So I don’t claim to be the best DIY–er or have the greatest step by step tutorials—it isn’t me.  But I love to come across a blog where someone has taken the time to take amazing images, label everything perfectly, get the right angle, no flash camera mistakes, cropping right, etc, etc….but you won’t find that here.  I will try to do my best but I don’t have the exact time to make everything perfecto.  I would rather get my stuff out and let someone else take the time to make their images perfect:)  With all that said, over the past few months while I have been absent from here, I have been busy making things for my home.  One of those things was some decorations for my girls room.

We have five girls sharing a room.  The room doesn’t have that magazine appeal with everything looking just perfect—let’s face it….I have five girls of all different ages from 18 to 5.  You aren’t going to get everyone happy with the way it is decorated, so we compromised.

Here is the five year old’s corner.  She likes to arrange and rearrange her shelf with toys each day.

Then you have the seven year old who enjoys leaving most of her toys all over her area everyday.  We do pick it up every morning, but by nighttime it looks like this:)

We have each girl in their own “corner spot” complete with a desk and whatever types of things they want to hang in their area.  I am okay with that.  Sure I’d love walls that looked like they came out of a magazine and everything uniform—BUT I want my girls to enjoy their creativity too.

Jadyn at 11, enjoys filling her walls with things that inspire her:)

Brooklyn, 9 is my uniform and everything has its place girl.  No clutter here!

Ok, so let’s start making the pom poms…..

I bought a yard of material with the above colors.  I also had a bunch of scrap material where we made some extra different poms.  I believe it was 1.99 a yard at Walmart for these bright colors.

I then flattened my  material and folded it for easy cutting.  I folded it into strips to make the cutting go fast.  I set a large canning jar lid on and cut around it.  Your circles don’t have to be perfect, as you can see my fold was off on part of it, it won’t matter.I then put a dab of hot glue in the center of each circle and  folded it over.

I then put a dab of hot glue into the center of the half circle and folded them again. I filled up the bowl quickly………At first I laid out multiple circle and dabbed them assembly style way thinking that was the fastest…but I was wrong.  It was way faster stacking them up and putting a dab in the center.  Folding it with one hand, while your other hand holds the glue gun.Then pinching it down.  Throw into the bowl and do the rest.  Click here to view the original tutorial of how to do it. She does an amazing job in photography.    What you end up with is these.  I bought my Chinese lanterns from Amazon.  You can get them for less than a dollar in bulk.

Here we used some scrap material that we made a curtain from to cover their closet.

This was the curtain. We actually converted an entertainment center that was too big, gutted the inside, attached a wooden dowel to the top and made like an armoire out of it.  We had to arrange the girls clothing differently as we have many sharing the same closet and we had to become creative.  This is what we came up with.

Here were some other ones.  I really liked the forest green one with a few colorful petals around it. 

We hooked them to the ceiling using fishing line and a push pin. 

If you check out the other site, she has them looking “picture perfect”  which is good.  My children like the multi color one that we used with the leftover petals….they say it looks like a disco ball:)

Just something fun to do, you don’t have to do the entire ceiling.  I think we made around ten of them to fill their large bedroom.  Something different, something fun for the girls.  Whatever makes you smile, you should do!

I pray you enjoy your day.  It is Monday!!!!  You have the chance to start out your week in a positive way.  It is one more week to inspire or encourage someone else in your circle.  Take a moment and think about something that you can do for someone else today.  Maybe write a letter to someone, send an encouraging text, sit and talk with your teenager today, or let your children see you SMILE all day!!!  Be blessed as you begin your day!

Amy

When I was a teen, one of my friends moms would make this bar dessert quite frequently.  It was delicious.  No one else that I knew had made it. As I grew older and out of contact with that friend, I often thought of those pineapple bars.  As I became a Mom and embarked on teaching myself how to bake and cook, I looked to my Mennonite friends who were the best bakers around.  I wondered if I could find a recipe that was similar to what I had years ago.  But no one had a replica of it.

I had Googled this recipe many times.  Most were just plain pineapple bars with a cake like filling.  The recipe I wanted was for a cooked pineapple filling.  It was just no where to be found.

This year for my 40th birthday I wanted to find this recipe.  I knew that someone, somewhere had to have this recipe.  So I would lay in bed and search through the hundreds of recipes on my search.

Then I found it!!! Here is the original source click on the link to find specific baking instructions.

Pie crust:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 sticks butter
• 3 egg yolks
• 8 oz sour cream

For filling:

• 2 cups crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 T cornstarch

Frosting:

• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 3 cups powdered sugar

Top with 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts.

Here we rolled out the dough to make the crust.  Now I did mine in a 9×13 pan, that creates a thicker bar.  When I was a teen I had it with a thinner crust.  Use a jelly roll pan it will be better.  You want the crust thin not thick. Mix the crust ingredients together and place in a greased pan.

You then cook your pineapple ingredients together for about 7 minutes or until thick.

You then pour the filling over the bottom crust and carefully put the top crust on.  You bake it and bring it out.  While it is cooling you mix up royal icing. 

You spread yours on top and let it harden.  Now I told ya that I put it in a 9×13 pan this made the pineapple bar thicker.  You want it thinner, so avoid my mistakes and do the jelly roll pan.  You will get a delicious tasting bar.  Don’t get me wrong, this was good, but it was thick. You want thinner, lighter, and flakier.  I kept the nuts off this time, but if you want that delicious crunch, add the nuts. 

Check out the link I put in here and see how to make these delicious bars.  They are a great thing if you enjoy pineapple, something different than you have ever had.  Take a few minutes today to sit down with your children.  Do this even if you have a list that is a million miles long.  Take 5 minutes and grab a book to read to your child.  One is better than none at all.  If you are working all day away from the home, take five minutes and look for someone whom you can encourage, listen to.  Like really listen.  Don’t have time for either, buy a coffee or a cold drink for a friend today and surprise them! Look for an opportunity to bless someone else, even in the little.  Enjoy your day look for those rays of sunshine no matter how little they may be!!!

Amy