Sweet lamp

I found a cute lamp at a yard sale for 25 cents.  Score!  The gold parts were spray painted white, then it set around for a year waiting for the perfect lamp shade.   Finally, I found the perfect flowers to cover the shade.  I pulled the flowers off the stems and hot glued them on an old lamp shade.

Here it is all lit up.

Now I have the sweetest lamp for the girls' room.

Taming Counter Clutter

I can't stand having clutter on my kitchen counters. Especially dirty dishes.  The kids will get a drink and put the dirty cup on the counter or in the sink.  When they get thirsty again they can't remember which cup they used before so they grab a clean one out of the cupboard.  This process is repeated several times a day.  Multiply that by 6 kids, and you get the picture.  The counter and sink were always full of dirty cups.  Then I walked into Anthropologie and found this:

Could this be the solution to my dirty cup problem?  Then I looked at the price tag.  At eight dollars a pop I knew this was not my solution.

I started thinking.  Why don't I make my own monogram mugs?  So I did.

I went to a thrift store and found eight matching mugs for 25 cents each.  Took them home and gave them a nice bleach bath.  Then I had the kiddos initials cut from vinyl with a Cricut and slapped them on the mugs.  (I didn't really slap them on.  More like I carefully lined them up to make sure they were straight). 

The vinyl has held up great to washings in the dishwasher and by hand.  They look so cute all lined up on the counter, and everyone always knows which cup is theirs. 

Cute DVD Storage

It seems like I am crazy about blue these days. 

I got this old metal storage container at a thrift store for 2 dollars.  I wanted to spray paint it but couldn't find the right color of blue in a can.  I mixed some white paint with a blue sample I found at ACE and came up with this color.  It is perfect for holding the kiddos dvd's.


Before

After

I LOVE IT!

Hutch re-do

I promised crafts over a week ago so here goes. 

This is a little project Randy and I worked on together.  I picked up this Hutch at a thrift store quite a while ago and finally got around to painting it.  Originally the back of the hutch had a mirror that was broken and the glass shelves were missing.  I am assuming they had been broken also.  You can see the bottom piece in the background with a coat of white paint already on it.

We spray painted it white and added white bead board to the back.  We purchased new glass shelves, and added new white ceramic knobs.  Then we sanded it to give it that shabby look.

I love the way it turned out.  Guess what!  She is for sale.  I am asking $300.00 for her.  Please contact me if you are interested and you live in Arizona.

Thanks for looking.

Hello!

Is anybody out there?    I decided to give this blogging thing another go.  School will be starting soon so maybe I will have a little time on my hands.  We will have to see.  I thought I would post my favorite picture from our Oregon vacation this summer.  This is Dad and some of my brothers out on the lake doing some fishing.  I don't think they caught anything but they sure had fun. 

I have lots of fun craft projects to show so check back soon.

Candle Holder

I made another cute Valentines craft. 

Here is how you can do it too.

Look for these candle holders at the dollar store.

Simply glue the large candle holder to the taper holder with some tile glue.  Let the glue dry for 24 hours.  It dries clear.

Tie some cute ribbon around the base. 

Stand back to admire and ask yourself why on earth you didn't buy candles while you were at the dollar store.

My first 10k run!

I ran my first 10k yesterday.

I can barely walk today.

I have been training for a couple of months to run in London's Run in Queen Creek, AZ.  I figured it would take me about 1 hour and 20 minutes at the pace I have been running on the tread mill. 

I was very excited and surprised when I finished in less than an hour!

Here is a link to my picture from the run .  Don't laugh, I was just finishing running 6.2 miles.

It was a challenge but lots of fun too.

Valentines Craft

I found this cute Valentines craft Idea on The Creative Crate. This blog has so many cute craft Ideas.

It was super easy to make. My friend Megan cut the wood for me, and I used her cricut to cut stencils for the letters and the heart.




Go check out The Creative Crate. I'm sure you will be inspired too.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

 

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year! We sure did! We even had snow for Christmas! It just doesn't seem like Christmas without snow.

I love the snow lady the kids made.

She's got style!

Jacob's Birthday

 

Our blue eyed boy turned 7 today!

Wow, time flies.

Jacob is such a sweet boy. He is loving the 1st grade and is an excellent student.

He loves video games and is enjoying the Wii we got for Christmas.

Jacob is such an obedient boy. He is always getting rewarded for being the first one to obey when we ask the kids to do something. (It drives the other kids crazy).

He is a lego master and he gets very upset when someone breaks his creations.

You can often find him standing or spinning on his head or crawling accross the floor. He doesn't hold still for long.

We love you Jake. We are glad you are ours.

9 year old fashionista!

I'm catching up! One more post and I am moving on to Christmas.

Natalie turned 9 on November 7, 2009.

She asked for; brown boots, black boots, and black Sunday shoes. What are we going to do when she is a teenager? This shoe obsession, where does it come from? Her Dad?

She is growing into a lovely young lady. I am always amazed at how creative she is. She loves making things for other people and can often be found in her room working on her latest project.

It is lots of fun having a girl around that likes to shop and craft.

By the way, she is already asking to wear my clothes.

Seriously girl, you are only 9!

Terrible Two's

Hailey turned 2 years old on October 28th. (I told you I was behind) She might look sweet but she is a monster!

 

For example, tonight while I was on the computer I could hear her in the kitchen. I told Natalie to go check on her thinking that if she was into something she shouldn't be that Natalie would come tell me, right? WRONG! She proceeded to dump the remainder of the oreos on the floor and let her brother run over them with a toy car. Then she dumped the rest of the cat food and spread it around.

 

Her normal bedtime is between 12:00 and 1:00 am. If you want her to go to bed earlier you have to put in the movie "Bolt". This makes for a very interesting sleep routine considering Randy's new job requires him to wake up at 3:30 in the morning.

 

Oh well, what are you going to do? We wouldn't trade her for anything.