What I've Been Up to Around the House!

This week I've done a lot of crafting and decorating around my home! I love decorating, organizing, and simply making my house a home. I have so much fun crafting and decorating, so I try to do it as much as possible. This week, the fabulous Melinda Lanier had a craft night with some awesome crafts! Unfortunately, I couldn't attend the craft night and instead picked up my unfinished order to take home and complete on my own time.

Here are some crafts that I finished this week!

Before

All three crafts ready to go!

Summer-time Knick Knacks

Recipe Holder

Fun Magnets

Menu Frame

After

Finished Summer-time Knick Knacks:
*3x4 Wood Blocks
*Brown Paint
*Teal Vinyl
*Teal Tule
*Mod Podge (gloss)

Close-up of Knick Knak

Knick-Knacks with my Seasonal Blocks

Finished Recipe Holder:
*Rectangular Wood Block
*Metal
*Burgundy Paint
*Beige Vinyl
*Mod Podge (glossy)

Recipe Holder in My Kitchen!

Menu Frame:
*8.5x11 Wood Frame ($1 store)
*Burlap
*Magnets
*Burgundy Vinyl
*Mod Podge (glossy)

I put magnets on the back so that I can stick it on my fridge!

Menu Frame on My Fridge!

The Menu Frame is definitely one of my favorite crafts that I've done so far and is super easy to do! You just pick up a frame at the $1 Store (or use one that is laying around the house) and frame burlap. You don't even have to use burlap. You could use another fabric, leftover scrapbook paper, gift wrap, etc. Place the vinyl on top of the glass - you can use a dry-erase marker to write on top of the glass next to the day of the week. To clean, just use Windex or a wet paper towel. So easy, and super cute right?! Just paint your frame the color you wish, fasten the pieces together, hot glue magnets to the back and...whalla! Your own Menu Frame! 

Check out these places for vinyl lettering:

*Lanier Creations

*Blessings by Brittney

*My Vinyl Designer

*Vinyl Ready Designs

Like I mentioned above, I've also been busy decorating! I went to Hobby Lobby this week...and after 50%-66% sales galore on like everything in the store...I made a few purchases and did some decorating. 

Downstairs Bathroom

For the past few months, I had been wanting to put something on the wall in my downstairs bathroom, but didn't know what exactly. Side note: Every time, I wash my hands my head automatically looks to the left, I don't know exactly why, and the wall is just blank. So I figured, if I do that maybe that happens with other people too and that it may be a good idea to put some kind of wall art on that piece of wall for people to look at while...you know. Well, finally I decided on creating a mini-cross wall in my bathroom. All crosses, are currently 50% at Hobby Lobby so I picked up a few and hammered those babies on the wall. I think it turned out really well!

My mom had some leftover incense that just so happened to match my black & white themed bathroom, so I put it on my little table next to the sink.

I bought this black & white frame back in the fall of 2010 and it has been sitting on my table in the bathroom pictureless ever since. I loved the frame, just didn't have a clue what kind of picture to put inside. Think about it - what kind of picture do you stick in a bathroom besides the typical flowers, beach scenes, and that is small enough to fit a small frame? You can't put a picture of your family or you & your spouse-that's got to be awkward for someone who is doing their business you know. Just sayin...LOL. So, in January, I was at Target for an after Christmas sale and stocked up on gift wrap. I picked up some beautiful black and white paisley gift wrap, that was marked down to less than a $1! After some thinking I decided on just cutting some of the gift wrap and putting that in the frame. How simple and easy is that! It looks pretty cool too! 

Guest Bedroom

I finally got my husband's painting hung up in our guest bedroom! And, it matches perfectly!

Close-up of Ray's painting of a waterfall. He painted this in 1998 for his grandmother.

The Beginning of a Cross Wall Upstairs!

The blue cross on the bottom was 66% off at Hobby Lobby (got it for $4) because it was on the Easter clearance. The cross itself isn't too Eastery and can be left up all year. Plus, it's teal and matches my home of course!

What have you been working on around your house?

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

*I am loving that on Friday I get to babysit my niece Kaitlyn for most of the day! I love days like these when I get to spend time with my little niece! I don't know what we are going to do yet, but I think a trip to the park is in the works! 

*I am loving the gorgeous weather in Vegas today! This whole week the temperature is supposed to be in the mid 70's...b-e-a-utiful!

*I am loving that I finally received my good friend's wedding invitation in the mail! I am so excited for her wedding in June!

*I am loving this nail polish by Sally Hanson, #340 Mint Sorbet!

*I am loving that on May 7, the hubby and I are getting anniversary pictures taken in Nelson, NV by the lovely Ciara Rose. It's about 30 minutes away from Boulder City, NV and is a ghost town. I never knew this place existed, but I saw her lovely pictures with abandoned Chevy trucks and homes in the background and just fell in love with the entire look of it all! We haven't gotten professional pictures taken since our wedding. We never even got engagement pictures taken, so I figured this would make up for that. And, not only would it be a good anniversary gift idea, but the time has also come for some recent pictures to be taken!

*I am loving that tomorrow I will be picking up some crafts from the wonderful Melinda Lanier from Lanier Creations! Tomorrow I will be getting my craft on! 

*I am loving my little nephew Isaac! He is only 3 months old and he is getting so big! Look how cute he is!

*I am loving my wonderful and amazing husband!

What are you loving this beautiful Wednesday? Link up and join the fun at Little Daisy May!

What I Wore Wednesday

This morning I went to UNLV to table with our student group, Campus Pregnancy Resources, so today is a pretty casual look. Plus, Vegas weather is nuts right now! It's currently in the 70's, which is super nice, but I just wish the weather would make it's mind up. Last week was hot enough to be wearing shorts and a tank top. Today, I wore long jeans and a 3/4 length cardigan.

What I'm Wearing...

*Bootcut Jeans: Express

*Black Tank Top: Target

*Striped Cardigan: Target

*Yellow Flats: Savers (thrifted)

*Yellow Bracelets: Icing

*Yellow Sunflower Earrings: Betsy Johnson

*Blue Nail Polish: Sally Hanson (Mint Sorbet)

Link up and join the fun at The Pleated Poppy and No Model Lady!

Top 2 Tuesday...Things I Collect!

Things I Collect

1. Anything Teal! Close friends and family will tell you that I'm obsessed with the color teal, robbin egg blue, sky blue, etc. So much so, that my entire living room, dining area, and guest bedroom are decorated around that color. As I'm typing now, my fingernails are even painted that same minty blue color. I just love teal!

Candlesticks 

Dining Room Table Arrangement

Guest Bedroom

Vase

2. Candles! My mom got me hooked on candles at a very young age - like junior high. I remember when I used to live at my parent's house having a mess of candles on my dresser, which strangely resembled a candle prayer altar that you might see in a Catholic church...just sayin. While I don't have any candle altars going on in my home, I do have a lot of candles, incense, and reed diffusers all over the place! I just love candles and the like, they smell so good! There's nothing like lighting a candle - the ambiance and smell is so relaxing and definitely sets the mood, if you know what I'm sayin. ;)  My favorite brand would definitely be Yankee Candle, Co.

What are some things that you like to collect? Link up at The Undomestic Momma and join the fun!

Stylish Blogger Award

The lovely Brittney Erickson, over at Livin' Our Love Song, gave me the Stylish Blogger Award a few days ago! All of you should check out her blog! She is such an awesome woman of God, best friend, and someone I look up to in so many ways.

Here's how it works:

1. Link back and thank the person who gave it to you.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 5 stylish blogs you read.
4. Contact them and tell them about their award!

1.In the seventh grade I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour and everyday my relationship with Him is growing! 

2. I teach at the college I graduated from, Nevada State College, as a Part-time Instructor. The class is STEP UP Learning Communities and is a course that bridges the gap between high school and college. In simple terms, its an intro to college life course, but is designed around the STEP UP scholarship program. STEP UP stands for Student to Teacher Enlistment Project Undergraduate Program. Students enroll in the STEP UP program their junior year of high school and begin working on their undergraduate (AA Degree) studies. STEP UP is equivalent to a $20,000 dollar scholarship and all classes and books are paid for. Of course, STEP UP students have to maintain a certain GPA and pass a course with a C or better. This program is such an amazing thing and is such a blessing for me as well as for the other students. I am so blessed to be teaching/mentoring/equipping these students to be successful students and future students at NSC.

3. I substitute teach part-time at Lake Mead Christian Academy for Brittney Erickson's kindergarten class! 

 

4. It will be three years May 30 that I've been married to my amazing husband! We started dating my freshman year of high school in 2003 and dated all four years of my high school experience (he is two years older than me). Raymond works for Zappos.com as a front-end architect for web and mobile development. Put simply, he's a genius and I love everything about him! I'm so blessed to be married to such an amazing man of God!

5. In the summer, I will be going on a mission trip to Kabwe, Zambia with my local church. We will be hosting a teacher's conference where we will train and equip local Zambian men and women who want to be teachers on how to become a teacher. We will also conduct a VBS (Vacation Bible School) at a pastor's conference as well as work with children and youth to teach them to read. I will post on this again soon, but I am so looking forward to what God will do in that nation.

6. Each week I help out at our church's youth group, Refuge, where I co-lead a small group of junior high girls. I love them so much and am so blessed to be able to mentor each one of them.

7. I am an Aunt to two beautiful children:

Okay everyone, I now pass this award on to...

*Amanda Renee Walker

*Melinda Lanier over at Lanier Creations

*Ashleigh at This Lil Heart of Mine

*So Chubble

*Casey at Byrd's Eye View

Have fun ladies!

It's Friday, but Sunday's a Comin'!

I think it's funny how today, April 22, 2011, two events are being celebrated. The main one on everyone's mind it seems is Earth Day. While my husband and I aren't "Greenies" we do believe that God created the earth and He has called us to be stewards over all that He has made. And, because of that reason we try to reduce, reuse, recycle as best as we can. Yet, with Easter around the corner many are forgetting that today is also Good Friday. The day our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died on the cross for my and everyone's sins. He bore the wrath, that we should have but couldn't. Jesus was the perfect, holy, blameless lamb...the perfect sacrifice for the world's sin. I think it so amazing how God, so loved us in all our sinfullness, that He sent His Son to die on our behalf, but that's not the end of the story. Nope. Sunday's a Comin'! So today, let's focus on worshiping the Creator, the One Who created everything...{ "For by Him [Jesus] allthings were created: things in heaven and on earth.. all things were created by Him and for Him. ~Col 1: 16. For He alone is worthy to receive all praise and glory. We are reminded in Romans 1:24,25 that it is a lie to worship creation.} ... And, remember what He did for you on that cross.

"and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." 1 Peter 2:24


‎"The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." ~Matthew 17:22,23


"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.'" John 11:25-26

Soli Deo Gloria!

My Roses are Blooming!

When we moved into our house two years ago, there were two rose plants that came with the house. I had contemplated at the time digging them up and throwing them away because aside from when there are flowers blooming, the plant isn't all that pretty. Don't get me wrong, one of my favorite flowers is the rose, it's just the bush part that I don't like as much. Anyways, I'm so glad I decided to keep them! I look forward to every spring and summer now to see how many flowers we're going to have. Both of my rose plants are in full bloom and they're so beautiful!

Happy Spring ya'll!

Backyard & Side-yard Renovation Part 3: The Flower Beds

Well we are finally here, the last installment of the Backyard & Side-yard Renovation series! Today I'm going to show you what my husband and I have been up to these past few weeks...planting in our new flower beds! Like I mentioned before, we have two large flower beds - one in the front yard on the side of our house and one in the backyard on the same side of the house. The flower bed in the front yard hardly gets any sun so we decided on planting only flowers in that bed. The flower bed in the backyard gets midday sun, so we decided on only planting fruits and veggies in that bed. Plus, I've always wanted to grow my own vegetable garden and if it works out well enough maybe it will cut down on our grocery bill costs one day...we shall see!

Front yard: Before

Front yard: After

Euryops Green, Gerber Daisy, and Freesia

Freesia

Snapdragons

Petunias

Geraniums in the background and African Daisy in the foreground

'Minifamous Pink'

Lobelia

What's Growing in My Garden?

*Geraniums

*African Daisy

*Snapdragons

*Freesia

*Hydrangea (hasn't come up yet)

*Lots of Petunias

*Gerber Daisy

*Lobelia

*Calibrachoa "MiniFamous Pink' & 'Dark blue"

*Hollyhock

*Dianthus

*Euryops Green (Daisy-like flower)

*2 small bags of mixed seeds (hasn't come up yet)

Backyard: Before

Backyard: After

Blueberry Bush (Ray picked this one out)

Strawberry Crop

Is that a strawberry I see?

Corn

Cucumber

Green Peppers

Tomato 

Our first tomato! 

What's growing in my garden?

*Blueberry bush

*Strawberries

*Corn

*Cucumbers

*Green & Red Bell Peppers

*Jalapeno Peppers

*2 Tomato Plants

I even had my niece Kaitlyn help me in the garden...we planted maybe three plants before she was tired and bored of it all. After planting a second flower she says to me, "Aunt Britty, are we done yet?"

Kaitlyn ready to start digging!

Kaitlyn's pumpkin seeds that she planted, with some extra help from her Auntie.

Any projects that you have been up to lately? What's growing in your yard?