RSVP Book

While I still have a LONG way to go :(, I have continued to work on our wedding keepsake items. I still have a huge green bin the basement FULL of items, plus things on top of that! :( However, I did manage to get one more thing accomplished while the kids were at school the other day. :) I made a binder book with our RSVP cards (the ones we received back, anyway). I was out of cute stickers, so I just free-handed the same lettering with a pen and marker. Not my best, I know, but it works! :)

Organization/Menu Board

I'd seen these little buggars all over the Internet, and while there was something about nearly ever one of them that I adored and felt the need to have on my board, I knew that if I included everything I wanted, I may as well use up an entire wall. With that, I decided to cut it down to our grocery shopping list, weekly menu, and a to-do list. I ended up buying new cookie sheets, as we were needing another one anyway. Originally, I wanted a different look for the design, but ad I was in a hurry and frustrated, I ended up buying this orange wrapping paper. I found a magnetic pencil cup in the school supplies section, and decided to go with green. The frames were previously purchased at Dollar General. I made the templates on Publisher I asked Jim to wrap the cookie sheet, as he is amazing with wrapping items beautifully. While he did that, I ripped off the props on the back of the frames, and DS-taped magnet strips onto the backs of them. I also bought magnet dry-erase markers. Jim screwed the sheet onto the inside of the door, and bam! It cleared up a bit of space off the fridge, and the kids like to see what's for dinner every night (and I like that they don't ask me every 30 minutes once home from school!), and it's helpful to plan ahead on what to take out of the freezer the night before or that morning. :)

Halloween Is Just Around the Corner!

So, you remember my cute, sweet stepdaughter? Well, she decided last year that she wanted to be a zombie for Halloween this year. Actually, she wanted to the year before, but she wasn't able to since it wasn't our year with the kids for Halloween. So, I promised her I wouldn't let her down. I'd found a super cheap skull cheerleader outfit at K-Mart around X-Mas last year. It was off the hanger and without any tags, so it was dirt cheap. She was with me at the store and was super excited with my idea; a zombie cheerleader! I had a black long-sleeve shirt that had shrunk, but we haven't found it. May have ended up in the donation pile?! Anyway, I grabbed a black and gray-striped long sleeve shirt and we tried it on the other night. The top is cropped, and we get cold here in Omaahaw during October evenings. Last year, Jim and I were at Nobbies after the season (though I don't recall why), and I'd found these blood-splattered leggings and a spiked ring. Perfect! After getting her from school, we ran to DG to return some items, and they had Halloween makeup out! She was so excited, she wouldn't let go of it until we were in the bathroom at home and putting it on! I may use some fake blood on the night-of, but this is the general idea. She actually managed to scare the hell out of her brother when the boys got home from football. Haha! Oh, and I didn't need to give her any coaching on her "look." I grabbed my phone for a picture, and she was doing this all on her own. :) All we need now are the pom poms, which we plan on making.

Finally Decorated Our "Barf Bag" Container :)

Not perfect, but it worked just fine.

So, I'd already had an empty cleaning wipes container full of bags in my car, as AJ tends to get car sick, especially on long car rides. I had wanted to decorate it, but just kept forgetting to take it back out of my car. Well, I finally did it with some of the leftover scrapbook paper from Oscar's shadow box! Double-sided tape, and badda bing! :) I hadn't nicely rolled the bags before...they were just shoved in there. Now they're rolled and I have twice as many bags. Done. Next!
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Oscar's Shadow Box

Before framing

I finally did Oscar's shadow box. I wanted to find wider paper, like wrapping paper, but I wasn't able to, so I used scrapbooking paper and just stapled them down to fit. I place his collar and favorite toy with pins, glued three pictures in, cut a piece from his blanket and stapled that, Velcro to the water bottle, which had been his last drink at the vet :(, and Gorilla Glued his paw print. It now proudly hangs in our living room. We did have to squish the water bottle, as it was too fat to fit in the frame. My mom is going to help make his blanket into a pillow for Jim. The scrap I used for this was already falling off, so Jim said it was okay to cut it off. His items still carry his smell, and Sam kept sniffing. :( 

Finally Done With Our Cards Project!!!

Ever since I collected our wedding and shower cards, I knew I wanted to do something other than keep them in a box, which, unfortunately, all of our other wedding memorabilia remains...for now. :) I found some inspiration on Pinterest, and pinned it for later. I had a difficult time finding the binder rings, but I finally saw them while school supply shopping last week, so I jumped on the opportunity. I used card stock that we'd had for possible use with our many wedding paper creations... :) I also had some scrap booking stickers in the basement, so I just used those. I made two books, one for the showers, one for the wedding. I used one of our "J"' squares I'd made to use on our invitations go the wedding cards book. So far, I love them! The wedding cards book is quite full, so I hope that it doesn't rip cards. I used a 3-hole punch and just did one at a time. It was pretty simple. :)

Clutter Jail

I'd seen a few ideas regarding "grounding" items left out of place in a Mommy Ransom-type of box on Pinterest. I liked the Clutter Jail decal I'd found, so I went with that. I made up my own "jobs" on the computer and printed them on leftover shimmery cardstock from our wedding. I also used leftover pink shimmery envelopes from our wedding, double-sided taped those onto one side of the box, as well as the decal on the other side. The envelopes kept getting pulled and wouldn't stay shit, so I used velcro that I had for another project, and that worked really well. This bin had been holding toy cars and tracks, which hadn't been touched for at least two years, so those went buh bye in the garage sale. :) I'd actually originally had one envelope on top with the jobs, but some of them can't be repeated right away, so we made one for jobs yet to be done, hence the "All That Remains," for you metal heads out there :), and "Good Riddance" for the ones completed, which I would assume everyone knows that song. :) So far, it's been working really well. We've been using it for a while, now. Our rules with it are: 

• If we have to tell the kids more than three times to put something away, it's in Clutter Jail. 
• If something is left out before they go to bed (including in their rooms and not put where it belongs), it's in Clutter Jail. 
• One "job" per item. If there are three items, three "jobs" must be completed before getting the item out of Clutter Jail. 
• "Jobs" may not be traded. They must complete what THEY pulled. Period. 
• If the item has been in Clutter Jail for more than one week, the item will either be tossed, sold, or donated. With this rule, since the kids go to each house for a week at a time, it would essentially be two weeks, unless it's on our trade-off days, which would be exactly one week. So if it went in on Tuesday, we would wait until the NEXT TUESDAY that they were back here before we pulled it. Get it? :)

I would be happy to share the "jobs" we came up with if asked. Just let me know! I didn't like many of them that I'd found, so we racked our brains to come up with things that the kids don't normally do as "jobs" (we call them jobs instead of chores). Some are physical, some are educational, some are funny, and some really would suck if I had to do it. Bottom line, pick up your shit. :) Problem solved. lol They really do like it, though. 

  

Enjoy! 

Damn You Both!!! ;)

Well, I finally talked my mother into getting tested for MTHFR. We'd found out that her side of the family carries the FVL gene that I have soon after my diagnosis in 2006, but with my recent diagnosis of MTHFR, I was curious on whom to blame. :) I assumed that it ran in her side of the family, as well. Well, I was 50% correct....she has one of the genes. Now, remember that I am compound heterozygous? That means that I had to have received the other gene from my father....so I plan on letting him know what's up soon. I also have some half-siblings on his side that should be aware, as well. It's not a HUGE deal to have one vs. the other, but for me, having the compound heterozygous is dangerous enough, coupled with my FVL is a tragedy waiting to happen, not to mention my history of clots in my young adulthood. We will see how this goes. I had sent a Dr. a message on a forum regarding an inquiry on MTHFR genetics, and I was given this awesome link. :) Enjoy!
http://www.heartfixer.com/AMRI-Nutrigenomics.htm#CBS:%C2%A0%20Cystathionine%20Beta%20Synthase
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Inside The Cabinet..

I'd seen these on Pinterest, and with our cabinets already crowded WITHOUT a baby in the house yet, I've been desperate to get this one done. PLUS, it's less crashing in the cabinets when searching for something! Jim bought some work and extra long screws, and added some L-brackets. BAM! He says he wants to sand it down, so I may end up staining it one of these days when he does that while it's off. I love it! It holds two cutting boards, a glass recipe book cover (that we never use. ha), a cooling rack, AND a rolling pin...with more room left! Just need to stop slamming the door now. :)

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Resurfacing AJ's Desk and Trash Can

So, we'd bought AJ a loft bed a while back, since she'd outgrown her hand-me-down daybed. The desk part of it was disgusting. We tried vinegar, bleach, stripping the coating, sanding...NOTHING took the grossness off, plus it became sticky in some spots. :( I told her that I'd try to fix it. I'd found a bunch of ideas online, including painting it, using contact paper, shelf liner. She wants a pink and black zebra room when we get the third bedroom built and she moves into the bigger room, so I tried to find that. Her and I went shopping for days, I spent hours and hours online, and I came up with nothing. We were getting ready to have a garage sale, and her Dora trash can that she's had since she was 2 was one of the hot items. :) I thought, why not try to turn that into zebra print and save some money? One day, I was at Target (shocker!), and I ran into pink and black zebra duct tape. I thought, why not?  Jim and I did her trash can, which was interesting, as it kept bubbling and creasing, but you can't tell unless you're holding it up to your nose. She really liked that, even though her zebra print part will be black and white with pink accents. This was the closest I could find. Then I thought, what if I try it on her desk? I ended up needed to buy another roll, but it worked really well! You can tell along the edges, as the tape was VERY hard to cut straight, but she really likes it. It's not quite even on the back on the bottom shelf, but she said she didn't care, and that she loved it. She'd had a regular computer chair that came with the bed, but it was falling apart. I was planning on reupholstering it, but during the garage sale, my mom and I were shopping on Craigslist :), haha...and found a zebra saucer chair to replace her princess chair that had ripped so we sold it. My mom went out and got it for her, and the lady threw in this cute little chair with it, and AJ LOVES it, even though it doesn't roll or have armrests. lol :) 

Before.....

 

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