oh, my aching back!

I should know better than to take on more than one project at a time, but that’s what I’ve done. Again.  You’d think that maybe I might have learned by now, huh?  Nope.  I’m glutton for punishment, and aside from the pain, I enjoy every minute of it!

Spent a good portion of this evening making a little surprise to go in the boxes I’m sending out for a Valentine’s Day swap.  So so cute!  I promise to share…eventually, but want to keep it a secret until after reveal day.

Last night, I was up late making gum paste hearts for a quickly approaching deadline.  That’s right, the Love is in the Air Blog Hop is on Saturday!

I’ll have all the details soon.  But for now, here’s a hint (and some of you won’t be terribly surprised), I’ve been hanging out in the kitchen.  First there was a little bit of flour action.

 

Then I broke out the sugar…and the” power tools.”

 

I hope you’ll come back on Saturday to see what I’ve been up to, and then to join in on the rest of the hop.

housekeeping

Its time for a little housekeeping in the castle. I am one of those people who actually likes and looks forward to change.

Over the next few days Ill be working on a new template for my blog here. Im hoping it loads a little faster, looks a little better, and is a tiny but easier to maintain.

So keep your eyes open! And please dont freak out if Im down for a day or two during the transition. In trying to make thing seamless, you sometimes have to get a little creative.

magnetic chalkboard menu

As anyone who has ever bought a house knows, the place comes with a list of “to dos” longer than your arm.  In my case, the list is abso-freaking-lutely humongous.  We’re now 8 1/2 months into this gig, and I’m marking them off…slowly. Very very painfully slowly, but they’re coming off.

My latest completion is this beauty.

And some details of the days…

I actually started this project a few months ago.  I started with 4 (yes four) coats of magnetic paint.  That dried for about a week before I added 2 coats of chalkboard paint.  I waited that long because I started on Sunday and didn’t have enough time to finish before having to go back to work.  This was also during soccer season, so…well, I think you can guess how much “free time” I had at that point.

The plain chalkboard was great, and the girls were getting a lot of use out of it.  However, it didn’t fit the vision I had for the wall.

Then I got my Cricut (insert evil laugh here) and everything changed.  I added the vinyl lettering a little over a week ago, and love the way it turned out.  The red and white letters really pop on the black background, and the girls are staying on top of me to stay on top of the menu planning.

Win. Win.

Products used:

• Rust-oleum Magnetic Primer (4 coats)
• Rust-oleum Black flat chalkboard paint (2-3 coats)
• Oracle 631 vinyl in Cloud White and Ruby Glitter
• Cricut Light Chore Chart cartridge
• Cricut Lyrical Letters font cartridge

{shhhh} christmas gifts inside

Y’all know I’ve become a huge Pinterest junkie over the past few months. Right? Christmas is definitely the right time to pull out some of those ideas and put them to work. I did just that when making gifts for my sister and sister-in-law. They only read my blog when I link to it on Facebook (at least Im pretty sure they arent over here regularly), so I feel safe posting this before we open gifts Sunday afternoon.

So…Melissa and Sonya. Stop right now.

Stop this very minute.

You do NOT want to ready any further.

But I know you will. So…whatever.

I’ll still loves the both of ya.

For everyone else, the inspiration for their gifts this year came from Stacie at {The CrEaTiVe CraTe} who swiped it from Kristie at {Next to Heaven} who is either a super-creative organizational genius…or swiped it from somewhere else. Don’t you love how the internet works?

Here’s Kristie’s version of the weekly family planner:

And her awesome family launchpad:

I wanna know how much stuff really lives on that black bookcase. The one by my front door is overflowing. But…I digress.

I stayed up later than I wanted to last night putting together my own version of the frame planner. My frames are a little different, with nine 5×7 openings in each. I used my Cricut Expression with Cricut Craft Room and the {Chore Chart cartridge} to cut the vinyl I got from {ExpressionsVinyl}.**

After only a couple of boo-boos (I put the first Tuesday on the wrong direction and somehow only cut one Saturday) and a few small cuts from cleaning the frames glass, my efforts really paid off.

Heres the one for my sisters clan.

And my sister-in-laws version (which is actually the one I did first)

The frames are from {amazon}. I’m wishing I had ordered a third for myself! The family photos in the frames were taken at Grandmas 90th birthday celebration/family reunion in October.

I need to pick up a couple of dry erase markers tomorrow while the girls and I are out and about town. I have a wrapping party planned for tomorrow night. It involves me, a couple rolls of paper, some tape, ribbons, and a glass bottle of wine.

Disclaimers:
I took the photos last night with my iPhone after dark. WAY after dark. Like 10/11pm after dark. Please forgive their craptastic-ness. As Ive said before, I am not and never will be a photographer. I do own a decent camera though, and I should probably learn to use it better if Im going to keep blogging about my projects.

**I am not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned. I just like their stuff and use it!

the neglected garden

One of the selling points when I bought my house was the ready-made garden spot in the back yard.  I had big plans for planting a lush vegetable garden, but we had not yet moved in during prime planting season.  And by the time I had unpacked and was ready?  Well, it was too dang hot.  This has been a summer complete with a local record-breaking 48 days of temperatures that reached above 100º.  They say we’re not done with them yet, and it’s nearly September.

Needless to say, the garden did not get planted.  On the days that I did get outside to do yard work, I focused on the front of the house and mowed the back only when it got so tall the dog got lost.

Going to have to start by chopping the weeds.  They were about 18″ high when I started.

Still have a lot of work to do even after using the weed eater.  I ran out of string before I finished, so I guess we’ll be making a trip to Home Depot or Menard’s this afternoon so I can finish once it cools down this evening.

I’d like to plant a fall garden, but I’m afraid I’m too late to prep and till the ground.  At this point, I think I’d be better off spending the time to prepare the spot for spring planting so I can get an early start next year.

What I can get going before winter hits is the compost pile.  That’s a project in and of itself! I have a feeling that was the purpose of this little fenced off area, but I can’t be sure.  The previous owners weren’t exactly forthcoming with information, and I didn’t ask about this.  I’ll need to figure out how best to protect the garage.  It may be as simple as piling a row or two of cinder blocks along the edge and keeping the pile from resting against the building.

Oh, the joys of home  ownership!

I do love having these spaces available, but I need to work on taking care of them better.

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