current favorite...

One of my goals for the year is to start my 'current favorites'. I have so many things I love from a variety of categories that I really really want to share with everyone. Now is a better time than ever. I encourage everyone to try my favorite things, leave feedback, email me your current favorite thing and I will definitely share them. To start off my current favorite.... Pop Drops!

 

I love these things! I love that I don't have a stick that gets all soggy and gross. (I would not recommend this for children. They are smaller than the normal sucker and may become a choking hazard.) These even have the tootsie roll centers. Right now I am on weight watchers and I keep these at my desk. I can have 4 of them for no points. It is enough just to pop one in my mouth and give me the sugar I am craving and keep me from other bad things I may eat that I shouldn't have (like a chocolate bar) 

I found these at fresh market and Walgreen's (so far).  

A desk and A trip

It has been a while. I am always meaning to update on everything that is going on yet I just don't do it. This week has become somewhat busy and I figured I needed some down time. So why not put down some good happenings with us. In the early month of May I finally got my desk that I am waiting ever so patiently for. I have been very excited, and now that it is here I am even more excited. It fits in perfectly with the purple room.

In the middle of May, Bryce and I were invited to go with a big group to Moab. This was the first time for Old Silver to go out at all. Baby Hardman has been out before but not to Moab. We have been to Moab 3 times now and every single time we have been there, it has been something different and new to experience. I was a bit nervous to climb the very slick red rock but who better to do it with than a bunch of people that do it all the time.

A video our friend, eddie, made of the trip... Pretty cool if I do say so myself!

On our way down  we were doing really good until 40 miles outside of our camp. Our truck started to go. I am so glad we were on mostly flat roads. We would lose all power on our truck. Slowly but surely we made our way to camp. We didn't get there until late so we basically set up our bed and crashed.

The next morning we were up bright and early. Today's trip is going to be Kane's Creek. No worries - it is only 95 degrees! We were well prepared with sunscreen and 'mist'ers. For anyone who knows me I get heat stroke super easy and I fry like bacon! It is a great combination. The universe aligned for me this day. This trail had a ton of creek crossings to keep us all cool.

 

 

There is brit and eddie. Oh that wall of water...? That is us!

 

Friday morning we had our toughest trail of the day, behind the rocks. I was a bit nervous before we left. Ok I wanted to throw up. I hate cliffs and I am not a Adrenalin junky! This trail did not come off as bad as it seemed. I was expecting scary cliffs, holding on by one tired kind of thing... but if we rolled, at least it would be in to a giant rock! Bryce attempted a few of the obstacles like high dive and upchuck but after seeing me get so upset he backed off. The roller coaster was a thrill.... on my own two feet. We made it to white knuckle but the entire group was in agree-ance to not attempt that. We like our toys too much... so back up to roller coaster. for my own benefit I had to stay in the razor at least once. and this is what I got:









 

 

I didn't know what had happened until it was all over with. I expected to be all sorts of shaken up but I wasn't. Thinking back on it, it could have ended up bad. But it didn't. I can officially say I did it! I didn't get out and walk down the trail.

Saturday morning started early once again. We loaded up the razors and headed off to Fins N Things. This is what I figured we would be doing the entire time. Lots of slick rock, climbing up huge rocks and then back down them again. This trail was my least favorite. It was good but just not the best one that we did on our trip. This trail was also very short. The remainder of the group headed home after this trail while we stayed behind with our friends. We went back to camp, cleaned up and headed in to town for some good food, good laughs and SHOPPING!!!!! We spent 4 great hours on main street weaving our way in and out of shops and stopping for dinner. By the time we got back to camp, we were exhausted and we had to think about our way home and the truck problem... remember?

  Sunday we packed up and headed out. We first hit hole in the rock. It is this cool place that these dead people (they werent dead at the time) built a house inside a giant rock. I wish I had pictures of the inside but they don't allow it. It was very cool to see... not worth $6 to see a 2nd time. We then hit the road. 10 miles in to our trip, it was not looking good. I sent numerous text back and forth to my brother who was waiting for us to call him to come rescue us so we weren't stranded. Nice and easy... slow... all the way home, we took our dear sweet time. Bryce and I were on pins and needles the entire time. I just wanted to sleep but couldn't. Needless to say, we made it home! I have never been so happy to be home as I was at that moment. Bryce and I unloaded the bare minimum, showered and crashed. We were both so exhausted! It was a great trip and we had so much fun meeting new people and spending time with our friends. It is something that we would highly consider doing again.

 

 

A hug, A kiss and good luck!

So tonight my nephew graduated! I could not be more proud of him. I always told myself that no matter what I would try to treat the first 4 the same. Last year I made this really cool lei for his older brother, so this year I decided to do the same one for Cam since it was a huge hit! More pics to come later on the graduation. Today, I thought I would do a tutorial for this lei so those who would like to make one can. Here we go....

Here is what you need to make it: 100 crisp $1. If they are crisp they will keep their shape. I just called my bank and the got me some brand new $1. Hersey kisses and hugs. I bought a mixed bag and it seems 90% of it was kisses, but it was cheaper than buying 2 separate bags.

Plastic wrap. His school colors are purple and silver, luckily I already had purple plastic wrap. Ribbon and scissors.

The first thing you are going to do is take 10 of your dollars, pinch them in the center, take a piece of ribbon and tie them in a knot in the middle. Put them aside. This is going allow you to gill in the gaps later. (give or take a few)

Next you are going to take a long string of ribbon (about 6 feet, give or take) and start at one end. Make sure you leave enough room at the end to tie the ends together. Pinch your dollar and tie a knot around it. 

Grab another dollar, pinch it and tie a knot around that one, trying to keep the knots as close as possible (see pic below). If the knots are not that close, don't worry too much about it. That is why you have the 10 tied individually (give or take). 

Continue pinch and tying until you run out of ribbon. (make sure to leave a little room on the end to tie together!)

As you can see I didn't get the knot close enough so when I held it up, there was this gap. 

I took one of the individual dollar bills and tied it in to the gap (You can do this as you go or at the end of doing your lei.)

See, you cant even tell there was a gap!

I ran out of ribbon so I cut another long one (I ended up doing 3 that were approx. 6 feet long) and started a new line. When I ran out of money, I connected the three strands of tied up money. Don't worry about having it perfect because no one can see the knots. I then held up my lei to find the gaps and fill them in with my remaining individually tied dollars.
 

Here is what it should look like once you have connected it all...

I think took my plastic wrap and cut them in to square (the size had no rhyme or reason) I then filled them with 3-4 hugs and kisses intermixed. 

I twisted the plastic wrap and tied it with ribbon. 

I then tied my hugs in to the lei. I think I did 10 of them randomly placed. 

To wrap up the lei I curled the ends of the ribbons to add texture but to hide my imperfect knots. 

Here is what is looks like at the end.

 

Here is Cam, just so you can see the length on this. 

 Now you dont have to use $100. This is just what I set for my nephews. You can cram more hugs and kisses in there and less money and still make it look good. I would not recommend using less than $50.
You also can use whatever colors you would like. Purple and silver happened to be his school colors so I stuck with those colors but feel free to add more ribbon and colors if you would like.
I am not a proffesional when it comes to these. This was self taught. There may be an easier way to do this than to individually tie each dollar in but I could just see someone cutting the string or it getting snagged and the money going everywhere. It was work to tie them individually but I would rather have that than take a chance of it breaking and losing all that money. (The first time I made this was by trial and error. It took me over two hours. This time it took me about an hour and a half, with stopping to take pictures and such, so take your time.)

I hope this all made sense and some of you are encouraged to try this. It was fun and both years it drew alot of attention. Leave comments, let me know how it works for you!

Good luck and dont get lei'd!