We feed the squirrels.

Squirrel Feeder // thepapermama.com

Do not feed the squirrels. Yeah, we feed those little rodents. I KNOW we probably shouldn’t… but it’s pretty cute to watch. They pretty much rule our neighborhood and I’m 90% sure they are living in the attic of our separate garage (darn them). We still feed them. They terrorize our bird feeder and squeak angrily at my Chihuahua (I believe they think he is a giant squirrel). We still feed them. Mostly because it’s fun for the kiddo. Each day we bring out the peanut jar and sprinkle them around the yard and hide them on the fence… then wait for them to show up and we watch them from the window. It’s our thing. NOW we have a cute little jar to hide nuts in. I like that it’s a glass jar (easier to spy on them while they eat).

Squirrel Feeder // thepapermama.com

I made it in about 20 minutes. I had a wide mouth jar (with a 3 inch opening), an old serving fork, and some wire. Sooooo, this squirrel feeder was FREE, minus the small price for peanuts. Yeah… it cost peanuts (I’ll be here all night).

Squirrel Feeder // thepapermama.com

I wrapped the wire around two spots on the jar and secured the fork. Simple simple. Secure the feeder to something that’s easy to reach… a fence? A tree? Hmmm? I wired ours onto a fence post (within view from our living room… so important).

Squirrel Feeder // thepapermama.com
Fill that jar with squirrel treats, and we’re done

Squirrel Feeder // thepapermama.com

Squirrel Feeder // thepapermama.com

I can’t wait to snap a photo of those naughty little squirrels getting into the jar. We also have a TON of blue jays… and they love those peanuts. The crows might even try and get in on this. All super entertaining for us… because that’s EXACTLY what I made this jar for: pure entertainment. Ha!

Annnnnd, in case you’re curious… our squirrels are a bit chunky (they eat from ALL the bird feeders in the neighborhood).

Squirrel // thepapermama.com

– Chelsey


Rainbow Heart Headband DIY For the Kids

Rainbow Heart Headband // thepapermama.com

I’m sort of on a rainbow kick (if you haven’t already noticed) and I felt like there was something missing in my life, I couldn’t quite place it. Then, it came to me: my kiddo needs a rainbow heart headband. I made one and now my life is complete! Hee. She was pretty stoked to see what I had made for her… but then she asked me to make another one with ONLY Purple Hearts. That kid is addicted to purple.

Anywho… if you’d like to make this for yourself OR kiddo… here’s how you can make my Rainbow Heart Headband:

Rainbow Heart Headband // thepapermama.com

Supplies:

Colored hearts printout

Mod Podge

– Glitter in rainbow colors (red, orange yellow/gold, green, blue, purple)

– Old brush

– A section of ribbon (measure on your head, or kid’s, and add about 12 inches to tie a bow)

– Optional: Acrylic sealer spray

Directions:

– Print and cut out your colored hearts printout. I chose to use the smaller hearts for my headband.

– Add a layer of Mod Podge to a heart and add a layer of glitter. Let dry completely and repeat a second layer of glue and glitter (if necessary). Do this to ALL of your hearts.

– Add about 2 coats of Mod Podge OVER the glitter on the hearts. This will seal them and keep the glitter in place.

– Let dry completely (maybe a couple of hours).

Optional: Spray a couple of Acrylic Sealer Spray coats onto your hearts (Mod Podge is water-based, and needs a sealer if exposed to a lot of moisture). I chose to skip this step, since my kiddo pretty much hides from rain. Ha! So, no worry about it falling apart from the rain.

– Hot glue your hearts, in a line, onto you ribbon. Let cool.

Rainbow Heart Headband // thepapermama.com

– Tie around your head (or your kiddo’s), and dooone.

Rainbow Heart Headband // thepapermama.com

Enjoy.

– Chelsey


The -Sometimes I Want to Cuss- Banner!

Lucky Lady Banner // thepapermama.com

I’m a mama. A mama to a kiddo that repeats EVERything I say. When I say everything… that’s really what I mean. Usually the kiddo likes to copy each word I say. SO, that means I cannot cuss. I want to cuss. So bad, but I can’t. Unless I want my 3-year-old to do the same.

Sometimes I just want to hang banners up that say, “Lucky Bitch”. I do hang it up for about 2 minutes…. then my kiddo comes in the room and asks me what I’m doing. I take it down and I replace it with my “Lucky Lady” banner. For a tiny moment it was there. I imagined I could cuss freely… out loud. That’s not how it is, so I keep my cursing to myself.

Lucky Lady Banner // thepapermama.com

I want to cuss, but I don’t need to… Ok, sometimes I need to: stubbing toes, getting cut off by a driver, breaking something, frustration, cussing for joy (weird one), and just plain cussing because I feel like it. I reserve my cussing for a kid-free night with my friends (kid-free moms cuss like a bunch of drunk sailors, not even joking).

Whether you want to cuss it up all over your walls…. or you’d like to keep it clean and just be a Lucky Lady, this banner is fun for you. Perfect for the month of March. Want to make this for yourself? Ok!

Supplies:

– My letter’s printouts: one and two

– Green glitter

Mod Podge

– Old brush

– String

– Hot glue

Lucky Lady Banner // thepapermama.com

Directions:

– Print and cut out your letters from the printouts I provided (one and two).

– Place a layer of Mod Podge onto your letters, followed by a sprinkling of glitter. Let dry completely and add another layer of glue and glitter (the first layer wont fully cover with glitter).

– Once your letters are completely dry, glue the letters onto a bit of string of twine.

– Hang and you’re done!

Enjoy!

– Chelsey

Lucky Lady Banner // thepapermama.com


Magical Rainbow Wreath DIY

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

Hello Rainbow Wreath. You are quite lovely. This is one of my favorite wreaths to date. It’s fun and really reminds me of Rainbow Brite’s boots. Hee. This wreath is PERFECT for the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day holiday, but I plan on keeping it up for longer than this weekend. I think it’s a perfect wreath for Easter and even just for Spring (it’s almost Springtime, yay)!

Want to make this for yourself? Good. Here’s how I did it:

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

Supplies:

– Foam wreath

– Masking Tape (1 inch wide)

Mod Podge

– Glitter: red, orange, yellow (or gold), green, blue, and purple

– Old brush (about 1/2 inch wide)

Cloud printout

– 6 toothpicks

– Hot glue

Acrylic sealing spray

Directions:

– Cut off half of your wreath, creating a rainbow shape. I used a small hand saw to do this.

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

– Use your painters tape to tape off sections of your wreath. I tried to tape off about 1/2 to 1 1/4 inch sections. This is just a map to help you paint the rainbow stripes.

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

– Pick out the order you’d like your glitter in…. I chose the basic rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. That means… every six sections (including the taped off spots) is the same color. Don’t worry about being too neat about this first round of colors, you’ll be covering any mess in the next set of colors.

Using your brush, put a layer of Mod Podge and glitter. Let dry and repeat a second coat of glue and glitter. Let the glitter dry COMPLETELY. I let it go a couple hours.

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

–  When your first round of glitter is dry, add tape to cover the glitter runoff and old tape.

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

– Add the remaining colors of glitter OVER the tape. Yup. Put Mod Podge on the tape and glitter. This also requires a couple of layers (and maybe a couple of quick touch ups). Let completely dry.

– Print and cut out the cloud printout. I chose to follow the cloud outline, but use the back of the page. I liked the pure white cloud instead of my cloud images. It was nice to have a pattern to follow while cutting.

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

– To support the clouds you’ll be hot gluing on, stick 3 toothpicks into the bottom of each side of the rainbow. Hot glue the clouds down.

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

–  Add a couple of coats of Clear Acrylic Spray to your Rainbow Wreath. Mod Podge is water based, and is NOT waterproof. I’d also suggest NOT putting this wreath in direct rain. My front door is safe from the rain, so I’m not too worried about a couple of splashes.

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

– Annnnd, you’re done! Hand your wreath where you can enjoy it everyday. I also suggest maybe tying the wreath with a bit of wire onto the wreath hangar. It’s a bit wobbly.

This project is a bit time consuming, but I love the end result. ALSO: messy. Glue and glitter… holy messy. Just take your time and let the glitter dry before adding more coats… that may help keep the frustration level down. Hee.

Also…. I photographed the wreath indoors… because I didn’t like the photos of it up against my red door. That’s it: time to paint the front door. I’m leaning towards a grey.

Rainbow Wreath // thepapermama.com

– Chelsey

P.S. Let me know if you create this!

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If you have a Wednesday post, please feel free to link it up below. And, feel free to link up to these blogs too… Parenting by DummiesProject AliciaJenni from the Blog, and Live and Love Outloud.



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Rainbow Bum Cookies: A funny Pinterest fail!

rainbow bum cookies

Well… This was a Pinterest thing. I decided to NOT follow the recipe provided, and that did not work out in my favor. Instead of creating a recipe, I went with a boxed sugar cookie mess…. Things I did NOT think about when making my rainbow cookies: most likely they will melt down into a blob during baking. Ha! So, I’d like to introduce you to my Rainbow Bum Cookies. Yeah. They look like colorful bums.

When we shared these cookies with my friend’s 6 year old, he whispered to his mom, “Hey, mom… These look like bottoms!” Ha! That makes me giggle. Yup. Rainbow Bum Cookies.

So, I can’t call this a Pinterest fail…  Since I didn’t actually follow the rules. I’ve heard that refrigerating the dough overnight might help keep the sugar cookies from going flat… Oh well. When you put them on a teacup, they still look pretty cute (and less like a butt).

Rainbow Cookie cup

I REALLY recommend checking out the recipe on this site. The recipe is called “Play Dough Cookies” and I feel like ACTUally following this recipe will work out better than my butt cookies. Ha! Regardless of how my cookies turned out, the kiddo and I did have a GREAT time making them. We split up the dough into 6 sections, added a different color to each section, rolled out the cookies into strips and put together. Bake. Done.

Rainbow Cookies

Have you tried making these?

– Chelsey

Tags: ,

Categories: food, Sweets, tried it


So far…

I was wandering through my old instagram photos and realized it’s only March, but I’ve already done SO much in this new year. Do we still call it a “new year” in March? I don’t know. Anywho…

Alt Summit

In the beginning of January I took on some MAJOR public speaking fears, and spoke on an Alt Summit panel.

Preschool

My kiddo started going to preschool… oMG.

Pickled Carrots

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I’ve started canning, and am so excited to take MORE control of what we put in our bodies (these carrots are from my garden). I’ve also been making my own homemade granola (no refined sugars! Yeah!).

Drawing and Coffee

I made a commitment to draw something for MYself at least once a week. PLUS: gave up caffeine for 2 weeks… and quickly fell off the wagon. Ha!

Ponies

I’ve played MANY games of horsies. So many.

Glasses

I’ve been trying out new glasses (from the Vintage Optical Shop).

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I sent samples of my flooring in for Asbestos sampling… came back negative! Yay!

Kid // thepapermama.com

annnnd…. my kiddo has been going to preschool for a couple of months now AND loves it. This makes me so happy. <3

How has your “new year” been so far?

– Chelsey

All photos were taken with HTC OneX+ provided to me by HTC. I was not paid for this post.

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Categories: about me