Super-fun, EASY Valentine's Craft

Omg this was so fun and easy. Let me start by saying that on Tuesday nights, my hubs goes right from work to teaching guitar lessons, and he doesn't come home until like 9, long after Stenni's in bed. So it's my "single parent" night, and I have to go it alone from when she wakes up til she goes to bed at night. (On a related note, God bless single parents. I don't know how they do it.) With a normal child, this might be completely fine. But for a child with Stenni's level of exuberance, lets just say that I'm ready to call in the reinforcements around 4 o'clock or so. So we try to stay really busy on Tuesdays doing fun stuff that isn't terribly complicated or expensive. This Tuesday we made Valentine's day t-shirts to match each other!!! This is big for me because she usually only wants to match Papa. Here's how we did it:

Buy a pack of cheap heart-shaped doilies and a cheap t-shirt. Use a clear-drying glue stick and use a little dab to attach one of the doilies on the front of the shirt, wherever you'd like your design. You just don't want to doily to move around when you're painting in the little holes.

Paint over the doily, using whatever colors of acrylic paint you'd like. We used a ton of glitter paint, in a bunch of different colors (this is Stenni's, obviously). 

(This one's mine. I'm clearly the mysterious one.)

She's totally having fun painting other stuff while I put the t-shirts off to the side. Also, a belated cautionary note: put newspaper over every single surface in your house that you don't want covered in paint.

Stenni's finished product!

My finished product!

Now Stenni and I have matching shirts to wear next Thursday! Woo-hoo! Plus, like I said, it couldn't have been easier. I feel kind of silly even giving a how-to tutorial! But it was super-fun anyway. 

BTDubs, I'm linking up at Not Just A Housewife and Reasons to Skip the Housework today.  Head over there for some inspiration and legit Valentine's crafts, as well as totally jealousy-inducing projects and recipes and cool other stuff.

Thankful: Thirty Things

Jenna from It's Just Called Spicy is hosting a 30 Days of Thanks link party, and I just had to link up because I have soooo very much to be thankful for this year. Also, I wanted to do this before Thanksgiving actually  comes, so..

Here goes nothing:
1. stenni, my beautiful, sweet, cheesy, brilliant little girl.
2. my hubs. he's so awesome i can't even deal with it sometimes. he is also beautiful, sweet, cheesy and brilliant. i see where stenni gets it from. i'm a very lucky lady.
3. the two swans who live on my lake. i'm not sure about the migration habits of swans but they aren't always around. when they are it makes my day. they are always together and i think it's so sweet.
4. deandra, my puppy, and her boundless energy.
5. the awesomest cat trifecta, mogan, conan and baby kitty, who always form the cat triforce of wisdom by always laying in a triangle formation.
6. the fact that my husband FINALLY got his transfer to a different location at work! woo hoo, we've been waiting for this transfer for about a year now!
7. for the moment, living so close to my family, especially my grandparents, who are right next door!
8. having electricity. for reals, i could never do that pioneer/Amish crap. i didn't really know that for certain until the hurricane hit.
9. my family making it out of last month's hurricane safe and sound, with only minor damage to our houses (and thankfully not to us).
10. indoor plumbing. again, hurricane-related. i'm thankful for all that the hurricane taught me, but not the hurricane itself. that would be ridiculous.
11. that as a woman, i can vote, get an education, work if i'd like, and also raise my family. i like that a lot.
12. having a close friend with a daughter the same age as mine, so that they can play together while we do.
13. jazzercise! yes i'm totally serious! it's like a total girl-power workout, and if you know my love of the spice girls you can understand my appreciation of all things girl power.
14. the fact that they re-opened the pocono bazaar flea market. just in time for Christmas!

15. the cabin at hankins, ny (family picture minus my mom at left)
16. that stenni gets to know all 4 grandparents, and whole set of great grandparents!
17. always having enough to share with others.
18. the bright colors in my home. my yellow kitchen and my orange bathroom!
19. having a home to call our own, even if we have already outgrown it!
20. being almost finished with potty training (i can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!)
21. my health
22. my parents. usually. ;)
23. my sister. we don't get to hang out as much as i'd like, but she's ok in my book.
24. my education. i went to a wonderful women's liberal arts college, and i'm glad that i had the experience of being in classrooms full of women throughout my 4 years there. i learned so much from them, and not just the professors!
25. my favorite slippers. i got them on a trip to Ireland over 10 years ago and they are still warm and fuzzy and wonderful!
26. living in NJ, the best place in the world hands down! we have the beach, the mountains, farmland, and everything within a few hours' drive. yay garden state!
27. TODAY! it's a new day, you know.
28. having a ton of frozen tomato sauce in my freezer from the garden this year. every time i open one up it smells like august!
29. all of my books. i love to look at them all. oh and read them too.
30. hosting thanksgiving at my house again this year, for the 8th year in a row!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!