Summer swaperoo

I got my package in the mail from my summer swaperoo partner. I LOVE IT! I've never had head bands like those before, I can't wait to try them out. I'm thinking of getting a new hair cut and I think they will go perfect with it. Thanks Katie!

Operation Organize Kitchen

We have lived in our house for four years now. I love our house, but I have a hateful relationship with our kitchen. For example, it has a dishwasher, but since we are on well water, we don't have enough water pressure and the dishes come out looking worse then when they went in. But that's okay, because I used it for something else that is lacking in my kitchen...storage. The cupboards are few and the ones we have are small.

About 18 months ago, I feel in love with my mother in-laws new shelf in her kitchen. I saved up my pennies and with some Christmas money, I was able to buy one. But I decided my craft room was more of a disaster zone, so it went in there. (You can see pictures of what a difference it made on THIS POST.) Then Josh's job got real slow and money because something I wasn't willing to spend.

Here is what my kitchen has look like for years now because I've never really had room for anything. All the cupboards didn't close all the way, because they were stuffed as full as they could be.

The corner by the door. Sad, I know.
This is the table. I hear people actually eat off of them.

And my counter top. Usually there isn't that many cereal boxes, but with Josh working far from home, I don't like cooking so cereal has become my new staple food.

Last week I went to Lowe's and bought the shelf I've been dreaming about for over a year now. It was better then Christmas. It opened so many possibilities. Before I knew what I was doing I had emptied one cupboard onto the counter so I could scrub it down and empty a different cupboard into it. I had no idea how much work this shelf would require. I spent my entire day off yesterday reorganizing my cupboard. Guess what? They all shut tightly now! And I have room for when I start cooking again and doing real grocery shopping again!

The funnest part of the day was going through my tupperware containers. I had 35 lids that had now container to go with them. There was 7 containers that didn't have lids. I'm getting rid of the ones I have cussed for years because I don't like how they seal and I can't wait to get new ones.

Here's the after pictures. I'm so in love with my kitchen.

Another change I made was I put the cat food on a little rug. Zipper thinks the only way to eat is to grab a mouth full of food, drop it on the floor, and then eat half of what he drops. Ally chases the other half around and I end up stepping on little bits of kitty food. This has been so much better.

Our next home project is we are going to finally start painting inside the house. Hopefully we'll start that next week. Wish me luck because I will be doing most of it myself. We've decided on white walls, white doors and black trim.

Just a box?

Can you find the one thing that is different between the above picture and this picture? Look closely.
Look right in the center of the box and you can see the tip of tail. Its not just a box. Its hours worth of entertainment for our growing Ally.
In our house, its not about learning to dance in the rain. Its about learning to enjoy a box to its fullest potential.

Because he loves me

My husband is the greatest. I can do anything with him by my side. He is my strength and my everything. I would be lost without him.

I love you babe.

Garden kits

The latest kits I got from the Idea Closet were garden themed. As always, I liked her paper, but since I seem to collect Close to My Heart paper packs, but then never use them, I decided to use my paper instead of hers. I LOVE how they turned out.
Since I like making these kits so much and they are so affordable, I decided to do some extras this time to use as presents. It has been so hard trying to decide which ones to keep for myself.
I don't have a lot of room in my house to display items, but now that I am making all these kits, I needed somewhere to show them off. This week I bought a shelf at Lowe's. Now I can keep my favorite ones up all year on the shelf and then below it is the piano where I can change them out for the season. I've already ordered some summer and 4th of July kits. I can't wait to get them!

Kittens on a rainy day and an announcement!

Its so hard being a cat. Especially on a rainy day. Makes me wish I was a cat.
Several weeks ago we decided to let Ally have kittens. We thought she was pregnant, but two weeks before she was due, she was suddenly and very obviously, not pregnant. So we threw her outside so she could play with her boyfriend. Last week her belly started to swell and grow. She is due in about four weeks. We've never raised baby kittens before, I am so excited! We don't plan to keep any, so if you want one, let me know.

Burp Rag Lollipops

I made some burp cloth lollipops this weekend. They are so easy to make and so much fun.

Introducing Valex

My new nephew Valex

Born June 14th @ 10:30

6 lbs. 6 oz.

Jewelry Making

Today I went to a jewelry workshop. I was only going to go in for a minute and by a few of the premade pieces. Before I knew what was happening, I was at a table learning to do it myself.

I was only going to make one...

but then I saw someone else's and had to make one like it...

then I needed one in green...

and brown (cause these are the three colors I wear the most often)...

the red beads were so pretty that I couldn't stop myself from making another one...

then to round it all out, I decided to do just one more.

It was so much fun, I'm glad I decided to go today.

Cake Decorating Class: Week 4

I'm so sad it was our last week of cake class. I have had so much fun learning new things each week. I'm already signed up for her next two classes, but they don't start until the end of July.

This week we had to bring our own cake and decorate it in class using the skills we learned. It had to include: a border, flowers and writing.

I was a little worried about how long it would take in class, so I did the basic frosting at home. This was what it looked like before I went to class. You can use a paper towel to smooth the frosting after it dries, but I ran out of time and had to get ready for work. I decided to take some of our teachers advice to heart: "It doesn't matter how perfect your cake looks, people will still eat it."
I decided to fill the center with flowers, pipe a green border along the bottom edge and fill the petals with stars. I love how it turned out.
I wasn't sure what to write, so I decided to keep it simple.
Here's a few pictures of my final project. I also learned that I despise my new camera. It doesn't take the best pictures and I'm so upset. My first Kodak was so wonderful, but this second one has not lived up to my expectations. My stars look blurry, but they really weren't.

Our class started with 5 people, but the other two gals didn't come to the last class. Here we are with our final projects. I love all our cakes!
I am going to miss cake class so much. We have decided we might have to continue to get together each week and have a girls night out.

Cake Decorating Class: Week 3

I didn't realize I never posted pictures from week 3 of cake class. That week we learned star flowers, swirl flowers, and 2 different leaves. I didn't care for the star flowers so I didn't do very many.


The teacher took a picture of me while I was working.
As always, we had a great time!