All Things Cow

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American Girl Doll Ball Point Pen Removal

 

While painting my oldest daughters room over the weekend (reveal to come!) I was picking up some toys and had a minor meltdown after discovering my youngest daughter decided to take a ball point pen to Isabell's face, legs, and body and some sort of black marker on the wrists!!

I immediately ran down stairs and tried to remove it with a magic eraser as that usually does the trick for everything. Unfortunately, it didn't do a thing! I tried hairspray, resolve for the laundry, soap and water, literally anything I could think of. 

Nothing!

I was afraid she was ruined and Ava hadn't even had her a year yet.

Ava decided to Google the dilemma (she takes after her mother) and came across a YouTube video where a girl shared how she got ball point pen off of her American Girl Doll. Her's were only minor spots and she said it could take anywhere from 4 hours to 4 days of repeating this process to see the desired results. I was leery but at this point what could it hurt? 

We picked up the products from our local Kroger during our weekly Sunday grocery day.

Items Needed:

Oxy Acne Medication - We got the Rapid Spot Treatment Maximum Action 10% Benzoyl Peroxide

Saran Wrap or Plastic Wrap- We just got Kroger brand

We got a Q-tip and lightly coated the pen marks with Oxy, covered the areas in saran wrap to help keep it in place, and set her out to sun bathe for a few hours. We also took a towel  and covered her hair to keep it from being damaged by the sun.

I was concerned knowing that this Oxy product was basically going to bleach the pen out of the vinyl. Especially since some of the pen markings we on her eye brows, lips, and teeth. 

My daughter and I made it a whole hour before heading out to check on the results. Patients is not a common trait in this family :)

Hallelujah!! The pen was gone!!

And after only 1 hour! We were ecstatic!! It actually worked and there was no visible damage to the skin, lips, teeth, eyebrows, nothing! 

I strongly encourage this fix if you get pen on your American Girl doll. I'm sure it would work on some other dolls as well but I would do a spot test first before hand.

Marine Corps Life

Sharing a few pictures today as I am playing around with photo editing. I am still pretty new to the editing world but little by little I am figuring out how to do some neat things. 

This first one is just another day in the Curran household.

The girls are sitting on the front porch sharing some watermelon.

 In honor of my husband being gone on military duties I added a pop of color to our USMC flag.

What do you think?

Last Day Of School!

School is officially out!! 

I am so looking forward to being able to spend more time with my oldest daughter. I feel like I hardly see her during the school year. She has worked really hard this year and most definitely deserves a break. 

In honor of the last day of school I spent nearly 2 hours filling up water balloons for a water balloon fight. I also served snow cones and other snacks. It was a huge success. The  preparation and clean up were a bit time consuming but in the end the kids had a blast and that was well worth it!

I found these great Discovery Kids water balloons at Family Dollar. 150 balloons for $2. Be prepared to get a little wet while filling them though because the attachment that they provide to fill the balloons leaks no matter what you do.

Here are a few pictures from the fight!

I hope you plan to fill your summer with as many memories as we do! Thanks for reading :)

Getting Blog Ready

As soon as I wake up in the morning my goal is my blog. 

Of course my kids come first! But lately they have their own agendas throughout the day 

which don't always involve Mommy anymore :(

So, I have been focusing a lot more on improving and making my blog successful. 

On the downside, that has resulted in my daily routine of keeping 

the house disaster free being well, 

a disaster!

Before I know it, half of the day is gone and dishes ares filling the sink, 

laundry is all over the place, and I forgot to thaw dinner! 

(Raise your hand and smile if you can relate.)

Those of you who know me personally know that I am a List Maker. 

I love making lists! It's a therapy for me.

I have notebooks galore with to-do lists, craft lists, flower lists, blog post lists, you name it.

So, I decided to sit down and create a list of things to do in the morning 

(that must be accomplished) before I can start blogging.

Not a lot of things.

 Just some basic things to help me not be overwhelmed at the end of the day 

when I am rushing around trying to get everything cleaned up before the hubby get home and I'm busted! Lol

(Again, raise your hand and chuckle to yourself if you can relate.)

I've implemented this checklist into my past two mornings and so far things are much more organized through out the day. The dryer buzzer goes off and alerts me to stay on top of the laundry and there hasn't been dishes overflowing the sink when it's time to make dinner.

So I thought, hey, maybe it could benefit some fellow bloggers 

and make their days one less bit stressful. Why not share?

So HERE it is! The Getting Blog Ready Checklist.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ava's Bedroom: Exposing Brick Chimeny Sneak Peek

Super bummed that I did not get to finish my daughters white wood planked wall this past weekend. It constantly raining and I didn't want to chance having wet wood. Of course it's still raining this morning, but I promise as soon as it's dry I will be getting my butt to the hardware store and getting this project finished! I did however get all of the plaster removed from the old brick fireplace and it looks awesome! 

My wrist is so sore I can barley move it, but it was worth it. It really didn't take long, a couple of hours. 

Here is a picture of the progress before it was complete. This was about 30-45 minutes into the demo.

Not a difficult project, but VERY messy! I even laid down plastic but the damage to the carpet is done. Luckily, I will be tearing it up in the very near future so that I can refinish the beautiful (hopefully not in too bad of shape) wood floors underneath! Check back soon for the completed wood planked wall! 

Don't forget to click on my social media buttons so I can keep you updated however is best for you!

Ava's Bedroom: Exposing Brick Chimeny

When we purchased our home 3 years ago, we knew that there used to be two wood burning stoves that had been removed and covered up. We didn't know exactly what that meant but after watching shows like Fixer Upper and Rehab Addict, it stirred up some curiosity that there just might be brick behind some of our walls. We peeked into a ceiling entrance near my daughters bedroom and saw a brick fireplace running up through the attic! I was so excited to see this and of course couldn't wait to expose it. I did some research and found this great tutorial on eHow Home Blog on How To Remove Plaster From A Brick Chimney. 

After reading through their process and I ran upstairs and tested a few spots to make sure brick was there and find out how deep it was under the plaster. Roughly 1/2" in on each side I uncovered beautiful, historic to our home brick! 

This weekend we plan to continue to expose the brick as well as add a white wood planked wall on the the wall which will feature my daughters bed.

 Thanks for reading and make sure to check back next week for an update! 

Or if you are always crazy busy like me, sign up to receive my emails so I can notify you when the reveal is posted!

Bloglovin Official Today

So after hours of editing html codes...I am excited to say I am now Bloglovin official. Click the link below to follow me on Bloglovin. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Free Printable Friday

Hey everyone! After a brief cool down the warmer weather had made a comeback for the Memorial Day weekend. And warmer weather puts mean in the mood for some Florida Georgia Line. So I decided to create this Friday's printable with them as my inspiration. I hope you like it!

To download this printable for your own personal use CLICK HERE.

Pine Cone Peonies

While at the park this past weekend my oldest daughter, Ava, found a handful of pine cones and decided to bring them home and use them for a craft. She is always finding things and holding on to "trash" because she has ideas on ways to reuse them.
After a small  asthma situation, she stayed home from school today and was able to spend some quality time with me. During nap time she reminded me of her desire to do something with the pine cones she had collected and we quickly (and quietly) gathered the pine cones and some paint, paint brushes, glitter, you name it, and got to brainstorming!
Now I am not much of a painter because my hands tend to shake but I had and idea and thought I'd give it a whirl!

What you will need:
White Paper
Paint Brush
Paint
Paint Tray or Paper Plate
Glass Of Water For Rinsing Your Brush
Paper Towel
And A Pine Cone

I started off by mixing up some red and white paint on my paint tray until I got a shade of pink I liked. Then I took a paint brush and applied a  generous amount of the pink paint to the bottom of the pine cone.

Press the flower down gently on the paper and roll in a clockwise motion. I did this 2 times with 2 different shades of pink to add demension. Paint on some leaves and/or stem, and that's it!

 Thanks for reading! I love to hear your feedback, so don't be shy!

She's A Wild One Printable

Today I am sharing a printable that I made for my youngest daughter Kinley's room. She is my wild child! The arrow graphic I found on graphicstock.com and the gold leaf hearts (which I love!) were beautifully created by We Lived Happily Ever After. If you haven't checked our her blog yet, do it! To download this printable for your own personal use CLICK HERE.