Lets train: August 2017

Monday, August 21, 2017

Armageddon

Is the world coming to an end? You'd think so, with the way people are acting up here. In case you haven't heard [ALL day on EVERY station], good ol' Brett is officially retiring. Well, not officially but it's pretty much a done deal.

A few of my patients at the hospital were very emotional about this loss. Others were really ticked off. I thought about calling Nate to see if he was okay with this news. But my goodness, the man isn't dead, people. He's played a physically demanding sport for 16 seasons. I think it's time he moved on, especially while he's still on top. Look at his beautiful daughters and tell me he shouldn't spend more time with them:

Little known facts about Saint Brett, God of All Things in Wisconsin [well, at least I didn't know these things]

He had BRACES when he first started playing for the Pack
He was only 22 then and really cute [now he's just hott]
He went to rehab before it was cool. I guess he was addicted to vicodin?
The man is 38 years old and damn fine. Oops, I knew that already.

I love his adorable southern drawl, his commitment to the game and to his team, and his seemingly admirable relationship with Deanna. I'll miss Favre but I'm not crying or anything.

Other reasons to support the end of time drawing near?

The kitchen is almost done. Seriously. We are so close now!
Henry is going to the vet tomorrow. And the groomer on Thursday. Cross your fingers they don't turn me in for doggie neglect [although Nicole is right....I prove my eternal love for Henry by simply going outside in the crappiest weather ever. I have only briefly considered toilet training him instead.]
St. Louis actually got a "Snow Storm" while Wisconsin did not. And tomorrow, when it's 50 degrees down there, it will completely melt and Missouri will see something called "grass" again. I'm not sure Wisconsin has anymore of that stuff under there:)
We did not write a rent check out on March 1, and this week we both get paid. Are we actually saving money?! What is going on in this world?

I forgot one thing on my Miscellaneous Monday post:

1. My mother-in-law is a ridiculous cook and we are officially spoiled. She seriously cooks a three course meal, complete with like three side dishes, each night. For example: Sunday night we had a fresh salad, lasagne, fresh baked bread, and Texas sheet cake for dessert. Yesterday we had cheeseburgers with sauteed onions [I never think of that stuff!], curly fries, fresh fruit, cole slaw, a salad, and cookies for dessert. When we are on our own, we are lucky if we muster up enough energy to throw in a frozen pizza a few times per week.

Lois acts like it's no biggie but I'm flabbergasted at her skills. Not only does she cook up a storm but that woman can grocery shop like none other [something that I severely despise]. She literally buys two of everything at the g.store and goes a few times per week. AND....get this....her deli turkey is $9.00 per pound! Holy crap. We buy the cheapest stuff on sale each week, for about $3/pound. So we are living the good life right now until our kitchen is up and running. Then we are both going to have withdrawls from her feasts. I'm not going to lie, it's a pretty sweet deal we have right now. No cooking, no grocery shopping? I'm in heaven:)

DIY R Us

I decided to share some of my favorite do-it-yourself projects I've done in the past few years. If you've followed my blog since it's conception most of this will be old news, but maybe it will inspire you to do something completely different.

PROJECT #1: Wanna-be-on-HGTV-fabric-covered-headboard.

I documented this bad boy on my blog last March, but of course the pictures are all blurry now that Shutterfly turned psycho on me. Here is one picture to jog your memory. Then read my post for instructions.

It's still standing, which is a good sign. And I'm not even sick of it yet! I highly highly suggest this project because it's cheap, relatively easy, and turns out beautiful...in my opinion.

PROJECT #2: Can-I-Have-the-Template-for-that? table numbers.

Ah, our wedding table numbers. They are practically celebrities in their own right considering that more brides have emailed me about this project than any other. Although I made a boat load of DIY projects for the wedding, and they all hold a special place in my heart, I wanted to narrow it down to just one selection that is wedding related...so here you go:

#1 Buy a bunch of miniature wooden easels on Ebay from seller donna-dave. I purchased the larger size of the two which are $3 a pop. [I sold my easels after the wedding and recouped a lot of this money. I'm so frugal, aren't I?]

#2 Spray paint your new lovelies black. This is when I sustained a DIY-related injury because I got a little too wild with my spray can and injured my wrist. I could barely grip a pencil the next day. True story.

#3 Go to your favorite craft store and buy colored mat board. Obviously I chose green but they have all colors. The mat board will probably come in huge sheets. It's nice and thick and sturdy, which is why I chose it. Figure out what size you want your numbers to be and have the store cut down pieces for you accordingly. I believe mine were 8x8-ish?

#4 Pick out your favorite medium weight card stock. I bought almost all of my paper for wedding DIY projects from Paper Source, and my colors were blossom and sage [if you care about that stuff like I do]. Pick out your favorite font. My personal favorite is Jane Austen and I make old Jane work for her money on every single project I created. I love repeating elements throughout the wedding day. Love.

On the computer type up the text you will need for the table numbers. As you can see, I went with the 'us by the year' theme which I cannot take credit for this idea since I saw a girl do this on The Knot. But I did make it more my style with the mini easels and mat board, and you could obviously modify the project to suite your tastes, too.

Print this text directly onto your card stock. Cut out the text and paste it to the mat board. I prefer scrapbooking tape the best but that is a personal choice.

#5 Find pictures of your cute faces from both sets of parents. Scan these pictures into your computer and change them to 'grayscale'. Crop accordingly on your photo editing software[or you can do this once you print]. Use photo paper to print your images then cut them into the right size, and glue them to the mat board.

#6 Step back and enjoy your masterpieces. :)

Obviously, doing this all by hand isn't the fastest or most modern way. If I did it again I might just design the whole page on the computer and print it out whole, then attach it to the mat board. But remember, I made these beauties WAY back in 2006. I wasn't too hip to the digital design era just yet.

PROJECT #3: Tis-the-Most-Wonderful-Time-of-the-Year-to-Decorate projects.

Maybe if I post about all the cute projects I did last year it will inspire me to get in gear for this year?

A. Homemade Christmas cards, paper and glue style.

#1 Get all of your supplies like so:

[neutral card stock paper, pretty Christmas print papers, pimp wedding pictures, fab envelopes, paper cutter, scrapbooking tape, rubber stamps, and your Excel spreadsheet, of course].

Here is one of my favorite stamps:

#2 Decide on the style and size of your cards. I went with ~5x4 size. I took my 8.5X11 neutral card stock and folded it lengthwise down the middle. Then I used paper cutter to cut this long folded piece of paper into two pieces. This is your base.

#3 I had one of my favorite wedding pix printed at Walgreens for very cheap. I have about 70 families on our Christmas list so I made that many copies in 4x6, then I cut each picture down to size.

#4 I took my pretty Christmas papers [purchased from a local scrapbooking store] and got wild. I put one large rectangle on the front of each card, and another print on the inside. I used my scraps to add a little pop of color on the inside top flap as well. I printed up our text on the computer and cut those out into tiny strips to fit on the fronts. Here is one of my favorite prints:

#5 So for the inside once you have your big rectangle and small scrap, you'll cut some more of the neutral papers. One big one for your handwritten note, one for the stamp, and I also added our new address. Nothing like killing two birds with one stone and making these little guys 'change of address' announcements, too!

And that is it! Sure it takes time but they turned out really cute and since they were all different prints they kept my attention, too.

Oh and the envelopes? To-die-for 'firecracker red' in A2 size. I got a pack of 50 for $10.90 at Paper Presentations and will definitely shop there again this year. I hate to cheat on Paper Source on this one but they charge $3.25 for a pack of 10 A2 envelopes. Sorry, PS!

The only frightening thing about our cards from last year? That I was already making them in mid-November. Seriously, when will I find the time?!?!

B. Stockings-a-plenty:

Here was our set up last year:

This was mine: I made it by buying the cheapest, plainest stocking ever and then embellishing it. I bought us the monogram silver pins at Target for a good price. Then of COURSE I had to use the remainder of the lace from my veil on my stocking. I also glued pretty ribbon to the edges and used sparkly paint, too. Nate's is just like mine but without the lace, plus some manly-ish buttons.

This was Henry's. I glued on the little candy cane, wrote his name out, added the ribbon on the edges, and found the CUTEST charm ever that was also glued down.

C. Snow banner/festive fun:

So I saw something similar to this online and wanted to make it more 'me.' I found a whole package of glittery snowflake ornaments and put them to work.

The red discs on top of the flakes are cut out of a cardboard box. The letters are hand drawn on neutral paper. Glue all of that together and then hang the ornaments from pretty ribbons.

You can hang this anywhere but I chose our mirror. I suppose you could add hooks to the back to make it a little easier to place?

D. Santa's hurricane vase:

Just a regular old hurricane vase that is usually filled with sand/candle or wine corks:) For Christmas I used some of our old ornaments and piled them in with some garland. I loved how it turned out even though it was simple as can be.

E. Our First Christmas Ornament:

Every year both my mom and Nate's mom gave us an ornament from the time we were born until now. So of course we have to carry on this tradition with our own ornaments! I made this one for our first Merry [Married] Christmas:

It was really just a lot of random stuff glued to a cardboard rectangle. The veil lace made another appearance as did some cute Christmas buttons and silver charms from old beaded necklaces I never wear anymore.

And yes, that is ANOTHER wedding picture. So sue me.

F. Tree skirt dress up:

I bought the cheapest tree skirt at Target and hot glued little Christmas buttons to each scallop. The scallops were already in the felt, don't worry-I didn't take the time to cut out my own piece of felt. But something this easy really made the tree skirt fancier. And I LOVE my hot glue gun, can you tell?

So there you have it, some DIY projects to keep you occupied. I'm sorry they weren't as detailed by the end of this post but I'm not the best at spelling it all out....I just throw stuff together and hope it works!

Hopefully once Thanksgiving is over I can get more in the Christmas spirit. But I'm just not mentally there yet, anyone else?

Week In Pictures

Recent happenings through the eyes of my phone camera.

My mom and Aunt working on Bradley's stocking! I can't wait to visit my Aunt's (and cousin's) store when we are in Des Moines!

We just wrapped up our New Mama class. Such an amazing class for any new moms! These 6 weeks were SO helpful for me to learn things about Bradley (and myself!), discuss all things baby with other new moms, and even just getting out of the house! It was a bittersweet last class.

These are Bradley's friends (Bradley is in green stripes).