heres the new

This summer my family was introduced to the fab world of Youth Hockey and let me just say I LOVE it!  My sister Nikki has 2 boys who play in Ft. Myers, FL and while watching my little ones this summer she mentioned that she would be billeting two boys for 8-10 months so that they could participate in the junior league with hopes of getting college scholarship offers. I thought wow that's pretty interesting these boys are going to really be working hard and I thought to myself that would be something I would love for my kids to see.  SO we got involved and got two boys of our own :) The boys, Doug from Sweden and Vasili from right here in Florida are two of the kindest, sweetest, and hard working boys I have ever known.  My children love them and they have integrated into our family very well.  It has easily been one of the more rewarding things we've done, I swear they are like my own kids which makes watching them get smashed into walls during games VERY hard!  If you saw me at the rink you'd never know they were not mine im there like every other hockey mom screaming and cheering them on and  I.  Love.  Every.  Minute!!    You can check out the team by visiting:  Florida Eels Jr Hockey

Really Laura!?!?!

It has been 2 TWO that's dos in Spanish or Två in Swedish since I last posted on this blog and well friends that's just lame-sauce!! So I am back and renewed with tons of news and crafts hairdos and general shenanigans to share :)  So I hope I still have a few people out there in the blogosphere that are in LA LA Land because I'm Baaaaaccckk.

Book Sling

 Ok guys here's my latest craft.  Hope you enjoy :)
I got this idea form my family fun magazine, my kids love to read, and we buy tons of books so we were happy to find a way to store them in a fun creative way.  This craft didn't cost much and it was REALLY easy!!




Here are the fabrics I chose the pink for Emily (of course) and the space ones for Clayton. My sling drops about 20" from the dowel rod and is 45" across I bought a yard of fabric for each sling.



These are the supplies, dowel rods, scissors, measuring tape, fabric, double curtain rod bracket**




** (which I STILL haven't found!) You need one like this:
 
I had to order them online so I hope everyone else finds them easier!



The heat bonding I found in the sewing section of our local craft store I bought a large roll as I plan to use it in other projects, it cost me about $12.

ok now lets get to work!!
 Open up your fabric and lay it print side down on your work area, then fold from outside to center. 
Then cut your heatbond mine was 45"X8" follow the directions for heat bond remembering to place the bonding paper closer to center creating a pocket for the dowel rod. do this to both sides. 

This is the end result:

Cute right!  Not the best picture but you get the idea.   Now just mount your brackets and load the books, Enjoy :)

If you decide to do this craft Id love to see pictures!!



After thought- Since I had trouble finding the brackets I wanted I just went ahead and bought a double curtain rod kit with the brackets and rods included and returned my dowel rods, it ended up working better but was a little more expensive.

Kids Allowence and savings accounts.

Well today we opened savings accounts for the kids.  We decided to go with ING (the bank with the orange dot & lion)I did lots of research but in the end I was so happy with their site, they have so many features designed for the kids account's.  They even gave lesson plans and worksheets to help you teach your kids about money, banking, saving and long term goals.  Of course thats not applicable for Sweetpea but its great for Little Man.  They even have a website especially for kids to play on and learn. Im happy with our choice even if they aren't a local bank.  So saving got us thinking about allowances and chores so we outlined that too, they wont get allowances for cleaning rooms but they do each have a list of age appropriate chores. For little man its things like loading and unloading the dishwasher and helping put away laundry while for sweetpea its things like dusting, and wiping counter tops.  In the end I hope this teaches them a lesson about hard work and saving vs. spending.

Third Day & Tornado Relief

We have all heard and seen the devastation the tornado's have caused throughout the south. We all want to help but may not know how, well Third Day (an amazing Christian Group) is selling special tornado relief items on their website:  http://thirdday.com/store/featured only the items marked Tornado Relief count towards the donations, but 100% of the proceeds from the sales will go straight to tornado victims and their communities. Check them out, pass it around, lets help as much as we can.  If you have a worthwhile charity to promote let me know and Ill do a post on it. 

Luke 6:38 

Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

A Bow Holder for Emily

So I have been really wanting a bow holder for Emily ever since I found so many cute hairstyles on the blogs I follow.  I looked everywhere but they were just not in my price range, so I thought on it for a while and decided to make my own.

Here's what I started with A large white letter E ($3 @craft store)

A Spool of blue ribbon ($1 @craft store on clearence )

Buttons from the needlework section of the local craft store(a splurge at $4) but will be used for several crafts

Hot Glue Gun ( i already owned)

Scissors

                                      

 Next I let Emily decide where the buttons should be placed

Then I used my hot glue gun to glue two strips of the blue ribbon on the back of the E

Now at this point you could be done, but I clipped little slits all down the ribbon like so

This way the clips would not slide down & also we could use it for our headbands. This was the end result:

Cute as a button right and it only took like 5 minutes to make even with my little sweet pea helping.  Total cost $8 bucks not to shabby :)

Hard water, styling products and your hair....

Ok so I admit it, I love to fix emily's hair ponytails, pigtails, braids, and it takes alot of product to hold all those lovely styles in place, plus the added benefit of having well water (bleck) and it takes its toll on her hair and mine.  I've been fighting dandruff and build up in our hair and finally found a product that works, so I had to share. here it is:

Seriously best product I've used to fight build up. You only use it once a week, I'll probably do it only when I see build up.  Anyway it works so well it left our hair silky soft and removed all the yuck plus it was only $4.65 at Target!! Well I had to wash Em's hair last night and it took significantly less shampoo than normal and her hair wasn't knotted at all, so this my friends is worth its weight in diamonds too me :)