Mason Jar Advent Calendar

December is one of my favorite times of year. I can't get enough of all the kindness and fun and joy that is almost tangible in the air. I would be lying, though, if I didn't acknowledge all the busyness that comes along with it. Before I know it, December 1st hits and I have presents to wrap, food to make, church functions to attend [or plan. yikes!], cards to address, gifts to buy, phone calls to make, and without fail some major appliance bites the dust [this year, it was our washing machine. mid-cycle. whee.]

It took my husband and I a while to have kids and because of that I had a lot of time to think about the family traditions that were important to me. And I am determined to make our Decembers memorable in a positive way. More than anything, I want my children to know that feeling of Christmas magic. Christmas spirit. Christmas Joy. The best way I figured to do that was to set aside time every day to spend as a family or doing an activity that is a little out of the ordinary for us. Making each day a little special. My boys are only 8 months old right now, but I believe in habits and knowing myself, a couple trial runs before they will actually remember their Christmases is probably a good idea!

Anyhow, I set up an advent calendar to fill with activities instead of treats. It was so fast. And it is probably my favorite Christmas decoration. It is so bright and cheery! I love it.



Using 25 jars of all different sizes. From a 4oz fruit butter jar to a salsa jar to a quart size mason jar and everything in between. You don't have to have all mason jars. The different textures add interest and the varying heights make sure each color is seen. I put up a wanted listing on a community free-sale site and had more jars than I knew what to do with. If your neighborhood is all out of jars, check your local thrift store. I've found jars for as little as a quarter there.

I first laid out the jars in the arrangement I would want them, so I could figure out my colors. I picked a little non-traditional Christmas color scheme. Mostly because we already had yellow and black paint, and traditional doesn't really happen in my house [we have a purple couch and a yellow piano...bless my husband.] Large jars in back, and I staggered the jars forward so at least part of the jar could be seen.



I used interior wall paint and plain old craft paint to color the jars. There was a tutorial I looked up to do it [that also said you needed a specific type of paint. not true. use what you have. It'll turn out great!], but you don't need it. You squirt the paint into the bottom of the jar and twist it around until all the surfaces are coated. Then turn the jar upside down and drain the paint into the next jar of that color. Repeat. 25 times. Or 5 times if you enlist a small army to help you. I fed my siblings Sunday dinner. They painted jars for me.



After the jars were dry [or a little earlier, because I have zero patience] I arranged them on our piano and cut numbers out of silver vinyl using my silhouette machine. Number stickers would work great too, with a quick coat of glitter spray, you'd be in serious business.



So simple. This year our jars are filled with planned activities, like church Christmas concerts or parties at the local library, and impromptu activities, like making cookies for neighbors, taking pictures with Christmas lights, making a chocolate train, and watching polar express with snow cocoa. I have long forgotten what is in each jar even though I am the one planning the whole thing, and it is so fun to see what's in store for me and my little family over breakfast that morning.

I can't wait to see how this family tradition unfolds. Hopefully someday we'll be adding snowball fights, pajama days, and children's Nativity pageants to the list. What matters most to me is that it brings the focus back around family for the busiest month of the year. And even if we miss a day, the past 3 have been better than I ever hoped for!



Kristin Call is a stay-at-home mom to two rowdy boys and wife to one gorgeous man. She blogs their life over at Call Me Kristin. Her "me-time" consists of doing graphic design work for Designer Blogs and trying to tame her inner voice that constantly says "I bet I could make that." She loves Psych and White Collar, Chai Tea, Sushi, and Penguins. Drop by and say hi!

A Sweater for Gray

I've been working on this sweater for my babes since before they were even in my belly. I picked green because it could work for a boy or a girl. I finished it last week and just in time! It fits perfectly. What an amazing feeling. I am so proud of it. It took forever, but the little diamond pattern just makes me so happy. And the little pointy hood.

And I wasn't going to make another sweater, but we're doing family pictures over Thanksgiving break and clearly Nash needs one too. All I have left on it are the sleeves. Hopefully I finish it in time! [Not a diamond patterned one, no hood, and it's a much quicker pattern. But oh it suits him.]

Home Management Binder: The Kitchen

If you missed it, the first post in this series is here!

This idea came to me while in the shower. It may be my best idea yet.

Seriously.

About a year ago, I set to work planning a year's worth of meal plans and shopping lists after seeing this pin. I re-designed the cover to fit my style and printed out all the calendars and shopping lists I needed. I even filled out a few months and figured out the shopping lists. And I was overwhelmed. There was no freedom! I don't KNOW what my family wants to eat on a wednesday night in May. I don't KNOW if that day will be rainy or sunny or if we'll have a baseball game we want to go to. I don't KNOW if there will be a family we need to take dinner to. I don't know. I felt stifled. What if I want to try a new recipe? Do I have to schedule that MONTHS in advance? For real? Who plans like that?! And it wasn't reasonable.

So, I went to the other extreme. Which was back to my pick the meals, make the list, do the shopping, etc. And it made me crazy because I was putting SO much brain power into creative menus each and every time. I was re-doing things that didn't need to be re-done.

And then that beautiful day in a hot shower came. And I was at my mother's house. And I was stealing my little sister's awesome Bath and Body Works body wash because heaven knows we can't afford that fancy stuff. And I was thinking about how awesome Photoshop actions are. What a genius idea to RECORD THE PROCESSES WE DO OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO MAKE THEM HAPPEN SO FAST, WITH JUST THE CLICK OF A MOUSE. Did you catch that?

And I have no idea how, but it clicked. I am going to make my kitchen management into a set of Photoshop actions, so to speak. And so I did.

I started by making lists of ten dinners and side dishes. I ended up with 8 sets of ten. I decided on ten instead of fourteen, because without fail, we have leftovers once a week and then we either go on a date or meet up with friends or have breakfast for dinner, or whatever for the others. When I plan fourteen meals, we always end up wasting food. When making them, I kept to a loose guideline of 4 chicken meals, 3 ground beef, 3 other. It made for variety and it's what my family eats. It also ensures that each meal plan costs about the same in groceries. Also, mentally, when making the menus I would try to keep a good balance of time-intensive meals, quick meals and crock pot meals. I didn't stress out about this. Looking at the menu, you can pretty much tell [whoa, that's a lot. That can't go on the same menu. Or, well...those are all pretty easy, so I'm sure we'll want a fancy meal in there somewhere...etc.]

And then I made the menu pages cute. Because my next big problem AFTER going shopping was I had my dinner plans and my grocery list on the same piece of paper and I would take it to the store and then shove it in a grocery sack and it would get mixed up with all the other clutter in my car and then I would have no idea what dinners I even had stuff for. Now that it's cute, once I go shopping, I put it up on my fridge. The shopping list is still on the same page, but I swear, the cuteness keeps me from losing it in the clutter. I've done 4 menus so far and haven't lost a single one. Magic.



And then, the doozy. I made the shopping list. WITH the intention of using it again. That's a big deal. Before I was RECORDING MY ACTIONS, I would go through each recipe and only write down the ingredients I needed. Mentally I would check off "well, I have that, and that, and that, so all I need for this recipe is tilapia!" And it made for a shorter list, but that list was useless to me later on. I would never be able to use the information I spent so much time gathering again. So, I made each shopping list for ten meals as if I needed to buy every, single, little, thing in every, single recipe. This means my lists include cornstarch, measurements of milk, butter, eggs, spices, etc. [The side dishes are noted with an item x1 or x3 depending on how many times we'll be eating that side dish during the next 14 days.] And so, when I'm needing to go grocery shopping, I pick a list and shop from my cupboards first, crossing off anything we have already. And then I head to the store. So much faster. And less time pouring over recipes. More time for more fun things!

And then I made them cute.

I have eight menu plans. Four of them have shopping lists done. We have eaten our way through menu plans 1, 3, 6 & 7. Some menus lend themselves to summer months. Others have more hearty meals for winter months. All of them are delicious. And just flipping through the menus I can easily see what sounds good for that time of year without stressing about it. I can also ask Cam what sounds good and pick the meal plan that includes. It's the best thing. And it has helped me so SO much, so how could I not share?

Here is meal plan #1.

I realize these are for OUR family. These are meals that we love and I have made before. I could never use someone else's meal plan because our favorites would get lost. Which is why I went into so much detail about how I came up with each of our menus. Also, we are humans. We eat relatively healthy. And quite frankly, if you are eating home cooked food instead of fast food, you're already two steps up in my book. However, we are not vegan. We are not uber granola people. We are humans. So we like pizza. And burgers. And breaded chicken. And [heaven forbid] a cream of something soup sometimes. [Though my mom turned me on to a DIY cream of something soup. And it doesn't have any MSG in it, so I'm pretty pumped to try it. PLUS, it's cheaper. So yeah, I might be swapping that out.]

If you click on the image above, you can print out the menu and shopping list. And the recipes are linked below. But I would highly recommend sitting down and making lists of ten. Plan the sides too, so you don't end up with a bunch of extra salad that goes bad. It is effort in the beginning, but it is so worth it. Seriously. I print 3 pages front and back, and end up with six copies of each meal plan in my binder. I am halfway done making my shopping lists and once I finish that, I can have a huge variety of meals for 2 years before having to think about it again! And if I want to try a new recipe? Well, I only have 10 recipes each time, so I can go right ahead! And if I find a keeper? All I have to do is make a new meal plan, or swap it out for a recipe we don't like as much from one of the existing meal plans. There is so much flexibility, it just makes my heart sing.

I am happy to make your menus cute if you so desire. I will even lay them out with your shopping lists on the back. I charge $5 to customize any of my printables [text changes only].

Menus for Humans. I like that. I'll post the other menus if you're interested? Comment and let me know! [No, commenting on FB doesn't count. :)]

Anyhow, the other part of my kitchen section is the freezer tally.

(Click picture to download printable.)

With everything that I make and freeze, I [used] to forget about a lot of stuff in there and then when the time came to clean it out, I had wasted so much food that I was putting away for later. Now, I keep one of these sheets on the door of our freezer and jot down stuff as it goes in and cross stuff off when it comes out. So great! Like the night I didn't want to cook and had made a double batch of pizza rolls? yep, we ate so good that night! And the other night when we had inside-out springroll salad and I didn't know if Cam would like the dressing, but I knew he LOVED my mom's wonton sauce? It was in the freezer, and I had actually forgotten about it until I was halfway through making dinner. A quick defrost, and now I HAVE to share that recipe with you. Because it was a total cheap veggie meal that Cam actually requested a huge bowl of in his lunch the next day. ["Just give me a huge bowl of this. That's all I want tomorrow."<--those words actually came out of his mouth. Nuts.]

Anyhow, this seriously is the best thing in my little organizational world right now. I love the kitchen section! And it helps to have extra copies, because when I'm filling out my daily docket, I know exactly what's on the menu plan. It's all right there in my binder. I love it.

Here are Menu Plan #1's recipes:

OMG Chicken with green beans
Olive Garden Alfredo with tomatoes + salad
Honey Sesame Chicken with best broccoli
Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken with mashed potatoes + salad
Italian Meatloaf with butterhorns + salad
Taco Burros + salad [a favorite from Cam's childhood. Taco meat, refried beans, tortillas, cheese, salsa]
Sunday Meal + salad [another favorite from Cam's childhood. I'll have to post the recipe!]
Tortellini Spinach Bake with watermelon + corn
Pizza Rolls + salad
Garlicky Baked Shrimp with green beans

Home Management Binder: Budget

If you missed it, the overall post about the home management binder is here.

Ah, the budget. It is such a scary thing to tackle finances...or it used to be. I decided one day that in order to stay on top of my finances I couldn't rely on receipts. Receipts cause paper clutter. And it builds up until I can't deal with it anymore and just throw it all away, which results in us totally forgetting our budget and buying extra Blue Bell ice cream, which is not good for your figure OR your wallet. This resulted in me making a very small printable for my wallet. It was about the size of a dollar bill and I taped it to my check book. Any time I bought anything, I would record it on the piece of paper. [Cameron would let me know if he spent anything as well.] Once a week, I would update our budget totals and share them with Cameron so we were on the same page. It worked brilliantly, but it was a lot of work. I found myself re-totaling everything up all the time. I needed a ledger. And I needed a little more space to keep things clean.

Enter the binder. [Click image to download blank printable version.]

I'll spare you the actual details of our budget for September. It's not very impressive...we're on a student loans salary right now. But I will say that it saves me so much time! My binder goes with me wherever I go. I write down the total while the grocer is bagging my groceries or right after I get back in the car from pumping gas. I can make sure all of our utilities and insurance payments are on time and I know exactly what date they were paid. I know immediately how much we have left in each budget. There is no guess work.

Finances aren't such a daunting task when they're done as you go!

In my binder, I printed 3 of these, front and back, so I have enough for a year. [4 to a page, cut in half]. I am blown away by the peace of mind this little piece of paper gives me. It also allows me to have more fun, because I can purchase fun things guilt free when I know where the money is coming from!

Up Next: Kitchen [Meal Planning + Shopping Lists + Freezer Tally]

Home Management Binder: Daily Docket

If you missed it, the overall post about the home management binder is here.

Alright, so the first part of my binder is the Daily Docket. It's the meat of the whole thing. It ties the other parts together, and honestly, if I had to pick one part to do, this would be it. I get so much done with this little piece of paper. When I started out making my Daily Docket, I got a little carried away. And I made it too complicated. This is where I started:

It had too much on it and it stressed me out. There was wasted space on it because the sections didn't work for me. I removed the daily schedule portion, the drink more water portion, and the morning and evening checklists. It is SO much better! So, if you're looking to make your own, write down a list of everything you think your daily docket should include, and then delete 3-4 of them. You will thank me later.

After the clean-up, this is where I landed. And I love it. [Click the image to download the printable file]

Exhale. So much better. I have figured out a trick to making this work for me. I absolutely HAVE to fill it out the night before. Right before bedtime. Otherwise, I waste half the day trying to figure out what I really want to do vs. how tired I am. When I fill it out the night before, things like

"Hey! I cleaned the fridge before 9!"

or "Well, now that dinner's already in the crock pot, what should I do during the boys' afternoon nap?"

come out of my mouth.

And it rocks. I also get a whole lot of satisfaction from crossing things off. No more check boxes. The nicest part about it is that my day is thought out when I'm at the end of the day before and I know full well what I would do with a few extra hours in the day. Now, those tasks actually get done because they're mapped out for the next day. And I am actually excited to get up. No lie. This is a huge deal for me. The past couple weeks, I have been working on supporting Cam and waking up with him at 5:15 am to pack his lunch, have breakfast and scriptures with him, and get a jump on the day. It's addicting. I LOVE having the time to myself. I can workout, shower, and get my chores done before the boys even wake up. This morning, I did Zumba, showered, made the bed, started the laundry, hung the diapers to dry on the line, did my scripture study and made myself a yummy uninterrupted breakfast before the boys made a peep. And when they did wake up, I was so happy to see them! I am a better mom because of this little piece of paper. Another one of my friends posted on Facebook that she hates when naptime is over and it's been wasted. Me. Too. Oh it is the worst feeling. And I avoid that feeling when this is filled out. I know exactly what I am doing during that time. And the house is clean, and I know what we're having for dinner, and I feel human because I've done even the smallest workout and/or showered. I could sing its praises all day.

Here's an example of mine all filled out:



Next Up: The Budget. [Yikes!]

Custom Design: Home Management Binder

I am so excited for this post. I have been working on this project all summer long. Figuring out a system that really works for our family took a while, but I can't even begin to explain to you all the time this has saved me. Introducing, my home management binder!



In this post, I'll talk about the framework of the overall binder and its sections. Each section warrants its own post, though, so over the course of this week, the sections below will turn into links where you can get more information about each one.

Daily Docket
Budget
Kitchen
Cleaning
Projects
Scripture Study

First, I want to talk about the start of this project. My life is crazy. With Nash and Gray getting more and more active and Cameron starting Chiropractic School, I knew I needed to get myself organized. I started the summer with a motto of "set yourself up for success." That idea really influenced how I thought about this. I looked for things that I did over and over again and figured out ways I could streamline those processes [i.e. menu planning, chores, projects, etc.]. I also combined things that I knew worked for me [my six-list], and trimmed them down to fit my new lifestyle. I also used this as an opportunity to set new goals [better scripture study.]

I knew I wanted a binder because I love having a new docket for each day, I love things to look clean, which means I need to be able to throw away yesterdays docket, and start today's new. And I need it to be the first thing I see when I open the cover. I also don't want any of those annoying paper shreds stuck in the binding of a composition book/coil-bound notebook. Also, I have to be able to give myself a day off once in a while. This is why I didn't want a Franklin Covey planner. I used those when I worked full time. And it was great, because I went to work every single day. I was planned out. I was efficient. If I slip up, I don't need the guilt of a stressful/messy/gross house, a stressed/gross me, AND the paper reminder that I slipped up. It's highly discouraging. So, I nixed a calendar altogether in mine. I might add a monthly one/perpetual one in the future so I can keep track of birthdays and other special events, but for now, I'm doing just fine. [This is not an excuse to be lazy for me. Last week, Wednesday was HARD. I was so sad over something personal. And I could hardly function. So, I called the day off. I snuggled my boys. We watched movies. We ate leftovers. The chores didn't get done. I didn't fill out my docket for the day. The house was a nightmare. etc. But by Saturday, everything was back to normal. This is why I don't want a calendar. Because I needed that day to just be. But MOST of the time, I need my binder. :)]

I also knew that the cover needed to inspire me. Over the summer, I heard the perfect quote to use on the front. It explained my homemaking philosophy perfectly. It resonated with me completely. So I made it look pretty and outlined the page in Washi tape from Mindy Mae's Market. I couldn't be happier with it.

To download the printable, just click the image below.
For the rest of the binder, I used a half page binder. It measures about 6x9 and fits pages 5.5 x 8.5. I love how small it is. It fits in my diaper bag, fits on the checkout thing at the grocery store, fits in my scripture study stack. I also bought a package of 5 divider tabs for half page binders. They're sold right by the binders at any office supply store. [I did check if you could find a half-page binder + dividers at Walmart and Target and didn't have any luck, so if you're looking to make you own I would stick with Staples or Office Max.]



To make my dividers cute, I just added a strip of the same Washi Tape along the edge of each one. It polished it up so great that I didn't even mind the handwriting on the tabs!



Next Up, I'll go into the Daily Docket. It's the most important part of the binder. I've been asked before how I "do it all." And honestly, I don't "do it all." You can do anything you want to do, so long as you sacrifice something else. But you can do more if you are organized. And this little binder is my secret.

Little Guy Ties

I saw a link on pinterest for "little guy ties" and they claimed you could make one in 20 minutes. I got together with a friend of mine a couple weeks ago and we set about making some Sunday finery for our kiddos. I'm willing to bet you could, no doubt, put one of these ties together in 20 minutes if you do not currently have a little boy to put the tie on. Otherwise, count on it taking quite a bit longer. After an hour and a half, I still wasn't done cutting out my fabric. Following a 4 hours marathon, I had 8 half finished ties. The next day during naps, I was able to finish the neck bands for all 8, no sweat. They really are simple. Perhaps a project to do at home so your kids get really good naps instead of at a friends' house. Really Nash & Gray just decided that it was the perfect time to become extremely excited about everything I was doing. No sleep. No sir.

The main debate is whether velcro or elastic is better. In my opinion, elastic wins every time. I made 6 of the 8 with velcro. I will be changing those to elastic in the very near future. SO much easier to get on your boy! And if it ever gets too small, it is so much easier to fix. I sure think they make for handsome gentlemen though. I believe in white shirts and ties for church, so they need a variety to choose from, clearly. This is the equivalent of making fun headbands for little girls in my opinion. I have since made 4 more. 2 navy blue bow ties and silky pink polka-dotted neck ties.

If you do decide to do velcro, be sure to make it the full 16" the pattern calls for. I thought that looked too long for my little, tiny, babes. They are not so little tiny and the neck bands are already too small.

Love these, though! I love feeling like I can make new ties for any occasion. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Weddings, Family Pictures. So great.

 

 

HUGE Print for Cheap!

It is a GREAT feeling to actually finish something you set out to do. Before the boys were born, I found this pin. My baby shower was an adventure theme and my little sister knitted these adorable aviator caps for the boys. We tried taking pictures of them in them a while ago for our family shoot, but the boys were too young to get a shot like I was envisioning. About a week ago, we tried again. And oh, I am in love. The process was really easy. Start to finish, this only took us about an hour. And the printing went just like the tutorial said it would. $7 at Office Max. I emailed them the file. It was ready in minutes. Something they didn't mention [that I should have known, but didn't] was that the print is on regular paper, not photo paper. It looks perfect, though, so  don't worry! Our print had streaks through it every now and again, but I totally love the imperfections. I feel like it gives it personality. Not that the boys didn't add enough of that on their own... ha.


We measured the print onto the foam board and cut it out. Cutting foam is tricky. It's hard to make it smooth. Try to do as much in one shot as you can. If you have to stop and reposition your knife, you'll almost always get a jagged edge. Once the edges are painted, it's not very noticeable, but I did have to smooth a few places out...and it was annoying.



We used this spray adhesive. It is what I use to extend the life of my silhouette cutting mats. It is repositionable. And one of our corners needs to be re-glued. I would use permanent adhesive if I were going to do this again. But it's only one tiny corner and it's really not a big deal. We had this on hand, so we used it. But if you're going out and buying some, get stronger stuff.



We painted the edges black. I added an inky edge on the front face of the picture as well. I like how it finished and smoothed everything off. It was at this point that Cameron commented how nice and expensive it looked and he couldn't believe it. That, my friends, dubs this project a success all on its own.



We duct taped loops of twine onto the back and Cam hung it on the wall. It is SO light! I am in love. Also because if it falls off the wall, it won't hurt my boys. All the edges are rounded and it couldn't smash them if it wanted to. It's too big. If it did manage to get IN to the crib, it weighs about 2 pounds. I'm not concerned. And I feel like it packs a graphic punch. Plus, how cute are those boys? Makes my heart melt in a major way.

DIY Reusable "Paper" Towels

When I stumble across something that totally changes my life, I HAVE to share it and tell everyone I know about it. For real. And these? These are currently "The best idea I've ever had." I know that I am far from the first person to do this, but I don't want to be the last! For the cost of less than a pack of paper towels [I spent $4 and used other materials I had around the house], you will never have to buy paper towels again. Genius. Also, this took like 15 minutes to make. Any project that can be completed start to finish in one naptime or less? Sign me up. It is so simple, it hardly needs a tutorial, but just in case my thoughts are not as easy to understand...here goes!



Materials:

• Pack of washcloths [Mine were $4 for a pack of 18 at walmart. I bought white ones so I can bleach them when I need to. They're for kitchen messes, so bleaching is inevitable. I also like the look of white paper towels on the holder, so I stuck with the basic.]


• Paper towel tube


• Snaps [2 full sets per washcloth + 2 extra sockets for the paper towel tube] I had these left over from making my cloth diapers.


• Snap Press [$12 with a 40% off coupon at Jo-Anns. Again, I had mine from making cloth diapers.]


• Awl [You might not need this depending on your washcloths. If the weave is loose enough for the snap to go through on its own, this isn't necessary, but most snap presses come with one anyway.]


• Paper


• Pen

1. Make a hole 1.25 inches from either edge of one corner of the paper.
2. Use that template to mark a dot in all four corners of each washcloth.

3. Use the awl and snap press to install two snap prongs and two snap sockets on each washcloth. You want them facing opposite sides of the washcloth. So if your prongs are facing up, you want your sockets facing down.

4. Snap the washcloths together in one long strip.

5. Measure 1.25 inches in from either end of the paper towel tube.
6. Install the two extra sockets onto the paper towel tube.
7. Attach your strip of washcloths to the paper towel tube, roll up and place on paper towel holder.
8. Check out your handywork, you're done!

I have a little canvas bin to throw the used ones into in our laundry room. It has been a dream, seriously. Every time I use one, I get excited again at just how good of an idea this was, and how inexpensive! I had seen reusable paper towels before, but they wanted you to sew each towel yourself out of multiple layers of fabric, which ups the cost and time involved. I couldn't commit to that and I was dang sure there was an easier way to do it, so here you have it. This works for us!

My Dad & Me From A to Z

For Father's Day this year, I really wanted to do something really special for Cam. He is such an amazing dad to Nash & Gray. He does so much for them and for me and he loves every minute of it. Late at night, we talk about going to Texas. Almost every night he expresses how nervous he is to be so busy with school. He doesn't want to miss any part of their childhood. They are so important to him. However, providing for our family is also super important to him. School is a must. And it is demanding. And he will have early mornings and late nights. We won't get to see him near as much as we do right now. So I decided to make sure our boys get a healthy dose of their dad on the nights he won't be home before bedtime. This book was my solution:

I started by making a list of A through Z and writing out something specific to Cam and the boys for each one. I outlined the major things I knew I wanted to hit on: church, fun, family, bathtime, bedtime, etc. and double checked they were accounted for. Then, I created a very simple base template with one large space for a picture, one large letter and a short piece of text explaining the letter. The result was a simple, beautiful book that shows just how appreciated Cameron is. I am so pleased with how it turned out. It just makes me giddy. The boys love reading it. I love reading it. Cam loves reading it. And it's so wonderful to see pictures actually printed and simple, short details of their lives right now.

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If there's enough interest, I'll make the templates available for use. Otherwise, I will just enjoy this little piece of happiness sitting on my bookshelf.

A Silhouette Living Room Makeover

Cam and I have been trying to clean out our 2nd bedroom to make room for these two boys that are coming in March and it's taken a little bit of creativity. We've ALMOST done it, there are just a couple more things to clear out. (If you are interested in buying our elliptical machine, let me know!) However, this sparked a need to re-do our living room. We love our purple couch, but since we finished it, our piano was still red and looking mighty out of place. Also, I was sick of the "shrine" to the television. Also, the couch was way too far away from the TV so watching movies was a pain (rough life, eh?). I also really just like change. So we rearranged the room one Saturday. Cam promptly broke the coffee table while trying to move it out of the way so we could try different couch layouts. The flimsy little thing just completely collapsed, which turned into a blessing in disguise. We went to Lowe's, bought some yellow and black paint and the projects began.

Before:

Note the "shrine" to the TV. Hate that thing. Also, please take note of all the gross cords and the nasty gold cabinet. Blech.

After:

We painted the gold cabinet black. Trashed the top drawer, used part of the wood from the recently broken coffee table to make a shelf and created ourselves a little TV console that goes on the back wall of the living room. From the front door, it is the very last thing you see, which just makes me so happy. Also, the couches now face each other which encourages conversation rather than TV consumption. For the pattern on the drawer front, Cam painted it silver first and I cut a "stencil" out of contact paper using my silhouette machine. We applied the stencil, painted the rest black, and voila, we're in action! I'm really REALLY pleased with how this turned out!(And I'm bummed the picture is blurry. I'm trying to figure out how to use my new camera...It's hit or miss right now.)

(This pic is a little better, but I was trying to avoid using the flash. O well. Practice, practice, practice!)

Please note that you can't see a single cord on the wall. This was BIG. Cam figured out how to hide all the cords for his surround sound system and all the cords from the Bluray player. I hate cords, and now they're invisible. I'm happy. Also, the picture doesn't show this very well, but the black paint inside that top portion really hides the media. It all just blends together. It makes it a lot less distracting/prominent in the room.

Cam then used the top of our little splintered coffee table to make me 3 shelves for the desk area. We moved our computer desk down out of the 2nd bedroom to make room for the boys and he built me a gorgeous new office area off in the nook of our living room. We have even MORE stuff in the living room now, but it's never felt so spacious. Funny how that works. :)

That was the small part of the makeover. (Sometimes I'm amazed Cam hasn't thrown in the towel yet. I am slowly but surely weakening him to my "wild" color schemes and patterns. Also, due to being prego, most of "my" projects quickly become "cam's" projects while I sit on the couch and watch. Marry a good man, ladies.)

Thus began the piano makeover. (The red was clashing with my purple couch.)

And because I LIVE to have little bits of ourselves injected into every piece of home decor I possibly can, after Cam finished painting, I started cutting vinyl for the front of the piano face. It took a long time, but was so worth it!

The finished product:

The vinyl on the front face is scripted song lyrics that we love. We try to keep it classy...ha. I picked a nice cursive/handwritten font so the overall appearance would get the effect I was going after. I also think it makes for a really fun little "treat" for those who look close enough to actually try to read the words. Things start off with a raucous "Rah rah rah ah ah" from Lady Gaga. There are tributes to our roots with the words "I'm ready to go for it! I'm ready to reach for the Northern star!" (shout out to my other EFY counselors and kids!) I believe Katy Perry actually makes 2 appearances. ("Own the night like the 4th of July" and the slightly more risque "let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans"). The entire right side is dedicated to Phoebe Buffay. "Are you in there little fetus? In 9 months with you come greet us? I will buy you some adidas!" Among other gems.

It's quite possibly my favorite project. Ever.

(And thus we see a "hit" with the new camera. Hoo-rah for a sweet shallow depth of field! That was my goal today, and I figured it out. Boom baby!)

Overall Room After:



All I need now are curtains. I'm thinking grey and white chevron. Cam is thinking we don't have money in the budget for that. We shall see, we shall see. :)

Zebra + Chrome

When we reupholstered our couch, we turned it from a sectional into a 3-seater. This gave us some extra room in the living room that looked....empty. We were up in Salt Lake on Tuesday, and took a little drive up to the Centerville DI to see what we could find. (We'd heard the DI's that aren't in college towns are SO much better and boy, were they right!)

I wanted to find a chair to fit that little empty corner of the room, but it had to be cheap. We looked around for a while and didn't really see anything. (Especially anything under $10.) We walked into the yard area, and it was like that magic part right at the beginning of willy wonka where the entire land is edible. Lamps, picture frames, furniture, an air hockey table, screen doors, etc. We were in heaven. I got distracted with the chandeliers and Cam came around the corner with this little beauty, tagged for $4!

We were just giddy. It was PERFECT! So, we bought it and hit JoAnns next door right before they closed to pick up a half yard of fabric for $5. Last night, Cam picked me up from work, we did a 15-minute trip to Lowe's for spray paint ($6), and threw our freezer meal in the oven. (Taco pasta. Cooks for 90 minutes). Cam took the seat off. I recovered it. He primed & painted the base, and we attached the new seat right as the timer went off for dinner. Talk about a great project! I should find more things we can do while dinner's cooking. I felt so productive!

Shameless plug for freezer cooking: UM, when was the last time YOU re-designed a chair while making dinner. I'm tellin' ya. Freezer cooking changes lives!

What do you think?

Total cost: $15

*little* crafts

After we finished the couch, Cam told me I got to pick a few *little* crafts to work on next. No more king sized quilts or sectional re-dos. So, I started planning the little touches I could add to our home to make it ours. I truly believe the beauty of a home is in the details. The little pieces of personality left by those who live there. I really wanted to add something personal to a blank wall in our bathroom. Our poor little bathroom has been neglected. Almost every other part of the house has been updated in some way, but our bathroom...yuck. I wanted to do a sign of some sort. Tall & skinny. Because it was going to be in the bathroom, somewhere we go first thing in the morning, I wanted it to be a list of ways to take care of your marriage. I mentioned this to Cam, and without even hesitating he said, "Why don't you put the lyrics to love like crazy on there?" I was totally jazzed about the idea. I love it when Cam and I are so absolutely on the same page! It was EXACTLY the idea I needed. So, here's what I came up with:

Cam took 2 boards and bracketed them together for me. I designed the layout in photoshop and cut it out with my silhouette on contact paper. Painted the whole thing white, and then Cam stenciled the words on with navy blue paint. I think I'm still going to go over it and sand it down a little. Some of those lines are too crisp for my taste. But I am TOTALLY in love with the crack down the middle.

Plum Love

Well, we did it! We finally have our living room back! It took us over 2 months to finish this project, but we couldn't be happier. We're just thrilled with how it turned out. Not bad considering neither of us had any experience with reupholstering things. lol. I sure love figuring things out with Cam. It makes marriage so fun. And the sense of fulfillment when it's all over is awesome, not to mention all the late-night sillies that come out when the project takes a million or two unexpected turns.

Here's what we started with:

For some reason, in this picture the couch doesn't look all that bad. It was. We picked it up for free off a ksl listing. It had been sitting outside in the rain for a while because it wouldn't fit down into the new basement apartment of its owners. We didn't have a truck to haul it, but they were so anxious to get rid of it, they loaded it up and delivered it to our apartment for free! I was thrilled. It was a little rough looking though. If you could get past the puddles and water stains, you found tons of hair, dirt, uno cards, pet stains, etc. It was n.a.s.t.y. We took a rug doctor to it and cleaned it up as best we could and used it for over a year. People always commented on how nice it was (considering we got it for free), but it was a major eye-sore in our living room. yuck.

One day, I had a meltdown and said that we were either rearranging our living room or moving because I was sick of it. Cam opted for the former and we took a Saturday to do some damage:

(am I the only one whose projects are most often fueled by meltdowns?)

The goal was to create a 3-seater couch and an ottoman with what we had to work with. (The sectional's chaise lounge part was on the wrong side of the couch in our opinion...Plus, what fun would it be to just recover the sectional? No, no, we must totally reconstruct the darn thing. :)

Cam cut the foot off the sectional and added two legs. I sewed the cushion and cover and the ottoman was done!

And then it sat there. Just like that. For 2 months. (Almost) And the rest of the couch stared at me. And Cam kept telling me how "fun it would be to work on the couch!" What he really meant was, "Kristin, I can't do anything unless you start sewing. for real." And thus began the week of non-stop sewing, stuffing and stapling.

What you may notice in the picture above is that our little half-sectional grew an arm on the left side! My brilliant husband figured out how to build and bracket on an arm to match the other side so we could convert this sectional into a 3-seater. I love being on his team. :)  

Once the entire frame was built and Cam was just waiting for me to finish sewing everything, he decided to press all my seams for me so he could be supportive while I worked in the sweatshop. It was awesome. He sure is good to me. :) (I really REALLY hate ironing.)

We had almost everything ready to go, when our trusty little staple gun broke. We took it apart,lost a few pieces, & got our hands all covered in grease, so we decided it was a good time to hit up Goodwood Barbecue for dinner. We were both so drained that dinner was hilarious. It was fun to cuddle up in the booth and joke around with each other. When we got back to the house, Cam had to go buy a staple gun at Walmart (everything else was closed). He walked me to the door and dropped me off along with the "I had a really great time with you tonight." etc. And then proceeded to give me a goodnight kiss. All you married folk, try this sometime! It brings back all sorts of butterflies. Gave me the oomph to finish the side-panels and psyche up to help Cam staple everything together.

Meanwhile, Cam made 3 different trips to Walmart. The first staple gun he bought didn't fit our staples, so he went back to buy new staples, which also didn't fit (even though they were the same brand as the new staple gun...) and so he went back and bought a whole new staple gun with coordinating staples. It was late. lol. The same lady checked him out all 3 times. She got a kick out of it. Cam did not. He got in the car and screamed. lol. And then came inside and informed me that "I was so mad! And nothing was on the radio except commercials. I hate that." Oh husband. :)

It was smooth sailing once we got the right staples in the right staple gun. We finished around 2 and vacuumed for an hour. SO MANY STAPLES! We threw everything away, Cam hung our new family picture (thanks Em!) And we sat on the stairs to check out our handywork. :)

A little finishing touch with the silhouette and we were good to go!

We're really thrilled with how it turned out. :) Thanks for reading!