Exciting News...

First, let me apologize for my absence. It has been way too long since I have posted. Lately, I just haven't even been on my computer which means I haven't even been visiting all of your lovely blogs either. Ok, so here's why: I'm EXPECTING!!! The news came as a complete shock to my husband and I. In fact, we've know for about 3 weeks now but haven't said anything to anyone until today. It goes without saying this was not our plan to have another child, but it must be God's plan :) We told our family the good news today at Thanksgiving. We got Nolan (now 18 months) a shirt that says "Big Bro" and he wore it as we visited our families today. I loved seeing everyone's reaction as they figured it out. So, now the cat is out of the bag and I can stop saying "oh I must be coming down with something," or "I must have eaten too much." Yes, I have been using those excuses. And yes, I have been feeling very nauseous and extremely tired. It doesn't help that Nolan is not a good sleeper and is in a "not sleeping through the whole night" phase :(. Now can you see why I haven't been crafting or blogging? I have some big plans with Christmas coming up so stay tuned... Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T -Tracy

Sports Ribbon Display-Option 2

Do you remember the free crib I got from Craigslist? Do you remember the 1st project from it? The Sports Ribbon Display I made for my daughter from the free crib? Well, today's project is the same but different. Using the same free crib I have made a sports ribbon display for my son.

My son, Jackson is our track star and has a ton of ribbons from his 2 years of middle school track. He did like his sister's ribbon display, just not for himself, "it's too girly." So, instead of using the side of the crib I used the bottom-springy part that holds the mattress. I can't find my before pictures so just imagine the above photo in black. It would have been fine to hang it without painting it but he wanted to use a school color, so it got several coats of royal blue spray paint. My advice to anyone wanting to paint one is to spray a couple coats, let dry, then move it. Turn it upside down or something to get the springs to wiggle just a little or you could end up with unpainted lines under where the springs attach to the frame.

My husband hung the whole unit on the wall using 4 "L" brackets. I think you could hang it with 2 brackets at the top and let the bottom rest on the wall if you wanted. I like how the whole thing stands out from the wall. My son is 15 and in high school, if he hurts himself on the screws or any part of it then I might have to take the display away from him. (kidding) Seriously, if you do make this for a younger child it would probably be a good idea to put caps on the screws and have a no climbing rule.

None of the ribbons he earned came with a string to hang them with so we punched small holes in them and added some string. While I added the string Jackson put all the ribbons on his display. It was his idea to line them up, I think I would have just randomly put them here and there. He's already asked me to paint some frames to put certificates in around the frame-that's my boy! 

Now 2 of my kids have reminders in their rooms that hard work pays off and that Mommy is very proud of them. 

Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T!

-Tracy

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Autumn Crunch

I would like to share a great sweet and salty snack with you. This recipe idea is everywhere and goes by a lot of names so for this post I will call it Autumn Crunch. You may have heard it called "White Trash." See why I changed the name today? Honestly though, white trash isn't far from the truth = mix white chocolate with whatever you have on hand. Oops, I just gave the recipe away-there is no real recipe.

I made this stuff twice this last week. The first time was just to have something to munch on. Two days later I didn't think there was enough in the jar to take to a family get together so I made a second batch. Ok, two batches are too much!!! I did make the second batch with 1 ingredient switch from the first batch.
Here's how I made the 1st batch of Autumn Crunch.
1- 16 oz. white chocolate/almond bark
1-12.6 oz M & M's
2 cups pretzels
1 cup Cheerios
3 cups Crispix cereal
2 cups nuts
In a large bowl mix all of the dry ingredients together. Melt white chocolate in the microwave. I nuke for 30 seconds, stir and repeat until completely melted. Pour over cereal mix slowly as you fold it into the dry ingredients. Stirring can crush the cereal. Pour onto wax paper or a Silpat and wait to dry/set. Break up into pieces and store in an airtight container.
For the second batch: I substituted the almond bark for 2 bags of Ghirardelli's white chocolate chips. And because the chips come in 11 oz. bags I added a little bit more cereal.

I prefer the mix with the almond bark but that's just my taste. I took the Ghirardelli's mix to a family get together and everyone loved it. This could be made with different types of cereal and candy.  Seriously, I need to start giving away all these treats I make-I have a belly ache tonight as I type this post because I can't keep my hand out of the jar. :( When will i learn?!?!
Do you make this snack? What do you call it?
Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T!
-Tracy
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Quick Easy Scavenger Hunt

I wanted to quickly share with you a quick and easy Scavenger Hunt. I know I'm not the first person to think of sending kids into the woods on a scavenger hunt. This is how we did it, that's all.
First, a little background about why we did a scavenger hunt. We visit my husband's parent about once a month along with my sister in law and her family. So, we were all getting ready to head down to the in laws (only a 30 min drive), packing up a dessert, diaper bag etc. and all of a sudden I got a brilliant idea for the kiddos to do. I quickly grabbed some brown paper bags and the baby's crayons. Since my youngest nephew is 4 and not exactly reading yet I drew a circle in several different colors and wrote the color name next to it for the older kids. Then I thought of some other descriptive words like, bumpy, smooth, long, and round.

I asked my oldest to help his youngest cousin some, and to stay close to him. The other two were instructed to not rush through it and pick up the first thing they found that fit each category but to look for something they found that was interesting that applied to that category. 

Ready, set, go!!!

They loved it! Once everyone said they had something for every category I had the kids show each other what they found. Even while they were sharing, they were still looking for neat things like this cool red spider:

The spider and all the geodes were the stars of the hunt. Some of the items found became treasures that we took with us. On the hike back up to the house I was asked if we could have another scavenger hunt. I'm already thinking of a new spin to add to it.

-Tracy