FREE Valentines Printable!

To show my appreciation to all my customers I wanted to make thisValentine available to you to print for your special Valentines this year.

There are two not-so-lovey-dovey Monster designs, hand illustrated by my husband for our little ladies to give to their classmates for the upcoming holiday.

Print the Pdf at 100%, each sheet gives you two Valentines. 

Click below to download:

Valentines 2011

Have Fun and Happy Valentine's Day!!

♥ XOXO

Stuffed Animal Storage-Tutorial

My Children Adore Plush Toys. They have A. LOT. OF. STUFFED. ANIMALS. They loved playing with them so I can't complain too much. At times the huge bins full of them drive me nuts. They take up huge amounts of floor space! I am not really a huge fan of those nets you can buy for the ceiling. I mean, honestly what kid can reach that? what is the point really? If we are storing plush by lining our ceilings they really should be out of our homes, right?

In my oldest daughter's room my husband came up with the idea of fashioning a hammock to tie off the end of her loft bed. Did I tell you I am married to an organizational genius? yep. He's amazing, he's also a good cook, an kick ass artist...fun Daddy...so happy he's my wonderful Hubby.

You can add one of these to a regular bed, just needs to be one with a foot board.

I decided to whip up this hammock today. And I did in literally 10 minutes. here's How I did it:

you'll need:

• 1 Throw blanket
• 6 pieces of gross grain ribbon cut so you have enough to tie around the end of your bed rails. I used 10" pieces.
• thread
• bed with foot board

1. burn the edges of your ribbon so they do not fray.
2. fold ribbon in half and sew one piece to each corner of the blanket
3. use the last two pieces of ribbon in the center of each long side of your blanket.
4. Tie hammock to your bed and fill.
5. Easy & now that huge bin is off the floor! 

disclaimer/update: First words out of youngest child's mouth when she saw this: "It would be cool if I could get in here!!" Just a note of caution, do explain the importance that this hammock is for STUFFED ANIMALS only!

Positive Moments 9-4-10

I was nearly prepared to plant my weary butt on the sofa for some Intervention episodes via DVR when I realized I want to document this wonderfully positive moment today.

My oldest Daughter and I, at times, lock horns. She's only 7 but she can be, argumentative, emotional, silently sensitive to organic things that may be just slightly off kilter, non-stop linguistically and whew-- stubborn. We call her our little attorney. She seriously argues about things she probably really does agree with. And --sigh-- she is more like me than at times I'd like to admit.

I struggle some days to find calm moments that she will cherish. Ruby is an extremely creative, thoughtful, mature, intelligent, diligent human. She is such a wonderful kid. I am beyond lucky to have a child like her. I know this. I remind myself of this every day, all day.

When I say we struggle I mean, It's not always easy. She is 100% angel at school, for babysitters, and family members. She saves the true blue Ruby Tuesday for her parents. (yea, that is where part of my shop/blog name came from --a nick name we use)

When she gets in trouble we know a BIG argument will ensue. No simple argument will do. We will need to dive deep into depths no 7 year old dreams, to analyze why exactly she did goof around with that taco for the 15th time, landing it on the floor... I smile as I type this, but when I am in the throws of her 'advanced comminication functions' it certainly feels less than smiley. It makes me proud and irritated all in the same breath. She is such a good kid.

I can't blame her at all...the kid likes justice. When she thinks something is unfair she will certainly let you know every bit of the way around why she thinks we are seeing it wrongly.

Tonight Ruby and I played a game, just the two of us, Mancala. I chuckle as I type this, because, initially when I was considering posting this I was remembering the word Mandala. (I am AWFUL terrible and very bad with names) I looked up Mandala and was like wow this is perfect!! But when I double checked myself, I relized it was ManCala. Nonetheless, a super fun game for Mommy and Ruby to play. We both really enjoyed two rounds of it, she totally beat me both times. She was feeling those good easy moments I strive for her to get each day and that made me so happy.

Such a positive moment.

I found a great Etsy Shop that makes Mancala games out of reclaimed wood. Mr Hudon makes beautiful wood pieces for sale in his etsy shop, like this Apple Box, it is very close to that season folks...give it a look!

I wish you many positive moments my friend.

Take good care.

Happiness in Milestones

MVI_9344_Woo_Hoo
Originally uploaded by Peachy Tuesday

Anyone with children knows some of the best happies you can get are those when:
baby first belly laughs.
I vividly remember Ruby holding out til 4 months old (almost 5) and on Father's Day Aunt Andrea made her laugh. It was such a stupendous moment. Ava's first belly laughs were around 3-4 months old, when I was holding her under her arms, making her "kick" a beach ball to Ruby. She started laughing at the first kick. It, again, was like the best happies. Insta-giggles.

When baby first walks
not just those random two steps they accidentally do, but real walking, all zombie looking bodies but wide eyed and completely ecstatic about what their wobbly little legs are doing. I remember those moments were serious Happy.
Raspberries, crawling, hugs, kisses, talking, clapping...there are lots of them. It's so amazing how absolutely positively happy you feel at these moments, when the simplest of things, really are occuring. For me, I can't remember happier moments, honestly.

As they grow up, these moments are less frequent. Of course, you feel happy, and have superior happy minutes. What I am talking about here, are those crazy happy moments, that make you laugh uncontrollably or just beam where you need to check to make sure you are not shooting sparkles out your eyes.


Well, yesterday we had one of those moments. Ruby successfully rode her bike without training wheels. She had tried before. She hadn't quite gotten the hang of it til last night. The first time she rode a distance I did not get it on video but Keith and I clapped, cheered and laughed like loonatics. It was..

So. Darn. Happy!


I am guessing this 'kick ass' style happy comes partially from pride in your child's accomplishment . It comes part from seeing how proud and beaming they are about it. Most important of all It comes from the basics, the stuff we don't need to pay for. The stuff that can be harvested from love and adoration. It's what it's all about. It's what makes My world go round.

I'd love to hear from you about one of those moments. Everyone loves reliving them since they are super duper happy. Feel free to leave your moment of super duper happy in the comments.

Play doh Storage Tip

Busy Moms like myself have to stay organized. We have to pre-plan out how our day is going to fall into place. We must strategically accomplish an abundance of things to to keep our job security as CEO of household. Okay, yea, true, no chance my wonderful husband is firing me, he knows full well there is NO way he could begin to handle it all, but metaphorically, to keep our own mental job security, if you will.

One thing I try and plan in my head is how to keep the kids busy if I need to get some Etsy stuff done, or house stuff, whatever needs doing that requires little interruption. For us one of the things my girls will go to town with is Play Doh. Listen, as a kid the colorful dough was totally banned from my house, It always bummed me out, so I always knew I wanted a large open stock of it for my own kids. So we do. And my girls love it.

But the darn stuff does dry out, even when lidded properly. So. I have tip for you, to make it last longer

It's totally quick too, so no worries. Make sure you put it in a nice ball. Let the kids collect all of the color, but make it be your Momma/Daddio hands be the ones molding that rainbow clay back into a crackless blob.

Next? use one of the multitude of medicine droppers any parent owns, fill it up with water, put 3 drips in a normal size container, two for medium, one drip for the party pack size container. Drop your blob in, DO NOT PRESS DOWN DOUGH. affix lid, allow lid to press down doh as it needs to close.

I tell you, it works. Just don't use too much water, only the drips as mentioned above, or it will be slimy on the bottom. If you are overzealous and this occurs, no biggie just knead the slimy part through and you'll be good to go again.

So there you have it. We have had some of the same play doh colors for (literally)5 years. I admit we also have tossed some, but overall this helps save you from tossing a lot more.

Have fun digging out doh from under the finger nails! & Have a Peachy Day!

Baby Pangs

Today was a somewhat unfamiliar, not-so-busy morning. I did my grocery list, had LOTS of laundry to do (thanks to frigid temps requiring so many layers). So Ava and I just hung out. I took some sunshiny pictures and this one kinda struck a nerve. My baby will be registered for full day (no choice in our district) Kindergarten at the end of the month. She will be at. school. all. day. in. September.

whew. really super hard to believe.

The Ease of a Cupcake Topper

Here's the thing, people always say I am creative, yadda yadda. Reality is I just rip off my sister, at least in this case. Last year for my niece Charlotte's Birthday (Charlie and Lola Theme) I made the cupcakes. My sister assembled cute cupcake toppers with scrapbooking paper, a gluegun & toothpicks.

This year the Birthday party theme is Monsters. I volunteered to make cupcakes again. At the time I volunteered I had an image of adorable frosting covered monster head cupcakes . Today I reminded myself that I am NO cake decorator. Nor do I wish I was. It stresses me out completely. I still really wanted to make the cupcakes, I love to bake. I love to make them look cute as well. I just know my limits, as any smart Mom should.

I decided a cupcake topper would be best. It would look adorable. The monster would match the party theme because my husband drew it for Charlotte's Birthday invitation.

Perfect.

These 40 little toppers took me less than an hour to construct. Of course the Huz took a few minutes to layout and print the monsters. But listen, basically, parents, (Aunts) this is WAY easier than making a monster head from a cupcake and is equally as cool/cute/neato.

You can use stickers on card stock, print out graphic of your choice on cardstock, have your kids draw stuff on it and cut that out in to the shape you want. The possibilities are endless.

Or if you have an awesome graphic designer as a Husband http://mrblackjaw.blogspot.com/ just have him draw you something up.

Here are the quick and easy instructions:

1.
cut apart your card stock with graphic of choice. We printed it with the image upside down and right side up so it could be folded, creating a two sided topper.



2.
Fold cut image in half.


3. Put a drop of glue at bottom middle of folded card stock.


4. Place a toothpick (I used flat wooden) in the center of glue quickly before it dries.


5. fold card stock over and press in the glue spot so it adheres.



6. They dry super fast using the glue gun. voila! adorable, affordable, stress free cupcake decoration.

Easy craft with the kiddos that lasts and lasts (in our house)

My girls love crafting. A trip to the craft store with either of them is not unlike a trip to a toy store. They want it all.

Many crafts that kids can do easily without tears, and parental irritation at ages 5 & 6 are, how do I put this politely... well junky. Foamy magnets, frames “ornaments”. Beaded necklaces that, sure they are cute, but unless you truly dominate the fun and crush all creativity of this craft they aren't going to be giving these jewelry creations away as gifts to anyone but, say, Grandma.

I hate dominating the fun, the creative part of it. You know, like in school when the preschool teacher tells them use your RED crayon to color the apples, the GREEN for the leaves and BROWN for the tree trunk. Eh, that makes me wrinkle my nose. I understand in school it has to be that way, at least in the school I can afford to send my kids to, but at home, I try and let them loose in the creativity department.

Here is an easy, cheap and pretty stress free craft to do with your kiddos. And the craft constructed lasts a time, at least in our house they do. You may not want to give them away as gifts. We did make 'signature' puff ball creatures and placed them in Ruby's Birthday party treat bags one time, but for the most part this is just a craft that has a bit more use than most easy crafts in our house.

Puff ball animals

Ruby and Ava have bins full of them and play with them frequently. They “design” the animals from various sizes and colors of puff balls purchased at the craft store, googly eyes, also from any craft store. I glue gun them together. They dry super fast and voila. A toy. A craft. A bin full of fuzzy colorful creatures to love.