Tag Archives: DIY

Mom’s Night Out….. Make it a Paint Night!

Mom’s Night Out….. Make it a Paint Night!
Mom’s Night Out….. Make it a Paint Night!

Every mom deserves a night in the week to do just something that takes her mind off of the schedules, organizing and parenting she has to structure every week.

Well with Mother’s day there’s so much but you can always do something a little extra the day after tooo!!! Because after all Every day should b Mother’s Day!!!

Head over to one of my favorite spots. “Good Earth Cafe” and get painting with the guidance of Floral Blueprint.

You can book your ticket by clicking the image below….

Paint Night at Good Earth Cafe Summerside

Making Life Memorable with every brush stroke……

PinIntro

PinIntro
PinIntro

There’s an obsession I have with Pinterest I think I’ve got over 8K pins on mt 120 boards and increasing daily! I’m infatuated yet I can’t say I have actually done most of them.

Granted I do draw many inspirations from them and I would like to commit to starting crossing the ones I’ve done out. Just for self satisfaction. I don’t think the pin gods are looking down at me and shaking their head at all the “unmade” pins I have.

Since I’m a roll on making changes to my life I have decided that I will “Pin Post”. Not sure if that’s even a word but if it does start a trend then at least I started it…..

So Pin Post is my version of choosing something on pinterest, making it, documenting it as best as I can and posting about it…..whether it was fun, successful, enjoyable and the similarity of what I made in comparison to the actual pin.

I may even try to do a poll out of it…or some sort of voting on what I should try next…..

Making Life Memorable pinning…..

Don’t save that Glitter!!!

Don’t save that Glitter!!!

In my big move from Kuwait to Canada I was faced with the extreme challenge of putting my life into boxes….. A lifetime of memories, accumulating and collecting was put to the test of ” attempt to sell”, “Give Away”, “Save” or “Pack”.

For every website, Pin, organizing list it was universal in its advice. Sound simple until you actually have to do it! This is in no way a post to help you in packing on the contrary it’s about how you should live leading up to the point of needing to pack.

I always took pride in my double closet in my home office/craft room filled with everything your heart desires when it comes to crafting materials. It was really a miniature craft store on its own from paints, card stock, colored  papers, paintbrushes, crafting tools, Styrofoam , felt, fabric, ribbons, wrapping papers, beads, an array of canvases, paint brushes, sketchbooks, floral supplies and most importantly GLITTER. 

In my mind there’s glitter and there’s GLITTER. To the normal person they really sound/look the same. Nope!! not for me. There was regular glitter that I let my girls use and splurge on and there’s GLITTER that was “special glitter” that the girls were only allowed to admire from afar and I was the only one that used it sparingly.

Then the day came that I opened my wonderfully organized and stocked up closet and I had to part with it AAAALLLLL….. The cost of shipping could not be justified in comparison to buying everything new was my husbands perspective, Logic says he’s right but then there’s my crafting logic screaming internally “Precious….its precious!”

I replayed in my head all the times we didn’t use the GLITTER while crafting and the life lesson hit me. Never save anything for that “special” day. Use it and abuse it because you never know where life takes you and you end up looking back like I did at all the missed chances to enjoy it.

 

 

So don’t forget use that GLITTER while Making Life Memorable before you have to give it away!!!

Easter Treats….

Easter Treats….

I’m so excited I get to send some treats to school with the girls!!! I’m convinced my DIY hobbies are turning into an addiction…….but still don’t care!!!

 

Due to some gluten and nut restrictions in class this Easter I’m sending something fun but simple!!! These Easter bags are filled with chocolate and sprinkle coated marshmallows and popcorn. A little sweet and a little salty is what I’m going with.

 

 

 

I also made little tags with the girls names to add something a little more personalized!!! Nothing too fancy just little bunnies on Polka labels with a small “Happy Easter” and each girls’ name.

 

 

Found some really cute Easter themes ziplock bags at Dollarama which made it that much easier than designing my own…..plus being Very cost effective!

I’m just keeping true to myself and what I love doing!

Making life Memorable one holiday at a time….

 

Back to School Photo Shoot

Back to School Photo Shoot

The hardest thing about the first day of school is trying to get back into the routine of waking up early, making sure everyone is also up on time, dressed, groomed, have breakfast and make a mad dash to the door in a reasonable amount of time without going insane in order to take those perfect outdoor “Back to School” pictures that you oh so want to turn out perfect….or hey wait a minute don’t tell me its just me….is it??

Well in my world everyone does it. Some take the random picture and some have a whole scene set. Well I believe I’m somewhere in between ” I’m just doing it because I saw my neighbor take a picture” and that other neighbor that has the perfect chalk looking back drop with apples and crayons cutouts *sigh*.

I tend to make sure that every year I have some sort of sign that my kids hold up as I take the picture. Information may vary from year to year but the important ones are always there.

They are:

  1. The school Year
  2. The grade
  3. What they want to  be when they grow up

There are years when I added their favorite food or color and 1 year I put their age. But  the three above basics are what really matter in the long run.

I must say I do love pinterest because it gives me so many ideas and may be overwhelming at times….yes I do have over 7K pins but who’s counting!??!? It’s amazing for research because chances are what you’re looking for someone else has done too!!

1stGrade

 

Well luckily I found the perfect printables (FREE because that’s the way I roll) at Barn owl primitives.

The best thing was that there were choices of either PINK or AQUA. You don’t even have to download, you can just go ahead and print the page/grade you want. So easy…I love easy and no fuss.

Now as much as I loved them and had to use them my issue was they weren’t personalized.

GOD forbid should I do something that’s not child specific!!!

 

So I took those printables a step further…. I found the perfect frames that the girls could hold as I take the picture from IKEA. ( confession, I had those frames already I just never got around to putting the girls’ certificates in them)

Back to jazzing it up I did a simple PowerPoint bordered text box with what the girls wanted to be when they grew up….did a vertical rainbow text with their name….cut those out….stuck it next to the pintable and VIOLA!!! Easy peasy lemon squeezy as Zee woud say!!

Check out the final product……DAY1 SIGNNow the trick is don’t put the glass back on the frame because trying to take a picture without a glass glare is really frustrating! Relieve yourself in advance and just “un-glass” your frame

After you make that mad dash out of your door and before you get into the car be sure to take a few snaps of your kids…..yeah that was the point and not a secret desire to make signs!

Now we did more than just one….the one with each child alone, the one together and a few just because without the signs. But I’ll spare you from going through a gallery of pictures (you can do it on my instagram account samoorstuff later)

JZEE

We were lucky enough to actually have some time when we got to school and snap a few pics with the girls’ teachers for the year.

DBLPIC

If you notice Mr. Palingo is holding our Teacher’s survival kit that we’ve created for him…. check out how to make one on last year’s post “Teacher’s Survival Kit”

Remember make it your own….. because it’s all about Making Life Memorable.

 

Back to School Fun

Back to School Fun

I have many joys of being a mom but one I particularly enjoy is having an occasion to become crafty. Back to school is one of the many excuses that I use to go all out with my crafting senses. From school pictures, personalized labels, teacher survival kits, classroom favors and even gifts for those that aren’t always recognized like the librarian, music teacher and principle.

This week as my girls start their first week back into the school routine with the privilege of the whole week being FREE DRESS I’ll be sharing some of the things that we’ve done and hope you’ll find it inspiring to create your own…..

Here’s to Making Life Memorable one school year at a time!!

HAPPY 2016-2017 SCHOOL YEAR!!

JZEEday1

October Fun

October Fun

Its October and the countdown of every even in my life has began.

You might laugh but this is no laughing matter for me…it’s serious and crunch time has officially started with events galore on the horizon.

This is the time when I bring out the iPad and crank up my pins on Pinterest. Whether I do them all or just a few is besides the point. I know they’re there and I’m confident that I’ll eventually get around to it.

October is the beginning of Fall in my book and the preparation of costume season for Halloween.

One of my favorite things to do is have little crafting sessions with the girls with “Fall Themed” crafts.

I’m not sure how we’re going to do it this year with Jennah being in 3rd grade and overworked between homework and activities. But I really hope that I’ll get around to doing something fun like this with the girls.

Leaf

I would love to go around in our Garden and have the girls collect all sorts of Leaves from the ground.

I’d probably bring down some paint and have them dip the leaves in the paint and make imprints on Paper. Maybe even glue the leaves too. Have actual leaves and imprints would look pretty and introduce them to different “Mediums”.

CUPCAKE
 
 
 
 
 
 
Off course always on the agenda is baking and decorating cupcakes…. These are a few of the designs we’ve made in the past.

It’s time to get more creative and see what the girls can come up with this year….

Perhaps we can make a whole graveyard?? Who knows….

 
 
 
 
 
 

All this aside this month requires a great deal of creativity and skill because it’s off course costume season for the whole family!!

I think we’ve done every kids of costume from purchasing to making….and it’s time we go all over it again….

Here’s a few samples of what we’ve done in the past and I can’t wait to get started all over again!
COSTUMES

I’ve always wanted to have a little Halloween even of my own but with our November birthdays and Christmas preparations I’ve always thought it’s overloading myself.

pumpkin
But we do have one major tradition that we always do and that’s the carving of the pumpkin…. We all go to Sultan and buy a really nice American pumpkin and get all creative in carving it.

Off course Zeenah is assigned to gut it all out, while Jennah is the one that draws out the design and I have the pleasure of carving it all out.

I would like to get more creative and do several pumpkins but unfortunately they don’t last very long because of the heat and they do start to smell.

Maybe this time around we can Paper Mache a Pumpkin…or several pumpkins.

There are just so many ideas that I can’t wait to try out ad share with all my readers. And hopefully in this process I help in Making Life Memorable for you too!!

The story of the missing workbook

The story of the missing workbook

mom
 

There comes a time in every mother’s life where she must endure the horror of the missing workbook, homework, journal or Library book.

I’ve been very good about trying to be as composed as possible when these minor things happen.

Mainly because I keep reminding myself it’s just elementary and not Harvard.

Until today…….why today???

I’ve been frantic! Searching high & Low….. tracing back to the beginning

Still no Math Workbook to be found. Worse of all it’s the one that stays home so it must be here somewhere!!!

Then I think to myself OH NO OH NO!!! It’s the weekend and I have no clue where Jennah’s Math workbook. I’m positive and sure we left it where we always do. Yet it seems to have disappeared into thin air.

Usually I would take it with a grain of salt and tell her to look for it except I can’t do that this weekend because she has a TEST!!!

I’m feeling the stress… almost as though I’m the one that’s going to be graded. Well then again parents are judged and graded by their kids performance but that’s a whole other post!!!

I rummage through all the past papers and teacher e-mails. I find the main topics of what’s going to be covered and off to my main man “Google” I go…

Search “Grade 3 Telling Time free worksheet”…Find appropriate page…Print!

Search “Grade 3 Money (USD) free worksheet”…Find appropriate page…Print!

Search “Grade 3 Number Patterns free worksheet”…Find appropriate page…Print!

Search “Grade 3 Name Collection Boxes free worksheet”…Find appropriate page…Print!

Search “Grade 3 Place Value free worksheet”…Find appropriate page…Print!

GREAT!!! sigh of relief, my own homemade workbook. Funny even in this I have my own DIY.

The dilemma still remains as to where did Jennah’s Homelink Workbook disappear too??? Come Sunday and we shall see!!

With that I will leave you with a few websites I stumbled on that any mom will find useful…

Home School Math
Everyday Math
Math Aids
Kid Zone
Super Teacher Worksheets
Math Tube
K 5 Learning
IXL

So to all you mommies out there that struggle with you child’s responsibility there is comfort in that they will grow out of it…but for now we do what we can to ensure that we come out of it alive and still sane!!!

Here’s Making Life Memorable one Math worksheet at a time!!

Lady Bug Piñata

Lady Bug Piñata

As much as I’m not an advocate of distributing candy to children I cannot resist a good old fashioned Piñata.

A fun ritual I think for me to make and for the kids to destroy.

For Zeenah’s 4th birthday she had picked the perfect theme to design a Piñata for. I would actually dream about what the “Ladybug” Piñata would look like and couldn’t wait to start on it during the planning process.

Let me walk you through what I did for Zeenah’s Lady bug Piñata.

One of the most important things when making a homemade Piñata after the Paper Mache recipe is the base.
Sounds complicated?? Not really!!

The base consists of none other than a plain ‘ole regular balloon. PM-Balloon

It’s not the balloon that makes the piñata it’s how you design it after wards that makes it fabulous.

The first thing I did was attach two balloons.

The large 3′ balloon was t make the body of the Lady bug and is the part to be popped after completion to add the candy into.

The other balloon was a regular 18″ latex balloon that I used as the head of the ladybug.
 

I used red balloons just for fun but the color really doesn’t matter because it’s all going to be covered anyway!!

The next step is the REEEEEELLy messy part.

The dipping of the news paper strips into the Paper Mache past and gluing on top of the balloons.

The important part is to make sure you leave an opening at the top in order to be able to fill the piñata with candy.

PM-Newspaper
 
 
After you finish putting the first layer of newspaper strips is to leave it to dry before putting another layer. I always wait at least a day before putting the following layer.

I like to put 4-5 layers of Paper Mache strips to make sure that it’s strong enough.

The entire process usually takes me a 5 days between paper Mache strips and drying time.

Now the artistic part begins!!!

PM-crepe
 

I bought red and black crepe paper to cover the body and head of my “ladybug”.

This was such a tedious and time consuming task because I insisted on making the crepe paper ruffled.

It would have been much easier to just glue it on without the extra designing but then again it’s me we’re talking about and I love making life difficult for myself!!

The body was covered in red crepe paper and I had covered the head in black.

I kept the balloons intact and decided to pop it at the end to make sure that the Paper Mache is completely dried and stable.

You also have to remember to make sure you keep the opening at the top of the piñata uncovered with crepe paper to be able to pop the balloon and fill with candy.
PM-spots

 
 
 

I used my 2″ round punch to make the spots of the lady bug by making circles out of black construction paper.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
PM-with spots
 

I then stuck the spots onto the body of my ladybug. The hardest part in this process was to glue the spots randomly. I’m such a uniform person that I found a few spots that were aligned with each other.

But towards the end I tended to stick some of the spots closer to each other jus to get the random look.

PM-eyes
 

 
 
 
With regular white construction paper I cut out the outline of an eyeball and drew the pupil with a black marker.

I think this was the easiest part in the whole piñata project.

 
 
 
PM-withface

 
 
 
The final part of the piñata design was to stick the eyes onto the ladybug head.

I also made a little smile using white construction paper to make the lady bug look a little more friendly.

 
 
 

 
 
 
PM-antlers

 
 
 
 
 
Using several black pipe cleaners I had made antennas for our little bugger.

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Drum roll please for my piñata masterpiece!!!
 
PM-complete
 

The final task is always left for my husband, I create but he’s in charge of implementing my visualization.

After filling the piñata with candy and turned out to be extremely heavy and I left him with the challenge.

This is what it looked like in our garden!!!

PM-garden

I made a mess in the process of Making Life Memorable and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Tooth Fairy Door

Tooth Fairy Door

The wonderful world of make believe is such an amazing place to be, I remember as a child when you thought EVERYTHING was real… Call it the Disney syndrome or perhaps it’s the Peter Pan? Whatever the name it’s all the same a world where everything is magical that’s where I want to live.

If any of you out there is like me with “issues” about being a grown up I’m sure you’d agree. Life was so simple when the worst thing was your mom not letting you go to a friend’s house and you’d feel like it’s the end of the world.

If we only knew what was REALLY in store:) Well moving right along before it turns into a therapy session…….

The world of make believe. Santa, Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are those things that make you tingle and feel young.

I had to make the experience of Jennah’s wiggly tooth and the much awaited Tooth fairy visit extremely special.

I decided to make a little tooth fairy door for that occasion. I debated for a while if it should be a surprise or make Jennah involved but I figured it would make it all that more special if Jennah made it.

So here’s your inspiration and How to…..

TOOLS
You’ll need:
Ruler
Cardboard (about 18cm x 11cm, 7inchx4.5inch)
3 Popsicle sticks
Glue
Pencil
Glitter
Beads
Paint
Pipe cleaner
PomPom
Any cutting tool (scissors, razor blade..)
 
 

 

 

Directions:
Measuring and cutting the door.

B1

B2

 
Place 2 of the popsicle sticks on the sides of the cardboard from the bottom to make and the third on the top to attach the other two making a rectangle.
 

Mark the inside of the sticks with a pencil.
 
With your cutting tool, I suggest a razor blade, cut the left marking and top all the way through. Slightly shear the right marking to enable you to bend it easily.

  

Cut the top of the door as to resemble a rooftop.
B3
  
 

B4
B5

Paint the cardboard white or any color your child prefers.

Other ideas would be to either use white cardboard or cover it with tissue or construction paper…

We went with painting because it’s just more fun for the kids!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Off course the challenge is to keep them occupied with something else while the paint dries.

My suggestion is stick to the Tooth Fairy theme and either makeup or read a tooth fairy story or find cute facts online about Tooth Fairies.

Glue the popsicle sticks on the sides and top of the cut/ folded edged of the cardboard.

B6
  
 

B7

Now the real fun begins….

Let your child paint and design the door the way they like. In my world that’s really hard to ust let them do it “their” way.

If you have a younger child that’s continuously getting into the older child’s work keep them involved tooo….

I gave Zeenah a big piece of cardboard to paint. That really kept her busy and away from her sister’s project.

B8

  
B9
After the paint has completely dried it’s time for the Fairy Décor!
  
D10

Jennah added the beads, glitter, pompom for the door knob and the pipe cleaner for the door knocker.
 
Now you have a gorgeous Tooth Fairy Door that can be placed anywhere the night of the lost tooth allowing her to enter and surprise your child with something in the morning.

Here’s Making Life Memorable one lost tooth at a time!