Going on Vacation

Yes, the time as come for me to drive home and see my parents for a week.

It has been too long since I have seen them - over a year. I can't wait!

I told my mom that I want to do at least three things with her:

1. Go for a walk

2. Do a sewing project together (maybe a dress)

3. Teach me how to knit.

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I will be away making memories for a least a week. I will miss you peeps!

I'll try to pop in and say, "HI!"

On The Edge with Cassie

Cassie from You Go Girl has supplied a great tutorial called On The Edge. She takes us through step-by-step how to make these pillowcases with a beautiful crocheted edge.

Step 1: Getting the Goods -gathering supplies

Step 2: Stitching up a Storm -- sewing the pillowcases

Step 3: Firm Foundation -- prepare edges for crocheting

Week 4: On the Edge--crocheting the scallop pattern

Are you ready to crochet along with Cassie and her On The Edge tutorial?

Getting Started

Do you remember my blog post about doing a scrapbook about marriage advice/truths?

Well this past weekend, I was in Hobby Lobby (pure sweetness) and I found this great little 8x8 scrapbook by S.E.I. I love that is prepackaged so I don't have to spend extra time finding the right papers and embellishments. It is all right there. It also has a layout idea for each page. But I don't want to do that, I want to branch out.

I am really excited to get started!

So my question to you guys and gals . . . in one sentence can you give me some marriage advice/truth?

Get yours here

Recycled - Upcycled Sweaters

Okay, I know this whole thing about upcycling sweaters and using the yarn for another project has been around for a while, but I just came across it last night. It is brilliant! Yarn is so expense especially good quality yarn.

I found a couple of tutorials that explain the whole process better. Craftstylish and Craftzine

Holy cows, are you as excited I am!? I will never look at a thrift store the same again. Think about all the over/undersized sweaters that won't come close to fitting you but the yarn is fabulous. Think about all the ugly sweaters that are made out of wool or cashmere. How about your own closet? Or does your someone in your family have a sweater that is ugly or doesn't fit anyone? And think about garage sales too!

I can't wait until Monday when the Salvation Army here in town has all their clothes 50% off! Yikes! I might be going a little crazy!

Upcycled yarn from a thrifted sweater

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Recycled yarn from a sweater bought on Etsy

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Remains from a recycled sweater

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Peach Berry Twist Recycled Handspun Yarn from a Sweater

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Have you guys tried this yet? If not, have I inspired you to start?

May's Sentences

One sentence for every day in May:

,,,,,,,,,,,,1. My happy place is being right beside you.

2. “Whenever I am right now. . .whatever I am doing . . . I am thinking of you.”

3. Drawing final. Check.

4. Let’s see if I can stay on track with my “One Month to Live” project.

5. I am officially a Passion Party Consultant.

6. Thanks, Seesta, for the great advice. I miss you!

7. I am so excited for a weekend full of baseball.

8. “Every time we kiss I can’t help but think: This is what I have waited for my whole life.”

9. Happy Mother’s Day to the best mom in the whole wide world.

10. Monica loves Coach V

11. Sushi and Jessica –two of my favorite things together in one day – bliss.

12. I get to be a middle school science teacher for three days.

13. It feels good to dress up for work, I like looking like a professional.

14. It is time to just do it so that I can say,” I just did it.”

15. Me: Team Edwards. You: Team Jacob

16. Sunday afternoon’s drives are so relaxing and begin back so many memories.

17. Students who need to have padded rooms are too much for me.

18. 3.921? Well, it is my grade point average with 118 credits!

19. I love the look of ripped up jeans over tights!

20. All day I thought of what an amazing teacher you are, those special Ed kids are so blessed to have you.

21. New invention: sweatshirt pillow. So I can cuddle with you even when you aren’t here.

22. We had a warm, toasty car, the boys has sleet and snow.

23. We adventured to the cross!

24. I think it is time to read a book.

25. I was a cleaning, working, art journaling, blogging, baking, picture uploading diva today!

26. The students are just as crazy as the last time I went to the padded classroom.

27. God works in mysterious ways – I am off today but I probably won’t have made it if I were because my cramps are so horrible.

28. Movies are just movies; you have to separate them from your life.

29. Remember that time isn’t always bad thing but a beneficial and good thing too.

30. Best memory of the weekend: sitting on blanket at the park and listening to each other read from our book.

31. I can’t go on enough bike rides with you.

New Treasury

I just created a new treasury called: Lets Go Camping

I loved to go camping when I was a little girl.

My parents converted an old bus into a camper.

I loved making s'mores, fishing on one of the many 10,000 lakes in MN, and most of all spending time with my family and grandparents.

There were also times when we would pitch a tent in the backyard for those weekdays that we had to stay home.

Lots of fun and lots of memories.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Home Sweet Home A-Z

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I saw this on RunWithScissors last week and thought how fun! If you haven't seen Janel's blog, it is one of my favorites so please go check it out.

A- My AIR CONDITIONER is set on: I don't have air conditioning, but my heater is currently off

B- My BEDROOM theme is: paisley with browns and sage green

C- The CAR in the driveway is: Blue G6 Pontiac

D- My DESK looks: covered with beads and paper

E- The EXACT time I wake up daily is: 6:15

F- The FIRST thing I wash in the shower is: my hair

G- My GARAGE is filled with: I don't have one

H- My HOME is: a 4-plex, I live in the bottom left corner.

I- If you peeked INSIDE my bathroom you'd see: a paisley, maroon and soft brown shower curtain, a sage rug with towels that don't even come close to matching anything

J- My favorite JUICE is: grape

K- The best part of my KITCHEN is: pictures and love notes that are hung with altered clothes pins hung on hand knitted garland across the window.

L- The LAST person who visited my home was: Our friend, Trevor, and his little guy

M- The last piece of MAIL for me was: Bills

N- My NEIGHBORS think I'm: Nice but like to have the volume too loud when we watch movies (that is what I think they would say)

O- If you OPENED my fridge you'd see: condiments, milk, tons of creamer, and stuff that needs to be thrown away

P- My last house PARTY was: Does girls coming over for a craft night count? Otherwise, never a official party. :(

Q- A QUICK meal I like to fix is: CEREAL

R- My favorite ROOM of the house is: "Our Room" - A place where I create and Art writes.

S- The SHAMPOO brand I use is: Avon but will be switching when I run out

T- My largest TELEVISION is: in the living room, it is our only one.

U- UNDER my bed you will find: shoes and wrapping paper

V- The last time I VACUUMED was: Last week - I was proud of myself

W- Looking out my WINDOW I see: trees, grass, cars, apartments, a road, a blue sky with some clouds, and the sun

X- I wish I had X-TRA: closet space

Y- My YARD is: too small

Z- ZZZZZZZ My bedtime is: around 10:00pm

Okay, that was a lot of fun. I recommend you try it too. Please post a link if you decide to.

Giveaway Winner!

Sorry that the picture is blurry but the winner of the earrings is . . .

HEARTHANDMADE

Congrats and thanks to all that entered.

HeartHandMade please comment or email me.

:)

Giveaway Reminder

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Remember today is the last chance to enter my giveaway.

Please be sure to comment so that you can get your name in the bucket!

Click here for the post.

Houndstooth

Geometric shapes are circling the Internet everywhere I look. (Do you like my pun?)

I got to thinking what is my favorite pattern is and hands down it is houndstooth. I just love it.

It reminds me of vintage and wool. I would love to own a pea coat in wool someday.

Take a look at some items I found covered in beautiful houndstooth.

retroholic

decotodiscovintage

janejoss

pulpandpaisley

LuckyBluebirdArt

petals

avrilloreti

QuietDoing

kangas

however

Please tell me what yours is!

Cross-Stitched Aprons

One of the first crafty things I learned as a little girl was how to cross-stitch.

Thanks to my mom, my sister and I were cross-stitching up a storm for many years.

But, now I have grown away from it and so has my sister.

However, I have started to think about cross-stitching again . . .

about all those memories and projects that I have created throughtout the years.

But, I also have been thinking about it today and how people are applying a modern flair to it.

I thought aprons would be the ulitimate out of the box idea.

So, the search was on to see if I could find the two together and it was SUCCESS!

splendorinthetrash

lesjardinsdevie

sweetandlight

theemptynest

What do you guys think?

Do you like them as much as I do?

LOVE THIS IDEA!

Check this out. . . Julie Fei from Balzer Designs posted this awesome layout yesterday.

Look at it closely. . .what part of it do you think I loved the most and has inspired me big time?

Yes, there is a lot about this layout that I love. I mean love!

The thing that hooked me was the beautiful quote painted on a page from a book.

But, then I saw. . .

The title!

"Marriage Truth"

I love it. I love it. I love it.

I need to do a mini scrapbook about many mini marriage truths.

(How about that 'm' alliteration!)

Yes, I am not married but I feel like I am in my heart.

I think that is all that matters . . . what the heart says not a piece of paper.

101 Post = Giveaway!

Well, here it is my 101th post. Wow. This is a huge accomplishment for me.

I have worked hard and am so proud of myself.

I wanted to so something special for this big milestone.

So, I thought why not have a giveaway!

I made these earrings, and I would love to send them to a deserving home.

If you would like a chance to win these earrings, please leave a comment below of what you would like to see more of in my blog or what has been your favorite post.

To double your chances, post this giveaway on your blog or facebook and post back with the link.

To triple your chances, become a follower on my blog or if you already please tell me you already are.

You have until Sunday 11:59pm Mountain standard time to be entered.

Books. Books. Books

Not including textbooks, these are the only books I read last year.

Count them: one, two three four.

Sad. Sad. Sad.

Now the only thing that is even sadder is that I haven't read any yet this year.

However, I have been thinking about it.

But where to start?

There are so many books out there.

Plus, they take up so much time.

However, I have been thinking about doing the whole book on tape/cd thing.

That might be the best bet for me.

I can still create while listening to a great story.

But, the experience might not be the same.

What do you guys think?

Read or listen?

Also, any suggestions on what book to start with?

Your help is much needed!

Thanks!

P.S. The Shack and The Five Love Languages are tied for first for my favorites.

A "Someday" Tattoo

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This photo has been marked in my flickr favorites for quite sometime now. If I were to get another tattoo, I think I would get one like this. I love the message of flying away, to set yourself free. We work so hard to ground ourselves, but what happens if we jump and take risks? I am ready to fly. I am ready to take this life adventure and look it from a whole new perspective: from the clouds. I can't wait to see things from the top instead of the ground. I am ready to use my wings and soar!

Movies

I was inspired by Jamie Water's layout titled Movies. Art and I are always going to the movies or renting a couple of movies on the weekend. So, we have tons of tickets subs that we have collected over the years. This layout was perfect and related so well to our lives. . .

Here is my interpetation of her layout. . .

Have you scraplifted any layouts lately? I would love to see some pages!

Tights part II

So, I am starting to really love the look of tights. However, I am sad :( that I don't have any. But, that can be easily changed. :) Yesterday, when I was browsing for inspriational images I found this look quite fasinating too: Tights and ripped jeans.

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What do you guys think? Are you a fan or not?

Black Ripped Tights

This post was inspired by a second grader. I was subbing one day at an elementary school, and this sweet girl had on a purple, stripped dress with black ripped tights. I am sure that she ripped them at school because they were really ripped. I mean I would throw those babies in the trash and if I were her mom, I would never let my daughter leave the house with those on. But, I have a little confession. Those ripped tights looked so adorable on her. I mean here is this skinny little brunette hopping around the second grade classroom in a dress and extremely ripped tights. I was loving it and thinking to myself I need to do a blog post about this. I love this look and it looks almost as cute on women (a second grader is hard competition).

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