Christmas Card 2013

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Jennifer

Whew. It’s been awhile since I was here.

So sorry about that extended break.

I meant to warn you beforehand but I didn’t quite get to it.

Since it’s 2 weeks past Christmas now seems like the perfect time to share our Christmas card – OK not perfect but just go with it.

The week before Thanksgiving my husband found out he was going to be in Japan for the first two weeks of December so I knew we had to get our Christmas card picture taken immediately or it just wasn’t happening.

So we did what any family does and headed to the drainage system near our house.

Thankfully, we just took shots by the trees and saved the ditches for next year’s card.

We first started off taking a couple of nice shots…

…but then we quickly moved on to silly…

and even sillier when trying to set up the next shot.

Until finally we got what we were going for…

The card above is scanned so it’s not the best colors but I was very happy with the actual card.

Hope you have all had a wonderful start to the new year!

Christmas Wreath 2013

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Jennifer

Because I am trying to decorate on the cheap but also needed a change from our regular Christmas decor, I decided to make as many of the new items as I could.

This wreath on our door is one of the new items (looks better in person).

I took a sad old wreath which I had previously glued ornaments onto (it was a sad hot mess) and decided to spray it white.

I then put on a row of glue and my daughter and I put a glitter mixture on top of that. I used equal parts silver and gold glitter.

I kind of love it.

100% change for free.

I may add something in the middle eventually but for right now I’m enjoying that I can sale right through the rest of winter with this on my door.

Have you added any new decorations this year?

Thankful Turkey – A Family Tradition

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Jennifer

Each year I make a paper bag turkey and feathers for our family’s annual Thankful Turkey.

He usually gets called Tom the Turkey or Ted the Turkey and we add thankful feathers onto him each day.

Here’s a photo of our 2009 Tom:

This year I decided to upgrade us to brown wrapping paper.

I know, we are the last of the big spenders.

I found a turkey picture I liked, printed it out, and drew freehand the turkey onto the brown paper.

My children have informed me that it looks like Ted is holding his private parts.

Children.

You just have to love them.

Or tell them, “Do not say Ted the turkey is holding his private parts ONE MORE TIME!”

After dinner, everyone takes a feather (scrap paper I have) and writes down one thing they are thankful for that day.

After I had written my feather on the first day I asked my preschooler what she was thankful for.

She said God.

I decided to take that moment to add a bit to my feather.

Here are some more things we are thankful for…

But don’t worry the next holiday is never far from our minds.

And just to cover our bases…

🙂

Weekly Menu

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Jennifer

I hate cooking.

No, that’s not actually true.

I really really dislike cooking.

It’s not calming for me, it’s not enjoyable, I just don’t like it.

I don’t like menu planning either.

(I have obviously now entered my Archie Bunker phase of life).

But I do both because it’s hard to be a stay at home mom and not be the one in charge of cooking. I have I tried to lobby to hire a cook, but somehow, my husband sees that as my role.

So seeing as this appears to be my gig for awhile, I decided to make a menu planning board.

I used a frame I already had, printed out a free menu planning printable, and used an old expo marker I had from teaching to write out the meals.

We’ve been using this for a few weeks and somehow it just makes the whole process a little more enjoyable.

And yes, we eat out once a week.

I need to keep moving toward that white light at the end of the week or else I’d completely give up and just serve cereal for every meal.

*In case you are interested I found the meal plan printable here.

*And just for the record, my husband is awesome and always helps me cook.

A Weekend Project

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Jennifer

Why do weekend projects always end up taking until the following Thursday to complete?

Maybe it’s just us but we can never seem to complete a project in the estimated time.

Our family began collecting magnets several years ago as a keepsake from the all the places we visited.

After putting on the most recent magnets from Rome, London, and Berlin our collection looked like this…

A big jumble of not cuteness.

It hasn’t been displayed in our new house (which we’ve been in for 3 years) so the mess was never really a problem before.

That is, until I decided that WE. MUST. COMPLETE. a weekend project and so… a new magnet board it was!

I took a 36 x 24 inch picture I bought at Goodwill for $5 and popped out the picture.

Next we bought a sheet of metal ($20) at Home Depot and my husband cut it down to size.

He then nailed the metal into place.

And voila! 6 days later our weekend project was complete!

Looks like we are going to have to travel a lot more to fill this up.

Actually, I’ve got a list going of the places I, We, Us, and/or & Them have gone but forgotten to buy magnets for: Fayetteville, AR, Seattle, WA, Calloway Gardens in Georgia, Ann Arbor, MI, Gulf Shores, AL, New Mexico, Virginia, and many more.

But here’s a few of what we do have:

Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Chicago, New Orleans

Louisville, Graceland, Scotland, the USS Alabama

Mammoth Caves, Toronto, San Francisco, Water Color, FL

Here’s the before (the picture just got moved to the dining room)

And the after:

Can’t wait to figure out our next 6 day project!

The Most Expensive Ruler, Ever!

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Jennifer

Let me present to you the most expensive ruler ever. EVER!

The problem with enjoying crafts is that when see an item you think, “I can make that.”

When in reality, you should just by the item.

It would save you and your family a lot of pain in the long run.

At least my family wishes I would just buy it.

One afternoon I took the kids to a local craft market.

There are hundreds of vendors set up and I enjoy wondering the aisles looking at the many different projects set up.

After wondering for awhile, I saw a large beautiful white ruler. I thought it would be so much fun to write my kids heights onto it. Plus is would make a nice addition to our living room.

But I thought, $20! I can make that for cheaper.

So immediately after leaving the craft fair we headed to our local habitat restore where I found a board just the right size for $1. I had all the paints on hand so a $1 ruler it was going to be.

Not so.

After leaving the store and standing the board against the back of my car, I put Caroline in her car seat.

And that’s when I heard it.

A big crash.

“Umm, Mom, ” I heard my 11 year old say.

As I walked back to the rear of the car, I saw I had broken a tail light.

Not my tail light. SOMEONE ELSE’S TAILLIGHT!

I said, “Was that taillight already broken?”

“No Mom, the board fell and you broke the light.”

Sadly, my first instinct was to look around and hussle the boys into the car.

As I sat in the car, I realized this was the wrong thing to do and not quite the lesson I wanted to teach my kids. So I wrote my name and number on a piece of paper and left it on their windshield.

About an hour later I received a call from a gentleman wanting to know why I had put my name and number on his car window.

HE DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE.

After listening to my explanation he thanked me for letting him know and told me he would call with an estimate in a few days after he returned to his home in Tennessee.

I heard from him soon after and found out that his cousin works at a Chevrolet dealership and the new part would cost $150.

I sent him a check and remarkably a few days later his wife sent a thank you card.

So now his tail light is fixed and I have the world’s most expensive ruler

$1 + $150 = $151 ruler

Paper Organizer for the Kitchen

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Jennifer

Ever since we moved into our house, almost three years ago, I have wanted a pin board in the kitchen – somewhere to hang school notes, store deals, and reminders.

I was looking at an “extra” pile we had in our guest room and I came across this old poster we had hanging in our old house.

Here’s the mess I wanted to have organized on the kitchen counters.

I took the frame apart and found this foam board behind the poster.

I wrapped the foam board with some extra fabric and then glued it on.

Yay! Simple! Free! Organized!

UPDATE:It’s all a lie.

I wrote this post 2 weeks ago and at the time it was clean. But two weeks later the area is completely messy again. You can barely see the board and no part of the counter is visible.

Just keepin’ it real folks.