Friendship bracelets by Elena

Hi everyone Elena here, I am doing a blog post about these friendship bracelets I have been making.

Do you like them? I am making A whole bunch of these and selling them at the Christmas bazaar at my school. If you would like me to make you one for a price E-mail me at elena@lundbyhive.com.

         

BYE BYE!!!!

Easter Wreath

A fun, easy project to add a little cheer to your house this spring.

 Pretty cute, right? And they are so easy!

Just grab your glue gun, a wreath form ($1.00 at the Dollar Tree) and a couple of packages of Easter eggs (1.99/bag at Wal-mart) and have fun!

I love this kind of crafting; no measuring, no patterns, and no rules! Just pure fun!

It's an easy craft, even the kids can do it!

(Well maybe not all kids, but kids 8 and 10 can do it with no problems. We used low-temp glue guns and we kept a bowl filled with ice water nearby.) 

 

 

 We made a grouping of three small wreaths.

 Elena made this one for the front door.

 Deacon made this one with some of his favorite colors.

And this one is hanging in our dining room, I just love it!

It was such a fun and easy project! They are just so happy and cheerful, especially on the dreary rainy days we've been having this spring. But of course, what I like most is that I got to make them with my kids!

Happy Easter from the Lundby Hive!

Pom poms

I've been seeing these pom poms all over the entertaining blogs I follow. I think they look so cool and add so much drama and happiness. I was super anxious to figure out how to make them, so of course, I turned to Martha. I found it interesting to know that this is Martha Stewart's most searched for craft on her website. Click here to see her instructions.

Truth is, I probably made them or something very similar, as a child in elementary school, that's how easy they are.

If you want to make them, pick up a pack of tissue paper (8-9) sheets, fold the whole stack accordion style. Twist some floral wire around the middle to make a handle. Trim off the edges of the tissue paper. Separate the tissue paper and fluff it up. Hang with fishing line. And that's it, you end up with a beautiful pom pom!

I love these! And I love that I have another "entertaining skill", (if I can call it a skill) up my sleeve. Oh just wait til you see the photos from the party, it was so fun to have a bright punch of color in that old church fellowship hall. I'm waiting with you, I haven't even glanced at the photos yet, I know they'll be cool, there's a gazillion of them... there's bound to be a few that turned out.

Oh, I could plan parties all day long, day after day... except someone would need to come clean my house, feed my kids, feed the pets, take out the garbage, make sure my kids got to school, remind me that nights are for sleeping, never mind taking care of me or my husband. So, instead of hiring someone else to do everything else I (somewhat) do... I'll keep on living my glamorous life of home keeping and start dreaming about the next party...

Speaking of my husband, he's bringing cake pops to work with him today, I love when he thinks I do something cool!

So, I'm dreaming of tea parties... and I'm pretty sure cake pops and pom poms will be included...

Valentine Gingerbread House

My friend Liz and I had a handful of leftover gingerbread house kits, so we thought we'd decorate them for Valentine's Day!

Take a look at our fun!

 My super crafty friend, Liz and her daughter Meaghan joined us in our crafty chaos.

This was the best thing ever! We put the frosting in squeeze tubes! I picked mine up at Joann Fabric in the Valentine section. If you want to find them online, here's a link to the Wilton store. Super easy and super cheap!

 The kids were able to put the frosting on by themselves! It was so much easier than piping bags!

* Tip: If the bottle started to get too empty they were hard to squeeze, so we kept them pretty full. We also cut a bigger hole in the tip to allow more frosting out at a time.

Deacon had fun playing "destructo" with his house. Notice the bullet holes. 

His roof needed a few repairs from the bullet damage.

Look Mom! He used one of your homemade lollipops on the house. A little angel guarding the door. :)

Here's one of the houses that Elena decorated.

My super crafty friend Liz made this one.

 

  

 

 

Truth be told, I bought a bunch of gingerbread houses after the Christmas of 2009. I kept them stored in a dry place and they held up well. We made a few around Christmas 2010, but I still have some leftover and I refuse to store them another year! So rather than toss them, we thought we'd decorate them with a bunch of Valentine candy! It was a lot of fun, very relaxing and a great activity to do with the kids!

S'mores on a stick!

What could be better? Inside of a warm cozy house with no smokey-fire smell on your clothes... graham cracker-chocolatey-marshmallowy goodness! Um...YUM!

I've been seeing all kinds of little treats-on-a-stick all over the entertaining blogs and this one looked so easy, I was anxious to try it. I love easy treats that make it look like a "big deal". Presentation is kind of a big deal to me, when it comes to desserts that is.  :)

(Oh shoot! I can't seem to find the link to where I saw them, my apologies. I'll add it later if I find it.)

Anyways, here's how we made a bunch of s'mores on a stick!

Deacon smashed up the graham crackers.

We put sticks in the marshmallows.

 Then we dipped them in chocolate almond bark and sprinkled the smashed up graham crackers on them.

 Since it's close to Valentine's Day, Elena dipped some in red candy melts too.

 We used a combination of standard white marshmallows and the pink strawberry ones.

The kids each had a taste, if only you could have heard the moaning, "ohhh, mommy, these are sooo gooood"!

I had a taste. I prefer the taste of the chocolate, but the red just looks so pretty.
Sometimes pretty wins.

 We lined the counter top with waxed paper to let them harden.

 We made enough for the kids to bring to school for their Valentine's Day party.

We made enough to fill this red tray. I got it for $1.50 at Wal-mart. I think it's lovely.

 

And we made enough for me to add to my Valentine display.

Did you notice my beautiful red heart-shaped baking dish? First candy hearts and now peanuts. I think I'll keep it around, it's being very useful.

In the original instructions that I read, they used lollipop sticks in the marshmallows. When I went to buy them in town, the only lollipop sticks I had found were about $6.00 for 20 of them, I couldn't do it, I'm too cheap, and it didn't seem smart. Then I went to Cash and Carry and they had a big box of 1000 coffee stirrers for about $2.00. Since they're only holding marshmallows, they seemed like they would be sturdy enough. We made a ton of them, and hardly made a dent in the box, so I'd be happy to share if anyone would like some of these coffee sticks/s'mores sticks.
P.S. I'm sure there must be a better source for lollipop sticks, but I haven't gotten around to checking yet. If you know of one, I'd love to hear about it.

Once the chocolate ran out, Deacon had a good time building with sticks and marshmallows.
He made all sorts of creations, but in the end the marshmallows ended up being one big baseball that he tossed around the house... um, eww! I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of it. But, he was so happy, laughing and playing that I had a hard time putting an end to it. (He was being creative and I like that.) But I did. Eventually.

This week has been full of sweet-treats. Thankfully they've been leaving the house just as fast as we've been making them. The real prize is the time being spent with the kids. A time to talk, a time to be together, a time to be creative and (shh.. don't tell) a time for them to learn new skills. Deacon has now mastered the hand mixer and mastered the microwave melting process of almond bark and candy melts. Things he seemed a bit apprehensive about, now he does without reservation. I love that! You can almost see the confidence rising.