Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I wish you all a safe & happy new year! I hope that you are ringing it in with family and/or friends. May this year bring you new adventures and much joy. I'm looking forward to spending the year with my little family and making some exciting changes and reaching for big things. :D his year has gone by quickly and had lots of changes. For us the most exciting change was having my husband home {have I mentioned that I LOVE having him around again?}. I'm so happy to be able to share a new year's kiss with the man I love since I missed it last year.

TAT About my Closet Organization

Organizing things brings out a giddyness in me that is different than any other feelings of joy in my heart. :D A few weeks ago I had a great idea for my coat closet as I was cleaning out Lydia's closet. {Organizing one thing often leads to another!} She had a hanging shelf in her closet that I knew she wouldn't need once we got her dresser finished and put to use in her room. I knew I could use it in the coat closet. For a couple of weeks that hanging shelf has been contributing to the clutter on the side of my bed {that I STILL need to get to} and I finally got tired of tripping over it. So I cleared out everything on the floor of my coat closet {only closet outside of a bedroom or bathroom in our house}, swept the floor then realized I didn't take a before picture. Because I'm a little OCD like that and you couldn't truly appreciate the transformation without the before picture I put everything back and clicked a picture. Then the fun began!

I put the hanging shelf up and designated each of us a shelf. Shawn's has his go to gear - pt belts, hat & gloves, beret, gloves and liners that he wears with his ACUs and his blue book that he has to have in his ACUs at all times. My shelf has my gloves, scarf & purse {less kitchen counter clutter!}. Michael & Lydia's shelves holds their gloves, hat and jackets. Why jackets? Well, we can't install lower rods in their closets because we're on post so when I tell them to pick their jackets up off the floor in the living room, kitchen or hallway they still end up on the floor in their bedroom where I usually trip on them. If their jackets go on the shelf along with their hat & gloves they can put it ALL away ALL on their own!

This is why organizing things make me so happy. It's not just that things are in place but it's helping to keep clutter off of other spaces {ie kitchen counter} and helping my kids learn how to keep track of their own stuff {jackets} PLUS my husband will no longer be asking me where his pt belt is. :D I'm giddy just thinking of the many rewards!

The very top shelf in the closet holds two typewriters that were accidently packed into my belongings when we moved. They belong to my great grandmother and I haven't figured out a way to get them back to her in California without costing me an arm and a leg. The lower shelf used to hold the sappy plates that go in Shawn's IBA {body armor from Iraq} and a tub that had misc electronic accessories. Now that bottom shelf has space for our board games & a space for me to put things I need to remember - currently holding a bag of items I need to return to the store.

I had to put the stroller back in the closet for now but after Christmas I'll bag it up & put it in the shed in case we do have another baby {at some point NOT anytime soon - Chriss ;) } Shawn's assault pack, A bag and IBA will go in Lydia's closet until our room & closet gets an organization overhaul. The extra space under the coats may hold some shoes at some point but not until I have a basket or shelf designated for that. I haven't decided what the bottom shelf will hold. I think I'll put a large ziploc bag in there with diapers & wipes so I can quickly grab it on our way out.

Can you feel my happiness? To see what others are talking about click the button above. Thanks for visiting & I hope you can find some organizational joy this week. :D

P.S. I'm writing this post a week before posting it and linking to Lazy's blog. I'll be visiting family so I may not get around to visiting other TATers until we're back home.

Merry Christmas

I wish you all a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! I hope that no matter who you are spending the holidays with you are surrounded by loved ones whether they be family or friends. This season brings plenty of hustle & bustle but in all of the busyness I hope you remember that Jesus is the reason for the season and think of the Miracle that was born in the manger, God in the flesh. May your days be merry & bright and your stomach full of good food & pie!

Crafty Kids

First off - if you are a grandparent to my children STOP READING THIS POST. {Unless you've already received your gift}

Have you stopped?


Still reading?


Okay, now that that's out of the way I can share with the rest of the class. ;)

Our parents & grandparents know should expect by now that they'll always receive an updated family photo from us each Christmas. This year they're also getting wreath ornaments made out of buttons. I had some directions saved on my computer for sometime now and decided to finally put them to use. One week before I needed the finished products I finally gathered all of my supplies {wire, buttons & ribbon} and the night before we left for California I sat with the kids to make the ornaments. Surprisingly Shawn sat down to help out too. We ate pizza, strung buttons onto wire and thought of all that was left to do before heading to the airport at 4am. Have I mentioned that I'm a procrastinator before? We had 10 ornaments to make and I thought it would go pretty quickly. I was wrong. Do you know how long it takes to put approximately 72 buttons onto a 9" piece of wire? Longer than you'd think. They all got done though. Michael finished one and started another before he got bored of it. Lydia was determined to finish one all on her own with no help at all. And she did. Shawn & I finished the rest, keeping one for our own tree. :D Next year I'm going to think of something fun for them to do that will hold their interest a little longer.

We kept the ornament with the white & clear buttons. The directions called to use binding {or something like that} for the bow and the ribbon only for the loop but when you get supplies last minute you use what you got. Click on the button above to see what others are talkin' about.

Updated: I've added directions for making these ornaments should anyone {or your children} be interested in trying it out.

TECHNIQUE
Needle-nose pliers or wire cutters
16-gauge copper wire, or 22-gauge green floral wire, cut to 9-inch lengths
72 buttons for each wreath
Scissors
Satin ribbon, 1/8 inch wide and 6 inches long
Seam binding for decorative bow

1. Using pliers, make a small loop at one end of the wire.

2. Thread buttons onto the wire until you have enough to form the size of the wreath you want. Our wreaths are 2 1/2 inches in diameter.

3. Using pliers, bend the plain end of the wire around the looped end. This will form the wreath.

4. Use the satin ribbon to make a loop for hanging the wreath; tie the ribbon in a knot about 3 inches above the wreath.

5. Tie a bow of seam binding to decorate the wreath.

Scrapped Gifts

Last week we were visiting family & friends in California so I wasn't around to post my scrap. This week I have gifts to show that I made as well as some scrappy gifts I received. :D Each year my sister, best friend and I exchange gifts with each other. This year we had dinner together and then swapped gifts before dessert. I was SO excited to give them their gifts and enjoyed opening mine too!

Tada's:

I scrapped this board book {spells family} for my best friend. I chose colors that would coordinate with her living room decor and put a clip on each photo mat so she can change out the pictures if she wants to. I'm thrilled with how it turned out and I know she likes it too.

I altered this 12x12 frame for my sister - also coordinating with her living room decor. I printed out one of my favorite most recent photos of my niece so it wouldn't be blank. I loved how this turned out & wish they had more in stock for me to make one for myself. =]

These are the scrappy gifts I received. My sister altered this photo cube that spins & has a lid for storage. It is super cute & was filled with tons of fun scrappy goodies. Thanks again sis!! My BFF gave me two mini albums and a cute teapot & teas in a basket. The first was about Best Friends & filled with photos of us - two pages left blank {shown below} that I'll be filling soon. The other is a Thanksgiving themed mini album for me to fill - also I'll be doing that soon. Later she shared some dollar aisle goodness with me by giving me two little albums that I can alter the covers & ribbon - inside they're like a board book. I didn't show all of the albums that she gave me - you can find more pictures on her blog.

Todo's: I have to make my neice's homemade gift this week but other than that I don't think I'll get any scrapping done. At this point I don't plan on getting my Christmas letter out until after the new year.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Today is two weeks until Christmas and two days until we travel to visit family & friends back home. It feels like I have so much left to do to get ready for both, probably because I do, and of course I procrastinate. I wanted to share some photos of us putting up the tree & decorating, also some fun ones I took of the kids in Santa hats. Though, if you asked them about it they would probably call it torture. I also took some creative shots of a couple of ornaments, if I were having a party I would use the one with the red ornament as a background for an invitation. Maybe next year.

Growing up my mom would get my sister & I each an ornament every year, I started the same with my kids but I need to look over the ornaments and see how behind I am on each of the kids. It's been two years since we decorated a tree so it was fun pulling them out and looking at them all. When I moved out on my own my mom gave me all of my childhood ornaments so those were fun to look at. We have one frame ornament with a picture of Shawn, Michael & myself from four years ago, our first Christmas as a family. Because it would be hard to find 2005-2007 frame ornaments I'm going to scrap some and print out photos from past Christmases. Then starting this year I'm going to get a framed ornament and put in a photo for each Christmas. That way when my kids move out & settle down and I give their ornaments to them I'll have 20ish ornaments of memories to keep on our tree. Other ornaments I've received as gifts or at ornament exchange parties and one I won in a bloggy giveaway last year. :D I have some that my great grandmother made also. I love the variety of ornaments with some glass bulbs scattered throughout.

I still want to make a gingerbread house with the kids and finish up the rest of the days on our advent calendar. I have several hand made gifts to get to, more to wrap and much cleaning and packing to do so I should get to that. I hope you are all enjoying this Christmas season and whatever traditions you share as a family.

TAT About DIY Projects

Today I'm talking about DIY Projects. I enjoy watching decorating shows like Trading Spaces where they reuse or refurbish existing pieces in the home rather than buying everything brand new. It would be great to get new furniture but with two little ones and a tight budget it's just not realistic at this point. Though I must say, they don't tell the whole truth on makeover shows. Like, if you don't have a carpenter and crew of people helping out your house will fall apart and your children will run wild while you are busy sanding, painting, staining, sewing or whatevering. I love saving money and getting a fresh look so it was worth all of the mess and wildness.

The month Shawn & I were married {over three years ago} I went to a large community yard sale with my mom and we found a great deal on a dining set, I paid $150 for a table with two leaves and four chairs. I didn't like the cushions on the chairs and planned on recovering them. Well, three and half years later it's finally done! This is one of the projects I wanted to complete before Shawn came home to surprise him but it didn't work out that way; instead he did most of the work. I shopped for fabric andbatting so he could take the chairs apart, clean them, touch up the stain, reupholster and put them back together then I took pictures. I thought it was a good deal. ;) I was thrilled after seeing the first chair done, looks like a whole new set and because we used microfiber it's MUCH easier to clean after the messiest eaters in the world.

Another project I wanted to do before he came home was finished with his help too. Several months back I bought Michael a dresser from an online yardsale and got it at the low low price of $15 dollars. It wasn't the best looking piece of furniture but it was functional. After getting Michael's twin bed with built in drawers I put the dresser in Lydia's room. The baby blue just wasn't working for me. I chose a creamy yellow color and Shawn painted the dresser out. Then we went to the craft store and I picked up some stencils and paint. While he was fixing up the chairs I started on the stenciling and after a few days I was done. I'm pleased with how it turned out, though I would have chosen a different shade of blue. Her room is almost finished! We need to take out the crib and put her in the toddler bed, hang two shelves and a light fixture and I need to fix up a two shadow boxes and hang those. We'll probably get around to finishing her room after the holidays and our traveling is over.

This week we also got a great deal on a new sectional; three seater sofa with chaise and it goes SO well with the bench and ottoman I bought and our "new" dining set. It's much more comfortable and provides more seating. I don't have pictures of the new sofa but once I get some things finished up in the living room I'll be sure to share.

I hope everyone is having a great week! I'm off to take Michael to school then back to working on hand made gifts, wrapping presents and cleaning house.

Before & after my hubby's work.

Front, side & top of Lydia's dresser.

Gift Scrappin

I had a good scrappy week and hope to have another this week! We leave in less than a week to visit family & friends in California which means I have less than a week to figure out a couple more gifts, make said gifts, wrap them, pack it all up and everything else that goes along with travel preparations. The gifts I have completed are for family members who sometimes read my blog so I have to be sneaky and hide my posts. If they look I WILL keep the gifts for myself or pass them along to someone else. So, NO PEEKING!

To see my mother in law's gift click HERE - Charlene...remember, NO peeking. You'll want this but if you look I have no problem keeping it. ;)

To see my step mom's gift click HERE - Carrie....NO peeking. I hope you'll like this but if you look I'll just find someone else to give it to. ;)

I've disabled comments on this post to in case one of the gift receivers should try to peek at the comments. So if you want to leave a comment, please do so in the linked posts. Thanks for visiting, I hope everyone had a scraptastic week! If you'd like to join in on Sunday Scrappin or check out what other scrappers are up to, click the above button. =]

Stuffed Like a Turkey

I realize we're into December now & well past Thanksgiving but I wanted to share some pictures from our first time doing Thanksgiving. The past 7 years that Shawn & I have been together we've always gone to one family or both for the holidays and at the most brought a side dish and helped some with prep and clean up. The night before we were out getting last minute items and realized we didn't have a turkey baster...the store was all out. Later that night I was making this yummy cranberry sauce recipe and realized I bought orange flavored dried cranberries by accident and only bought one pie crust for this delicious pumpkin pie recipe, both recipes compliments of my bff.

I was feeling like quite the rookie & had a bit of an emotional moment. I missed my mom, wanted to share my cooking experience with her & knew that if she were here she would have told me to get 2 pie crusts and remind me to get a baster the week before the store ran out. Shawn came to my rescue with the pie & made a crust for me so I didn't have to dump half the filling AND I was enjoying pie through last night. The next day Shawn started on the turkey - which we found out that opening the oven to baste the turkey actually dries it out so we were fine without a baster - and then continued prepping the rest of the dishes while I entertained the kids, cleaned house & set the table. We didn't plan on him doing all of the cooking but it just worked out that way.

Michael made a pilgrim hat at school and Lydia wanted a hat so I made her an Indian head dress out of construction paper. Then the kids made us each a 'turkey' place card by tracing & coloring their hands. Of course I had to get pictures of everything - food, dishes, kids, us, etc. I have more but didn't want to bore you all. ;) It was a fun day and relaxing evening. I'm looking forward to pulling out my great grandmother's china again for Christmas dinner & this time I'm going to take charge in the kitchen while Shawn entertains the kids. :D