being grown up

Here Lately

2011-04-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Things have been a little hectic lately, and I have been a HORRIBLE blogger!!!
So... Let me catch you guys up on what been going on!

I gave birth to this beautiful baby girl on February 24, 2011.

I went in the hospital early that Thursday morning ready to get my epidural and have a C-section.

Turns out, an epidural wouldn't work on my back due to a previous back surgery years ago so they had to put me to sleep.

Since they were putting me to sleep, nobody could go back with me:(

So they roll me back into the room with all the nurses and doctors and I was FREAKING OUT to say the least. They had to give me some anxiety medicine because I was so worried I was going to wake up in the middle of surgery. Well they put me down with just general anesthesia, and about 20 minutes later they woke me up and put Kinsley in my arms.

The pain was SUPER bad because they couldn't give me any pain meds when they put me under because they could've hurt Kinsley.I was in so much pain from them cutting my stomach open I didn't even want to hold her so I gave KM to my mom until my pain meds kicked in.

She was 6 lbs 11 oz and 18 inches long, and completely beautiful. It is definately true when people say it is love at first site, it was unreal how much love I had for her and she was only minutes old!

I was determined not to stay in the hospital very long so that night I told my nurse I wanted to get up and walk around so I could start earning some strength back, it was pretty difficult, but like I said I was determined!

I got to leave the hospital that Saturday and Kinsley was down to about 6 lbs, she had a pretty bad case of jaundice BUT we fought it and now she is 10 lbs at 9 weeks!!!

I'll show you guys some pictures of our journey the past 9 weeks.

Here she is at 4 days old.

This was her first bath I got to give her at home!!

Kinsley Mae at 5 days old, so alert!!!

We are still in the hospital in this picture, her little bandaids on her hands where her iv's were:(

2 weeks old! She is SUCH a happy baby!

Good Morning!!

1 month old!

5 weeks!!

Smiling at her mommy!

All smiles!

9 weeks!!

To say the least I am a little obsessed with her and take pictures CONSTANTLY!! I am so happy to finally have everything organized (well organized enough for right now) so I can get back in blogger world!! I hope all of you have had a great past 2 months!! If anything exciting has happened PLEASE fill me in on your lives while I have been absent!!! Miss you guys!!!

Guest Post!!!

2011-02-17T07:38:00.000-08:00

Hello again Lovely Being Grown Up readers!!

I am very much excited to be blog swapping once again with the lovely Ashley!

Remember me from this guest post?

If not, I'm Kassi from Truly Lovely!

You can read more about me and my blog at that link up there. :)

If you're really missing your daily dose of Ashley, you can give her a visit over at my blog today, where she's sharing a lovely tutorial of her own! :)

Today I would like to share a SUPER EASY fleece blanket tutorial with you!!

The materials needed are:

3 yards of fleece fabric

1 package of coordinating satin blanket binding

Coordinating yarn

Coordinating sewing thread

Pins

Yarn Needle

Scissors

Sewing Machine

In this case I went with zebra fabric and all red coordinating materials.

First trim your fleece fabric of any uneven edges or those funky white labeled edges... You know what I'm talking about... :)

Then, using the Yarn Needle, stitch your thread down the two length sides of your fabric like so... I spaced each stitch about a half an inch apart...

Next you'll pin and trim your satin binding to the two width sides (the two shorter sides)... The binding will have a fold down the middle, simply line that fold up with the edge of your fabric, making sure it's centered so there's an even amount of binding on both sides...

Fold over the edges of the binding to make your four corners and pin those as well. You can either trim or fold the extra binding inside to make your corner.

Once you have the binding pinned onto both sides, get out the sewing machine. I used red thread to match the binding...

If you sew really well, you can use a varying color of thread for added pop!!! I don't so much... SO matching thread hides my inexperienced sewing skills. :)

Simply sew the binding to the fleece pulling pins as you go.

And TaDA!!!! A SUPER EASY fleece blanket made by you!

They make great baby gifts, or gifts for friends or family!! :)

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial!!

I would love it if you would pop over to Truly Lovely to say hi!

AND if you like what you see we would LOVE a follow! :)

Hope to see you there!!

THANKS SO MUCH TO THE LOVELY MISS ASHLEY OF BEING GROWN UP

for blog swapping with us today!!!

SO NICE TO BE HERE AGAIN!!! :)

Special THANKS to the WONDERFUL Miss Kassi for coming over and sharing with us today!! Everyone be sure to check out her lovely blog!!! I am posting over there today and will be over there again in the future so you should go over to her blog and become a follower so you never miss either one of us! Hope you all have a fabulous Thursday!!!

Door to My Heart.. Well the Window Screen to My Heart

2011-02-04T09:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Happy Valentines Month!! It took me FOREVER to figure out what to do for my first craft for the big American Crafters competition! But I finally figured it out!! My competitors are very very talented!! So lets hope my craft gets lots of votes:)

Supplies:

Window Screen

Pink and Red Acrylic Paint

Scissors

Tape

Paper

I used the paper as a cutting edge! I cut a heart out of the paper and taped the paper to the Window Screen and cut it out! I cut one big heart, one middle sized heart, and one smaller heart!!

HUGE NOTE: WEAR GLOVES! That stuff stinkin' hurts when it cuts you!

We had ONE sunny day this week so I decided I would spray paint, and it was a MAJOR FAIL! This is when I started freaking out a little bit, since I only had like 3 days to come up with and finish my craft for this competition!

So you need to stick with acrylic paint!! Also place the heart on something like aluminum foil so the paint sticks to the heart better!!

So now you just let your 3 hearts dry for a bit!
Then your going to stick them all together!! I used some thick double sided tape so it gave the hearts a little 3D look!

Then I just stuck it to the front door!!
Pretty Cute huh!?! I haven't seen anyone in bloggy world do something like this before (and if they have don't tell me haha I was proud to have come up with this on my own!)
So how do you guys like my first craft for the competition!?! Hopefully its as good as my fellow competitors! Everyone needs to head over to American Crafters and vote on your favorite craft!!
I won't pressure you to vote for me hehehe but you know I'd love your vote:)
Oh yes and if anyone was wondering.. only 25 more days until my Kinsley Mae arrives!! Hip Hip Hooray!

American Crafters

2011-01-31T12:45:00.000-08:00

Heyy followers! I got some great news this morning, I made it in the top 15 of the American Crafter competition!

Every week I'll be entering in a new craft for the competition so EVERYONE needs to go check it out!!
This weeks theme is Valentines Day!

I am about to start my craft so wish me luck!!

Nursery Projects!!

2011-01-29T18:34:00.000-08:00

I am FINALLY done with my nursery, and only 32 more days until my Kinsley is here!!
So here are some updated pictures of my nursery and a few small tutorials on how I did somethings!

I got this cute birdcage 50% off at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, and bought that cute little bird to go inside of it!!

Those are some of the crosses I spray painted pink!!

That super cute bow holder I made just a few days ago!! SUPER easy!

Just bought an old frame from the resale store down the street and took out the middle in it!

Then I painted the frame blue (it was too cold outside to spray paint), and I used a stapler and stapled the chicken wire to the back of the frame!

Most of these bows just clipped on and the ones that didn't I clipped on with a clothes pin!

Here's a closer look!

Here is a picture of the diaper wreath I made for the outside of the nursery door!

If you haven't made one of these, they are super easy to make!!
Just get a wire wreath, diapers, tulle, and ribbon!
Wrap the diaper around the wreath and tie a ribbon around it!
Then I took the tool and weaved it in through each diaper, I also used the pink tulle to make the bow for the top of the wreath!!
I got the K from Hobby Lobby awhile back and just hung it by a piece of ribbon as well!

That's all the pictures I took for now! I'll upload some more later!!
I'm just glad its all coming together so perfectly!
Now I just need a little girl to put in that room!!!

Guest Post!!! Making things with Chalk Paint!!

2011-01-25T07:34:00.000-08:00

Heyyy followers! I am so happy to have Miss Madigan with us today to show you these awesome Chalk Paint ideas!!! I absolutely love them!!!

Hello Being Grown Up readers!

I am Madigan and I blog over at Madigan Made. I enjoy sharing simple ideas for crafts, recipes and decor with my readers.

I was flattered that Ashley asked me to guest post over here. For this post, I wanted to share with you two chalkboard ideas.

I love chalkboard paint!

First, I wanted to show you these little colorful frames. They were a quick project I made for a craft fair I went to last November.

I picked up several small frames on clearance and spray painted the frames in fun colors. Then, I sprayed the glass in each frame with a few coats of chalkboard paint. (Tip: follow the paint directions carefully for curing time and how to 'season' the board with chalk before use.)

The frames felt like they still needed something, so I adhered coordinating paper to the back of flat glass gems (Read this post for tips how). I glued the gems to the corners.

I thought they were kinda cute. You could display a fun quote or message somewhere (kitchen, bedroom, office etc).

I also made a large chalkboard for my kitchen in the dining area. I love having a great quote near me while I work in that room.

I change the chalkboard quote (and decorations) out once a month and share it with my readers.

This BIG chalkboard is by far one of my favorite projects from the past year. If you wanted more details about the chalkboard and monthly changes, read this post.

Thanks so much, Ashley, for the invite to post here!

Smiles,

Madigan

Isn't she amazing readers?! Those are the cutest ideas ever! I just made some and I plan to post some pictures here soon when my paint finishes drying!!! Be sure to go check out her blog!!

Million Dollar Spaghetti

2011-01-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

Million Dollar Spaghetti is my family's FAVORITE meal, so I thought I would share it with all of you!!

Ingredients

1 lb. of Ground Beef

1 can of Spaghetti Sauce

8 oz of Cream Cheese

1/4 cup of Sour Cream
1/2 lb. of Cottage Cheese
Whole Stick of Butter
8 oz. of Noodles
Bag of Sharp Chedder Cheese

First: Go ahead and put your over on 350! Boil those noodles!! While they are boiling go ahead and mix up the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese!!

Make sure that it is mixed up VERY well!

Then.. go ahead and cook that meat!

Make sure its good and brown and drain it!
Then pour your spaghetti sauce over it!

Take a few slices of your butter and put them in the bottom of your casserole dish,

Then layer HALF of the noodles in the bottom of the dish!

Pour that nicely mixed up creamy mixture on top of the noodles.

and SPREAAAAAD it all over!

Then add the rest of your noodles and put a few slices of butter on top of those noodles.

Now pour the red sauce and meat on top!

and once again SPREEAAAAD

Now place that awesome casserole in your oven for 30 minutes!

After those 30 minutes take the dish out and pour some chedder cheese on the top and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes!

Then your DONE!

Now I'm awful and didn't take a finished project picture, SORRY!

But the amazing taste will make up for it:)

Baby Shower #1

2011-01-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have been a bad blogger lately and haven't posted at all this week!!

Sorry guys:(

I started back to school last Friday, and I have been trying to prepare myself for this semester,

and trying to get my nursery finished before my sweet girl comes!!!

My doctor set my C-section date for March 1!!!!

My first babyshower was a week ago, and it was so much fun!

I have this weird anxiety thing, and opening presents in front of people FREAKS me out.

It makes me so nervous, its the silliest thing!

To my advantage God decided to make my babyshower day a snow day!

It started snowing RIGHT when I started opening my presents, so after I would open someone's present they would leave so they could get home before the weather got bad!

This helped so much, Thank You Jesus!

This is my BEAUTIFUL cake that my best friend Christina got from Blue Cake Company in Little Rock, AR. They did such an awesome job! They even made it my favorite.. Italian Cream Cake:):)

Here is my cool diaper cake, Mrs. Mary and Nichole made!!

They did a great job!

This is my best friend Kelsea, she threw the shower!

She is explaining the diaper game haha she smashed 2 different candy bars in the diaper and everyone had to pass it around and guess what the candy bars were!

So this is a little blurry!

But I wanted all the moms to see this! It's a word scramble!!

Try to figure out some of those words, they were SO hard!

This is my beautiful best pregnant friend Kara:) She's due exactly 2 weeks after me!

Can you see what that bib says!? "Star of Mommy's Blog"

How funny is that!?!

Kinsley will definately be wearing that bib alot on this blog!

My next shower is this Saturday at my house so I have to go clean now:(

Hope you guys are having an awesome week!

I promise I'll try not to ever go this long without posting again:)

CSN GIVEAWAY!!!

2011-01-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

Ever heard of CSN stores!? CSN Stores have over 200 online stores where you can find anything you need/want whether it be swingsets, fitness equipment, home decor, or even cute cookware!

How much fun the kids could have on one of these!!

Here's some of their wall art! How stinkin cute!!

Check out this Paula Deen Porcelain Nonstick 12 piece cook set!

I absolutely love these red cooking appliances!

Want any of this awesome stuff?

YOU could win it!

CSN Stores is giving one of my lucky readers a $15 credit to any of their stores!

A few of their stores are http://www.allmodern.com/ , http://www.cookware.com/ , http://www.swingsetsandmore.com/ , and so many more!

MANDATORY ENTRY

(THIS MUST BE DONE IN ORDER FOR ANY EXTRA ENTRY TO COUNT)

Become a follower of Being Grown Up and leave me a comment telling me you are a follower!

MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN!

1 EXTRA ENTRY

Follow @CSNstores on Twitter and Tweet about this giveaway! Then leave me a comment letting me know you did this!

Tweet something like "Heyy @CSNstores is giving away $15 over @ashkaitlin24 blog!! Come enter at http://www.ashleykaitlin.blogspot.com/

This giveaway will end on Wednesday, January 19th at MIDNIGHT Central Time.

The winner will be choosen at random using http://www.random.org/

After the winner is picked I will send you an email and you will have 48 hours to redeem your prize, and if its not redeemed than I will pick another winner!!

DON'T FORGET to leave your email address with your comment so I can contact you!

GOOD LUCK:):)

First Blog Swap With Kassi From Truly Lovely!!!

2011-01-13T08:07:00.000-08:00

Hey, hey all you lovely Being Grown Up followers!!

WAIT!!!

Please don't say,

"Oh, it's just a guest blogger... I'm not getting my Ashley fix today..."

then skim over my guest post and move on through your blog roll...

'Cause that would make me SO sad!

I am real excited to be here and so thrilled to meet the lovelies that follow Miss Ashley, 'cause really, SHE'S awesome so you all must be awesome too!!! So please, stay awhile and let's get to know each other! ;)

I am Kassi! A face behind the blog, Truly Lovely!

I say 'A face' because my sister, Kayli is the other face... haha!

I love Miss Ashley and her 'growing up' antics here at Being Grown Up, so I am stoked to be blog swapping with her today!

So a little bit about me... I am WAY too much addicted to blogging and the blogging world... I sell Scentsy... I'm in the process of planning my wedding and purchasing my first house with my mister... My day job is Marketing Director for an accounting software... And I like dots... Alot...

Yep, that's me!

At Truly Lovely, my sister and I...

Mostly I 'cause the sister is in the middle of her senior year of high school... And let's face it... there's some pressing issues she's gotta deal with there... Like what to do after high school!!

But I digress...

Anyway... we post on the lovelies of life! Anything and everything that we happen to think is 'Truly Lovely'! Thus the title!

What we find to be Truly Lovely include crafting projects... Like these super easy, but still super cute Chalkboard Canisters.

Or this sweet Train Case Embellishment!!

Sometimes the things we find to be Truly Lovely are yummy treats like these Mint Oreo Brownies!

And because we like sharing things and meeting new lovelies like YOU... You're apt to get a random post sharing facts about us, giving something lovely away, or sharing our opinions on any random product!

So that's a little bit about us!!

I hope you'll check out our blog and if you like what you see you can get an (almost) daily dose of two fun ladies, Kassi and Kayli, just by clicking follow!

If you're popping over to Being Grown Up from Truly Lovely, I'm sure Miss Ashley would love a new follower too!

And we love you guys, so we know she will!!

Share the comment and following love new friends!!!

Hope to see you around again soon!!!

Isn't she the best!? If you haven't checked out her blog already, go do it!!

Thanks so much for coming and visiting with my crowd today Kassi!!

Hopefully we will be seeing you again SOON:)

Life is GOOD

2011-01-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

Today/yesterday has been of the best days and don't worry I am going to tell you ALL about it!

Anytime that Arkansas gets snow, EVERYONE freaks out and usually everything closes!!

My very best guy friend Chris was supposed to leave for the military yesterday,

BUT due to all of our snow his flight got cancelled and he will be here for another week! yayy!

Sadly he won't be here when Miss Kinsley is born but she will love her Uncle Chris so very much when he returns!!

So I got to spend my snow day with him yesterday and today, what a blessing it has been!

Yesterday we all just laid around and watched movies all day and cooked some yummy Million Dollar Spaghetti for dinner, I plan on blogging about that recipe here soon so everyone can enjoy the yumminess and THOUSANDS of calories it is!!

I was also SO lucky to have Amy come and guest post for me yesterday, weren't her headbands the CUTEST thing!? If you haven't checked out her blog yet, you should definately make that a priority!

Also Crafterminds was yesterday, if you haven't checked that out yet, come join us on Twitter next Monday at 3:00 pm Central Time! Its so much fun chatting with other bloggers about everything!

After the chats I always get in my "blog" mood, so I started making an inspirational notebook!!

I haven't gotten too far on it yet, but just making time to make one is nice and relaxing!

Before I went to bed last night I realized that Jana from Giggles, Glitz, and Glam had featured my blog!

I join her linky parties every week and just love them!!

So today... I got up and auditioned for American Crafters

I love bloggers like Amy at http://www.naptimecrafters.blogspot.com/ that take the time to do fun competitions like this!!If you haven't linked up already, GO DO IT!Then one of my favorite bloggy friends Kassi at Truly Lovely awarded me with the Stylish Blogger Award!!

How sweet is that!?! I now have to pick some ladies to give this button out too:) Maybe you'll be the lucky one! I also am SO very excited about my blogswap with Kassi on Thursday, everyone be sure to check out our blogs!!Want another reason why my life is so good??? Here is goes! My FIRST baby shower was on Sunday, and yes I will be blogging about that here soon, and I got a Pack and Play from my mom!! They sold her the wrong one so today when the roads were cleared up, me and Chris went to go exchange it! I got the Graco Elyse and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I am so very excited that Miss Kinsley is almost here I can hardly stand it!!! I already set it up and I REFUSE to put it away until after she is here! Just if you were wondering I only have 47 days left!! ahhhhh:):)Also I was so very happy when I read my comment from Camilla at http://www.rosyredbuttons.blogspot.com/ everyone needs to go check out her blog tomorrow, she is going to be featuring my Mini Window Dividers!!Enough of my good day, tell me all about yours! One of my favorite parts of blogging is reading all of the comments!!You guys make my day all the time:) Thanks!!

Making a Signature for Your Blog!!!

2011-01-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

Okay so maybe I'm just not very smart, but I have been trying to figure out how to make a signature for my blog for awhile now!!

I was reading somethings on The Blog Guidebook and found a website that will make my signature for me!!

If you have never read The Blog Guidebook you should DEFINATELY go look at it!!

And if you are a dummy like me and you need a signature than check out http://www.mylivesignature.com/

GUEST PROJECT-- Make Feather Headbands with Amy!!

2011-01-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

Hi! My name is Amy and I'm so excited to be guest blogging on Ashley's blog today! I am 31, am married and have two beautiful children. We live in Central Indiana (I've been a Hoosier my whole life) and I work as the Sr. Pastor's assistant at our church. I've been creative my whole life, whether that be scrapbooking or jewelry making or sewing - all of which started in High School and then laid dormant for a while. I am the owner and designer at amycornwell.com, I love to create just about anything, so that means that my blog is a mix of all things creative. Sometimes I have sewing tutorials, sometimes jewelry posts, sometimes recipes and sometimes pictures of my family. I'd love for you to take a peek when you get a chance. It truly is a lifestyle blog of all that I'm passionate about. I love to inspire others to create and hopefully my tutorial today will inspire you to create something beautiful!

Today I'm going to teach you how to make this super cute feather headband. It's really easy and costs about $5 to make with many supplies left for other projects! Here's what you need (picture 1 below):

- 1/2 yard black tulle (you'll have lots left)

- black feathers

- black wire-wrapped bead components

- crystal buttons

- felt

- plain headband

- scissors

- glue gun

- wooden skewer or stick

To start, cut two ovals of the same size out of the black felt in the size that you want your focal piece to be (picture 2). Cut a few of the feathers off and glue them to the felt, using the skewer to press it down (picture 3). Trust me, you'll be happy you used the skewer and not your fingers - ouch! Cut a bunch of tulle circles, about 1 1/2" in size. You'll be taking about 3 circles, folding them in half twice making the shape in picture 4.

Glue those tulle pieces on in a random fashion, being sure to press well with the skewer so that the hot glue goes through all of the layers (pictures 5/6). Add a beaded component, cutting off the extra wire at the bottom (picture 7). Keep adding tulle to a little farther than the top half, making sure that you do some sideways on the edges (picture 8).

Add a few extra feathers and another beaded component to lay the feathers down a little (picture 9). Keep adding tulle until you get to the bottom, then add some tulle upside down (picture 10). You'll have a funky spot of glue where all of the tulle comes together, but that's okay (picture 11). Glue on a few crystal buttons and we're almost done (picture 12)!

Here is where you learn from my mistakes. I just guesstimated on where the piece should go on the headband and glued it on. Don't do that! I also had the feathers going up and I looked like a bird. So I took it apart (cutting and pulling with all of my might since the hot glue had already set) and started over. I decided to put it farther down the side and the feathers going down so it's much better. Lesson learned: place it on your head as a test BEFORE you glue it down! Add a dollop or line of glue on the back of the felt and attach the headband (picture 13). Then add a ton of glue to the felt and attach the second oval to the top of it (pictures 14/15). ALL DONE!

I love this headband! I wasn't too sure once I started how it would turn out but it looks so cute on. I can't wait for date night now! Thanks so much, Ashley, for letting me hijack your blog today. I hope you all will stop over to my blog for a peek!

Thanks SO much Amy! These Feather Headbands are super cute and not hard to make at all!!! Amy has an awesome blog at http://www.amycornwell.blogspot.com/ go check her out:)

Mini Window Dividers

2011-01-08T13:01:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to come up with something to cover up my windows in my bedroom for weeks now,

and I didn't want to use curtains!

I kinda knew what I wanted to put in them but anytime I tried to explain it to anyone it didn't make any sense!

I finally decided I would just wing this project and see how it turns out!

So where do I end up? Hobby Lobby!!
Here's a preview of my finished project:

Cute Huh!?!

The things I eneded up buying:

Foam Board

Fabric (super cute new Spring fabric is out!!)

Ribbon

Quilt Batting

I first measure my foam board out in 3 pieces, each 10 inches wide! Then I took my cutting knife and tore them apart!
I got out my quilt batting and cut it the same size as the foam board,
then I took my fabric and cut it an inch longer and an inch wider than my foam board!

You can barely see those 3 little holes on the left side of the board,
but I cut 3 wholes into the foam board to later run the ribbon through!

Then I took out my hot glue gun and put glue all over one side of the board and stuck my batting on!

Afterwards I took the fabric and laid it over the batting and flipped the board over.
I put glue on the back of the board and pulled the fabric tightly on each side and stuck it down.

I should have cut the holes in the fabric to match the holes in the board but I didn't, oops!
So I felt for the holes and took my knife and just cut through, and thankfully it worked!!!
I measure out 3 pieces of my ribbon and stuck a piece through each hole!
After I finished the other 2 pieces of board I tied them all together, and set them in my window sill and I think they turned out super great!!

I think I'm going to need to add one more board in so my window is fully covered, but at least now everyone in my house knows that my idea worked and I'm not crazy! I just had a little bit of trouble trying to decide what I was wanting to do! Hahaha!!

FREE ADVERTISING!!

2011-01-06T06:27:00.001-08:00

Sara from Sweet November is offering FREE advertising until she reaches 300 followers!!!

Go check her awesome blog out!!!

Kinsley's Tree For Nursery

2011-01-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

Trying to fill up all the walls in a nursery is hard work!

THINKING of what to put on all these walls is even HARDER work!!

I had my mind set on putting a tree with some birds on it on one of the walls,

but didn't realize how expensive this could be! And I am not experienced enough with my Silhouette machine to make a tree and print it off myself, so we painted one!!

First we had to measure it out, 55x80 is roughly what the dimensions ended up being!

Here's my mom measuring it out:)

She's pretty handy!

Gotta love her hot pink sweats!

Now the painting begins!!

A few weeks ago Home Depot had this AWESOME sale and we got like 20 pints of Martha Stewart paints for $4.95, all different colors! So we used a brown that came in that pack for the tree paint.

Finally my little sister woke up around 2 PM and helped us paint!!

She would sleep all day if we would let her!

But what 16 year old wouldn't??

There's Mom with her thinking face on:)

Behind her you can see the pretty crosses that I spray painted pink a few weeks ago,

I'll do a post about that soon!!

FINALLY 5 hours later our beautiful tree is done!!

Job well done huh?

So then I got on the Silhouette Studio and printed off some birds, owls, and leaves on different colored cardstock! I mix and matched the papers to give all my little animals character!

My first instinct was to modpodge these little creatures onto the wall, then when we actually thought about it a few years down the road when we want to take the things OFF the wall it might be kind of difficult.

So this is what we used:

After I applied this adhesive spray on the back of my creatures I started sticking them in place!

My fingers got super sticky after spraying this stuff so I had to use a ruler to push down the birds so I didn't get them dirty!

How cute is that owl??

Here is what I thought was the finished piece..

Then I thought that my tree needed some more leaves to fill it in!!

And HERE is my finished piece!

I am so very happy with this finished project!!

So this project cost less than $20!! Go us!!

Christmas at Granka's!

2011-01-02T17:20:00.001-08:00

This Christmas everyone on my mom's side decided to go to our Granka's!!

Granka is what we call our grandmother, when the oldest cousin Micah was little he came up with that name and it just kinda stuck with her!! I think he formed it from Grandmother from Arkansas haha.

Well now she lives in Allen, TX, so we had about a 5 hour drive from Arkansas on Christmas Eve.

Our car was packed, it was me, mom, my sister and both of our dogs!!

And we don't have little dogs!

haha the golden-doodle on the left is our puppy Sammy! And the Lab Mix on the Right licking his face is our dog Charlie!!! He's like my other half:) The little malti-pom in the middle is Millie-Mae, she USED to be our dog, but my mom gave her to my Aunt Lori (the lady snoozing on the couch).

Sadly these weren't the only 3 dogs with us this weekend!

My other Aunt Shawn brought her lab, and my Granka has 2 poodles! It was a bit hectic in the house all weekend!!

He loves his little sister Kinsley already!

This is a closer look at crazy Millie!

Sweet Charlie!

This is my cousin Zachary! He is my absolute best friend, we grew up together, more like brother and sisters than cousins.

This is my Aunt Shawn and Uncle Matt!

Aunt Shawn and her husband came down from Katy, TX!!

Their daughter Meagan couldn't come because she had to work:( And their other son Micah couldn't come because he was still in Iraq on Christmas, BUT he made it back to the states safely yesterday!!

This is my beautiful mom:) One of the only things she wanted for Christmas was a bottle of Hello Kitty Wine, and she got it!!

Here's our puppy Sammy, and my Aunts dog Sophie and our pup Charlie!

Isn't she so cute:)

Here's my little sister Abbey and Charlie

And here is the famous Granka!!!!

She might kill me for putting this on here, but this was the only close up I had of her:/ This is my moms other sister Lori!! She lives in Arkansas too:)

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Years!!!

So I'm Gonna Enter!!

2011-01-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard yet Sew Dang Cute Crafts is hosting Crafting With the Stars!!

I gutted up and decided to enter in!

I'm going to enter my Christmas Wanna Be Mantle !!

Here are some preview pictures!!!
Everyone should go check out her site and enter up!!
GOOD LUCK:):)

Subway Art

2010-12-30T19:33:00.000-08:00

As I was looking at everyone's Top 10 Ideas from 2010 I noticed everyone's Subway Art.

I just think that subway art is the coolest thing, and not very hard at all.

So I decided I would try it out myself!

I picked the canvas up at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 off!

As I was looking around Hobby Lobby I saw the scrapbook pages were also 1/2 off so I thought I might try and add some of these into my subway art!

First I painting my canvas chocolate brown,

then I cut the scrapbook pages into a few rows.

I then got out my favorite crafting device...

and modpodged my paper onto my brown canvas!!

As this was drying I started printing out words on my silhouette machine to put on my canvas.

This was actually the hardest part, I couldn't think of words to put on there!

I started off with our families names, then just added words in as they came to my head.

And this is how it all turned out!

It's still a little wet in the picture, but I was super anxious to show everyone my first try at Subway Art!!!

Parties I'm Linking Up With:

First Silhouette Project!!

2010-12-29T21:13:00.000-08:00

So I bought my mom a Silhouette Machine for her birthday and we haven't gotten a chance to use it yet!!

So this afternoon I decided I was going to try and use it and spell out Kinsley Mae to put over the closet in the nursery!!

A few things to note if you have never used one before:

Your paper needs to fill the space of the cutting board because if it doesn't the paper will slide and the cut will get all sorts of messed up!
Fit as many letters/symbols as possible on one page so you don't waste your paper!!

I wish I would have known these things before because I used a whole role of vinyl spelling out her name due to all of my mess ups!

Since I am pregnant its not smart for me to get on the ladder to hang the letters so my best friend Sarah put them on the wall for me.

Didn't take her too long to get it perfect!!

Here's our finished project!

Doesn't it look beautiful??

My nursery is finally coming together!

Kinsley's Dresser

2010-12-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

They always say "One man's trash is another man's treasure,"

WELL my mom was driving around on a Sunday night a few weeks ago,

and found this dresser on the side of the road.

Just so happens we have been looking for a dresser for my nursery.

After taking off those ugly knobs, and sanding the dresser all we had to do was paint!
We primed it using white spray paint, but then it started getting cold outside so we had to bring our project inside and roll painted the white paint on it!

Luckily Hobby Lobby was having 50% off their knobs:)

We picked out the crystal ones, they matched beautifully!

And while me and mom were doing some Christmas shopping we found some super cute hotpink and white polka dot wrapping that we thought would look awesome in the drawers!

So I measured the bottoms of the drawers and cute the paper,

and with a little bit of modpodge they turned out perfect!

This is our finished project:

Sweet Kinsley's dresser looks PERFECT in her nursery!

Just a few more weeks and she will get to see it herself:)

Only 8 1/2 more weeks to go until she's here!

Squash Casserole

2010-12-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

I've never been one to eat lots of vegetables,

especially vegetables that are not green.

Squash has never been one of my favorites,

but this Squash Casserole recipe I could eat all day!!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs of Squash

3 T butter

2 eggs

4 T flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 Cup of Milk

8 oz of Chedder Cheese

Cracker Crumbs

First take your squash and cut them up in squares,

and boil them until they are nice and tender.

Then drain the squash so there is no water left,

and smash the squash up like smashed potatoes!!

Now your going to add your butter, it mixes better if you melt it.

Then add everything else, mix your flour, cheese, milk, and eggs in.

Pour some salt and pepper in at your own risk.

Then pour your everything into a 2 quart casserole dish,

and pour some cracker crumbs on the top.

Put that oven at 350 and let is cook for 30-45 minutes!

Make sure its brown and bubbles before you take it out!

Yum Yum:)

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and is having a Happy New Year!!!

My December Danish

2010-12-14T18:48:00.000-08:00

I needed a study break so I decided to make some dessert to snack on while I study all night!

I decided to make some danishes because they are so quick and simple!

And of course I'd share it with all of you:)

December Danishes

1 cup of sugar

8 oz. of cream cheese

1 stick of butter

1 container of croissant rolls

First you take your softened cream cheese and mix it with the sugar.

Then you will unroll the croissant rolls, and spread some of the sugar and cream cheese mix onto the croissant.

After the mix is in the croissant you will roll the croissant up normally, then pour some melted butter on the top of the croissants. I even added a little bit more sugar to the top of the croissants to make them extra tastey!

Set your over to 350 and bake for about 10-15 minutes!

Now me and my roomie have something yummy to eat while we study!

My party spots:

Decorating the Mantle.. Well Decorating the Window Sill!

2010-12-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

Most people this Christmas are decorating their mantles, but I am decorating our window sill!

Our new house doesn't have a mantle in our living room, so I had to improvise a little!

I started making these three little trees:

These trees are so simple to put together!

All you need is a few paper plates, tissue paper, double sided tape, and anything else you have laying around the house that would look good on your tree!

Take one of your paper plates and make a cone. To make the bigger cone, use two of the paper plates and make a cone and stack them together.

You can do a lot of different things with the tissue paper, for my smallest tree I just twisted little pieces of the lime green tissue paper and wrapped it around the tree.

After I finished these trees I placed them on little candle sticks I got at Dollar Tree!

Turned out very cute!!

Then I started on my mini wreath's.

These were very simple to make!

I bought the wreaths and the ornaments at Hobby Lobby this morning for 1/2 off!

I just wrapped these tiny ornaments on the wreath!

I now had half the window sill down!

For the right side of the window sill, I took 3 of our glasses and just placed 3 ornaments in them!

To make them at different heights I just picked out 2 different sized canned goods in our pantry and wrapped each of them with lime green tissue paper!

Now that both sides are done, I made a big wreath for the middle!

This was also really simple to make!

I bought a wire wreath and wrapped it in hot pink tissue paper.

Then I took some white sparkly tulle and wrapped it around the tissue paper.

I stuck some little green ornaments and shoved them in the tulle.

Then I hot glued the silver ornaments to the tulle.

And lastly I wrapped the whole wreath with hot pink tulle and I was done!

Finished project:

Yayy!! My wanna be mantle is complete:)

I party with:

growing so fast

2010-12-10T09:02:00.000-08:00

On August 6, 2010 I had my very first ultrasound to see my sweet Kinsley!

This is how small her sweet little body was

I can remember freaking out because that little thing was inside of me.

It's amazing the technology we have to be able to see these things.

Only a few months later on October 4, 2010 I found out a was having a little girl!

This was one of the best days of my life. When I saw how big and beautiful all of her little body parts were on the monitor screen, the best feeling came over me that I have ever felt in my whole life.

This picture was my favorite

Her perfect little hand:)

On December 8, 2010 I got to see her again!

Look how big she has grown!!! Kinsley Mae is growing HUGE!

I wasn't exactly supposed to have another ultrasound, BUT my moms friend that works at the hospital needed some practice on looking at the heart, so even though I knew her heart was perfect already I allowed her to practice:) Kinsley still has a beautiful perfect heart!! She was being camera shy which is weird because usually when they put the camera on my belly she starts kicking it nonstop! I think she was a little sleepy during this ultrasound. The girl let me watch her face for a few minutes and it was the most wonderful thing in the world. She kept puckering her lips at us, and would cover her eyes with her elbow. It's like she knew that we were trying to watch her.

I have another appointment (sadly not an ultrasound appt) on the 22nd!!

I think we are going to pick my C-section date then!

Time is sure flying by!!