Can't Wait!!

I'm so excited to share what this cute fence...

Source: positivelysplendid.com via Stevie on Pinterest

Has in common with these two pictures...

Oh - yeah - that's me using a power sander!!  Just an every day thing you know!!

I am using the final result on Wednesday for a party in the teacher's lounge at my kids' school.

Stay tuned!!

Granbury, TX Subway Art

I wanted to share a really fun project that I finished...actually last weekend.  Whoops!  It's taken me a bit to get it posted!  I haven't even been able to find time to download the pictures until just now!  Yikes!  Anyway, back in the post where I showed you the fun present I made my mom for her birthday, I mentioned that I had a fun idea for my mother-in-law's birthday present.  Well, her birthday was actually in March when we were in Branson for spring break.  She lives in a small town called Granbury which is about an hour and a half west of us.  So we didn't get to see her and give her the present until last weekend. 

Granbury is a cute little town - it has an adorable town square that surrounds the county courthouse.  It has tons of cute gift, antique, clothing, food and specialty shops.  There is a lake and golf course and all kinds of fun things to do.  It's just a very charming and quiet little town that attracts many different types of visitors.  My in-laws built a house in the country with a lot of land.  For a while they had horses and there is always a dog or two and varying numbers of cats.  You can only imagine how much my kids love to go and visit there.  Lots of room for them to run around and explore.  We love to go out there - especially around holiday time like Christmas when everything is lit up with beautiful lights. 

For a while now I've loved all of the subway art that you see everywhere and wanted to try my hand at it.  I got the idea to do a Granbury subway art wall hanging for my mother in-law's birthday.  It took the help of my husband and mostly my father in-law to come up with all of the Granbury words.  There are places that they go to often to eat or shop, names of all the horses they've had throughout the years (I didn't have room for all the dogs and cats names too), and other memorable things that pertain to Granbury.  My mother in-law had actually given me a wall hanging that she had tried to sell in her booth at a shop in the town square.  It had a couple of slight imperfections and everyone had passed on it so she told me to use it for whatever I wanted.  I painted it and then used my Silhouette Cameo software and cutting machine to make the vinyl lettering.

I ordered the vinyl from Expressions Vinyl.  I've looked at their shop so many times - their stuff is so beautiful.  They have tons of sizes and types and colors.  So I was excited to finally have something that I needed to order so I could try them out.  Within a couple of hours of placing my order, I had an email saying it had shipped.  I couldn't believe how fast they were.  I was shocked a couple of days later when I pulled up to my house and their was a tube waiting for me in the mailbox - it was my vinyl!  So fast!  And the quality of the vinyl was superb!  I couldn't have been more happy and suggest you try them as well!  I've since ordered their dry erase vinyl and their t-shirt vinyl with the same fast shipping service.  I haven't tried them out yet but expect I'll be just as pleased!

Subway art is not easy.  It didn't come out as perfectly as I would have liked.  The wording at the bottom was supposed to go all the way across to make it balanced but because of some glitches along the way, that was the most I could get out of the vinyl I had left without going and getting more so it had to do.  Other little things here and there where I messed up bother me - but no one else notices so I don't point it out!! 

All in all, it turned out really cute and I'm happy with it.  Most importantly, I think my mother in-law really liked it and that's what counts with a gift, right?

One Of Those Weeks

This has been SUCH a busy week.  I haven't been able to get anything done in the way of blogging or crafting - boo.  I've been running errands to get Easter clothes and shoes, getting my hair done, stuff around the house...oh and some work in between!  And then there was Tuesday...TORNADO DAY.  Luckily, the area I live in wasn't affected besides having all the schools on lock down, scaring a lot of people and getting my completely soaking wet by the time I finally made it home from picking up kids.  We got lucky - there are a lot of people without homes or parts of their homes. 

My kids are all off school tomorrow so I've already told them that I have a project that I HAVE to finish tomorrow and that they're going to HAVE to play outside all day while I work on it in the garage!  They're fine with that!  Hopefully I'll have that posted soon!!

What Craft Season Are You In?

Crafting wise, I'm always way ahead of what the actual holiday/season/event is currently.  For example, I started thinking about Fourth of July the other day!  I'm already way over Easter craft wise - so much so that the other day I realized I actually needed to make some Easter plans and get the kids some clothes and stuff.   Not good!!

I got really excited yesterday when Expressions Vinyl had a coupon code for 30% off so that I could order some stuff to make 4th of July t-shirts.  I got some of the flocked t-shirt vinyl.  I can't wait to try it out! 

I love Expressions Vinyl.  I placed an order for some vinyl through them a couple of weeks ago and was blown away by how fast they had my order in the mail to me after I ordered.  No difference in the order I placed yesterday.  It's already on it's way to me!  I'd better figure out what my t-shirts are going to look like!

I also got some dry erase vinyl.  I think I'm going to use it to make chore charts for my kids.  They've been begging for me to make them some but I just have a mental block when I go to get started.  I'm going to have to do some Pinterest research on that one. 


Any good chore chart ideas?  How far ahead do you craft?

Felt Ruffle Spring Wreath

Do you love spring?  I have a love hate relationship with spring.  I love the weather. I love the Easter (and even Lent) season and the services it brings at church.  I hate hate hate the allergies spring brings.  It's a miserable time of year health wise for me.  Spring also means summer is coming.  While I love the lazy summer days and the time I get to spend with my kids...I live in Texas so it's just unbearably hot and all spring I can't help but have that feeling of dread that the HEAT and BATHING SUITS are so very close.

Now, one thing I've noticed about spring (and summer) is that it doesn't inspired me to decorate my home in any special way.  September 1st hits and I'm pulling out the fall decorations and going to town crafting and prettying up the house and this lasts through winter.  But once spring hits, the house just gets boring and stays boring until September!  So with my new love of drafting, I'm trying to pretty up the house for spring.

I knew just what I wanted for the door.  I had so much fun doing my felt ruffle wreath for Valentine's Day and knew I wanted to do it again for spring.  I went out and bought tons of pretty colors of felt.  I made this wreath just like I did when I made my Valentine's Day Wreath post.

I also found and an "M" and knew that needed to be on the wreath. I had some pretty spring fabric so I Mod Podged the fabric onto the initial and added that to the middle.

 I love, love, love the way this wreath turned out! I've been so excited to share it on the Spring Link Party!!

I'm linking up at the Spring Fling Link Party as well as all the parties you see in my sidebar!!

Jazzercise and Party Planning

I went to Jazzercise tonight for the first time in a while.  Between Spring Break, sick kids, meetings and well, just life, it's been a while since I've gotten to go.  Jazzercise is the ONLY exercise I've ever liked doing.  It's very hard to fit in to my life, despite the many class times they offer, so I try to go when I can and enjoy it.  It relieves all of my stress and it clears my mind.  So tonight while I was dancing, I was thinking about my blog and had an *aha* moment - remember Oprah's aha moments?  It hasn't been that long since she's been gone.

Anyway, I realized that all I blog about is my crafting.  Which is the main reason for this blog, but, there are other things in my life!!

For example, I find myself all of a sudden in the role of party planner.  I'm planning a First Communion party for my daughter which is coming up in May.  This will be a BIG deal and I want it to be very special and memorable for her.  I've been scouring Pinterest for ideas on decorations and food. I'm going to make my own version of this to be the backdrop to the food table.

Source: positivelysplendid.com via Stevie on Pinterest

Uh oh...back to crafting again. Oh well - can't escape it. Isn't it gorgeous though?  Mine is going to be yellow.  And I'm not doing the chalkboard part of it.  But I am doing the flowers.

Anyway, since I'm making a lot of cute stuff for that party, when the opportunity came up to help out with throwing a popcorn and candy party in the teacher's lounge for Teacher Appreciation Week in late April, I decided to sign up for it since I could use some of the same stuff and get more use out of it. Check this fun idea out!

Source: parents.com via Stevie on Pinterest

How fun will that be in the teacher's lounge? Mine won't be quite that big but still fun!

Oh yeah, and I'm planning a party in June for my dad that about 700 people are invited to - YES, 700!!  Not that many will come - but that is how many are invited.  Luckily there is a limit to how many people we can have in the facility where we're holding this event so there won't be 700...but there could be as many as 300.  My dad is an ordained deacon in the Catholic Church and this June is the 25th anniversary of his ordination so it's a BIG celebration!

So with all of that going on you can see why I get a little stressed and need to go to Jazzercise once in a while!  I probably need to go a lot more often than once in a while!  We do what we can right??

So now I'm off to get the kids to bed and crawl into my own bed to watch Dancing With the Stars.  My favs are Melissa Gilbert - because who could not love Laura Ingalls - and Max and Cheryl Burke because she's the spokesperson for Jazzercise and it doesn't hurt that her partner this season, William Levy, is mighty easy on the eyes!!  Maybe I'll do a post soon on my favorite television shows.  You might be surprised at some of the things I watch - especially what I watch on a nightly basis to help me go to sleep!  You'll know what a dork I am for sure then!

Spring Planters and Peeps Crafts

I was sick yesterday :(  Head hurt, throat hurt, runny nose - general allergy yuckiness.  On top of that, I had, well, girl stuff going on.  Not a good combo.  So I didn't do this post which I wanted to have done early so I could try to link up to the Spring Craft Link Party.  Boo hoo!  As I start this post, there are already 269 people linked up!!  Oh well - the show must go on!

I wanted show how I did the two crafts I made for my spring mantel.  First up is the  Peeps Planter.  I bought the green planter at Hobby Lobby for 50% off!  I wanted something on the front to dress it up and I quickly thought of the metallic contact paper that my mom found in a bunch of stuff she was going through from my grandmother's house (she passed away last year).  I had been holding on to it until the perfect time. 

So I got out my bestest best friend Cameo and cut out an "M" for our last name.

And put it on!  I still have tons more and am waiting for something really cool to do with it!

Now, it looks pretty shiny in this picture because of the flash from the camera - but I was kind of disappointed because in real life, just on a shelf, it doesn't show up that great.  Oh well, I'll change it one of these days when I order some pretty vinyl from Expressions Vinyl. 

I bought some plastic grass from Hobby Lobby - actually, I bought it for something else but it ended up not working for that project and working perfectly for this one!  Don't you love it when that happens?

So I put in some green Styrofoam and started sticking the grass in there.  Then I bought some peeps - they are SO cute - and stuck them on dowel rods and into the foam they went! 

Then I took some fabric and made a flower with my bestest best friend Cameo and the fabric interfacing I just got! 

I just love the way it turned out!

I also made the egg shaped topiaries.  I found the styrofoam eggs at Michael's for half off one day a while ago and grabbed them.  I wrapped them in some pretty pink yarn and stuck them on dowel rods.  Then I TRIED to do this Elmer's glue crackle paint trick that I ran across for the flower pots...but it didn't really work well for me.  I think the reason it didn't work is because I only used one color.  That is the only thing I can come up with - especially after I watched this video yesterday.  It reconfirmed that I think I needed to do two colors to make the effect really come across.  Because...well, mine really don't look crackled at all. 

But I love the yellow and pink.  A little girl that I teach was wearing yellow and pink the other day and I thought to myself how much I wanted to make something yellow and pink.  Strange where you can find inspiration!  I decided to use some green yarn for the grass and just laid it on top of the Styrofoam! 

Well, that's it for now!  I can't wait to share my spring wreath next week!  The link party is up to 275 now so I'd better hit publish and get it posted!!  Go visit there - TONS of great ideas!!