Flower bun with woven ribbon tutorial

To everyone coming over from Blogelina,  Grab a comfy chair and have a look around.  I would love it if you would sign up for my rss feed, … {Read More}

flower bun with ribbon weave

Cheesecake

I LOVE me some cheesecake!!  Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!!  So over the years I have tried A LOT of recipes for cheesecake and here it is, the very best one … {Read More}

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How to get large prints for CHEAP!!

I have seen this around the blogosphere quite a bit so you might have already seen this tip.  But in case you haven't, it is too good not to … {Read More}

large cheap prints

Easy Bun

  This is one of my favorite go to hair styles.  I do this easy bun to finish a bunch of hair styles.  And believe me it is easy to do!!  … {Read More}

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Free Printable…Valentines

It seems like forever since I have done a free printable. {really it's only been since before Christmas but that seems like forever ago} And since … {Read More}

valentines day printable

How to color the tips of your hair

My girls recently had crazy hair day at school.  We decided we wanted to try out a temporary color on their hair.  By temporary I mean it washed out … {Read More}

rainbow hair

Not your ordinary dye job

I know what you are thinking but you would be wrong.  No I’m not talking about hair but these: So now that we have that settled lets see if we … {Read More}

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It’s a crafty Christmas…

Every year, we have 32 people to buy presents for NOT including us and our children.  That’s A LOT!!  We end up with 8 family parties scattered … {Read More}

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It’s a crafty Christmas…lifesaver necklaces

We are making these cute little necklaces for my nieces and the girls friends.  It seems every time someone comes over to play and they see them … {Read More}

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Yummy Corn chowder

  I made this recipe the other day and it was super yummy!!  I put it in the crock pot and just let it go.  I know soups aren’t always … {Read More}

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My spring Mantle and pinwheel tutorial

I have a pretty dark mantle.  And that's ok because it is full of things I love.  But it wasn't very cheery.  It's perfect for fall but I wanted to … {Read More}

pinwheel spring mantle

Afters with no Befores

Do you ever get so excited to start a project that you jump in and forget to take pictures?  I do that all the time.  I know bad!!  So I have some … {Read More}

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Thrifted Desk Redo

As promised here is the tutorial for my red desk.  I love how it came out.  Here is what I started with: I got this desk at the thrift store for … {Read More}

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Most popular posts of 2011

Last year, before I started my blog I was an avid blog reader.  Still am.  One of my favorite posts was where bloggers listed their most popular … {Read More}

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And the winner is…

If your name is Megan check your email.  You may have just won yourself some Jamberry Nails!!

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I got so many compliments on these.  Just sitting at a soccer game, not even knowing anyone was looking at my feet, at the grocery store.  Everywhere I went.  If you didn’t win you can order yourself some by clicking here.  I HIGHLY recommend them!!

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Thankful Thursday

We get the keys to our home today!! 

I am SO excited!!  It has been a very very long road.  We never would have made it without help.  And we had the best help available.  So today I would like to thank:

  • First and foremost my Heavenly Father who worked some major miracles and taught me some great life lessons and I will be forever grateful for his guidance.

  • My Family for putting up with me.  My immediate family for helping me through all the stress.  And offering me love and support the whole way.  And my Mom and Dad who let us move into their basement when we had to move from one house before we could close on the other.  It has been a great experience staying here for 2 mos.  And I am sad to leave. 

  • My Realtor.  This lady has become a friend.  She is absolutely the best realtor out there hands down!!  She looks out for the client and not her commission.  We walked into one house that I was in LOVE with.  And she looked around and said there is mold in this basement and it’s been here a while.  I wouldn’t feel good about about selling you this house.  And I was heartbroken.  She could have had a sale.  As we were leaving the listing realtor showed up and said yeah we know about the mold in the basement, it’s not a big deal Just wipe it off with a cloth so it will pass inspection.  I was shocked.  This experience made me realize what a great realtor we had.  She would give up a sale before she put my family in harms way.  And that says a lot about character.  She also really knows her stuff and puts in the time for her clients.  But best of all, her current promotion is buy a house with me and I will pay your first mortgage payment.  So a week after closing she is going to come over and give us a big fat check.  How awesome is that??  If you are in the market for a Realtor, I would be THRILLED to refer Joell to you.  Please contact me or click here to see her website.  I can promise you, this is one decision you won’t regret!!

 

  • My mortgage lady.  Talk about a professional.   She finagled things in ways I still don’t know how she did.  Every time I talked to her, things got cheaper.  Now that is my kind of mortgage!!  She did things that put us in the perfect position to go to underwriting and get our file pushed through as easily and quickly as possible.  I am VERY pleased with the work she did.  If you need a mortgage, click here to work with Julie.  I’ve had people say to me I can’t buy a house I don’t have a down payment, or I have bad credit.  Let me tell you, if there is a way to make it work, Julie will do it.  So give her a call.

Thank you for letting me ramble on.  I am going to go pack and move now.

{I was not given any compensation for recommending these ladies to you.  I just think they deserve any referrals I can send them and you won’t find better help.}

 

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A Simple Lamp makeover

I got these two lamps and their shades at our local thrift store.  They were only $5 a piece.  Not a bad deal.  Here they are before:

lamp before

Nothing to write home about but they definitely had potential.

The first thing I did was give a good spray paint to the base.  I used Oil Rubbed Bronze since they were a bronze to begin with.

lamb base

Now on to the shades.  Here they were before:

lampshade

This is the easiest makeover ever.  It is all just spray-paint.  I sprayed the shades Krylon Burgundy.

lamp shade red

I found that it worked best to spray closer to the shade than I normally do and go in even up and down strokes.  It helped to get into all the pleats.  {I thought about taking the pleated outer layer off but there was a big cut in the inner layer.  I don’t think the pleats are bad though}

And there you have it, a quick easy cheap makeover.  Just the way I like it.

finished lamps

On another note, see the desk those lamps are sitting on?  No I am not decorating the yard.  The tutorial on that one is coming up.  And on yet another note, we are closing on our house tomorrow {yippee!!}  My poor hubbs is on a deadline at work so he is gone for 12 hr. days no days off for the next 2 weeks ish.  I am not sure how I’m going to move alone, so if I am MIA around here for a little bit I hope you will understand.

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A little bit of organization

In an effort to stream line things around here.  And to make it easier for you guys to find things, I made a page strictly for printables.  You can now click here and find all the printables in one spot with their download links. I have also put a link to the printables at the top under my header.  As you can see I am in need of a little color so things are changing around here.  Please pardon my dust until I get done.   Here is a preview in case you missed any Printables:
americadadgladhalloweenhalloween1land of the freemothers dayprayred white and bluesl temple printablestartags
Click here to check out the new Printables page and download these for yourself!!
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Quirky Tip of the Day~~prevent paint film

I also haven’t had a Quirky Tip of the Day in a while {slacking, I know}.  Since I have been painting a lot recently, and will be doing even more painting when we move, I have a painting tip. 

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Do you hate that skin of paint film that forms on your cans and makes it so you have to stir it all over again.  Well this tip stops that. 

Just lay down a thin sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the paint.  You need to make sure it touches the paint or you will still get the film on top.  But there you go voile!!  No more yucky paint film.  Hope this helps!!

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Huge Craft FAIL~~and a fix!!

We decided to give our oldest our queen bed when we move into the new house.  Then when people come to visit she can bunk with her sister and give them her room with a bigger bed.  I have been wanting to redo our headboard for a while and this gave me the perfect excuse.  My journey was long and filled with failure.  Here is what I started with:

country headboard

You can’t really tell but it has a decorative strip of ivy at the top and it was very country.  Time for a change.  “Love’s” favorite color is blue.  So I was thinking wouldn’t it be awesome to do a crackle finish with turquoise peaking through white.  Good Idea yes??  Ok so here were my thoughts, first I need to get a turquoise undercoat.  Spray paint to the rescue.  Right you are with me so far?  Sounds like a good idea.  Ok so here is what you get:

cute turquoise headboard

Ok looks good so far.  I got the crackle medium from Lowes.  Home Depot does not carry it any more Sad smile.  Ok next step is to brush on the Crackle Medium.  {I don’t have a picture of this step because the medium is clear and you cannot tell}  Then top coat time.  I thought I was being smart.  I thought spray paint won’t work for the top coat cus it goes on so thin and you need several coats and that will mess with the cracking.  So I got a quart of antique white.  Still sounds ok maybe?

big craft painting fail

Not.so.much!!

peeling paint

Yep that is my hubby peeling all that white paint off.

011

You think that is a cloth in my hand don’t you?  Nope it is white paint that we peeled off the headboard.

So here is what I learned.  Maybe you guys already knew this but I didn’t. 

Spray paint is oil based

Crackle medium is latex {water}

Water and Oil don’t mix.  If you put them together they will just peel off.  Like ours did.  So as easy as spray paint can be if you want to use latex anything with it, then you need to stick with latex.

There are lots on conflicting opinions out there about oil and latex.  Some say if you sand well and clean with TSP {commercial grade cleaner available at Home improvement stores} then you can do it.  Some say you can only do oil over latex, some say you can only do latex over oil.  I say just avoid it all and stick with the same base for your paint.  Either oil or latex.  Then you know it will be ok.   

So what did we end up doing?  We kept the blue sprayed bottom layer, and we rubbed candle wax over the areas we wanted to look distressed.  Then we painted oil antique white over the top and sanded it down.  So the blue would show through.  Here is the result:

cute distressed furniture redo

And here is a close up so you can see the distressing:

chipy distressed headboardturquoise distressed headboard

You can see when you rub the wax on first, it comes off more “chippy” than just sanding.  It also comes off way easier.  I hope you guys can use my mistake to never have to do this yourself.  But in the end I like how it came out.  I will get you a picture in her room once we move in and get settled.

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Funny Finds for Friday {4}

This post is dedicated to my AWESOME hubby!!  He is so supportive of my blogging that he sends me funny things he finds for these posts.  So here is a roundup of his funny finds.  And since he is a techie kind of guy these are mostly tech related.  Thanks babe!!

Need more cables??

{source}

  This makes my head hurt.  Can you imagine trying to troubleshoot a problem??

 

There are just some days when nothing goes right:

{source}

Um yeah…which program was that??

 

When Tetris turns evil:

{source}

 

{source}

Blue screen of death pillow. Nice place to crash lol.

 

Windows XP now and then:

{source}

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Thankful Thursday–Lessons Learned

I have not done a Thankful Thursday post in a LONG time.  I know.  Shame on me!!  Because the truth is I have so much to be grateful for.  And I have been feeling so blessed lately.  Just not blogging about it for some {probably lame} reason.

So for Thankful Thursday today I may get a little sappy.  Please bear with me.  We have had a pretty rough year, but it hasn’t felt like it.  And I know that is because my Heavenly Father has been walking with me every step of the way.  I never EVER thought I would say I am thankful for the hard times, but I am so thankful for the lessons I have learned.  I have come out of this time with more maturity.  I have learned who I want to be as a person and how I want to treat others.  I have learned to have faith and trust and I couldn’t have been given a better present.

Isn’t it funny how you grow and learn?  And sometimes you look back at your younger self and cringe a little because they haven’t learned some of these lessons yet.  I hope I can employ them in my life always and not forget.  And let me tell you, blessings and treasures do come!!  So if you are having a hard time, hang in there.  There is light.  And if I can do anything to help please let me know.  I truly mean that.

I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures to go with this post but let me leave you with a music video that sums things up:

What are you thankful for today??

P.S. I am blogging over at my good friend Lesa’s blog Notes about Music Notes today!!  I made this printable for the occasion:

Click on the image to download.

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Giveaway–Jamberry Nails

Have you guys heard of this AMAZING company??  I seriously LOVE their products so much that I contacted them and asked them to do a giveaway for my awesome readers. 
Here’s why I love them.  I have always hated my toes.  They are big and ugly.  But I love wearing flip flops and sandals.  All shoes that show my ugly toes.  So I have resorted to trying to pretty up my toe nails.  What do you think?
cute toes 1cute toes
Super cute huh?  I love these nail shields.  They are basically a replacement for nail polish.  Obviously this is the pink argyle pattern but here are a few others I love:
   
These have stayed on my toes better than polish.  They don’t seem to chip and they seem more durable.  They are a bit more expensive than nail polish at $15 per set but I did my toes and my sisters fingers and I still have enough left over to do probably 3 more sets.  So really it comes to less than $5 for a cute mani/pedi.  The other thing I liked about these nail shields are the sizes.  I have large nails as you can see {especially the big toe}.  I have had problems with other products not fitting my nail sizes before.  But these were perfectly sized.  Plus you can trim or stretch them a little if you need to.  Even with my big toes, I didn’t need to.  They came perfectly sized.
Enough of my gushing, want to win your own?
If you clicked on a specific link to this post you will need to enter through the rafflecopter widget below.  {It may take a second to load}  If you just came to my homepage, you will need to click on read more and then wait for the rafflecopter widget to enter.  Good Luck!!

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Printable Halloween invitation

So we are moving into our house in time for Halloween WOOHOO!!  We usually have a big get together for Halloween with my extended family.  It’s such a fun time.  Everyone goes out trick or treating and then we come back in from the cold for some yummy soups and my mother’s famous clam chowder.  {I will get you the recipe after this party when I can get some pics lol}

So this year should be doubly exciting since we get to move in and get settled a little and then have everyone over.  I decided to make some invitations for the event.  I like to do evites.  They are so much easier than printing and stamping and mailing invitations {sorry USPS}.  Also then everyone can have all the information readily available.  No calling and writing down everything.  So here is my invitation this year.  I have pixelated our personal information.

example

I didn’t really want to go with the darker side for this invite because this really is such a happy time and I’m so excited for this party.  Especially this year.  But you know how some times when you design something it kind of designs itself.  Yeah that’s what happened.

I made a copy for you guys to use if you are interested.

halloween

Click on the image to download a high quality print.

Just add your personal information to the left of the house.  Or if you aren’t planning on inviting people to trick or treat and just want a Halloween party invite, I’ve got you covered.

halloween1

Click on the image to download a high quality print.

Happy Halloween!!

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