Making Smiles on Faces

My sister, Amy, presented me with this award on her blog today. In order to accept this award, I must tell you five random things about myself.

Okay so: 5 random things…..

1. Sewing has turned into a great outlet for me. I like that I can create and I have control over it (except when I mess it up and have no one else to blame but myself!). I wish I had more time that I could really do some sewing though. I often do it in bits and pieces or just one entire day (with kids interruptions of course). And I’d like to get to do some sewing for me. Most of the sewing I do right now is for the shop or for gifts.

2. I have a hard time not getting a shirt from shirt woot on random shirt day. There will be another post about this soon because I ordered one recently and it came in the mail today. I only buy a shirt though if they still have my size left and I have money in my paypal account from cash4books.net referrals.

3. I am going to attempt to run my first 5K in March. It is mostly to show myself that I can do it and to help me get back in some sort of shape (and hopefully my old clothes). I need to kick up the training program though!

4. I have four fake teeth and I’ve broken my jaw before. Most of my close friends are aware of this but other people do not know and claim that they don’t notice it even. I of course notice but try not to let it affect me. I was hit in the mouth with a baseball bat in 5th grade (it was an accident) and that is how I broke my jaw (upper jaw in three places) and why I ended up with four fake teeth.

5. I am a magazine junkie. Now I don’t go buy every magazine there is, in fact I rarely pay for any magazine. I do have a LOT of free magazine subscriptions that I’ve found online before and I love to flip through each one. After I am done with them, I usually pass them off to GrandMom so she can read them and then she passes them off to other friends.

I choose to tag Joe (because I’m glad he is back to blogging again and that makes me smile.)

Reindeer Ornaments

Last year Little Monkey and I worked on a few Christmas ornaments that he gave as presents to our family members. He had a good time and they turned out cute. You can check out the snowmen here and the Christmas trees here. This year I decided that we would just do one ornament and I found a cute reindeer idea online. I took Little Monkey to the store to get the supplies that we did not have.

To make the reindeer ornaments, you will need the following:
popsicle sticks (We used mini sized ones-Little Monkey’s choice)
Brown paint and paintbrush
Glue
Buttons (Or pom poms)
Googly eyes
Ribbon
Hot glue gun and glue

After going shopping, Little Monkey and I set up for some painting. (I suppose you do not need to paint the popsicle sticks if you do not want to but I wanted them brown. And Little Monkey likes to paint.) The first day was just shopping and painting. Then we let everything dry.

Painting the popsicle sticks

The next day we did each step in sections. The first step was to group three popsicle sticks together. Then I would put a drop of glue down for Little Monkey and he would put the next popsicle stick where it went. We did this with all of the ornaments and then let them sit to dry again.

Forming the reindeer heads

Once the reindeer heads had been given a little bit of time to dry, we went back in to add the noses and eyes. I would put a dot of glue down for Little Monkey and he would add the button nose. Then I would put down the dots of glue for the eyes and he would add those too. Then we let them sit to dry again.

Putting on the noses and eyes

Once everything was dry, I went back in and used the hot glue gun to attach the ribbon hangers to the reindeer. I also put his name and year on the back with a sharpie.  Little Monkey was so proud of them and wanted to put all of them on our tree. I told him that only one ornament was for our tree and that we will pass out the rest of them as we see our family members over the next few weeks.

So proud of his finished ornaments!

Little Guy Tie Sale!!!

Two Florida Girls is have a sale just in time to dress your little guy up for Christmas! All Little Guy Ties are now 50% off! What a great deal! Your little guy will look great in his new tie (well technically ties because each tie is reversible!). This really is a great price, only $4 plus shipping. Check out the shop for the current selection. We will also be adding more ties to the store soon. Sorry but no more custom orders on Little Guy Ties at this point.

Little Monkey showing off Little Guy Ties

Home Depot Kids Workshop

Yesterday morning I took Little Monkey over to Home Depot for a little mommy time. We went to build a wagon at the free kids workshop. Home Depot has free kids workshops on the first Saturday of the month. We have been to one other one before. Little Monkey liked it, so I wanted to try and take him to more. The past two months just didn’t end up working out. Yesterday morning ended up working out with Big Monkey being home to stay with Little Monkette while we went to Home Depot.

They did not have aprons again this time but we were able to build the wagon, paint it and get a pin and certificate of completion. I helped Little Monkey get things started and then put the parts down on the ground so he could finish hammering the nails in. He did a pretty good job.

Hammering in the nails.

After the wagon was together, we were allowed to paint it if we wanted to. Little Monkey, of course, wanted to paint his wagon. They had the option of either green or two different shades of red. We went to ask for paint and Little Monkey said he would like green. I asked him to pick out the right color on the table and the Home Depot employee picked it up and handed it to him before he chose the right one. She apologized for not allowing him to do it since it would be a learning experience. Oh well, he knows his colors anyway. He told me he wanted green because it was his favorite color. He painted the outside and top of his wagon and then asked me to help him finish it up. After we were done, he noticed another kid painting inside her wagon and he said he wanted to do that too. I convinced him that this was not a good idea and he decided against it because Buzz might get green on him if he rode in the wagon!

Painting his wagon green.

We returned out paint, got our pin and certificate. We went back to the car and I placed the wagon carefully in the car, hoping that we wouldn’t end up getting any paint on my seats or carpet. After Little Monkey was in his carseat and I got in the car, Little Monkey said that we needed to wait. I was already backing out of our parking space, so I asked him why. He said, “Can you open the door? My friend needs to come in.” I asked him where was his friend. He replied, “He’s standing in the street! Open the door for him!” I assured him that his friend got in the car when the doors were open and that his friend was sitting in the front passenger seat. Little Monkey told me that he wanted his friend to sit with him, so I told his friend to move to the back seat. That was the end of that. I have no idea who his “friend” is and he never mentioned him again even when we went to another store and back to the house. I suppose his friend is still sitting in the car! Crazy boy…he must get that from his Mimi!     Since we have been home, he has pulled Buzz and Woody around the house and also loaded up some of his cars for a ride around. He was very excited and proud to show Big Monkey what he had made.

Happy Early Birthday To Me!

Happy Birthday to Me! Big Monkey did some wheeling and dealing with Sprint…who we have had some issues with in the past and they have managed to mess up our account once again. After quite a bit of time, (I’m glad he has the patience for dealing with this because I sure don’t.) he was able to work out a deal to get me a new phone (and one for GrandMom) at a GREAT price. Otherwise I would probably not have gotten a new phone. I got the Inferno Blackberry Curve. It is a fun orange color. There is a lot to learn and it is a rather slow process. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed when Big Monkey first started showing me how to do stuff on it. Thankfully I have already managed to move over all my contacts and Big Monkey set me up with Facebook on my phone.

I still have a lot to learn about my phone…so if you call or message me and I don’t respond right away, it could very well be that I just don’t know what I’m doing with the phone! Cut me some slack, I’m working on it!

Special Orders

Yesterday I spent the day working hard trying to get some special orders done for our Etsy shop. I was moving along at a great pace and feeling good about all I was getting done. I had three items to make from orders that were placed during our Handmade Holiday Open House.

I had one order for a special monkey tie and a matching monkey bean bag. This is the tie for that order.

Monkey Tie

I also had a special order for a Florida Gators tie. (We did have some Gator ties before but they sold out.)

Gator Tie!

One  of our regular international customers had made a request for another special Lilly Hula Monkey Gadget Cozy. Thankfully we still had some fabric and we were able to make her another one. I love how it turned out. The fabric landed in a great place to include the monkey on the top and a monkey on the back.

Hula Monkey Gadget Cozy

And finally we had a special order for a set of bean bags with the numbers one through five. I was doing so well getting things done that I totally skipped a step in making the bean bags (stitching around the numbers-which helps keep the ironed on numbers in place for added security). This was NOT good news. I realized that I skipped the step just after sewing ALL the bean bags through the next step. This meant I was going to have to rip out most of the work that I had just done. If you know anything about sewing, you know that it takes a LOT longer to rip out the wrong work than it did to do the work in the first place. Big Bummer. I finally got all the seams that I needed to rip out done and was able to go back and fix my error. I think the bean bags came out great. The fabric choices look fun together. Hope the recipient likes them too.

Bean Bag Special Order

If you are interested in anything you see above, please visit our shop to find out more information. We are still taking special orders for a bit longer this year for Christmas gifts.

Gift Ideas

I wrote this last night on my own accord and then found out that today over at We Are THAT Family, today’s “Works for Me Wednesday” theme was gift ideas! How nice. So I added that to my post and have placed myself on We Are THAT Family’s Mr. Linky for “Works for Me Wednesday” today.

You may have some family or friends who tend to be difficult to shop for (I know I have a few.). I thought I would give you a couple of ideas (other than ordering something from TwoFloridaGirls, but that is always an option!)

Photo Gifts: One big time winner of a gift, especially for Grandparents, is anything with their grandchildren’s face. Photo gifts are great and there are often deals on pictures, photo mugs, calendars, etc. There are plenty of options of where to order these from and you can pick your favorite. I like Snapfish and Shutterfly.

Handmade Gifts: Of course since we have the TwoFloridaGirls shop, we love to direct you to other folks we know or have done business with who also have some great items on Etsy. I will link you to a couple of shops that have some fun items you could use for Christmas, Birthday, Hostess, etc Gifts.

Christmas Themed Charms

SecondGlantz Crafts: This is a friend of ours from high school. She is making drink charms for your wine glasses. This is helpful when you have a party and there are many drinks around. If everyone has a different wine charm on their glass, you will always know which one is yours! This would make a great hostess gift (as long as you know they drink wine) or a great gift for the wine lover in your life. Pair it with some new glasses or a nice bottle of wine for a great gift!

Mini Journals!

Triple C Designs: This is a friend of ours that Amy met in college. She participated in the Holiday Open House we had recently. She makes fun altered books and journals. Her mini journals are great for jotting a note down or keeping your grocery list and it fits great in your purse. The larger journals would be a great gift for the students in your life who love to have fun notebooks. Add a nice pen or fun colored pens and you’ve got a great gift or stocking stuffer.

Fa La La Holiday Banner

Autumn & Everything After: This is a friend of ours and Amy’s longtime roommate. She also participated in the recent Holiday Open House. She makes banners for all holidays and even for just everyday. She even made us a name banner for Little Monkette when she was born. If you have a special request, feel free to message her. She also has some fun new burlap pillows with words on them. She can also make those with initials. Check out her shop for some great banners to liven up your house during the holiday season.

We of course have other friends with Etsy shops, but I don’t want to overwhelm you in one post! And of course with the “Handmade” gifts, there are always gifts you can make yourself. Cookies, breads, dinners-all are great gifts to take to a friend and often don’t cost much. If you have a talent in a specific craft, you could make something as a gift also. Just keep in mind the person you are making it for and be sure it is something they will like and appreciate.

Don’t forget to head over to We Are THAT Family’s Works for Me Wednesday post for tons of other ideas for great gifts!

PKU Zoo Day Part 2

After we collected all our foods and got them loaded in the car, we headed into the zoo to check out the animals. Little Monkey was VERY excited about the train and wanted to ride it. We told him that maybe he and Pops could ride it later on after we checked out all the animals. This worked for a while but he did keep asking to ride it.

One of our first stops was to see the giraffes. They were quite large but very sweet. You could even feed the giraffes if you wanted to. Grammy decided that Little Monkey wanted to, so Pops paid our fee and we waited to feed the giraffe. I really wanted to touch the giraffe but the sign said that was not allowed because the giraffes don’t like it. I wonder if the giraffes really don’t like it or if it is more that the zoo doesn’t want everyone touching them or worrying about the giraffe biting a person.

Little Monkey feeding the giraffe

We continued on and took some fun pictures with the elephant sculptures. Little Monkey was a good sport and took quite a few pictures for us. This was my favorite picture from the elephants.

Little Monkey hangs from the elephant's tail.

We continued on and checked out some other animals, snakes, turtles, frogs, etc. We went in to see the birds and you could buy a cup of nectar to feed them. Grammy got us a cup and we tried to get a bird to come to us. Most of the birds we found were either already eating or sleeping. We finally found one to come and eat. He almost grabbed the whole cup from me but I held on tight. Grammy gave the cup to Little Monkey to get a bird closer to him and it worked. The only problem was that the bird did manage to grab the cup away from Little Monkey and spill all the nectar. Little Monkey still wanted to get a bird close to him, so I kept trying, even with my empty cup. I finally managed to get a bird onto Little Monkey’s arm. He was very excited about it.

Little Monkey and the bird

Overall it was a nice day and I think Little Monkey had a good time. It was nice to try some pku foods and get to take home quite a bit of pku foods for free. That night Little Monkey even had some pku animal pasta!

PKU Zoo Day

Over the weekend we went to Jacksonville for a PKU get together at the Jacksonville Zoo. Amazingly, even though I went to college in Jacksonville, this was the first time I have been back to the city at all since graduation day! Grammy and Pops came with Little Monkey and I. It was a nice day out and we had a nice time. We tried some new pku foods and formulas. We also talked to some other families,  the dietitian from Jacksonville and a representative from Nutricia.

Amazingly Little Monkey was willing to try some formulas, but only if the rest of us tried them too. I tried very hard not to make a bad face after drinking the formulas because there were other PKU kids at our table. Thankfully one girl told me she didn’t like the kind I tried either, so I didn’t feel so bad about it. They even had a pinata for the kids, filled with candy that they are allowed to have. Little Monkey liked trying to hit the pinata.

Pops and Little Monkey doing "cheers"

After everything was done, they gave us grocery bags and told us to fill them up. The Nutricia representative had brought a TON of food to give away. This is probably what really made the whole trip worthwhile. We ended up with all of this food to bring home free. I totaled it up when we got home and it would have cost over $150! It kind of looks like a decent amount for $150 until you realize that most of it is pasta, rice and cake mix. (Stuff that would cost you and me about $1 a box!) I am very excited about the advent calendar. Little Monkey has never had one and I had considered special ordering one for him this year, but they are just very expensive. Some families got way more than we did, but I did not want to take too much because I know Little Monkey doesn’t eat that much right now and there were families with older kids who probably go through quite a bit of food.

Lots of PKU foods to try!

A BIG thanks to Nutricia for helping support this event and providing us with all this great food to try for free! There is more to tell (and show) from our day at the zoo, but it will have to wait for another post.

Black Friday

So Black Friday was not overly thrilling at our house. We did not get up and going to the stores at 3am, instead we let the kids wake us up around 7am and then slowly got everyone fed and dressed and moving. Little Monkey spent the morning hanging out with Pops and Little Monkette went with GrandMom back to our house with Big Monkey. Mom, Amy and I headed out to hit up a few stores just to see what we would find. We didn’t really think we were after much of anything (Amy was looking for some shirts) but we found out that we really were looking for something!

Our first stop was to Walmart for the shirts that Amy was looking for. Sadly we could not even find ONE of them (and she needed 5). We certainly did not think hitting up Walmart around 9 or 10 would be a problem for $3 tshirts and $3 pjs but it was. Surprisingly they still had some big deals if you wanted them. We did pick up Yes Man on dvd and Two Florida Girls invested in a Cricut Expression machine! Look for fun new items coming to the shop once we get it all figured out! We were surprised to even see that they still had some because it was a great deal so we stood around discussing it…and decided that we would get it. We had enough money in our business paypal account to cover it. We are excited to experiment with it and see what we can do!

After Walmart, we headed over to Bealls to check out what they had. I needed to get some jeans because I have still been wearing maternity clothes and they really are too big but all of my old clothes are still too small. I ended up picking up two pairs of jeans on sale. I also was able to get Big Monkey a pair of jeans on sale. And I picked out one of my Christmas presents from my mom and dad. (New tennis shoes for walking/running and training/running the 5K in March.) Mom found a few things for Little Monkey and Little Monkette too. Oh and for Pops too-he got new shoes.

We then decided to go over to Joanns and check out a few things. Joanns was CRAZY. I think it may have been worse than Walmart even. We started by getting a number for the cutting counter. They were on number 78 (I think) and we were number 12! We went around and found the items we wanted to get and a few numbers before 12 we sent Mom to the checkout line to get in line. This was the best idea because by the time we were done at the cutting counter Mom was only about four people back from the front of the line! And the line moved along very well.

We were all getting hungry at this point so we headed over to Panera for some lunch. We finished up by going to Old Navy and managed to find a couple of things there too. While Mom was in line, Amy and I headed over to Marshalls and DSW but found nothing. Finally we made one stop at the post office to mail some orders from Two Florida Girls. We went home, packed up to head to the beach! We stopped to fill up the tire on the car because it seemed rather low (and was) and come to find out it has a nail in it! One last drive through stop on the way to the beach to get the car cleaned up. I don’t recall the last time that I rode through a drive through car wash. Here is a photo for you to see what it is like…in case you haven’t been in a drive through car wash in a while!