{laundry room} revamp!

Our laundry room is small and plain white...and had a cluttered feeling. So I decided to organize and jazz it up a bit. I spent less than $10 on this revamp!
I started by removing the manatee rug...it was well loved but totally dingy and I was not digging the fringe edges anymore. I ended up replacing it with a solid brown rug {from Dollar General when there was a half price coupon on home items!}

Next I picked up a basket for $2.00 {also half price at Dollar General} to house odds and end cleaning supplies. Then I added some glass jars for clothespins, dryer sheets and a small one for buttons, etc. The blue tub between the laundry baskets holds extra dryer sheets, fabreze spray and lint rollers.

I also created an art piece for the walls! I used some felt American Crafts thickers to spell out "wash, dry, fold" and then hand wrote "repeat". I cut a shirt and some socks out of felt and added them to the piece.

I didn't want to paint the room so I made a banner to add some much needed color and cuteness to the space {fabrics I had on hand were all from JoAnn's}! I just cut triangles and then zigzag stitched them onto a long piece of ribbon.

Here is a glimpse at the whole space refreshed! I just love it!!! :D

fun with {squares}

We just loved the book My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall....so when I saw he had a new book we requested it from the library straight away...

It is called Perfect Square and it is perfectly delightful! ;)

It is about a square who is just happy being a square but then gets cut, ripped, crumpled and holes poked in. It journeys through a week and shows what he is turned into each day. We decided to recreate 2 of our favorites from the book...

I gave Little Bit a square of yellow paper and let her rip it into pieces. Then I drew some stems on a white piece of paper and she glued the scraps of yellow on the stems to make flowers.

For this one Little Bit wadded up a square of purple paper then flattened it back out. I helped her rip it in half and then she glued it together to make a mountain. Then we each drew some clouds in the sky.

She really enjoyed the book and these projects!

project {life}... week 5

I finally got more pictures printed and am continuing to move right along with my project life style scrapbooking! This week was all about warmer weather and the Super Bowl!

We ended January with some warm days! A park day was top on our list and we took a couple walks around our neighborhood. We also got an early Valentines present for the 3 of us....a Wii! Dancing and bowling are our favorite games to play!

For the Super Bowl we got together with some friends and had a great time...yummy food, crafting, fun commercials and lots of kid play!

Here is a close up of one accent I used on this spread. Little Bit and I were shopping at Meijer and they had some food sample booths advertising things for the Super Bowl. A Pepsi booth had these coasters, so I picked one up thinking it would be great to include this week!

green monster {smoothie}

I saw this recipe several weeks ago and thought it sounded yummy....and a great way to get more veggies in my diet. Well spinach was on sale and I scored a carton of free almond milk, so I gave it a try. Yum!

Ingredients:
1 frozen sliced banana
1 Tbsp peanut butter
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup milk {I used vanilla almond milk}
Baby spinach

Directions:
Add first 4 ingredients to blender, top off with baby spinach. Pulse about 5-7 times to mix in spinach, then blend until smooth.

Makes two 8 oz smoothies!

Christmas card photo book...

One of my goals for January was to finish up my December Daily book {which I did!} and do something with all the Christmas card photos we received. I always love getting the photos but struggle with what to do with them, but was looking for something different to try. I had seen several people put together small books. So here is my attempt...

I just used cardstock to make a front and back to the book. I measured the largest photo and made sure the covers were at least that big. I used the card front of a Christmas card as the "title" for the cover. I just added the 2011.

Then I paired up the photos with others that were the same size and glued them backs together. I punched holes in them all and added book rings to hold it all together. It turned out so cute and will be fun getting out each year at Christmas to reminisce.

project {life}... week 3 & 4

Well this time I decided to combine 2 weeks into one spread. I just didn't have that many pictures from each week....so combining them worked out great. And I still had room to journal all the stories I wanted too!
{I am still having issues with not getting a glare on the page protectors....ugh!}

A few of my favorites from this week were Little Bit singing to me to be judged after we watched some American Idol AND her holding up one of my milk glass vases full of ribbon and saying "I won the ribbon trophy!"....too cute!

{OWL} valentines

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU ALL!!!

Little Bit decided she wanted to make owl valentines for the kids in her preschool class. So I found a template on the Family Fun website and we got creating!

I cut the owls out using some Amy Butler cardstock from K&Company. Little Bit had a great time gluing the eyes on and coloring in the centers. Then we added grey triangle noses and words that said {I'll OWL ways be your friend!}.

{WHO} wouldn't love getting one of these?! ;)

you are {tops} in my book...

Here is a little owl book mark I put together as a valentines gift for our Children's librarian...

I used the owl punch from Stampin' Up and a scallop circle punch to create the topper and then attached it to a jumbo paperclip with foam adhesive.

{I just love the girly touch of adding the eyelashes!!!}

{valentine} tree

We just finished reading 10 Valentine Friends by Janet Schulman. It is such a cute little rhyming story about friends making valentines for each other.

Each time someone makes a new valentine it is added to the side...and you continue the count. As shown here, with the 7 valentines.

We loved the cute little heat tree pictured at bottom, so we decided to make our own!

Little Bit colored the trunk and a big tree top. Then she added some foam hearts. She also had to add a sun like in our inspiration picture! ;)

In the back of the book there were a ton more cute valentines. We might just recreate some of those next!

project {life}... week 2

I am just a little behind, but I am not sweating it. I am loving this process of memory keeping. I am journalling more then I would on monthly layouts so yay! And I'm including pics that I normally wouldn't include.
This week was birthday carryover week. I enjoyed birthday coffee, pancakes and some scrapbooking time at a weekend crop. We also got our first big snow....and Little Bit sure was loving it!

Here are some close up shots of each side...
{Sorry for the glare...these page protectors are hard to photograph!}

I would love to hear what your scrapbooking style is at the moment!

{homemade} hair detangler

Do you request every hair product sample you can get your hands on?! Well I request quite a few because really who doesn't love free shampoo and conditioner! But my problem is, I get them and then they just sit in the drawer because I forget to use them....oops!

I had seen the idea for homemade hair detangler a while ago and thought...I should try making that. We just finished off this bottle from Target so it was the perfect time to whip some up...AND what better to use than my samples of conditioner!
I reused the empty 10 oz bottle, squeezed in 2 sample packets of conditioner and added about 8 oz of warm water. Then I replaced the lid and shook for 30 seconds to mix it all up.

This works great! Little Bit doesn't have real long hair but it sure can get tangled. I think I am going to put together a travel size bottle to keep in our swim bag for combing out wet pool hair!

Have you had any luck with making your own products lately?

Menu Plan Monday

Monday ~ homemade pizza, fruit

Tuesday ~ crock pot hawaiian chicken, rice

Wednesday ~ fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans

Thursday ~ tilapia sticks, mac & cheese, salad

Friday ~ italian beef, chips, fruit

Linking up with Org Junkie...check them out for more recipes

some {sparkly} essie!

Once again Essie is at it again with their new luxeffects line. Meijer sent me a package with the 5 new multi-dimensional top coats to try.

Here is a look at the shiny goodness...as gold as it gets, a cut above, set in stones, pure pearlfection, and shine of the times.

I decided to test them all out and see what I thought. My favorite is shine of the times. Little Bit loves a cut above...she is always wanting sparkles when I paint her nails! These sparkly top coats are great on their own or over your favorite Essie color!

Thanks to Meijer and Essie for this opportunity!

project {life}... week 1

Here is my first week of 2012. It was my birthday and we went to the Wisconsin Dells for a few days. I love collecting tidbits from the everyday and including them in my album.

For this layout I included a card from the outlet store where I did some birthday shopping, a map of the water park/hotel where we stayed, and a piece of the brochure from Uno's where we ate.

I had extra pictures that I wanted to include, so I added an 8.5x11 insert page.
For the insert page, I added 4 photos on some Kraft cardstock and embellished the bottom.

On the other side of the insert of added a picture that Little Bit colored in the kids area at the hotel. How is your scrapbooking going so far this year?!