DIY Lemonade Stand

It has been far too long since I have been here, so happy to be back.  With this beautiful weather and the end of the school year here I keep thinking of summer and all of the fun things to do with the kiddos!  This past spring I made a lemonade stand for some sweet little girls and I could not have been happier with how it turned out!  I followed the plans for the Market Base for Grace's Town Collection and the Wide Hutch for Grace's Town Collection on Ana White and made a few adjustments as I went along. This my first large wood working project and I was super pleased with the results.  Don't be fooled...there were mistakes and adjustments along the way.  Just all part of the process!

I did away with the arched top as I wanted it to be more simplistic and I was not very good with the jigsaw truth be told.  ;)  I choose to paint the sign on the top with chalkboard paint so this could be anything these two could dream up.  Truly the possibilities are endless...ice cream parlor, market place, produce stand, puppet theater, post office, restaurant, bakery, bait shop, snack vendor...ok...I am sure you got the point.  It just makes me happy to see littles playing pretend!  I found the chalkboard easel/menu board in the Target Dollar Spot along with the felt money...I was so happy I may have actually danced in the aisle!  Ooh...I almost forgot they also had little pink fairy lights that were battery operated there as well...yes this lemonade stand needed lights!

This cute little pink lemonade sign was from Hobby Lobby.

The money box was a cute box that I found at a thrift shop and just painted to match.

Every little shop keepers needs a cute apron...or at least I thought so.  I made these adorable little aprons following this woman's fabulous tutorial!!!  I also made the matching bunting in pink and yellow fabrics to go with the lemonade theme.  I just screwed in some small hooks to hang the bunting on.  Would be cute to make different themes to go along with the pretend play.

Of course no lemonade stand would be complete without lemonade!  I found a simple acrylic pitcher at Target, would have loved something cuter, but the summer stuff was not out in February.  I filled the pitcher with pink cups and yellow and pink paper straws!  I used these adorable lemon printables to make the tag.

I loved making this lemonade stand for these two little ladies.  Cannot wait to stop by and have a cup of lemonade!  

As always thanks for stopping by!  If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

-Robyn

Reptile Swamp Birthday Party

So I have decided that I have been a very bad blogger, as I have not had a post in quite sometime. Oh, how I wish that there were more hours in the day, but sadly there are not.  Thankfully I was inspired recently by our youngest to create an alligator/swamp birthday party so I can end this blogging drought.  He loves alligators and all things creepy, and absolutely loves The Wild Kratts...so naturally we had to create a swamp themed birthday party.  We had a Snake Egg Hunt, made swamp slime, created a reptile garden, and let the kids play in the backyard.  It was a perfect party in my book.

For the Snake Egg Hunt I was able to find some plastic Easter eggs after the holiday and spray painted them and then speckled them with acrylic paints.  The spray paint came out with a texture on some of the eggs which was completely not expected, but worked just fine for this project.

For the egg hunt I made little brown bags for the kids to decorate with some swamp (jungle) themed stamps our son had.  I printed their names on some cardstock for the handles...I have found it is always good to have everyone's things very well labeled...less likely to have any tears over misplaced items.  Not that I know this from experience.  :)

When having a swamp party there should definitely be some swamp slime!  We made our slime using the recipe from this blog...this recipe was perfect.  When adding the 4 ounces of water to the glue we just filled up the glue bottle, which was conveniently 4 ounces, and shook it and poured that into the bowl.  Super fun craft and I would say it was quite the hit.  We just packed it up in ziploc bags and sent it home with the boys.

We also made reptile gardens using glass candle holders from the dollar store, I just love the dollar store for party supplies!!!  The bottom layer is some river rocks from the dollar store, then some potting soil, a few chia seeds and a reptile of course. A perfect little reptile garden!

The alligator cake was absolutely adorable and I found my idea here, but truth be told...I will never be a professional cake decorator.  Anything that can go wrong with frosting will go wrong for me. Despite all of this the cake came out looking as it should despite a few mistakes here and there.  :)

There were also Chocolate Frog cupcakes.  I made the chocolate frogs using a candy mold that I found on Amazon and just placed them on top of the whipping cream frosting...super easy!

One of my favorite parts of this party were the party favors.  They were super fun to make and I hope all of the kids enjoyed them.  I know our little one has been enjoying his.  The favors included an Adventure Notebook which was found at the dollar store....surprise...surprise!  They were just perfect with the alligator/snake skin look.  I printed out labels and stuck them onto the notebooks. I included a pen to write in their notebooks.

There was an alligator brownie that I made using an alligator cookie cutter that I found on Amazon.

Our little adventure loving boy really loves these wish bracelets/necklaces that we made.  I found the adorable alligator charms on Etsy through the cutest little shop.  Absolutely loved the shop owner and loved the beads.  Just used some hemp twine and printed out the wish cards.  

There was also a  fruit roll-up, a bug container which held a little plastic lizard or frog, a nature scavenger hunt game which I found here.  I loved how these turned out and her printables were absolutely adorable!  I just printed them four to a page and used both of her designs to make them double sided.  We made the little Snake Egg labels for the TicTacs using a template from here.  I was quite pleased with how these turned out.

Here they are all wrapped up and ready to go home!

If you would like more ideas feel free to check out my Wild Kratt Birthday Party board on Pinterest.

This was a fun party to plan and enjoy with the boys.  While I do not love reptiles, I love how much our little creature lover does!  This was another super easy backyard party!  Hope you enjoyed stopping by! -Robyn

Best Ever Pumpkin Bread

Hello again,

I have failed to keep up with any holiday postings seeing as we were busy with the holidays...such is the way.  Well, who says we cannot enjoy pumpkin treats beyond the fall holiday season?!?!  Not me!  I love all things pumpkin and this bread is our absolute favorite pumpkin treat.  In all fairness this can be called a cake, but either way it is delicious!  I do not alter very much from the original recipe which can be found on the Taste of Home website here.  I usually cut one egg from the recipe and use 1 cup of canola oil and instant pudding can be substituted; other than that there are no alterations to this recipe as it is perfect.

This year we hosted Thanksgiving Dinner for our family and as a little gift to all of our guests we made mini loaves for them to take home.  Super easy gift to share with family and friends around the holidays.  The tags that I used were a fabulous free download that I found on Pinterest here.

Baking Times vary on what size pan you choose to use.  I usually opt to bake it in a bundt cake pan as it is so pretty and easier...only one pan needed.

Bundt cake pan  325 degrees for 80 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Mini loaf pans 325 degrees for 30 minutes

Hope your family enjoys this pumpkin treat as much as we do.  Thanks for stopping by. -Robyn

A Few of My Favorite Free Fonts...

I can hardly believe that Christmas is only 7 weeks away...not that I am rushing this along.  However, I thought I would share with you a few of my favorite free fonts for the holidays or truly any other time of the year.

Letters to Santa - Janda Elegant Handwriting

Snowflakes Falling - Daisy Charming

Happy Holidays - Tamoro Script Personal

The North Pole - Fine Blackboard

St. Nicholas - St. Nicholas

Ice Skates & Snowflakes - Pink Ladies & Peanut Butte

Sleigh Rides - KBBright&Merry

warm & cozy - Mf Kind & Witty

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!  Thanks for visiting! - Robyn

Thankful for Thanksgiving Family Activity

Just finished the final touches on my Thanksgiving decor around the house.  This is my absolute favorite holiday all year...family, friends and wonderful food minus the pressures of holiday gift giving.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving we thought we should remind our children all they have to be thankful for.  To instill this sense of thankfulness everyday we created a family thankful jar.  Our jar sits on our dining room table where everyone is sure to see it and take a moment to fill out a slip...so far the plan is working.  We decided we would read them all on Thanksgiving.  I just used a couple of items from around the house to create our thankful jar.  I canning jar, some burlap scrap, twine and a foam leaf.  A little hot glue later and our jar was complete.  I just printed out some "I am thankful for" slips and we were all set.  How does your family celebrate Thanksgiving?  I would love to hear other ideas on how to remind ourselves how much we have to be thankful for.

As always thank you for stopping by. -Robyn

Simple Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

To follow with the theme of quick and easy weeknight meals, I thought I would share a favorite chicken pot pie recipe we make.  I originally found the recipe in a Pillsbury cookbook titled Casseroles and Slow Cookers from September of 2007.  You can find the original recipe here on their website.  I have made a few changes to accommodate our family's tastes hopefully you will enjoy them as well.

Simple Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 1 1/2 cup cooked chicken, cubed (about 2 breasts)
• 4-6 mini red potatoes diced and oven roasted*
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
• Homemade Cream of Chicken soup, prepared
• 1 can (8 oz) refrigerated Crescent rolls
• 1 egg
• 1/8 teaspoon dried Italian herbs

I cook off my chicken breasts in boiling water for about 20 minutes.  Cook the homemade cream of chicken soup mix (equivalent of 1 can) from the link above.  Add vegetables, chicken, potatoes, milk, 1/2 teaspoon Italian herbs.  Heat this mixture until boiling over medium heat, stirring.  Divide this mixture evenly between 5 ungreased ramekin dishes.  I place mine on a lined cookie sheet just in case they bubble over during baking.

Unroll the crescent dough and place 1 triangle over each dish.

In a small bowl, beat egg.  Brush egg over the crescent dough and sprinkle with Italian herbs.  Bake 13 minutes or until crusts are golden brown.

Enjoy!

*Oven Roasted Mini Red Potatoes

• 4-6 mini red potatoes (enough for 1 1/2 - 2 cups)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Dice potatoes into 1" cubes.  Toss with olive oil and seasonings.  Place on a lined cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Hope your family enjoys this easy dinner as much as we do,  Thanks for stopping by!

Best Ever Bread Maker Herb Pizza Dough

Wow...where had the time gone?  It seems as if summer was just here and the kids were just getting ready to go back to school.  Halloween has come and gone and now we are getting ready for Thanksgiving.  With the holidays quickly approaching I am always looking for fast and easy recipes that everyone in our house will enjoy.  If asked what my favorite kitchen items are I would first say my crock pot....there truly is not a better time saver.  Second, I would say my bread maker.  Yes, you read that right....I absolutely love my bread maker.  I cannot tell you how easy it is to make homemade pizza dough in the bread maker.  It works much like the crock pot...you place your ingredients in and push a button and and 90 minutes later you have homemade pizza dough.  Cannot get any easier than that.  I have an Oster bread maker and use the 2 pound recipes listed in the recipe book that came with bread maker.  I have made a few changes to the recipe and what I have come up with is a family favorite that I hope your family will enjoy as well.

Bread Maker Pizza Dough

(All ingredients must be at room temperature)

• 1 1/4 cup warm water (I use warm tap water)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (can substitute canola oil)
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon Italian herbs dried 
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Combine all ingredients in the bread maker pan.  Wet ingredients must go in first to avoid yeast touching any liquid, this is very important.
Select the Dough Setting on your bread maker and press the Start button.  This setting is an hour and a half for my bread maker.  Once the dough is done you take it out and roll it out on a floured surface to your desired size pan.

We use a 15"x12" jelly roll pan, which I line with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick spray and sprinkle with some corn meal.

Once you have your pizza dough in the pan, top with pizza sauce and your family's favorite pizza toppings.  Top with 2-3 cups of mozzarella cheese and some dried Italian herbs.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is brown and bubbly.  Enjoy!

We have made many variations of this pizza recipe...

• Sausage and Cheese
• Pepperoni & Cheese
• Taco Pizza 
• Spinach & Mushroom & Sausage Pizza
• BBQ Chicken Pizza

Hope your family enjoys this as much as ours!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Our Favorite Homemade Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

There are so many wonderful reasons to love fall...the crisp air, the changing colors, and my very favorite....baking!  Oh, how do I love to bake!  Homemade cookies, cakes, breads oh, my!  I have been making this Banana Bread recipe for over 10 years now, and still think it is the best!  Everytime I try another recipe I just wonder why, as if I am somehow cheating on my tried and true!

Banana Bread

3 overripe banana's
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Mash bananas in a large bowl.  Add flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and egg.

Melt butter and add it to the bowl, stir until just mixed.

Pour into a greased loaf pan.  Sprinkle on chocolate chips.  Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Note:  I have made this with only 2 bananas if that is all I have in the house and it turns out just fine.

Adapted from Parenting Magazine

Hope you enjoy this yummy quick bread just as much as we do. -Robyn

Simple Fall Hostess Gift

With all of the fall get togethers that are sure to fill up your weekends, you may be looking for a simple, affordable hostess gift.  I love bringing a little something to say thank you, I love homemade, but from the store is equally wonderful.  While visiting the gift shop at a local farm I found the most adorable little baking gifts.  They have a wide variety of super cute baking mixes and other cute kitchen accessories.  I choose a scone baking mix with a couple of coffee packets.  Wrapped them up with a little cellophane and tied with a bow and added a glitter leaf.  Sweet little gift for anyone on your gift list.  This can be altered with any baking mix...even a cute seasonal quick bread mix from the grocery store...it is truly the thought that counts.

Thanks for visiting.  -Robyn

Pet Odor Carpet Spray DIY

Anyone have stinky pets???  Well, we do and her name is Savannah.  Oh, she is a sweet girl, but boy can she stink!  Just look at that sweet face.

I was on a mission to try and find a safe carpet odor neutralizer to get rid of the stinky doggie odor, or DO as I tend to call it,  in our carpets.  I found this recipe for a carpet spray on Pinterest.  I actually made a half batch since you cannot store the unused portion.  I wanted to make good and sure I was able to get rid of the stinky odors lurking in our family room carpeting.  Overall I was very pleased with this carpet spray.  It got rid of the light pet odor that was hanging out in the carpeting, however for the really stinky spots...not so much.  The odor was still there...even after the second application.  So I will have to keep searching for a carpet odor spray that is chemical free for the heavy odors, however this works wonders on the everyday stink that happens.  If you have any tried and true solutions I would love to hear about them.

Thanks for stopping by. -Robyn

Copycat Costco Mac & Cheese

I do believe we are a little late to the party, but we just recently discovered Costco's take and bake mac & cheese.  Holy cow is that good.  So naturally I read the ingredient list and set out to try and make this at home.  I have to say that my first attempt was pretty darn good, as told to my by my discerning critics...my family.  The entire 13x9" baking dish was almost completely cleaned out...not too shabby!

Copycat Costco Mac & Cheese

16oz. box of Cavatappi pasta, cooked and drained
10 oz. shredded white cheddar
1 cup shredded mild cheddar, divided
10 oz jar Four Cheese Alfredo Sauce
1/2 cup milk

Cook pasta according to instructions on the package.  Mix cooked pasta with alfredo sauce, white cheddar and 1/4 cup of mild cheddar and milk.  Pour into a greased 13x9" baking dish and top with remaining 3/4 cup mild cheddar.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly.  Enjoy!

Please stop back and let me know your thoughts.

Rustic Autumn Themed Wedding Shower

Good morning...I am so excited to finally share the autumn wedding shower with you.  A week ago I shared a little sneak peek of this shower here.  The link to the Etsy shop where I ordered the adorable invitations and the how to for the pumpkin centerpieces can be found in my earlier post.

We held the shower in a restaurant so the decorations were fairly minimal which makes this a very simple shower in the way of set up.  Here is a couple of pictures of the pumpkins that I made for the table centerpieces.  I was thrilled at how easy these were and how cute they turned out.  The tutorial can be found here.

Along with the invitations we included a little poem card asking every guest to bring along their favorite recipe to share with the soon to be Mr. & Mrs.  I found a simple brown kraft recipe box that I found at Hobby Lobby and decorated it with brown and white gingham ribbon and a monogram.  I found the wood pumpkin at Hobby Lobby as well, and painted it with chalkboard paint.  I painted the letter A and glued it right on, and attached the sunflower clip to dress it up a bit.

The shower favors were little milk cartons filled with a hot cider drink mix envelope and some caramels.  The cartons would not stay closed so I dressed up some small paperclips to solve that problems and thankfully it worked.  I followed this tutorial on how to make a monogram in MS Word and it was fantastic, what an eye opener...I had no idea how much you could do in Word.  I cannot tell you how excited I was after discovering that this was a possibility.  Just sized it down to be able to use a 1 3/4" circle punch and really cute personalized monogram for all of the favors (I had 8 to a sheet).

For the shower we had them set up on a tiered serving tray with a little tag thanking the guests for coming.

At each place setting we had a little sweet treat.  We used the salted caramels from Costco and wrapped them in little cellophane bags.  I made the little acorn tags using the same craft punch and my embossing tool and stencil.  I also made little place setting cards (which I forgot to photograph), but was able to find an Avery template which made this so easy.

Thank you for stopping by to see what was new.  If you should have any questions please feel free to ask.  Thanks again -Robyn.

Fall Wedding Shower Sneak Peek

The weather this weekend is absolutely beautiful here in the Midwest, which makes me giddy for fall.  I have been planning a fall wedding shower for tomorrow and couldn't wait to share with you a quick glimpse.

I ordered the invitations from Sunshine Printables on Etsy.  Sasha was absolutely wonderful to work with.  She had the invitations to me within 24 hours of placing my order and couldn't have been any sweeter.  As part of the invitation we asked that each guest fill out a recipe card and bring it along to put into the recipe box for the bride to take home with her.  I found the cute little poem here and just altered it slightly to fit our needs.

I made the pumpkin centerpieces from just a few simple supplies from Hobby Lobby.  The pumpkins were already white, which made my life that much easier...as much as I love to spray paint it was easier to purchase them already done.  First I added a couple of glitter fall leaves found with the seasonal picks and just cut the stem with wire cutters and pushed them into the foam pumpkin under the stem.  Then I saw these adorable pumpkins with jute wrapped stems and just loved the look.  I followed this tutorial to make the curly-cue stems.  Then just added a bow and the pumpkins were finished.  I used Dollar Store candlesticks painted silver as stands.  I am pleased with how they turned out.  Hopefully the person who ends up as the lucky winner will too, as this is a party gift as well.

Hope you enjoyed and will come back to see the rest of the shower.  Thanks so much. -Robyn

Skeleton Costume DIY

It is that time of year again...Halloween costume decision time.  This is a very big deal in our house...a decision of epic proportions, or at least it seems.  Last year our youngest choose to be a skeleton...sounds easy enough...especially with the help of Pinterest.  Well, as usual what seemed super easy ended up taking hours to complete.  While I wouldn't say that this is a difficult costume, I would say that it was very time consuming.  I found this wonderful skeleton pattern to use here at craftpassion.com.  I originally thought that I would use felt and sew the bones on, but knew that wouldn't wash well.  I wanted to be able to wash this costume for him to be able to wear as many times as he desired.  So I choose to use fabric paint.  I purchased a black sweatsuit that I finally found at Walmart (you would not believe how hard it is to find a plain sweatsuit).  I found that using the copy paper as stencils was not going to work, too flimsy.  So back to the drawing board I went...this is where it became time consuming.  I cut out each bone piece, then traced it onto clear contact paper, and then had to cut it out a second time.  After all of that cutting my fingers were cramped...however after that is was really easy.  I peeled off the backing and stuck each stencil right to the fabric and was able to paint.

Don't forget to put a piece of cardboard (I just cut up cereal boxes) in between your layers so the paint does not bleed through.  I did two coats of paint.  Once it is all dry just peel your stencils off and throw them away (I will admit this was a little painful..after all of that hard work).  However, once you see your final product you will forget all about it.

Good luck with your homemade skeleton costume.  Hope your little one enjoy's their costume as much as ours did.  Would love to see your final product.

Thanks for stopping by. -Robyn

Witch Portrait Craft DIY

Around here we LOVE Halloween....we can hardly wait for October 1st to pull out all of the decorations.  Witches are a very popular theme around here...so we decided to make our own silhouette.  The frames were from Goodwill and spray painted black.  The background is made from scrapbook paper cut to fit the frame.  I drew the witch freehand and then cut her out.  If you prefer I am certain there are many witch templates to be found either on Pinterest or Google Images.  Just tape it in and put the frame back together.  Instant Halloween decor that you can match to any style that you like.

Thanks for stopping by, -Robyn

Fall Wedding Shower Gift

Greetings!  It has been awhile since I have posted anything, however now that the kids are back in school hopefully this will change.  Fall is around the corner and this is my absolute favorite time of year!  I wanted to share with you a wedding gift I put together for my brother and his beautiful wife.  They were married in the fall so naturally I wanted to go with this as the theme.  First stop...Home Goods, as I love any excuse to shop there.  The serving dishes, wooden utensils, and fall towels all were from there.  As well as the candy dish,  I filled that with the autumn holiday m&m's.  The bushel basket was from Hobby Lobby and I added a Paula Deen magazine....I just LOVE Paula! There were Keurig Apple Cider k-cups to enjoy on those crisp fall nights.  Then it was on to the nursery section of the hardware store for a pie pumpkin and a small mum.  I stenciled their initial on the pie pumpkin with acrylic paint and wrapped the mum in burlap fabric and tied it up with a bow.  I placed it all in the bushel basket with a fall bow.  I was so pleased with how this turned out and my sister-in-law loved it.

Hope you enjoyed stopping by to see what is new.

Garlic Dill Pickles

Summer gardens are so absolutely wonderful.  Last summer we tried growing Boston Pickling Cucumbers to try making pickles.  I looked for an easy "first-timer" type of recipe and the one I found on Pinterest is fantastic. I cannot imagine looking for another.  It is very easy and doesn't require your traditional canning methods as it is a refrigerator pickle.  Perfect for your first time.

We decided to add more cucumbers to the garden this year to increase our pickle production, hopefully I do not live to regret this.  This morning we were able to pick enough cucumbers for the first batch of pickles, so very excited!

This Garlic Dill Pickle Recipe is so good, the only downside is you have to wait a week for your pickles to become pickled.  Just kidding, this is only a problem for those of us who do not like to wait.  :)

And this is what we have to wait one whole (excruciting) week for.

Hope you enjoy these as much as our family does.  Thanks for stopping by.  -Robyn

Easter Basket Sand Pail Gift Basket

I love making holiday themed gift baskets for all of our nieces and nephews.  This year I choose to do the Easter Cookie Pizza Gift baskets, however this wasn't good for our one year old niece.  So I choose to make a sand pail the basket for her Easter goodies.  Her Easter treats included some sidewalk chalk, bubbles, some sand toys and a plastic chick filled with Goldfish grahams.

Super cute and easy!  Just wrap in some cellophane and cute ribbon and you are done.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  -Robyn