Reuse...

Want to reuse your Christmas cards after Christmas has come and gone??

 Cut out photos on your Christmas cards to make gift tags for next year. You just need a hole punch and some ribbon.

Christmas Crayons

I thought this was a great, easy, inexpensive way to make gifts for classmates.

Final product

I bought the crayons at Dollar Tree for $1 each.

 I found these molds at Target for $2.50 each. I peeled off the wrappers and broke up the crayons into each mold. I baked them on 300 and just kept checking on them until they were fully melted. 

 Then after they completed cooled off I took them out of the molds and put one of each into a bag.

I found these at Dollar Tree for $1!! 

Here is the final product!! My daughter and I wrapped one for each child in her class. Then we attached a Christmas card on the front. For all the supplies it cost me $9 for 12 kids!! What a deal and the kids loved them!

Gift ideas

Need a gift idea?? Why not homemade body scrub?

 These would be great for a teacher, hairdresser, or maybe a co-worker!!! Just follow this simple tutorial.

Another top/dress

I had seen this style of dress online and love it! However, at $40, I didnt like it as much. So I recruited a friend to help. She has this fancy sewing machine that embroiders. She embroidered the name and I sewed the dress. The material cost me $8. I little more than the average fabric, but its Michael Miller so you pay for the name. I love how it turned out!

Table Runner

I recently discovered Jeri Kelly and her wonderful table runners for every month book!! I thought I'd try my hand at a Christmas one for my mom. I LURVE how it turned out. However, it was the so hard!! I cannot tell you the amount of hours spent sewing over all the little pieces. Its by no means perfect, but I'm sure she will love it!!! I think I'll let some time pass to forget how hard it was and try again!

The Cove

Have you seen the movie, The Cove?? I put off seeing it for one reason, it would break my heart. I'm a HUGE dolphin fan. How can you not be! What love you feel when you see these amazing animals!! This movie does break your heart, but its something everyone needs to see and needs to KNOW! If you look away it wont go away.

A little sewing

I finally got around to making a pillowcase dress for my daughter. The great thing about these, you can make them as long or as short as you want them to be. AND they can be worn in the summer and the winter. I made this one a little shorter because my daughter wears it with leggings and a long sleeve shirt. I bought the pattern here.

Another quilt

While my husband was off killing wild animals, I had LOTS of time to sew! An old friend of mine had her first girl after 2 boys. What better way to celebrate than with a pink quilt??

Another Christmas craft

As you can tell by now, I'm obsessed with finding a Christmas craft for my daughter to make. I thought this was a great idea!

Whooohooo Black Friday!

Happy Black Friday!!! If you are going out, be safe and save lots of money!! Just remember, you can nap after saving all that money!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope everyone has a great day with family and friends! My daughter made this for her class assignment.

Cranberry Relish

Cranberry relish is one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes. Its refreshing and so easy to make!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh cranberries
• 1 cup sugar
•  1 orange, zested and juiced

Directions

Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor, pulse several times to breakdown the cranberries and incorporate the ingredients; it should still be a bit chunky. Allow the cranberry relish to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, so the flavors can marry.

Placemat?

Need a placemat for Thanksgiving? How about this really cute turkey?

Fall Crafts

With Christmas right around the corner, its not too late get some fall crafts completed. I found this easy  tutorial.

Ribbon anyone??

Can you believe there is over 270 ribbon loops on this wreath??? I love it, dont you? Check out the tutorial today!

Wet Brush

My daughter has very thin, easy tangled, and tender scalp. What that means for me, tears when I brush her hair. I tried about 20 brushes before I found the Wet Brush. 

 This is the BEST brush. I LURVE it so much, I bought one for myself. Its soft, doesnt pull your hair, and tender to your scalp. Since using it, my daughter no longer runs from me when I brush her hair.

Cupcakes??

I working on trying to find a butterfly cupcake recipe for my daughters birthday party! How about these? I dont think I have the skills, but boy are they amazing!!!

Agadir Argan Oil Hair Treatment

Agadir Oil is AMAZING!! My hairdresser turned me on to it and I'm never going back! It makes your hair so smooth and shiny without the grease. Use it wet or dry, you cannot go wrong. The product is made from one of the rarest oil in the world! Its all natural and pure.

Kids crafts

I'm searching high and low these days for crafts my daughter can make for Christmas. So I'll be featuring them on blog. I found this really cute Christmas ornament!

Shutterfly

Ever use Shutterfly?? They have GREAT stuff. I've purchased Christmas cards, thank you cards, and note cards from them. Recently I've been looking over their Photo books. ONE of these days, I'll get around to finally putting a few together for the grandparents. They make great gifts. Right now they are giving away 50 FREE Holiday Cards!!! Click here to sign up!

Wall Art

What a great way to display your childs artwork!

Happy Veterans Day

What does Veterans Day mean to you? 

To me, it is a special time to remember our service men and women "living and dead" who for 230 years stood up in defense of this great nation. No matter how you feel about war, please remember to be thankful for those who give their lives everyday for your freedom!

Black Friday

I dont know about you, but I live for Black Friday!! How can you not?? All those deals too good to pass up. For the last 5 years, I've been one of those crazies in line at 4 am waiting for the doors to open. I plan as far in advance as I can for this big day! 

I get help from this little site! This site gets all the ad's BEFORE they come out in the paper. This way you can plan ahead on what you want to buy.

Singing Soap??

SoapSoundz makes soap that sings!! The soap plays music for 20 seconds teaching kids to wash their hands until the music is over. What a genius idea!!

One down

So I finally got around to working on one of my "finds." While it was nothing exciting, I still love the price and how it turned out. 

Here is the before photo of the tissue holder. I paid $3.

 After I painted it with my ORB. It had a design, but I put that side against the wall, no one will ever know. I already had the paint so I think $3 was a great deal!

Jump on Christmas

Want to get a jump on your Christmas crafts?  I thought this was a great idea for anyone! You could paint it any color! I love that since so many people have their own color schemes for their Christmas tree!

 Just Something I Made has a great tutorial on how to make this goody!

Junk??

On my recent trip to Palm Springs, I did a little second hand shopping.

What do you think? Junk?  I love it!!! I cannot wait to work on every piece. My husband just shook his head when I brought it in from the car. I figured, what does he know? He cannot see the greatness in each piece! Stay turned to see how each piece turns out!

Happy Halloween...a little late

Better late than never!! Well here is my cupcake in all its glory...okay not really.

 I had planned on making these for my daughters Fall Festival, but my oven had other ideas. It broke the night before!! :( Oh well, now I have the best oven I've ever owned and probably no more excuses that I cannot cook. Darn! I dyed the mix orange which I thought was a great idea at the time. However it made it a little harder to cover up with the white icing. Note to self for next years festival!!

Give Thanks

Give Thanks Gratitude Board

Cookies?

Espresso Cookies!!!

Cupcakes

My daughters school has an upcoming Halloween Carnival. The parents are supposed to bring cupcakes for the cake walk! Remember the cake walk?? My fav!! Ah, to be a kid again.  I finally found these:

 So creative!! I cannot wait to try them out! Try out the tutorial yourself! If any of mine actually workout, I'll post a few photos!

FOUR!!!

Thought this idea was too cute to pass up. I'll never have the space in my house, but maybe someone else could use it!

Calzone anyone??

You Craft Me Up has this easy recipe for a calzone! I think I'll try it this weekend, looks good!

Do-It-Yourself Tutu

I had wanted to buy a tutu for my daughter's Halloween costume until I found this tutorial. It's really easy and takes a LOT of tulle! Mine took 75 yards...yes that YARDS. I think tutus are so cute! This tutu will be perfect for her cat costume.

Halloween Door Decor

I especially love reading blogs during the holidays for do it yourself holiday projects. I thought I'd take this time to showcase some great ideas.

Halloween Silhouettes by Shabby 2 Sweet

Mini Pumpkin Cakes

Candy Corn Ideas

Halloween Pillows

We're getting there...

Well the form boards came off today. You can see a few of them still lying around our yard...its been a long day. The pipes sticking up in the back are for electricity. The corner one will be for lighting up the gazebo and the right side will be for a built in BBQ. Please excuse my dogs, they insist on being in photos. This has been a long time in the making and we are still in the process phase.

It's too bad we didn't start this project before summer so we could enjoy our new patio already! Although buying patio furniture in October has paid off big time!

Here is our patio set, yet to be set up.

Here is our gazebo, you guessed it, still in the box. I've had a rug and lights for a year in waiting!! It's okay, little by little we will get it all set up. I need to do some bargain shopping for all the "extras." As soon as its all set up, I'll get a photo up.

We mean business

You know when this truck shows up at my house, we mean business!!!

For the past 5 years, home improvement projects have been our lives!! This was the largest amount of space we've concreted in to date. I LOVE concrete. Its clean, no weeds to pull, no water to waste, and it looks nice when done right. 

 Here is a "before" photo of half the space we poured. 

 It sure goes in fast, its the finishing that takes the longest. So that "after" photo is still to come since its still drying.