That to This

For one reason or another the hubbs has to have a coffee table in the living room. Myself I could careless if we had one or not. I think it actually makes the room feel bigger with out one. But none the less I humor him and we have a coffee table. This one we purchased in Hawaii when he was home on R&R and it made the move with us back to the Mainland. Over the last 3 years its had it far share of wear and tear. How on earth it got so scratched up is beyond me but it did. With our up coming move I was determined that this piece was NOT coming with us. I was so tired of looking at it because it had gotten so ugly from being scratched up. A little part of me didn't want to toss it out because I knew we would just have to buy a new one when we got to our new home and that would cost more money. Something I'm trying really hard here to do is save money and work with what we have. Reminding myself that when we finally get our forever home once we get out of the army I can get all new and what ever I want because we won't be moving every couple years. 

I had a few ideas on what I could do to resurface the top of it and make it work but I just wasn't sold on a single idea yet. I was worried about trying something on it and it not turning to look good. That's when I was talking to My Spouse (Sarah) about it and she shared a "Pin" she had pinned on Pinterest a while back. It hit me, this was the perfect solution to up-cycle our coffee table. 

I'm so happy with the day it came out, we did have to make a few modifications from the original tutorial that was on line but it still came out the same and it looks great!!! The coloring we picked for the stain is pretty spot on and it looks great with the rest of our furniture. I'm so glad we decided to re-use it vs. throwing it out and getting a new one. This re-cycle DIY table cost us about $40.00 a lot less than it would have cost to buy a new coffee table. 

I've got a few other DIY project we are working on so stay tuned for those to come in the next week or so. I'm trying to get as much done before the movers come to pack up our stuff in a couple weeks. I started off with a laundry list of things I wanted to get for our new home and thanks to me being a bit more creative and refurbishing some old and current items that list is getting shorter and the cost has become a lot less that we've spent which is always a good thing. 

Finally putting some of those "pins" on pinterest to use.

Coffee Table make-over tutorial here!!!

St. Patties Day & Easter @ School

Since St. Patrick's Day and Easter are semi close together we decided instead of completely changing out board out half way through the month to put up Easter art we would just make one board into two. It worked out really well and we've been extra busy with art over the last few weeks. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of week one, I remember just as I took the last piece of art work down. 

So skipping on to Week 2 or March-

 Fruit Loop Rainbows- lets just say we wont be doing these again next year. As cute as they are, they were a pain in the booty and talk about messy to. Hand Print Lambs- these turned out super cute and were so adorable. Definitely one of our favorites. 

Week 3 of March-

Hand Print Shamrocks in a Pot of gold. Our original plan was to simply do 4 of their hand prints all on one sheet and have them over lap to look like a shamrock. Well after several attempts it just wasn't working out. So we resorted to 4 single prints, cutting and glueing. which I still think came out pretty well. Chick Feet- these little guy's turned out just darlin. Again another one were the original gave us some trouble but we change it and made it our own.

Week 4 of March-
For the last week of March we decided to to go a little simple with our art work. Foot print Carrots & Foot print Bunnies on the Easter side. They turned out super cute. For the St. Patties day side we were a little less creative as we were running out of ideas. We decided to let the kiddo's have a little fun with some extra construction paper we had laying around and they made Mosaic Rainbows. I have to say it took a little explaining of them for people to understand what it was, they we decided to Write on the "sun's" what it was. I'm glad both of these Holidays are behind us and that we don't have anymore in the future. I can't wait to do just free art and not have a theme to go by or a Holiday. 

Christmas Art Lately

We've been quite busy over the last month with loads of fun art work at school. It's been fun and the parents seem to be enjoying all the creativeness we've been sending home. Santa's beard is growing by the day, he's starting to get some fluff to him. We found Rudolph's feet last week and posted them outside on our Christmas Window. These are one of my favorite from the past couple weeks. I love the idea of splitting our bulletin board into two different boards. I definitely think we might have to do this again.

 

For our Christmas gift to the parents from the kiddos, we got a little creative. I'm so happy with the way they turned out. Other's had doubts that it would work out and look cute but we happily proved them wrong. We made imprints of the kiddo's feet with homemade clay, baked them, painted them green and then we glued red sparkle balls on the top. They symbolized Misltoe. We wrapped them and put a cute saying on the packaging that said "kiss me I found the misltoe" so the parents would know what it was suppose to be. They made super cute Christmas Tree ornaments.  

We made one other Christmas ornament that didn't turn out exactly like I'd hoped but hey when does any idea you find off pinterest turn out just right. Everyone still seemed to like them and thought they were cute. I think they would have been better if we would have had different paint, but I wasn't wanting to go around town search for it. They still look cute and I mean hey they were done by one year old's so it's ok right. 

As much as I love doing art work and Christmas project with our kiddo's I'm so happy we are finished with it for the year. We've been busy little bee's and my creative finger is ready for some rest. We've got lots of idea's for the month of January, more snowmen and snowflakes to come!!!!

Life Happens!!!!

We are in full swing effect for Christmas at school. We've done something different on our outside bulletin board. We split it in two and made one side a count down and the other a side to show case the kiddo's art. I have to say the idea in my head sounded great, trying to explain it to my co-worker and bring the idea to life was a little nerv-wracking. But we pulled it off and it looks great.

The hubbs and I celebrated 6 years of being together on the 29th of November. I can't believe its been 6 years since we've been together. 6 years ago he made that random phone call that has changed both of our lives forever. Its been the best 6 years!!! Sometimes it seems like its been a few months and then there's times it seems like its been about 20 years.

This past Saturday the hubbs had to work and I spent the day with this perky little red head. We went to the park and played for a while, it was such a beautiful day out!!! Sometimes......just sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have my own. with.a.90.trial.error.return.policy.though.

Its the Holiday's the season of giving, and I've got to give back to my belly lol. I'm not a huge rice krispie treat fan (I'll eat them, just not a all time fav.) but these were to die for. Peanut butter and M & M's added in to the mix, melt in your mouth delicious!!!!!

This is the first year we've ever gotten a real Christmas tree. Sunday we went to a local (ok 45 minutes away oops.) tree farm, picked it out and cut it down (well the workers cut it down) and brought it home!!! I love it and it smells so fresh and christmasy!!!! I also picked up a poinsettia when I was at the commissary Saturday. They brighten every ones day!

Monday we added some lights, sadly I couldn't decorate because I didn't have any ornament hooks. Tuesday though we got right to it, or I did. Hubby watched and gave his two sense. He does do the honors of putting the star on the top when I'm done. We kept it simple this year with only putting our personalized ornaments and a few other special ones on the tree. We didn't want to take away from the beautiful tree its self. I'm so happy with the way it turned out.

Our little home is decked out from top to bottom, it's definitely Christmas time here. Although with the weather we've been having you'd never know it was winter. However I'm not complaining, I'll take 70+ degrees any day over anything 50 or below!!!! It's shaping up to be a wonderful Holiday Season!!!!

My little family, gosh they have it so hard. It's a ruff life they live being a true American Hero and two lovable cute cuddly puppies.

I'll be back with more to share and update you on soon enough!!!!
I still have my Thanksgiving trip to recap!!!

It's another MONDAY!!!

Just alittle something to help put some pep in your step and get through the week!!! I know I need a little extra boost every now and then to get encourage myself to get through another week of life here in the South. Things are going well though we have been here for going on almost 5 months on the 15th of this month. The hubbs graduates school soon and that will officially start out 2 year count down. 

I know I have been blessed with more than I could have ever asked for in life and sometimes I do need to stop and give thanks for it all. I wouldn't be were I am today if it wasn't for what I've been through. 

 I can and will concur anything and everything when I put my heart, mind & soul into it!!!

This is something that I catch myself saying all the time. Although I'm still finding my groove through life here in the South, I've come to terms that this is it for the next 2 years and I have to make the best of it. 

Cupcakes seriously cure everything, just ask my hubby or spouse :) 

Everyone needs a little YALL & some Sweet Tea in there life!!!

LOVE this one!!!! Glitz and Glamor with a bit of sparkle YES PLEASE!!!!  

It's another MONDAY!!

My friends mean the world to me and they know who they are, weather we talk every day, see each other often or not at all they are always there for me when I need them. Knowing I have some pretty fabulous girls in my life is like the sprinkles on top of a cupcake. 

SPOUSE ~ I know things aren't perfect right now with you there and me here but you are my "star"!!!

You never know when you are going to need them!!!! 

I'd be lost with out you Spouse, you mean the world to me. Being away from you is almost comparable to a deployment only I know your not in a war zone thankfully. 

No matter the distance, or who comes in to our life and who leave, or how long we go with out talking or seeing each other we will always pick up right were we left off before. Even though its only been a few years since we've met it seems like a life time.

You live and learn and lean on each other more than you ever though you could. 

There's no time to be bad at them, there's way to much to share. 

Spouse I can't wait for this lol ok ok I can but you know what I mean!!!

I have a perfectly complete family with the friends I've chosen and the ones that have chosen me, I feel pretty blessed to have met the people I have in my life. Many of them have helped me grow into the person I am today in so many different ways!!!!!!!!!

I learned this one early on and it was hard to come to terms with but really its true. I'd rather have a few REALLY close friends vs. a bunch that I don't really know all that well. I'd rather have someone I can pour my heart out to vs. someone I have to guard my heart around. 

Sinful Sunday

Have you seen that pin on Pinterest going around for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies??? Well if not you should really check them. They were on the baking list for today's Sinful Sunday and let me tell you they are fabulous. I fixed up the dough this morning, the recipe says to chill it in the frig. for at least 24hrs. But I just couldn't wait, I let it sit for about 6 hours and then got to baking. 

I'm a sucker for Cookie Dough, seriously my mom use to get on to me all the time for eating raw cookie dough. I just can't help it though its so good, almost better than the cookies themselves. 

I rolled the dough into balls about the size of a golf ball just as the recipe says and placed them evening apart. I absolutely hate when you bake cookies and they expand so much that they get stuck together. 

The mixture made a ton of cookies, but that's perfectly fine plenty for us to enjoy through out the week and some to take to work tomorrow to share. You know everyone is gonna have those Monday blues. 

Look how big they turned out!!!!

See I told you the recipe yields a lot, this is every last cookie minus two. Of course we had to taste test the first batch to see if it was worth cooking the rest or just enjoying the cookie dough. As you can tell they passed the taste test. The recipe doesn't lie they really are the BEST!!!!!

~DAY 136~

Its another MONDAY!!!

Do you ever look back and read all those quotes you pin on Pinterest ?!?!? Do you ever do anything with them ?!??! Do they just sit there on your board as you add to the collection ?!?!?!? Do you ever incorporate them into your daily life?!?!?!

I've been trying to think of a way to incorporate them into my life more and remember them other than just pinning them on my pin board. I've added a few around my home, by incorparating them in to decor. I also have a few of then as reminders on my frig. Many of them are reminders of how I need or want to spend my life. Many of them make me laugh or smile. Some of them make my day and give me that extra boost of encouragement that I need. Some of them describe my / our life to a T. Some of them are just ME and I want to remember them forever. Some of them describe the relationship I have with my husband and with my friends / the people in my life. Some talk about were I live or were I'm from. 

You get the idea, I pin different quotes for various reasons and I want to remember them. I'm going to try and share some of my favorites with you all on Mondays. The first day of the work week, we all need a little pick me up boost to get our booties moving right. We are coming off the weekend high and back to reality of work and school. 

I hope that some or at least one of these give you that extra motivation that you need. Life is a amazing story, we only get to live once so why not live it to the fullest with the ones we love!! I know we sure are, really you've got nothing to loose. 

Being loved by him & loving him is the best feeling in the world.

 Living with my best friend, a fairy tale come true!!! 

Being a Army Wife you learn that you have to be strong quick.

I saw my vows over and over to him every day if it means having sleep overs:) hee  hee.