so eAsY maGneTs

So here's a simple craft for pretty much any age... my 5 year old loves these. I love magnets (my fridge is covered in Anne Taintor and home made) so I can hang up all my favorite pictures. This was a cute idea I saw on a blog a while ago and I thought I'd share it because it is so easy.

All you're going to need is river rocks, rub on stickers, magnets, and hot glue.

My advice on..

the river rocks: lighter and flatter is best.. and I think it would be even better if you could find some that don't have the shiny glazed polished kind of finish (I think a hardware store would be your best bet for that.. in the landscaping). I didn't find those and it still worked. I like a more earthy look, though. If they're too big, the poor little magnet won't be able to hold up the rock, let alone anything else you want it to hold to your fridge or magnet board.

Rub-Ons: You can find these at any scrapbook or craft store.. there are so many cute options. Just find some that are small enough to fit and you're good to go! These are from the local Pebbles in My Pocket and are called Lucy's Bird Bath.

See! It's true.. here's the proof that my little trouble maker will stay out of trouble for 30 minutes if I put her to work on this one...


So basically, the hardest part is making sure your sticker completely rubs off onto the rock. This is why I say I think one without a polish is better.. it would probably get a better stick. But as long as you're careful, you'll be able to get it on there perfect. Maybe practice one sticker that's not your favorite first..

Next step, hot glue yourself a magnet. Don't let your five year old do that, though. Can you imagine?
And here are her cute little magnets.. ready for a fridge or a cute little magnet board.

Thanks for all your great support.. I love it!

tHanKs foR yOur SuPpoRt!

I appreciate everyone who comments on my blog and hope to post more often and check out other blogs more, too! I love seeing what other bloghoppers are will be posting fun stuff and changing up my blog asap!

QuiCk FriEnd GifTs

I think one of the reasons that I love Valentine's Day so much is because we used to always doorbell ditch and leave treats. There's something about doing that that makes me laugh so hard every time. Now I get to take my little girl, and watching her cracks me up. She panics and runs frantically looking for a spot to hide.. i love it. So my mom let me know about these cute little pretzels.. super easy and perfect for a last minute homemade Valentine's gift..

All you need are ...

small pretzels,

Hersey's kisses (I tried hugs, caramel filled, cherry filled and then I tried a few Reese's and Rollo's)

M&Ms

I just laid mine out on a cookie sheet with wax paper. Plop one kiss on each and cook for 4-5 minutes in the oven at 180.

Some recipes I looked over warned that if you load the sheet too full, they will melt unevenly.. but I loaded it anyway because I'm seriously insane. I didn't notice a problem, but I'm not really a perfectionist.

I did notice that if you're going to do the cherry filled, they melt the fastest (but they were also a favorite).

Once they're out, put an M&M or two on there.

Then all you need is a cute cellophane bag with a little ribbon tied on it and you're good to go!

Happy doorbell ditching!

pOm PoMs!!

Let's get pomdiggity..
So tissue paper pom poms are my go-to decoration fav. I have used them for everything like baby showers to wedding dinners to decoration in my little girl's room. They are so super easy, and are really inexpensive, too. They are so fun and make a big impact because they hang down from the ceiling or wherever else you want. And with so many different colors of tissue paper, you're pretty much set for any occasion. All you need to make them is tissue paper, bendy wire (I use silver floral wire that I pick up from Wal Mart for .99), scissors and if you want to hang it.. fishing line or ribbon or whatev.

Do I get too into the Valentine's spirit? Ah.. you know it's just gonna get worse and worse as the years pass.

So here's an idea of whatcha need (not that I didn't just put it earlier?).. I have found that if you're only going to do a few poms, I would buy packs of tissue from either Walmart or Xpedx (Salt Lake) or any other paper supply store. *F.Y.I. Craft stores and WalMart also sells the Martha Stewart ready to go pack of 5 for around 20$ in limited colors.* If you're going to do pom poms in super bulk (like I did for my brother's wedding dinner) I would recommend buying them through Nashville Wraps. They're an online company that you can pick any color you ever dreamt of (my brother's colors were mustard yellow and Burgundy) and tons of it.

So for the bigger poms, I usually use anywhere from 10-15 pieces. The more you use, the more full it will be but it will be harder to fold. Okay, so I guess it's still not that hard... come on.. we're folding tissue paper. I fold it like anywhere from an inch width to an inch and a half accordion style. The tighter you fold it, the harder it is to pull apart once you're done.. but once again.. it's tissue paper.

Once you've folded it up measure (or fold in half) to find the middle and fasten with your wire. I wrap around twice and then just wrap the ends together.

Cut your tips.. you pretty much don't want to leave it how it is cause it looks unfinished once you pull it apart. You get different effects depending on how you cut the end. I usually cut a slant (like above with just one cut), a triangle point (two cuts give you more detail) or round it. You can also do like three rounds.. just kind of mess around with it and I'm sure pretty much anything you do will be cute.

If you're going to hang your pom pom (you can also just set them somewhere) this is where I would tie your fishing line on. Once you fluff it out, it's harder to tie it in there. I just tie it right onto the wire.

So after you've done that, fan out a side.

Then being careful not to tear the tissue, pull the sides apart from themselves. I usually do just one side at a time.

You can do different sizes, too. I took these pink sheets and cut them in half. When I hang them, I like to have variation in size. Also, when you do smaller pom diggities, you don't have to use as many sheets. These ones I used only eight and they filled out just perfect.

So I hang from my light fixtures or from the ceiling or whatever. You can also go on Martha Stewart for different ways to use the poms. I made a gazillion for a dinner, and used them for little decor on the wrapped silverware, as well as wrapped cookies for party favors. It was a lot of work, but inexpensive and so cute!

Go V*daY!

Day 14, 13 and 12

I tried to get to it earlier.. but here is my first post for the countdown to vDaY!! I have found so many cute ideas, taken some other ones to make them my own. The first one I wanted to share is vday mailboxes/buckets. At any big box chain, you can find these cute buckets and Target even had mailboxes in their dollar section. At a ward activity an idea was shared to put out mailboxes for everyone in your house so you can leave surprise notes. I love this idea! So here are my buckets...

I love decor that hangs from the ceiling.. this is something I've recently learned about myself. I hung these with some simple yarn from my curtain rod. I tied some pink and white tulle to spruce them up a little bit. Ribbon would be so cute, too.


I feel like it just adds the right amount of Valentine-ness to my dining room.

So next, I thought it would be fun to surprise my kids with a little gift counting down to Valentine's Day. This technically would start 14 days before, but I got off to a late start. I wanted to go an inexpensive route.. so I found myself with my friend at Walmart at midnight shopping for random dollar items.. but I feel like we did well.



Everything but the Princess Tianna drawing kit was like a buck or less. At first I had ideas of the things I wanted to put in the buckets so that I could match some little cards I'd already written out but I found a few things that I thought the kids would like that wasn't in my plan. So I have over 14 days worth of little cards that I've put together that I've made vague enough that if you want to copy and print them you can. They could work for 10 days of Valentines, or 3 days of Valentines.. whatever you want to do. You can also spend as little or as much as you want.. I only spent about 20 dollars for two kids.


So here are these cards. There are 15, so pick and choose which ones work for you for the gifts you want to give. Some of them are really general, and some of them are more specific. Here's what you could give with my little cards..

candy

bubblegum

toys

shoes

sidewalk chalk

something heart shaped

something festive

a hat, a reading book (or coloring book)

a flute

glow sticks

bubbles

stickers

and your final special gift.

I also am doing surprise for the husband, but they're more all candy with funny sayings that I haven't come up with yet. I try not to do candy for the kiddos, because they don't know how to limit themselves and they're wired and then super ornery. I wish I knew how to make a link so you could just download these. If anyone has any advice on how to do this through blogger, please let me know. Also, if you would like an email of just the rhymes without the pages, leave me a comment and I will do that.

Tomorrow I will be posting how to make festive VdAy pOm pOms.

kickin' off V*day

So the plan was 14 days of Valentine's.. makes sense, right? But I have a defect. I'm a little bit bi-polar when it comes to my blog. 90 % of me wants to fix it up and have cute fun stuff on it including pictures, crafts, recipes.. anything!! And the 10% of me that's too ornery/busy/ more in the mood to watch a lifetime movie usually wins. But.. that takes us back to the New Year's resolutions.. and I made a resolution to be better about blogging. I took a second to go through my old family blog yesterday, and now I realize why. There are so many little things I blogged about that I have forgotten about. And it's so fun to go back and see! So whether someone finds something here that they like, or I have something for a point of reference for myself.. I'm happy.

Here are two of my kiddos that didn't make the cut for our Valentine's Day cards.. but I thought they were too cute not to share.. I hate to post the ones that are on the card.. then it's like you're already seen it.. and what fun is a card you've already seen? None.

That takes us back to the 14 days of Valentine's. It's now down to twelve. That's how I roll. Next year may be better. Maybe I'll be worse? Maybe it'll be 9 days of Valentine's. Who knows.. that's what you get when you're dealin' with a bipolar blogger. ANywaY, In an hour or two, my official first day of Valentine's Partyin' will be up!

More of my cute Family + their cute dogs

These are some of my cute cousins.. I always want to say nephews.. We went on a chilly Wheeler Farm shoot and they were such good sports even though it was freezin!



I feel short when my younger cousins are taller than me.. Chancey made me feel short! Or maybe just my shortness makes me feel short. Who knows.

I got to hang out with their dogs for a second, meet Bella...

and SUEY (you have to read that name in a really low voice). This is going to blow your mind, but no.. the measurements are not off on this picture. The dog is really that wide. When Jess got me my pug, Dolce.. this is what I hopefully thought she would turn into... so far no luck. I need to know the secret skills in getting your dog this awesome..

... mind blown??

One of my favs...

I like how the colors turned out in this one..

My favorite from the group...

A big ol' Thanks to my aunt Jeni for being so cute and patient while we went through me trying to make their Christmas cards! Next year I promise I'll have it down.

Big Changes For Me

Many of you know I have been the Laurel's Advisor in my ward now for over four years. I have just been given a new calling, and have been released from Young Women. Of course I am excited for something new, but I am really sad to say goodbye to my beautiful girls. I love them, and they are all so amazing and fun. I've had so much fun being able to spend time with them, and I feel like I've watched them all grow up.

This is just a random picture of most of the from Girl's Camp last year. The good news is, I've been called to come up to camp with the Stake, so I don't feel too deprived! And here's to my new calling with Activities Days.. did I say that right? I love all the amazing girls and leaders I've had fun working with in my ward!! I will miss you SO much!

Let's get back into it!

So this will give you an idea of how far behind I am.. these are some pictures from our stay in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. My cute Christiansen clan fam, this is the Jon and Summer department. I have to say, I love Las Vegas, I could happily live there. Thanksgiving was great, Summer and Debbie's squash soup was aMaZing. I think about it fondly daily. One thing I learned about Jesse's brother, Jon, is that he HAtEs taking pictures. Hates it. So we had to move fast because he didn't want to spend much time. So we ran to a nearby spot and then Summer and I had fun running everywhere else with the kids.

My cute niece, Lucie Loo

One of the cutest boys, ever.. Max. He's full energy all the time.

Love this one!

The whole fam.. I love Summer's hair just blowin' in the wind.. like a sexy superstar.. So did the guys who were just hanging out in their van.. watching us take pictures. That's always great.

Hunter is the most grown up kindergartner you have ever met. He speaks more eloquently than most adults. He's such a stud. Sometimes I think Bauer is starting to look a lot like him.

So a huge thanks to Jon and Summer for having us at their beautiful house and another thanks to Jon, who checked Jesse and my eyes and we can now see much better thanks to our contacts (whew.. run on sentence??)

So that's a taste of some of the stuff I've been up to while I've been MIA on the whole blog thing.
And also.. I've been having some computer issues.. some kind of bug that always pulls up a "playsushi" game. It's been causing me headaches and then I made the genius move to organize my photobucket.. which broke many of my links. I don't know if I can commit to fixing it, but I might. So, that's why you see no pictures below and only photobucket stuff.

It's been a long time

shouldn't've left you
without a slow beat to step to

step to
step to
step to
step to
step to

wickee wickee wickee...

I'm back. To all you five readers out there who may or may not check in. Did I make your day? Anybody? Um.. maybe not.

I have been so busy with everything that blogging has been last on my list.. as usual. And as usual, I'm going to promise to be better at it.. but we'll see. Soon I will have pictures of many of my cute boutique-y items that I may or may not be selling on Etsy.. I'm also thinking about doing a booth here in SaLt LaKe. My husband is working crazy hours at his new business which is great for business.. but sometimes hard for me. By the time I've possibly eaten a meal and if I'm lucky.. taken a shower? it's midnight and I'm tired.

I have many New Year's Goals to help with the way I'm feeling and to try and keep moving with all the things I want to do. Sometimes it really helps to look at my list, and sometimes it just really, ReALly overwhelms me. If it's winter blues.. I guess I better go tanning. It's healthy for you if it's curing winter blues, right? That's what I'm telling myself. But back to goals for the New Year.. Here's my list..

*Don't click on any of the links.. it's some kind of virus on my* *computer and it brings up junk*

1. Lose Weight (can it be a list of goals for me without that?) & Be healthy. I've joined a biggest loser blog, and so far I'm feeling way motivated (Thanks Christina!) And so far I've been over a week without sugar.. suga
2. Learn to be a better cook. I know it's in me. But sometimes I'm just so busy.. and then when I actually do cook, no one was expecting it and they all already ate. Or maybe that's just what they say so that they don't have to eat it. And my cute sister-in-law Jeanine is doing a blog because she's working on this same thing (she's a good cook, she's just trying to find the right recipes) so if you're interested in her blog, you should check that out.
3. Take my kids on "Field Trips" once a week. This week we did Classic skating. I was seriously just dreading it in the pit of my stomach the whole night before. It wasn't AS bad as I thought it would be.
4. Really develop talents that I've been wanting to develop. Get better at photography, learn to sew, I want to take singing lessons.. start up piano lessons again. This is the list that overwhelms me because I don't know where I'll find the time. But I'm gonna make it happen.
5. Keep my house clean. This was actually a goal I made last year and I've gotten so much better at it. And thanks to my cute friend, Marianne, I know one of the biggest keys is just to throw as much away (or give away) as you can.
6. Finish all my unfinished projects. There's a list. But I won't bore you. Oh wait, just a little boring taste... Bentley's room redone, Bauer's room finished, the playroom done, fix the floor in the office.. finish the painting for upstairs...ugh. But it's gonna happen!
7. Figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Here's my dilemma.. I've always thought I'd go into something more serious like law, or even medicine (whaaa?). But when I sit down, write the pros and cons.. I don't like science. I don't like math! Not to mention I'd be like 50 by the time I got done with school. What I like is art, and being creative. I've been that way since I was teeny. So I need to really figure out what it is I want to go for, and then go for it. Don't get me wrong, I love photography. I will always love photography. But when I'm too busy with it, it kind of ruins it for me. My passion is fashion (a serious fashion passion.. read it like Flight of the Concords would sing it) . And another passion is party planning. But, first of all... fashion. So I'm thinking I'm gonna go for it.
8. Put more fun stuff I love on my blog. Even if I have lost all my readers. It's happenin'..
9. Write more. I love thinking up stories. I think I'm gonna write one.. starting with one for Bentley.
10. After I feel confident with my musical lessons-perform a song somewhere. That one makes me nervous just typing it.
11. Run a little boutique. Not to make me crazy, but to keep me a little busy with the stuff I love.
12. Let my husband know how much I love him. Cause I do. Not to mention he's lookin' pretty saxy.. he's lost over 20 pounds in two weeks! Or does that make us kinda hate him?? Maybe just a little..

So here's to a new year! A new me, a better, happier, healthier me and my family.

(Should I have made it a goal that we wouldn't have any hospital visits? Or is that too unrealistic? I'll just keep magnets hidden)

I'm going to post monthly on how my goals are coming.

What are your goals? Do you usually stick to them?

I'll be posting more... and taking a gander your blogs more.. leaving hilarious comments for all to see.