instagram - happy little squares of our life ..

From the first time I found Instagram - I was in love.
Pictures of our lives in happy little retro squares; what's not to love?


well - I found something I don't love ...
In today's world of cellphone cameras, i-pads and computers; more often than not - our pictures live their lives forever on Facebook, a hard-drive, or SD card somewhere.


I wanted to be able to display our favorite little square pictures as well as change them out, periodically.  So, I decided to do something about it ... 

I pulled out a large 'glass-less' $2 thrift store frame from my storage and printed out way too many some instagram pictures.



I didn't like the original color of the frame, so I applied an 'espresso' stain and I couldn't be happier.
Ok - I could have been happier, had it not taken 2 days to fully 'cure.'  but .. whatever.



I stapled string to the back of the frame and attached the pictures with mini-clothespins I had bought specifically for this craft.  I hated the pins because they kept breaking, turning sideways and just pissing me off in general ... but I really loved how the craft turned out .. so it's all good!!

Where it hangs is directly underneath one of our many 'sunlights' in our house and it lights up the frame ever so nicely.   

I like it .. I like it, a lot.

I love you because ...

I won't lie; ever since making our  "_____ is awesome because.." boards - they've seen more than their fair share of ridiculous remarks.

"... because she doesn't pick her nose ... anymore."
"... because she screams when she sees Justin Bieber."
"... because she doesn't want to brush her hair.   Ever."
"... because she farted at dinner."

Haha - I know I probably cherish our sarcastic and smartass moments, a little too much.
Judge me all you want; it won't matter. 
I'll still be a smartass, tomorrow .. :)


"I love you, because ..." dry erase frames were on the agenda tonight and they were just as easy as the last ones.  
I revamped a picture frame, painting it and embellishing it with Washi Tape and a homemade button flower, replaced the glass, printed out a simple "I <3 you because ..."  and done.

for this 2nd frame all I did was cover the edges with 2 different types of washi tape 

it says 'you don't need batteries' because she spent hours playing with a toy we found at the thrift store, before she asked if we had batteries to see if it worked.

my kids rock and I must remind them why - a lot. :)

lost socks and drunken cork boards ...

Today was one of those stupid days.  

Within 20 minutes of waking up I'd decided I was going to do nothing productive. 
NOTHING.

I fell asleep early last night and somehow woke up late, this morning.
I woke up, scared from a strange dream that I couldn't remember.
I forgot to plug in my cell phone & it was an unhappy 94% dead.
My cinnamon rolls didn't turn out anywhere near as delicious as I had planned.
The teenager didn't complete her homework as she had promised.

It was very obvious that today was to be a day for crafts, the whole crafts and nothing but the crafts.   So help me crafts.

- home of the lost socks-

-we painted a thrift store wood plank
-we washi taped clothes pins

-we gorilla glued 'em onto the now avocado plank

-I created a 'LOST SOCKS' print out of alphabet letter art
-we embellished the sign with awesome metal flowers and brads from Pick Your Plum

-  DONE !

one happy little lost sock sign for our Laundry room

nobody wants to be alone

even if you are just a sock ...

 

-a drunken cork board-

this one's easy
.. drink a bunch of wine
keep the corks and glue them into a frame
decorate frame
DONE ! lol

but don't craft after the third glass of wine.
friends don't let friends drink and hot glue.

washi tape letter of love ..

This wooden 'K' followed us home, not all that long ago.
If you ask the G. man, though; you'd think we'd had the "K" since 2000.

He swears it's been around our house forever; but I clearly remember finding it after I'd fallen in love with washi tape. (.. I think??)

So I know it's only been here, taking up that valuable 8 inches of space for a month or THREE, at the MOST. (maybe 4)

We found the singular letter  out thrifting and it was a buck.
$1.
who says no to that ?
exactly.

So - I bought it and washi taped it up for our almost 17 year old. 

In fact, she liked my finished piece so much, she hung it up on her wall and told me I was 'cool.'     
COOL, guys!! 
I'll take it!

now to gather the other letters of our 'family alphabet..'

this posts made me reminisce on posts of the past ..
"letters of love ... and yarn."
and
"we'd like to buy a vowel."

do you celebrate the letters that make up your name ? :)

what's for dinner ..

how did that get in there?
 
didn't we just buy toilet paper?

are we there yet?

how could you forget?

where the Hell did I put that?!

what's for dinner?

some questions are just so much easier to answer than others ... :)

I printed a simple menu template
put it into a $ 0.50 thrift store frame
covered the frame in washi tape

glued on bananagram letters

done - cute, simple dry erase menu :)

if only thinking up dinner was so easy ...

washi'd up mini-notebooks

This week, the girls are earning cool points like nobody's business.

On top of all their schoolwork, soccer practices, book reports, and living life as an awesome kid; they've also managed to use Washi tape a few different times.
They even wrapped my Mother's Day presents in the sticky cuteness.
In and of itself; that isn't really a feat.
But, because of their crafty adventures - we've managed to begin to justify the $100 I recently blew on a Washi tape spending spree.

good girls.    good times.   good tape.    bad $100.

the Easter pretties

 super cute chicks and fluffy, little bunnies

toys and chocolate as far as you can see

family time and a hunt for colorful eggs .. 

who doesn't LOVE Easter!?!?!?

fine fine fine!

I KNOW the answer

"billions of people all over the world who aren't Christian"

fine !

I guess all that matters today is we do !!

I totally adore these shiny, happy bunnies !! 

they're too cute for words

&
 I waited until they were on "Easter's Over" clearance :)
I might adore 75% off even more than shiny, happy bunnies.

I had planned on 'cropping' this picture to be square around the bunnies;
but Senor Owl's photo bomb made me laugh...so I kept him. :)

click here for the high-quality print version of my 'oh hoppy day' print

 and of course .. I made Easter Subway art ..

a frozen desert ...

If the title of this post had ONE MORE S, we'd be discussing malt chocolate milkshakes and the magical power they hold inside their delicious frozen walls of cocoa.

Unfortunately my spelling is fine and I did, in fact, mean to put desert.

I'm not a stranger to the freezing cold but I could never be mistaken for a fan of the winter, either.

Our town hadn't even seen any snow since 2010, so most of us were pretty enamored with the winter wonderland bestowed upon us right before Christmas.

In the beginning, I didn't find it completely annoying.
It was even kinda charming on Christmas day.
Now it's 2 weeks into 2013 and I'm ready for the white stuff to be gone.

I much prefer sunrays and leaves over icicles and shivers.

our driveway ... what a difference 2 months can make.

I know the 'before/after' photographs of our seasonal driveway appear backwards; but I did it on purpose.  I am looking forward ... 

In 2013 I'm trying to focus more on the positive ... so I'm at least grateful for the fun we had and the beautiful pictures I got to take; even if my fingers almost fell off in the process.

Nugget got to play in his first snow fall and the girls bought their first sled.  They stayed out until their noses were cherry-red and Nugget was shivering through his fur.

Of course we still had to force them to come in ..

After playing in the snow with new sleds and taking pictures of the kids in a sea of the dreadful pretty powder; we also wanted to get crafty.  We decided to make birdfeeders since our winters in Moab aren't usually so cold that your face feels like it's gonna freeze off.

The girls didn't want anything to do with the project, leaving G. man and I to save the world one cold bird at a time. 

We found some stuff lying around the house  and crafted together a plan for feeding our feathered friends. Creating all three 'hangers' only took an hour and cost nothing, since we had everything 'laying around.'

bird feed hanger # 1 .. milk jug

G. man cut out the side panels of a milk jug. 
Poked a hole on each side of the jug, underneath the cut outs
placing the twigs through for a perch. Then, poked 

2 holes through the top and laced the twine to hang the feeder.

bird feed hanger #2 .. spaghetti holder + a plate

We glued an old saucer to the bottom of the spaghetti holder
then, we drilled two holes through the top (for twine, to hang) 

as well as two holes through the bottom. (for seed dispensing)

 

The milk jug and noodle holder were the 'original' bird feeder projects.

After hanging the 'originals' outside; G. man ran into the mud room, grabbed some firewood and threw together the third bird feeder in less time than it would have taken me to get my camera back out of it's bag.    

ssooo .. needless to say - I didn't get any pictures of the 'process' for this one.

bird feed hanger # 3 .. got wood?

G. man drilled 4 holes in the corners of the firewood,

looped some twine through the holes ..  done.

 He's so cool.

The birds love the feeders and we love the birds - so it's a win-win situation!

Now, to work on gettin' rid of the damn snow ...

love plaque ..

Every year, I hear friends  moaning and groaning about Valentine's day ..

'It isn't a real holiday'  .. 'you should do nice things all year'  ..

'it's just another stinkin' day'  .. 'blah blah I'm a Grumpy McStinkFace'

they're right .. we should be good to our one and only - all year. 

it could very well be a holiday made up by greeting card & candy companies 

but I still like using this 'stinkin' day' to do nice things for my fabulous G.

He looks past my 'snooze button' habit, calms my irrational fears and puts up with my brattiness in general.  Honestly he deserves an award for how good he is to me, everyday.    So .. he was gonna get one.

onto the craft ...

I wanted to use a 'text-heart' that I'd recently seen on Pinterest, for the 'base.'   At first, I toyed with the idea of putting one of 'our songs' inside the heart; but that seemed generic.  I wanted it to be nostalgic, personal, and cute.  So, I did something I hadn't done in a long time .. I wrote him a love letter.  : )

I printed and cut out my 'love note heart' then had to find something to 'mount' my project to.   Rummaging through my 'wood bits' produced these 70's plaques we bought almost 10 years ago.   

At first, I couldn't bear the thought of ruining them. But then, I reminded myself they hadn't seen the light of day in at least 5 years; so I felt better about the next step. 

I spray painted it, set it to dry and the hunt was on.  I had to find stuff from our life; things that represented us and our years together.

once I started searching, I had to cut myself off; I just found so many neat little items in our boxes.  I just didn't have room for it all ...

memorabilia I ended up using : 

our name tags .. a cook & a waitress; met, fell in love & built their life, together.

our first pictures together .. at some old, random Kmart photo booth 

Antiques Roadshow tickets .. we went & found out we had junk .. SO MUCH FUN ! 

UTA trax train tickets .. one of our favorite Salt Lake past times

membership from our 1st date .. yep - we went to a bar & had beers. judge us, not. :) 

a key from one of our many mailboxes

ant stickers .. I bought a BUNCH of these sticker packs forever ago.  we would plant them all over the house on things .. then, when we'd move - we'd always leave a few behind on walls lol

 plus other relevant scrapbooking embellishments 

I mod podged my paper elements onto the plaque and paced back and forth waited patiently for it to dry.  Then used hot glue and/or super glue for the '3D' materials.

I'm in love with how it turned out .. I'm in love with the 'love plaque' .. I'm in love with him all these years later

ok .. lol I have to admit that the moment I wrote 'love plaque' - I started mentally singing the B-52's love shack.
instead of love shack .. it was  love plaque.
"looovvee pllaaqquueee - thaaaat's where it's aaat. looovvee plaaaaaque.'   

TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN ROOOOF !

It took every ounce of restraint to not title this post a lyric of the song.

.. don't mind me - I digress.

*back on topic* I adore the love plaque.
and Gary ... both in ridiculous amounts.

I wonder what other people are doing for their favorite person in the whole world .. :)

  

decoupage for Grandma

This whole project started with a beat-up frame I thought was boring and one of those ugly lithographs of a pond and some trees.

'why would you have things you consider so heinous?', you might ask.

It's because I'm predictable and I always snatch up any of the $1-$3 picture frames that are 'save-worthy' at the local thrift store.

I removed the picture from the frame and my sweet G. painted it gold for me. Then I mod-podged some 'leathery' looking scrapbook paper onto the backboard; so later, when I wanted to use it - I'd have a 'blank canvas.'

Let me just say that in the beginning, painting it gold - sounded like a fab idea to me.

LoL but once it was gold .. I thought it was just 'too fakey shiney' to be used.