The Brown Eyes Have It

Happy Birthday, Kimberly!

2012-02-13T07:02:00.017-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
today, to my sister, Kim!

(This is Leslie, Kim's sister. She doesn't know I'm posting this, he, he).

(one of my all time favorite pictures of us...

See that looks she's giving me? I got that a lot, and I look so cute and innocent, right?)

Kimberly and I have an older sister and two older brothers, but we are the "tail-enders" of the family, so we had a lot of time with just the two of us growing up.

So on your birthday Kim, I'd like to thank you for introducing me to: sticker collecting, smurfs and Barbies, and occasionally letting me plan out the story plot when we would play Barbies ; ) and taking care of me when I threw up right before our Rainbow Bright dance program and when I threw up at Disneyland, and protecting me from the gross boys that rode our bus (and helping me when I was car sick and felt like I was going to throw up on the bus)...

Classic 1983? With our Care Bears and my Rainbow Bright P.J.'s.

What was on yours? I can't remember.

And for introducing me to: big earrings, 80s hair bands, leggings with boots (OK, really we have Kristen to thank for all those), for double-dating with me on my first date, taking me to my first concert, driving me all over the place before I had a licence and putting up with my "annoying friends," for forgiving me for loosing the cowboy boot earring and the occasional stained shirt that I swear I never knew about until it was put back in your side of the closet : ) and for introducing me to Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, and of course, American Anthem.

Sporting our matching sweatshirts, perms and bangs in true Idaho style.

For introducing me to scrapbooking, all kinds of crafting, Pizza Pipeline (back when you lived in P.G., those were good times), and Tai food, and Bill's Grandma's sweet relish recipe (Luke added that one), and for remembering details about my own childhood that I forget, and explaining to me how to alter recipes and substitute ingredients, and helping me determine whether or not I was in labor...

Here we are with sister Kristen too, (not to be confused with Sister Christian her favorite song back in the day) showing off our great skills on the trampoline.

And overall, for being such a great big sister that I have always looked up to! These are just a few of the things I'm thinking of off the top of my head tonight. I wish Kristen and I were there to take you to lunch today! I feel so grateful to have each of my siblings and their unique personalities whom I look up to so much, both when I was growing up (as the youngest in the family) and still today.

Cheers! While visiting Kristen in Colorado a couple of years ago.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Melted Crayon Heart Art

2012-02-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Ever since I first saw all the cool melted crayon art work, I really wanted to make one. However, it wouldn't really go in my girls' room, and the boys have plenty of wall art already; I don't have a play room to hang it in; and both of their teachers have enough of this kind of stuff - one's retiring this year, too. So I never made any. Now with Valentine's Day just around the corner, another idea popped into my head, what about a heart shaped melted crayon picture. Yeah!! Now I have a reason to try this cool technique out.

This is what I came up with. Here it is displayed with the topiary ball I made here. As I was forming this idea in my head, I decided to see if anyone else had come up with this idea and this is the only one I found. So I decided to give it a go and make a little tutorial while I was at it. That way you can all learn from my mistakes. :)

Supplies:
12x12 canvas

Glue gun
White paint - if you're a little messy like I was
Vinyl or contact paper
Crayons - lots of crayons depending on how you do it.
My vision was to do all pinks, reds, and purples. However, as I got going and need a lot more crayons and I only bought 5 boxes, I decided to add in a little pop of turquoise, a little lime green, and yellow. I also added a few brown crayons, thinking a nice brown stripe here and there would be cool and tie into my room. BIG MISTAKE! Ummm, when crayons melt, they don't stay in straightish-lines. It kind of blended into everything else and wasn't quite the look I was going for.

Start by drawing/tracing a heart as big as you want onto your canvas. (See the TIP below.) Lay your crayons out to give you sort of an idea and to see how many crayons you'll need. This was when I realized I didn't have enough just pinks and reds and added the other colors. Since my canvas was so small, I cut my crayons in a about half.

Then begins the fun job of tearing off all the wrappers. At least Maddie decided to help me. (oh, and we had no school this day, that's why her hair is not even combed.) Then start gluing. Note: I would have preferred to leave the wrappers on, I like that look, and it would have been soooo much easier to glue (hot glue + wax crayon = melting before you even get it on the canvas,) but I had two different brands of crayons. Also, if you leave the wrappers on you can tell what colors they are. Turquoise and purple start look a lot alike without wrappers.

Melting the crayons was fun. Make sure you have newspapers covering a good area, because it does splatter a little. I used my blow dryer on the highest setting; the other settings weren't hot enough.

I put my template back in the middle to hopefully keep the center clean from some of the crayons melting backwards. It helped a little, but not enough. TIP: If you cut your center heart (template) out of vinyl or maybe even better, contact paper and lay that on first before you even glue the crayons on, I think it would keep the "back-melt" of the crayons from making such a mess.

See the mess I ended up with. Not so great. However, I found that some white paint was easy enough, although the big spot on the right took several coats, to cover it up with. Plus if you're not real careful and you have a few stray crayon lines or flakes in the middle, the paint is great to cover all those up, too.

Final step, cut your saying out of vinyl or contact paper and stick to the middle. Ta Da!! A unique, but fun piece of art work for Valentine's day, or since mine didn't work so well with the pinks and reds, I think I might keep it up for a while longer.

Valentine Craft with the kids

2012-02-06T07:04:00.002-07:00

Welcome "Show Me Some Love" blog hoppers. Glad you came to visit. Hope you stay a while and take a look around.

Love is in the air . . . more Valentine's crafts today, this time from Leslie. Not only does she throw an awesome birthday party, but Leslie always has great craft ideas she does with her boys. Here's Leslie:

I saw this idea from Martha Stewart's website and have had it sitting in my Pinterest file until we tested it out Sunday night. (Now that we have early church this year, we've been able to try out new craft or art projects Sunday evenings). It was even fun for my boys, and the results are really pretty.

First, we sharpened crayons in a pencil sharpener and put all the shavings here on a piece of wax paper. After we filled most of the bottom side of the paper full, we folded the top half over the bottom half.

Top half is folded over bottom half here. (wax paper, crayon shavings, wax paper)

Then, put newspaper under the wax paper and on top of it. Next, iron on top of the newspaper to melt the wax.

Sorry, Coach Rose. As if you hadn't already had a rough night.

It comes out looking something like this.

Then we took cookie cutters and traced heart shapes on the paper. I cut the shapes out, hole punched the top, and tied red yarn though it.

Now we have them hanging in a few places in the house where the sunlight will shine through them.

My five-year-old thought they were so cool, he insisted that I make one into a necklace for his kindergarten teacher... and he gave it to her today! Nothing like an early valentine. They would also look neat glued to the front of a valentine cards!

Thank you to Kristen at One Tough Mother for putting together this awesome blog hop. Now go visit all the rest of the participants and show them some love!

Feb.1 – One Tough Mother
Feb.2 – DIY Dreamer
Feb.3 – Pitter and Glink
Feb.4 – My AmazingChaos of Life
Feb.5 – Measure Once –Cut Twice
Feb.6 – The Brown Eyes Have It
Feb.7 – One Tough Mother
Feb.8 – Pint-SizedBaker
Feb.9 – J Yipp Photography
Feb.10 – Bird & Tree
Feb.11 – Growing Up Gabel
Feb.12 – Scrapity Anne
Feb.13 – My Life and Kids
Feb.14 – One Tough Mother

Valentine Topiary/Kissing Ball

2012-02-02T16:13:00.001-07:00

Valentine's Day has always been a fun holiday for me, maybe because my birthday is the day before. lol In grade school, I always looked forward to making our Valentine holders at school, picking out the coolest Valentines to hand out, making sure I did NOT put the boys names on the "love" Valentines, then looking through every one of them to see who gave me what. Then when I was older, as my friends and I would walk past the office at school, I'd secretly wish and hope some of those flowers or balloons were for me. Well, that never happened, lol, but I do remember one year when I was in high school that I came in to the kitchen for breakfast and my dad had left a little teddy bear and a card for me by my plate (my sister got something, too.) I still have that bear; it was a total surprise and really meant a lot to me. While my husband and I don't do much to celebrate (we celebrate for my birthday and Bill thinks it's a dumb made up holiday created by card companies), we usually celebrate with the kids - a candlelight dinner, heart pizza, a little surprise in the morning, or a special dessert, just something simple but fun.

This year I decided I needed some new decorations. When I first started on Pinterest, this super cute Rosette Kissing Ball from The Idea Room was one of the very first things I pinned. 487 pins later and I'm finally getting it done. :) Yeah!

Supplies:

Roll(s) of crepe paper

styrofoam ball

hot glue

Tear strips of crepe paper about 24" long. Fold them in half, or to about 3/4", then start rolling. It took me an entire roll of crepe paper just for this one. I rolled up the beginning just a little, and then started twisting and rolling, twist, and roll, just like you do for fabric flowers. Then glue it onto the ball. You could also just do a simple roll. Play around and see what you like. My only advice, you might want to do them all at once, I ended up doing it over several days. When I first started, my roses look quite different from the ones I did at the end.

These are the first couple of days - bigger, but more flat roses.

This is how I ended, smaller but stand up more. These were my favorite, but I think it took more roses this way.

If you have holes, just roll a little scrap, fold it in half and stuff it in.

Now make a bajillion more. Easy Peesy! lol Seriously, this took me forever, maybe because I did it in little spurts here and there, and then a good couple hours yesterday. So put on a good movie or two and have fun! I'm hoping to get a white one and a red one done before Valentine's Day, too. We'll see if that happens.

This post was featured by:

My Design Style: Part 2

2012-01-30T20:46:00.004-07:00

We're on a decorating kick here, I guess, and now Leslie is here today with look into her home. Her house is so cute! She has amazing style and her home is always so warm and welcoming.
Here's Leslie:

I love decorating and I'm one of those people who is always rearranging furniture and accessories every few months for a new look.

I have always loved blues and whites and since my husband is from Maine and that is our favorite vacation spot, our house has always had a "coastal vibe" (even though we are stuck in the dry, Utah desert). Lately though, I've added more vintage elements and pops of green, red and yellow and I finally feel like the look I have is comfortable, and really reflects our family.

Kim recently helped me create this picture wall. This wall is such a large white space and I could never figure out what to put there. I found most of these picture frames at D.I. (thrift store) and then decided what colors I wanted to paint them. This took a few weeks of rearranging and trying different combinations. I didn't want too matchy, but also not too busy. I am really happy with how it turned out.

(I'd love to paint these walls grey, but that is a big project... some day).

I used the 3M Velcro strips on the picture frames for the first time, and they worked great. I wish I had a picture of me on my husband's shoulders trying to hang these.

My sister, Kim made this vinyl tree with my husband's and my initials. She did a great job. I put the vinyl right on the wall and hung the frame around it.

The sister of my sister-in-law (I'm not making that up) makes some really cute, unique, modern prints, that I love. You can see them here. She made the home can be a heaven on earth print in the first picture, and the silhouettes of my boys below.

When we got these family pictures taken in the fall, I didn't want to spend a lot of money hanging them since I knew I would want to change them up after a little while and hang something else there. I found these flat, glass only frames at Hobby Lobby. They are very inexpensive and just the look I was going for.

When Kim did the design style post, I took one of the quizzes for fun and this is what it said, "Your style is Folksy Country. You don’t like things to be too matching. You acquire your furniture and accessories over the course of time. You like pattern and solids and can mix them well. You love flea markets and can find a place for just about anything you find or buy. You like animals and probably have a dog or cat or both. You make people feel at home and relaxed. You have lots of knick-knacks. When you entertain you have many friends and family over -- they feel they can pop over at anytime. Your decorating challenge is to simplify and edit your accessories."

Other than the pets (which our kids would love to have, but they haven't quite talked us into it yet), what do you think, Kim? Does that sound like me? Viewers, does that look like me? I don't know. I have always like bright colors. Maybe I was on to something when my Mom let Kim and I re-do our bedrooms in Jr. High and pick out any color scheme. (Mine was: primary colors, Mickey Mouse, and M.C. Escher). Weird : )

Yes, Les, I think that totally sounds like you! Aren't her boys so cute! I love those family pictures. And I really need you to make me some cute pillows, she has a great eye for fabrics. Liking patterns and solids, yes, yes, you should have seen her room - solid bright blue on the bottom, bright red chair rail, and red/yellow/blue sprinkles wallpaper on top, with framed M.C. Escher prints and a Mickey Mouse poster. It was a little crazy, but cute!

Weight-loss Accountability

2012-01-29T17:24:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been a month now since I started working on my goals, especially my weight-loss goal (see here.) Time to fess up, be accountable, and resolve to do better.

So how have I done, well, good and not so good. I'm happy to report that I'm back in the habit of drinking water every day and it's getting easier. Which also means I'm doing pretty good (I slipped a couple times) at limiting my pop intake to only once a week. I've found it's really hard to get all my water in when I nurse a pop all afternoon. Plus if you remember this post here, I have to drink an extra glass of water for every pop I drink. I'm actually not craving it so much either, and I really savor it and enjoy the taste so much more when I do have a pop.

I've also started exercising again and it is fun-ish. lol I haven't made it a solid habit again, but I have really tried to incorporate more strength training into every day. Just little bits here and there, but it's something. This is really going to be my focus for the next couple of weeks. I have got to make myself (not really a morning person) get up at 6 and get moving!!

It's also time to really start taking notice of what I'm eating. I'm reading a really good book,The Perfect 10 Diet, but it's taking FOREVER to get to the part of what I should and shouldn't be eating. Yah, that's been my excuse for the past 3 weeks, but no more! This book is making perfect sense and my doctor has been telling me I should be eating this way for several years now. But I'm not a lover of "self-help" books and so I don't read them really fast and this one, while giving me a wealth of knowledge in the "why" category, I haven't gotten to the "how" part yet. :) I know excuses, excuses. If anyone is interested, the Kindle version is only $1.99 (if you have an ipad or iphone, download the kindle app, it's great!)

So anyway, I've only lost 2 lbs. so far. However, my first week drinking that much water, it must have flushed (ha, ha pun intended) my system and my fingers got skinnier. How lame is it that my fingers and my wrists are the first place I lose weight. But I actually wore my wedding ring the other day (have only wore it sporadically for the last 6 years) and my watch is much looser on my wrist. It's a start.

Here we are to a new month and my resolve, with a slight change in focus, begins again. I've gained some ground, and that's the most important part. I found this great visual reminder on Pinterest. I'm making this and putting it on the shelves next to my desk. Next month, the "pounds to go" jar will be lower!

How are your goals/resolutions coming along? Are you still sticking with them? Do you need to reevaluate and maybe make some changes or tweeks to your goal?

Sharing the accountability with:

A Peek in My Family Room

2012-01-27T13:44:00.001-07:00

I don't know about you, but I love looking at other people's homes. I had so much fun the past couple of days peeking at other people's lives through their beautiful (and not so beautiful, actually, lol) homes. That's why we go to home shows, right? I know not everyone I've seen walking through home after home are looking to buy. Okay, so maybe I'm a stalker, I'll admit I enjoy seeing how other people live. Hopefully some of you are the same way. Today I thought I'd give you a glimpse into my home and show you our family room. Oh, and I'm keeping it real here, crooked pictures (I can't believe I didn't notice that before), messy desk, and everything. :) And it's kind of hard to take pictures of this room. While it's nice and bright with windows on 3 of 4 walls, every direction is shooting towards a window, so bare with me.

As I mentioned here, we redecorated our family room about a year ago. Here is the "before" picture:

This was a couple years ago at our Superbowl party with some friends, Bill's brother and aunt and uncle.

The redo was brought about because the couch had seen better days and Bill had FINALLY warmed up to the idea of color on the walls. So the whole family went shopping for a new couch. Imagine trying to make 8 people happy. Well, I got out voted when they all fell in love with this couch. While I liked it, I didn't love it. I didn't really want a sectional again, thought the fabric was a little weird (it's kind of like terry cloth), and really wanted something more tailored. But it had room for all 8 of us, Bill could definitely see himself falling asleep there, and it was a "non-snuggling" couch (Bill's term) - important now that Cheyenne can date.

I do like it more now. :) It is very soft and great to relax in. As I said, Bill liked white walls. When we built our house 10 years ago, he even wanted me to take a picture of the nice, white, bare walls before I hung anything up so he could always remember it. He warmed up a little when he finally gave in and we painted our bedroom a beige color. So to my utter surprise, he picked out this dark brown for the walls. This was a very bold step. When we finished painting, I was almost sick! The walls looked purplish. The next morning it wasn't much better. I was ready to redo the whole thing, but Bill convinced me to wait a few more days. I don't know if it was letting the paint cure more, getting used to the color, or having the couch delivered and more brown in the room, but it looked a whole lot better. It's like the color of chocolate milk. Really! Kind of makes me hungry sometimes.

This is the other side of the room, looking into the kitchen, complete with the vacuum still sitting out. Like I said, keeping it real. At least that means Billy did his chores. :)

This is my favorite part of the room, my photo gallery. I hadn't heard the term "photo gallery" when I did it and didn't know if I could really just have this across this great big wall. I'm no decorator and have serious doubts when it comes to my decorating ability. lol Plus, you can see a little bit in the before picture, I had a whole quilt hanging here plus all the kids' pictures - just a whole lot more stuff. I wasn't so sure it looked "right" to be so plain, but I love it now.

Other end of the room. Really dislike the desk, and the reason we have to have short curtains, but Bill's not too excited about a new desk. This is sort of his desk so it has to meet all his requirements. So still trying to convince him we need a new one.

I love this little desk/table, but it is also in need of a makeover. I think I've decided what I'm going to do, now just waiting for the weather to warm up a little to get started.

And finally we've made it around the room. That's the couch in the lower right corner, and the opening to the kitchen is just to the left. You can also see the front door in the upper right corner, we have a very open floor plan, it's nice. I love this spot, too. I told the whole story about this spot here.

So that's it, a little tour around our family room. If you read this post here when I said my family would be laughing at how spot-on the description of "Classic Traditional" was for me, you can now see it, too. Beige - replacing the navy and burgundy, a little boring, plenty of family pictures, yup, that's me. So help me break out of my rut a little. While I really enjoy my room, the end with the desk has never seemed right to me, too empty, but I don't know what else to do with it. Do I have too many tables in here? I would love to hear any suggestions or what you would do different in a room like this. It's always nice to get a fresh perspective on things.

What's Your Design Style?

2012-01-25T09:40:00.002-07:00

As I was searching for family room pictures to include in yesterday's post here, I noticed that all the rooms I really liked were all starting to look the same. Hmm, maybe I do have a style. lol Then I came across a great post from Compulsive in Texas in which she linked to a fun decorating quiz and talked about her decorating style. So I took this quiz, from BHG.com, and as I sort of expected got the result of "Country". This is what it said:
"You like to surround yourself with things that make you comfortable, so Country style is the way to go. This look connects with nature and days gone by while remaining fresh and original. An easy place to start your Country decor is with a blue-and-white color scheme and weather-worn wooden tables or benches. Accessorize with collections of anything you love. Antique furnishings—often creatively repurposed for today's lifestyle—are casual and rustic."
This is some what true, although I don't really like EVERYTHING rustic or antique, not a huge fan of blue-and-white color scheme, and I strongly dislike ruffles and flowery stuff - so not me!

So I decided to find some more quizzes to see if they all agreed. I found this quiz at RealSimple. My result here, "Cozy Casual":
"You’re about comfort and warmth, favoring warm, traditional rooms made for relaxing with family and friends. Your ideal decor draws on English and early-American furniture designs, as well as laid-back country, cottage, and farmhouse styles. Weathered, low-maintenance furnishings are easy, inviting, and built for daily life. Think golden retrievers, fuzzy slippers, and just about any movie by Nancy Meyers. To see more about Cozy Casual style, including a sample room, click here."
I like this description, it is pretty good. Farmhouse style, yes, my house is a farmhouse style; golden retriever, I'd love one; fuzzy slippers, yes, I'm wearing mine right now. I had to look up who Nancy Meyers is and while I do like most of her movies, they're not my favorites.

Traditional living room design by other metros architect Paddle Creek Design

I love this room, except the flowery chairs. I'd like them in red. And that couch, the one in the center of the picture, love it. In fact, I have a couch very similar to that. This quiz also gave some features of each design style. Cozy casual likes rolled arm couches with ball feet or skirts - that's totally what I'm always drawn to.

So now I was really having fun and found one more quiz to take, TheHomeStylist. This was more of a personality test along with being home styles. Very interesting to see how my personality totally nailed my design style, too. My results:
"Your style is Classic Traditional.

You like things matching and well placed. You prefer classic colors such as navy, burgundy, forest green, and beige. You buy furniture that stands the test of time. You don’t like trendy fads nor clutter. You keep a clean house. There are only a few knick-knacks but plenty of family photos. Traditions and family are important to you. When you entertain you invite close friends and family. You don’t like new things and are hesitant to try new colors or furniture placements. You grew up in a very traditionally decorated home and that is what you are most comfortable with. Your decorating challenge is for you home to not be too predictable or boring."

Umm, this is a little embarrassing, but that description is spot on! I'm sure my family is all laughing now. Up until a year ago, my family room was navy and burgundy, my living room is burgundy and forest green, my bedroom was navy and burgundy. Now I've really updated and my family room is brown and barn red (see here), and my bedroom is beige. lol Yes, my house is predictable and boring which was exactly why I was looking at all these sites. :)

This is my bedroom (see a little more here) , although now there is a window above the bed, so that wall is not quite so plain. But yeah, beige, classic traditional, cozy casual, a little bit country, and a little boring. I guess it's me. lol

So what do you do when you want to spruce things up a little. I start dreaming. Pinterest is great, I have my "For the Home" board there where I collect all my inspirations usually from other places on the web. However, It's amazing what others have posted as well. Search for whatever you're looking to update, kitchen, bathroom, etc. and you'll find all kinds of things. All three of the above posted sites had great home style tips and articles, also, but my favorite new place to visit is Houzz.com. Wow, talk about an amazing collection of home ideas!! They have everything from exteriors to interiors, pools to porches, even closets to wine cellars. lol You can even save everything you like to your own "idea book." It's fun!

So what's your design style? Does your house reflect who you are, your personality? If you take any of these quizzes, I'd love to hear what your design style is and if you agree with it.

P.S. My sister and frequent guest poster, Leslie, took the quiz and shared her fabulous style here.

Get Cozy in Your Home by Christina Johnson

2012-01-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to welcome our guest-blogger today, Christina Johnson. I was thrilled when she contacted me and asked if she could do a guest post here. Sure!! So let's get to know her a little.

"Christina Johnson works remotely for Elliman Prudential in the NYC Apartments and Rentals market. She is using her journalism major to combine what she loves most, writing and her career. Her specialties include home decor design and DIY home improvement projects."

She sent me this wonderful article on family rooms. I love my family room! Next to the kitchen it's probably the room my family spends the most time in. Read on to learn some great tips on making the most of your family room.

===============================

Get Cozy in your Home

A lot of homeowners tend tooverlook the design opportunities available for the family room. Because itisn't a formal room, it often becomes a catch-all collection of odd furniture,toys, crafts and other accessories. However, there are several very affordableand unique interior design techniques that can be used that will make it evenmore inviting for the whole family.

Traditional family room design by interior designer Citrine Interior Design

What Will You Use It For?

When you make plans toenhance or improve the decor of a room, it is important to first consider thefocus or goal of that room. You will want to determine what you will be usingthe room for and think about the mood you want to set. In most cases, thefamily room is the most relaxed and comfortable room in the home. Because ofthis, it is where many families spend most of their time together.

Some families work to createa whole home theater experience, while others focus more on games. Somefamilies like to do activities or crafts together, while others might want toestablish a quiet place to gather, read or just spend some quiet time together.You don't have to spend a lot of money to create the family room you've alwayswanted.

Traditional family room design by new york architect Crisp Architects

Start With Color

One of the easiest ways tomake big change on a little budget is to start with a splash of color. A bucketor two of paint and supplies will cost less than $50, but can make a bigdifference to any room. Think about the colors that will best express the focusof your family room, such as neutral or pastel colors for a relaxingenvironment or bold colors for an exciting activity-focused room.

Consider using two differentcolors to add focus or fun to one or more walls. You can paint or use colorstain on wood paneling or add a splash of color to furniture, shelving andcabinets. Don't be afraid to think "outside the box" and trysomething new.

Photo from Better Homes and Gardens

Modern family room design by dc metro interior designer Laura Manning Bendik

Establish A Theme

If movies are your thing,consider adding a nostalgic popcorn popper, add some light-blocking curtainsand arrange your furniture to create optimal viewing opportunities. Manydecorating stores now carry old-fashioned looking marquee signs, metal art thatfeatures movie reels and film or movie posters of your favorite films.

If your familyactivity-oriented, consider adding a table and chairs for board games orcrafts, a gaming area for video games and some nice shelves to keep it all neatand organized. There are a lot of great store-bought options available, but youcan also find new uses for old items that will keep things organized at a fractionof the cost.

Photo from Red Hen Home

Photo from House of Turquoise/Hiya Papaya

Accessories: Bringing It All Together

A nice area rug, throwpillows, afghan or new lamp shade in coordinating colors can help bring it alltogether. Whether your tastes are contemporary or tend to be a bit moreconservative, make sure to choose new items to add that will enhance themessage or emotion you are trying to express. Curtains, shades, blinds andother unique window treatments can also help to tie your room's decor together.

Purchase artwork that matchesyour theme or buy a blank canvas, grab some paints and encourage your kids tocreate a unique piece of artwork to hang on your walls. Use family photos tocreate a whole wall display. You can use black-and-white photos or color, addmatting and choose from brightly painted, simple black or traditional metalframes.

Photo from House of Turquoise

Photo from The House of Smiths

A Fresh Look On Any Budget

It doesn't matter how muchmoney you have to spend or how much you know about interior design, it is easyto create a cozy family room in no time. A good plan, a little research andsome old-fashioned elbow grease will help you design a useful, comfortable roomthat the whole family will love.

Traditional family room design by other metros design-build Blue Sky Building Company

===============================

Thank you, Christina!! Great article and I had so much fun ~~drooling over~~, um, admiring tons of beautiful, fun family rooms to find these pictures. Because Christina doesn't have her own blog, you can leave her lots of good comments here. Come back on Wednesday for some more designing fun -What's your design style?

Lotion and Lip Balm - Beat the Winter Weather

2012-01-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

It's the middle of January, the bitter coldest winter month; snowflakes flying; kids praying for wind so we can get out of school; the temperature dropping to negative digits - again the kids praying it gets to the magic number for school closure. Well, that's usually what January is around here. Today is a balmy 35 degrees already at 8 a.m., rain if we're lucky, and not a trace of snow. :( However, my hands and lips are still feeling the effects of winter's wrath, always dry, chapped, and cracking. I have a solution, and this year, my hands are much better than in the past. I found two great recipes for making your own lotion and chapstick and they are great!

I found this recipe from Katie at This Chick Cooks. She also has a great cost break down if you're interested in the nitty gritty of it.

Homemade Bee Balm Recipeyields 16 ounces of balm 1 1/4 cups grated bee wax (about 2 ounces)
2 cups light olive oil or coconut oil
15-20 drops of essential oil (optional)
Containers for your balm

Set out your containers that you will be putting the balm into so that they are ready. Next, find a large pot and a smaller pot that will sit in your larger pot (or a double boiler). Add enough water to the larger pot so that it comes up around the bottom of the smaller pot. Bring the water to a boil.
In the top pan, add the olive oil and cook for 15 minutes. Next, add your grated bee wax. Stir the mixture until everything is melted. Add essential oil. Dip a spoon into the mixture and set it aside for a few minutes to see if the balm is your desired consistency. If you want thinner balm add more olive oil, and if you want a thicker balm add more bee wax.

While the mixture is still liquid pour it into your containers. Let it sit uncovered for several hours until totally cooled and it will harden and be ready to use.

I used coconut oil and a some mango essential oil and it smells delicious. However, the coconut oil really overpowers the other smells and the essential oil isn't noticed much. Also, when you grate the beeswax it smells like honey, who knew?! Probably all you smart people out there. :) I've never used beeswax for anything so this was a nice little surprise. lol Anyway, this is SUPER easy. I'm not sure why you need to heat the oil for 15 min. because it took maybe 1 minute for it to all melt so I might try shortening that time next time I do it.

Lisa at Lisa Take Six shared this super cheap, you can get everything at the Dollar Store, but wonderful recipe for really moisturizing lotion at her blog a few weeks ago.

Super Moisturizing Lotion

Baby lotion
Vitamin E Cream (found out from looking at other recipes, this was probably supposed to be Vitamin E face cream)
Pictured here is a cocoa butter WITH vitamin E. Pretty much any lotion will do, the vitamin E cream would just be more nourishing for your skin
Vaseline (small jar)
Containers - these small travel bottles are perfect for a purse, a desk drawer, or to give as gifts

Just dump everything in your mixer or you can use a bowl and hand mixer, and start whipping. Tip - if you cut down the middle of the bottle, you can use a spatula to scrap out every bit of the lotion. However, you might want to keep your biggest bottle to reuse and put the lotion back in when you're done.

Looks yummy, doesn't it? Let it combine until it's all nice and fluffy.

That's it! Now put it in your containers. I tried using a funnel to fill the jars, it worked okay, but I spent a long time trying to "push" the lotion down, it doesn't pour. However, I found an awesome tip from another lotion blog and I apologize to whomever I found it from, I forgot to write your name down, but she scooped the lotion into a ziplock bag and cut a corner off the bag to easily squeeze it into jars. Trust me, do it this way, it's got to be sooooo much faster! This is a nice thick lotion. It's a little greasy at first (because of the vaseline) but it really soaks in quickly, and I'm a little picky about how greasy my lotion is. I don't like to be slimy. lol This would be great to rub into feet and wear a pair of socks to bed or into hands with some cotton gloves to really let it soak in all night.

I made these for my friends for Christmas, and to decorate the jars, I used Avery 2x4" labels. You can go to Avery's website and design them however you want, even bringing in any digital scrapbook papers, or even pictures if you want. For the lip balm jars, I used the same labels, but used a 1" circle punch to cut them out. I'm sorry, I don't have pictures, I guess I never took any before I gave them away and the ones I kept are just plain. Plus, at the time, I only had a black/white printer (got a new color printer now, yeah!) and the labels weren't super cute. :)

Hope this helps with you beat your winter dry skin! Now pray for snow or spring, I can't decide which I want more now. :)

This post was featured by:

DIY Stain Pretreater & Other Laundry Tips

2012-01-17T17:12:00.002-07:00

Funny story, a couple years ago our women's group at church was having a Saturday meeting and I was asked to teach a class on making your own cleaning products. I'm not sure why I was asked as I had never done any of this before. My mother-in-law was in charge of the meeting and I'm not sure if she thought I made my own stuff or what. lol I had always wanted to make my own cleaners; I'd bookmarked (back in the days before Pinterest) several sites and recipes I wanted to try but had never gotten around to it. So I did a bunch of research, tested out a few things, and ended up with a several page handout of awesome cleaning recipes. :)

Anyway, today I'll share my laundry tips and recipes. Here is one of my very favorites:

Stain Pretreater

½ c. vinegar
½ c. ammonia
½ c. Wisk
½ c. water

Mix all ingredients and store in a spray bottle. Spray on anything with grease or food spots and wash as usual. This is super cheap and will get out about anything. It'll get out most food grease spots even after being washed and dried - you know, when the kids don't tell you or the kids themselves are doing wash and just shove everything in. It's also really good at removing ring-around-the-collar.

I also found this recipe for laundry soap - it's all over the internet. However, I've never tried it myself. I already ruined a washing machine because I used too much soap and I'm not sure how "soapy" this is. Plus, when we bought our same washing machine 4 years later, the sales lady told us to only use 1 tbsp. of soap at the most per load. This has worked great for us, getting all our clothes clean. I bought a HUGE box (I can't remember how many pounds) of laundry soap when our triplets were born and almost 7 years later I still haven't finished it yet, getting very close though.

Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- bestvalue

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm &Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stircontinually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Addmelted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved.Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight tothicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser halffull with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use.(will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-For Top Load Machine - use 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180loads)
-For Front Load Machines – use ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640loads)
* Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & HammerDetergent

TIPS FOR LAUNDRYSOAP: We use Fels-Naptha bar soap in the homemade soaprecipes, but you can use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zotebars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps. We buy Fels-Naptha by the case from ourlocal grocer or online. Washing Soda and Borax can often be found on thelaundry or cleaning aisle. Recipe cost approx. $2 per batch.

FabricSoftener for Dryer

1 Sponge cut in quarters
1 Cup Downy or other liquid fabric softener
4 Cups Water

Cut sponge into 4 sections. Mix Downy and water. Store spongein mixture; drain one sponge for each load of laundry. Put sponge in dryer withclothes. When load is done put sponge back into the mixture to use again.

If you don't like using fabric softener because it leaves a coating on your clothes i.e. your skin; because of allergies/sensitivities; or because like all of my husband's wrinkle-free dress pants say not to use fabric softener; I use vinegar. I add 1/2 to 1 c. to the rinse cycle, just pour it in the fabric softener dispenser. You can smell the vinegar when the clothes are wet, but when they're dry they have no smell. Believe me, my husband with his "super-smeller" can't even smell the vinegar after the clothes are dry. I use dryer balls, like these, to cut down on the static electricity in the dryer.

Here are a few more uses for vinegar in the laundry room:

Before washing a mustard, ketchup, spaghetti, or barbecue stain, dab with white distilled vinegar.
Remove perspiration odor and stains on clothing, as well as those left by deodorants, by spraying full-strength white distilled vinegar on underarm and collar areas before tossing them into the washing machine.
Get cleaner laundry! Add about 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar to the last rinse. The acid in white distilled vinegar is too mild to harm fabrics, yet strong enough to dissolve the alkalies in soaps and detergents. Besides removing soap, white distilled vinegar prevents yellowing, acts as a fabric softener and static cling reducer, and attacks mold and mildew. It helps keep colors from running, and helps keep hair (pet or human) and lint from clinging to clothes.
Keep the steam iron clean and in good working order by getting rid of mineral deposits in steam vents and spray nozzles. Fill the water chamber with a solution of equal parts white distilled vinegar and distilled water. Set it in an upright position and let it steam for about 5 minutes. When the iron is cool, rinse the tank with water, refill and shake water through the vents onto an old cloth. Test before using.

Do you have any more great tips for laundry? Please share them in the comments. We can all benefit from being thrifty and a little more "green" health wise in the laundry room.

This post was featured by:

iPad Apps

2012-01-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

It's been one of those days. It's now 3:30 and I'm finally eating lunch and getting around to getting a post up today. I had my nice little day all planned and NOTHING went according to plan. :) We have a several dvd machines (like red box) around the area, and I always load the new movies in the two in town. This usually takes maybe 5 min. at each store. Today it took almost an hour between the two! I should have just bought the heart wreath form I found yesterday, although it was smaller than I wanted. Instead, I spent a great deal of time trying to configure in my mind how to make my own while staring at styrofoam and wandering around my local craft store when they didn't have any heart wreaths at all. I spent an insane amount of time standing in a return line at Walmart, just to return a hanger (okay, it was a $5 hanger and I really had no use for it. I'm not sure it was worth it.) I bought a box. Exciting, I know. I always feel pretty lame when I have to pay money for a box, but just I didn't have one the right size. I did get 32 certificates ready and delivered to my youngest childrens' school as part of the student achievement awards I'm in charge of. Even those didn't go as quickly as I wanted either. I've had 1 glass of water today, I think, and I broke down and bought a pop while I was in town starving and trying to ward off a headache. :( At least I got to come home to these cuties:

Pictures from 2010

They make me smile. They're pretty goofy. I sure love them all!

Anyhoo, the real reason for the post today, my sister, Leslie, and I both got iPads for Christmas. So we want to know your favorite apps. Leslie wondered if anyone had any recommendations for good educational (kids) apps. I just want to know anything fun, helpful, whatever, that you use. I'm pretty much a novice to all apps. I don't even have a smart phone! Gasp!! I know, heck, I barely started texting a few months ago. So any recommendations would be awesome. What apps can you not live without? Which ones do you use daily? Which ones do your kids play/use when they steal your iPad? Leave a comment and let us know your favorites.

Where the Wild Things Are Birthday Party

2012-01-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

Do you have any "wild things" in your home? My sister, Leslie, is back today with another great birthday party idea.

We did this party when my youngest turned 2. He has always been a bit of a "wild thing" so this was a fitting theme, plus our family loves this book.

The decorations were really fun to make.

The cupcake idea came from here.

To make these personalized illustrations, I found images from the book online and printed them (you could also scan pages from the book). Then, I copy and pasted pictures of the birthday boy into Microsoft Word. I sized them down to fit the illustrations, and then printed and cut out his picture. Then, I glued them on to the illustration print outs.

I still laugh when I see these. We still have some hanging in his room.

For the party guests, I made these fancy crowns (with help from the B.K. employee who said we could have six : ), using the same method listed above. The kids loved to see their pictures in place of "Max." They also received their own copy of the book.

The wild guests, looking quite docile at the moment.

After my husband read the book to the kids, we gave them sixty seconds to "Let the wild rumpus start." They yelled, screamed, and ran around like crazy...actually, now that I think of it, it seems like it was only my boys running around like crazy, and their cousins staring at them in panic. Thank goodness it was only sixty seconds!

A few days after the party, when the fun of tearing through the house in their "Max" crowns wore off, I cut out the pictures from the crowns and glued them inside our copy of Where the Wild Things Are, so I can always remember my three wild things at this age.

(OK, let's be honest, there are plenty of days when I'd like to forget their daily wild antics, but again, they love to see the pictures and relive their day as "Max")

Thanks Leslie! Isn't that such a cute idea?! I love her kids' pictures in the illustrations.

Drinking Water Tips!

2012-01-05T18:26:00.001-07:00

Fantastic Friday Tips is where I'm going to start sharing the best tips I find throughout the week. This week, since my focus has been on drinking more water, I'll share my best water drinking tips. Who knew there would have to be tips for drinking water. ha ha

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this little tid bit of info. And how awesome are my friends, I didn't even search for these, my friend just pinned this one and the one at the bottom this week.

We know it's good to drink, water that is, so how to remember and make it taste, well, not like water? Here are some great ideas:

Set your watch or phone to beep at the top of each hour, or set a periodic computer reminder, so that you don't forget to drink water.
Freeze little bits of peeled lemons, limes, and oranges and use them in place of ice cubes - it's refreshing and helps get in a serving or two of fruit.
When you have a junk-food craving, down a glass of water immediately. You feel full quickly and avoid the calories, and it lets time pass till the craving fades.
Drink a glass of hot water with 1 tbsp. lemon juice mixed in first thing in the morning. This helps flush out your system.
If you use my Organize Your Day printable, you can check off a water bottle for each one you drink.
Or here's another great way to remember:

(Source: iwontstopuntilimtiny)

I didn't have nice rubber bands like this, mine were a mishmash of bands from the produce department, from the mailbox, or other assorted places, so mine looked pretty dumb. :) We used to umm . . . secretly laugh at my BIL behind his back because always wore rubber bands as a fashion statement, maybe all this time he was counting his water intake. Cheyenne didn't want me looking like him, so she nicely let me use her jelly bracelets today, so I'm much more fashionable. Now I think I should start wearing them like I did in grade school, you know 2 looped together, or the one around your wrist with others stretched up and over your fingers, then I'd be totally rad and remember to drink all my water!! lol

So do you have any more great tips on how you drink your water? Please share!

This post was featured by:

Word of the Year and Accountability

2012-01-03T14:58:00.003-07:00

Here goes, I'm going more personal here today. I need your help. I need YOU to keep me accountable. Yes, I'm talking weight-loss. I'm 175 pounds (yikes! and I just shared that with the world!!) and I don't want to be. My kids wanted to go swimming last Friday and I seriously was not going to go/take them because I didn't want to put a swimming suit on. Now that is just lame, limiting my activities because of my weight. It's time to do something,more than just my usual wishful thinking resolution this time. So I'm changing things up a little this year. First of all, I've written my goal down (see my post here).

I'm also working on one mini-goal each week, and then I'll add on. This week, I'm focusing on my water intake. Good grief, I think I spent half the day in the bathroom yesterday, however, on the up side, I wasn't ever hungry.

As I was reading through my blog reader on Sunday, I came across a couple other blogs talking about having a "word of the year". Interesting idea, I thought, but what would my word be. "Simplify" - but that's nothing new, it's been my focus for a couple years now, and I've done more to un-simplify my life so that wouldn't work. So as I was surfing the net/watching tv/reading a magazine (I'm a multi-tasker) a commercial caught my eye - the new Weight Watchers commercial. Well, what I really noticed was the "Believe" popping up all over. I like it! Then the next day as I was reading a magazine on weight-loss goals/resolutions, part of it that jumped off the page at me was believing in yourself. I found myself reading more about the same thing some place else and finally decided maybe it's something I need to work on. Believing in myself. Hmm, I guess it's been a while since I really thought about it, but yah, I don't really have a lot of confidence in myself anymore. I'm not sure when that happened. I remember being confident in high school, college even. Is it something that oozes away along with memory and body shape with each new child we bring into this world? lol I'm not sure, but I'm resolving to believe in myself this year, that's going to be my focus. If I can believe in myself, then anything is possible. I just found this quote recently on Pinterest:

Quote from imgspark.com

AWESOME!! This is my new motto. I will acheive my goals this year and become the person I know I can be. So I will be reporting my progress here throughout the year. If I know I have to be accountable to you, maybe that'll make it a little easier to get up in the morning and get exercising. And if anyone else wants to report their progress here, too, we'll all keep each other on the right track.

So what about you? Have you ever thought of having a word for the year, what's your motto, what motivates you? How do you build your self-confidence? I'd love to hear what works for you.

Goal Setting and Resolutions Printable

2011-12-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year, time to set those New Year's Resolutions. Time for a fresh start, a new beginning, time to commit to making your life better. Sounds like an overwhelming feet, right, a nice tradition, but really who keeps their resolutions for more than a week or two? I challenge you to do something different this year. Figure out why you don't keep your resolutions. Is your goal too overwhelming to begin? Is it something YOU really want to change or others want you to change or it's what everyone else is doing? Is your goal so vague you don't know where/how to begin? Do you need to learn knew skills in order to accomplish your goal? Do you have so many things you vow to change you're burned out and frustrated after the first week? Hey, I'm there with you. I've done all those things before or even worse, I just forget about my good intentions after a month or so.

So this year I've decided to do some things different this year. I'm starting with 4 main goals at most. Plus I'll break them down into smaller "weekly" goals. I'll be more specific, instead of the always elusive "I want to lose weight," I'm stating, "I want to lose 25 lbs." Finally, the number one thing experts always say to help accomplish your goal is WRITE IT DOWN! After all, a goal is only a wish if it's not written down. Because I always want a cute reminder, too, I made this printable that you're welcome to use, too. Build a Better YOU in 2012!

Build a better YOU!

As I was contemplating what I wanted to improve this year, I thought back to my younger years of goal setting for my "Personal Progress" in our Young Women program at church. I pulled out my very first book and found this great reminder of setting and reaching goals with 5 steps.
1 - Evaluate. What do I want to be? What do I want to learn? What do I want to have happen in my life, now and in the future?
2 - Plan. What do I need to do? Write down EXACTLY what I want to accomplish. Write down what I will DO to reach the goal. Write down the name of the person to whom I will REPORT - be accountable. Set a DATE by which I want to complete my goal. I may need to reset the date occasionally while I continue to work on my goal.
3 - Act. I will follow my plan of action. If I need help, I will ask someone (spouse, friend, parents, leaders, experts) to help me accomplish my goal.
4 - Report. Talk with the person (friend, spouse, especially Heavenly Father) I selected to discuss my progress with. Get some support, some accountability.
5 - What will I do next? Begin the process again, deciding what I want to do next and continuing my person progress.

I hope this will help you become the best YOU possible. Let's do it together! I'd be happy to be your "report" person if you want. And I'll be reporting to you for some of my goals, too.

Let's make 2012 our best year yet!

This post was featured by:

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2011-12-22T15:27:00.003-07:00

Well, one thing I'm crossing off my list is trying to get Christmas cards out this year. Yah, it's not going to happen, and I'm okay with that. (at least I have to be c: ) So I'll share it with you all here and call it good enough. I'm also going to be taking a break for the next week so I can have more fun playing with my family. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas filled with family and fun and wish you all the best in 2012.

Delcious Cinnamon Bread - Neighbor Gifts

2011-12-20T09:48:00.002-07:00

We're down to crunch time people!! 5 DAYS 'TIL CHRISTMAS!! I'm so excited! Anyway, I found this DELICIOUS cinnamon bread on Rae Gun Ramblings about a month ago. It claimed it was the same as Great Harvest's Cinnaburst bread. Since my family loves their cinnamon bread I decided this was the perfect thing for my family and to take to friends and neighbors. So I gave it a try and it was just as good as Great Harvest's! So I went crazy and made 12 loaves in one afternoon/evening and 4 more last night. I bagged them all up and put them in the freezer so they will be nice and fresh when we deliver this week.

GreatHarvest Cinnaburst Copycat Bread

1 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast (1 pack)
1/3 cup oil (I used veggie oil)
1/2 T salt
1 egg
4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cinnamon chips

In mixer combine yeast, sugar, and warm water and milk; let bubble for about 5 minutes.
Add in oil and egg.
Slowly add 2 cups flour, mix and then add salt.
Add 1/2 cup flour at a time until it comes away from side of bowl. Add the cinnamon chips when it gets close to the right consistency. The dough will be very sticky but the softer the dough the lighter the bread. So use the least amount of flour you can handle.
Let rise in mixing bowl for about 30 minutes.
Form into loaf (or whatever shape you want).
Let rise and additional 30 minutes.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

Makes 2loaves

Tips I learned: This dough is really like making rolls, it's sticky. I used powdered milk instead of regular, worked great and cheaper. My loaf pans are a little smaller, but perfect size for nice, big, full loaves - 4 1/2" x 8 x 2 1/2" deep. I also used mini cinnamon chips which gave it more cinnamon swirl. If the bread browns up too fast, put a piece of tin foil over top for the last 10 min. or so.

This bread would make wonderful french toast on Christmas morning, too. Yum!

I found these really cute tags that I printed out and tied one with cute ribbon I found in the dollar section at Target. I love Target! TaDa! Cute, yummy neighbor gifts!

This post was featured by:

Party Week Giveaway Winners

2011-12-19T08:24:00.001-07:00

Thank you all for helping me celebrate reaching my goal of 100 followers. It's been a fun week! So without further ado . . . here are the winners . . . drum roll please . . .

Giveaway #1 - Watch

Briana Richardson

Giveaway #2 - Yellow Headband

Melinda

Giveaway #3 - Bead Necklace

Rachel

Giveaway #4 - Hat

Brossettelewis

Giveaway #5 Zuzu Dress

MaryBeth

Giveaway #6 Ring

Alicia

Giveaway #7 White Headband

Alissa

Congratulations to all the winners! I'll be emailing you to get your information.

Party Week - Giveaway #7

2011-12-14T15:42:00.003-07:00

This giveaway is now closed.

Well, we've come to end of our week of giveaways. Wow, it's been fun!! I made some new friends, found some old ones, actually, and have loved reading all your comments. Thank you all for helping me celebrate reaching my goal of 100 followers. Remember, you have until Saturday to spread the word and enter all the giveaways.

Without further ado, here's today's giveaway: Another knitted headband, this time in cream or let's call it winter white. :) That's more fun.

So if you want to win this here's what you have to do:

1. Be a follower! Sometimes it's good to follow. :) Leave me a comment and let me know you are following. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment and tell me.

Extra entries:

2. Like The Brown Eyes Have It on Facebook.
Spread the word about my giveaway week:
3. Post about it on your blog, link to your blog in a comment.
4. Tweet it
5. Post it on Facebook using @The Brown Eyes Have It so I'll see it, too.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry letting me know what you've done.

Five chances to win! Giveaway will end Saturday, Dec.17 and winners will be announced Monday, Dec 19.

Other giveaways this week:

Giveaway #1
Giveaway #2
Giveaway #3
Giveaway #4
Giveaway #5
Giveaway #6

Teacher and Neighbor Gift Ideas

2011-12-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here is my sister, Leslie, again with some cute, simple, easy gift ideas:

Are you still looking for inexpensive gift ideas for teachers or neighbors? These are some of the things I am going to give this year:

These word art picture frames are fun and super "cost effective" (that sounds so much better than cheap). I bought used picture frames from D.I. ($1-2 each) and gave them I fresh coat of paint. Then I printed the free prints found here and here.

Next up, neighbor gifts:

I've seen lots of cute ideas out there for reusing glass jars. I reused spaghetti sauce and pickle jars, and spray painted the lids black. The bases are Dollar Store candlesticks that I also painted black. You could fill them with all kinds of things. Pencils or crayons for teachers?

And one more idea to go along with a gift for my children's teachers, these initial notepads, journals and cards from the dollar section of Target:

I couldn't find a whole set for each initial I need, but I think they would be cute to add to one of the ideas above.

Hope your shopping is almost finished! Once I find Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits, I think I will have everything I need (Mom, don't tell Dad!)

Thank you, Leslie, fantastic ideas as usual! I'm going to start saving my glass jars now so I can do this next year (we don't use those very often, lol.) I'm so excited that Leslie and family is coming up to visit for Christmas! Yeah!! You're still coming right, Les? Tell Luke I published it so it's fact now. :)

This post was featured by:

Party Week - Giveaway #6

2011-12-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

This giveaway is now closed.

I forgot all about the giveaway today. Oops! This posting everyday thing is work. lol

Today's giveaway - a super cute (I think, anyway) ring. The face is slightly bigger than a quarter, and it's on an adjustable ring base, so you can fit it to your size.

So if you want this fun ring here's what you have to do:

1. Be a follower! Sometimes it's good to follow. :) Leave me a comment and let me know you are following. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment and tell me.

Extra entries:

2. Like The Brown Eyes Have It on Facebook.

Spread the word about my giveaway week:

3. Post about it on your blog, link to your blog in a comment.

4. Tweet it

5. Post it on Facebook using @The Brown Eyes Have It so I'll see it, too.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry letting me know what you've done.

Five chances to win! Giveaway will end Saturday, Dec.17 and winners will be announced Monday, Dec 19.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate each and every one of my readers! Come back tomorrow for another great freebie.

Other giveaways this week:

Party Week - Giveaway #5

2011-12-12T13:17:00.001-07:00

This giveaway is now closed.

I have a super cute giveaway today! My sister, Leslie, has a great little shop called Cornflower Attic, and she has generously donated one of her super cute Zuzu dresses for me to giveaway today. This is the exact dress YOU can win!

Isn't it SO cute!! For the colder months now, pair it with a long sleeve shirt or cardigan. This will fit from about 1 year to around 6 years old, transforming from cute little dress to a tunic top. Now that's getting your money's worth!

Here's my little girls in their cute tunics a couple years ago. Thanks, Leslie!

So if you want this hot pink and green damask dress here's what you have to do:

1. Be a follower! Sometimes it's good to follow. :) Leave me a comment and let me know you are following. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment and tell me.

Extra entries:

2. Like The Brown Eyes Have It on Facebook.

Spread the word about my giveaway week:

3. Post about it on your blog, link to your blog in a comment.

4. Tweet it

5. Post it on Facebook using @The Brown Eyes Have It so I'll see it, too.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry letting me know what you've done.

Five chances to win! Giveaway will end Saturday, Dec.17 and winners will be announced Monday, Dec 19.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate each and every one of my readers! Come back tomorrow for another great freebie.

Other giveaways this week:

Giveaway #6
Giveaway #7

Fun Twist on a Journal

2011-12-11T18:45:00.001-07:00

Last week when I showed you my Christmas Planner, I told you I'd show you a few variations on this idea. Here are a couple of journals, an adult version and a teen/tween version, and also a cookbook, all out of the same basic supplies.

A couple years ago in the October 2007 conference session of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Henry B. Eyring gave a wonderful talk about journal keeping called "O Remember, Remember". I LOVED this talk, maybe because I'm not a very good journal writer and this is really something I need to work on. Anyway, shortly after this, my sister-in-law, Alana, brought a cute journal for us to make at our traditional Thanksgiving craft fest. So I decided to combine the two and add Elder Eyring's talk to these fun, twist on a journals to make a cute gift.

The basic "how-to" is the same as the Christmas Planner. However, the tabs for these journals are as follows: Goals, Accomplishments, Adventures and Travels, Books I've Read, Favorite Scriptures and Quotes, and Blessings. As I said, I made a Teen version, too. For those tabs I used: Goals, Favorite Songs and Artists (since this changes week to week, it's fun to remember), Books I've Read, Friends Info., Travels and Adventures, and Blessings. I also dressed these up a bit more than the Christmas book by adding quotes to each title page and matting each title and quote with either one or two layers of cardstock and/or scrapbook paper.

On the left is the front title (pocket) page. On the right is a sample section title page.

For each tab, I sectioned off about 5 pages and then left the rest of the tablet for the Blessings section. In the front pocket (inside page) I added a shortened version of Elder Eyring's talk. In this talk, he speaks about every day writing down "how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family." And as you pay more attention, you'll notice more blessings - even if it's little things like a neighbor helping out or someone letting you go in front of them at the grocery store. If you would like to make your own, you can download them all here:
Titles and Quotes
Titles and Quotes - Teens
O Remember, Remember
This is two pages, that I print back to back, cut down to size, and then fold it backwards so the title is on the front.

In the picture at the top, you'll also see a Recipe book. Cheyenne made that for Natalie a year or so ago for Christmas. This is a place Natalie can jot down her favorite recipes she got from 4-H, or while she's cooking at home. It has the sections of Breads, Meats & Main Dishes, Cakes & Desserts, Cookies, Candy, and Misc. Cheyenne also found some cute food quotes to go with a couple of them: "Man cannot live by bread alone...he needs peanut butter and jelly to go with it"; "You do not like them, so you say. Try them, try them, and you may. Try them and you may, I say."; "You get what you get, so don't throw a fit!"; and "The problem - how to get 2 lbs. of chocolate home in a hot car. The solution - eat it in the parking lot." She also decorated it with cute cooking stickers.

These make great (thrifty) gifts. I made the journals for my friends, ladies I visit for church, my girls made them for their friends, and I made them for my children's teachers. I got rave reviews from them! I even had the mom of one of my daughter's friends (who I didn't know at the time) call and tell me how much she loved it. Really! That made me feel happy. The best was when I actually saw them using them. Quite a few of those who received them would take them to church meetings to take notes in. I have loved mine to keep track of all the books I've read - found out that I read about 2 books every month. :) I also used the Quotes section to keep track of my favorite scriptures, but also the funny things my kids would say. It's fun to look back on that now. If you decide to try this, I love to hear about and see your version. Let me know!

This post was feature by:

Party Week - Giveaway #4

2011-12-10T20:54:00.001-07:00

This giveaway is now closed.

Well, better late than never today. :) Here's giveaway #4:

This is a little girl size knitted hat. It's a charcoal gray color. Yup, my mom made this one, too. She's just awesome! It's just like the one my daughter, Cheyenne, has on in this picture. Isn't she so cute! :)

So if you want it here's what you have to do:

1. Be a follower! Sometimes it's good to follow. :) Leave me a comment and let me know you are following. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment and tell me.

Extra entries:

2. Like The Brown Eyes Have It on Facebook.

Spread the word about my giveaway week:

3. Post about it on your blog, link to your blog in a comment.

4. Tweet it

5. Post it on Facebook using @The Brown Eyes Have It so I'll see it, too.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry letting me know what you've done.

Five chances to win! Giveaway will end Saturday, Dec.17 and winners will be announced Monday, Dec 19.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate each and every one of my readers! Come back on Monday for another great freebie.

Other giveaways this week:

Party Week - Giveaway #3

2011-12-09T10:46:00.001-07:00

This giveaway is now closed.

Good morning everyone! My husband surprised me today by taking the day off so my schedules a little off. We've just been relaxing this morning, and then I think we might finish up a couple gifts left to get or go to a movie or something. :)

So today's giveaway is the red bead necklace I made here. They were so fun to make that I made one for you, too.

Extra entries:

2. Like The Brown Eyes Have It on Facebook.

Spread the word about my giveaway week:

3. Post about it on your blog, link to your blog in a comment.

4. Tweet it

5. Post it on Facebook using @The Brown Eyes Have It so I'll see it, too.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry letting me know what you've done.

Five chances to win! Giveaway will end Saturday, Dec.17 and winners will be announced Monday, Dec 19.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate each and every one of my readers! Come back tomorrow for another great freebie.

Other giveaways this week:

Christmas Planner

2011-12-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was thrilled to be a guest poster at Type A Decorating. This is what I shared with Tammy's readers over there, and now I'll share it with you here. :)

Today’s post is a simple, cuteway to organize your Christmas. This issmall enough to stick in your purse, or easily hide, but contains everythingyou need to know to get you through the holidays with more time for having funwith your family. Bonus, you can use itfor several years, too.

Supplies needed:
Small 7x5” notebook
Scrapbook paper
Ribbon
A file tab punch is great, however, I also had tab stickers,or you could just cut your own
Other stickers, flowers, and embellishments
Adhesive – make sure whatever kind you use it’s a permanentadhesive

I started out with all the stuff on the left and then as Ilooked further into my stash of papers, I found all these on the right that Ibought recently (okay, a year ago) and loved them even more. Just a couple ideas to show you howcompletely unique these can be (great gift ideas, too!)

Start by cutting your two papers, the top one is 4 ¾” x 4”and the bottom one is 4 3/4” x 3”. Basically, I went with two-thirds on top, one-third on bottom if you usea different size notebook. Cut a pieceof ribbon approximately 5 1/2” or a little longer, to cover the edge where thepapers join. I actually had adhesive-backedribbon, which was nice. Probably theeasiest way to join them all together is to lay your ribbon down with theadhesive up, and center your two papers on top of the ribbon. Then wrap the ends carefully around theedges, be careful not to bend or curl your paper, and glue the ends down on thebackside of the paper.

Next, glue the whole paper/ribbon combination onto thenotebook. Make sure you put adhesive onboth the notebook and the paper – just seems to hold stronger. I used a tape runner, but ended up usingScotch brand Quick-Dry liquid glue to touch up spots that were coming loose. Add a title to your planner and whateverother embellishments you want on the front.

Now is the time to do some thinking and decide what exactlyyou want in your planner. My notebookhas a pocket inside, so that’s a great place to keep Receipts. I also did Gift Ideas so as I find ideasthroughout the year either on-line or in catalogs, I can jot it down here andremember where I saw that perfect gift. Also I’ll use it as a place jot down things people just mention inconversation. You know when that lightbulb goes off in your head as your husband (who’s my hardest to shop for)mentions some strange tool “it would be really nice to have,” but then I can’tremember when I’m standing in the tool store. You could also keep a list of clothing sizes here or things they needfor those you’re shopping for – Chloewears a size 11 shoe, but Maddie is an 11 ½, Billy needs pajamas. Traditionscould be another category, traditions to try and traditions to continue. If you’re like me, December can get a littlecrazy with all the things we have to do and all the things we want to do. This will give me a spot to list those thingsI really want to make time for and also a place to write down cool traditionsthat I hear from others that I want to try with my family. Cards. I keep all the addresses of those I sendcards to on my computer so I can print labels, but I think it will be nice tohave a place to just list the names I’m sending to. I can also add to the list here inpreparation for next year as we make new friends or get cards from differentpeople. (Or to cross out those who don’t make the list! ;) lol) Menuis where I’ll list my Christmas dinner menu, obviously, but I’m also going tomake a list of treats to make, or treats to take to neighbors, or even jot downnew recipes to try. The Gift List section will be where Iactually list out the gifts I’m giving, that’s why this planner will be hiddenfrom all little eyes! I’m one of thosepeople who buy gifts all year long. Theall get hidden away, and sometimes I forget what I’ve bought, who it’s for, orhow much I’ve already bought. It’s alsohandy when you can’t remember what you gave people last year (or the yearbefore.) Plus, it’s kind of fun to lookback and see what your kids got when they were younger (or in my house, proveyou were right when you said you got “such and such” in “whatever year”. Yah, we get a little competitive about thedumbest things. J) My final section is Notes. I can use it just fornotes, or as a little journaling place to write down some thoughts andhighlights of each Christmas season. There are many other things you could list: decorations - take a pictureof that perfect mantle so you’ll remember how to set it up next year; glue in aDecember calendar to make notes of all those parties, kids programs, concerts,etc. that you want to attend; a budget section; a party planning section – aplace to list all you need to do to host that perfect party; whatever elsewould be helpful to you.

After you’ve decided what to include, you need to make tabsand a title page for each section. Iused a file tab punch to punch out my tabs out of the same paper I used on thefront. My papers were both double-sidedso I used the back side for tabs, too. You could also buy tab stickers, or just cut out a tab shape – they’reabout 3” long. For the title pages, Ihad a sheet of embellishments/tags, I’m not sure what they’re called – it’s thetop paper in the right-hand picture. Icut these apart and wrote the name of each section on them. Some of the tags were too big to use, so Ijust cut a square of decorative paper or used another large punch todecoratively cut a title plate for some sections.

Gluethe tab to the edge of a single page. Ionly stress that because the first time I made one of these I accidentally gluedit to the first page and then the last page I had sectioned off. Doesn’t work very well that way. J Thenglue on your title tag. I made mysections about 10 pages each, although some were a little bigger when I’d bewriting a lot more. It’s up to you, howmany sections you have, and how many years you want to use it, etc. As you are gluing your tabs on, remember tostagger them so it’s easier to read the tabs.

The final step is to add the ribbons to the spiralbinding. I like the mix of some plainribbon and some patterned ribbons. Cutthem about 4” each, but I found out that the wider and stiffer the ribbon thelonger the length you need to be able to tie them. For example, the green ribbon I used was 1/8”,and a 4” long piece was more than enough to be able to tie it on. However, 4” of the patterned ribbon, which wasmore like 1/4” and a grosgrain ribbon, was barely enough for me to tie on. Just slip the ribbon through the binding andtie a double knot on each spiral. Alittle tedious, but makes it really cute, I think.

That’s it! It reallydoesn’t take that long to make and it will be invaluable to you as you try tohave an organized, stress-free Christmas.

Here are some variations of this planner that make great gifts!

This was featured by:

Party Week - Giveaway #2

2011-12-08T08:20:00.001-07:00

This giveaway is now closed.

Giveaway #2 sneak peek: (because facebook is dumb, or I am lol, and it only posts my first picture)

But first, exciting news today - I'm doing my first guest posting today over at Type A Decorating. Go check out my Christmas Planner post (or come back tomorrow and I'll share it here.)

Now on to today's giveaway. My mom has generously given me one of her super cute headbands that she was working on here.

You know, it's kind of hard to photograph these headbands without modeling them. I tried about 5 different "poses" to get something that looked sort of normal. :)

So if you want to win this cute, mustard yellow knitted headband, here's what you need to do to enter:

1. Be a follower! Sometimes it's good to follow. :) Leave me a comment and let me know you are following. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment and tell me.

Extra entries:

2. Like The Brown Eyes Have It on Facebook.

Spread the word about my giveaway week:

3. Post about it on your blog, link to your blog in a comment.

4. Tweet it

5. Post it on Facebook using @The Brown Eyes Have It so I'll see it, too.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry letting me know what you've done.

Five chances to win! Giveaway will end Saturday, Dec.17 and winners will be announced Monday, Dec 19.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate each and every one of my readers! Come back tomorrow for another great freebie.

Other giveaways this week:

Giveaway #1

Giveaway #3
Giveaway #4
Giveaway #5
Giveaway #6
Giveaway #7

PARTY Time! Giveaway #1

2011-12-07T08:30:00.001-07:00

This giveaway is now closed.

I DID IT!! I MADE MY GOAL OF 100 FOLLOWERS! Yeah, I'm so excited (can you tell!) A few months ago, I was at a crossroad - do I quit blogging (just my family/personal blog), because I haven't been keeping it up, or do I focus more on the crafts and everyday stuff I do and make it a public blog. I decided to give it a try. I had no idea how much work it is. I mean I thought, "I'm doing this stuff every day so how hard could it be." But the reality of posts two or three times a week, linking to parties every day and all that goes with that, trying to figure out this whole other language as I try to tweak my blog, it's work. However, I'm loving it!! So to watch that follower number increase was awesome. I can't tell you how excited I was to have my first follower that wasn't my mom or sisters (not that my mom and sisters aren't awesome, of course they were the first to sign up.) So THANK YOU to all of you that actually read this blog, I really am honored because I know I have some serious competition for your attention and mostly your time.

Let's celebrate! I have a week full of giveaways planned, a new giveaway every day. So spread the news, come back and check it out and win some Christmas presents for YOU.

Today's giveaway:
A leather band wrap watch. Sorry, I just couldn't get a really good picture of this, but it's a brown leather band with a brushed nickel face. It also has an adjustable chain to make it various lengths.

So how to enter:

1. Be a follower! Sometimes it's good to follow. :) Leave me a comment and let me know you are. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment and tell me.

Extra entries:

2. Like The Brown Eyes Have It on Facebook.

Spread the word about my giveaway week:

3. Post about it on your blog

4. Tweet it

5. Post it on Facebook

Leave a comment for each entry letting me know what you've done.

Five chances to win! Giveaway will end Saturday, Dec.17 and winners will be annouced Monday, Dec 19.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate each and every one of my readers! Come back tomorrow for another great freebie.

Come see my other giveaways this week:

Wedding Gifts - Wood Name Signs

2011-12-06T12:10:00.001-07:00

Last week I shared with you this cute baby gift I made for my cousin. I must be on a name kick right now because as I was contemplating what to give/make for a couple of weddings we were celebrating this weekend, everything I kept thinking of involved their new names. Then I got this email from GroopDealz (love them!) and knew I wanted to make this:

I remembered I had a couple other wood signs that "spoke" to me at the thrift store. Here's my beauties in all their glory.

Check out the skill in that wood burning! That gave me a little trouble. The other board had a super, high-gloss finish on it plus a few holes. So they took a little work, but it was worth it. I filled holes, filled the whole "let freedom ring" and bells, sanded, and sanded some more. Then I painted them both black. The first board looked great, the freedom board, not so good. I could still see all the bells and words through the paint. So some mod podge and paper to the rescue. That covered it all up. Did a little more sanding and added vinyl letters and their names. I LOVE how the first board turned out! The second one I was in a hurry, even using the blow dryer to get the mod podge to dry before I wrapped it. It didn't turn out so well, the paper didn't match as well as I'd liked and I didn't get the name on it over the line between the papers. Grrr! Oh, well, I hope it isn't too noticeable.

Anyway, here's the finished products:

Great news! I made it to 100 followers so that means it's time for a P.A.R.T.Y!! I'll be having giveaways every day for the next week. Come check them out!

This project was featured by:

Thrifty Jewelry Christmas Gifts - Part 2

2011-12-02T08:04:00.001-07:00

From my post the other day here, you know part of our Thanksgiving weekend was spent gettin' crafty. My sisters, sisters-in-law, Mom, daughters and niece have an annual tradition of a big craft day. We spread out all over my mom's big table and talked, laughed, ate chocolate cinnamon bears and the occasional piece of pie, and just had a great time together. These are some of what we made:

Today I'm going to show you what else we did. My sister Kristen (with help from SIL Alana) made this really fun interchangeable necklace.

You can change the bottom row of beads to match your outfit, and it's adjustable from 18" long to around 30" long. Cool! The initial cost was a little more expensive, I think it was about $10 for just the chain, but then each bead strand cost only around $5-$10 depending on the beads used. Still not bad considering each necklace is totally unique to you.

Supplies:
12” of nicer chain
12” of extender chain
4 jump rings
3 lobster clasps
beads
wire
crimp beads

Let me start by explaining the difference between "nicer chain" and "extender chain". The "nicer chain" is the chain that you'll see mostly. Kristen bought some cuter, bigger, twisted looped chain that was more expensive. The "extender chain" was the cheapest stuff they had, just plain regular chain, but it's mostly in the back, so you don't really see it.

Split the nicer chain into two 6" pieces. Then attach the extender chain with a jump ring at each end. Now Alana and Kristen were debating over which way to do this next part. Either you can split the extender chain also and attach a lobster clasp at one end, this is the professional, store-bought looking way. OR leave the extender chain in one piece, just attaching the lobster clasp on it so when you shorten the chain, you'll have a loop of chain in back instead of a dangling piece. Either way is fine, it's all in back anyway so it doesn't really matter. Both ways look good, not cutting the chain is just easier. Then add a jump ring at either end of the nice chain. Now your basic chain is done, you're ready to attach the bead string.

This is the fun part. Make about a 6" long string of beads. Cut a piece of stringing wire about 8" long, and string on whatever beads you like. At the ends, string on your crimp bead and lobster clasp, then loop the wire back down and through the crimp bead. Crimp it. Do this for as many different bead strands as you like. This makes a very fun, unique gift.

Now on to the second necklace. Mine was much easier. :) I made this necklace which was inspired by this post:

Supplies:
Christmas bead garland - $5 at Michaels and I made 4 necklaces with few beads leftover
Jersey knit material

First of all, I cut a piece of material 2 yards long, but only about 3/4" wide. You could probably piece it together, I just happen to have a scrap piece that long. After it's cut, grab one end and start stretching it. It'll curl in onto itself and make a sort of rope/chord. My 2 yards of fabric now stretched to 3 yards. Cut off on end at about 22" for your second string. This is made in two parts.

Left side - stretched, Right side - not stretched

Then start stringing. Wrapping the ends with a little tape makes it so much easier.

Slide a bead on down to the middle of your long string, and tie a knot on either side. Then string another bead, and tie a knot. I strung 13 beads on the bottom strand and 11 on the second strand. End each strand with a knot. Then you'll attach them together with a little hot glue. Since the material curls in on itself, I uncurled the bottom string, put just a dab of hot glue in it and put the short strand inside it, letting it curl back around it.

Cut off the extra from the inside/short strand, and slide on another bead over the top of the glued part. Then tie another knot and you're done. Word of caution, after you're done, it might look a little crooked in places and not lay just right, just wiggle it around and play with it a minute and you'll getting looking right. DON'T stretch it more, though, not that we had any experience with that (but it wasn't me). However, if you do happen to stretch it out, we found out that you can undo the whole thing, untieing each knot and do it over again. :) This is really quick, maybe 30 min, really cheap, and another great gift idea.

Hope you enjoyed our crafting session as much as we did. My family is the best! We all get along really well and have a lot of fun together. Love you all!

Help me reach and exceed my goal of 100 followers! I'm so close!

Thrifty Jewelry Christmas Gifts

2011-11-30T08:21:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. It's a good long weekend full of family, fun, and good food without all the other stressors that come with so many other holidays. I love it! This year we ate with Bill's family and the next day we hung out with my family.

We have a tradition now for the past few years that the girls (actually, nephews have been known to be involved before, too, making stuff for girlfriends) have a big crafting day, either after the food is put away or the next after everyone wakes up from late night/early morning shopping. My sister, Leslie, and I had been checking out blogs, scouring Pinterest for this year's fun idea. We never really came up with one big idea, we all kind of did our own things. So I'm sharing this with you today to give you some fairly quick, all pretty easy, and mostly pretty cheap gift ideas you can whip up for those on your Christmas shopping list.

At my mom's house in the middle of the crafting L to R: my daughter, Cheyenne; sister-in-law, Alana; sister, Kristen; niece, Ashtyn, Mom, nephew, Mitchell, applying to college; sister-in-law, Geri; sister, Leslie; and daughter, Natalie. Not a great picture, with two big windows it's kind of hard to take good pictures here.

I'll share a little of what we were all working on. My mom has made great headbands and hats for many of the girls and she was busy finishing flowers and attaching them and stuff. (I'm giving a headband away when I hit 100!)

Leslie and Ashtyn made this really cute necklace. Here is the tutorial from Little Miss Momma, she did such a good job with it, why redo a good thing. :) Here's my tip for this one, just from watching Leslie, the actual assembly of the necklace was fairly quick, but she already had a bajillion circles cut out. So put on a good show and start cutting first.

Geri, scored a great deal on her Black Friday shopping and got a whole bunch of Swarovski crystal beads and charms for $1 a box. So she got busy making a bunch of bracelets. She just strung them on stretchy chord, tied them off with a square knot, and put a little super glue on the knot to hold it tight. I believe she also made a pair of earrings to match by gluing a charm to some posts she bought.

Kristen (with help from Alana the jewelry making expert!) was busy making a really cute interchangeable necklace. Come back on Friday and I'll show you how to do it.

I was being very frustrated making a leather wrap bracelets like Want to Get Crafty's here. My advice - DON'T use sinew for the thread, it's way too sticky, and when you're working with a piece that's around 10-12' (yes feet!) long, it's a pain in the butt! Then after I finally got it all done, I didn't like it, so that's in the redo pile. This one was not so quick, but that was mostly because I was trying to figure it out for the first time. Once I got the idea of how to do it, it went pretty quickly, and if I used waxed thread instead of the sinew it would have been even faster. I'll redo it and let you know.

However, I also helped several of my family make this bead necklace. Again, come back on Friday and I'll show you what I did. (Edited to add link to part 2 here.)

I hope this gives you some fun ideas for Christmas gifts. It really is fun and so satisfying to say, "Yah, I made that!" What is on your Christmas crafting list?

This post was featured here:

I'm so close to my goal of 100 Followers. Will you help me?

Thrifty, Easy Baby Name Sign

2011-11-27T17:58:00.001-07:00

Ahhhh, what a great weekend! I love Thanksgiving! The food is great, but being in the company of family all weekend is the best! As part of the weekend's fun, my cousin and his wife and brand new baby came up to visit my aunt and uncle who live next door to my parents. We went over and visited and I got lots of new baby holding time. It was great! Here's the gift I made for them, that I think turned out really cute.

Here's my thrifty tip for you - I found the wood at my local thrift store. Cost me a whole 75 cents! As I was walking through the store one day, I was laughing at all the plaques and signs that had been really cute decor in someone's house at some time. I thought of how many signs had come and gone in my house and I had sent here to die, also. I picked one up, reminiscing at how I had once had something similar when I started really looking at the size and shape, the nicely routered edges, and how easy it would be to just sand a little or slap some new paint on it and it would be a fresh canvas. Now I had a whole new set of eyes as I looked around, not at what it was, but at what it could be. I know, I know, some of you are experts at this and easily see the possibilities of someone else's trash, but this was a whole new experience for me. I grabbed a piece of wood, a little sanding, some wood filler (of the nice wood burning/etching) and it will be perfect for a wedding present I need to make. I found a totally plain piece of wood, just need to sand the super high gloss finish off of it and another wedding present for this weekend.

Then I stumbled across this piece above. I don't know what it originally was, there was nothing on it, just wood slats. It needed a little glue to hold one of the slats that was starting to fall off, but a very easy fix. At the moment, I thought a Halloween or fall decoration, "trick or treat" or some other 3 word phrase. So I grabbed it, took it home, and it sat waiting for inspiration to strike again. Halloween came too quickly, and thankfully it never got painted. Fast forward a month, and I wanted to make a present for this cute new baby boy, who's nursery is NOT babyish I was told. I remembered this wood slat piece. My sister Leslie was visiting, so she helped me come up with this cute design all while playing a little "Dance Central 2". :) Using my cricut (and my new gypsy!) and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, I cut the "L" at 11" height, and the name at 1 1/2" height. Here's my second thrifty tip for you - when making stencils for painting, etching, or anything like that, use contact paper. A lot of the tutorials I've read use vinyl, but why use your good, expensive stuff when you can get a giant roll of contact paper for a few dollars. It cuts like vinyl - I use all the same settings, but it's stickier so seals better with paint or etching cream, meaning cleaner lines. Oh, another thrifty tip - instead of using transfer paper, I use blue painters tape for transferring vinyl (or contact paper.) It picks it up easily, can be reused several times, and is much cheaper. The only downside is you can't see through it. Anyway, I laid out all the templates and painted them with ivory craft paint. I just used a sponge brush and "pounced" (real technical term) all over it. Later, I pulled off all the stencils and started sanding. I wanted an "old, distressed" look to it. I sanded through the paint, and then started on the actual wood and I really liked the look it gave. When I was all done, I gave it a good wipe down with a damp rag to clean it all up.

The final verdict, I think she really liked it and said my cousin would love it! Yeah!! And baby Luke is just adorable, I just wish he lived closer so I could snuggle him more often.

This post was featured here:

I would love it if you would Follow me! Help me make my goal of 100 followers by the end of the week!

Doctored Cake Mix & Cheyenne's Birthday

2011-11-22T15:07:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in this post, my daughter Cheyenne turned 16 a couple weeks ago. We had both sets of grandparents over for presents and cake and ice cream. Since she is now allowed to date, her dad and I gave her a "promise" ring - a promise to us ring, to remember who she is, make wise decisions and to stay pure and clean. I think she liked it. However, I don't think that was her favorite present. Bill's brother, Uncle Thomas, loves to tease Cheyenne. He loves to give her presents like a John Deer tractor poster or calendar, or a TinkerBell calendar, usually wrapped up with Hannah Montana wrapping paper or Jonas Brothers cards. This year was no exception, and topped everything he'd ever given her before. He gave her a tote box and inside this box was all the ingredients (and I mean everything!) to make HIS favorite cookies with instructions that she had until the expiration date on the milk to make them for him. Little does he know that when he returns from his honeymoon (he just got married this past weekend, yeah!) he'll have a plate of beautiful cookies waiting for him - with a little pepper or some other special ingredient in them. Oh, and Cheyenne's wedding present to him, a beautiful, bright green John Deer tractor poster for their new house. :)

I'm not a big party person, I'm too cheap. :) My parties here and here are fairly low-key and pretty simple and easy. Now these two fabulous parties here and here are my sister, Leslie's, awesome creations. See, she loves to plan a party, me, not so much. So back to Cheyenne, 16 is one of those big years and we told her she could have a party. She wasn't sure she wanted to, which friends should she invite, it costs too much, it's too much work for you, mom, and on and on. I told her 16 is a time to celebrate so quit your whining we're having a party! ;) Let me tell you though, a 16 year old party is so much easier to plan than a 6 year old party. I decorated our bonus room a little, bought a bunch of pizza, and left them to have fun watching movies, playing xbox, ping-pong and pool. They all had a great time, I think, and there was only one small casualty of a broken pool cue (thank goodness it was just the little one.)

Now if you've stayed with me this long, I'll share my favorite cake recipe. I made this once for the family party and then again as cupcakes for her friend party. I'm not a beautiful cake maker. It takes me too long and I don't have enough patience for it. I've adopted the motto that it's not what's on the outside, but what's on the inside that matters. So true in life, and even more so for cake! :) See above for my fancy decorating, well, actually Natalie did the writing (that's how Cheyenne used to sing "Happy Birthday"), I only frosted. I'm as busy as the next mom, and sometimes a box cake is just faster. However, my husband is somewhat of a food snob and can always tell a box cake from a "real" cake, and then complains. So when my friend, Hilary, shared her "doctored cake mix" recipe, I was all over it. This is so good and very moist, unless my husband sees the box (which I usually quickly bury in the garbage) he can't tell it's a box mix.

Basic "doctored mix" Recipe
-Hilary Muckleroy

Prepare cake mix as per package directions. In addition to this add:
1 egg
1 c. flour
250 ml (or 8oz.) sour cream or yogurt
1 c. white sugar
1/3 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla or other suited flavoring

Use any flavor cake mix, yogurt, or flavoring.

Bake according to box directions. If baking a 9x13" pan, it will be more full, so it will take a little extra time. Or, you can make a 9x13" pan (normal fullness) and 6 cupcakes. I saved the 6 extra cupcakes in the freezer for later.

Use your imagination when it comes to flavor combos. I've done white cake and chocolate cake with strawberry yogurt, both good. I wonder what white cake with key lime yogurt or boston creme pie would taste like? Maybe chocolate with butter flavoring? Chocolate with orange yogurt and orange flavoring? The possibilities are endless and now I'm getting hungry. :) What else could I try? What are your favorite flavor combinations?

This post was featured by:

December is not far away! Can you help me reach my goal of 100 follower by Dec. 1?

Cheyenne's Birthday

2011-11-20T19:15:00.001-07:00

My baby just turned 16!! My sweet little girl is getting all grown up! Where has the time gone? Seems like yesterday she was this little.

Now she'll be dating and next month she'll have her driver's license. Oh, and she's waiting for a phone call to see if she'll have a job through the holidays, too. I don't think I'm ready for this. Can I be this old? Wasn't I just turning 16? (Sigh...) The fun part of her getting older is we have a lot of fun together. She's my scrapbooking and jewelry making buddy. We had so much fun going to basketball games together last year. She's my fashion consultant. She's my friend. I sure love you, Cheyenne!

Before I get too, mushy, I'll share with you the card I made for her. Here's my philosophy on card making. I like cards to be quick, easy, and not make people guilty for throwing them away. :) I don't want to be the reason for someone's hoarding, someone's overflowing box of cards they can't bear to throw away because someone went to a lot of work making them. lol So here it is, simple, easy, yet cute.

Step 1: I cut an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of brown cardstock in half the short way. That leaves you with two card bases sized 4 1/4"x 5 1/2", also known as an A2 size card. Then I tore the numbered sheet of paper slightly smaller. I have a few of these embossed paper packs that have different colored cores so when you tear or sand the other color shows through. Really fun for cards or scrapbooking.

Step 2: I sanded all the 1s and 6s for 16, ya know. Glued that onto the brown base.

Step 3: With my cricut I cut the "sweet" from the Graphically Speaking cartridge, and "16" from Doodletype. Glued those on with my Zig 2 Way Glue - it's like gluing with a ball-point pen, awesome! Finally, grabbed some ribbon and miraculously managed to tie a decent bow on the first try. Yes, I have a love/hate relationship with bows. I think I'm a little bow-tying handicapped, they just never come out right. So when they do turn out right, I'm thrilled!

That's it! Quick and easy.

Come back tomorrow when I share more birthday fun and a fabulous upgrade of a box cake mix!

My goal is 100 followers by December, can you help me out?! Follow me and then we'll have a big Christmas party to celebrate.

Pie!

2011-11-16T14:31:00.001-07:00

Pie is a BIG deal in my family and coincidentally, my husbands family, too. For as long as I can remember, my dad always requested cherry pie for his birthday instead of cake; I think my brothers did, too. After I got married, I found out Bill loves pie, too. In fact, when we get together to celebrate any birthday for his dad or any of his uncle's, we always have pie. To prove how big of a deal pie is at our house, a few years ago we hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house and ended up with 9 pies for 7 adults (and kids, who don't each much pie. :) ) We like our pie!

This was for Bill's birthday, thus the "B" on top. :)

Lucky for me, my mom is an amazing pie maker and passed her talent on to me. Not to be bragging here, but pie is one thing I excel at, maybe it's all the practice I do now. One of the highlights of my newly married life was when my FIL raved over my pie (a little to MIL's chagrin) and then the next time we had pie, MIL sprinkled sugar on top and did a few things to try and make her's like mine. I was secretly ecstatic! (MIL is a pretty good cook, and I had heard too many times already "Call my mom and see how she does it.") She has since admitted that I can make a better pie than her and leaves that to me now.

Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I already have my pie crusts in the freezer, I thought I'd share a couple recipes with you. First of all, my mom's Fool Proof Pie Crust. This recipe is awesome! I've never had it come out tough, only tender and flaky.

Fool Proof Pie Crust

No matter how muchyou handle this dough, it will always be flaky, tender and delicious. Scraps can be re-rolled if necessary andcrust will never be tough. Dough can beleft in the refrigerator up to 3 days or can be frozen until ready to use. Recipe makes 2 double-crust pies.

4 c. flour 1 c. shortening (notrefrigerated; do not use oil,

1 Tbsp. sugar                  lard, margarine or butter
2 tsp. salt                    1 Tbsp. white or cidervinegar
1/2 c. water.                 1egg

In large bowl,stir together with fork flour, sugar, and salt; cut in shortening untilcrumbly. In small bowl; beat togetherwater, vinegar and egg; add to flour mixture and stir until all ingredients aremoistened. Divide dough in 4 portionsand with hands, shape each in flat round patty ready for rolling; wrap eachpatty in plastic or waxed paper and chill at least a 1/2 hour. When you are ready to use the pie crust,lightly flour both sides of the patty and roll out on lightly floured board orpastry cloths.

The next recipe, Huckleberry Pie Filling, came from my husband's Aunt Janie. For those of you who don't know what huckleberries are, they're a cousin to the blueberry, but smaller and more tart. They only grow up in the mountains and are a hot commodity. Seriously, people around here will go to their death beds without revealing their secret huckleberry spot. The berries are only in season for a couple of weeks at the end of July, usually, and it's back breaking work to spend hours hunched over a bush picking the little things. Then you bring them home, freeze them, and treat them like gold, only to be used for the specialist of occasions. :) Huckleberries pie is a favorite in Bill's family, so I was thrilled when his aunt shared this recipe with me. This same basic recipe works for about any kind of berries, too.

Huckleberry Pie Filling

2c. frozen berries ½c. water
3Tbsp. tapioca 1c. sugar

Ina small pan on low heat, combine berries, tapioca and water. Add sugar. Bring to a slow boil. Mix 2 tbsp.cornstarch and ½ c. water until smooth. Pour into berry mixture. Bring toboil and stir until slightly thickened. Let the filling cool a little before pouring into crust. This will keep it from boiling over and making a mess in your oven. Pour into pie crust and bake.

Afterbaking, let cool before serving. This letsthe pie filling set up so it doesn’t all run out when you cut it.

If you've never baked a pie, try it! I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about it, too. I really think the secret is a lot of practice, so don't give up if it doesn't turn out perfect the first time. Mine still aren't the prettiest every time, but at least they taste good.

I'm getting closer to my goal of 100 followers! Help a gal out, would ya. Be a follower!

“Come join Love the Pie with TidyMom sponsored by Cherokee USA, Le Creuset, Wilton, Bags by Bloom and Harvard Common Press”

Disney Cars Birthday Party

2011-11-15T23:56:00.000-07:00

If your kids are in love with Mator, McQueen and the rest of the gang, this post is for you. Leslie is back today with another super fun birthday party, just as all the fun of Cars 2 comes to your house!

My 3-year-old loves cars, trucks, trains, tractors- you name it. He is the only person I know who gets excited when we hit construction while driving (which seems to be everywhere in Utah County right now)! To me it's a little truck or a big truck but he corrects me on the specifics: pumper, grader, paver, roller etc. (I'm sure the fact that we are constantly renewing the Mighty Machines DVDs from the library has encouraged this fascination).

Anyway, he also loves the Disney Cars characters so when he turned three last April, that was the theme of choice.

I was very inspired by the party featured here on the How Does She website. I love seeing other blogger's party ideas for inspiration. I thought these cars looked so fun! So, I went to work. First, I (and every friend and neighbor I could ask) collected cardboard boxes. Then, I tried to follow this tutorial but ended up with my own trial and error models. Last, I got out the paint and my son's car collection and had fun recreating the details.

I'm glad a took a few pictures the day before because party day was rainy and cold and we didn't get to race around for long. However, the cars were used all summer long and we still have one as a decoration in his room.

The decorations were simple. I made a runner and racing flags from the checkered fabric (we had to be able to wave them and say, "Gentlemen start your engines" before they began to race around), and a pennant banner with the birthday boy's name (which is still hanging in his Cars room).

I am not a great cook or cake decorator. (Sometime I should post the pictures of the melting Lego block cake that was never meant to be). But, this was easy enough and for the 2-year old and friends there were sufficient ohhhs and ahhhs. (The Oreo racetrack helped).

The treat bags were also quite simple. I searched for cars images online, copy and pasted them into Word, and inserted the guests names on the images.

Then we raced in between rain showers.

This little one and Sally could hold their own against all those boys!

Now that Cars 2 was released on DVD, I've got to remember that for a certain someone's stocking stuffer! Thanks for reading!

Thanks Leslie, that is one super fun party! Kachow!

I'm getting closer to my goal of 100 followers! Help a gal out, would ya, be a follower!

Linking up with:

Project Queen

Crafty Confessions

Funky Polkadot Giraffe

Hope Studios

I'm Topsy Turvy

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Not Just a Housewife

Reasons to Skip the Housework

Making the World Cuter

Type A Decorating

Blackberry Vine

Evolution of a craft and what I learned

2011-11-11T08:26:00.001-07:00

I love Thanksgiving and think it get's shoved aside with all the fuss of Halloween and then overlooked in the excitement of Christmas. That's why I loved this cartoon when I saw it on Facebook. I'm always on the lookout for a cute Thanksgiving craft, so today I'm sharing with you my first Thanksgiving craft of the year.

A couple of months ago, our group of ladies at our church had what's called a "Super Saturday" - a day full of crafts and fun, usually once a year. I was so excited to attend! It had been YEARS since we'd had one. I was also asked to teach a class how to etch glass, something I love to do. So because I was teaching, I only got one of my 4 projects started, well 3/4 of the way done until I got picky. If you read this post and learned a little about me, you'll know that I can be a bit of a perfectionist and then I procrastinate - the reasons I don't finish my projects at times. There sat my really cute "Give Thanks", my husband growling more each day at why there was such a mess on the table (my craft room is also the exercise room, play room, and more.) So this week I decided to tackle the project and just get it finished. Thus the evolution of a craft and what I learned along the way.

So as I said, I started this at the church. Got all the pieces painted and picked out my paper which was being mod podged on top. As I looked at all the cute paper to choose from, I realized I had the same pack of paper at home. No wonder I was having such a hard time deciding, there were so many I liked. :) I finally settled on a few and got to work gluing them on. First tip I learned - when mod podging, brush the glue on the wood AND on the paper. It eliminated a lot of the bubbling up that I usually got when I just put it on the wood. As that was drying, I went to work on my pumpkin, to which I stressed and fretted over for a long time. It just wasn't coming out like I wanted. I finally gave up on that and decided we'd see how it looked later; I could always paint over it and start over. So as I was cleaning up my stuff and getting ready to go home, I looked at my now, paper covered letters. Two of them were looking really pink. I don't know if it was changes in lighting, me just looking more closely, or the mod podge changing the color a little, but my 2 red letters were now pinkish. You can't have pink letters in a Thanksgiving craft. I decided to hurry (since the glue wasn't completely dry yet) and rip the paper off those letters. Yup, I did it, as some of my friends watched as this crazy woman frantically undid what I had so carefully done in the first place. I went home a little frustrated with the mess I'd made (still not liking my pumpkin at all) and wondering if I'd be able to fix it all.

Not positive this was the red (turned pink) paper. See, there it looks okay so maybe it was the mod podge. But that is the blue paper.

My mess of a craft sat and sat waiting for me to take pity on it and just finish the darn thing. Procrastination set in and my mind said, "You have a whole 1 1/2 months until November, no worries." September finished, October flew by, and now November is here. Bill's grumbling over my "mess" was getting louder so I finally took some action. As I pondered over it, I realized the blue stripe was not so great either (it had the pink color in it, too, and just wasn't giving me a Thanksgiving vibe.) Now this one was good and dry, thus I discovered tip number two - when you want to remove something mod podged spray it with water and let it soak in. I sprayed the whole letter and let it sit about five or ten minutes and the paper came off fairly easily - well, at least the top layer.

After I got the top layer off, I sprayed it again with water and let it soak in for a few minutes. Then using a little dish scraper, I easily scraped off the rest. This actually came off MUCH cleaner than the paper I ripped off before it was fully dry. I didn't even need to sand it.

Not a great picture of the scraper, but those things are amazing - for dishes and crafts! :)

On the first set of letters I had to do a bit of sanding to smooth out the rest of the paper left on the wood. As I said, I had this same pack of paper, so I flipped through and found the perfect pieces! I quickly traced the letters on, cut inside the lines, and glued them on. Tip number three - I had a little brayer to roll out the bubbles with, worked great! I also thought, later, I could have used the little scraper tool, that would have worked just as well, I think. Something more than just hands was a lot easier to get all the wrinkles and bubbles out. As I was waiting for that to dry, I decided to tackle the pumpkin again. It was now not looking as hideous as it had been, but it still needed something. Tip number four - if you think your craft, whatever it is, is awful and ruined, give it some time and some space and then take another look. It might not be so bad. :) I finally just added some jute and a leaf and viola! I liked it.

So that's it, my "Give Thanks" is now proudly displayed in my home; my craft table is almost cleaned off (today's project is to finish :) ); and I learned some valuable lessons and patience in my crafting. Have you ever had a craft project teach you a thing or two?

I've got some fun giveaways planned for when I get to 100 followers.

Join me, then pass the word along, I'm almost there!

Linking up with:
Bacon Time With the Hungry Hypo
Creation Corner
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Fun to Craft
Lovely Crafty Home
Making Lemonade
Simply Designing
Simply Sweet Home
Delicate Construction
Naptime Crafters
Blissful and Domestic
One Artsy Mama
Serenity You
I Heart Naptime
Nifty Thrifty Things
Sisters of the Wild West
The Gunny Sack
So Very Creative
DIY Home Sweet Home
You Are Talking Too Much
Ask Anna
Project Queen
Crafty Confessions
Making the World Cuter

Today is a New Day Printable

2011-11-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! If you'll remember back a couple weeks ago I posted about starting each day with a plan and organizing your day. I don't know if it's helped any of you, but it has sure helped me get a lot more done each day. Anyway, I really liked the printables I had listed there, but neither were exactly what I wanted. So I decided to make my own. I was so excited to try this, and I even made those water bottles from a real picture of a water bottle. New technique for me and I was so impressed with myself for figuring it out. lol Here's the link: Today is a New Day

Today is a New Day

I printed mine out at my local copy place and had them laminate it, too. Then each night, after the kids are all in bed and I'm relaxing for a bit, I take 5 min. and plan out my next day. It's really been working well, and it helps me sleep better, too. Why, you might ask? Because as soon as my head would hit the pillow a million things that I needed to do the next day would start racing through my head. lol I know I'm not the only one who does this, right? Now, I've already gotten at least most of those things planned out or there's no room to add anything else anyway. It really does help me fall asleep faster. Try it!

A big shout out and a thank you to Krista Sahlin for letting me use her buttons on this to share with you. They were a freebie from her site here. I also want to thank Summer Driggs for letting me use the rick rack on this, too. They were a freebie from this kit here.

Anyway, I hope someone else might find this helpful. I'd be happy to change any of the box headings if you'd like, too. Just let me know.

This post was featured at:

I'd love it if you would follow me here or on facebook!

Big party when I hit 100!

Versatile Blogger Award

2011-11-05T20:07:00.000-06:00

Things have been a little crazy busy around here for the last few weeks, but hopefully I'm on top of things now and it'll be a little calmer. Meanwhile, a couple weeks ago, Laura from Our Prairie Home awarded me, and 14 others, with the The Versatile Blogger award. I was so honored. Thank you so much, Laura!

As part of accepting this award, I now have a little work to do:

1. Thank and link back to the person that gave you this award.

Thank you again, Laura, you're right, us newbies have to stick together. She has a great site full of fun vintagey crafts, amazing furniture makeovers, and more. Just the name of her blog Our Prairie Home makes me want to visit. :)

2. Share seven (7) things about yourself.

Here goes:
1. I'm a mom to 6 fabulous kids ages 16 (in 3 days) to 6 - including triplets. We had 3, two girls and boy, going for number 4 and surprise! we get 2 more girls and a boy. :)
2. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and a procrastinator - not a good combination. Makes getting things done a little hard at times.
3. I love being organized - A place for everything and everything in it's place, at least most of the time is my motto.
4. I love a good book!
5. We love to watch movies as a family, although I suck at the quote the movie line game. I never say it quite right and can't remember every line from every movie I've ever seen like the rest of the family can. :)
6. Biggest pet peeve - chewing with your mouth open or smacking - "A smack for a smack!" is the rule at our table. lol
7. Love living on a farm, but not having to make a living from the farm. We live on my father-in-laws farm letting us enjoy wide open views, delicious beef, my kids having the opportunity to do some real work, and the smell of sunshine (my husband's nice way of saying manure that is NOT my favorite!)

3. Send it along to 15 other bloggers and let them know they've been awarded.
I've been doing some searching and found some really fun bloggers that I'd like to share with you. I'm following them all now, and hope you'll do the same.

1.The Small Things - she has THE best hair tutorials I've seen. Very easy to follow videos that show you step by step how to do each style. My new favorite hairdo - her messy ponytail/bun!

2.Love Notes by Lauryn - she's a preschoolteacher, which I believe is right up there with kindergarten teacher and Saint. She's a great graphic designer and I really learned a lot fromher ABC’s of Hair (um, can you tell I need some help with my hair?)

3.Ribbonwood Cottage - I found Debbie from her nice comments on my blog and I’m so glad. She's a cross-stitcher, too, something I really enjoy but don't see enough of in blog land. She lives on a cool farm, and deep down, I'm a farm-girl at heart.

4.Red Hen Home - I LOVE her amazing beadboardsigns!! Plus she does incredible furniture makeovers.
Check out her awesome theatre room.

5.Sugar Baby Boutique - she has some really great storage ideas for crafts to hair accessories. I really like her magnet board made with paint sticks.

6.Roca and Company - if you have a shirt you're tired of, this blog is the place to come. She has some amazing shirt refashions and she throws a "rockin" linky party every Friday!

7.A Home, Made - Amy's a newbie, only been blogging for almost a month. She made an awesome spooky castle/craft with stuff fromaround the house - tp/paper towel rolls, lids, tissue box. Very cool!

8.Imperfectly Inspired - Another newbie, only been blogging for almost 2 months. She has a reallycool DIY picture matting of an old picture of her Grandpa and Grandma. I love it!

9.The Creative Paige - I really like her cute blog design, it makes me happy when I'm there. :) Paige has tons of cute printables, too, and she likes a lot ofthe same blogs I do.

10.Mndy Made - Her little girl is adorable! I really like her cute clothespins tutorial. I've got to make these for my kids's chore charts.

11.Redfly Creations - I just found her from a link party where she posted a recipe for the Amish Friendship Bread. Awesome!! My kids love that stuff, but I hate throwing away half the start each time since I've already given it away to every friend, neighbor, and family member who will let me in the door with it.

12.Bear Rabbit Bear - She made potato head pumpkins this year. They are so cool! I'm definitely keeping that in mind for next year!

13.Adventures of a DIY Mom - I love her reversiblebead board pumpkins (I think I have a thing for beadboard), and will definitely be making these. Rachel also has a lot of great canning ideas and tutorials.

14.Simply Dove - Sarah has lotsof fun sewing/refashion ideas. I really like her simple tutorial for an infinity scarf. She also had a post on macrophotography a few weeks ago – great pictures.

15.Make the Best of Everything - "The Happiest people don't HAVEthe best of everything. They MAKE the best of everything!" is the subtitle on her blog. Words to live by! She also has really fun felt play-food ideas and her homemade tortilla chips look delicious.

So if you're in the mood to make some new bloggy friends or just be incredibly inspired, go check out the above blogs. Share some love in this big old bloggy world!

Halloween Fun

2011-11-04T15:53:00.001-06:00

Before we get too far past, I want to share our Halloween fun with you. Let me start by saying I'm not a huge fan of Halloween (I know, I know, heaven forbid I'm not a fan of Halloween.) I mean I like it, but I don't go all out with decorations or costumes. I'm not spending a fortune on a costume my kids will wear once. And if I'm making them, it'll be out of sweats or something they'll wear again. Oh, and I really don't like the school carnival, it's hot, it's crowded, and full of whiny kids and pushy parents. lol So what do we do for Halloween? We started off by ~~bribing~~ convincing our youngest four that we could have so much more fun at home carving pumpkins and getting Wendy's for dinner than going to the school carnival. It worked and after a little photo shoot down at the farm (more on that later) and some yummy burgers and fries, the kids all started picking out their patterns to carve. I'd found some great patterns online and they quickly snatched those up and set to work. This was the first year that the triplets only needed minimal help, so that was fun. Here's what we ended up with. Can you tell what they are?

The Hunger Games MockingJay and an Angry Bird

Two Angry Birds and a skull

On Monday, I got to help with Chloe, Maddie, and Jon's 1st grade class party, which according to most of the class was "the best party EVER!" (until next year! lol) After lunch, I went back to the school to see them all in the costume parade. Then we came home, got all the costumes fixed up with the face paint, weapons, and hats/masks that weren't allowed at school. We visited my parents and picked up Natalie from school and headed to Bill's office for his office party/trick-or-treating. The employees all bring their kids and they go trick-or-treating from office to office. Let me tell you, this is the best way to trick-or-treat! It's warm, we don't have to build costumes around coats, they get a lot of candy and we're done by 5 p.m. :)

After the party, we headed home and did a little trick-or-treating to Bill's parents and a just a few neighbors. Then home to have pumpkin pizza (papa murphy's) while we watched a movie together, interspersed with races to see who could answer the door first. It was a good night! Here's my cute kiddos:

It was pretty windy, even here on the porch. Every picture has Maddie trying to keep her hat on or her hat all smashed down from holding it down.

Billy the Ninja

Chloe the black cat

Jon a knight

Maddie a witch

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween holiday!

Cute & Simple Gift

2011-11-01T09:01:00.003-06:00

While browsing through one of my favorite digital scrapbooking websites, The Lilypad/Sahlin Studio, I came across these awesome monogrammed notecards. At the time, I thought they would be great for journaling about anything (a C for Christmas, S for Swimming), or anyone (N for Natalie, etc.) I quickly bought them and downloaded them waiting for the right page to try them out on. Fast forward a month or so with very little scrapbooking time and I still hadn't gotten to use them yet. Then I remembered I had a friends birthday coming up and I remembered seeing a post on The Letter 4 about making your own notepads. So I decided I'd try it out.

I made a document with 6 of the monogrammed notecards on it all sized 4" width x 3.5 " height.

I printed 20 of these pages at my local print shop and then trimmed them all to size. I also cut a piece of cardboard (cereal box, extra packaging, whatever) in the same size for the back. Then stack them all together getting the top as even as possible.

Using your glue gun, cover the top edge in glue. Take a scrap piece of cardboard, and smooth it across the top, smoothing the glue and pushing it around to cover it all. I did this three times, paying extra attention to all four edges, making sure they are all covered. Sorry, I couldn't hold the glue gun or the cardboard to smooth it while holding the camera, too. I hope that makes sense. The glue kind of lapped over the front edge, so I just tore off the top page and used my scissors to cut off any excess on the edges.

This was after the first coat.

I also covered a big Symphony bar (toffee and almond kind, YUM!) to make it extra special. Everyone needs chocolate on their birthday. I just took the outside wrapper off, leaving the silver wrapper on. I measured a piece of paper (8x8 pad of paper was perfect!) to 8"x 6 3/4". Lay the candy bar inside, wrap up one edge and crease the bottom edge. While holding that edge, pull the other side tightly and crease that bottom edge also. Then run a strip of double sided tape or glue or whatever adhesive you like one one edge and glue down the other side on top of it. I then just wrapped a ribbon around, and then secured the stacked flowers together to the ribbon with a brad. Again, pulling the ribbon tight, glued it together in the back. Easy Peasy! This was all a little kit with paper, the flowers, ribbon, and more. Made this even easier. Now it makes a little gift something a little more special. A great little thank you gift for teachers, coaches, visiting teachers or teachees, or someone who just needs a little pick me up.

I also added a necklace to this for her gift.

So there you have it. Two easy, simple little gifts. I love giving something handmade whatever the occasion. I hope the recipients feel the same way. lol

Linking with:
Mommy by Day Crafter by Night
Project Queen
Crafty Confessions
Funky Polkadot Giraffe
Hope Studios
I'm Topsy Turvy
Reasons to Skip the Housework
The Sasse Life
Tales of a Trophy Wife
Blue Cricket Design
Ginger Snap Crafts
Cookies XO
Savvy Southern Style
The Trendy Treehouse
Sweet Peas and Bumblebees
Southern Lovely
733blog
Laugh Love and Craft
Lil Luna
Passionately Artistic
A Glimpse Inside
Between U and Me
House of Hepworths
Mom on Timeout
Thrifty and Fabuless
Saved by Love Creations
Bear Rabbit Bear
Blissful and Domestic
Vanessas Crafty Nest
Family Ever After
While He Was Napping
Christmas Gifts and Ornaments for $10 or less

I'd love it if you would follow me here and on Facebook!

We're going to party when we hit 100.

This was featured by:

Featured Again

2011-10-31T14:23:00.001-06:00

As I was trying to catch up on my emails and reading list from the last two weeks, I found out that Paige from The Creative Paige featured my Save the Holes post. Thank you, Paige!

Another Feature

2011-10-29T13:44:00.002-06:00

I'm so lucky! Kelly at Blue Bird Sews featured my upcycling of Chloe's dress into a shirt this week. Thanks Kelly!

Angry Birds Birthday Party

2011-10-25T08:20:00.001-06:00

Lucky you! My sister, Leslie, is back again today with another guest post. This time an Angry Birds birthday party. Here's Leslie:

When it comes to birthday parties, (or any kind of party, really)... I get a little excited!

My son's birthdays are all within two weeks of each other in April and May, so pretty much as soon as Christmas is over I start planning. (OK, not really that early, but I do get things going in my head quite early). Today I want to share with you some ideas we used last May for a joint party for my 8-year-old and 5-year-old. We chose an Angry Birds theme since they (and their Dad) love this game.

Five months ago, there wasn't much out there you could buy around this theme. Now, I see toys, games, and clothing all over the place. (Have you seen this costume idea? It's probably a good thing I didn't see this until recently. So fun.) We had to come up with most of the party decorations, favors, and games, ourselves, but that was all part of the fun.

Decorations:
I had drawn out a pattern for each bird on colored card stock that I was just starting to cut out when I found this free printable, so I used it instead. It looked better than what I was free handing anyway.

I also used the pattern for the treat bags. (Thank you creative people for putting patterns online!)

Treat bags and invitation.

Invitation:

I free handed the outline and used the face from the printable again. The party details were on the back (image above).

Food:
You might have seen these cupcakes from the Crafty Chicks website. They were so fun to make and the kids loved them. We also had bags of popcorn and lemonade for the kids to enjoy.

Entertainment:
This was the funnest part of the party. We stacked lots of cardboard boxes in different formations with a few pesty pigs (green balloons with faces) hiding in between. Then the kids took turns hurling balls (with bird faces) at the pigs.

I was amazed at how long this kept them entertained. Build a tower, knock it down. Repeat. Repeat.

Party Favors:
I filled the treat bags with some Easter grass (is that what it is called?), eggs filled with candy,

and these fun key chains.

I made them using a similar technique as described here (I use Glossy Accents rather than Diamond Glaze). Also, rather than use scrabble tiles, I wanted something bigger, so my brother cut these wood squares for me, which measured about 1 1/2" x 1 1/2". I found the graphics online and put a character on both sides. Then I screwed in the key chain parts that I purchased from JoAnns. (If you want more details on how to make them, just leave a comment or email).

Gifts:
Where to begin? First, we made these figurines from polymer clay and used Jenga blocks for their battleground. In this picture I used sticky-tac to set things up for a picture.

The boys were really excited about these and helped me create each character and make sure they looked like the real thing.

Next up were these shirts that my sister, Kimberly helped me make. The boys opened them the morning of the party.

I used felt for the birds and sewed them on the shirt (thankfully all the shapes are pretty much basic circles, triangles, etc.). Kimberly cut the words on freezer paper using her Cricut and then I painted them. (Cheri at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar explains this really well here).

The last gift I made for the boys were these little guys:

They were made with much love, laughter, and a little frustration (when I sewed a face on the wrong side, or make a head oblong with too much stuffing). My Mom is awesome at this kind of stuff. I had planned on just showing her the characters from the game and seeing what she could come up with, but we actually found this tutorial which helped immensely! She and I stayed up until midnight every night working on these babies when I took the kids to Idaho to visit during our Spring Break.

Lining them up...Ready, Aim,

Fire!

It was a fun party and the boys are still talking about it. If you want better descriptions of anything mentioned above, just let me know. Thanks!

Boy, do we wish we lived closer to Leslie as she throws one awesome birthday party! Thanks for sharing, Les!

This post was featured by:

Parent Map

Friday Tip - Save the Holes

2011-10-20T17:49:00.001-06:00

So I was a little early getting this posted and up on Thursday instead of Friday. :)

How many of you have "distressed" jeans in your closet, or bought a new pair of worn out jeans for your kids this year? When we were having our back-to-school fashion show, Bill was not too happy that Cheyenne and Natalie bought matching jeans with holes in them. He felt a little better when we told them the were on sale, but we still got a big eye roll. :) Anyway, at both their schools, it's against the dress code to wear clothes with holes in them - the half holes are okay, but when it gets to showing skin, it's not, I guess. So I decided to take preventative measures. I bought a package of iron on patches from Walmart, cut out close to the shape, and following the instructions on the package ironed them on to the INSIDE of the pant leg.

This does two things, 1- it provides a backing to the hole, of course, if the threads start to break, 2 - it also sticks to the threads, hopefully keeping them intact longer, or if they do break, they'll stay in place and you won't notice anyway. After ironing, you could stop there, but I wanted a little extra insurance, so I turned them right-side-out and stitched around each hole, too. That will keep the whole from fraying more and getting bigger. You can only notice the stitching if you're really looking for it. Great way to let those jeans be worn a little longer.

Linking with:
Happy Hour Projects
Roca and Company
The Creative Paige
Ladybird Lane
Blissful and Domestic
The Crafty Nest
Mommas Kinda Crafty
504main
Finding Fabulous
Home is Where my Story Begins
Bear Rabbit Bear

This post was featured on:

I'd love it if you follow me here and on Facebook!

Psst - Big giveaway when I reach 100 followers - pass it along.

Prettying up my Bathroom

2011-10-20T08:42:00.001-06:00

My bathroom is nothing special. It's nice, it's clean, it functions really well, but there's not a lot of pizazz in there. No one else sees it but my husband and me, and occasionally the kids, so why spend a lot money in there, at least while there's other rooms to do. A year or so ago, I did spruce up a little and brought some actual decorations in, a little color, and last year for Christmas Bill gave me new pretty towels, three sets, (yes, he's a very practical man. c:) We each have our sinks (best idea ever!) and I realized the other day, that mine was looking pretty cluttered, 4 different kinds of lotions, this tin bucket that seemed to keep an endless supply of junk, and a sad, sad little jar for q-tips that I'd had for seriously well over 20 years - the bottom had even fallen off and I hot glued it back on. Ugly little corner.

I decided I need to do some sprucing up. I'd seen several tutorials for the cute, easy apothecary jars so that was the first order of business. A little trickier than I thought since my mirror is so low and there's not much space in that corner. I scored a few deals, a little candle holder on clearance from Michaels for $1.75 and the little jar for $.50 at a local printing/wedding supply store. Add a little glue and I have my apothecary jar. I cleaned out the pink bucket and was amazed at what I found. A couple sample sizes of Johnson's baby shampoo (um, I haven't had a baby for 6 years!), an old watch, a paint brush, various kids toys, in other words a bunch of garbage. I thought it was being useful all this time and that I'd have to find something to replace it. Ha! I don't think so. Then while browsing our local thrift store, I came across this awesome pewter tray for $1.75. Score!! This is a nice tray. Realized later that it was the last perfect addition to my corner. So there it is, my nice, clean, pretty little corner.

Is it that big of deal, no, but it makes me happy when I see it. Plus, added bonus, I don't pile the junk on it and it makes me want to keep my counter free of all clutter (curling iron, straightener, makeup, etc.) because now it looks nice. So grand total for my little corner of loveliness - $3.75. So worth it!

Do you have any corners/areas in your house that could benefit from a little sprucing up? Or have you prettied up an area that just makes you smile every time you see it?

Linking up with:

Tales from Bloggeritaville

Blissful and Domestic

Finding Fabulous

Home is Where my Story Begins

Tales of a Trophy Wife

I'd love it if you follow me here and on Facebook!

Psst - Big giveaway when I reach 100 followers - pass it along.

Upcycling a Dress into a Shirt

2011-10-17T08:50:00.002-06:00

On Saturday morning, Bill wanted all the kids outside first thing to help dig up all the potatoes in our garden. (I was heading to the church for a fun-filled craft day, part of which I was teaching.) I told the kids to put on their work clothes (i.e. not good school clothes), plus it was still a chilly morning. So Chloe comes down the stairs in her good capris, flip flops, and this super cute shirt, inside-out and backwards. She is 6, don't quite know what was going on with the shirt. Anyway, as I was taking her back upstairs telling her EXACTLY what she should wear, I realized I never posted about her super cute shirt I made. Did a little scan through the pictures and realized, yes, I took pictures for it and everything and never posted. So here it is, the transformation of a dress into a shirt.

Before After

Before - Chloe in her modeling pose, I guess.

This was one of Chloe's very favorite dresses, mine too, for that matter. I was so sad as I realized it was too short to wear to church anymore. I couldn't give it up. It sat in her closet for a few weeks, then in my sewing pile for a few more weeks, just waiting for inspiration to strike. Then it came as I was visiting Make it and Love it and came across this tutorial. Perfect!! Basically, you cut the dress off to the length you want (plus enough for a hem.) Have your subject try on the shirt and mark where you want the waist. Remember, as I found out the hard way, after your shirt is gathered with the elastic, it will ride up a little more so take that into consideration when marking the waist. Then you cut a 1" strip of material from the leftover dress. You're going to make a casing for the elastic with this strip. Pin the strip onto where you marked the waist (on the inside of the shirt) and sew close to the edge, leaving a small 2" opening on the bottom. Cut a piece of 1/2" elastic just a little bigger than your subjects waist, you want it to gather up, but not be tight. Pin a safety pin on one end of your elastic (great tip for threading elastic or anything else) and start feeding it through the opening. Once it's all the way through, overlap the two ends and stitch on top of them. Work the elastic the rest of the way through and adjust all your gathers. Have your little girl try it on and admire your crafty genius! Then call all your friends and family and tell them how awesome you are. Oh, is that only me who does that? It really is pretty darn simple again check out Make It and Love It if you need more detailed instructions with great pictures. She also shows you how to make short sleeves out of long sleeves.


After - Yup, still striking a pose.

Linking up With:
The DIY Showoff
Making the World Cuter
Sew Can Do
Sumos Sweet Stuff
Mad In Crafts
Be Colorful
Sew Chatty
Pinkapotamus
R They All Yours
Singing Three Little Birds
Bluebird Sews
Three Mango Seeds
Leafy Treetop Spot
Sweet Peas and Bumblebees
Tales from Bloggeritaville
A Glimpse Inside
Saved by Love
Gluesticks
Allie Makes
Momnivores-Dilemma
Yesterday on Tuesday
Frugalicious Me
Happy Hour Projects
The Creative Paige
Blissful and Domestic
The Crafty Nest
Finding Fabulous
Home is Where my Story Begins

This shirt was featured on:
Leafy Treetop Spot

I would love it if you Follow me here and Like me on Facebook!

PB/Choc Chip Cookie To Die For

2011-10-14T08:30:00.000-06:00

Photo provided by the Idaho Potato Commission

This past week was a little crazy, that's why I only ended up with one post. See my kids were out of school for Spud Harvest. What's that you say? Well, here in Idaho, potato country, the kids always get a fall break in order for them to help with the harvesting of potatoes. Back in my day, it used to be a full two weeks, but then, a lot more kids were actually working in the spuds. Now, it's more of a vacation week, with a very few helping with the harvest. So we're grateful for a nice week and a day of fun.

We had one nice weather day in which we ripped out what was left in our garden. The little four started swimming lessons - Billy is a little fish! Maddie tries really hard and does a lot of splashing. It took some practice, but Chloe and Jon will now put their heads under water. All four made HUGE improvements since their first lesson, yeah! The kids had a sleepover at my parents house including donuts for breakfast (big hit!) Wednesday and Thursday we had a little preview of winter and got a good couple of inches of snow. Billy, Chloe, Maddie, and Jon even went out and built snowmen.

Finally, on Monday, Cheyenne was able to get a bunch of her friends together for a movie marathon at our house. So naturally, I had to bake. :) I always like to make some kind of treats when she (or any of the kids) have friends over. So I went to Pinterest to find what delicious treat I had pinned and needed an excuse to try out. *Side note, one thing I love about Pinterest is my wonderful friends who post awesome and incredibly motivating exercise quotes and routines and then the most delicious, decadent desserts. Gotta love it!*

So here's my newest favorite cookie, which was a HUGE hit with all the kids at my house on Monday. Bill almost didn't get any by the time he got home from work, oh, and I doubled the batch, too. This recipe comes from How Sweet It Is.

Puffy Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips

makes about 18 cookies

Delicious butter/peanut butter mixture!

Ingredients:
2 cupsall-purpose flour

1/2teaspoons baking soda
8tablespoons of salted butter, melted and cooled
6tablespoons of creamy peanut butter, melted and cooled
1 cupbrown sugar
1/2 cupsugar
1 egg + 1egg yolk, at room temperature
2teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cupschocolate chips

Directions:
Preheatoven to 325 degrees F. Add butter and peanut butter to a microwave safe bowl,and heat in 30 second increments until melted. (Took about 1 1/2 min.) Let cool completely.

Mix theflour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, mix the cooledbutter/peanut butter and sugars until they are combined. Add the egg, egg yolk,and vanilla and stir until mixed. Gradually add flour and mix until a doughforms – it will look crumbly at first, but it will come together. (Mine wasn't crumbly at all.) I even usedmy hands to bring it all together. If necessary, add 1-2 teaspoons of milk, butI did not need this. Fold in chocolate chips.

Shape thedough into a ball the size of a golfball. (I went for more of walnut shaped, just a little smaller, made more cookies and they were still big.) Place on a baking sheet two inchesapart and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. Thecenters should be soft and puffy. Do not over bake. Let cool completely thendig in!

Oh, so very, very yummy!!

Linking up with:
Mommas Kinda Crafty
Creation Corner
A Little Knick Knack
Home is Where my Story Begins
Lovely Crafty Home
Sassy Sites
504main
Naptime Crafters
Bacon Time With the Hungry Hypo
Happy Hour Projects
Whipperberry
Mum of All Trades
DIY Crafts to Make

I'd love it if you follow me here and on Facebook!

I was featured!

2011-10-13T14:27:00.000-06:00

Amy at One Artsy Mama has so kindly featured my blog on her facebook page. Thanks to Leslie again, for her cute costumes post!