A quick look before it becomes trash.

My kids enjoy drawing, coloring and pretty much every other art and craft stuff. Kayla especially loves this; in fact she even got office paper and supplies wrapped up for her Christmas present. I usually limit them to drawing and coloring with crayons. They are banned from markers, glue and scissors unless under supervision and I don’t have time to supervise my kids. They sit at the table or anywhere and draw all day. I can’t even remember the last time they played with toys.

Here are a few samples:

Kayla couldn’t figure out how to draw a happy person for the longest, and then one day she just got it and completely changed the whole look of her people.

It’s weird how much they’ve changed in just one day. Both are of her and Ava. I like the sad people. They make me laugh. The others are nice too.

She's actually not bad for being 4.

Ava draws a lot of scenery and mostly just writes letters and menus.

This was an old picture but I kept it for some reason.

Ava’s people look like Edward Scissorhands on wheels. She doesn’t draw them anymore because I always say “I really like their roller skates.” And they are clearly not skates.

I wish I could find a better one.

I just wanted to document a few of their drawings because I usually throw them all away when they’re not looking. Sometimes they find their pictures in the recycle and cry. It makes me feel like the worst mom ever but I don’t like paper clutter.

Cute Jar Bank

I thought I was getting good at spray painting things so I decided to make a bank out of a sauce jar. This is perfect because I also made a chore chart (once again) for my kids and they will be getting one nickel for every “X” on their chart. Here’s how their doing so far.

Looks like no one has picked up their toys...ever.

Back to the bank; I tried to spray paint the outside of the jar but it looked like shit so I scrubbed it all off with a brillo pad and poured acrylic paint on the inside instead. I tipped it, swirled, did whatever it took to cover the jar. It wasn’t complete without a tiny chalkboard on it, so I duct taped a box and sprayed it with the chalkboard paint. I also did the lid with chalkboard spray after I cut a coin slot in it. Then I tied a pretty bow. Looks cute.

Notice, I tried to draw Mickey Mouse ears as a reminder we are saving for Disney.

I wish I had an idea for my wine jug

Today I was feeling crafty again. I’ve been drinking a lot of wine lately and was looking for recycled crafts. Unfortunately, there wasn’t too many for empty Carlo Rossi jugs or boxed wine and  I wasn’t creative enough to think of any on my own. It will come to me one day though.

Anyway, I had some leftover (actually unopened) chalkboard spray paint from a project I wanted to try but didn’t. So I spray painted the bottom of a wine glass with it. It was so easy and so awesome. It was also unnecessary, considering I drink wine alone in the afternoon of most weekdays, and because I don’t have a matching set so  nobody is usually confused anyway. Either way, cool project. Thanks again pinterest for another clever idea.

Garden Obsession

I am obsessed with my garden. I used to be obsessed with pulling the weeds in my patio cracks. I have had a garden since we moved here six years ago. It used to be way smaller and I only had a few tomatoes and peppers. I don’t grow peppers at all anymore because we don’t eat them that much.

Here’s what I have this year.

 

Swiss Chard

Lettuce

Broccoli

Onions

Tomatoes

Sugar Snap Peas

Zucchini

Cucumber

Corn

Mint

Basil

Dill

So far all are growing nicely and we have eaten everything except the tomatoes, cucumbers and snap peas. They should be ready to harvest soon.  I’ve grown all of these except broccoli and so far it’s been good. We ate one head already.

We eat Swiss chard and zuchinni once or twice a week. I mainly sauté it with garlic oil and parmesan or put in our scrambled eggs. If anyone has any good and easy recipes for chard, let me know!

Let them have dreams

Once again, I am looking for a new job. I am still wondering ‘what I want to be when I grow up.’ I don’t have any dreams, goals or passions in life. Sad, isn’t it? I don’t ever remember having one either. I was never great at anything. I was always average at things but never put forth an effort. I do remember being nice and maybe niceness leads to happiness and happiness should be the ultimate goal for life anyway. So there, my passion and goal is happiness.

Since, my main job is “housewife” I should start putting forth a better effort in raising my kids. Maybe they have dreams, passions and goals. I don’t want to be the one to hold them back form that. That being said, maybe I should just let them do things that make them happy so they can lead a better life from a younger age. Plus, a happy kid will make my life easier. Instead of getting angry and forcing my kid to swim every day, I should let her do sidewalk chalk. Swimming is a much needed skill but there is no reason to rush or force it upon her or she will hate it. Cleaning does not make me happy so I rarely do paint and messy projects with them (we have been a lot more lately). Since they love arts and crafts I should let them do it daily. They love doing cooking projects but it is way more time consuming and messy with little helpers, so I shun them off and tell them to stay out of the kitchen and they can help another time. I think back to when I was a kid and realized that I liked cooking and baking too and my Nonie would always let us help and never got frustrated with an eggshell in bowl. Since my dreams are already shattered and nonexistent, I might as well focus on my kids’ dreams and passions. They are their own people and I have come to realize they don’t have to like the things I did, such as sports and drugs and alcohol. I was really looking forward to them playing softball but they have no interest. I might just have the next Picasso or Rachael Ray if only I would let them be who they are.

Dirty Hippie Hair

I mentioned before that I’ve had a problem with dandruff. I tried a few store bought products and they didn’t work. I tried to cut sugar out of my diet but that didn’t work either, considering I am completely addicted to sugar and it is in everything. I read about this no shampoo method and decided to try it. Dirty hippie hair doesn’t bother me. I’ve probably only had 2 good hair days in life and they weren’t even full days. My hair does not stay good all day; it’s usually a frizzy mess and in a ponytail within an hour.
Anyway, this “no poo” method (that’s what they call it, Google it) has been going ok so far. It’s been over a month and I haven’t used shampoo or conditioner. I’m not going to lie, I only washed two or three times a week before because of my hair type. If you know my hair, I used to use at least ¼ a bottle of conditioner per wash and still had tangles and frizz. With this method, I have been using baking soda as shampoo about once a week or less and only water on the other days. I use a cider vinegar rinse occasionally, (I guess it acts as a conditioner) and sometimes use coconut oil on my ends to control the frizz, which by the way is way better now. It’s weird to think that I use the same products to clean my floor, counters, toilet and hair. Baking soda and vinegar can actually be used to clean just about anything. You’d think my hair would be greasy from not washing it but it is not. It is still dry, as baking soda will do that, but it could be from being in and out of a chemical filled pool and sun all day. My dandruff has gotten way better. My only complaint is that my hair smells sometimes. I thought it would smell like vinegar but it just smells like scalp/dead skin or dirty hippie hair. Other days it smells like nothing. I think it feels a lot smoother and looks healthier. I actually wear it down more often now. I would show you a picture but I don’t have one. I just put one of me on instgram. My user name is monamama. You can check out my hair there along with my other fabulous pictures. I’ll keep you updated on this natural dirty method.

This weeks pinning

Here are a few things I’ve tried from Pinterest this week.

1. Calm Jar

This didn’t work. Kayla hated and threw it across the room. I ended up getting rid of it because the thought of glitter and water and broken glass all over my house nauseated me.
I used only glitter and water inside a washed out pasta sauce jar.

2. Teacher’s end of school gift.


http://www.skiptomylou.org/2012/04/21/fun-in-the-sun-summer-relaxtion-kit-teacher-appreciation/

Here’s how mine turned out.

I love them. I wish the picture was bigger. I didn’t add the sunglasses or aloe but I did put a box of crystal light packets and a few water bottles in.



3. Leg pyramid

Ok, I didn’t do all of them but I did print it out and hung it up at work. Wall sits suck.



4. Egg in a pepper

I don’t know how I screwed this up but I did. Mine didn't look as pretty. I like my eggs well done, maybe that's why.



5. Sugar scrub

This is one I always use and I'm not actually sure I saw it on Pinterest.
Here's how I make mine:
equal parts brown sugar and white sugar. Pour olive oil in until it's the right consistancy for you.

It might look gross but skin feels so soft and lickable. Plus, pretty jars with ribbon and paper are not practical for the shower.

That’s it for this week. I’m sure there’s probably more pins that I’ve tried this week since clearly Pinterest is taking over the lives of wanna be crafty, chef, fashionista women everywhere. P.S. I tried to properly link these pages but it did not work. I guess I should google that before people accuse my of plagiarism.