Monthly Goal Review for May

I just barely posted the review for last month....craziness!!

Goal for May: Learn to crochet (hey, that rhymes :)

Rating: ★★★★★ 5 stars

I'm SO glad I finally took the time to learn to crochet. I actually learned a while ago, back in the day, but obviously didn't pay close attention. It's one of my new favorite hobbies!

I started learning how to make flowers first cuz A) it's simple enough and B) I wanted to make some little hair clippies for the girls. It took a few attempts before I got it down, even then it took about a week before I actually could say it looked good.

I googled how to crochet and found THIS cool site that gives a video tute on how to do almost every type of stitch. If you understand how to do the stitches, it's pretty easy to make stuff! If I can do it, anyone can do it. :)

Here's what I came up with:

These are how I started out.. take a look at that first red one....what was going on with that petal?? most of them have funky mess ups, but hey I learned by all that trial and error. :)

More flower clippies plus some from ribbon I got.

Baby hats and two adult ones. I like the purple one!

The tutes I used for the flowers are here and here and here.

Tute for pink hat I found here.

The rest I bought the patterns on etsy. There's some CUTE stuff out there!
Then these are my favorite- little fairy tale finger puppets! Aren't they just too cute?! Ya got a Knight in crocheted armor, his noble steed, dragon and damsel. Found the free tute over here. They're very easy and now the girls can have fun playing with them (maybe me too ;)

If anyone else knows of some fun crocheting projects out there, lemme know!

Faith's first recital!

Last month Faith started taking violin/music lessons from my mom. I'm going to teach her piano too, I just thought it would be fun to have a different instrument in our family.

When they're this young, they just start working on rhythm and get practice performing in front of an audience. She's learned her fingers that she'll be playing with on the violin too. She's doing so awesome! It will be so much fun to see her this time next year playing on a mini violin, how precious!

Tonight Faith performed her song "Twinkle Little Star" in front of about 15 people, which is the most she's ever sung for. She did such a great job, I'm so proud of her!

Don't mind that the video is sideways or the fact that it's from my phone and not a good quality camera... didn't come prepared. :S

Woo hoo!

I got my first blogging award! Not that that's the reason I'm blogging, to get awards, but it's pretty fun to know that someone likes your blog enough to give you one! :)

Apparently there are strings attached with this, I:

A) Thank Melanie from LDS Handouts , who was the one kind enough to honor me with this!

B) Share 7 things about myself:

1. I thought I handled cold better, but I'm finding that I'd rather deal with the warmth.
2. I'm not very good at coming up with creative original ideas, but I can copy-cat very well. :)
3. After being the primary pianist for many many many years, my calling is now a "permanent primary substitute worker"..... those were their exact words. Why not just call me to be a teacher.
4. I actually find cleaning and yard work to be really fun. **Please note that folding laundry is NOT part of my definition of cleaning. :)
5. If someone asks me a question and I don't know how to do it, it will bug and pester me until I find it out.
6. I don't deal with stress as well as I'd like to think I do.
7. I HATE the nickname 'babe'. I find it demeaning....also reminds me of the pig movie "Babe". My hubby called me babe once and that was the last and only time he ever did. :)

C) Pick 15 blogs I've been to recently to give pass the award on to:

1. Our Scoop
2. Poppies at Play
3. [Re]beautify
4. Rosies
5. The Idea Room
6. Your Homebased Parties
7. Delightful Dots
8. Every Crafty Endeavor
9. Floral Showers Crafts
10. Just a Girl
11. NannyGoat
12. No Biggie
13. Imperfectly Beautiful
14. Little Birdie Secrets
15. The Crafty Tortoise

D) I'll be letting each of these blogs know. I want to thank each one of them for all the inspiration and creativity they've shared!

Angel Mother Freebie Kit

** NO LONGER DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE **

Fashionably late as usual. ;) I hope everyone's Mother's day weekend was as awesome as mine!

Obviously I'm dedicating this kit to my mother. If I had to sum my mom up in one word, without hesitation I would say "Christlike". She's without a doubt, one amazing woman and my best friend. I love that she was and is always there for me; there after school with freshly baked cookies and listens about my day, there for a shoulder to cry on when I had a bad day, there supporting and cheering me on at every single performance I've ever done, there with helpful advice and reminders when I was in a bind, there to entertain my friends at sleepovers when I fell asleep early, there to laugh with me, cry with me, talk with me anytime.....still to this day. I couldn't ask for a better mom.

When my mom was in the hospital in 07 my sister and I got her a little angel with flowers and took them to her. Since then the quote from Abraham Lincoln, "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my Angel Mother" is the one we've used for our mom. Hence the name for this kit. I'm so grateful for my mom and that she's still with us, I don't know what I'd do without her.

Hope you enjoy!!

Free for personal use

American I"Doll"

Faith's been singing a lot more recently and I'm loving it! I love the sound of her tiny voice singing songs she's learned from nursery or heard us sing a million times as part of her bedtime routine. One of those is Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star. It didn't take her long to figure out that it has the same tune as the ABC song. Sometimes, she sings half ABC and the last half Twinkle. It's so precious, I can never get sick of listening to this singing! Reminds me of when I was a kid, I'd sing all the time and make up my own songs (which she's starting to do).

What a doll! :)

Monthly Goal Review for April

Goal for April: Get garden planted and established/ yard work as well

Rating: ★★★★★

Five stars

I'm glad we got in our yard work couple weeks ago when Spring came (and went immediately after.) I actually love doing yard work, maybe because of my fetish with seeing messy things clean and orderly afterwards.

Along with getting our yard lookin' good, we decided it was high time to get a fence. So, we went for it and I am SO excited! Our awesome neighbor installed it for us and did a great job! It's going to be nice to send the girls out to the back to play when I don't feel like watching them every minute and chasing them down the road. ;) And of course, keep them safe from the busy road behind us so they don't get smashed flat like the neighbor's cats.

The main goal was to get our garden finished, even though the fence was a big accomplishment also. Our garden started out looking like this, for a year, growing some nice weeds and grass in it. :)

Sad looking, eh.

Finally, we conquered it, doesn't it look tonz better? I'm SO excited about both!

Now we are just hoping that the fence keeps the stupid cats outta our garden and that we can harvest at least ONE thing! It's our first crack at a garden so...wish us luck! :)

Happy Birthday Handsome!

Not fun timing for our kids to be sick. But regardless, we still partied!

The girls helped me make the awesomest birthday sign. Didn't they do a great job! Faith asked me to show her how to draw a lollipop and, along with her smiley faces, she drew a whole bunch to make it all festive. :) Daddy absolutely loved, LOVED it!

I ordered some Thai food take out and set up a picnic right in the comfort of our own home. :)We would've taken the lil' picnic outdoors, but we probably would've gotten blown to the Wizard of Oz. :)

I made a scavenger hunt for Tim to find his gifts and card. We love doing those around here! :) I have to say the clues were pretty clever.

Here he is sportin' his new outift, what a good lookin' stud!

Tim's birthday dessert. Ever had sweet sticky rice with mango? You HAVE to try it, it's soooo good! It's been one of our favorites for a while now.

We like to do early gifts here, mostly it's because of me....ok, it IS because of me. I just can't hold my horses! I got him a part for his phone and was so excited cuz I knew he had no clue what I was up to. When it came time for him to use it, he realized I got the wrong part. So, he tells me, "Thanks sweetie, but I'll get the electronic stuff, ok." hahah oh well, can't blame him, it's like him trying to buy me clothes or makeup. I made up for that by getting the new season of our favorite computer game and we nerded out together playing it for a few nights! Does anyone else like to do that with their hubby? :)

And to end the night with a big shabang, we paid (literally) a visit to the doctor. We find that Mikkie has a bad ear infection. :( Poor girly! It's been a miserable week.

Life is so much fun with hy handsome hubby!

Rolled fabric flowers

Got into another fabric-flower-making-splurge. I found more tutorials I was just itchin' to try, and still even more that I'm tryin to find time to do! Check out this tutorial. Some other ones I made I just kinda messed around with and experimented. :) Sometimes that's the best way to get some fun, different styles....and sometimes, not so much. :)

I wanted to make small clippies to put in Mikkie's ponytails, so I just made mini rolled fabric flowers and attached them to some mini clips I found at JoAnn's. Too cute, I love them on her!

Both her and Faith made great little posers :)

Wooly to Ruffly pillow!

One of the things I love seeing (and doing) is turning ugly or old things into new and improved things. I see the pro ones out there where people totally transform beaten-up furniture into gorgeous masterpieces.....I'm not even close to doing that yet (probably would look like a toddler did it), but I'm starting small. Pillows I can do, and with each one I'm getting more practice to make the next one even better.

Well, I'm not sure this one is better than my last, but I do like it. This is the ugly wool pillow I got from DI for $2!!.......

..............and transformed it into this loverly vision of white. :) with 2 messy girls, let's see how long it STAYS white. haha
I didn't really find a tutorial on this one, and was not thinking at the time to make my own. I just saw a ruffled pillow like this at a store and guessed on how to do it. If enough people want a tute, then I'll go ahead and make one just for you. :)

Framed vinyl

Something else to take up some wall space. I can do shelves, but wall space......I never know how to arrange it! I did this for starters.....

got a cheap-o, ugly old gold frame from D.I. and painted/distressed it. The vinyl I cut with myself with my Cricut.

"A family that prays together, stays together". how true that is. :)

ahhhhh, me likey how it looks! I just gotta figure out what to fill my jar with now.hummmmmm...

Burlap canvas

This is my version of the fabric wall hangings I've been seeing a lot of. This is residing on the wall between our Living and Family rooms; adds a great touch, me thinks. =)

Just made a wood frame, pulled the burlap over (probably could've done it tighter) and stapled it down. The flowers were some of the hair clips I've been making (Post of those coming soon). I hot glued those on and then stitched some squiggly vines with brown thread. Not too shabby, eh.

Breakin' out the moves

Tim had told me that the other night he started beat boxin' around on the table and counter and the girls started dancing to it! haha I tell ya, those girls can dance to ANYTHING! They even find the beat & rhythm to the washer when it's washin' a load of clothes. They are born dancers. I love it, so cute!

No, we didn't plan their matching outfits, it just worked out cool like that. ;)

Decorative balls

I've had a bunch of tutorials bookmarked for a long while that I wanted to get to someday, and that someday finally came! =) Now with the holidays over and out of the way I can focus on making some "regular home decor" for my house. I want to finish up my downstairs first since I've already started and since that's where people are the most.

These cute twine covered Styrofoam balls were on my to-craft list. I had some balls from Faith's party, so it worked out perfect to just use those and not have to buy anymore. The only prob with the bigger ones is they took about an hour! so....easy, but time consuming. I think I was using smaller twine than the tutorial where they used hemp cording. I wish I used that, but they still look good.

I found the perfect turquoise color at Walmart to spray paint some balls and others I used a brown I already had.

While I was clicking around, I came across a picture of rolled fabric decorative balls.

There were no instructions, just a picture. But it was easy enough to figure out. Just roll/twist fabric and hot glue it on the ball as you go along, same as the twine, just with rolled fabric. Such a cute match to go along with the twine balls. Love it!

Last but not least, um....more fabric balls (for lack of a better name). Same technique is used on these that I used on my Valentine Wreath, just used on a ball instead of a heart. LOVE these also!

I had to buy ZIP-ola for all these balls! well, I bought them at one point, but ya know...I've had them on hand for a while. =) These ones were made from old skirts, and the turquoise one from an old pillow case. I feel very resourceful. =)

More home decor on the way =)

Easter Freebie kit!

** NO LONGER DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE **

Once again, time has flown by and it's Easter! Easter, General Conference, good food and family all in one day! What would make it even better is if the girls weren't sick and it was warm sunshiney weather. oh well, can't have everything, eh! =)

This kit is dedicated to the bunny rabbit we can't have. Have I said enough how bummed I am with Tim's allergies?! It's not his fault, but darn it all. ;)

Have fun with this and I hope to hear how you like it.

Please remember that all my kits are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. Thanks!

April Fooooooool's!

I wasn't really prepared for this holiday this year, usually I'm scheming plans weeks in advance, but I couldn't just NOT do something. So, off the top of my head I devised a simple plan that got better results than planned.

I thought my joke last year was awesome- having my prego SIL take a pregnancy test for me to make it look like I was pregnant, and I got the water works going and everything for about 1/2 hour, it was priceless. I was crying cuz I was still recovering from having Mikkie in Nov. Who wants to get prego again that fast?! Not I! But I now know even more by his reaction, what an incredible hubby I have that he was ready to be my support through yet another "pregnancy" =)

According to Tim he thought this year's joke was better than last. We had just barely gotten our Dremel back from being fixed and so I told him that while I was out in the garage spray painting, the girls got a hold of the dremel and totally messed up our walls in the kitchen and entryway. First of all, being the kind and caring person he is, he asked if they were hurt or anything. When i replied no, he was pretty peeved. I said the dremel must've broken from them dropping it from upstairs (they love to throw things over the railing). that set him off. He was taking this news better than expected, so I continue with...."and not to mention they ripped apart half our books they tore off the shelf yesterday." Insert scream.(well, I was telling him over google talk, but I could hear his frustration..muahaha). He was planning ways to discipline better and everything and called me on the way home asking if I could call my dad to see how much it would be to repair the damage. Once I told him April Fool's he about died, cuz he actually believed me and couldn't believe how mad I made him get. LOL I couldn't have gotten a better reaction. ok......and I just HAD to throw in the whole taping-down-sink-sprayer-button prank and asked him to wash his hands. I just love the look of surprise on his face when the water sprays him right in the face. HAHA oh boy, I love to tease my hubby! I'm glad he still loves me with all he has to put up with from me. =) But hey, don't blame ME, blame my dad...that's where I get my mischievousness from. ;)