Currently

Excited About: Being cleared to workout again postpartum. I'm tired of my achy back, soft body, and getting kicked all day long. I can't wait to hold little baby M in my arms and be able to put him down every so often so I can work out! I want to run again. I want to be fast. I want those endorphins.

Reading:

(Just Finished) 

(It was good)

Feeling: Oh, pretty good. The stress level is down a bit, I'd say. I am working ahead in the class I'm taking right now so that I won't have a ton of stuff to do as baby's due date gets closer.

Crafting: I'm going to give this a whirl. I bought all the stuff earlier this week-

(not my photo)

Also, I'm working on a display board for my sweet middle child. It is a work in progress, but it will hopefully help him to communicate by pointing to it when he needs something and is frustrated. It has basic tasks and items we use on a regular basis.

Working On: Counseling 603, Catching up on laundry so I can wash and organize tiny baby clothes, and creating new designs for my shop

Grateful For: I got a call early this week that they found some loaner hearing aids for Baby A! I was thrilled and so thankful. They won't cost us anything and he can use them as long as he needs them. He has to wear them at least three months in preparation for the cochlear implant process.

Camping Themed Party {with bonus Christmas Craft!}

I'm not much of a party person, but I wanted to acknowledge and celebrate my youngest on his very first birthday. I thought about simply buying a cake and calling it a day, but instead I did a little crafting and created a space and some snacks that were fit for a day of camping!

I started off the throwing-together-of-the-birthday-extravaganza at Goodwill. Love that place. I found the plaid there in the form of a fitted bed sheet. I proceeded to rip and cut it up until I had a table runner, ornaments, and specialized decor for the food and drinks. The sheet was half off, too. Score.
I also found the large plaid bow on the top of the tree and two plaid table napkins there for half its price as well.

The Menu:
Live Bait (Tackle box full of gummy worms)
Bird Food (Chex mix)
Tall Trees (Pirouline Cookie Sticks)
Bacon Ranch Turkey Sandwiches
Mud Cups (No bake cookies)
Meats, Cheeses, and Crackers
Hot Chocolate
and of course- water, wine, beer, and cake- because you can't celebrate birthdays without those.

My son shares his birthday with his YaYa. How special!

As I mentioned before, much of the decorating was done courtesy of Goodwill. The rest was derived from around the house and the great outdoors. I walked the length of the back yard in search of fresh greens, pine cones, and branches to fill the space. I found a lovely branch with pine needles still attached to hang over the table. The other branches I used to display photos of the boy in celebration! I tied scraps of the sheet fabric sporadically on them and added bobber ornaments that I made by using a hot glue gun to adhere an ornament hook to it.

That's not the craft I wanted to show you, though...

How To Make Country Christmas Filler Ornaments For Your Holiday Decor

You'll need:
*hot glue gun with hot glue sticks (duh)
*Styrofoam balls
*burlap ribbon
*plaid fabric (don't purchase fabric, y'all- seriously. Go to Goodwill and look for large sized Men's plaid shirts or maybe you'll get lucky like I did and find a whole sheet!)

Directions:
*Cut fabric in one inch wide strips that will wrap around the entirety of the ball
*Glue the beginning of the strip to the ball and the end of the strip over that
(Note: Don't make it much longer because you'll start to have ends showing all over the place. Not good, my friends.)
*Cover the ball completely
*Knot burlap at the top in a bow or tie like fashion and glue it down (don't burn yourself) (And if you do, don't start aggressively whistling Good King Wenceslas because you will soon question your sanity)
*Finally, loop a Christmas hook through the burlap and you've got mass Christmas decor for cheap!

Merry Almost Christmas (21 Days!)
and a very, very happy birthday to two of my favorite people. You both mean the world to me. Love ya!

St. Patrick's Day Craft

I tried to be one of those moms who do crafts with their children. Cray K was not having it. This isn't the first time he has been completely uninterested in creating with me. The only thing this kid wants to create at this point is a big ole mess! That's okay. I'm making memories.

Memories of him shaking his head "no" aggressively.

Memories of him looking at me like I'm absolutely crazy for painting his hand green. He seemed to think, "What are you doing, Mom? Not cool."

Whatever. We'll have all these cute little crafts and I can tell him all about how we used to paint together. I'll make it sound great! He'll never know.

Fun For Toddlers

When the movers leave tons and tons of extra paper....

and Daddy has been gone for 20 days...

and you just need something to do to entertain your toddler...

do this:

Have Fun!

Pinspiration here:

Source: supermommoments.com via Mrs. on Pinterest

Linking up here:

DIY Halloween Signs

Today's inspiration?

Source: lilblueboo.com via Mrs. on Pinterest

There are tons of tutorials floating around Pinterest telling you how! easy! it is to get those perfectly crafted letters onto wooden signs and/or canvas. I'm here to tell ya- sure, maybe it is easy if you have the right tools, but you can bet this amateur crafter never does. I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of buying more crafting or decorating supplies when I have so many other options in my closet that I could improvise with. It also may have something to do with the fact that the nearest Hobby Lobby is at least 45 minutes away, but I digress. 

The point is, I did this project the hard way- no doubt.

And by "hard", I simply mean time consuming. I did have fun, though and I'm pleased with how they turned out for the most part. These projects would have been so much easier if my Cricut would magically start working again (See awesome canvas craft using Cricut here.) Ugh. I'm so over dealing with that thing. I'm rambling again...Let's get to the craft, shall we?

You Will Need:

• paint
• paint brushes
• printer
• pencil
• scissors
• something to paint on 

1. First, you'll need to paint your canvas or wood and let it dry. If you're using a canvas, let an hour elapse before you paint a second coat. Use your best judgement for wood or any other surface. I used a large foam brush.

2. I only did two coats, but I wish I had done three. Anyway, your next step is to open a Word Document on your computer and pick out a font you like. Keep in mind that you'll be cutting these letters out so find one that isn't too curvy and complicated. Use a big size! If you're one of those really prepared folks, you could cut out all your words and place them where you want them to make sure they fit. Me? I'm a rebel. I just guessed. Print and get to cutting!

(Note: That puffy paint is not what I used, just FYI)

3. Use a pencil to lightly trace the letters (if you're using canvas). A marker might be better for sturdier surfaces like wood.

4. Fill in the letters by using a small bristled paint brush (and paint, duh). I used one that was fairly stiff and only used one edge of it for better accuracy.

5. Let your masterpiece dry. Boom. Halloween fun.

Could we not talk about how on the wooden sign that one "l" is upside down? K, thanks!

Happy Pinteresting!

I'm linking up with these lovely ladies:

 

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Fall officially begins in two days and I can't express how excited that makes me! It's easily my favorite season and it brings with it my favorite holiday--Halloween! Much to my husband's dismay, I've already begun to decorate our house. Below is just a tiny peek of what's to come in our household. Here's my mantel this year:

Most of the above pictured was stuff I had around the house. I move items around and re-purpose a lot so I tried not to buy much. I did pick up some Ivory and Black spray paint to make my life a little easier. Don't limit your creativity to what's located inside your house, take a walk outside and see if you can find anything you might want to use or make beautiful! I grabbed various branches-

and painted some black, some white, and left some their usual color. Mixing textures and colors always makes me smile- see what you can find! Note: The leaves are fake.

The wine bottle ghost was super easy, too. I painted it white and grabbed some black scrapbook paper, cutting tools, and my hot glue gun to create a scary face. Last year, I did a similar thing with ribbon and it looked like a mummy! It was cute, too.

There are three candles pictured-

although I'm not sure you can see them in the photo. I didn't have black and white candles around so I found old ones that will no longer light properly- the more misshapen, the better! I also used the spray paint to create the colors of candles I wanted. I dressed some of them up with orange, festive fabric.

Looking for something a little less time consuming? Check out the following (free) printables:

Trick or Treat

Something Wicked

Newspaper Tree

I googled some spooky quotes and found this one to put on the chalkboard by the mantle.

How fun? I'm getting so excited for this season! Expect many more Halloween posts, DIY tutorials, and ideas over the next month.

Sorry I'm not sorry.

XOXO,

DIY Baby Wrap and Cell Phone Cover

Pinterest is a problem. I've heard it called virtual hoarding and it's true. I'll pin something, knowing that I've probably already pinned it once before, but I do it again just in case because, I mean, what if I need it? And then it's not there? Ahh, how frustrating that would be.

Anyway, here are my latest completed projects courtesy of the U.S. Army sending my soldier home for a day. I got three, I repeat, THREE projects done on Sunday alone. I'm only going to show you two, though b/c you only want to see my awesome diaper making ability so many times before you get bored with it. Am I right? ;) But oh my gosh, y'all the diapers have gotten so much better since I last posted. I'm so proud. I'm not talking about diapers, though. I'm not.

I also made a baby carrier/wrap:

...which I'm sure will be much cuter when there's a squishy newborn inside and not a big ole belly. Original pin found here.

And a new personalized cell phone cover:

...which I'm sure can't get any cuter because my sweet first born is adorning the back! Idea found here. All you need is scrapbook paper, a clear case, and a hole punch! Easy and cheap. Just how I like my Pinterest projects.

Have you made anything crafty lately?

Susie Homemaker

I've tried three things out from Pinterest lately that I wanted to share with you today. The first one I'm so incredibly proud of so don't bust the ole bubble and tell me how bad my sewing sucks...

because I know it does.

But that doesn't matter. What matters is this is only the 3rd or 4th item I've ever tried to sew and I'm definitely still learning. And well, everything I've made is functional and that is something to be proud of right?

I found this pin:

Source: verybaby.com via Mrs. on Pinterest

And got to work on my very own diaper out of t-shirts. Obviously, I didn't follow directions to the T, but it turned out alright.

You can call me Susie Homemaker, if you want.

The other thing, I tried out was this pin floating around Pinterest:

Source: eighteen25.blogspot.com via Mrs. on Pinterest

Here's how mine turned out-

I love, love, love it! Blurb is easy to use, but it's time consuming for good reason. You'll want to customize every little detail of your book. The book I created is a collection of letters I've been writing to Baby K since he was born in addition to his birth story. It is so special to me and I hope one day it is to him, too. It turned out so great!

Lastly, I made the wine bottles wrapped in twine.

Source: momtastic.com via Mrs. on Pinterest

I liked the result and it look less than five minutes. Score.

What about you? Have you completed any Pinterest Projects lately? Do share.

Linking up with: