Leprechaun Trap Roundup

Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? We do in a big way. We have Irish ancestors so why not, right?We do corned beef and cabbage. We wear green. And yeah that's it. HA! Well except that we do set a trap to catch a leprechaun every year. In years past the extent has been a box with a stick. The kids decided they want to go ritzy this year so we've been searching for inspiration on Pinterest. There are some amazing traps out there. Seriously. I am always so impressed by what people come up with. It is going to be hard to pick one but these are our finalists:

This crazy cute slide trap from Grey House Harbor 

This is a great upgrade to our stick and box routine from Crafts by Amanda which I love. How could a leprechaun resist that gold sprinkled rainbow? 

I love this one!!! But of course there was no link to the original on Pinterest. If you recognize it I'd love to link to it. It had to take a bunch of work.

This one from Lia Griffith is so cute! The trap door on the top spins. So clever!

This is another that where there is no link to be found. Please help! How cute is it though? It seems to be a STEM project too. It looks like it actually works. 

I am pretty sure that we are going with something like this. It is a link to flickr but it looks like it is a oatmeal container all fancied up. Love it.

Which would you choose? Are you building a leprechaun trap this year? How do you celebrate? I love new ideas. I know a lot of people think its nuts to go all out on every holiday but I think it is so fun. Holidays are my reward for the day to day hustle of being a mother. 

Yummy Tomato Hack

You know the veggie trays that you buy ion the grocery store? Well our family buys one for every holiday or event. We eat them up! Everything except for the cherry tomatoes. To be totally honest I am not even sure why we don't eat them. My husband and I love tomatoes but there they sat until they go bad. It is such a waste to toss them. Not only is it bad for the environment but it is also bad for the wallet. So I figured out what to do with those bad boys. Roast them!

Cut them in half, drizzle them with olive oil and toss with salt and pepper. Then roast in an oven at 400 degrees for 20 or so minutes. Make sure you watch them closely. Tomatoes have a lot of sugar in them so they burn rather easily. 

And wah-lah! Oven roasted tomatoes. They are delicious tossed with pasta and a bit of parmesan. Or sprinkled over some cottage cheese. Or scrambled up with some eggs. Yum! This tip may have been obvious to most people but I am thrilled that it finally occurred to me what to do with them. Do you have any tips to save food? I need all the help I can get. 

Third Baby

I was worried about having a third baby. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled we were pregnant. We had tried for over a year before I got pregnant so we were definitely happy about it. The thing I was worried about was my heart making room for this new little person. It shouldn't have been a worry considering that I had already experienced the heart expanding joy of a second baby. Still it was a nagging worry in the back of my mind. I had already made room for two babes. Surely I am all loved out. Then Rose was born. You know how people say that their heart doubled when they met their new little one? When Nicco was born my heart doubled. With the birth of Lola it tripled. With Rose's first cry it quadrupled. My heart and I can now love the whole world! At times it feels as though it will burst right out of my chest. My ribs are a poor cage for all this love.

With each child that was given to me I had a change of perspective along with all that heart expanding. With Nicco my life changed from a purely temporal idea to an eternal one. With Lola I began working on being a strong female example. Having Rose in my life has changed my perspective yet again. I am now seeing that this life is a sweet gift. People always say that life is too short to be someone that you aren't. I feel that the opposite is true. Life is too long to not be the person that you truly want to be. The goal should be to live a life full of living. Redundant but true. The day to day can drag on if you are not being true to what you want. Then before we know it the years have flown by. It is a vicious trick of time. Now all I need to figure out is who I want to be. What do I want to be? What do I want to spend my life doing? Who knows. Maybe it is better to focus on what I want to spend my time doing right now as opposed to worrying about my whole life.

I do know that I want to spend as much time as possible with my family and friends creating sweet memories. That is my motivation for working this blog. Making crafts, having parties, sharing meals and creating memories. It should be fun! Life should be fun. Lets share a life full of living.

Merry Christmas Ramona Avenue Readers!

Hello dear friends! We want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are spending quality time with our family and friends and enjoying them, and we hope you are doing the same with your loved ones! 

We will be back on Jan 5. 

See you then!

Ribbon Chain Garland

This post is a little late for fall and Thanksgiving but you know how it is! Time flies when you are having fun! I have a ton of decor for Halloween and almost as much for Christmas. It seems like the month between Halloween and the Christmas season just seems to speed by for me. So Thanksgiving seems to get the shaft a little bit in my home. Leftover pumpkins and handprint turkeys are the extent of the decorations around here. I decided to remedy that and add a couple of garlands this year. I made a pom pom garland. Which was crazy easy so I won't even go into details about it. The one I am most excited about is a ribbon chain garland! 

Did you make paper chains as a kid? I loved making them. I would make them and then take them apart and trash them and start over. This ribbon chain garland will last for years hopefully!

Supplies:

craft glue

coordinating ribbon

I used 3 spools of 1 and 1/2" ribbon. The glue I used was Elmers Craft Bond glue. I actually wouldn't recommend this glue. It says quick dry but it definitely wasn't. When I make another for Christmas I will probably use fabric-tac or a good old glue gun. 

The strips of ribbon are cut to about 7 inches long. After all the cutting was said and done I ended up with 15 strips of each color.  

After that I put a thick line of Craft Bond and made the first loop. You want to make sure that you use enough glue. The brown grosgrain ribbon seemed to just soak up the glue so it needed a much healthier line of glue. The seam is just overlapped. I didn't do any fancy overlapping to try and hide it. The ribbon loops can be turned once it is hung so the seam is in the back, am I right?

Yay three loops! Now all you have to do is loop them through each other and wah-lah!

This is what I mean about the seam. I just cut glue and stuck. Easy Peasy. After you have looped all your ribbon together, let it dry overnight. Just to make sure it is 100% dry.

Oh I love how it turned out. I am thinking of making another with thin ribbon to layer with this one and of course there are Christmas ones coming. It went together fast and it was a total bargain. The cost with the glue was less than 10 dollars. That's my kind of craft! 

Do you like to make your holiday decor? We'd love to see any posts or instagram pics of your DIY holiday decor! Tag us @ramonaavenue! Or leave a link to your post in the comments.

Peace out! -AnneMarie