Ketchup

Yeah yeah, it's been so long, slacky slacker, no one noticed... moving on.

Here's what you I missed:

67 years of life have been celebrated between us all,

^real life^

6 family members visited for Christmas,

1 new member of the family added...

After 1 old member died. (there's a story for another day)

27 bazillion calories in treats consumed,

3 big trips with the family,

1 girls' weekend in California,

2 first days of preschool (1 co-op where the only lesson learned was that I do not find joy in teaching preschool)

11 new teeth,

And 8 years of marriage.

Of course there are lots more things happening in our lovely lives but that's as good a summary as any. See ya next year!

Kidding.

Hopefully.

Jewelry Display

I'm all sorts of behind on this, but here's my project from craft wars... like three weeks ago. 

I have been wanting to make a jewelry holder for forever. My jumbled tangle of necklaces and earrings was driving me crazy, plus I had them in an area where Logan could reach so he was constantly decorating himself and flinging my jewels all over the room. Ok, "jewels".

I went on the hunt for a frame and found just the thing at Salvation Army. The mirror came out easily and it already had a wire on the back so I could hang it without having to attach anything extra.

We were given fabric to use for this craft and it would have been so easy to just use a patterned piece that they gave us for the background. But no. I wanted mine to be different so I was like, yay! I'll paint some fabric and make one of those freezer paper stencils that everyone is talking about! Never done it before, but seize the day! What could go wrong?

I wanted a Moroccan style shape so I started drawing using my math skills to figure out proportions. When those failed me I used my eyeballing skills.

Yes, I used a cereal box to create my stencil.

After cutting out my main stencil I traced it approximately one billion times on my freezer paper.

And then I cut them out for one billion hours.

And. AND! After all my careful measuring, I decided I wanted the inverse of the stencil so I had to measure again as I laid individual pieces onto my fabric and ironed them down.

And then I spray painted my grey fabric white. Possibly I was high on fumes from spray painting my frame? Take a look at the picture above ^^ That is AFTER spray painting. Does that look white to you? I was pretty much sweating it out at this point. I guess this is why companies say to test in an inconspicuous area first, blah blah blah, I never worry about those things.

Soooo I went back and painted it by hand, worrying incessantly about the spray paint that had puddled and seeped under my stencils. This was my one piece of grey fabric by the way and I HAD to use fabric for this project so I was stressin.

Luckily the paint seepage was minimal and once I put it in my Salvation Army frame with wire mesh in front you couldn't really tell. Too much. Maybe a little. I had to move on.

I glued a random piece of moulding that I found in my garage to the bottom of the frame because I wanted a ledge to store rings and bracelets on and then I started brainstorming what I could use for knobs.

In a perfect world I'd run on down to Anthropologie and pick up a bunch of darling knobs, but, let's be honest, they are expensive. Pretty sure I was hoping my whole jewelry holder would cost less than one of those knobs. So, I decided to stick clear pushpins into the wood and then I made the knobby part out of those flat clear rocks with paper mod podged to the back. I used my favorite tough glue, e-3000, to stick them together. That's also what I used to attach the shelf to the frame. Heh.

Now I no longer need to use the "detangle-as-needed" method of jewelry storage, and I won't have to choose between being on time or having accessories. Yay!

Also, the jewelry hides my paint mistakes :)

sewing table redo

As you know I've been doing the crafting competition over at Just Between Friends. No lie, it's been a little stressful but also a fun way to get my crafting groove back after losing it when Phoebe came along. Here's the write-up I did for the sewing table along with some more information.

When I first opened the box and saw the Cricut Iron-on I had a moment of panic. I do not have a Cricut or other fancy cutting machine. I do have one nice pair of scissors and an x-acto knife. 

When I can find it. 

But since I have the scissoring skills of an angry third grader I knew I wasn't going to be able to do an intricate design.  As I was brainstorming I looked around my house and saw an old sewing table that my neighbor gave me about six months ago. 

I had been thinking of painting it, staining it, trashing it (?), but had done nothing so it sat in the corner collecting dust and preschool projects. Light bulb. I'd been wanting to paint it for awhile now but just couldn't find the motivation to get going on it, plus I wasn't sure what color to do. The nice (and scary) thing about having to do a project in 4 days is that you don't get time to be wishy washy about design decisions. You pick something and you go with it.

So I chose Benjamin Moore's Coral Gables because I had seen it in a few other tutorials and because I have coral pillows on my bed that I love. 

If you're looking to redo a piece of furniture I would recommend googling it before asking me because I still don't have a very good idea of how to do it. I'm probably not one to give advice at this point, although I will say that you should just make sure you have a nice smooth surface to paint on, which would probably require some sanding, and that you use a good primer. I used KILZ spray primer and it worked for me although I had to sand the grittiness away after priming. So I probably did it wrong. 

I used a combination of a brush and roller to get all my paint on and the guy at the paint store recommended that to help the paint cure faster I should take a blow drier to it after 24 hours. I did not. Probably a good idea though because if you set anything on latex paint before it's fully cured it'll dent. 

I discovered as I was going through the refinishing process that the 70s style sewing machine that this table was made for was a far different shape than my machine. It won't ever fit. So in the future I’ll just put my machine on top of the table when I’m sewing and use the inside to store fabric scraps. I took out some of the hardware inside then sanded and painted the wood to give myself a nice little shelf for storage. I may change the function of this shelf when I have a chance to really use the table but it works for now.

Finally, for the perfect touch of bling? The glittery iron-on film which I ironed on to my fabric before Mod Podging it to the front of the table. I printed off “sew.” from my computer, cut the letters out of paper, traced them onto the film, and then cut them out with scissors. 

In retrospect I probably should have written “sew what?” since it represents my general attitude towards sewing and my disregard for half the instructions that come with every project. I’m sort of a rebel. A rebel who likes puns and has crookedly sewn curtains. 

Time to vote!

All our crafts are up at Jonie's blog! I've been working hard all week (as has everyone else I'm sure) so I hope you love the projects and can decide which ones to vote for. So scary! Have fun checking out everyone's projects at Just Between Friends!

Blog Interrupted

Well, I'm already off track for blogging every day in May.

But! It's for good reasons.

1. We've had amazing weather and the kids and I have been outside non stop having fun and making memories. How can I make all of us come inside for things like cooking (we've been eating hot dogs) cleaning (can't remember the last time I mopped) and blogging (why do I start challenges I can't finish)?

2. I have been given an amazing opportunity to participate in a little something called Blog Wars over at Just Between Friends.

AAAaaaaahhhhh! I'm freaking out a little bit. I entered on a whim, after a little persuasion, not really thinking that I would get picked. If there was ever incentive to get back into crafting and find my groove again, this is it.

So. You should check it out, we start next week, and go vote! The projects will be anonymous but you'll know mine because it will be the coolest.

Actually, I shouldn't really joke about that because I scoped out the competition, and... they are really creative and super cute girls. Dang it! My plan is to just try my darndest, hope for inspiration, and try not to have a mega craft fail during my 15 minutes of fame.

P.S. the prizes are AMAZE and with that comes a little disclaimer: I am aware that if I am the winner of Blog Wars that I will be responsible to pay taxes on the camera provided by familyshare.com.

I can't even imagine winning a prize big enough to require taxes. Ooo!

Wish me luck!

A favorite quote

"And they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory." 1 Nephi 14:14

This is a quote from the Book of Mormon* which, as a member of the LDS faith, I believe in along with the bible.

I love this quote because it is about us, right now, and it conjures up a picture in my head. A picture of my children going out into the world with an invisible shield of protection around them because I taught them of God and of Christ. Of them being examples of kindness to their friends. Of sweet kids who aren't afraid to stand up for truth and righteousness. Of rooms that light up as soon as they walk in and people who become better just by knowing them.

Of perfect children. Basically. Too much to ask?

My visions are unrealistic (my babies may or may not sparkle with goodness in my dreams) but having this quote hanging in my house reminds me that to even a chance at this for my family it is up to me to teach them here in my home. And gosh darn, I'm going to try my best. Because there is some scary stuff out there.

*{if you ever want a Book of Mormon you just let me know and I'll get one to you. seriously. i'll send it wherever}

Things that make me uncomfortable

The prompt for today's challenge is "things that make you uncomfortable".

Apparently, so many things. The rough list in my head was getting huge so I scrapped it and decided to just list a couple things for you.

1. I am turning 30. Soon. The fact that I can even say that shows progress for me because a couple months ago when Logan asked how old I was going to be I could barely spit it out. I do not want to be 30. I have never had a problem aging before, but for some reason this new decade is totally freaking me out. I liked my twenties. They were fun! 30 just seems so... adult. Weird that a number makes me feel old but having a mortgage and two kids doesn't.

2. I hate having my face touched. I don't know where this weirdness comes from, but if anyone even gets close to touching my face I get super twitchy. Even if it's Logan. Or Tyson! So, please don't touch my face. At all. For reals. Guess that's where I draw the line at personal space.

Amen.

My Logie Boy

I'm on day two of this challenge and already stumped. I'm supposed to educate you on something I know a lot about or am good at.

I know a lot about my kids. So I'm going to share a little Logan tidbit with you and let that be it for the day.

Yesterday we were playing outside when Logan walked up to me with his hands splayed and showed me fingers porcupined (now a verb) with splinters. Like, 50 splinters per hand. So he stood next to me while I pulled splinters out, wincing here and there, when suddenly he gasped.

"Momma! You got the splinters all in you legs!"

So.

No more wearing shorts without shaving.

Noted.

Oh, hey there

So, I want to blog again. And I couldn't think of how to jump back into it until I came across a blog every day in May challenge from Story of my Life.

Nothin' like jumping in with both feet, right?

The challenge for the first day is to write your life story in 250 words or less.

Well, I don't want to write my life story so I'm going to condense what's been going on with me the last 8 months or so in the next paragraph.

It seemed like a lot of things happened at the same time. My grandma died, we took a stressful road trip to Utah for her funeral, and my doctor took me off of my thyroid medication all at the same time. Oh, and my baby was only two months old. By the way. I was extremely anxious during our trip and even after we returned home I could not let go of my anxiety. It was paralyzing. I could hardly leave the house and even having people over to our place would make me so stressed I thought I was going to throw up. After some blood tests and a few doctors visits we decided I had some postpartum depression as well as hashimoto's disease. All of this contributed to my mental state and it has been a slow process trying to get my thyroid medication right and see if there is anything I can take (while nursing) to ease my anxiety.

But things are getting better. The depression has all but disappeared, the anxiety is becoming less frequent, I'm starting to feel like I can do the things I love again, and actually enjoy them instead of inwardly freaking out. Sometimes :) It's a process, but there you have it.

So. What's new with you?

P.S. Here's my kids. They've gotten bigger since I last blogged.