Lunch Made Easy: Tuesday's Princess Bento

Tuesday's Princess Bento:

Craft Complete: DIY Crayon Redo

What do you do with all the broken crayons your kids have? Throw them away, right?
Here's  simple and fun DIY Craft for upcycling all those broken crayons!

I started collecting my daughters and have a baggy full.
You'll also need a silicon muffin pan - any shape & size :) obviously the more fun the shapes, the better!

Lunch Made Easy: More Bento Inspired Meals

Well, just to update - I found two bento style containers today so I can use them for Little Miss's lunches this week! YAY! Can't wait to post pics of them... :)

Here are two more meals she's had at the house with a bit of creativity added!

Craft Complete: Puzzle Playmat Floor Pieces Redo!

I wanted to make sure these turned out and were upholding before posting. (AND THEY ARE!)

My daughter has these Disney Princess puzzle playmat pieces on the floor of her room to help protect not only her ;) but also our original hardwood floors. After time, the pictures have begun to peel off making not exactly appeasing to the eye.

I decided to spray paint them to give them new life!

Craft Complete: DIY Non-Slip Hair Clips & Bows

DIY Hair Clips & Bows - I love making these for my daughter! They can get so expensive buying them outright.

So simple to do; All you'll need is ribbon, an alligator clip, non-slip cabinet liner (optional), and a hot glue gun (and hot glue, of course, lol).

You can buy alligator clips at Hobby Lobby or Sally's Beauty Supply stores. I purchased mine on Ebay (was able to get a big bag of them for cheap).
Non-slip cabinet liner can be found at Target, Walmart, or even most dollar stores.

Lunch Made Easy: Bento Inspiration has begun...

My sister has gotten me hooked and completely interested in Bento lunches.
The art and the practicality! I need to build my supplies up... and now with the school year ending, I might as well wait until it begin again in the fall before I really splurge. :)
That being said, I plan on placing an order for a few things after the weekend. SO EXCITED!

Below I'm not only going to post her lunch from today, again utilizing the recycled strawberry container she now loves (LOL) but also a Bento inspired dinner I made for her the other night.

Lunch Made Easy: Recycling Strawberry Containers

This is a cute idea for recycling those plastic strawberry containers!
Not only that - if your kids lose or forget it at school, no biggy... I buy strawberries every week. lol :)

Food for Thought: I Love Cinnamon Rolls.

Easy and simple way to turn an ordinary cinnamon roll from a can into a lovely breakfast delight!
(Of course, made my five year olds morning - she said because I made them with love. *ahem* I always do! lol) Saw them gem of an idea on Pinterest.

Food for Thought: Flower Inspired Dinner Creativity

I wanted to share with you a shot of the plate I made for my little miss for dinner last night.

My sister has got me hooked on the idea of bento inpsired lunches. I, of course, do not have the talent or time to do have of the crazy beautiful ones I've seen, lol, but the ones I give a stab at my five year old appreciates most greatly!

Craft Complete: Teacher's Gift Project (& Extra Ideas)

I saw this and new it'd be the perfect Teacher 'Thank You' Gift for my daughter's teacher(s) this year. (It serves as a cute giftcard holder!)

The end of the school is rapidly approaching so here is what I made and how you can too!

Craft Complete: No Sew DIY Tote Bag (Made from a T'Shirt!)

I love this project! I first saw a posting on this from leethal.net and knew I wanted to try.

I've made two so far. Attached are pictures and easy-peasey instructions on how to turn a T'Shirt into a Tote Bag! This is a DIY NO-SEW PROJECT (my fave - no sewing! lol)

Craft Complete: DIY Cord Management

Such a clever idea from unplggd.com -

I always throw my old bread, apple, and potato tags away. This is a perfect solution for organization and labeling so when you need to unplug an item you know exactly which one it is!

Craft Complete: Father's Day Survey for Kids

Here's a cute Father's Day Survey printable: This is such a cute idea to have your kids fill out about their dads and give to them on Father's Day! I'm going to have my daughter do this and I can't wait to see her answers, lol...

Craft Complete: Turning Cereal Boxes into Gift Bags!

This past Christmas I found an idea online for turning cereal boxes into gift bags!

I particularly liked this idea because I could wrap the cereal boxes in my holiday paper to match the rest of my gifts. (I'm a bit OCD that way... I blame my mother, lol.)

It's also a great way to recycle and also save on having to purchase gift boxes! (You can also use oatmeal, granola, instant potato, or any other box you have handy for different sizes.)

Beauty Blogable: Newsworthy Nails

I stumbled upon this post from passionnailart.com and HAD to share!

You can see the picture tutorial on their linked website, but I've also listed the instructions below:

Food for Thought: My Secret Love Affair with my Crockpot. (Post includes my Meatloaf Recipe!)

So, up until a year ago I hardly ever used a crockpot / slow cooker. My boyfriend had one. He would make what he called the "Man Meals" (I'll have to share some of those recipes another date, lol). I started finding recipes online and figuring out all the amazing things even on my own I could make in that sucker!
Due to opposite work schedules (he gets up at 2:45am and gets home around 4pm after picking up Little Miss from school. I get up at 4am and don't get home until after 6pm)  we were finding it hard to plan for meals. When I got home it was too late for him to eat and I was too tired to make anything of value that didn't involve the microwave or a frozen pizza! Thus began my love affair with my crockpot!

Here's an easy step-by-step recipe for my own meatloaf recipe!
I've had a lot of bad meatloaf over the years. Bless the person that made it but it seems to me its either dry, burnt, or tasteless in most cases! Ick.
This is a sure to be the best one you've ever had! Moist and full of flavor.

Lunch Made Easy: Sticker Messages

I drew inspiration for this from Say It Sandwich Bags.
The 'couponer' in me, however, could not come to terms with paying $3.99 for 60 baggies when most of the time I get ziploc bags for free or around a dollar for a box of 100!

I don't know why I never thought of this before - I use to handwrite notes on my daughter's bags with a permanent marker but this is much more clever:

I bought some shipping label sheets from Staples for the printer and chose a few designs.
It's so simple! Just print & use!

Things I Love...

Occasionally I will share links and items I see either through blogs, websites, and friends - Appropriately titled the "Things I Love..."

Party Pants: Fairy Party for a Five Year Old

One of my most favorite blogs is Hostess with the Mostess! (http://www.hostessblog.com/)

It was this website/ blog that gave me inspiration last September for my daughter's fifth birthday party.

It started with an idea and Haley's love of fairies, but I knew I didn't want to do a literal 'Tinker Bell' theme.

So I began taking pictures of items while I was out shopping, ideas from other blogged parties, and online research for food and drinks. I made an 'Idea Board' pictured below that helped me to keep my focus on what I was trying to accomplish and to continue to draw inspiration from!

"Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own." ~William Hazlitt

If you had asked me a year ago what I like to read or if I'm reading anything currently, I would of struggled to answer. To be honest, I hate reading... or atleast I did.
Growing up, I struggled with reading comprehension and read at very slow pace. Often times, finding myself drifting in and out of books to where I would read the words, but my mind was multi-tasking on atleast ten other things and I wouldn't retain any of it.
I came to the conclusion it was a waste of my time.

Lunch Made Easy: Silly Sandwiches

Since my daughter has a severe peanut allergy, I take no chances with cafeteria food for her at school so I pack her lunch every day.
On the days I actually get up on time *ahem* (c'mon, 4am comes so quick sometimes and I am dragging until that first cup o' coffee is in my system!) I take the time to make her a "Silly Sandwich".
My inspiration for starting to do for her over a year ago was the book Funky Lunch - the sandwiches they create are SO cute and inspiring! They do a much better job than me; Their sandwiches are like a piece of artwork for kids!... and adults too! :)
ANYWAYS, knowing the foods my daughter does and does not like I tried to simplify and quickify (I know that's not a real word, but roll with me on this)  the process and create some silly sandwiches to surprise her at lunch time with a smile!

An Introduction to... well... ME :)

First a small introduction is in order: My name is Keeley McGuire - that being my first & middle. Very Irish, I know... I was born the day before St. Patrick's Day and since we are of Irish & Scottish decent, I was the one 'blessed' between my siblings & I with the name no one can pronounce correctly 80% of the time. lol

I'm a rambler - drives my boyfriend crazy at times. :) I will do my best to keep on point or at least provide entertainment if I can't! (Yes, I'm giving you permission to laugh at my expense!)