Category Archives: i want to make this

Selling Out Ain’t So Bad

. Boulder, i want to make this, kids . ,

It has been almost a year since we became sell-outs. Our 1965, 1,200 sq. ft., bi-level; nestled in the foothills of beautiful Boulder, CO was the first property Matt and I bought together. It was our first home complete with cherry trees in the front yard like we always talked about.

Cheery trees on the left, highly allergic, yet beautiful Aspens on the right

I loved that house and pictured our kids growing up and making memories there. And then we had that kid (G) and that vision quickly changed. My once, dream house, was now giving me (and our dog) anxiety.  Both my husband and I worked from home and only one of us had an office (that was also a shared guest bedroom), we tip toed around at nap time (because old houses are LOUD and have no insulation and are OLD!) Our high energy dog was starting to exhibit some new, nervous habits, and let’s face it Boulder is not cheap and neither is a home that is approaching 50 years old (in need of a new roof, hot water heater, siding, washer/dryer etc.)

Also, with talks of possibly having another child (which came to fruition 10 months later) AND a half hearted, totally-in-the-dark, “Our neighbors house is on the market, you sure you don’t want to move?” comment and link to Realtor.com from our some of our closest friends (which will here on out be referred to as our CF (Colorado Family), since in a few weeks we will be Colorado orphans*), we headed for the ‘burbs, I couldn’t believe I finally agreed to do it. I have nothing against “the burbs,” I had a very nice and very safe childhood in the City of Tomorrow, Today! But I moved to Colorado 6 years ago with the sole intention of living in Boulder and no where else. How very close-minded of me.

For 8 years of my life, this was our exit to get off the highway ;)

Our current living situation could not be any more perfect.  We have plenty of room in our new house, we live around the corner from our CF (LESS THAN 400 METERS! That is LESS THAN one lap around a track!) our new neighbors are SUPER awesome…like, let’s spend holidays together, awesome.  However, there is one problem with the house.  And this may have something to do with the fact that I was 7 months pregnant when we moved in, was put on bed rest shortly after, had said baby (B!), recovered from major surgery, and then trained for a half marathon shortly after that….I haven’t spent a lot of time decorating and our house is desperately lacking decor….we have made our old furniture work and bought new living room furniture…but a lot of rooms are half filled with furniture and most walls are missing decor/pictures/art/ANYTHING! And my OCD-ness does not like this one bit.

  “WHAT THE HELL? WHO CARES about your empty, non-decorated house?  What does this have to do with PINTEREST?!?!” You ask?

Well, we have some fun nooks and crannies in this new house you see.  One area in particular is by our guest bedroom and from day one I have been eyeing it for an aquarium.  But ooooh, aquariums are like taking care of another child (at least, the size of aquarium I have in mind for this little nook) and let’s be honest, I have reached my Kelly-max for kids (2!  Just 2!  Two hands, two kids, cut off, no more!)

I would be great for an aquarium or a coyote-hiding fort!

The first day that I really sat down and started exploring Pinterest, I came across tension rod forts. And as I go back to look for the pin, I apparently didn’t even pin it. But I know I immediately clicked on it, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! and then went to Amazon to by some tension rods. Here’s a tip for ya. If you are buying tension rods from Amazon.com, they probably come in two packs….I learned this the hard way (we now have Fort Bragg sprouting up around our house.) I also “just happened” to have an extra set of black-out curtains that I also ordered from Amazon (whoops! That’s what you get for Amazon-ing at 4am!) and in less time that it took G to realize I was gone, we had this:

I will protect you from coyotes, monstahs and Coco Man (G’s new “friend”)

and then shortly thereafter, filled with important boy things:

Even forts need decor

We have also had forts in G’s room and our room and our laundry room has a PERFECT spot for one (but I just redecorated and want it to stay classy.  Yes, I have a classy laundry room.)  We, not just G, but the entire family, including Huli (our dog) play in the fort every night before bed.  It’s almost part of our bedtime ritual now and has offered hours of fun and I’m sure will offer hours more. And I love watching G’s imagination take off, coming up with whatever crazy scenario his little mind dreams up (and they are crazy!) I can’t wait until B is old enough and they can play in there together. I knew this house would offer us more room that we desperately needed with our growing family, but I had no idea when we bought it how many fun adventures were waiting inside for us.

Raising a child in Boulder has so many perks, the schools, hiking trails and parks, Pearl Street, CU…there is always something going on in Boulder, it’s a great town and I still love visiting.  I was so, so sad to move away.  I thought I would miss it desperately.

G and I would hike Chautauqua three times a week!

Our playground

But something strange happened when we “sold out.” We became a happier family. And I realized that just because Boulder may be really “cool”, it may not be the perfect place for us right now.  We never had any sort of relationship with our neighbors and our lives are so much richer with the people that now surround us. We may not be in walking distance to the adventures that await us in the mountains of Boulder, but we now create our own adventures right here in the comfort of our house in the ‘burbs.

How about you?  Have you ever “sold out” and do you regret it or are you glad you did it?

*Matt’s parents are currently residents of Colorado, but will be leaving us in less than a month for sunny AZ, thus, leaving us as Colorado Orphans. :(

Read Instructions First

. heloise, i want to make this, kids . , , , ,

When my mom gets a new gadget, she ALWAYS says to me “Next time you’re in town maybe you can show me how to use it.”  As if I am some magical gadget gnome with the power to figure out all smartphones. And because I am an instruction manual reader, ALWAYS, my next question to her is “Have you read the instruction manual?” and ALWAYS the is always “no.”

Toddler Instruction ManualI read this, but it is not relevant to my model

Sometimes manuals offer tips and really helpful functions that you may not have known about.  Well guess what?  Same goes with pins. I pinned 501 pins in February (my inaugural month). Yes, I counted.  Now, I obviously did not read every single one of them.  In fact, a few of them I saw and said “I can totally do that”, did not read the instructions and what happened? They were kind of total failures. People, always read instructions first.

This weeks “Failures”:

Earlier in the week I made shaving cream bath paint!*  Sounded super easy and quick and I had been running solo for the past 10 hours and wanted something fun for bath time. Remember that thought: “fun for bath time.” We will get back to that.  Right, well it was super easy and quick and fun to make.  I used one bowl and a muffin tin. I mixed each color in the bowl and whatever color I had just mixed, I just added more shaving cream and a different color to make a new color.  For example, I made “red” which was more pink.  I then filled the muffin tin and had some extra red “paint” left over in the bowl.  So I added shaving cream and yellow food coloring and made orange. When I was done with the orange, I just added more shaving cream, more yellow food coloring and it turned back yellow.  That way I wasn’t constantly cleaning out bowls. I made 6 colors in about 7-8 minutes.

shaving cream bath paint

Now, what the original post for this did not mention is that you should probably NOT play with this at bath time. G’s bath water looked like the Ganges River.  I even drained the tub twice (we will talk about me and water conservation at a later date as well….I know, wasteful, but also, gross.)  I probably won’t do this again at bath time, but would recommend this activity on a day when you can just toss your kid into the tub without the intention of taking a bath…with the sole intention of playing and making a mess.  I mean, how often does your kid get to play in the bath tub?!?

Notice the clean water…he had JUST started playing because as soon as this touched the water…boom, Ganges.

I also tried the World’s Easiest Boiled Eggs! trick from my heloise board (Hints from Heloise?  Anyone?  Anyone?) Last night was the second time trying this and for the second time, I didn’t get the results I was expecting or that the pin showed.  The first time I shook the pan so hard I ended up with tiny shards of egg shell embedded in the yolk. Yum!  This time:

Cracked EggYou can’t put all your eggs in one basket without cracking a few eggs

and then, when peeled turn out like so:Needless to say, I STILL hold true to what Martha told me looooong ago.  The best eggs for hard boiling are old eggs.  The membrane on an older egg is tougher and less sticky, therefore will stay together easier and help pull off the peel.  On newer eggs, well, we all know what happens with them (see above, I had just purchased these eggs the day before.)  SO, lesson learned on this pin, you still need to use older eggs, but this method could make peeling much faster.

Next failure, the Calm Jar from my kids board.  Easy, mason jar, food coloring, water, glitter.  Turns out I had all of those supplies and G and I put it together quickly.  I even let him pour in the glitter (because that wasn’t messy). And we shook and the glitter settled to the bottom in less than 30 seconds. Wha, Whaaa. I can tell you this right now, 30 seconds is not going to help my child calm down.  A few days I was talking with one of my mom friends at Little Gym and she had made hers too, but with glitter glue and said it worked great! So I READ THE INSTRUCTIONS and promptly decided to ignore them because it calls for 1 tsp of glitter glue. SERIOUSLY?  You expect me to measure glitter glue?  Instead, I emptied an entire Crayola Glitter Glue pen into some hot water, 2 drops of blue food coloring, 1 package of glitter (2 grams), and shook.

20 seconds later, about 90% of the glitter had either floated to the top or sunk to the bottom.  What was left was this:

It took another 2 minutes for the remainder of the glitter to settle.

Grade: B, still does not meet MY expectations, but G likes it and it works so I should just get over myself, right?

and lastly, Car Drawing: We have done this twice now.  Attempt 1: miserable failure.  We used the small Crayola Pip-Squeaks markers and transparent tape and for about 10 minutes I struggled to tape that damn marker on any size car I could find and I could not, for the life of me get those markers to stay touching the paper.  I did not take pictures.  I was somewhat annoyed at yet another failed idea and thus, the inspiration for this post.  So, I recreated the scene of the crime to take pictures and wouldn’t you know it.  Like a car engine that stops rattling when you bring it to the mechanic…it worked!  The only thing I did different is I used the tall skinny markers instead and I didn’t pull the tape quite as tight as before (which was SUPER TIGHT!)

This car was particularly fun because it was a pull back car and could zip away and draw by itself!

The only thing I learned from actually reading the instructions after the fact is to tape down some craft paper or a larger piece of paper under the one that the drawing is taking place on or else you will be cleaning marker off your table when you’re done.

And so I leave you with this.  You should always read the instructions first….but then it’s totally ok to toss them out and use them as inspiration.  After all, isn’t that what Pinterest is for?

*So not a total failure, but just not what I was expecting

Pinterest Wednesday: Leap Day Flubber

. i want to make this, kids, Pinterest, Pinterest Wednesday . , , , ,

For some reason, I had high expectations for today. It’s like a bonus day; Leap day! One extra day of life! Go Life! YAY!Leap Day!I’m placed in a calender to correct our holidays and seasons from drifting. A little Gas-X could help with that too

However, when I was awoken at 5am from the bright eyes of our newly-moved-into-a-big-boy-bed, 2 and a half year old, well, it wasn’t the best side of the bed to wake up on.  Especially since today is Wednesday which means I am responsible for keeping both children amused all. day. long. Typically we have daily activities (school, Little Gym, play dates etc.) but minus a 15 minute swim class right before lunch, we have nothing going on today, or most Wednesdays.  And with spring right around the corner and winter keeping us indoors, we are reaching all time high levels of cabin fever. The toys in the house have lost their appeal, the books have been read and re-read and the days have become mind-numbingly long/boring.

That is until Pinterest came into my life.  Wednesdays have now been transformed into “Pinterest Wednesday!” Which means. exactly what it says.  We do a lot of Pinterest activities, usually from my kids board or my yum board or my i want to make this board.  Today’s morning fun was making Flubber from my kids board.


Mixing SlimeIt made it more fun that he got to mix it together because the chemical reaction starts immediately

SLIMED!Starts out really slimy, watery and gooey!

GLOBAfter about 3 minutes of mixing and squishing between our fingers, I poured the excess water out

Goo DropAfter about 10 minutes of play, it firmed up and turned into viscousy, flubbery fun!

You can see I pulled out the cookie cutters and we made stars, snails, a bear and a coyote (someone is slightly obsessed with keeping the family safe from coyotes, so they are ALWAYS apart of playtime.)  It was fun to pick up the flubber and watch the shape s l o w l y droop to the counter.

This was a winner, let me tell you.  We spent a good 45 minutes playing with flubber and clean up was really easy.  It was fun to make and play with and explore and I stored the remainder of the flubber in a ziploc freezer baggie until next time!

Flubber RacesGrant and Mommy Flubber Races 2012- He won by default (mine broke!)

About Time

. DIY, i want to make this, i want to wear this . ,

Stand by for some cool bracelets!

I have made 6 bracelets and only one of them is for me. (The purple one!) It’s kind of ridiculous, but they are really fun and so easy to make. In fact, I just got an “order” for two more from my neighbor. And by “order” I mean payment will be taken in the form of wine or child entertainment.

The original pin showed measurements for a single bracelet, but I prefer the double wrap, so. yeah. that’s what you get.  The only reason I have those two singles up there is because I cut the cord to short for the intended recipients wrist for a double.  Sorry Care!

When I first started this project, I ordered the buttons/findings that the pinned site took me too.  Unfortunately it took them about 3 weeks to send them and I just got them today.  I really like them a lot (one of them is on the purple bracelet, which, I finally finished today.)  The other buttons I got at JoAnne Fabric, they are fine, but not my style.  No matter since I will be giving those away, so everyone wins!

Reality

. i want to make this, i want to wear this, kids, Pinterest, workout . , , ,

The reality is, that I was going to blog everyday about my Pinterst adventures.  That obviously hasn’t happened.

Because.

Part of that “to much to do” does not include the projects I’m working on right now…still working on the bracelets, still trying to figure out what the mantle over my fireplace should look like (we’ll save this gem for another day), still trying to, well, decorate my house after a year of living here and still trying to find new ways to keep a bouncing, jumping, running almost 3 yo occupied and excited about life (like how I just called parenting a “project”?)

In Pinterest terms, this weeks has been a success!

  • We discovered Frozen Blueberry Yogurt Dippers. I also tried raspberries and really liked them because they kind of fell apart in my mouth.  Plus, organic berries go bad SO QUICKLY, this is also a great way to use up fruit that is just about to go bad.

Blueberry Yogurt BitesThis is what 6 oz. of blueberries looks like

  • We dug for worms and because just last week I made a fishing pole out of a plastic golf club, a mini retractable mouse and a weapon from a battle dinosaur…we went fishing too!

Digging for WormsThe brown paper really gives it a “dirt” feel, don’t you think?

Gone Fishin'Notice the “worm”, you can not fish without a worm.  We are a detail-oriented bunch in this house.

  • We painted without mess!  This was especially great, later on that night when we had some friends over from dinner (with an almost 2 and an almost 4 y/o)  These guys also loved the frozen blueberry yogurt bits!

Mess-Free PaintingIt was more fun to run trucks over it then to actually “paint”

  • I found a kick ass waterbottle and immediately bought it.  Damn you Amazon One-Click!  and while we’re at it, Damn you too Amazon Prime.  And also, I love you!

the most ingenious water bottle everI don’t even have a key to my front door

Hello, My name is Kelly…..

. i want to make this, i want to wear this . , , ,

and I am a Pinterest addict.  Here is my story

Someone actually invented a bigger time suck than Facebook

I put off joining Pinterest as long as I could because I knew I would love it.  Makes total sense, right?  I just don’t have the time these days (heard that before?) to pick up another habit.  I have enough of those already to burst my craft closet at the seams. Ok, so I don’t have a craft “closet” but more so, 4 cabinets and a craft armoire.  (I totally hear you saying “Of course you have a craft armoire.”)

Anyway, I finally gave it a few weeks ago and HOOOO BOY!  Has it CHANGED MY LIFE!  After a few days of figuring it out, I finally clicked my first “repin”.  Sounds kind of dorky, like how “we’re MySpace friends” sounded to me when they first broke out on the scene.

Since that fateful day three weeks ago, I have really been living my life according to Pinterest.  On any given day, I have completed no less than two projects/recipes/tips and/or have been inspired somehow OR ordered/purchased something for a project OR obnoxiously, somehow incorporate it into most conversations I have.  Hey, some people like crack, I like Pinterest.

Typically when I wake up, I already have something in mind for the day, today’s attempt is the DIY

Braided Bead Bracelet:

Bead BraceletDisclaimer: These are not the actual bracelets I made. Mine are cooler.

Here is what I found out:

1) Took longer than I thought it would (about 2 hours for my first bracelet, an hour for my second.)

2) I doubled the length so it could be a wrap bracelet

3) Do not double the length, I had about 10 extra inches of cord that I had to cut off.

So, to the ladies in my life, yours will be arriving in the mail in the coming weeks….because I don’t really wear jewelry.