pencil fruit snacks

two's company.

three's a crowd.

so does that mean my THIRD pencil post is too much?

oh well. i'm gonna do it anyway,

seeing these were really my daughter's idea, cuz when i told her i was going to make fruit pencils she literally thought i meant real fruit.

so from my last post that i had thought of originally, 

came today's idea thanks to my daughter. 

ok guys, it's

this is super duper easy and i actually made these immediately after i made my fruit pencils.

i am just in shock i actually made something healthy with no candy melt involved.

jeepers what's wrong with me?! LOL

while i go and try to figure that out, 

here's how to make the edible pencils:

these are super easy to make and the kids can 

get involved putting all the fruit on the skewer, 

but not the slicing and dicing part of course.

this is also a good class snack to bring since a lot of schools are mean and don't allow homemade treats anymore like they use to in the old days. lol

just be sure to use black grapes and not olives.

i don't think that would be a win for the kiddies. ;)

and if you are serving these to little bitty tots, 

snip off the point of the skewer before 

adding the fruit so they won't get a pencil poke.

i'm just sayin' since being a school nurse, 

i've seen more than my share of those.

ok so now i'm all penciled out!

should i move onto pens now?

just kidding! i wouldn't do that to you!....?!

diy fruit pencils

ok guys. 

we are pretty much almost done with summer.

and school is here or for some, just around the corner.

so what to do in the craft department?

start on the next holiday?

which just so happens to be labor day, 

or as i have seen, halloween.

...HALLOWEEN?!?!

good gracious why oh why are some people already blogging about witches and ghosts?

i just don't get it. 

and what's worse is my birthday is on halloween.

oh well, i will save the witches and ghosts 

for at least a few weeks here.

 so for now we are on summer/school mode with these:

 i think i have pencils on the mind ever since i made those pencil pretzels a few weeks back.

anyway it's a pretty easy craft that is done 

by following the next steps.

i got these glitter pencils at target's 

dollar spot awhile back.

but i'm sure you can get plain colored pencils wherever office supplies are sold, 

especially now with all the school stuff on sale.

ok here we go.

electrical tape is awesome. 

it sticks and stretches every which way.

you can find colored electrical tape at the hardware section of walmart.

this way you can still use the eraser.

all done with your fruit salad pencils :)

so there you have summer school pencils.

err, not summer school, but summer/school.

or is it school summer pencils?

i'm confused.

good thing school starts so the learning can begin again.

diy cupcake liner pineapple garland

oh my goodness.

2 weeks of no blogging.

i think i got hives.

no i don't really, but holy heck was i swamped.

swamped at work. swamped at home.

swamped swamped swamped.

ugh. ugh. ugh.

something had to give and that something was blogging.

i was so dang cranky from not crafting my mind was in major withdrawal until i sat there one day and said 

"brain, we gotta make something. like now."

and so i did, 

and it's a summer craft cuz i am still holding on to that tiny bit of summer that some people have left. 

it's something happy for my brain to look at as it hangs in my recently neglected craft room. 

and it's pineapplely too. 

cuz pineapples seem to be the thing these days.

here's the how-to if you want to make one too.

i saw on a couple of blogs that jo ann's has a new line of crafts from hazel & ruby so i went on down there and got me a cute garland kit.

the balls are 1 inch and are awfully cute. 

the thread that comes with it is thin so i went with my green and white twine.

so here's how pineapples are grown when you have no soil to grow them in.

caaaaareful when you hold it,

these pineapples are fragile so you don't wanna crush them.

i suppose you could draw the marks on them first before you tape them together but i've been outta the craft scene so long i wasn't thinking straight when i made these.

in fact i just went for the vision i had in my head.

i just alternated one felt ball with one pineapple and kept going.

so there you have a summer craft that's been squeezed into the last week of summer.

now it's full blown school days over here but i did manage to blend summer and school together in my next tute coming up.

oh i'm so happy my bloggy brain is back!

i missed you guys!

positive pencil pretzels

excuse me a sec while i whine.

WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

SUMMER"S OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

sigh.

ok. guess i'm done whining and have to face the fact that school starts in 2 days.

no more sleeping in.

no more homework-less nights.

no more live without a care in the world cuz i don't have to work days.

what's a summer lovin' girl to do then?

hey think i'll make some school treats to brighten up the day.

cuz every student needs school supplies,

here's what you need to start making these.

ok cross those school supplies off the list and add some ghiardelli large chocolate chips,

yellow and pink candy melts, 

green cookie icing, 

black food marker and parchment paper.

now on to the how to:

now to personalize them,

and not with just a "no.2" either.

this time we are gonna make them special to help your kid/student/teacher/whoever get some motivation for a successful school year.

you could also write the kids' name on them, or their school, or anything else really.

then pack 'em up, with a really cool tag like this one, and send them off with well wishes of success.

just think what all the kids in an entire class would say if they got this!

cuz i'm sure any kid can't wait to hear when their teacher says, "ok kids, time to get your pencils out!" 

fishing hunting camping birthday party

so i was sitting here editing pics for this post with the news on tv in the background.

there was a story about "the sting of summer."

ah! i for sure can relate to that.

cuz for some reason bugs LOVE me and my daughter.

ugh.

during our many hotel stays during our 

vacation a few weeks ago,

we stayed at a pretty nice hotel only to find the next morning that my arm and my daughter were attacked 

by a weird bug overnite.

i know it was weird cuz the bites itched and burned and looked different than ant or mosquito bites, all of which we are quite familiar at what they look like since we are always bitten living here in FL.

my hubby said it was a bed bug but only my arm was bit (about 7 times) and my daughter was bit about 10 times on her neck and forehead. he nor my son were bit at all!?!

i told him it's cuz us girls are sweet.

anyway, now that i feel all itchy just thinking about it,

the point i am trying to get to is, 

i can't go camping or fishing too much for fear of bug attacks and hunting is just not for me...

 unless it's hunting mosquitos which i honestly would not mind seeing them all dead,

not to mention whatever critter 

munched on my arm and my daughter. 

:>O

so, now that that's all said,

i wanted to share the latest party i helped with for my friend's stepad.

it's all about fishing, hunting and camping,

all of which he happens to love.

we had the party at a local sports bar & grill restaurant.

having a party at a business location has its pros and cons.

a big pro is lots of help with set up and clean up 

as far as the meal goes.

a big con is the limited decor and space you can use.

but this restaurant is always so friendly and accommodating.

the only problem was the limited space they gave me for the dessert table. but nonetheless, i made do.

this is how i decorated the dining area:

the centerpieces actually lit up which was pretty cool but hard to see in the pic.

i made them with tissue paper, foam board for the base, and then hot glued sticks and rocks.

i tucked a battery pack for the lights in the paper. 

i got the lights at wonderful dollar tree. 

(the same lights i used for this craft here)

i made a hunting target sticker and stuck it on the little plastic containers for favors filled with mint m&m's.

(sorry for the poor quality pic)

i bought these camping photo props and also took a pic of the birthday guy and used his face for a prop. 

(it was the most popular prop by the way and made for some funny pics)

we had salad, lemon chicken, baked ziti, ribs, mashed potatoes, rice and beans,

 aaaaand

some of you guys know i'm a nurse and i make a ton of stuff.

i probably should make an "about me" page 

(someday) but truth is, 

i would much much rather be a party planner than a nurse anyday cuz dang it's just a ton of fun for me and so i do it on the side whenever i can, sometimes making my own random printables too.

i've done a TON of parties so now and then i'll show them to you if that's ok...

anyway, let's move on.

have you ever used sugar sheets?

they have camouflage ones and i made some sugar cookies with cinnamon frosting i bought then topped them off with a camouflage sugar sheet circle. 

i also cut out some letters to spell the bday guy's name.

i didn't want to make a bday cake cuz we had so many treats so i just stacked the cookies in a pile to resemble one (kinda) so that the bday guy had some way to blow out some bday candles.

i took a pic of it up close but it didn't come out too clear.

nuts.

here's a light-up one though, with some camping stickers i stuck on toothpicks and a missing "A" cuz some crazy kid at the party took it before i noticed it was missing. 

sigh

here are some better pics of the rest of the treats.

these i made from the totally awesome food genius, sandra, right here.

these deer are brownie bites using this mold and dipping them in chocolate and adding the eyes and pretzel antlers quickly.

i wanted to display them on my cake pop stands but like i said space was limited on the table so i had to put the poor deer in nap mode.

then i dipped golden oreos and added some black sugar sheet paws i cut out freehand for the deer and bear tracks using black sunflower seeds for the toes.

gotta have fruit y'know? 

(it lessons the store-bought sugar overload guilt :>P) 

if you frequent this blog, these will look familiar.

as well as these:

 i bought the fishing poles at dollar tree to use as a decoration.

and since this was an all-you-can-eat buffet,

i knew guests would be overwhelmed with all the sugar so i provided the pie tins with personalized labels so they could fill up on the treats for a take home treat.

(i had to put them on the desert table for lack of space i had but i guess it worked.)

so for the tent all i did was take 2 foam core boards, stood them against each other in a triangle shape, draped them with green material from walmart, and then anchored them with a vase on each side.

if you look up real close,

you'll see parts of a sound and movement activated owl (i got at dollar tree again) that's sitting on the tent peak.

when anyone came near it, it would say

"HOOT HOOT!"

hehe 

i wanted the guests to feel like they were really camping.

shoot i shoulda taken a pic of him but i was too preoccupied with everything else i forgot about the little guy.

i also got some birds that chirped which i stuck around the cookies i showed you at the beginning of this 

ultra  L  O  N  G  post!

so for the vase, they were stuffed with a tree branch i got from my yard and then adorned with green leaf battery pack lights i also got from dollar tree.

dang i love that store.

wish i could've taken a pic of the table with the restaurant lights out so you would get a better view of the green lights but i don't think the restaurant or the other customers would be happy if i asked them to turn the lights off to take that photo.

party poopers.

LOL

so that my friends is how i spent this past saturday night.

full of fish, deer, bear, hunting & camping stuff, and thankfully,

no bugs.