lucky charm

It had been a while since RJ and I made an art project. So this week we worked on this little lucky charm:

St. Patrick's Day handprint art

I think it would have looked more like a clover if his fingers had been closed. But you can tell what it is supposed to be and RJ had fun making it. I added his initials and the year for a cute little detail.

me and my buddy (he so needs a haircut!)

weight loss wednesday 3.13.13

It's that time of the week again... weight loss wednesday! I got on the scales this morning and weighed in at 214.6. Down one whole pound from last week. It's not very impressive, but it brings my total lost to 24.4 pounds.

And since losing weight isn't only about the number on the scales, I have a non-scale victory (NSV) to share. I wore my belt for the first time in a while and had to move over a hole. I didn't take body measurements before I started trying to lose weight, so I don't know how many inches I've lost. But moving the belt over, means the waistline is definitely getting smaller!

weight loss wednesday 3.6.13

I haven't said anything about losing weight lately. Really, there hasn't been anything to say. Between my birthday, Valentine's Day and RJ's birthday, February was pretty much a bust. (Somebody had to eat all the failed Mickey Mouse pops!)

Now that I'm back on track with low carb eating, I need to be accountable about my weight. One of the things I benefited from at Weight Watchers was the weekly weigh in. So I've decided to put it all out there. This morning I weighed 215.6. That's a total loss of 24.4 pounds. Although that number is humbling, I am proud of what I have done. My next goal is Onederland (199) and to be out of the 200's. Now I need to come up with a reward system...

mouska birthday party- success!

The Birthday Boy!

We had RJ's birthday party last weekend. It was so much fun! This was the first party we've had with little kids coming instead of just family. Our house is small, so it was kinda cramped, but we had a great time! I love how all of the DIY projects turned out. Some of them were a lot of work, but totally worth it!

We served "hot diggity dogs" with chips and dip. I warmed the hot dogs in the crock pot and also had chili, cheese and the fixin's. Here's RJ helping get things set up.

Hot Diggity Dogs

I made cupcakes with Mickey Mouse cupcake toppers (using the Cricut). I also made the super cute Mickey Mouse cupcake stand. I basically used this tutorial http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/08/19/how-to-make-a-cupcake-tower/ and made the Mickey out of styrofoam balls. I LOVE the way it turned out!

Mickey Mouse Cupcake Stand

 

I also made Mickey Mouse oreo pops. They turned out so cute, but were so much work!

Mickey Mouse Oreo Pops

 

A picture of me with the birthday boy. We were both worn out by then. You can see a bit of the "Happy Birthday" banner I made, again using the Cricut. And a picture of just the banner.

 

Mickey Birthday Banner

 

 



 





 

 

 

 



meeska, mooska, mouska birthday party!

I can't believe RJ will be two years old this week! The time has gone by way too fast. We are going to celebrate with a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party this weekend. Mickey Mouse and the gang seem to as popular as ever. Every kid I know loves the show and RJ is no exception. I've been working on making his party special with some handmade details. I found so many ideas on Pinterest. I had to limit what I would make, would I would buy and what I would just wish I could have!

The invitations were something I could definitely make myself. Here is what I ended up with:

 

I used my cricut and the Mickey and Friends cartridge to cut the shape of Mickey's head in black and red. I used the shadow function to make the yellow piece. The red head was cut into a semi-circle and attached just around the edge to make a pocket. I downloaded a Mickey font and a Disney font for the actual invitation part. It was printed on white card stock and cut using a circle shape from the Classic Font cartridge and the center cut feature. I had to play around with it and use some trial and error to get the size right. For the finishing touch, I hot glued buttons on the red pocket. I love the way they turned out! I think using the Mickey and Disney fonts made it perfect. If you don't have a cricut, the basic shapes would be easy to make (but the cricut sure does help!). Hope you like them! 

little fingers and little toes

For Christmas this past year, RJ and I made calenders for all of the grandparents and a few other special friends. All of the pages were made of artwork using RJ's handprints and footprints. We had so much fun making it! The people who received the calenders as a gift loved them. Since I'm such a slow blogger, you get to see January and February today.

Let it snow!

Our art time usually meant getting the handprints or footprints I needed for that page. Later on, I went back and added the details. For the January "Let it Snow!" page, I painted RJ's hand with white paint and got a nice handprint in the middle of a page of blue scrapbook paper. I added white paint at the bottom using a round sponge brush to fill in the snow. The details on the snowmen were added with a marker and little bits of scrapbook paper. The letters were cut on my cricut and the snowflakes were done with a paper punch. I love how it turned out!

I love you!

The February page had to be about Valentines Day! I started out by getting red footprints in the shape of a heart. The footprints didn't really look like a heart, but cutting a heart around them helped. Again the letters were cut out using the cricut. "From the bottom of my heart to the tips of my toes, I love you!" Sweetest Valentine I've ever seen!

Happy New Year!!

I can't believe 2012 has come and gone. Rob and I spent the last night of the year having dinner with some great friends at The Melting Pot. The food was amazing and the company was even better. Even though RJ was spending the night with Grandma, we came home early. Since Rob had to work today, we didn't want to be out too late.  We managed to stay up long enough to watch the countdown in Times Square before crashing.

My resolution for 2012 was to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. For the first time ever, I actually accomplished a  resolution! I reached that weight loss goal in mid November. However, cheating over the holidays has put a few pounds back on. I spent today doing the prep work to get back to low carbing. For me that means a trip to the grocery store, boiling eggs, cooking a breakfast casserole and baking chicken to have for lunch this week. Unfortunately, I never got around to cooking the chicken. For 2013, I want to continue to lose weight. I would LOVE to make it to ONEderland. That's about 20 more pounds. I know I can do it if I stay disciplined and focus on the goal.

RJ and I did squeeze in a little craft time today. After watching the birds looking for food in our front yard, we made a simple bird feeder. We strung fruit loops on a piece of yarn and tied that into a loop. I was very impressed with RJ's fine motor skills. He actually got most of the cereal pieces on the string when he was trying. But with his three for me, one for the birds approach, I was the one who did most of the work. I tied it to a branch in on the tree. I hope the birds will be able to reach it and that they like fruit loops. RJ sure does!