Saw this little mask at Daiso (local Japanese dollar store) and brought it home with us. It’s kind of strange and we love it, so up near the mantel it went.

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

This week I had some “oh I’m such an awesome mom” moments, and I also had “oh my gosh I don’t deserve my kids because I’m the world suckiest mom!” moments too. That’s motherhood, ain’t it?!

I’m excited because I get to style the Uncommon Goods digital lookbook. I love challenges like these.! They want to see their new items styled in a real-life space, so I, along with another blogger, get to play stylists.

Ben emailed me the new Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen list. After talking with some people about our eating habits, I realized I’m not so great when it comes to breakfasts for my family. We almost always have oatmeal and O’s everyday. I need to figure out how to add in some variety.

So happy Let’s Sew Together is listed as one of the “Best Books of the Month” as picked by Amazon editors. Don’t forget to pre-order!

Check out Kristina’s blog The Self Searchers. She emailed to say hello, shared her blog with me, and I love what she shares on her space, so I thought maybe you would too! The blog world is so different from when I first started, it was friendlier then, and it wasn’t all about making it a business, so if you’re now wanting to join in and engage in the blogging community, it’s much harder. It can seem like the big bloggers stick together and help promote each other, and everyone else seems to get lost in the large sea of blogs. I would love to share about some bloggers that I think are great, but don’t necessarily have a large audience, so expect a link to someone new from time to time.

Cilantro lime shrimp… yes, please!

I seriously need to clean my craft room. It’s pretty bad.

I have this necklace from Burdees, and every time I wear it, I get tons of compliments. It’s a really pretty piece.

Mother’s Day is next weekend and Ben keeps asking me what I want. I told him, pumpkin waffles with whipped cream, my favorite langostino sopes, and Mexican chocolate pie from The Pie Hole. Oh and to do nothing in a clean house. LOL

OH and we’re having a book release party on May 31st at the Oh Hello Friend shop and you are all invited! I will share more info soon and I hope you can make it! Happy weekending! It’s so hot here and we’re going to an ice cream party!

I love me some Me & Mr. Cassidy ( I blogged about them before here). I worked with them on a little something, and I can’t wait to share it with you soon!

Mismatched placemats, random cups, a big container full of red pepper flakes, this is our usual dinner table. Dinners are always chaotic, loud, and everyone’s talking over each other to tell Ben about their day. I’m always thankful for the family chatter that happens around the dinner table, and as Olaf says, “All good things, all good things.” #frozenobsessed

Happy May 1st! Can you believe it’s already May?!

This is the birthday dress I came up with since True was having a Fluttershy My Little Pony party for her 8th birthday (a peek at it here). I bought yellow fabric to make one like I sketched in this post (and actually started cutting and sewing it), but as I was making it, I wasn’t feeling it, so I switched to sewing a simple shift dress from this vintage bed sheet I had. It had yellow and butterflies like Fluttershy, and then I made her a pink bow to go in her hair, and it made the perfect 8th birthday dress for my biggest girl.

She loved it and pretty much had it on all weekend (when she wasn’t wearing her bathing suit). Also, on her birthday wish list were these checkered slip-on Vans, so she was super excited when she opened the box to see she received them. She declared them her new favorite shoes, although this wasn’t her favorite birthday present; the winner present of the weekend was a planner! Yup, my 8 year old girl asked for a planner for her birthday. She’s already started writing in it and marking dates. I think I have a type-A personality on my hands.

And if you want to learn how to sew (or want a few sewing projects to add to your to-do list), don’t forget to pre-order my book, Let’s Sew Together. Sewing can be intimidating, but I’m telling you it isn’t. It’s so much fun and it’s even more fun to do for and with your kiddos!

Ben took the girls to WonderCon a couple weekends ago and it was their first time going to something like that. My girls are really into comics, especially Spider-Man, so they were so excited to be able to go. Of course, they dug up their costumes to get dressed up and they came home with plenty of pictures of other characters they took pictures with, and two people even asked Soul even they could take pictures with her!

Ben got each girl a little treat to commemorate their adventure that day, and each treat represented each character they were dressed as. Soul got this cute little Pinkie Pie by Funko, and True and Brave got these two little prints from the artist Christopher Lee. After they came home, Ben wished he picked up one he saw for me, so he called his cousin, who was still there, and he picked up the print for us. It’s this Kids on Modern Classics print by Christopher Lee. I love midcentury modern chairs (and have a few), so how funny (and sort of true) is this illustration.  This Master of the Universe Compendium poster is pretty great too, and I know the kids would love it because they love He-Man and She-Ra. We had fun looking Christopher Lee’s site and loving all his work (check it out here); his illustrations are just so cool and fun.  We love finding new artists to love and follow!

Well, you already know we’re big Frozen fans over here (as proof here). One day, as I was cleaning their room for like the umpteenth time, I saw this card that True and Brave had made inviting other princesses to a party. I know they made it only for their “pretend” party, but I thought it would be fun to make their little princess party come to life. Seeing their card (from Elsa and Anna) sparked an idea to have a “Snowman Building Party” with shaved ice!

So one afternoon, while they were on spring break, I told them to get dressed up (my MIL had gotten them the Elsa and Anna Frozen costumes from Target in Texas because they were totally sold out in California), and since she got True and Brave a costume, I went to Target to make sure Soul and Glow had a (Cinderella and Belle) costume too. Can you tell they love it?! And their crowns have become a normal accessory that they, oh you know, wear to the grocery store. HA! Soul has been saying she wants a princess party for her 5th birthday, so I’m hoping she’s cool if we re-use this for that occasion (and they also wore it when Brave performed “Let It Go”). We didn’t have Elsa and Anna crowns, so I created this template, cut it out of gold poster board, added elastic to the back, glued on a jewel, and they were set to go.

I got some simple streamers that were Frozen-esque, and draped them over a tension rod between our arches (see arch here), I covered their play table in a striped, metallic gift wrapping paper, and then I laid out all the snowman building party fixings. I didn’t tell the girls what we were going to do, and they were so curious and watched me lay all these things out. I made sure to remind them all to wash their hands before the party started, and once they sat down, saw the ice shaver and ice, they figured it out… they were going to build a snowman!

We all love Olaf, he’s my favorite character in the movie and I totally crack up when he gets grabbed by the ice monster and says, “All good thing, all good things.” I thought since True and Brave had made the invitation and signed it “Elsa and Anna,” well, we couldn’t leave Olaf out now, could we?! So having princess sisters and their princess friends build a snowman to bring our version of Olaf come to life would be something they would totally have fun with!

Build Your Own Snowman
best to use an ice shaver (this one should do the job), but putting ice in a vita-mix works too (the kids plowed through the snow so fast, that we used both methods to get shaved ice)

Ingredients:
Shaved ice
Pretzel sticks (for arms and hair)
Sugar candy eyes (from Target in the baking section)
Sour Patch Kids (for the nose)
Chocolate chips (for the buttons)

Tips for building your snowman:
You’ll want to build your snowman in a bowl, so you don’t have water spilling out as it melts. Build the bottom of the snowman first, then add the head on top, and let the kids decorate. We used a small spoon to help carve into the shaved ice to insert the different parts of the snowman.

They had such a fun afternoon of Olaf building and shaved iced sundaes. True said, “Mom, it felt like we were in the North Mountain.” So I guess if it felt like we were really there, then it was a job well done. We were all laughing at how silly our Olaf turned out, and then he kept melting away as they were indulging in their own shaved ice sundaes. Eventually, True plopped Olaf’s head into her bowl and ate him. She kept saying, “I’m eating Olaf!” and the other girls thought that was so hilarious! And of course, throughout their mini party, they kept singing, “Do you want to build a snowman?…”

Shaved Ice Sundaes
inspired by Taiwanese shaved ice

Ingredients:
Shaved ice
Condensed milk (I put ours in a dispenser bottle)
Fresh fruit (we used berries, strawberries and peaches, but bananas and mangos are also yummy)

Directions:
Place your shaved ice in a bowl, put the fruit on top, and then generously drizzle condensed milk all over.

Shaved ice sundaes are so refreshing and simple to make. The girls ate bowls full that afternoon, which overflowed into evening — all they wanted for dinner was pretzels, and then we called it a night. We cleaned up the messes, bid the princesses farewell, and it was off to bed they go. “In summer” (sang Olaf style), we are definitely going to have another snowman and shaved ice party. Who wants to come this time?

Download the crown template…
Cut out on poster board, punch holes, add elastic, glue on a jewel, and you’re set!

This post is sponsored by Target. More Princesses, More Sparkle: Blur the lines of fantasy and reality with your favorite Disney princesses at Target. Thank you for the time you take to visit this space!