold the 2-piece bow together, hot glued the little pearl strands over the center, Fray Checked the ends of the ribbon tails, then hot glued the bow onto the scripture tote. I attached the pin and got glued the clasp shut. Done! My daughter was pleased with the finished product, and I was grateful that it was quick and easy.

I forgot to snap a shot of Hailey's green tote before I started, so here is my son's identicle [blue] scripture tote next to hers. Pin It

ABC Summer "W" Day

Today is the letter "W".

1. Eat "W" Foods: waffles, watermelon, walnuts, whole wheat bread, wild rice, whip cream
2. Walk.
3. Water games.
4. Wii time with kids.

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ABC Summer "V" Day

Today is the letter "V".

1. Eat "V" Foods: vanilla yogurt, vegetable soup or juice, veggies, velveeta cheese, vinaigrette dressing, vitamin water
2. Valentine's (give to someone who needs some extra love)
3. Volleyball
4. Vaccum the Van (if you go to the car wash they have high power
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ABC Summer "U" Day

Today is the letter "U".

1. Eat "U" Foods: upside down cake
2. Underground caves.
3. Eat a meal "UNDER" the table.

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ABC Summer "T" Day

Today is the letter "T".

1.Eat "T" Foods: tacos, tang, tangerines, tapioca, toast, tuna, turkey, tomatoes, tortillas
2. Treasure hunt.
3. Tic Tac Toe.
4. T. V.
5. Train ride.
6. Temple Trip.
7. Thank you cards.
8. Tie dye.
9. Textured art.
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Fun Gift Idea for Treasure Valley Locals

If you live in my area (Boise/Meridian, Idaho) and you might be looking for a fun and unique kid-gift idea...

...My friend, Santha makes these neat bows and arrows and sells them for $10 per set (which consists of one PVC pipe bow and 3 harmless arrows). I just bought one for my daughter and she is having so much fun with it.   

These are easy to make yourself, but at 10 bucks they are just as easy to purchase and let someone else do the work.

If you are interested, please email Santha: Super Santha at yahoo dot com. She has an assortment of colors to choose from!

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Hats for NICU Babies

When our 2nd daughter was born she had to be in the NICU area for 4 days. It was hard but I'm so thankful  they kept her safe and gave her an opportunity to heal so she could come home. Since this place has such a sweet spot in my heart I knew this would be a great service opportunity.

A couple of months ago we had an activity with our "Activity Day" Girls sewing these hats to give to the hospital. I spent $12.00 and cut out 85 hats. I was inspired to recycle a shirt (from the second hand store)from this cute idea.

For my pattern I bought these hats at Walmart to trace (then used them as a gift for a friend).

Turn the shirt inside out. Cut the hat from the sleeve or bottom finished edge. Stitch around the cut edge.

Done with the boy hat.

Girl hat.

For the girl hat flower: cut 6 circles (3@ 1 1/2", 3@ 1 3/4").

Layer them & tie a knot in the center.

Cut slits going around the circle. Be careful not to cut all the way through.

 Tie on a button.

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"Nailed It"

I heart Pinterest! And I always LOL when I see pins about projects/recipes gone wrong. Sad, but hillarious.

 Well, one went wrong for me on the 4th of July, and I was super dissapointed. (I even cried over it, but I think that part was mostly hormonal.)

So I re-pinned this scrumptious-looking recipe for Ding Dong Cake, and decided to make it as my son's birthday cake on the 4th of July. Beautiful, right?

...Not so much when I was done. Heres mine. I'm not sure what went wrong. But I think I may have whipped the filling for way too long, because it just didn't spread on the cake right, and the cake shifted on the way to my parents'. Maybe the cake needed to be cold before filling and icing it. It tasted yummy, but it certainly wasn't very pretty!

I guess I get to add my own "Nailed it" pic to the Pinterest world. And here it is...

In fact, I found a cool blog (through Pinterest) called Pintrosity, that is hillarious; but its also very helpful! They help detect the problems so we can fix them. Love it!!

So I may be sending this picture over. It was definately a "PINTROSITY"! haha

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ABC Summer "S" Day

Today is the letter "S".

1. Eat "S" Foods: salad, steak, salsa, sandwiches, sausage, seafood, seeds, slaw,spaghetti, sour cream, soup, squash, stew, stir-fry, strawberries, stuffing, syrup, swiss cheese, sorbet
2. School Supply Shopping(I do this)
3. Soap carving.
4. S'mores.

My new found love of S'mores: Chewy Cookies instead of graham crackers.

Homemade S'mores ice cream.

5. Sticker Stories.
6. Service.
7. Sandbox.
8. Scavenger hunts.
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ABC Summer "R" Day

Today is the letter "R".

1. Eat "R" Foods: raisins, rainbow sherbet, red grapes, ribs, rice, rice krispies, ricotta cheese, ritz crackers, roast, romaine lettuce, relish, radishes
2. Wear Red.
3. Read.
4. Rest.
5. River (tubing/wading).
6. Ribbon craft.

A cute Hair Bow. Inspired from here.

Cut 5 pieces of ribbon 2 inches in length.

Fold in 1/2 and stitch a "running stitch" along the cut edge.

Gather the petals and tie a knot. 

  Attach an embellishment to the middle.

7. Rock craft.
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