Out With the Old and In With the New

2011 was perfect.

I learned so much about myself in ways I could have never imagined. I moved halfway across the country by myself (only to have the parents follow me a few months later). I fell in love again. I matured in ways I could never explain. I started working out. I started blogging. I "learned" how to sew. I started working full time (and it kicks my butt everyday). I learned to cook. I made amazing and wonderful new friends (who love Mean Girls as much as I do!). I volunteered at my church. I met my favorite band. I started a real savings account. I started reading more. I learned a very tiny amount of html (Can you tell?).

I laughed, I cried, I hurt, and I (unintentionally) hurt others. It has made me who I am, and I wouldn't take one second of it back.

All in all, I am so much prouder of the person that I have become. I'm very different than I was in 2010 and I couldn't be happier. I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store! Hopefully, most of the following!

Who couldn't love Calvin and Hobbes?

1. Go back to school. I am absolutely loathing this year off.
2. Try at least 10 new recipes from Pinterest, especially slow cooker ones.
3. Travel. Travel. Travel. I have become obsessed with the idea of traveling lately. Thinking about changing my major so I can just travel the globe the rest of my life.
4. Get my own apartment for actual alone time before the rest of my life begins.
5. Buy all the wonderful seasons of Home Improvement... And an iPad.
6. Sew at least 5 skirts (or at least finish the first one).
7. Read at least 10 of the books I downloaded.
8. Get an amazing new job that I love. I'm currently in the application process for getting a job on a cruise ship. And by in the application process, I mean that I haven't even finished my resumé.
9. Do a complete clean and back up of my MacBook. It's been running ridiculously slow and I don't want it to die on me!
10. Ride a Ferris Wheel. I am terrified of heights, and I hate almost any type of theme park ride, but it has always been my dream. We can probably thank The Notebook for that one.

I have no idea how many of these will actually get done, but I feel like they're a little realistic. Just a little bit of saving and crafting. Wish me luck!

Date Night

Last night was our 7 monthaversary! I know that's not usually a huge one to celebrate, but we've been having some issues lately so it was just appropriate to go all out. He took me down to the river with a perfectly planned out picnic.

He brought a small lunch box full of surprises. The first surprise of the date was a small hazelnut candle that smelled like maple syrup. The second surprise were lunchables. When was the last time you had a lunchable?! We ate our yummy pizza and cracker lunchables while watching the sun go down.

When it was almost dark, he surprised me yet again with Super Fudge Brownie ice cream, my all time favorite. Then we sat on the levy and just got to talk and have some real alone time. It was such an amazing experience with my favorite boy.

25 Days of Crafting Day 25

Absolutely Nothing!

It's Christmas!

Get off the blogs and enjoy the time with your family and loved ones.

I hope yall have enjoyed our little time together and had a very safe holiday! Happy New Year to you all!

25 Days of Crafting Day 24

Painted Christmas Cookies

This is by far my favorite Christmas tradition. We find cookie cutters with indentions to make the design, use my Nana's secret sugar cookie recipe, then paint away! I also just had to add the yule log picture. It was too cute not to!

My sister's inspiration. Her cookie actually came pretty close!

Cookies before the paint!

One more night before Christmas is here! Have a blessed and safe holiday!

25 Days of Crafting Day 23

Chalkboard Canvas

My sister did this one but refused to do a guest post for me for such a cute project! Thankfully, she didn't mind sharing her pictures as long as I gave her the credit. Check her out here!

All she used was an old frame from Goodwill, a canvas, chalkboard spray paint, and the ivory spray paint.

Here she painted the frame ivory to match her lovely kitchen.

Then next, she painted the canvas with the chalkboard paint.

After that, she simply put the pieces together and it was finished!

Once again, such a simple project!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! Just 2 days left!

25 Days of Crafting Day 22

Christmas Ornament Wreath

3 days left bloggers! I hope you're all ready!

25 Days of Crafting Day 21

A little while back, I was searching the sale tables at Hancock and found a really fun, lace. It was pretty different, and I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I just knew that I loved it and had to have it. I bought a yard, intending to use it on a scarf or something, but never got around to it. I was trying to do something with the ridiculous amounts of canvases I bought on Black Friday and tried out this cutie.

I just taped the lace down, and spray painted right over it. It didn't turn out nearly as fun as I hoped it would, but I'm hoping to put some vinyl letters on it or something and making it work!

Only 4 more days until Christmas! I hope everyone is prepared!

25 Days of Crafting Day 20

Paint Sample Bookmarks

I would like to start off by saying that I love free crafts. And this one was just so simple, that I couldn't resist! I saw the cute idea on Pinterest and figured I had to give it a try. I got boyfriend to pick up a crazy amount of paint samples, and started pulling out my stamps. This one was my favorite. I love the Christmas spirit! Can't wait to get a little ribbon to put through the hole and complete it.

25 Days of Crafting Day 19

Christmas cookies count as crafts right? I just love these so much!
My mom and I both had a day off work, doesn't happen too often, and decided to make these little cuties together. There's nothing too special about them, just regular sugar cookies and icing. Just use a toothpick to swirl the design! It was so fun. :)

25 Days of Crafting Day 18

Christmas Cards

Christmas Cards!

25 Days of Crafting Day 17

Candy Cane Cookies

I'm not home tonight so I can't share this yummy recipe! I'll try to update soon. :)

25 Days of Crafting Day 16

Coffee Cozies

Pinterest has thousands of cute DIYs for coffee cozies and it was simply impossible to choose one tutorial to stick with. My favorite by far came from sweetcarolinebumbumbum's blog. (The computer isn't letting me put in the link! I'll try again later.)

The only thing I did different from her is use a hairtie, cut in half with the ends sewed together for the elastic. I think they came out really cute!

Happy crafting!

25 Days of Crafting Day 15

Bloggers! I am so, so sorry that I do not have pictures to share with you tonight! I've had about 9 orders of hot cocoa mix on my Etsy shop go out, and I have been preparing for the flea market this weekend! My sister and I will be setting up a little shop with all of our crafts and Christmas presents, and really hoping for some kind of success!

Today's main craft that I have been working on is canvas art. It's amazingly easy. Here in Louisiana, the Saints are a huge deal. Everything is Black and Gold with fleur d'lis sprinkled all over it. Keeping with the spirit, I grabbed a canvas, black and gold spraypaint, and my cricut. I cut out a fleur d'lis on the Cake Basics cartridge and got myself started. I sprayed the entire canvas gold, put the new stencil in the middle, and spray painted the rest black. It ended up amazingly cute! Hopefully I'll be able to put some pictures up after this weekend is over!

25 Days of Crafting Day 14

Secret Santa

More proof that my phone has the worst camera on the planet!

Anyways, for work my friend and I tried organizing a Secret Santa for everyone. We thought it was going well and started telling people who they were assigned to, when all hell broke loose. When that happened, I ended up with a boy, who would not at all appreciate this.

Anyways, it's pretty simple (my favorite kind!) My mom gave me a ginormous pack of frames for no reason, and I've been trying to be as crafty as possible with them lately. When I saw this on Pinterest, I just had to try it!

All I did was put a piece of scrapbook paper behind the glass frame and voila! Your own dry erase board for cute messages, reminders, anything you'd like.

25 Days of Crafting Day 13

Felt Flowers

I'm not completely in love with them, and haven't chosen a project for them yet. I still need to do a little bit more experimenting to make them perfect. Here's the link if any of you want to try. :)

http://www.littlebitfunky.com/2011/11/20-minute-crafter-anyone-can-makes.html

25 Days of Crafting Day 12

Homemade Mod Podge!

This is by far the easiest, cheapest, and most effective homemade Mod Podge DIY I've found out there. All you need: glue, water, and an old jar! This can literally be adjusted to fit any jar or container, but since my jar was so little, I figured I'd start small.

I used a 1/3 cup of water, 1/3 cup of glue, and just shook it all up. That's all it takes! As long as it's equal parts water, and equal parts glue, it works like a dream. Hope yall enjoy!

25 Days of Crafting Day 11

DIY Magnets

I made these cuties today!

They're really simple to make! Just choose your fabric, mod podge (homemade if you want!), and the glass stones at the dollar store.

1. Place your glass stones where you want on the fabric.

2. Trace the shape onto the fabric to cut out.

3. Apply the Mod Podge to the flat side of your stone. (I'll put up a DIY for homemade Mod Podge later this week.)

4. Add your fabric, and apply another layer of Mod Podge.

5. I haven't done this yet, but next you just have to hot glue the magnet to the back!

I hope you'll have as much fun with this craft as I did!

25 Days of Crafting Day 10

You know you all loved these when you were kids. Trying to get all the different ones with chocolate chips, fruity pebbles, the works. Maybe that was just me, but these are definitely one of my favorite parts of the holidays.

Sadly this year, we just used any kind of leftover sprinkles we could find. Of course they were still absolutely amazing. Hoping to spread a little more holiday cheer in the next few days. It's been so hard trying to keep up with this!

25 Days of Crafting Day 9: Guest Post

Hi everyone! I'm Morgan and I'm visiting today from Faith, Hope & Love! I love blogging about home and life. Today I'm sharing a Christmas craft as part of Kara's 25 days of crafts.

I saw this image on Pinterest several weeks ago:


I tried to find the link to share, but I couldn't find it again. When I had seen it on Pinterest, these cute little Christmas trees were being shared as tree ornaments. I thought they looked like fun, but wanted to try something else with them.


I took my paint chips and cut them into Christmas tree shapes in different sizes.



Then I started gluing several together to form a grouping of trees in different colors. I had planned on adding tree stumps at the end, but I liked the modern look without having the tree stumps.



Once I had my grouping of trees, I grabbed one of my cute, little gift bags (1 dollar each at dollar general!).


And added my trees:


I thought this would be so cute and modern to give people's Christmas presents in. I also thought it would look cute on wrapping paper too.

I also tried just slipping the trees into a frame for some Christmas decor.



I love that you can pretty much use any colors that you like for it and it's still Christmas-y. I also have several trees left over and I'm planning on creating a few ornaments out of those. My friend Kelly also suggested that they could be used on Christmas cards too! It's such an easy project, but with many uses.

Happy crafting! And thanks Kara for having me over for 25 days of crafts!

~Morgan

25 Days of Crafting Day 8

Yes, I am being extremely lazy in this post.

Tonight is only going to be a sneak peek of something better to come!

That's all you get for now!

I can't wait to share the real beauty once it's done.

Good night bloggers. :)

25 Days of Crafting Day 7

Easy Infinity Scarf

I'm so sad that I didn't take pictures of the steps for this crazy easy tutorial. Hopefully it'll still be clear without them.

What you need:

XXL t-shirt

Scissors

Pencil (optional)

1. Cut along the bottom stitches of your tshirt.

2. If you are as challenged as I am with cutting a straight line, turn the shirt inside out and draw a line from the bottom of one armpit to the next.

3. Cut along that line.

4. Stretch, stretch, stretch until the edges look natural.

5. Wear your amazing new scarf!

Crazy easy right? I will be doing this in every color, getting ready for the spring time!

I think I only had a large when I tried mine. They were out of XXL and I wanted to try it so badly. I hope yall's will turn out a little better!

PS I sold my first two Etsy items in my store tonight!! Check me out if you want to help!

25 Days of Crafting Day 6

Scrabble Ornaments

I also saw these cute ornaments on Pinterest, easily the greatest website ever.

I promised yall a DIY awhile ago, so here goes. :)

All you need:

Old Scrabble letters

Wood Glue

Felt

Any kind of string

1. Pick a fun Christmas word and find the letters.

2. Take wood glue and arrange them however you'd like.

3. Let them dry, and glue the string on the back.

4. I have no idea if this helps, but I then tried to back them just a little bit more with a piece of felt.

5. Let everything dry, and Voila!

25 Days of Crafting Day 5

I hope you all loved my guest post yesterday! Like she said, Melissa and I have been friends since middle school. It meant so much that she did it for me!

Down to business though, I'm waiting until 11:11 (make a wish) to write today's post. It might be a little rushed, but hopefully still pretty awesome.

I'm sure you've seen these floating around Pinterest, but here's my version of chalkboard wine glasses.

They were so easy to make!

All you need:

wineglasses (12 for $10 at WalMart)

tape

paper

and Chalkboard Spray paint!

It took me awhile to figure out the way I wanted to mark off the bottoms to make sure the stems would stay dry. It turned out the easiest way to do so was to tape a piece of paper (in a very straight line) around the parts you wanted safe!

(iPhoto wouldn't rotate this for anything.)

Then, you spraypaint!

I painted very lightly, I'd definitely recommend a second coat.

And that's all! You have your beautiful wineglasses for your fancy occasions, or just a night at home! I've also seen DIYs on Pinterest to make your chalkboard paint whatever color you'd like. I can only imagine the possibilities! I hope your's turn out absolutely perfect!

And just for fun, a few bloopers:

I somehow picked up the wrong spray paint can. I just painted right over it though and it worked fine!

And here's the neighborhood cat, who would not leave me alone! I love her, but it was hard getting anything done!