Thoughts on {THE ROYAL WEDDING}

I don't know if you heard about it, but Prince William was married today. Sadly, it was not to me, nor was I even invited to the wedding.

{The TomKat Studio}

Now, I honestly did not plan on waking up at 1:30 this morning to watch said wedding. I SWEAR (this is mostly to The Husband).

{sweet william designs}

But, nature called in the wee hours and as I made my way back to bed from the bathroom... Well, it was just as Princes William and Harry were making their way to the Abbey. In those really awesome uniforms. And William looked excited and slightly nauseated and bore a strong resemblance to princes in Disney movies. I was sucked. in.

Now, The Husband is a pretty fairly decorated member of the Air Force, but our military uniforms only get this fancy:

Zero pizazz. (And I hate that waist length jacket!)

But anyway... sucked in. It was so fairytale, wasn't it? They're a darling couple and I think their love feels very sincere. Seeing the way the couple looked at each other just made me smile.

Side note: Wouldn't Harry and Pippa make an adorable pair? Let's make that happen, people!

Kate's dress was pretty, but a little underwhelming and a lot Grace Kelly to me. I have to admit that if I was marrying a future king, I would have done it UP... like Diana. Major veil and train and puffery. In fact, in marrying my own Prince Charming, I kind of did:

Off white silk dupioni and puffy sleeves. Oh yes!

{Feel free to comment about how The Husband and I haven't changed a bit since our 1996 wedding. We don't mind.}

But you know what else was great? All the hats and fascinators! (That's what those tiny hats and hair clips with fancy loveliness exploding from them are called.) Why do we Americans not wear those?! And David Beckham wore a top hat. Top hat! What do we have against formality and elegance?

British wear:

Americans wear:

And I really want to high five Fergie's girls for being fun princesses:

Why not, right?

And The Queen wore yellow and a hat with rosettes. Adorable!

Another side note: I may be completely ignorant, but I didn't realize she still had a living husband. Why do we never see or hear him? And does he feel slighted? Because I would.

I need a nap now. Have a wonderful weekend!

Affirmation: I could rule the world

Sound a bit full of myself, don't I? I'm not, actually, but I made something today that I really, really like!

I saw these a.dor.able printables over at 30 Handmade Days yesterday and fell in love. So, I was looking them over, trying to choose which one I would print for my office when I thought Why just one? You're not a stop at one kind of gal, Heather.

So, I printed out the ones that were most applicable to me, grabbed some frames and some crisp white spray paint and went at it.

Two of my frames were Goodwill finds. The other two were from IKEA.

Think I like these colors?

Linking up here:

Winning!

Congratulations to comment no. 16! AliLilly

{I'll email you for deets.}

Thanks for playing!

The Chore Store: AKA How my house got more clean

Did you have a nice Easter? We had a beautiful, sunshiney day. We kept it low-key  (which is something that just naturally kind of happens when you're an Air Force family), but it was nice. The Easter Bunny came and all of the eggs hidden in the back yard were accounted for.

There are The Kiddos in their Easter finery jammies.Those are wax mustaches and wax lips. I assure you my children didn't acquire that kind of appearance naturally. ;)

So...

About a week ago, my friend  Fabric Bliss Jen told me the tale of how she had implemented a successful Chore Store rewards system for her kids. She must have seen the tears of hope in my eyes because she generously offered her expertise in setting up one for my family and got to work on it right away (perhaps she saw tears of desperation...?).

The concept is simple:

1. List each child's chores/responsibilities and assign an earned ticket amount for each
2. Offer extra chores as a way for the children to earn more tickets
3. Create a "store" of inexpensive toys, trinkets, treats, reward coupons (including tickets for extra video game or tv time), etc. and price accordingly. It's pretty much a Chuck E Cheese-Peter Piper Pizza concept.
4. Open your store once a week and let your willing workers purchase goodies of their choice with their earned tickets.

After a couple of days of fiddling around with this, I decided it worked best to have The Kiddos cross out each task after it's completed. (Dry erase markers on glass or plastic frames. Sa-mart.) I also concluded it was much easier to gather the gang and do a tally up and payment of tickets at the end of the day. To prevent any ticket thievery or counterfeiting (MY kids did not do this, but I hear OTHER kids can be diabolical like that.), I wrote their name on the back each ticket they were given. I also made each kiddo their own envelope for stashing their tickets.

It's really so simple overall, but it has made a noticeable change in my home. Beds are made in the morning. Bedroom floors are free of clutter, and when I have to tell them to pick up, it's done without an argument. When I need someone to set the table, I announce that there is a ticket in it for him or her and it is done. Sometimes one of The Kiddos decides that they really don't want to make their bed -or whatever- and choose to forfeit their ticket. Then they are usually remorseful during payout time.

More deets -and other fun, crafty things- are on Jen's blog here.

Reminder *** Giveaway is ending this evening! ***

Happy Monday!

 

Jellybean Pizza... Yes, I am serious!

Congratulations! We made it through another week. I spent most of my day on an "arbor walk" with my son's kindergarten class. Five and six year olds are so cute. And rambunctious. And the little girls tell me I'm beautiful. I think I like them.

I did get home in time to whip up this fun and easy recipe. Let me specify: it is a kids recipe. I warned my husband that it's definitely not something you'd see on Top Chef, but The Kiddos were full of enthusiastic "Mmmmmm!"s while chewing it. So, make this for the kiddos and save the really exquisite stuff for yourself. Especially if you're at all diabetic. ;)

First step is to make a really basic sugar cookie dough. Preheat your oven to 350 and grab:

{My 2 canister holds the sugar. You'll just have to trust me.}

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth. Mix in egg. combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended.

Press dough into an ungreased pizza pan. It's a good idea to flour your hands for this step. If you're like me and foolishly bought a perforated pizza pan (WHY?), you would line the bottom with parchment paper.

Pop it in the oven for 8 or so minutes until it's light golden brown...

While the crust is cooling, you can mix up the filling:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

1/2 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract -or- lemon juice. I think lemon juice is great, but I only had vanilla today.

When the crust is cool, smooth the filling over the top and sprinkle on the jelly beans. Discard white and black jelly beans because who likes those?

Cover and chill in the fridge until serving. Easy peasy!

And just because it's Friday and I {heart} this... and Weird Al Yankovic in general. I just do, ok?

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your Easter. Remember your blessings!

xoxo

~Heather

Linking up to:

My Happy Place and a Little {Giveaway}!

I'm having kind of a moody day. I decided it was partly because of my lack of a happy place. See, my office... which might be called a craft room, guest room, extra room, or even mom cave by others... but it has a computer in it, so my family decided it's Mom's Office. I like it. Makes me sound official.

Anyway, my office... it's my happy place. All kinds of creativity happens in there. A nasty side effect is all kinds of mess also goes on in there. Case and point:

Yuck! Stressy, right? And I really DID try to keep calm and carry on! But I cleaned up and now things are much more serene.

I felt so much better, I decided to have a little giveaway!

I'm giving away a fun variety pack of sweet Little e Designs clippies. Cute, colorful, and a quick, easy way to accessorize your favorite little girlie.

******GIVEAWAY CLOSED******

Want to win?

1) Follow moi -ExtraFrosting- on Twitter

2) 'Like' Little e Designs on Facebook

3) Follow my blog {on google friend connect}

Leave a comment for each easy peasy task you complete (Wow, that make it sound totally un-fun. Sorry!). Please make sure the profile you are commenting with is linked up to an email address so I may contact you if you win.

Winner will be chosen at random on Monday, April 25 at 8:00 pm CST

Hope you're having a sunshiney day!

xoxo

~Heather