No more bare walls!!!

Slowly but surely I'm making this house more homey and one way is by saying "goodbye" to bare walls. It's a slow process but it's starting to come together. My latest addition was for the big open spot above our TV. I just happened upon these frames at Michael's on clearance. The smaller frames were $5 and the larger was $8. I just couldn't pass that up. I wanted something simple but with meaning so I used the cricut to cut out the letters and then simply adhered them to scrap paper, too easy. It makes me happy everytime I see it.

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Just something I whipped up

Hi all, just wanted to share something that I quickly did the other day. It took me longer to get it hung than to make. I recently saw this post. I loved the idea of the map heart art and started thinking of another way that I could use it. This is what I came up with for Hannah's room.

Under each heart it says, "what you were made with", "what you are" and "what you always will be". i just carefully spaced the wording out on my writing program on my computer, printed it out on normal printing paper and used my cricut plantin schoolbook cartridge to cut out the hearts with scrap paper, adhered them and voila!

I hung it below the messy/highly used shelf above her changing table. Eventually I would like the frame to be white, but I didn't want to paint this one, so I'll be on the hunt for a replacement.

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Crafting Schedule...Too much to do, not enough hours in the day.

In a previous post I talked about having a schedule to dedicate certain days to certain crafts in hopes that I can get alot done, not get bored and have plenty to blog about. Below is my list of days and what I hope to accomplish.

Mondays will be my scrapbooking day, I've gotten way behind on Hannah's baby book which is my main scrapbooking project. If I don't dedicate a day to this I will never get all of the pages done and I want to get to the point where I can scrap about recent events.

Tuesdays will be dedicated to sewing, I have so many ideas and so much fabric but I never commit. So this will be my day to create those ideas and learn.

Wednesdays will be card making. This is the craft that I do the most. It's super easy, quick and there are no limits. I usually have everything I already need and I always need a card for something. But alot of the time, the holiday or special event will sneak up on me and I won't have time to create something cool. So I have a whole list of cards I need to make and I want dedicate Wednesdays to that.

Thursdays will be for my repurposing/decorating ideas. This is one of my favorite things as well but it's usually the slowest to come to fruition. Usually because I don't have the items needed on hand and when your on a one income budget I usually can't just run to the craft, thrift or home improvement store to get what I need. This is super frustrating, because when I see something cool or have great idea I want to get started right away, one because I'm excited and two because I don't want to forget about it.

Fridays will be for baking, mainly because this way we have something tasty for the weekends and with fall coming up we'll be with family more and I like to share and get opinions.

For Saturday and Sunday I will just go with the flow.

Another topic I want to start sharing more, is my coupon finds. Pretty much every week since I started couponing with the exception of the past two I've found great deals for super cheap and free things and I've even made pennies on the dollar on some. I would like to start sharing these finds. Not like the couponing websites do with links to coupons and stores but just what I found to show you the savings possibilities.

For example one of my greatest purchases was at Albertson's (I only go here for free stuff). But I needed some cool whip, so I got a large tub of store brand cool whip, a loaf of Franz bread (usually can't afford this) and two boxes of pasta, all for .99 cents!! With a little preparation you can save alot of money.

So, hopefully this fall my blog will be in full swing with lots of different things. At least that's the plan.

 

Late nights amping up my blog

I've decided to start taking my blog to the next level. I've had it now for the better part of a year and decided it's time to start taking it more seriously. My goal at first was to enter the craft world mainly through scrapbooking and share my creations and learn from others in the process. Well scrapbooking, turned into card making, which turned into a full blown obsession with anything homemade and crafty in general. Then I decided to share my life and homemaking skills or lack there of. As you can see I'm not the kind of person who can stick to one topic. Must be the gemini in me.

I tried sticking to a weekly routine where certain days of the week were dedicated to certain posts, like Homemaking Mondays, Tasty Tuesday and so forth. But that kind of structure is too hard for me to keep up. But an idea that does work well for me is the time that I dedicate to my crafts. Like if I give myself and 1 to 2 hours a day (depending on what's going on) to do a certain craft and work on something different everyday. ie: Scrapbooking-Monday, Sewing-Tuesday, Card Making-Wednesday and so on. This way I can work on alot of the stuff that's going on inside my head, not get bored and always have different things to blog about. I'm starting this now but once school starts I'll stick to it more.

I'll talk more about my schedule and ideas in another post. Too much to write about here.

I want to blog Monday through Friday and someday hopefully I will get sponsors, but I'm a long ways away from that.

So anyways, ways that I've amped up my blog, is for one I have a new look, I think it's a little more consistent than before and it really excites me everytime I see it. Then I've added a facebook fan page and link, a link for my e-bay store, I created an e-mail dedicated to this blog, I've added StumbleUpon, social network share buttons and have done other neat stuff.

I learned all about this from http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/2011/06/how-to-grow-your-blog.html  I started with reading her post on how to create a favicon, which I had been trying to figure out for a couple of days and up pops her post on my dashboard, then that led me to her super helpful "how to grow your blog" post. I learned so many things and have pretty much utilized everything. Thank you Jamie.

So on that note, I have many crafts to conquer, posts to start before I forget (another thank you Jamie), a baby to feed and laundry (booo).

Have a great day!

 

Please Pray for baby Ella Rae

My new little niece was born yesterday 3 months before her due date. We were just at the baby shower Sunday so this was quite a surprise for the whole family. It started with signs of preeclampsia and then we found out that the amniotic fluid was low and the baby was struggling with oxygen.

But she is alive and fighting a strong fight. Please join me in prayer for strength and courage for mom and dad, that Ella Rae continues to grow strong without any major problems and that mom heals quickly so that she can concentrate on baby. They would appreciate everyones love and support.

Thank you.

 

A to Z, Get to know me better

I saw this idea on C.R.A.F.T. and thought it was a great idea. You can get to know me a little better and hopefully if you repost I can get to know you better.

A. age: 30 and loving it

B. bed size: queen

C. chore you hate: Dishes, it just never ends, 3+ meals a day, everyday!

D. dogs: none at the moment, love Boxers though    

E. essential start to your day: Breakfast  

F. favorite color: Teal/Aqua, at least at the moment   

G. gold or silver: silver

H. height: 5'9"

 
I. instruments you play: none

J. job title: domestic engineer

K. kids: 11 year old Brenden and 16 month old Hannah

L. live: Portland, OR

M. maiden name: M for Murray

N. nicknames: Punkin

O. overnight hospital stays: once when I was 4, I think I had Fifths disease or something and then twice with two births 

        

P. pet peeve: rolling the bag closed in the cereal box and many more I can't think of right now

Q. quote: "necessity is the mother of invention"

R. righty or lefty: righty 

 S. siblings: 0 =[

T. time you wake up: My alarm is set for 8:15am now, trying to get Hannah on a new schedule slowly, she's a late sleeper. Will change though as soon as school starts, but I'm excited to get up earlier.

U. university attended: none, but I went to Ashmead School of Massage, even though I graduated I never got my license

V. vegetables you dislike: eggplant

W. what makes you run late: life  


X. x-rays you’ve had: broke my left arm with I was pregnant with Hannah, luckily I recovered right before she was born.

Y. yummy food: yes, it is. 

Z. zoo animal favorite: elephants   

If you decide to repost this on your blog, leave me a comment letting me know so I can get to know you better. =]

 

      

Baby Shower Gift for Miss Ella Rae

I just finished up the baby shower gift I was working on. It is another name tile for the nursery. I also got the new Mom to be (Katie) a stuffed elephant like a pillow pet and some of the sleepers that are open at the bottom, great for middle of the night changes. But I also like to give something more personal and these tiles are so easy and cute. This might just be the cutest one yet. Their nursery theme is jungle and the dad to be has painted a mural on the wall, the room is adorable. I had a hard time finding something to match exactly but I went with the closest thing and I just love the colors. I also wanted to do something super girly but it wouldn't have matched the room. So this is what I came up with.

The card I went ahead and did girly. I already had the elephant on hand and the paper was from some scraps. I wasn't thinking about it when I did all of this, but my husband asked me if I did an elephant on purpose for Ella the Elephant, but it was just a coincidence & works our great.

Hope you enjoyed.

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So much for camp

While at Craft Warehouse yesterday I got a call from the camp nurse letting me know that Brenden had had an accident. While playing capture the flag in the dark he jumped off of a 10ft rock and severely sprained both of his ankles. The left worse than the right. At first the nurse said he was in good spirits and wanted to stay and I agreed that he should but then around 7pm we got the call to come get him. The pain was getting worse and he wasn't able to do any of the fun activities so he was bored and down in the dumps. I'm glad they called because he was in a lot more pain than I had realized.

But this morning he's doing a lot better. He's able to put more weight on his ankles. The swelling is going down. He'll be back up and running before we know it. The postitives are that he didn't break anything, he won't miss picture day/registration at school now and the camp said they would give us a credit to apply to next summer.

Now to get going on that baby shower gift. Have a great one!

Homemade Jewelry Holder

I've been busy with summer activities, taking the kids to the lake, park and school shopping. We just dropped Brenden off at camp last night, he's going to have a blast. This week I need to work on another baby shower gift for this coming Sunday. I will post it when it's done.

This is the result of school shopping. Brenden is entering the 6th grade and now has his own sense of style. Super Skinny Jeans, big colorful t-shirts, flat billed baseball caps, black rimmed glasses with no lenses and Vans. Never thought I'd say it, but ha kids these days. I didn't think it would start so early. But he's one stylin dude.

I'm hoping that this fall brings more crafting time. I have been working on our bedroom though and below is my latest creation. A jewelry holder. It's two bowls and a candle stick glued together and then spray painted. Can't remember where I saw this idea but I thought it was cute enough to make and now I don't have to keep all my bracelets and knick knacks in my side table drawer, which Hannah gets into all the time.

We also had our first harvest from our garden. Green Beans!!! We actually grew something that we can eat. These will be part of tonights dinner. I'm so excited!