April Pinterest Board

Happy Monday everyone!  How was your weekend?  We had a lot of birthday celebrating around here, which is always fun.  I just wish I could learn to like the Thia restaurant my husband picks EVERY year for his birthday dinner.  But it was his day, his choice, he loved it (as always), so I'm not complaining.

Follow Brooke @ blissfulroots.com's board April on Pinterest.

A new month begins tomorrow.  I absolutely LOVE April!  Isn't it such a beautiful month?  Early spring flowers are some of my very favorites.  Tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, and then there's the blossoms on the trees.  One of nature's finest masterpieces!

Here's my April Pinterst board.  I have oodles of Easter ideas, and it's not too late to get going on them.  Easter's still three weeks away, so you've got plenty of time. 

You can also click here to see and follow along with all (100+) of my Pinterest Boards.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Printable Birthday Quotes for Paper Bags

A very special someone, who may or may not be my husband (he hates when I publicly make a fuss about it) has a birthday tomorrow.  So, in honor of his special day, I thought I'd do a bit of a birthday post.

I've share these birthday quotes several times here at Blissful Roots.  They're something I made even before I started blogging, and are still some of my very favorites!

I've also been wanting to try printing on a paper bag for a quite some time now.  So, I thought the birthday quotes and brown paper bags would be there perfect match!

Here's a great tutorial on printing on paper bags.  This tutorial is a bit more complex than my method, but I want to try it some time because it looks more professional than what I did.  In a nutshell, I first printed the quote onto white paper, then taped the brown paper bag to that same white paper (making sure all openings of the bag were taped shut so they wouldn't jam up the printer) directly over the quote.  By doing this, I knew the quote would print on the brown paper bag where I wanted it to because I lined it up with the quote on the white paper.  Then I printed the quote again.  This time instead of printing on the white paper, it printed on the brown paper bag that was taped over the top.  Simple as that!

There are six quotes in all to choose from.  I used a brown paper bag, but they'd look great on white as well.  Click here to print the quotes.  I centered one quote per page, so hopefully that will help you in getting the quotes centered on your bags.  Oh, and I used small brown bags, not standard lunch bag sizes.  The quotes will still work, they'll just be smaller on the bag, or you can try enlarging the quotes when you print. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

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Shaving Cream & Food Coloring Dyed Easter Eggs

I saw a package of all white fake Eater eggs at Walmart several weeks ago, and thought I needed them (white is becoming my favorite color these days), but resisted buying them because I really didn't know what to do with them.   Until... just the other day I somehow got thinking about the eggs again, and how the shaving cream and food coloring art activity we've done before could be the perfect match for the eggs!

I picked up a package (they were under $2 for a dozen) of the eggs, and my four-year-old and I decided to give it a try.  I wasn't sure if the food coloring would stick to the eggs (they aren't plastic, they're more papery than plastic) but it totally did.  We even tried it on one of our real chicken eggs, and it worked on that as well!

I have all the instructions here for doing the shaving cream and food coloring.  Basically, you'll spread a layer of shaving cream in a small cookie tray, drop drops of food coloring in the shaving cream, swirl the colors slightly with a popsicle stick, and then roll, or kind of stamp each part the egg in the colorful shaving cream.  When we do the shaving cream and food coloring art with paper, we usually scrape the excess shaving cream off with a popsicle stick, but for the eggs, we just wiped it off gently with a paper towel.

Like I mentioned, we had a dozen of these eggs, and they went way too quickly.  It's so much fun experimenting with the different colors on each egg.  And our hands were as colorful as the Easter eggs when we were done.  But all part of the fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Lemon-Glazed Cake Cookies

I'm probably cheating a bit with today's recipe because I may have already posted a recipe just like this last year, minus one ingredient.  But, I made these the other day, and forgot how good they are (even without the Lemonheads).  So I figured they were totally worth their own post.  Plus, if you're like me, you don't readily have Lemonheads on hand, so you might actually make today's recipe more often than the Lemonhead cookies because I bet you have most of the ingredients in your house right now.

My cousin gave me her cake cookie recipe many, many years ago, and then a few years back my husband had the idea of adding Lemonheads and a glaze to the cookie (after having one of Ruby Snap's Lilly cookies).  So, that's how the Lemonhead cookie recipe originated.  They are amazingly delicious, but the cake cookies with the glaze (I really don't make them without the glaze anymore because it makes them that much better!) take care of my craving just fine.

So, here I am cheating again.  I'm going to give you the Lemonhead cookie recipe just with a different title, and a side note to leave the Lemonheads out.  You'll do everything else the same in the recipe, just don't add the crushed Lemonheads (which will save you some time!).

Click to Print

I love anything lemon year-round, but especially this time of year when the weather's warming and the sun is shining.  Lemon time for sure!

P.S.  Pardon the blurry nature of the recipe ingredients and instructions.  When I cut it to edit the title, it reappeared blurry when I pasted it into the new document.  You can just print the Lemonhead cookie recipe here (much clearer) if you'd rather.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Some Purse Happiness, Others Create It {Printable}

Over the weekend I pulled out one of my trusty little idea notebooks, and began flipping through the pages.  I have way too many notebooks/journals, and sometimes I wonder why I even keep them.  But then, I run across a quote like today's in one of those little books, and I'm very grateful I have all (50 plus) of them!

I did a happiness printable last year that came from a book I'd read at my parent's house.  I found three or four pages full of quotes I'd written down from that one book.  I'm a true believer in happiness.  I believe it's one of the reasons we're here on this earth- to have joy/happiness. 

Do you think of creating happiness just as you'd create a piece of artwork, a three-tiered cake, a musical masterpiece, or a colorful flower garden?  Maybe those are the things that help you create your happiness.  It's easy to allow the worries, heartaches, and demands of life to cause us anything but happiness.  But I'm a complete believer in our ability to create happiness.  Think about what makes you and your family happy, and then do those things, surround yourself with those things each and every day, and happiness will be created.

I also believe that happiness doesn't have to have a dollar amount attached.  I do understand that happiness can come from a fantastic new pair of shoes, but I'm sure we all agree there's a deeper meaning to happiness.  There are simple, special things you can do, for free, that will create an atmosphere of happiness wherever you are.  For me things like,

MUSIC

FLOWERS

COOKING

BOOKS

 PHOTOGRAPHS

INSPIRING QUOTES
COLOR
FAMILY

help me create my happiness.  Happiness that isn't quite as fleeting as the season's newest shirt in the store window.

What kind of things do you do to create your own happiness?

Here's my happiness printable from last year.  Another favorite, with very similar meaning.

Click to Print

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Create a happy day!

UPDATE
Unfortunatley, allowing you to print this printable designed by Rhonna's App is in violation of the EULA.  You can use my image as a guide to create your own.  Sorry!

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Sidewalk Chalk Box W/ Printable Label

I love simple little organizing pleasures!  I know my boys really don't care what their sidewalk chalk box looks like, but for me, if I can make the container cute and functional, then I'm 100% more likely to keep the items neat, tidy, and contained.  Plus, a label and designated spot for items like sidewalk chalk makes keep things in their proper spot super easy for my boys as well.

My boys recently inherited a bunch of great art chalk that was left over from the Meet the Masters art program at their school.  Up until this weekend, the chalk was in multiple baggies in several drawers and corners of their room.   We've used it as sidewalk chalk, so I decided we needed a simple container to put it all in and leave outside where it gets used the most.

I pulled out one of my many Dollar Tree containers, made up a label in my Rhonna Designs App, attached the label, dumped the chalk in, and done!  Simple organizing pleasure! Now my boys know exactly where to go for their sidewalk chalk, and where to put it when they're done.

Click to Print

Here's the label I made for our sidewalk chalk.  You're welcome to print a copy to use for yourself, or just play around with Rhonna's app and make your own.  Her app makes it so easy!  I shrunk my label down to 60% to make it small enough for my container.  You can print it on label paper, or just card stock (what I did).  I usually cover my outdoor labels with packing tape to make them more durable.  I tried to Mod Podge this label, and maybe I didn't let it dry enough, but the ink smeared quite a bit when I applied the Mod Podge.

And you can check out these other container, label projects I've done for my boys' toys and collections.

The Magic of Mason Jars & Labels

DIY Bug Jar Caddy

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Navigating Your Grocery Ads

I did a post last year about the two things that have kept me to my grocery budget for quite some time now.  You can click here to see the post.  One of the things I talk about in there is using grocery store ads when you grocery shop.  So, today I'd like to show you how I navigate my ads.  It's really quick, easy, and you can save a lot of money! 

I know everyone shops for different items, and what I like in a grocery ad, you may not.  Today, I just want to point out how quickly you can navigate your ads.  It honestly takes me 2-3 minutes to look through one ad and know what I want or don't want.  Don't get me wrong, there are GREAT deals in your grocer's ads, but there's a lot you don't even need to look at.

I've tried to show how I navigate my ads here with black Xs (don't want or need) and gold stars (good deal, want to probably buy).  You'll quickly see there's a lot I don't even consider buying (look at all my Xs).  

I really have two criteria for not buying items:

1.  We don't eat it

2.  The price isn't that great

So let's get started.  Here we are on the front of one of my local ads for this week. The front page is always where you'll see the best deals, so pay attention to this page.

My Star Items

*Asparagus.  Always shop seasonal produce.  What a deal!

*Pork Chops & Ground Beef.  I always look for meat deals.  These aren't the best prices, but I'll check it out in the store.

*Cereal.  They're part of the buy 5, save $5.  This really is a great deal, but be careful about the size of cereal you buy.  Often times it's the tiny boxes that are a part of the deal, so find the largest sizes you can.

And once again, if I have an X over an item it just means we don't use that item very often, or I know the price isn't as good as I can get.

On to the middle pages.  You won't find the deals you'll find on the front page, but don't overlook something.  Often times there can be great deals hiding here.

My Star Items

*Apples and pears.  We eat a lot of fresh fruit, and it's hard to beat 99 cents a pound!  I didn't star the strawberries because 2 for $5 isn't that great this time of year.  I've gotten them under $2 twice this year already.

*Crackers and chips.  We don't eat a ton of these, but they are on good sales, and so I stock up sometimes for when we have parties with dips, and my boys like cheese, crackers, and lunch meat better than sandwiches most days.

*Salsa.  We're addicted to the green salsa verde at our house, so I always watch for it to go on sale.

Look at all the black Xs!  I really don't want to show there's nothing good here, because for you there maybe.  I just want you to see how the ads are really quick to navigate, because a lot of what's in them you probably don't use.

Next middle pages.  Once again, not too many screamin' deals, but worth taking the time to look over.

My Star Items

*Cheese.  We do use cheese quite often at our house, so it's another item I keep an eye on.  I can often find 3/$5 sales on cheese, so $1.99 isn't the best, but close.

*Granola.  I usually make my own granola, but for $1.99 my boys do love the Cascadian Farm granola on their yogurt.

*Spaghettie Sauce.  Once again, I like to make my own spaghetti sauce (click here for the recipe we love), but that doesn't always happen, and $1.49 for Calssico is great!

*Chicken Breast.  We eat a lot of chicken at our house, and $1.99 is a really good deal!  We do have a local grocery store that has 5/$20 meat sales, and I try to stock up then.

*Salmon Portions.  My boys LOVE salmon, but I don't buy it very often because it's pricey.  I'm not sure how the portions compare to the fillets, so I'll check them out in the store.

*Candy.  Who doesn't love a box of Junior Mints or Milk Duds?  I know these can be found pretty easily for $1, but often times the good ones are over $1.

Now for the last page.  Not a lot here, but I did star a few items to check out.  And keep in mind I don't always buy my starred items, but they're the ones I want to check out, or do end up buying.

My Starred Items

*Hot Dog & Hamburger Buns.  It's that time of year when my boys love to start their hot dog roasts, so I starred them.  I know they go under $1 often once summer gets closer, however.

*Sun Chips.  We do like Sun Chips, but once again we don't eat them very often.  I'll see once I get to the store how I'm feeling about them.

*Apple Juice.  We don't buy bottled juice very often, and I know I can get these 2/$3 at times, but I'll check it out.

So, there you have it.  That's how I navigate my grocery store ads.  Once you've done it a few times, it really will only take a matter of minutes to glance through and know what the great deals are, what you use, and what you want to buy.  I totally LOVE my grocery ads!  Wednesdays have become one of my favorite days at the post office because I get my ads.

If you've never shopped your ads before, I hope you'll give it a try.  You really can save a TON of money by using them, and it doesn't take much time at all.  They've become a life saver for me when I'm trying to stick to a grocery budget.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.