Turkey Napkin Rings or Place Cards for Thanksgiving

These turkey napkin rings are fun to make and a cute addition to your Thanksgiving table.

You could also attach a name tag so that they will serve as a place card.

I used punches to punch out the pieces, but you could go with basic, hand-cut shapes as well.

You just need some basic supplies: cardstock, googly eyes, scissors or punches, and adhesive. I used a black pen to outline the pieces for some added interest.

You can assemble these yourself, but it also makes a fun kid craft.

I made these 5 years ago, long before I was blogging, and was just reminded of them, so I decided to share them...

This is how they looked on the table: see if you can find them, they're pretty small compared to that big table (which isn't ours - we celebrated Thanksgiving elsewhere).

Shared at Todays Creative Blog.

Cinnamon Steamed Apples Recipe: Easy and Delicious Side Dish

Are you looking for a simple but delicious side dish to complement any meal?

Look no further!

I really enjoy this simple dish.

Ingredients:

Apples (I prefer them a little tart, like Granny Smiths or Jonagold, but you can really use any kind)

Raisins

Cinnamon

Brown Sugar

Water

Begin by washing and coring your apples.

Slice them, about 1/2 inch slices.

Put them in a frying pan with 1/2 cup of water.

Add raisins, cinnamon and brown sugar to taste.

I don't give exact amounts, since it depends how sweet you like your apples to be.

Put a lid on the man, and steam your apples till they are tender. It shouldn't take long, maybe about 5 minutes.

And that's all! Easy enough to eat with an every day meal, but also kind of festive, so it could also be a side dish for your Thanksgiving dinner!

Simple, right?!

Enjoy!

Shared at Sugar Bee Crafts and Tatertots and Jello.

Happy Down syndrome awareness month! Update on our daughter...

October is Down syndrome awareness month!

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while, may remember that during the past two years I took part in the "31 for 21 Challenge". I blogged every day in October to raise awareness for Down syndrome.

This year, I decided not to do the challenge. 

As my daughter is growing, I realize that I have not many new things to share about Down syndrome. 

She is just who she is, and I don't seem to think about her having Down syndrome as much as I used to.

However, for those of you who are wondering how she is doing, I like to share in this post where we are now.

If you're new here, you might want to read more about our story HERE.

Our beautiful girl is almost two and a half already!

She is doing very well and she has the whole family wrapped around her fingers.

There are certain things she isn't able to do yet, which a typical two year old would be able to do already, but rather than focusing on the things she can't do yet, I will tell you what she CAN do, since that is so much more important.

She understands simple commands in Dutch as well as English. 

She can say a few words, and uses some American Sign Language. 

We decided to raise her bilingual, since that is what we did with her older sisters. 

We are aware of the fact that that might slow things down, but feel that in the long run we would regret if we wouldn't give it a shot. 

So, combined with sign language, she is working on mastering THREE languages!

Signing 'baby' 

She can feed herself, using her hands or a fork. 

She simply loves food, there is hardly anything she doesn't like. 

Using her fork

Helping herself to some fries of someone else's plate

She is a loving mother to all of her baby dolls, and hugs and kisses them a lot. 

One baby always has to keep her company when she goes to bed.

Speaking about hugs and kisses, our girl is the most cuddly little girl I know. 

I just LOVE how she wraps her little arms around my neck and kisses me! 

She loves to make friends, wherever we go. Whenever I am at a check register paying for something, most of the time she spends her time waving at the people behind us in line, who she is facing, since she is sitting in a shopping cart. 

We have started lots of conversations that way.

She is a speedy crawler, stair climber, and can take some steps without help. 

When things are outside her reach, she finds a stool or box or whatever else can help her to get higher up. Just last night she decided to climb the ladder of her sisters' bunk beds, but we stopped her when she was on her way to the second step up.

She likes baths. 

Recently, she was worried to miss out on a bath with her sisters, so she decided to dive in on her own. 

Unfortunately she didn't take time to undress first. 

(Another skill she just mastered, when SHE decides it is time to undress...)

Climbed in bath tub

Books: she LOVES books, she likes to look at pictures, read to her dolls, 

or just distribute them throughout the room.

Reading to her doll

She loves to 'cook' food for us in her play kitchen. 

She shares it with us, or eats it herself, saying "Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!"

Coloring: she loves coloring! 

We give her crayons, but she prefers markers or pencils. 

She drew some artwork on one of our walls, fortunately she used a pencil for that one!

Coloring (I drew the smiley face to get her started...)

She loves music:

Whenever she hears music with a beat to it, she hops up and down, right on the beat. Her current favorite is her older sister's multiplication table CD, which is pretty funny. It has the multiplication tables on fast rap-style music, and she just LOVES it. 

And she also likes to MAKE music. I cannot have the piano to myself anymore, every time my little musician HAS to come over and add some bass to my music. Or she wants the whole piano for herself. She used to just bang on it, but now she is starting to use her individual fingers more. So we may have a future pianist on our hands.

Little pianist

Laundry is one of her favorite 'chores'. 

She loves to unfold laundry, we're still working on the folding ;)

When I am sorting laundry to be washed, she is eager to bring me any clothes that she finds in her room, that need washing too according to her. So cute! Until she starts to get them out of her drawers, that is!

 The other day I was trying to find her socks after her nap. Couldn't find them anywhere, and I thought she must have tossed them behind her bed.

Well, when I took a batch of laundry out of the washer, there they were: two tiny red socks that I hadn't put in that pile. Fortunately, she hadn't picked my white pile. So I realized she must have taken them off before her nap and added them to that pile without me noticing it.

OK, I realize that this is getting quite long here. Our little girl has SO much personality, that it is hard to just share in one post, but I hope you get the idea.

Happy Down syndrome awareness month!

Chevron Infinity Scarf Crochet Pattern

I designed a pattern to create this chevron infinity scarf.

I guess you could call it a cowl, too...

I love how cozy these scarves are, and they are a perfect way to make an outfit more interesting, and keep you warm during cold days.

You can buy this pattern in my Etsy shop.

It is pretty simple, so even for beginners there is no excuse :)

It's an instant download, so as soon as you have paid, you can download the pattern and start working on your scarf!

Shared at Suburbs Mama, Sugar Bee Crafts and Be different, Act normal and The 36th Avenue.

My favorite chicken marinade

I love this simple marinade, made of ingredients I usually have on hand.

It tastes great on chicken breasts, chicken legs, whole chicken, you name it.

I have used it for chicken prepared in the oven or on the barbecue.

4 Tbsp. soy sauce

4 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

3 tsp. garlic, minced or pressed

dash of pepper

  Combine ingredients, marinate chicken in fridge for about 4 hours (I have done it shorter, too, and it still tastes great). 
Then, grill or cook as you would normally do.

Enjoy!

Shared at Today's Creative Blog, Sumo's Sweet Stuff and Sugar Bee Crafts.

Getting organized: Scarves and Purses - Fast & Easy organizing solutions

After looking online for ways to store my ever-growing scarf collection,

I found different ways that scarves can be stored. 

I used to simply keep them in a basket, which resulted in me digging through it in order to find a scarf, resulting in a big mess every time.

I looked at neat ways, like hanging them on a curtain rod, or putting shower curtain rings on a hanger. But the first thing seemed too permanent, and take up too much space, while I worried that using curtain rings on a hanger would make them all shift to one side.

Then I realized I could just simply use a normal clothes hanger and loop the scarves through it.

Takes up hardly any space, and they are easy to find.

Voila, problem solved...

On to my next project: purses.

My purses had a similar problem, they were just piled in a basket.

I found these neat over-the-door hangers on Pinterest,

from an expensive store.

Neat, yes, but I wasn't willing to pay the price...

Until I happened to find the exact same product at Walmart, for way cheaper.

This is a non-permanent solution,

a strap with hooks attached, 

that clips right on the inside of your closet door.

Or outside, if you like to look at your purses ;)

Not exactly a great picture, the lighting in my closet is bad...

You can get a closer look at the product HERE.

(I don't get paid for this, but just like the product...)

There are 18 hooks, but I think it's impossible to use them all.

As my picture shows, I used it for 6 purses...that's about it.

Shared at Sugar Bee Crafts and I heart organizing.

Free Printable Birthday Bubble Wrappers

Bubbles make a great party favor for summer birthdays.

These wrappers fit around a standard size bottle of bubbles.

After I printed them, I just cut them, glued them around the bottle,

and then I covered the labels with clear packing tape to make them water-proof.

Today I am sharing these free printable wrappers with you!

Go HERE to download the free printable PDF-file.

Shared at Somewhat Simple, Tatertots and Jello and Sugar Bee Crafts.

Red, white and blue flowers and pinwheels

I have a ton of pictures on my computer of things I made in the past weeks (or months even).

Just not much time to post them.

But thought I'd share a couple things I made this week...

Some patriotic pinwheel cake toppers.

So simple, but festive and cute...

And some red, white and blue hair clips.

We just disassembled a bunch of plain flowers, and re-assembled them in colorful combinations.

Happy 4th of July!

To my Google Friend Connect Followers

You have probably heard that Google Reader is going away as of July 1.

There are rumors that Google Friend Connect will stop then, too.

So if you want to keep following your favorite blogs, you have to find a different way.

There are other readers available. I really like Bloglovin'.

Once you sign up, you can simply import all blogs that you were following with Google Reader all at once. 

And stay up to date on your favorite blogs.

So to my dear followers:

I hope that you will use Bloglovin', or another reader to stay up to date on my posts!

In the sidebar I added a link (similar to the one pictured above) to make it easier to follow "No time to be bored" on Bloglovin'.

Or, if you prefer to follow me by email, there is that option too in the sidebar.

Thanks so much for following!!

Free Printable Father's Day Card

I had fun creating this card with the help of my daughters.

It was fun for them to come up with words that describe their daddy.

And now they're off to make more :)

You can make your own, but if you're short on time or inspiration,

feel free to use this one!

Click HERE to download the card.

As always: for personal use only!

Shared at Sugar Bee Crafts.

Chevrons & butterflies: Three ways to make a pieced skirt

It has been a long time since I sewed something for my 3 girls.

Although I don't have them wear matching clothes in our normal day to day life, 

it is sort of fun to do occasionally. As long as they'll let me I better enjoy it...

Since I tend to get bored when I make the same thing over and over,

I used three different methods to make their skirts.

I will describe what I did & post a link to a tutorial or pattern for a similar skirt.

I will start with the easiest one:

The basic single layer skirt

This skirt just consists of two strips of fabric sewn together, and after that you just treat it as a if it were one piece of fabric. 

You can follow the directions in this pattern to make the skirt.

The hardest thing was to match up the chevrons at the seam, which was easy...

Next is the double layer skirt.

This one is a little more work, but still pretty basic.

Basically the skirt has 2 layers:

the chevron fabric is the basic skirt,

and there is an extra strip of fabric sewn on top of that.

To create a similar skirt, you can use this layered skirt tutorial.

This works great if the fabric you are using is sort of thin,

and you don't want to line it. 

And last but not least the tiered skirt.

This one was the most time intensive.

Not hard, but ruffling fabric and matching up the tiers is not my favorite thing to do.

However, I thought I could handle one :)

A tutorial for a similar skirt can be found HERE.

Shared at Sugar Bee Crafts, Today's Creative Blog,  girl. Inspired and The 36th Avenue.

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!

Happy Spring!

Spread the word

Spread the Word to End the Word

Fact Sheet

WHAT

Spread the Word to End the Word_™ is an ongoing effort by Special Olympics, Best Buddies and our supporters to raise the consciousness of society about the dehumanizing and hurtful effects of the R-word and encourage people to pledge to stop using the R-word. 

The campaign, created by youth, is intended to engage schools organizations and communities to rally and pledge their support at www.r-word.org and to promote the inclusion and acceptance of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

WHEN

The official annual day of awareness is held the first Wednesday of every March. While most activities are centered on or near that annual day in March, people everywhere can help spread the word throughout their communities and schools year-round thru pledge drives, youth rallies and online activation.

WHO

Spread the Word to End the Word was founded by college students Soeren Palumbo (Notre Dame 2011) and Tim Shriver (Yale 2011) in 2009, and continues to be led by passionate young people, Special Olympics athletes and Best Buddies participants across the United States and in many other parts of the world.

WHY

Respectful and inclusive language is essential to the movement for the dignity and humanity of people with intellectual disabilities.  However, much of society does not recognize the hurtful, dehumanizing and exclusive effects of the R-word. 

Language affects attitudes. Attitudes impact actions. Make your pledge to choose respectful people first language today at www.R-word.org.

HOW

Visit www.r-word.org to learn how you can Spread the Word to End the Word.