Warrior Prince Academy

Barnum had a FANTASTIC week at Warrior Prince Academy. He experienced wonderful and loving teachers, incredible lessons on Bible Truths and encouragement about who he is in Christ.

Hats Off to Royal Purpose Ministries!!! I encourage you to check them out!!

Skate, Skate, Skate!

Summer time..... and the livin is easy? These last two months have been a WHIRLWIND!!!

Here is a blast from the past. I have blogged and blogged about the frequency with which my munchkins see the dentist. Every 3 months we toodle in at 8:15 for 30-45 minutes of sunglasses, Mr. Thirsty, bloody murder screaming and then the pirate treasure box. Back in February, we saw him TWICE. Twice because he puts on the most awesomest Valentine's Skating Party EVER!!!

Here is Barnum donning skates for the very first time!




WHY WOULD YOU TAKE A 4-YEAR OLD SKATING??? Because they have adaptive equipment!!!!

Here, Barnum is skating with his best friend and cousin, Thomas.

They really did steal the show!!

I must admit, Bailey was pretty miffed he didn't get skates. Therefore, he guilted us in to getting everyone sno-cones. That is right. Our dentist lives it up at his parties!!! Sno-cones, cookies, juice, popcorn, the works!! My niece even won an i-pod shuffle!!!!

Giveaway Winner Take 2!!

8

Random numbers generated May 20 2010 at 8:3:57 by www.psychicscience.org


Comment #8 is KIMBERLY

Email me within the next 24 hours to claim your fun giftcard to CSN Stores.com!!!!

Giveaway WINNER!!

20

Random numbers generated May 18 2010 at 21:37:34 by www.psychicscience.org


Comment #20 is SODAHONEY!!!

SodaHoney please contact me via email to claim your $40 Giftcard to CSN Stores.com!!!
www.barnumandbaileyblog@gmail.com

THANK YOU to all of you who participated and please check back soon for more chances to win fabulous prizes!!!

Trash to Treasure!!

Some time ago, before the temps started hitting 90 degrees, I ventured on a walk with Barnum, Bailey and Ruby. (Me holding the leash and the two little men on foot.) It just so happened to be "heavy trash day." Being a girl who was raised with dumpsters in the alley, I didn't know the love of "heavy trash day."

I.LOVE.HEAVY.TRASHDAY. (The day where residents in our subdivision are allowed to put "items larger than our standard issue 50 gallon rolling trash can with lid" on the curb.

We stumbled upon these:


Some how I was able to carry BOTH of these chairs, manage the dog on the leash AND herd Barnum and Bailey back to the house. Why didn't I just go and get my car you ask?? Because we were 10 minutes away and someone else could have TAKEN THEM!!! My husband rolled his eyes and said, "Honey, nobody else would have taken them!" Clearly he doesn't read the blogs I read!!

3 cans of Krylon Indoor/Outdoor spray paint later and two cushions I scored at Garden Ridge and we had these:

Please never underestimate the power of spray paint!!! Because I am always inspired by other creative peeps who love to share ideas, I am linking to the following:

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home, Look What I Made Day @ Creations by Kara, Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Creative Cats Linky @ Poppies at Play, and last but certainly not LEAST...Power of Paint Party @ Domestically Speaking

Giveaway--CSN Stores.com

This giveaway is now closed! No complaining!! You had an extra NINE hours!!! :)

CSN Stores has over 200 amazing online stores where you can find almost anything you need whether it be a sofa or a suitcase, a crib or a cookie sheet!

Have you ventured to CSN Stores.com yet? If not, you are MISSING OUT!!! With 200+ online stores they offer an incomparable selection! It is one stop shopping for Furniture, Home Decor, Housewares, Home Improvement, Baby & Kids, Shoes, Bags, Luggage and even your pet!

Below are my MUST HAVES!!!

Now to the giveaway.......

I have a $40 gift card to CSN Stores.com to give away to one of my very lucky readers!!!

How to enter:

1. Visit CSN Stores.com and leave a comment on this post telling me about one of YOUR must have items.

2. Be/become a follower of this blog and leave a comment on this post letting me know!

3. Link this giveaway on your own blog or a giveaway list and let me know you did by commenting here with a link.

This giveaway ends on Tuesday, May 18th at 12 PM. A Random Number Generator will be used to select the winner. The winner will have 24 hrs to contact me or a new winner will be selected.

Sew Tape Easy Lampshade

I don't sew yet. (I have the machine out of the box and I have forced others to use it. I just haven't used it yet.) However, I DO Sew Tape very well!!

I took this basic Better Homes and Gardens lampshade and made it my own with 2 simple products: Singer Sew Tape and Trim I dug out of the clearance box at Hobby Lobby.

Step 1: Wrap your sew tape around! (Note, YES, you could use a glue gun here but WHY RISK THE BURN?? Plus, with sew tape you have all the time in the world to piddle. You don't have to get your trim down before it dries!!)

Step 2: Place your trim on top of the Sew Tape!!

Step 3: Uh-Oh. This is a little too "Double Greek, Double Geek!!" The Strong Man almost wet his pants laughing at it!!

Step 4: A few snips of the scissors and.......

Handmade Chalk!

Barnum and I followed a GREAT tutorial from Skip to My Lou to make our own SIDEWALK CHALK!!

Cindy gives FANTASTIC directions that are easy to follow and A LOT of fun!! Just look!!

It IS messy. It is MESSY FUN though!! I promise!!

Of course I couldn't stop at the eggs!! Barnum's little friend was having a special day to celebrate getting her insulin pump so we made some pink hearts just for her!! I went out on a limb and tried our luck with Cindy's directions in a silicone heart mold. It did the trick and it didn't harm the mold in any way!

The results are in. You can definitely tell which one was our first egg and which one was our first heart!! Heee heeee!!

Please check out Skip to My Lou for 100 MILLION awesome ideas and FUN!

Sugar Shamrocks

Bailey and I made these Sugar Cube Shamrocks quite a while ago!! They were inspired by none other than my sister-in-law! She surprised me with some around Valentine's Day and I instantly fell back in love.

Sugar cubes take me back to Citizen's Bank. You see children, there was a time when people actually had to park their cars, WALK into the bank and do business face-to-face. When your Grammy was doing said business, your mommy and Aunt Amanda were over at the coffee station throwing back as many sugar cubes as possible. We would break for a second to grab a bag of salty popcorn and then take right back up with the sugar cube madness. Ohhhhhhh the sugar cube!!

Bailey and I used the trial and error recipe and it worked the first time!!

Needed items:
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons of water mixed with 3 drops of liquid food coloring
1 candy mold in desired shape


Combine all of the ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and stir with a fork until the color is distributed evenly through the sugar.


Use a teaspoon (the old English standard! 1 teaspoon= 1 lump of sugar) to fill your candy molds. A butter knife can be used to even out the tops.

Let the filled candy mold set for 15 minutes. In the meantime, cover your mixing bowl with a damp paper towel so the remaining sugar doesn't dry out.

Turn the candy mold over to release sugar cubes! Fill and repeat until all of your sugar is gone!!

Finally, organize them into corny Shamrocks to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!!

I'm linking up to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday! Please check it out for some more Yummy treats!!

Faux Metal Planters

We have been digging in the dirt around here! I wanted to spruce up our front porch so I set off to my local Garden Ridge for a 12" metal planter to hold my Rosemary tree and an extra large metal planter to hold an ornamental evergreen.

I gasped in horror when I saw the prices!! They ranged from $69.99-169.99. No way, no how!! After snaking through row after row of out of budget metal planters, I happened upon some PLASTIC planters. Thankfully, they were $7.99 and $39.99!! The plastic planters had great decorative touches and I knew the finish I wanted was just a can of spray paint away!!

Here is the before:


I used RustOleum's Universal Hammered Spray Paint. It was quick, cheap and easy! This is the 12" plastic planter. It contains my Rosemary Tree and a few dwarf marigolds I threw in for color.


Here is a picture of the "Hammered Metal" finish.

Total Cost of Project: $92.50

2 plastic planters= $52 (including tax)

Dirt= Straight outta the garden!

Rosemary Tree= A lovely gift from a friend

Dwarf Marigolds= $1 for 6

Ornamental Evergreen= $29

1 can of RustOleum's Hammered Spray Paint= $8.50 (including tax)

Alyssium to border the Evergreen= $2 for 6

Happy Planting My friends!!

I will be linking this project up at:

Me and My Bucket-Show Us What You're Working With

The Shabby Chic Cottage-Transformation Thursday

Go and check out the participants!! The ideas are VERY creative!!

Sea Salt Caramels

About this time last year, I was introduced to Sea Salt Caramels by my dear Abby while at Berings. I fell in LOVE!! Well, my SIL was headed downtown to do some shopping there and I asked her to pick me some up. Much to my chagrin...they DO NOT CARRY THEM ANYMORE!!

Would my SIL make me do without?? NO! She went home and MADE ME SOME!! Woooooo-hoooooo! They were to DIE!!! Now that I have been privy to such a recipe, I feel it is only fair that I pay it forward!!

The recipe comes from the very lovely, Elizabeth LaBau. She writes at Cake or Death? and About Candy. She is darling and I highly suggest adding her to your Reader!!

Cast of Characters:

Monitoring with the candy thermom. I HIGHLY suggest using your LARGE stockpot!! You will feel much better about your adventure and get better results.

OK, OK!! I fess up! I HIGHLY suggest using the large stockpot because I tried THREE times and my caramel never, Never, NEVER, ever set up!! I was forced into making "caramel sauce" 3 TIMES!!

BUT!!! Wait a minute!! Be STILL MY HEART!!! What was waiting for me when I came home from BSF on Monday night??? This:


Which when flipped out of the pan looked like this:

That is right. The Strong Man does it again! He got his caramel to set up perfectly. THE FIRST TIME!! Torture. Ya'll it is PURE TORTURE that everything comes easily to him!!

Next up: Cutting and Dipping and Sprinkling, oH MY!!

Cutting

Dipping

Sprinkling

YUM, YUM go and get you some!! Please check out Elizabeth's recipe here!!

I will be sharing this post at:

Make it Yours Day @ My Backyard Eden

Show Us What You're Working With @ Me and My Bucket

Sharing Ideas Wednesday @ Trendy Treehouse

Giveaway Reminder--Noah's Inspirations

Don't forget to visit HERE to enter for a chance to win a Noah's Inspirations Onesie!!!

What is Noah's Inspirations? 100% organic baby apparel that comes with a ONE FOR ONE PROMISE!! Meaning, for every 100% organic baby onesie or T-shirt purchased, they will DONATE a onesie or T-shirt to a baby in need!!

Please go HERE for your chance to win!! Winner will be announced on Monday, March 1st.

Collaboration

We are prepping the ground for this year's "Square Foot Garden." (More on that later!) Therefore, we have plenty of mud patches, shovels, etc out in the yard.

Barnum, although he had his Buzz Light Year gloves on and everything, was having difficulty working the ground to his pleasing. Bailey was headed over to investigate.


Bailey, "What in the heck, Bubba? That IS NOT how you do it! Let me do it before you ruin it."

"Move over! I'm going to show you," says Bailey. Barnum crosses his arms, pouts and then whoops and hollers, "GET OUTTA HERE YOU'RE MESSING UP MY STUFF!!!"

Bailey throws his arms up. "You are IMPOSSIBLE to WORK with! If you would JUST LISTEN to ME you WOULD UNDERSTAND! Then THIS WOULDN'T HAPPEN!!"

Listen to your Mama boys!! Love your neighbor as yourself. Your "first neighbors" are your FAMILY. Don't save your worst for them because you know they aren't going anywhere! Love them the BEST because God made them the very closest to YOU!!

Chandelier BEFORE & AFTER

Although there wasn't a thingy wrong with this chandelier, it has spent the last 4 years up in the attic. It was originally located in our "Formal Dining Room." However, as the parents of two young'ens, we don't have the luxury of "Formal Dining." Our "Formal Dining Room" houses brightly colored plastic, metal cars, figurines, trains, etc, and therefore needed a circulating fan!!

Thankfully, all of the inspiration out there in bloggy land has encouraged me to make something of this chandelier and find a place for it! "Repurpose" or "Upcycle" are the words these uber talented ladies use! So here is the Before:


Nothing wrong! Just a little "heavier" than what I was going for in our entryway.

Step 1: I hosed it down with two coats of RustOleum's American Accents in Blossom White and wrapped a pearl garland (thank you wedding aisle at Michael's) around each "arm?" I am undecided re: the pearls! Please vote in the poll on the right hand side of the blog!!

Step 2: I went out to my husband's tackle box, thieved his fishing line and then strung me up some fancy crystals!! HAHAHA! (Again, thank you to the Michael's. This time, it was the floral aisle!)

Step 3: I super glued my "crystals" on!

Step 4: The chandelier found a new home in the entryway!

Finally, I am not sure about the lack of "lamp shades." I have gotten mixed reviews so please visit the poll to the right of the blog!!

Do you want ideas on how to market your small business? Do you proudly support businesses that offer a One for One Promise for infants in need? Do you love to WIN FREE GIVEAWAYS?? PLEASE check out this SPOTLIGHT Link Featuring Noah's Inspirations!!

Because I L-O-V-E the inspiration I find at the following blogs, I will be linking to:

The Diy Show Off's Project Parade

Metamorphosis Monday-Between Naps on the Front Porch

It's So Very Cheri-It's So Very Creative

DIY Day- A Soft Place to Land