I Scream. You Scream. We all Scream for Ice Cream!!!

Funny story really. My husband has been talking about getting an ice cream maker since the beginning of summer. {and in Texas, summer started way back in March} Finally one day he dings me on google chat {we talk a lot throughout the day on that thing. It's pretty handy} to tell me about an ice cream maker he found on Amazon that was on sale.

$2600 ~he dings.
Uhmmmmm, what? Sale? I am thinking yeah right, he must be joking.
~Haha sure, I ding back. Great deal you should get it.

A few days later he tells me the ice cream maker should be delivered by the end of the week.
 My. Mouth. Dropped.
"WHAT? You bought it"?
"Well, yeah", he says, "You said it was a good deal".
"Not for TWO THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED dollars it isn't".

Come to find out it was only Two HUNDRED and sixty dollars. He added a zero too many.
I still am not convinced I would have agreed even at that price, but it's a little late now.

So, thanks to intsant MIScommunication and one zero too many, we now have this really cool ice cream maker. As per any new appliance/gizmo/thing that makes yummy stuff, we were super excited to start using it. We made, vanilla {twice}, chocolate and coffee ice cream all in one week. It was a little out of hand and we were in desperate need to get rid of some or most of it. {All this ice cream isn't exactly helping me lose the 5 lbs I want gone by the beginning of Sept when we take family photos *sigh*}

I suggested a neighborly ice cream social!

AND what is a party with out the right decorations. Right? Very much inspired, {feels SO good to be inspired again} I came up with some fun ideas. I made an ice cream banner and colorful cups to serve the heavenly iced cream in.

I know. I know. That was a really long story for just a bunch of decorations right? Well, hopefully it was worth the read and maybe you'll be inspired too!

I have learned {oh-so-quickly}, time isn't something that comes in large doses when you are a new mom.
So I gotta use my time while I have it!
A sleeping baby allows for the perfect opportunity :)

p.s. I LOVE love love my video monitor!

Materials:

Colorful Tissue Paper

Colored Card Stock/ Construction Paper

String or Ribbon

Tape- Double Sided and Regular

Small Plastic Cups

Scissors

Cutting Board

Straight Edge

Little hands. Lots of art work. Little space.

I have yet to have this problem, but I have seen it occur in many homes and even read about it on a friend's blog. It seems there is an increasing issue with the over abundance of art work and lack of wall space. We are not talking about just any artwork, but the creative and imaginative and sometimes hilarious things our busy children create. In some cases it isn't a matter of enough walls to hang everything on, as in the case of my blogger friend.

No, her children love to adorn their walls with fancy little drawings hung up tactfully with pieces of scotch tape just about anywhere. In her case it is a matter of creatively consolidating it and giving the children a fun spot to show case their imagination!

So, I did a bit of snooping and found some great ways to display children's art work. Some could be both fun for the parents and children.

One of the simplest and fastest ways to save kid's art work is in a 3-ring binder. Maybe most of you already do this. I can definitely  see myself doing something like this and leaving it on the coffee table for guest to view. If the art work is too small it could be matted on black paper and put into the binder. It's a great archival system/ brag book.

Or after matting the art work to the black paper, it could be hung on a designated wall in the house. A hallway is always a great spot. By mounting them to black paper it gives the art display a cohesive look and helps show off the artistic productions of our small loved ones better than just the wall itself.

I really like both of these ideas because when it comes to actually hanging the art work up, your children could do it themselves. The first example uses a magnetic system with clips while the one following is a curtain wire system. Something like this can be found at Ikea for cheap!

One last idea. Take photos of the art work and collect in a photo album.

There may never be an absoulte solution for this problem, (though it isn't the worst problem to have, right Chris?) but maybe this will help for the time being!