Love is in the Air

Whoops.  I know I'm a day late with this but who doesn't like love?

For some reason I decided this year that we were going to do some serious Valentines crafting and cooking. 

Of course I used pinterest to come up with the idea for Finley's valentines.
Since this was her first year in "school" she had no idea what the concept of Valentines day was which was fun.  We decided to do something that didn't include candy just in case there were issues with allergies and such.  The original idea came from here but we did it a little different.  I got a big tub of animals from amazon which worked out perfect.  Finley helped by cutting out the little hearts, picking which animals to put in the bags, and writing her name on the back.  She actually got tired of writing her name after the 6th one so I had to finish for her.

After we finished the Valentines I decided that Finley needed a special bag to carry all of them to school in.  Completely unnecessary but I just couldn't help myself.  I knew what I wanted the bag to look like so I just came up with the pattern and sewed it together.  To my surprise it came out really cute. 

 

Here is Finley all ready to go to school with her valentines.

I couldn't stop at one bag so I had to make one for Finley's best friend Jude too.  Yes I know it's a purse and he's a boy.  He does have a little sister who I am sure can use the purse if he is willing to give it up.

I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine and knew it would be perfect to make to put in Jude's bag.  Finley and I had fun picking out which color nose, tails, and eyes each one was going to have.  They suggested using craft glue but I used hot glue since it is a little quicker.

I also wanted to make sugar cookies so we could decorate them with fun frosting and sprinkles.  This is where the Valentine crafting went a bit wrong.  I made the royal icing a little too thin so it ended up dripping off the edges of the cookies.  They don't look pretty but they taste good and Matt and Finley had a ton of fun decorating them.

The one on the right piled high with sprinkles was Finley's favorite.

Lastly, Matt helped me make some Valentine treats for his kids at school.  They aren't supposed to do candy so I found this idea on pinterest.  It does have candy but it also has popcorn.  That's healthy right?  Her ingredient and yield amount were pretty vague so I just kind of winged it with 2 bags of m&m's, 3 bags of candy melts, and 3 big pots of popcorn.  It actually ended up being the perfect amount to fill up 27 little bags. 

Matt said the kids were excited just to see it was popcorn.  They were super surprised when they figured out it was coated with candy.  We also ate a fair amount of it while we were making it.  It was super good.

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Thrifty Finds

This past summer my mom saw an ad in the newspaper for a "huge" fabric sale at a local shop.  When we showed up the "huge" sale was a small tent in the parking lot with about 20 rolls of hideous upholstery fabric. 

I wasn't really surprised that I didn't find any fabric I liked since I'm usually pretty picky.  The only saving grace was this box of coats and clark thread.  Only $.25 a spool.  Count me in.

As I was picking out the colors I wanted one of the employees came up and told me I could have the whole box for $25.  I hesitated for a bit because I was thinking, "what am I going to do with a big box of thread."  Well my wonderful mother convinced me I that it would be ridiculous to pass up such a great deal.  Plus, she kicked in $10.

You didn't think I paid $.25 for each spool did you?  Considering there are 494 spools that would have cost me $123.50.  Way too much for the cheapie in me.  In the end each spool ended up costing about $.05 each.

Now I finally have enough thread to try out the serger my mom let me borrow.

 

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Lazy

So I've been a bit lazy on the home improvement front for the last few months.  Between all of the holidays and swaps I've been doing I just haven't made time to do anything here at the house.

I think another reason is that I am just a little overwhelmed and burnt out.  We haven't done anything major but it's all of the little things that are wearing on me.  I mean I still haven't painted the crown molding in the living room.  Also, the strings that held the paper lanterns for Finley's birthday party are still up.  If I can't even take those down man I must be lazy.

So this is where pinterest has reared her (or is it his?) head again.  I saw a pin where someone used a suspension rod from ikea to hang these little FINTROP  pots in their bathroom to store hair brushes and make-up items (I'd show you the actual post but this was one of those frustrating pins that links to nowhere).  While the pots they used are a little plain for me I knew exactly which ones I wanted to use.  I've had my eye on the ASKER pots ever since they came out.  I just couldn't find a real need for them anywhere until now.

Despite our bathroom counter being a little bit bigger than at our old house.   I have still manged to clutter up the top with my misc. beauty items.

 Old Bathroom.  How I miss that pink tile and checker floor.

New bathroom with clutter.

This is an old picture from before I put the new medicine cabinet in and painted the white strips where the old lights were.  How I wish they had left those light in.  Sniff sniff.

What I decided to do was hang my little ASKER pots on the wall right above the tile on the right side of the counter.  This is "my" side and I thought putting it on the side wall would be better than on the wall under the window.  Plus, Matt's waterpik lives there and it is really the only place to put it since the only plug is right there.

The ASKER system comes with a flush mount suspension rail and while I love the idea of it being flush against the wall I wanted a hanging bar that hung way from the wall so I could hang some of my glasses on it.  I decided to go with the BYGEL rail not only because it was the exact size I needed, but it was only $1.99.  The ASKER rail was $7.99 and the cheapy in me  couldn't spend that when I could get something for $6 cheaper.

I also decided to move the little picture on that wall because I wanted to mount a little medicine cabinet there.

Here is how it looks now.  I kinda wish I would have mounted the rail a little higher but it hasn't really bothered me enough to get out the spackle and paint.

Here is where I rehung the little picture.  I like it way better here.

 

Hopefully doing this little project will get me motivated to start and finish a bunch of new projects in the near future.

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