LDS Baptism Invite

It's pretty unbelievable to me that my little girl and her friends are getting baptised in this next year. Ella is the first of this year, and I always love taking her pictures.. look how cute she is! This was an opening card, giving us four pages to fill.. so I knew I needed some cute paper. I found plenty to love on www.lillybimble.com

This is the first page..

And when you open, you see this. Most of the fonts I use I get from 1001freefonts.com There is always plenty to choose from, and I feel like it's so simple to download. You can click on the picture to see it without my side bar shtuff covering it.

And on the back of the card was this little tidbit..

So here's an idea of the card all as one..

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Love my little Ella bo bella! And I can't believe my own little Benny Boo has her baptism on the way.. yikes I'm old.

DIY Valentine Wreath

Valentine's Day is definitely my favorite holiday and I thought I'd share a wreath I made a couple years ago. I was pretty upset when I left my box full of Valentine's Day decor outside on the deck only to get rained on.. I'm blaming my pregnant brain for that. My feather wreath was all shriveled and sad. So I had to re-do it. But that means I can give you an idea of how it goes!

All you need is

2 wire hangers

1 feather boa

glue gun

ribbon

I really didn't take many pictures along the way since it's so simple.. and I used my old wire hanger because I'm lazy. All I did was connect the hangers together shaping them like a heart. I like using the hangers because they're a thick wire that's bendable without being too touchy and bending where you don't want it to.

Here's what my hanger skeleton looks like..

how sad are all those old feathers still hanging on?

pretty sad

And just when you thought it couldn't be easier, you just glue the feathers straight on to the metal. I twisted the boa around maybe three times, but for the most part I just glued it straight on.

Tie your ribbon and you're set!

This project ends up costing less then ten bucks!

If you have questions, feel free to post them.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Do It Yourself Valentine Photo Card

Valentine's Day is coming up, and I thought I'd re-post one of my projects from last year.. I did this as a room mom activity for Bentley's Kindergarten class. It's so cute to look at just one year later and see how she's changed.I thought this was a fun idea for Valentine's gifts for parents and grandparents. Super simple.. I just photoshopped the images together. If you don't have photoshop, just print three different pictures and throw them in a frame together. Or put them on a card.. Have a great Valentine's Day!

Happy New Year!

One of my favorite things is New Years Resolutions. I love lists, and a list for the whole year always helps me commit. I usually see changes come from my New Years Resolutions lists. And I'm ready for some serious change! I've been thinking a lot the past month about what's important for me to accomplish, and what I want to change about myself. I found a great article that included many of the ideas that have been circling around in my head. You can link to it here http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/marcia-sirota/new-years-resolutions_b_1166042.html. The whole list is great, but certain ones I want to stop..

Avoidance - Come take a little gander through my house. Unfinished projects everywhere. And while I have gotten much better at finishing what I start, I am not going to start anymore projects until all my unfinished, or broken projects are complete.

Having a Bad Attitude - It may just be that I'm three months pregnant, but I need to focus everyday on having a good attitude, and appreciating the moment.

Complaining - Kinda the same thing. But I'm healthy, I have a great family, my husband is a hottie, we have a home, a great neighborhood and family.. what do I really have to complain about?

Gossiping - I've already been trying to stop, but I have to admit.. The other night I really wanted to tell a friend something that had happened earlier that day. It was a story about an acquaintance, and it wouldn't be a story I'd really want shared about me. It wasn't horrible, it wasn't untrue, but it wasn't nice. That's one of the first times I've really felt myself talking myself out of it questioning myself what good it would do. I really did feel proud to stop myself, and maybe a little more grown up.

Co-Dependency - I have been thinking a lot about if I could provide for three kids if something were ever to happen to Jesse. I don't work, and I never finished college.. Time to step up and make sure I could take care of my family if needed. That's my biggest goal this year. Plus.. I would love to be able to buy Jess surprises without him knowing I spent the money first.

Those are some of the ideas from the article.. Here are some of my personal thoughts..

Be a better mom - Have more fun with the things that already should be done.. Have my kids help cook.. Do more art projects with my kids.. take them new places.. take more pictures.. Be patient.. my kids are pretty sweet and they're growing quick. Blog more about them.

Be a better cook - Jess has me beat on this one.. I know it's in my genes (from Grandma Shirley.. not Donna), I just need to give it the effort.

Get better at the things I love - Photography, Writing, Painting, and singing. I want to improve all these things in the next year.

Get Organized - I'm going to start by throwing stuff out.

Budget - Waste less, Save more.

Jess & Me- Go out more.. but different restaurants and different things than movies. I love my date nights.

And of course, Blog more of what I'm up to. I'm really going to try.

Curious.. am I the only one who loves New Years Resolutions?

Our Grateful Tree

I am always a sucker for a tree branch craft, so imagine how much I love a Thanksgiving grateful tree. For FHE this last Monday, I tried to get the kids to really think about the things that we are grateful for. It took some work for them to be serious, but they really loved writing and drawing (or telling me what to write) and then placing them on the tree.

For this tree, I just snapped off a piece from my tree in the back yard and spray painted it white. Instead of cut out leaves, I just did circles.. because I already had them.

One of my favorite parts of the activity was asking the kids to name something Dad is grateful for. It was pretty funny to hear what they see as Dad's favorite things.. the gym, football, beef? Bentley said beef.. she's on this weird beef kick.. She wrote "I love beef" on my foot the other night...

Some of my favorites from the tree:

pie-bentley

netflix-bentley

cars-bauer

definitely lemonade and definitely toast-bauer

More Fall Lovlies

Look at this cute daddy-o with his beautiful girlie girls. You can see they all love him so much!

One of my favorites from the day..

Look at her hair! So gorgeous!


And this little beauty.. so many cute ones of her!





And this little sassy pants, gotta love a girl with some attitude!

Thanks for looking!

Fall Family Shoot

One of my favorite families + one of my favorite locations = these delightful fall photos... I couldn't decide for a second what it all equaled. But I did have fun as I bossed them around a little bit.

We went for a little bit more of an urban feel.. cause these guys, as you can see, are a little bit edgier.

Look at these cute kiddos! All grown up.

And just to mix it up a little bit, we stopped at one of my favorite fields..

Thanks for being cooperative with me and all my demands!

Happy Halloween!

Yikes that's a bird-tastic crew. My little Bauer has never willingly dressed up for Halloween (he's only three.. but still). In September, I started asking him about what he would like to be. I gave him all kinds of suggestions that I thought would appeal to him including cars, trains, spongebob, etc. He turned me down to all of them. Out of nowhere a few days later, he said to me "Mom. I know what I want to be. A big, red angry bird." I laughed thinking how funny it was for him to come up with that. Somehow, one turned into four (plus two other misc costumes I had already made) and boom. Look at Aunt Sharon as mad a bird as could be.

Beautiful Fall

How cute are these little twinners? I have picture after picture of this same pose, but in every one they are pulling different faces.. So much energy!


They have to get that cuteness from somewhere, right? Here's their cute mama, I loved how this one turned out! I hope she does, too...

When we first left for the shoot, I thought this little guy would not be into it. But he proved right off the bat that he is a photoshoot natural. Look at that G.Q. pose!

And this small gal is one of the cutest little girlie girls you've ever met! I love me a little spunk!

Thanks to Audrey for letting me spend a little time with her and her oh-so cute fam!

Onto my Brookie Cookie.. my lil sis, who always has a different idea of how photos should go then I do. We quickly ran up the canyon to snap a few.. We're going to have to hit up another shoot to get the pics she had in mind. "I just want them to look like I'm on a little hike"- Brooke

Aww... how cute is she? All grown up and about to get her drivers license. Watch out errbody.

Just a smidge of what I've been working on..

So I have been slaving away. But don't ask me what I've been slaving away ON.. I seem to have a slight problem with painting everything over and over again. But that's another post.. I am happy to say that I have been working on my writing often, and I have actually been getting some things done around my house.. It's decked out tackily in Halloween and one of the bigger accomplishments- my garage is almost clean enough to park in (As long as you don't count the five pieces of furniture I bought last Saturday). I have had tons of fun photo shoots over the past couple weeks, and wanted to show this one..

I had the pleasure of working with a sassy little crew of ladies..

Do we love the tutus?

Super intense tea party. Many more cuties to come.. I'm a horrible blogger, but I'm trying my best to keep up with my projects.. Here's a list of things I want to show that I've been working on:

Bauer's room remodel complete with refinished vintage dressers

Bentley's finished product of a room

Our homemade Halloween costumes

Our homemade Halloween decorations

My new refinished coffee table.. in indigo

My ruffle pillows

My under construction chandelier

etc..etc...etc..

They may not be that interesting, but I want to post 'em!

Plus many more photos!

See ya soon! I hope...

p.s. can I just say I am obsessed with this Bruno Mars song?? I am dorky enough to admit it's getting me excited for the new Twilight movie!!

Epic Love Poster

I am constantly inspired by Pinterest, and this latest project was taken from an awesome poster I re-pinned originally from a site called www.notonthehighstreet.com .. but I knew this was something I could easily make myself in photoshop.

This is how mine will look once printed..

Ah, we're so in love.

It was really simple, I just put it together in photoshop and used margins.. using a text box per couple.

So I'll post a new picture once it's printed and in it's oh so vintage frame. My bedroom is almost all the way put together!

Blanding Family Photo Shoot

My oh so cute in laws were up for some family pics (a little while ago..) and I happily explored Blanding, Utah for some spot that would work.. Can I just say that I wish this little place was here in Salt Lake? I loved everything about it.. except the heat, it was blasted hot.

I love this one..


This little guy rocked it like zoolander.. he had more poses than I knew were possible. Pretty much the funniest kid I know..

I have the cutest nieces and nephews.. every picture of her turned out so cute!

Love the blanding landscape!



The wind picked up, but we had to pull to the side of the road and grab a few.. I'm so glad we did!

Thanks guys for being so good-looking, and being good sports about how long it's taken me to finally show you some pictures from your shoot! Luff your faces.

DIY Fall Beaded Bracelet

I've been making a lot of jewelry lately. I mean, a LOT. My mom is kind of demanding and orders me around like Cinderella to put together her own custom accessories. She's a bit of a diva. I'm hoping that maybe if I share how I make this dangle beaded bracelet she will read this tutorial and make one of her own. Who am I kidding.. But maybe this will be of interest to someone! If that's you, read on.

This particular bracelet is much more autumn looking than the pictures leave you to believe. It's got pretty golds and turquoises-not the mardi gras type feel you're seeing here. If you jump to the bottom of my post, you'll see the same style bracelet with different beads.

This is what you'll need:

Tools: Needle Nose Pliers

Pliers

Side Cutters

These are available at any craft store.

Supplies: You can find all of these at a craft store. I like Michael's the most for Beads.

One Clasp- I prefer the lobster clasp shown because sometimes the cute toggles undo on your wrist.. you don't want all this hard work to just fall off!

Chain- Enough to fit your wrist. I show to different kinds in my pic.. you want a medium size..

Head pins with Ball Ends-You will need 50 of these (more if you want a chunkier bracelet than shown) You can use plain head pins also, but I like the ball because it does a good job of not letting most beads fall off, and it also is a prettier finished look.

Assorted Beads- 80ish. I like to do some pins with two beads, you can do more or less. What beads should you choose? I'll tell ya in a sec..

Silver spacers-Optional.. depending on the look you want. The silver spacers just add a little bit extra if you want a little more flash. You can also find the spacers, the pins, the chain and the clasp in gold if that's what you want.

The first thing that I do is attach the clasp to the chain. Make sure to try it on before you start beading, the clasp can add a good amount of length, and you don't want the bracelet falling off your wrist, but you don't want it too tight. Here's two different examples of chain.. they would both work find for this bracelet.

When making this style bracelet, I like to put all my beads on the pins before I start attaching them to the chain.

When choosing your beads:

It's important to know what style of bracelet you want. If you want a more messy look like the one I'm demonstrating, find varying sizes and shapes. Also this style looks really good with varying finishes (shiny, matte, etc) I was going for a metallic look with this one, so I chose all glitzy.

If you want something a little more clean like the pearl bracelet at the bottom of the post, choose beads in uniform shape and similar size.

If you are feeling clueless on what colors to choose, take a piece of printed clothing that you love and draw from that.

I start by putting the largest group evenly first. Don't get too worked up on spacing it exact. Just trust your eye, once more beads go on you won't be able to tell they're not perfect.. promise!

I chose this bead group next since it was so similar in color to the first group. And again, you just place and don't sweat it.

If you don't know how to attach a head pin, this link can help:

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_8501558_twist-head-pin-earrings.html

My advice is to always twist the pin. Some like to clip it and just bend a small part over, but when you twist it, your bead is not going to ever fall off unless it breaks. If you've never done this before, you will pick it up after a few tries.

Starting to get a little more full. Maybe you really like the look how it is now.. this bracelet has roughly 22 pins in it.

Adding another group..

Suddenly getting chunkier..

and boo yah..

you're ready to be the belle of the ball.

Another example of the same bracelet, different beads:

The pearls in this make it a little more dainty and clean.

Thanks for visiting! Let me know if you have any questions!