Thank You!!

The Pumpkin recipes are AWESOME!

I can't wait to try them all... ummm, like today.

My sis is the best.

Don't you worry, we are still crafting away and taking lots of pictures.

I can't wait to share everything with you!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

As Kathryn mentioned I am here... we are together again at last!! Oh the crafting we are accomplishing. Problem is, we are to busy crafting and feeding the children and cleaning up after the children that there is NO time to post about all the crafting:) That will have to wait till after I leave. ANY HOW!! The reason I am really posting to say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHRYN!!!

What can I say about Kathryn? She is just the sweetest best big sister a girl could ever ask for! She is an amazing mother and such a good wife to her hard working husband. She is always a shining example to me. I call her for advise and help all the time and I don't know what I would do without her!

I still want to be just like my big sister!

So I was thinking about a gift we could all give to Kathryn for her birthday and to show her our appreciation of all of her great crafting ideas and inspirational projects...

PUMPKIN

Kathryn loves all things Pumpkin flavored so I am thinking let's all share with her your favorite pumpkin treat recipes.

She will love you!!

... more than she already does!!!

Can't wait till Monday

Okay, I think I'm going to do it... I'm scared... but... I think I'm going to do it... maybe.

Now for some BIG news!

Guess who's coming to visit me in Kentucky...

(if you don't know who this is just look at the right sidebar ;)
For 3 WEEKS baby! You know what that means...

There will be a whole lot of crafting going on around here.

Next week we are meeting up with our very creative friends from Amazing Mae, The Polka Dot Chair, and Create a life you love.

Don't worry, we will take lots of pictures and share all of our projects with you.

Also, I'm starting to think about Christmas, are you? I have an idea for neighbor/ friend gifts but I have to try it out to see if it will work first so stay tuned.

PS I went yard sale shopping this afternoon and I hit the mother load! A table saw and china cabinet (that needs a little TLC). SCORE!

Stain My Oak Banister?

Did you see this over at Southern Hospitality?

Here is her banister before:

(Whoops ladies, I got a little confused! This "before" photo is from Censational Girl who also stained her banister. Go here to see her amazing transformation. She also painted and added moulding. You'll love the "after" it is BeAuTiFuL!)

Now, here is Southern Hospitality's Before:

Okay, you are not going to believe this...
are you sitting down???


Here is the after:

Be still my heart...
I Luuuuvvvv it .
Now, here is my banister:

Look familiar?

Censational girl sanded and prepped all of the oak. Southern Hospitality just put on the stain without any prep work.

I'm a little nervous about staining it but how can I NOT do it??
Of course I would also stain the wood on the steps (it is the only hardwood in the house so I don't have to worry about it matching anything else).

Has anyone else out there done this?

What do you think...
should I do it????

Just a thought

I've had this quote on my fridge for several years now. It's funny, I put things on my fridge so I will see them and read them often but it doesn't take long and I no longer notice them.
Anyway, it caught my eye today.

It's a miracle!

I've tried it all when it comes to cleaning my gas stove top grates.

I've soaked and scrubbed and sworn (j/k, I would NEVER swear ;0)

those nasty grates over and over and when I'm finally done with all that they don't look much better...that is, until last week ...

BEFORE: Now that's just gross people.

I put the grate in a zip lock bag, sprayed some ammonia in the bag, sealed it, and let it set over night. The next day the gunk just wiped off like nothing... I'm serious!

AFTER

Yep, it's pretty much a miracle.

Adjustable Headband

I am all about keeping my hair out of my face these days. So instead of putting it in a pony every day I have reverted to headbands.

I LOVE this one because unlike every other one I've tried it doesn't give me a headache 2-3 hours in.

To make your own you will need: 1 yard of ribbon, hot glue gun and plasctic cord spots with 2 holes (I bought these ones at JoAnns, I would like to also purchase them in white and clear but they don't carry those colors there... I will have to keep on the look out)

I put a thin bead of hot glue along the center of the ribbon so it doesn't slip out of my hair. I stopped 4-ish inches from both ends as to get just the majority of the ribbon that will be on my hair. (does that make sense?)

Put the ends of the ribbon through the holes in the stopper.

Loosen or tighten to comfort! Easy Peasy!!

Baby asleep, no makeup, pj's, bleach trays= time to craft.

Been wanting to make this ... finally did

I've seen these camera straps all over craft blogs and marked them as "to do". Then I found this great tutorial on cluck cluck sew and so while Melissa was here in March we made them.

We followed the tutorial but we wanted to sew in some stripes to add dimension so when the tutorial added the interfacing we just used a thicker interfacing and did the following... (Again, we just followed this tutorial for all our measurements etc. )

Once we ironed on the thick interfacing we measured and drew lines every half-inch.

Then straight stitched down those lines

And finished up according to the tutorial.

Super easy and I love how it turned out.

I also love that it is removable so I can wash it and make a new one when I get tired of this print.

Look at me... I'm sewing!!!!

Let's talk about our 30 meals

Hello my 30 MEALS friends!

I know you're out there because I get emails from you everyday!

Okay, we haven't talked about our 30 meals for A LONG TIME so

let's chat... how are your 30 meals coming?

Dinners are definitely running smoother at our house and we are loving our 30 meals (actually right now our 25 meals).

In an effort to get a few more recipes that my family will love, last week I had some of my 30 meals friends over and told them to bring their favorite recipes.

We had some treats, traded recipes, and talked and talked and talked (cause that's what us women like to do).

It was great fun and now we are enjoying those new recipes. I know at least one of those recipes is going to make the cut (the whole family LOVED it) and I have lots more to try.

So tell me now, how is the 30 meals plan going for you?

Funky frame take 2

Remember how I told you I was on the look-out for another funky frame?

FOUND IT!!!

Uh, Huh... pretty funky.

You know how I love spray paint. This time it's gotta be RED.

A little chalkboard paint in the middle and...

WALAA!

Yes, everybody in the craft-blogging world have been making chalkboards for months now, I know, I know. I'm a little slow on this one but now that I've made one of my own I can understand the obsession.

So easy, so funky.

It's going in my craft room... and when I say craft room I mean the little corner in our loft with a table and a sewing machine on it. ;) (I secretly dream about a craft room with like 7 big funky frames in 7 different colors adorning the walls... yeah .)

p.s. My husband hates it.

Dry Erase Calendar

I have been mulling over this to-do list on MakeItandLoveIt here. I used the basic concept but tweaked it just a bit:)

(one of my very favorite craft blogs!!)

I have a terrible memory and am notorious for planning 2 things at the same time due to my forgetfulness. I started using a planner which did wonders for me but am having a hard time keeping it up since the little one came along.... here I am back to double booking myself.

We desperately needed a calendar that was always visible and easily accessible.

I simple drew the calendar with black permanent marker on the INSIDE of the glass. In order to not have the days of the week backwards, I wrote them on the outside with dry erase and then turned it over and traced it with the permanent marker on the inside.)

There you have it. Now I have NO more excuses for forgetting an appointment or being double booked!!

I love it and I even spotted my husband looking at it to confirm an appointment time... SUCCESS!

Master bathroom

Until this last week our master bathroom was the only white room in the house.

I like color... a lot. As seen in this room, and this room, and this room.

So it was only a matter of time before those walls were covered in color.

I knew I wanted it to coordinate with the master bedroom so I decided to use the leftover paint from the bedroom and mix in some white to lighten the paint color and keep the bathroom bright.

So here it is my friends ...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

A few close-ups...

We have a huge glass block window above our tub that lets in tons of natural light which is awesome.

Problem is that the bathroom window is on the main floor and looks out at the neighbors yard. Needless to say it HAS to be covered but I still wanted lots of light so I made this curtain out of thin white cotton fabric. It covers the window but still lets the light in... perfect.

On the back wall of the bathroom I wanted to do a warm neutral color so I used my FREE Glidden paint (WAHOO, I luuuuuvv free stuff and I really LUUUVVVV this color!!!!).

Forest Khaki is the name of the color and I seriously want to cover my whole house with it.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I used the same rod iron piece above the towels I just spray painted it dark brown.

I LOVE how it turned out but with all the rooms painted now what will I paint?

hmmmmmmm...