Christmas Treats - Cute & Simple

Channeling my inner craft queen

Here's my latest two projects. With the help of Pinterest I made this cute wreath hanger from a table leg. How cute is that? I love it. It took many hours and some patience but I got it how I wanted it and learned some tricks along the way. I also learned a lesson that my Mam used to try to teach us kids or at least she would talk about our grandfather, her Dad and how he used to always say you MUST use the right tools when doing a task. It makes me laugh to think of the different things Ive used to hang pictures or make something. My favorite is a high heel to put in a nail! So I did learn, while making this wreath hanger, that using the proper tools is better in the long run. I love how it turned out.
The door hanger was part of my personal progress and took almost a year to get made. I found the heart at a garage sale or D.I. (deseret industries) and Ive had the wood for a while. I had a vision of how I wanted it to look. I dont know if I love it as much as the wreath hanger but I do think its cute! It definitely looks better against my black door than on the front door where I had originally planned on putting it. Either way, I had fun making them both.

Better Late than Never?

Here's two crafts that have been sitting, one for two years and the other since last Halloween. Sad I know. The blocks I got at last years relief society super saturday, ultra cute but I didn't finish them that day and they sat and sat and sat this whole year. Baili, Kami and I finished them last week and had a lot of fun working together. I think they turned out super cute!
Ive had the vinyl for this board for two years.....I'm surprised it still worked for me. I bought the cull lumber at home depot for 51c and painted the board, sanded the edges and applied the vinyl. Viola...done! I love how it turned out.

I HAVE RETURNED!!!

Gotten my mojo back and I'm excited!
I got released from young women and immediately knew that my motivation had to turn back to my home, not only more time for Sam and the kids but literally time to focus on my house. It needs to be organized and cleaned so badly. That was two weeks ago and Ive really been on a roll. It hasn't been easy, some days I just wanna plonk on my bed and watch whatever I have recorded on T.V. but I know I need to give time to this, its been on the back burner for too long. I found out about a new website that has been so helpful and super motivational for me. It's called PINTEREST and I LOVE it. Mandy was the one that told me about it and shes been having a great time also with it.
It has everything you could possibly want information or ideas about. What Ive mostly been using it for is DIY and organizing tips and ideas. I love the home decor section. It has recipes, health and fitness, photography, EVERYTHING!!!!
So its Halloween time and we love Halloween here at our house. The kids started decorating at the end of September when we were in Cancun. Baili did a really good job creating a huge spider web in the good room. Every year we add to our decorations so our house it getting quite spooky! We love it.
The community we live in had a community garage sale last weekend....just in time for me to dejunk and make some money. We sold a lot of little stuff, we didn't really have anything large, no furniture, but we made $150.....not too shabby? I love the feeling of getting rid of stuff, especially the stuff we really don't use. I also completely reorganized the computer/desk area by selling some furniture from the playroom and buying a desk/hutch for upstairs. This is now the printing area. it's so neat and organized and takes up less space. I love it. I replaced the knobs on the desk to update it and it looks great! We finally have an area that is working for the kids with storage for extra paper and homework supplies.
So this week I have plans to switch the kids clothes from summer to winter - big, fat, ucky job! Ive also been working on our pool because it has totally been neglected. The algae is yellow and nasty...eeew! Hopefully I can get it decent looking by the time Sam's parents come for the month of November. I have to remember this will take time but slow and steady wins the race.

Worth Mentioning

Yesterday it took 5 hours to sort the paperwork and other "stuff" in my bedroom. Where does it all come from? I need a secretary, housekeeper, nanny and pool boy, please......
Kidding.....it's my own mess. It does feel so much better to take the time to go through and organize and purge. Why do I have a ton of scrapbooking stuff, i haven't scrapbooked for at least 7 years?
Its a drop in the ocean but its worth an honorable mention.

The Boys Room

As promised I got off my tush saturday morning and tore the boys room apart. Three thrash bags and a tub of clorox wipes later this is what it looked like. The boys are excited. It looks clean and organized. Should we take bets on how long it will stay this way? Kidding....it's awesome!

Mi Casa

Ive found the one semi-clean spot in my house (the piano room) and Im parked with the laptop, looking out the window. It's a hot one today....i guess it might have hit 90 degrees but the fan is blowing and Im comfortably teetering on 1. cleaning my house or 2. burning my house! Joking of course about burning my house but do you ever get the urge to gather everything up, put it in a pile and set it alight! BURN BABY BURN.....ummm I am not a pyromaniac but my house is sending me over the edge.
I have days of total motivation, music blaring, happy thoughts floating around my head and the smell of Lysol wafting through my house. Oh those are far and few between but they do happen and I love it. I love feeling like I did something productive and that my house doesn't look like a tornado hit it. Is this is a struggle for everyone? I just can't seem to stay on top of it but really I think its my kids fault! There I did it, I passed the blame....lol. They just can't seem to clean up after themselves but I wonder if they are just pitiful products of their environment and I have taught them to procrastinate until they absolutely have to chuck everything in a closet to hide it from guests or to pull everything out from under beds, laundry, paper, junk all into the middle of the floor and finally get down to business and sort it all.
It's looking like tomorrow will be one of those days. I've had tables out with clothes on them for a week now and just cant get the excitement to sort summer/winter clothes. I have, however, brought 6-8 bags of clothes and other non-essential items to the Goodwill truck at Albertsons. How can I get rid of that much stuff and still have little piles of CRAP all throughout mi casa?
Ugh...what is wrong with me. I remember a time I was so organized and on top of my little apartment. Granted I only had one kid and the apartment in question was like 900 sq ft. That's like 11 years ago. I should give myself a break - that was another lifetime, another person! Now im just a frustrated obsessive compulsive with little time and little interest!
Ok here's the plan. I went to walmart today and bought brite orange fitted sheets to match the boys bedding that Ive had in storage for a year. In the morning I'm going to tear their room apart, only keep a handful of outfits for them and set up their new beds. Maybe that will motivate them to stay on top of their room. I do have to say the boys are so much better than the girls. Baili especially likes to collect papers, tons of them, notes from school and whatnot's?
Maybe our house is just too big. Maybe I need/deserve a maid. Maybe pigs will fly.
Why put off till tomorrow what you can do today?.......just too tired!

Easter Craft

The young women, along with Baili and Kami, made these cute Easter frames the other night for mutual. I taught the girls how to CRACKLE something. If you dont know how, it is one of the easiest things to do.

First paint whatever it is you want to crackle (the base coat is going to be what shows through the top coat so make sure it compliments). Once the base coat is dry, apply the crackle medium. It is thick and should be applied with one stroke rather than over and over. It is alright to apply it thick as the thicker the crackle medium the thicker the cracks will be. Its nice to have variation also so its ok if some of the project has little cracks. The great thing about it is it should not look perfect! Once the crackle medium is dry (or almost dry) you can apply the top color. Apply this also in one stroke rather than going over and back on it. Make sure you have enough paint on your brush. After just a few seconds to a few minutes, the cracks start to show. They continue to crack as the top coat of paint dries.

With this craft the girls decorated the frame with mini eggs, bunnies, ribbon and buttons. Each one was unique and individual. I printed the easter art from LOLLY JANE so once everything was dry the girls could put it in their frame for their homes or bedroom.

Where did she come from??

My friend, Sarah Hancock had a little girls night get together the other night. When I showed up, late of course, I found this beautiful display of food and hostess-ing. I didn't know Sarah could do any of this cutsie stuff, even though shes pretty creative.......it looked like a wedding or something. I couldn't help but take a couple of pictures. It was so cute! She even had real plates.....a long gone tradition in Mormon culture *tear*

I might have to steal some of her ideas! Little touches I loved......

* Varying levels with black cloth draped over them

* Menu written on the white plate that had ribbon laced through it

* I mentioned the "real" plates.....sophisticated....

* Fresh cut flowers to accent the black and white theme

* Miniature bottles of dasani water

* One of my favorite finger foods was half a grape tomato and half a mozzarella ball sitting on a skewer laying in a small dab of olive oil.

It feels so good!

Since my little midnight rendez-vous with my kitchen, I have been on a roll in mi casa! It feels so good to accomplish things and get things back in place and feel like im on track. There is still a lot to be done and I know these things come and go in spurts so for now im just enjoying the ride.

Ive taken 8 to 10 big bags to Deseret Industries Thrift store and dumped so much junk! I always get this urge this time of year it seems.

Sam and I also decided were going to do a little renovation in the house and turn one of the open spaces in our house into a guest bedroom. We have two sitting areas that are underused so Im excited to get rid of one of them and hopefully create a more functional area upstairs by our living room.

I also want to create a nice office space for me in a corner of our bedroom. New laptop on my wish list also...lol

Back From the Dead

and look what I did....between 1 and 3 am this morning.....

I AM BACK ON THE BANDWAGON AND WILL HAVE PROJECTS AND MORE COMING SOON!

p.s. this picture is to get me motivated when i want to crawl in a corner and cry about how messy and dirty my house is....note to self, "it can be done!"