Great Games #AtoZChallenge

I have always loved playing games and luckily my family does too. Our current favorites are:

Monopoly Deal will feel familiar, since it's based on Monopoly. Same properties, but completely new rules. And the best part, the hands are quick - like 15 minutes! You might think you're ahead, but don't be surprised if you suddenly find yourself losing your properties and the game. Angie picked this game up very quickly when she was still 7, but it's fun for kids and adults alike. Highly recommended.

Phase 10 is a lot of fun, but will take much longer to play. You have to complete 10 different phases (hands) to win the game. You keep score after each hand, but if you're the first one to finish all of the phases, you win regardless of what your score is. The Skip cards in this game can be played against anyone, not just the person to your left, which adds to the fun. You can play two player, but the more players you have the more fun it is. Angie also picked this one up quickly at 7, and it's also not just a game for kids. Bonus, I had her keep score, which helps with her addition skills. Also highly recommended. 

What games do you and your family play? Any recommendations? We're always in the market for new games :)

Jeep! #AtoZChallenge

I love my husband's Jeep - it has such a unique style to it and we have a lot of fun family adventures in it to boot.

What do you do for family fun days?

Games - I love games! #AtoZChallenge

I've loved to play games since I was a small child. In fact, I learned my numbers playing cards with my Grandmother around the time I was five.

Some of my current favorite games include:

 Monopoly Deal - this is a card game based on Monopoly. My family plays it and we love it. The games are quick - 15 minutes - yet challenging and fun. We typically play three rounds at a minimum. It takes strategy, and sometimes luck, to win this game and every round is different. I highly recommend it for kids (around 7 and up) and adults alike.

Diablo III is another current favorite, along with its expansion pack Reaper of Souls. My husband and I have been playing Diablo the entire time we've known each other - first with Diablo, then Diablo II. The fact that I liked to play video games reportedly factored into his decision that "I was the one".

The first time Lenny every told me he loved me was when he snagged a Ring of Jordan right from under my nose in Diablo II. "I love you" he said when I protested. "Bullshit" I replied.

Ah love...

And a new favorite, War for the Overworld. If you played Dungeon Keeper back in the day, you will love this. I actually bought this game two years ago when it was being developed, because I liked where the developers were going with it. It's the spiritual success of the Dungeon Keeper games. I've only just started it, but I already love it. If you like building dungeons and beating up those annoying "good guys", this game is for you!

What are you favorite games? Any hidden gems you'd like to share?

Crafty - it's not as hard as it looks #AtoZChallenge

About two years ago my aunt, daughter and I started Crafty Saturdays.

So far we've done glass painting:

Diffuser necklaces to use with essential oils, or just for the fashion forward:

Shoe painting:

And various other stuff painting:

And creative use of stickers, frames, photos and scrapbook tools... ing:

We've also made rubber band bracelets and melty bead object and created houses out of Popsicle sticks, among other things. And let me be the first to say, I am not particularly talented. I just devoted a few hours a week to creating something crafty and not worry about laundry or cleaning the house or anything else. It has been great bonding time for us, and I have some wonderful things to show for that time too.

If this sounds like fun to you, you should totally go for it. Artistic ability isn't required, just the desire to create something and have fun doing it.

Crafty Saturdays - Glass Painting

Last year Angie, Pat and I started doing Crafty Saturdays. We've had a lot of fun with them!

Some of our first projects were glass painting. You can do so many things with glass paints, between the three of us we've made:

• Christmas ornaments
• Picture frames
• Glasses
• Vases
• Pencil cups
• Pictures

Many of these ended up as gifts - which made it even more fun. 

A lot of people asked how we made these projects - it's actually pretty simple and is not expensive.

We use Plaid paints. To get started, I recommend their book Glass Art: The Easy Way. You can get it on Amazon for about $4 used ($0.01, plus shipping). The book tells you exactly how to lay out the leading and create different paint effects. There are also several patterns in there that you can use for a wide variety of projects.

You can also pick up the paints on Amazon - individually or in packs. Michael's also carries them, and other craft stores may as well. The paints are a few dollars each, and are plenty big enough to use on many projects. 

Here are some of our projects:

This was for my friend Lisa - she had created the picture in the back, I recreated it on a glass.

This one always reminds me of Stephanie <3 td="">

I designed this one - it was my very first project. A Christmas present for my mother in law :)

A Christmas present for my step mom - more on these ones below.

One of my favorites - I just love his expression. 

Pat's kitchen cabinet doors.

This idea actually came straight out of the book I mentioned.

The process is very simple. 

Lay out the leading - either by tracking a picture under the glass or free handing it. 

These were inspired by an artist named Jean Paul

I purchased these canisters from Target - they worked great!

Then lay in the color, be sure not to add too much or it will run. For these, we swirled the colors.

Then let them dry. Finally, add Crystal Clear (it's another Plaid "color") around the edges of the leading to seal the paint. On these we also swirled Crystal Clear over the rest of the canisters to give them sort of a frosted finish. 

If you goof up, and we did a few times on these actually, you can simply score and peel off the portions that didn't work out and start over.