Cleaning and Organizing Day!

Well today started off with a goal of cleaning and decluttering some of those spots I just never get to. I have wanted to throw away stuff and make those spots look better for a while but just havent gotten around to it.

Here is a before of the buffet table in the dining room. It usually gets kids school papers thrown on it and coupons, after I go through the paper.

And here is the after!!! Much better!!!

The next project was to clean off was the kitchen island. It is the worst clutter spot in my whole house (ok, other than the first landing of the stairs, it always gets stuff thrown on it that needs to be carried upstairs). I wanted to throw stuff away and go through my black bill basket thing.

I accomplished it!!!! Look so nice now!

The next spot was my husbands area!!! I had asked him to clean it but if you want something done and done right you just have to do it yourself. His pool table always just gets everything thrown on it. (his work clothes and his work supplies)and it was dirty and covered in spices from his beef jerky making...

And here is the after!!! now he needs to make sure all the balls are there and put the side panel back on!

And last but needed it the most is his bar/beef jerky area!!! It had spices all over the place and needed dusted sooo bad! I scrubbed and scrubbed!!!

Now it looks a ton better!!! I am sooo glad this is done!!!! And I hope he appreciates it!!

I hope this makes you want to get up and clean!!! I know I always get inspired by others projects and clean houses!!!!!

I'm A Blingin Fool!

One of my favorite things to do is make kiddos birthday outfits!!! (you can see other examples in older posts) I usually make them with the number that the child is turning. Well I had a request to make a little girl a rhinestone cowgirl outfit! I had a ton of fun making this one!!! Today I am going to show you the onesie only but will post a picture of the full outfit very soon!!!

Here is the finished onesie with the cowgirl boot and personalized rhinestone J!!!

the pictures just aren't doing this applique justice but I got a good one of the bling upclose!

And one more picture!!!!
I hope you enjoyed this appliqued onesie, I know I had fun making it and think it turned out fabulous!!!

If you have any question please free to comment and I will answer them! Thank you! brooke

New Family Member!

Well today we did a whole lot of nothing! But we did get a new family member! We got a new puppy. She is a blue (gray really but blue is what they call the color) neopolitan mastiff. She is very sweet and we love her already. I am sooo excited that this time with this puppy, I will be home and can take care of her.

We have two other neopolitan mastiffs but they are outside dogs. They have the whole backyard, their own room in the garage, and a kennel area with two dog houses, so they have a good outside life! When my husband and I were both working full time jobs we had to put them outside so our house wasn't destroyed. Well now they are too used to it and have to stay out there but they still get love!!!

The new puppy doesn't have a name yet. We are waiting on the older kids to come home so they can help. We are leaning towards LAYLA... I will update everyone tomorrow on her name!

Week 3 of ME!!!

Hi everyone!!! I didn't get to post my week 3 of 52 weeks yesterday because I wanted to share Bella and I's crayon fun! Well this has been a huge hit at our house! My older kids came home from school and begged me all evening and all day today to let me make their own crayon. They chose their colors and peeled their crayons all by themselves (I could not peel another crayon!!!). It was such a good time. They were so excited for their crayons! We will be doing this again but with some different shapes and molds! Stay Tuned!

OK so week 3 of me... Friday was my birthday but I really don't think I have got much ME time this week. I still did my workout 4 days out of 5 (darn snow day got me) and today I had about 31 minutes, to be exact, to play DANCE CENTRAL, all by myself!!!! Yes you heard that correctly, just me. I didn't have kids begging me to let them play, or laughing at me, or staring at me...I felt so goofy but loved every minute of it!!!

I just cannot have a post without a picture so here is one of ME!!! Maybe it will help make this feel a little more personal!

Chunky Crayon Fun!

Hi everyone! Sorry I did not get around to posting yesterday! I was very busy with so many things! I finished my husbands resume and wrote his cover letter (We are not sure if he is taking over the family company or not so we wanted to have this done just in case!) I read a lot on couponing, on different blogs. (but I still don't know enough, any help is soooo appreciated!) I worked on bows and getting orders ready to ship out. (I haven't been out of the house to get to the post office, so i hope to do that today!) Then I tried to keep the house clean, the kids in order, and I fixed dinner. (I am not the one that cooks, that is my husbands job! but he worked late so I did it....)

OK enough of my day yesterday! Today is a NEW DAY!

Today Bella and I are going to make big colorful chunky round crayons!

OK the very first step is to find all your broken crayons and peel the paper off, this is the not so fun part...it took me a lot longer than I expected and by the end I was soooo tired of peeling paper!!!

ok now the first fun step, spray or coat the cupcake tin with vegteable oil. Now you can start sorting the crayons by colors (this will be a great preschool learning activity for her and a lot of fun!) We will be sorting them into cupcake tins.


Now you can place the cupcake tin full of crayons into a the oven. It needs to be preheated at 275 degrees F. Bake them for about 7-8 minutes but watch them because they will melt fast. When they looked melted enough, carefully and slowly remove them from the oven. You can stir them with a toothpick for a swirly look, or leave them as is. Let them cool completely (can be placed in the freezer to speed up process once the tin is not so hot.)





You can use mini cupcake tin or large, we used both!
There are other methods and things you can do to make these chunky crayons even more fun! Check out this link and see what all she has suggested! Click HERE!

Here is Bella having some crayon fun with her new homemade CHUNKY CRAYONS!!!