I don't think those two words can even begin to describe this weekend. I am so exhausted.
Friday morning I went to pick up my grandma for a doctors appointment because she had been sick, sinus infection and then bronchitis. She was really tired and couldn't get herself up and moving so we missed her appointment. Seeing that she was that sick I took her into the emergency room. They quickly diagnosed her with pneumonia. Friday night was very scary and it was really hard to stay positive. However, she quickly turned around and has been getting better since. So all weekend I have been running back and forth between the hospital and my house.
Richard and I went to see The Five Year Engagement this weekend. It was funny, but got really boring at parts. Comedies are not supposed to be two hours long. I would recommend seeing it, but don't expect to be constantly laughing.
Saturday night we had dinner over at my brother Eric's house. I love spending time with my nephews. :)
I have almost finished the first two books of the Vampire Diaries. I really, REALLY like them. It's a must read for vampire lovers.
I think that next up will be watching the series, but I don't know if I want to read all the books first though. Any suggestions from those who have seen the series?
So here's my new clever idea. Using nail polish to paint bobby pins. My hair is about shoulder length and most of it falls out of the buns or ponytails that I put it in, so I use a lot of bobby pins. I think the colored ones are fun.
Another unconventional use for nail polish: key identifiers. I've added another house key to mine this weekend and so I don't get mine confused with the other one I used some nail polish to tell them apart. Layer of color, layer glitter, layer of top coat.
I think that is all for my clever uses of nail polish for right now. Tomorrow is back to school and thinking of a new craft for this week :) let me know if anyone has any ideas.
Three days was enough.... Not. I want it back. As I sit here and type I'm listening to the rain on my window. I love the rain and all, but I am at the point of needing sunshine because my seasonal depression is starting to mix badly with my bi-polar. There is only so much I can take and so much medicine that I can handle, so please come back sunshine. Only two months until Richard and I leave for Vidcon and Disneyland :)
I've been working on a birthday board for part of my mom's mothers day present. I'm kind of proud of it. It is something that every member of my family needs. Six kids plus their spouses and ten grand kids, yeah my parents have a lot of birthdays to remember. I will do a full tutorial on this later, I just wanted to show y'all what I've been up to.
I'm also planning to go over to my sister Megan's house and do some crafts with Lexie for mothers day, so there will be more tutorials there. I love kid crafts and am glad I have a niece to make do them :)
I took my car in to get its oil change today and left kind of irritated. We bought this car in late October and have had a bunch of minor problems with it. Well, it basically came down to the guy listing all the problems with it that he sees now and telling me that buying a new car will be a better idea and probably cheaper. Ridiculous. However, Richard and I are starting the hunt for a newer car tomorrow. I've tried a foreign car with this Passat and it has made me want American made only. I told Richard that when we get old I'm going to be one of those people who complains about anything not American made, oh well... Hopefully we find something that we like, can afford, and can work everything out with the old car too. Fingers crossed. You'll all get the updates.
Hey guys. The weather has been AWESOME the last few days here. I have loved it. Here's a new tutorial for you guys. It was really simple and cheap.
The quick run through is this : grab some branches from your backyard, scrapbook paper, florist wire, scissors, and glue. Cut out some leaf shapes and glue them back to back with wire in between. Wrap the wire around the branches and voila... Decorative spring branches :)
For the more detailed explanation see my video below. Plus, it is always nice to see things done for you in video form.
Now, for the extras. I found a clear iPhone case on Amazon for super cheap and ordered it. Then, I took some scrapbook paper and other stuff and made some cute backings... Now I have a completely customizable case for my phone. Genius, I know. :) Everyone should do it; really easy and worth it. Just be careful with the thickness of what you want for your design.
Anyways, thank you to all my awesome readers and YouTube viewers. I really do appreciate you all.
Saturday my big sister Megan, her husband Sam, and their kids Lexie (2) and Avery (6months) are coming to visit. Megan and I had some crafting to do so to keep Lex entertained I made a few things.
First off was this cute little guy. I made him from leftover plastic Easter eggs. It was raly simple. Basically, I threaded some yarn through the eggs. I made sure that the bottom of each egg was resting inside the top half of the egg. At the end, I put the whole egg on there and glued it shut. Put some googly eyes on there and a felt tongue and you have a snake. Another idea is to throw some beads or something in the end before you glue it closed so that it makes a rattle snake.
Then, I made some play-doh. Follow my recipie below and you will never buy store bought play-doh ever again. Seriously, this stuff is the best.
In a pot pour all your ingredients:
1 cup flour
1cup water
1/4 cup salt
1 tbs oil
2 tsp cream of tartar
Food coloring- I love the neon colors, or even kool-aid powder will work
Place the pot over medium heat and stir, stir, stir.
The mix will go from watery to play-doh pretty quickly and once it looks like the picture to the right it's done. You should be able to scoop it all out at once.
Now comes my favorite part. Divide the batch into two parts.
Add a few drops of food coloring to each half and knead it in.
Once you're done with that you have the best play-doh ever. I repeated this process so I had four colors, but you could just double the recipie in the first place and then divide it into four parts.
So Lexie didn't last long, but her sleeping is still really cute. And Coco decided to cuddle up with her.
Now, this is the actual project Megan and I did. She had a lot of baby food containers that needed to be turned into storage containers.
First start by removing any labels and cleaning them up.
Next, take the lids and paint them with chalkboard paint. We tried to do a yellow around the rim and just the chalkboard on top, but it did not look good so we painted it all the black.
To make the jars look cuter I hot glued a little lace ribbon around the jar. This also helped to cover up the glue from the label that didn't come off and also any printing that was on the jar. Personally, I think they turned out really cute, but I may be biased :)
Check back later this week for my next tutorial and I'll be doing a video soon!
Hey everyone, I ran across this story today about a little girl who is 5 months old and was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). It is the number one genetic killer of infants and children under two. The problem is, people are not automatically tested for it and many doctors do not offer it. Most times you must request for this to be added to all the other genetic testing. 1 in 40 people are carriers of SMA.
That's Avery. Isn't she absolutely adorable?
Please follow her blog, or at least read it and share it with everyone you know. The word needs to be spread about SMA so that one day there will be a world that no baby will die from it. Right now there is no testing being done but something needs to change about that. I for one hope I never have to watch my baby suffer like this.
Hey guys, it's been awhile, I know. I feel like life has been hectic but it really hasn't.
School has been going pretty well. It's week three of classes and some of my classes are starting to have midterms. I hate it. Especially since they give two midterms. That makes no sense to me. You can only be in the middle of the term once.
The last couple weeks my back has been really bothering me. Friday it was so bad Richard had to take me to urgent care to get something... Anything. They ended up putting me on muscle relaxers and Percocet as needed. Let's just say I spent the whole weekend in a stupor of drugs. Then on Monday I went in to see a doctor again for a follow up and he said it was muscle spasms from my back muscles being too tight. Awesome. Muscle relaxers, stretching, limited activity, physical therapy, chiropractor, massage... Those were all his recommendations. I'm still on the drugs and I'm trying the stretching because I really don't want to spend money on physical therapy.
I've been working really hard on my YouTube channel so make sure you all check it out and follow me. As soon as I get 100 subscribers I get a keyboard for my iPad. Once I get 1000 subscribers I get a new camera... I've got my eye on a pretty little Nikon. :) my husband is awesome for making me that deal, so you all need to help me out and subscribe!!! Please :) I've been trying to get a lot of videos up on there and will probably have a couple more this week. Lots of tutorials, some vlogs, basically just stuff I like. So check it out... For real.
So I am pretty sure that our lawn was not mowed since like last summer. It is so stinking long. We moved in to this place in late December and it has just gotten worse. I lose Coco when she is out there. It's sad. I might break down and do it today.... Maybe. I really want to make our yard look nice and that will be one of my blogs/vlogs soon. Plus one of storage for craft items.
I've been trying out these new nail stickers and I'm surprisingly happy with them. I have gotten so sick of doing my nails and then the next day them chipping. The price is a little spendy on these things, I think like $7 for the box of them which is about 24 stickers. They come in a lot of different colors and styles. Best part is, they come off really easily. So far I've only tried the Kiss brand, but I think I will try another brand next time just for fun.
Hey guys, it's not a new tutorial for my readers but I put my iPad case tutorial into a video. Check it out. Oh and later this week I will have a new tutorial up and a new video on storage for all my crafting things :)
Hey guys, I've got a great new tutorial for you:) I love going to the craft stores and finding things to make. Sometimes though, you walk in there and see all these great things but have no idea what to do with them. Well, one thing I found last time I was in there was this cardboard book. I've always wanted a fake book to it on a shelf or table to store stuff in. Finally I was able to do it without destroying one of the books that I love.
Materials-
Cardboard Book- found at Michael's or another craft store
Painters Tape
Assorted Sizes of Paintbrushes
Stencils of you're choosing- or anything else you want to decorate your book with
Paint in however many colors you'd like
First, tape off any areas on the book that you do not want to be your base color. For me, this was the stripes on the spine of the book and what would be considered the pages.
Once you have the book taped start painting. I used a sponge brush to paint the bulk of it. The sponge brushes leave less streaks in my opinion and I like the look that leaves. The paint will soak into the cardboard so you may need more paint than you think.
Once the base color is dry, peel of the tape you have already put on the book. Next, tape the outsides of where you took off the tape. This will make it so you can paint the smaller areas in the color of your choice.
I had to paint over some of my base color, so the red needed a few coats. Let each coat dry between a new coat.
Using a really small paintbrush, make any touch-ups that are needed. I mostly needed mine along the spine where I had done the red painting.
Once the spine was dry I opened it up and taped off the bottom part of the book. I used yellow to paint the book where the pages would go and also the inside of the book. For this part I painted with a thicker paintbrush and that allowed for some streaks to be left in the yellow paint, which just happened to make them look like there was pages :)
Once the inside is all dry, close the book up. Grab your stencil and place it on the book how you would like.
I used Martha Stewart stencils that I found at Michaels. I know I use a lot of her products, but I like the quality of them the most. They last well and the paint works on everything, literally everything! I love it so that is why I recommend everyone use it to :)
Anyways, back to the book. Use different sized brushes to paint the different parts of the stencil if you are doing it like I am. I used red for the flowers to match the spine and green for the leaves.
There is my final product. Now I can put it on my craft shelf to store all my little knick-knacks in. Perfect right?
Go out and craft! If you make a book storage take a picture and send it to me :)
Cute right? Well, this is my first quick craft and it's a great way to add some color to a room. Perfect for spring :) They are really simple to make; I'm pretty sure it only took me about 15 minutes to complete the whole thing.
Materials:
Canvas- bought at Michaels for about $5
Spray Adhesive- I use the Elmer's brand
Acrylic Paint- I recommend Martha Stewart Brand
Paper Petal Cutouts- about 42
Foam Paintbrush
Using your paint color of choice, paint the entire canvas. Let that dry.
With the spray adhesive, thoroughly coat the backs of the petals. Do this one or two at a time so they don't dry before they are placed on the canvas.
Place them on the canvas so they begin to form a flower. For the innermost part I use 8 petals. Then on the second rotation around, place a new petal in between every two of them.
And below, you will see my beginning placements of the petals and then my final project. I loved the way that it turned out and it looks great in our living room.
Here's my video tutorial as well. Check it out. Leave some comments. Click on some ads. Surf the net. But, whatever you do come back to my blog and video :)
Hey everyone. Sorry I have not been putting up new blogs. I have been super busy working on a new YouTube channel and cleaning up the house :) lame I know. So that being said, here is my new Vlog that I put up this morning. I am also going to try really hard to get a tutorial up today! Big expectations I know, but you all deserve it. Check out my video below and check back later today for a new tutorial.
Happy Easter everyone. Enjoy the day with your loved ones.
New classes. I have officially sat through the first day of all my classes. I'm excited for most of them, not for the 17 credits. I eased back into the whole school thing last term with only 13 but I have to make up a few so that I can be done by December. Luckily, I am on track for that :) so everyone plan on celebrating my achievement in December. I'll FINALLY be a college graduate. Woo hoo!!!!
Oh, so I never gave an update on last semester, but I passed all my classes :)
But back to this semester. Zumba, Earth Science and lab, Social History of Rock Music, 19th Century US History, and Intro to Dance. It's going to be pretty easy. The history isn't going to be my best class but I'll make it through. Zumba is gonna kick my butt which is what I need. Hopefully it'll get me into a habit of working out to lose some weight. Intro to Dance will be fine because it's lecture one day a week and dancing the other day. And Rock Music is just going to be fun. The professor is weird. Haha.
Does anyone watch the show 16 & Pregnant? Well, I do and I become emotionally invested in the lives of those girls. The one tonight was so sad. Her sister had already had an abortion and she decided to keep hers. Her boyfriend said he wanted to be there then ended up being a dick, no surprise there. She knew to give up on him because he kept disappointing her, it took him a month to even ask about coming to see the baby. Seriously? Gracious. Someone should be signing that boy up for permanent birth control.
That's all that's on my mind right now. Hopefully this week I'll be getting a new tutorial up and a new video and some more blogs up, so check back regularly :)
Since Easter is coming up I have been all about dying eggs. The only real problem with that is we don't eat a lot of eggs. After doing some Internet research I found ideas for different things to do with eggs. One of the coolest things I found was blown eggs. Below you'll find my tutorial for Silk Dyed Blown Easter Eggs.
Materials:
Dozen eggs
Vinegar
Silk ties- they must be 100% silk
Cotton squares
Baby snot sucker- its there a real name for these things?
Scissors
Push pin, screw, paper clip
Small rubber bands
Pot to boil the eggs in
Egg Blowing:
This is going to get rid of everything inside the egg so we just have a shell. If you want, you can skip this part and move to the silk dying so that you have hard boiled eggs.
Start by poking a hole into both ends of the egg with a push pin. Then, choose one side of the egg to make the hole bigger. Do this by gently using the screw. Once you have a larger hole unfold your paper clip. Insert this into the larger hole and move it around. Basically, you want the inside to be scrambled as best as possible so that it easily comes out of the shell.
Next, use the baby snot sucker to blow air through the smaller hole. This should make the egg insides come out the other end. If you want, blow the egg into a bowl so that you can use the egg for other purposes. Make sure everything comes out of the eggs. I usually run a little water through the egg as well just to clean it out some more.
Silk Dying:
First is to take the tie apart. It needs to be deconstructed so that you are left with a flat piece of silk that can be cut into smaller pieces. Begin by cutting off all tags on the scarf. Then, cut up the back middle seam. Remove the inside lining From the tie. Cut the tie into pieces that will fit around your eggs. I did six of each color since I had two ties.
Place the tie face up, the color side needs to be facing the egg shell. That will be the design that is on the egg. Try to get the silk as close and cleanly pressed onto the side of the egg that will be showing as possible. Wrap this all with a cotton piece and then close with a rubber band.
When you have the eggs wrapped up put them in the pot with about 1/4 cup of vinegar and water so that they will be covered. If you blew the eggs out they will float so you will have to be creative and figure out a way to keep them submerged. One way is to use a strainer turned upside down on them or even use some smaller lids to hold them down; it doesn't matter how you do it along as they stay under water.
Let those boil for about 15-20 minutes, or longer if you are doing hard boiled eggs. I recommend doing about 3-4 eggs at a time since the cloth takes up extra space in the pot. After they have boiled place them in a strainer in the sink. Allow the eggs to cool before you cut the rubber band and remove the silk and cotton.
When you take the silk and cotton off you will be left with some very petty eggs. The silk can be used again to dye more eggs. You will find through doing this more that some ties make really pretty eggs and some do not transfer as well. It's really just a hit or miss kind of thing but I have found the uglier tied make better eggs.
Ideas For Use:
I filled some eggs with melted chocolate for my neices and nephews for Easter. I also used some in a vase with some Easter grass. Another idea is to use some for a Easter wreath. Basically, just be creative and have fun :)
Below is my first YouTube tutorial. I'm still getting the hang of it, but I hope you enjoy. Check out my YouTube channel for more video tutorials weekly and subscribe to me there.
Catchy title right? Richard thought of it himself :) anyways, I haven't done one in awhile so I figured it was time to do a Pinterest piece. I haven't spent much time on there lately, but I have found some really good stuff. So let me share and remember, you can follow me on Pinterest too.
First off is this adorable lamp. I am assuming you can buy it somewhere, but soon I will do a tutorial on how to make one. It's just really cute and would fit perfect in my bedroom.
Dinner tonight was this simple, yet really good baked chicken fajita recipie. Preheat oven to 350, and put all your ingredients into a glass baking dish. Bake about 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked thoroughly. I used green, red, and yellow peppers; mushrooms; and onion. Then I used one of the cheap fajita seasoning mixes and threw in some garlic. Mix it up really well so everything is coated. Yum.
I am pretty sure I have every ticket stub from everything Richard and I have ever done. Some are in my wallet, some in our bedroom, and even some in the car. This is a really simple way to store them and display them. Plus, it's a great way to display the great memories you have together. Just make a opening in the top so ticket stubs can just be slid in.
I am a sucker for all things Harry Potter. I have to admit, this is the best costume I have ever seen. In fact, I am almost certain that this will be my dogs costume for Halloween.
I love this mobile. It is so cute and could really easily be recreated. Maybe it will be an upcoming tutorial? I will just have to get the kinks worked out so I can make that happen.
Ah yes, cupcakes for two. Now I no longer have to make a full batch of cupcakes when I really just want one.
Mix together:
1 egg white
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup flour
1/4 heaped teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1-1/2 tablespoons milk
Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Frost as you would like :)
So there you have it. Those have to be my favorite finds on Pinterest as of right now. There is plenty on there to keep you busy for now :)
I know I said there would be a new tutorial up today, but we took forever making the video so it will hopefully be up tomorrow.
Happy April Fools day, let me hear about some pranks that were pulled because I didn't do any:(
