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Dose of Sunshine Monday — Breathe

By KariV on July 29, 2013 in Inspiration

Hello to another Monday. I just got back from a glorious (2 week) vacation in Southern California. It couldn’t have come at a better time. I spent a lot of time near the beach and enjoyed every minute of it.

Now, back to real life…I think of all the items on my to-do list, and some upcoming events that I am not looking forward to. The best way I’ve found to calm down and enjoy each minute, is to practice slow breathing. Try this: Breathe in through your nose for the count of 4, hold for 3 seconds, and then breathe out of your nose for the count of 6. Repeat as often as necessary.

So this week if your life gets hectic, take some time to breathe!

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Monsters University Summer Snack Party

By KariV on July 25, 2013 in DIY, Holidays

The movies this summer have been so fun for my nephews! They LOVED Monsters University and so we decided to have a snack party with Mike and Sully. 🙂 Later, my nephews saw Despicable Me 2 and I asked which movie they liked better? They said unanimously: “Despicable Me 2!!” (It’s a good thing we had this Monsters University snack party first.)

This is such a fun and easy celebration to throw together. We found Mac & Cheese in monster shapes:

And while that was cooking, the boys wanted to practice making monster eyes:

We used marshmallows (cut into slices), m&ms (peanut butter), and black decorating gel. These would make the “Mike Wasowski” eyes for the sugar cookies.

We blended up a quick (and rather healthy) green “Wasowski” Smoothie to drink with our Mac & Cheese. Mmmmm…. These are so easy to make with a little spinach, frozen pineapple and mango, ice, water, and banana.

And then…we decorated the Wasowski Cookies! I made these sugar cookies earlier and cut them into circles and Mickey Mouse shapes. The boys were so creative decorating these.

G loves his Uncle Lann! I love that picture of G giving a hug…he so was excited for this part! We all joined in on the cookie decorating fun.

When we finished decorating all the cookies, we decided to take some over to my nephews C and L, who live in Phoenix. They just had a new baby brother! (Who doesn’t need some Wasowski cookies at a time like this?!)

If you have little boys/nephews/cousins/neighbors…get them together for a little monster snack party and cookie decorating fun. I hope you have just as much fun as we did!

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Cutting Fabric with the Cricut (and easy pillowcases)

By KariV on July 24, 2013 in DIY, Gift Ideas, Paper Crafting

I don’t remember much about going to girls camp when I was a youth, but one thing I DO remember is receiving a homemade pillow case with my name embroidered on it. I still have that pillowcase all these years later! So I really wanted to make pillowcases for the girls this year.

I was excited to cut names out of fabric with my Cricut and then iron them on. Here’s a quick video on how to do this: (It’s easier than I thought!)

I’ve seen other videos where they use fabric stiffener to cut the fabric. You have to paint on the stiffener and then wait for a day or so for it to completely dry. It seemed messy and took WAY too long for me!

So instead, I used “Heat & Bond,” which you can find at JoAnn’s or WalMart…and it worked great!

I sewed up a bunch of these pillowcases using the burrito method. There is a good tutorial here. This is a fast way to make cute pillowcases, including a sweet little piping (hot pink houndstooth on my pillowcases).

Our camp director, Krista, picked out the fabrics for these and I LOVE them! I think she has an extraordinary eye for putting fabrics together. (Thanks, Krista!)

Then I cut the fabric letters using the Cricut, and ironed them on. They turned out fantastic! And I think they look great with the waterbottles for camp.

So if you have a cricut and haven’t tried cutting fabric yet, what are you waiting for? It’s easy and there is so much you can do with fabric. I am ready to work on my next fabric project. See you next time.

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Dose of Sunshine Monday — Find something to Love

By KariV on July 22, 2013 in Inspiration

To celebrate my youngest sister’s birthday, we met in California for some cool weather and fun. One night, we rented “Life of Pi” and she loved the interesting story. Have you seen this movie or read the book? I read the book many years ago, and I thought the movie was quite fun to watch.

Afterwards, my sister came up with the quote of the day: “Well, we may have our trials, but at least we aren’t stuck in a boat in the middle of an ocean with a tiger on board!”

Well said, Wendi, well said. We decided that there could be something each day that we found to love. And that is how this thought came to be for today’s Dose of Sunshine Monday. My sister made this sign for you:

In the midst of your trials or busy life, can you find something to love every day? If you are having challenges with this right now, just remember: at least you are not in a boat in the middle of the ocean with a tiger.

Now, focus on the good!

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Personalized Water Bottles

By KariV on July 18, 2013 in DIY, Gift Ideas, Paper Crafting, Uncategorized

Here’s another goodie I designed and created for Girls Camp! The first thing I think about for camping is WATER. And I was in search of the perfect water bottle to give to the girls. (The camp director wanted their NAMES on the bottles…and you can bet I took on the challenge.)

It was fortunate for me that I found these metallic water bottles at the Dollar Store! I had to visit 6 dollar stores in order to find enough of them! Each store had a few, or none…and since I am not the type to give up, I just kept on going to more stores until I found matching bottles. (I was happy to finally find victory!)

Since our colors were grey, pink and chevron, I thought the metallic work work out perfectly. And then I found the pink herringbone vinyl (which is sort of like chevron, right?) and I just knew it was a great match.

To make these personalized water bottles, first adhere the pink herringbone vinyl.

Second, trim the black shiny vinyl (I cut it into 1 1/2″ strips)

Third, cut the silver metallic vinyl letters with a die cut machine. (I used my Cricut and the Lyrical Letters font)

Adhere the metallic letters to the black vinyl strips. And cut them down into flags after you put on the letters.

Here’s a tip for cutting the perfect flag end: Cut the middle of the flag first, up about an inch. Then, cut from the bottom left side up to the cut mark in the middle…and then cut from the bottom right side up to the cut mark in the middle. Voila! A perfect flag every time.

Last, adhere the flag with letters to the water bottles with the pink herringbone already attached.

I think they turned out pretty cute, don’t you? (And there’s a sneak peek at the pillowcases I made…coming in another post!)

Bonus: here’s a sweet little (easy) gift sack I put together for a treat:

It’s just a white lunch sack (small size) with chevron ribbon, white coffee filter flower, and clothes pin with washi tape! Sometimes you need a sweet little gift that takes just minutes to put together. 😉 {Inside are the best animal cracker snack bags.}

And here’s the start of getting things all boxed up. I hope they like them! And here’s what I love: acting as camp support (ie: making all these little gifts and helps) without actually GOING to camp. (In fact, I will be in California the whole time they are at camp).

But I do love still being a small part of the celebration. Happy day!

Now I hope you are not tired of pink and girly YET, I have another camp post coming soon!

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