Guest Ready Bathroom

In our home we have two Bathrooms.  The master bathroom and the hall bathroom.  We have no special guest bathroom so the hallway bathroom needs to be both guest and kid friendly.  Which can present a bit of a challenge.  While the kids are pretty good at keeping their toothbrushes put away and keeping the bathroom generally clean there are always those little messes they seem to not see. 


You know when they are done brushing their teeth and they wipe their mouth on the towel and a little bit of toothpaste is left behind?  Then your guest comes in later that day washes their hands and uses the same towel to dry their hands.  They feel that little crustiness from the dried toothpaste and I am sure they start gagging or thinking the bathroom is now super gross?  Does that happen to anyone else or is that just me?


So I started putting out paper towels which has helped quite a bit.  Only problem is the kids can get the counters pretty wet with the brushing of teeth and washing of hands, and the paper towels get wet.  Anyone else experience this?


So I decided to make a little tray to keep my paper towels and a few other items in.  The bonus is I can just pick up the tray, wipe down the counter and go on my way. Plus it's a fun way to add a bit of color to the bathroom.


The walls in the bathroom are a very bright yellow.  Which will one day be painted, but for now I need to work with what I have.  So thinking of yellow color combinations I saw my Welcome blocks that are right next to the bathroom.

The white, yellow and blue color combination is perfect!

I think this little set up is pretty and functional?

So here is what you will need:

*Tray (can be wood or plastic)
*Spray paint (I used Rustoleum Satin Lagoon)
*Paper towels (I used Kleenex Hand Towels)
*Other toiletries you would like your guests to have

I bought my wood tray (along with a couple other items) for dirt cheap. Can you believe I was able to get this cute wood tray for only $1.50!  

The pitcher and vase are being used in another fun craft project.
I just loved the look of this wood tray and new it would be great
for my bathroom.

Wash your tray of any dirt and grime and let dry. 
Spray paint the tray several coats letting the tray dry in between applying coats of paint.

Once dry start adding your paper towels and other toiletries.  I added some hand soap, toothbrush holder and also some lotion.  I love adding lotion to my hands after washing them. 

I love how pretty this looks on the bathroom counter and it is easy to pick up and move everything when I am washing the counters.  I think the kids (okay maybe just my daughter) love having their bathroom a bit prettier as well.

Join the 14 million people who have already joined the Clean Hands campaign by using Kleenex Hand Towels, and click here for savings and more!


I was selected for participation in this campaign as a member of Clever Girls Collective.

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Summer

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Welcome to our home!

I wanted to make up some cute Welcome blocks to keep in our entry way to welcome friends and family.  I love this white, blue, yellow color combination.

Lined up straight - Love it!

Or you can stagger them!

So pretty, right?  I have already had a bunch of friends already comment on them and tell me how much they like the Welcome blocks.  So we are going to make them as a craft night for my church.  This block set is currently available in my Etsy shop.

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Summer

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My DIY Home

My house needs a ton of help!

First let me give you a little background.  My husband grew up watching and learning how to build and fix up homes from his Dad who is a general contractor.  So my husband Ryan is pretty handy himself.  So after we had been married for several years Ryan wanted to buy run down homes, fix them up and sell them.  He did pretty good with this and really enjoyed it.  Well when it was time to buy our home he convinced me to buy a fixer upper.  I knew he would be able to fix it so I agreed.  We found a home we liked in a neighborhood we liked and bought it.

This home needs some serious help, but I wasn't too worried because I knew Ryan would have it shaped up in no time.  Then life threw us a bit of a curve ball.  Ryan has been sick - I don't want to get into personal details but he just doesn't have the energy to get this home where I was hoping it would be.  Every once and a while he gets spurts of energy where we work on a project together but it has been slow going.

His health is what's most important and we just try to do what we can when we can.  Honestly thought, I let this get me down.  I realized that even though the house has great potential I didn't like the house I was living in and I didn't see it improving. I have let it get a bit messy and I haven't worked at decorating it.  Always in the back of my head I have been thinking of how I need the wall to be painted first, or something to be fixed first before I can make the room pretty and nice.  For example - For my daughters room I have paint, pretty curtains, pictures for her walls and some things for her bed.  I have them still sitting in a box (it has been in this box for 2 years) while I  wait for 2 big holes to be patched up in her bedroom.

I felt like our house was definitely a house and not a home.  I then read this blog post by Not Just a Housewife called Loving your home . You know what?  I cried after reading her blog post.  I want my house to be a home for our family.  It may be imperfect or not how I imagined but I need to make the most of it.  I am going to make my house beautiful and when we have the time, money and energy to get things done we will.  Even if it is slow going.  I am also going to try to learn how to do things myself - kinda exciting and scary.

I want to share this little journey with you all and thought of starting a separate blog for my DIY (do it yourself) Home but thought it would fit with what I have going on here along with my crafts and recipes. I hope you will enjoy what I have to share with you and I hope everyone can look past the little imperfections of the stuff that hasn't been able to be fixed up yet.

Wish me luck!

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Summer

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The Great Potato Hunt!

For some reason I have been on such a potato kick lately!  It all started at Evo about a week and a half ago.  For lunch we had a yummy lunch with Bacon Potato Soup, Baked Potatoes with all the fixins and yummy cheese.  It was so yummy and I have been craving more ever since.  I think I have had 3 more baked potatoes since coming home.

So as usual I hit up Pinterest for some yummy Potato recipes and there were a ton! I made my own Potato Pinterest board and saved all of these yummy sounding recipes. Then the idea hit me of "The Great Potato Hunt"  I thought it would be fun to try each of these recipes and share with all of you my success or failures and of course So here is the official kick of my Great Potato Hunt!  


If you have a great potato recipe that you would like me to add to my Potato pinterest board and to try out please leave the link to the Potato recipe in the comments.  I think this is a food challenge my family is going to enjoy!

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Summer

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Trip to Yellowstone

Yellowstone is one of our families favorite places to visit. We try to go at least once a year.  We have not yet been this year but have been talking about going.  Maybe September?  I was going through pictures and found some of our trip to Yellowstone in June 2011 (or it could be from 2010 - I am so organized!).  I thought I would share some of my favorites from that trip with you today.

Stopping at Howard Springs to fill up on water

Deer next to our camp site

Family walking around Old Faithful area

I can never get Carson to look at the Camera!

Beautiful Lake

Back at the camp site

Adison Pouting

Kayden just hanging out

Carson avoiding the Camera again.

No longer Pouting

We rented a boat and went fishing, Adison was the only one to catch a fish.  We then went fishing on the shore to see if we could catch anymore - we didn't

I really hope we can go again this year and build some more awesome memories!

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Summer

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Intermountain Moms

Have you been to the facebook page for Intermountain Moms yet?  Well if you are a mom – especially a new mom – you should go and visit.  On Intermountain Moms you will find a group of other moms interacting and asking questions.  A great thing about Intermountain Moms is Nurse Danny.  Nurse Danny answers the mom questions you might have.

They also have giveaways for stuff like diapers and other things every once and awhile ( I  think at least once a week.  You can find them on their facebook page or follow them on twitter @intermntmoms

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Summer

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Summertime Wood Blocks

With Summer time being here I decided my mantle needed a new set of wood blocks.  I made these cute blocks in bright, fun, summery papers.

I love how they turned out and they totally match my pinwheels!  This block set is now available in my etsy shop.

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Baked Ziti

A couple of months ago I went to my friends home to play games.  For dinner we had her Baked Ziti and it was delicious!  I asked for her recipe and she was more than happy to share.  I made it for my family and they loved it as well so I thought I would share with all of you.

Baked Ziti


Ingredients:

• Favorite Meat Sauce
• 1 16 oz package of ziti noodles
• Sliced provolone cheese (6 slices)
• Mozzarella cheese (shredded)
• 1/2 cup more/less of Sour cream (please note that I will probably leave this out next time I make this dish)
• Parmesan Cheese

First make your meat sauce or use your 
favorite from a jar (if using jarred sauce
 you will need 2 jars). 

Cook your ziti noodles until they are al 
dente(almost cooked) and drain.  Grease
 a 13x9 inch pan (I just use pam spray)
 and put in half of the noodles. 

Put the sliced Provolone cheese
 on top of the noodles.

Spread the sour cream over everything.
 If your are a Sour Cream lover then you
 will enjoy this.  My kids don’t like sour
 cream but I didn’t think they would be
 able to notice it.  Some of the pickier kids
 could still taste the sour cream and 
complained – so they ate around those
parts.  When I make this again I will
 leave the sour cream out and I am sure
 it will be just as delicious.

Pour half of your sauce over the noodles. 

Add the rest of your noodles.

Add the rest of the sauce and sprinkle
mozzarella cheese around along with
 some Parmesan cheese.
Put on as much as your family likes.

Cover with tinfoil and bake in a preheated
 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Serve to your hungry family – this is great served with my breadstick bites and a salad. 

This is very yummy.  You could really play around with recipe to make it your own.  Use different cheeses like Ricotta instead of Sour Cream or even add some Italian sausage into your meat sauce.  Enjoy!

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Chocolate Covered Strawberry Pie

One of the things I love about this time of year is the fresh yummy berries.  I just love making things with fresh berries, like my Mixed Berry Shortcake - so good!  I had a family BBQ to go to and was asked to bring  dessert - so of course I wanted something with berries.  When I first decided to make this pie I knew that I would have some problems.  I just knew it would taste delicious but I also knew it would not hold together well.  It would be so pretty and yummy but when cut it would crumble and not really be a “slice” of pie.  Even though I could imagine issues with it I could already taste its deliciousness so I decided to go ahead and make it anyway. 

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Pie
Ingredients:
This recipe calls for 3 simple ingredients

• Strawberries (I bought 2 - 15 oz. packages and used about 1 and 1/2 of the packages)
• Chocolate Chips – I used Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chips
• Chocolate Cookie pie Crust – I used Keeblers Ready Crust

 

Wash, dry and slice your strawberries.

Get your pie crust ready

Put your chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.
Cook for 30 seconds and stir.  Repeat until all melted.
About 3 times.

Chocolate is melted and nice and creamy!

Drizzle some chocolate onto the pie crust.

Put a layer of strawberries on the chocolate.
Keep layering the chocolate and strawberries
until pie crust is full.

Place the pie in the fridge for several hours to give the chocolate time to harden.  I took this to a family BBQ and everyone loved it.  They said it tasted just like chocolate covered strawberries.  We ended up scooping the pie up with a spoon because there was no way it would come out in slices.



Enjoy!!!

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Summer

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