Value Magnets: A Tutorial

Pinterest is great for finding ideas for Young Womens activities... in fact one of my very first pins was of some value magnets that I thought were just adorable.  The problem is the ones I found didn't have a tutorial, so I searched around, brainstormed, did a practice round, and in the end we had a lot of fun making our own magnets.  They definitely don't look as "professional" as the ones I "pinned", but I am pretty happy with how they turned out.

Anyway, here's my little tutorial :-)

Supplies:

• Bottle Caps - without the liners.  The only ones I could find in my local craft stores had the liners, so I purchased these online through Sun and Moon.  You can purchase these individually or in bulk.  I bought them individually for 10 cents each.
• Glue Dots
• Diamond Glaze - I bought Judikins Diamond Glaze from A Cherry on Top for $5.99 a bottle.  I did finally find this at a local craft store for $7.99 a bottle, but even with shipping I ended up saving money by purchasing online.
• Scrapbook Paper - for each value color
• Magnets - I just used self-adhesive sheet magnets that I purchased from Joanns (with a 40% off coupon), but you can probably use any magnets on these.

First I had to print out the values on different colors of paper.  I don't have a color printer, so I printed all the words in bold black, but used a different color of scrapbook paper for each value.  I was trying to save money by not buying new scrapbook paper and just using scraps I had at home.  This took me a while to figure out, so let me explain in detail!  I started by formatting a word doc with each value in a different font as large as I could get them and still fit in a 1" circle punch (I printed out a few practice sheets of paper).  Once I had all the values in the right size, I cut small pieces of scrapbook paper and taped them right over the top of the values on the plain sheet of computer paper I had printed.  I taped just along the edge of the scrapbook paper so the tape wouldn't interfere with my circle hole punch.

Once I had all the colored scraps taped onto my original paper, I ran it back through the printer.

Then I peeled off the scrapbook paper and took off the tape - it didn't matter if the edges of the paper ripped a little because I only wanted the center anyway.  I used my 1" hole punch to cut circles around each value.

I then glued the circles into my bottle caps with a glue dot, and cut out magnets and adhered them to the back of the bottlecaps.

Next, I filled each bottlecap with the diamond glaze.  This was harder than I expected - I couldn't help but getting air bubbles in the glaze in some of my bottlecaps, and they are impossible to pop!  Oh well.

Once the papers were covered with the diamond glaze, they need to dry for about 24-48 hours.  The diamond glaze looks cloudy at first, but they do dry clear!  Note: Don't touch the glaze to see if it's dry... if it isn't it will leave a fingerprint or indentation on the glaze :-)

The one bummer thing about the paper I used is that some of the papers "ran" under the diamond glaze and were discolored from what I had originally intended.  Oh well!

My Purse Doubles as a Silverware Drawer

What's that clanging in my purse, you ask?   Well, that's just my portable silverware drawer :-)  Matt makes fun of me for this, because on any given day I can pull several pieces of silverware out of my purse to add to the dishwasher (the picture above is what I pulled out of my purse this morning).  I really have a good, logical explanation.  You see, I take snacks/lunches to work... since I feel like I'm almost always in meetings, I take this food to my meetings, which means I need to bring along silverware.  Often, I can just throw away the food container (most commonly a yogurt cup), and then I just throw my spoon into my purse so I can return it home.  I used to take plastic ware and then just throw my eating utensil away along with my food container, but I'm trying to be more frugal and green, so there you have it!

Speed Limit Increase

This might seem silly to blog about, but I was pretty excited... recently a 2 1/2 mile stretch of Chinden (near my house) had the speed limit increased from 45 to 50 mph.  It has taken me a little while to remember that I can go faster, but I have to say that I love it!

Hiking Bogus

Last night I joined some friends for a hike up at Bogus on Mores Mountain Trail.  Matt was working so he couldn't join us :-(  It was a hot day in Boise and super smoky because of all the fires this season, so I wondered how enjoyable our hike would end up being.  The hour drive up the mountain to around 7000 feet at the start of the trailhead took us up out of the smoke and to a cooler, tree covered trail.  There was even a nice breeze for us to enjoy on our 5 mile loop.  The hike was easy (low elevation gain), but I loved just being outdoors enjoying the beauty around us.  There were some amazing views, including some pretty cool rock formations.  The only wildlife we saw on the trail were birds, but we saw signs of plenty of other animals!

Brooke is a future ornithologist :-)

It was dusk as we started heading home, so I snapped a picture of the sun as it was getting ready to set... it is sad that we've had such a bad fire season, but it sure does make the sun look beautiful (it looked even cooler in person)!

One last part to the story... as we started down the mountain, the fuel light in the truck came on.  Nobody had even thought to check the gas gauge before we left!  We were a little nervous as the "miles to empty" kept ticking down at a very fast rate... we hit "0 miles to E" just as we came to the bottom of the hill... lucky for us, there was another mile or two "past empty" that we were able to drive and we made it safely to the gas station.

We topped  off the evening with a stop at Westside Drive-In.  Oh, and I waved to Matt as we drove by the fair on our way home (he picked up a couple extra shifts this week at the fair)... great end to a great evening.

Big Hits

During one of our shopping trips in Sun Valley with my college roomies last month, we came across the cutest little toy store.  I fell in love with so many things, but narrowed it down to just two that I picked up for Kylee.  And let me tell you, they have both been big hits at our house.  They are both by eeBoo (a company I hadn't heard of before, but will now seek out since I love their products!)

The first is the game Go Fish.  The cards are cute in the shape of a fish, the colors are bright and fun, and Kylee loves playing and getting matches.  This is a fun family game and perfect for Kylee - she already knew her colors, but this would be a good game for a kid trying to learn their colors (we don't use the names of the colors on the cards - we just say "dark green" or "brown" instead of the fancy names they really used).

"Tell Me a Story" is a set of cards with pictures on it - they are creative story cards.  We let Kylee pick 3 or 4 cards, and then we make up a story based off the cards.  This is a fun way to mix up bed time stories.  I especially love when Matt tells the story because it is fun to hear what kind of a story line he comes up with.  Plus his characters all have different voices and that totally makes me smile :-)  We went with the fairytale mix-ups, but there are lots of other "themes" for these story cards.

Swimming Lessons

Kylee LOVES the pool.  I was really hoping to put her in swimming lessons this summer, but I don't have a way to consistently transport her since I work during the day.  Her mom had arranged to put her in swimming lessons for a couple weeks in July and take care of the transportation, but that fell through so Kylee and I came up with our own plan.  My friend Jen offered her pool (thanks Bradley family!!!) so every Tuesday night I give Kylee  her own private "swimming lessons".  We only stay for 25-30 minutes, but Kylee has made great progress.  Here are some of the things Kylee has learned so far over the last few weeks:

• Jump into the pool - she jumps into the pool toward my arms with no fear... she often tells me to scoot back a little bit because I am too close.
• Hold her breath under water
• Blow bubbles in the water
• Float on her back - she is amazing at this.  I'm really impressed with how long she can float.
• Hold onto the edge of the pool and kick - she's still working on keeping her legs straight as she kicks instead of making 90 degree angles at her knees!
• Lay on the kick board with her arms out in front of her, kicking her legs behind her, and putting her face in the water (bringing it up when she needs air and then putting it back in the water again)

I can tell that she's going to be quite the little fish.  She's a natural!

Ready to Build

So one of my other "distractions" lately has been talking to builders, looking at floor plans, meeting with lenders, evaluating open lots, looking online for design ideas... yep, that's right, Matt and I are planning to build a house!  We didn't start out planning on building.  In fact, we had both been looking at Zillow for months and would get on almost nightly to look at available houses, knowing that we wouldn't really be able to start walking through houses until we had our down payment saved up next spring.  We looked simply to see what was out there, discuss what we like and don't like when it comes to houses, and to get an idea about how much we might expect to spend on a house.

Besides looking online at houses, we started driving around looking at neighborhoods.  We found several that we really liked, but then we fell in love with Paramount.  The neighborhood is a little farther out than I had originally wanted to live, but after driving through the neighborhood several times and talking to a couple people I know who live there, we decided this was the neighborhood for us... it just felt right.

So, we narrowed our focus and started looking just for houses in Paramount, but there are hardly any houses for sale.  This was amazing because the neighborhoods on either side of Paramount have a lot of houses for sale.  A LOT.  But that says something about Paramount - people just don't want to move!

Well, to make a long story short, we decided that if there weren't houses for sale that we would just build!  We've found a floor plan that we both love, have been talking to the builder we've selected (Alturas) and are in discussions about starting to build later this year with an expected completion of next spring.  We're now trying to nail down a lender we want to work with and then will need a pre-approval letter before we can enter into a contract with Alturas.  But we're close!  I could see the process starting in a month or two :-)

Big Al's Preview Party

There has been a lot of commercial development going on in Boise lately... definitely a good sign that the economy has picked up some.  Not only are these businesses bringing new jobs to Boise, but we are getting stores that we haven't had before (i.e. Whole Foods, Gordmans, etc)  One of the businesses that is just getting ready to open is Big Al's.  When I first saw that Big Al's was coming, I thought it was another sporting goods store (ya know, like Big 5?!)... so I thought it was interesting when last month at a BYP event, we were given tickets for the Big Al's Preview Party.  Come to find out, Big Al's isn't a sporting goods store, it's a giant food and entertainment center, and an invitation to the Preview Party meant we got to enjoy everything free!

Matt and I had a blast last night... from unlimited play in their state of the art arcade center (seriously the coolest, most updated arcade I've ever been in), to a complimentary dinner in the sports bar and grill (the mozzarella sticks appetizer was awesome, and so were the pulled pork sandwich, stadium burger, and pear & walnut salads), to the 100% free bowling and on-the-house milkshakes delivered to our bowling table.  We will definitely be back to Big Al's in the future - we look forward to taking Kylee sometime, and we think it would be an awesome place to watch a BSU away game... on the 52 foot tv screen in the sports bar and grill!

Thanks Big Al's for "practicing" on us :-)

Craft Stick Puzzles

Kylee and I worked on a craft project this morning - we made some puzzles for her to take in her church bag.  I cut the pictures into strips, Kylee put the glue on, and then I attached the strips of paper to the craft sticks.  I think they turned out nicely and Kylee is excited to take them to church with her.  Super easy, cheap, and quick!  I'm already thinking about other pictures this would be fun with.

London is calling my name

My sister Mandi texted me this week asking if I was okay... you see, she gets worried that something is wrong when I don't blog :-)  I assured her everything was okay, but that I had been distracted by the Olympics!  I've honestly been doing the bare minimum the last week or so to get maximum viewing time.  I mean, who wouldn't want to sit for hours on end watching swimming, synchronized diving, gymnastics, beach volleyball, cycling, track and field events, etc, etc, etc.???  I am amazed by the speed, endurance, and precision of our athletes and am cheering them on from Boise, Idaho (secretly wishing I was in London watching live - reminds me of volunteering at Soldier Hollow during the Salt Lake Winter Olympics).  Way to go USA... if I didn't need to be getting ready for church, I would be warming up my couch cushion for another round of pride-filled tv watching!

So don't you worry... I've got a few blog posts up my sleeve.  Maybe I'll even take a long enough break from watching the Olympics to get in another post or two.  Maybe.