She's crafty

Do you smash?

2012-01-26T20:26:00.000-08:00

I have scrapbooked since I was in high school and I have journaled since I was a little girl. So the Smash Book is a perfect fit for me. What is a smash book? It's a journaling scrapbook, kind of the way old school scrapbooks used to be. For mine, I use a notebook to record my thoughts and feelings with lots of fun stuff thrown in, like photos, receipts, ticket stubs, patterned papers and other embellishments.

I started with a spiral bound notebook that came with a place to put a monogram or a decorative accent. (excuse the rotten cell phone pic)

I just used the initial of my last name for now. But I need to do something with the front cover so I may change the initial.

I like to keep movie stubs (my husband had one too to go in the memory jar) and take random photos like of chips at Chili's, so this is the perfect place to keep and record those things.

I have a little cubbie that holds all of my smash book stuff on my desk.

I looked at all my local craft stores for tapes and couldn't find any. That forced me to look around at what I already had and thank goodness I did because I found all of these tapes in my stash. They are good to tape a photo or a little journaling card onto a page.

I have found a few "smash" products like journaling pads, small envelopes...

and clips.

But I've also found some fun things to use in the stuff I already own like the tapes above and some stickie notes and date stamp.

So far I'm really enjoying it. I write down things I want to record on little stickie notes and keep them in my book. Then when the mood strikes I can do a page about it. Here is a page I did about my 2012 goals. Speaking of goals, I'm not doing so hot with stressing less or eating better, but I'm doing pretty good on the journaling one. Yay!!

birthday balloons

2012-01-23T17:07:00.000-08:00

As my nieces and nephew get older, I have a hard time trying to figure out what to get them for their birthday's and Christmas. On top of that, they live on the other side of the country from me so shipping can get expensive. But I know for sure there is something they will always like...cold hard ca$h! I've given them a twenty in a card plenty of times, but that is boring. 2 years ago I sent my nephew, who was turning 13 years old: 13 $1 bills, 13 quarters, 13 dimes, 13 nickels and 13 pennies. I put it all in big box with packing peanuts. I taped some of the money to the peanuts and some to the sides of the box.

For his birthday in December, I sent birthday balloons.

I used latex balloons and 20 $1 bills.

I rolled each dollar bill ...

pushed it into a deflated balloon and put a little bit of air into each balloon.

Then I gathered them all into a cardboard box, closed it up with a birthday card and sent it off. (I know USPS really frowns on sending cash through the mail, so use your discretion) I think my nephew was pretty happy with his gift.

linking up to: Embellishing Life, Today's Creative Blog, Primp, Organize and Decorate Everything, Whipperberry, The Shabby Nest, Design Dazzle, The 36th Avenue, Tatertots and Jello

Fun Finds Friday

2012-01-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I have done a Fun Finds Friday post so I'm going to do a little catch up.

For Christmas my in-laws gave me this Kodak Hawkeye camera still in the box. It's in perfect condition and has the instruction manual and flash cubes.

They also found these vintage flash bulbs. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with them, but I think they would look really neat displayed in an apothecary jar.

A few weekends ago, my family and I went on a thrift store crawl. We stopped at a bunch of the Goodwill's in our area looking for treasures. I still can't believe I was able to talk them into going with me. We all had a great time, lots of laughs and even my pre-teen son was able to find a few things he liked. I found a bunch of books to keep my reading self busy and a cool looking camera. I thought it looked vintage, but after Googling it I think it's just a junk piece. Oh well, it still looks good to me and goes well with my collection.

I also found the Brownie box camera (the rectangle one on the left next to the red suitcase). -On a side note- I am obsessed with Country Music so that's why I have the Grand Ole Opry poster framed. But I am looking to change it out with different artwork so if anyone has a link to any, I would love to see them.

My favorite find of the weekend was these vintage Christmas records. I love love love the artwork on them and can't wait to display them around my home next Christmas. I would also love to get a record player and see how they sound.

What fun things have you found lately?

Current projects and home goals for 2012

2012-01-15T19:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the things I am working on right now...

I'm journaling a little bit differently this year with my own version of a Smash book. It's a cross between a journal and a scrapbook and so far I'm loving it. I'll do a blog post soon.

We have a birthday coming up and thankfully my son has chosen to go roller skating. Which means all I have to do is invitations (found these pre-made -I just had to print the details on them), cake and goodie bags. Woo Hoo!

I rearranged my craft space again after being inspired on Pinterest. I'll do a post about that soon too.

And we are in the middle of a big clean up and clean out! My daughter filled up 2 trash bags with items from her room alone. I still need to finish de-junking my closet, the garage and the boys' room. It always feels good to get things nice and organized.

Once I get all of the previous projects finished, then I'm going to start on my goals for my house this year. I want to:

*redo the kids' bathroom

*repaint my office / crafting area (for the 4th time)

*repaint the giganto entertainment center in my craft area

*either re-carpet or install new flooring through out the upstairs

*figure out what to do in the boys' room since my son is outgrowing his bunk bed.

*do some sort of wall treatment to the top of my stairs

What projects are you working on? Do you have any house goals this year?

winter decorating

2012-01-11T14:29:00.000-08:00

Winter has not yet come to Tennessee this year; the weather has been very mild. I'm sure that we will eventually have a few snowy days, but for now, the snowflakes in our home decor will have to do.

How is the weather where you are?

one little word

2012-01-05T14:37:00.000-08:00

We are 9 days into the New Year. How are you doing on your resolutions? Me? I'm doing pretty good. Although not with resolutions, resolutions stress me out!!! I have made goals instead. To me a resoltion feels like a one time shot. So if your resolution is to not eat sweets and you have cake at your son's birthday party then it's blown and you have to wait until next year to try again. Goals feel much more doable to me. If you have cake one day, you just try harder to eat better the next day.

My Goals for 2012:

*drink more water

*commit to eating healthier- less sugar, less fat, more fruits and veggies

*cook at home more

*stress less

*have more fun

*be more social

*continue daily scripture study

*write in my journal weekly

One of the ways I am trying to keep myself motivated to accomplish these goals is to join the one little word craze.

The word I have chosen for 2012 is:

in·ten·tion (n-tnshn)

1. A course of action that one intends to follow.

a. An aim that guides action; an objective.

My goals will be easier to meet if I do them with INTENTION! Living with intention means living with a plan. It means planning to drink more water, planning our meals ahead of time, planning time with friends etc. It means not mindlessly consuming treats or spending hours on-line or wasting time (not that I do that much anyway- but still). I am inteneding on 2012 being our best year yet!!

What are your goals/resolutions for 2012? Did you choose One Word?

linking up to: The Lettered Cottage

blessings dry erase frame

2012-01-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

We made this poster last Fall to celebrate all the things our family is grateful for. Everyone still looks at it daily and a few new things get added weekly. But I'm thinking we are a little out of pumpkin season and it's starting to fall down so I decided to make something more permanent.

Using a dry erase board concept I came up with this frame for our family to write our blessings on.

I took apart a frame from Goodwill. I left the frame in the original color.

I wrapped the cardboard mounted topiary picture with wrapping paper.

I printed out the word "Blessings" on regular copy paper and attached that to the front before putting everything back into the frame.

We use a dry erase marker to write our blessings on the frame. Look at some of the cute things my kids have written. Perhaps I need to talk with my oldest son (the one who wrote "myself") about humility. But he also wrote "mom" up there so I might have to forgive him. :)

I added a family photo at the bottom and some other little trinkets.

Hopefully as we record our blessings it will help us to remember just how much we do have and what we need to be grateful for!

linking up to: Whipperberry, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different, Act Normal, Skip to My Lou, Embellishing Life, Today's Creative Blog, Coastal Charm

A recap of Christmas and more

2012-01-03T08:50:00.000-08:00

The past couple of weeks have been insane! We traveled to Utah for 10 days during Christmas.

Now that everything is all cleaned up and I have finally dug myself out from under this mess, I can start blogging again. I thought I would start with a recap of our trip.

We left Tennessee in the evening after dinner. Instead of packing all of our clothes in suitcases, we used plastic totes. They stack better and hold more items. We did pack a few suitcases with toiletries and a change of clothes and I had to have somewhere to hide the Christmas presents.

We drove straight through the night and into the next day until we arrived in Utah. After 28 hours in the car we were all so excited to arrive.

We stayed at the Staybridge Inn on Decker Lake Drive in West Valley. It was a WONDERFUL hotel. If you are ever in Salt Lake area and need a hotel, I fully recommend this one. We had a suite with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Plus there was free breakfast, free dinner on Tues, Wed and Thur, free laundry, a free theater to watch movies, an awesome indoor pool and water slide and it's located right next to a Trax (the commuter rail) stop.

We had so much fun and were able to do so many things while in Utah.

We ate at yummy restaurants like the Training Table!

We got to go see the lights at Temple Square. It magically started snowing big fluffy flakes while we were there. It was so beautiful!!!

We shopped and shopped and shopped some more at so many great stores like Ikea, Downeast, Quilted Bear and more.

We visited with family and got to see Santa!

We went to Christmas Village in Ogden. Its a city park where little tiny houses are decorated for the Holiday. It was so fun and pretty, but very COLD for us Southerners!

Unfortunately, my daughter's skin couldn't handle all the dry weather mixed with the chlorine from swimming every day and we ended up at urgent care for a terrible rash she had. Thank goodness she was able to get some medicine to help her feel better.

We left cookies and milk for Santa.

And celebrated Christmas morning in our hotel room.

After all the shopping and Christmas presents, we didn't fit as well in the car on the way home. We put a few things (mostly laundry thank goodness) in some flat totes and attached them to the top of our car for the ride home. We had a few mishaps like 2 sick tummies and not enough room. But the worst thing that happened was one of our totes flew off the car and landed on the interstate. Luckily it was 2am and there weren't any other cars around. I was so sick thinking what could have happened. My husband ran down the road and grabbed everything. So even though we already were scrunched we had to shove all of those items into the inside of the van as well. Yuck. My kids were total troopers and we drove hard and fast and made it home in 26 hours. All in all it was a fun trip, but we are so happy to be home!!

My top posts of 2011

2011-12-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

2011 was a fantastic year for my blog! It grew so much thanks to all of you and I would give you all a great big hug if I could.

Here is a recap of some of the most popular projects.

In February, I redid our master bedroom. I still love it and am thrilled with how it turned out. I only wish it was this clean now.

In April, I posted a tour of our home. It has changed so much since then. I need to post new pictures!

In June, I finally figured out a solution for how to store our gift wrap. This organizer has been so handy! Wrapping gifts has been a breeze!

Also in June, we redid my daughters bedroom in a Paris theme. She still tells me almost weekly how much she loves her room!

In July, I put together a chore system for my kids. We still use it and it's still working. We have slacked off a little for the holidays, but will start it back up after the first of the year.

In August, I recovered my less then attractive office chair. It's still looks great!

In November, I posted about our Memory Jar.

Again, thank you for such a great year. I can't wait to see what 2012 holds!!

linking up to: Southern Hospitality, Tatertots and Jello

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S!!!

Gift ideas

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Are you looking for a few last minute gift ideas? Well, you've come to the right place. I made a few gifts for friends and family this year and would love to share them with you. If you are related to me and have not opened your gifts yet, please look no further!! :)

I made these red and white polka dot trays for the girls I serve with at church. I made them the same way as the orange one here. I also glued a heavy duty magnet to the back of a button for a cute magnet to hold things to the tray.

I make calendars for my in laws every year. This is the 2011 version. I made a blank calendar in Word, printed a picture from every month this year and mounted them both on scrapbook paper. To hold the pages, I got a legal sized clipboard that I spray painted and then mod podged the clip. Every month a new page can be clipped onto the clipboard.

I put together these little hot chocolate containers for our friends and teachers. I individually packed different flavors of hot chocolate and marshmellows in skinny cello bags that were tied with bakers twine. Then put it all together with candycanes into mini paint cans, which I then embellished with a bell or chipboard star and ribbon.

I saw a cute cell phone holder on pinterest and it gave me the idea to make one for my sister in law. From my stash, I used black fabric for the back, stregthened with heat and bond and quatrafoil fabric for the pocket. I sewed all the way around everything. Then I took a large grommet (for curtains) and put it through the top where it hangs onto the charger. After I took this picture I added some black ric rac to the top of the pocket to finish the edge.

What did you give for gifts this year?

My Favorite Things

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

There are many things that I just cannot live without. Besides my family of course, here are some of my favorites:

I love organizing and galvanized buckets are great for that. We use them to hold toiletries in the bathroom (each child has their own), to hold pens and pencils in the playroom, and in many more places around our home.

I am crazy about how my house smells. I love fragrances to go with the seasons. Right now I am loving these candle melt thingies from Walmart. They go great in my Scentsy candle warmer. My house smells like Hot Wassail right now. mmmmmmm!!

The online postal service at USPS.com is an absolute life saver!!!! I "click and shipped" all of our gifts to out of town family members for Christmas this year. Not only did I not have to go wait in the long line at the post office, my postman came to my door and picked everything up. And it was a few dollars less expensive to do it on-line then in person! If you haven't tried it and ever have to ship things....try it! You can even order the priority mail boxes from them for free and they will deliver them to your door.

At any given time I have around 5-6 tubes of chap stick in strategic places around our house, in my purse and in the car. I can't stand having dry lips.

Clothespins are my favorite way to clip and display things. I use them in my office, to display pictures and for our Christmas cards this year.

My new favorite obsession are vintage silver trays. I have quite the collection (the more tarnished the better) and display them in a few different rooms in our house. The round one above is magnetic and I use it to hold photos.

What are some of your favorite things?

linking up to: 320 Sycamore favorite things party

Christmas Card holder

2011-12-13T15:01:00.000-08:00

I really liked our Christmas card holder from last year. I tried to find a picture on my computer but couldn't. Here is the link to that post.

But this year, our house is arranged different and it wasn't going to work.

So I came up with something different to do above the mirror in our entry way.

I took a pom pom garland and hung it from 3m hooks.

Then using clothespins, I clip Christmas cards up as they arrive.

It looks much better now as we have received more cards and hung them up.

And here is our 2011 Christmas card!

linking up to: Organize and Decorate Everything, Primp

Our Christmas House

2011-12-11T18:45:00.001-08:00

Here is our home all dressed up for Christmas!

Every year when I lug the millions (seems like) of H E A V Y Christmas totes out of the attic, I swear that I'm going to get rid of half of our stuff and simplify.

Then I start digging into all the boxes and find our things that have so much sentimental value. Like the teddy bear nativity that was the first Christmas decoration I ever bought as an adult and the cute Little People Nativity that my kids love to play with year after year. We would be so sad to not push that angel down every time we walk by and hear Away in a Manger.

As I pull out each ornament my kids have chosen over the years the memories come crashing back. I think of the first season my son played soccer, our first trip to the Grand Old Opry here in Tennessee and my daughter's love of dance.

And then the kids get in on the action and find their favorite things, like this Christmas blanket now named "Comfy." How could I possibly get rid of that?

As I find perfect little spots to display our Christmas treasures, I smile and remember the magic of Christmas.

The joy that can be found in seeing something spruced up for Christmas and the fun I have doing the sprucing!!

As we (fight to) put up a number to count down the days until Christmas day I remember that it is worth it!

I love Christmas!!

linking up to: Inspired Room, Nester, Kelly's Korner

Christmas tree

2011-12-09T08:21:00.001-08:00

Here is our 2011 Christmas tree!

It is quite busy but lots of fun I think! Someday I want more then 1 tree so I can put foo foo ornaments on one and the kids ornaments on another. But for now I put both on this one.

I like lots of layers on our tree. We have a pom pom garland, large red bulbs, glass candy canes, glittery letters of our names, and picks and fuzzy candy canes sticking out the top.

Plus we have our yearly Christmas ornaments. We get new ornaments every year to represent our interests. Here are some from the last few years.

This is our kids ornaments for this year. A pencil for the oldest because he is having a great year in school, Mickey Mouse for our girl because she is totally into Disney and a mitt and baseball for the youngest because he played baseball for the first time this year.

Merry Christmas!

linking up to: Honey We're Home, Thrifty Decor Chick

glittery Christmas bulbs

2011-12-08T05:44:00.001-08:00

Last year I bought a few plastic glittery Christmas bulbs in an after Christmas sale (the white ones in the picture above). This year I wanted a few more in red and green.

So I bought these replacement bulbs at Walmart (my go-to craft store), painted them with mod podge and sprinkled them with ultra-fine glitter.

When they were dry, I put them into a glass apothecary jar.

I love how sparkly they are!!

They look so pretty with our glass jars of ornaments!

linking up to: Centsational Girl, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Home Stories A2Z, Whipperberry

Christmas mantle

2011-12-05T08:56:00.001-08:00

This shelf in our dining area is one of my favorite things to decorate for the seasons. It is one of the first things to see when entering the room. I made it a few years ago from pine boards and antique glass door knobs.

Here it is all decked out for Christmas.

Red J O Y letters nestled in some greenery

a vintage metal tray with a bingo card from Jenni Bowlin, a vintage #5 flash card, a metal 2 and some glittery Christmas trees

a felt snowflake framed with some scrapbook paper, tucked in some more greenery

To finish out the room, I hung some glittery snowflakes and small balls from the light fixture. We also wrote our Christmas fun list on the chalkboard doors. A great reminder of all the fun things we want to do this season.

linking up to: Ten June, Tip Junkie, A Bowl full of Lemons, Coastal Charm, Today's Creative Blog, Southern Hospitality, Primp, Organize and Decorate Everything, Sweet Little Gals, Southern Lovely, Between u & me, Shabby Creek Cottage, Delightful Order, Whipperberry, Tatertots and Jello,

sparkly cone tree

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Last weekend when I pulled my Christmas decorations out, I found this sad little yarn tree.

I think my four year old may have helped with the destruction.

I decided to pull the yarn off rather then re-wrap it. I was going to paint it with green glittery craft paint, but the yarn left little fuzzies behind where it was glued onto the paper mache. So I went with plan b and covered it up.

I covered the cone with mod podge then patted some white tissue paper on. I smoothed it with my fingers. It's really fragile and rips very easily but it can be smoothed out again and more glue applied to cover the rips. After it was dry, I punched out some white cardstock snowflakes and hot glued them randomly around the tree with rhinestone centers. I put some extra rhinestones on there too for more sparkle.

Sometimes plan b works out! This is one of those times. I like the wrinkles the tissue paper gave the tree. And I think the punchies and sparkle from the rhinestones are pretty!

I added it to a little Chistmas vignette (that has already changed since this picture) that I will post about next.

linking up to: Hi Sugarplum, Tatertots and Jello

Handmade gifts

2011-12-01T18:06:00.001-08:00

I love giving and receiving handmade gifts. So when I saw this Handmade Gift Exchange on Craftaholics Anonymous I signed right up.

These are the items I made for my partner Rosie:

an R for Rosie

a yarn wreath with pom poms

a button tree

and a paper mache box with a burlap star and yarn balls inside.

I hope she likes everything!!

Today I received my gifts from her.

Look at these yarn and button trees. (Great minds think alike!)

They are so dang cute!! I haven't ever seen trees like these! I love the details!!

And she sent me this fabulous scarf!! I love it! I'm going to have to hide it from my daughter so she doesn't steal it and wear it.

linking up to Craftaholics Anonymous

Tis the season

2011-11-29T10:32:00.001-08:00

So, Thanksgiving was good. We had my in laws here. It was so fun and we had such a great, yet very busy visit! Now we have moved right into Christmas. I am up to my eyeballs in photo editing, decorating, crafting and party planning. Not to mention we are doing a big fat road trip for Christmas and leave in 3.5 weeks. What???? That means I have to have every thing done in 17 days!!!!! My eye has started twitching and my stress level is in the red.

I'll leave you with this photo of our tree this year, I'm off to try to get my panic under control!!

laundry- a tip

2011-11-21T14:44:00.001-08:00

Today's post is about the dirty L-word...yes, it's laundry. It's something we all have, it is never ending and can be downright overwhelming. Over the years, I have fought it, complained about it and ignored it, but it never went away and neither did my bad attitude. So I refined my process and my attitude and I hate it a little less now.

First thing to do is to figure out how you want to do laundry- daily, weekly, whatever. If it works for you to save it all for one day and do it all at once then great. That does not work for me. In fact all that laundry sitting around makes me want to chuck it all in the trash and start from scratch. I have found that what works best for me is to do a little bit every day/every other day.

I found these laundry baskets at Walmart. They are tall, skinny and fit inside the closet in my bathroom. As everyone in my family changes their clothes, they know to separate them into darks, light colors and whites (even my 4 year old) and put them into the appropriate basket.

Each basket holds 1 load for my washer size. So when a basket fills up, I take it down to the laundry and do it right away.

After the clothes have completed the wash cycle and dried for a few minutes I usually take shirts, dress pants and anything that would easily fade out of the dryer and hang to air dry. After the rest have finished drying I fold the load right away. It's a pain, but it's so much easier then ironing wrinkled clothing. Each of my kids have a collapsible mesh laundry basket that I put all their folded, clean clothes in. Then when they get home from school they put them away. This process works pretty good for me!

linking up to: Tatertots and Jello

Fun Finds Friday 11-18

2011-11-18T09:30:00.001-08:00

It's hard coming up with projects to post every week. I would really like to post more often then that, but my kids need to eat and have clean clothes, I have to vacuum, etc, blah blah blah. So I'm going to start a new weekly series called

Fun Finds Friday.

It's all about the great stuff I find thrifting or the fantastic ideas from others in Internet land.

Yesterday when my youngest was in school I had the chance to pop into Goodwill. Thrift shopping is really hit and miss. Sometimes I leave empty handed and sometimes I have to get a cart (or buggy as the southerners say) to hold all my treasures. Yesterday was a "get a cart" kind of day.

Just look at my haul-

a tray with so much patina it makes my heart sing!

a silver bowl

a cute pewter bowl with letters and numbers around the rim

an enamel ware pot. Added to my collection!!

And look at this pile of stuff. It looks like a bunch of junk you say? I say- just wait to see what I do with it! Yay!

Have you found anything fun this week?

Linking up to: Coastal Charm

Thankfuls

2011-11-17T15:06:00.001-08:00

I can hardly believe how fast November has gone already. 1 week from today is Thanksgiving! Crazy! I joined about a million other people at Walmart today shopping for the yummy food we're going to make. Yay! We get to host our family again! I am pumped!!!! I'll share more about my cooking process within the next wekk.

Since it is the month of gratitude, I have been writing in my journal (almost) every night for the things I am grateful for. Some of them have included

our newly fixed DVR- I don't watch a lot of tv, just a few shows, but I had to go 3 whole days without my tv and I was pretty darn unhappy about it.
doctors and modern medicine- I've been sick with a funky virus that caused a sinus infection and a strange rash for almsot a month. Today is the first day (after 2 dr visits and 2 different prescriptions) that I am feeling pretty good!
that my kids are for the most part self motivated. They come home from school and immediately do their homework without a lot of prodding from me. I'm so thankful that they are such great students and get good grades! Hallelujah!!
for my husband's job. A few years ago he got laid off. It was really rough! Luckily he was able to find a job within a few months and I am so grateful for that. Of course the pay off is that he now travels every week Monday -Friday. I'm not saying that it's easy and there are a lot of times it makes me downright unhappy but all in all, I'm so grateful for his job that allows me to stay home with my kids! PS If you are a kidnapper and want to capitalize on my husband's absence, he is home sporadically and I have a big baseball bat that I'm not afraid to use. :)
my son's MDO (pre school) class. He learns a lot, has fun and I am able to have just a little bit of time to myself. I was able to go treasure hunting at Goodwill and Home Goods today. I totally scored and can't wait to share my fun finds.
I am also thankful for my Savior, my family, my wonderful friends and the chance to have this blog.

2 questions for you- What are your plans for Thanksgiving? What are you gratful for?

children's lunch

2011-11-14T13:02:00.001-08:00

Making lunch for all 3 of my kids day after day gets so monotonous. Add in the fact that they are picky eaters and it's a snore. I'm bored to death making them so I'm sure they feel the same way when they open their lunch bags. After weeks in a row of boring pb & j or turkey and swiss, I knew I needed to step up my lunch game. I did a little research online to see how I could spice things up a bit. After finding a few ideas and making them my own, I think our lunches now are looking much better.

First of all, I gathered some supplies.

I use cupcake picks (from Hobby Lobby and Walmart), themed cookie cutters (Hobby Lobby), silicone cups (Home Goods), party forks (Target) and metal forks (Home Goods),

dinosaur and triangle shaped sandwich cutters (Walmart), and orange shaped sandwich cutters ( Perpetual kid)

and plastic containers (Walmart).

I just make regular sandwiches, but I cut the bread into interesting shapes using a themed cookie cutter, a sandwich cutter or this little shaper cutter.

Then I put it onto a cupcake pick. It makes a sandwich so much more interesting.

Add in some fruit and/or veggies, some pretzels or chips and maybe a little treat and it's done!

I store some of the cutters and picks in a drawer,

And the rest in a glass jar on my counter top.

All of these things are easy to do and make my kids lunches so much more FUN!!

Memory Jar

2011-11-07T17:57:00.000-08:00

I have always been a collector. As a child I had an awesome sticker collection! I carried my little unicorn sticker book around everywhere. The puffy and scratch and sniff stickers were my favorite. Now that I am an adult I collect vintage cameras and scales, scrapbook supplies (still collecting stickers), picture frames, owls and lots of other stuff. But one of my favorite things to collect is memories. How does one collect memories?

In a rusty, old jar of course.

I collect recital tickets, movie stubs, hotel key cards, and concert tickets. Each one of these seemingly meaningless pieces of paper is a memory. They represent time spent together as a family seeing Harry Potter, an amazing U2 concert that my husband and I went to, our trip to Disneyworld in June to see my daughter dance down Mainstreet in Magic Kingdom and so much more.

This memory jar is one of the things I would save if my house were on fire. After my family and my external hard drive that is!

linking up to: Primp, Blissful and Domestic, Tatertots and Jello, Just a Girl, Today's Creative Blog, Embellishing Life, Tip Junkie, Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night, Sugar Bee Crafts, Not Just a Housewife, A Bowl full of Lemons, House of Hepworths

Fall decorations

2011-11-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about Christmas! Who doesn't? It's only a few weeks away and there is a lot to do to get ready for it. But just because I think about Christmas doesn't mean I have forgotten Thanksgiving! I LOVE Thanksgiving!! I love the food, getting together with friends and family, the pumpkin pie, the fun games we play and how we usually stop and think about all the things we are grateful for!!

As usual, I love any reason to decorate my house, so here it is all decked out in it's Fall/Thanksgiving finest!

owl from Home Goods

vinyl from Stampin' up last year

Here is the orange magnet board, sporting a Thanksgiving sign. It's a free printable from here.

The eighteen25 girls have done another fantastic holiday subway art with their Thanksgiving printable.

Becky Higgins made a poster for her family to write what they were grateful for last year and I loved the idea, so we are doing that this year.

This is our gratitude book that we have brought out every year for the past 5 years. After Thanksgiving dinner is over, everyone who is at our house takes a few moments to write what they are thankful for. It's such a fun tradition!

Last but not least is the turkey and reminders in the kitchen window seal, right above the sink.

What do you do to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday?

linking up to: Tatertots and Jello, Blissful and Domestic, Skip to My Lou, Embellishing Life, Life in the Motherhood, Tip Junkie, Home Stories A2Z, Today's Creative Blog, Sugar Bee Crafts, Mommy by Day Crafter by Night, Organize and Decorate Everything, Between U and Me, Shabby Creek Cottage, Shabby Nest

Halloween re-cap

2011-11-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

As my kids get older, it seems like holidays get busier and busier. Halloween was no exception! We had class parties, a field trip, the Ward trunk or treat, in addition to the regular business of homework, cooking, housekeeping, birthday parties, dance and karate class, and church activities. I sometimes get caught up in the business and forget to have fun. But thankfully I have 3 little people who remind me of what's important and to enjoy making memories. This year...

we had a jelly fish,

an Anakin Skywalker,

and a 10 year old who thought he was too big to dress up any more. We found this shirt at Kohl's and thought it was perfect.

All dressed up for the big night!

We trick or treated and had a great time. I loved seeing these 3 so excited as they ran up to each house to ring the bell and exclaim, "Trick or Treat" to the person behind the door. My most favorite part was hearing them say thank you as they walked away. When we got home, they did my other favorite thing, the candy trade! They poured out their buckets and bags and passed favorites out to each other. I made out like a bandit taking all the peanut butter cups!! Go me!

Oh and here are some pictures of the Ward Trunk or Treat that I helped with. It turned out so cute and it seemed like everyone had a great time.

I already have the Halloween stuff all boxed up and stored up in the attic. (I may or may not have taken it all down before going to bed on Halloween night.) I have done a few things to decorate for Thanksgiving and will have a post to come soon!

2011-10-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

I am addicted to Pinterest! For those of you who don't know, it's a virtual bookmarking website. You "pin" or bookmark a picture and web address for any products or ideas that you want to keep track of. Genius!! I used to make folders on my computer of all the fun projects I found around internet land. No more! Now I just pin it and can go back to my pin board and find it.

Most of the time, all I do is bookmark ideas. But every now and then, I actually do/make the items I have pinned.

This Cinnamon Roll Cake is killer!!! My family loves it. I think I gained 10 lbs just looking at the picture. And then another 10 lbs for finishing up the last little bit (few slices) in the pan after my family was done eating. It's definitely not a good food to make if you're watching your diet.

My son loved this race track made with tape. (there was no link to the original source of the idea)

I thought this double picture frame was such a good idea. It makes a smaller picture have so much more presence!

Here is my take on the double frame.

I used 2 flat frames from the wood section at Hobby Lobby and glued them together with wood glue.

For some reason you have to have an invite to join Pinterest, so if you would like one, just leave me a comment with your email address and I will invite you.

framed art

2011-10-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Framed art seems a bit of a stretch for this project...but it sounds all professional and stuff and that's what you come to this blog for right? :)

What this project really should be called is framed pumpkin doily.

I found these cute pumpkin doilies at the dollar store.

All I did was put one onto a piece of scrapbook paper and framed it in a matted picture frame.

I like how it looks with the rest of my holiday decorations. And I can leave it up for Thanksgiving too!

Orange polka dot magnet board

2011-10-24T05:38:00.000-07:00

I love a good, inexpensive craft project! And this is definitely one of those!

A fun, festive magnet board.

It started with a metal tray from the dollar store.

I gave it 2 coats of spray primer, then 2 coats of orange spray paint. Then painted white polka dots with craft paint.

To decorate it for Halloween, I grabbed a scrapbook card from Jenni Bowlin and used a button with a magnet glued onto the back, to attach it to the tray.

A photo easel holds it nicely!

And here it is on a shelf in the dining area. I think it adds a fun pop of color!

Linking up to: Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Coastal Charm, Mommy by Day Crafter by night, Not Just a Housewife, Bowl full of lemons, Primp, Organize and Decorate Everything, DIY crafts to make, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different, Act Normal, Thrifty Decor Chick

A tip- hangers

2011-10-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

I am not a morning person. I have to try really hard to not be a complete grouch when I wake up. Unfortunately at least one of my children inherited this from me. So to help us all out in the mornings, I have tried to become more organized. I have them put their back-packs on hooks and shoes in cubbies by the back door, and I make their lunches while they are eating breakfast. It all contributes to a saner morning. One of the BEST things I ever did to help our mornings go smoother was make daily clothes hangers for my kids. (got the idea from here)

I just used printed duct tape (from Target), plastic hangers and tags for the days of the week.

Honestly, my daughter and I get along so much better in the mornings now that we don't fight about her clothes. It makes me so happy!

My son wanted some too, so I just purchased red and blue duct tape from Home Depot and made him some.

We choose all of their outfits for the week on Sunday night and hang them on each corresponding hanger. We make sure the outfit fits correctly, is comfortable and appropriate for the weather. When they wake up, they know to grab their clothes from their hanger and get dressed. It works so great!!

linking up to: Organize and Decorate everything

Magnetic calendar

2011-10-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

One of my kids favorite things about the holiday season is our magnetic calendar. We've had it for a few years and I'm sure I've posted about it before, but I updated it this year.

Here is how I made it:

I had this metal sheet in my stash. (I hate when I see a cute project that I would like to do and the person says, "I pulled _____ , an essential part of the project, out of my stash". But that is truly what I did. I bought these magnet boards years ago when I was in Utah. I can't even remember where.) I don't know what the holes were meant to be used for, but I just covered them up with a piece of scrapbook paper that I mod podged onto the magnetic sheet.

I used various scrapbook embellishments and a little magnet to make the numbers 1-31...

and the word October.

Then I attached a piece of ribbon to the magnet board and hung it from a hook from Home Goods.

It's a fun calendar to countdown the days until Halloween.

linking up to: Skip to my Lou, Embellishing Life, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee Crafts, Home Stories from A-Z, Organize and Decorate Everything, Whipperberry, The Shabby Nest, DIY crafts , Between u & me

Halloween- inside

2011-10-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween! It's so much fun to decorate for this fun holiday! I love pulling out all of my holiday bits and baubles and making fun displays through out our home.

Here are a few of them:

(notice our new family photos)

More in depth posts coming soon for the orange polka dot magnet board, the framed pumpkin art and the calendar magnet board.

Linking to: Delightful Order, Shabby Creek Cottage, Just a Girl, Tatertots and Jello, eighteen 25

Glitter pumpkin

2011-10-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

How about a fun and easy project to start this Halloween season?

A Glitter Pumpkin!

I used a dollar store pumpkin, mod podge and orange glitter.

It's pretty self explanatory. I just painted the mod podge onto a section of the pumpkin then poured glitter over the top. When one section was dry I moved onto another one. There were some holes where the glitter didn't stick or I didn't put it on thick enough, so I went back over the holes with more mod podge and glitter.

After it was dry I sprayed it with hairspray, thinking it would hold the glitter on. I'm not sure if it was necessary, but the glitter seams to be staying on pretty well.

Then I put it on top of a tall candle stick and there it is -an inexpensive and easy Halloween/Fall decoration! You can view all of the pumpkins in the picture here.

Linking up to: Tatertots and Jello, Skip to my Lou, Embellishing Life, Under the Table and Dreaming, Today's Creative Blog

Super Hero Party

2011-10-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

We didn't plan on having a big party for my little guy, but when his feelings were hurt that he didn't get a party like his big sister, we threw a super hero party together last minute! You will have to excuse the less than wonderful pictures, my camera was about the only thing I forgot. So these are cell phone pics.

We rented a covered Bowery at one of our local parks. It turned out to be a gorgeous day!

Here is the birthday boy, Super KK!

table decorations and goodie bags

the food table

super hero suckers in a cake pop holder

super hero cupcakes (got the idea from here)

Superman cake (idea from Pinterest)

more table decorations

super hero masks (I hand cut them- not so much fun, but the kids all LOVED them)

And here is the big 4 year old during the Happy Birthday song! He had a blast and that makes any and all work worth it.

Linking up to: Mommy by day Crafter by Night, Sugar Bee Crafts, Organize and Decorate Everything, Design Dazzle

Family Photos

2011-09-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

Having family photos displayed in our house is really important to me. I like for my kids to be able to look around and see themselves and the people we love. There are photos in almost every room in our house.

This array of photos is in our master bedroom.

This is a favorite photo of my husband and myself, hung in the master bath.

My daughter has lots of photos on her walls like her baptism picture and her dance pictures. (please excuse the rotten photo, the light wasn't good in there. Her walls are actually a really pretty light blue shown here)

In our office area we having an entire shelf with photos. I take lots of pics of my kids and can't bear to not display them. This long picture shelf works great. There is also I also a collage in an old window. p.s. MAK are the first letters of each of my kids names.

These are our family pictures from last year, mounted on mat board, arranged on the ledge of the board and batten in our living room.

These built-ins in our eating area hold photos of extended family and my kids newborn baby pics.

We just had our 2011 family pics taken by my friend Shannon of Shannon Hairr Photography. I love them so much and can't wait until my prints get here so I can add them to my collections around our home.

Linking up to: Kristen Duke Photography, A Bowl Full of Lemons

A little bit of Fall

2011-09-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year!

The days are a little shorter and the air is a little more crisp.

Time to bring out a few fall lovelies!

Not full fledged Halloween decorating yet.

Just a few fun, sparkly items to usher in the new season.

It's my favorite time of year!

sources:

antique sifter with last years family photos clothes pinned on: purchased at an antique store a few years ago

small white pumpkin (left), bittersweet and orange flowers: Michaels last year

wicker picnic basket, large brown candle holder, pitcher holding bittersweet, silver tray and candle stick(right), glass candle stick (spray painted black): Goodwill

tall wooden candle holder: Ross

large Mercury glass Pumpkin: TJ Maxx

small glass cake stand, black glittered pumpkin: Hobby Lobby

orange glittery pumpkin (top): dollar store pumpkin glittered by me

black and white polka dot pumpkin: fabric mod podged onto small orange pumpkin

orange and white painted pumpkin (right): painted by me last year

linking up to: Embellishing Life, Skip to my Lou, The Lettered Cottage, Tip Junkie, Coastal Charm, Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night, Organize and Decorate Everything, Lil Luna, Design Dazzle, The Shabby Nest, Whipperberry, Tatertots and Jello

Another birthday party

2011-09-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

I'm knee deep in the middle of another birthday party.

A super hero party this time.

We were just going to have a family party for our little guy turning 4 but his feelings were hurt that he didn't get to have a friend party like his sister. So we'll be playing and partying it up super hero style this weekend. All I can say is that I should have planned the births of my children differently. And I'll hopefully remember how tired and partied out I am right now and do something else next year.

Cupcake birthday party

2011-09-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

So this little cutie turned 9

and we had a party!

A cupcake party!! It was so much fun!

As the girls arrived they got to make cupcakes from foam kits.

And then they made hair bands and pins.

All of the girls were very creative (notice her hairband)...

and put their own spin on each of their projects!

Once the craftin' was done, they each put their aprons on and we did a little fashion show. As you can tell, my little cutie loves to ham it up for the camera!

They had all worked up an appetite by then so we moved on to lunch.

We had sammy's on a skewer, (pieces of bread that were cut with a small cookie cutter, small pieces of cheese, ham, turkey, olives and pickles) which they LOVED...

apples and caramel dip, grapes and Doritos.

Then it was time for the main event- Cupcake decorating! I baked 2 dozen each red velvet and golden vanilla cupcakes and whipped up a big batch of icing. I set out the icing, sprinkles, mini edible pearls, colored sugars and cupcake pics in small bowls.

Then they each grabbed 1-2 cupcakes, icing and all the decorations they wanted onto their plates and took them back to the table to decorate.

For the goodie bags, they were able to take home 2 decorated cupcakes. In the empty holders in the cupcake box, they filled up cupcake liners with candy.

Here are a few more of the details: the candy bar, plates and drink bar (the pitcher in the back right held pink lemonade)

cupcake liner centerpiece

the shelf tribute to the birthday girl.

We all had a fantastic time! And best of all, the birthday girl was thrilled and thanked me profusely!

Linking up to: Embellishing life, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Mommy by day Crafter by Night, Primp, Organize and Decorate Everything, Shabby Creek Cottage, Delightful Order

A simple apron

2011-09-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

My daughter's birthday is this weekend and she has chosen to have a cupcake decorating party. Of course aprons are a must have. After looking around a bit and not finding anything inexpensive enough to purchase 8 of them I decided to make them.

I'm not much of a seamstress but I think they turned out ok.

I used flour sack towels, ribbon for the sash and super cute fabric from Hobby Lobby.

I cut each towel in half.

Then rolled the cut side over twice and pinned. I didn't iron the seam down, it probably would have been easer if I had. If there is a cheater way to do something, I'm all over it. (perhaps that's why my projects don't always work out...hmm something to think about another time)

I tucked and pinned every 3-4 inches or so and then sewed the top and bottom of the folded seam.

Then I cut a 4 inch strip of fabric (I alternated the stripe fabric with the butterfly fabric shown above),

tucked and pinned it, then sewed a line a little to the top of center.

After everything was sewn, I washed and dried the aprons to fray the ruffles a bit. Since I sewed the strip above the center line, it folded over and created a double ruffle. A happy accident that ended up really working out. I then ironed everything. Pretty simple. Wish us luck that the party goes well and that my daughter's friends like the aprons and have a good time!

PS don't be jeaous of my polka-dotted pj bottoms! :)

vinegar

2011-09-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

I love to clean. I know kinda crazy. Cleaning products make me so happy. I'm not really a "green" cleaner. I love me some chemicals. But I've been trying to at least think about the things I bring into my home so I've been doing a little experimenting with vinegar. That stuff is amazing!! I used it the clean the gunk around my faucets in the bathroom.

Not a great picture, but you know the stuff that accumulates around the faucets. Eeeewwww!! I soaked a paper towel in regular old white vinegar and put it all the way around the bottom of my faucet, where it touches the counter top. I let it sit for a few hours. When I came back to it, all the goop just wiped right off. Just like magic!!

I've also soaked my shower heads in baggies of vinegar (attached with rubber bands) to have them come out so great that the water actually shoots straight.

This website has lots of other great uses for vinegar.

Yesterday my shower was draining very s l o w l y. So gross. I didn't want to run to the store for Draino and frankly that stuff even scares the chemical loving me. So I googled it and found this recipe for drain cleaner: 1/2 cup baking soda, 1/4 cup salt, 1/2 cup of vinegar, and boiling water. So I mixed the baking soda and salt and put them into the tub right near the drain. Then I poured the vinegar over the top. It's so cool to watch it bubble. After waiting for a few minutes, I then poured about 4 cups of boiling water down the drain and left it. A couple of hours later when I went to shower it was draining normally. Yay!

forward facing bookshelves

2011-08-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

I've seen the idea to use the Bekvam spice rack shelves from IKEA as forward facing bookshelves. I love the idea. But since the closest IKEA to me is 4 hours away I decided to make my own.

I custom made them to fit the end of a storage cabinet in our playroom. Here is how I did it.

To make four 20 inch bookshelves, I bought 2 8ft 1x4 pine boards and had them cut at Home Depot. I normally use the least expensive lumber, but this time I used "choice" lumber hoping it wouldn't splinter as bad. It's a lot smoother and didn't require sanding over the entire piece but the cut edges still splintered and required sanding. Not sure it was worth the extra $10.

I butted one edge unto the other to make a 90 degree angle.

I secured the pieces together with wood glue,

and wood screws. Make sure to pre-drill the holes so the wood doesn't split. Also make sure you have a good grip on the drill so it doesn't slide and slice your hand. A mickey mouse band aid will make it feel better if you do get an injury though.

Oh and don't forget to charge the battery for the drill.

Or you'll get to take a little break from your project waiting for it to charge.

For the front of the shelf, I used some lattice moulding to hold the books on.

The moulding is what I like to call "fake wood." It's very light weight and easy to cut to size with a miter box.

I used wood glue and finish nails to attach the molding.

Then I used this little thingy (I don't even know what it's called) to push the nail heads farther into the wood,

so I could hide them by covering with spackle.

After everything was good and dry, I sprayed the shelves with red spray paint. (missed a pic of this step but I'm sure you can imagine it)

To attach the shelves to the cabinet, I just screwed them right into the wood. It wasn't super easy as that storage cabinet is solid. I had to pre-drill the holes again and use longer wood screws. If you enlarge the picture above you can see the screw the arrow is pointing to. I didn't counter sink the screws or use plugs to hide them. I just covered them with books. Works for me!

My kids all have bookshelves in their rooms but its nice to have an extra place to stash a few books or movies.

I may even keep a few shelves for myself to store my books and magazines.

Linking up to: Primp, Organize and Decorate Everything, Lemon Tree Creations

beautifying a notebook

2011-08-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

I try to always keep a little notebook in my purse to jot down ideas and notes, let my kids draw, make a list, etc. But the other day I searched and searched the abyss that is my purse and was unable to find my notebook. Well, that won't do at all, so I set off in search of another one.

I found this little beauty at the dollar store. I love spiral bound notebooks because they lay flat. I did not however love the cover. So I decided to alter it. This technique is an oldie but a goodie!!

I used old dictionary pages to cover the front.

First I applied mod podge to the cover.

Then I put the torn out pages right on top of the wet mod podge.

After that dried I cut the excess paper off.

Then applied a few more coats of mod podge and let it dry. As you can see in the picture, I only covered up to the holes of the binding.

To hide the rest of the cover, in between the binding holes, I used this paper tape.

I cut little slits in the edge of the tape to go around the metal binding.

The tape lays nice and flat and covers up the parts of the cover the paper didn't cover.

Then I dug some ribbons out of my embarrassingly large stash and tied them onto the wire.

And there it is, a cute little notebook for my purse. They would make great gifts as well!!

Linking to: Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie

a new lamp

2011-08-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some changing and rearranging around my house...like always. Nothing ever stays the same for too long around here. When I tackled the dining area, I moved around a few things and found that I needed a new lamp. Something substantial and that made a statement.

I think this lamp does that.

I started with this lamp base found at Goodwill that was already painted green.

I gave it a coat of flat white spray paint. After sanding it down a little so the green would show through, I sealed it with a spray sealer.

For the lampshade, plain white just wouldn't do. I found some great fabric at Hobby Lobby to cover the drum lampshade from Target.

Now I'm not going to tell you it was easy to cover this. I made many mistakes. But I used hot glue as my adhesive so I was able to pull it apart and try again. It takes double the width of fabric you think you'll need. Trust me on that. The little strip shown in this picture was not enough. I used hot glue along the seem edges, pulled it over the top and bottom and secured on the inside edges with more hot glue.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Here it is in the room. More pics of the entire room to come.

Linking up to: Today's Creative Blog, Embellishing Life, Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, Mommy by day Crafter by night, Not Just a Housewife, Primp, Organize and Decorate Everything, Sweet Peas and Bumblebees, The Shabby Nest, Whipperberry, Southern Lovely, Tatertots and Jello

pillow from placemats

2011-08-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I decided I needed a new throw pillow. So I searched all my favorite places: Target, Home Goods and even Walmart with no success. Too big, too small, too expensive or not the right color. I even looked at fabrics to see if there was something I could make one with. No luck.

Then I made another trip to Target and ended up in the kitchen aisle and found the perfect color of fabric...in place mats.

But they were the right size so I decided to make them into a pillow cover.

I first sewed around the edges on 3 sides.

I left the 4th side open...

so I could shove the pillow inside.

It was a tight fit, but it worked!

Then I smooshed the entire thing up under the foot of my sewing machine and stitched the open side closed. I was worried about whether the thickness of everything would work with my sewing machine, but I didn't have any problems.

It's the perfect color of blue for my living room, a cute pattern and was inexpensive. I love projects like that!!

Linking up to: Primp, Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello

A winner!

2011-08-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who commented!

The winner is: Sara!!

Sara, I have sent you an email. I just need your address and I'll get this sent to you.

Again, thank you to everyone that reads and comments on my blog!

Giveaway!!

2011-08-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

My blog has grown quite a bit over the past few months and I am thrilled! When I got my first follower I was so excited. Now that I am up to 100, I am totally pumped. So to thank everyone that reads and comments on my blog, it's time for a giveaway!

Here is the fun stuff you can win!!

button pins

a cute notebook with matching pen

and a $10 gift card to every one's favorite store- Target!

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment, introducing yourself! Also I would appreciate if you would become a follower too. Don't forget your email address so I can contact you. I will chose a winner on Sunday.

Thank you for your comments and encouragement!!

recovered office chair

2011-08-08T19:01:00.000-07:00

I had the most boring, ugly office chair.

See? Isn't she a beaut? Well, I've had her for a long time and she is very comfy. But not very attractive. So I decided to do something about it and recover her.

There are 4 screws in the arm rest that hold the chair together. 2 for the back of the chair and 2 for the seat.

They just unscrew and the chair comes apart. I was going to try to take the fake leather off, but it was sewn on, so I decided to put new fabric right over the top.

Starting with the seat, I laid the fabric on the floor and pulled the fabric tightly around the seat on all of the sides.

Then stapled the fabric right to the chair bottom.

I cut little holes through the fabric for the screws (that the armrest attaches to) to go through.

The top was a little trickier. I wasn't sure how I was going to attach the fabric or hide the staples. I was going to sew a slipcover, but I discovered that the back of the chair is being supported by a piece of plywood. Perfect to attach to with staples.

So I carefully tucked and stapled all the way around the back of the chair. One can barely notice the staples at all. At some point I may go back and glue some trim over them, but for now, they are fine.

And there she is. (please ignore the crazy 1/2 carpet, 1/2 tile floor. It was an experiment and is on the list to be fixed)

So much better. She is beautiful and comfy now!

Linking up to: Today's Creative Blog, Organize and Decorate Everything, Newlyweds on a budget, Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, Under the Table and Dreaming, Whipperberry

Excuse me for a bit...

2011-08-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

School starts one week from today. So I'm going to take the rest of this week off from my blog to school shop, swim, go meet my kids' teachers and generally soak up this last bit of summer with my kids. I'll be back next week with some new posts and a giveaway!!!

At it again

2011-07-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

No room in my house has been more decorated and rearranged then our playroom/office. And it's currently going through another transformation. Here is a sneak peek:

I have a few more details to finish up, then I'll be back with a post about it.

Chores/Reward system

2011-07-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

Our chore system is not perfect. Truth be known, I would rather have my kids just entertain themselves for a bit and let me clean everything. I'm super picky and like things done just so.

But I have recognized that I am not doing my kids any favors by not teaching them how to be responsible and take care of our house. So this chore system is a work in progress for all of us. They used to receive allowance, but they really didn't have to do much for the money. And that also didn't address their behavior. So we implemented this chore/reward/allowance system and it seems to be working.

We have a weekly chart. I wrote down all the chores I wanted my kids to learn how to do and assigned them on different days. I tried to make the work load as even between them as possible. We are just starting on chores so I didn't really assign them anything too hard- vacuuming, dusting, sweeping etc.

This is our reward system. We use buttons as a way of keeping track of their points. Each child has their own pocket to keep track of their buttons.

I used a behind-the-door shoe organizer, inside of our game closet. They can count up their buttons and trade them in for cold hard cash. 5 buttons = $1.

They earn 2 buttons for doing their daily chores, without being asked. They can also earn extra buttons by doing something extra nice for someone in the family, being kind, grooming properly, getting up on time and going to bed on time.

They lose buttons for talking not nice, fighting, having an attitude, being mean and all that other not fun stuff.

Occasionally, I will find extra chores that require a little bit more work. These I assign a $$ amount to and write them on the chalkboard wall inside our back door. They can choose (or not) to do them and get the cash associated with the chore.

We keep track of their money with a dry erase board. We also keep track of their tithing this way. (Tithing is 10% of their earnings that we give to our church)

This is the system that seems to be working for us. I would love to hear about what some of your do for chores/behavior for your children.

Linking up to: Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, The Shabby Nest, Organize and Decorate Everything, Tatertots and Jello, Embellishing Life

cookies!!

2011-07-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Some days, a chocolate chip cookie is in order!! I use the BEST recipe. It's from a cookbook that my ward (church congregation) put together when I lived in Utah. So yum!

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies (by Nick Cutler)

1 lb margarine or butter 1 tsp salt

2 c. brown sugar 1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 c. white sugar 3 eggs

6 c. flour 2 tsp vanilla

6c. chocolate chips

Cream wet ingredients and add dry ingredients. Mix well. Add chocolate chips. Drop onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350* from 10-12 minutes.

I usually cut the recipe in half and am still left with about 4 dozen cookies or so. That is a lot of cookies for me to eat. My family only eats 1-2 cookies a piece and I can't resist them and always eat way too many.

So unless I share with the neighbors or (gasp) throw out stale cookies, I usually have about this much dough left after cookies my 2 batches. So I decided to start freezing it!

I scoop it onto a cookie sheet.

Then pop the entire thing into the freezer.

After they are frozen solid, I put them into a freezer bag and stick that in the freezer.

So when the next time a craving for choco chip cookies hits, I'm prepared. The frozen cookies can be placed directly onto a cookie sheet and put into the oven. Just add a few extra minutes to the cook time. Very handy to have on hand for a last minute treat!!

Linking up to: Today's Creative Blog, GingerSnap Crafts

A wreath framed

2011-07-20T06:54:00.000-07:00

I actually did a project! Go me! I saw the most darling wreath here at a glimpse inside

and it made me want to make my door something cute to wear.

I used a frame, already painted red, a wreath from another project that didn't work out and some burlap.

I cut the burlap into strips and wrapped it around the wreath, covering up my previous mess!

Then I glued on a chipboard S,

and some fabric rosettes, made from fabric scraps.

I used ribbon to hang the wreath from the frame. (Don't you just love the ugly frosted glass on our front door!! A new door is on the list!)

I just wrapped it around and hot glued.

I then hot glued some ribbon to the back of the frame and hung it from a 3m hook on my front door. I also added cork bumpers to the back of the frame to cushion it when it bangs into the glass.

And there it is! A new wreath for our front door!

Summer Fun

2011-07-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the Summer, my kids and I sat down and made a list of a bunch of fun things we wanted to do. We wrote it on the chalkboard doors in our eating area.

We have done pretty darn good with our list. We have...

taken swim lessons,

had a taste test party (tasted 3 different kinds of lemon-lime soda to see if we could tell which brand was which. We couldn't. It was lots of fun!)

We went to the drive inn, where we saw Zookeeper and Cars 2.

We went to Jumpers Playhouse.

We went to Disney!

We've also done lots of stuff not on the list, like play with Legos,

CHORES!! I am so mean, just look at his face! We have a pretty good reward system for chores. I'll share that in a later post.

We built awesome stuff with marshmallows and toothpicks.

We have almost finished our 72 hr kits.

And we've cooled off with sprinklers under the trampoline.

We only have a few more things to check off. Hopefully we can finish in the next 2.5 weeks before school starts!!

I hope everyone is having a FUN summer!!

We celebrated

2011-07-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

I was late putting our decorations up, um yeah, I put them up June 30. And I'm late getting this post up. But better late then never right??

Here is our 4th decor outside...

and inside.

We grilled on our new to us grill (thanks Rob and Emily)

ate cupcakes

lit fireworks and watched our neighbor's fireworks. I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th!

Summer vacay

2011-06-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

So I've been gone.
First of all, 2 weekends ago, my husband and I left our children for the first time ever and spent the weekend in Illinois for a wedding.

Hubby was a groomsman and I was the photographer.

One day after coming home from the wedding, we went here for a few days...

then moved to Disney, Hello Mickey!!

to watch this little cutie...

dance down Main street, along with 799 other girls, in the Magic Kingdom parade.

We also saw the sights...

and swam in the pool to beat the heat (It was crazy hot - I've never been so hot in my life!)

We just got home yesterday and now I'm buried in this. I'll be here a while! I hope to be back with projects soon!

Favorite yard sale find

2011-06-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't been to a yard sale once this year. That is sad. We've been super busy and on a rare Saturday morning that we don't have something planned, all I want to do is sleep. In years past, I have scored some awesome deals at yard sales, but I think my most favorite thing I've ever bought is a hutch...a hutch for $30!!!

I bought it before my blog picture taking ways, so this is the only photo I could find of the hutch in it's original state. It was a pale yellowish-cream color with a crackle finish. I took the doors off of the top and painted the entire thing black. Then I put some scrapbook paper on the back of the open shelves.

Here it is in our dining area a few years ago. It stayed this way for a while. Then it started to feel too crowed in there. So I started plotting and planning. When I decided to do board and batten in my living room, I took out the huge tv cabinet we had and needed a smaller tv cabinet. The lower part of this hutch fit that bill.

I painted it a light blue color from Home Depot.

Then sanded it down a bit so the black underneath would show. Then gave it a few coats of poly.

I was left with trying to figure out what to do with the top of the hutch. I figured it would make a pretty decent side board in the dining area.

I just added a piece of MDF to the top and bottom of the side board. It's super heavy and sturdy.

So to recap, I took a hutch (that I scored for $30) from

and now looks like this! I think I got my $30 worth!!

Linking up to: The Nester's best yard sale finds

Gift Wrap organizer

2011-06-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

A solution to the "how do I store my gift wrap" dilemma...

on the back of a door!

I used to store my gift wrap in a large under-the-bed box. Wrapping gifts was such a pain because I had to lug that big box out from under my dusty bed and dig through everything to find what I wanted. I also had way too much gift wrap because I usually just bought more instead of looking through the mess of what I already had. But then I saw this gift wrap organizer in the Feb 2011 BHG magazine, and knew it was a solution to my problem.

I started with this small organizer from Walmart. It's original purpose is to store foil and plastic wrap.

But it fits wrapping paper just right!

I used elastic with 3m tabs to hold the gift wrap in place when someone (my kids) fling the door open.

I used a large organizer from Home Depot for the ribbon spools. And the best part is that I can lace the ribbon through the wire to just pull out as much as I need. I don't even have to take the spool off the shelf.

I used a small metal bucket for scissors, tape, pens and gift tags.

It's so much nicer to have it out in the open where I can see what I have. And wrapping gifts is a breeze now.

Linking up to: Embellishing Life, Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Sweet Floweret, Shabby Chic Cottage, Lil' Luna, Sugar and Dots

Paris themed bedroom

2011-06-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

In this post I mentioned that I had been working on my daughter's room. Well, it's now DONE! Yay! There is nothing quite like finishing a project. Yep. Love it!

She has fallen in love with all things Paris and fashion so that was our starting point for this makeover. I am pleased to announce that she loves it!! Makes all the hard work worth it!

We started by painting the room with Behr Ultra in "Fresh Day," a very pale blue color. Now for a little tour around the room. At the end I'll do a breakdown of where we purchased everything and cost.

The bed. We used the day bed she already had and bought a bunch of bedding and pillows.

Above the bed is a shelf (built by me from a 1x6 and a 1x8) for all her trophies and collectibles. I used sheers hung from the shelf to frame the bed. To add a little interest and a fun touch to the shelf, I attached pink paper lantern patio lights (say that 10x fast) with white and black tulle tied to the cord.

An up close look at the Paris picture above her bed.

One of her requests was for a window seat. This is the best I could come up with -a leather storage bench. I ironed pink ribbon onto the new black curtains, hung from her existing curtain rod.

Her (messy) bookshelves with lots of baskets and bins, that she already had, for all her stuff - this girl is a collector. Above the shelves are a vinyl Eiffel Tower.

This is one of our favorite parts of the room.

The desk area.

I got the idea for the pom poms and lanterns from Under the Sycamore.

I got the idea for the embroidery hoop framed fabric from a new magazine called Fresh Style. There is a much better photo of them in the actual magazine. The smoke detector goes too, don't ya think? Safety first!!

I used an inexpensive door mirror turned horizontally above her desk. It came that hot pink color. My daughter is excited to have so much room to see herself. She's also going to use dry erase markers on it for notes and messages.

Her younger brother found her this hot pink jewelry stand.

We used the desk she already had (which needs a fresh coat of paint). I just spray painted the handles.

For the last wall we did a collage. Her initial, her name, some dance photos, her baptism photo and another Eiffel Tower. (She just had her 2011 dance photos taken wearing a hot pink and black costume. How nice of her costume to coordinate!!)

The top picture from her baptism last year. As the guests came to her baptism, they signed the matt. It's such a sweet keepsake. I simply spray painted the frame hot pink. The bottom Eiffel Tower print is her favorite.

The cork board and peg shelf are from her old room. I just painted them hot pink too.

And her other favorite part of her room is her dress form. She loves to put notes and photos all over it with magnets and clothespins.

Here is a before look at her room. We had already started tearing it apart to prep for paint.

And the after. My little girl has a big girl room- sniff sniff. Hopefully this one will grow with her!

Now for the breakdown: (edited to add: I'm not sure if it's tacky to post costs or not. I love knowing where others shop for things. So I thought I would post this so anyone can see that it doesn't have to cost a fortune to redo a room. Yes, I understand that $300 is a lot of money, but after seeing some of the makeovers on HGTV and such, it's small in comparison. And yes, we saved up for a while and purchased things over a period time.)

paint: Home Depot - $30

bedding: bed in a bag (comforter, sheets, bedskirt and pillow sham)- Walmart-$45

body pillow and cover: Target- $20

Paris neck roll pillow: Hobby Lobby - $10 on sale

patio lights: Hobby Lobby - $14

sheers: Target - $10

black and white Eiffel Tower picture: Home Goods - $30

curtains: Target - $15

black leather storage bench: Target - $60

vinyl Eiffel Tower: Hobby Lobby - $10 on sale

paper lanterns: Target and Hobby Lobby - $12

embroidery hoops: Hobby Lobby - $7 (already had fabric)

door mirror: Walmart - $5

jewelry stand: Hobby Lobby - $8 on sale

pink and white Eiffel Tower picture: Hobby Lobby - $6 on sale

dress form: Home Goods - $50

For a Grand total of $332 - not too bad!

Linking up to:

Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Embellishing Life, Organize and Decorate Everything, Shabby Chic Cottage, Tatortots and Jello, Just a Girl

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-06-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

I heard someone once say that the end of school year/start of summer time frame is busier then even Christmas. I never believed that until this year. Between end of year picnics, the last day of school, 2 photo shoots and a big ol' youth activity at my church that I helped with last week to Memorial Day, my kids being home and thinking they need to be entertained all day, dance practice and getting caught up on my housework this week I haven't had a second to even sit at my computer let alone blog anything. It's been crazy.
In the midst of all of that, we decided to redo my daughter's room. She is 8 and thought she was too grown up for the yellow and pink princess room she had. :( But I love a good decorating project so I got to work. It is almost done. I just have a few details to finish up and will post pics.

Here are a few sneak peeks:

As you can see there is a black, white and pink Paris theme going on. Things are turning out pretty well. Hopefully it will be done in the next couple of days.

Decorating a Mantle

2011-05-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right, it was time to freshen up around here a bit. With my ODD (obsessive decorating disorder) I can't handle anything staying the same way for too long. My mantle, aka dining area shelf, had been the same for almost 2 months. Must be some record! :)

I still love the red and greens from before but added a lot of white to brighten things! The small camera image in the lower right hand corner is a watermark. I'm trying to decide if I should watermark all of my pictures.

The black frame is the inside of a large picture frame I used in another project. The S was given to me by a friend of mine.

Flowers from Joann in a Goodwill(GW) pitcher.

A garden thingy (the technical term) from Hobby Lobby (HL) a few years ago propped up on a cake stand from Home Goods (HG).

Large potpourri from HG mixed in with some red wooden spheres in a large apothecary jar.

On top of the buffet: a Pottery Barn knock off finial. It was originally brown from HL. I spray painted it white and shabbied it up a bit with sandpaper before spraying it with matte finish spray sealer.

A bird from HG, on top of a scale from the flea market on top of a cake stand from Target.

And last but not least, a little lamp from GW. It needed a little love as it was wobbly and the finish was cracked. But nothing a little wood glue, sand paper and spray paint couldn't fix.

Here is what the shelf vignette looked like before.

And here it is now - ready for summer!

Linking up to: The Lettered Cottage

Teacher gifts part II

2011-05-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

For my big kid's teacher's gifts, I did a take on the large chicken wire message boards I recently did in my craft room.

table top chicken wire message boards

I used 8x10 picture frames with chicken wire stapled to the back.

Once the chicken wire was attached, I spray painted the entire thing.

For the white one, the staples from the chicken wire were showing through so I hot glued white ribbon to cover them up. I love the way it turned out.

On the black one, the sharp wire edges were hanging out so I hot glued ribbon to cover them up. I think it adds a nice finished touch.

Then I used regular clothespins (with book pages deco-pauged to the top) to hold a gift card.

I bought these easels at Hobby Lobby to hold the message boards.

Hopefully the teachers will like them. At least they'll like the gift cards anyway! :)

Linking up to: Today's Creative Blog, Tip Junkie, Stories of A-Z

Teacher gifts

2011-05-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

My littlest guy had his last full day of pre-school for the year today. He has a teacher and a bunch of helpers in his classroom so I needed something to give to all of them. I went with the cardstock notebook holder with matching pens. An oldie but a goodie.

Here is how I did it.

Supplies used: patterned paper, notebooks (purchased from Walmart, measuring 7 3/4 inches x 5 inches), pens (used Pen-tel pens because the barrel opens to slip the paper in) and cardstock (not pictured)

cut a strip of patterned paper to go across the tear off/holder thingy on the notebook- dimensions of the paper are 3/4 inch x 5 inches

cut down the cardstock to 8 1/2 inches x 11 1/4 inches

score cardstock at 5 1/2 inches and 5 3/4 inches

to make folds to fit notebook

and here is the notebook, glued to the folder of cardstock

(ok I know I took really detailed shots of making the notebook, but I slacked off and didn't take any pictures of this part except the one above- lame) Next I took ink and a cute little $1 stamp from Joann to make the card on front. I inked the edges too.

for the pen: unscrew the bottom of the pen and take the ink out. cut patterned paper to 1 inch x 3 1/4 inches, wrap it around a pencil to start the curl, then wrap it really tightly and shove it into the barrel of the pen. reinsert the ink.

And there it is.

I found these darling little notebooks for some of the class assistants and made matching pens for them too.

Wrapped up with a little cellophane and ribbon, they make cute little gifts.

My son was in the Green Frog class so we handed out these treats to his little friends- small green rubber frogs, a sucker and a tootsie roll. The cardstock circle says, "Thank you for being my friend in the Green Frog class at Mothers Day Out! I made sure to make one for my son too. A "to him, from him" gift. He loved it!

We did something different for my big kid's teachers. I'll be posting that next.

Linking to: Shabby Chic Cottage, The Shabby Nest

Chicken wire message boards

2011-05-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

I know I just redid my craft room not too long ago, but nothing in my house is ever done done. The room was a little too busy looking so I've been tweaking. Starting with new message boards.

Before: (Look on either side of the window) a star, a magnet board and 2 different cork boards

After: matching chicken wire message boards

I started with canvas frame stretchers. They were super cheap and I was able to get the sizes I wanted. One size was 30x40 and the other was 20x40. I think I paid less than $25 for both of them.

The corners are already mitered. They just slide in together.

I put a staple at each junction to reinforce the frame.

Next- the chicken wire. I bought a roll at Lowes for around $12 and I have about 1/2 of the roll left.

I attached the chicken wire to the frame with a staple gun.

And then cut it to size with wire cutters.

I forgot to take pictures of the next step but all I did was take the frames outside and give them a few coats of black semi-gloss spray paint. I painted front and back to cover all of the silver on the wire.

Then I just used a couple of nails in the corners and hung them up.

And then I filled them up. The larger of the two is for pictures, drawings my kids make me, quotes etc.

The other one is for the business stuff: calendar, business cards, notes, to do lists, etc.

I just use clothes pins (both large and small) to hang items on the boards.

I am loving the way they turned out. Even though there is a ton of stuff hanging on them, they look so much cleaner because they are simple and they match.

linking up to: Tatertots and Jello, Shabby Nest, Whipperberry, Embellishing Life, Today's Creative Blog, Organize and Decorate Everything, Sweet peas and Bumblebees, Sugar and Dots