Too Cute Not to "TooT"

So, with the changes to the Linky Parties last week, I started digging a little earlier this week to find some awesome ideas to show off to all of you :-)  Some of these will be the last of the Valentine Day ideas so write them down and save them for next year!

Over at Living Life Crafty is a great idea to use up all of those nasty conversation hearts your kids got at Valentines (hahaha)  Actually, this really is cute and would also make a great centerpiece at a Valentine's/Couples banquet or even a bridal shower anytime of year. If you know you have to throw this year - pick up some bags of Conversation hearts at the Dollar Store and there ya go!!

I thought that this decorating idea from Krafty Kat was a really cute idea and super inexpensive too.  I am tucking this one away for next year.  We actually just had Pepsi in glass bottles for Valentine's day so I just saved the bottles and am ready to go!

The Brassy Apple shows off another way to make neat "trees" for the Love Holiday.  The Styrofoam trees come around for every holiday but I'm always amazed by the different ideas that people come up with to make them look festive.  This is another idea I've stored away to make before next February.  I can see my little V-Day decor starting to come alive for the future!

Here's a freebie for you from She Wears Flowers.  It is an awesome printable based on the traditional "Eye Chart".  I'll be printing this one and framing it for future use. 

This is a great idea!!  Nifty Thrifty Things gives a great tutorial for making this awesome basket out of newspaper.  I used to make those rafia baskets around a brown paper bag and this reminds me of that!  I get a paper every single Sunday so I might have to save the next one and try my hand at this basket.

Are you ready for some Easter Ideas?  I saw this posted over at Craftomaniac and thought it was super cute.  There is no time like the present to start getting your spring on :-)

Paisley Passions, a blog I recently "found" gives a really easy, cute tutorial for making a menu board.  I love the creativity and the fact that it is different.  I am trying to figure out how to incorporate this into my kitchen up-do I'm getting started on . . .so you may see a version of this sometime soon!

 This Jewelry Organizer from I Heart Organizing is so awesome!  This is another item I've searched for and have come up empty but this would look cute on my wall and help me see what jewelry I have to wear!

I saw this idea on several blogs, and all linked back to Martha Stewart.com  It would be a great craft project for next February :-)

And the last one for this week comes from Just Another Hang Up.  She gives a simple tutorial for making Owl Heating Pads for kids.  This is a great idea!!

I've heard about making fabric shapes, numbers, and letters and finally found a tutorial over at Learn and Go.  I always like to see how others make a project even when I know in my head it can't be that hard.  It helps my creativity and my confidence.  My 2 year old knows his alphabet but we need to work more on numbers so I might have to pick up some fabric and whip these together!!

She also gives a cute idea for making a  Sewing Machine Cover which you can see here.  My boys love to touch all the little knobs and switches on mine so a cover would be a good thing!!

So many wonderful ideas out there!!  I have been busy planning Valentines Day and Birthday Ideas so I've taken a break from my normal crafting.  Hoping to get back to it within another week :-)

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentines Day to my Sweetie!!!

My Best Friend.

My Husband, who is the one who makes my dreams come true :-)

And, of Course, Happy Valentines Days to my little Family !!

What isn't there to love about a day about love??

Chocolate, Roses, sweet treats and surprises?

Sneaking little Valentines to show how much you care?

It's the day you are allowed to eat your weight in chocolate and not feel bad and take time to show all your sweeties how much you care!

Looking forward to a fun day with the two little loves in my life and lots of family time tonight! 

We have chocolate, Strawberries, and pink lemonade in our future LOL



Weekly Challenge - Recipe Binder

This week, the challenge given by Toni over at A Bowl Full of Lemons is to create a Recipe Binder.  I was kind of excited about this challenge (she had indicated that this would be one eventually) because I've noticed that my current methods are not working as well as they used too.

First, this is my main storage center for all of the recipes that we use . . .and don't use. . .often.

Yes, that is a Rolodex and do you have any idea how hard it is to find one due to the computer age that we live in?  Not to mention the cards and protective sleeves!  Anyway, I read this idea a good 6 years ago or so in an organization book.  It really is an awesome idea.  It keeps them neatly in one spot and it is easy to search for recipes by category.  So what's the problem?  I've discovered that more and more I'm using recipes from Allrecipes.com or from blogs so not only am I printing them, than I have to find time to retype them onto the same cards and sometimes shrink them so small they are hard to read.  So what happens with all of those other recipes?  They sit here and wait to be typed . ..

Tons of them - stuffed loosely in a file door and that skinny black blinder has recipes in it too!  Not a very organized system anymore.  Oh, and don't forget the "recipe" cupboard either!

Crazy isn't it?  The idea of just punching holes in 8 1/2 x 11 paper and sticking it in a nice binder sounds like SUCH a better idea to me!  I've decided that redoing all of my recipes RIGHT now is out of the question.  Instead, as I use them, I will just reprint them onto regular paper and add them to the binder.  Eventually, the recipes that we never use will be the ones left in the Rolodex and will get discarded due to lack of use! 

This week I need to get a good sized white binder with a front "window" so I can slide the adorable cover sheet that Toni has provided in her post.  Also, I need to get some dividers for it as well and some good post-it tabs.  Hopefully I can get to the store on Tuesday and get the supplies I need so I can show it off later this week!

Oh and a side note on this challenge -- as I'm getting ready to start doing a minor re-do in my kitchen, I wanted to clean out each and every cupboard and make them more user friendly so I will be starting with this cabinet this week - it will be completely cleared out and reorganized . . maybe with the same stuff maybe not.  If I'm really good - it will be painted by the end of the week too but we'll see if I can get that far since I also need to do a bunch of touch up paint in the bathroom too!

Are you up for the challenge?  If so link up over at A Bowl Full of Lemons and Join the fun!





Creative Memories Spotlight

It is time for something new!  Each week I plan on sharing with you some of my favorite Creative Memory Products.  Don't worry, for all that are "non-scrapbookers" there are plenty of other things to look at and use too!  This week, I'm going to start with one of those very items and one of my surprise favorites.

Magnetic Everyday Display



For me, this was one of those items that I saw in the catalog when it first came out and loved but was unsure of how to use!  Than I got one as a gift for a baby shower and fell in love with it.  I actually have two of them in my home - one in each of the boys rooms and I use them like this:

 Each month I order pictures for my father in law and I also update the boards in the boys room with our favorite pictures

I use one of the clips that are included to hang a Detroit Tigers hat that we purchased for Josh before he was born.

The boards come in three colors. The white shown above; black and brown (shown below)  Each board comes with 6 magnets, 6 clothespins and a ribbon and hanging medallion that matches the color of the board.  The board can also be hung without the ribbon as I have shown in the pictures from my boys' rooms.  They frame measures 18 x18 with the mat on the inside measuring 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches.

 

The boards make fantastic gifts for baby showers, weddings, graduations and Christmas.  I gave my mom one a few years ago and she uses hers to display the latest pictures of the grand kids as well.  For those of you who are avid digital scrapbookers - you can create a 12 x12 page each month of your favorite photos and send one to each grandparent to put on their board; they would than have that page to slip into a picfolio album and, at the end of the year, have a reminder of all of those favorite memories throughout the past year!  What great gift ideas :-)

The cost for each board is $52.00 and it is more than worth the cost. 

February Special

There are several specials going on during the month of February and 2 of the items are perfect matches for the Display Boards.

The Baby Boy Display Accents which retails normally for $18.00 and is on sale for this month only for $10.80.

AND

The Baby Girl Display Accents which also normally retails for $18.00 but is on sale for this month only for $10.80.

And, of course, you can use both of the above items for your regular scrapbooking even if you don't have the display board.  It would be a great way to pick up some themed items for all of you new moms to use in your scrapbooks for a fraction of the normal price. 

For other sale items during the month of February check out this Flyer:

February Product Specials

And feel free to check out my NEW website for other specials and clearance items.  Now it is so much easier to order - just go right to my site and order there!  Please contact me with questions.

My Website!

If you have questions feel free to ask!

Happenings in the House

This week, my cat Misty immediately took over the new basket I put in our launch pad area.  She fits perfectly in the basket, doesn't she?

We made some Valentines for each other this week.  It was Nate's first time to color and yes, he likes to eat the crayons.  

 We had a little water issue this week - I moved a humidifier from the boys room to the living room and it over flowed not once, not twice, but three time.  It has now been moved to the garbage.  But there is more to this picture.  Notice ALL the empty squares.  I had a helper (I only moved the one basket that needed moved) My helper moved all of the baskets . . . . .

 to the kitchen.

 where he proceeded to play for hours.  Than, he put all of the things back in the baskets (like things together, of course) and moved them back to the bin :-)  Such a good helper he is!

 And than on Friday night we gave out "Heart Attacks" which were actually FUN!  I had cut out a bunch of hearts and we each made some to stick on a door assigned to each person.  (Somehow I ended with the bathroom door . . I wonder what that means?)

 Nate colored one for each of us (aka known as "No pants Nate")

 Josh made one for Nate (learning to share crayons is REALLY hard)

 But he was more interested in the scissors.  (Don't worry, they aren't sharp - they are decorative so it would take a lot to cut anything, including the paper!)

And here is one of the doors!  I look forward to this getting to be a bigger activity that lasts for weeks in February as the boys get older.  We can all sneak hearts on each others door through the weeks leading up to Valentines :-)

That's how our week went!  It seemed to be a busier week and I didn't get quite as many every day pictures but some weeks are like that, aren't they?  

Savings Angel

 I think this is week three with Savings Angel and I was pretty happy with how I did overall.  There are two other pictures at the end of this post that show things a little more up close.  So, my Savings Angel total would have been $116.84 if I would have paid full price for those items but I only paid $61.39 saving me $55.05.  I was really hoping to get to at least half and thought I had done better but I noticed that several of my MPerks coupons did not come off my total and they should have - I'll have to watch that better in the future.  A couple of HUGE savings were Cat Treats which I got both for free and the Jell-O Puddings.  I purchased 8 packages of Jell-O Puddings which would have cost $23.12 but only cost me $8.00.  They were on sale for 2/$5 and I had two one dollar coupons off of 2 packages plus for every regular pudding you bought, you got a new "deluxe" kind for free.  We'll be eating Jell-O pudding for snack at night for awhile :-)  I did check expiration dates and they are good until April so we are fine :-)  So, I'm still learning this process and am hoping to continue to get better.  I'm slowly starting to stock up on some things which is also helping.  Next week, I'm planning to check out Walgreens through Savings Angel and try to pull $20.00 from my budget to put towards shopping there as I know you can get some fantastic deals there too!

Show Us Your Life - Beauty Secrets

It is time for Show us Your Life Friday's over at Kellys Korner.  This weeks theme is Beauty Secrets.  I'm really interested to see what other people post!!  I have a few little things I'll share but I don't have anything major!

1) My favorite all time body lotion I just discovered recently.  It is this:

I had this up in my cupboard from a baby shower for one of my boys but didn't really want them smelling like Lavender (yes, I'm one of those moms).  Well, in desperation due to dry skin, I tried it and fell in love with it.  In less than 24 hours of the first use, my skin was so soft and not dry anymore!!  I recently shared this in one of my "What I'm Loving, Wednesday" posts I love it so much.

2) I am a Merle Norman Fan!

I was introduced to their makeup when I was about 16 years old and have always returned to their stuff.  A few times, when money was tight, I would try different, less expensive items, and always have returned to their products.  I love their lip pencils without a doubt!!  Their eye shadows do not crease and their skin products really do work great!  Every year or so I try to go in for a free makeup update to check out the new colors and products. 

That's all I have :-)  I would love to get manicure's and pedicures every few weeks because I think that well kept nails always make you  feel better about yourself but with two little boys trying to find time to do my own (when little interested fingers won't add finger prints in them . .. ) doesn't fit in well and paying for that is not in the budget!

Looking forward to seeing what others post!