chase'd my dream!

I have been watching for sunsets with lots of color and have managed to get lucky on several different occasions. So of course I snatched up the camera and ran outside.

Recently I found myself in need of some canisters. I only had a couple and wasn't super happy with them so I decided it was time to upgrade. I really wanted a way to store my things and make them part of the decor at the same time. So I headed to my favorite place for ideas, Hobby Lobby . Oh how this girl can spend hours meandering their isles dreaming of a million things to make (all at once of course). As I stood admiring all the beautiful glass jars I decided they would be perfect for my pantry items. I got a little excited and secretly danced in the isle when I saw the famous 50% all glass jars sign. Oh YEA this momma loves a good deal! The jars I liked were already a great deal starting at $1.99 up to $5.99 plus they had a really good looking gasket for a good seal. As I began thinking what sizes I needed my craft ADD kicked in and I started drifting off to how to label them. I only picked up 4 jars on my initial trip because I couldn't think straight - if you have crafti...

Are you a big dreamer? I feel like I have always been a big dreamer full of big GRAND ideas. I have so much passion and sometimes I feel like its all over the place. Inside me is craziness flying around like someone just lit a brick of those jumping jacks fireworks. There is fire, smoke, jumping, spinning, noise - the whole lot and it's so much you aren't quite sure where to look. That's how I feel. Exactly! Except, instead of not knowing where I look, I don't know where to focus. So instead of picking one or 2 things to focus on, I dip into everything and nothing gets all of my attention. Then before you know it, I have bitten off way too much - I throw my hands in the air as a failure - and nothing gets done. Today is different though. Today I have decided that I am going to do those grand things I think about just not all at once. Then maybe, just maybe I will be able to focus on that one thing and give it my all. Then check my list for the next adventure. I am ...

Now that Christmas has come and gone my new task to to corral all the chaos. Typiclly in years past I have it done within a day or 2 of Christmas...this year however has been particularly challenging. It seems that A) our child receives WAY too many gifts B) his toys are quite large and hard to store C) We are crazy for letting it get to this point. I have been hard at work though - our first chore (before Christmas) was to find a new home for his train table. Because we made it ourselves it was larger than your standard train table - in fact, it was 3'x6' and took up a HUGE footprint in our house. We had to move it or there would have been no room for Christmas this year. I spent a lot of time thinking and researching (ie scanning Pinterest) before we made our final choice. My inital thought was to build the table into a trundle but my son has a very small room (10x10) and giving up that amount of floor space so it could slide out would have taken the whole room. I realized ...

Well in keeping with our theme of the year (Transformer Rescue Bots) my kiddo chose a Halloween costume that wasn't available in stores. I was surprised to find that there were several options available for purchase with Rescue Bots just not the particular hero we were looking for. So for a couple of days weeks I thought about how I was going to put this costume together, make it warm (since it's typically coat wearing weather where we live), and keep it comfortable while allowing him easy access for potty breaks. These are all legitimate things to consider for small kiddo's. I finally decided to construct the whole costume from fleece and I used quilt batting on the interior. Let me apologize for the poor quality photos - I just snapped a few with my cell phone not anticipating a blog post. But after placing 2nd in a nationwide online costume contest I had second thoughts - and well I blogged. :) The body of "Chase" the Rescue Bot is constructed l...

I had pinned a cool image  of super hero wall letters on Pinterest that gave me an awesome idea for my son's wall letters - it involved modge podge and paper. This was about a year ago (at least!) but I hadn't found the perfect paper yet. Earlier this year at the Kidstuff Consignment Sale I stumbled across a book with fantastic pop art on all the pages. I immediately fell in love with the art work and knew it would be perfect for our letters. Better yet - it was half price day so the whole book was only $.50 - WOHOO! I grabbed it up like it was a gold bar and tucked it away while I kept shopping. Well that book had been on the bookshelf since spring (shame on me - I know!) but such is life. Over the weekend I decided to give it a go. I revisited Pinterest for a recipe for DIY modge podge  and set out to remake some letters. I traced each letter on to the back of each page. Then set out with the fat sharpies to color the edges of each letter in a coordinating colo...

Just about a month ago there were two new Transformer Rescue Bot toys released and I really thought this would it for the Christmas season. The Mobile Head Quarters is pretty awesome in and of itself but add to that the Bots & Robbers Police Headquarters and those are two great additions to the Heroes Prime Fire Station . NOW I see that there are two additional heroes to add to your collection! Playskool has introduced Hoist the Tow-Bot and Medix the Doc-Bot  each retailing for $12.99. To say my son is excited would be an understatement. When he saw the images of two new heroes on my phone he ran straight to our room and jumped on top of his daddy and demanded he wake up now and look at the new Rescue Bots . Not sure my husband had planned to be a trampoline that morning but he was a good sport about it. Of course my rescue hero wants his additions right now...but mommy was to quick to let him know that we would need to add those to our Christmas wish list. T...

TADA!!!  I FINALLY found Rescue Bot Blades . It is almost fall and that means it is time for neighborhood yard sales :)  I went out this morning for just an hour and half with a friend before I headed into work. I would NEVER have went alone, especially before heading into work - so a HUGE thank you to Jackie. I scored Blades for a whopping $.25!! I totally feel like mom of the year right now. My boy is going to be over the moon when he gets the final bot to his crew. Now he can save the world while he watches his favorite Rescue Bots episodes.

Is your preschooler obsessed with Transformer Rescue Bots like mine? If so, I bet you have already started thinking about Christmas. Don't worry, so has Toys "R" Us - they have a huge amount of markdowns on the Transformer Rescue Bot Toys . Head over and check it out!

My son in no stranger to Transformer Rescue Bots ; in fact he has every single Rescue Bot toy available except Blades, the Rescue Copter . He was even named the Playskool fan of the week on Face Book recently - showing off some recent additions to his collection.  One of those recent additions to his collection was the Mobile Headquarters Playset ; a very cool and interactive toy . First of all it looks like an over sized fire truck - but then add that to the awesome sounds coupled with the pop open action and ejection of Optimus Prime with Cody at the wheel...together they can save anyone - it's super cool. The Mobile Headquarters has been in action as part of his collection for nearly two months and I can honestly say that my 4 year old hero is still going strong, acting out and rescuing anyone in distress. At the conclusion of this season of Transformer Rescue Bots ( on the Hub ) they introduced the Mobile Headquarters so that makes it...

If you have a child I am sure you have come across a situation where they request a specific toy that you can not find. I am currently dealing with this very situation. My son wants more than anything a Transformer Rescue Bot named "Blades" however I can not find a store locally that has him in stock. I even contacted Hasbro about purchasing him online. This transformer costs approximately $12 retail - however I know I can purchase him for $80+ on Amazon on eBay from hungry re-sellers. So here in lies the question...do you think it's right to sell a current child's toy as a re-seller for so much more than the retail price? I can understand selling collectibles or vintage items but to clear shelves in your area and re-sell at a much higher rate I think is unfair. What's your take?

I am going to share my pinata making experience because I had never done this before and searched all over for references. OK birthday boy requests Transformer Rescue Bots party theme which is to include a pinata (Optimus Prime from Wal-Mart is apparently unacceptable). So I set out to make it. Shouldn't be so hard, right? Searched around the house for stuff to use and decided to use a Coca-Cola 12pack box. Why? Because we seem to always have 1 around. Cut it apart using the side structures and started to fold and tape a general logo. Once the general shape was done I taped a piece of heavy art paper to one side to bear the weight of the paper mache strips. Now time to get messy! I tore strips of newspaper and tossed them into a small container and mixed up some glue. I couldn't recall the goo recipe so I googled and found a super easy one. It was one part flour to 2 parts water; easy enough. My kiddo wanted to help once the mixing started (he likes to stir things). Then i...

OK so this year I had birthday party #4 under control. We were going to splash and play at a local spray ground ( Creekside Playground & Sprayground ) so our theme would be "Splish Splash"...or so I thought. After months of planning and discussing with my soon to be 4yr old, he informed me that "Splish Splash" would not work. Are you kidding me!? Seriously - I only have like 4 weeks until B day and I have been working & researching this theme for months (thank you Pinterest )!  OK so what would you like the theme to be son? Mom, I want Rescue Bots at my birthday party. Hmm OK so I go off in search of Transformer Rescue Bots . HAHAHA jokes on me - there are NO such ready made decorations for Rescue Bots . *sigh* NOT AGAIN! Last year he wanted a theme that was not readily available for purchase in the stores (online orders only) and I vowed that I would never again allow this to happen. It stresses me out. But anyone that knows us knows that what the pri...

The time is upon us where we find ourselves searching, researching, and deal hunting for the best things to invest our dollars in for Christmas. Like most families, we have to make sure we get the most for our dollars. While some of the choices on our wish list for Christmas are high dollar items some are not and those that are we are finding on sale and the quality of the items will allow for YEARS of playtime - not just a few months. We are also trying to avoid buying plastic toys as much as possible. So without further a due, here is our WORKING Christmas toy wish list for our little toddler. A lot of the items we are looking at for our little guy can be found on Amazon heavily discounted and with FREE shipping! That's the easiest way to shop for us since we have to find a sitter and go out hunting (which is hard for daddy because he HATES shopping & crowds) plus you get to read all the reviews which I love! It was requested that Santa deliver a Disney Pixar Cars Mack...

I have been BUSY crafting for my little guy! We had a Halloween costume to get done just in the nick of time for Trunk or Treating with the Louisville Mommies ; which I might add was a wonderful event full of some of the best volunteers in the city! OK - here is our Fire Truck Costume! OK - so how did I make the costume?? I used 2 large diaper boxes (the 2nd one cut in half to add length). They were duct taped together for strength then I covered them with the red poster board (using glue stick & clear tape). I covered all of the seams with red electrical tape. Then I cut all of the white/black details from other poster board and added them with glue sticks. The front & rear bumpers are made of aluminum tape. The top boasts a blinking light that is recessed into the box top. Since the flaps were folded under & taped I only cut through the first layer of card board leaving the flap underneath. The wheels are made of 6" cardboard circles that are used to stacking cakes. ...