Stuck on Stickers!!!

Help!!! I am totally stuck on stickers!!! Actually, I love it! Oh, and I think I have got it all out of my system! (only time will tell!) After doing this to my baby's room, I realized that Target had safari "stickers" in the clearance aisle, so I ran over and scooped them up! Now, that blank spot over the changing table where you don't want to put something up that will fall down, looks like this...
Love it! Actually, I hated it when I was doing it. It was hard for me to get the stickers off and onto the wall without being harmed (the stickers, not me!), and I was anxious over not having a plan or diagram for where to place them, but I love it more every time I see it! And when now entering the room, it is necessary to yell "monkey" and make monkey noises! Fun!
Another item in the clearance aisle made me think of this...

I bought this plate a few weeks ago at a discount store. Love it! At $2 you can't go wrong, but I felt like it needed something. I was going to stamp it, which I had read about on other blogs, but Target had "stickers" on sale...so, $4 later and now it looks like this...

Much better! And, if that is not enough Target clearance aisle decorating for you, I also stumbled upon these...

I don't think you can tell, but it is a set of three mirrors. I could not believe the price and so I snapped them up without really thinking about where I was going to put them. (you can always return things right?) Well, my husband walked in the door and was amazed at how much bigger they make the room look, I realized that I had just the perfect spot for them, (right at the door so you can check your lipstick before leaving the house--very important!) and I love them more every time I see them too! So, welcome home mirrors! There is just one problem...see the lamp...yeah, I know. It's too big now. Yep. And, see all the darkness...ah ha...not a color in sight. You know what that means...more shopping...and more decorating! (I'm all broken up about that. =) My poor husband!!!

ps--I just realized, the candlestick is also a Target clearance item purchase! I do love Target for decorating! Big plans for that little love...big, big plans (for me anyway)...I'll let you in on it someday!

Creative Couponing!

I love coupons!!! I love couponing!!! I have to admit that I have become a coupon snob, and if I leave the store without having saved at least $30 I am very depressed! However, I hate coupon organizers. I love filing coupons, so I started with this organizer...

I use one for food items and one for 'drug' items. It is a nice holder, but a few things about it really bugged me. Small things really...you have to fold a double coupon in half in order for it to fit and when you get wide coupons they hide the category title making it hard to file coupons away. Luckily, fate--in the form of my cutie-pie eating machine called a dog--intervened and I was down an organizer. What to do? Well, dust off my sewing machine and try to put one together myself. Here's the result...

I love it! I used the one I have as a model, found fabric remnants at WalMart, put some interfacing between them to make it a bit stiffer, and sewed them together with bias tape. It was so easy and a great beginners project! This is the first completed sewing project that my machine has seen, so I am quite proud, and don't even care about the little imperfections that are there. Oh, and it only took an hour and a half!

I made the dividers from file folders by cutting them and extra half inch wide and then cutting out the tabs. I have a new favorite tool--a corner rounder--that made things all pretty, and I am in business! It is so easy to file away my coupons now, and the pride that comes from being able to use something that I made is incredible!

Sewing, it works for me!!! Well, I should be paying bills right now--or sleeping--so I leave you with one more look...

and an encouragement: if you have something boring to do and you would like a tool of procrastination go over to weareTHATfamily.com and check out this weeks "Works for Me Wednesday" there are always tons of great tips and they are worthy of a good hour or two of "productive" procrastination!!!

Progress!

As my toddler turns into a pre-schooler, I started thinking about re-decorating his room, getting a big boy bed, etc. As we are big fans of the alphabet song right now, I thought it would be fun to create a chair rail boarder with the alphabet. I was thinking of cutting the letters out of wallpaper so that they would be colorful, and have different patterns on them, but fate decided to decorate for me! I happened upon some Alphabet wall "stickers" at Kmart for $3 and could not turn it down! Here's what the room looked like before...

Boring, right? Here is the after...

I can not believe how cute it is, or how easy and fast it was to do! And my son loves it! He goes over to the wall now, pointing to the letters and singing the ABCs! Cute and educational! Love it!

Of course, you know what that means now right? There is a big, sad, empty space over the changing table....I think Target has some Safari "stickers" on clearance....I guess I'll see you later! =)

How Ya Doin'?

So, how are you doing?
I mean you. How are you doing? Do you even know?

I have been lost in blog-land. Too many blogs, not enough time. Plus, there is a tasty bit of gossip playing out in the blogs right now...if you like gossip...I read blogs (well, most of them) because I find that they energize me. The colors, the pictures, the ideas, the money saving tips. All are fabulous and I have found that they help keep the fire under me lit. I totally scored in a purchase today--it was an idea that I saw and liked on a blog. I made my own chicken stock last week--another idea I got from a blog. I am totally recovering my dinning chairs with a vinyl table cloth--at least until I no longer have toddlers! This idea came to me because my creative brain has been sparked by blogs. I love blogs! I love reading blogs! But even though I get more creative "fire" from blogs, I realized lately that there are other things that keep my fire burning that are just as important that I have been neglecting--journaling, praying, reading Scripture, walking, laughing with my family, talking with loved ones--all these things are vital to my life. My passion for my home has been awakened by the blogs, but I have a tendancy to put all my eggs in one basket, and as strong as my fire is right now, I have to say that my little voice has become very hard to hear.

So, how are you doing?

Because reading other people's words, seeing other people's homes, agreeing with other people's ideas is one thing, but your little voice is more important and I have been shutting mine out. I blame her. She is saying things I don't want to hear--that project looks fun, but save your money instead; wait, it's not time yet; go slow, focus on what you already have; your time will come but its not here yet...
Tomorrow is my birthday. It's a big one. And my little voice is using this special event to wake my brain up and remind me that she is still there and she is smarter then all the rest.
(Oh, and thanks for asking...I'm going to be 28...for a while, I think!)

Maybe you are like me. Maybe your little voice has grown distant. What can you do to reconnect? Because blog friends are great and inspiring, but your little voice is the friend that will always be there waiting for you.

Tomorrow I am going to celebrate. I am going to celebrate one more year of life. I am going to celebrate another opportunity to be alive, to make an impact, and give love away. I am going to celebrate my little voice--the person that I am--by taking some time out of the day to focus on her. After all, we capitalize the word "I" because it is important. And the next time I sit down at my computer to go into blog-land, I think I will start with my own blog first!

ps--I find gossip tastes sour after a while anyway...