Have Fun, Stress Less When Vacationing with the Kids ~Post 3, 9 Final Tips

If you would like to follow along, there are two posts to this series. Have Fun Stress Less when vacationing with the kids Post 1, and Have Fun Stress Less when vacationing with the kids Post 2.

 Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Pier August 2012 Vacation

1. When at your hotel keep clothes in suitcases. Why?? because it lessens what you have to do when you go to leave.
2. Use various Apps to get to know your area. Urban Spoon, Foodspotting, Yelp all are great for getting to know restaurants and what is good where you’ll be vacationing. Shopkick for deals, Raining Hot coupons and your local pharmacies for Apps to getting great deals when far from home.
3. Use coupons or online discount codes/ such as retailmenot.com and ebates.com for hotel/driving/shopping etc.
4. Grab a postcard for the family back home and send your greetings to them. Or do as we do, bring back some Salt Water Taffy. When we go to the shore we usually get Dolles on the boardwalk.
5. Collect Souvenirs of the trip. Examples could be ticket stubs, wrist bands, photos, seashells, sharks teeth, sand, postcards.
6. Make a project from those Souvenirs. Get a recycled jar and fill it with the items you collected and you’ll have a great memory to commemorate your spectacular fun filled vacation.
7. Before you book hotel find out what is available at the hotel for kids to do, Lazy River, Pool, Hot Tub, Games etc.
8. When you are finally vacationing, buy things as needed when your there. In case you forgot some things, don’t fret. It’s not like your going to a remote Island or anything, or are you?? Well then tweet those pics…
9. Before you leave the house make sure you clean it. Make all beds, take care of trash, run the dishwasher for the last time and empty fridge of things that will go bad. Use Glade Plugins to make your rooms stay fresh. When we came back home. I walked in my home and everything was done. Smelled fresh and not stale or dank. It was nice to know that I just needed to do the laundry and put the rest of the stuff away. But because I was so efficient from the start that took me an hour to do. Life’s Good!!

All in all realize that with a little preparation ahead of time, you can save yourself mounds of time and trouble from getting overwhelmed, to actually having fun and enjoying your vacation. Now school is back in full swing, so it’s “Back to Life, Back to Reality”, the song is playing in my head right now. Back to a brand new schedule for the year. Leave a some Comment Love, Yeah!! ~Christina

After the Birth, Baby Gifts~ Memory Keepsake Photo

You go into the hospital for labor and delivery and you come out with the most precious of gifts a baby girl, then she starts to grow up. That little baby is now 9 years old and time surely does fly. I want to thank myself for taking the time out to take photos of what she received when she was born. Now, she and I have a memory, of the sweet things people got for her then. Soon after we came home, since everything is in bags, boxes and such, I cleared off the kitchen table and sat everything on it. Then a couple of days later, when I had the time between feedings and diaper changes, I arranged them into a display and took several photos up close. Here is one of the photos I took. Including flowers, clothes, cards, stuffed animals, baby blankets etc. I think this is a great idea to remember those baby days for Mother and Child. Start planning now for when you go to deliver (if your expecting) and you’ll be so pleased to look back on such a wonderful time. I know I am. ~Christina

Looking forward to March…

This is a post to let you all know I have updated Creative Tizzy. I am over the 2 column look. I needed to expand and get rid of some things. I also had to change the color and background, of course. I will still be adding to it. Some of my columns are updating my new profile picture also. I like the way it looks and hope you do as well. I am also over Valentines Day and ready for March to be here. Not only for St. Patty's Day, but also because I am turning 40 years young. So bring on March.

 

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,
May good luck pursue you each morning and night.
~Irish Blessing

Happy Valentines Day/Valentines Goody Bags for Kids Tutorial +Hubby Gift

Hi Everyone hope you have a great day today. Here’s The Valentines Treat Bags I made for my kids today. Took about an hour if that. Here are the supplies you need:

I shopped at Walmart’s Seasonal $1 scrapbooking section, its different in every Walmart you go to, but you need to find it, saves time and money.

I purchased: 4 stuffed animals $2.97 each, 4 bags $.25 cents each, Studio Cards $.97, Studio Cupid Stamper, $.97, Studio Glitter Glue $.97, Studio Ribbon $1.00, Studio Stamps and Stamper each $1.00, 2 Sheets Black Cardstock (already had), 3 Sharpies 1 Black, 1 Pink, 1 Red, 8 Mardi Gras Necklaces (Party Section) $1.00, Hershey’s Kisses $3.00, Marshmallow Hearts $2.00. Other Items you need are Scissors and Glue Stick. Oh and the items on the Right are for my hubbys gift.

   

So Lets get started.

1. I First laid out the ribbon over the 4 bags measuring the top and bottoms and cutting the ribbon according to width of bag. 

2. I then pasted the ribbon strips to the top and bottom edges of the bags.

3. Next, I used the Cupid Punch on Black Cardstock to punch out about 12 Cupids, they are so tiny and cute…

4. I then applied the mini cupids to the bags with a glue stick. I laid them on the glue stick then slid them off with my fingers to apply the glue to the underside. Then I sprinkled them all over the bags randomly.

5. I used the Valentines Stamps and stamped them in Black Ink onto the bags.

 

6. I attached the card with glue stick to the bag directly, wrote my sentiments on the front of the card and inside. I also put a tad of glue on the inside so that the card would stay shut.

7. I then decorated all of the little black cupids wings with Glitter Glue.

8. I Filled the bags up with the Goodies I got them. 

 

So Here’s the finished Product.

I had fun with this and it was under $20 for 4 kids and they’ll appreciate that I took the time out to do it for them. I love my kids sooo much. Here’s what I got my hubby for Valentine’s Day, just gave it to him at lunch.

I gave him XOXOXO post-it notes so that he could write love notes back to me, see ladies a gift that keeps on giving. I reused the bag for the cards for the rest of his candy.

There is a card that I wrote this on the inside:

 

We’re going out for dinner and a movie this Friday night. We normally don’t go anywhere on Valentine’s Day because I loathe the crowds and waiting in line, so we either go the weekend before or after. Thanks for reading, and Happy Valentine’s Day to you ALL!!!

Day 30 CHALLENGE My final day for my month long posting Challenge is over! I DID IT!!! Here's what I learned...

To begin with I wanted to just thank all of you for following along as I went through my daily post challenges. The challenge was to just post everyday for 1 month and see what happens. I didn't plan this, I just posted it one day and that was it, I had to do it. I kept myself accountable everyday. I did take off for vacation though, and because of that I started right back up as if I never stopped. I only missed one day due to the chaos of my household.

 Here are the things that I learned along the way.   I honestly didn't know where this would take me, but since I started this is what happened.

1. Sometimes the road veers off a little bit, but you get it straightened out eventually.
2. When you set a goal, you keep at it till you get there.
3. When you put your mind to it, you can accomplish the things you want and Great things come from that.
4. I went from only 5 followers (thanks so much for hanging in there, by the way) to 43 followers. That is what really impressed me.
5. Being diligent pays off, because I have my readers that come and visit me everyday, you know who you are. ; )
6. I can't back down from a CHALLENGE no matter what.
7. I surprised myself with what I could accomplish and when I look back over the month, I have a ton of posts that I can lookover for inspiration later on.
8. I learned to find my Blog Voice, am still tweeking it, but I am loosening up a bit with my writing, letting the personality out more and more.
9. I have a Facebook Fan Page and I am on Twitter. This is just for my blog too. You can click to the right and there is a like box. My Twitter name is @creativetizzy
10. People who visit me seem to love my recipes and my tips.
11. I took my blog design to a whole new level with pics I had from posting, to make my banner. I love it.
12. I am learning how to manage my time, when it comes to preparing and scheduling my posts.
13. The ideas, I just let them come. Somedays I was prepared far in advance. Some came to me just hours before. I let the creative process happen organically, if you will. Although I put pressure on myself to post I laid off the pressure to be creative and let it just flow out. And it did, each and every time.
14. What I love the most is that so many people from all over the world have visited me and I am blown away by how far they are.
15. I have learned all kinds of skills to get my blog out there. Blog marketing, posting on anothers blog, my signature, by following others blogs & blogfrog.com my favorite, and tweeting and facebooking.
16. I have become a better cook.
17. I have become a better photographer.
18. I have become a better version of myself, because of this self expression.
19. I treated this almost like a part time job, but something I got to do, not something I had to do. Attitude is everything.

In conclusion, I am loving this. It keeps me sane and my mind alert and in constant thought about what I am going to do next. Since I am always coming up with ideas anyways this is the best outlet for that. I hope that if you followed along and you also did the posting challenges that you 1. Had fun, and 2. Accomplished some of your own goals 3. And learned somethings about me and you along the way. Till the next post, I bid you happy blogging. ~Christina

Day 26 CHALLENGE Homemade Chocolate Frosting & Have a Happy Easter!!!

Today was a bit crazy, not only is it the day before Easter (wink, wink for you parents), but for our family today is my husbands 39th birthday. I was running around so much and cooking and baking that it felt like Christmas time with everything going on. Well since I had forgotten to grab some frosting at the store when I bought his box cake, I wondered, hmmm could I make my own frosting, turns out on the back of a Hershey’s cocoa container (an absolute staple in my home and should be in yours too) they have a recipe for Perfect Frosting. I needed butter so went to get some, hence part of the running around today. I never knew I could make my own. I have made glazes in the past but was under the impression that bakers knew some deep dark secret not privy to the rest of us on how to make decadent chocolate frosting. WELL MY DEARS I HAVE MADE IT and is it YUMMY!!!! Let’s just say there was no talking when the cake was eaten tonight. ; )
Here’s what you’ll need for your frosting~

Here’s the directions~

It was so easy to make, it was a piece of cake, punny I know! Here’s the end result, talk about licking the spoon, licking your fingers, I think I got it on stuff just TOO lick it off it was so darn good. I will never buy the cartons of frosting ever again. Everyone agreed, it was just the right sweetness, ever so chocolatey and Mmm gooood!! Enjoy~
   

Oh and by the way Have a Happy Easter!!!