Confession 46 - SquareHub our families private network to communicate safely

I hope you are staying warm all across the nation in these wet cold conditions. Today I'm confessing about an app I've talked about before, SquaeHub. Do you all remember this app? It's the one that let's you set up a private network for you to communicate with your immediate family. It's a sorta of private FaceBook just for your family.  I'm in love with it, especially now that the kids are getting older.

Santa brought each of the girls an iPad mini for Christmas this year and the girls are connected more than ever.  I think my pre-teen ask to be on some type of social media daily, Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram ... on and on. But I'm so leery, it makes her so exposed and puts an element into her world, I just don't want there right now. That's where SquareHub comes in. She feels part of a social network that is controlled by me and gets to share what she's doing and what she wants to do.

Recently, we started using the app even more with the release of some new versions of SquareHub.  You can now connect with people on all devices, iOS, Android / Google Play and the newest addition Kindle Fire. Each one of us uses a different device in our family but we can all use the same app to stay connected! It's fabulous! It was the one element that was keeping us from adding Dad into the mix.

So why don't we just use group texting? Well, for one, the girls iPad minis just work off of wifi and iMessage, which does not support texting to an Android or KindleFire device. And reason two, group texting isn't as interactive or fun! With the newest release of SquareHub,  there is expansive stickers and photo editing options.

I find everyone in the family intereacting more and having more fun via SquareHub.  It's our new family's addiction!

SquareHub recently has added calendar synchronization with external calendars that support the iCal format.

I'm in love with this app. As we began to prepare for my daughter's trip to Europe (yes a confession for another time), this will be great for her to post pictures, ask us questions and advice and check in and keep us updated.

How does your family keep your kids safe on social media? What confessions do you have about your kids dabbling into social media? I would love to hear them!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked my latest confession!

Confession 45 - You are the MAC to my CHEESE

Hi there! I hope 2014 has started out with a bang, mine sure has! The gal that does my nails (part Vietnamese) says with it being the year of the Horse, it's MY year! Okay, I'm so up for it being "MY" year. Last year started out being that way and ended on a great note, but was so rocky in between, I'm ready, bring it!

I've been crafting and making so many things using my Silhouette, it's been fun. I just have not had the time to post anything. Life has really taken over. Raising two active girls, having a super active social life, a busy corporate job, freelancing, the list can go on and on. But once again, I want to commit to making some posts on here this year.  I have some fun stuff up my sleeve and have made some great partnerships in the the last couple months that I'll be showcasing.

Today, I'm confessing about a cute quick Valentine gift I put together. It all started when a huge box of Kraft Mac & Cheese was delivered to my my doorstep a couple weeks ago... I had it on Subscribe and Save with Amazon and totally forgot to cancel it despite the fact Amazon sent me multiple reminders, ARGH. Sound familiar. So, here they were, 15 boxes of Mac & Cheese and let me tell you, I did not want to eat them, nor did I want the girls too (I did a detox at the beginning of the year and am totally off white flour, pasta and most dairy, more to come on that in another post) so my conundrum ... how can I repackage them for Valentine's day? I started snooping on Pinterest, but really didn't find anything that caught my fancy. Then I started to see a lot of those love sayings... like " you are the peanut butter to my jelly" etc... and a light bulb went off, You are the MAC to my CHEESE! I had these yogurt cups from a BBQ party I did last year, added a pack of napkins and there you go, a super cute, extremely inexpensive gift!

I'm trying to figure out a way to PDF the print and cut file so I can put it here and all my readers can use it. In the meantime, if you have a Silhouette machine and want to email me for the file, I would be happy to send it. The circle stickers are in a PDF file, feel free to email me about them. I will get them to you!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked my latest confession!

Confession 44 - Wrap your Crap Christmas Caddy

Hi there! I can't believe I'm actually making a crafting post! Yay, things are settling in with life and I've had time to wrap my head around craft projects. Today I'm confessing about my "Wrap your Crap Caddy". My BFF and I saw a similar idea on Pineterest last year and I actually used a similar concept to house some fabric of mine... and whoa-la! the concept was born. Well it might have taken a little more than that, but basically that's how.

Last year, we strategically purchased items at the end of the holiday season at 70% off or more off to use for our caddy. This way, we could keep cost down and spread the wealth!  Interested in how we made it and what's exactly in it?  Ok, here we go, below is a picture of everything we put inside (some of the caddies we added gift tags, it was omitted from this pic somehow, but use your imagination).

So the container we used is actually a beverage container from In-N-Out, for those of you out of state in a state that does not have an In-N-Out, first off, I'm really sorry, but you can grab a beverage holder from another fast food restaurant.

Next up, we added some embellishments for the sides to jazz it up and make it festive. You could use stickers or even wrapping paper. I used cut outs from my Silhouette Cameo. We used a color scheme that went with the other items in the holder.

Next, tie ribbon to the handle part. This again just makes it festive and whimsical.

Now you can start filling your holder.  We placed items in the holder strategically so you can see all the items, using adhesive or double sided tape to hold things in place.  The scissors being so heavy, kept flopping forward so we actually tied them to the handle of the holder with some twine.

Our last step was to tie on our snarky tag, "Wrap Your Crap Christmas Caddy".  My BFF and I thought long and hard to find a good name, something unique but yet identified what it was... figures we came up with something snarky!  I don't know about you, but this time of year, I really need to lighten things up and laugh!

Our final cost of the caddy came to about $10, with most items being $1. The most expensive item was the scissors at $3, but the holiday themed ones we used from Lowes I'm sure will be getting cleared out at the end of the season, so look out and grab some up for next years gifts and caddies.

We gave these caddies to some of our friends that we thought would get some good use out of them.  I gave one of mine to a friend who had been sick and knew was probably behind in her wrapping.  What a great gift to have all your items in one convenient location!

I can see so many different uses for a beverage holder such as this. Present a baby gift, transport meeting items ... the possibilities are endless.  Leave a comment and let me know what some of your other ideas are!

Happy crafting! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked my latest confession!