Welcome 2012!

Happy New Year everyone!  I am excited for 2012 – have a feeling it will be a good year!  I’ve done a little thinking about my goals for this year and did a scrapbook LO of them – can’t wait to look back at the end of the year and see how I did!

We spent the New Year weekend at a friends cabin in the U.P. – Drummond Island.  It was a fun weekend, and kind of nice to go out for a weekend getaway.  The kids loved playing with their friends!

We did a night of bowling too – one of the only things to go out and do on the island!

And I finished 6 LO’s while up there – they all came together fast and it’s amazing what you can get done when you don’t have internet!!! 

So, we get to start out our 2012 year with a cruise!  Kyle won it thru his work, and we quickly booked a weekend that would work with our parents who will be helping out with the kids, so we booked it only a month before departure!!!  I am beyond excited, and we have never been on a cruise before, and it’s something that we definitely would probably not do if we had to pay for it ourselves!  We are BLESSED!

Advent Cookie Sheet Calendar

Here is my take on the advent cookie sheet calendar that I made yesterday.  My goal was to get it done before Dec. 1, and I did!!!  I used Picture a Christmas {Advent} kit by Jacque Larson and Amber Clegg!  This made it super easy to quick whip up my calendar!

I printed the cute picture sheet after resizing it to fit my cookie sheet, and also the stars.  Then I cut out the stars and put a little piece of magnet on the back of each!  I primed and spray painted my old cookie sheet, which I had no problem parting with, and then I used a little modge podge to stick down the calendar I printed!  I jazzed it up just a bit with the alpha and little glitter tape down each side. 

All in all I like how it turned out, and I know the girls will LOVE counting down and putting the stars up to await the birth of baby Jesus!  I wish my cookie sheet hadn’t come out quite so dark and the glitter tape didn’t quite contrast enough.  Maybe I will put some extra goodies on the edges to spice it up.  Got any suggestions?!

 

Jacque and Amber have a couple different Christmas Countdown sets in the store today, so if you are looking to whip up a calendar before Dec. 1, you can grab one and print it out – easy peasy!

 

MandaKay

Christmas Subway Art

Thanksgiving is done, and everyone is in full swing to Christmas!  I have hung our stockings by the chimney with care, the Christmas tree is up and decorated, and I am a good way towards having my shopping done!!!  Part of decorating for me lately has been making crafty things.  Pinterest has become a HUGE inspiration to me, and I love getting a little crafty and into some decorating – it’s generally not me AT ALL!!!  One of the ways I have enjoyed decorating for each season is to print out one of the many “subway wordart” pieces pertaining to each season!  There are so many great ones out there!  Our church is hosting an Advent Art Show where members of the congregation were asked to submit pieces of art that centered around the theme “Peace on Earth Goodwill Toward Men”.  I figured that a framed subway art piece would be perfect, so I began gathering “Advent” related words.  My sister Shawn helped me to finalize it and perfect it, so it was kind of a collaborative effort!

To help you decorate for christmas I am offering up the 8 x 10 subway art piece that we came up with!  The Advent season is one of my favorites, and this art piece shows all the reasons why!  I printed mine up on my home printer, trimmed to 8x10 since I printed on 8 1/2 x 11, and then put it in this frame that I bought for $5.99 at Michaels!  Love cheap decorations!  I hope you enjoy!  Here is my copy:

And one of the things Shawn did with my original rough draft was to offer it in two color options, so you can choose which one bests fits your style!

{Download Here}                                                {Download Here}               

 

Off to do some more gift making and Christmas decorating now!!!   I pray you enjoy this Advent season and take in all the joy and anticipation of the coming of Christ!

 

MandaKay

I think about it.

My blog.  I think about it often.  I try to remember to get on here and post something, and then I run out of time.  The girls and I got talking a few days ago about how many kids they want to have some day, and I need to get their answers down in here so I don’t forget!  The sticky note on my counter will inevitably get lost or thrown away, so if I get it down here I can reference it later.  But for now I am just gonna clean out my layouts folder to share what I have done lately.

Summer is winding down and I think I am ready for the routine of school.  I get a little nervous about all the things that will need to be done each day, but I can tackle them!  We are looking forward to the long weekend of Labor Day – lots of family time!  Hope you all have a great weekend as well!

Short Hair for Summer!

Braelyn has been bugging me to cut her hair short for the last month or so.  I wanted to keep it long until her gymnastics meet, which was last Thur. night.  So on Friday she was already begging me to cut her hair!  The girl doesn’t skip a beat!  So last Friday night I spent giving haircuts to Braelyn and then Selah!  They both have new summer short hair!

And of course some LO’s I have finished up since the last time I posted LO’s on here.  All of them using The-Lilypad product!  That store just keeps getting better and better!

Don’t forget to visit the Lilypad Store this weekend for all of the sales and new products!

We have a busy busy end of our week and weekend – but all fun stuff mostly!  Lots of cookouts with friends and family and a little work for mom and dad.  The 4th of July is always a fun summer holiday!

Have a great rest of your week!

MandaKay

Once a Month Post

Guess I can barely call this blog my “Everyday Life” blog when I have been updating it only once a month lately!  I may have to come up with a new clever title!    As usual, and much like everyone else in life…things are busy!  Summer Break is officially here, and so all three kiddos are home with me on the days I am home and don’t work.  Our first week was very fun, very busy, and I guess I could say successful!  I think the kids would consider it that  at least!  I on the other hand felt a little overwhelmed with everything.  The constant questions about who can we play with, what can we have to eat, can so and so eat over, can we swim, can we have a play date, etc….Let alone the fact that they were in and out of the house a million times a day.  I had to keep telling myself that it was all ok, and that they are just being kids and enjoying summer!  This week we have a few more structured things planned which will be good!

Without sounding like I am whining, I just have to complain about the house for sale business.  I am so sick of trying to sell our house.  I keep telling Kyle that this is the last time I am doing this.  We are staying in the next house!   I am so sick of showings, so sick of hearing that people don’t like this or that about a house I LOVE, and sick of being in the top 2 or 3 choices for someone and showing our house 2-3 times to the same couple just to have them decide on another house.  I don’t get my hopes up when we have a showing.  I pretty much go into it thinking it won’t amount to anything, but I stress about having the house spotless and making it perfect, because you know it just takes that “1” right buyer.  And needless to say, doing that with 3 kids, and at kind of inconvenient times  in a bad market is just exhausting.  There.  My rant is over on that!

I haven’t been really into scrapping lately for some reason.  I’ve never had this much of a lull with that, but I have been trying.  Spring/Summer is always a tough time to scrap because there is always so much going on, so I am cutting myself some slack!  Here are some pages I have done since my last post though!

 

Our basement is now drywalled, painted, and on it’s way to being finished!  I am loving how it is turning out – it’s always fun to see your plan come together!  I’ve been repurposing some things and painting some canvases for art – which gives such a sense of accomplishment!  And Kyle has been doing some things on his own that he hadn’t done before like laying wood laminate floor and putting up a tile backsplash!

And one more thing to talk about!  We went geocaching today!!!  Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online.  I had heard from a couple people that it’s so much fun and that the kids would love it, so I suggested we do some while we were on our bike ride to the park.  The girls got excited and we really enjoyed the hunt for the little boxes!  This is the site that we got our locations off of, and while we didn’t do it the exact way we were supposed to, by putting in the coordinates into a gps, we got the location from the geocaching website and then used some clues and ideas from the map!  We did two today, and they both were a little tough to find at first, but after some hunting we finally found both and signed our team to them!!!  The girls were enjoying it, and at the park they mainly wanted to find the box rather than play on the playground!  If you haven’t tried geocaching yet, you really should give it a go – there are hidden treasures everywhere!

Have a great week!!!

MandaKay