Weekend at Melinda's House

I visited Melinda the weekend before our birthday.  Melinda and I are 2 years and 32 minutes apart.  

We were both born on January 31st.

I guess I forgot to take any pictures of her with me.  

Oh, well, her boys are entertaining!

Melinda and Russ got a new heater installed while I was there.  One of the workers gave some styrofoam pieces and a sturdy box to the boys to play with.  I told Melinda he probably has kids.  Sure enough, he has a 3 year old at home.  Matthew figured out that the styrofoam was sticky so he kept putting it on his face and let it hang.  What a silly boy!  Then Jacob had to get involved too.

Faces are fun, but sticking the block to their tummies was fun too!

I also helped Melinda and Emily help Jacob make his 100 Days Poster for school.  Cutting out the airplanes with Melinda's Big Shot from Stampin' Up! was easy....but 100 of them really gets tedious after a while! 

But since we all worked together, it wasn't that bad.

What a fun project! And the best part...he is done early! YAY!

Cory's Birthday

I made this for Cory's birthday.  His birthday is January 1st.  He is a New Year's baby.

I didn't know what to get for him.  He wants a HAM radio, which we can't afford right now.  I promised him we will get one for him as soon as we can.  He passed his Technician license test as well as his General license test.  We are very proud of him! 

I saw an idea similar to this on Pinterest.  I bought the candy bars and found everything else around the house.  I had some wooden skewers from a long time ago.  I taped the candy bars to the skewers and stuck them in a floral block inside the vase. I had the floral block left over from a project a few years ago.  The vase is also from several years ago.  When I was done, it didn't look like the picture from Pinterest.  Then I realized I forgot to buy some confetti.  

We have a paper shredder and I have lots of scrapbook paper that I'm not using very much any more, because I do my scrapbooking digitally now.  I emptied my shredder and shredded about 6 different colored papers and used that as confetti for the vase.  Voila! Quick, easy, inexpensive birthday gift for my hubby! Until I can afford to get him that HAM radio.

Shoe Organizers...not just for shoes anymore!

I found this idea on Pinterest!  I love it!

I bought 3 inexpensive shoe organizers at Walmart.

I used one for my spices-

One for the smaller items in my pantry-

And one in my laundry room behind the vacuum closet door-

This frees up so much space for other things!  And they are much more easily accessible!  I used to hunt and hunt for the spices I needed.  Now I just open the door of the pantry and there they are! Now I can tell if I am out of a certain spice.  Just the other day I looked for Nutmeg.  A typical spice that no home should be without, right? I don't have any! It is now on my grocery list so the next time I need it I will have it, and it will be easier to find!

What a Mess after Christmas!

I took these pictures of my kitchen and family room on Monday, January 2nd.  I just couldn't believe how messy I had let the house get!

I spent several hours cleaning and ...

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

So much better!

Now my goal is to keep it this way!  I love pinterest and have found so many organizational and cleaning tips. It is really helping me to stay motivated and keep up with my cleaning.

It is so much easier to keep a clear mind if I have a clean house!

Duct Tape Bag

Here is the Duct Tape Bag I made today.  Cool, huh?!

Here is a link to the website where I got the instructions:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Duct-Tape-No-Sew-Tote/

Proverbs 31 Woman

Our Boys

Derek, Charles, Ryan and Nathan in California-August 2008