Good News

• I finally uploaded a ton of pictures off of my camera onto the computer, and realized I've taken lots of pictures of things to post on this blog! Woohoo! Now I just need to sit down and actually do it.

• One of my excuses for being a bad blogger lately (sorry new followers!) IS good news... We know where we will be going for medical school next year, and are now in the process of looking for a HOUSE! (As I type that I hear one of those heavenly choruses singing "Aaahhhh" with a few tinkling chimes in the background. No joke.) But seriously, people, a house! I haven't minded living in an apartment too much. It's been 6 years now, how time flies! But my number one main reason for wanting to live in a house is so that Bitty can go outside and play in the yard whenever we want. I feel like he gets so bored in our apartment; and we have to be completely ready for the day and make a trip to the park or someone's house to let him play outside. I feel like a yard will be such a blessing! Not to mention it will be fun to have a house to decorate! Should make for lots of blogging material!

• I'm thinking of starting a new series called Trying to Save a Buck...since that's what I've been doing even more lately. I've even got pictures taken of a few different things to write at least a couple of posts about. And I'm working on one more even as I type this! I'm making some burritos to freeze for my husband to take to for lunch. (The rice is on the stove cooking, in case you were wondering how I am blogging and making burritos simultaneously. :) It may be awhile before I get around to posting about this one though.
  

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Can you tell the difference?

Or am I the only crazy one? Let's find out! Look at the pictures below and see if you can tell the difference.

Here's what it looks like when my husband loads the dishwasher:


And when I do it:

What? You think both pictures look exactly the same? Well... I know, they do look pretty close, but they ARE different.

Does anyone else like to arrange the silverware by type when they load the dishwasher? I find it makes unloading the silverware so much faster. I guess it just bugs me having to put individual pieces away. This way I can just grab all of one type at once and dump them in the drawer.

Don't get me wrong, though... I L.O.V.E. when my husband does the dishes and I don't have to! {And it's only occasionally that I go behind him and rearrange the silverware!}

I know. I'm nuts. I really wish that this tidbit of OCD carried over to all aspects of cleaning my house. Alas, becoming a crazy cleaning woman is still on my list of things to do. Right after cleaning out my fridge and getting rid of the large quantity of cheerios my child dispersed throughout the car this weekend.

Do you have any crazy cleaning quirks?

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Mini Mantel Makeover

I meant to post this a week or two ago. Better late than never!

I posted about my renter's mantel here, and this is what it looked like after we got moved in and set it all up. I thought it was nice, but now it kinda looks like a bunch of stuff all lined up in a row across the mantle. But it worked.


I didn't take a picture of the mantle at Christmas, though it was lovely. Mini ornament wreaths around the candle sticks, garland, and a little white nativity in the middle.

Then....after Christmas... well I got lazy, I guess. I just kinda threw the other pictures and accessories up there and never really got around to arranging them...for a couple of months.

So this is sadly what my mantle looked like (or some variation of this) from the new year until just a couple of weeks ago. Sad, I know.

As they say, "clutter attracts clutter," so since it was in disarray already, I found myself sticking random things {that I wanted out of Bitty's reach} up there. Hence the headband, wedding announcement, and cover of yet another book my little boy destroyed.

Don't worry, I finally got sick of it, and did a little rearranging. I was going to look around and switch out a few items, but in the end I didn't.

With just about a minute's worth of rearranging, I ended up with this:

Ah, much better.

Here are a few other posts about decorating mantel's lately:

Lettered Cottage's Mantel Mania Part 1 and Part 2
Just a Girl's Spring Mantel


Makes me want to put something more springy up there!

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Thanks!

I just wanted to say a quick "thank you" to everyone for commenting on and following my blog! It totally makes my day when I check my email and I see that I've got new comments to read! And when I see that I've got a new follower, it feels so good to know that someone likes what I'm doing! And emails are very wonderful too!

Anyway, thanks! We've got spring break this week, so I may kinda sporadic.

Have a great weekend!

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Friday Faves: Tumblr and Sock Monsters

You may have noticed in my mess of a blog redesign, the tab above that says {FAM}tastic Idea File. It's pretty much my new favorite thing! I started a tumblr account and I LOVE it! It instantly blogs pictures, links, quotes, etc that you find online, automatically linking them up to where you found them! Easy peasy.

So if you click on that tab, you'll see what I've put on there so far... just random things I've seen that I've liked in the last few days. There's not much on there yet, but if you check it periodically, you may see something interesting!

And here's my other fave this week:

One of my friends from college (Hi Amanda!) just started a really cute craft blog called My Inspiration Index, and just posted her first craft tutorial (yesterday, I think) for these:

How cute are these sock monsters? I love them. And they are perfect for my goal of making homemade gifts this year! Pretty sure Bitty will be getting one this year! (And maybe a few other people, too...). Go check My Inspiration Index out for this tutorial and some other cute ideas!

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This is my lucky shirt!

A couple of weeks ago I was shopping at Walmart and saw these green t-shirts for $2 each, and I thought that for $2 I could make a St. Patrick's day shirt! I'm usually too cheap to buy a holiday shirt that's only going to to get worn a couple of times, but even I could handle $2!

So I picked up 3 and had my sister and sister-in-law come over so we could make shirts for our little boys. I knew I wanted to do one of the bleach stencil shirts, so we used this tutorial as a guide.

Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Cut out your letters, shapes, whatever you want to put on your shirt. We printed them off the computer onto cardstock. Figure out how you want to arrange them. This is how I did mine:


Step 2: Use spray adhesive to stick the letters onto your shirt. Mix some water and bleach in a spray bottle. I think we used about a 3:1 ratio (water:bleach). Spray it over the the part of the shirt where your letters are. Anywhere that you want bleached.

Note: Don't forget to put something inside the shirt so the bleach doesn't soak through to the back. We just put a plastic grocery sack inside.


Step 3: Once you see the bleach starting to work, rinse it out in running water. We used some dish soap too, since it was handy, then threw all of the shirts in the washer when they were all finished. We also peeled the letters off as we rinsed it in the sink.


Steps 4, 5, & 6: Wash, dry, and wear!

Super cute, eh? I love it! And it was super easy too. That's the best kind of project in my opinion!

We were thinking of maybe doing Easter ones with brown T-shirts and using the shape of a chocolate bunny for the stencil. How cute would it be if you used a scallop punch on your stencil to make it look like the chocolate bunny had a bite out of it!?

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I'm lazy.

• I've got several things to post about but have just been too lazy to get the camera cord out and download (or upload? which is it?) the pictures onto the computer. Look forward to a post about a super cute St. Patrick's Day project (hopefully tomorrow), a mini mantel makeover (say that 10 times fast), and proof that I might be a little bit crazy...

• I still have yet to "Fling" anything for the challenge...yikes... Better get a move on. I keep thinking about getting rid of things, if that counts for anything. :)

• Oh, and as you might have noticed, I started remodeling my blog...and along with all other projects that are unfortunate to find themselves in my hands, the poor thing's been sitting around half-finished and looking pitiful for a few days already. Sorry, if I was a real, professional blogger I'd have a grand reveal and the results would be spectacular and "ooooh" worthy. If you are kind enough to read this blog you are stuck with my apparent lack of web design experience and motivation, which will probably end in a mediocre result. Oh well, chalk it up to feeding, bathing, chasing, cleaning up after, diapering, re-diapering, re-diapering, re-diapering (it was an unfortunately poopy day today), and loving my sweet little boy.

Here's to hoping you're more productive than I am!

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Spring Flinging it.

Okay, I'm doing it. A blog I read linked to a great Spring Fling challenge, and I think I'm up for it.

The host is a blog called Life Frosting. I browsed a bit and it looks like she has some other interesting ideas on there as well, so check her out.

The challenge:
"Fling" 100 things in your house before the first day of Spring, March 21st.

How to Fling:
Throw away, donate, give away, re-gift, sell, etc. Get rid of it!

And I'll try to keep track of it all on my sidebar... Not sayin' I'll make it to 100... At first I didn't want to do it because I might not be able to complete it in time. Then I realized that that didn't really matter, because even if I didn't make it to 100, I'd still be getting rid of a bunch of junk. And since we're moving this summer, that is something I plan on doing anyway!

You should join me, it'll be fun!

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