Ocean Salt Art Pictures....

Right now, it feels cooler when I open my oven than the temperature outside!  Here's an inside activity to do if the temp's outside at your house are as hot as they are at mine!

Jo at Smilemonsters always has wonderful ideas for crafts to do with your children and I loved her salt art activity so much that we tried it right away!

I love art activities where I have everything on-hand!

We took some cardstock paper, watercolors and painted our ocean background.

We made our colored salt after we painted our backgrounds so that the paper had some time to dry.

The salt is really easy to dye....just add 2-3 drops of food coloring and mash it all around until it is evenly distributed.

I didn't have any white foamboard or I would have used that.  Instead, I had a few pieces of blue foam paper and I cut whale templates out of it.

I couldn't find the white Elmer's glue (it was in my daughter's room!) so we ran to the neighbors to borrow some glue sticks....plain white glue probably works better! Our glue sticks kept drying and we ended up with salty, messy glue tips!

Despite the mess, my daughter and her friend had a great time making their ocean art and can't wait to do another craft together!

Thanks, Jo, for such a fun idea!

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Thrifty Thursday #18

Welcome to Thrifty Thursday....Is it hot at your house right now??  We are hitting temp's in the mid-90s and higher which is HOT for around here! By the end of the week, we may see 100....crazy!


So....if it's too hot to have a campfire outside at your house, how about this inside fire from Smilemonster's?

Jo and her kids even "melted" some marshmallows in the sun for a little s'more treat!


I love how Art Is Beauty took this ho-hum average bench...

...and turned it into this....a pretty piece of art!

She also made this really cool candle holder out of a piece of wood!

Something Created Everyday made one of the coolest "green" projects that I have yet to see!  

She made that....from...are you ready???  Plastic Grocery Bags!!  I want to learn how to do this!  Lynda could you come and do a guest post??


Stubbornly Crafty took a thrift store box....

and transformed it into a beautiful toy box!  She also gives a great tutorial for how to paint those clouds!

Finally, Artsy VaVa transformed this thrifty store chair...

..into this beauty!  I'm just loving the graphics!

If you were featured this week, be sure to grab a button!

It's time again for week #18 of  Thrifty Thursday.......

Here are some very simple suggestions for the party:

1. Please become a follower of Thrifty Decorating.

2. Be sure to link to your POST and not your blog.

3. Please copy and paste my link button somewhere in your post

or blog so that others can link back.

4. Share some comment love....We all love to get them!!

And remember that you can go over to visit Johnnie and link 

up with another Thrifty Thursday at

 Saved by Love Creations! 

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Guesting over at Viv's.....

Hey Everyone.....I am guest posting for Viv today over at...... 

Come on over and see how I "spiced up" another pair of flip flops!

See you there!

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Yummy Zucchini Bread

The one plant that I just can't manage to kill or destroy is a zucchini plant....

These plants are quite amazing how quickly they grow and how HUGE they get!  My children have enjoyed watching how one plant has produced MANY 5 pound zucchinis!

Here is one of my family's favorite zucchini recipes....well, honestly....this is the only way that they will eat zucchini!

Beat 3 eggs until they are frothy....frothy to me is yellow and bubbly...or the allotted time that it takes me to go and braid my daughter's hair while the mixer is going.....

Add 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of vegetable (or canola) oil.

Add 2 Tablespoons of vanilla and beat until thick and lemony....

Stir in 2 cups of grated zucchini....I just dumped it into my mixer because I was multi-tasking at this point!

Add 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon.....and yes, that mixer made me zucchini bread as a child...it's an antique!

Add 2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder....if you so desire, sift the dry ingredients and then add....I never have time to sift!

Be sure to grease your pans and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.  This recipe should make about 2 pans of bread!

I doubled my batch and after just 2 days....this tiny little scrap was all that was left!  I had to add the flower so that the plate didn't look too empty!

Enjoy!

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Tissue Paper Summer Wreath

For those of you who remember my tissue paper Valentine wreath....which traveled around the world on various blogs.....

.....this one is much easier, but it is just as inexpensive!!

My inspiration for this came from MaryJanes and Galoshes, but I started mine with a pizza box from my neighbor's recycling pile.....with permission, of course!

I cut my cardboard into a circle, but now I am regretting that I didn't make a square.....it would have had a lot more original character if I had done a square....guess I need to wait for my neighbors to order more pizza!

I learned how to do these tissue paper pom-poms months ago from Keep It Simple Sister!  I even made some for my daughter's room redo!  I just never thought to make them into a wreath!




For this wreath, I used varying sizes of tissue paper squares.  I didn't measure anything!

You will need to take a stack of 5-10 pieces of tissue paper cut into a square (or you can use napkins!) and fold them like an accordion.

I swiped some of my daughter's pipe cleaners to attach around the center. You can also use floral wire or twisties.

I don't have a picture of it, but I rounded each of my ends to make a semi-circle shape.


Very carefully....pull apart your layers of tissue paper to make a flower.

If you want multi-colored flowers you can cut smaller squares of a coordinating color of tissue paper for the center.

As I was arranging the wreath, I tried to follow the rule of "3's".  I think that everything looks good grouped together in a group of 3.  

I used hot glue to adhere the tissue paper flowers to the cardboard and a ribbon to the back.....and voila!  No one would ever know that it started as a pizza box!

Total cost.....$2.00!!  

I only had to buy the pack of fuchsia and yellow tissue paper!

Enjoy!

I will be partying HERE.

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Hawaiian Luau Party....

I've been on a budget this summer.....but then I am always on a budget when it comes to planning birthday parties for my kids.  We are a 1 income family, so it's just not possible to plan extravagant, expensive parties...yet we always plan FUN parties!

When we were planning my daughter's birthday party, she decided that she wanted a Hawaiian party.  Thankfully, the Dollar Store was STOCKED with perfect, cheap accessories!


First we made our own flip-flop party invitations from scrapbook paper!

I had my hubby trace a flip flop shape for a pattern and then put all the party info on the inside!

I went ahead and made thank you postcards while I was making the invitation....I am bad....VERY bad about getting thank you notes out on time.....

I just used my printer to make them and I borrowed a paper punch from a friend.

We wanted grass skirts for the luau, but could only find adult sizes for the $1.00 price......so we improvised!

The skirts were made with rafia and string, so I took the rafia knot apart, cut them in half and retied them.....

The result.......2 child-sized skirts for the price of 1 adult-sized!

I took a $1.00 bunch of flowers from the Dollar Store and pulled them apart to glue them onto barrettes so that everyone had their own flower for their hair.

For food we kept it simple!  I had hot dogs, red jello, watermelon and fruit kabobs....they're little girls....they hardly eat!  I'm already saving money to feed the group of boys coming at the end of the month for my son's camp-out birthday....now THEY eat!

For games, we kept them simple, too....

We pinned the coconut on the tree and then my hubby pulled out the power drill to open a real coconut to eat.... (don't judge me for my choice of bandanna....I was desperate!)

We invented some of our own games like "Erupting Volcano".....

...basically my older boys sat with the water controls and the girls hand to touch the "volcano" (sprinkler!) before it "erupted".....I'm not sure who enjoyed it more...the boys or the girls!

My hubby also recreated a rain storm for the girls....he tied a sprinkler to a rope that was suspended between 2 trees....instant rain!

We also made our own cake.....I could use a little help in this department! My friend, Natalie from A Turtle's Life for Me, was on call walking me through, but I missed the window to get the cake out of the pan....oh well, maybe next year!

Overall, I may have spent about $35 and that includes the food!  And I think from these happy faces.....

....it was a great night!

It doesn't have to be expensive to be memorable!

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