S'moreos (Thanks Leah for the awesome title idea!)

I'm trying out recipes for girls camp and I stumbled upon this idea for making Oreo S'mores. Well, actually my wonderful mother is the one who sent me this idea. Chad and the kids were more than happy to grab the camp stoves and act as guinea pigs! This is my new favorite way to eat s'mores! Simply twist your Oreo open and insert a roasted marshmallow and chocolate. YUM!

Click here for more campy fun!

Homemade Vanilla

 One of my latest and favorite DIY projects has been homemade vanilla extract. I've experimented with all kinds of bottles and labels, but these are some of my faves.

I found the great Rooster cork at World Market along with the up-cycled Ginger Root Soda Bottle. The milk glass bottle with the pink bow and the tiny tiny bottle came from Michael's. Last but not least I found the bottle on the far left at my bee supply company. It was only 99 cents! I bought Avery Sticker Paper, printed out my own labels, and used my punches to pop them out.

I learned all kinds of things while researching how to make your own vanilla. For example vanilla is typically 35% alcohol so it is easy to buy your own beans and alcohol to make your own vanilla. In order to make it a true extract you will need to use 8 vanilla beans per 8oz of Vodka. I recommend making your vanilla in a large container of Vodka, and then straining it later when it is ready to use and place in individual bottles. The recipe is simple:

8 vanilla beans per 8 oz of vodka.

Jars or bottles for storing your vanilla. (You can sanitize and remove old flavors by boiling your jars on the stove for 10 min.)

I got my vanilla beans at Beanilla.com, here's how they came.

I went with the Madagascar Vanilla Beans, but I really want to try the Tahitian beans next. I also used plain Vodka, but you can use Bourbon or Rum if you want a little extra flavor.

1. The first step is to slice your vanilla beans longwise and remove the "caviar". This can be done by using the tip of your knife or a spoon.

2. Put the caviar and the vanilla beans in the vodka.

At first it will be clear, but as the alcohol and the vanilla beans marinate it will become a rich brown.

3. Let your vanilla sit for at least 2 months. The longer the better! Place it in a spot you will see it and take a minute to shake it up once a week or so. 

4. When you are ready to use your vanilla strain the beans and caviar out by using a coffee filter or some cheesecloth. If you are giving it away you can add back in one or two of the beans for effect.

My favorite thing to do with my leftover beans after I have strained them is to put them in a large jar of sugar and let it sit for a month or so, letting the vanilla beans infuse the sugar with their flavor. You won't be sorry! We like to make both our own vanilla sugar and vanilla sugar cubes to put in Belgian waffles or pancakes. YUM!

 

Just a note! I experimented with lots of different bottles, but really you are supposed to use a colored glass like the brown glass on the left. The colored or tinted glass is supposed to protect the integrity of the vanilla. 

Hope you Enjoy!

 

For how to make your own drawer pull corks click here.

Teacher Appreciation Week: Super Hero Bars

This week I am helping out for Teacher Appreciation Week! We have decided to go with the theme of Super Heroes. I volunteered to create a Super Hero Candy Bar to put in the teacher's boxes just to kick the week off. Here's what I came up with!

We had a somewhat small budget to work with, so I walked up to our friendly neighborhood Winegars and they were kind enough to donate all of the candy bars for our teachers. We Love Winegars!

I created the candy wrappers just using shapes in pages on my apple. I really need to work on getting a better design program! CLICK HERE for the free 5X7 printable.

Click Here for more Teacher Appreciation!

CLICK HERE for the 5X7 I teach, what's your superpower?

Happy Easter!

READY

SET

GO!

We had so much fun this year doing our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt!

Click here for a bunny tail how to

 The older kids did a candy toss!

 Later on we came back for a nice family meal.

And Ben climbed to the very top of our 60 FT pine tree!

And made it safely down!

I'm so grateful for this Easter! I am grateful for wonderful family and friends, and especially my children and husband. I love my Savior Jesus Christ, and I know that he lived and died for us, and that he lives again! I am so grateful for his atoning sacrifice, for his love, his compassion, his dedication, his consideration, and his example.

“No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” John 10:18
“I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” The Living Christ

Happy Easter!

Getting My Honey Bees!

So Yesterday I went down town and got my Beekeeper's License. I could have very easily have done it through the mail, but with it being my first time, I wanted to make sure I knew everything there was to know. It was quite simple, there was no line whatsoever. I filled out my form, paid my 10 bucks and that was the end of that. I couldn't believe it was that easy!

Today Olivia and I went and picked my bees up. They came on a truck in little cages. All I had to do was walk around back and pick them up. I waited about 5 min in line, which was great because it gave me some time to watch what all the other people were doing when they got their bees.

As you can see they came with a couple of freebies or free bees :-).

When I went the day before to pay ahead of time and pick up a few last minute supplies I asked the lady about any 1st timer horror stories. I was trying to figure out what the worst case scenario was. She told me a story about a lady who had come with her boyfriend to pick his bees up. I guess she was wearing the wrong kind of perfume. The bees were highly attracted to it. She said the lady took off running down the street stripping her clothes off. I thought it was funny, but didn't sweat the details. When I got home Chad asked me how the bees got out? Hmmm? So when I picked my bees up today it became very apparent. There were bees in cages and tons of hitch hikers just swarming around. While picking up my bees it was kind of noisy, there were the outside noises, the people talking, and all sorts of other noises, so I didn't necessarily notice the buzz of the bees. After we got to the car and the quiet, then I heard the 7,500 bees a buzzing! I put the bees in the back and Livy and I in the front, but there were about 30 freebies just loose in the car. I was pretty happy to arrive home without incident!

The night before I made my 2:1 syrup and had my feeder ready, so when I got home I was all set to go. Getting the bees into the hive was not terribly difficult. I had watched tons of video tutorials to prepare and it went much like the tutorials. This video tutorial has been my favorite by far. Shaking the bees out of their cage took some nerve and a little self convincing, but all in all it went very smoothly. I didn't purchase a bee suit, because I figured I had plenty of white clothing. I did however get my veil and gloves. I was very carefully not to be clumsy or man handle the bees and it paid off, I didn't get a single sting. I can only hope that each further effort goes as smoothly.

I left the cage they came in close to the beehive entrance because there were a few leftover bees that I couldn't manage to shake out into the hive, but I think they're making it home!

The next step will be to medicate them with a little antibotics, but I need to wait 2 or 3 days first. The antibiotics come in a bag and look like powdered sugar, but with a yellow tint. I will mix it in with 2# of powdered sugar and then medicate them using 3 TBL of the concoction.

Popcorn and Treat Bags for Skit Night

Every year the girls like to do a skit night while at camp. I thought it would be so much fun to do a popcorn bar so the girls have something to snack on while watching skits.

I found the Zebra Print bags for the popcorn at Micheal's and bought the small brown paper bags and printed the mustache image on them for their treats. It's so simple, but I'm in love!

I want to do something like this. I found this idea at the Hostess With The Mostess.

I thought these would be great to hold the candy!

Click here for a quick how to on upcycled jars!
For more Campy Fun click here

Creating Shrinky Dink Trading Pins For Stake Girls Camp: A Quick How To

Here's just a quick tutorial on creating Shrinky Dink Trading Pins for Stake Girls Camp. I'm going to start with using clear shrinky dink sheets and then cover the differences when you want to use white shrinky dink sheets.

Materials:

Shrinky Dink Paper found at craft stores (I found mine at Micheal's)
A good pair of scissors
Printer or Markers (the only markers I have tried are sharpies and they worked great). Using the printer comes with it's own challenges
Baking sheet
Parchment paper or a piece of brown paper bag big enough to cover your baking sheet
Oven
Spray paint ( I used a metallic silver paint)
E 6000

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (Follow the baking temperature guide with your shrinky dink instructions).

2. Start by transferring your images to your shrinky dink sheets. If you are using the printer I recommend flipping any wording horizontally so that it reads backwards. The reason for this is because the printer ink tends to smear A LOT, even after it has baked. So you will end up painting on top of the ink to seal it and then flipping your shrinky dinks over to "look into" the image. I also recommend putting a filter on top of images that have a lot of color. When your shrinky dinks bake and shrink the colors darken and become very intense. It can be hard to see the image if it isn't lightened first. This can be done in photo shop or by masking it with a white square and setting it to 70% opacity. This is what one of my shrinky dink sheets looked like when I was done. Notice the wording is all backwards.

3. Very carefully do a rough cut around each of your images. You can go back and fancy cut, but I noticed that when I didn't rough cut everything first I ended up with smeared images all over the place.

You can also use punches or trace frames to come up with some interesting shapes.

I wanted to have pictures of of my kids to carry around with me so I also created some photo shrinky dinks. This one was created using the white shrinky dink paper, but I also made a few with the clear paper. The clear paper with the silver backing creates a sort of antiqued vintage feel.

4. After everything is cut out just the way you want it, place your images ink side up on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place it in the oven and watch as your images shrink and mutate and then settle back down. I've noticed that some shapes are not ideal. They tend to bend and fold into themselves and melt together. It's best to give up on a shape if after 2 or 3 tries it just won't work. Shapes that tend to give me problems are long and narrow. After your images have settled down and flattened (2-5 minutes) wait 30 seconds and then take them out of the oven. Don't attempt to touch them until they have cooled awhile (about 3 min) otherwise they may warp.

5. Now for the fun part! If you have printed your images you are going to spray paint on top of your image (ink side up). Start by adding a piece of double sided sticky tape to the back of your image (the side without the ink). This helps to keep your shrinky dink from flying around under the force of the spray paint. I used a metallic silver I had laying around the house but you could use any color you like. Place your images on a work surface and lightly spray paint over the images. Some spritzes of paint will surround the edges and tops of your images, but I think this is a pretty cool effect. Notice how much darker my giraffe is now.

6. If you are working with marker drawn images you can spray paint the backs (ink side down) to add a back ground color or just leave them transparent.

7. After any and all paint has dried you can add your pin back with just a little E6000.

8. Voila you are finished!

For working with the white shrinky dink sheets:

Don't invert images.
Use a clear coat over the tops of your shrinky dinks to seal the ink if you have printed your images.

For more Camp Fun click here

Mock Disaster

 The next activity we will be having to prepare for camp and get some certification done ahead of time is going to be a mock disaster. By the time the evening is over the girls should be completely certified in their First Aid requirements. We will use some volunteers from our ward to help participate as disaster victims with specific ailments. We will have teams of girls who are prepared ahead of time and will be responsible for recognizing their victim and teaching the other girls what to do. We will then let the girls team teach each other in partnerships to meet the requirements. I'm really looking forward to this activity, I think it's going to be a whole lot of fun!

Here's a picture of an invitation I made to give to the YW before hand. On the back side is the date and time. I found this free printable HERE.

 The Story

While at Girls Camp a plane and it’s wreckage has crashed into the campsite leaving some victims in need of immediate medical attention.

Nurse on the Scene: (1 requirement) The nurse on the scene is uninjured and is there to help guide the girls give first aid. She can’t possibly attend to all the victims at once and decides that since she knows these girls have all been well trained and certified in emergency first aid she is going to give them just a quick reminder about how to prioritize and treat the victims of this freak accident before she rushes off to help as many people as she can.

Requirement: Explain the purpose of first aid, and learn the first four steps to take when treating accident victims. Pg. 34-35 in the manual:

Victim 1: (2 requirements): this victim was enjoying some of her ridiculously delicious camp food when some of the plane wreckage hit her on the back. She is lucky because she has no external injuries, but the surprise and the force of the falling wreckage caused her to swallow too much food at once. It has become lodged in her throat and she can no longer breath. She is making the universal sign for choking and needs immediate help! After she has been helped she is feeling very weak and shaky but it is not safe to stay where she is. She needs to be moved, but does not feel like she can walk on her own. Method 1 (Walking Assist) for transporting a victim must be used.

Requirement: Demonstrate how to perform the Heimlich maneuver to help a person who is choking. Pg. 36 in the manual:
Requirement: Learn and demonstrate four methods for transporting someone who is injured.

Victim 2: (4 requirements) A plane has crashed down and some of the broken debris has struck her on its way down. She has a compound fracture on her forearm that is bleeding profusely. She is most unlucky, She is lying on the ground, with part of the wreckage dangling above her threatening to come crashing down at any moment. One of the YW comes to help keep the wreckage from falling on this victim but is getting very tired. She cannot wait for emergency responders to come and help, but she must first be splinted so she can be moved so that further damage does not occur to her arm. Just after being splinted she goes into shock and passes out. Method 4 (makeshift stretcher) must be used to transport this victim to safer grounds.

Requirement: Demonstrate how to give first aid for excessive bleeding. Pg. 36 in the manual:
Requirement: Learn how to fold a cravat bandage and demonstrate the uses of the bandage. Pg. 43 in the manual.
Requirement: Demonstrate how to treat someone who has fainted or is in shock. Pg. 37-38 in the manual.
Requirement: Describe the signs of a broken bone. Demonstrate first-aid procedures for handling broken bones. Pg. 40-41 in the manual.

Victim 3: (1 requirement) Meanwhile, just before the plane crashed this victim saw some fascinating mushrooms that she thought she could cook up into a great meal. What she didn’t realize is that the mushrooms were in fact poisonous!

Requirement: Demonstrate how to give first aid for poisoning. Pg. 37 in the manual

Victim 4: (3 requirements) This victim woke up this morning and participated in the morning Yoga class. She has kept busy and had been having so much fun at camp that she forgot to make sure she was drinking enough water. After running around trying to help crash victims in the heat of the day she is now suffering from heat exhaustion which is turning into heat stroke! She has to be moved using (Method 2) the two person carry. She quits breathing and requires some rescue breathing.

Requirement: Demonstrate how to give first aid for heat exhaustion and heat stroke or for hypothermia and frostbite, depending on local circumstances.
Requirement: Learn and demonstrate four methods for transporting someone who is injured.
Requirement: Demonstrate how to give rescue breathing. Pg. 35 in the manual. 

Victim 5: (2 requirements) This victim is a very unlucky sort of fellow and is having a very bad day. He was on the airplane when it crashed and miraculously survived without a scratch, but has managed to get bitten by a strange little bug. In his hurry to evade any further attacks from said strange little bug he trips on a rock landing into the campfire where he acquires 2nd degree burns to his fingertips resulting in blisters. His condition soon goes from bad to worse. He is apparently very allergic to the strange little bug and has gone into anaphylactic shock with a resulting cardiac arrest. He is in need of CPR.

Requirement: Show how to give emergency first aid for insect bites or stings, burns and blisters. Pg. 41-42 and Pg. 38
Requirement: Demonstrate how to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR. Pg. 35 in the manual.

Victims 6, 7, and 8: All three of these victims were attempting to show the girls how to create a human pyramid when part of the wreckage from the plane came crashing down on them sending them tumbling down onto each other. They are all suffering from different types of broken bones:

Victim 6 has both a lower leg fracture and a thigh fracture. Victim 7 has both a Collarbone and a shoulder fracture. Victim 8 has a Wrist Fracture, but is feeling faint. She can be moved using Method 3 (the Four Handed Seat Carry)

Requirement: Describe the signs of a broken bone. Demonstrate first-aid procedures for handling broken bones. Pg. 40-41 in the manual.
Requirement: Learn and demonstrate four methods for transporting someone who is injured.

Thanks to our fantastic Fake Wound Artist!

Here are some of our wonderful volunteers and their injuries!

To learn how to create a realistic compound fracture click here.

To learn how to make a realistic bruise click here.

To learn how to make realistic burn blisters click here.

Pretty gruesome huh?
For more Camp Fun click here

Trading Pins for Camp Lanyards

The stake put us in charge of coming up with some trading pins (like at Disneyland) for the girls to trade while at girls camp. At first the task was extremely daunting, but here's what I came up with.

First of all I created a lanyard so I could see how they would wear.

So Basically I created 4 different types of pins. The first was a simple wooden disk that I stained a dark walnut finish and modge podged images printed out on photo paper onto it. 

The next type of pin I created was a shrinky dink pin. Click here for a quick tutorial. These were by far the most fun, but also by far the most frustrating. They are unpredictable as they shrink squirming around like little sea creatures, so a few out of every batch bit the dust. Also the color of the image can be very unpredictable. Certain images became so dark they were unusable, for example my golden yellow turned to brown. So in the end I ended up just using the images that were successful and skipping the ones that weren't. The ink from my printer also kept smearing even after they baked so I had to add a sealer. I also had fun adding just a little gold leafing to one of the giraffes. The Shrinky dink paper can be found at Micheal's in both white and clear. Here's just a few of my shrinky dinks:

 The 3rd type of pin I created was just a letter B for Brave. I took a gold paint pen and wrote brave across the tall part of the B. The B's came unfinished at Micheal's and I stained it dark. 

The last type of pin I created was a paper rose pin inspired by a talk I read about the refiners fire and how every rose has it's thorn. Basically the idea is that in order to get anything that is beautiful or worthwhile you must pass through adversity.

I was able to find pin backs and E6000 at Micheal's. I also have one more pin idea up my sleeve, but haven't got to it quite yet! 

FUN, FUN, FUN!

Here are some other in ideas we came up with before leaving for girls camp.

My son helped me come up with this heart Friendship pin pin. He made a gold heart shape by sketching out a pixelated heart first.

The puzzle piece was actually one of my favorite pins. I used a 50 piece puzzle from the dollar store and spray painted over it. I made some attempt to put friends next to each other and mothers and daughters next to each other so that their puzzle pieces would actually connect, but the idea was that every girl was important to the whole. None of us are complete when anyone is missing. I gave out the extra puzzle pieces to people at camp such as our ward camp cook.

The flowers were made out of white shrinky dink paper and an orange and yellow shapie to create the centers. I used my flower punch to pop the shape out. If you take out the flowers before they are able to shrink all the way, then they come out slightly shaped and 3D

The butterflies were also a favorite and super easy. I just used some fun paper, gems, my butterly punch and some clear coat to protect the paper and water proof it somewhat. 

SO MUCH FUN!

For a quick how to on Shrinky Dinks Click Here

For more YW Camp ideas Click Here