October

Oh boy, I am so behind.  I am finally getting around to posting October's cards.  Christmas card season is in full swing, so I have been pretty busy lately!

In October I only had a couple of cards to make.  I can't believe that I am almost done with my crafting resolution.  I think I am going to continue making as many cards as I can, but I'll only post the awesome ones.  Hopefully lots of them are awesome...

I would love to see some of the wonderfully creative cards that you have made!  Send me a picture and I'll make sure I post it for others to see too!

 Sometime my creative juices aren't exactly flowing, so I just have to use some fun stickers I have on hand.  I think it still turned out cute!

I don't have a fancy cutting machine, so I had to trace this unicorn and cut it out by hand.  It just proves that you don't need fancy equipment to get the job done!

Oh, and here is the inside of the card.  My daughter really wanted to make a card like mommy, so I had her decorate a piece of card stock, and I put it inside.  This card was for one of her favorite cousins, so it worked out great!

Only 2 months left!  Woah!  Where did the year go?!  

September

Another slow birthday month in our family.  Just one, sad lonely card.

Sometimes all you need is a simple girly card.

I can't believe that there are only three months left until I complete my New Years Resolution.  Where has the year gone!?

Halloween Printables

Happy Halloween!!

This has got to be one of my favorite times of the year.  Probably because it finally dips below 85 degrees here in Arizona.  That, and my kids get free candy (which I get to eat too!)

I wanted to celebrate by giving away these Halloween printables.  You can print one, print two, or print all of them if you want!  It is my Halloween gift to you!  No tricks here!  Just treats!

Find both the 4x6 and 5x7 size files here.
(Just click on the link and it will take you to Google Drive.  Select the file for the size you want, and download each design.  If you need help, just send me a message and I'd be happy to help!)


Happy Halloween!!!!!!!

Getting baby poop out of clothes

Today I am going to talk about poop.  It's not a subject that most people want to discuss (or even think about), but when you have both a baby and a potty training daughter, stinky poo-poo is mentioned many times a day.  Some days I feel like I'm up to my eyeballs in the stuff.  Yummy...

Inevitability there is always a onesie to be washed, or soaked, or scrubbed, or burned...  Sometimes, no matter what witchcraft I would use to remove the poop from the stained outfit, the stain still would not come out!  Talk about frustration!   Until one day, I learned the secret to poop stain removal.  And it is free!!!  Ready for it?

The sun.  That's right, the big bright thing up in the sky.

It really is that simple.


Here's what I do to get that pesky poop out:

1.  Rinse out as much as you can using cold water.  (Or, if you live in Arizona use the coldest water that comes from your tap, which is almost hot enough to shower in.)

2.  Spot the stain using your favorite spot remover (ie: Shout, OxyClean, etc.)

3.  Wash as normal.

4.  This is the step where the magic happens.  Instead of drying in the dryer, hang the stained clothes out in the sun to dry.  Make sure the stain is exposed to the direct rays of the sun.

5.   Once dry, look it over.  Poof!  The stain is gone!  Pure magic.

Oh!  That horrible stain!!!!!  (And fresh poop...)

This is what it looked like right out of the washing machine.  The stain is still a stain.

    After being dried in the sun for a few hours.  Stain gone!

I was curious if this trick would also work for dried and set in stains.  So, I took a stained outfit that had previously been washed and dried like normal.  I threw it in the wash again, but this time let it dry in the sun.  After it had dried outside for a few hours, I was surprised to see that the stain was mostly gone!  I think that you can only notice a slight discoloration if you look really, really close.

 Here is the onesie washed and dried like normal.  Notice the gross yellow stain?

After drying in the sun.  Where did that pesky stain go?

This tip has changed my life!!  Or at least my laundry.

August Cards

Wow, August was CRAZY!  I can't believe that I was actually able to keep up with this goal.  Sheesh!  

Here are the cards that kept me busy last month:

 This card was made for The Box of Sunshine I sent to one of my sisters.  You can read more about what went into that box here.

What do you do when your best friend has an adorable baby boy?  Why make her a card, of course!  I am so happy for her.  I wish that I could be there to kiss his little cheeks, but being in different states makes that kind of hard.  I guess a card will have to do.

Simple.  Edgy.  Birthday.  The End.

My husband's family wasn't able to get together to celebrate Father's Day until this month (yes, Father's Day was two months ago.)  So we made a big party out of it and celebrated his dad's birthday too!!

 I made this one for my wonderful mom.  She is addicted to everything purple, so that had to be included.  I love the rounded corners on this one.

 My husband and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary last month.  Best 6 years of my life!

We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), and we believe that marriage can be beyond "till death do you part."  I'd love to answer any questions you have about Mormon Temples and what we believe.  Or you can find more info here.

 Do you remember Homestar Runner?  My little brother and I use to love it!  We have this long running joke about one of the episodes.  If you want to be in on the joke, you can watch the short 4 minute episode here.  I probably think it's funnier then it really is... let me know what you think.

 A perfect card for my pirate loving nephew!  This card was fun to make because I was able to play with fire!  I slightly burned the edges of the paper to give it a fun and unique look.

 I love the simplicity of this card!  You don't need a lot of crazy cutouts and stamps to make a special card.  All you need is a few scraps of paper, and some letter stickers.  Easy!

Here is another simple thank you card.  My blade on my cutter is starting to dull, so I wasn't able to get the clean cut I wanted, but you use what you got, right?

Phew!  We made it!  Now on to September.

Box of Sunshine

It's raining here in Arizona today.  Which doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, watch out!  When it rains, it pours!  The monsoon season is one of my favorite things about Arizona.  Seriously, the lightning storms are incredible!!  We got so much rain last night that streets have literally turned into rivers, most major freeways are shut down, and they canceled school!  I've heard, it is the worst storm Arizona has ever gotten!  

So, on such a dark and dreary day, I wanted to share with you a little bit of sunshine.  This is a little thing I put together for my sister, who was going through a difficult time, and I thought she could use a little pick-me-up.  I call it my little Box of Sunshine.

This is seriously one of the easiest gifts to put together!  And I had a blast doing it, too!  Everywhere I went I would look out for things that were yellow that I could put into the box.  That's right, everything in the box was yellow, and only yellow.  Plus, I painted the inside yellow too, so when you open the box: BAM!!! all you see is yellow.  All you see is sunshine!

I used a pretty small box, so I wasn't able to fit a ton of stuff.  Here is what I included:

Honestly, I could have probably have sent a box four times bigger, and I wouldn't have had a problem finding yellow stuff to fill it.  Here are some more ideas to fill your own Box of Sunshine:

-  Wheat Thins

-  Teddy Grahams

-  Golden Oreos

-  Starbursts

-  Tissues

-  Juicy Fruit Gum

-  Finger Nail Polish

-  Potato Chips

-  M&M's

-  Yellow Loofah

-  Wet Wipes

-  Sticky Notes

-  Note pad/journal

-  Lemonade (or my favorite: Glaceau's vitamin water zero.  Delish!)

-  Lotion

-  Air Freshener

-  Soap

-  Lemon Heads

-  Crayons

-  Carmex

-  Car Air Fresheners

-  Subway Gift Card

I could go on for a while!  You'd be surprised at how many yellow things there are.

And, keeping up with my New Years resolution, I made a card to include in the box.

 Putting together this box made me so ridiculously happy!  It's amazing what happens when you look outside yourself and help others.  

 

Curtain Rod Photo Display

Have you ever had a project that never. seems. to. end!  I have been updating our bedroom decor for what feels like centuries.  It all started with a beautiful quilt that my sister made for me and my husband as a wedding present.  It had been sitting in a closet for years, and I really wanted to showcase it!  Unfortunately, nothing in my existing decor matched, so I had to start from square one.  It's been fun, but I am so happy to be getting to the end!  It's taken me so long to finish everything that I am probably going to want to switch things up again soon.  Ha!  Life and where you live it is a constant project.


This is actually one of my favorite projects that I have completed for our bedroom, and by far the cheapest.  All of the supplies that I used I found around our house.  I am a big believer in shopping for supplies from your own home.  We all have so many things lying around that we could transform into something useful.  All it takes is a little creativity!

This frame was originally one of those frames that has the multiple picture windows in the mat border.  I took out the mat and replaced it with some foam board  and mod podged some scrapbook paper onto it.  I am not fancy enough to have a Silhouette, or similar cutting machine, so each of these letters were cut out by hand!  Just using my boring old printer, and my trusty scissors.  It took some serious patience cutting each word out, but when you are too cheep to buy stickers... you gotta figure out another way.  I am such a cheap-o!

 These curtain rods were just lying around our house collecting dust, and my husband likes to "de-clutter" our house occasionally weekly.  So, it was either use them, or they were getting booted to the curb.  In the same box as the curtain rod, there were also some cheap plastic frames that were screaming to be used.  By simply attaching the frames to the curtain rod with a little ribbon, the drap-boring-old-rod was transformed into an incredible photo display!

I love it!  And it looks amazing above our beautiful quilt!  


Have you completed a project by using only supplies found at your own home?  Send me your photos!  I'd love to see some awesome creativity in action.

Thanks for stopping by!