Staying Home Sawyer

Real Life Living on a Real Life Budget

Holidays!

Elf on the Shelf Season

Influencer Elf

It’s that time of year again. The time of year that parents dread because they’ve gotten themselves in too deep with their kids elves. Except, at our house, it’s really just for the adults. So basically, I’ve gotten in too deep with my elf for my husband. Each year is harder to top. So while I sit here trying to come up with ideas for this year, here are the highlights from Reuben’s visit last year.

Disney’s Up

This year I featured some of our favorite movies, artists, and shows. Which I basically do every year. Seriously, try coming up with new ideas for your Elf when it’s for your husband.

Freddie Mercury
Netflix’s “You”

One of my personal favorites (and hardest set design) was from one of our favorite Netflix shows, “You.” Trying to get this basement prison set up was pretty difficult, especially when you’re trying to put it together in the five minutes after your husband goes to bed.

Popular Debate last year: Popeye’s or Chick-Fil-A?

I’m going with Chick-Fil-A, I don’t know about Reuben.

“It”

Sometimes our elf Reuben gets a little creepy. As in clown in the gutter with a red balloon creepy.

for parents everywhere: Baby Shark

Baby Shark was everywhere for us two years ago. I had to try to recreate it somehow, so here was my attempt. I’m so glad my daughter has outgrown that stage. Unless you try to throw away anything Baby Shark related, in which case she suddenly loves it again.

Taylor Swift, “You Need to Calm Down”

I have a not-so-secret crush on Taylor Swift, so turning Reuben into Tay-Tay was a must. This scene is from her music video for “You Need to Calm Down.”

So there you have it folks. Last years Reuben antics in its entirety (actually no, I did two more that were a little too personal to share on my blog). Now I’ll be over here in the corner trying to finalize my list for this year. Any ideas, send them my way. It’s not like I have enough going on…

DIY, Holidays!

Halloween Ghost Hunt

Is Halloween cancelled near you? Our neighborhood still seems to be on board with a little trick or treating (with precaution of course), but just in case I decided to come up with some fun alternatives. Candy isn’t enough to bribe toddlers these days, we need some fun games as well.

I’ve been seeing the Easter eggs on clearance at Hobby Lobby for months now (I may go a few times a week), and I kept trying to think of a fun thing we could do with them during this Halloween season. Enter in a Halloween Ghost Hunt! This is literally the easiest DIY for the season.

Buy your Easter eggs (if you can’t find white, use your oranges, purples, and greens that you already have at home), use a Sharpie to draw on some ghost faces, fill with candy or fun prizes, and hide them around the yard for your kids to hunt!

I have a feeling we will be doing this many times before Halloween. If you have a toddler, I’m sure you realize how fun hunting for eggs is. And now they get to do it more than once a year!

Lifestyle

After School Treats

Happy almost Fall! If that sounds weird to you, you’re not alone. Luckily, we live in San Diego and still have a good two months of summer left. Not to mention, two more years before school starts too! But for those of you who are already in the ‘back to school’ rush, have I got the treat for you!

There’s ONE thing that is a must for us during the summer, and that is S’mores. But what if we took it up a notch? What if we combined one of our other favorite treats? What if we kept summer going right into the school year?

Enter: Rice Krispie Treats S’mores. And because we are moms, we have no time to be making these treats from scratch. So here’s what you do:

  1. Buy a box of Rice Krispie Treats
  2. Unwrap said treats.
  3. Drizzle melted chocolate over the top.
  4. Dust with graham cracker crumbs and a few larger pieces.
  5. Dab three or four mini marshmallows on top.
  6. DONE!

There’s literally not much easier when it comes to making desserts. I added some sticks into a few so Sawyer could keep her hands clean (mom win!). They tasted delicious and took me five minutes. I think I deserve an award. And I think you deserve one too, so right after you make these, treat yourself.

Birthday's, DIY

Sailing into 40!

Do you remember anything specific from your childhood bedroom? Mine was filled with all things girly: dolls, stuffed animals, Barbies, and a canopy bed that was as frilly as could be. I also had pink painted walls with a porcelain doll wallpaper border.

I may have moved on from that bedroom by middle school, but my husband is still missing his childhood bedroom. Him and his brother shared a sailboat wallpapered bedroom, and they still argue over who is the Captain.

He is 40.

So in honor of his weirdness, for his 40th birthday I decided to surprise him with a sailboat themed birthday party. Since we’re still in the midst of Covid, we couldn’t have a big bash. We may have only invited a few close friends over, but I went all out of course.

(The infamous wallpaper is framed on the left)

The main wall piece was a sail made from dyed crepe paper. I found a tutorial online, and dyed one roll of white into blue. Then I just got the white roll wet, and dried them both the same way (so they both had the same texture).

A lot of our decor came from the dollar spot at Target (for the win!). I got lucky that they were featuring nautical stuff right now, and since no one is shopping, everything was fully stocked. I also made life rings from pool noodles and white crepe paper, and wrapped silverware with a ‘life ring.’

I also designed a “Keep Calm and Sail On” print (5×7), you can download it here. You can also download the “Sailing into 40” print here (8×10).

For food, we served ‘seashell’ pasta, the ‘catch of the day’ (Goldfish crackers), ‘seaweed’ dip (artichoke dip), watermelon sailboats, ‘life preservers’ (peach gummy rings), ‘driftwood’ (pretzel sticks), and ‘sailor knots’ (garlic knots).

We ordered a simple cake from our local grocery store, added a sailboat and the big 4-0 candles (which I spray painted gold).

I designed the food tags, printed them on cardstock, cut them out and glued another piece of cardstock to the side so they’d stand. You can download them here.

We also had a ‘seaside bar’ which was probably my favorite area. It just turned out so inviting. We didn’t end up using just about any of it, but it still looked pretty (that’s what really counts, right?).

So what do you think? Did I do a good job for my man child? (He loved every bit of it).