day ten: lemon crinkle cookies and pizza muffins

lemon crinkle cookies

day ten and it's a cold wintery one but the show must go on ... and for me that means not only my pinterest 365 challenge but also our family volunteering at the howick historic village on their monthly live day.  in honour of that, it was time for some picnic baking for our 1850's picnic lunch at the village so before we went i made pizza muffins from lick the bowl good blog and lemon crinkle cookies from the lds living website. both were pinned from the pinterest gallery to my recipe must do's board.

pizza muffins

the only change to the recipe i made was replacing the pepperoni with ham as that's what i had on hand. the pizza muffins were supposed to be baked in a mini muffin tin, but as i could not find it, i made them in my standard size muffin tin and the recipe made 12 medium size ones which were awesome ... they were just the right savoury picnic food, lots of flavour and were absolutely fine cold.

the lemon crinkle cookies were also devoured by my peeps and husband who thought they were outstanding.  i made them exactly to the recipe provided here, the only except was after seeing the first batch bake, i squished the balls down on the tray a bit and they spread further and were less thick, which worked well.

at the end of a long day, but still smiling!

outcome: these recipes were extremely easy to make, took little time, were both awesome picnic foods, and they have been placed firmly in my recipe scrapbook :)

many thanks to both these lovely websites, lick the bowl good and , who provided me with two knew recipes to fill the tummies of my family and wow them at the same time!

30 day photo fun day four and day five: clouds and breakfast (respectively)

almost forgot to take the photo of some clouds today, this
is the sky at 10 last night, it was wet and windy but you
can see that, right?   :)

while i was busy organising the picnic food, my darling
husband cooked up a hot breakfast for us on this cold
day before heading out to the historic village

day nine: sweet carrots for easter

my little bunch of carrots!

day nine has arrived and amidst the cleaning, rearranging, and baking there was also time to create.  truth be known i was really looking forward to todays project which is from the awesome blog of clares's craftroom.  thanks clare for your generous email allowing me to use your project for my p365 one!  the carrots project was repinned from the gallery at pinterest onto my holiday goodness board.

great for easter and autumn!

these were a delight to make! they are sweet little carrots and i see more in my future!  i only used what marterials i had on hand, next time i want to try a brighter orange and a more limer green (like clare's) as they were awesome.

outcome: totally making these again, i will have them around the house for all of autumn/easter time.  they were a joy and not to onerous for someone who spent a lot of her saturday cleaning!

a massive thanks goes out to the very talented clare at clares's craftroom. she has a wonderful blog i suggest you visit and an ebay store with plenty of doable goodies.

day eight: the eat sheet outcome

the boy in the middle of his shopping

outcome: these were fantastic, they worked a treat, and the kids totally loved having their own list to be responsible for ... the actual users (the peeps) couldn't have been more happy with them according to the survey i took once the shopping was complete!

the girl working through her list

the hands of the shoppers

photo fun challenge day three: hands
ben, polly, and i are all in this photo, which couldn't be more apt for today, they were HUGE helping hands with all the errands and shopping we had to get through today ... thank you peeps :)

day eight: the eat sheet

the eat sheet grocery lists and the smart snacking list

day eight and we are up early! busy day with grocery shopping and all the errands i have saved up over the last week all need to get done today along with the library and the kittens need their first vaccinations done!~  today's creation was repinned from the pinterest gallery onto my ideas for organisation board and it originated from the mommy tracked website.  it is of course a new grocery/menu planner that i downloaded from this great site. if you need help getting organised with lists, tips, and tricks this is a great place to go.


and it's another double deal as i have also used the smart snacking shopping list from be healthy, be happy downtownn blog, another really sweet site. i gave the kids the list and they got to choose a snack each from it to add the grocery list.  i printed it out half size and laminated it so we can use to again and again, now i just need a pinterest project to sort out a place to keep this type of thing!


i home school our two peeps and every second friday they have a list and collect the groceries from around the store.  each grocery item on the list has a budget next to it and they have to work out how much they need to buy of the grocery item while remaining under budget.  they do a much better job than i do because they don't get taken in by all the specials and multi buys available that i do!  they usually work together, but this week with the new lists and because i think pollyanna is now old enough, i have split the groceries onto two lists so they can have one each.  the lists have worked well so far and i will let you know later in the day how we went at the supermarket!


outcome: pending :)

thank you so much to the mommy tracked team and also to the downtownn blog for such lovely downloadables, they have certainly helped me and the fact they are free is truly awesome and a wonderful reason to keep visiting your sites for more tips and tricks

day seven: mini bunting birthday card double deal

my finished banner card

day seven and this sees us through our first of fifty two weeks of creating ... yeehaa me! today's little gem was repinned from the pinterest gallery onto my paper crafts board and is from the lovely blog how about orange.  it is a super cute  birthday card using the very popular bunting banners.

every good paper craft project begins with goodies!

this was super fun to make and the instructions on the how about orange blog are visual and really easy to follow. i didn't have any "nice" twine so i used a slim ribbon instead and i really like the look of my finished product.  i also used foam squares to pop out my happy and birthday circles to keep the 3d thing going :)  rather than plain card, i used a patterned card (i wouldn't do this with paper, really needs to be done with 160gsm card and over).

back

i here you asked what's the double deal bit ... well, i also used a second find from pinterest today a free downloadable from kind over matter blog, which i have also repinned onto my paper crafts board.  this blog is super awesome, she is an amazing graphic designer and has heaps of free printables as well as a great shop.  i used her banner printable 'happiness is homemade' on the back of this card rather than a "handmade by ...." stamp. i printed it out at 1/16 its original size, matted it and straped it on!

outcome: definitely a card i would make again and again ... with time.  its not a quick and easy, more a 30 minute job, but the effort is worth it in my opinion as i love the 3d nature of it

a very big thanks to such wonderful designers, firstly to jessica from how about orange, she has stunning stuff ranging from diy tips and tricks to fantastic graphic designs, well worth the look!  and a big shout out also goes to amanda at kind over matter who has the most amazing printables, so beautifully presented, many are free, and you can find something for every occasion.  so thank you to both of you for the wonderful creations you give up :)

photo fun day two: shoes

photo fun challenge day 2: your favourite pair of shoes
these are mine, the perfect mummy shoes for everyday (you can tell by the wear and tear can't you!) - flat, black, and oh so comfy!

day six: thirty days of photo fun

the mini album for the photos :)

day five has dawned and it is time for another p365 challenge.  today's challenge was repinned from the pinterest gallery onto my whimsy board and is from the delightful blog a feathered nest.  i've seen lots of these floating around pinterest, but the pretty graphic design of this one captured my heart!

the modified list for an nz winter!

the original challenge was for the first of june and is from the states so included summer photo's for a couple of the days ... so that it would work for me here and, given this challenge started 15 days ago, i figured i may as well try some of my own graphic design and make my own with the changes required for it being winter in new zealand ...  ok here is todays photo: self portrait ... my favourite, not!

photo for day one of the challenge

Then it occurred to me, what am i to do with 30 photos .... well what does any scrapbooker do with photos for a mini project, she makes a mini book to house them and that's exactly what i did.  its a little 6 x 5 album with mdf cover plates my sweet husband made for me.  i am using bo bunny's gypsy collection of paper with embellies from a number of makers ... all of these things are available at my favourite scrapbook store, scrapbook.com :)

goodies to play with, including some of the flowers i made
on day 4 of my p365 challenge :)

so for the next 30 days, not only will you be given a new creation from pinterest, you will also see the daily photo and its little page in the mini album ... you know ... because i don't have enough to do ;)  however,this won't be a master class in scrapbooking by any stretch!

outcome: if this were any other day, i would NEVER take a photo of myself, and that's what i am loving about this challenge i have set myself, i am totally going to places i would never have gone before ... figuratively speaking :) today i took a photo of myself and whipped up a small, very simple mini album, for me that's awesome and therefore, so is day six of the p365 challenge.

thank you goes to a feathered nest blog for providing a wonderful idea and jumping off point for this creative challenge, i really look forward to completing it over the coming month :)

... the carrots are still coming, but not till saturday! tomorrow we will delve into card making!

day five: dated wall art

the finished product, ignore the frame!
our bedroom is currently green, can you tell

day five, only 360 projects to go and its sunny outside!  todays pinterest creation comes from my must have art board and was pinned from the gallery from andrea steed's website (so many great creations you should check it out!). she calls it dated design wall art, which is totally apt, given the dates are all relevant dates for your family.  i loved individualised art so this was right up my ally! she gives you a great link to a version you can fully customise and even have it sent away for printing ... how cool is that.

unfortunately, i live a long way from the states so the chances of me getting the print today were slim! so in the spirit of my p365 venture i decided to create one myself and print it out at home on photo paper!

the start of the process

i found a frame in the shed and, after blowing away the large amount of dust on it, decided it could work with a repaint.  my first job was a light sand followed by a quick paint with opotiki (dulux colours of new zealand), then a thick coat of tim holtz distress paint called peeled paint (green), that then followed another coat of opotiki because the green was too much ... are you still with me!  Yeah, the frame painting was an adventure all on its own ...

yet another layer

in between the layers of paint was drying time and during these times i played on my computer working on the art to put into the frame of layered paint ... really should have just purchased a nice cheap black frame, next time!

the finished file right before printing!

it should be noted here, i am not computer savvy to a point where i can walk up to the computer and know exactly what i need to do to achieve something.  i don't have photoshop and i don't know how to use publisher (yet :)) so this was done in powerpoint ... yes ... i know how to use powerpoint!

what you need to know:

• i used five 1 x 7 tables to make this wall art, which i then lined up vertically, this gave me the flexibility to have the size gap i wanted between each birthday
• i created a table for each birthday and put each number into a different cell ... why? all numbers are not created equal, just like my family some of us are wider that others! so every cell was set to be centred meaning when the tables were lined up vertically so were all the numbers regardless of their individual width (i feel your pain zero ;)
• i added some decorative vines and coloured each birthday to match our bedroom as that is where this art is destined to hang.
• printed out on glossy photo paper to get that nice polished look, add a frame (preferably one you didn't have to paint three times) and you are good to go :)

outcome: definitely going to do this again now i have a template! figuring out how to sort the number width issue took some time and drove me a little insane :)  however, this is probably to do with my lack of computer skill as opposed to anything else ... now i have the knowledge, there's no stopping me.  in fact, my sweet mum is next on my list! for her, i am going to do one with all the grandkids birthdays :)

thank you so much to andrea steed at a.steed's.life for wonderful wall worthy art that you can totally customise!  if i lived in the states, i would totally use andrea's option and use her customised version available at zazzle.com. 

and for tomorrow ... think carrots :)