Desk Makeover!

So I have this corner in our office space that is COMPLETELY unorganized, cluttered and DRIVING ME CRAZY! I REALLY needed something to help organize it all, so when I found this desk for $10 I couldn't resist! As long as it was sturdy, I had a vision to make it cute and very useful!

From drab, dull and outdated:

To fun, cute and totally updated!

I always thought it would be so fun to have a built-in window seat in our room because we have the perfect cut-out wall space for it, but I don't see that happening anytime soon, so I decided to put my "new" desk there instead. I am using it to sit my sewing machine and sewing box on as well as a place to store my other crafty project supplies, like fabric, headbands, silk flowers, etc. I found the idea of using ribbon instead of hardware to save on cost in some magazine I read a long time ago, but I can't find all my torn out magazine page ideas, so I'm glad I remembered it! I LOVE the way it looks! Now I just need to find a cute chair I can re-d0 to match it.

Cute gift idea

So I had my sister's family this year for Christmas. I wanted to do something fun and creative, so I decided to send them Build a Snowman Kit. I had heard about these from my SIL a few years ago and then a lady at church was talking about them, so I picked one up for my sister's family and for us. I bought a plastic jar to put all the pieces in and made a cute little tag. I think it turned out adorable! I added a super soft and snuggly snowman blanket to the package along with a little book for their baby. Now we just need a little snow!

A Homemade Christmas.

We decided to draw names this year for Christmas on Kent's side and the one stipulation was that the gifts had to be homemade and inexpensive. Well, for SOME reason, the girls and kids ended up with homemade gifts, but the guys all had store-bought gifts! Hmmm. . . imagine that! ;) Oh well, it WAS kind of hard to think of what we could make for a guy, except maybe food. We also exchanged families on my side, so I put together a cute hot chocolate-themed gift for my brother's family. It included the hot chocolate ornament you see, some mugs, a couple different gourmet hot chocolates, candy canes, and some chocolate/peppermint dipped marshmallows.

Clockwise: hot chocolate ornament (made in Enrichment - I'm not near that smart to make that up on my own!), I Spy quiet bag for my two nephews (also got the idea from Enrichment, but I fancied mine up a bit more), a necklace and earrings set for my mother-in-law (made with the help from a lady in my ward who does this as a side business. I LOVED how they turned out!), chocolate/peppermint dipped marshmallows, and flower hair clips for my niece (I made a set for Morgan, our new baby, a friend of Morgan's, and her new little sister too!)

It was a lot of fun to make all these gifts AND very affordable! I wouldn't mind doing it again!

Joy school

Last week was my turn for Joy School. We learned the letter "I" and the number "9". We talked about ice cream, icicles, ice, and igloos. It turned out perfectly because we had our first snow of the season just in time to learn about it. The kids had a lot of fun painting with colored icicles (colored ice cubes with popsicle sticks), making glitter glue icicles, eating ice cream, and making marshmallow igloos (which I ended up finishing most of theirs!). We sang Once there Was a Snowman and learned about how icicles feel and what they look like, what they are made of, and what happens to them when they start to melt. It was a lot of fun although I was pooped after each class! Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest. For some reason over Thanksgiving and since then it seems like my camera just isn't taking the greatest pictures.

The nesting begins.

I love these nursing aprons and wanted one for myself, so I followed this super easy tutorial and made one in a few short hours. I totally wish someone had thought of these when I had my other three kids because I got so tired of having to hide out while nursing in public and having my baby kick off the blanket. For some reason, the tutorial forgot to mention hemming the sides (unless I missed it somehow!), so I had to do that after I thought I was done, but it didn't take long at all.

It called for 3/4 yards fabric, but I had bought 1 yard to use, which made it WAY too long for me, so I decided to fold it up and make pockets with added burp cloth material on the outside of the pockets. It turned out so cute and I love it! I have a little extra material so I might make a little diaper holder to match. I made some burp cloths for a friend, so I decided since I had it all out I would make me a couple as well. I really enjoy making cute, handy little things like that!

Updated decor

So since I really couldn't buy many clothes for my birthday, I decided to use my birthday money to update my home decor. Plus now that I have nice walls to decorate (instead of paneling that was SO hard to hang things on!) and we have nice carpet everywhere and tile floors where they need to be (like in the bathroom!) I decided I was ready for a fresh update. Not everything changed of course, but I found some cute ideas that I wanted to incorporate, so I did! I made a few things that I think turned out nice, so I will explain it all.

Here are some of the additions to the living room. (I've got some fall decorations up, so I guess permanently it won't always looks this way). I bought some willow balls to add to my metal bowl on the piano, bought matching lamps, painted the green A on the collage wall, and made a coat rack since we use the coat closet for food storage/garage stuff (thanks Candy for the coat rack idea!) My dear friend, Ashley, sent me this vinyl lettering quote that fits perfectly above it! I also made another that is behind the door where all our backpacks, umbrellas and purses hang. I also painted all the frames black that I had to match better. My sister painted the little square canvases for us for Christmas one year, so that added some cute pop of color to the frames, and I decided to have kind of an "A" theme to it as well.

Ashley also made me the "cooking is love made visible" quote and I couldn't figure out where to put it b/c there aren't a lot of spaces in the kitchen, but I had a piece of left over wood from the coat racks, so I decided to paint it, add the quote and then copy the design from a piece of sb paper that I used to made another decoration for the kitchen and then paint the design . I love the way it turned out! I also put together the flower picture that is hanging in the downstairs bathroom. The flowers are at my Grandma Elzer's house and I love the peeling painted shed behind them! I found a perfect use for my dark brown baskets I had in my breezeway in Waynetown. They made cute storage! I decided it was time to give up my shabby-chic clock and bought this nice big black one. I cut out the back of the shelf that had a heart cut out of it (SO not into hearts anymore!) and painted it black. I bought the wheat grass to add to the shelf. I was originally going to set the framed A on the shelf, but it was just too big, so I hung it in the kitchen. I painted my rod-iron basket black (it was kind of a dark gray) for a cute way to store my bathroom towels and bought the boxwood topiary. I found that bathroom sink set up on a fun blog. I loved re-fashioning all sorts of things and making homemade items, because it was a super cheap way to update my decor!

I decided to go with the colors I had used in the breezeway since we don't have a breezeway to put the pillows, table, etc in. I found the candlestick, lamp, vase and brown wooden vase at Goodwill this summer. I love finding cute things there! And of course, as I already posted, I painted the nightstand and dresser to match.

Now on to the bathroom. I was so sick of my shower curtain, having had it for 9 years, plus it was getting faded and stained, so I found this one at World Market - thanks Kelly for introducing me to that AWESOME store! Anyway, I was so proud of myself because if I hadn't looked for deals, I would have had to use almost all of my birthday money on the bathroom. BUT because I am such a savvy shopper ;) I was able to spend HALF of what I would have paid for everything!!! I also got the cute blue containers at World Market as well as the floor mat. A friend of mine bought the wall hanging at Goodwill, painted it green, but didn't have a good place to put it, so she gave it to me. Thanks so much Tiffany!!! I got the towels at JCPenny's white sale (plus I had a $10 off coupon!). Oh, and you can't see them very well, but I got the shower curtain hooks and the toothbrush holder (not shown) at Kohls.

So anyway, I love how everything turned out! It's so nice to be able to decorate the walls (it was driving me crazy having plain white walls to look at all summer!) and to have a newer looking home to live in. I had a lot of fun putting it all together. It makes me happy every time I look at what I did and gives me a sense of self-satisfaction and accomplishment. I was able to do a lot with all the good deals I found using coupons, Goodwill finds, and refurbishing things I already had.

Monogram bow holder

So, I was looking for something to hang Morgan's flower hair bows on that I made and I came across this stinkin' adorable hair bow holder here. My wonderful friend, Ashley, does vinyl lettering and made me the "M", along with sending me some cute quotes for my next apt., which I am SOOO excited to use! I think this turned out so cute and it was SOOO easy to make! (have I said so enough?) I hadn't made anything for a while and was itching to use my creative side a little, so I was able to fulfill that need by making the flower bows and this cute holder. Now I can't wait to put my creative decorating skills to work once we move. I've got this really cute idea that I can't wait to put together!

Relief Society Enrichment Craft Night

We had an AWESOME craft night for Enrichment this month (thanks Candy and Kate!!!). We made these cool tiles out of vinyl lettering and floor tiles - so easy and so beautiful! A friend of mine was walking past the shop where they ordered the vinyl lettering and saw an example like this that the owner had put in his window display - except it was the "Be's" quote from Pres. Hinckley! Of course, he didn't realize that it was a quote from the prophet b/c around here that's not very common, so it was really cool that out of all the quotes to choose from he chose the one from Pres. Hinckley to display in his window! He's being a missionary and not even knowing it! :) Anyway, way cool.

Most of the decorations for the picture frames were holiday themes, but I found this little round sticker that said "A day to remember" with brown and blue dots on it - and I thought it would be perfect for a frame for Tyler's baptism next year! I was going to make the black one with stickers and what not from the stuff there, but I just couldn't decide what I wanted, so I ended up copying what my friend did last year with some of her friends, although the colors are a little different. I think they both turned out adorable! I also made this cute pink and green charm bracelet for Morgan.

It really was a lot of fun and we were able to get pretty much all of it done that night - as well as socialize instead of being so focused on trying to get as much done as possible that night! Way to go R.S. presidency! I like your way of thinking! :)