I Made....

My own pore strips!!  Anyone else like (okay, love) to peel stuff?  Just me?

I will give credit where credit is due.  Thanks to Pinterest, I stumbled across this tutorial.  The mask only has 2 ingredients! 

Here's my version of the original...

You'll need:
Gelatine (unflavored) powder.  {There is also a vegan style powder if you're into that kind of thing}
Milk (any kind)
dish
measuring spoon
craft stick (or something to apply the gel to your face)

In the dish combine 1 Tablespoon of the gelatine with 1 to 2 Tablespoons of milk.  Mix until it's a chunky consistency.  Work quickly!  It'll start to set fast!  Put the dish in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.  Keep stirring, work quickly, and apply it to your face with the craft stick.  It's warm, but not too hot.

Tips:  Start with a clean face.  Remove any facial jewelry.  In the original tutorial, she {bravely} put the gel all over her face.  I had noticed in the comments that people were saying that it hurt to peel it off more sensitive parts of their face.  Not wanting to peel my own skin off, I opted to only put it on my nose and chin.

*Let it dry for 10 to 15 minutes.  It'll harden and you'll know when to peel.  It definitely brought tears to my eyes when I peeled off the little bit that had gotten on my septum.  But!  It does peel nicely and took a lot of gunk with it.

*It smells bad!  Like, yucky bad.  But, for 10 minutes, I could tough it out.

*I rinsed my face after and put on lotion.  It's been a little more than an hour and I can still feel a slight burny feeling in my cheeks.  So I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with sensitive skin!

I will absolutely do it again when the need arises.  Or maybe I'll luck out and not be in my thirties with acne.

Sound Advice

What is some really good advice that you've been given?  Something that you have really taken to heart and used, not just shuffled to the back of you brain Rolodex only to realize too late that you should have actually followed the advice.

Cliches don't count, either.  "Things happen for a reason."?  Not advice.  "When one door closes another door opens"?  Potentially true, but kinda vague.

Let's skip over 'common sense' advice, too.  Everyone knows NOT to: eat the yellow snow, trust a magician or eat undercooked meat.

Being told that your Triple A card can be used for bail (thanks, Dad!) or that expiration dates don't ALWAYS have to be followed, or that allowing a Deaf student to test YOUR hearing with a set of headphones and a volume knob is a bad idea are all good things to know, but not (hopefully) life changing.

When Jay and I were engaged, we met with a friend/financial adviser.  He advised us to do whatever it takes to eliminate any debt BEFORE we got married, and from then on DO NOT use credit cards.  We didn't have much debt...I think Jay just had school loans.  I had just recently discovered the joy of credit cards, but my fear of getting in trouble for not paying the bill in full every month prevented me from having a real credit score.  Apparently, one has to prove herself capable of paying off a debt over time.  Only a few times over the past decade +, have we had to use a credit card.  Sometimes to get a good deal, we've opened a store credit card, but then cut it up once it was paid off.  See?  That was some good advice.

When our Joe was a teeny baby, I was excited and ready for him to make all these huge leaps developmentally....walking, potty training, toddler bed.  When I mentioned a big boy bed, Jay's brother jumped in to say "No!  Leave him in the crib as long as possible...until he can figure out how to get out!"  At first, I didn't get it.  Why would I want him to stay in a crib if he's big enough for a bed???  Freedom, he explained.  If Joe (then Bella, then Trey) can get out of bed, he (she, he) will.  All.  Night.  Long.  You know how you can leave him safely in his crib in the morning while you brush your teeth and get dressed?  If he's in a bed, forget it.  Instead, you'll wake up to a dragon breathed toddler staring at you with frightening intensity.  He was right.  We kept each child in the crib until they were about 3 1/2 and the transition was pretty smooth.  Trey has been the toughest to keep in his bed at bedtime, but even at his worst, he's still so dang funny and cute and only lasts about 15 minutes.  See?  More good advice!

So what's some good advice?

A For Real Easy and Cute Tutorial

I finally found a craft that meets a need for me, the kids can help, it's not expensive and does not take a long time.  Whew!  I have a hard time throwing things away...even broken, seemingly unusable things.  Take crayons, for instance.  We have approximately 4 million and 12 crayons in this house.  I keep shoe boxes full of crayons in our craft closet, a stash in my purse and a stash in my "to go" activity bag.  This might be too many crayons.  Plus, throughout this past year, people generously sent things in the mail for the kids and the number one thing they received?  Coloring books and.....yep, more crayons!  So, here's my cute (Not new by any means!  Have you looked on Pinterest lately?) way to reuse/re purpose old crayons.....

The kids helped by peeling the paper off the selected crayons. 

This didn't even make a significant dent in our crayon collection!  Bella helped by picking out the colors I asked for.  I used an old cutting board and old knife to chop the crayons into little pieces.

I love rainbow order.  This is a silicone tray that I purchased at Jo Ann's.  It's the only thing I spent money on for this project and with a coupon, it was around $6.  I didn't want to overfill the cups, but after baking them, I could have put even more crayon bits in each section.

See how there's room at the top of each cup?  These still turned out perfectly, though.  I put them in the oven at 290* for 15 minutes.  I put a regular cookie sheet under the silicone tray for stability.  Spilling melted wax on myself was not high on my "to do" list.  After taking them out of the oven, I actually put the tray outside for a while to cool.  One tutorial I read said to put the tray in the freezer, but Jay (again, more practical than I) thought that putting something so hot in the freezer would not be good for the rest of the frozen food in there.  Once they were cool, I just gently pulled the edges of the tray a little and the gingerbread dudes came right out.

Bella and Joe are excited to give these to their teachers and to be able to say that they helped make them.  Cute, right? p.s. Once you've used the tray to melt crayons, you shouldn't use it for actual food products anymore...just sayin'.

I Got a New Toy!!!

I know I haven't blogged too much recently...but I have my reasons.  My newest reason is that I got a new camera!  I'm so excited! I have no idea how it works or what all the functions are, but by golly!  I 'm gonna learn!  I have a few post ideas brewing in my head, so stay tuned, I'll get there.  In the mean time, here's a few of my 'test shots'....

Bella's Beautiful Bedroom

Whew!  It's been a busy time around here.  With what, you ask?  Well, mainly, Bella's bedroom needed to be totally redecorated.  Allow me to set the scene...Our house has 3 bedrooms, though the third may or may not be an actual bedroom depending on which home assessment you look at.  It is teeny tiny and does not have a closet (that's why it's sometimes not considered a bedroom).  Anywho, this room started out as our home office then morphed into a nursery.  It's the perfect size for a crib and changing table.  I carefully picked a gender neutral brick red, navy blue and cream color scheme (because the room already had a dark blue carpet).  The room was so cozy and warm and dark.  Perfect for rocking and nursing.  When Bella came along, Joe moved into the second bedroom.  Then when Trey came along, Bella bunked in Joe's room.  As the kids got older, we felt that it would be good to have a boys room and a girls room.  Bella moved back into the nursery and Trey moved in with Joe.  Bella has clearly outgrown my Americana obsession with stars, so from top to bottom, her room has been transformed.  Most of the artsy ideas came straight from Pinterest....enjoy the pics!  They're not great pictures, but you'll get the gist.

This bed was a labor of love!  I sanded it, sawed it, painted, and built the headboard.  The drawers are huge and make up for the lack of closet space.

Here's Bella's vanity table (sorry about the pajama top!).  Isn't that headband tower cute?  A friend made that!  And the frame was super simple to make....just hot glue ribbons in an empty frame and viola!

Cute little art wall.  The stars were red, white and blue...easy change to simple white.  I painted and stenciled the plywood, and Bella wrote the words.  I love that she help create the art!  The letter "B" was made with a combo of puffy paint and Elmer's glue, then mod podeged onto canvas (seriously easy!).

I bought silver trays at my favorite antique store and painted them with chalkboard paint.  Super easy, super fun.  The dresser was a basic cherry wood from Target, painted Mickey's Shadow gray with the drawer fronts painted with chalkboard paint.

And bookshelves for good measure.  Since taking this picture, the corners have been covered to prevent bleeding head injuries and I glued ribbon to edge to spice it up a bit.  Like I said, the pictures don't really do the color justice.  The walls are painted in Princess Tiara pink, also from the Disney collection.  That's what I've been doing.  Oh yeah, and recovering the dining room chairs, hosting Thanksgiving, etc,etc.

Bonus!!!!  Remember  my friend Drew's "monkey tail" beard??  Well, he did it again!  This beard is called "Oh no!  My beard fell off!" and it's just great...

Trick-or-Treat Success???

Well, we made it!  Our first year going door to door on Halloween.  The kids lasted about an hour and STILL managed to collect 4 gallon bags worth of loot (not including Huggies, chips or crackers).  I'm probably most excited to say that I have not had one single piece of blessed chocolate!  Hooray for me!  There were a few things that I took note of to improve the quality of Trick-or-Treating in the future...

1) Move to a warmer climate.  It was about 40 degrees AND raining!  My face hurt from squinting against the stinging, incessant drops.  Yes, we had umbrella's, but they were not always the convenient choice.

2) When handing out pillowcases, avoid t-shirt style cases.  They tend to stretch and stretch as the candy piles up, then drag on the ground and trip the child holding it.

3) Visit the houses on ONE side of the street only, so that when we find ourselves about a mile from where we started, we can backtrack and get the houses on the opposite side of the street.  The kids zigzagged the whole way!  Eventually, Jay walked back to get the van to avoid making the kids retrace their route.

4) When holding my husbands pride and joy (a large plastic refillable cup with a handle and lid), do not set it down on someones mailbox post to help a child.  It WILL get left behind much to hubby's chagrin.  Sorry, dear!  Though, on his trek back for the van, he found the cup!

5) When buying costumes, buy sizes much larger than you think they'll need.  For one thing, I think costumes run really small...we got Joe a 8-10 Green Lantern and it was almost inappropriate it was so small.  Plus, unless we really stick to #1 on my list, we need to be able to bundle up underneath these flimsy, yet ridiculously priced, costumes.

All in all, I think I was the most negatively affected from the experience.  All the kids loved it, including Trey!  No one even fussed when they heard it was only 7:00 and Trick-or-Treat lasted until 8!!!  I think everyone was chilled to bone...and ready to dump out their bags and count their goodies!

How was your Halloween?

Funny Business

Parenting can be hard.  Days like today are long.  Trey started another round of chemo, which means a long morning/afternoon at the hospital.  Later, he threw up all over the carpet in the basement.  Bella knocked the new tube of toothpaste into the toilet at bedtime.  Joe gave me an elbow to the nose.  Yada, yada, yada...BUT!!!  There are parenting moments that make Jay and I laugh wholeheartedly.

 Yes, Bella fell asleep for several hours last night with a quilt, another blanket and her Taggy blanket shoved under her sleep shirt.  Fearing that she would wake up in a sweaty panic exactly 45 minutes after we fell into a deep sleep, we woke her to remove the blankets.  Between giggles, we asked her why she did that.  Her reply?  "I wanted to look fat."  Okay, Bella, whatever.  Parenting can be hard.  Being a parent can be hilarious.