Sunday, August 4

Catching Up

We have been pretty busy with weekend getaways around here. 
Lots of family activities :)

We didn't do anything for July 4th since it was unfortunately a work night. 
I hate when holidays are during the week, then we aren't really able to do much. 

July 24th weekend, we went up to Idaho and stayed at his grandparent's house. 
His whole family gets together every July 24th but we haven't been able to go since 2010. 

We had a lot of fun though. 

We road ATVs for a few hours... 
Josh photo-bombing

...went bridge jumping - not me of course; I was just the photographer :). 


We also watched the annual parade. 

Small-town parades crack me up. 
They have the most random things in the parade and they also throw out the most random things...
 chocolate milk, a bunch of toothbrushes, foam hats, beef jerky, etc. 

Another Josh photo-bomb lol
We ended the weekend at the rodeo. 
It had just rained like crazy before it started, 
and it wasn't the most exciting rodeo I've been to, 
but it was still pretty fun. 


It was also Tyson's dad's 50th Birthday while we were down there. 
I figured since 50 was a BIG one, that I'd make him a DVD. 

Roxi was a huge help gathering pictures, 
Tyson put them in order, 
then I went to work for a few days putting it all together. 

I always LOVE the way they turn out. 
I'm tempted to post some clips of the DVDs I make, but they're usually family oriented 
and I don't wanna put too much out there on the internet. 
But, you can ask family; it's THE best gift! 
I love making our annual family DVD too - gives everyone something to look forward 
to at the end of the year. 

Any who... so that was last weekend. 

//  

This weekend we went with my family to our new home in St. George, UT. 

My parents just bought a place down there in Entrada right on the golf course. 
It's so beautiful and I can't wait to spend so much more time there with family and friends!! 

My sister-in-law kid-napped my brother for his birthday and stayed at our condo in 
St. George for the weekend so I was on babysitting duty. 

But I LOVED waking up to this sweet face every morning. 
I love my sweet niece Addisyn
I didn't take a whole lot of pictures like I was planning on, but here are a few. 

I might do a post down the road to give a tour of the new home - it's GORGEOUS. 
Main room // Those large windows slide all the way open with the push of a button :) 

When you walk through the front door, this is what you see across the hallway
Playing games with this VERY mobile munchkin all weekend.
These long hallways surround the pool; which is the center of the house. 
We were lucky enough to have amazing weather! 
Which meant pool-time every day!


Hope the husband doesn't mind this haha. I think speedos are the worst invention lol
This is the pool area. A BBQ area, outside shower, and a bathroom are behind me as well.
It's actually my brother's 30th Birthday today!! 
That's a big part of why we went to St. George this weekend; 
house warming "party" and to celebrate birthdays. 
My brother Ryan and my cute mama
I also made my brother a DVD. 
It was so much fun to make and of course, I cried watching it with everyone yesterday. 
My brother is such a special person and I can't imagine life without him. 
He's been such a great example in my life and has been there for and with me 
every step of the way. 

// 

I'm pretty sure we're heading back down to St. George this weekend too. 
Tyson's cousin Tavia is going on a mission! 

Tavia was a BYU Cougarette last year. 
Tavia on the right 
She's so talented and is going to be an amazing missionary! 
Kenna Wild is Tyson's cousin's girlfriend // she's an amazing photographer!
// 

Tyson and I are starting Insanity tomorrow! 
It's my second time and his first. 
We've taken our before pics - which I probably will never post, 
the calendar is ready, and so are we. 


I'm pretty nervous but I'm way excited because I know what it does for/to my body. 
I can't wait to get bikini ready for our cruise in October! 

I'm ready to earn my t-shirt again :) 
[not my personal photo]



Have a good week everyone!! 

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Friday, July 12

Erasable Labeling Tags & Key Holder

Let me just start off by saying how close I was to just throwing away our wall unit during the move.
 IKEA is to blame.
There are a hundred pieces, I had no instructions, and I was home alone to put it together.
But, the house was finally coming together and I NEEDED a place for all of my craft items. 

Tyson was out golfing for the day so I lugged all of the wood slats from the garage to the top floor
and starting putting together the IKEA puzzle. 

It took me some time but I finally did it.
I was seriously so proud of myself!
haha you would be too if you just put this giant 6'x6' hunk of wood and bolts together. 

Any who, my mom and I purchased some cute baskets to fill in the spaces.
I had the original boxes that came with them,
but they were pretty hammered so it was time to upgrade. 

I knew right away that I was going to need to add some sort of label to the baskets
 so I knew what was in them without having to search through each one. 

I've always loved the look of the little travel tags,
so I drove 30 seconds to Hobby Lobby and picked up some quick supplies: 

//Supplies//
Patterned paper
Ruler
Reinforcing labels
Hole punch
Yarn/String/Ribbon
Scissors/Cutting board
Glue Dots/Tape/Glue
Laminate paper


I made my tags 3.5"tall by 2"wide.
Once I had the first tag all cut out and even, I used it to trace the other 6 tags I needed.


Once I had them all cut out, I placed a reinforcing label on each one; this will keep your holes from tearing.

I then punched a hole right through the middle. 

I then used the back of my left over paper to make mini-whiteboards for the tags.
I wanted to be able to write whatever I needed on the tags without having to make more. 

Once I cut out the white strips, I placed them faced down on laminate paper, and cut them out leaving a tiny bit around the edges so it wouldn't peel easily. 

I love my Glue Dots.
They are seriously awesome and I hate using regular glue now.
I recommend investing in the glue dots when you can; mine have lasted me almost a year now. 

Once the tags were complete, I looped some yarn through the hole and voila!

Easy organizing with erasable labeling tags. 



//------------->

I wish I had taken more pictures for my Key Holder Letter tutorial, but I suppose most of it is pretty self-explanatory. 
I had mod-podged this 'B' a few years ago when we got married, but decided to use it by the garage door for our car keys. 

I found some cute key paper, mint green paint, and hooks from Michael's. 

//Supplies//
Wood letter
Paper
Mod Podge
Sponge Brush (2)
Paint

I was SO impatient with this project (surprise).
We had just moved in and I needed a place to keep our keys.

I didn't really let anything dry, I just kept going.
I was seriously done in about 30 minutes or less; and it turned out pretty cute! 

After tracing out the 'B' on my paper face down and cutting it out, I brushed on the mod podge.

Then, laid down the paper on top and mod podged it flat.
I let that dry for about 5 minutes before I started painting my edges.
{I wasn't too worried about getting paint on the back since no one would see it.} 

Once that "dried", I then screwed in two little hooks on the bottom for the keys.
Ta-da!

That was seriously it. 

I have it hanging RIGHT by the garage door and Tyson loves it.
Now we always know where the keys are instead of putting them down on a counter somewhere.

<------------->

I also have these 9 mini canvas squares that I haven't figured out what to do with yet lol.

I painted them the colors of my blog and wanted to incorporate my blog somehow into my craft room - I haven't hit that inspirational spark yet with these. 
If you have any suggestions, feel free to throw them my way! :) 

Feel free to email or message me with any questions on the two crafts above!  
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Chevron Canvas

Once I found out we were moving into our cute new little home, I immediately hit craft mode! 
However, not all of them turned out how I envisioned. 
But, like I've mentioned before, I don't like to read a lot of crafting directions; I like to learn for myself.
 And they either turn out amazing or they end up thrown in the trash lol. 
This one was 50 / 50

I bought two canvases at Hobby Lobby for $8 - such a deal! 

I knew exactly what I wanted to do because I had seen some inspiration on Pinterest. 
But, we all know that what looks amazing on Pinterest, 
doesn't always end up looking that way when you actually make it lol. 
Just another learning experience craft for me. 
But I was able to hang one of the canvases up in my powder room. 

//Supplies//
Canvas
Chevron Template
Pencil
Painter's tape
Paint
Sponge brush

I cannot believe how complicated people make chevron out to be. 
I get how walls would be tough, but I seriously found some posts of people making 1 x 1 inch markings all over their canvases - uhhh.... it's called a template people! haha 
I was able to find one in no-time thanks to Google. 
I liked this site because it had a few different sizes of Chevron to use. 
These aren't for walls 
(please don't use this on a wall; you would get nauseous looking at it) 
but you could use it on furniture or smaller projects. 

I printed off the template and taped it to some old poster board I had lying around and cut it out. 

Then I just laid it on my canvas and started tracing. 

Once I was done tracing, I starting cutting tape and placing it over the traces. 
I think this would have been a lot easier if my chevron lines were either as wide as my painter's tape or bigger. 
My lines were smaller so I had to do a few phases of painting. 
I wrote on the canvas where my Mint color was going to go so I wouldn't accidently paint the wrong lines - it's happened before so lesson learned :) 


As you know, I'm one of the most impatient people, especially when it comes to crafts. 
I don't like waiting for things to dry so I just keep going lol. 
I painted about three layers and called it good! 


Once I removed the tape, there were a few areas where the paint had leaked onto the white. 
This was fine because I painted over the white with a cream color to tone it down. 
The cream color took a while to paint just because I did it without laying down tape over the mint. 
I just free-handed it. 
Which was fine; I had nothing better going on that night lol. 

I thought the edges were pretty boring so I bought silver glitter tape from Michaels and lined the edges.

TIP: PLEASE BUY GLITTER TAPE BEFORE USING GLUE AND GLITTER!! 

Seriously. This is where I went wrong on my second canvas. 
It all looked cute, but it was just such a freaking mess! 
And when you use the tape, all you have to do is cut it to the shape you need. 
DUR! (another lesson learned)

Plus, I must have bought the crappiest sealant for my glitter canvas because it spurted out onto the canvas instead of spraying an even mist. 
So..... it totally ruined the canvas. 
I could work with the annoying glitter flecks, 
but the glue looked like snot (or something worse) all over the canvas. 
And I couldn't scrape it off. 


Oh well. 
One canvas was good enough. 
And it turned out good enough to keep in my powder room so it works for me :).



Every project is a learning experience - but I still love it :) 

Email or message me for any questions about the Chevron Canvas project. 
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Wednesday, July 10

I'm...Persistent

Needless to say it's been about a month since I've blogged; but with good reason! 

You know how I wanted my dream town home in this last post
Well, 3 days later and it was mine :)

I called the owner every day since I had seen the listing and he finally got back to me. 
Little did I know he was out of town. 
I had a hunch that was the reason I hadn't heard but hey, 
"The squeaky wheel gets the oil" 
and this squeaky wheel got her home. 

When we met the owner to see the place, he was polite enough to say, 
"You're pretty persistent!" 
I know that's just a nice way of putting that I'm impatient and pushy lol. 
Oh well... It got me what I wanted. 
When I want something, I go for it... 
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

(Enough motivational quotes yet?) 

I seriously love it so much! 
We are SO close to everything we need and the area is beautiful. 

We've only met our next-door neighbors so far but they are so sweet and I can't wait to get to know them and the other neighbors more. 
Weird for me to say that! 
I'm usually content being in my home and not caring to get to know any neighbors; 
probably because our last ones were busy smoking pot and their kids 
were running around climbing on our cars and terrorizing the local pets. 

It's so quiet here and I almost feel like it's a little "Stepford" community lol. 
I see SO many Pinterest wreathes on doors - I sure hope there's a craft night I 
can join with the neighborhood ladies lol ;) 

Maybe one day I'll post more pics of our place, 
but only when we have everything in place and buy the last little knick-knacks we need. 
For now, here are a few quick pics.

Walking through the front, you can see the living room and stairs to the 3 bedrooms upstairs
{Living Room}
My mom has helped and done a beautiful job with the decorating. // I love my HUGE vaulted ceilings! 
Having our own two car garage is SO nice - we take the little things for granted lol 
{Yes, this is part of our bathroom}
This was yesterday's project so I'm feeling proud ;) 
{Craft Room}
The two mini pictures were painted by my mom for my first apartment and I love them!
I love that I have my own craft room to work with!
Definitely feelin a paint project in the near future. 
Poor Tyson has to deal with all of my things, but thankfully, it all has a place now :) 
And one day, he'll get his own man-cave. 

Well, now that we are finally settled in, 
the blogging world should become a familiar place again. 

Lots of Love,
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