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!!

Shirt Skirt

Several months ago my friend Kilie shared with me this shirt skit idea from "Aqua Seventy Six" and I have been meaning to try it out ever since, but have now finally gotten around to it. So here it is. I made a skirt from one of my hubby's old dress shirts, here is how I did it. . . .

 The lovely shirt, ready to have a make-over

 I cut the sleeves off. . . .

 Then I used one of my skirts to see how long I wanted it to go and cut off the collar part area

 Then I used some of the top part area to cut a little top band sort of thing.. . .

 The skirt idea from the other blog used the sleeves that were cut off as a belt, but I wanted to do things a little different. I used the buttons off this other too-small-for-me shirt to make a belt, and I am also debating whether to use the pockets as seen below. .. .

 Laid it all out to get ready for sewing!

 I sewed the sides up to close off the sleeve holes. ..

 I made some belt loops with excess material

 And put it together and wall-ah!!!

 Now this is me debating whether or not I should add the white pockets. . . . or. . ..

 do just one pocket.. .? I still haven't sewn them on yet, cuz I am not sure if I like the idea, what do you think?

And of course I had to thrown in a picture of me wearing it (sorry for the poor picture mirror quality, I was alone at the time I finished and couldn't figure a better way to get a shot :)

So there you have it! I am excited to try it out for church (since that's the only time I will indulge myself into wearing skirts). What do you think!?

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful evening and don't forget to join me next week, I have been working on fall decorations and our Halloween costumes, so whichever one I finish first I will share with you next week! :)

Until next time!. .. . .

A walk in the park...

Much apologies for not writing this Wednesday, we've had sickness, and some crazy extra stresses around this lovely household, so blogging was the last thing on my mind that day, but here I am this lovely "Fun Find Friday!"

Today I am gonna share some pictures of the beautiful gardens on campus. I was having a really rough night trying to get my little girl to bed this one night. I hit a wall, I was utterly frustrated, so instead of trying to fight her and "force" into going to bed, when she wouldn't, we went for a little drive and "found" the following. I thought it was so fun and neat, we went back for our 2nd Yr. Anniversary a week later and had fun walking around as a family.

So I hope you will enjoy as much I did, although the pictures will never do it justice, since it is so much cooler in person! So if you are in Rexburg, or happen to go by this way, you should check it out, and it would be a fun FREE walk in pure beauty!

Enjoy!

 This fun path went through tons and TONS of plants and flowers, and even more so, a yummy looking garden, to bad we weren't allowed to pick anything!

 Then there was an abstract section, where gardening students had to put together a garden display, here was a fun sink in the middle of it all

 This display was all about shoes, it was very unique and different, there were over 300 shoes used in this display

 This shoe display was my favorite :)

 Then this display was themed around a bedroom, here is the "toy chest"

 Then you have the "bed", "dresser", and "window" in the bedroom, I think the dresser is my favorite, very fun and creative!

 Then this random display was themed around bicycles, it had bikes all around in all sorts of different directions and such, let's just say it was very interesting...maybe some day I will understand abstract art

 Then we walked around the rest of the Gardens on campus, that are just maintained by the regular grounds keepers for the school (not up kept by art students) I love this little section, it makes me feel like I am in England, or Rome or something (even though I don't really know what those places look like :)

Then my all time favorite place: "Patsy's Porch", this is where my husband proposed to me. It has my favorite quote on top that says: "While in the pursuit of happiness, one should stop and just be happy!"

Some day, I will have my own little patsy's porch in my own backyard, except maybe I will call it "Whitney's Porch" or something more personal to me and my family.

Then to finish it all off, here is my lovely hubby and little girl, they had fun looking around at everything, she especially loved the water, she would have jumped in if we would have let her :)

Anyway, thanks for joining me this lovely Friday, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Until next time!. . . . .

Clothing Swap

On this Money Saving Monday, I thought I would share on some greatness that I have encountered on in this little town, and if you are around you could join in too, or it could be a great idea for something you could do in your own area as well. I think this is such a brilliant idea, especially for people that want save every ounce of their own money, but still get a little change in the wardrobe getting nice new (new to you) stuff while still cleaning out the closets.

My good friend Jana Bake (who also has a nice money saving sort of blog, that is all about hair and beauty tips that you could use without having to always go to the saloon for the looks, her blog is HERE), has already hosted a few of these, but she is doing another end of July. She hosts clothing swaps. The basic idea of it is you bring clothes to her (or you, if you want to host one in your town), she will give you tickets for every item of clothing or accessory your bring, one ticket per one item (or you could value different items- I've seen it done this way as well, for example, a shirt would be like 2 tickets, but a pair of pants would be about 4 tickets, but either way works great!). You bring/collect the items and trade them for the tickets the week prior to the swap so that there is enough time to sort through the items and make it all nice and organized.

Then the night of the swap your bring your tickets and go through all the things that people brought and pick out new clothing or accessories and pay with your tickets. It works best when you can get a good amount of people to participate and each person participating brings clothes that are still in good condition, but just don't wear it anymore (cuz really, no one wants that over sized t-shirt you got for being a volunteer at some Joe-smo activity, sorry- so bring cute fun stuff and it will go a lot more fun for everyone!).  I participated in Jana's swap she hosted I believe in April, and I got all this wonderfulness:

 Sorry for not displaying the cuteness of these clothes better for you, but I got all these, plus a few more that were in the dirty clothes hamper when I took the picture- sorry I am so lazy. But overall I got about 20 items of clothing, and a few pieces of jewelery as well. And it was such a fun feeling getting all this for FREE! All the work I had to do for the free fun value was just make sure I went through my closet, get out the un-worn lonely clothes, cuz we all got them- and then bring them by a week early. I even offered to help sort the clothes so it would be such a chaotic mess before the official swap! Isn't this such a brilliant idea!? And she still had tons left over that could be taken to the local second hand store as well.

Then not too long after this swap she held a children's toys and clothing swap. Since I only have my little girl, and so far I am gonna hold on to her things for potential future little children, I didn't really have anything to offer this swap, but because I know Jana, and they still had tons left over, she let me come by and pick through the pile without the tickets and this is what I got:

Again sorry for not displaying the cuteness of them all- but I got about 30-40 new outfits for my little girl, and they just happened to be mostly the sizes she was just about to grow into, it was perfect timing and one less MANY things that I didn't have to buy!

And she got these smashing crazy rainbow pants, they are so crazy, but I just love them! (and there is her dashing cousin, he's such a cutie!)

Overall I think this swap thing is simply brilliant and a GREAT money saving tactic. So if you are in the area of Rexburg and would like to join in you could check out the details on this FACEBOOK link (I hope this link works, let me know if doesn't), or you can email me if you want more details. Or if you aren't in the area but love this idea, then it could be a great way for you yourself to host a little party this lovely summer and have some fun sharing the money saving love, and I know you and everyone participating will really appreciate it!

On similar notes, if you are also in the area, there is a great second hand store called Mommy N Me, and they have lightly used baby, kids, and maternity clothes. And I am not sure how often they do it, but I am pretty sure it is several times throughout the summer, they have 25cent Saturday sale. They have a designated area where everything in that area is only 25 cents. It was brilliant!! I got over 30 plus items for only $8- and they were all nice looking, another great addition to my little girls clothe collection for her fast growing little body.  Plus I got this darling little shirt there too:

In case you can't read it, it says "I eat at Mom's" isn't that great!? I love it :)

Ok, ok, so long story short, here is a fun and FREE way to get some new clothes while also getting rid of some old ones! I hope you can join this up coming swap or have one of your own because they really are amazing! :)
Anyway, thanks for coming by and see ya next time!...

Parents as Teachers

For this Money Saving Monday I thought I would give a little shout out to a wonderful program I just recently got myself involved in. I have never heard of the program until I came to Idaho, but from what I understand they are all across the country. The program is called "Parents as Teachers" and they have a whole website full of information about them and what they are all about and where you can find a program close to you and they even have great opportunities to work with them as well in a career sense (who knows, maybe this is something I will do when my kiddos get older).

I was very close to doing my internship with them at the end of my schooling, and there are many times I wish I still would have because I know it would have been a great experience, but with being pregnant and desperate with my situation-I just jumped for the first internship I could get without having to totally exhaust myself being huge and preggo. Long story short- I think this is a great program and I think anyone and everyone could greatly benefit from it.

The basic idea behind it is the most important teachers, the most influential teachers any and all children will have are their own parents, so this program has been created and designed to help parents feel that much more capable in fulfilling this roll and helping their child(ren) in all the best possible ways. If you sign up for the program then they will send you a Parent as Teachers (PAT) educator to come to your home once a month to see how your child is progressing, help keep a lookout if it seems like there could be any developmental delays, give you some current up to date info about where your child should be at and different activities that you could do with your child to help them progress and develop the best at their current level. They also will do some kind of activity with you and/or the child to also give you some ideas about how to help your child. And to top it all off, it is also really nice to just have another person to talk to about your concerns and questions about your child in helping ease any concerns or get suggestions to feel more confident as a parent.

They are there to help the children and the parents up until they are 5 years old- once a month for 5 years- that's alot of great personal support in the role as a parent! I signed up shortly after my little girl was born, but didn't actually get my first PAT educator visit until she was bout 3 months old, and we are getting another visit tomorrow (yeah!). So far it has been going great. Our educator is very friendly and sweet, and it hasn't been weird or awkward at all so far and it really has been such a nice comfort in being able to mention random things that I might be worried about. Ya, i know I could just as easy look online or look through books about my different concerns, which I do plenty of as well- but it is such a nice different feel to be able to mention and discuss things with someone on a personal basis. It is also nice that the different things they share are current and up to date about what is best for children at their different levels. They also do developmental screening test every couple of months to help you see if there are any delays, because the early you can catch them, the better they can be helped.

Anyway, long story short, if you have any children under the age of 5, you should check them out HERE, or you can click on the "Parents and Teachers link on the right hand side of my blog. The first three years of a child's life are so crucial because by ,3 80% of their brains are developed- that's a lot of brain to be almost done, I don't know about you but I want to help make sure my kiddos brains are well done! (not that you still can't be good parents without a program like this, but every little bit of extra help, really can help!).
And going back to the idea of this being a lovely money saving Monday, is this program is totally free- now can it get any better than that? Prob not by much!

On a completely different side note I also wanted to make a mention out for my lovely home state. There is currently a huge fire going on like crazy right now, the Wallow fire- heard of it? Well in case you haven't, there is more details HERE, or you can "like" Apache County Emergency Management on facebook, and they have current updates about the fire and everything going on. It hasn't been burning for very many days it has already jumped to over 230,000 acres of forest that has caught fire. Even though my hometown is still a while away from the fire, if they aren't able to get any kind of containment soon they could be in danger as well. Several towns have already been evacuated for their safety (including the beautiful resort area that we went to for our honeymoon), these poor people down there could be loosing their homes and are losing the beautiful forests. I know there really isn't a lot we can do to help- but you can never underestimate the power of prayer- and they all need yours and my prayers that this thing can be contained and put out and even better that they can get some lovely rain! And prayers are always free :)

Anyway, hope you have a lovely Monday, until next time!...