Red, White, and Blue DIY Festive Chunky Bead Necklaces

Are you ready to celebrate the Fourth of July?! We are! It's one of our most favorite holidays at our house and we love dressing up for it too! Last year we made these fun little DIY Red, White, and Blue Patriotic Apron Skirts here. And we still love them! I especially love the one that I made from a neckerchief. In fact, I've been working on a tablecloth/picnic spread blanket out of checkered patriotic neckerchiefs lately as well.

BUT...today I wanted to share these fun red, white, and blue festive bead necklaces we made for the big day! They were so easy and fun to make too!

I love how they are all different and unique to each girl. 

Love our Zaycon Fresh Chicken!

All opinions are mine and mine alone.

This post brought to you by Create it. Go! 

Warning: If you get squeamish at just the sight of raw meat, well, let's just say there is raw meat pictures in this post. haha It's just chicken though. ;)

If you follow me at all, you probably know that we like to eat mainly whole foods, and clean eating. I make almost everything from scratch and we avoid a lot of gluten, dairy, and sugar in our house. We avoid more than that due to some allergies, but those are all big ones.

One thing I have found that I love is ordering our chicken through Zaycon Fresh online. I first started ordering from Zaycon a few years ago, and still love it today. Aside from raising my own chickens, I have found it to be the best chicken and best deal that I can find for my family.

I love that it comes fresh and has never been frozen. In fact the first time I went to pick up my order of their boneless, skinless chicken breasts, the delivery driver joked with me telling me that they might still be flopping around a bit. Haha

But truly, they are fresh. You order online and print your receipt. 

Great prices!

Washi tape and Duct Tape Covered Notebooks {DIY Summer Craft}

I don't know how your summer days are going, but ours have been great! My girls have been enjoying doing some crafts with me lately and I wanted to share these fun little easy notebooks we made this week. They're perfect for a summer afternoon inside, out of the heat! 

AND they're perfect for ANYONE, ANY AGE. AND...a great kids craft OR even for you and some friends! Inexpensive and little time required too! All you need is a bit of tape and a notebook. 

Creative Way to give Money as a Gift {DIY Money French Fries}

Are you still looking for a fun and quick gift? Want something different? Well, I have the perfect little idea for you! And it's so fun and simple to put together!

 Just run to your local McDonald's,or any other place you want where you can pick up a fry box. (I bought a thing of fries and also asked for an extra box.) You can also pick up a gift card to go along with it if you want. I also asked for an extra bag to use as I gave the gift away in.

Then, go grab some cash. You want lots of bills, so if you are going to give $20, you may want to get 20 $1 bills. OR if you are giving $50 or $100, you may want to split it up into something like 10 $1 bills, a few fives and a couple of tens or twenties...or something like that.

Then all you need to do is to fold your dollar bills to look the same size and shape as french fries.

I figure out how tall I want my fries to be according to the fry box.

1. I fold the top of the dollar bill over first to that height. (And I vary the height I fold them all too, so it looks more realistic...well, it's not going to ever look realistic. haha)

3D Wire Star Craft Tutorial

I don't know about you, but I have been BUSY BUSY this week and I still have so many more things to do still before the week is over! I did have a little fun with a small craft that I can add to my Fourth of July decorations though. AND I can even use it at Christmas time as well! (I love using the same decorations for more than one holiday when I can! Less to store!) 

Well, if you follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook you may have seen a sneak peak of today's post already. It's a great one for From this to That Friday. From a spool of wire, to a hanging star! It's a really fun, fast and simple tutorial on how to make wire stars. 

They're so simple and still 3D and pretty. You can leave them as the plain silver wire stars like I did, OR you can spray paint them and make them red, white, and blue or whatever color you want!

So today I am sharing a little tutorial on how to make these little gems.

Father's Day Printable {Best Dad in the Galaxy, Star Wars Inspired Font}

Are you a Star Wars fan? How about your husband, dad, kids, brother? Our house is full of Star Wars fans. We even have Movie marathon days as a family with the movies.

Today, I've got another fun free printable for you this week. This one is with a Star Wars inspired font and so simple and fun!

I created this design to use as a stencil to make a shirt for my hubby for Father's Day this weekend, BUT...it also works great for an easy Father's Day Card.

All you need to do is print, cut, and fold...and you've got a simple, and fun card!

Hope you enjoy and have a great time celebrating Father's Day with all the men in your lives!

Free Fourth of July Printable {Land of the Free, Home of the Brave}

I've been working on some Fourth of July crafts this week and have been creating a few printables as well, so I thought I would share a couple with you today. As always, my printables are free, for your personal use only though.

I love the simplicity of this one framed in a weathered barn wood frame or in a thick, chunky, black frame. No matter where you use it, hope you enjoy and feel as privileged as I do to live in a free country.

I know our country has it's own issues, sometimes it seems that today it does more than other times...but I still love our country and am so thankful to be born here and have a love of all that that the USA stands for.

Come back tomorrow to see the crafts I've been working on!

Ultimate Baby Shower Party Plan for a Boy OR a Girl!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. 
All opinions are mine alone. 
#MagicBabyMoments #CollectiveBias @Walmart #party #disneybaby #babyshower #babyshowergames #babyshowerdecor #partyplan

Happy Wednesday! We're halfway to Friday already! Some weeks seem to fly by and others seem to drag by! This week is flying by for me though, and I'm thinking it's because of all the fun stuff I have been playing with. haha I don't know about you, but I love baby showers! I love the excitement and happiness that always accompanies them. They're full of happy smiles and everyone sharing stories. Some stories are hilarious and some are embarrassing, but they're always fun to listen to.

Well, today I'm going to share with you how I created the perfect little baby shower, whether it be for a baby boy OR a baby girl! I always think it's fun when you don't know if the baby is a boy or girl until the baby is born. But either way, this party plan works for both! 

Garden Inspired Snacks with Container Gardens at their Best! {No weeding Required}

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. 

All opinions are mine alone. 

 #SnackPackMixins #CollectiveBias #summersnacks #garden #gardening

Happy Monday! I don't know about you, but I had a great weekend and was ready for today to be here! I am loving spending more time outside lately and more time with my kiddos as well. We have been camping already, kayaking, swimming, reading, walking through waterfalls, baking, and working in our little garden.

Awhile ago I shared with you how we made our little garden, and let me tell you...it has been growing! So we've been out watering and weeding and watering and weeding and...haha You get the picture. So we decided to make a fun little snack in honor of our garden and summertime.

It turned out so fun and was so easy to make, so I thought I would share it with you today.

Our Family's Summer Bucket List 2015 {Over 70 PLUS Summer Activities}

What do you have planned for your summer? We made a HUGE Summer Bucket List and have already done several things on our list, and wanted to share it with you today. Some of the things are so simple, and others take a bit of prep, but we hope it gives you a bit of inspiration as well to spruce your own summer up.

Summer Bucket List 2015

1. Go swimming at the pool

2. Go camping (or camp in your backyard...we're doing both!)

3. Make a craft with water bottles

4. Make homemade jam

5. Grill outside weekly

6. Visit a lighthouse (This one is a wish and might not make it this year for us.)

7. Watch fireworks on the Fourth of July.

8. Do a puzzle

9. Play board games every week (or every day!)

10. Read aloud as a family.

11. Read independently daily

12. Join the Library Reading Book Club

13. Go to the library weekly.

14. Look for constellations. Learn some new ones.

15. Get ice cream on a hot summer day.

Get in the pictures Mamas!

 Today's post is just a little reminder for all of you mamas out there. Last week I did a little post on taking time to smell YOUR "roses" and took the day to do the same for me...Today I want to remind all of you out there to get IN the pictures that you take of your kids.

We have gone on way too many trips where I come home with lots of pictures of everyone...but me. I don't always love the way I come out in the pictures, but I DO want my kids to have pictures and memories with me IN them!

So to all of you mamas, and dads! Get IN the memories and get IN the pictures! Have a great week!

DIY Sock Snake

I know we have all heard of and seen the sock monkeys for years now. And I learned how to make sock bunnies as a kid (Don't worry, I'll show you how to make these soon too)...AND I've even shared how to make this fun little sock minion here.

BUT have you ever made a sock snake?!

Top 5 DIY Projects with Tires

I don't know about you, but I have not been so keen on some of the projects that I have seen with tires. I mean, they're dirty, old tires! BUT I have to admit that lately a few have really peak my interest. In fact, so much that I even made a Pinterest board all about tires. Ha! Who knew? Hee Hee

So today, I thought I would share my top 5 ones that I love!

1.  This Gorgeous Tire Planter from Addicted to DIY found here:

Get out and Smell YOUR "Roses"

Today I just have a small and simple post. Get out and smell YOUR "Roses", meaning take the time to do the little things that make YOU and those around you smile. That's it. My mantra for the summer. Kinda goes along with the phrase, "Come what may, and love it!"

50 PLUS DIY Outdoor Summer Activities!

I love encouraging my kids to play outside in the summer. Some days it's all about the water and keeping cool and hanging out at the pool. BUT I love having things at the house to keep them happy and let some of that energy out too, so today I wanted to share a collection of DIY Summertime activities that you can do outside!

The first one is a DIY Large Checkers game I made a couple years ago. (The original post is here.)

It's so fun and great to take with you anywhere! All I used was some different kinds of wood branches to make the wood chips and some bandanas to make the checkerboard with. Perfect for those Fourth of July picnics, camping, and at home in the backyard OR inside on those super hot days!