A few of my favourite things...or should I say pins

My favourite pins….Well I spend FAR too much time on pinterest.

(check out Bacon Wrapped Media for more funny quotes!)

 

In fact I was trying to “surf pinterest” , as I wrote this, but we had no internet…so I could only stick to one page, and try and remember what it opened too!

So, you would think I could find a few good things to share with you…AND I have. 

First up, a recipe…actually 2 recipes.

The first is something that I just made last night

See my pin

Here is a picture of what it looked like when I made it myself!!  Not too bad really

The recipe is from  Cook Lisa Cook

I was writing thing post before I actually made it and I wondered how it would go down as my husband has recently informed me that he’s not a huge fan of the “potato only meals” But me and the kids love to have Wedges with salsa, cheese, bacon and sour cream as a full dinner, so I wonder if adding the chicken and more sauciness will help…or just take it over the top.  Sometimes I find these pinterest recipes end up being a bit to….ummmm….what can I say…’Americanised’.  Sorry Americans, it’s not you, it’s me…ummmm….lets just be friends?....

So anyway, it was good, a little too oily, but that's easy enough to fix, and I didnt put as much chicken as she said to beacuse I am a real stinge...I probably should have, it was fine, but it wouldnt have been better with more chicken!

 

And my 2^nd recipe is this super divine Cinnabon Roll bake cake dish thingy!!  WOW…. It was so yum.  I made it to impress a couple of friends who came over to do crafts with me one day!  They were impressed, so it worked…but even better than that, they didn’t eat it all and I froze it in parts and my husband and I had yummy desserts for ages afterwards!!  Only changes I would make, is a little less sugar and a little less topping….but then again, if I did that I might end up eating even more in each sitting! So maybe it’s not all bad!?!?

See my pin

unfortunately I didnt take a picture of my own one when I made it, but here is a picture of what inpired me to pin it...and then make it!

 

This recipe comes from Six Sisters Stuff, (I have a tonne of pins from that blog, it’s quite amazing…wow, what would it be like to have 5 sisters!  I don’t have any, and I married a guy with 3 brothers…I have lots of sisters-in-law now though, so that’s good!!)  Six Sisters website

 

And the other 2 pins are things for the kids.

T-shirt to dress pin

This is a gorgeous little tutorial for turning an adult’s tee into a preschooler’s dress!  I made this for my daughter

 

 

 

And then got so inspired that I made another random dress from a t-shirt for her

And another

 

 

And finally a cool idea for the Father’s Day prezzie

My Pin

And here is the pictures we gave to Dad for 2012!

 

Each year we take a shot of the kids displaying how much they love their dad…print it out for 19c a photo and either buy a beautiful frame from the dollar store….or re-use last year’s frame!!

 

Check out Melissa Speelman's website for some great photography inspiration…or get her to do take you pics!!

 

So that was a few of my favourite things this week, head over here and follow me on pinterest too! J  Salubrious on Pinterest

 

Do you love pinterest as much as I do????

 

 

 

 

 

35% off all items on Etsy.com

So the first promotion blog!  What to do? 

Well, I think I will start with a 35% off special on any items bought through the etsy shop at:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/salubrious

Just enter this code to take advantage of the special until the end of November.

BLOGSPECIAL35

Watch out for new items added all the time!

 

Below items are all now available.  Get in quick for Christmas before the stock runs out!!  :)

Dribble Bibs for girls

and dribble bibs for boys

 



 

Plenty of Nappy wallet colours and styles to choose from

 



Portable High Chairs, perfect for summer camping or for taking out to all the christmas parties

 



Little girl's capelet, wel everyone needs a capelet!!

 



Lace and floral headbands

 



And frilly aprons (with lots more designs coming!!)

 

So keep watching for more items being added to the shop.  Get in before the end of November to get the discount, but get in earlier to ensure it gets to you in time for Christmas, remember everything is hand made and made to order!

 

....Note to self....need to do more research on techniques for self promotion through one's blog...also, dont try to write blog post material while watching The Office on DVD!!  :)

What's your favourite item???

What to do with the kids during the school holidays

First we had one for Little Miss Four – I just had this urge and thought, ‘there are just too many fun ideas for parties on pinterest to wait a whole year for another birthday!’

We invited five friends (because we have six seats at the table!) and had two organised activities, lunch and a back-up DVD!!

The table was set up with paper and pencils for drawing when the kids arrived, although the other toys lying around were more popular!

Activity 1…. Decorating crowns

 

I cut "crown shapes" out of ceral boxes and put out glitter, beads,flowers etc. to decorated with. This kept them occupied for about 30 minutes (anyone bored just went back to the other toys).

Activity 2…. Cupcake decorating

The kids had all now moved away from the crown making activity, so I set up cupcake decorating.  Brilliant! They especially lived the marshmallows and chocolate buttons - most didnt make it on to the cupcakes!! We decided everyone should do one for their mums too – mostly because it wasn’t really taking as long as I’d hoped!

Lunch time – and eating the cupcakes!

Somehow this all panned out smoothly until about 1.30, when the parents arrived.

Just before 1.30 I did put on the DVD, but just because my daughter really wanted to show her friends the DVD we borrowed from the library!!

No real costs for this; I bought some sprinkles and a couple of ingredients for the lunch, but mostly I just pulled things out of my craft cupboard for the crowns, and out of my pantry for the cupcakes.  And of course the $2.50 rental fee from the library (a more advanced planner would have gone on $1 rental day!!)

 

Mr Six’s party was postponed a week initially because six out of the five friends he was allowed to invite couldn’t come (that's backups too!!)! In the end five made it.

Boys are quite different from girls – I am so thankful it wasn’t raining! They played a lot of tag and a lot of something in the playhouse/fort, which fit in with my “stay outside until the next activity is ready” approach!

Activity 1…. Make your own pizza.

It was hard to NOT get involved – kids really don’t make good pizzas!! But I didn’t intervene and when it came time to eat them, the kids all scoffed them down!!  (And no sicknesses since!)

They were having so much fun outside I quietly asked my son if he still wanted to do the next activity. He did, and they all thought they could sit still and be quiet long enough, so…

Activity 2 – Mr Six doing an “Origami Jumping Frog Demo”

Probably a bit beyond most (all) of the kids, but they still seemed to enjoy it and proudly showed their parents. I did intervene with the frogs, just to keep them all on track. It seems my boy is quite the origami guru, and his idea of an “easy one, with only one hard bit” was not so easy!!

A bit more outside play and then, when they all seemed to be drifting inside, I offered up the DVD, pressing play just as the first mother arrived!!

Again, very low costs. Homemade pita bases, tin of pasta sauce, bacon, cheese, pineapple, random vegetables to keep it interesting and BBQ sauce for the “swirls” on top! Origami paper was just printer paper pre-cut into squares!

Successful Holiday Parties/Mass Play Dates – Check

 

Any ideas on what I can do next holidays?? ha

 

what is it about blogging that gets people reading?

I can’t really answer that, but I just read a post on tips for making great titles for posts!  Tip 8 was, ask a question!! (http://www.everythingetsy.com/2012/03/10-tips-for-writing-blog-post-titles-that-sell/)

 

Ok, I am just a blogging amateur and it is taking me time to really get the hang of this thing.  But now I have a plan, I have been researching how to do it right (hence the title tips)…and most importantly…I have set reminders in my phone!  I am going to do a new post each week.  Hopefully on before Tuesday is out! 

 

See my “About” page for a run down on what to expect over the weeks, my “blog timetable” I guess!  (Keep a watch though; chances are I may tweak the plans if you have better suggestions!!)

 

Week One (next week) is all about kids, things to do together, things to get them to do, ways to organise them…and basically, just what to do with them!  It’s all just my musings, so what worked for my kids may not work out with yours and what I failed at with my kids may be your forte!

 

The first post – Tomorrow, will be about the holiday parties we had for Little Miss 4 Year old and Mr 6 year old.

 

And of course, every good blog needs a picture...so here it is!

Hmmm...not monthly....

I'll keep trying for monthly...starting again from July! 
Well, I'd like to report back that the road trip to Hastings in April, was a sucess.  the kids were 60% or more entertained for the trip.  I hate playing the games though unfortunately...you know "I spy, or telling a story in parts, or I went to a picnic and I took an apple, a banana, a carrot etc etc"  It all seems romtanicly like I am a gantastic mum when we head off...but unfortunately it all goes a bit to custard and I feel tired about 10 minutes into the trip and just want to sit still and not talk to anyone, and whenever I turn around to help or tell off the kids I feel car sick!!  So anyway, they did well to entertain themselves!

We have now...in fact just yesterday...got back from another road trip and tramp, with a need for more entertainment ideas.  I made some more fun things that I had seen on pinterest and kept a wee notebook with ideas for games, so I didnt have to think on the spot...another one of the areas I am not so gifted in!!  It was a great time, the kids were pretty happy for the majority of the time....we even managed 2 nights in a hotel that had Disney Jnr channel on TV and the kids were mesmerised!  I got to do knitting and husband got to read his book.  Good times!  Sometimes I think it would be nice to take a TV...with Sky when we go camping at Christmas time too!!

So anyway, this Friday (well actually Saturday I guess, Friday American time) we are planning on linking up with
http://frugalfun4boys.com/2012/07/13/coming-soon-lego-fun-fridays/
to do some lego fun creations.  I plan to post some pics of what the kids made with the lego and link it back to the above site....now, I have no idea how to do this, apart from just leaving a link like I have done above.  How will they know I have done it though? How can it be a fun time we all had together?

Anyway, that it the plan, so keep a lookout for the fun things made with lego, created in this household on a Friday, or maybe a Saturday...or maybe Thursday and then just posted on Friday or Saturday to keep in time with the Americans.

In the meantime let me tell you quickly about 3 things I have found on pinterest and made or done myself and how that worked out for me!
1.  I just made some orange flavoured cleaning spray...spray and wipe type stuff...
my link...  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=343520529033616&set=a.343520502366952.95774.189287804456890&type=1&theater
I just poured it into my bottle to start using today, and it seems to be working great.  The orange smell is overpowering the vinegar smell, so that is good.  And my bench is clean and so is the splashboard and the walls around to toilet too!!

2. I made some air freshener from Baking soda and essential oil... of tea tree.  It is ok.  Doesnt work for the bathroom...but seriously, I dont think anything is going to work in our bathroom!  It's alright in the baby's room, but again, not strong enough to take away that smell.  I probably wont repeat this one, but it was good to try!  And the girl who blogged it made it look a lot prettier than I did anyway!
http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/easy-baking-soda-air-freshener-tutorial.html

3.I got some masking tape off our 'new' lanudry tub that has been stuck on for about 3 years.  I used nail polish remover...but I got a bit paranoid that I was about to take the silver off the stainless steel....so there is still tape on the tub, which I might attempt to get again soon (maybe when I have finished the washing from the tramping trip!
http://tipnut.com/25-helpful-items-to-remove-sticky-adhesive-goo/

Ok, I need to sleep now, my typing is getting worse and worse and I am sick of correcting my spelling mistakes....at least I am still noticing them!!
Good night :)

A New Start

Ok, it was one of my new years resolutions to 'blog' a little more!  I'm going to start with once a month and see if I can progress to fortnightly and weekly and stuff!
I have been thinking about what I enjoy most from other people's blogs and really it's not so much of what they did with their family that I dont know, or how their holiday was in a town I have never heard of...but really what I have enjoyed it find out tips and how to's 
So I am going to share with you little tidbits of helpful information of ways to make life easier or just more fun for you (probably more directed at you if you are a mum of reasonably young children...although not exclusively...I am sure there will be plenty of  fun things to read for everyone!

So it is April now, Good Friday is tomorrow, we were planning on going on a road trip for Easter, but apparently they are basically flooding where we need to head to (picking a a gear box...as you do!)  SO we are postponing the road trip till next weekend.  Great times.  So in preparation for this roadtrip I have been searching for ways to keep kids entertained while in the car.  We have 3 across the backseat, which seems to be a bit of a recipe for complaining, hitting, fighting etc....I know I used that excuse when we went on road trips as a kid! 
So, where to look...Pinterest!! First of all I found this website
http://www.momsminivan.com/toddlers.html
So I have decided to experiment with a lot of these ideas for this trip.  My kids seem to get carsick from reading...or at least they have heard of this and start complaining that they feel sick after a while and have each thrown up once while travelling, and I just dont really want to risk it!!  So we are trying to stay clear of too many looking down, reading/drawing activities.  But at the same time, I also get car sick and seem to have no energy for entertaining kids with too many games of I Spy etc!  SO we will see how the delicate balance goes... with the addition of audio books....ideally on the ipod, but I dont know if I can trust them not to touch it....so alternatively through the car stereo, but that means I have to listen to Thomas as well!
I'll try to do a follow up to let you know how it all goes and some recommendations of easy but effective entertainment options for traveling with kids!