History

The hubs and I have stumbled upon our 2nd wedding anniversary today. Where does the time run off too? 

Our history goes a little further back.

Some 'Under the Sea' action from the Central High senior prom '03. Yikes. We thought we were so grown up.

It's been a true adventure. I've learned so many lessons in love, communication and thinking outside of myself. I'm proud of the life we've built and can't wait to see what we can accomplish together in the future.

Put on your excited face. Many more years to come.

Weddings and Babies

There's no better excuse to get crafty. Weddings and birthing of babies are the fool proof events to light my fire. I think because they have a deadline attached with them. The first is a yarn wreath which I apologize for the lack of a 'how to' portion. It was constructed in the wee hours of the morning and the lighting at that time isn't ideal. Hence my hot glue gun burn. Not pretty. 

These are burp cloths turned fancy. If you gotta use something to catch puke, shouldn't it be cute? Just saying.

Wanna know how to do it? Go buy yourself these necessary items.

• Flannel fabric of your choosing
• Cloth diapers

Simple right? I don't do things too fancy. Just a little. Only enough to slightly amaze the less crafty minds.

Step Uno: Cut your fabric slightly larger then the diaper. Pin your cloth diaper to the right side of the fabric, or the side you want showing when it's completed. My cloth diapers had a 'nice side' to them so give yours a quick once over before you pin. Also, note the little gap on the bottom that I left open when pinning. You have to have a way to turn it inside out.

Step Dos: Give it a quick stitching all around the edges. Don't forget to leave a pocket open!

That picture makes it look like I sew in the pitch black. Ryan isn't that mean. I get a candle.

Step Tres: Turn that baby inside out, or right side out, whatever tickles your fancy.

Step Cuatro: Pin that opening closed. Give it a good ironing to make sure it lays the way you want. We are going to do a top stitch around the outside border. I used a quarter inch seam, but you can hug the edge as tight or loose as you please.

Isn't my ironing board cover cute? I catch myself smiling at it sometimes.

Step Cinco: This is where the fancy part comes in. Makes it look all professional like. Boggles those uncrafty minds. Sew down the back side stitching. Follow those pins.

Voila!

So much more fun then boring white right?

If you are of the less crafty population, did it blow your mind? Yeah, I thought so.

Neighborhood Etiquette

I'm going to let you guys in on a little neighborhood etiquette. Here are the makings of a bad neighbor.

1. Let your three homely dogs outside to bark for long periods of time.
2. Not shoveling your walks in a timely manner after a snow fall. 
3. House an unnatural number of cats. 

We have a winner of a neighbor that aces every item on that list. Don't let that pile deceive you. Any normal person might think, 'maybe you should lay off her because that could be 6 months worth of Tidy Cat revenue.' To this I would respond that no, in fact, that is a weekly occurrence. Go ahead and count them. Your skills aren't fooling you. There are 7 empty family size cat litter boxes and that's only the ones visible from the surface. This particular neighbor is plenty nice and normal in appearance minus her disregard for neighborhood etiquette. I'm thinking about approaching her to help with my next topic.

I have a well known fear for spiders. Terror might be a better description. I don't know if it's all the local flooding or what, but it seems like the spiders have been more prevalent this year. We haven't had any in the house, thank goodness, but the yard is completely off limits for me right now. I ventured into it though to check out this poor soul.

He was just hanging from a single nasty strand from one of our trees. I imagine something similar to this sealed his fate.

Maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but please have respect for how much anxiety I experienced from typing 'large creepy spider' into my Google Images search bar. The results were terrifying. I'm hoping I can talk the neighbor into letting out a small arsenal of her cat collection to fight off these unwanted visitors. I'm willing to have the blood of lost kittens on my conscious if it means I can walk into my back yard peacefully.

The List vs Life

One of my job perks, if you want to call it that, is cramming all of my 40+ hours into three night shifts per week. This allows me to have stretches free from work. A mini vacation of sorts. At the beginning of these work breaks, I always have a laundry list of the things I want to accomplish and yes, laundry is usually on there somewhere.

I'm a list maker and you're being let into my world here. This is my list and then my subsequent accomplishments.

Now that I'm headed back to the grind tomorrow, I'm wondering where all that time went and why that list only has 25% of its items crossed off. You can relate to this right?

I was having some little wine and froyo with my friend tonight when it dawned on me. Between the hubs and I, we spent some quality time with every immediate family member, as well as most of our friends, this weekend.  

From football games, art openings and family dinners to frisbee, wine drinking and even a tattoo parlor. We had a busy, busy weekend and I wouldn't trade a minute of it for one more accomplishment off that notecard. 

My family and friends are amazing. They ground me when my list gets out of control. I hope that I never overlook that. 

It's The Small Things

This summer was my virgin experience with gardening. I've tried my thumb at a couple geraniums in a pot or an occasional house plant, but I'm talking the real deal. Brushing knuckles with the grubs. 

Stick with me on this tangent. Have faith. It'll all come full circle in the end. 

Here's what our mailbox looked like. Kinda dingy and sad and trashy and... well let us just go with ugly.

So we erected this beauty. 

The hubs wasn't liking how stark white the ole post was. I tried to convince him that once the trim color on the house was white, the post would blend in beautifully. It's all about vision, but let's face it, some people have it and some people don't. 

Anyway, I'm all about marital harmony. My solution was to plant some sort of climbing something to cover up the vast whiteness. Through diligent research, I discovered a certain little plant called the 'mailbox clematis'. Perfect right? I hurried out to buy one and planted it with love. I imagined something similar to this in a few short weeks...

Wrong once again. I watered that baby and checked on it everyday to see how much further it had climbed. Disappointment every morning. I tried to help it by tying its tentacles in the fashion that I would like them to grow. No luck. I begged it for those flower showers shown above. Nothing.

Long story short. It grew eventually. Sort of. It's a little spotty in places. Then, the other day, I walked out to get the mail and...

Success! Makes a mother proud. 

DIY Canvas Art

Artwork is expensive. End of story. So of course I would love to pack my house with it. Expensive equals desirable. Right?

I got this idea from Pinterest. Easy-peasy.
Side note: Pinterest.com is my new favorite pastime. If you haven't discovered it yet, I'm sorry for you. Get with the program. 

1. Gather up these here supplies. The blog I got it from suggested spray paint, but I used the little $3 samples from Lowes. 

2. Get creative with some masking tape. I've never denied being a perfectionist. I redid my taping at least five times per canvas. Practice makes perfect.

3. Sorry about the poor picture quality on this one. My basement is a bit of a dungeon. I had to do three coats just to make sure it was evenly covered.

4. Ta-Da! Mantle artwork for under $20. Can't beat that deal.