Jellyfish in a Bottle

I saw this idea on Pinterest from a blog in Thailand. I knew I wanted to make it with my kids.

You'll need an empty plastic bottle, preferably a smooth one. Mine is a Smartwater bottle. A clear plastic bag. In the Thai blog, she used a clear shopping bag but I don't have a single store near me that uses clear shopping bags. They're all white or yellow. However, the thinner produce bags are clear so I used one of those and hoped it would work.

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The Secret to Brushing Tangled Children's Hair

Once upon a time I hated American Girl Dolls. This time was very, very recent. And truth is I still dislike their massive commercial nature. We have an American Doll Store in my town and it is insane to walk in there. I'd hoped to keep Princess Fierce away from them forever but she was lured in a few months ago. Fortunately she has her momma's thrifty streak and even at five could not fathom the need for a $100 dollar doll when a very similar one was available at Tuesday Morning for less than $20. And the Tuesday Morning doll, from the Target line, looks like her.

She scored that bargain doll for her birthday. Here she is with it the very weekend after her birthday taking Remember on a hike to see waterfalls. But do you see the back of Remember's ponytail? That's a plastic hair rat nest and the doll is only days old. Uh-oh. Princess Fierce was not happy with how fast her hair was tangling.

A quick turn to the Interwebs and I found a solution. A wig brush and a mist of water. Whatever you do don't dare touch their tresses with the plastic toy brushes sold with the dolls. We headed off to our local Sally's Beauty Supply to score an inexpensive wig brush. Only $3.99. A quick mist with water and strokes of the right brush and Remember's hair was smooth and ready for a braid.

But this post is not about how to brush a doll's hair. Nope, this is about a bigger problem.

My own daughter's hair. This is what I'm dealing with when Princess Fierce wakes up. And guess what? She HATES me brushing her hair. She also hates brushing it herself. She also is not a fan of headbands or barrettes and will tolerate a pony tail on rare occasions. Rare! So this means daily we battle over just trying to brush her hair. Regarding style, it just hangs free and wild...like her spirit. I will even confess some days I don't have the fight in me so we just skip brushing and this is her hair for the entire day. Bad mommy!

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Custom Ribbons for Pennies

My neighbor and I volunteered to handle the neighborhood Independence Day parade and picnic this year. One of the items handed out at each parade is a ribbon for the parade participants. In the past these have been purchased from the dollar or party stores at around a dollar a piece. I thought I could surely beat that cost.

I made these for pennies a piece. 

And the best part is mine could be worn by the parade participants and not just looped on to the handle bars of their decorated bikes.

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Boba Fett Pizza and Darth Vader Brownies

I'm woefully behind on blog postings. I have photos upon photos taunting me to publish them with black and white words surrounding them on this blog but alas that part of blogging takes time I've not been giving it. Many things seem out of place to post after such a long time and give me more hesitation. Then last night I had an epiphany that I shouldn't care! I should just share. If it's a Christmas post in July so be it. After all don't we often find blogs and scroll through them out of time? And with the beauty that is Pinterest we can now pin those things we want to recall in the proper season. Are you a Pinterest addict? I'm in love. You can see my pins here and if you need an invitation to join the fun send me a message.

So without further ado I'll get the ball rolling with the Star Wars Day, May the Fourth Be with You! This one seems mildly appropriate to post today since my city is a buzz with DragonCon this weekend. I first became aware of Star Wars day only last year thanks to facebook.

In 2010 I  whipped up a Han Solo in white chocolate carbonite, three Yoda colored vanilla lollipops and a large Darth Vader shaped rice crispy treat. Darth isn't chocolate rice crispies. He's the regular with added food coloring for the dark lord. This year I couldn't repeat my goodies so I decide to use my Vader pan to make brownies!

But not any brownies, Double Choclate Oreo Brownies! If we're going on the dark side we need to go all the way. I gathered the above ingredients and got cracking.

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