A What in a Box?

Okay, I must be very behind with the latest information. Has anyone heard of this new phenomenon about crafts-in-a-box being delivered to your door? If you have, why have you not shared?!!! So, I did a search and found many companies doing this craft-in-a-box idea. You can find one for you and the kids to do or one just for you. It is everything you need in one box to create, explore, discover and enrich. When I mean everything, I mean even down to the glue stick needed to use for the craft. Genesis!

Here they are for kids:

Cubby (Uk)

ToucanBox (UK)

Gickey

BabbaBox by Babbaco

Kiwi Crate

Crafts In A Box

LolliBox

For you:

WhimseyBox

ForTheMakers



So, have you tried one? If you have, please share! I am curious. 

Awe......

Well, we knew it was coming but we thought we had more time. This past Tuesday evening our washing machine and dryer decided to quit! We knew it was trouble when we saw rust and water leak from the washing machine. Then in the middle of a spin cycle we saw steam. Yeah, not good! Then the dryer decided not to dry even on the highest temp with the maximum time. Do the machines talk to each other or something? Seriously? Both at the same time. Nothing throws your day off then having one major appliance die on you then add 2! Eeeeekkkkkkk! Hubs and I quickly did the "now, what were we going to buy to replace them?" We thought we had 6 more months to finalize our decision. Oh well! Hubby ventured out to a few appliance stores to see if the washers and dryers we had on our short list measured up. We are so grateful that all the stores were having a sale! We narrowed it down to the top 2 and made out decision. So many dollars later we were committed and had a delivery date, Thursday! That is what I was doing most of my day, yesterday. Clearing out the laundry room, cleaning it, organizing it and making it beautiful.

warning: excuse the bad pics my camera and back up camera are on the fritz. ugh..;0(



From: eeeewwwww 

Very unorganized! I don't know why but this is the one place I allow some messiness. 

To:  awe........

Do you like the pretty containers? Me too!~ 

You thought I was a front load kinda of girl? You were wrong! 

She even sings to me when she is done! Beautiful music! 

Totally Pinterest! Shoe bag that hangs over the door used for cleaning products and such! 

When the delivery guys came they said "excellent purchase!" I admit it made me feel good. When the supervisor explained why it was a great purchase that just made me smile bigger. He told me of a few brands that he is always having to pick back up from the homes. They have a running bet between them as to how long it will be before they are back picking up the appliances to return to the store.  I know that sounds bad. Just goes to show you the people that delivery do know. The supervisor has been working for the company for over 10 years.  So if you have any questions about brand whether if it is front load or top load ask me! I am not an expert by any means. I(we) researched. I(we) asked friends, looked at consumer reports, read reviews and other sources to make the decision.

Now, laundry will be somewhat of pleasure. I admit not my favorite chore but the new look makes me want to get it done! Is that crazy that a few cute boxes & new machines appeal to my homemaker side? Am I the only one that gets excited about such stuff?

Spring!

Okay, maybe it isn't officially Spring but I have the fever. Do you? I am wanting to do things that are Spring-y! Ha!

so....I made this

This is how I did it!

straw wreath and you don't have to remove the plastic!

pick your flower in all different colors

I pulled off the stems to each flower. Then I glued them to the wreath. I did have an order of how the colors should line up but it still did not balance out as well as I wanted it to.

glue gun

thick ribbon any color of your choosing and you don't have to cut!

Once I finished gluing all the flowers on, I just tied the ribbon to the hanger on the door. This is easier than figuring out how much or how long to cut the ribbon.

My Spring Wreath

what it looks like on another door

I priced this type of wreath at stores such as Michael's, Hobby Lobby and Garden Ridge. The lowest price I saw it for was $35. If you waited for a coupon then maybe just maybe you could get it half of that. However, the ones priced at $35 were much smaller than mine. This project cost me well under $20. Now, I really could have saved money if I was paying attention to the ads that week because one of the competitors had marked their flowers down over 50% off. I only got a 40% off discount. So, could have been closer to the $12 price range. The fun part of making your own is you can do whatever you want! So, I challenge you to get out and do a simple project such as mine. My son also helped me in this project!

"It does not have to be perfect to be homemade!"

Bowling Nineveh

Day 8 of a series 31 Days of Serving Others

Go here for introduction

Again this one may seem selfish but all FUN & FUNDS went to a great cause. Plus, who says you can't have fun while serving?

The serving involved was more about writing a check to bowl for the evening. Nineveh Ministries is an outreach to kids in Juvenile detention. They introduce the gospel, create relationships, initiate bible studies and incorporate the church to create life-long community. They raise funds through people buying a ticket to bowl and they have a silent auction. Hubby and I could have just written a check and never bowled for the night. What fun is it that? The goal of the night was to raise awareness for the ministry and FUNDS to support those involved. It was way more FUN to participate. Plus, we had the opportunity to meet a few of the teens whom have been forever changed by this wonderful ministry. It gave hubby and I a little time together so it served us as well! It made us laugh at ourselves trying to accomplish bowling straight down the middle of the lane. We learned that we both have a little spin in each of our technique(if ya wanna call it that) to bowl. Hubby after just a few bowls was scoring some high points. I might add his finger on his right hand was injured so he really was bowling the ball without inserting his fingers in the hole. You never realize how important those holes in the ball are for bowling until you can't use them. He got a couple of strikes during his game! ME? I bowled okay the first game and it took awhile to get a rhythm going in my game. Once I did I bowled much better the second game. We also learned bowling is kinda of fun for a date night. The food was good, atmosphere was great and the music was from the 80's & 90's. We really enjoyed getting to know other couples and learning about a wonderful ministry called Nineveh.

So have you been bowling lately for a good cause? If so, share here what your experience was like. I thought it was a clever way to get people involved and raise awareness! Especially when on a Sunday at this bowling ally they only charge $5 to bowl all night. Obviously, the Nineveh Ministry charged more than that so they could raise their funds for the ministry. Also, they had a drawing for a new IPAD! Nope we didn't win. Hubby was really bummed. Guys and their toys!

Psalm 25:5 “Guide me in your Truth and Teach me, for you are God my Savior and my hope is in you all day long. ”

Go here for other 31 Dayers(over 700)

Finger Paints

Last week my son and I were painting with watercolors when I realized we were nearing the end of our palette. He LOVES Art! Which is so much fun for this momma! Anyway, I thought if I can make homemade playdough surely I can do paint. I began a search. I did find a few recipes and they all seemed pretty similar so I just picked one.

This recipe comes from http://www.creativekidsathome.com/activities/activity_42.html

Original Fingerpaint

Ingredients

1/2 cup cornstarch

3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cold water
food coloring

Directions:In a medium pan, mix all the ingredients together to make the finger paint. Cook over low heat 10 to 15 minutes. Keep stirring the finger paint mixture until it is smooth and thick. After the finger paint has thickened take the pan off the stove and let the mixture cool.After cooling, divide the finger paint into storage containers depending on how many colors you would like. Add a few drops of food coloring to each container. Stir the coloring in to the paint to determine the shade of color. You're ready to finger paint! Cover tightly when storing.

Here is how mine come out. The only problem I came across was the consistency was not the same with each color so I need to readjust how I prepared them. I am sure it is all USER ERROR! HA!

I did add water & salt. I just forgot to set it next to the other ingredients.

The purple was the best as far as consistency and when using on paper.

I am definitely going to try several recipes to find the one that works for us. Making our own is so worth it since my son paints ALL the time!

Hello

Yep, I am still here! Kinda reminds me of that song we sing at church.."God is not dead, No! He is alive....." Umm, yeah like that only Mrs. C is not dead, NO! She is alive!  Okay sorry for the trailing off ...

Anyway, where have I been? Working. working and yet more work! Plus, hubby did get a job in Austin. Yes, that is right you heard me, Austin! Of course some of you already know this since you do see me in r.l. No we are not moving to Austin yet. I don't even know if we will for sure or when I would know. Hubby's contract job is for a year so we saw no need in uprooting the family. We have been seeing each other on the weekends. That is all coming to a very short stop. He will be on call for a couple of weekends so we will go as short as 14 days or as long as 21 days of not seeing each other. YIKES!  How are we coping you ask? Pretty good! Much better this weekend then the past few together. I think we may have found our groove. It sometimes takes awhile to get into a "normal" routine. HA HA, what is normal?! I guess you could say I am a single parent Monday-Friday and sometimes longer than that.

So the last time I left off we were on vacation. I am so sorry to drop the ball on that one but I believe you got the drift. Obviously, I am not going to be able to catch you up in one short post so....

I will leave you with this...Lately, I have been thinking long and hard about what is needed in our life. Order. Order and yet more ORDER! It has become vitally important now that our time together is so short but sweet! I have been working on making things run smoother. Heck we could all tighten up our ships a little. I am not necessarily talking about "clean, perfect" houses. I am talking order or as some people call it "organized."  Where everything has a place! So, I have begun the...dum de dum....Office! EEEEKKK. I said it! the O word that is typically not mentioned in my house. Yes, ladies and maybe gentlemen I have confessed my weakness to you(hangs head low). Okay maybe I have more than one weakness. Anyway, let's focus on one thing. I(we) need order there! It is where bills are paid, photos are created, blogs are faithful(cough-cough), beautiful books are displayed, and just maybe a cup of coffee is sipped. I would say the Office here at my house is pretty important to keep in some form of order. Maybe you call it something else. The study, the junk room, the place where you use to dream of___, the cave, the napping room, the scrap-booking room, or the whatever room!! You know the room and you know you need to get to it! So do it! I am and let me tell you I have invested in some help so hang with me to see the process.

Oh and one last thing...my little man reading his favorite magazine. Daddy is so proud!





love your unfaithful blogger

Trouble

I am so sorry that I have not posted in awhile but we have been having trouble with our computer among other things. Our desk top crashed on us so that leaves me with nothing. Hubby is having to download everything from the back up to his lap top. I can not share with you our Colorado pictures or any others until that is done from his end. Our garage door broke last week, we have a bug problem that is being fixed Monday, and My Uncle Billy passed away this week. Needless to say it has been a little crazy here the past few weeks. Just continue to be patient with me(us). I love y'all and thank you for the prayers for hubby to gain employment. We still have not heard anything from his last interview.

until next time.....

Eat, Pray, Love =0) I think that this will be a good one to go see!

Flooring

Well, we decided to redo the laundry room. New paint, new shelves, and new flooring. We picked travertine for the flooring. It is easier(in my opinion) to lay down travertine than tile. You have to deal with spacers and start from the center of the room. Travertine it is like a puzzle piece that you put together and can cut as you go along to make things fit. No I did not use a wet saw but I did use mortar and help hubby finish off the flooring by doing the border around the flooring. I even did the grout. The travertine is all different patterns but in the same family so it looks more like stone when your done. I am very proud of myself! This is something that I thought I couldn't do but in the end found out I could and I loved it! My friend Mrs. TD is the most handy woman I have ever met. I think she would be proud of me!

Here are before and a few after...I have more after but have not downloaded them yet...

[caption id="attachment_568" align="alignleft" width="300" caption=" linoleum on top of linoleum was how the previous owner "fix it""][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_570" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="This picture is not the complete after shot. I will post that later!"][/caption]

Now, you can't tell but once you seal the flooring, it gets darker and the colors of each travertine piece come together. I promise it looks good! We had so much fun! Okay, maybe there were a few problems but we worked them out. Homeownership is an interesting journey!