So, I’m pretty sure that I only have about 3 male readers on this her blog, BUT Mother’s day is coming up on Sunday and I’m pretty sure this would be the best thing to wake up to on Mother’s Day: a tower of doughnuts adorned with photos of your kiddo. I LOVE doughnuts. A lot. They make me feel like poo after I eat them, but in the moment I’m eating a doughnut… it’s fantastic. The only thing that would make this better is if this was a tower of fried chicken. Hee.

To celebrate your mama this weekend, why not make a Doughnut Photo Tower? Print out some small photos (I chose to print these out in black and white), cut it out, and tape to some toothpicks or wooden skewers.

I love how cute this is. I think I’ll recreate this for Father’s day! Maybe with a tower of bacon? Ha!

Have a wonderful weekend and Mama’s Day!

- Chelsey

I have been struggling with what to name this thing… I  mean. How do I even name this without it sounding dirty? It was hard, but I think I did it. Say hello to the Surprise Ball: For Your Dude. Yup. It’s a surprise ball…. for your man. Ha! A man surprise ball package (see dirty, or maybe it’s just me).

What’s a surprise ball you ask? Well, it’s a ball of crepe paper and goodies. Typically these are for kids. In fact, I made about 10 kiddo surprise balls for R’s birthday party in December. The kids LOVED them. They were all distracted for a good 34 minutes. For Christmas I made a “lump of coal” for my uncle. It pretty much had everything in it as this ball, but in the center was a gift card.

This last week my husband celebrated his birthday. SO, I thought this would be a fun for me fun gift for him. I filled the ball with all things he can use and likes. I took a before picture…

What was in there? Well…

- two small packages of coffee

- shaving Cream

- two 5 hour energy bottles

- Siracha

- Ranch Corn Nuts

- pumpkin seeds

- a whole package of Reese’s easter eggs….

- beef stick

- four Slim Jims

- two pairs of socks

- 8 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

- 8 Kit Kat Bars

- a bottle of Session beer

- small deodorant

- chapstick

- annnnnnd gum

How do you make a surprise ball?

You need quite a bit of crepe paper. I used 5 rolls of black and one roll of white. I didn’t pay attention to how much was in each roll, but I’d say getting 6 – 7 would be safe. Try and put the larger items in the center. Some people like to do one continuos strip of crepe paper. I don’t. I tore off 1 – 2 yard sections to wrap each prize. I started with the Siracha, then shaving cream, and beer. From there I just tried to place items to make it look more like a ball. The socks and snack bags were helpful to soften corners. Wrap, wrap, wrap. Surprisingly… it only took just over an hour to wrap the whole thing.

When you’re done maybe add a bow? Pretty ribbon wrapped around it? A tag? Give to your favorite dude in your life, and have fun. If you’re curious about the actual scale of this surprise ball I placed my Chihuahua, Angus, next to it. He’s 6 pounds. P.S. he always looks terrified.

ALRIGHT! Happy Monday to all of you. Have you ever made or received a surprise ball?

- Chelsey

Well, I know today is ACTUALLY Valentine’s Day… but I really wanted to share these little necklaces that my kiddo and I made (well, mostly me). It all started on a walk. While on our daily walk, we found a tree that had dropped a ton of acorns, so we gathered a the tops and headed to the yarn shop. We bought some colorful wool roving and started felting some pieces to create little faux acorns.

I did this project with my kiddo, and it was SO messy. Water EVERYwhere. It was actually worth all the water splashing since she had so much fun. She worked on one piece the entire time, and called it her “purple cookie”. It was just a flat 2 inch piece of purple wool. She did a great job and uses it as a blanket for her ponies. I made all the acorn bits.

R really wanted to give a necklace to a couple of her friends, so we decided to turn these guys into little Valentine’s goodies. I made and printed out some, “I’m nuts for you!” tags, cut them and and tied them onto the necklaces. That’s it! If you want to make this for a special someone (mother’s day is coming up in a couple months) here’s a link to the Felt Acorns Directions I used, from Honestly WTF. Check out my “I’m nuts for you” printable, and add some necklace chain. Ta dah!

- Chelsey

P. dot. S. You will get pruney fingers. Bleh. Pruney fingers are like someone scratching a chalkboard for me… I can’t handle it. OMG. Eww. After about 5 minutes of playing in the water, I had to go grab some rubber gloves. Gah. Ewww. Pruney toes and fingers are the worst. Also see: I’m a weirdo.