Blogger Inspiration: The Bella Life

Do you all read The Bella Life blog? If you don’t you should because they are funny, inspirational, and all around awesome. They did a post about Dollar Tree hurricanes and how Camberly & Keighley fancied them up. Feeling inspired I trucked over to my local Dollar Tree and picked up the last hurricane they had. I’m hoping that they will get some more in stock because really, you need more than one pretty hurricane on your mantle. Also while I was at the DT I picked up some glitter skulls because I felt that my house needed some Halloween sparkle. So here is what I did with my Dollar Tree finds:

Hurricane:

I kept it simple and filled the bottom with some moss (also purchased at the Dollar Tree) and simply placed a few little white pumpkins I picked up at a local grocery store (Harps) for 67 cents a pound! I purchased 7 and only spend $1.50.

Glitter Skulls:

In an attempt to make my mantle more appealing I opted to switch out my candles which one sat upon these candle sticks for skulls. They are super fun and when we leave the light on over our mantle the glitter reflects. Kevin was even a fan of them, which is a good thing because he generally doesn’t dig the glitter.

These are only a couple of the touches that I have added to my house but I think they are fun. I’ll post my DIY Halloween wreath soon.

Night Time Protocol

We have been steadily trekking on with our night time routine now for a week almost. So far it seems that the most difficult thing for the boys to do is to just sit down and be reverent while we say our family prayer. Last night I had an ingenious ideal! I decided to make them a prayer book. I came up with the idea because they love love love to read books. It's pretty much all we did yesterday. We read books, ate, took a nap, then read some more books. I love how interested they are in reading. Plus, my kids are pretty dang smart. They can spot out {almost} anything in our books that we read. It makes me proud to be their mama!

Anyways... I decided that if they had a book they could read and follow along with maybe they would be more interested in sitting and saying prayer at night. So, today I put one together, rather quickly, when we came into work.

I think it turned out pretty cute. {The pages are out of order because of how you fold it once its printed...} I had Aiden look through his with me after I made it. He pointed to every page and said what it was. It totally melted my heart.

I am so happy that I get to spend so much time with Mr. A & C. They bring so much joy and happiness to my life and everyday they do something that makes me well up with happy tears. Being a mom is the greatest present ever!

Cute Pincushion

I am currently in the process of starting adventures in sewing in an attempt to open an Etsy store and make some extra moolah. In my adventures, I have been in need of a pincushion to put my needles on. After searching the internet for some inspiration I decided to make my own. I have combined ideas from these two (one, two) tutorials. I love the second one and will probably make my own once I find a cute flower pot some where for cheap.

Here is what I created with out even having to sew!

Isn't it super cute? Do you wanna know how to make one? Awesome. You are in luck.

I have created a little tutorial for you. {Please bare with me because this will be my first tutorial with pictures and I'm sure it wont be perfection.}

First, gather all of the materials you will need:

a glue gun, scraps of fabric, a toilet paper roll, a rubber band, and some batting or polyfill.

Prepare your items:
-Cut your toilet paper roll to your desired height. {mines about 1.5 inches tall}
-Cut a square large enough to stuff with desired amount of batting/polyfill
-Cut a strip of fabric wide enough and long enough to cover your toilet paper roll. {make sure its at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch wider on each side than needed}

Step One:

Make your batting/polyfill into a ball and place in the center of your square fabric. Gather the fabric. {I found it best to gather the centers of the square before the corners to ensure the stuffing stayed in} Wrap rubber band around the bottom to secure. 

Step Two:

Smother your toilet paper roll in hot glue and wrap the fabric around it. Then glue around the inside of the tube and tuck your edges around and inside. {use a popsicle/craft stick to do this and save your fingers from burning!}

Step Three:

Take your "cushion" and tuck it into the top of your tube. Adjust it to the desired height and poofy-ness that you want and then glue it down from the bottom. {i just poured it in there thick}

You could add a Fourth Step by finishing it off with felt on the bottom. I made this at like 11:30 last night and was not willing to cut anything else out. But, if giving it as a gift it would be super cute with felt on the bottom and maybe some ribbon or ric rac  around the tube. 

See, isn't it super easy? Do you want to make one? Go for it!! 

If you do I would love to see what you created! 

And that my friends, is my tutorial and super cute {no sew} pincushion!

Coolest Bed(s) EVER!

I was over on Design*Sponge today and looking at their Before & After's and stumbled upon the coolest idea for my boys toddler beds ever!!!

Seriously, how cool is that? The great thing is that it's made from pallets. So it's super inexpensive to make because you can find pallets at hardware stores or like us, they are just delivered to our work. I love the rustic look put think it would even be cute painted. I cannot wait till our kiddos are big enough to sleep in toddler beds. Here is the link to learn how to make your own kid a super awesome bed for virtually no cost! Lori Danelle

Penny Pincher

I have been contemplating this post for a long time. Seeing how I vowed the other day to stop thinking and start doing I thought it would be a perfect time to share with you all some knowledge I have gained.

In case you didn't notice, times are difficult for lots of people. We are included in those people who have "difficulties" but we have begun the path to overcome this "barrier" and I think that we are doing much better with a few easy adjustments. I fully plan on getting a good budget started and buckling down in order to see an even bigger reward but for now, this is what I have done.

Cable/Satellite:

You  may think I'm crazy on this one, but cancelling our DirecTv was the best thing ever! We hardly watch TV and when we do we kind of get bored with it. We were so dependent upon our DVR that we never watched the news. Now, we watch it if its on when we get home from work. Just getting rid of that silly box we are saving roughly $80 a month! WOWZA! Seriously, amazing. However, we kind of cheat because we have Netflix on our PS3. We stream movies and kid shows all the time. We aren't paying for our subscription because Kevin's brother gave us the disc... but I don't think it is that expensive a month to get Netflix to your PS3 or Wii. Plus, I think not having TV readily available makes both Kevin and I look to do other things around our house besides sit on our bums on the couch and veg out for a couple hours.

Laundry Soap:

Use up the rest of your laundry soap and then never buy store bought ever again! Why? Because you can totally make it for yourself way cheaper and it will last so much longer! I first got this idea from my friend Heather who hosted a Laundry Making part with her friends. I did the same, but didn't take pictures. You can get the "recipe" from the Duggar Website as well. So far, I have been using mine and haven't noticed anything bad about it. I will admit that I add more than it says, but I'm just a weirdo about my clothes being clean I guess. Also, I have been using Vinegar as fabric softener instead of the store bought kind, and Kevin thinks our clothes are just as soft. This is such a simple and easy change! Seriously, you should do it.

Grocery Shopping:

Eating at home saves you money, if you do it right. My friend Andrea did a 4 part tutorial about being prepared in the kitchen and how awesome it is. Check it out here: one, two, three, four. I have found that by planning out meals, making a list, and really focusing only on that list will save you lots of money. Both Kevin and I are impulse buyers and purchase things that we don't necessarily need, which ends up costing us $$$. I also agree that you should set a budget for your groceries and stick to it. It'll help you to be creative and feel accomplished.

Finances:

I am not fully prepared when it comes to budgeting and getting my finances squared away. However, my friend E*Rocka  introduced me to Mint.com. Its a free website that you put all of your accounts into, banking, credit cards, student loans, home loans, vehicle loans, 401K's, everything and it helps you to monitor your spending. It even told me the value of my house. How awesome is that? You can set your budgets on it and it will alert you when your accounts are low, you get charged a finance fee on your credit card, and when your payments post. It really is great, especially if you are into monitoring your accounts online. I suggest you check it out.


That is all I can think of at the moment, but I promise the next post will have pictures of my kiddos and fun adventures that they have experienced in the last week. Hopefully it will be up tonight once I get them in bed.


***If you have any suggestions for household cleaners please send them my way. I'm looking to test those next. ***

Pizza and a Tutorial

After my One Sauce: Three Ways post I decided to add some of my favorite meals that we eat on my blog.

So tonight we are having pizza. I pulled out my left over dough that I had thrown in the freezer and let it thaw over night in my fridge. Took it out kneaded in a little more flour and rolled out onto my corn meal dusted cookie sheet. I spray it with some cooking spray so my rolling pin doesn't stick to the dough but you can do whatever you like. After rolling it out I poked it with a fork and sprinkled on garlic powder. Once the over was heated throw it in for 10 mins so it gets nice and crisp. Take it out, spread on your sauce, sprinkle with toppings and cheese, then put back in over for 12-15 mins. Once it is cooked and your cheese is oozing with goodness it is ready!

How to make dough:
(found in Better Homes & Garden cookbook)
2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
2 tbs cooking or olive oil

1. Mix warm water and yeast (to make sure the yeast is still good) then add in 1 1/4 cups flour, salt, and oil. Sometimes I add a little sugar or honey (1 Tbs) to sweeten it . Beat with a mixer on low for 30 seconds making sure to scrape the sides. Then beat on high for 3 mins. Next, Stir in as much of the remaining flour as possible with a wooden spoon.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed in more flour to make a moderately stiff dough. Divide dough in half (using a plastic putty knife from a hardware store works great!), cover and let rise for 10 mins.

{This is where I freeze half of my dough and continue to work with the other half, but if you have a big family you probably want both halves of dough.}

Roll dough out to desired shape and size. You can use it to make thin crust, mini pizzas (just half the dough again), or even calzones! If you want stuffed crust just roll the dough over string cheese sticks and voila!

-Heat oven to 400
-If making pizzas, poke with fork, bake for 10  minutes then top and bake for another 12-15 mins.
-If making calzones, bake for 25-35 mins at 375, until the crust is golden brown.

Now for the TUTORIAL:
How to make your blog post titles in a cute font:
I have read and read and read how to do this on kevinandamanda.com so many times but was nervous about it. After deciding to not be a wuss, I attempted to do it and boy was it easy! She has TONS of cute fonts and great tutorials! Go HERE to learn how to do it. Trust me, its easy.