Hello!

I hope you enjoy my blog of my many adventures in life, and I promise to post as often as I can!

*Most photos I'll be sharing will be my own, if not I will do my best to link/share the original owner. I don't mind the pinning/sharing of my photos, but please ONLY the photos that have my MamaGooseAdventures signature on them. Thanks!



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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

52 Reasons Why I Love You

DaddyGoose is a hard man to get gifts for, and it doesn't help that Christmas in December, his birthday is in January, and Valentine's Day is in February!  We decided to skip getting each other gifts for Christmas, and he told me not to get him anything for his birthday, so I had been thinking really hard for what to get him for Valentine's Day.  Then I came across this 52 Reason I Love You idea on Pinterest and decided it was the perfect idea!  Not a huge gift, but it has huge meaning. 

Instead of using an old card deck, I decided to make my own cards online (make your own card deck), then I hand-wrote my reasons on the cards for a personal touch.  I finished them this morning and I am very happy with how the whole project turned out!  I hope he loves it!
Front





Back
Happy Valentine's Day DaddyGoose!  I love you!

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Zoo Lunches

Because the weather was so nice last week, we decided to take a field trip to the zoo! And DaddyGoose was able to get the day off to go with us! As always, I packed our picnic lunches in our awesome EasyLunchBoxes! I LOVE these lunch boxes. We've only had ours about a year, but I don't regret buying them at all because we use them ALL the time! I love not having to pack a million different containers because everything fits nicely in one little box.   AND their website offers a ton of great lunch ideas in case you ever get tired of eatin gthe same thing!  Anyway, enough babbling, here's what I packed us the night before:

BabyGoose had a PB&J "moon" sandwich with cheese crackers, cantelope, string cheese and a juice box. DaddyGoose had a turkery and cheese sandwich with on white breat with a string cheese, chips, and a waterbottle. And I had a turkey and cheese sandwich on french bread with crackers, a mini salad, raspberry vinegarette dressing and a waterbottle. Yum!


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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Bleached T's

The shirt I made my brother's girlfriend!  Isn't it awesome?!

Back before the holidays I was on BabyCenter.com (an awesome site for moms and moms-to-be), and happened across a board of Homemade Christmas gifts ideas.  One mama posted a picture of her awesome initialed t-shirts that she made, so I had to send her a message to find out how she did it!  It turns out all she used was bleach!

So I made a few and turned out great!  I made one for my brother's girlfriend for Christmas, and one for my cousin for her birthday.  I even got a little crazy and tried a different technique, and made a shirt for my brother and a sweatshirt for my grandpa!  I want to make one for me too, but I haven't had the chance yet!

Make a Bleached T with a Spray Bottle

Supplies:
1. 100% Cotton T-shirt (any color as long as it's dark)
2. Spray Bottle of Bleach & Water (50/50)
3. Parchment or Wax Paper
4. Sticker Paper (you can also use Parchment Paper for this as well)
5. Computer/Printer

Directions:
1. Go on MS Word and create the letter or word that you want on your shirt.  Either print it out on the sticker paper (I recommend using a light gray color so you don't waste your ink) or if you're using parchment paper, print it out on regular printer paper first then trace it onto the parchment paper by hand.  Cut out your letter(s).
2. Lay out your shirt on a flat surface.  Cut out some parchment paper and slide inside of the shirt.  This is so that the bleach will only stay on the front side of your shirt.  (Don't forget pieces for the sleeves!)
3.  Place your letter on your shirt.  If your using sticker paper, take off the back and stick it into place.  If you're using parchment paper, you might wand to use double stick tape to help it stay but that's up to you.
4.  Grab your spray bottle, and start spraying!  Spray as much or as little as you like.  You are using bleach, so you will see results right away.  Colors will vary!
5.  When you're done, quickly remove your letters and parchment paper and through your shirt in the wash on a cold/cold rinse.  Then feel free to wash/dry how you desire.


The shirt I made my brother!  He loved it!

Make a Bleached T with a Rag

Supplies:
1. 100% Cotton T-shirt (any color as long as it's dark)
2. Small bowl of Bleach & Water (50/50)
3. Small rag or sponge
4. Towel or other type of cloth you don't mind getting bleach on
5. Sticker Paper (you can also use Parchment Paper for this as well)
6. Computer/Printer

Directions:
1. Follow the same first step as we did with the other shirt:  Go on MS Word and create the letter or word that you want on your shirt.  Either print it out on the sticker paper (I recommend using a light gray color so you don't waste your ink) or if you're using parchment paper, print it out on regular printer paper first then trace it onto the parchment paper by hand.  Cut out your letter.
2. Lay out your shirt on a flat surface.  Fold up a towel and place it inside the shirt.  This is in place of the parchment paper that was used in the other style.
3.  Place your letter on your shirt.  If your using sticker paper, take off the back and stick it into place.  If you're using parchment paper, you might wand to use double stick tape to help it stay but that's up to you.
4.  Dunk your rag or sponge into your bleach/water and squeeze out enough so that it's not dripping.  Start dabbing your all over where you want it bleached.  Dab as much or as little as you like, but I personally think with this way it is better to do more!  You are using bleach, so you will see results right away.  Colors will vary!
5.  When you're done, quickly remove your letters and parchment paper and through your shirt in the wash on a cold/cold rinse.  Then feel free to wash/dry how you desire.  And you're all done!

My Grandpa's sweatshirt... Goose calls him Papa
(I wish I'd done more patting on this one because it's hard to see, but he still loved it!)

I love these!  If you get the chance to try this, let me know how it goes!  I would love to see pictures too!

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Play Eye Shadow

Recently Goose has been really interested in playing with my brushes and pretending to put make-up on!  She even got a princess vanity for Christmas where she spends most of her time playing during the day.  Needless to say, she is a girly-girl already and loves making herself look beautiful!

It just so happened that while I was browsing Pinterest, I saw a post for play make-up and I just had to try it myself!  It was so easy, I've made several!  I even made a bunch to give out as Valentine's to all of Goose's friends, and they would make great princess party favors!



Here is a link to the original post.  The only thing I did differently was going to Dollar Tree to buy a case of eye shadow since I didn't have any that I was willing to ruin.  I found one that had several spaces so i was able to use lots of colors, and it turned out great!

So here's how I made Play Make-Up for Goose...

Supplies:


~Eye Shadow Case
~Various Colors of Nail Polish
~Toothpicks
~Goo Gone
~Polish Remover (just in case)
~Q-tips (not pictured)

Directions:
1. Clean out your Eye Shadow case!  After trial-and-error, I learned that dish soap and water weren't strong enough to do the job, so I turned to Nail Polish Remover.  It worked just fine on the powdered shadow, but if you happen to get a case that has gel shadow like I did, it unfortunately won't do the trick.  So this is where the Q-tips and the handy-dandy Goo Gone comes in.  Scoop out as much of the gel shadow as possible, then spray with the Goo Gone.  Then after wiping off the case I washed is with soap and water. Make sure it's completely dry before moving on!



2. Gather your polish and pick out what colors you want to use.  (I highly recommend colors that have a shimmer or glitter in them!)  Majority of what I used is that I had already, although I did buy a couple new colors at the Dollar Tree when I got the eye shadow

3. Now start pouring your polish.  Make sure you fill as full as you can!  When the polish dries it does shrink quite a bit.  Then take a toothpick and swirl it around to make it look more like make-up.  Don't worry if your polish splatters onto the case, you can use polish remover to clean it up after you're done.  And if you want to, you can paint polish onto the brush to make it look like your little one actually uses the make-up.


4. When you're done, let it dry for 24 hours.  Once it's dry you can go in with a Q-tip and polish remove to clean up and splatter spots to make it look nice and clean.  And that's it!  Easy-peasy!  Now you have you're very own play eye shadow!


Love it!  And as the original poster did, you can also make play foundation using beige or light brown polish.  You can also do play blush.  I haven't done either of these yet, but I plan to in the future!

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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Snack Stations

When I first heard talk about Pinterest, I honestly did not get it!  Then when I heard friends talking about how awesome it was, I decided to give it a try.  Now I'm addicted to it!  It is simply amazing and I love all the stuff I find on there!

Just the other day I found these Snack Stations and my first thought was something along the line of "hmmm, good idea, but that would take up alot of space."  Then after thinking about, I realized what an awesome idea it really was!  BabyGoose loves to pick out her clothes, her shoes, her silverware, her cup, so she why wouldn't she love to pick out her snacks too? 


So I headed over to the local Dollar Tree where I picked up a couple bins, a few storage containers and snack-sized ziploc bags.  And I'm pretty proud of what I came up with!  Our Fridge Snack Station is filled will string cheese, yogurt, jello cups, fruit cups, baby carrot sticks with mini containers of ranch dressing for dipping, and cuties!  I had to clean out and re-arrange the fridge, but it fits and we still have plenty of room for all of other other food.


 

Our Pantry Snack Station is filled with pretzels, dried blueberries, craisins, veggie straws, gerber fruit puffs, and peanut butter/cheese crackers! The funny thing is that BabyGoose wouldn't touch pretzels with a 10 foot pole, and now that they are in they're own little bags, they are her favorite!



It's so convenient that I found this pin because I was just thinking how I wish BabyGoose would eat healthier snacks, and now she is!  She loves being able to pick out her own baggie of snacks, and has surprised me with the great choices she's made (of course I've limited her choices, but that's beyond the point)!

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Happy Birthday BabyGoose!

So I guess for my first adventure post, I'll rewind a few months to BabyGoose's 2nd birthday.  We had a Barnyard themed party because at the time she was obsessed with cows, (and rhinos, but I went with cows because it was easier)!

I found super cute barnyard invitations and party decorations on clearance at OrientalTrading, and just went with the flow.  I also got these awesome cow print balloons, even though I probably could have just made them myself.  Either way they were a big hit!


While I was searching for cow party supplies online, I came across this cow dress on etsy and fell in love!  I really wanted BabyGoose to have one to wear at her party, but I didn't want to pay $30 either.  So instead I went and bought my own fabric and had my good friend at Sew Sew Crafty make one for me!  It turned out great!  And the best part is that she made it big enough for BabyGoose to grow into! (We actually dressed her up as a cow for Halloween, so it worked out perfect!)


I wanted to give party favors for all her friends, but I hate giving little cheap stuff that will get thrown away, so I put on my thinking cap and this is what I came up with....  Cow bags (small white gift bags from Michaels that I colored black spots on with marker) with bandanas (from OrientalTrading), cow bubbles (from the Dollar Tree, then colored on with a sharpie), an extra cow balloon, and farm animal chocolates and crayons (made by me with a candy mold I purchased on Amazon)!  I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for these!



I don't have any picture of the food we had, but we basically had backyard bbq food... hot dogs, burgers, pasta salad, fruit & veggie trays, and chips.  Simple yet filling.  For dessert, we had a Cow Cake made by me!  (I'll eventually be posting how I made it if you want to check back later!)  I don't claim to be a baker or a cake decorator by any means, but I do think my cake turned out pretty good, and BabyGoose loved it!



Overall I think we had a pretty awesome barnyard birthday!

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