Thrifty finds for the bedroom makeover

Today I squeezed in a little visit to my local thrift store. I was scouting out some items to use in my bedroom makeover. I have big plans for a spray paint project this weekend and after that's complete I want to add a few little items to the space to spruce it up a bit. I went to the store with only $10 cash and a commitment to not go over. I bought my little boy who was with me a diving mask for $2 and my total bill was $9.90........so I was able to snatch up a few pretty things for only $7.90, only a fraction of what I would have paid had I purchased them in a regular store at full price.

Since my bedroom color scheme is red, white and blue (but not in an Americana way, more in a shabby chic way to match my quilt), I was on the lookout for red and white. This little glass vase caught my eye. It's very unique with the embossed roses on it.



I've had my eye on this little stand for a while and finally decided to buy it. I think it will look great on the shelf I'm going to paint. I may put a framed photo on top. Haven't decided for sure yet.



I also bought this spray of silk flowers that I plan to cut down and place in the little white vase. I can't wait to see how it all comes together. I'll be sure to post about it here soon.

Continuing the Bedroom Makeover

Even though Flylady has moved on to the next "zone" this week (the living room), I have continued to be busy working in my bedroom to make it a haven. I am really happy with another little corner that I've decluttered and redecorated using things I found when I shopped my own house. Below you can see a wooden bookshelf that was originally in this space. As I mentioned in a previous post, I got rid of a bunch of books, moved some to my son's room, and consolidated the rest onto another bookshelf that was in our bedroom.

Below you can see the "new" bookshelf in its new spot. Previously the top of this shelf was stacked with books and covered with dust. I decided to intentionally decorate it to prevent me from cluttering it up again. I found the lamp, the candle cozy, candle, velvet runner, Jesus picture AND frame all in my own closets during decluttering. Who knew?

I love this picture of Jesus laughing. My mother in law gave it to my husband and I many years ago. I had forgotten about it and was pleased to find it in a tub in one of our closets. The frame it was in was bent, but I found the wooden frame in the same tub. My husband was really excited to see this picture in our room. He thought it was lost for good.

I found the velvet runner shown below in my youngest son's closet stashed way up on a top shelf. I have childhood memories of this runner. My mom always kept it on top of a marble-topped table in our living room with a certain lamp on top of it. She gave it to me a while back and I just threw it up on a shelf and forgot about it. Turns out it is perfect with the colors in our bedroom and fits just right on top of this bookshelf. I love the nostalgia of this piece (and the fringe is fun too!).

Here is a close-up of the electric candle cozy I found in our hallway linen closet. I bought this years ago to have in my classroom and had forgotten about it. I was actually about to toss it in the donation pile when I realized it would be great in our bedroom. I used to light candles a lot before kids but haven't much lately. This is great because it melts the wax in a jar candle and distributes the scent without having to light the candle. I've been turning it on in the evening after the boys are in bed and it feels like such a treat to curl up in bed with a book and to smell a fragrant candle.

The lamp on the bookshelf is also one I found in a closet. I was just about to put it in the donation pile too when I realized that it would be great on top of this shelf. My bedroom looks so cozy and inviting at nighttime now with my new bedside lamps and this additional one. One of the decorating blogs I've been reading really emphasizes collecting a lot of lamps to scatter throughout your home to boost the coziness factor. I think I'm starting to see what they're talking about! Some bloggy decorating divas even have cute little lamps in their bathrooms and laundry rooms. That could be on the horizon for me too! I love the look of diffused light that a lamp provides. So much better than an overhead light!!

Now I'd like to show you what became of the shelf I removed from the bedroom. It is a little too country looking with the heart cut-out and I'm thinking of painting and sanding it to "shabby" it up a bit. However, we needed a place in the kitchen to store our produce. Originally we had our produce in a hanging basket that broke several months ago. Since then we've been piling them all into a large plastic bowl on the counter. This is taking up a lot of counter space that I wanted back. I had a lightbulb moment and realized that my bookshelf would be perfect for this purpose. The photo below shows the shelf with some baskets I already had on hand which I'm using to hold the veggies and fruits. I took the photo in front of the door, but the shelf is actually positioned against a wall.

This divided basket was originally on a hutch in our kitchen. The hutch was on my list to declutter this weekend and I realized I could find another use for the basket. Now it is just right for holding our produce.

Thanks for joining me on my little bedroom (and kitchen) tour. Maybe I'll post a decorating challenge complete with Mr. Linky one of these days. It would be so fun to see how others are beautifying their living spaces.

Thanks so much

Thanks so much for the kind comments and thoughts you have shared with me about the passing of our dog, Magic. I truly appreciate you taking the time to express your concern. It means a lot.

Update on the Bedroom Makeover

Last Sunday I wrote about my plan to makeover my bedroom during this past week. My main goal was to clean and declutter; however, I also wanted to at least start "shopping" my house for things to use to make the bedroom a more inviting space. I have made pretty good progress even though I had a super busy week, DH was out of town for a few days, and our beloved dog passed away. I am not finished with what I want to accomplish in this space, but I thought I would post what I've done so far.

Below is a photo of one of the two lamps that I originally had in this room, one on each nightstand. I found new ones today at our local dollar store for $10 each and am planning to place the old ones on Craigslist. I originally thought I would spray paint the bases of the gold lamps, but decided that I wanted a different style. When I found the ones at the dollar store, my decision was clinched.

Below is the photo of my new lamp(s). I actually wanted red shades but thought I'd have to purchase or make them. I was really excited to find these with the red shades already included. When I picked these out at the dollar store, I thought I would spray paint the bases white, but once I put them in place, I think I like them as is. I'll live with them a while to be sure, but for now I'm planning on keeping them just the way they are.

The next photo shows a bookshelf that was originally right next to my bedroom closet. I had already purged some books from this shelf before taking the photo.

I consolidated books from the shelf shown above with some books from another bookcase I had in the bedroom and moved the other bookcase into this spot. I forgot to take a photo of it, but did take a photo of the wreath I hung above the bookcase. You can see that below. I've had this wreath for years, but it's been in a closet not being used. It adds the perfect color and texture to my room. I have some plans for the top of the bookcase right below the wreath and will post about that later.



The quilt rack shown below and the metal decorations above it are now in the space where the bookcase was before. Removing one bookcase and repositioning the other has really opened up the space in the bedroom. I had forgotten to take a before picture of this part of the bedroom. The metal squares are ones I've had for years that I rediscovered this week when decluttering my writing desk. It's amazing what you can find when you declutter and shop your own home!

The next picture shows how the top of my dresser has looked for the past several months. Totally cluttered! It has about killed me to walk past it in this state each day since starting Flylady. But I was determined to wait to tackle my bedroom until it came up as a "zone" which wasn't until this week.

The next photo shows a close-up of the mirrored tray that I've had on my dresser for years. As you can see it was a resting place for odds and ends (and lots of dust!).

Yay! Now my dresser is decluttered and beautiful. I will be so motivated to keep it this way. You can really see the surface of this antique piece and the amazing detail of the birds-eye maple. My dad used this dresser as a child. I am so grateful to have it.

This is a close-up of the mirrored tray that was previously so cluttered. I am now thinking about painting the whole thing antique white. I think that would look much better with the other accents in the space.

Since I've been FLYing with Flylady and decluttering, I am getting really motivated to not only declutter and deep clean my living space, but also to fill it with beautiful things. I don't like a lot of "things" to clutter up a space, but I'm talking about some intentional decorating to make things more pleasant and finished. I've found a few great blogs that are totally devoted to frugal decorating and I have a bunch of pieces that I can't wait to repurpose and restyle with some spray paint. I've already bought the paint, but was totally bummed out that it's been damp and rainy today (and will be tomorrow) so I can't paint this weekend. Oh well............ Here are the links to a few great decorating blogs I've found. Be prepared to spend a lot of time looking at the great ideas.

The Shabby Nest

Enchantresses Three

Nesting Place

Southern Hospitality

Thrifty Decor Chick

The gals who write these blogs are SO creative. I am so inspired to get busy and create some great things for my home. I already have plans to spray paint a shelf from our kitchen antique white and hang it over our bed. I have a bunch of old photos from my family and DH's family that are in mismatched frames. I am going to spray paint all the frames antique white and place them on the shelf above the bed. I also have some more great items that are waiting for sunny weather to get their spray paint makeover. (BTW........I've never spray painted anything in my life that I can recall. Should be interesting..........)

Goodbye, Bunny Dog

We have had a rough few days. On Thursday afternoon, we had to make the heartbreaking decision to let our dog go. After the incident I wrote about in my last post, I came home at lunchtime on Wednesday to let Magic out and he had messed again. That's when I knew it was more than just waiting too long the day before. My husband didn't get home until almost 1:00 a.m. on Thursday morning and in the wee hours we decided that the vet had to be called that day. By Thursday our sweet boy couldn't walk at all and was in pretty bad shape. I took the photo above when my littlest boy and I left for school Thursday morning. At that point I didn't know if I would ever see Magic alive again. I drove us to school with tears streaming down my cheeks. That morning I took 116 children and adults on a field trip to the zoo, but my mind was on my dog all morning. It was a hard morning. Luckily, since it was a field trip day I was home in the afternoon and that is when the vet came out to our home with his technician. After explaining all our options, my husband and I decided that the most humane course of action was to have the vet end our dog's life peacefully. We were both with him until the very end. It's very hard to see your beloved pet alive one minute and not the next. That is how fast the process is. I didn't realize that. I guess that's better than it being prolonged, but it was so very very painful to watch. I really wanted us both there though and I'm grateful we were able to do that for him.

Our bunny dog was a good boy. He showed up on our property the day after Thanksgiving a few years ago and we adopted him. He was around 8 when we got him and was a perfect fit for our family. He was so gentle with our boys and just an all-around great dog. I called him "Bunny Dog" because when you talked to him, he would sometimes perk up one or both of his ears, making him resemble a bunny. We will miss you, Bunny Dog. We love you. We are so glad you could share your last years on earth with us.

I let the dog back in

OK..............there's a backstory here. When my sons and I arrived home tonight around 7:45 p.m. following my oldest son's soccer game, we were greeted by the stench and sight of dog poop all over our basement carpet. I haven't written about it here, but our dog has lung cancer. He was diagnosed about 7 weeks ago. He also has spinal arthritis and recently it is becoming increasingly difficult for him to stand up by himself. He is a nearly 80 pound dog. I usually come home on my lunch break to let him out because the medicine he is on causes him to eat and drink a lot and, therefore, pee and poop a lot. And I did come home to let him out today. However, he had to wait a longer time than usual to be let out again because my son had soccer pictures and had to be at practice early, my husband is out of town, and I had to get my son at his school (which my DH usually does) which is about 1 1/2 hour round trip for me. Anywho.........that's what greeted me when I arrived home with the 2 boys. Trying to stay calm, I had the boys go straight upstairs and asked them to stay there while I dealt with the "situation" downstairs. My first goal was to get the dog outside. He was getting poop all over his rear end trying to stand up and then smearing it further into the carpet. So..........I dragged/carried him out and started to deal with THE MESS. In the meantime I called my mom and explained what was going on. It was soon evident that my carpet spray and rags were not going to sufficiently clean our carpet. So my mom (bless her heart!) stopped at our local grocery store, rented a Rug Doctor and brought it out to our house. She hung around and helped get the boys in bed and also stayed most of the time that I cleaned the carpets. Before she arrived with the Rug Doctor I had pretty much decided that the dog was going to stay in the garage all night. I am not physically able to bathe him by myself nor do I have any place downstairs to bathe an 80 pound dog. And I didn't want him tracking more poop in the house, getting on the wet, newly cleaned carpet, etc. My mom totally agreed with this plan. (She has never had indoor pets.) In the meantime, my husband called me from New Orleans (he flew there this AM for a conference) and I relayed to him what had happened and what I planned to do. He was not pleased about my plan to keep the dog in the garage. He was worried about how upsetting that would be to the dog, etc. And I admit that I WAS feeling guilty about leaving the dog in the garage too. I told him I would probably let the dog back in after I got the carpets cleaned.

After I cleaned the whole basement with the Rug Doctor, I tried to reach my husband in his hotel room to report my progress. I was pretty proud of myself for cleaning the whole basement, not just the yucky places. However, I couldn't reach him. I left him two messages within about 15 minutes.......something along the lines of, "Hey, party boy........it must be nice to be out on the town in New Orleans while I'm up here getting $%&* out of the carpet......" (that looks worse in writing than how I said it; I was kind of jokey about it). It wasn't long before he called me back. When I answered he said, "Hey, pooper scooper!" And luckily I have a good enough sense of humor to think that was funny! Anyway, the upshot of our last conversation is that I decided to let the dog back in the house. My husband convinced me to go outside with a wet soapy rag and try to clean any remaining excrement from the dog before letting him back in. I DID ask him how he proposed I clean poop off a black dog at 10:00 at night outside, but he seemed confident that I could do it. So, people, I did go outside to scrub the dried poop off my sick dog before letting him back in the house.

Before I let the dog back in I was washing our dishes (Flylady would be so happy!) and thinking about what, if any, spiritual lesson could be gleaned from my poopy evening. And suddenly the lesson seemed very obvious to me. As you recall, my initial reaction to finding the poop was to get the dog out of the house and not let him back in. Essentially, I was throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. I was immediately humbled as I realized that the God I believe in would never do that to any of His children. Regardless of the "dirt" we create, God is ready to forgive us and welcome us back with open arms. He loves us unconditionally despite the ugly stains we leave as a result of our sinful actions. Like my oldest son said when I put him to bed tonight, "We shouldn't just remember that Jesus died for us on Easter; we should remember it EVERY day of the year." Couldn't have said it better myself. And I let the dog back in.

Here's a photo of the Rug Doctor I rented. (Every post needs a photo, dontcha think?) Just be glad I didn't take a photo of the pile that caused me to rent the Rug Doctor! And to be honest, I kind of thought about it. If you write a blog, you totally understand why I would think about it..........I knew it would make a good blog post. But.......since this is a nice clean family kinda blog..........no poo-poo pictures. Just the good ol' Rent-A-Kent.

Bedroom Makeover

OK.........I really hope DH won't be horrified by this post because truly in these photos our bedroom looks worse than I thought it did. As you know if you've been reading for a while, I have been trying to follow Flylady for about the last month. I've been diligently going through my house room by room, closet by closet, cluttered surface by cluttered surface, drawer by drawer and de-cluttering. It feels really good to purge and even better to thoroughly clean the newly decluttered areas. I knew our bedroom needed work, but I was patiently waiting until the Master Bedroom came up as a Zone on Flylady's schedule of zones and I was meanwhile working my decluttering magic in other areas of the house. Flylady really emphasizes staying focused and not getting distracted. It's been hard because as you see in the photos in this post I have been walking right past a lot of clutter in my bedroom every day. So I'm writing this to come clean once and for all. During the next several days I am going to be focused on decluttering my bedroom and making it a haven within my home. Flylady says you should treat your bedroom like a hotel room and I hope to get ours closer to that by the end of the week. So here are the "before" photos. Hopefully my "after" photos will show a good contrast to what you see here.
This is the view of our bedroom from the doorway. I purposely didn't move anything before I took the photo. So there's clothing on the bed (along with a cat) and a bunch of stuff on the floor.



Here is this awesome writing desk I bought many years ago in an antique store. I recently spent some time going through it on the inside and reorganizing it. The paper clutter on the floor is actually headed to the burning barrel after being purged from the desk.



And here is one of the two dressers in the room. It is from my dad's childhood home and is a beautiful piece. Sadly, it's covered with clutter as is the floor next to it. But not for long!



This pile of hangers is from a closet decluttering experience in my oldest son's room and I just need to add these to my stash of adult-sized hangers. Not sure why my little one's tool box is sitting there, but it has been for a long time. It will take me about 6 steps to put it in the right spot........HIS bedroom! And about 10 steps to put the 2 pairs of shoes into their right spot........MY CLOSET!



This is one of two bookshelves in our room. I have recently purged a bunch of books and am actually planning on finding other homes (either in our house or someone else's) for the books shown here. I plan to remove this shelf from our bedroom completely. Not sure why there's lotion on the floor.........hmmm........should be easy to fix that one.



UGH! I hate this next one. This is the clutter that has accumulated between the wall and my side of the bed. It will probably take me less than 3 minutes to fix this.

Here's the top of the dresser I showed a few photos ago. Being a horizontal surface, it tends to collect a lot of "stuff." By the end of my makeover, I hope much more of the surface will be visible and that it will look neat and pretty. The wreath in the picture is one I found during a recent decluttering episode. I am thinking of hanging it above our bed along with three white metal pieces I found when cleaning the writing desk.

I found the mirrored tray shown below at a thrift store many years ago. Over the years it has become a repository for my necklaces since I haven't had a better way to store them. I recently bought a belt hanger that will be used to store my necklaces from now on. So be prepared to see a shiny, polished tray here in the near future. I have a perfect little candle that I am planning to put on this tray. You can see it kind of in the photo above on the far left.

You can see I have some great pieces of furniture in this space. Hopefully they can become more of a focal point once I'm finished with my "missions" from Flylady this week. A main reason I'm posting this is that I really believe in the Flylady system after trying it for the past several weeks. This is a really crazy week for me. DH is out of town for a few days and my oldest son has soccer games 3 out of the next 5 nights. I will be spending more time than ever running/driving from here to there and keeping on top of everything. However, I truly believe that I'll be able to tackle this project even in the midst of it by taking Babysteps. I'll try to post daily to keep you updated. If I can do this during the next 5 days, then any of you reading this can tackle those tasks you've been putting off.

Aaaahhh............much betta!

After MUCH effort, the craft room has been reorganized! Yay! I actually reorganized it last summer and wrote about it on my other blog (which was my ONLY blog at that time since I wasn't crazy yet!) and you can read about that here if you are so inclined. This time around I dug into things a lot more and got rid of a bunch of craft supplies that I didn't think I would use. Believe me, I still have enough to outfit a Brownie troop for several years. Below you can see one view of my newly organized space.....this photo is taken from the doorway. I decided to allocate one long wall to my scrapbooking materials and the opposite wall to sewing since I have so much more room now. This photo shows the scrapbooking side.



And this photo shows the sewing side (on the left) and a shelf that I moved downstairs to hold all the boys' scrapbooks. I used to have them in the white cabinet that you will see in a moment, but decided to put a bunch of them on a shelf that kind of displays them and makes them more accessible. My oldest son immediately pulled out two of his books to look at when he got home from school today and realized he could actually walk into the room now without stepping on stuff. So I'm really glad I put their books on the shelf.




Here's a better photo of the sewing space. The table on the left is for cutting fabric and the one on the right will hold my sewing machine which is now in the case beside the chair until I pull it out for my next project. I am getting pretty motivated to work on something in this new space!



The next photo shows a close-up of the scrapbooking table with easily accessible paper and tools and a little lamp for extra lighting.

To the left of the scrapbooking table is a cart with drawers that hold my rubber stamps and stamp pads and the white cabinet which holds a BUNCH of stuff including more scrapbooks that didn't fit on the shelf.

Here is the inside of the cabinet with sewing and scrapbooking things neatly organized. I love this cabinet. We bought it several years ago at Menard's and it holds so much and was pretty cheap.

This photo shows the two shelves above the scrapbooking table. The drawer organizers you see on the bottom shelf used to hold my 8 1/2 X 11 scrapbooking paper and paper scraps. I have reorganized the paper and now these drawers hold various scrapbooking and crafting supplies along with my sticker collection. I also love the little clear boxes on the top shelf. I bought them at Wal-Mart and they have many sizes. The lids are attached and snap shut. These are really inexpensive and are great for organizing. I use them all over my house.

This is the left side of the shelves with my crafting books on top and my 12X12 paper organizers on the bottom. I recently gave up my cart which had lots of my larger scrapbooking paper. It has been repurposed for use by my oldest son. You can read about that here if you want. So.....I bought the 3 drawer organizer at Hobby Lobby and divided my papers by color. I had originally bought the case you see with the pink suitcases on it, but it didn't even come close to holding all my 12X12 paper once I pulled everything out and started sorting it.

The next photo shows how I've organized my scrapbooking paper that isn't 12X12. I had two large file organizers from my days as a Creative Memories consultant. I used one to hold the 10X12 inch paper that CM sells and one to hold my 8 1/2 X 11 inch paper that used to be in the drawer organizers. The paper is organized by color and sits on the left side of my scrapbooking table.

As I mentioned before, I had saved scraps of cardstock and paper from scrapbooking for many years and had it organized by color into individual drawers. While I do use my scraps whenever I can, as I reorganized I realized that the scraps were taking up so much room that could be better utilized. So I decided to recycle most of my scraps and try a new system. The clear box you see in the next photo will sit below my scrapbooking table to hold miscellaneous scraps. Once it becomes too full, I'll have to purge again.

Aaah.........it feels SO good to have my basement tidy again. It has been a big effort, but tonight even DH commented that it is so nice and relaxing to have the clutter cleared up. The back of my van is full of more items headed for donation. This will be my third big vanload since I started Flylady. I am making good headway though and may only have a few more trips to make before I can declare my house "de-cluttered!" I'm really excited to get to that point because then I can start really focusing on deep-cleaning the Zones as they come up. It is so hard not to get over-zealous. I still have some de-cluttering to do in our master bedroom and it's hard to walk past it every day and not dig into it. But I've tried really hard to follow Flylady's advice and not get distracted. Now that the craft room and basement are organized, I have a list of other places that need to be decluttered and I will diligently work on them a little at a time until they are all crossed off my list. Now I am going to sign off and go read in bed! Yay for me!

UGH!

As you know, I've been trying to incorporate the tips from Flylady into my daily life. I am tremendously excited about how much this is going to change my home life for the better. However, in the short term...........UGH! I think Flylady would tell me I'm trying to tackle too much and to slow down. And that may very well be good advice. However, I can't STAND for things to be completely messy (although I have been known to tolerate incomplete messes......haha!). And right now my basement is COMPLETELY MESSY. Let me explain.............when I started FLYing I decided to really dive in and tackle the clutter that was threatening to take over my house. So last weekend I listed some of our basement furniture on Craigslist and sold it within a few days. That allowed me to rearrange some things in our finished basement and, ultimately, it means that I have even more room in my craft room. The room pictured below in the not-very-good photos is my craft room. And I am VERY grateful to have a space dedicated to crafting. VERY GLAD.........seriously. Until our recent rearrangment, this room also held our piano and a pull-out couch which my MIL sleeps on when she visits. Both of these pieces of furniture have now been moved into the adjacent living area of our basement. So for the last SEVERAL DAYS (many hours of work each of those days), I have been trying to go through, weed out and reorganize my crafting supplies. Mostly this has meant going through oodles of scrapbooking paper and stickers. I used to sell Creative Memories and stopped selling a few years ago. Since then I've had my scrapbook paper stored in about 4 different places so I really couldn't ever find what I wanted nor did I fully realize what I already had. So although it was high time to reorganize, it has been a GARGANTUAN task and I am getting SO SICK of it. (Pardon me for the obnoxious overuse of capital letters in this post...........I really just need to get it all out, OK?) I'm posting the photos of what my craft room has looked like for the past several days to motivate myself to keep at it. Actually, it looks a lot better than this even right now. I am almost finished with my MISSION: Organization down there. I have to work for a little then take a break. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have some great "after" shots to post. I have the day off of work, so that should allow a lot more time to finish. Until then...............I'll leave you with a few shots of utter chaos so you can be duly impressed when I get it done!

Resurrection Rolls

One of the many Easter-related things we did on Saturday was to make Resurrection Rolls. I had not ever heard of these until seeing them on a few other blogs this year. I thought the boys were at just about the right age to do this activity so we gave it a try. I thought I took more photos during the process, but just now realized that most of them show the boys' faces which I don't allow on the blog. So.........there aren't very many photos. Sorry! Here is a great post with more photos and the recipe.

Basically, each part of the rolls and roll ingredients represent part of the story of Jesus' resurrection. You start with a large marshmallow which represents Jesus' body after he was crucified. Then the marshmallow is dipped in melted butter to represent the oil that was used to anoint his body and rolled in cinnamon and sugar which represent the spices that were also used. The marshmallow is then wrapped in a crescent roll which represents the linen clothes used to bind the body. Then the rolls are baked for about 10-15 minutes (I had to bake mine closer to 15) which represents the time spent in the tomb. When the rolls are cooled and ready to eat, the children discover that Jesus' body (the marshmallow) is gone which, of course, represents the resurrection. My oldest son knew that the heat from the oven melted the marshmallow, but still gained a lot through the experience and will most likely not forget making the rolls. Next year I think we may try resurrection cookies, which I have heard about before but never made. If any of you have tried either recipe, I'd love for you to comment and leave me some feedback about your preferences.

The photo below shows my littlest boy's hands as he tried to wrap the crescent roll around the marshmallow. If I make these again, I might try substituting flaky refrigerator biscuits for the crescent rolls to allow for a bigger piece of dough. It was kind of hard to make the crescent rolls stretch around the marshmallow.




This shows what the rolls looked like before we baked them. As you can see I baked them on my well-loved and well-used Pampered Chef baking stone.



Here is what they look like when finished, more or less. Some of them didn't come out as puffy as this one and were kind of flat. They do taste pretty good but are VERY sweet and sticky due to the melted marshmallow.

Egg Hunt for the Grown-Ups

Last year for Easter I sewed up a bunch of Secret Pocket Eggs and we took them to my mom's house for Easter. After our meal and the boys' egg hunt outside, my two boys hid the fabric eggs all over inside my mom's house and each adult had to go search for one for themselves. My boys LOVED doing this, so I wanted to do something similar this year. So............last night I put together these little Easter baskets that I made using a tutorial I found through this link at Katie's Nesting Spot. They are so easy to make and I'm already thinking about the possibilities for May baskets this year. I made mine using 6 inch squares of double-sided cardstock. I also hand-stamped the little tags to go on each basket. For May Day, I think I will involve the boys in the decorating. I didn't with these simply because our Saturday was SO BUSY that I literally didn't have time to get these done until after the boys went to bed last night. And after all, the best part for them was hiding them inside my parents' house and having all the grown-ups look for them.







Each basket held a little bit of Easter grass (the paper kind........I HATE the other kind!) and one plastic Easter egg. The baskets made using 6 inch squares of paper are just the right size for holding one plastic Easter egg. I put a Mini Cadbury chocolate egg and some jelly beans inside each plastic egg. That way the adults got to partake in all of the candy frenzy surrounding Easter.



I stamped the office supply tags with a yellow chick on one side and "Happy Easter" on the other side and tied them to the handle of the baskets.

I love this photo of all the little baskets nestled in the box and ready to take to Grandma's house. I wish I had gotten photos of the adult egg hunt, but mostly I would have gotten pictures of everyone's backside! One cool thing this year was that we had two special guests.........my cousin Lesha brought two college student friends of hers who are studying abroad here in the US this year. One is from England and one from Spain. Neither of them had participated in an egg hunt before ever, so it was fun to introduce this tradition to them.