First Dine and Create of 2015

The start of this year has been crazy busy.  A husband with some complications from surgery and kids out of school for a "too cold" day and I am lost as to what day is and what I walked into a room to do!

January's Dine and Create is in one week!  January 17th we will be doing a Patchwork United States and enjoying some fabulous All-American food.  

You in?  You should be, because it is going to be so much fun!

Click HERE to register and reserve your spot.  

Happy 2015

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the new and improved 3littlehoots!  I promise to keep this blog more updated than last year.  Only because I want to stop by and look at how pretty it is!  If your blog needs a makeover I highly suggest Paige Flamm Designs on Etsy.  She was amazing to work with.  I knew (know) nothing about computers and she handle all the technical stuff while I just sat back and watched her make it pretty!

Some other changes are the tabs at the top.  Dine and Create is a new venture that my neighbor and I started late last year.  We hope to continue and grow in 2015.  We welcome women to come one night a month and enjoy a fabulous home cooked meal prepared by my talented neighbor and then I lead them in a craft project.  The goal is that they leave with full bellies and some inspiration to go home and do something creative!  If you are local (Twin Cities MN) and would like to attend, check back here for upcoming dates or shoot me a message and I can get you all the latest information.  If you are a small business owner and would like to provide goodies for the ladies, please let me know.  We are always looking for small business owners to support and help spread for the word for.

The other tab is for my Etsy shop.  I have nothing listed there right now.  But as I look towards next fall and Little Hoot heading off to kindergarten (eek, where does the time go?), I hope to be able to get back to crafting and creating and listing all kinds of goodies there.  

I hope 2015 if off to a great start for everyone!  Per usual, the first week of January is bitterly cold and my two birthday boys get to celebrate in sub-zero temperatures!  Hope everyone stays warm!

Pin It! Make It! {Pinterest Party}

Over the weekend I hosted a Pinterest Party for some awesome crafty ladies!
It was so much fun!
I kicked all the Hoots out of the house and drug out all the crafty goodness I could find and we got to work.  It was a blast!
I have another one in the works for next month with all new craft projects.  AND the best part is the new Hobby Lobby close to my house will be opening just in time.  I.Cannot.Wait.

For the invites I went to my go-to pic monkey photo program online and came up with this.  Uploaded to Wal-mart and picked them up the next time I ran errands.

I got the crafting space all set up and ready for the ladies to get to work!

Then I picked three crafts off of Pinterest (naturally) that we would do.  They are all pinned on my "Let's Party" board on Pinterest that you can follow here.  If you re-pin any of these great ideas, please make sure you click through to the original posting!

We started with frames dry erase boards from this pin.  

Aren't they cute?  Each one is so unique.  I love them all!

Next we did Yarn Wrapped Wreaths from this pin.  The ladies said this one was a bit of a challenge, but I think they turned out fabulous!

And lastly we made Washi tape necklaces.  I have a slight obsession with Washi tape so this turned out to be my favorite craft of all.  The idea came from this pin.

It was so fun to see what everyone came up with from the same ideas.  It was also very interesting to see how everyone stuck to basically the same color palette.  

I am still trying to decide on what crafts we will take on next month.  Definitely something spring-y and  bright.  I am so done with winter and cold and snow and all the gear and all the mess.  

What are your favorite spring crafts?  Any bright fun ideas to share?

Easiest Valentine Ever

Is winter over yet?  Seriously?!  My kids had 5 "too cold" days off and several of them resulted in a 6 day weekend.  Yikes!  Anyway, on Day 3 off I decided to get a jumpstart on the Hoots Valentines.  Since my preschooler's had to be candy free, I decided to start with his since I could do them without standing in the seasonal aisle of Target for hours debating which valentines are acceptable with a sassy 10 and 6 year old

Since I rarely have an original idea, I turned to Pinterest of course.  I found these adorable animal valentines (please click through to the original post before repining).

Here is my take on them.

I started at pic monkey and made the card

Uploaded them to Wal-mart and picked them up an hour later.  While I was there I grabbed a couple of bags of these animals out of the party section

Then I threaded some bakers twine through a needle and threaded it right through the paper on each side of the animal.  Tied it up and around and DONE!

The easy peasy-est Valentine evah!

We still have many cold hours to fill!  But at least the Valentines are done!

Time to Organize

I have tried every type of planner in the world.
Seriously, every.single.one.

On my phone doesn't work for me because I haven't found any app that provides me with enough space to keep track of all the places the Hoots need to be and all the things that I have to get done.
My hubby wasn't very good about syncing his calendar and it just frustrated me to have to check with him constantly.

I have tried a smaller type to keep in my purse so I can pull it out and check schedules when we are out and about.  That worked, until we got home and my planner was in my purse which was probably out in the car or somewhere equally as inconvenient so I just wouldn't write something down.  And then I  would get a phone call asking why Middle Hoot never came to the birthday party that I had already RSVP'd for.  Hypothetically, of course.

I have tried the giant calendar on the fridge.  That worked for keeping things from being doubled booked, but as far as lists and meal planning, it was not helpful.  I didn't want a bunch on things stuck on the fridge so I ended up with random lists all over the place and then gave up because it was not streamlined and was too much to keep track of.  Nevermind the fact that my lists would end up with some random things added to them, like "buy a dog", "take us out for dinner" and "Give me all your money".  Funny I don't remember making my list in crayon.

I have tried a "DIY" type planner where you pick the pages and layouts that you want.  That resulted in me standing in Staples for about an hour and leaving with nothing because I was so overwhelmed by all the choices.  I can't make big decisions on my own and apparently a planner is a really big deal in my head.

So after all that and this being the year that I have to be more organized and together, I googled "awesome planners" and Erin Condren was one of the choices.  I checked them out, waffled over them for a few days (they were a bit more than I wanted to spend) and looked around at other sites before deciding that their Life Planners had everything I needed in one spot.  Their planners are big, detailed and completely personalize-able (yep, that is totally a word).  They come with stickers, lists, and perpetual calendars to keep track of birthdays and anniversaries and the like.

I can't wait for it to come and to get my life in one spot and organized.  Hopefully the Hoots won't miss another birthday party or practice again.  Hypothetically speaking of course.

If you want your life to be organized and your kiddos where they need to be on time, check out www.erincondren.com, you won't be disappointed.

*disclosure-I am not being paid for this post.  I just love these planners.  
The above link is my personal referral link.

Happy New Year!

The new year is underway and like everyone else, I feel like I have clean blank slate.  I don't know what 2014 will bring, but I know what I would like to see happen this year.

Here are a few of my Goals, Dreams, Resolutions, Desires.  I don't really know what to call them!

1. More crafty time.  Now that the youngest Hoot is about to turn 4 (on Monday, GAH where did the time go??) I think this might actually happen.  He is able to entertain himself for longer periods of time and I don't mind him "helping" me as he is able to understand and be patient and gentle a little more.

2. Get Healthy.  Goes to back to Little Hoot turning 4 again (seriously, why so fast?).  I have not had the time and/or energy to spend on this.  It has pretty much been survival mode since the 3rd Hoot entered the scene, eating whatever was available and sleeping whenever it was possible.  Now that we are out of toddlerhood I think I may be able to fit some time in to make meals and maybe just maybe hit the gym once in a while.

3. Plan Meals and Cook Them.  Every year I buy a fancy planner and think "This is the year I will use this and plan things and meals and be so organized."  Never, ever, ever happens.  So this year I saved my money and dug out an old notebook and a pencil and sat down on New Years Day and planned out meals for the entire month of January.  Hopefully with a month planned out already it will stick.  They say it only takes 21 days to form a habit right?

4. Share My Craftiness.  This is different than having more crafty time.  That is for things for me and my household.  Sharing my craftiness would be finding somewhere to maybe teach a class or two or hosting some sort of craft event.  I also hope to get my etsy shop up and stocked this year which would just be another way to share my craftiness.

5. Let the Little Stuff Go.  So the kids are screaming and the house is a mess?  Instead of immediately freaking out, which is what I most likely would do, I am going to TRY and relax and remember they are only little for such a short time and to enjoy them.  The loud, crazy, messy bunch they are.  Obviously if it is dangerous or inappropriate I will step in and try not to go into crazy mom mode.  You know the one?  The one where your face turns purple and you threaten redonkulus things and it does nothing to stop the insanity and only makes it a billion times worse?  Yeah, that happens way too often around here and I really need to work on it not happen quite so often.

How about you?  Anything you are going to work on 2014?

Neighborhood Cookie Exchange

Happy New Year!

I am way behind on life right now!  With Christmas, sick kids (again) and bitterly cold weather up here in the Great North, I have not done anything but laundry, cuddle under blankets with feverish children and think about all the things that I should be doing.

Anyway, school resumed today and I feel somewhat back to a normal routine.  So hopefully I can hang out around here a little more

Before Christmas (and illness) we hosted our neighborhood's annual cookie exchange.  It is always great fun because we love our neighbors.  I keep saying that we should start a commune on our block because that is how it feels most days. Always watching out for each other and helping out whenever necessary.  Like our own little family.

I kept it really simple this year.  I created this invitation in Picmonkey just using their free options.  And then I uploaded them to Walgreens and had them printed.  Then I picked them up in an hour later and delivered them shortly after.

There should have been a door prize for Spot the Number of Typos
Seriously can not do anything productive when my children are awake!

I went with a Hot Chocolate bar and had everyone bring an appetizer and it worked out great.  The Hot Chocolate bar was the easy thing ever.  I just googled hot chocolate in the crock pot, found a uber easy recipe, started it a few hours before the party and it was ready to rock at party time.  I put out various add ins to suit people's fancy.  There were add ins of the alcoholic persuasion and then the standards like marshmallows, whipped cream and of course, candy canes.

Then I just set up the table for cookies and everyone came and had a blast.  I didn't take many photos because we were so busy chatting and eating!

This was my favorite packaging ever!  Our neighbor is also our mailman (very convenient, Right?!) so his wife made little mailboxes for her cookies and then printed the recipe to look like an envelope tucked in the mailbox.  I think everyone is going to have up their packaging game next year to compete with all that cuteness!