A Little Tipsy

Creative Tips & Ideas

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Sherlock Holmes Date from Dating Divas

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Hi, my name is Cami, and I am one of The Dating Divas. We are dedicated to strengthening marriages, one DATE at a time! I am SO excited to be doing this blog swap with A Little Tipsy. Michelle is just AH-MA-ZING!!!! Anyway, I planned this fun date for my cute hubby, the movie buff. Hope you enjoy!
Is it just me, or did anyone else marry into a TOTAL movie buff family? I’m talking all family functions everyone is quoting movies, watching movie trailers, and we HAVE to go see the latest movie that just came out! After 7 years, I am still lost as to what everyone is laughing about (because I have NO clue what movie they are quoting), inside jokes, etc. I can’t be the only Diva that is in this situation :)! We love the Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr. so I thought it would be fun to build a date night around this theme.
Here’s what you’ll need to make this date outstanding – invite (provided below), Sherlock Holmes’ attire, candles (optional), and a computer. If you need some help with the attire, I found some amazing items for very little money! I found a Detective Kit for under $9 that includes a hat, magnifying glass, and pipe. If you are just wanting a magnifying glass or pipe I found those, too! If you want to spice this up even more, check out Stephanie’s Clue date where they had SO much mystery fun for a night!
I started by leaving my hubby this cute invite with some awesome Sherlock Holmes’ attire as he left for work. If you want to spice your invite up like I did, feel free to add some color to the detective with markers, and then glue the invite to some cute scrapbook paper. It’s super easy with great results to make it that much better! 
 The invite reads:
“My Dearest Watson,
We have come upon yet another case that needs our attention.
Meet me tonight at 6:30 in our “thinking room”.
We must make great haste! A life depends on it!
But as always…
“It’s elementary, my dear Watson, elementary”.
Sincerely,
Sherlock Holmes”
I was so excited! Now, you might be wondering what I meant by “thinking room”. I tried to make the invite as generic as possible for all you readers, and this was my solution. For MY date the “thinking room” was going to be our bedroom. I was able to ‘quarantine’ it off from the kids, and had everything ready for our date once our kiddos went to sleep. However, you can make your “thinking room” whatever you might want: family room, bedroom, living room, TV room, etc. Anywhere you will be comfortable and have everything ready.
Before your date starts, you will need to prepare a few things. You will need to download a video game which will be your first activity of the night (see below), and a Sherlock Holmes recording (see below). You might want to get ‘the mood’ ready by lighting candles around your room as you are listening to the story.
When we were ready for our date (once our kids were asleep) we went to our “thinking room”. I found an interactive Sherlock Holmes video game that we downloaded and played for a while. We had a lot of fun trying to figure out the mystery as we were going through the game, and it was great to be able to bounce ideas off each other as we were going.
After the game, we listened to a recording of a Sherlock Holmes story. I absolutely love listening to old radio recordings and feel they give such great authenticity to the story! I found a list of different stories and recordings to choose from and then checked on my local library site to see which ones were available to download and listen to. My library has on-line books/stories on ‘cd’ where you can download to your computer, ipod, MP3 player, or whatever you wish. It’s great and I love that it’s FREE! I chose to light candles and dressed up in my Sherlock Holmes attire so I could channel the Holmes inside me! 😉 I even pretended to solve a real crime while wearing my outfit! It was fun!
While you are listening it would be fun to have some yummy strawberries or other kind of fruit that you can snack on. Of course popcorn is always great, too.
We of course finished off the night by watching the original Sherlock Holmes. We had a BLAST being Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson for the night. I hope you have fun recreating this date, too!

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What a fun idea! Thanks Cami, I love creative dates you can do at home!

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Clipboard Art Frame

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I have a budding artist at my house. My little guy can crank out a good number of pictures in a day and they are totally precious and surprisingly good for a not yet five year old. When putting together my craft room, I knew I wanted a place to display his latest masterpiece but being that there is quite a bit of turnover it needed to be something easily switchable. A clipboard was the perfect solution.
This way he feels special that his art is important to show off, but I am not constantly fiddling with a frame of some sort.
CLIPBOARD ART FRAME

SUPPLIES:

Clipboard (thrifted 75 cents)
Wrapping paper
Scissors
Elmer’s tape runner
Xacto knife

Project Time: 15 minutes

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut a square of wrapping paper about two inches larger than your clipboard.
2. Line the edges of the clipboard with the tape runner.
3. Place the square of wrapping paper as close to the top as you can get it sliding it under the clamp as much as possible and secure on the tape.

4. Cut out some rectangles of paper to cover the top corners of the clipboard where the square of paper could not reach. Lay them on the board aligning the design. Secure with the tape runner.
5. Score the paper along the edge of the clamp with a fingernail to give you a line to trace with your Xacto. Trim the paper to the edge of the clamp and if possible tuck under the clamp slightly.
6. With the front secured, tape around the back edge of the clipboard. Fold the paper around the edge and secure. Fold corners like wrapping a present so they lay flat and look nice from the front.
I didn’t worry about covering the back of the clipboard because I was hanging it on a wall.
Add some art or a photo and hang. A clipboard frame would be great for a command center, bedroom, or playroom too!

I love the pattern and color it adds to my craft room gallery wall!

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General Conference Coloring Page

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LDS General Conference is almost here! I love hearing the uplifting words from our leaders and look forward to their messages. Our kiddos are small so unless I have some arsenal under my belt to keep them entertained and quiet there is little to no chance I will be hearing anything. My kids LOVE to color so I created this little fall themed general conference coloring page to keep them busy so mommy can watch.

Little kids can just color it, but those who can read can color it when they hear the keywords or scriptures from the books listed.
Feel free to use it for your kiddos!

Reference pages: Books of Book of Mormon, Scarecrow/pumpkins, Corn Stalks

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5 Tips for Getting Kids to Drink Water

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Water is awesome. It’s cost free, calorie free, sugar free, and life sustaining. Now how do we convince reluctant kiddos to dive in and drink? Here are 5 tips to help get your kids to drink water instead of their sugary counterparts.

1. Make it fun!
Let kids choose a fun water bottle or cup with a favorite color or character. They will drink more if it has a cool container. You tend to drink more with a straw so buy a big pack of disposable or a few funky re-usable and get to sipping! Adding a slice of lemon or orange can make flavor it without loads of sugar. Teach kids fun facts about water.
2. Make it easy!
Have water easily available at all times. If you fridge does not have a dispenser, put a dispenser in the fridge so it’s always ready to go. Have a stash of water bottles ready to grab on the go for practices or school.
3. Make it cold!
Kids tend to like water better when it’s cold. Keep water in the fridge and have fun shaped ice cubes to add in. Consider freezing fun non-toxic toys (small enough to fit but not to swallow) inside so they get a little reward when they finish their bottle. 
4. Make it clear!
As much as we don’t like to admit it, kids love to talk about pee. Take advantage of it and tell them about the pee test. Dark needs more water and near clear is good to go. Make it seem like a game.
5. Make it happen!
Kids learn by example. If they don’t see you drinking water they are not likely to. We can’t drink soda all day and expect them to be content with water. Show them the importance by being a fan of water yourself. 
We had a chat about water and shared some fun facts:


I polled our Tipsy Facebook fans and they had some fabulous ideas:


  • Our kids are allowed 1 glass of juice at breakfast and 1 glass of milk with supper – the rest of the day the only option is water. 
  • Crystal lite. Start with a full pack then gradually do less! Eventually you’ll need none.
  • I have a mug of ice water that I carry around the house and my kids see it and always want to share it with me. They think it is fun to drink “mommy’s water!”
  • I add one drop lemon, grapefruit, tangerine or lime essential oil. Not only are the as natural as can be, but they are also natural antioxidants and natural detoxers. Oh and they taste yummy. (so say my kids).
  • Juice is a special and rare treat and I still mix it with water for her anyway! She’s just grown up loving it.
  • She does love to drink from my water bottle though and thinks its somehow more special than her own water! So sometimes I give her my bottle as a treat! Lol
  • My kids like it REALLY cold. So I freeze half a bottle and then add water. That way the cold lasts 🙂


    • That’s how we helped we kids discover the wonders of water. Brita’s new product, the Brita Bottle for Kids, now provides an easy and fun way to have clean, filtered H2O on the go.

    Now I’m curious… 
    How do you encourage your kids to drink more water? 
    Reply below and one of my readers will win a $50 Visa gift card!


    This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Brita. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules.>

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