Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

 I found this *awesome* recipe on pinterest recently.  (Here is the original post.) These were delicious!

First you make this amazing peanut butter mixture:

 Ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tsp butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Small pretzels, chocolate for dipping. 

Mix well until dough forms.  I used a small scoop to get the peanut butter mixture onto the pretzels and then smushed another pretzel on top.  

 Place in the freezer for 30 minutes or so until it firms up a bit.

Then dip in chocolate... you'll notice I don't have any pictures... let's just say they were amazing and there wasn't time :)

So, in a panic about a week later I was looking for some more of these delicious bites and wasn't in the mood to make the mess or find all the ingredients.  Honestly I just wanted a few pretzels and then for the temptation to be gone.  

Enter the "speedy peanut butter pretzel bites"

1 spoon peanut butter

1 spoon chocolate frosting

 Was it as amazing as the original?  No.  

Was it delicious?  Yes.

Was it easy?  Yes.

Did it get rid of my craving?  Yes.

Will I do it again?  Yes!

 

Sidewalk Chalk Paint!

This is one of the simplest recipes for sidewalk chalk paint and we *love* it!  

Equal parts water and cornstarch and some food coloring (we used neon) - check it out:

We used 1 cup water, 1 cup corn starch and...

20 drops of food coloring....

Stir...

until well combined.

Wow!!  Check out all these awesome colors!

We used sponge brushes and the kids went nuts!

 It is so easy to paint with!  It brushed on as easy as water and covered the surfaces really well.

 Notice that we didn't actually do this in our driveway... I was terrified that it would stain so we did it at the dead end next to our house.

 Hopscotch

Go Morgan go!

Map Gift Bag

We have friends that are going on a l-o-n-g road trip and I wanted to put together a "travel bag" for them.  Basically a gift bag full of treats, books, games, ear plugs... that sort of thing.  I found the cutest bag idea here made out of newspaper.  That got me to thinking... what about a bag made out of a MAP for their road trip!?  So... here it is:

 

Here's how I made it... Again, I got the idea from here... and she does a great job of explaining how to do things.  I had to make a few adjustments... I doubled the size and I also only had one map so I wasn't able to add card stock to the bag to strengthen it... but it seems sturdy just the same.

First I measured out my map.  Mine was 31" wide and 16.5" tall.

 

I made a 4" fold for what would be the bottom.

 

 And a 1.5" fold for what would end up being the "top" of the bag.

 It's kind of hard to see... but I sectioned it off into a 9" piece, a 6" piece, a 9" piece, a 6" piece and a 1" piece.  I marked these off (if you look hard you can see my black pen marks) and then folded them on the lines (toward the "inside" or where the original folds are).

 I folded the map into what looks like a rectangle, taking the extra one inch and gluing it on the inside of one of the corners.  (Trust me, this makes a ton more sense when it is in your hands, basically, just glue the 1" flap so it makes a cylinder.)

 Then undo the bottom cuff so you can fold it like you would if you were wrapping a gift.  

(This is one of those times that pictures are worth a thousand words!)

 Add glue (I used a glue stick) to the bottom flaps to secure.

 I was so excited that it actually looked like a bag that I folded the gussets in and the bottom up... as if for storage.

 Ta da!

 I was too lazy to go downstairs to find cord for a handle, but I did have this thin jute(ish) stuff up here.  It was too thin.  So I took three 24" pieces and braided them, punched holes in the bag (reinforced them with tape) and threaded the handle through.

 I can't wait to fill it!!!

I am so excited to try this with other materials!  Old wrapping paper, newspaper... wow!  

If you try to make one, please let me know how it turns out, and/or what different materials you think would make a good bag.