Loosing Weight, Again.

So, I am loosing weight all over again. Remember the 14 lbs I lost. Well, I have gained 6 lbs of it back. Wanna know what I did? I am keeping all my bad habits:) I have seriously got to stop eating at night. Usually, after we put the kids to bed I get this urge to snack on something. I read in Bob Greene's book "The Best Life Diet" it is because your body is ready to use the fat storage in your body. Instead of letting it use the fat storage, I feed it so it uses the food I just ate instead of loosing fat. DRAT! So, I am going to push myself to stop eating after 7:30pm. That is my cut off time. He said if you did that, you would wake up hungry in the morning for breakfast. This is the only thing I am going to change. Let's see what happens shall we. I am expecting to be accountable to you. I think this will give me the results I am looking for. You would think with the amount of time I am putting in at the gym, I would see bigger results. BUT I haven't. I am stronger and toner, but no weight has come off. My face still looks chubby. So, it is time to kick it into gear and get going.

Sneak Peak

I bought some old drapes from a garage sell for $1 for about 4 panels. I was really excited because it was the right color I was looking for to make pillow covers out of. Well, I didn't pay any attention to washing directions. Long story short, the material was dry clean only and I have been throwing it in my washing machine:)  They look OK from the front, BUT..........















The 2 pillows I made are now falling apart and no matter how much I sew them together, they keep coming apart.
















I finally found the perfect fabric. I have been on the hunt for fabric that I loved at first sight. Something that was fun, colorful, but classic. I finally found it at Joanns. Not the best price, but I don't care, besides it was 50% off. It is funky and really fun. I can't wait to get some coordinating fabrics for accent pillows! So stay tuned for more pillow fun.

Hubby is off this weekend and his dad is coming to visit. So, I will be MIA for a couple of days!

GENIUS

Groopdealz has an amazing deal today for food storage. Meals for 2 people for 72 hours for only $46 +free shipping. The container is small so it makes storage and staking easy. There is no limit on how many you can purchase. I highly recommend it. I bought them for our 72 hour kits. If you are interested, go HERE. 

Have you seen THIS post on How Does She? It is GENIUS I tell you! What a great way to preserve all those art projects that you just can't part with. Put it in a book! This little woman told a story, but you could have your child describe what is going on in the picture too. I am seriously so excited about this.













 Next order of business is my need for summer clothing. A few things come in to factor when getting ready for the summer. I live in Phoenix where it's normal to have 118 degree weather. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS for short) aka I am a Mormon. So, as a member I wear garments. They are sacred so I won't go into much detail about them, only to say it is a top and a bottom. I have to have clothing go to at least my knee and sleeves to cover the garments. So, in case you are wondering it is not always easy to find clothing that is modest or covers my garments in Phoenix. There is a lot of low cut, sleeveless shirts.  I needed some shirts for the upcoming warmer weather that were modest and light weight fabric. Guess what!  I found some great shirts at Wal-mart. I know right, who would have thought to look there!?!?!?! I was so excited. Plus, they were only $5 each!

This one makes me feel like I am at the beach. Maybe ocean thoughts will keep me cooler.

I am girl who loves herself some graphics on her T's so these shirts had me at hello.

I don't usually wear orange. But I loved this color and it matched a necklace I had perfectly! FYI: Costco shorts for $15. They are super comfy.

In fact, I loved the shirt so much I picked out a few more. I couldn't pass up the vibrant colors.

I plan to add a little something to the shirts so they are all unique. Something like THIS or THIS or THIS. Maybe THIS or THIS or THIS.

Take a Look

I have seen a few things I am lovin' in blog land. Wanna see!?!?!
THIS bag with ruffle straps!

Sewing the perfect corner HERE.

THIS dress would be cute maternity or non maternity.

THESE adorable pillows. I will so be making these for my daughters room!

This amazing bow tie for those little men in your life.

Pinwheel hair bows for your little woman.

THIS little man's Sunday best!

THIS dress from Kojo Designs

THESE paper flowers

THIS ruffle dress

THIS printable

 THESE 2 different teacher appreciation gift card holders.



















THIS teacher appreciation gift card holder.

And that concludes today's installment of things I am lovin'!

Things To Do

I just want to let you know that yesterday was a vent. I was letting it all out which maybe I shouldn't always do, but that is the way I roll. My hubby was able to get one of his colleagues to write a prescription for me. I have to clarify. I am not suicidal right now. I have been in the past, but I am doing very well right now. Thank you so so so much for your concern for me. It's nice to know people care:) "You like me, you really like me".

Alright! Let's get down to business. Here are a few things I have been doing with the kiddos.
I found THESE .  I am eventually going to tape to a popcycle stick, but for now we are just taping them to our faces. For the "mermaid" kit I actually use the shells as glasses. I hot glued a clip to the back of the hair so my daughter could wear it.

They are a lot of fun. I printed them out on card stock and laminated them. We call it our silly faces. Great for Family Home Evening or just having fun!

Pet-peeves

I feel like venting today. You know why!?! Because a stupid doctor won't let me fill my perscription for prozac and I the earliest appointment I can get is may 8th. It has been a week and still no meds. He actually refused to refill it until I came in again because it had been 4 months sense he has seen me. REFUSED!?!?!  I am FREAKING out because
#1: it is a huge no no to go off this type of meds cold turkey and that is exactly what this doctor has done to me.
#2: Last time this happened I attempted suicide.
#3: I have to find a new doctor
#4: I am having serious depression right now and I am scared and still no medication!!!

WHERE IS THE FREAKING accountability!?!?!?!?!?! It ticks me off that he doesn't care that I have run out of medication.

While we are on the subject. I hate it when you call or email someone and they never respond back. That really ticks me off. It bugs me. It really bothers me because I am left wondering if you got my message and should I contact you again. I give you 2 chances and if you don't respond within a week you should be black listed to the do not contact EVER list. (please don't take this personally, I am just having a terrible day and feeling very depressed).

Now that I have gotten that off my chest, I have to tell you something. Many people ask me questions but leave me no way of contacting them. So, to prevent me causing the same frustration a lack of response causes me, I need you to do something for me.

Go HERE and do exactly what this tutorial tells you to do. Then I will always be able to respond back and you can rest easy knowing I have received your comment. FYI: I get an email every time someone comments on my blog so I really do read them. I heart comments. So, please help a girl out so she won't be doing one of her biggest pet-peeves to the people she loves:)

Carters Sale

I hit a sale at Carters. They had this adorable little shirt, regularly $20 on sale for $5.99 + an additional 40%.  It was a 5t so I figured it would fit her now as a long shirt or short dress and later as a regular shirt.





I wanted so badly to find some blue leggings to match, but alas, they never had any that color. I asked the employee and she said, "No, no we don't. I know it would have been so cute huh!?!"
Then I said, "I am not the first person to ask that am I?" Nope, I wasn't! Great minds think alike.






Well, friends Wal-mart came to my rescue. They seriously had these blue leggings. I snatched them up in a 3t and 5t. Yippee! I seriously squealled. The employee near by asked me if everything was alright:) I explained how excited I was to find these and she looked at me like I was totally insane.

I added some ribbon to the back because the shirt is really large around the waste. Easy fix and now my daughter looks adorable in her outfit. The hole ensemble cost me a grand total of $7! Cha-ching!

Spring Cleaning

I forgot to tell you about the photography class at Everyday Elements. I took 2 weeks ago. It is for beginners. I highly recommend it because it was very well done. You do a video class online where you can ask her anything. She gives you handouts and it really helped me get a grasp on everything! If you decide to take it, I recommend you read your owners manual first and learn how to change the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. Then the class will be very informational for you. That way you can learn what they mean and how to use them instead of trying to figure out how to use your camera! She also has classes on how to use adobe photoshop:)


I have been on a rampage cleaning my house. 2 days ago, I brought in some help. I had 2 cleaning ladies who helped me scrub EVERYTHING (walls, blinds, baseboards, tile, grout, every nook and cranny you can think of). It was a busy day yesterday, BUT my house looks DIVINE!  Because the kids were so awesome while we cleaned, I spent the rest of the day testing out all the new games I have made for them. It was a huge hit! I found a lego star wars bingo HERE that my son went crazy for!

So, in a nut shell I have been really busy cleaning and being a mom! Cheers! Hope you have a great Easter weekend! Yesterday we colored Easter eggs. Today we are doing an Easter Egg Hunt, then having a Lego Birthday party for my son. Busy, busy, busy!

Happy Easter or Passover.

Teacher Appreciation

Just a friendly reminder because I have been getting this question a lot lately.  When getting a printable I have FINALLY finished getting all the images linked up to a direct download. I just finished today, so if you were having troubles before, I have finally finished.

It's that time of year again. I whipped up 4 different fun Teacher appreciation cards.

They are really simple and I adore them:) Download all four HERE.

Go Fish

I found a few free printables for Go Fish, but I didn't feel like it had enough cards and I didn't want to print off 4 of the same pictures. So, I made my own. I tried doing different fish, but I couldn't find enough free clipart. So instead I just used some clip art I have on my computer! I just printed it on card stock then used a solid color card stock for the back, then laminated it. Want to make one for your kids!?!

Download cards HERE and HERE
Download folder HERE!

 Once we are done, I just place them into this little pocket.

 I taped up the sides. Then hot glued some Velcro on the inside to keep it closed so pieces don't slide out.

Let's Play

The kids have LOVED the Old Maid game I made. I was going to make a Bingo game, but then I stumbled upon THIS bingo game and decided the $3 was worth my time of not having to make the printable:)

It didn't include cards to draw. You just read the items off a list. I wasn't really digging that. So, I printed out one of the bingo cards at 118%. Then I cut the pieces out and laminated it. Now the kids can draw one of the squares and match the picture. I now have 2 more games to add to the mix. Next up, Go Fish!

Yard Work

Here is a glimps into somethings I have been doing. Hubby planted some tulips someone gave me. They didn't last long as you can tell. They use to be a gorgeous purple.

We planted these bottle brush bushes in our back yard.

They are really small right now, but they should grow into column bushes to provide some shade.

Plus, these beautiful flowers attract humming birds.

So, then this sad little humming bird feeder will FINALLY get some love.


















Hubby finished painting our front door. I, being the organized person that I am, forgot to take a before photo, but I did find this. Just imagine that sun bleached wood all over the door.

It really does look fantastic. It only cost us about $30 for supplies and now our front door looks a lot more appealing.

The Cheapest way to Organize is.........

I found these great bins at Dollar Tree. You will see them again in more of my organizing projects (including a craft room reveal in the future).

You ever notice when you stare at a word to for a long time (like when choosing the perfect font) it starts to look weird and you second guess yourself about the spelling? Well, maybe I am the only one, but when I was typing baking into photoshop, I had that happen.


This was genius on my behalf because the baking stuff always spills in my cupboards, especially powdered sugar. So this will keep the spills contained and make clean up a lot easier.













Here is the before of a cupboard that just couldn't stay organized. The problem is the wire racks that are so deep you forget everything that is in them. AND they made it hard to see what was behind.

AFTER: $1 bins with lids! PERFECT!  So, I will eventually get around to making some cute little vinyl lettering for my bins that say "beans and rice" & "Nuts"

I want to add 1 more bin on the top that will say, "kid snacks" but I need to make another trip to Dollar Tree.

I organized it so tallest was in back and shortest in front. Makes my life a lot easier because I am not extremely tall (5'6 in case you are wondering)

Old Maid Printable

My kids are obsessed with playing games. We play them every single day, multiple times a day. So, I am really getting sick of the 2 games we have (Candy Land & Chutes and Ladders). I decided to add some variety in our lives:) Birthday boy got Hi-ho Cherry-o. I decided to make some games. Up first for your crafting pleasure is Old Maid. I printed it out on Card stock. I printed on separate sheets so you couldn't see through the cards. Then I laminated the cards. BUT if you want to make it easier, you can just print out the pictures and use a solid color card stock.

 

You can choose from 3 different colored backgrounds, pink, blue, and red.

Want to make some for your kids!?!
Download cards HERE!
Download the folder HERE! 
I have also included a printable container to put your cards in! Just fold in half, tape the 2 sides, hot glue some Velcro at top,  and you are good to go!