thank you for not letting my child drown

im one of those people who likes to write thank you notes and give small thank you gifts.

(i really like receiving them too!)

the boys took swim lessons this summer and i wanted to thank their teachers for being so patient with them.

you see, parker isnt the most co-ordinated child alive. or daring.

and nate, well...he thinks he is the greatest thing ever made and that all the girls like him. and that is really all that is important to him.

they both love swimming, but just arent very good at it.

this year, not only did parker (age 9 1/2) finally jump off of the low dive but...

nate went into the deep end.

(with their life guard teachers by their side)

im certain these teens werent paid enough.

so i needed to give them a BIG HUGE THANK YOU.

i got a couple of water bottles from food storage and with some packing tape, i taped a crystal light packet to the front of the bottle (i rolled the tape so it wasnt seen but easy to get off.)

i would have done a walmart brand gatoraide but i didnt want to go to the store and this is what i had.

then i got some kite string and tied it around a million times.

put some thank you tages that my boys signed and there you go-

a fast, easy thank you gift for any coach!

i also like to do this for my friends and instructors at jazzercise for their birthdays.

i believe it isnt always the cost of the thank you gift, but the fact that you say thank you.

(or happy birthday!)

what to do with bottlecaps

a long long time ago, i spray painted some beer caps red, white and blue (see here). i didnt know what i was going to do with them, but now i found something!

i got a frame (that i forgot to take a photo of before i got a can of spray paint to it!) that was 7.5x13.5. i painted it white (this might change. you will see at the end of the post). i took the glass and matt out. the glass got chucked but i liked the matt so i covered up the lovely picture with some card stock.
(i know-it is a sin that i covered this up!)

since i will had a bad experience with gorilla glue, i used good old hot glue. yup-i go old school!
it might be hard to see but i filled up the inside of the beer cap with a TON of hot glue (yes i went thru many sticks!) and slapped it right onto the card stock, leaving the matt as a matt.

here it is at the end. you can see why i dont like the color now. i think i might move it just so i dont have to repaint.

but i think it is kinda cool!

and now that i know that bottcaps can be used this way, wait until you see what i have lined up for next week! (thankfully my little brother NEVER CHECKS THIS BLOG because it is a gift for him!)

part 2 of my 2nd try...

you all remember my re-do because of the 'gorilla glue incident'. well late last night i got to thinking that it needed more. not more gorilla glue. just more.
so i pulled out my big bite and popped some holes into my paint sticks and strung a wire in it.
i hung it on my door from di with a hook from some christmas decorations.
just wanted to let you know.

2nd try...

i know you all remember this post about how gorilla glue ruined my 4th of july. (made me so mad!) to answer a few questions, no it didnt stick to the table. and yes i had to pull my sewing machine off of the paint sticks.
i had to wait for the winds out here to stop blowing (seriously, we are talking tornado strength winds!) so i could spray paint.

i did do a few things different. first, i HAD to use 13 sticks for stripes. my cub scout was pretty firm on that. and we dont want a cub scout upset.  after spraying some red and white, i HOT GLUED the extra sticks to the back.

next, i masked off part of the sticks to paint the tops blue.  i lined up the bottom of the sticks so they were all straight, but the tops are a little uneven. but i wanted it that way.

 

i got out one of my favorite toys, my cricut, and cut out the words 'oh beautiful for spacious skies' out of some music paper. then i modge podged it all on.THE FINAL PRODUCT!

i did use some soda cans for the stars and the kids ran them thru the corrudator to get them all wavy like that. i also hot glued those on, because i dont trust gorilla glue.

and you all who said it would be an awesome project if i re-tried it were right! i love it!

 

butterfly butterfly fly away

nate helped me with this photo. he is the next annie leibovitz i tell you!

so i found these at the d.i. for $6 for all 3! i was way geeked!

my original idea (which will still happen) was to put big, fat, orange and white pumpkins on them in the fall!

but i cant wait until then.

surprise.
so i used some of the plants from thr front porch. and yes, they are in cans that have been spraypainted.

(a long story long, i threw a wedding shower and the colors were purple and apple green. and i thought my friends home could use some flowers so i spray painted cans and planted flowers in there.)

here is nate modeling next to them. see that butterfly? i knew it couldnt stay on the back porch!

how gorilla glue ruined my 4th of july

i had all these paint stick from left over painting projects and thought i could make something really cool and red white and blue.
i was wrong.
but only once.
well, maybe twice.
i had all these sticks, thinking they would be the same size. nope-the home depot ones are much thicker than the walmart ones.

i can work with that.
i masked off the bottom 1/3 of all the sticks, painting half red and half white. after they were dry, i remasked and painted the balance blue.
so far so good.

untill...

i lined them all up and the didnt match up.

i can still work with this people!


then i gorilla glued them and placed my sewing machine on top while it dried.

well it seems that gorilla glue SWELLS when it drys. and it made a swell mess all over.

even after scraping it looked like poo-

thankfully i have more sticks because until the gorilla glue expanded, this was looking like a cute little holiday project!

when i redo this project, i will post photos.

 im linking to women who do it all

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