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How to Start a Bullet Journal for Beginners

August 14, 2018 by VintageMama 3 Comments

Who knew??? The other day I was having a conversation with one of our older daughters, and she pulled out a book she had been reading and said, “Hey, Mom! Let me read this to you. This author has a great idea for bullet journaling!” Ok . . . I’m not really sure what “bullet journaling” is, but I’ve seen different articles with journal pages filled with multi-colored notes jotted down (I think color coded for different events or people in the family?), but it always seemed so overwhelming that I didn’t take the time to focus on it.

She excitedly read me a paragraph about “bullet journaling,” and all of the benefits for time organization (I’ve also heard you really can’t “manage” time, so instead I guess I should now call it “time organization” or something like that. Can you really ever “organize” time any more than you and “manage” it?) and keeping things in your life from falling through the cracks in your brain. I listened in amazement as she described to me how “bullet journaling” teaches you how to make a list of the things you need to do, or remember, or take care of, or schedule, or pick up, or drop off, or babysit, or return, or . . . . whatever it is you need to do with all of the stuff and time in your life.

Really? This is a “new” concept? “Wow! I guess I should have written that book 25 years ago!” I replied. She looked at me like I had three heads, and with a questioning look in her eyes, she said, “Really? You knew about “bullet journaling” back then?” Well . . . not exactly . . . . because back in the day we didn’t actually call it anything other than making a list of what I needed to accomplish in a day. You know, without the different colored pens, stickers, clippies, ribbons, pockets, and all the other cool stuff that is available for journaling these days.

Of course, that was when she was a little girl, and now she is a mom of many and is doing a great job keeping up with all of the things that young mamas need to take care of, so she didn’t remember me making old fashion “to do” lists, in a journal, with little bullet points. I am the queen of list making, and I have been all of my adult life. But when I see all of these amazing “bullet journals” that are available now days, it’s no wonder some of us get rather anxious just contemplating investing that kind of time, energy, money, and brain power just to make a list so I don’t forget to pay the utility bill or take the kid to the dentist.

Now, I will admit that young moms these days do a ton more running that we did back in the day. Most of us didn’t have four kids all in two or three different extra-curricular activities that we were running from soccer practice to piano lessons to dance class to church activities to basketball games to parent meetings to orthodontist appointments to volleyball club . . . . most of us ordinary moms could only manage to have our kids (depending on how many of them we actually had at any given time) participate in one activity outside of school and church. Even that was rather exhausting at times, even for the young, energetic moms.

So perhaps all that color coding, sticky notes, clippies with little hearts and flowers, and pockets for extra notes or papers really is necessary in this whirlwind life of families these days. I only have two kids still at home, and I admit sometimes I meet myself coming a going (so to speak), and I still do write things down on my daily “to do” list. But if you are interested in getting started with a “bullet journal” and haven’t managed to take the plunge into all of the cute paraphernalia that is available today for journaling, let’s take a deep breath and think about this for a minute.

You actually can start out pretty simple, with minimal expense and investment. Trust me, I’ve been doing this “bullet journaling” thing for a long time and it has worked for me quite well. Here’s all you need to get started:

Paper
Pen

See how good I am at that?!?!

Here’s how I do it . . . .

I have always kept a small notebook, about the size of a half sheet of copy paper, either bound, three-ring, or spiral bound, filled with lined or unlined paper, it doesn’t matter.

At the top of each new page I put the day and the date.

For me, because I like to keep a running prayer list, I would add new prayer requests for each day as I became aware of different people and situations in my life that I needed to pray about.

Then I would write the words “TO DO.”

After that, I would make a brief list (perhaps 1 – 5 things) that were top priority for that day.

I would make a few specific categories: family activities, household chores, errands, bills to pay, etc.

There would always be a “running” list of big projects that needed to be broken down into smaller, manageable pieces:

Paint the living room
- Remove furniture
- Strip wallpaper
- Remove trim around windows and doors
- Patch nail holes
- Sand rough spots
- Choose color and buy paint
- Paint trim
- Paint east wall
- Paint north wall
- ETC, ETC, ETC

Then, as each smaller task was accomplished I would cross it off the list. That is a great motivator when you see you are making progress!

So, it is possible to get started with a “bullet journal” even if you don’t have all the amazing stuff that is available these days to help keep you inspired. Then, when you have the time, money, energy, and brain power to write things in different colors, or add sticky notes, or whatever else your creative brain might come up with, you will be ready. In the meantime, just getting started will be a step in the right direction.

Tomorrow I’ll post pictures of how I set up a simple “bullet journal” in my little notebook, just in case you want to make your own. But if you are ready to go for it and purchase a beautiful journal with all kinds of fun stuff to go along with it, I’ll be sharing some of that stuff too. Just do it! Pick up a piece of paper and a pen and start making little bullet points and write something down. Then do it, and cross it off the list. I promise, you’ll feel much better about your day and you will also begin to organize your responsibilities and your time to be more productive. Happy journaling!

I broke my blog today . . .

August 9, 2018 by VintageMama 5 Comments

Do you ever wonder what might happen if you just “click here” when you are working on your blog? I didn’t really give it much thought, because every time I had ever “clicked here” before things just always did what they were supposed to do. I think. But since I’m not a tech genius, I assumed that whatever happened was what was supposed to happen. And then I could go merrily on my way, doing all the fun stuff that many of us do in a day, fixing up my blog, creating new posts, uploading pictures and new little “widgets.” I like to make my blog pretty, and since I’m not a professional blogger or even a blogger who really cares about all of the statistics (I really just do it for fun), I’ve never really given much thought to all of the tech talk that is out here.

Well . . . yesterday when I decided to “click here” to do some updates to the plugins (see, I kinda-sorta understand elementary tech talk), I suddenly see a completely white screen that gives me a string of indecipherable words, supposedly explaining to me exactly what happened. Of course, I can’t even figure out WHAT happened, much less HOW to fix it. So that ended my adventure in blogging for that day. Too bad, because we had to be out of town two days in a row which didn’t leave me very much time to try to sort it all out.

Last night when we got back home, I called GoDaddy to see if they could help me fix it, and of course . . . . they COULD fix it! Yay . . . except it would only cost $80 to hire one of their tech gurus to go in to the back side and sort out all of the broken code, that apparently broke when I “clicked here” to update on of the cool new Twitter plugins. It wasn’t compatible with some other code, so in order to fix this problem, they had to update the code for the whole blog. Which of course means nothing to me because I couldn’t find the “code” to update even if they told me how to do it.

So I paid the $80 (which actually gives me two additional “tickets” that I can use the next time something like this happens), and overnight the technology magicians fixed my blog! I’m grateful to have it fixed, and I’m also grateful that I had the funds to hire them now that I’m working part-time from home. So it’s all good, as the kids say, and we’re back in business. So even though I actually tried to get ahead of my schedule by having this blog post written and scheduled on Tuesday night, here I am on Thursday morning at 6:00 a.m. trying to get this ready to go . . . while I’m waiting for my first student to show up in my little online classroom.

Then we’re off again for the day, taking a few last minute fun outings together before the girls go back to school next Wednesday. It will be fun, and I’ll feel much better knowing that my blog is no longer broken. I hope this has never happened to you, but if it does, just take a deep breath and call someone. Just call someone who speaks tech-ese (“That just means ))&*)Y )_(^^^ __%%% . . . it says right there )(*&^ @%%$#$@) and if necessary, hire someone to fix it for you. It’s worth it!

In the meantime, I hope you can join us for this week’s Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party – I’m getting in here at the last minute, but at least I’m here! Hope to see you at the party!

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Katherine-Katherines Corner

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Coleslaw Stuffed Keto Wraps from Healthful Pursuit

Keto-Friendly Chicken Alfredo Pizza from All Day I Dream about Food

August 7, 2018 by VintageMama Leave a Comment

Well, it’s been a little over a week now that we’ve been experimenting with low-carb, Keto-friendly foods, and we’ve found a few things that we really like. And a few that need more experimentation to figure out how to improve on the recipes that we’ve found. One of the best parts about this family experiment is that my girls are more interested in cooking (and I am too, I must admit!) so we’ve been having fun trying new recipes almost every day.

This Keto-friendly chicken alfredo pizza is one of the first recipes we found and we decided to try it right away. It actually tastes as good as it looks! We found this recipe over at All Day I Dream about Food (which almost made me pass it by, because one of my biggest annoyances about cooking is that I have to spend so much time thinking about FOOD . . . which really makes me cranky!), but Carolyn offers up this pretty quick and easy recipe for pizza crust and homemade alfredo sauce that really is worth taking the time to make. But it really doesn’t actually take that much time!

Since we already had some chicken breasts cooked, just waiting to be put into a new, yummy supper dish, and we also had all of the other ingredients, too, it was a lot of fun trying it out for the first time. And we all loved it! So we decided to make it again on the weekend instead of ordering pizza takeout which we often do on Friday nights. Even our Dad like it, but then he’s pretty easy to get along with . . . although he definitely is more opinionated about food than I am!

We had a couple of pieces left over (we’ve discovered that keto-friendly foods seem to fill you up much faster than the other high carb foods we are used to eating), and they were even good warmed up the next day for lunch. The alfredo sauce is super easy to make, and if you pop on over to Carolyn’s blog you will find an alternative recipe for Magic Mozzarella Pizza Crust which is the one we used. It was perfect with the alfredo sauce and chicken!

We are just getting started on this journey, but here’s what I have observed so far: I never feel hungry. I realize I am hungry occasionally, but I never actually “feel” hungry. That’s really no big deal for me, because I have had really bad eating habits for quite some time. If I don’t “feel” hungry, I don’t eat (usually because I’m too busy doing something else that I don’t want to stop long enough to eat . . . much less take the time to cook!), so I would wait, and wait, and wait, until I was REALLY hungry, and then I would eat stupid stuff. Not necessarily “bad” stuff, just not very thoughtful or intentional stuff. Then I would feel rather sluggish and lethargic, and wonder why I felt so miserable. And then the cycle would start all over again. It was not a very productive cycle to be on every day of the week!

One other thing that I’ve discovered is that all of the recipes I’ve come across are super easy, with very few ingredients, most of which are regular ol’ food that we already have on hand, or can keep on hand if we just buy more of it. Like eggs, cream, cheese, cottage cheese, and butter. I did buy some almond flour and coconut flour, as well as almond oil, and shredded mozzarella cheese and shredded parmesan cheese which we don’t typically keep on hand, but it’s all stuff we like so it worked out great. Most of the recipes we’ve tried are pretty quick, too, even the 3 minute microwave bread / muffins that I’m experimenting with.

So far the only challenges I’ve experienced are a rather yucky taste in my mouth which I address by drinking a lot more water (which is a good thing!) and really dry skin on my ankles and feet. That’s kind of weird, so I’m not sure if that has anything to do with the low-carb diet, but it hasn’t been quite this bad before. So I just keep putting lotion on the dry skin and hope it goes away soon. That’s it! No special meal prep (I just make the low carb stuff and everyone eats it. Then if they want mashed potatoes and gravy or whatever, I make that as well); I don’t have to think about food all day long just to make sure I’m remembering to feed my family, and I really, seriously never feel hungry.

I have a lot more energy which was my original goal. I have no idea if I’ve lost any weight or not because we don’t have a working scale – and I don’t know what I weighed before I started. I will probably get around to checking that out next week after the girls go back to school. Right now I’m pretty busy trying to get everything done for back-to-school, but when I check to see if I’ve lost weight, I’ll let you know.

If you are considering trying the keto / low-carb eating program, I would encourage you to learn all you can, check with your doctor, and let me know if you find any great recipes. I’ll be experimenting with new recipes for the next few weeks and would love to hear your ideas. Hope you are having a good summer, and that you are joyfully anticipating the upcoming change of seasons. I know I am!

If you would like to try this recipe for keto-friendly Chicken Alfredo Pizza, be sure to visit Carolyn at All Day I Dream about Food. You will find the complete recipe with ingredients and a instructions, as well as a link to her amazing Magic Mozzarella Dough Pizza Crust.

ALL IMAGES IN THIS POST ARE FROM ALL DAY I DREAM ABOUT FOOD. NONE OF THESE IMAGES BELONG TO VINTAGE MAMA’S COTTAGE, BUT ARE ONLY USED HERE TO DIRECT THE READER BACK TO THE ORIGINAL BLOG POST. PLEASE VISIT CAROLYN AT ALL DAY I DREAM ABOUT FOOD FOR THE COMPLETE RECIPE FOR THIS KETO-FRIENDLY CHICKEN ALFREDO PIZZA.

School – Get Ready for Back-to-School + HM #195

August 2, 2018 by VintageMama 3 Comments

Well . . . as much as I have declared that I’m never cooking again, I guess I met my match when Diva Daughter decided that we should try the Keto eating plan. I’ve been struggling quite a bit for several months with low energy, which is really frustrating and annoying to me because I have always been high energy and have a TON of projects and responsibilities on my plate. Running out of energy in the middle of the day is just not a realistic option for me if it can be avoided. She told me that she had been reading about all of the benefits of Keto and said we should give it a try. So for this week’s Home Matters Linky Party #195, the theme is Back to School . . . . so I decided to come up with a few practical, quick and easy Keto friendly lunch ideas for the girls because they always carry their lunch to school. #BacktoSchool #Back2School #HomeMattersParty

One of the best things (so far!) about this new project of searching for Keto friendly recipes is that I’m getting more help in the kitchen. Which is a good thing since I still don’t really like to spend a lot of time cooking and cleaning up. Well, I suppose if I didn’t have anything else to do, I wouldn’t mind. But when I have papers to grade, blog posts to write, a magazine to edit, and online ESL classes to teach, cooking is just not exactly my “passion” in life like it is for some people.

So, here are the Keto friendly recipes I discovered that we are going to try in the next couple of weeks to get ourselves ready for back-to-school . . . . which happens around here on August 15, so we have less than two weeks to get everything in place. And since we have a high school senior this year, that means all kinds of extra activities, events, and expenses – so I guess I better keep working and bringing in a little bit of income to get us through this school year! I would love to hear from you if you are experimenting with Keto recipes. Let me know which ones you like the best!

In the meantime, I hope you can catch up with us at this week’s Home Matters Party – it’s a great opportunity to connect with other bloggers and you might even make a few new friends along the way!

Keto Corn Dog Muffins from KetoSizeMe

Keto Mini Pizzas from Healthful Pursuit

Caesar Egg Salad Lettuce Wraps from Peace Love and Low Carb

Oven Baked Bacon Wrapped Chicken Tenders from LowCarbYum

Avocado Tuna Salad from Cook Eat Paleo

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Favorite Things: RUBY magazine for August has been published!

August 2, 2018 by VintageMama 1 Comment

The August 2018 issue of RUBY magazine features inspirational articles, poetry, devotionals, book reviews, recipes, and kids’ activities that will be a great resource for you and your family on these late summer days. Thinking about the changing seasons that is just around the corner, the August issue of RUBY includes an article on back-to-school saving strategies by Jehn Kubiak, a collection of great blueberry recipes, a book review of Forgotten God: Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan, reviewed by Carol Peterson, and an inspirational poem, “My Daughter Gave Me the Moon,” by Joan Leotta. And so much more!

We are now accepting submissions for the September 2018 issue of RUBY magazine, and we would love to hear from YOU! Send your submissions or inquiries to us at editor@rubyforwomen.com for all the details, or visit our submissions page for more information.

And don’t forget . . . . you are invited to join us in the RUBY online community, too! Come on over to our Facebook group where you will discover groups where you can share prayer requests, tell us about your latest blog post or your current work in progress, share a recipe or a craft project with us, or just hang out in the RUBY cafe! We would love to connect with you there . . . come on along and join the conversation in the RUBY neighborhood.

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Keto Lemon Blueberry Bread from Elana’s Pantry

8 Keto Bread Recipes I’m Going to Try

July 31, 2018 by VintageMama 3 Comments

I’ve never been a big fan of traditional “diets” because it just seems like, unless you make a commitment to a bit of a lifestyle change, a “diet” only works as long as you stay on a rigid routine, counting calories, points, grams, or whatever. As soon as “real life” interrupts your concentration and focus (at least in my experience) it becomes very difficult to stay on track. But lately it seems like I haven’t had the level of energy that I really need to keep up with everything I’m doing in life. Like two teenagers, along with my teaching jobs and all of my other online responsibilities.

With a bit of research, and with some nudging by my daughters who talked to a neighbor who is doing the Keto plan, I decided it would be worth the time and effort at least to learn what all of the hype is about KETO. Here’s what I found . . . and since I’m no expert, or a medical doctor, or a nutritionist, all of this is simply my experience and I hope to keep a record of my progress . . . . it is very much like the Atkins diet that was so popular 20 years ago or so. I appears to be based on the simple premise that eating foods that are very low in carbohydrates and sugars, as well as those foods that are high in fats and proteins, that your body then will burn up the fat (some of which is already stored in our bodies – but then we already knew that!) when it doesn’t have instant access to the carbs and sugar in your system from eating high carbohydrate and sugar content foods.

I might be more complicated than that, but so far, that’s what I’ve concluded. Of course, there are a million and one websites, blogs, and books out there, with about a hundred million different recipes, but to get started I wanted to find a few simple ideas, and figuring out if bread can be part of this plan was a big deal to me. That’s because I don’t typically like to spend too much time cooking, so a quick sandwich, toast, or muffin has been my go-to for early mornings before my teaching time begins, or even for lunch and sometimes supper if we’re really busy. So living without bread in my life wasn’t just a “food” issue, it was actually a whole “lifestyle” issue. I might need to re-think that soon, but that’s where I’m starting!

When I discovered these recipes for bread made with almond flour and other low sugar / carb ingredients, I was surprised, but pleasantly so. We baked a loaf of the lemon blueberry bread yesterday and all of us really like it! I will do some experimenting to see if I can figure out how to get it just a little bit lighter (almond flour makes it rather dense, but it still tastes great!), and maybe add a bit more sweetener and for sure I’ll add more blueberries and lemon next time. But it was perfect for breakfast! Warmed up in the microwave (or straight out of the oven!) with butter and all-natural peanut butter, and that was just right for my busy morning.

If you have any recipes, ideas, or advice for me about the whole Keto phenomenon, I would love to hear about your experience. My main goal is not necessarily weight loss (but who would object if I did lose some weight???) but mostly my objective is to avoid the daily dip in energy and the feeling of being really, really tired by the middle of the afternoon. I’ve got stuff to do! I can’t just go take a nap any old time I feel like it! I’m off to work on some of those “real life” responsibilities, but I’ll also be baking another loaf of bread this afternoon – along with experimenting with the chicken alfredo pizza recipe I found. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Low Carb Biscuits from Keto Connect

Keto Pumpkin Quick Bread from I Breathe I’m Hungry

Peanut Butter Berry Breakfast Loaf from Peace Love and Low Carb

Keto Cinnamon Swirl Bread from This Mom’s Menu

Keto Bread from Fat for Weight Loss

Zucchini Coconut Bread from KetoVale

Best Keto Bread from Keto Connect

Ice Cream – Summer’s Favorite Treat + HM 194

July 26, 2018 by VintageMama 5 Comments

We’ve had a really busy, but fun, week with some time for a couple of afternoon outings. Sometimes we just like to take a drive on a beautiful summer afternoon to see what’s out there. Working from home means that I don’t get out in the “world” on a regular basis, so my girls remind me that I really do need to get out of the house. One afternoon we drove over to a beautiful little lakeside village about a half hour from home. We found some really fun boutique shops including an old fashioned candy store, where the girls just HAD to buy some candy. Of course it is pretty much the same candy that they could buy at our local grocery store, but this was really so much more fun that shopping at just any old store! For this week’s Home Matters Linky Party #194 featuring ice cream, I was truly inspired by the little ice cream shop we visited. #IceCream #HomeMattersParty

Then yesterday we decided to make a quick trip to Hobby Lobby to buy some craft sand so we could finish the cute little painted jar lanterns we started last week. They are almost finished now and I’m hopeful that we can wrap up that project today because there are several more fun DIY projects we want to do yet this summer. Just as we arrived at Hobby Lobby (which is under construction so the parking lot and everything inside is kind of in transition right now), it started to rain. Really rain hard! So we waited a few minutes until it let up a bit, and then we bolted for the door, trying not to splash in too many puddles between the car and the front door of the store.

Found the sand to finish our project, and with a 40% off coupon, we spent $1.93 at Hobby Lobby. That’s true self-control! I’m trying really hard not to get side-tracked or distracted from projects I’ve already started with new ideas. Once we get the projects finished that we are working on now, then maybe I’ll go back to Hobby Lobby – for now we have everything we need to stay busy with our DIY projects!

On our way home we stopped at a little ice cream shop and the girls wanted hot dogs for supper so at the end of the day, we were tired but we had fun together. Nothing super fancy, expensive, or extravagant, but it was fun. Since we’ve been so busy doing other stuff, I simply was not thinking about recipes or even more craft ideas for this week’s theme of ice cream. But, I really enjoy creating pretty printables, so I decided to make a few designs with ice cream and sweet summer sayings on them. So, here you are, my offering for this week’s #HomeMattersParty! You can print them out and frame them or use them any way you want. I hope you are having a good summer and that you are taking time to have fun! And be sure to visit some of the other bloggers at this week’s party. See you there!

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Welcome to the weekly Home Matters Linky Party. A great place to come, share your blog posts, and make new friends.

We would love to have you visit our blogs and follow us on social media!

Hosts

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Favorite Things: Summer Crafts for Kids

July 26, 2018 by VintageMama 1 Comment

It’s hard to believe, but my girls only have about three more weeks of summer vacation before school starts up again. We’ve been busy having fun and getting tons of projects completed around here, but I still can’t seem to find a craft project that really, really, really fits the specifics that I’ve been looking for. We made some of the cute little painted jar lanterns, but Miss Perfectionist took three days to get around to painting polka dots on an empty jar with a QTip . . . . because they might be the wrong color, or they might not be perfectly round, or they might be too close together, or they might be too far apart. FINALLY, I convinced her that we were really striving for the “shabby chic” look and the polka dots are not supposed to be perfectly round or exactly the distance apart.

They actually turned out pretty cute, but now I need to get a bag of sand from Hobby Lobby to put in the bottom of them. We actually bought some of that new yogurt that comes in those really adorable little glass jars, just so we would have a few for making our lanterns. Well, the yogurt is pretty good, too, so I guess we’ll have a few more cute little jars in the near future. I also found a package of those tiny battery powered tea lights at Walmart, and along with some twine I had in the sewing room for the handle, they will be perfect for decorating her room this autumn. If she ever finishes painting those polka dots!

So the first requirement for a craft project around here is that it needs to be something that this particular kiddo can do on her own. With her Cerebral Palsy, her left side is much weaker than her right side, so I’m always looking for something that will get both of her hands working together. It can be a challenge, as she would rather use just her right hand, but then that doesn’t work out very well for doing crafts. Or most other things, which is why we are always on the look out for opportunities to get that left hand involved.

Another requirement when looking for craft project ideas is to find something that she will actually use in her room or at school or really anytime at all. So we typically stay away from the paper plate, popsicle stick, or construction paper projects. We’ve already got about a hundred or more of those kinds of projects from elementary school days, so now we are on to more “grown up” kinds of DIY projects. That’s what I was looking for this week and I think I found a few that we might be able to do together, and maybe we will gradually stop worrying about everything being perfect and just have fun! Here are a few that I found that are “kid approved” for fun as well as for decorating her room. I actually can’t wait to get started tomorrow . . . as soon as we take a quick trip to Hobby Lobby!

DIY Birdhouse from Delineate your Dwelling

We already have a lot of pretty scrapbook paper that we could use to embellish a little cardboard birdhouse. This would make a really cute decoration for her room which happens to be painted in the colors on this birdhouse: coral and turquoise. This looks easy enough that I could make sure the base of the birdhouse is sturdy and then she could cut and glue all kinds of fun stuff to it.

Popsicle Garland from Play Ideas

OK so I said no more popsicle stick crafts – but this one really is different. I’m thinking she could spend a whole afternoon cutting, gluing, and embellishing these cute popsicle cutouts. Then with some string or ribbon, we would have a cheerful and bright garland to hang across the top of her bed or over her dresser. This just might be the one we do first!

Pineapple Button Necklace from Raising Whasians

Well, we already have jars and jars filled with buttons of all shapes, sizes, and colors, I’m pretty sure she could spend another afternoon sorting through them all to find just the perfect buttons for this cute pineapple necklace. A few snips of green felt and some yellow or green yarn . . . and this is so adorable she might even want to wear it to school!

Embellished Flip Flops from DailyWT

There are about another million ways to use flip flops to make cute summer DIY projects. I’ve seen them strung up on ribbon to make a colorful garland, or just decorated for the kiddos to wear outside, or even a summer wreath / door hanging. These bright colorful flip flops have been embellished with all kinds of fun stuff and would make a great wall hanging inside, as well. So many different ways to use the plain, ordinary flip flop!

DIY Twinkling Flower Light Garland from Inspired by This

I know, I’m pretty sure that making a DIY project using cupcake liners wasn’t at the top of my list, either . . . . until I came across this idea. Since we already have a string of little paper lantern lights in her room that she uses as a night light, it didn’t occur to me to make something – until those tiny lanterns burned out. Now no more pretty pink lantern night lights for her! But look how cute these are! They are just made from a string of white lights (like Christmas lights or summer outdoor lights) with fringed cupcake liners tucked in behind each little bulb. The tutorial is HERE if you want to make your own Twinkling Flower Light Garland.

DIY Decorated Birdhouses from Ye Craft Ideas

When I came across these cute birdhouses I couldn’t resist adding them to this collection of fun summer crafts for kids. These designs are a bit more “kid” friendly and could be painted, with designs drawn on with markers, or painted, or even glued on gems or other embellishments. It could even be as simple as using card stock which is really easy to work with, and then make a whole little village of baby bird houses to display on a shelf in her room.

Well, now that I’ve found a bunch of fun projects that might (just might!) keep the creativity flowing for the remaining days of summer, I guess we’ll get busy tomorrow working on something – which one should we do first? I still think we’ll begin with the popsicle garland because I already have everything we would need to make that one. I’ll be sure to let you know! I hope you are having a good summer and that you will take time to join us this week for the Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party. Hope to see you there!

Remember you can add three links until midnight on Saturday. One each day or all at once.

Please invite your blog friends and social network to join us.

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Theresa- Shoestring Elegance

Linda- Crafts a la Mode