JoBoogie Crafts

in the blink of an eye...

We have ourselves a child in KINDERGARTEN.

Where did the time go???

My little baby... The one who refused to latch. The one who spit up at the most random moments. The one who cried all the time as a baby. Who takes his time to do anything and took his first steps at 16 months... Whose love changed from The Wiggles to Thomas the Tank Engine to Super Mario to Angry birds... Who cried on the first day of Pre-K but had an awesome year...

...is now in Kindergarten.

He started K last week and it went well - better than any of us expected! We have to get used to a new routine since school starts at 8am and there are A LOT of cars during drop off, so we're still trying to figure out our groove with it all.

The night before we packed his snack together - he picked Cheez-Its and a Chocolate milk. And when he got home, he ate all of it (yay!).

When he got home he told me his teacher's name... That he sits at Table 1. He says that there are 3 Josephs in his class, one of whom he went to school with for the past 2 years of preschool.

He said that 3 kids got in trouble on the first day. (*lol*)

He used the bathroom at school. (I was afraid of accidents or he wouldn't know where to go. Luckily there's a bathroom in the Kindergarten classroom).

The class hamster was so cool.

He says he likes wearing his uniform.

That morning when I walked him to his line, we were holding hands. He quitely said to me, "Mommy, I'm kind of excited and kind of scared to start Kindergarten."

Me too.

'scuse my absence lately...

Happy Saturday, everyone!

I'm sure you've noticed my blog posts have become a little less frequent lately. Chalk that up to the fact that several of my design team terms have ended and now I have all of my time to devote to Skipping Stones Design... And there's another little reason:

[photo taken on Tuesday, 7/3/12 via Instagram] 

 Yup, we are expecting baby #3 in November!

So, I haven't had the mojo to craft, scrapbook, make cards, cook, clean, etc. Our poor kids are living off of take-out, frozen chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, pizza, etc.

You see, when I'm pregnant, cooking food just doesn't appeal to me. It's not fun like it normally is. And by the time I'm done prepping, chopping, cooking, etc. I just don't even want to eat what I cook. :(

Hopefully, this will all change after the baby is born!

So anyway, that's the news I have for now... I just announced on FB this week, can you believe it? And I figured that since I'm making it official there, I would make it official here.

Soon we'll be a family of FIVE. :)

Let the good times begin!

"Many Thanks" Tag

Quick share for today since most of my posts lately have been centered around DT work! *lol* I'm hoping to get my butt in gear and start creating and sharing again - Is it just me or did May 2012 kick everyone's a$$'s too? *lol* With all the end of the school year activities, I just couldn't ever get myself above water sometimes! Whew! I can't believe it's almost JUNE now!

Anyway, I wanted to share a little tag on behalf of J's pre-K class. It was for their teacher's gift bag. In the tote there were yummy gluten free snacks and stuff for a road trip that she was going to take to Disneyland this week. So I made this tag and there's a little pocket to hold a little Disney gift card on behalf of the class.

I used my "Pack Your Bags" Cricut cartridge and that was a tough challenge because I cut the image so small - 1 1/2"! It was pretty challenging to get all the pieces on... especially when I realized I ran out of Xyron 1 1/2" adhesive! *sigh* I thought I had some in my stash but I couldn't find it... I will be organized someday, darn it! *lol*

The sentiment is stamped using the "Word Salad" set from Paper Smooches. I thought it would be perfect, and a great way to break that set in since I haven't used it before.

Speaking of unused sets - I have a TON on my craft table just waiting to be inked! Is anyone out there like that too?

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well! I know I've missed a lot of blog visiting lately but I swear I'll get back in to it in the next few weeks! I'll stop by soon!

hugs!

Happy Belated Easter!

It's been a while, but I wanted to wish you all a belated Happy Easter... From our family to yours (pardon J. He was a little crabby when it came time to take the pictures. *lol*). Hopefully, I'll get my act together soon and start blogging more regularly!

Keep your fingers crossed! Happy Monday!

Boo!

Wanted to pop in really quickly...

I didn't know, but Google decided to retire it's Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. And sadly this affects me. :(

You can read about it HERE.

I'm bummbed because now I'll never now how many followers I have. And if I don't know, how can I ever do another blog candy?

So lame.

Bummer.

 

 

Source: Uploaded by user via beautifulillusions on Pinterest

 

p.s. my little quote up there doesn't match my post, but I still liked it anyway, so I decided to share. :)

crafty kids + their crafty mom = homemade Valentine's cards!

Hey all!

I know it's a little over a week after Valentine's Day, but I wanted to share with you the Valentine's Day cards my kids and I made for thier classes:

These are the ones we made for J's class:

Let me just start off by saying that I am in NO WAY super duper creative. I got this idea from another mommy-friend of mine who did this for her son's class this year too! Thanks so much for the idea and inpiration, April! :)

The free pirate printables came from: HERE. There's also a pirate-girl verson too! I picked up the erasers from Target in their Dollar/Valentine's section.

Here are more pictures of the set of cards:

And here they are packaged up!

I had J sign his name on the back of each one and also had him address them. Granted, I had to spell each of his classmates names for him, but all in all, he did a fabulous job!

I should totally get a mommy-of-the-year award this time around! Last year his cards were store-bought, we didn't include a treat, and it was like pulling teeth to have him write his name on each one! *lol*

Anyway, on to M's cards... I got this idea from somewhere... It might have been from a blog I follow or maybe Pinterest, but I had seen the concept of making crayons from broken crayons over a year ago. I had been itching to try it out and I thought it would be a great time as any to do it for Valentine's day.

You start off with the crayons... You can either gather broken ones you have laying around the house or break them up yourself (remember to remove the paper wrapper!)

You know, breaking up the crayons wasn't the hardest part - it was removing the wrappers! I don't remember the paper wrapper being so hard to rip off of a crayon. Maybe they use a different adhesive to keep it on? Ugh. At any rate, they were a PAIN to remove.

Anyway, after you have them broken, distribute them into an oven safe pan with cute shapes. I used an ice cube tray from Ikea with heart shapes.

Don't use the tray for eating food or making ice cubes after you use it for crayons - the crayons leave a nasty film inside of the tray! Ewww!

Put the tray on top of a cookie sheet lined with foil - in case it spills over. And then put all of it in a 230degree oven for about 15 minutes. You just need the crayons to melt, not to cook.

After 15 minutes they come out looking like this (but more melted):

Leave them on the countertop to cool and harden before removing them.

I made mine a week before I attempted to make cards...

And for the cards, I just drafted up something in Photoshop and printed it out.

I adhered one heart-shaped crayon to the card using foam tape and voila!

The Valentine's Day cards were a HIT! It was really fun this year because the kids really enjoyed giving and receiving some awesome cards.

J even sent one to us in the mail (through the preschool, of course!)

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! :) Love should be celebrated everyday, not just one day out of the year, don't you think?

Have a wonderful Friday!

New Recipe #1 of 2012

Hi all,

If you've been following my blog, you may remember this post where I discussed my goals for 2012. One of my goals was to cook 9 new recipes from my cookbooks. Well, I think I can achieve that goal at the rate I'm going... but I've been cooking new recipes I've found over the internet so far... I'll get back to the task on hand soon!

So here's the first new recipe I tried out in 2012...

Baked Spaghetti (source: allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package spaghetti
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (26 ounce) jar meatless spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 cups small curd cottage cheese
• 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the spaghetti sauce and seasoned salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, Parmesan cheese and butter. Drain spaghetti; add to egg mixture and toss to coat.
3. Place half of the spaghetti mixture in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Top with half of the cottage cheese, meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Uncover; bake 20-25 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

------

The verdict? Not too bad. I made this a couple of weeks ago and my hubby really liked it. It makes a ton so we had enough leftovers for him to take to work. My kids? They're kind of spaghetti snobs. They only like noodles and sauce. DS won't touch it if there's meat on the noodle. *sigh*. I think he ate a bit of this though.

So tough with picky eaters in this house! Argh!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yay for #1 of 9 new recipes! Yes, I will cook more from my cookbooks. It's only February - I have time! :)

five years ago today...

Five years ago today, my world changed forever.

I became a mom.

I became a mom to the most beautiful, strong-willed, curious, brilliant, amazing little boy.

I can hardly believe that it's been FIVE years since he was a newborn baby. Time flies by so quickly and I officially have a "school-aged" child.

This little boy is just as beautiful, strong-willed, curious, brilliant, and amazing as he was when he was born... he's also spunky, energetic, intelligent, thoughtful, sensitive, and awesome! He's still just as stubborn - he's our PICKIEST eater!, and he's still just as determined. You can never rush him into doing something - he has to do it on his own terms.  He's curious - he loves to know the hows and whys of everything. And he has the best memory - he can name almost every Pokemon, their abilities, what they evolve into/from, and what type they are. It's mind-boggling sometimes with how much he knows.

My hopes for him on his birthday...

I hope that his transition into Kindergarten, at whatever school it may be come this Fall, is an easy one. I hope he finds a place for himself at his school. I hope the other children are kind to him.

I hope that he will always be the way his now... happy, energetic, and with the same curious innocence about the world around him.

And I hope that he will always know that he is loved.

I'm so lucky to be his Mommy! Happy birthday 5th birthday to my baby boy!

 

kids in the craft room: armed with punches!

Hi all!

Wanted to pop in really quickly... I've been sick with an AWFUL cold for the past TWO WEEKS! First I caught a cold from my kids and then as I was getting better, I got sick AGAIN! Ugh. I have NO IDEA where I got sick again from but I'm trying my best not to get my kids sick again!

*cough cough*

Anyway, I wanted to share some new pics of M in my craft room:

She has discovered the joys of my paper punches.

 

And after she punches her shapes she sticks them in a bag... or in this case, the little pumpkin-thing you see that's next to her on the table. haha.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fabulous day! :)

hey hey hey... what's APP-ening!

Does anyone remember that show "What's Happening!!'"?

*crickets*

Ok, maybe it's just me and my sister, then. *lol*

Anyway, lookie what I finally splurged on:

(Yes, and notice my wallpaper is from the Clementine collection for Project Life. Love Becky Higgins!! Thanks for directing me, Cyn!)

Finally... I've got my iPhone 4S! If you remember this post, I whined about how it was time to get a new phone. Well, I figured new year, NEW PHONE! And yay for it being a HUGE part in me accomplishing my goal for Project Life 2012! :)

I'm SO loving the speed of the phone - no more Edge network! And I'm loving all of the cool apps I've downloaded. Wanna see my faves?

Well, duh. I can't live without checking my emails about a million and 10 times a day!

Yes, and Facebook too. :)

Yep, same goes for Twitter.

And then there are some really awesome apps that I'm SO loving for the simple fact that it's making Project Life (and real life) easy to keep up with (so far).

Instagram... I've had it for a while and used it with my original iPhone, but with all the updates to the app, it really wasn't compatible with my old phone anymore. But now with using it with my new phone, I know now what I've been missing! (haha Marjorie!). Awesome little, powerful app. I may love it more than Facebook.

Momento... This app syncs my FB, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr - everything (well, except my Typepad posts! That would be awesome if it did!). and puts it into an awesome timeline that I can look back on. It even allows me to input my own little blurbs/diary enteries in the actual Momento app so I can view it later - along with everything I posted during the day. It's even so awesome that when I downloaded it and synced it to my accounts the other day, my posts from 2009 were showing up! It was a trip to look back at what I was posting! Best app EVER! Perfect for Project Life!

my 365...I tried to keep up with Project 365 last year but that was a huge FAIL. I tried using the Project 365 app, but it didn't really work for me. Super happy finding my 365!  It's awesome so far!

Reeder... I downloaded the Reeder app when I first got my iPad in May. I love using it for checking out my subscriptions in my Google Reader. It's clean, simple, and it really makes the posts that I read, beautiful. It helps keep me up to date with my blog reading. So when I got my phone, I had to check to see if there was a Reeder app for the iPhone. So happy to see there was - Makes life so much easier!

And then there are a few others that I just love as well... Pinterest, Starbucks (Did you know you can pay with your PHONE if you have a Starbucks account and a registered card?!), Amazon, Ebay, the local news, CNN, etc... I feel so connected and in the loop. Maybe too in the loop sometimes. It seems like I'm always looking at it!

But, I just love my phone.

That.is.all. :)