String Ball Pt 2

Hello!!

Sorry this post is late, but it is better late than never!

So, as promised, here is the how-to for my string ball!

You Will Need:

Mod Podge

Aleene’s Tacky Glue (or some other clear-drying liquid glue)

Yarn

A balloon

Scissors

1. Start by blowing up the balloon to the size you want your ball to be. Tie it.

2. Wrap the yarn around the balloon’s tail 3 to 4 times, leaving about 2in. of yarn. When you start wrapping the yarn around the balloon, make sure you catch the end of the yarn (sorry this is a bit confusing. This photo should help you.)

3. Now take the ball of yarn with one hand and pour some glue onto your other hand.

4. Pull the string of yarn through the glue in your hand and wrap it around the ball. Try to get lots of glue on the yarn without covering the yarn in glue. You want to be able to see the color of the yarn!

Do not get too close to the tie of the balloon. You want there to be an empty space there. That will become an extra-big hole that you can use to put lights inside.

Keep wrapping the yarn around the balloon. Try to be as random as possible.

5. When you have finished wrapping the yarn around the ball, cut off the yarn ball and secure the end of the yarn with some more glue. Let it dry, mine took about 30 minutes.

6. Once it is mostly dry, cover the whole thing in Mod Podge. Try to focus on the places with the most yarn. Let it dry, about 30 minutes to an hour.

7. When is has dried, unwrap the yarn you wrapped around the balloon. This is the loop you can use to hang the ball.

8. Now make a small nick in the top of the balloon, just below the tie. DO NOT pop the balloon all the way. The ball will not survive.

When the ball starts to sound like popcorn, don’t fret! That is just the glue releasing. Slowly help the balloon disconnect from the ball and pull it out the hole in the top.

9. If your ball starts collapsing or ends up looking something like this, don’t freak out! Just gently pull the collapsed bit out. If you put enough glue on the yarn it should hold it’s shape.

And there you go! If you want your ball to have two colors like my first one, do everything up to step 5. Before you let the ball sit and dry, continue wrapping it in a different color. You do not have to wrap the end of the yarn around the ball like with the first color, just glue down the end and start wrapping like normal!

I hope you give this a try. I know this was a long and slightly confusing post, so if you have any questions please ask them!! I will answer them as best I can. Enjoy!

String Ball Pt 1

So today I did something that I think is worth mentioning.

I made this:

~sorry for the bad photo. I hope to get a better one later~

A string ball!!

So I’m not going to explain how I made it, because I took no photos. I will, however, write down a list of the stuff you need so that you can get the stuff if you want to make it. I will do my best to do another one with photos for a post on Monday.

You will need:

Aleene’s Tacky Glue/Mod Podge (you could probably get by with just the glue, but I have not tried it so don’t hold me to that)

A balloon

Yarn (probably best not to get yarn that is super fuzzy)

I am going to get some Christmas lights to put inside. Keep an eye out for the how-to post!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites!!

Sorry that this is a little late.

So for today’s post I have yet another recipe!

Also I’m sorry if you are getting tired of food. I will try to get something else up for Thursday.

Now for Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites!

Recipe credit: Primally Inspired

You will need:

1-1/2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes

½ cup nut butter of choice or peanut butter.

½ cup coconut oil (you have to use coconut oil)

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

⅔ cup mini chocolate chips

Melt the coconut oil in the microwave. I recommend that you only microwave it until the oil is softened because if you melt it until it’s liquid it will be hard to roll it into balls.

Dump everything except the chocolate chips into a bowl.

Mix thoroughly. Now add the chocolate chips and mix them into the mixture.

Now get out a plate and roll the mixture into small bite sized balls. Once you have done all of the balls set them inside the fridge for about 10 minutes or until they are hard.

And you are done! Joshua tried to take a ball while I was taking the picture, hence the phantom hand. But he loves them so that’s good! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie bites!

So for today’s post I was surfing Pinterest yet again and I found this recipe. I meant to make it, but while I was making it the food sort of morphed into pumpkin pie bites rather than pumpkin spice bites.

But I can work with that!

You will need:

(photo is not completely correct)
1/4 cup coconut flour (can use almond or extra oat flour instead)

2 T granulated sweetener of choice (I used coconut palm sugar)

1 T pumpkin pie spice (or a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and a dash of ginger)

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup cashew butter

1/4 cup maple syrup

Praline Pecans (I used the Hoody’s brand, found at Costco)

Milk (if the mixture is too thick)

In a large mixing bowl mix together the flour, pumpkin spice and sweetener. Set aside.

Set your nut butter and maple syrup in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 15 second intervals, stirring until it is combined.

Pour the wet ingredients and the pumpkin puree into your dry ingredients and mix well. If it is too thick add milk.

Once it looks like this roll the mixture into bite size balls.

Now get out your pecans and chop them up! I like my coating sort of chunky, so I chopped them until they got chunky, but it’s really just a matter of personal preference.

Now roll the balls in the pecans until they are covered.

And you are done!! These are really delicious and pretty guilt-free. They also are great for a snack between meals or as dessert. Enjoy!

What to do when you are bored!

I am bored.

Bordy bordy dorb bord borrrrrrrred.

So here is a list of things that I could get up and do right now.

i.e., A list of things to do when you are bored.

Enjoy!

1. Go into your room, shut the door, then blast your favorite song as loud as you dare and sing along.
2. Make silly faces in the mirror.
3. Take selfies of said silly faces.
4. Annoy your sibling with the fact that you are bored.     (Actually, maybe don’t do that.)
5. Watch a bunch of commercials and reply to what the person says. For example: “Do you ever wish that your containers would seal?” “No.” And so on.
6. Draw silly drawings of your family and friends.
7. Send those drawings to the person you drew and ask them to send one back of you.
8. Spell the longest word you can think of backwards.
9. Make up your own word. Put down a definition and send it to a dictionary company.
10. Make M&Ms battle each other (squish two together and the one that doesn’t break moves ahead). Make the winner of the bag a little place of honor on your dresser.
11. Do a puzzle.
12. Paint your nails.
13. Write and send letters.
14. Make “Open When” letters.
15. Count to 1 million.
16. Make a blog post. XD
17. Read a book.
18. Do some basic exercises.
19. Do a photoshoot.
20. Take a walk.
21. Go to the mall.
22. Play Minecraft. Or download Minecraft if you don’t have it. And then play it.
23. Take a shower.
24. Make a playlist.
25. Watch silly animal videos.
26. Go on Pinterest.
27. Play with your hair.
28. Put on some silly outfits.
29. Organize your closet.
30. Make lists. Of anything. Of everything. Of what you want to get done over the weekend. Of what you want to get done today. Or of what you could do when you are bored. ;)

So there are 30 things to do when you just can’t think of what to do. Yay! Now I am going to do some of these things. Or not. :)

Fall Centerpiece!

Hello there!

It has been Fall for quite a while, but it will still be Fall for about a month more, so I think it is not too late to post this.

Anyway, I recently made this super cute Fall centerpiece for the table and I liked it so much I thought I would share it with you so you could make it yourself!

You will need:

Little Scarecrows

A small basket

Styrofoam (or anything else that will fill the basket and help make the scarecrows stand up)

acorns

(everything except the Styrofoam was found at Michael’s so that’s the place to go to buy these things)

Put the Styrofoam in the basket. You may have to cut it to make it fit.

Stab the scarecrows into the Styrofoam.

Now dump the acorns onto the Styrofoam. You can glue them down if you want, but I didn’t need to so I didn’t.

And you are done! This is a super awesome thing that is very easy to make and I hope you give it a try!

3 minute Chocolate Fudge!

I have been waiting about a week to give you this post because my phone was not uploading the photos! :(

But now it is working so here is the post! :)

Recipe Credit: Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate

You will need:

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk (14 ounces)

2 cups Semi-Sweet chocolate chips (one 12 ounces bag)

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Note: My Mother got me milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet. Please do not make this mistake. Your fudge should be darker than mine is in the photos. Also do not use evaporated milk. Make sure you have the right milk product.

Now that I have explained all that, we can continue!

Prepare a 9x9in. pan with wax paper or a silicone baking mat. Be sure to spray whatever you use! The fudge will be very sticky.

Dump your condensed milk and chocolate chips into a bowl and microwave (in 30 second intervals, mixing between each interval) until it is smooth.

Now add your vanilla extract and mix.

Next pour your fudge into your prepared pan.

Now is where the lies come in. The fudge does not harden in three minutes. Mine sat in the fridge overnight before I thought it was ready. Be sure to make a note of that.

And you are done! I was going to have a picture of Josh eating some, but as it took so long to make the post I wasn’t able to get such a picture. Oh well. He thought it was delicious anyway. The entire family did. So that is good.

I hope you try this and enjoy it!

A list of Books

Hello Readers!

teehee

How are you? Are you looking for new books to read? Well, look no further, for here is a list of my favorite books!

Or look further, they’re my favorite books, not yours. I’m not your boss.

One last thing: These books are not ordered from least favorite to most favorite or anything like that. I enjoyed them all equally.

Harry Potter:

Okay, so this is a series, not just a book. I get it, but I just can’t pick one to be the best. I’m sure you understand. :)

Finally:

This is one of my all time faves. It’s actually part of a series too, but I don’t quite like the others as much as this one. I just love how clumsy/hilarious this girl is!

(Here I stopped for ten minutes trying to remember what books I had read in my lifetime. And which ones I liked best. Argggghh.)

The Beef Princess of Practical County:

This one is adorable. And a little bit sad. It’s all about how a girl gets to raise some steers, becomes attached to them, then has to sell them. And meanwhile she has to deal with the other things that life has plopped down in front of her, like a crazy/adorable sister and bullies and busy parents. Good read.

Little Town on the Prairie:

I love the Laura Ingalls series soooo much. My books are falling apart at the seams from the love. Again, it’s difficult to choose a favorite, but this one is pretty high on the scale, so I’ll just put it down. Yay for Laura Ingalls!

Roxaboxen:

So this is a picture book. I get it, this one doesn’t belong here, it’s a children’s book etc.

But I felt it deserved some attention. Such a cute little book. And it is not nearly as vicious as the cover looks.

The Sisters Grimm:

Yet another series out of which I couldn’t choose a favorite. They read fairly quickly, so I got through them fairly quickly, but was still very sad when I had to leave the world of the Grimms forever.

No, not really forever. I've re-read a couple of the books already. :D

So there are my favorite books. I hope you look these up at your library and give them a try!

And when you have, please tell me if you like them. I love talking to people who like the same books as me!