Sun-Up Saturday!

Hello again on this lovely Saturday, almost afternoon time! My mind has been feeling a bit in the random lately, so just be warned if today's post is in realms of randomness.

I have been thinking a lot on the new year and such. The beginning of a new year is always interesting to me. There is something about it that seems to be so revitalizing to people. It's their chance to make a new change, new lose weight, start new, start fresh and make THIS year a good year.

Found this lovely thing on Pintrest, the story of my life!

Some things kick in and bring on a great new change for you and/or your family, other things. . . .well they just don't make it through the rest of the month let alone a new year.

Change is a good thing, a motivating thing, yet it can be scary at times. But we have the power to let it affect us for good or bad, whether we are the ones that initiated the change or not. We have the power to become bitter or better from everything life brings us. My initial reaction with a lot, A LOT of things is to be bitter (don't believe me? Ask my Hubby, since he's always the one I go to complain about frustrations of life to). It is so easy to map things out in your head how you want things to turn out, and then you wake up and realize hardly anything has turned out the way you wanted.

So in light of this New Year, if nothing else of  my new year resolutions follows through, I want to at least be better at remembering this quote:

"..If we spend our days waiting

for fabulous roses, we could

miss the beauty and wonder

of the tiny forget-me-nots

that are all around us."

 -Pres. Dierer F. Uchtdorf

In my new desires to be much better at reading uplifting things this year I came across this quote, and I need to plaster it all over my house or hands or something, I love this quote and I don't want to forget it. I so easily get stuck in ruts of frustration and disappointment with myself or my life at home. Who knew that being a stay-at-home wife and mommy could be so hard and so much work? Well I am sure you do wonderful at it, but it is a big struggle for me many times. But in many ways it is hard because I let myself feel that way. Because I don't always enjoy what I have and where I am at. When in reality I really am so blessed. My days really are filled with such gems, with such "forget-me-nots." I just need to open my eyes more with gratitude and see them and enjoy them.

So long story short. I don't know why the New Year always seems to bring a light of new goals and new beginnings, because it really is only just another new day. One day in one year doesn't feel too different from another day in the new year. But despite the reason for "New" feelings and New changes, if nothing else follows through for me I really want to see the flowers around me more, I NEED to see the flowers.

We (my little family) like to make an overall theme for a new year and then sometimes make resolutions that relate to that theme, so our 2012 theme is:

"Be Your Best Self, In Two Thousand and Twelfth!"

And what a better way to improve myself, than by better enjoying the flowers, the blessings that are all around me!

Okay, I guess that's enough rambling thoughts of my random mind for your today. I hope this New Year brings you great changes and better opportunities, and if nothing else, a better attitude (especially for me!)

What are you New Year resolutions?

Thanks again for stopping by, and come join me next week for a new craft and new food I've made!

Until next time. . . .

Fall Wreath and other things....

Tomorrow is the last day for "The Forsaken Petal's" Giveaway, so don't forget to go check it out and enter it. I found out a little more details on it, it is $40 worth of software that you can do scrap booking on your computer, it looks pretty amazing, so you should check it out! And don't forget to check out the blog in of itself as well, it is great to get some intellectual perspectives about writing and life, if you are into that :)

Now on other notes. . . .

So I think I might have a slight flavor of ADD or something, or at least for crafty things :) I have a really hard time starting a project and finishing it in one shot in short time frames unless it HAS to be done for a particular reason, which also puts me in the category of a procrastinator too :)
So you know how I mentioned last week that I would finish my Halloween costumes along with the wigs for them in order to show you this week? Ha ha, well that didn't happen, my "Crafty ADD" as I like to call it, kicked in and I got carried away with other crafty things I have wanted to work on. And since my procrastination will kick in this weekend and early next week, I will have the costumes done soon along with the wigs, especially since Halloween is just around the corner! :)
So here is what has been distracting me this past week. . .

 I got these random scraps of material that were in the "Fall" color scheme. . ..

 Then using some old dead glow sticks (I know, I am crazy for saving EVERYTHING, I must get it from my Dad, yikes!) I linked them together to make a larger circle with the little loop things they come with. . .

Then I cut the scraps in longish strips and tied them like crazy on the glow stick loop, like so. . .

Then I added a few fake leaves I had to add a little more natural look to it, I used the polka dotted material to tie the leaves on, then. . .

 using this lovely empty cardboard from our cereal (don't you just love Raisin Bran? My bowels sure do! :), I made. . .

 This lovely "J" for our last name initial, and then I painted it . . .

 Wall-ah! And I decided it would be best to hang it on the inside of our house since the weather can be PRETTY temperamental here, and I didn't want it to get ruined

 Here is a closer up shot, I am still debating in my head if I like the red, cuz it tends to blend in too much it is hard to see, who knows, I might go to white on it, what do you think?

 Then I thought I would add a little taste of fall to my little bench here I made a while ago. . .

 I turned the strap on the arm pillows around, put sticky Velcro on it and added leaves to it instead of the flower. And since I used Velcro I can take it off and add some other fun decor next holiday time, like maybe a poinsettia will look fun there come winter time? Then I also made new pillow covers for the little pillows, they have some of the same material as what I used for the picture frame and bulletin board I shared earlier HERE.

Then to top it all off I decided it would be fun to having hanging or "Falling" leaves on our curtains that are hung with fishing string, it is Fall after all! :)

Okay, so there we have it for the week! I will get a crackin on finishing my costumes and wigs this coming week, but I probably wont share them with you till after Halloween so you can get the full affect look, can't you just not wait till then, cuz you are just so excited!!?
But as for next weeks sharing I will share with you a little fun with date ideas, in my Hubby's and I "Fall Ball" we just had, it was so great, I know you are just dying to hear about it now, right? Well come back next week so you can get the details!
Thanks again muchly for coming by, it means a lot! I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Alligator Clips

We've finally made it!! We have reached the 50th venture- wha-who! So don't forget to join the fun and enter the giveaway! And as promised I will show off what I have made so far with my loaded stash of the lovely clips.

 Remember this one? Well here is my little girl wearing it with her little pony tail

 Isn't she a cutie? See, she loves the little clips and she is so glad I got them :)

The above little clip used to be this head band, but it doesn't fit her growing head anymore, so I made it a clip, it was by far the easiest of them all to make

 Here is another head band that doesn't fit her very well anymore so I just glued it on the clip and then cut the edges, like below. . .

 Super easy and quick, took me like 10 seconds- literally! The longest wait is for the glue gun to get hot

 Here is the back

 I could put it in my little girl's hair, in my own hair, or it can be a fun addition to add some color to a long necklace or something

 Then I made this tulle flower, I just wrapped the tulle around and around until I got this  flower rose shape. Then I got a thin wire to hold it in place on the back, then I glued it all together onto a clip

 If you aren't the kind of person that has tons of random ribbon lying around that you could put on the clip you could just cut a thin strip of scrap material like I did here, or don't have to put anything on the back of the clip, but I personally think it looks a little nicer

 This one could also be fun on a necklace

 What do you think?

 I love wearing hats (and it has been especially fun now that I am home all the time, back in my being on campus all day days I couldn't wear hats, but now I get to all the time- Yeah!!), so it could also add a little extra fun color to a hat

Here I made a flower to match a dress I made my little girl (I will show off the dress soon too), but for this flower all I did was cut out the flower shapes starting small and getting bigger and then glued the layers together and then added a pearl on top from a string of pearls I had that broke

 And then I attached it to one of my girls headbands

 Again, I didn't have ribbon, so I cut some extra material of the plaid and glued it on the back

 Some simple bows

 A bottle cap flower- I saw a girl with something like this at the Lagoon, and I thought it was a fun cleaver idea. I might paint over the "IBC Cream Soda" on it though, we'll see.. .

 Then I made a bigger bow that can have many uses, here it can go on a head band

 Like so. . . . what do you think?

 Or it could serve as a bow tie- I would have made my husband worn this as an example, but he was at work, but what do you think?

 Then here is just a regular white flower, that could also go good on a necklace

 Or even just pin it on a shirt to add a little fun and formal to a regular shirt

 Or even add it to the hat too to give it some happy life

 Pretty much any flower or bow could go nicely with a necklace or on a shirt to add some fun to your outfits

 Purple stands for Pancreatic Cancer, the one my Mother passed away from. My Momma also love pansy flowers, so I thought I would put this together, that I can wear at various times in honor of her

 It can go on a shirt or in my hair or on a necklace, just depends on what outfit I will wear with it

 Then I made a little man's neck tie, this little thing could fit a little baby or a little tike, I would have given an example what it could look like on my little girl, but she was napping at the time

 I didn't do any sewing for this, just lots and lots of hot gluing, and now its an adorable little man clip on tie, now I just need to find a little man to give it to :)

 And last but not least, from the brilliant idea I saw at my sister's house, this is how I'll store all these new lovely clips. I think it is a great idea to keep the flowers from getting all mushed and messed up.

Anyway, thanks again for stopping by- I hope you have a super great rest of your day and don't forget to join in the giveaway for your chance to win 15 of these to make some of these fun goodies of your own!

You can enter the 50th Venture Celebration Giveaway HERE. And thank you to those that have entered- you won't regret it ! :)

Until next time . .. .

Yeah Free Stuff!

Being the cheap kind of person I am, I love those free stuff opportunities. So on this fun find Friday, I thought I would share a little delight in my "free" find. I also will finally put up the lovely Father Day presents my sister, April Hoyt, did, to show off her great ideas, and if you'd like, could even be good ideas for next year. Just to mix things up, I will show her loveliness first, then my fun find!

 Here is the lovely tie she made- cute huh? She put her children's names in on the squares in a crossword puzzle fashion- such a great idea (although I think I will have to wait on doing something like this, I think it would look cuter with more than one child's name on it)

Then from the inspiration of the tie and puzzle I made, she made this darling shirt for her hubby. I love it! The stick figures are so cute, such a brilliant way of making such a fun shirt!

Oh and one more thing before sharing my fun find, the puzzle I ordered for my husband finally came in (two days after Father's day, yeah Walmart), want to see how it turned out? Well this is your lucky day, cuz here it is:

 I love that it came in a nice fun tin box, that will last a long time! Now we just need to sit down and put it all together, I am excited to see it all finally together!

Okay, now the moment you've been waiting for....drum roll......(bum, bum, bum, bum, - this is my drum rolling, can't you hear it?)

I went on campus to meet my husband for lunch and grabbed the school newspaper, and there was this blazing beautiful coupon attached on top- could it be any more of my lucky day? What are the odds I would find this lovely thing in the same week, in just a few days prior to my birthday!? (if it was any farther down the road I would probably forget to use it) I have never eaten at this ice cream/frozen yogurt place- so it will be a fun treat to have my first experience be free! Well anyway, I hope your Friday will be as fun as mine! Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time!....