June 2023

Water Bottle Motivational Tracker (Free Silhouette Cut File)

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WaterMadeExciting #CollectiveBias




Last year I lost ten pounds.  You can see how I did it here, but one of the biggest things I did to not only lose weight, but just feel better in general, was to drink more water.



I have always been horrible about drinking enough water.  I just didn’t enjoy drinking plain old water.

Well, the awesome thing about water is, you don’t have to drink it plain!  There are ways to enjoy flavored water without adding any extra calories or sugar, or at least keeping it very minimal.



For example, I love drinking flavored sparkling water.  I quit drinking soda, but I missed that carbonation BADLY.  For me, sparkling water was the answer.  The only problem is, it can get quite expensive.



So I was really excited to try out the SodaStream Power Automatic Sparkling Water Maker.  It automatically carbonates your water, and then you buy different flavors to make your water a bit more interesting!



You can choose your level of “fizz”.  I am definitely a three drop girl.



Simply fill your bottle with water,  attach it to the machine following the instructions, press your fizz button, and voila- sparkling water!  Now you just need some flavor.


SodaStream has several varieties of flavors:

Waters: all natural ingredients and very low calorie

Fruits: delicious fruit flavor combinations (though be careful of the calories on this one)

Zeros:  no-calorie, full-fruit flavors made with stevia

Gourmet Waters: unique chef-inspired flavor combinations with high quality natural ingredients



I tried several different flavors, and my favorite so far is the Berry Mix from the Fruits line.




Another thing that helps me drink more water is using a fun water bottle that helps me track what I’m drinking.



You can make one too, and all you need is a 32 oz water bottle, some vinyl, and a Silhouette (or a friend that has one!)



Download this cut file , open it in Silhouette Studio, resize if necessary for your bottle,



and cut it on your machine.



Remove the excess vinyl, including the pieces above the cut lines in the water drops, then apply transfer tape.



Move the design to your water bottle.  If your water bottle has marked spots for the different amounts, you can match up each line to your bottle.  Definitely apply this one line at a time!




If not, here’s how I figured out where to put them.  I filled a liquid measuring cup with 8 oz, then poured it into my bottle.  That’s where the 24 oz line went.  Repeat and mark the 16 oz line.  Do it a third time, and mark the 8 oz line.



(It is supposed to go “backwards” because you’re tracking how much water you drink as you go through the day). 

Make sure you hand wash these bottles, as the vinyl will not hold up in the dishwasher.  I also recommend using a more permanent vinyl, like Oracal 651, since water is involved here. 

Research is mixed on whether or not you actually need 64 oz of water a day, so I put REFILL at the bottom as an option.  I can promise you, though, if you even drink 32 oz a day, you will feel so much better!




It gives you energy, helps aching joints, keeps you from snacking mindlessly, and more.

The SodaStream Power would be a great holiday gift for anyone!  You can get free shipping with any order over $50, too!  Find all the latest SodaStream offers here.

How do you do at drinking water?  What flavor sparkling water do you want to try?

Ahoy! A “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” Birthday Party!

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My oldest son turned 4 on Saturday.  To celebrate, we threw a pirate party.  But it couldn’t be just a pirate party- it had to be a “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” pirate party.  If you don’t know, this is a brand-new show from Disney Jr.  It’s so new there is no merchandise out for it yet.  So, I did my best to combine “basic” pirate stuff with some homemade “Jake” stuff.  My son even insisted on dressing like Smee- so he wore his blue and white striped shirt and I made him a red stocking cap out of a dollar store t-shirt. All “Jake” images are copyrights of Walt Disney.  I’m sure they’ll have their own stuff out soon, but until then, I’d like to think that old Walt would understand a parent trying to please their child. To begin with, I downloaded the “Jake” image from Disney Jr. and made my own invitations.  I used a free skull background, then put the Jake image in the header.

For decorations, we had “basic” pirate stuff- a treasure map tablecloth, black, blue, and red balloons, some skull and crossbones signs, etc.

When the kids got there, we gave them bandannas, eyepatches, and earrings, and they decorated a “Jake” spyglass, found here:

Then we played a few games, jumped on our new trampoline, ate lunch, opened presents, ate cake, went on a treasure hunt, and jumped on the trampoline some more.  Who knew pirates had trampolines 🙂

For food I served pirate themed food.

Fish n Chips- (goldfish crackers and potato chips)

Swords (pretzel sticks)

Cannonballs (grapes)

Golden Nuggets (chicken nuggets)

X Marks the Spot breadsticks (pizza dough shaped into x’s)

Crocodile Blood (Red Kool-Aid)

For activities I tried to incorporate some “Jake”-style games-

Pin the Hook on the Captain (I sketched this from a clipart image I found online)

Search for gold Doubloons (Jake and his friends earn these through their adventures)

A treasure hunt for their goody bags (not pictured)

The cake was from FamilyFun magazine and can be found here:  

For the goody bags, I made my own labels, filled brown paper lunch sacks and tied them with jute rope to make them look like loot sacks.

Inside I put a pirate compass and pirate paddleball from the dollar store, bubbles that I wrapped with a “Jake” logo I printed out, pirate stickers, a “Jake” coloring page (found here) and a bag of Hershey’s nuggets and individual Rolos.  They also got to keep all their pirate gear and gold doubloons.

P.S.  If you have a “Jake” fan and are headed to Disneyland anytime soon, make sure you check out the Disney Jr. show in California Adventure!  It truly was a magical experience for my kids!

(If you’re planning a trip, book through Get Away Today- I’ve used them several times and it has been awesome every time- no bumps or goof-ups, and we always save a little money with their hard-to-find ticket discounts!  Use code OCRAFTY to save an  extra $10 off any 2-night or longer Southern California package (hotel and 2 ticket minimum).

The kids had a great time, and I had fun being a pirate!  Maybe these ideas will help someone else until Disney gets its Jake party gear out, so I’m linking up to some of these parties: 

BYU Cougars Shirt with HTV (Heat Transfer Vinyl)

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It’s that time of year again…. College Football Time!  

I graduated from BYU, and while I was there, I was a member of the marching band.  In fact, I was even the drum major my senior year! (That’s the person who conducts the band, not someone who plays the drums.  Just in case you don’t know.)

So, I went to every home football game for four years.  And, I even got to travel with the team a few times.  We went to an away game here in Arizona once, the WAC championship (am I dating myself?) in Las Vegas a few times, and I got to travel to bowl games in Dallas TX, Memphis TN, and Detroit MI.

I am actually a band geek.  It’s true.

But I also love watching football.  It’s so much fun!  I get a little sad that I can’t be such a big part of the games anymore, but it’s always fun to cheer on my team.

One of the favorite things I got to do was lead the “fight song” anytime we scored.  We also had a really fun march down to the stadium for pregame where we got to play our music, “Go Mighty Cougars”, and the fight song to the gathered crowds as well.  So, our fight song is pretty much ingrained in me for life.  When I finally decided to make my own BYU shirt, I knew I had to include the “famous” closing chant from the fight song.


The whole stadium chants this and punches their fist in time as the drumline plays.  It’s pretty exhilarating!  I was inspired by this printable but had to change it up a little to make it more “rhythmically correct”.  I told you I’m a band geek.   (By the way- I could not get a good picture, but those are exclamation points after “cougars”).

To make this shirt, I used Siser EasyWeed Heat Transfer Vinyl and cut it with my Silhouette.  If you do this, make sure you MIRROR your image, and put the shiny side down (the plastic backing) to cut.

Weed away your extra vinyl and you should be left with your design.


Get your shirt ready.  I used a relaxed-fit navy blue tee from old Navy- just removed the pocket with a seam ripper.  Make sure you put something in between the front and back so you don’t ruin your shirt.

Place your design on the shirt, cover it with a piece of parchment paper, and press with an iron according to the instructions on the vinyl.  I used it at highest heat setting, no steam, for about 30 seconds on each piece.

Let it cool for a few minutes, then peel off the plastic backing, and you’re good to go!




Now I have the perfect shirt to throw on when my team plays.  (We won the first week- how about your team?)



What would you put on your “spirit shirt”?  


Need more football ideas for your game-watching and tailgating this weekend? I’ve teamed up with a group of other creative bloggers to share some fun football game day ideas! 


The list includes some awesome DIY football wear, game day decor, and tailgating recipes!

Be sure to pin this list and then click around to see all the other 10 football fun posts!



I’m linking this up to some of these parties this week.  Check them out with me!  


Connect with us! You can find us here:

BYU Cougars Shirt with HTV (Heat Transfer Vinyl)

⋅

It’s that time of year again…. College Football Time!  

I graduated from BYU, and while I was there, I was a member of the marching band.  In fact, I was even the drum major my senior year! (That’s the person who conducts the band, not someone who plays the drums.  Just in case you don’t know.)

So, I went to every home football game for four years.  And, I even got to travel with the team a few times.  We went to an away game here in Arizona once, the WAC championship (am I dating myself?) in Las Vegas a few times, and I got to travel to bowl games in Dallas TX, Memphis TN, and Detroit MI.

I am actually a band geek.  It’s true.

But I also love watching football.  It’s so much fun!  I get a little sad that I can’t be such a big part of the games anymore, but it’s always fun to cheer on my team.

One of the favorite things I got to do was lead the “fight song” anytime we scored.  We also had a really fun march down to the stadium for pregame where we got to play our music, “Go Mighty Cougars”, and the fight song to the gathered crowds as well.  So, our fight song is pretty much ingrained in me for life.  When I finally decided to make my own BYU shirt, I knew I had to include the “famous” closing chant from the fight song.


The whole stadium chants this and punches their fist in time as the drumline plays.  It’s pretty exhilarating!  I was inspired by this printable but had to change it up a little to make it more “rhythmically correct”.  I told you I’m a band geek.   (By the way- I could not get a good picture, but those are exclamation points after “cougars”).

To make this shirt, I used Siser EasyWeed Heat Transfer Vinyl and cut it with my Silhouette.  If you do this, make sure you MIRROR your image, and put the shiny side down (the plastic backing) to cut.

Weed away your extra vinyl and you should be left with your design.


Get your shirt ready.  I used a relaxed-fit navy blue tee from old Navy- just removed the pocket with a seam ripper.  Make sure you put something in between the front and back so you don’t ruin your shirt.

Place your design on the shirt, cover it with a piece of parchment paper, and press with an iron according to the instructions on the vinyl.  I used it at highest heat setting, no steam, for about 30 seconds on each piece.

Let it cool for a few minutes, then peel off the plastic backing, and you’re good to go!




Now I have the perfect shirt to throw on when my team plays.  (We won the first week- how about your team?)



What would you put on your “spirit shirt”?  


Need more football ideas for your game-watching and tailgating this weekend? I’ve teamed up with a group of other creative bloggers to share some fun football game day ideas! 


The list includes some awesome DIY football wear, game day decor, and tailgating recipes!

Be sure to pin this list and then click around to see all the other 10 football fun posts!



I’m linking this up to some of these parties this week.  Check them out with me!  


Connect with us! You can find us here:

Ahoy! A “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” Birthday Party!

⋅

My oldest son turned 4 on Saturday.  To celebrate, we threw a pirate party.  But it couldn’t be just a pirate party- it had to be a “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” pirate party.  If you don’t know, this is a brand-new show from Disney Jr.  It’s so new there is no merchandise out for it yet.  So, I did my best to combine “basic” pirate stuff with some homemade “Jake” stuff.  My son even insisted on dressing like Smee- so he wore his blue and white striped shirt and I made him a red stocking cap out of a dollar store t-shirt. All “Jake” images are copyrights of Walt Disney.  I’m sure they’ll have their own stuff out soon, but until then, I’d like to think that old Walt would understand a parent trying to please their child. To begin with, I downloaded the “Jake” image from Disney Jr. and made my own invitations.  I used a free skull background, then put the Jake image in the header.

For decorations, we had “basic” pirate stuff- a treasure map tablecloth, black, blue, and red balloons, some skull and crossbones signs, etc.

When the kids got there, we gave them bandannas, eyepatches, and earrings, and they decorated a “Jake” spyglass, found here:

Then we played a few games, jumped on our new trampoline, ate lunch, opened presents, ate cake, went on a treasure hunt, and jumped on the trampoline some more.  Who knew pirates had trampolines 🙂

For food I served pirate themed food.

Fish n Chips- (goldfish crackers and potato chips)

Swords (pretzel sticks)

Cannonballs (grapes)

Golden Nuggets (chicken nuggets)

X Marks the Spot breadsticks (pizza dough shaped into x’s)

Crocodile Blood (Red Kool-Aid)

For activities I tried to incorporate some “Jake”-style games-

Pin the Hook on the Captain (I sketched this from a clipart image I found online)

Search for gold Doubloons (Jake and his friends earn these through their adventures)

A treasure hunt for their goody bags (not pictured)

The cake was from FamilyFun magazine and can be found here:  

For the goody bags, I made my own labels, filled brown paper lunch sacks and tied them with jute rope to make them look like loot sacks.

Inside I put a pirate compass and pirate paddleball from the dollar store, bubbles that I wrapped with a “Jake” logo I printed out, pirate stickers, a “Jake” coloring page (found here) and a bag of Hershey’s nuggets and individual Rolos.  They also got to keep all their pirate gear and gold doubloons.

P.S.  If you have a “Jake” fan and are headed to Disneyland anytime soon, make sure you check out the Disney Jr. show in California Adventure!  It truly was a magical experience for my kids!

(If you’re planning a trip, book through Get Away Today- I’ve used them several times and it has been awesome every time- no bumps or goof-ups, and we always save a little money with their hard-to-find ticket discounts!  Use code OCRAFTY to save an  extra $10 off any 2-night or longer Southern California package (hotel and 2 ticket minimum).

The kids had a great time, and I had fun being a pirate!  Maybe these ideas will help someone else until Disney gets its Jake party gear out, so I’m linking up to some of these parties: 

Birthday Bash- Giveaway #5: Michael’s Gift Card

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 It’s my bloggy birthday, and my real-life birthday is coming up soon!  Let’s celebrate!

Each day this week, I have a giveaway for you, as well as a fun, birthday-themed post.  !  The theme of my giveaways this week is “My Favorite Things”!   I have not been compensated in any way for featuring these shops or products– I am just thrilled you get to share them with me, and I hope they become some of your “favorite things!”

Thanks for coming back today!  Before we get to the last giveaway, please make sure to enter all the giveaways this week.  They can be found here.  All giveaways are open until midnight on Sunday the 13th.

Now, on to the show…..My final giveaway is simple and hopefully really useful.   Any crafter knows a great place to shop is Michael’s.  It’s dangerously close to my house, and I go there ALL THE TIME (much to the chagrin of my husband and boys).  I only get through it with the promise of lollipops at the end, but hey- it’s worth it!

Today I’m giving away a $25 Michael’s gift card.  Need a stack of scrapbook paper?  That’ll cover it.  How about some paint and supplies?  No problem.  A little home decor?  $25 will pick you up something cute, especially with your 40% off coupon that is on their site weekly.

Simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.  Good luck!  


Don’t forget to enter all the giveaways, found here.

Finally, please come back this afternoon for a HUGE announcement about my blog.  You won’t want to miss it 🙂


Birthday Bash- Giveaway #5: Michael’s Gift Card

⋅

 It’s my bloggy birthday, and my real-life birthday is coming up soon!  Let’s celebrate!

Each day this week, I have a giveaway for you, as well as a fun, birthday-themed post.  !  The theme of my giveaways this week is “My Favorite Things”!   I have not been compensated in any way for featuring these shops or products– I am just thrilled you get to share them with me, and I hope they become some of your “favorite things!”

Thanks for coming back today!  Before we get to the last giveaway, please make sure to enter all the giveaways this week.  They can be found here.  All giveaways are open until midnight on Sunday the 13th.

Now, on to the show…..My final giveaway is simple and hopefully really useful.   Any crafter knows a great place to shop is Michael’s.  It’s dangerously close to my house, and I go there ALL THE TIME (much to the chagrin of my husband and boys).  I only get through it with the promise of lollipops at the end, but hey- it’s worth it!

Today I’m giving away a $25 Michael’s gift card.  Need a stack of scrapbook paper?  That’ll cover it.  How about some paint and supplies?  No problem.  A little home decor?  $25 will pick you up something cute, especially with your 40% off coupon that is on their site weekly.

Simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.  Good luck!  


Don’t forget to enter all the giveaways, found here.

Finally, please come back this afternoon for a HUGE announcement about my blog.  You won’t want to miss it 🙂


Birthday Bash- Giveaway #5: Michael’s Gift Card

⋅

 It’s my bloggy birthday, and my real-life birthday is coming up soon!  Let’s celebrate!

Each day this week, I have a giveaway for you, as well as a fun, birthday-themed post.  !  The theme of my giveaways this week is “My Favorite Things”!   I have not been compensated in any way for featuring these shops or products– I am just thrilled you get to share them with me, and I hope they become some of your “favorite things!”

Thanks for coming back today!  Before we get to the last giveaway, please make sure to enter all the giveaways this week.  They can be found here.  All giveaways are open until midnight on Sunday the 13th.

Now, on to the show…..My final giveaway is simple and hopefully really useful.   Any crafter knows a great place to shop is Michael’s.  It’s dangerously close to my house, and I go there ALL THE TIME (much to the chagrin of my husband and boys).  I only get through it with the promise of lollipops at the end, but hey- it’s worth it!

Today I’m giving away a $25 Michael’s gift card.  Need a stack of scrapbook paper?  That’ll cover it.  How about some paint and supplies?  No problem.  A little home decor?  $25 will pick you up something cute, especially with your 40% off coupon that is on their site weekly.

Simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.  Good luck!  


Don’t forget to enter all the giveaways, found here.

Finally, please come back this afternoon for a HUGE announcement about my blog.  You won’t want to miss it 🙂


The Evelyn Dress/Top: Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop Tour

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Welcome!  I’m thrilled to be the next stop of the Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop tour today! Today I’ve got a cute pattern review, on sale today for $5, plus the opportunity to win 3 patterns of your choice!


 There are so many cute patterns in the shop that I had a hard time choosing one to review.  After much hemming and hawing, I finally chose the Evelyn Dress/Swing Top.

I just love, love, love the ruffle down the middle!  Now, my girl is a little older–7 going on 8, so I was thrilled to find a cute pattern that went up to her size 7!  So many cute patterns stop in the toddler years.  

The pattern is in PDF format, mailed right to you.  It was easy to print out and put together, and the directions were very clear and easy to follow, with plenty of photos.  There were even tips on making your own bias tape, which I chose to use so to unify my finished product a little more.

The best part is that this pattern is convertible- it can be a cute A-line dress or an adorable swing top.  I initially cut this as a dress, but my daughter was less than thrilled.  She’s going through a shorts and t-shirt phase right now and wasn’t excited about having another dress.  So I chopped it and made it into a swing top.  Here’s how mine turned out:


Here’s a view from the back.  It has a fun keyhole back with a tie closure, which makes this a great pattern for more novice sewers like myself (no buttons or zippers!) The only thing I had trouble with was the sleeves.  Making the cuff was easy, and inserting the sleeve into the shoulder seam was no problem.  But when I sewed the top together, the fit of the sleeve was just not right.  I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I just kind of played around with it until it looked decent.  It was probably “user error” though, not the pattern. If you’d like to try this pattern out, it’s on sale here TODAY ONLY for $5!  What a great deal!  In addition, Amy, the shop owner, is generously giving away a Pattern 3-pack of your choice!  If you’d like to win some cute patterns, use the Rafflecopter entry form below to enter.  Good luck, and happy sewing!


Ahoy! A “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” Birthday Party!

⋅

My oldest son turned 4 on Saturday.  To celebrate, we threw a pirate party.  But it couldn’t be just a pirate party- it had to be a “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” pirate party.  If you don’t know, this is a brand-new show from Disney Jr.  It’s so new there is no merchandise out for it yet.  So, I did my best to combine “basic” pirate stuff with some homemade “Jake” stuff.  My son even insisted on dressing like Smee- so he wore his blue and white striped shirt and I made him a red stocking cap out of a dollar store t-shirt. All “Jake” images are copyrights of Walt Disney.  I’m sure they’ll have their own stuff out soon, but until then, I’d like to think that old Walt would understand a parent trying to please their child. To begin with, I downloaded the “Jake” image from Disney Jr. and made my own invitations.  I used a free skull background, then put the Jake image in the header.

For decorations, we had “basic” pirate stuff- a treasure map tablecloth, black, blue, and red balloons, some skull and crossbones signs, etc.

When the kids got there, we gave them bandannas, eyepatches, and earrings, and they decorated a “Jake” spyglass, found here:

Then we played a few games, jumped on our new trampoline, ate lunch, opened presents, ate cake, went on a treasure hunt, and jumped on the trampoline some more.  Who knew pirates had trampolines 🙂

For food I served pirate themed food.

Fish n Chips- (goldfish crackers and potato chips)

Swords (pretzel sticks)

Cannonballs (grapes)

Golden Nuggets (chicken nuggets)

X Marks the Spot breadsticks (pizza dough shaped into x’s)

Crocodile Blood (Red Kool-Aid)

For activities I tried to incorporate some “Jake”-style games-

Pin the Hook on the Captain (I sketched this from a clipart image I found online)

Search for gold Doubloons (Jake and his friends earn these through their adventures)

A treasure hunt for their goody bags (not pictured)

The cake was from FamilyFun magazine and can be found here:  

For the goody bags, I made my own labels, filled brown paper lunch sacks and tied them with jute rope to make them look like loot sacks.

Inside I put a pirate compass and pirate paddleball from the dollar store, bubbles that I wrapped with a “Jake” logo I printed out, pirate stickers, a “Jake” coloring page (found here) and a bag of Hershey’s nuggets and individual Rolos.  They also got to keep all their pirate gear and gold doubloons.

P.S.  If you have a “Jake” fan and are headed to Disneyland anytime soon, make sure you check out the Disney Jr. show in California Adventure!  It truly was a magical experience for my kids!

(If you’re planning a trip, book through Get Away Today- I’ve used them several times and it has been awesome every time- no bumps or goof-ups, and we always save a little money with their hard-to-find ticket discounts!  Use code OCRAFTY to save an  extra $10 off any 2-night or longer Southern California package (hotel and 2 ticket minimum).

The kids had a great time, and I had fun being a pirate!  Maybe these ideas will help someone else until Disney gets its Jake party gear out, so I’m linking up to some of these parties: 

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