Monthly Archives: February 2012

Out with the old, in with the new!

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I think it is about time to replace my fall wreath with a spring one.

This was a “PINspired” project I did back in september. I got the idea from Sweet Passions on a Thrifty Dime.

While I couldn’t find red and orange accents for the wreath, I did find this bundle of grasses at Wal-Mart by Better Homes and Gardens.

I think it was less than $5. I got the grapevine wreath at Wal-Mart too, but kicked myself when I visited Goodwill later and found several grapevine wreaths for much cheaper. Remember that next time you need a grapevine wreath! The pearl letter I got on our honeymoon almost four years ago at The Paris Market in Savannah, Georgia. They actually still carry them on their website if you want one!

So today I hung up my spring wreath! And it wasn’t a “PINspired” wreath either. No, this one was inspired by my sister’s wedding.

See those beautiful hydrangeas? Those were used all throughout her wedding decorations. So after the wedding was over, and I had slaved away at cleaning and dismantling the décor, I decided to take some of those pretty flowers with me… and make a wreath! So for three years I’ve had this wreath, but after Leslie’s post on altered wooden letters, I decided to add an initial.

What do you think?

I got the letter from CraftCuts.com. It’s an amazing site with all sorts of wooden letters in different fonts, sizes, and materials. You can get letters that hang, or letters that stand up, or even letters that are connected! If you are interested in the letter I ordered, it is a ¾” thick, 6” tall, unpainted Baltic Burch letter in Poor Richards font. I painted the sides navy and the top pale blue using acrylic paint to match the flowers.

I just love my “new” wreath! Thanks for dropping by!

How to do a professional manicure- at home!

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Today I’m going to tell you…

This weekend was busy with manicures! So I thought I’d take pictures and share this approach with you. I learned this technique in college from a friend who learned it from an asian friend. It certainly beat the tape/band-aid method I was using before! I began using my talent to make extra spending money during school. Now I just paint my own nails… and now… you can too!

It’s all about the supplies. Here’s what I use.

1. Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover
2. Sally Hansen Hard as Nails “White Tip”
3. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure No. 130 “Sheer Me Now”
4. Rock Top Coat
5. A lip brush- Not a paint brush! Not an eyeshadow brush! It’s got to be a lip brush! (Trust me. I’ve tried everything out there.) I got my lip brush at Walgreens.
6. Tweezerman “Pushy” Cuticle Pusher
7. Pure Acetone- No, you can’t just use normal nail polish remover. Any brand of pure acetone is fine.

Ok. First thing’s first. Take care of those cuticles! Use a cuticle remover and a pusher to tame ‘em down.

Cut your nails to a suitable length and file them into your desired shape. I like mine squoval (Yes, it’s a word. Google it if you don’t believe me!).

Remove any nail polish from your nails and thoroughly wash your nails with soap and water. Nail polish lasts longer on clean nails.

Now for the painting. With white nail polish, paint the tips of your nails slightly thicker than you want your tips to be. If it looks thin and streaky, you’ll need two coats. Let them dry.

This is the magical part. Unscrew the acetone and pour it into the cap. Dip the lip brush into the acetone. Now “erase” part of the white polish by using a back-and-forth motion. This will create a smooth line. Try to make the line parallel to the curve of your nail. Continue this step on each nail making sure to keep the width of the tips consistent. (Sometimes if you get too much acetone on your brush, it will collect in the bottom corners of your nail. Dab your brush on a towel and place it in those pools. It will soak it up.)

Examine your nails from different angles to make sure they’re all the same width and that your lines are straight.

Paint one coat Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure No. 130 over the entire nail. Don’t skip this step. This is what makes it look like a salon manicure (No wonder- it’s the name of the polish!)

While the last coat is still wet, apply Rock Top Coat. If possible let your nails dry in the sun. This will make your top coat even harder.

Remove any polish you may have gotten on your skin using the lip brush and acetone.

Voila!

(Just in case you think your eyes are playing tricks on you, there not. This “after” picture is a different person than the one pictured in the steps!)

Even after your nails feel dry to touch, be careful! They may feel dry, but treat them like they are wet for about an hour. Trust me. You will ruin them.

You are going to be amazed with yourself and your masterpiece! I just know people are going to say, “Oh! You got your nails done!”

Let me know how it goes! What’s your beauty secret?

Layers of Love!

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That’s layers of sugary love, I mean. Here’s a Valentine’s treat to make, share, and enjoy!

What? It’s not Valentine’s Day?! You mean, I missed it?!….. haha…. Ok, ok, so I’m a little late on posting this yummy desert….. (I mean this is called, 2busybrunettes.. I’ve been a little busy!)

Even so, It’s never too late for chocolate, right?? Last weekend my husband, Jesse, came up with this delicious Valentine’s version of dirt cake! (Yes, MY HUSBAND did!) He loves to invent different dishes and crazy creations for people to try. While he whipped all these sugary treats together I didn’t lift a finger! (Well, except to type, that is.) I sat at my laptop and took notes so I could share the recipe with you! Then I got to help eat the end result! I took it to school and shared with my fellow teachers in the lounge on Valentine’s Day. It was a HUGE hit! No one believed me when I told them my husband made it. What can I say, I’m a lucky girl!

“Oh my!” Trifle

(because you will say, “Oh my!” when you take a bite)

The Goodies You’ll Need:
1 Package of Double Stuffed Oreos
1 Roll of Ready to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies (16.5 oz)
1 box of Chocolate Jell-O Instant Pudding (5.9 oz)
1 package of Fat Free Cream Cheese (8 oz)
1 Box of No Bake Cheesecake Mix (11.2 oz)
1 box of powdered sugar (1 lb)
1 tub of whipped cream (16 oz)
1 package of 6 snack size Reese’s Cups
1 handful of mini-snickers (or a full or king size snickers bar)
1 bag of pink and white strawberry & vanilla marshmallows (optional)
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups of 2% milk

Directions:
1) Follow directions for the Cheesecake mix. Prepare the cheesecake crust and filling as directed on the box in your trifle dish. Store the cheesecake in the refrigerator for about an hour while you prepare the rest.

2) Use a food processor to separately chop up Reese’s cups, Oreos, and snickers. Then separate into individual bowls.

3) Combine 4 tbsp of butter, 8 oz of softened cream cheese, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1 cup of powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Mix with beater on low-speed until it is smooth.

4) Next, pour 3 cups of 2% milk and the package of pudding mix and blend with the cream cheese mixture.

5) Bake the cookie dough in big clumps that would potentially make huge cookies, on 355 degrees, for about 7 minutes. (The cookies should still be fairly gooey.)

6) Layer in the different goodies in a pattern of your choice. (Have fun. You can’t go wrong!)

By the way, Jesse was also responsible for the heart decorations on top! :) I seriously didn’t touch a thing!

Ways you can add a little more Valentine’s pizzaz:

1) Instead of the traditional gummy worms hanging out of the top, incorporate gummy hearts.

2) Make it more festive by adding colors to your layers. Add food coloring in the whipped cream, or another flavor of pudding mix (cherry or strawberry?) to give it a pop of color.

3) If you really want to be an “overachiever” try creating a pattern on the sides of the trifle dish. Poke a skewer down against the edge of the dish to add a design.

Enjoy your sugar rush!

Happy President’s Day!

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Like I mentioned before, my second grade class is getting ready to present their how-to projects. I presented an example today, and they followed my directions in “How to Make Abraham Lincoln out of a Toilet Paper Roll.” Here’s my example:

Here’s how our product turned out:

Isn’t he cute? He’s a combination of several crafts I found on the internet: Lincoln Hat Craft from Enchanted Learning (where I got most of the graphics for my display), Abraham Lincoln Toilet Paper Craft from DLTK (Where I got Abe’s face), and the St. Patrick’s Day Leprechaun at TPcraft.com.

I can’t wait to see my students’ how-to projects! After each one we will discuss one/some of these higher order questions to incorporate the Common Core Standard 2.RI.3  (Describe the connection between …steps in technical procedures…).

  • Which steps could have happened in a different order? (without changing the outcome or hindering the following steps)
  • Why do you have to do the ________ step before the ___________ step?
  • If we moved the __________ step, what might have happened?
  • By rearranging the steps, how many ways can you do this craft?
  • Is there a step we could break into two steps?
  • Are there two steps we could combine into one step?
  • Is there a step we left out that could make this process easier?
And on a different note, I finally filled my hutch with some pretties!

Happy President’s Day!

I’ve got a Weather ‘Eye’dea

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Get it? Weather eye + weather idea?? How’s that for a corny title? I’m the world’s worst for thinking of titles. I’m one of “those” people who sends an e-mail with no subject line because it takes too much effort to think of one. Ok. I lied. That annoys me. I’m one of those that wastes too much time thinking of one!

Anyway, we’ve been learning about weather. So here are my weather ideas.

We examined how different weather components can help us predict the weather. One of the components we studied was clouds. We watched a united streaming clip on the types of clouds, paused the clip after each type, and recorded our notes. Then we added illustrations to our notes.

Now tell me that’s not a cumulonimbus cloud!

 Here’s what we used to make our clouds.

cirrus chalk

stratus white paint

cumulus 1 part shaving cream, 1 part Elmer’s glue

cumulonimbus 1 part shaving cream, 1 part Elmer’s glue +black paint

I can’t tell you how much my kids enjoyed this. They were grinning ear to ear (one of those evil grins) while heaping shaving cream onto their papers. The clouds dried relatively quickly and the class smelled good too!

Another component we studied was wind direction. We used this wind vane to determine the wind direction each day.

To make your own wind vane, put a straw around a hammer, hammer the nail into the wooden spoon, tape on a piece of paper, and label your cardinal directions. Then to determine the wind direction, find North and line up your spoon. The wind direction is the direction the wind is blowing from not the direction the wind is blowing in. That was a little hard for my students to grasp because it is opposite of the direction the paper points. If you know the wind direction and the air pressure you can predict the weather!

And of course you can’t do weather without doing the water cycle. After exploring the water cycle through several books, graphic organizers, crafts, and videos, we became water molecules ourselves and traveled through a simulation of the water cycle. With a roll of a die, the kids traveled through clouds, glaciers, groundwater, animals, vegetation, soil, lakes, oceans, and rivers to discover the importance of temperature in the water cycle and to understand that water remains in some locations longer than others.

Here’s a preview of the materials.

You can purchase the Water Cycle Journey kit for $1.50 at my teacherspayteachers store.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Here’s an activity to do with all those valentines on V-day that’s educational! My kids loved sorting their Valentines and creating fractions with them. Sorry I didn’t get it posted before Valentine’s day so you could actually use it, but maybe somebody will have their party on Friday and can use it. Ok. Who am I kidding? You’ll just have to pin it and use it next year! (click preview to download)

I love how excited my kids get over their valentines. Next year I’m going to have my students make a book with all their valentines so they can really appreciate them. It looks like a great way to tie in adjectives too. Second grade Julia would have loved this! Ok, grown up Julia loves this! I’m sad I didn’t think of it sooner. This is a picture I found a little to late (ahem.. kind of like my post! Oops!).

My class is getting ready to do how-to papers. I showed them a simple example today with cupid hearts. It was a nice activity for a day we thought we were going to miss due to snow. Can be used with Common Core State Standard 2.RI.3 (Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.)

And of course we had to have some goodies.

 Chocolate drizzled popcorn… (If you want to know how to make it, just drop a comment and I’ll share.)

and cake pops (from my leftover Elephant and Piggie cake!)

Hope you had a great Valentine’s Day!

You used your cheese grater for what?

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It doesn’t take any crafter long to realize that kitchen tools double as crafting tools. I’ve been preparing for a sweetheart’s dinner/valentine’s banquet for the last couple of weeks and my kitchen tools were repurposed for this endeavor. One of the biggest tasks in decorating the fellowship hall at our church was creating a chandelier/lantern/globe/light thingumajig for the center of the room. We already put up white lights wrapped in tulle, but we needed something else. This is what I came up with.

Would you like to know how my kitchen tools helped me make this? Read on.

First, here’s the supplies I used.

1 Strand of Icicle Lights

2 Styrofoam blocks ($7ish each)

Spray Paint White (97¢)

Hairpins (not pictured)

Red Tinsel Garland ($1.00ish on Christmas Clearance)

I also used red picks from Target (purchased several years ago) that you use for dressing up napkins.

Ok, here’s the details if you want ‘em.

Step one: Spray paint your hairpins.

Step two: Cut the center out of both of your styrofoam blocks (measure your blocks to find the center) using (kitchen gadget #1) a serrated steak knife or bread knife. (This is when my husband said, “You know that really dulls our knives.” And I wanted to say, “You know, when you cut your steak, it really dulls my crafting knives.” No, I didn’t really want to say that, or I probably would’ve said it. I was sweet.)

Step three: Put the blocks together!

Step four: Use (kitchen gadget #2) a grater to round off the edges so it looks less like a square and more like a cylinder. Just file it like you file your nails- back and forth, back and forth- until you get the look you want.

Step five: Use your hairpins to secure lights to the styrofoam. It’s easier if you start at the bottom and work your way up because if you start at the top (like I did!) then you will be adjusting the icicles frequently to get them out of your way.

Step six: I guess this step could be placed somewhere else in the process (maybe after step 3) but this is where I did it and it worked fine for me. Using your knife again, cut the styrofoam to resemble an arrow, cutting out triangle-like pieces. You’ll have to use your grater again to smooth out the edges and level the surfaces.

Step seven: Hang it up and decorate it with tinsel! I stuck the sprigs in then cut off tiny pieces of the tinsel and wrapped them around the cords.

Another project I took on was decorating the tables. The first thing I did was hit up the after Christmas sales in January. Here’s what I got, and how it turned out.

The gold and red floral stems were from (if you can’t tell) Big Lot’s. They were 50¢ a piece!! They were originally $5.oo, but they were 90% off. I taped over several of the blooms and my (wonderful) husband spray painted them black. You should have heard him last night at the dinner. He said, “Boy this is is a great spray paint job,” while tenderly examining the stems. Everyone at our table was like, “Yeah, they look great! I wonder who did them?” (Rolling eyes while still admiring my husbands sense of humor) Also included in the centerpiece were red glittery pine cone stems, silver tinsel (both on clearance) and LED Branches (not on sale).

Here’s more pictures of the finished product.

The night was more fun than I could have imagined. There was a four course meal complete with two salad choices, two entrée choices, and four desert choices. And actually it was a five course meal if you count the coffee and tea served later. Every aspect of the meal was thought through. The butter was shaped in balls in the cutest red foil liners! I had ensalada Angelica (spring lettuce, strawberries, grapes, almond crunch, and poppy-seed dressing), lasagna, and tiramisu. It was all DELICIOUS!

The food was in tough competition with our entertainment though. We had the Black Diamond. Basically he’s a black Neal Diamond. He sounds just like him! He was so energetic and the crowd was too. He might become a household name soon because he’s auditioned for America’s Got Talent and has already been seen on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He’s good friends with our minister, so hopefully he will come back next year!

We had an awesome time, but I’m a little bit glad it’s over!

100 Ways to Keep the Flame Alive

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We are coming up on Valentine’s Day and it’s a common time to think about keeping the flame alive. When Josh and I were newlyweds (ok, I guess being married <4 years still makes us newlyweds. It’s like when my students say, “When I was young… or when I was growing up…”) anyway, when we were first married, we attended a Sunday morning marriage class at church. One of our lessons was on “keeping the flame alive.” We were given this “cheat sheet” and it has hung on our fridge ever since. I don’t know who originally wrote it, but it’s good stuff. Too bad when we got it, Joshua instantly crossed out #41!

It’s written for a husband to do things for his wife, but it can easily be used the other way around. Click on the sheets below to download.

Sometimes Josh will be funny (or try to be at least!) and walk up to the fridge, point to #32 (smile more often) and look back at me and smile. He’ll act like he just did something so romantic. Or he’ll walk up to the fridge, point to #27 (Tell her yes when you want to say no) and say, “yes” even when I hadn’t been asking him a question! I say, “It doesn’t work like that!” Maybe you and your significant other can use it in the way it’s intended and have a little push in keeping the flame alive.

How do you keep the flame alive?

You might be a teacher if…

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your birthday cake is decorated with characters from a children’s book series!

I LOVE IT! and I took a million pictures of it. Ok. Maybe just 50. Here are a few.

This is the biggest, most beautiful cake I’ve ever gotten (Sorry mom.)! Can you tell that we already ate the back of the cake in this picture?? Oops! And we took the candles out.. now you can’t count them! That’s probably the last cake I’ll have with the correct number of candles on it. At what age do you stop doing that anyway?

Aren’t they so cute? If you haven’t heard of the elephant and piggie books, your life is about to get so much better! They are written by Mo Willems, the author of Knuffle Bunny and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! They are easy to read, but great for all ages. Their hilarious plots, emotional characters, and heart-touching messages will bring a smile to anyone’s face.

The sweetest thing about this cake was not the icing (although it was delicious). It was the fact that my husband was the brains behind this cake. That was sweet! I can just picture him describing how he wanted it to look. How cute. =)