Hello Hello.... HELLOOO

 first things first! my best friend Kat survived a tornado this morning... ya intense huh! so congrats Kat, you're making progress... progress at what i don't know... maybe just another experience that you can say "i've done that" cause i can't say that... you're basically a BAMF!! Also, Riley called in the middle of the night (first time hearing his voice in entirely too long!) and he has been nominated for Marine of the Quarter! so unbelievably proud of him! he was voted by his fellow Marines... there are other people nominated (thats why it's a nomination and not a win.... yet :) ) he is studying for some test or something. And even if he isn't ultimately awarded the Marine of the Quarter... being nominated is SUCH an honor... and i couldn't be prouder. as i've heard many times "Deployments don't build character, they reveal it" Congrats babe! and to my other "boy" who was nominated! even if you don't win... it's like being nominated for an oscar! you are recognized.. and sometimes the academy gets it wrong and awards the "winner" to the wrong person... but being nominated is an EXTREME honor... BEAMING with pride :) can ya tell ;)

alright as promised here is your "crappy Sav tutorial"... cue applause! sooo in these last 2 boxes i sent, i have a few things in there i am quite proud of.... so brace yourself!!!

Let's start out with the awesome-er one... i saw this on a mom's blog (sorry i don't remember where!!!) BUT i decided i would make them for Rye and a few of the other guys, i mentioned it to Rye and asked how many i should make (i was expecting him to either tell me it was a lame idea... OOOORRRR that maybe 1 or 2 other guys would want one) however he got really excited and said "Sav EVERYONE will want one" so he asked me to make 10 total... and proceeded to give me their nicknames so i could personalize them... so here we go!

Marshmallow Guns
the way these work, you stick i mini marshmallow in one end... and blow really hard and it shoots pretty far... i know because i shot Deezul with each and every one of them to make sure they worked. You may try and say this is animal cruelty... but umm... has anyone thrown a mini marshmallow at you? NOT painful... PLUS he got to eat all the marshmallows... so he didn't seem upset at all!

ok so i started out with a 1/2 inch pvc pipe, i needed 12 inches for each gun, so when i bought the pipe i just asked them to cut them into 12 inch pieces... ya thats the smallest THEY would cut, so iiii had to do the rest of the cutting all by my lonesome (tip, spend the extra $10 and get the NICER pvc cutters.. cause mine left bruises and blisters all over both of my hands.) so i needed 3- 2 inch pieces, and 2- 3 inch pieces (wow did that make sense?! so i marked with a sharpie where to cut and set off to work.

the supplies

once all the pieces were cut i just had to fit on the caps, elbows and T's... sounds easy peasy... but it took a bit of finessing and sweat!

So at this point i wanted to make them seem a bit more "Sav made" so i used a cricut, cut out all the letters needed, and set to work with some modge podge to personalize them with their nicknames.

neither of these are Riley's... his nickname is far more lame :)

and this is the tool you do NOT want!!! please for the love of your hands, splurge and get a somewhat nice one!

worst $10 ever spent!!! worst tool EVER!!

so there you go.... i know it was a HORRIBLE tutorial... but i warned you with a name like "crappy Sav tutorials"

ok lets do another quick one! ok so this one i have been planning on doing LOONG before they deployed. however finding "mini mason jars" proved to be an adventure. i DID find them at a local craft store. they ended up being about a buck a jar... plus the mix was $1 (joys of shopping on base! it'll probably cost  you 3-4 for your mix.) and the frosting was $1 as well... again, it'll probably cost a little more OFF base.

The Jars

it's pretty simple. you preheat the oven to whatever your cake mix tells you to... and then you prepare the batter JUST like the box tells you to...
then fill the jar but NOT all the way!!

my tester

fill it a little more than this one... i would say to that line... the FIRST one. thats what i did with the others and it worked PERFECT!

Then bake the jars...put them all on a cookie sheet... makes it simple to take out! check them with a toothpick to know when they are done. while they are cooling on the stove put the tops of the jars in water and simmer (just the seal not the thing you spin on over it.)

fresh from the oven

simmering.

ok so this next part, figure out what works for YOU, you COULD use tongs to take these out... i chose to use pliers... cause i'm Sav and why WOULDN'T i choose a non-conventional method. then put it on the jar and spin on the other thing TIGHT! ok so after you do this i set them all on the other counter to cool and one by one they began to pop... thats when you know they are SEALED and safe to ship without fear of salmonella and crap like that.

before the "pop" can you tell?

after the pop!

ok so at this point i'm proud... but once again i REALLY wanted to make them a bit more personal (maybe just so my boys will know that i made them and i didn't just buy them... i dunno) so i made these labels.. and planned on modge podge-ing them on.

CUTE HUH!!!

so i did just that... and they turned out DANG adorable!!!

so there you have it! get to crafting! and send someone serving overseas something that will totally make their day/week/month! cause that's basically what i strive to do!