Folding Socks is For Losers

I HATE folding clothes.  Especially socks. 

But I think I have been doing it wrong all along.  By the end of the month (or months), I usually end up with a basket full of socks. 

   

I would then sort them by type of sock. You know ~ red stripe on the toe, blue stripe on the toe, short, long, no-shows, etc.   And every time I would swear that I am going to start buying only the same types of socks so I NEVER have to do this again.

Well today I had a new idea.  I don't know why I haven't thought of this before. You probably already do this. But if you don't and you sort socks for lots of people, this is definitely the way to do it. 

 First, I sorted the socks by person. So I ended up with 6 piles of socks.

  Then, I had the kids match up only their socks. It took like two minutes.  You can see the little guy on the end was not at all happy about this, but hey - LIFE SKILLS. 

   

 Next, I folded them. I could have let them do this but I know from experience that they would not be matched up correctly.

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 Finally I put each kids in a basket and had them bring them up to their room and put away.

   

 All of this in about 10 minutes versus the usual half hour or so of dreadful sorting, folding and delivering.

 I like this new way.  Now I have to head upstairs to see if they actually made it in the drawers.  But this is a work in progress right?  :)

A Circus Baby Shower

I hosted a shower last month and thought I'd share some of it with you.  It was so fun to plan and it turned out so cute.  Here was the invite I made in Microsoft Word (I blacked out any personal info...so it would read the "...Amazing expanding Smith family!"): 

I used yellow, red and blue as my color palate.  The decorations across the back and in the windows are from Hobby Lobby.  They have an entire party section devoted to circus/carnival parties!

As I was checking out I found circus peanuts near the register:

The blue pom poms were left over from my sister's shower.  They are so easy to make.  Just fold tissue paper back and forth like a fan, secure in the middle with a string or rubber band, cut the ends into tips and then pull the layers apart.  The more tissue paper you use, the fuller they will be.  Click HERE for HGTV's tutorial with pictures.  

I made gourmet popcorn for favors and attached a little poem from 'Baby'.  :)

I had so many requests for the popcorn recipe afterwards that I'll share it with you now.  It was so easy and so yummy!

Circus Popcorn

• 2 bags of Orville Redenbacher Tender White Popcorn, popped
• 1 tray of vanilla CandiQuick, melted
• 5 cups of pretzels, crushed (I used honey mustard because that's what I had)
• 1 bag of M&M's (I pulled out the red, blue and yellow ones and gave my guys the others)
• Sprinkles

1. Pour the CandiQuick over the popcorn and mix (you may have to use your hands but be careful because it's hot).  
2. Mix in the M&M's and crushed pretzels.  
3. Spread it out on wax paper and added the sprinkles.  Do this quick because once the candy sets, the sprinkles will not stick.
4. Once it hardens, break it into pieces.
5. Enjoy! 

Advice cards for the mother-to-be were at each place setting.  They were later collected in a clown hat and randomly drawn for prizes.

We had tons of yummy desserts.

I also made clown and popcorn cake pops.  These are not mine but this is a picture from the book that I got the ideas from.  That popcorn is actually mini marshmallows snipped on the top but my husband thought they were real when I showed him mine!  

We had a lot of fun!  Soon we will use many of the decorations for a carnival party for the little guy.  :)  

~ Nicole  

No Pressure, No Diamonds

I did a little craft project today (thank you Pinterest!).  I'm so visual and I hope that this will really help me. 

I took two candle votives and glued some pretty ribbon around them.  I also added a flower to cover the overlap.   

I had some appetizer forks and little chalkboard clips from JoAnn's that I used to label my votives.  

Then I took the # of pounds I want to lose and added that number of diamonds (wish they were real!) to the "TO LOSE" votive.  I used mostly small ones but put in a few large pink ones in too.  

As I lose a pound I will transfer a single diamond to the "LOST" votive.  Every fifth pound I will transfer a large pink one.

  

Wish me luck!  

~ Nicole