Sunday Funday: Exploring Houston

From time to time, Will and I jump in the car and explore our large city. We try to find attractions that cost little to no money because... 1) It's a challenge. 2) It fits the budget.  3) You can really find strange and unusual places off the beaten path.  So after being cooped up for a few days, due to a cold, it was a good time to stretch our legs and explore. 

On this trip, we hit 3 spots.  Our first stop was The Beer Can House.  Admission is $2. $5 for a guided tour. Since we got there 10 minutes before closing, we just walked up and snapped a few pictures.

This house was 18 years in the making and is covered with approximately  50,000 beer cans and bottles.  The owner is a retired upholster from Southern Pacific Railroad and one day he just decided to cover his house with aluminum cans. 

Our second stop was The Art Car Museum.  Every year, Houston has an Art Car parade and since I miss it every year, I figured this was the next best thing. Admission is free.

Here are the cars we saw. We weren't able to stay long because Cora was a little scared of these strange and eclectic cars.

Our last (and my favorite) stop was at The Blue Trees.

Artist, Konstantin Dimopoulos, was commissioned to recreate his outdoor living project to generate awareness to the many trees Houston lost to the 2011 drought and the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.  The trees were painted with biologically-safe, water-based ultramarine mineral pigments. When I accidentally  brushed up against the trees, the blue paint came off very easily and the texture resembled chalk. There's no telling how long these trees will stay blue, but for now, they do make a very striking statement.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Father's Day Daycation

I must admit, I am so lucky to have Will as my husband. Not only is a great husband, he is a wonderful daddy to our little girl. Since he made my Mother's Day so special, I wanted to make sure he had a memorable Father's Day.

We started the day with a little breakfast and a homemade card.
It's amazing what you can do with apps these days. I used Turbo Collage to piece the many pics I've taken of these two all snuggled up.


Then I printed it and created this card...


(Note to self...invest in washable markers and hide the colorful Sharpie pens from Cora).

After breakfast and a nap for Cora, we packed up for a Daycation in Galveston (which is about 45 miles outside of Houston).

We lunched at Gaido's. Apparently this restaurant has been here since 1911. I don't know how it's survived all of those hurricanes.



Cora looking out to sea.



We decided to take the ferry over to Boliver Island. My gosh the line to get on the ferry was soooooo long. When we finally got to the loading zone. We had a chance to get out and stretch our legs. Thank goodness it was a "controlled area".



Before we went to Galveston, I read online how the kids love feeding the birds from the back of the ferry. I brought some leftover bread from our lunch and we headed to the back of the boat. Cora loves watching the birds out the window at home and i just knew she was going to love this. I start to throw the bread and instantly a huge flock of seagulls were hovering right over us. My face went from excited to sheer panic. These birds were ready to take that bread right out of my hand and peck our eyes out! Okay, okay, a little exaggeration, but I swear they were all saying, "Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!" I ended up chucking the whole bread so we could escape. It was definitely a Finding Nemo/ The Birds moment!



Once we got away. We enjoyed the rest of our ride and a quick drive around the island






After a lovely day (minus the bird attack), we headed back on the ferry just in time to catch this beautiful sunset.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

We took Cora to her first baseball game the other night. I think she was overwhelmed by the sights and sounds. We didn't get to stay for the entire game, but we had a great time. Here are a few pics from the night...













- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Earth Day: Upcycling - Making A Play Kitchen From Boxes

A few months ago, my daughter recived some hand me down kitchen playset full of dighes, pots, and pans.  She loved playing with them and sometimes we'd set up a box in the kitchen so she can "cook" with me. I started thinking about making her a little kitchen out of the cardboard boxes we had.  So with a free weekend, and a plan, and some imagination, we created one for her.  Here's how we did it.

We colllected boxes and moved them around to see which would be the best stove, sink, and refrigerator. 

 We got some supplies...  contact paper, duct tape, foam sheets, mixing bowl, and hooks.  Not seen are the glue gun, packing tape, pump from a liquid soap dispenser, foil.  I think for this project we spent approx $13 for everything.  

Before covering your boxes with the contact paper, try to figure out which side will be the front and back, where you door opening will be.  Draw them on with a black marker so that when you cover them box with contact paper, you can see lines.  For the hinges of the door openings, score  the inside of the box, where these will be, then cover your boxes with contact paper.  We used the clear packing tape to keep things in place.  Once covered, start cutting you door openings.  If you scored the hinge side of the door from the inside, your door should open easily. 

We then measured and cut holes for the mixing bowl and the "faucet".  To secure the faucet, my husband drilled a hole in the bottom of the pump dispenser and then put a screw in horizontally so it would stay put once installed.  I used the hot glue gun to secure the rim of the bowl to the box.  Remember to put the glue on the rim and then press down onto the box.  If you use the gun on the box, the heat from the gun could possible burn a hole in your contact paper.  

I added the colored duct tape to the sides of our appliances so it would help reinforce the contact paper.  I cut the foam sheets for the burners (mine are the size of a CD).  I also used foam sheets for the handles and hot glued them on.  For the oven, I made brackets out of bent cardboard and hot glued them to the sides of the oven walls.  I then covered a sheet of cardboard with foil and then hot glued the piece to the brackets.

I also secured 2 hooks on the side to hold her grocery bag, dish towel, or purse.

The box we used for the refrigerator still had the Styrofoam packing pieces still in them, so I used them to create the shelves in the fridge.  I did the same thing here as the oven...made brackets out of extra cardboard, then glued the Styrofoam shelves on the brackets.  I had an extra box that fit perfectly as a crisper drawer, so I covered it in contact paper and loaded it up with her Ikea play veggies and fruit.  I also glued a velcro circle to the door and shelf so that the door can remain close.  

 My daughter had a ton of kitchen stuff passed down to her so we just stocked up the kitchen cupboard with her extra dishes and cooking equipment.

Voila!

Here is Cora enjoying her new kitchen with her Daddy!

A Year In A Flash - Celebrating Cora's Birthday

A few months ago, I was hunting for cute birthday party themes for Cora's First Birthday. I came across Stacey's party and thought it was the perfect theme for us. Here's what we did...

I created a photo collage (above) on my fav photo site picnik (so sad this site will be shut down in April). The collage was used for the invitation and for the cake.

The Invitation

The invitation was created on Paperless Post. I'm not the biggest fan of paper invitations

because of all of the paper waste, but I understand that some people don't have e-mail (like my mom). Paperless Post allows you to create beautiful e-invitations/e-cards, but you also have the option to print them out. Here is what the invitation looked like. I just printed this on nice card stock.

Timeline Banner

Since the venue for the party was already beautifully decorated, I kept my party decorations fairly simple. I knew the colors of the room had a lot of earth tones, so I chose pink and green for the party colors.

I created a timeline banner of Cora's first year. I painted clothes pins in glued on the number medallions with a hot glue gun. The medallions were just a punch of paper and the numbers were cut from my Cricut machine.

The timeline banner held pictures of Cora from each month of the past year.

Treats

I had two tables of food. One table was a snack table and the other was a yummy treat table. Here are the details...

My uncle and I made the wonderful cake pops. I find that traditional cake balls are too sweet, so instead of balling up cake and icing and dipping them in chocolate, we just just cut out pieces of pound cake, inserted the pop sticks, froze, then dipped in colored chocolate. The decoration on the pops are from chocolate transfer sheets. the flower pot was $0.79 at Ikea. I just cut out a large flower and a C on the Cricut and glued it on.

The cookies are done just like my easy no bake thin mints. Except that I used colored chocolate instead of Andes mints and used the chocolate transfer sheets again.

The popcorn bags were made from small treat bags. I used the Cricut to cut out C's and 1's and glued them on the bag. The popcorn was a salty/sweet mixture of cheese and caramel popcorn.

More Goodies!

I knew I'd be crunch for time to do a cake so I purchased a 1/2 sheet cake from Costco and asked them to only ice it in white. I took a jpeg of the collage picture from Picnik and had an edible sugar sheet made at a local cake supply store. I also purchased the colored Sixlet chocolate balls to border the cake. I found the CORA letter candles at Party City.

In keeping with the colors of the theme, I offered 2 beverages: pink strawberry punch, and cucumber water. I put them in beverage dispensers.

Since my party started at 2:30 in the afternoon, I just had deli and veggie trays, love dip and chips, and fruit skewers. The chocolate oat crisp cookies came from Ikea (I love those cookies!).

Photobooth and Party Pics

I made fun pink and green shades and moustaches. I also made talk bubbles out of chalkboard contact paper, matting board, and wooden dowels. I hired a photographer who captured photo booth type pics and all of the other party pics. I really love how this turned out!

Party favors

Last but not least, since I had leftover chalkboard contact paper, I decided to make mini talk bubbles to put in the party favor bags. The kids got mini talk bubbles, chalk, stickers, and other various goodies.

We had a wonderful party and Cora was showered with a lot of love! I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Have a happy day!