Free Museum Day – Saturday September 24

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Jennifer

Two years ago we visited the the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas. Now a plane is a plane is a plane to me. But to the boys (including my husband) this place was wonderful because of its various aircraft and in depth aviation history section. I, on the other hand, only thought it was wonderful since it was free. We went on the national Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day.

Tomorrow it is happening again all over the US.

Each of the 50 states has one or more museums participating. Just in the Dallas area alone there are 10 museums participating.

The one catch to this program is that you have to have a ticket which was printed out from the website. You cannot show up to the museum empty handed hoping to get in for free.

Each ticket you download is good for two people. Make sure you read through the site in order to download your ticket and to receive your confirmation emails. Remember, no ticket, no free entrance.

Here’s a shot of what the form looks like in order to get your tickets.

For more information concerning free museum day visit the Smithsonian Magazine website here.

For a list of museums participating in free museum day go here.

***You must have a printed ticket that you printed at home in order to get the free admission*****

Hope some of you are able to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity!

Horoscopes

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Jennifer

My 2 year old’s horoscope yesterday:

You’re in the middle of a busy phase. Take new responsibilities. Put more energy into your projects.

My horoscope on the same day.

Surround yourself by the creative spirit of the youngest generation. You can’t bottle youth, but it’s communicable.

Take a look at our house.

I’m choosing to embrace this as the creative spirit of the youngest generation.

Halloween Mantle Part 2

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Jennifer

This is the second part of our mantle how-tos. If you would like to see part one, go here.

FYI – I don’t feel too well and my daughter didn’t nap this afternoon so this will be short and sweet. I’m sure I will be back and wordy soon.

On Monday I shared how I made the spooky books, the branches and bats, and the banner. Part one includes a free printable of the banner.

Today we’re going to start off with the glittered skull.

I saw several versions of the glittered skull in stores but couldn’t decide which one I liked best so I waited until inspiration struck.

While browsing the Habitat for Humanity store I found two candlesticks, each for $1.00. When I saw them I instantly knew they were perfect for my skull project.

I also bought a foam skull from the craft store for $3.50 (with coupon). Sliver glitter is shown but I also mixed it with equal parts orange glitter once I started. And any good crafting project always uses Mod Podge.

First step: Brush some mod podge onto the skull – I found it best to cover about a quarter of the skull at a time.

Pour glitter over the mod podge.

Once the entire skull is covered with glitter and completely dry spray with surface sealer (found at craft store).

Hot glue the skull to the never touched perfect as is when bought candlesticks. Told you I wouldn’t be wordy.

My two completed glitter skulls sit on the extreme left and right of the mantle. Smaller versions of these skulls would also be fun to attach to a Halloween wreath.

Next up, the Three Witches stamp art in the large frame.

As with the branches, I needed some height in the middle of the display so I used a frame I had stored in my closet. The skeleton directly in front of the frame was from a candle party I went to a long time ago.

I contemplated writing the “Three Witches” but decided against it because I was worried I would slant the ends of each sentence if I used a marker. In reality using the stamps presented the same problem. I did end up slanting a bit but I think it looks fine.

I took out my stamps from when I taught in the classroom and went to work late one night. It’s really a simple project but I think the variations in ink make the paper look a little old. This stamping turned out really well when I used it in a Thanksgiving display too.

I created a printable of the same scene which you can download here.

So I think that covers the mantle and the how to’s.

(The large spider web on the left is actually an outdoor light I bought on clearance a few years ago. The “31” is just a quick print out and framed. The haunted house is from a store in Wisconsin which I bought last year during a sisters weekend. The splashes of purple are Mardi Gras beads placed in flower jars.)

So in the end I was a tad wordy.

I’ll leave you with a quick Halloween joke. Enjoy.

Why was the skeleton afraid to cross the road?
It had no guts…:)

Driver

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Jennifer

Dear Young Female Driver,

I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to you for teaching my children about white trash behavior today. It is with the utmost most respect that I retell this story so that others will bask in your glory.

I was leisurely driving my kids to piano lessons when I noticed the navy Honda Accord I was following gradually slow to a virtual stop in the middle lane. I slowed and waited until the Honda started moving again. I remember thinking at the time how odd it was to stop in the middle of the road. But silly me, you were just preparing for your lesson.

About one minute later, the slowing down occurred again. I was confused since there was not a light in sight. I see now that this was just your introduction.

I honked my horn to make you aware that you were holding up traffic and I was concerned about this potentially dangerous situation. You though were concerned with the lesson. Immediately after I honked, you gave me the finger. A beautiful up sweep of your left arm shooting upwards while pointing your middle finger to the sky. My nine year old was certainly paying attention now.

I took this as a teaching moment when all I really wanted to do was show you how graceful my arm movements can be.

“You see, Alex, this is what we call white trash behavior.”

In his entire nine years I had never broached the subject with him before but I see that you were right and I needed to widen his horizons.

After your initial teaching you swerved into the right lane. I stayed back a bit but notice the light ahead had turned red. I pulled up beside you.

It is here where my six year old is also included in this life lesson since his view of you was now not obstructed.

You turn, just as I do, and scream “F**k you bitch.”

Such precious words for my children.

Normally I would have told my children you screamed, “Firetruck in the ditch!.” But you made sure there was no mistaking your sentiments with your rolled down window.

I could have continued on with your insightful teachings but I decided that our cup overfloweth with white trash knowledge for now. Best to leave some things for another day.

I took an unnecessary turn and left you to spread your wisdom to others.

What a wonderful teaching moment for my family.

In between being kind to others and telling the truth, I had neglected to share in the teachings of the middle finger and foul language.

Well done, young one.

And they say the youth of America doesn’t appreciate education…from where I’m sitting I’d have to disagree.

Halloween Mantle with a Halloween Printable

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Jennifer

After much pleading by our six year old, we made the trek upstairs to dig our Halloween decorations out of the storage closet. The kids spent many happy hours playing with plastic spiders and assembling a mini skeleton. I was overjoyed that I was able to have our house decorations up in a little over an hour.

Here’s our Halloween mantle:

Today I will share with you three of the elements of the mantle – the bats & branches, the books, and the banner. Plus I have a printable, so keep reading.

First up, the bats and branches.

My challenge for the mantle each time I decorate it is to add height to the decorations. Our ceilings in this room are two stories tall so I try and have our display be on the same large scale.

The spray painted branches were used in previous holiday mantles. During Christmas they held ornaments while during Valentine’s they held hearts.

The bats were cut out of black construction paper last Halloween but were never used for a project so I thought they would be perfect taped to the trees.

The spooky books are simply books covered in white paper and taped together. It was frightening how many gorey words my two oldest could come up with in when faced with the task of creating titles for these books. I insisted we tone it down for the display.

Last year I created the “Trick or Treat” banner by cutting out orange triangles, pasting white circles with letters on it, and adding stickers for the symbols. After I modge podged it, poked holes in it and strung it by a ribbon, it was finally completed. Frankly, tons of work.

I wanted to create a printable for you and figured this would be easy to recreate. In fact, it was so easy, I’m going to create all my banners this way.

The printable I created for you consist of 12 separate Halloween symbol triangles and 8 separate triangles with letters which will spell out “trick or treat“. You will need to print out the letters t and r multiple times.

I printed out the symbols on card stock, cut holes on the sides, and attached with string.

Here are five triangles which were chosen by my six year old to display by our entrance. (Uhhh,yes…dirty mirror alert.)

If you’d like the Trick or Treat banner printable please click here.

*Please consider becoming a follower of Big D & Me if you decide to print the banner*

Wednesday I will share with you how I made the large Macbeth sign and the glittered skulls.

Do you have any favorite Halloween decorations in your home this year?

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Jennifer

Actually there’s no chicken dinner for this giveaway.

Maybe Kentucky Fried Chicken or Popeye’s would like to sponsor my next giveaway.

A girl can dream.

Moving on.

Time to announce the winner of the Graphic Anthology print.

Drum roll please……

The winner of the Graphic Anthology print is #21!

Who’s number 21?

It’s……..

Congratulations Rachel! I can’t wait to find out which beautiful print you choose.

Everyone else – you can still get that print you have your eye on and get a 20% discount at Graphic Anthology anytime by using the CBKISSES code during checkout

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway and follows Big D & Me!

On Monday I will be sharing some cheap and easy Halloween decorating ideas with you so be sure to come on back and check those out.

Drop Off Dance

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Jennifer

I just dropped my daughter off at preschool for her first day of school this year.

Excitedly I jumped into the car, turned off Mary Poppins, and switched the radio on.

I started dancing in my car immediately when this song came on.

While I may not have a girl friend who recently cheated on me and I don’t have a Zach Galifianakis tattoo, I think you can still understand that I was excited. And so were a lot of other mommies based on their smiles and the extra skip in their step.

Five whole hours to myself today. That hasn’t happened since mid May.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my kids but the freedom is fabulous. Just imagine taking a shower without someone talking to you constantly, going to the bathroom without an audience, or running an errand without having to stop at the toy section.

Of the 168 hours in a week, I’m with my daughter for 158. So I was ready for a little break.

I danced all the way to the library return box, the post office, and then home.

Don’t tell me I don’t know how to party. NO LATE FEES BRO! That is awesome.

How will I spend my five hours?

Maybe a little Bravo TV, read another chapter in my book, cruise the internet…whatever it is I will be singing this song.

Update: Fifteen minutes after I got home the pest control guy called and said he was coming in two hours. So what did I do? I cleaned for two hours. But I made sure to clean with a little skip in my step too.

******* Make sure you entered my giveaway – it ends at 10 pm tonight (Sept 15) *******************

No Cost Organizing

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Jennifer

I desperately want to be organized but I have one huge obstacle blocking my path toward achieving this goal.

Toys.

The amount of toys we have is mind boggling. If that’s not bad enough, there’s the fact that each of those toys comes with twelve million little pieces.

If you’ve ever been sitting at your child’s birthday party silently cursing the guest’s parents due to the gift that they brought, than you understand.

Or maybe you are more familiar with the midnight walk into your child’s room where you wince with pain due to a stray lego head or miniature cow.

Either way, cursing is involved and I needed to take action.

And this action needed to be free.

So I looked around my kitchen and settled on a recently emptied pickle jar.

I cleaned the jar with soap and water and applied Goo Gone on the remaining sticky bits. I let the Goo Gone sit for awhile and then scrapped it off using a rough sponge and water.

Two salsa jars and one pickle jar later our game pieces were organized.

Now the bouncy balls, dice, and bingo chips have a designated home in our game closet and are joyfully missing from every nook and cranny of our house.

One of those annoying birthday present were Mighty Beans. Thankfully they now have a contained place to reside on my son’s top shelf.

Not to be left out, our kitchen shelf holds our BoxTops jar. For complete disclosure I want to let you know all of these Box Tops were taken off of vegetables and fruits. Huh, never heard of Box Tops on those items? Must be only our store that does it.

Now if only my kids would hurry up and eat jelly and pickles on their eggs I could have another jar for organizing.

Do you have any cheap organizing ideas that have worked for you?

Perspective

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Jennifer

A few days ago we took my two youngest to the children’s hospital in our city. We were there to find out more information about their recently discovered blood disorder and how it will impact their lives. In the days leading up to the appointment I was having a bit of a pity party for myself, silently saying “Why us again?”

When I was in my twenties I had a warped sense of protection. I felt that if I knew someone who went through something my family would not go through it. I know someone who lost a child therefore we will not. I know someone who got a divorce therefore we will not. I know someone who lost their home therefore we won’t.

Now that I am in my thirties, I realize life doesn’t work that way.

I knew someone who had heart surgery. Well my husband needed it too.

I know someone who had a miscarriage. Well I had one too.

I knew someone who had a stroke. Well my husband had one too.

Our children’s appointment was on a Wednesday at noon. After parking our car, we found our way to the patient waiting room.

We found ourselves sitting in the Blood Disorders and Cancer waiting room.

It was there where I decided to stop sulking and just be thankful.

I saw kids of all ages and races who were ill. Some were wearing masks, some were in the isolation room, some were crying, and some were listless while being craddled by their parents.

These parents had surely asked “Why us? Why my child?”

As I watched my two smiling kids play in the room I felt incredibly blessed and ridiculously lucky.

We will be back to see more doctors and we will continue to worry for a long time.

But for now, my kids are happy, healthy, and home with me.

And that’s all that matters.

Coffee Table Change

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Jennifer

Early last year I was walking around the Salvation Army when I spotted a $27.00 coffee table. The furniture caught my attention because it was quite large – 42 inches in diameter! At the time all five of us were living in an 800 sq.ft. apartment so this was not the ideal piece of furniture for me to pick up. However, I knew we would be moving into our much larger house within months and it was going to be in desperate need of a large coffee table. Hard to find for cheap. Soooooo…I bought it and it has remained as is for over a year.

Our 13 year old rug and Salvation Army coffee table

Besides just being a coffee table, this furniture is used as an ottoman, a toy holder, a cartoon watching seat, base during tag, and the origin for many leaps of faith to the couch.

Here’s the new and improved living room