Family Room Project

Will went to Scout camp about a month and a half ago.  6 days, and 5 nights without him, was a very long week.  However, I thought I'd stay busy, and redo my kitchen and family room.  I thought to myself, I can easily finish this project while he's gone.  Well, it only took me 6 weeks!  Anyway, here are the before & after pics!

Before:

After:

Such an improvement!

Lessons learned:

1. Never paint when you are pregnant, you'll just end up redoing it later!

2. Take on smaller projects when husband is at scout camp!

Will's Birthday Cake

For Will's birthday we decided that I would make a cake.  I thought I'd try and combine two of his favorite things, german chocolate cake and twix.  I came up with the idea from Texas Monkey, where she has really cute ideas.  Anyway, here's my version.

An Old Lady? I think not!

For those of you who think I may have fallen off the end of the earth, I've just been crazy busy with a husband getting ready for Scout Camp, going on Scout Camp, two 2-year olds, and redoing my kitchen (a post will be coming soon...it's taking longer than I thought!)

However, I have also been working on another project, whom some have begun referring to me as an old lady because of this project, but whatever.

I was inspired to learn a new skill for a couple of reasons.  The first one is that every year at Christmas time I get so stressed out over what to give my neighbors and friends in my ward.  So this year I thought I'd start early, which means nobody is getting food items (sorry to those of you who enjoy Christmas treats), and work on it throughout the year.

The second reason I decided to learn this new skill is because it's something my grandma does (although this doesn't mean it's an old lady skill, my grandma is actually pretty hip), and while I realize nobody lives forever, I wanted her to be the one to teach me (that way someday I can tell my kids, and my kids' kids that I learned this from my grandma!)

So are you curious as to what I've been doing?  It's no big secret, but I've learned how to knit!  I've been knitting washcloths, and I love it!  I can take it almost anywhere with me, and can even knit in the car (as long as I'm not the driver:0)  Anyway, here's a sample of my new project!

Spaghetti & Meatballs

My husband's cousin recently gave me the coolest book. It's all about cupcakes, and teaches you how to decorate cupcakes simply but looks great. Anyway, for my first go around, I tried Spaghetti & Meatballs. I was amazed at how truly easy they were to decorate and how cute they turned out! See for yourself.

Eye Spy Bags

Does anybody else have a hard time getting their kids to sit through church?  I thought so.  Anyway, we had been doing really well for awhile, but as it happens our kids became sick of the toys and books we keep in our "church" bag.  So it was time to find something new (hence the crayon rolls).  Then I thought it would be fun to do eye spy bags.  Don't look too closely, but I think they turned out pretty cute.  I went to Michaels and found buttons to put inside.  One bag has basketballs, and sports, and pirates and cars, while the other has castles, and carriages, make-up and flowers.  Anyway, not too bad!

Crayon Rolls

I have seen a lot of people who have had these cute crayon rolls at church, or on different blogs.  I've looked for a tutuorial on one, and after looking at a couple of them, decided to try and make my own.  I was going to do a tutorial on it myself, but it's hard, so instead of worrying about making sure that I have everything recorded, I'm going to wait on that until I am a bit more experienced.  However, here are a couple of pictures of my crayon rolls.  I thought these would be great for church.  I made one for both of my kids, so there won't be any fighting as we sit through the meeting!

Watermelon Door Hanger

A couple of months ago, I had to find a summer door hanger for our Relief Society activity (that is actually tonight).  I had no idea where to start, but a couple of people on our committee said to go to the The Wood Connection for an idea.  So I did.  I found this adorable Watermelon Door Hanger.

Little did I know that I could buy all the paint there, and probably get some instructions on how to paint it and put it together, but instead I decided to figure it out myself.  I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

I did learn one very important lesson...one that I had forgotten.  Gorilla Glue expands!  After I glued the sunflower together, and the next morning when it was raised about 1/4" I about had a melt down!  Lucky for me I have great parents with a scroll saw that easily cut out two new pieces!  Once my hubby got home (he had been out camping that weekend) he asked why I didn't just use wood glue.  There's a difference?  I suppose now I know the sad truth!

Lady Bug Blocks

So amongst my blog hopping, I found a really cute tutorial for some animal blocks here. I thought the blocks would be a really cute birthday gift for my little niece who just had her first birthday. So I went and bought a 2x4 (and a 2x2 for a different project), and started looking for jungle animal stickers. As I was searching for my needed stickers I got to thinking...as soon as my sister found out she was having a girl, she began finding anything and everything "ladybugish." So I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cuter if I did lady bug blocks instead of animals. So my animal blocks transformed into lady bug blocks, that were a bit different.

I took my 2x2 (which was for a different project) and cut them into squares (okay my absolutely wonderful husband did the actual cutting).

Then I sanded each block really well...I didn't want my little niece to end up with splinters!

I painted all of my 2x2 (well really 1.5x1.5) blocks black.

Then I stenciled some letters on them. On one side I stenciled the letters out to spell my cute little neice's first name. Then on the opposite side I stenciled "Little Bug."

Once I was done with the painting, I sanded all of the edges to get a bit of a worn look. (I forgot to take a picture before starting to put the stickers on.)

Then I stuck my cute little lady bug stickers on all of the remaining sides of the blocks, and began with my modgepodge.

I think they turned out really really cute (if I do say so myself!).

Then I wrapped them up in celophane and made a cute little lady bug card to go with the gift.

My sister loved the blocks, so success!

Birthday Cards

My husband's aunt is really great about motivating me to scrapbook and make homemade cards. She's a creative memories consultant, so you know she's going to be super creative, and she totally is! Anyway, she does a card class occasionally, and look how cute the cards are she came up with, that I can made!