2 Clever Blog

Real Life

Think ::

You know how you read some blogs and you feel like "hello this is not real  - no one lives like this?"
That is the beauty of us.  This is the real deal.  It is almost July and we still have our May banner, I have 10 drafts in our compose section that are half started and I am too lazy to even find a creative photo to put with this post.

I can't believe how uncreative I feel these days.  Is it the heat sucking out my juice?

I am feeling totally overwhelmed by the thought of moving next year.  I have been on the phone for weeks with three different realtors in three different states trying to figure out where we would live once we find a place for our feet to land.  We LOVE every place yet they are all so different.  Grown up decisions stink!

I have a gazillion, million 4th of July ideas in my head and wish they would come out. For crying out loud I live in the nations Capital I better do something patriotic.  This is our last 4th here so of course I am feeling the pressure to do something big.

Before I go I will share with you the most CLEVER ever moving card that I got today in my inbox.  I love it because it is simple, charming, clever and would fit with Mr Pink's budget perfectly.

Here it is...

Dear Friends

so i totally forgot that the calligrapher has the week off. i hope this informal change of address is okay.

Suzy, Dave, Mary, Willy and Eleanore Smith

1356 new avenue

Glenville, Indiana 45680

Cute huh?  Hey Hang in there with all you have going on too.

Pink ::

Sweet Thing!

Think ::

Can you believe how lucky we are to have such wonderful people read our creative conversation everyday?  It always makes me happy to see our visitors stop by.
We also have been very lucky to have a few websites share our ideas for their readers and they always do such a good job of giving us credit (they know we love that)

One Pretty Thing

,

UCreate,

TipJunkie 

have all be en really good to us by telling the world about us.  Thanks Gals. 

So the other day while searching on their sites I found a new site called Kara's Cupcakes.  I soaked in her tutorial on making these cupcakes out of sculpty clay.  The girls and I made rings and a ton of pendants for her to give to her swim coaches "because they are so sweet!"  I took a photo in front of my beautiful blooming pink hydrangas - are they not lovely.

Anyway you may enjoy making these treasures with your little Think!

and the Jonas Brothers???? What I talked myself out of buying $100 tickets in the nose bleeds for their concert this summer because I LOVE them but also love Mr. Pink's budget even more and you say you didn't even know their songs.  Oh the pain.  Next time you get free tickets to something amazing like that call me - Delta will get me there in a jiffy.

You are great and amazing in case I have not told you in awhile.

Pink ::

Our Great Dad

Hi Pink::

My Mr. Think is awesome! We are sitting in a suite eating free food waiting for the Jonas Brothers concert to start. He got tickets thru work. Too bad we don't know a single one of their songs. Little Think will think that this is how all concerts are supposed to be after this. We are just excited to be inside the new Cowboys Stadium. It's HUGE!!!!

Trying to channel my inner preteen :: Think

Father's Day Card For My Nursery Kiddos

Pink ::

You know I work in my church's nursery on Sundays with kids 18 months to 3 years old. Or at least I think I mentioned that to you before. If not, I do.

Is there anything else that is more entertaining and exhausting? I don't think so.

When we first moved to Nashville back in 2000, Mr. Think and I did the same thing there and I needed something for the little ones to do for their daddies on Father's Day. So I made up this. I'm so glad I remembered it today so I can use it again this Sunday. Yay!

Anyone else who is need of a cheap, easy, sorta cute card for a bunch of pre-preschoolers – here you go!

Print out this sheet for the inside. I put two on a page so after you print it out just cut the paper in half.

Have the kids color the tie. (Or if they are like the ones in my Nursery, they will scribble wildly all over while eating a crayon turning their teeth green)

When they are done cut a line from the top of the paper to the top of the tie and fold it down like a dress shirt collar. (mine is poking up in the photo below but you get the idea)

Put it in the middle of a piece of construction paper and fold the color paper around it. Fold where the paper meets down like lapels. You could use scrapbook paper if you wanted to up its "cute factor" but I think the construction paper is more "retro manly" and almost feels like fabric if you buy the super cheap kind.

Glue on a button. (If you kids are small use smaller buttons to prevent worries about choking. This ones a little big....)

Done!

Happy Father's Day to your Mr. Pink!  :: Think

Flashy Father's Day

Photo from Mister Pink's Breakfast 2 years ago.  Do you love my German chocolate sucker?

Think ::

Ok so this is what I love about you and I.  We love tradition and always do the same type of thing but in two totally different directions that are so us.

This year we will be making our 8th Funky Father's day tie.  Every year I go to my local thrift shop and find an old funky tie to spruce up. 

The girls and I gather all of our doo dads from different drawers, bottles of glue and puffy paint.  On the tie above we made lots of shrinky dink drawings and then they magically shrunk into little works of art all over his sparkly tie. I think on the bottom they sewed one of the stretchy sea animals.

In 2204 I made the tie above and had put photos of the two little girls (I was pregnant with number 3). Mister Pink was not so happy with the homemade tie as it did look a little more clownish than normal.  He said he like the classic tie gone wild more than starting from scratch.  I did agree.

But starting with a blank canvas made it easy to stick it in my embroidery machine and work it's magic.
He is always such a sport to wear his tie to church every year.  Especially the year the girls tied jingle bells all along the bottom.

.
This year had shrinky dinks along with mini charms with the girls faces on it along with buttons, bells, ribbons and such. 

I am also throwing in this post what we gave the dad's at church in 2004.  (you should remember you wrote the poem for me even though you had already moved to Texas)  Sorry about the horrible flash reflection photo (this was pre my awesome camera days)
We got plastic pocket protectors, Bic pen and a sugar daddy sucker with a sticker with your poem.

Hip, Hip Hooray
Today is Father's Day!
For all the things you do for us
without complaining, without a fuss
As our ward we would like to say have a
"Sugar Daddy" Day.
Father's Day 2004

Yesterday was the last day of school - Finally! - so I will gather my school endings together in a post soon.  I am off to clean my house for a visit from Grammy and Papa Pink this week!

See ya friend! (we are so lucky our littles have such super dads!)

Pink ::

My Favorite Father's Day Tradition

Pink ::

Do you remember this one? I think we were both still in Nashville when I started this. It was for Little Think's first Father's Day and I have done it every year.

It is the ONE thing Mr. Think wants.

It is his "Badge of Honor".

I bought a pink tie. I found a picture of Little Think on my computer, shrunk it down so her face was about an inch across and converted it to black & white and then made it sepia to warm it up. (group shots would work great for more than one child) Then I then printed it on this stuff:

OptiJet Artist Cotton Canvas in Matte Finish

It is canvas that can go through my inkjet printer. Found it online at Amazon today but I have seen it around other places. Kinda pricey but it is what I started with so I have to go with it. I cut it out in a circle. Then I poked holes around the outside about an 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch apart with my needle tool. I used embroidery thread in a blanket stitch to attach the photo to the tie.

I always just google "blanket stitch" to remember how to do it. There are lots of tutorials for it and I usually find one I can comprehend. I would love to have a sewing machine that I trusted to do a nice finished edge around it but then again I like the quirkiness of my stitches and how they are slightly different each year. And in a few years I will let Little Think sew it on herself. I put the first photo on the bottom of the tie and then add a photo going up every year. We tell Mr. Think he had earned his "Daddy Badge" for the year. (He is an Eagle Scout so he has great respect for badges)

My favorite part is when he wears it to church that day and I can see people wondering what in the world is on his tie. Two years ago I was out of town on Father's Day and he wore it out in the rain for an extended period of time and it got a little rain splashed on some of the photos. So it is a little fragile.  It's a good thing it only gets worn one day a year.

Another option instead of sewing would be to have 1 inch button pins made of the photo and pin them to the tie. How totally cute would it look when the tie was all filled up with color photo button pins of things they did together that year. If you google button pins several companies come up. (Zazzle.com is one that has no minimums and quick turn around but I have never used them so I can't vouch for their quality or service. They have totally cool square buttons too!)

I love having something sentimental to give every year. And that fact that he looks forward to it and is proud to wear it shows what a truly great father he is.

Little Think and I need to get going on selecting a photo for this year! :: Think

You are the best!!

Think::

Thanks for the great idea. My 2 dollar stores are cleared out and all of the dads at church will be thrilled.

Pink::

Top Pop

Pink :: I think I'm a one-trick-pony.

I know this is pretty similar to the Valentines Crush I did before, but when I saw the the Dad's Root Beer at my Dollar Store I thought it was an easy thing to whip up and share with you. You can't see it too well in my photo, but the front of the bottle says "Big Daddy Size" which is what really caught my eye. (It's a cute 1 liter bottle. Not too big, not too small. just right....)

To make your own, just click on the image below and print it out on a color printer on cardstock. I used a 2" scalloped circle punch on the yellow to make the badge's back. Then I cut out the "top pop" circle and glued in on top. The striped "ribbon" I cut out and cut into two pieces on an angle to the length I liked. Then "glue dotted" it to the front of the bottle. Really you could use any favorite soda pop but the Dad's just makes it for me. On my printer, the badge matches the Dad's bottle colors, but you may have to play with the colors on your printer if you want it to match exactly.

Remember when they handed out chilled Dad's Root Beer in brown bottles on Father's Day at Church in Nashville? So funny to see all the men sipping some soda.

(And yes, on the file to download it says "You're" instead of "Your" in the middle of the badge. I was too lazy to retake the photo. Mr. Think is very used to my misspellings so he won't mind.)

I'll post my favorite Father's Day Tradition tomorrow :: Think

woo hoo for Whooga! give 2 all!

 

Think ::

I got an email from Alicia at Whooga recently saying she wanted to give a gift to everyone who reads our blog, yes all of our eavesdroppers.

So this could be a "give 2 all"! 

Enter the code 2cleverblog in your cart and you will get a free $30.00 to spend on a new pair of boots. 

Amazing huh.

Enjoy Eavesdroppers and thanks Whooga Boots.  Click here to use your 2clever code! tell  your friends!

Pink ::

5th Grade Here she comes!

 

 

Think ::

Oh my why do I get myself in such things.  Yesterday a girlfriend and I planned a end of the year party for all the 4th graders.  She is a creative wizard and I can not take any credit for all of this coming together.

We had parents all bring in different summer items to put together in $1.00 buckets that she painted with their names and covered in bright ribbon.  (what will I do when I no longer live by the ribbon outlet?)

• sunglasses
• sunscreen
• summer magazine
• water bottles
• cozie's

We then made all teachers candy lei's to put around their neck while we thanked them and let the 4th graders cheer for them.  I forget how great these are! So easy, cheap and fun.

My friends best idea ever was to have the kids sign a big banner that we can hang in the 5th grade hall on the first day of school next year.  We started out with the idea of buying a white sheet and spray painting it, but ha ha you know me too well.  The spray paint went out the window and gingham check applique took it's place on yellow brushed cotton.  I just did large iron ons for the words.

Even though you are out of the school mode this might be fun for next year.

Pink ::

Graduation

Think ::

Home from Seattle and EXHAUSTED.  Our whole plan to get a full night sleep on the "pink" eye flight and then be ready for the day - well that did not work for me so well.  I dropped Mr. Pink off at work at 7:00 am on the way home from the airport and how he has made it through work all day I will never know.  (I think I did marry a man made of steel)

Anyway, since I have not downloaded all my photos from my trip and am now in panic mode for getting end of the year stuff done (you know my pain) I thought I would write about something I did a few weeks ago on the line of graduations.

Me and another church group leader decorated the doors of the girls graduating from High School in our youth group.  We waited until they left for graduation so that when they came home they would come home to their house being all decked out.

So here is what we did.  The top sign was from the $1.00 store.

We had all the girls from church sign the back and stuck in front of their house with a bunch of balloons in their school colors.

Then I bought large packs of dinner plates that said "Congrats Grad" on them and a set of matching red plastic knives from the party store.  I taped the knives on the back with the jagged side down so that it could go into the ground outside their homes.  This is a super cheap way to decorate for a fun event. could you imagine waking up the morning of your birthday with your lawn covered in paper plates!  This clever idea came out of me being cheap and desperate.

Then we made a candy bar poster for the girls to put on the front door.  My partner in crime could seriously write these for a living.  Watching her arrange all the candy bars to come up with this poem was like watching someone on the Price is Right racing to finsish a game.  She is amazing. So I can not take credit for this poem but will share it with you and any eavesdroppers anyway.

We thought it would be {Fun DiP} to drop by while you were in your
{bottle caps} and gown to let you know that you {Pop Rocks}. 

You should be filled with {mounds} of {Almond Joy} that you are no {dumb dumb} but a you are filled with {Extra} good stuff to use {Now and Later}. 
Since you have {Skor} ed a degree you are worth more than {1000 Grand}!!

 As your Young Women leaders we are
so proud of you we could just {kissables} you!

Cute huh!!

Ok Graduation over, now on to end of school for my littles!  I can't wait till summer officially begins.

Pink ::

On may way home

Think ::

Wow what a great trip. Getting on the plane. I am taking my first "pink eye" flight.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Pink ::

Graduation Gifts

    

Think ::

Before I left for Seattle (still having a great time by the way) I made these bags for the girls in my youth group who graduated from High School.

 

Another leader and I had the three girls over for lunch and then gave them these monogrammed bags and monogrammed aprons and hot pads.  Seriously it is true girls love to see their monogram. They made my day by jumping out off the couch they were so excited. 

I bought the bags at KMart of all places.  They were only $12.00 each.  I tied matching ribbon on each of them that I think pulled it all in together.  The lining of each bag was hot pink.  Monogram is done in Empire font from Embroidery Arts. 

Ok off to catch a Ferry and eat some fish and chips.

Pink ::

Accountability

Think ::

Now here is a clever idea. On my wanderings yesterday I flound this yogurt shop Red Mango. On your receipt it prints out what you ordered and totals all the nutrition Information.
The yogurt was incredible and the receipt was just down right clever.

Pink ::

On top of the.....

Think::

I am right now on top of the space needle! The sun is shining it is beautiful.
Oh how I love iPhones and mobile blogging.
Off to discover something else.

Pink::

Beautiful mornings

Think::
For the past two mornings Mr. Pink and I have walked down to the public market and had these french pasteries and sat on the water and watched the clouds roll over the mountains. Mr. Pink is in la la land.
I took this photo of our hot chocolate this morning. Today they gave us hearts in the cream.
I can't wait to explore the city on my own today. I wonder who I will meet?
( don't worry Nora no one can replace you! But I think I will for sure try to find a paper source)

Off for the day and guess what the sun is shining!!

Pink::

Throwing fish

Think::

Look at me the Market today. Seattle is so great. Mr. Pink grew up here so it is so fun for him to be on old stomping grounds.
We drove his old paper route today and took a photo of him in front of his house that he grew up in.

Pink::

Off again

Think::

Well, I am off again this time to Seattle.

Pink ::

Little Think's Teacher Gifts

Pink :: 1 hour to summer!!

So I thought I had better try and post some stuff that I threw together for Little Think's teachers.

I used your gumball idea for the PE teachers. Sorry for the bad photos. (Late night photography never looks great. And trust me when I say it was LATE at night...)  I made tags with Little Think's picture hugging her basketball. The white smudges on the red line are not hieoglyphics. It was her name which I smudged out for online posting.

I have a Costco Card not a Sam's Club and they didn't have any of the gumballs there. But they did have a big thing of Jelly Beans so I went with that for the rest of teachers.  Hobby Lobby had darling light bulb screw top containers for only $1.47. Get it...  light bulb=ideas=smarts

Oh the fun we had coming up with the tags:

Thanks for "bean" a great teacher
and making me so "bright"

Thanks for "bean" a great principal
and making our school "shine"

Thanks for "bean" a great librarian
and "lighting" my mind with books

Thanks for "bean" a great music/art teacher
and letting me "shine"!

Little Think liked figuring out what she wanted to be photographed with for each teacher. Microphones, paint brushes, books, band-aids, brooms, etc.

I got seriously emotional at the final assembly this morning when all the kids were singing the school song. How did this year go so fast???

Off to pick up my 1st Grader :: Think

Oh My.....

Pink :: Long time no me blog.

I had no idea what a whirlwind the end of school was.

wow.

I liked Mindy's post that called it "The December of Spring".
That's exactly how I feel.
So many lists, so many gifts, so many parties,
so many programs, so many emotions.

Not enough time or energy to process or post about it all yet.

But how do you like my take on your last day t-shirt for Little Think? Just finished ironing it on and now I'm crawling off to bed before I fall asleep and get the imprint of my keyboard on my face.

Yay school :: Think

I am trying to grow...

Dear Think ::

What it is June?? How did that happen?
I am thrilled that there is only 9 days left of school for two reasons.  One because it is almost over but also glad I have 9 days to do all my last minute end of the year surprises for the teachers and staff.  I am a huge fan of celebrating those working in education.

So, here is my exciting news for the day.  I got the most awesome bit of Good Mail today.  See my necklace above.

A friend saw this photo that our friend Jill had taken recently and had it made into a necklace for me. The sign was obviously for the plants and grass but it sure does apply to most humans too.

She ordered the necklace from here.  Lilylane.com.  Now I may be ruining a good thing by sharing this with the world - but they are as low as $10.00.  Here read this from their site...

"Why are our prices so cheap? Don’t confuse inexpensive prices with a cheap product. Our pendants are purposely priced ridiculously low to make it affordable for everyone. Let’s face it, we all know firsthand about drooling over an item that we want and the big disappointment that is sure to follow once you see the price tag. We guarantee that our pieces are the least expensive custom soldered pendants that you will find on the market; all while the workmanship and quality is guaranteed. Plus, the fabulous prices make it so easy to give a LilyLane custom soldered pendant as a gift to your mother, sister, neighbor, friend, or a daughter without breaking the bank.

You can’t beat that! "

Well no duh you can't beat that!!  I am going to send in the class photo of littles 4th grade class and give it to the teacher!  Great huh.

Happy Hot Day!
Pink ::