Category: Friday Fun

Aloha! Kailani is the brain-child behind this fun Friday meme. If you feel inclined to answer my question, please post your answer in the comment section. Sound fun? Of course it does! Want to answer more questions? Hop over to An Island Life and play along!

(Please feel free to answer the question below, even if you’re not playing Aloha Friday!)

My question:

For an all-expense paid, one week vacation anywhere in the world, would you be willing to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling off it’s wings? What about stepping on a cockroach?

My answer:

Aargh! Trick question! If I say yes to both the butterfly and the cockroach, I sound cold and ruthless. But if I say no to the butterfly and yes to the cockroach, am I saying that only beautiful creatures deserve to live? (And for the record, I squash cockroaches – no qualms. I’m just playing devil’s advocate here).

I’m going to be selfish here – I would definitely squish the cockroach and I’d probably kill the butterfly.

It’s all expenses paid to anywhere, folks. Let’s be real here.

I wouldn’t feel bad about the cockroach, but the guilt from the butterfly just might ruin my vacay.

You?

(My questions are hard, right?? hehe)

Aloha! Kailani is the brain-child behind this fun Friday meme. If you feel inclined to answer my question, please post your answer in the comment section. Sound fun? Of course it does! Want to answer more questions? Hop over to An Island Life and play along!

(Please feel free to answer the question below, even if you’re not playing Aloha Friday!)

My question:

Are there people you envy enough to want to trade lives with? Who are they?

My answer: Well, nobody famous, that’s for sure. I mean, okay, the money would be nice. But to be forced to put up with the paparazzi always in my face and having every little thing I did or said in public scrutinized and criticized? No thank you!

Your turn.

If there’s one thing I really miss from when my boys were in elementary school, it was the classroom Valentine parties. The kids had so much fun shopping for, and making out, the Valentine’s Day cards. And then, of course, making their Valentine’s Day boxes.

If you’re stumped for some ideas for your little one’s Valentine party this year, Family Fun has some neat projects.

Clap Happy

On February 14, your child can give his teacher a big round of applause and a little luxury: a tube of hand lotion.

Materials

* Card stock
* Marker
* Tube of lotion
* Double-sided tape

Instructions

1. Trace your child’s hand on card stock. Cut out the traced hand and use it as a template to make a second hand.

2. Write a message with marker. Affix the hands to a tube of lotion and add card stock hearts with double-sided tape.

Suggested Messages:
“You deserve a hand!”
“Hands down, you’re the best.”
“I’ve got to hand it to you!”

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Clip Hearts

With these simple, message-bearing barrettes, Laura Stewart of El Mirage, Arizona, found an adorably useful way to tell the girls in her second-grade class, “We click!”

Materials

* Craft foam hearts (ours are 3/4 inch and 1 1/4 inches across)
* Hot glue
* Click-style barrettes (also known as contour clips)
* Scissors
* Colored card stock
* Marker

Instructions

1. Arrange two or three craft foam hearts as you like and hot-glue them together. (Draw and cut your own hearts, using our
templates, or check your craft store for precut foam hearts.)

2. Glue the hearts to the wide end of the hair clip and let the glue set.

3. Cut a heart from the card stock. Write your message on the heart, then clip the barrette to it.

Suggested messages:
Valentine, we click!
Our friendship is “hair” to stay
I (HEART SYMBOL) your friendship

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Crayon Hearts

Wax romantic come Valentine’s Day. Gather crayon nubs and recycle them into swirly, useable valentines. We can’t think of a better way to say, “I melt for you.”

Materials

* Crayon pieces
* Heart-shaped metal cookie or muffin tin (our hearts are about 1 1/2 inches across)
* Scrap paper
* Double-sided foam mounting tape
* Scissors
* Colored card stock
* Marker

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 250°

2. Crayon Hearts – Step 2 Fill each mold with crayon pieces and bake until the crayons melt, about 10 to 15 minutes. Tip: Place a sheet pan under the crayons to catch any drips.

3. Crayon Hearts – Step 3 Once they’re cool, remove the hearts from the molds and smooth any rough edges by rubbing them on a piece of scrap paper.

4. Use small pieces of foam tape to stick each heart to a 3-inch circle cut from card stock — or use our template, then add your message.

Suggested messages:
You color my world
Valentine, you make my heart melt
Have a happy Valentine’s Day, for “crayon” out loud!

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Friendship Blossoms

Here, two classic Valentine’s Day gifts — flowers and candy — combine to make one sweet treat.

Materials

* Scrapbooking paper or card stock
* Scissors
* Lollipops
* Tape

Instructions

1. For each, cut three heart-shaped petals, two leaves, and two flower centers from scrapbooking paper or card stock.

2. Poke a small hole in each, crease the petals as shown, and slide the pieces onto a lollipop stem. Tape the bottom to secure.

More messages:
You’re a sweet heart
Our friendship is blooming
Be my bud-dy

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Scratch and Win

Everyone can hit the jackpot with these lottery-inspired valentines featuring messages hidden beneath scratch-off hearts.

Materials

* Metallic acrylic paint
* Dishwashing liquid
* Disposable container
* Foam brush
* Clear contact paper
* Templates
* Card stock
* Markers
* Glue
* 3-D paint pens

Instructions

1. To make 36 hearts, combine 2 tablespoons of metallic acrylic paint and 1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid in a disposable container. With a foam brush, paint a thin coating of the mixture onto the nonadhesive side of a 13-inch square of clear contact paper. When the coating is dry, add two more coats, letting each dry thoroughly.

2. Next, download our templates. Print the Lucky Lotto page onto card stock and cut out the tickets. Using our heart template as a guide, cut hearts from the painted contact paper.

3. Write a message on the right-hand side of each ticket. Peel the backing from a painted heart and stick it in place over the note. If you like, glue each ticket to a 3- by 6-inch rectangle of card stock and decorate it with 3-D paint pens.

More messages:
You’re priceless
You’re a winner
Our friendship is worth a million bucks

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Treat Transmitters

Personal robots may do our bidding in the future. But these adorable little inventions are already on the job, programmed to transmit Valentine’s Day messages.

Materials

* Template
* Card stock
* Double-sided tape
* Aluminum foil
* Candy

Instructions

1. To make one, download our template. Trace and cut the robot body from a piece of card stock, fold as shown, and secure it with double-sided tape.

2. Use more tape to add aluminum foil arms, candy eyes and feet, and other details, such as bar codes, if you like.

More messages:
U R GR8
B mine
I ♥ u

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Captive Heart

Show Grandma you care with this keepsake. The red wire is very flexible, so she can extract the note and treat while keeping the ornament to remind her of her sweetheart.

Materials

* 16-inch length of 20-gauge silver craft wire
* Heart-shaped cookie cutter
* Wire cutters or nail clippers
* Red craft wire (24 gauge or higher)
* Heart-shaped note and treat
* Ribbon

Instructions (click for pictures)

1. To make the heart, bend the craft wire around a pencil to form a loop 4 inches from one end.

2. Center the loop atop a 2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, and wrap the wire around the heart, pressing to shape it.

3. After you’ve made 2 loops, twist the ends together and trim the excess with wire cutters or nail clippers.

4. Remove the cookie cutter, then secure one end of a 3-foot length of red craft wire (24 gauge or higher) to the heart.

5. Run the red wire across the heart’s front and back, wrapping it around the silver wire at each pass. Enclose a heart-shaped note and treatas you go.

6. Tuck in the end of the red wire and tie a ribbon through the loop for hanging.

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You’ll find many more ideas here. Have fun!

More from Write From Karen

• January 2025 Reflections
• Healthcare … On Your Terms
• Christmas Postponed … For the Second Time
• The One Where the Landing Gear Got Stuck
• Things that Annoy Me #3

Aloha! Kailani is the brain-child behind this fun Friday meme. If you feel inclined to answer my question, please post your answer in the comment section. Sound fun? Of course it does! Want to answer more questions? Hop over to An Island Life and play along!

(Please feel free to answer the question below, even if you’re not playing Aloha Friday!)

My question:

While on a trip to another city, your spouse (or lover) meets and spends the night with an exciting stranger. Given that they will never meet again, and that you will likely never learn of the incident, would you want your partner to tell you about it? If roles were reversed, would you reveal what you had done?

My answer:

No. Ignorance is bliss.

And yet … here’s the thing. If my man cheated once, wouldn’t he be tempted to cheat again? I mean, once you cross that line, isn’t it easier to cross the second go-around?

And if he feels compelled to cheat – why? Is it me? Could I be better to him? Do I nag him? Have I let myself go? Is he still attracted to me? Have I changed? And is that a bad thing?

Granted, I would be very angry with him for a while, but once the anger wore off and I started looking at the situation rationally, would I want to keep the marriage going after that betrayal? Could we salvage it? Would I ever trust him again? And what about my vindictive streak? Would I want to seek revenge by having my own affair?

What sort of relationship would we have after this?

There are so many questions, so many doubts, just thinking about this scenario, I can’t imagine actually living it. And I guess my biggest question would be – would I want to?

There is no cut-and-dried answer to this question. It would all depend on the people involved, the history of the relationship and how we felt about each other.

But I think, overall, I wouldn’t want to know, quite frankly.

What about you?

Aloha! Kailani is the brain-child behind this fun Friday meme. If you feel inclined to answer my question, please post your answer in the comment section. Sound fun? Of course it does! Want to answer more questions? Hop over to An Island Life and play along!

(Please feel free to answer the question below, even if you’re not playing Aloha Friday!)

My question:

You have the chance to meet someone with whom you can have the most satisfying love imaginable — the stuff of dreams.

Sadly, you know that in six months the person will die.

Knowing the pain that would follow, would you still want to meet the person and fall in love? What if you knew your lover would not die, but instead would betray you?

My answer: Leave it to me to tax your brain. 😀

Wow. …. Wow. I’m not even sure how to answer this. My gut instinct is to say NO. I wouldn’t want to endure that heartache afterward …

BUT

To experience pure love, the kind that perfectly melds into every fiber of your being, I don’t know. Would the experience be enough to sustain me after it was yanked away? And what kind of love life would I have afterward? Wouldn’t I always be comparing to that first love? And wouldn’t I always be disappointed?

I don’t know, I think I would prefer to just not experience it at all and always wonder … what if?

So, let’s see a show of hands – who’s snowed in?

Yeah, me too. And even though my boys are teenagers and can entertain themselves (for the MOST part), I know some of you out there (judging by your Tweets!) are having a hard time keeping your children out of the boredom zone. Because when it’s even too cold to go outside and play? You know you’re in trouble.

Maybe I can help.

As you probably know, I adore the Family Fun website. I routinely go there to get ideas to post links on the school websites I maintain (I’m uber cool like that. :D) and what kind of blogger would I be if I didn’t pass this fun information on to you? Exactly. So … here you go.

(Disclaimer: Family Fun is not, and has never, compensated me for promoting their website. I just like them THAT much so please, relax and enjoy the read).

___________________________

Okay, so even though I just got through telling you that it’s probably too cold for your kids to get out, I had to share this activity because it’s about more than just your kids, it’s about feeding your poor neighborhood birds.

Birdseed Snow Angel

Kids can delight their feathered friends by decorating a snow angel with a mosaic made of birdseed.

Materials
* Various types of birdseed (like thistle, corn, sunflower and safflower)
* Cups
* Pine boughs

Instructions
1. This angel is easiest made by a team: One partner lies down to make a snow angel while the other partner stands by to help the maker get up without messing up the imprint.
2. After the imprint is formed, pour cups of birdseed into the angel, filling the head and body with bands of variously colored seed.
3. For a finishing touch, add pine boughs for the angel’s spreading wings.

Now come on, you have to admit, this is pretty cool. Not only are your kids busy and having fun, they can sit back and watch the birds peck their way out of hunger. A win-win situation, honestly.

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Sparkling Ice Crystals

String up a few of these crystals, made of pipe cleaners and beads, and get ready for a flurry of compliments. For a cool twist, use silver pipe cleaners and pom-poms too.

Materials
* 12-inch white iridescent pipe cleaners
* Clear tri or sunburst beads
* Needle and fishing line
* White iridescent pom-poms

Instructions
1. Cut 6 pipe cleaners in half to create 12 pieces. Hold 11 pieces together and tightly wrap the last piece around the middle of the bundle, as shown, twisting its ends to secure it.
2. Spread the pipe cleaner pieces into a starburst shape and thread about 5 beads onto each pipe cleaner half as shown.
3. Using the needle, thread the pom-poms on the fishing line, then tie the snowflake to one end of the line.

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Critters That Keep Out the Cold (Homemade draft blockers)

Stationed in a window or up against a door this winter, these charming homemade draft blockers will help keep indoor temperatures up and fuel bills down — provided they don’t get coaxed off the job for a playdate, that is. Both are simply fashioned from a pair of tights and filled with rice, which makes them posable enough to tuck tightly into nooks and corners.

Materials

* HEAT-SAVING SNAKE
* 1 pair striped women’s tights
* Uncooked rice (ours took a full 5-pound bag)
* Needle and thread
* Fabric glue
* Felt
* Googly eyes
* Scissors

* DOGGY IN THE WINDOW
* 1 pair women’s tights
* Uncooked rice
* Needle and thread
* Fabric glue
* Felt
* Googly eyes
* Scissors
* Paper clips
* Button
* Old belt or bracelet

Instructions

1. HEAT-SAVING SNAKE: Cut off one leg from a pair of striped women’s tights and fill it with rice (ours took a full 5-pound bag). An easy, spillproof method is to use a plastic cup with the bottom cut out for a funnel.
2. Pinch the open end of the leg into itself to form a tapered snake tail and stitch it closed.
3. Glue on googly eyes. Lastly, sew on a felt tongue, using the same technique described for attaching the dog’s ears (see step 7 for Doggy in the Window, below).

1. DOGGY IN THE WINDOW: Cut one leg from a pair of women’s tights and fill it with rice. Leave enough room to tie the open end into a tight knot.
2. For a tail, apply fabric glue across the base of a felt triangle (ours was about 2 1/2 inches wide and 7 inches tall) and sandwich it around the knot.
3. Apply more glue to the sides and then fold the felt in half. Secure the tail with paper clips until the glue dries.
4. Glue on googly eyes. Attach felt ears by draping each one over the head, as shown, and then sewing the base in place. This way, when you flop the ear down, the stitching won’t show.
5. For the finishing touches, sew on felt feet and a button nose (we used a triangular shank button). Then use your hands to shape the nose and body. Don’t forget a collar: an old belt trimmed to fit, or even a bracelet.

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Household Guest Book

Take a cue from professional innkeepers and invite your guests to record their names and memories in a guest book. Next visit, you can all look back on your time together.

Materials

* 8 ½ x 11-inch hardbound sketchbook with acid-free paper
* Colored markers
* Mementos such as children’s drawings, pressed flowers, and ticket stubs
* Restickable glue stick

Instructions

1. Start with an 8 ½ x 11-inch hardbound sketchbook with acid-free paper to help preserve photos. (Art supply and craft stores offer a variety of sketch- and scrapbooks that would work as well.)
2. Keep a cup of colored markers nearby, and include mementos such as children’s drawings, pressed flowers, and ticket stubs.
3. For mounting, consider using a restickable glue stick, which allows you to reposition items without destroying the pages.
4. Leave plenty of space to add photos later.

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Knit Wits

Turn gloves into palm-size pals.

Materials

* Knit glove
* Needle
* Thread
* Yarn
* Scissors
* Rubber ball
* Buttons
* Mini pom-pom
* Rice

Instructions

1. Knit Wits – Step 1 Tuck the ring finger of the glove into the palm and stitch the hole closed.
2. Fill the glove (all but the cuff) with rice and tie it off tightly with a piece of yarn.
3. For the doll’s head, fit a small rubber ball (or a Ping-Pong ball) into the cuff. Then, sew the glove closed to hold the ball in.
4. Make a wig by loosely wrapping yarn around your hand about fifty times to create a think hank.
5. Tie the strands together at one end of the hank, then cut the loop opposite the tie.
6. Stitch the tied portion to the top of the doll’s head.
7. Finish up by stitching on button eyes and a tiny pom-pom nose.

You can find many, many, MANY more fun winter crafts on this page.

Stay warm!

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Dear Holiday Shoppers,

Look. I know you’re stressed. We’re ALL stressed. But COME ON. Have a little compassion. Pushing that elderly lady or manhandling those tired, cranky children is not exactly showing good will toward your fellow man, now is it?

Calm down. You’ll get your errands done in time. And if you don’t, then you’re an idiot because dude, Christmas comes the same time every year. Budget your time and money a little better next time, kay? Spare us all your ill temper and foul mouth. You’re not setting a very good example to our future generations.

Not to mention, you’re lighting other people’s already short fuses, which is NOT helping the chaos, trust me.

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Dear Holiday Drivers,

*SIGH* What the hell is wrong with you? I realize you’re distracted, we’re ALL distracted. We’ve all got a million and one things to do before Christmas Eve – I get that.

But here’s a news flash, and brace yourself for this may come as a shock, but HELLO?! You’re not the only one on the road.

*GASP* I KNOW! It’s quite shocking.

But even during the holidays, road rules apply. And being a jerk and not allowing other cars to merge will NOT get you where you need to go faster. It WILL, however, get you several dirty looks and choice words from other drivers. And if you have young ears around?

Not setting a good example, here.

So I beg you. Pay attention. Don’t be checking items off your list, don’t be drinking eggnog, don’t be fluffing your hair for that next holiday party and for the love of God, hang up that stupid cell phone!

Most of us would prefer to arrive at our destinations all in one piece.

Thanks.

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Dear Mommy Bloggers,

If the majority of you can’t respond to a stressful/troubling situation with grace and aplomb, then I would like to disassociate myself from the organization effective immediately.

It’s embarrassing and is, quite frankly, souring the general public’s opinion about an institution that has the potential to be something warm, beautiful, supportive and wonderful.

Here’s an idea, let’s channel all of that negative energy into something GOOD, like helping out local foster children this holiday season. Or helping out in a soup kitchen. There are so many positive things we could be doing in lieu of the mean girl theatrics.

It sickens me.

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Dear Guilt,

I know you’re there. I can feel you breathing down my neck and I have one thing to say to you: Bugger off.