Style, Recipes, Crafts, Travel, Tips, Savings
Looking for an easy back to school treat? Be sure to check out this Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars Recipe. These bars are simple to make from scratch with just a few ingredients including, of course, everyone’s favorite peanut butter and jelly. [Read more…]
This Strawberry Jello Pudding Pops Recipe is so simple and so tasty. It is so easy to make that your kids will love to help make them. The hardest part is waiting for them to freeze. I love that this recipe includes fresh fruit. It makes me feel a little better about eating it even though it is a treat.
This recipe requires just a few ingredients and materials. You don’t need a special popsicle form instead you just use paper cups! These really are so simple to make but so tasty too. [Read more…]
Here is the wonderful and easy 4th of July dessert recipe.
The fresh berries are perfect for any red, white and blue theme including Memorial Day and Fourth of July. These are so tasty though that they would be great for any get-together or party. This recipe requires just a few simple ingredients but still looks quite fancy. You can whip this up in no time at all and be out having fun in the sun with your friends. This would be easy to bring to a potluck as well. Be sure to scroll down for the full printable recipe. [Read more…]
This Star Red White and Blue Jello Recipe is so cute and your whole family will love it!
This is the perfect treat at any patriotic party including Fourth of July and Memorial Day. This recipe looks really complicated but it is actually quite simple. However, it does take some time to make this red white and blue jello recipe since each layer needs to harden.
Are you looking for a simple way to make Father’s Day special for the Dads in your life? Then check out these adorable free Father’s Day printables. We include both necktie-shaped bottle tags and cupcake toppers. I included four different tags. Some are more elegant and some are more playful and you can choose which ones fit the Dads in your life. These are so easy to make that even the kids could help cut these out or help assemble them. Plus, you probably already have most of the supplies to complete this project at home! [Read more…]
Looking for an easy healthy salsa recipe? Here is my favorite. It is so so easy to make but tastes incredible. The fresh flavors blend together so well. You can use this salsa as a dip with chips but it is also fantastic on tacos or an other Mexican inspired meal. You are going to love this so much that you will never want to buy store bought salsa again. It really can’t compare. [Read more…]
Getting breakfast on the table quickly can be a challenge. This recipe for make ahead sausage egg cheese muffins will make your mornings so easy. You just prepare the sausage egg cheese muffins ahead of time and freeze them. When you are ready to eat them, all you have to do is pop them in the microwave. It is so easy even your kids can prepare them!
Here are a few pictures of the recipe in process. Full recipe is below.
Fill the cups about ¾ of the way full with the hash browns.
Take half of the shredded cheese and sprinkle in the bottom of the cups. Repeat with half of the sausage crumble.Whisk the eggs together and fill the cups until almost full. Top with the second half of cheese and sausage.
Don’t forget to sign up for our emails so you are notified of our next simple and tasty recipe (plus lots of other fun stuff!).
Want more easy and tasty recipes?
These easy DIY flower letters are a fun craft you can do with your older kids as DIY gift for mom, to celebrate spring, for a birthday or many other occasions. I think a single initial or even a full name would be very cute as a decoration in a girl’s room. An adult will need to cut the flowers and make the hole, but the kids can easily paint the cardboard letter and fit the flowers into the holes. If you have kids who are 10 and up, they should be able to do the entire craft with adult supervision. Because the cardboard letters are less than $2, you can easily spell MOM like we did, or words like HAPPY or LOVE as well as a person’s name, their initials or monogram. Just get creative and have fun! [Read more…]
Here are some easy and tasty Mexican recipes that will make any Cinco De Mayo special. We have rounded up everything from healthy salsa to slow cooker meals that are so easy to make. You will love this list of easy Cinco De Mayo recipes! [Read more…]
This year Teacher Appreciation week is May 8-12 2017. It is coming up soon so we thought we would share this cute and easy gift idea.
Are you scrambling to find affordable gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week? We have the perfect Teacher Appreciation Gift for you! I just love these double-walled cups and I made this one into an iced tea themed gift for around $5! I use these cups all summer long when I’m on the go and they wash up so nicely. You can fill them with water or any other beverage and I like that they are double-walled and don’t sweat. This one fits perfectly in the cup holder of my car too. This iced tea gift for teachers would make a great year-end gift too or if you have aids or other teaching staff to recognize these won’t break the bank. When I use this for a year end gift, I usually drop a Target gift card in the cup as well. This ships free if you spend $25 or have a Target Red Card. [Read more…]
Looking for an easy Easter treat? Try this Jelly Bean bark recipe. It has just two ingredients! So cute and so easy. Perfect for an Easter celebration. You could bag this up and give as homemade gifts as well. [Read more…]
Looking for a cute and super easy craft? Then this DIY Lollipop bouquet is for you. It requires just a few simple ingredients and not much craft skill. If you can trace and use scissors, then you can make this cute lollipop bouquet. That makes this craft perfect even for pretty young kids. We used yellow lollipops and I think that makes these look similar to daffodils but you could use any color that matches your home or theme. I think these would be adorable at a wedding or baby shower or for Easter or Mother’s day.
Your kids will think you are the coolest Mom ever for hosting a glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt. This is the perfect family activity or if you have family coming into town that is staying overnight for Easter, what a fun way to keep the kids busy. You just need a few simple supplies. This hunt is great for families that are trying to cut back on candy. [Read more…]
Looking for cute and easy Easter Cupcakes? Try these super cute Carrot Garden Easter Cupcakes. The orange Mike & Ikes with edible Easter grass decorate the cupcake and look like a garden the Easter bunny would love! Kids and adults alike will enjoy eating these cute and tasty Easter cupcake decorations. Plus they are not too hard to make. Cute and easy…the perfect combination. [Read more…]
One of my absolute favorite foods is fish tacos. I often order them at restaurants but this fresh easy fish tacos recipe is great to make at home. It really is very simple to make but the fresh flavors are amazing! It is essential to use fresh cilantro in this recipe. The cilantro, tomatoes and yogurt sauce make this one seriously yummy dish. I used corn tortillas in order for the recipe to be gluten free. You can use flour tortillas though if you prefer them.
Don’t forget to sign up below for our emails so you are notified of our next simple and tasty recipe (plus lots of other fun stuff!).
Want more easy and tasty Mexican inspired recipes?
Easy Spicy Pico De Gallo Guacamole Recipe
I love these refillable squeeze tubes that you can use to make your own homemade yogurt tubes. What is great is that you can use plain greek yogurt and just add fresh fruit. We used blueberries but you could use any of your favorite berries including strawberries and raspberries. This really cuts down on the sugar that is included in most commercially prepared portable squeeze yogurt tubes. Also, many of the yogurt tubes you buy at the store have artificial colors and flavors. Without too much time and trouble at all, you can make your own yogurt tubes that are made from simple fresh ingredients. You AND your kids will love them! [Read more…]
I am always on the looking for easy ways to make Valentine’s day just a little more special. These cute mini Valentine treat boxes are so easy to make and you can make easily make someone’s day just a little more special.
Just follow these simple directions to make the treat boxes.
These are mini treat boxes so you will want to have just little candy to put in them. Valentine Hershey kisses and Valentine candy corn work perfectly. You can see the size of the box in the picture above.
These mini treat boxes would be perfect for school parties or any type of Valentine’s day get together. You could even print them and have them at a family dinner. There are really so many ways that these treat boxes can add just that little special touch. The beauty is that they look so cute and fun but are so simple to make. I hope you enjoy them!
Valentine Quiz for Kids – Easy Valentine Kids Activity
DIY Star Wars Valentines with printable
Valentine’s Day Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies
One thing I am focusing one this year is memory keeping. My girls are growing up so fast and I am sad that I don’t have items like this Valentine Quiz for Kids from when they were young. I am going to make them complete the quiz this year but wish I would have started when they were little. [Read more…]
We loved the new Star Wars movie and were inspired to make some printable star wars valentine cards that will be a HUGE hit with both boys and girls. These are so simple to print at home and have your child give them to their classmates. The Valentine’s include Rey, BB8, Finn and Chewbacca. [Read more…]
This Valentine Day Sugar Cookie Recipe is so easy to make but turns out so stinking cute. Conversation hearts are quintessential Valentine’s day to me and I love how each sugar cookie bear has their own conversation heart. Other than the basics for the sugar cookie recipe all you need extra is the bear cookie cutter and the conversation hearts. Kids would love to help make these in the kitchen. Be sure to scroll down for the printable recipe.
1 ¼ Cup Flour
¾ Cup Sugar
½ Stick Unsalted Butter
1 Egg
½ teas. Baking Powder
½ teas. Salt
½ teas. Vanilla
Conversation Candy Hearts
First Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Then in a medium size bowl, beat butter and sugar with mixer then add egg and vanilla. Mix until fluffy.
Next stir flour, baking powder, and salt together. Once mixed, add to wet mixture.Mix until dry ingredients are incorporated.
Take dough and roll into a ball and place on floured parchment paper. Take rolling pin and roll out until it’s about ¼ inch thick. If it’s sticking to rolling pin, add a little flour to top of dough
Cut out bears using the cookie cutter and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Place a conversation heart in the middle of the bear and bend its arms up to the heart. Then take a toothpick to poke the eyes and nose. Then place in oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges become golden brown.
Be sure to store cookies in an airtight container for maximum freshness. This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies.
Be sure to check out more Valentine’s Day ideas.
Star Wars Printable Valentines
Pony Bag Toppers for Valentine’s Day
No Candy Crafty Valentine Ideas For Kids
Buying a craft cutting machine can be a big decision. There are several different types of cutters on the market and they all have very unique features. Most crafters opt to purchase a Silhouette or a Cricut machine, but there are more options out there. Your choice will heavily depend on what type of crafts you want to do and what type features you will want in a machine. I will highlight the unique features of each machine to help to make your decision easier.
Silhouette machines are great for the person that likes to design and manipulate their own projects. There is a small learning curve to the Design Studio software, but you can easily change projects to fit your needs by erasing something here and there, adding text or drawing new lines. The Silhouette design store offers turnkey images and projects at a low price, but as you get better, you can easily tweak these projects to fit your needs. You can also cut any font that is installed on your computer.You can work within the free version of the Design Studio software or you can upgrade the software the Designer Edition
Tracing is another unique feature of the Silhouette machines
Silhouette has a whole line of machines in different price ranges and with different features:
The Silhouette Cameo
The Silhouette Portrait Machine
The Silhouette Curio is a cool little machine, but the software is advanced and I believe it is meant to be a machine that compliments either the Cameo or Portrait. It’s cutting area is 8.5 inches wide, but you can feed thicker materials into the machine. It also draws and embosses and stiples. New tools are still being released for the Curio machine, so stay tuned. If this is your first Silhouette machine, I would recommend the Cameo.
Cricut’s latest and greatest machines are the Cricut Explore Machine lineup
You can cut all sorts of medium such as vinyl, cardstock, paper, chipboard, leather, thin wood and much, much more. The Cricut Explore has a very strong motor and will cut a variety of thicknesses. The ability to cut thicker mediums is one of the main unique features of this machine and it sets it apart from the Cameo and other machines. I am most impressed with it’s ability to cut wood and leather.
Another feature that sets it apart from other machines is that the Explore can draw and cut at the same time. It has slots for both a blade and pen. This will be a huge time saver if you are making cards and such that require both of these features. The Silhouette also draws and cuts, but you have to stop and change from the blade to pen and vice versa.
1. Cricut Explore Air 2 Wireless
With this newest machine, users can enjoy cutting and drawing up to 2 times faster with the newest wireless Cricut machine. It is easy to select fast mode to speed up your cutting! The cutting speed is the biggest difference between the Explore Air Wireless 1 & 2. The Cricut Explore Air 2 Wireless machine has bluetooth capability that is built-in and the user can manipulate and cut images wirelessly from a PC, Ipad or MAC, just like the regular Cricut Explore Air Wireless. Be sure to check if your PC or Mac’s operating system is compatable. Certain operating systems do not work with the Cricut Explore machines.
2. Cricut Explore Air Wireless
The Cricut Explore Air Wireless Cutting Machine
The Cricut Explore One Cutting Machine
Most know Sizzix for creating metal dies that get run through a hand-cranked machine, but then they got into the electronic cutting machine market with the Sizzix eclips2
One of the unique features of this machine is that it will truly score your project for fold lines. This is great for boxes as most cutters only cut perforated lines for scoring. This machine does a true score line.
The Brother ScanNCut Cutting Machine with a Built-in Scanner
While the scanning and cutting feature is what makes this machine unique, there has been some trouble with this machine. It only recognizes dark, crisp lines when scanning, so this will be necessary to access this feature.
Another unique feature is that you can also use this machine similar to how you use a regular scanner. You can scan documents or photos and save them right to a USB drive.
If you love this post about comparing electronic cutting machines, check out our posts about Vinyl for Electronic Cutting machines or Where to find Supplies for your Cricut Explore Machine.
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and you will love our cute free printable cards, made to hold those cool EOS lip balms. My tween loves to collect different EOS lip balms and these make fun Valentine’s Day treats for kids, tweens, teens or adults. These are so simple to make and we have created two different printable cards. One is Valentine’s Day themed and the other, you can use to give these fun lip balms as small gifts, all year long.
You can buy EOS lip balms just about everywhere. They sell them at Target, Walmart and at most drug stores for around $3-4. I sometimes buy them with coupons at Ulta stores too. CVS and Walgreens carries the Beauty 360 brand, made by Revo, which is a similar size to the EOS lip balm brand. You can also buy the Revo brand at the Dollar Tree, under the name Chap Ice for just a dollar! It is about half the size, but at a better price. I have included smaller printable cards to fit the smaller Dollar Tree Chap Ice/Revo lip balms.
If you love crafting with an electronic cutting machine like a Silhouette or Cricut, you won’t want to miss out on the one-day only, December 26, 2016, vinyl sale at Expressions Vinyl. Right now, you can get 20% off all vinyl at Expressions Vinyl. Expressions has great prices on rolls of adhesive vinyl. I use rolls for most of my projects because you can just cut off what you need, as you need it. I also love to make fabric projects with heat transfer vinyl. If you are new to the cutting machine world, this is a great opportunity to purchase your vinyl at a discount.
20% off all Vinyl, One day, December 26, 2016 (ends at midnight)
If you are looking for a fun an easy Christmas treat, these Grinch Cookie Pops are sure to be a hit. They are so easy to make with Oreos, melting candy and red starbursts. I love that they are a bit subtle but anyone who is fan of the grinch will recognize the grinch green and tiny red heart.
And what happened, then? Well, in Whoville they say – that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!
Mint Oreos – You should be able to find these at your grocery store but can also substitute classic Oreos if needed
12oz Wilton light green melting candy
Red Starbursts – can just buy a multipack and pull out the red ones. You need about 10.
White sugar sprinkles
Lollipop sticks
Directions-
1. Lay out a piece of parchment paper and place your light green candy melts into a microwave safe bowl
2. Heat your candy melts on 50% power for 3-4 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until melted
3. Dip the end of your lollipop sticks into the melted light green chocolate, open an Oreo, place your stick inside, and sandwich the Oreo back together
4. Freeze your Oreos pops for a couple minutes so the chocolate hardens on the stick, then dip them into your melted chocolate making sure each side is covered, letting the excess chocolate drip off and place onto your parchment paper
5. Open about 10 Starbursts and roll them together between two pieces of parchment paper
6. Use your heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out small hearts and place them onto each green pop
7. Sprinkle with your white sugar and enjoy
Looking for more Grinch Themed recipes?
Check out these cute Grinch Fruit kebobs
Looking for an easy healthy Christmas treat recipe? Grinch Kebobs are perfect. These work well for Christmas dinner appetizers or for class parties. This simple recipe is great for getting something healthy that kids will also love. These are so cute and you know kids will love them! [Read more…]
These Peanut Butter Rudolph Cookies make a fun treat for kids (and adults) plus they are so easy to make that the kids can help. This recipe requires just a few simple ingredients and you may have most of them on hand already! See the full printable recipe below.
Cream together peanut butter, butter, sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
Slowly add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, beating until incorporated. Roll into 1/2-3/4″ balls and place on cookie sheet several inches apart. Sprinkle with sugar and gently make an indentation slightly off the center of each cookie. Bake 12-14 minutes.
Don’t forget to sign up for our emails below so you are notified of our next simple and tasty recipe (plus lots of other fun stuff!).
Want more easy and tasty recipes for Christmas?
Looking for an easy and fun way to track how many days until Christmas? Check out this easy DIY Countdown to Christmas printable that you can easily use with a dry erase marker once you put the printable in a frame. My girls always want to know exactly how many days until Christmas and this is a fun way to track. The frames can be cleaned each day by simply using a paper towel to remove the marks from the dry erase marker. It is so easy you can even have put the kids in charge of this task.
Countdown To Christmas Printable
DIY “Countdown to Christmas” Dry Erase Project
Materials Needed:
Directions:
This is a fantastic project for kids or to hang on the wall in a small business or office to get people excited about the upcoming holiday (and let them know how many shopping days are left)! This might help those last minute shoppers!
Do you need some gift idea help? Be sure to check out the fun and unique gift ideas we put together for kids and adults.
Looking to save some money this holiday? Be sure to join our facebook group where we share lots of sales and deals.
Fall is here and who can resist candy corn? I put together this fun harvest fall trail mix recipe that tastes amazing. It has just the right amount of crunch and sweetness. This would be fun to eat at home or as a snack at a Halloween or Fall Harvest party. It is very easy to make as well. You just add the ingredients and mix it up in bowl.
This Fall trail mix looks so cute and it a great treat to hand out. I love when recipes and easy but look great too. They only trouble you will have is that you may need to double or triple the recipe because your friends and family will love it so much! The full recipe is below with all the easy ingredients and a button to print the recipe.
Don’t forget to sign up for our emails below so you are notified of our next simple and tasty recipe (plus lots of other fun stuff!).
Looking for more easy Halloween recipes?
Candy Corn Rice Krispie Treats
Want more easy and tasty recipes?
Mashed potatoes are a yummy addition to any meal but they can take some time to prepare. That is why I love this easy slow cooker mashed potatoes recipe.
This recipe requires just a few simple ingredients. The full printable recipe and ingredients are below.
Combine the potatoes, broth, milk, and roasted garlic in the crock pot. Stir to mix.
Using a potato masher, begin mashing the potatoes. (Or if you prefer, use a hand mixer to make the potatoes smoother.)
Serve while still hot.
Want more easy and tasty recipes?
One of favorite fall family activities is to go apple picking. In the United States, we were lucky to live near some nice orchards. We usually come home with a ton of apples which is more apples than we can easily eat. I am always on the look-out for great apple recipes like this.
One easy way to use up some of those apples is to make baked apple chips. These work great for a snack or to send in with school lunches. The apples are baked so a bit more healthy. We added some cinnamon and sugar though to make them a sweet treat! Your whole family will love them.
I like to use my Cuisinart Food Processor to cut the apple slices thinly enough to bake.
The full recipe is below.
Don’t forget to sign up for our emails so you are notified of our next simple and tasty recipe (plus lots of other fun stuff!).
Want more easy and tasty recipes?
