Isn't it crazy

How fast time flies? How, when you think of it, you look forward and nothing has changed but when you look back it all has. Looking through some pictures I have on my desktop folder, the faces of my Littles flashed. Birthday parties, random lake house shots, potty training. It seems like yesterday they were just born and the Hubs and I were running on fumes. Looking up today, I see they have grown. 

  

Quoting Jon Gordon, "I don't want my children to be what I want them to be. I want them to become everything God created them to be".  They are growing into beautiful people and I couldn't be more proud. Take a moment and remember. "Remember the little things. For one day, they will be the big things."

~Bugs & Fishes,

Aleigh

The Cucapple

THE WHAT?!?!

The cucapple. It's green, its good and it's healthy! Or so I'm told. It's a juice that a friend told me about. She has been juicing for awhile now and shared with me and my circle of friends all the benefits. I wanted to try but I didn't have a juicer. Well, my MIL (mother-in-law) bought one for me. It's this one.

http://www.blackanddeckerappliances.com/p-53-citrus-juicer.aspx

I'm not too sure it can do what I need/want it to do. Ya see, I have no clue about juicing and before I tear this gift up, I need help! And besides, it says it's for citrus only.

When I think juicer, I think Jack Lalanne and his commercial grade one!

Anyway, I'm gonna play around with my juicer and the cucapple tonight and see if I can get it right. One of two things will happen. 1) I'll be sipping a yummy concoction or 2) my juicer will be smoking and will have to go into the garbage.

If you were wondering what the recipe for the cucapple was I have been ever so nice and posted it below. Should you try it, let me know what you think. ALSO, if you have some juicing tips, let me know those too. 

PLEASE!

~Bugs & Fishes,

Aleigh

The Cucapple

-1/2 cucumber

- 2 apples

Remove stems from apples, cut a cucumber in half and juice.

The nice thing with apples and especially cucumbers, is you get a lot of juice out of them. This is great when you just need something quick.

Chevron!

It's everywhere right now. On pillows, walls, curtains, bed linens and clothes. I've even seen it on jewelry. I love this pattern. Always have, even before it became popular. 

Anyway, when Little Man was going to turn 2, my plan was to redo his bedroom and surprise him with it on his birthday. I had bought some cute stuff and my theme for his room was "subdued nautical". I had purchased bed linens and some wall art as well as a wooden sailboat. It's all in tones of grays and light blues and of course white. Little Man's favorite color has been orange for quite some time now so for that SPLASH of color, I was thinking orange in more of a cremecicle tone. Well, wouldn't you know it, my friend told the Hubs that she was gonna sell her son's bedroom stuff and thought she would ask us before she put it on Craigslist. The Hubs jumped on this and so the theme I had was out the door and in came his car bed, gas tank lamp and bookshelf. This stuff is cute but I was kinda sad. Little man and Hubs were overjoyed. When we revealed his room on his birthday last year he loved it. He told anyone who would listen he had a race car bed with tires. OK, OK so it turned out great. BUT, I still have all my "subdued nautical" stuff in his closet for later. Like, 2 more years later. Hubs is hanging on to that bed for dear life!

Where I'm going with all of this is that, one of my projects that had me MIA for a bit was an over sized picture that I may use as a headboard for L.M. when I finally get to redo his room. See, last year I had a friend of mine cut out some vinyl for me. I gave her the font style and wording along with the size that I wanted. She cut it out and mailed it to me. It has been sitting in his closet for a year!!!  Well, I decided that enough was enough and took it out. I measured it and went to Goodwill. I was on, yet again, another hunt. I needed to find a HUGE picture and/or frame for cheap! Good news. I found the size I needed and it was orange tagged. On this particular day, orange was half off. Not to mention it was a good sign since...orange is his favorite color. I bought the picture and brought it home.

Here it is in all of it's Southwestern glory. PURDY isn't she? It's huge y'all.

Little Miss got her hands dirty helping me out. I bought the paint from Ace Hardware. Talk about luck, it was an oops color for someone but perfect for me. I only paid $4 for it. SCORE!

When I had my base color down, I measured everything off and then taped. I had some help from A step in the journey blog with an instructional post on how to do these. I had to make my measurements larger but this was easy to follow.

http://www.astepinthejourney.com/2011/06/chevron-stripes-how-tobecause-its.html

After that, I painted the white stripes and once dry, applied the vinyl. Took a step back and admired my handiwork. I like it. A lot. Turned out great and Little Man?

He likes it too!

For now, it sits in his room mixed in with his basket of stuffed animals and his baby rocker from when he was teeny tiny. 

To break down the cost of this "craft" I have listed it for you below.

Goodwill Picture:  $15.00

Oops paint $4.00

vinyl with shipping $10.00

painters tape and white paint I already had

TOTAL COST: $29.00

Now, I'm not an art junkie, but I know a picture of this size would run you far, far more than what I spent on all of it so in that aspect I'm really happy with my total cost. BUT, the cheapskate in me wishes it had been less.

~Bugs & Fishes,

Aleigh

Little Man turns 3

Little Man loves Super Heros. Don't ask me how he knows about them or even their names because we don't watch it but he does. His favorites are Spiderman and the Hulk. So when it came time to plan his birthday, he said he wanted a Spiderman birthday. Well, I took that and ran with it. I scouted out Pinterest for ideas and found a bunch. Some I really wanted to do but knew I couldn't pull off in time so I went with what I knew I could do. 

The front door greeted you with this silhouette of Super Noah. The conversation bubble says "Welcome to Noah's 3Rd birthday party!"

The picture frame that I have by the front when you first walk in always has something in it representing the season, holiday or special event. This time, I had this little saying. "Little Boys are Superheros in disguise"

 I made a happy birthday banner with a comic book I bought from The Dollar Store, construction paper and a free happy birthday printable from Pinterest.

close up shot

I also decorated the drink dispenser with comic book words and a copy of an old comic book page. The drink was lemonade so I thought Radio-Active Man was perfect!

His cake came from the bakery at out local grocery. He picked out chocolate. I had them ice it with whipped cream and then decorate it with blue and red and the spiderweb.  The comic words are again ones I printed out and glued onto a skewer.

The candle I made from an Ironman one I found at Party City. It was on sale for .50. I just took him off and glued on a Spiderman I found at the Dollar Store.

The Birthday Boy wore his Spiderman shirt and superhero shoes. They had wings I had made from 2 colors of card stock and then glitter glue. He thought they were pretty cool and made him run super fast!

 Even big Sister got in on the action with a Batman shirt and frilly, black skirt.

The Littles making silly faces!

And Little Man with his favorite gift. He wanted an orange guitar so Grandma and Grandpa found an orange ukulele  It's his size and he has already serenaded me with ABC and If you're happy and you know it.

He had a blast on his big day and I gotta say, I did too. It was a small party with a few friends and family and even though I cheated with buying the cake, I was happy with how it turned out. So the lesson here was, for a few dollars at the Dollar Store, you too can have an awesome Hero party. On decorations, I spent about $5 and on the plates and napkins and such, about the same. 

~Bugs & Fishes,

Aleigh