May
2012

Summer Mantle and a Cheap Giant Photo

categories: crafts, decorating, family, photography
I love to change up my fireplace mantle, but I don’t like to spend money.  I have to look at it constantly, so I want it to be something I enjoy.  Often I repurpose items from around the house.  I used one of my Meme’s vintage blue mason jars to hold up 3 fun pinwheels I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby last year.  I also used 3 red candles from around the house for the other side.  The giant photo in the middle is my masterpiece.  I saw a great post on Pinterest about blowing up photos for under $5 and decided to put it to the test.  I edited my photo by adding text, then took the file to Kinko’s on a thumb drive.  I asked them to blow it up to a 2×3 engineer’s print.  It cost $3.  Total.  The quality is not the same as when you pay for a more expensive print, but I love the look of it and the fact that I can change it out at will.    

My husband cut out a piece of foam insulation to fit the print, and I painted the edges aqua to match other accents in my living room and disguise the ugly foam insulation.  I mounted the print using spray adhesive.  Easy.

Have you tried the giant print trick yet?
I made 2 others; one for Jed’s classroom and one for the 
ugly mirrored closet doors in The Bear’s room.  
So fun and so frugal.  Go for it!
I love linking my ideas at these blog parties.  Click the links to check them out and find crafty inspiration.  If you’ve never visited a blog party, you will be blown away by the creativity shared and imaginative ideas.  
Monday: CraftOManiac, Mad in Crafts, It’s So Very Cheri, Sew Chatty, The Girl Creative, Keeping It Simple, C.R.A.F.T., Boogie Board Cottage, and Sumo’s Sweet Stuff   
Tuesday: Raising 4 Princesses, The Kurtz Corner, Hope Studios, Today’s Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, and New Nostalgia 
Wednesday: The Trendy Treehouse, Polka Dots on Parade, Lil Luna, and The Thrifty Home
Thursday: Somewhat Simple, Tales from Bloggeritaville, The Shabby Creek Cottage, and House of Hepworths
Friday: Sugar and Spice, Kojo Designs, and The Shabby Nest
Weekends: Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, and Candace Creations 


May
2012

Stand by Me

categories: baby, toddlers
Our big boy is standing up completely on his own now.  It seems like about 5 minutes ago when we thought kicking his legs was an awesome trick.  I know it is is only a matter of days before he takes those first steps and starts walking.  I’m a little sad about this milestone, because it means my baby is officially a toddler.  I’m sure I will love this next stage just as much as all the others, but I think I will miss my snuggly little baby.  This is just one of many, many big transitions the Bear will make, and I’ll have to come to terms with every one.  I’m so thankful to have a strong, healthy son, and hopefully he will still want mama snuggles once he is running at full speed.  
What stage transitions have been the hardest for you?

May
2012

Burlap and Pinwheels – A Summer Wreath

categories: crafts, decorating, frugal

I’m still in love with my interchangeable burlap wreath.  It just makes switching out seasonal decorations so easy.  For summer I left the grass and flowers in from my spring wreath and added pinwheels from Dollar Tree that were 3/$1.  They happened to match the ribbon I used in the spring wreath.  Click here to see my spring/Easter version and here to see the Valentine’s Day version.  

 Getting the pinwheels to stick in the wreath was far more difficult than I thought it would be.  I thought the stakes would poke through and make the pinwheels stand up.  Nope.  They broke off instead.  I weaved each stake through the grass a little bit and then used straight pins to secure the stakes onto the back of the wreath.  Because the wreath is on our front door and gets opened and shut a lot, I’ve had to readjust the pinwheels several times.  I’m ok with that.  I love the whimsical look of this wreath and the fact that it cost only $1 to switch to a summer version.

Pinwheels, flip flops, Americana, beach flair… 
How do you decorate for summer?  
I love linking my ideas at these blog parties.  Click the links to check them out and find crafty inspiration.  If you’ve never visited a blog party, you will be blown away by the creativity shared and imaginative ideas.  
Monday: CraftOManiac, Mad in Crafts, It’s So Very Cheri, Sew Chatty, The Girl Creative, Keeping It Simple, C.R.A.F.T., Boogie Board Cottage, and Sumo’s Sweet Stuff   
Tuesday: Raising 4 Princesses, The Kurtz Corner, Hope Studios, Today’s Creative Blog, Coastal Charm, and New Nostalgia 
Wednesday: The Trendy Treehouse, Polka Dots on Parade, Lil Luna, and The Thrifty Home
Thursday: Somewhat Simple, Tales from Bloggeritaville, The Shabby Creek Cottage, and House of Hepworths
Friday: Sugar and Spice, Kojo Designs, and The Shabby Nest
Weekends: Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, and Candace Creations 


May
2012

Hey Girl. (On the Swings)

categories: baby, toddlers
Hey Girl.  Looks like your having a good time over there.  
    
  I’m a little nervous about this whole thing if I’m being 
totally honest with you.
But you sure do look good with the wind in your hair.  

May
2012

What a Way to Make a Living

categories: baby, budget, frugal, parenting
The Bear loves to help with the filing around the Young Life office (my dining room).  And by help I mean destroy every file folder within reach and repeatedly open and close the filing cabinet drawers. He really has been the best baby ever while I’ve worked from home this year, but it kills me every time he wants my attention and I can’t give it to him fully.  Which brings me to my next point…
Over the past 2 years we have prayed, discussed, debated, and finally decided that it is time for me to quit my job and stay home full time with the Bear.  I am so sad to leave Young Life, but at the same time so excited to start this next chapter.  I can’t wait to be able to focus my attention on my family.  I love my job, but as anyone in full time ministry knows, it has a way of owning you.  This ministry has given me so much over the last 12 years, and I am so thankful to have had the privilege to be a part of the lives of so many people through it.  If you had asked me 5 years ago if I would ever want to be a stay at home mama, I would have said you were crazy.  Now it is the desire of my heart.  Thankfully we have budgeted and saved and are debt free so that we can afford to live off one income.  I know things will be much tighter around here, and I look forward to sharing our even more frugal ways with you.  I have a little over a month left at my job, and am currently trying to finish well and set my yet-to-be-named replacement up for success.  
I would love to hear from any of you have made the transition from workaholic to stay at home mama.  How did you make it work?  How do you structure your days? How do you live on one income?  Share your ideas with me.  

May
2012

Hey Girl.

categories: baby
Hey girl.  
How you doin’?
You are rocking that sun hat almost as much as I am.
  
Mind if I move in a little closer?
The two of us together takes the cute quotient at this 
park to almost unmanageable levels.  
I’m not sure our moms can handle it.  

May
2012

The Wait is Over

categories: baby, parenting
The wait is over, people. Teeth have arrived.  
After nine glorious months of a gummy, toothless grin, teething came at us full force.  Within the span of six weeks the top four came in first, followed shortly by the bottom two.  Let me just say that all the horrid things you’ve heard about teething babies are true.  Our sweet angel turned briefly into a fussy, screaming, restless, no appetite, wake up all night, ball of frustration.  I felt so sorry for him.  I’m so thankful he won’t remember it, because it was ROUGH.  As I’m sure it is for every other baby out there ever.  Poor things.  Hopefully we get a little reprieve before the next teeth try to break through.  
Side note: He has only bitten me twice while nursing.  I screamed and that seemed to be an effective deterrent. 
Please share with me any brilliant strategies for dealing with teething.  Help!       

Apr
2012

Decorating an Easter Mantle

categories: crafts, decorating, frugal
Spring is here and Easter is one of my favorite holidays.  
Ok, I say that about all the holidays.
But seriously, Easter is my favorite.
I love that it represents the risen Jesus and the hope of new life.
To decorate our mantle, I took inspiration from Pinterest and used lots of items found around our house.  The cute sign I bought on sale last summer at my favorite shop in Little Rock, The Full Moon.  They have an assortment of fabulous things that is ever changing, and they have really great sales a couple of times each year.  I even registered there for my wedding.    

The bunnies were inspired by a few Pinterest finds like this one, but I couldn’t find a pattern that was the right size.  I sketched one out and used it to cut the design out from several different colors of cardstock.  Then I glued little puff ball tails onto my bunnies and glued the bunnies onto a brown ribbon measured to hang across the mantle.

Super cute little baby bunny.  

I brought in 2 giant flowers that we’ve had since our wedding.  They decorated the gift table at our rustic barn reception.  I filled 2 of my Meme’s old blue mason jars with plastic eggs, inspired by this Pinterest find.  I added artificial flowers leftover from last year, and a sweet flocked bunny I won from a blog giveaway at Goodbye House, Hello Home a few years ago.

I love the color the eggs and bunnies and flowers bring into the room.  It feels like spring.

Our wedding and engagement pictures have been on our mantle for a while now, and I’m feeling it is time for a change.  I’ve searched for ideas and landed on a few that I’m working on.

If you are looking for more Easter ideas, here is my Pinterest inspired Easter wreath.  
How do you celebrate Easter? 
Check out the fun craft parties I link to on my right sidebar.  


Mar
2012

Frugal Friday: Our Trashy Family

categories: baby, frugal, green living
Check out our new jogging stroller.  Guess how much we paid for it.  I’ll give you a few hints.  It is a double jogging stroller, made by the Baby Jogger brand.  It is a few years old, but new ones retail for $400-700.  Give up?  We paid $0.  Jed actually found this stroller on the side of the road, during the lovely time of the month in Dallas called Bulk Trash.  I’ll tell you more about the glories of Bulk Trash later.  First, here’s the tale of the stroller.  Jed was out on a run and saw this sitting on the curb.  He looked it over, grabbed it, and brought it home.  It looked like this… 
Not so pretty.  My genius husband saw potential there and persevered.  He looked over the frame and saw it was in good shape.  The problem was the seat.  He removed it and washed it thoroughly.  It is still a little stained, but looks much better.  We look a little silly rocking a double stroller with only one kid, but I don’t care.  The Bear loves it and kicks his little feet like crazy whenever we take it out.  
Does your neighborhood have a bulk trash pick up?  Ours is once per month, and everyone puts out any large items they want to get rid of for the trash collectors to come and pick up.  This cues every resourceful person in town to drive around and pick through the good stuff before the collectors make their rounds.    Friends have found furniture and all kinds of treasures during Bulk Trash.  We found a jogging stroller.  We are just doing our part to keep good stuff out of the landfill.  Bulk Trash rocks.  One family’s trash is another’s treasure.  
Does your neighborhood have a Bulk Trash pick up?
Would you ever take something home you found 
on the side of the road?