DIY - Office Decorations/Gingerbread House

This is a fun idea, for either DIY - Office or Home Decorations or a in my case a Holiday Office Prank!! I made a large (almost life size) Gingerbread house in their office. I just used cardboard from our Office Depot orders (you know the "packaging" that comes when you order a large calendar or poster paper?), tan and brown duck tape and some images I printed off the computer! Oh yeah, and a strand of lights - it's hard to tell in the photo but it has working lights on the roof. Also, the joke is - he has a building permit on his gingerbread door. This was placed in the office of Building Licenses and Permits...wish I could have done more, like a pool or an "addition" because that is what they deal with alot.

Actually, people asked me if this took me a long time.

Nope, some tan duck tape, cardboard and I can go to town!! Wish I could of done Special Effects and model building for movies or the theater...always a passion of mine - so I can throw something together rather fast. You can't really tell but the "house" has lights too!!

No matter what, your office deserves a laugh - so have fun and enjoy!!

DIY: LEGO Decorations - Birthday Party for a Girl

This is how to decorate for a Lego Party. A couple of ideas using DUPLO Legos, Legos and paper!! Mine was for a little girl and we called it a "Block Party".

My 3 1/2 year old just LOVES Legos - all shapes and sizes, and she plays with her, mostly all male cousins for hours. So I wanted to have a simple low cost birthday party (i.e. No bouncy thingys or clowns or petting zoos) with a great theme and enough entertainment that could keep 10 kids of various ages entertained. Legos and Duplo Legos and Mega Blocks would be my answer. She mostly has pink sets, but she has sets of animals, and brightly colored prime colors too. So, even boys would feel welcome building with them. Anyway, when I googled "Lego Party", or "homemade Lego decorations"...I found they were almost ALL primary colors and geared more towards the boy parties. So instead of making it all PINK - how did I incorporate pastels and primary colors and look good. Here how. But since pictures are louder than words, take a look!

First I made a LEGO Frame: So here is the illustration on how to make your own picture frame out of LEGO's. I used various sizes of flat legos to make the back. Then I used skinny flat pieces to make the inner frame and secure the flat pieces (back of frame) together. Then I added "brick" legos around the outside to make a frame for the photo to go in.

As you can see I left an opening at the top of the frame - by NOT filling in with skinny flat legos, so it would work like a real frame.

I then had to really "hunt" for some pieces that worked like "hinges" or would allow me to connect legos to the back of a frame and position it so it would stand up. Luckily I found these hinges and another flat pieces to use. However, my back up was going to be placing 3 - 4 block legos, one or two rows up so it would stand in an "L" shape.

This is what it looked like without the photo, you can see that it looks like a quilt and I was able to incorporate "pastels" with a couple primary colors. My suggestion for a girls party anyway, is getting at least one PINK Tub of legos (ie. Lego.com or Target). I got the "Large Pink Box" and it came with these wonderful colors; pink, maroon, yellow, orange, light blue, light green (lime), and some of the primary colors making it a great mix and buy for the money! But Lego's are cheap I have decided.

Here is what I did for the LEGO Invitations:

First I made out of regular LEGOs that were various 1 row sizes and colors a block invitation. They eventually equalled 10 X 1 maximum and 7 blocks high - seemed to be the easiest and most workable size and would fit in the bubble envelope with the paper invitation.

Then I used the computer, a LEGO looking font and clear labels to create the words on the invitation.

Then I put them in with the paper invitation that had more information!

Here is a photo of all 8 invitations before I put the words on them. I wanted them to have equal colors and pieces of 1 X 2, 1 X 4 etc.

Here is a look at the inside of the invitation. I used a computer to create the BLOCK looking letters and fonts that I liked that complimented the look of LEGOs.

I made a LEGO Heart Centerpiece!!

I also made a couple of blocks for the buffet table. You can see it's made out of little boxes and tops from prescription bottles and construction paper.

Then I got really creative and made a chandelier out of DUPLO Legos to hang in the front doorway.

Another view of the DUPLO Lego chandelier, with a tea light in the top. I used hot glue and clear Scotch tape to keep the pieces together, so it would fall once we hung it.

Another view of the DUPLO Lego chandelier.

A closer look at the tea light. These DUPLO Lego's were from three of the sets of Princess sets. Cinderella, Belle, and Snow White. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

DIY: Miniature Shoebox Float Workshop for Thanksgiving

This is a great idea for a Residential Living facility - such as Senior Living or a HOA or Clubhouse, it is also fun for a camp or Teen Center, or just a great Family Tradition to start NOW!! This is how to have a Miniature Float Workshop, and then of course you could have an actual Miniature Shoebox Float Parade!! You can judge floats, have a parade party or just leave on display at your home or facility. Have fun and enjoy!

You best instructions should come with a couple examples. If you can have someone or yourself make a couple floats to display during the workshop that would be best. Above is my personal float that I used in the instructions and on display. It is made out of a shoebox, cardboard, paper, double sided tape, tissue paper, glue and string. If you provide the shoe boxes and string, that is helpful too.

 

Anyway, I always show people how easy it is to find images or patters on the Internet or on your computer so that it makes designing your float that much easier. It is also a good idea to sketch it our first so you don't get confused or forget anything.

 

Floats can have ANYTHING on them - or you can make it fun and have theme to your parades, like most major parades do.

Here I had a display board with things like "Patterns", "Textures", and "Designs"...I found this pattern on the computer and just simply added colored tissue paper to make it really 3D and look much more like an actual float.

Here I show that I added a "skirt" to my float to cover up the shoe box. I had added felt to the top of my float to look like grass too. Kids and adults alike have fun getting really creative with their floats adding action figures, dolls, stuffed animals, or tiny cut out of themselves to floats.

Get creative and have fun!

DIY: Create Your Childs ART Folder

 DIY: How to organize your child's ART work for display.

Ever wonder what to do with or how to organize your child's art work that they bring home from school, camp or day care?? Do you hate throwing it away but are running out of room on the fridge?? Me too. I wondered for awhile what I was going to do with my little artist VAST amount of take home are work from pre-school. It was wild to see how her skills were evolving, but so were the piles of untidy art work in every corner of the house. So my solution - a folder of her art work. All I needed was a computer for printing labels of the year: i.e. "Emelia's School Work 2012", a three ring 2" inch binder and LOTS of sheet protectors.

This is the finished product, all the art work tucked into a tidy folder. Suitable for an end table or coffee table. It was a perfect way to preserve and chronicle her art work. It also made it easy to show off to relatives. Oh yeah, that brings me to another tip - if you are overwhelmed with art work at home. Art work makes a great gift!! I send at least two pieces in every letter to Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents! They love it and they will think it is extra special!

DIY: How to make Bridal Shower Decorations

DIY: How to make Bridal Shower Decorations

DIY: How to make a towel cake

DIY: make a spoon bouquet

Mission: to make Briday Shower Decorations for sisters shower/bachalorette party in VEGAS :)

DIY: Pennant "Congratulations" banner for bridal shower

all the supplies

finishing touches on the letters, I added glitter and sticky rind stones for bling.

DIY: Making a towel cake.

ahh all done, now I need to decorate it.

DIY: add some ribbon to the towel cake.

more ribbon.

DIY: add a cake topper to the towel cake!

And here is the towel cake and the "spoon" bouquet. Classic~

Here are some of the decorations, ready to go!

this is the "bling A". I put glue in the shape of Zebra strips, and added glitter!

this is the Tower Suites at Planet Hollywood - Now called the Ellura suites by Hilton. Room 2928 and 2929. Anyway, some of the coolest things I have ever had the pleasure of staying in. Plus you could rent the two adjoining suites (rooms) to either side of you. Which we had one of them too. Altogether is was awesome.

This is after the decorations!

This is the sash I made her. That is 3 inch satin ribbon, cut to size and 1 1/2 inch sparkle lettering. Love it!

more of the suite and enjoying the party.

Meltdown on the Vegas Strip: Man unloads a U Haul in the middle of the street!

So there I was, Sunday morning (well early enough - noon), fresh off of a bachalorette party in Vegas - putting on sun screen in the shade just before emerging out onto the Las Vegas Strip to do some shopping, site seeing and admittedly - people watching! I set my phone on the wall of the walkway in front of the Cabo Wabo, outside the Miracle Mile Mall shops, to search my flight information when the traffic headed north came to a stop at the red light of Las Vegas Blvd. and Bellagio. When light changed all the cars moved except this U Haul truck. Accepting that the break lights were off - indicating the car was off (maybe disabled), cars in either lanes went around it.
It no time at all the driver was out of the vehicle and opening the back door. He slide it open, jumped in and started throwing things out, into the street. Yes, the middle of the street, some into on coming traffic - but luckily not hurting anyone, or hitting any cars.
It was so bizarre, that you search your head for explanation. He's just getting a couple things out. He's upset and throwing out someone elses stuff (but he'll stop and won't throw out everything). He's throwing out a couple sentimental things (surely he is not going to empty the entire contents of this truck). Then you look around for clues (it was a good 5 mins before anyone stopped and asked what he was doing). Is someone in a car following him. Is someone going to come up any second and stop him. Is the person who is missing their stuff going to pull up soon? Is he going to stop? Are the police going to come? And, I am the only who sees this maniac?

(Man unloads U Haul in middle of Las Vegas Blvd.)

It did kinda of look like, and even in the end, people walking by thought it was, an accident - that the door opened and stuff fell out.

(Man unloads U Haul in middle of Las Vegas Blvd.)

Nope, as this episode went on and the pile got bigger and more and more traffic was effected...oh yeah, and the objects got bigger, and more broken...the bigger the crowd got. This about 10 mins into the episode, and before the dinette table and 4 chairs, the end table, the hutch, couch pillows, golf clubs, dresser, two beds (4 mattresses and two head boards) came out and added to the pile. People were starting to gather, but towards the end, just before the cops arrived, there was thousands of people lining the street, roof tops, restaurant patios and in the street median to see this go down. Below is the You Tube video posted by someone else.
http://youtu.be/WS7rn2XTKjU

It seemed like everyone in the crowd had a cell phone or camera on this guy, and I can't find any other photos, accept one on Twitter and one You Tube video. Maybe people of Vegas are used to this kind of stuff, but found it fascinating. Poor guy though. It was clearly not a good day and if your going to have a meltdown - who wants an audience? Anyway, the crowd defiantly like the show. They cheered when he would push something big to the door and push it out. They would gasp when something would make a glass shattering sound, and then (what is defined as the saddest moment of his day) they "ahhhhhh" when he tossed a small tricycle out into the street. Because he was arrested I thought there might be some news story or police report filed that might explain something. But as we stood by and watch this tragedy un"load", my fellow spectators merely speculated at the situation: maybe it's someone elses stuff and they owe him money; maybe he just left his cheating wife; maybe he got kicked out of the house; maybe there was a song on the radio that triggered it; maybe she called him and he just hung up the phone; maybe he lost his house, came to Vegas to win some money and lost it all; maybe (since it was a pretty specific place) his cheating wife is staying at one of the hotels that would have a view of this scene as it unfolded??? The guesses went on and on...and each one was more entertaining than the next. But in the end, I just felt bad for the guy. It was obviously a bad day to say the least, and he was in no mental state of coping with whatever was going on. Clearly, throwing all these belongings into the street, getting arrested and surely paying the price, did not help him out at all!! So, whoever you are, hope things look up soon! And if you have any additional information, photos or videos, please share! Thanks.

DIY: Paper Decorations for 60th Birthday - Office Decorations on a budget!!

Do it yourself (DIY): Paper Decorations for a 60th Birthday. These I needed for a co-worker and we wanted to decorate their office for their 60th birthday. So, let your co-worker turn 60 in style!! Surprise them and decorate their office. It doesn't cost a lot and you can make them at home, or with your co-workers in no time with paper and stuff you find around the house or office!

Things you need: tape, glue, white paper, black paper, glitter, and scissors.

Another "go-to" paper pennant banner!! I made this one a little different with the round letters, gives it a different look and looked great when it was hung up (see photo below).

These shinny "60"'s hung from "mobiles" in the office and on the door. Just gray large font "60"'s = cut and add glitter for depth. Tape and hang! Repeat.

This is the finished product, although it was hard to photograph, there is stuff on the ground - a walker and a grave stone. But you can see how the decorations really added effects to the office. If you ask me - invest in some glitter for just such occasions. It comes in handy - makes a BIG difference and costs very little...oh yeah, it lasts forever. A little goes a long way :)

We also hung photos of him around the office, and decorated pill bottles with "Over the Hill Pills" and put candy in them. Enjoy!

Being Adopted - Poems by Kathy Worrell

These are poems that have taken me years to write; one because I hadn't quite figured out what "being adopted" meant to me (as it is an ongoing discovery for me) and two because they were a bit difficult to write all in one sitting. In order to convey the feelings - I actually had to be feeling the feelings; confusion, wonder, curiosity, love, anger, sadness, loss, gain, pity, strength, just about every emotion comes to mind when I think about being adopted; other adoption stories and that of parents trying to adopt, or the decision some make to put their child up for adoption. And usually not all at once do you feel the same things, so it is process. I have random days where something or someone will trigger a thought process or idea that I follow up on and it will in turn make certain emotions come to the surface. And of course the birth of my own daughter brought up thoughts and I think allowed me to come full circle and finish the poems I had started. For those of you who don't know me, I was 22 months old when I was left at a day care center (that I guess takes in and places children) by my biologically mother, who had left my biological father and apparently did not tell him what she was doing. I don't know the full story other than, instead of a group home, I was placed in the loving hands of my adoptive parents, who were foster parents.

However emotional they seem, they do not reflect my typical...whats the word..."appreciation" or "gratitude" I have for the process of adoption, or the love I have for my adopted family. Who, incidentally, don't even think of me as being adopted - I hardly acknowledge it. In fact, I don't want anyone to think that I am unhappy, harvesting these emotions on a daily basis or anything, or actively seeking my biologically family because of what is said in the poems. I am actually very happy things happened the way they did, I am grateful for my family and all the love they give me all the time. As well, as I should note that on more than one occasion - I have counted my lucky stars that I was adopted so soon, and realize how close I came to different life. Either way, these are the feeling or thoughts I have had concerning MY adoption, and I am sure I am not the only one to experience them. Enjoy!

Being Adopted

Poems

By

Kathy Worrell

My First Person:

The first person to know I exist

Probably wondered if I should

Confused about who we were

Not knowing if she could



The first person to love me

Was by far, not be the last

Still she had created me

Forever, a part of my past



There from the beginning

How much of me did she know?

She must have thought it better

For me, to be raised in a different home



The first person I ever knew

But will never know again

Though she means not anything

I wonder who she would have been



The Truth About That Day:

Although I feel complete

So many things have blessed me

I think I need the whole truth

To please my curiosity



What’s a mother without her child?

And how did she come to that

She must have tried to make it work

Though scared to go on without my dad



Maybe she gave it all she had

But in the end was not enough

It’s hard to tell if she did what she did

For me or for herself



One day she left me to strangers

At a daycare near by

Ironically named a Haven

Eventually, the only child left inside



Confused at closing time

As day turned into night

Did I know what was going on?

Could I read it in their eyes?



Maybe she told me ahead of time

This would be our last drive

Waiting, waiting, waiting

So, did she say goodbye?



I now belonged to a whole state

At the tender age of two

Where would I go for the night

What to do, what to do?



Too young to help myself

Luckily the Haven knew what to do

Had they scene others like me?

Others who were abandoned too



What did she tell herself?

When night grew near

Did she wonder who would tuck me in

Or did she even care



I think a heart will tear a little

When it’s confused this way

I think we've both been broken

Especially that day



What about my favorite toys

That lay around the house

Did she hold on to something?

Or did she have to throw it all out



What did she tells others

There must be another who knew

When your child become just a memory

Does it change your heart too



I don't remember a thing

I know I'm better off that way

But I do have questions

About what happened that day



A MOTHER to the rescue:

Luckily swift and caring action

Of the system at work

Would place me in the loving hands

On the day of this woman’s birth



Always a mother at heart

Though none of her own

She'd someday be the part

Taking this baby into her home



A mother to the rescue

Love at first sight

And always meant to be

She would rescue me that night



A birthday wish come true

And a blessing from above

No matter how is happens

God blesses us with love

HOW TO: DIY Homemade 60th Birthday Invitations for mom

Without giving to many details away (come on I run a business here!). Here are the 60th Birthday party invitations I made for my mom! I used a couple different fonts (including a 60's font), hard card stock and creative computer skills to make these, print and cut them out. After printing them I added glitter, and a matted it with a light pink paper, and ribbon.

This and a computer are the only supplies I used! I can make custom creative invitations for less than a $2 each.

HOW TO: DIY Yo Gabba Gabba Birthday decorations

This is a series of photos of items I made from paper and other craft materials for my daughters 3rd Birthday party. She loves Yo Gabba Gabba, so that was the theme! I used images I got off the Internet and I used a font similar to that of YGG called "yahoo" and believe it or not I completely designed the radio from YGG by myself as there was not an image available anywhere that I could use. So I used a series of circles, squares and the best color matches on my computer to make it and it turned out great!! Enjoy!! 

This was a pennet banner I made that said Happy Birthday. We also used similar colored paper to make a bunch of rainbow paper chains and used that to add to the decorations. I love paper chains because they are easy to make and use and make a HUGE statement and look so festive!!

Above I cut the arms off the characters so they were more mobile and also made a pennet looking banner that went over the window.

This is a centerpiece I made - i actually ended up making two because it turned out so cool. Just goes to show you what you can do with materials that are just sitting around the house. So metallic duck tape and a printer!

This was the party bags - using my favorite DIY bag pattern I plug in some YGG and voila a custom party bag!

And of course what would a party be without invitations. So I used my awesome radio and went to town to design a unique custom - open in the middle invitation that really ROCKED!! Yes, I am for hire :)