Aspen Forest Bedroom

My oldest Daughter spent a couple of summers working at Aspen Ridge Scout Camp in southern Idaho.  She loved the feel of the aspen groves and wanted to create a similar effect in her bedroom.  I scoured the internet and found a few places that made vinyl aspen/birch wall art, but boy were they Pricey! Once again, Pinterest saves the day when she ran into a tutorial on how to get the look with frog tape and paint.  The lady on the tutorial used an exacto knife to cut out the marks, but my daughter wanted more of a freehand look and just ripped the tape into bits.

freehand Frog Tape artistry

Trees painted in cream and warm gray

Finished corner.  Can you find the "carved heart"?

Girl Magnets

My boys wearing their "girl magnets"

This past summer I bought my teenage son a pair of aviator style sunglasses.  They were probably in some clearance bin in a teen store at the mall and it was just one more thing to buy along with the wardrobe staples like T-shirts.  When we got home my girls made such a fuss about how handsome my older son looked in his new shades and that they would be girl magnets.  It must have gotten my younger son thinking (and perhaps a little jealous of his sisters attentions to his older brother) that he begged me to get him a pair when we were out shopping again.  I thought it was so that he could be like his older brother, but this morning he informed me that his sunglasses didn't work. (it has been six months since I had gotten them, so I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about.... broken???? doesn't block enough sunlight???).  He goes on to explain that one day he and his friend planned ahead and both wore their aviator shades to school and all the girls on the playground did was "the usual".... standing around and talking.  He seemed so disappointed that his scientific experiment had failed.  It was all I could do to keep from bursting out in laughter to think of what conversations and planning had gone into that failed playground adventure, and how our words could have been taken so literally.  I'm not sure how to explain that life doesn't happen like an Axe commercial and that girls on the playground won't get enough courage to talk to boys for a couple more years.

Soap on a Rope

When I was a kid WAAAAAAAAYYYYY back in the "70's I remember seeing advertisements on TV for Soap-on-a-rope.  I'm not sure why, either, that the product was always decidedly masculine, I mean, Isn't it just handy to hang your soap up?

Apparently this makes a good Christmas or Fathers Day present for many men

  Fast forward to the present and take a look in my shower.  No soap on a rope here.... just bottles of Body Wash and those Scrubbing pouf things that look like they are made from wads of what  they used to package grapes in at the grocery store.  There is a couple of different kinds of body wash.  One for the Teenage Son so that he smells so good that girls will instantly be attracted to him (according to the advertisements) One very feminine bottle promising moisture and youth, and another of practical oatmeal infused wash for the younger ones with sensitive itch-prone skin.  Last a soap dish containing a slightly mushy bar of spring scent, because my Husband simply refuses to use a pouf, because he see's them as "girly", but his bar isn't on a rope.
  Why, then you ask,  am I thinking of soap-on-a-rope? It is because I received a couple of bars of Handmade soap from my Mom for Christmas.  They smelled Wonderful ... one like Mint and the others like Lavendar. "Hmmmm....", I thought to myself,  "How am I going to use these without them becoming a gushy mess in the shower?"  Using them next to the sink was out of the question since none of the children will pick up a used piece of soap because they think that it is gross.
  I looked at some recipes on the internet about turning a bar of soap into liquid and it involved Glycerine and distilled water , which meant a trip to the store and then  trying to remember to get them once I was there and purchasing all the "normal" items that I usually get .... yep, too hard.
  I was at Wal-Mart the other day and saw this.....

Bar Soap pouch scrub

I liked it so well I think I will get some more for my kids or Summer Camp.