St. Paddy Day ... Pot of Gold

Onto day two of my St. Patty day projects!  Well this was the one I started with but let's just say plan A didn't go right, so I had to skip to plan B.  I pinned a while back this idea for St. Patty Day Boxes on Inside BruCrew Life.  Her's were really cute but I didn't have the time to order the boxes plus I'm all about doing projects on a limited budget.  I know most parents probably throw away the things I make their kids bring home so why waste the money right?  I hit the dollar store with her picture as my inspiration and went to town.

I at first thought I would paint some popcorn buckets from the dollar store green BUT let's just say the paint didn't STAY on the buckets.  Plan B was to take construction paper, cut it into the shape then hot glue onto the bucket and tada it worked.  I must say I was pretty darn impressed with my pot of gold's all made from the dollar store!

What you Need:

Popcorn Buckets (small) - 2 for $1

Construction Paper - $1 a pack

Pastel Pipe Cleaners - $1 a pack

Foam Clovers - $1 a pack

Hot Glue Sticks - $1 a pack of 15

Caramels - $2.40lb bulk section Winco

Gold Coins - $4.40 bulk section Winco

NOW you can use Rolo's they are really nice gold wrappers but I found they were $4.40 a 1/2 lb.  SO I opted for the caramels that we are calling gold nuggets and then 4 Gold Coin Chocolates per bucket (hey they suckers are expensive).

I took the popcorn bucket made a template on the green paper and then cut them out and hot glued them to the bucket.  I then added a foam green clover and printed a St. Patty's day printable I found yes you know how I LOVE people who make free printables.  I took my circle cutter and cut them out and hot glued in the center of the clover.  I took the pastel pipe cleaners and hot glued on like a rainbow handle to the bucket (Caden let me know these are not the colors of a real rainbow ... lol, let him know we'll pretend).  I added some paper to the bottom so the buckets weren't full of candy (didn't want parents to hate me).  I added the caramels and then the gold coins on top.  Tada done!  I think they turned out pretty cute.

Hope you have a wonderful day, it has been a busy one for me at work and sadly we're having some problems with Cole and school so I've been beating my head against a wall.  More to come on that .. ugh.

So what do you think of the Pot of Gold?

St. Paddy Day ... Over the Rainbow

St. Patrick's day is fast approaching, this Sunday!  Monday is Passover, we don't celebrate but the school we go to does so I talked to the teacher and she thought it would be best to celebrate this Thursday (no school on Friday).  So on to make the treats.  I started to make little buckets for Caden's class but let's just say I had an epic fail so I moved on to project for Cole's class room.

I found these super cute St. Patrick's Day I'm over the Rainbow for you gift on Simple as that's blog.  It really was a simple one to put together.

What you Need:

Card Stock

Blow Pop

Scissors

Hole Punch

Now using white card stock would be the best but I didn't have any on hand so I used blue like a cloud.  I printed out the free printable she made, you how much I love people who make printables free. REALLY they are rockstars in my book!

She had one cloud I copied and pasted in a word document to put 3 clouds to print per page.  I then cut the cloud out.  I took my hole punch made two hole for the blow pop to be inserted in.  I put the blow pop in and tada we are done!

Have a great day!  I hope you enjoy St. Patrick's day!  More fun things to come!

Thank You Gift ... Easy Lemon Sugar Scrub

My new obsession is blog hops it's like Pinterest on over drive of ideas of things to do.  I have been hitting blogs pinning and commenting like a mad woman.  NOW if ONLY the people I comment on their blogs would come back here and comment ... but that complaint is for another day.

A few weeks back I found this Easy Lemon Sugar Scrub on The Benson Street's blog.  I have to say I LOVE LOVE people who include FREE printables and she did for this project.   This was a very simple thing to make and it made my friend smile which meant the world to me.  I initually saved this project to do as a Teacher Appreciation gift, but my amazing friend the other night took Caden home with her for the night!  This is his first time by himself over night and he was very excited.  He even went to church with them, he was very excited that their church sang and dance like ours ... lol.  That was a requirement of his for him to go ... hehe.

I wanted to give her a thank you for being so generous and taking him over night.  I just knew this would be perfect for her and when I gave it to her so was so excited and said she loves scrubs!  Score for me!!

What you Need:

1. Olive Oil
2. Sugar
3. Lemon Essential Oil (this is great to get rid of kitchen smells on your hands too)
4. Cute Mason Jars

Mix 2 cups of sugar with 1 cup of oil. Add lemon essential oil around 10 to 15 drops.  Just smell and adjust it to your liking.

Divide among mason jars. Print tag from her website (she would like you follow to print). Tie with ribbon or baker’s twine and a fun paper lid cover (fabric would also work).  

ALEXIS NOTE: I used a piece of yellow foam that I cut the size of the mason jar and done!  I used a yellow piece of paper behind the print out (larger circle). USE cardstock I didn't have any on hand so I printed on nice white paper and then cut a bigger circle and glued it onto it.  It was still very thin and Cole accidentally tore it by the time we handed it to her (thankfully I took a picture before ... lol)..  I was able to pick up everything I needed except the Essential Oil at the Dollar Tree.  Yes they had mini mason jars!!  I hit up GNC to find the Lemon Essential Oil.  I've gone to several stores when I was making the bath bombs, that you can only find these oils at certain stores. Fred Meyers had it for $9.99 but GNC and Super Supplements both had for $4.99 each. 

Hope you all have an amazing week!  Thanks for stopping by and commenting, it really means a lot and I promise it may take me a day or so but I'll be by and comment too.

Insert Face Palm ... Doing the same Thing over and over

My amazing boss (who if you need a financial adviser he really is the best, he's actually one of the #1 in the US - Plus he's pretty darn amazing ... yes I love my job!) has a report talking about steps to protect your money.  One of the steps is not doing the same thing because it worked before.   Well I totally just found that is true with my diet life!

As most of you know I started doing weight watcher meals and counting points etc March of last year!  After a few months I was down around 28 or so lbs.  Then in August I started a diet that was all protein and very lean meats.  From August to February I was down around 83 lbs.  I was not counting carbs exactly just eating lean meat and some veggies (since veggies have carbs and some are very high).  So I was buying turkey sausages that I loved and had for most dinners, and sometimes even lunch.

Then February I was started to not see a budge on the scale so I saw a doctor here in town to help me loose the last 28lbs.  His plan is all protein and ONLY 20g of carbs, if it moves you can eat it.  If it has roots it's off limits, BUT I could now eat cheese and eggs!  So the first week I lost 4lbs and then NOTHING for 2 weeks.  I was like what the heck is going on, so I switched around what protein bar I ate then lost almost 2lbs.  I thought I had it figured out, but then back to nothing.  I called the doc and he said well the carbs are getting in somewhere, you need to be a detective and find out what carbs you're eating!  What I'm eating everything I should right???  So to the back of the nutrition list I go.

WELL I found that those lovely sausages that are my fav had 3 carbs a piece!! Oh yes so if you have say 3 or 6 (you eat 9g or 18g), then you eat a protein bar and oh yeah some cheese that you thought all cheese was carb free to find this brand actually had 1g carb PER little square!  Oh yeah and those yummy eggs also have 1 to 2g of carbs.  So my 20g Carb allowance was being pushed and doubled ... UGH.  REALLY looking at the back of food so was not on my mind.  How the heck did I think those items where carb free ... anyone say because the internet said so (YUP, I'm so that commercial of that stupid girl that says if the internet says it then it true ... UGH).

So a lesson learned what worked BEFORE does not work in this new diet.  I must watch very close the carbs that I eat and stick to the plan.  Some days you just need to give yourself a face palm!  Here's to a better week and hopefully a down # on this scale.  I so want to hit my goal of 24 more pounds to return to a normal and HEALTHY lifestyle.  AND heck go out to dinner with my husband with out him and the waitress giving me the crazy eye for order just meat!

Happy Friday, Hope you all have a fab weekend! 

Any Special Plans?

I think we have a date!  Boys have a Mad Hatter Sleep over party to go to.

Pictures and items made to come! (UGH mis-spoke that next weekend)!
Man I'm really not with it this week!

Clean Microwave ... Pinterest FAIL

So the boys are getting to the point when they can eat their own meals up.  They have mastered popcorn with the simple button that says popcorn.  And reheating spaghetti was where we had a little problem.  No matter how many times I have said cover your bowl/plate with a paper towel, it just doesn't seem to sink in!  So when I opened my microwave that I just cleaned to find this (mind you a few days had past since I rarely use the microwave) burnt on hard mess I wasn't pleased.

I thought I would give this no mess easy clean fix a try.  I made it up set the timer and who it's God Green Earth was I really thinking would be sparkling clean when I opened it up.  REALLY am I living with a house elf that cleans up after the kids?  How could hot water and vinegar wipe down the walls and clean?

What you Need:

1 Cup Vinegar

1 Cup Hot Water

Mix vinegar & water put in the microwave for 10 minutes.  The steam SHOULD clean everything off.  They claim no smell, no scrub and easy!  YUP I still had to scrub and now I have a microwave that smells like vinegar :)

I opened it up to see the same mess I started with. NOW some of the stuff wiped right off, BUT that was just some.  I had to actually take my scrubber sponge to clean most of it.  Then I had to take the plate inside to clean it up.  It smelled like vinegar and now after some elbow grease it's clean ... UGH!

LOL well they can't all work!  Has anyone tried and worked for them?

A New Mac & Cheese Recipe (It was a hit)

I've been trying to be better at doing blog hops, it has been helping me meet new bloggers Like Brenda at Chatting Over Chocolate who posted a new yummy Most Requested Crockpot Macaroni and Cheese recipe.  Now I must say at first when I saw the ingredients I was thinking Corn .. hmm that can be interesting.  Then I saw creamed corn ... yup I must say I gagged a bit at that one.  I'm so a crazy texture picky eater and cream corn makes me want to gag ... lol.  BUT I'm on this crazy no carb diet so the meal didn't have to please me it had to please the boys.  This recipe got rave reviews from all three boys.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups of large elbow macaroni
1 cup Velveeta, cubed
1 can whole kernel corn, undrained
2 cans cream corn, undrained
1 stick of butter/margarine, melted 

1. Spray crockpot.
2. Place all of the ingredients in the crockpot.
3. Stir everything together. 

4. Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 hours.  {Stirring occasionally}

Alexis Note:  I have a thing with noodles in crockpots, so I waited until the last 1/2 hour to add them in so they didn't get soggy.  I also accidentally put in too many noodles so it was a little noodle heavy I'll be better for next time.

Hope you all give this a shot it was a easy recipe to make and the boys loved it, so we'll be making it again!

Linking up to a few parties Pin Me Meme and Festive Friday Fiesta.