Featured at Night Owl Crafting!

My printed anniversary mosaic was featured at Night Owl Crafting today! 

It was the most viewed link last week.  Hooray!

You can see the post at Night Owl Crafting here.  Plus, she has an awesome linky party every Wednesday called "Hoo's Got Talent?"  You should definitely go visit for some crafty inspiration!  The link is on my sidebar. :)

Or you can see my original post here.

I get to post this lovely button on my sidebar and I am super tickled about it!

Octopus Hotdogs, yep that's right

Last week, AnnaLauren and I were trying to decide on what she wanted for dinner.  Tommy and Noah had requested a dinner of veggies only.  AnnaLauren will not do veggies only so I was going through the list of meat options for her - chicken nuggets - no, fish sticks - no, ABC's & 123's - no, chicken & rice - no.

We were both exasperated. 

Then, AnnaLauren looked up at me and said, "Mother Mudder, I want real fun dinner!"

Ok then.

So I did what any super fun mom would do - I made Octopus Hotdogs.  Served with mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, a crescent roll and the required princess vitamin - all was right with the world!

A Quick "How To"
1.  Choose your favorite hotdog and lay it flat on your cutting board (or a paper towel)

2.  Make a cut all the way through starting about 3/4 of the way up the hotdog

3.  Roll the hotdog 1/2 turn and cut again

4.  Stand him up and splay out the legs.  I also cut an "X" into the top.

5.  Nuke in the microwave for about a minute or drop into boiling water.

6.  Serve with ketchup for dipping!

7.  Explain to your children that octopi do indeed have 8 legs and not four but that these were obviously either injured in a fierce battle with a great white shark or victims of a tragic boat propeller accident. :)

Have a fantastic week!

Anniversary Printed Mosaic

Seven years ago, I stood on the beach in Paradise and said, "I Do!" to my best friend.

We look so very young!

We don't spend a lot of money on anniversary gifts.  We usually just have a nice dinner and movie date.  But, I have been on a craft kick, so for our anniversary this year, I wanted to make something. 

I looked all over blogland for inspiration.  My criteria was pretty general.  I wanted something cheap and fast that was within my limited skill level.  One of the things I saw were mosaics made out of photos of letters and numbers.  I honestly can't remember where all my inspiration came from, but there are lots of you out there.

So on to the project...

The key to this project are the absolutely amazing photo collections on Flickr by Leo Reynolds.  He has letters, numbers, punctuation and all sorts of things.

So, I opened up a powerpoint document (because that's what I had at work) and copied and pasted the letters of my choice into the document.  I played around with the wording and layout until I came up with this.  I sized it to fit in an 8X10 photo mat.

I could have sent it out to be printed in a photo lab, but I am all about instant gratification.  I printed it off on my printer with plain paper.  It looked great!  Then, I stopped by my local thrift store and grabbed an 11X17 awful gold frame with a white mat and a terrible lovely cherub print.  The price was right at $3.50.  The print went into the trash and the frame got a quick coat of Bahama Sea spray paint by Krylon that was hanging out in our garage.

The finished product - I love it!  And Tommy loves it too! 

My only cost was $3.50 for the frame.  What a deal!

*Warning* Terrible cell phone picture ahead!

Happy Anniversary Tommy!  Love you forever!

I'm linking up with everyone listed on the right!  They have great parties and you should visit them all! :)