Thrive

Make Your Own Mass Rad Graduation, Birthday or Celebration Balloons

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Thu, 23 May 2013 05:39:00 +0000

Graduation. End of the year.

It’s almost here.

Time for teacher appreciation gifts, commencement bouquets and graduation parties.

** Cue dollar store décor--that blessedly cheap haven of all things seasonal.**

Well, seasonal and completely generic.

Or not ….

I figured if I only had a few bucks to throw towards celebrating I might as well jazz it up using vinyl scraps and my Silhouette CAMEO.

Didn’t know you could dress up balloons?

Yup. You totally can.

And if you’re going to bust out the Silhouette, how cool would it look to have those balloons decked out in your grad’s mascot? Or name? Or both?

Graduation could look like this:

Or this:

And celebrating that college acceptance letter could look like this:

Lots and lots of possibilities. Lots.

Two words, people: mass rad.

You can import the school mascot/logo into your Silhouette library and trace the design or use a shape from the Silhouette store. Wording is simple using the free download font Collegiate Bold.

Application is straight forward, but here’s a quick video on how not to pop the dang things.

And while you’ve got the CAMEO out, why not use up a few more scraps to customize some snazzy dollar store gifts to match?

Cute, customized and crazy cheap.

Me likey.

Congrats class of 2013!

Recycled Easter Egg Wheat Grass Centerpiece

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:38:00 +0000

So, it’s almost Easter. And you’re making omelets. Or cookies. Or anything with eggs.

No biggie.

Just crack open those white shells and toss the whole thing, right?

Wait! Don’t toss that!

With two seconds of prep and some wheat from your food storage, those shells and carton can double as cute, FREE centerpiece for Easter brunch.

These come together in nothing flat—so easy.

* Gently crack your egg shells on the narrow end, remove the egg yolk and white, and make something delicious.

* Rinse shells in hot, soapy water and dry. Dye with natural or store-bought dyes as you would for traditional hard-boiled eggs.

* Add a tablespoon-ish of potting soil to each egg …

… and cover with sprouted wheat. *

Cover with plastic wrap and make sure soil stays moist, but not soggy.

Wheat will start to sprout in a day or two, with 4-6 inches of growth about a week later.

If the grass gets too tall or shaggy, just grab your scissors and even it out.

The carton doubles as a display tray by trimming down the sides with your nicest dollar store scissors.

And you can change up the look depending on how many eggs you use:

FULL DOZEN

HALF DOZEN

SINGLE PLACE CARD

(name written on egg)

(name on egg carton)

And when you’re done, EVERYTHING gets composted or recycled so there’s nothing wasted.

So …

Egg shells and carton?

It’s What Not To Toss this weekend!

* – Spouting wheat is easy and simply involves soaking and rinsing whole wheat kernels in water so that they start to germinate. There’s a great video of process HERE.

What Not To Toss Weekend: Busted Tape Measure

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:55:00 +0000

Ever have this happen?

I have.

My kids have killed three tape measures in the past year and it’s getting old. Really, really old.

Oh well. Time to bundle up yet another pile of measuring mess and haul it out to the trash, right?

Wait! Don’t toss that!

Tape measure metal is a cinch to cut with regular scissors and is loaded with all the organizery-measury goodness that’s all over blog land right now.

I used mine to dress up the fronts of some temporary shelves I have in my bedroom-turned-impromptu-sewing-station.

See?

I didn’t want to mess with painting these shelves with the whole ‘they’re temporary’ thing. But some extra color helps a lot.

Here’s the finished product:

Oh, and did I mention how handy it is to be able to measure fabric and ribbon on the fly?

I just hold up my yardage for a quick and accurate measurement.

Love that.

Here’s a few tips for anyone wanting to dress up their own shelves:

1. Be careful! The metal cuts easily with scissors, but the edges are sharp. Go slow, wear gloves and you’ll be fine.

2. Remove the measuring tape from the container by either unclipping the yellow portion from the blue tab or cutting it away using regular scissors.

3. Use a strong adhesive like E-6000. Craft glue, hot glue and the likes won’t cut it. And don’t fight the natural curve in the metal. You’re not going to flatten it out so don’t try.

4. The easiest way to glue these is to remove the shelves from the the wall (if possible). I ran a generous bead of E-6000 down the board and used duct tape to keep the tape measure from shifting while it dried. Again, don’t try and flatten the metal—just keep it from moving.

4. For the first shelf, I cut a piece from the very end of the measuring tape and glued it to the left side.

The next morning I started at the beginning of the tape measure and glued it along the front and right side.

For the remaining shelves, I measured the sides and front of each one and cut a single piece of metal tape. I glued the fronts of the shelves first and allowed them to dry overnight.

Then I carefully bent the tape measure around the corner and glued it to the sides of the shelves. Again, duct tape kept everything in place while it dried.

Super easy and cheap.

So ...

Busted tape measure?

It’s What-Not-To-Toss this weekend!

Make your own faux layered shirts from leg warmers or socks!

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 07:46:00 +0000

Holy easy project, Batman.

This was such a fun no-brainer—a trifecta, really, of circumstances that yielded kid #3 something like 50 new shirt combos:

#1 – it’s dang cold outside

#2 – baby girl has lots of these in her closet

#3 – I’ve got a bunch of these left over from past projects:

Women’s knee highs, Target; Leg warmers, Pick Your Plum

Voila!

Faux-Layered Awesomeness in two seconds flat.

This shirt can be worn plain. And sometimes plain is fine.

But sometimes plain gets the boot with a funky 3/4 ruffle or striped, full-length sleeve.

Just slip socks or leg warmers on all the way up to the shoulder and you’re set.

You can attach your new sleeves with a zig zag stitch/serger to make them permanent or just wear them opera glove style depending on your fashion fancy. Go for a more polished look by wearing the faux sleeves with the finished edge showing or keep it super casual with the raw edge exposed.

Here’s another example:

most days this is just a plain black shirt.

But add some faux sleeves and you’ve got a holiday wardrobe in seconds.

See?

So …

Go hack up some socks or drag out those old leg warmers

and stay warm (and cute) this winter!

What Not To Toss Weekend: Make mittens & hats from old sweaters!

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:09:00 +0000

Remember this little sweater that became a cardigan?

Well it’s too small for kid #6 and has a few stains here and there which makes passing it down to younger kids a no-go.

Time to trash that striped number, right?

Wait! Don’t toss that!

With a little Edward Scissorhands love, that sweater or cardigan can yield mittens and hats --even with those pesky stains.

(Good thing, too, since winter in Utah this year has been a little like living on the ice planet Hoth. Add to that six kids who keep jumping head-first into snow drifts and I’m having a hard time keeping enough dry hats and mittens around.)

*Cue the back ups.*

Chop off the sleeves and nix any trim or zippers. Open plain sweaters up along a side seam.

Use a hat for your guide and make sure you have enough material to cut twice the length of your hat + side seam allowance.

Cut the extra fabric away and fold in half with right sides together.

Cut around hat leaving room for a seam allowance.

Stitch around the top and serge or zig zag the raw edges.

And those stains? Yeah, totally covered them with some scrap t-shirt fabric. Just stitched in place.

I got one kids size hat out of this 5T sweater. Adult sizes would easily yield a hat from both the front and back pieces.

So don’t stop there!

What about those sleeves? Or any extra sweater material?

When I opened up the sleeves, I realized I had enough material for another hat.

Trim up the arm and scrap pieces to even rectangles. Measure from the border and trim pieces 1/2” longer than the height of your finished hat.

Fold each piece in half and round the raw edge at the top to match the curve of your hat piece …

… so that it looks like this.

Then just pin and stitch together. Serge or zig zag edges.

Done and done, right?

Nope.

There’s still left over material from the tops of the sleeves. What about that?

Mittens!

That same t-shirt scrap kicked out two more little hearts while the folded sleeve edge made some quick and easy seam binding for the cuffs.

So …

Trash-bound sweater?

It’s What-Not-To-Toss This Weekend!

Oh … and one more thing.

On behalf of all Utah residents:

Bee Mine Valentine’s Day Printable & Free Silhouette File

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:22:00 +0000

Have you seen this super cute Valentine’s Day printable designed by Aly over at Entire Eventful?

Love, love the chalk board goodness.

Well Aly asked a few of us bloggers to put our own spin on her fun design—a sort of “One Printable, Five Ways” type of thing.

And because I’m a Silhouette nerd, I had all kinds of fun making a free cutting file to use for clothing or vinyl.

A few minutes later I busted out the heat transfer vinyl and jazzed up an old black shirt just in time for kid #3 to wear for her class party.

This would be so cute on pillows, a tote bag, or homemade valentines.

If you’d like the Silhouette file, email me and I’ll send it your way.

I’d love to see what you make!

Post it on Thrive’s Facebook page or tag me on twitter.

Have fun getting ready for Valentine’s Day!

P.S. -

You can download the “Bee Mine” printable and check out the other projects in this series below:

Bee Mine Valentine's Printable

InLinkz.com

Bee Mine Printable: Entirely Eventful

Red Framed Bee Mine: Entirely Eventful

Bee Mine Postcards: Lucky Red Hen

Bee Mine Chalkboard Picture: Potter’s Place

Lacy Bee Mine Frame: Organize and Decorate Everything

What Not To Toss Weekend: Wrapping Paper Centers

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 06:46:00 +0000

It’s late. You’ve got a movie on. Or Pandora. And you’re ~~frantically~~ happily wrapping gifts and stashing them away for Christmas.

And then you reach the end of the roll.

And if you’re using cheapie wrapping paper like me, that means you’re face to face with not a solid cardboard tube, but a 12”-18” roll of heavy paper that doubles as a tube.

Who cares, right?

Wrap the dang present and toss the faux-tube, right?

Wait! Don’t toss that!

I’ve got SEVEN reasons to hang onto to that wrapping paper center.

And to make all of them easier, do yourself a favor and reroll that paper width-wise instead of length-wise—it’s much easier to store. While you’re at it, roll several together to keep all of it in one, neat spot.

#1 – Get Your VonTrapp On

Neighbor gifts, presents or any of your “favorite things” look snazzy with minimal effort or cost.

#2 – Paper Crafts

The natural color and subtle texture are great for cards and art projects without the premium craft store price.

#3 – Make stencils and patterns for craft projects

This paper’s heavier than regular craft paper and holds it’s shape better. Sewing patterns hold up better and stencils have less bleed through from paint or marker.

#4 – Wrap Shipping Boxes

This heavy weight holds up like a champ in the mail and post office types adore it.

#5 – Protect Your Work Spaces

Painting, coloring and gluing projects just got a whole lot neater. And unlike newspaper, there’s not risk of paint soaking through.

#6 - Protect Breakables

Skip the flimsy paper towels and cut squares to layer in between holiday plates and serving platters. This paper is both pliable and thick enough to protect dishes from scratching and moving when stacked.

#7 – Line Pet Cages and Kennels

Thicker is always better here. Always.

So …

Left-over wrapping paper center?

It’s What-Not-To-Toss this holiday weekend!

Shop Local and Let’s All Stay Off The Fiscal Cliff, okay? See ya at DownEast.

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 02:17:00 +0000

Holy cow everyone. We’ve got a week.

Just. One. Week.

You ready?

Have you been recycling old shirts, chopping up boxes and turning cake pans into stars? Have you found awesome deals on line and scored some great deals? I hope so.

But if you’re like me and still have a few items on your shopping list (plus the never ending need for more of those staples), make a conscious effort to save money AND support your local businesses.

Why?

Because I’m an official in my city and can tell you how much local businesses drive our economy. I’ve seen first hand how money spent in local stores impacts our communities several times more than online sales. You want more money for roads-schools-police in your neighborhood? Shop local. You want lower property taxes and bond costs? Shop local. When Main Street shops get overlooked, the recovery for all of us is slower.

And stop – before you go there – I’m here to myth-bust about local being more expensive. Shopping local isn’t just a noble idea, but a savvy way to save. You really can get awesome deals. Really.

Bottom line: you gotta hit DownEast.

Yes, they’ve got amazing deals on up-scale catalog furniture—they’re famous for that and their selection rocks.

But I’ve got four – FOUR - great reasons to swing by THIS WEEK and in 2013 even if you’re on a shoe string budget like me and not in the market for a new couch:

1. CLOTHES

DownEast has the cutest, comfiest, most affordable stand-up-in-the-wash-like-a-champ clothing staples like camis and layering tees that everyone needs.

Finding affordable clothes that are actually modest and cute is getting harder and harder. That’s why I’ve fallen in LOVE their in-house DownEast Basics line.

I have two daughters who are crazy tall with wicked cases of plumbers butt. Since I have yet to make camis and tees successfully out of cardboard, these were at the top of my list. Plus it buys me a little more time with those shirts that are getting a little too short. See?

Baby girls was ticked when I told her it was time to retire her favorite black tee. Add a DownEast lace cami and problem solved.

Ah, way better.

This lace one was under $5 and layering tees are 2/$15 right now. Yeah, I’m stocking up. Mr. Thrive loves the price and everyone at church and school appreciates that my girls are no longer mooning them.

DownEast also has designer denim and accessories for 60-80% off what your kids want you to fork out at the mall. And when those cute jeans that you or your daughter want are high two figures (or even three), slashing that price by way more than half gets your attention very quickly. It’s all name brand stuff, but the prices are so low that I'm seriously not allowed to say them out loud … or in print … or even show you pics. I’ve been in their stores several times over the last few weeks and can tell you I checked it all out … and saw the prices … and maybe drooled a little bit since we’re Rock What Ya Got at our house and I’m not used to having “cool” stuff be in my price range – ever.

So don’t worry about the mysterious hey-I-can’t-tell-you-the-brand-names-thing. Let’s just think of it as the designer blinged-out denim Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Or the designer blinged-out denim brands that I could tell you about, but then I’d have to …. well, you get the idea.

2. DESIGNER from-the-huge-catalog-companies LINENS, HOME DÉCOR, and KIDS STUFF

(wait … that’s probably #2, 3 and 4. :)

DownEast gets the overstocks, seconds and discontinued items from some of the biggest catalog and department stores. Monogramed 300 thread count sheets with the wrong letter or kids backpacks with the wrong name. No biggie. Five minutes with a seam ripper and you’ve got sheets-curtains-bedding-backpacks-suitcases-lunch boxes-pillows-you-name it for half of what you’d spend on the cheapy generics at the box stores. Yeah, half. At least. And the quality kicks butt.

I’ve been on the look out for new sheets for my girls’ room after kid #6 went all Edward Scissorhands on us, but I have completely struck out at thrift stores and online. Again, cardboard is not an option so I’m looking for cheap. Yup … found a complete set (flat, fitted, shams) at DownEast for thrift store prices. Perfect color, too.

3. HOLIDAY DECOR

Do you need stockings still? Or are you thinking that you’ll need to replace them next year if you can find a good sale after Christmas? They’re 50% right now. That means stockings like these are $2.50 – $5 each. They’re thick and heavy and will last for years to come. My favorite is the red and white striped wool number.

But confession: no one in my house is named Jean-Luc.

These were $30 in the catalog and I snagged the 100% wool yummieness for way less that I could have found the fabric even with a coupon (under $5!). Since I don’t have any old wool sweaters or friendly sheep around, this worked out handy. And kid #4 who has a thing for snowmen? Snagged that one for him for $2.50.

I also found this ridiculously cute Santa sack for under $5.

And confession … it’s not the right name (although you may just find yours!)

But … you got it. It’s a cinch to cover or remove and I know the kids are going to freak out when they see that Santa left his sack at our house.

4. AWESOME CLEARANCE & WEEKLY SALES

I’m a THRIVE-r so I went straight for the clearance and sales racks.

Holy cow. Can I just show you my score?

Kid #3’s backpack was a $10 clearance find from Wallys. It was made out of paper (apparently) and lasted us all of four months. I found this extra-thick-padding-and-reinforced-seams backpack AND matching lunch box with the easy-washable-so-you-don’t-get-the-funky-sour-milk-smell liner that she’ll love. Catalog price for the backpack alone was $40. DownEast had it for $11.99. Catch one of their awesome sales and you’ll pick it up for 30-50% off that like I did. And the lunch box? Picked that up for $3.

But kid #3’s name isn’t Gaby. Or Sophi. Big whoop. My seam ripper took care of both in just a few minutes. I could even just cover over the stitching with a cute applique or name tag. Such an easy fix.

Or how about this crazy-cute sleeping-bag-blanket-roll? I’ve seen these in popular children’s catalog and they’re $80+.

Yup … a mere $80. Kid #6 really, really wants one of these for Christmas. Thanks to DownEast’s low prices + great sales, I got the whole furry puppy head, sleeping bag and paws for less than a Pillow Pet. Of course no, my daughter isn’t a Paiyton. I’m going to turn on White Christmas after the kids go to bed and take care of that. I’ll have that name off before anyone gets their life saved by Phil Davis. Easy peasy.

I even did something for myself that I haven’t done in months … I bought a new shirt. I had big, big plans to hack apart a sheet and refashion the heck out of it, but I’m running short on time and wanted something special to wear to church for our Christmas program. I figured I’d grab a cheap-o shirt at the thrift store … or Wallys … or Tar-jay. Instead I found this $10 number that looks awesome even when I’ve been caring kid #6 around all day.

I may have worn it three days ~~in a row~~ over the last week already. I get compliments all the time which is a really big deal for me. Not because I’m vain, but because I usually am so focused on making sure the kids are covered that I never take care of me. Any other moms out there guilty, too? And while I’m so proud of how my kids look at Christmas or Easter, I usually sit next to them in something worn out and frumpy. This year I realized how important it is to treat myself with the same kindness and respect that I give my family. If it was important for my family to look nice for the holidays, it should be nice for me to as well. Finding a shirt for myself that didn’t make me feel like I was “taking away” from my family’s needs made me float. Turns out stick-to-the-basics pricing can still be cute, too.

So skip the traffic at the malls and box stores.

Skip the expense of rush of shipping online.

Check out DownEast for those Christmas items still on your list and save yourself some of that well earned money.

*Disclaimer: I received a gift card to shop at DownEast, but all opinions, stories about my daughter’s plumber’s butt, plans to watch White Christmas, hygiene-pushing “hey-I-really-love-this-shirt-and-seriously-live-in-it” confessions and civic-geek passion for shopping local are 100% mine.

Sandy Hook Elementary Day of Remembrance …

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000

If you’d like to join us in donating to the families of Sandy Hook Elementary, donation links are listed below.

United Way of Western Connecticut

Newtown Parent Connection

Donate craft supplies, money or cards for creative kits for the Drawn Together initiative.

Emilie Parker Fund (former Utah family) HERE

Additional ways to help HERE

Kids Christmas Refrigerator Advent

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 01:02:00 +0000

(This is part 3 of Thrive’s DECORATE series. Click here for the previous posts of our Christmas tree – Gangnam Style and tree skirt from a girls dress.)

How many of you grew up with Christmas advent calendars?

I did. This was mine.

My mom made this when I was little and it is such a special part of my Christmas memories. After 30+ years it’s starting to show it’s age, though, so my sister has started extensive felt renovations. :) When my kids saw the pictures of her progress, my kids immediately wanted one of their own. Sewing something like this isn’t hard—in fact my dear friend Becky just made the cutest one for her kiddos here.

But I’m waist deep in other sewing projects … and I already had the Silhouette out … and I just happened to have some scrap vinyl laying around … so we compromised.

It only took a few minutes to cut out a mix of designs from the Silhouette store and tracings from my mom’s calendar.

(I love that my Silhouette can trace any shape! And no, this isn’t a sponsored post.)

And then my kids went nuts putting up “stickers” all over the frig marking out the way to Bethlehem.

All the shapes were applied straight to the frig, but I wanted Mary and Joseph to be moveable.

I ended up cutting two different shapes: one for the journey and one for the manger.

I applied them to some white craft foam, but cardstock would work fine, too.

Add some dollar store magnetic strips and voila! …

… Mary, Joseph and the donkey to move along the path each day …

… and the holy family for the manger.

No Silhouette machine?

No problem!

You could easily make something like this using contact paper, cardstock, whatever. Just add some magnets and go to town. Rock what ya got!

So …

Give it a shot – you’re kids will love this!

And if you make one, I’d love to see it! Shoot me an email, leave a comment below, tag me on Facebook or share it on twitter.

We’re off to move our Mary & Joseph out of Nazareth and on the road to Bethlehem … good night!

Make a Tree Skirt out of a Girls Dress in 10 minutes flat!

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:15:00 +0000

Do you remember this little Easter dress that I refashioned for Christmas last year?

Well baby girls has grown a lot this year and it’s too short now. I set her dress aside in the donate pile until my older daughter freaked out.

“Mom! You’re not recycling this??!”

And I love that she wanted to recycle this.

Plus the kids are in charge of decorating so we did. And it ten minutes we had a snazzy tree skirt just waiting for presents.

This is super simple:

Remove any sashes, bowes, etc …

… remove bodice and cut straight up the back …

… making sure all the skirt layers stay attached.

Fold over and hem raw edges. You could totally cheat and just whip out the hot glue gun, too. Leave the edges plain or go nuts adding ribbon, buttons, etc.

Sew a gathering stitch along the top edge and gather in nice and tight. Stitch in place.

This little skirt had a flat front with no extra fabric so my skirt doesn’t quite meet in the back.

No big woop. Our tree is up against a wall and you can’t even tell.

See?

Fuller skirts like these would have enough fabric for a traditional skirt fit.

So go dig out those outgrown dresses and dress up that tree.

Christmas Tree Decorating - Gangnam Style

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 19:35:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post, me and my kiddos are excited to share what we’re going to BAKE, MAKE, DECORATE and also SHOP this holiday season. This week we’re in DECORATE Land and, true to my word, I’m letting the kids call the shots.

And I gotta admit … it’s tough.

Why?

Is it because I’ve got some awesome ideas on my Pinterest boards?

Sure.

And because I’m pretty crafty and I’ve been planning for months to make stuff?

Yup.

But when I’m really honest I’ll tell you that I want my house to look awesome-wonderful-color coordinated-festive-wow-she’s-amazing-even-though-they’re poor when my friends come over because it helps my self esteem. Letting go of that part of my vanity in favor of letting my kids find their own magic was harder than I thought.

But this ‘kids in charge’ thing has been awesome.

I drug out the Christmas bins over Thanksgiving weekend and sat the kids down to make a plan.

Plan? What’s a plan, mom?

They just wanted to go nuts and start throwing things up. And I almost ruined the whole dang thing by insisting on them planning their spontaneous holiday decorating. When I finally got out of the way and let them welcome Christmas on their own terms, I had the funnest night in a long time.

And so the kids claimed my for-the-entry-way-only mini trees and hauled them down to their rooms. And decorated the heck out of them. And added gobbs and gobbs of extra colored lights. And they were so stinkin’ proud of how they turned out.

See?

And they insisted on using every ornament – every.single.one —on the tree in the living room. I think some potted poinsettias, candy cane pens, a glitter tree headband and wooden power lines from my son’s model railroad also made it on there, too.

Even the old-metal-hanger-tinsel-star that Mr. Thrive and I made after we got back from our honeymoon wound up on the tree, too.

Haven’t seen that thing in forever. Does seem oddly appropriate, though.

And after a solid hour of Christmas music, the kids were in the mood for something a little more upbeat from mom’s playlist. Done. And man did these kids have a blast rocking out and decorating away to 2012’s newest holiday anthem: Gangnam Style.

When they were all done, our Christmas tree looked like this:

A department store “Holiday Dream Tree” this is not.

And my kids’ lovely décor will never, ever make the rounds on Pinterest. As a blogger, that should be a big no-no.

But six kiddos giggled and laughed and rode air horses late into the night while this happy momma snapped pics and finally let go again of that reoccurring feeling of sadness for what I can’t give them. What we can create together as a family is more than enough and I’ve got the pictures and video to remind me when I forget again.

There’s been lots of glue gun action and sewing over the weekend as my kids had fun bossing mom around.

We’ve even got a new holiday playlist on iTunes that we’ve been rocking out to … more Gangnam Style, The Piano Guys, Justin Bieber, the Gummy Bear song and even some Jingle Bell Rock. The rest of this week I’ll be posting the fun projects that we made together to decorate our entryway, faux mantel, tree and walls. Bring on the cardboard, hangers, and repurposed old t-shirt goodness … Gangnam style, of course.

Holiday 2012 Game Plan + GIVEAWAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:06:00 +0000

Hey everyone! The Christmas season officially starts in t-minus 48 hours. Christmas is only a few weeks away.

Holy cow. Time to get chopping.

I’m sharing the quick and dirty version our Christmas game plan below for everyone who’s making the most of their holiday budgets this year.

I’m also excited to announce that the THRIVE shop is now open for those of you looking for holiday vinyl, including last year’s Christmas subway art that was crazy popular.

(Christmas subway art is on pg. 2 of the shop listings)

Shipping is F-R-E-E on everything!

If you order by Monday, November 26th, your order should arrive by December 1st.

~~To celebrate, I’m giving away THREE ITEMS from the THRIVE shop!~~

~~Check out the shop and leave a comment below with what you’d like. That’s it. Drawing closes Monday, November 26th at 8 pm MST.~~

~~(Closed)~~

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Refashion: The Candy Corn Ruffle Skirt

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 05:31:00 +0000

And it begins.

My daughter’s convinced that she needs an extensive Halloween wardrobe.

I’m convinced that it’s not gonna happen.

Luckily for her I have a closet full of these ripped, stained and worn out gems.

Toss in some thin elastic and scissors and I came up with this candy corn themed, ruffled skirt refashion in a single nap time.

Ah, compromise.

And this has got to be one of the easiest sewing projects ever. Start with a white t-shirt that easily fits around your girl’s waist.

When you flip the cut-off rectangle upside down, you see that you’ve got a handy-dandy skirt base with a pre-sewn waistband all ready to go. And since t-shirt fabric doesn’t have to be hemmed, that raw bottom edge doesn’t need any sewing at all.

You’ll need to cut and piece together strips of white, orange and yellow t-shirt scraps to make the ruffles for each layer. The width is up to you and how long you want each layer. The length of all your pieced together strips for each color needs to be double the width of your t-shirt base.

My t-shirt base was 15” wide so I made sure my strips totaled 30” long. I stitched my scrap strips together to make three long loops of fabric …

… and then ran a long basting stitch along the top edge of each one. I gently gathered each loop of fabric until they were the same width as my t-shirt base.

(Make sure that any screen printing, stains, etc. are facing the inside of your ruffled layers!)

Pinning and attaching each ruffle layer to the t-shirt base was a quick and easy.

And the best part was using that already-sewn bottom shirt edge as a casing for the elastic. Love that.

The only thing left to do was sew the elastic ends together!

Sweet! Done and done!

In less than an hour I wound up with a cute t-shirt skirt refashion in time for Halloween that’s the cat’s meow. Um, apparently.

And while I was cleaning up, I put those left-over scraps to good use.

I cut some rag ribbon for easy piggy tail love, Halloween treats, or whatever.

So there you go!

I hope you take a look at your fabric stash and have fun whipping up something awesome during nap time!

Featured on:

Linking up to:

Make It Monday @ Brassy Apple

General Conference Printables

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 06:48:00 +0000

Happy Monday!

I’ve got a fun Halloween refashion that will post later today, but I’m still drinking in the goodness of General Conference from this last weekend.

I’ve created two free printables from my favorite quotes. Personal use only, please.

The first was from Ann M. Dibb, 2nd counselor in the general young women’s presidency.

Image DOWNLOAD HERE

You can watch her address here.

The other was from Sister Linda K. Burton, General Relief Society President.

Image DOWNLOAD HERE

You can watch her address here at the 46:45 minute mark.

Have a great day and I’ll see you this afternoon!

Kids Halloween Count-Down Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:00:00 +0000

(Originally shared as a guest post on Ucreate Kids here.)

Holy cow … Halloween is just around the corner.

That means me and my six kiddos have been on the look out for everyday items to repurpose for Halloween.

This weekend we hit the mother load … in the produce isle.

Turns out with some paint and glue, you can turn an apple tray like this …

… into this!

Frightfully fun for flat-out free!

You can use this at home or in a classroom as just a calendar or filled with little treats to open each day.

Want to make one with your kids, too?

For this project you’ll need a cardboard apple tray from the produce section +

(Produce trays are usually free from your grocery store – just ask the produce guy to grab you one.)

As always I hope you’ll rock-what-ya-got and adapt this project to whatever supplies you have on hand so that you can make this for free or dirt cheap.

Prime the tray with a cheapy sponge brush and whatever white paint you have on hand: craft paint, house paint, plain ‘ol primer. Just skip the spray paint – the paper tray is crazy porous and sucks it all up.

Add a coat of orange paint …

… and then carefully paint the edges and creases black with a small paint brush.

Add stems and calendar numbers with a Sharpie and paint marker.

(I marked the numbers first and let my kids do the decorating.)

The remaining pumpkins on the sides can be dressed up with jack-o-lantern faces or left plain.

Have a grown up punch two small holes on each side of the stems with a bamboo skewer ...

… and thread twisty ties from behind …

… so that your calendar looks a little something like this:

Tame those unruly twisty ties with a bamboo skewer or paint brush.

Time to add the treats!

Flip the tray over and add some small treats, toys or stickers to each pumpkin back. Then carefully add school glue along the ridges (orange dots below) and sides of the tray …

… lay the backing poster board or cardstock over top and gently weight the whole thing down for an hour.

When dry, gently turn tray back over and cut away any extra paper or poster board from the back.

Punch two holes in the top with scissors and thread through some snazzy ribbon.

Yup, snazzy.

Your calendar is ready to be displayed!

Starting on October 1st, you can “carve” each day’s pumpkin and enjoy a little treat one of two ways:

1) turn the calendar over and carefully remove the candy from behind

-- OR --

2) gently untie the twisty tie, carefully cut around the pumpkin and stem …

… open each pumpkin like a little clam shell and enjoy your yummy treats.

Retwist to close the pumpkin and you’re ready for the next day.

(Of course you could cut all 31 pumpkin shapes ahead of time and just retie the little twisty ties, but I chose not to. I don’t trust my little ones to stay out of the treats. :)

So there you go – two ways to “carve” a Halloween Advent!

And if you’re looking for more fun projects like the ones below, check out Thrive’s holiday tutorial page.

Super Duper Cheap Back To School Clothes

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:04:00 +0000

Happy Back To School!

For the first time in eleven ~~long~~ years, all six of my kiddos are in school—five in elementary and one in preschool!

(Please pause for Party Rock Anthem)

That means that I now have dedicated time to get back to spending some quality time over here at Thrive while my kids have a blast with their friends at school.

It also means that I had to shell out for six kids to go back to school. Thankfully, though, a little planning and creativity paid off big for us. Here’s what we did.

#1 - DIY It: The more you create, the less you spend

Shoes

My girls are still on the glitter kick which means expensive, blinged out shoes for school.

Or does it?

Baby Girl headed straight for some $30 graffiti-glitter-rhinestone-rainbow numbers while I wondered toward something more in our budget … like plain $5 black canvas numbers from the boys’ section at Walmart.

Baby Girl wasn’t excited … like at all … until we wondered over to the sewing section and I let her pick out her own bling to make her custom shoes. And to my surprise, we walked out with some fuchsia $0.57/yd. sequined trim that went on in two seconds flat with a little super glue.

Holy cow. LOVE.

Trendy. Funky. Sparkly. Blessedly less over-the-top than those $30 numbers.

Baby Girl loves them.

I love them.

Mr. Thrive loves the extra $24 we didn’t spend.

And she totally rocked that first day of preschool.

$2-3 School Spirit Shirts

I’ve already seen the PTA fliers for the school spirit shirts in the kids’ backpacks …and they’re cute …and they support school programs … but at $10-$20 each x 5 kids in school, it’s just not happening.

*Sigh*

Thankfully our dollar store has surprisingly nice, basic t-shirts in solid colors right now. So a plain shirt + $1 worth of vinyl = custom school spirit shirt for $3 or less. And while we were at it, we grabbed a few old, stained shirts from the kids’ closets and bleached them, too. Completely original, yet very school-spirit-ish shirts for a bucks worth of vinyl?

Score!

We went the bleach route and simply added a vinyl design, lightly bleached around the design with a spray bottle and then peeled off the vinyl. A quick rinse with cold water and a run through the wash and the kids were set. I used my Silhouette to cut my designs, but rock what ya got! This works great with contact paper or freezer paper + scissors and/or a craft knife. Heck, you could even make designs with painters or duct tape. Go crazy!

And since there are roughly a billion bleach shirt blog posts out there, I’ll skip the tutorial and just pass along a few tips I found in making our shirts:

Use a garbage bag

Slip a large garbage bag over a hanger and then place the shirt over top. This keeps the bleach from bleeding through to the back side and keeps everything neat.

(Shirt with vinyl design applied and ready for bleaching)

Experiment with spray bottle settings

Using a full-sized spray bottle on the SPRAY setting produced a fun, blotchy finish.

Love this one.

Go Tigers!

(Tiger image from 123rf.com; Collegiate Black FLF front can be downloaded free HERE)

In this CTR shirt that I made for my niece, I used that same full-size spray bottle set to STREAM and the bleach beaded up on the shirt and ran down the front. I love the look of the run-off and the slightly blurry finish from the bleach stream soaking in behind the vinyl design.

(CTR design was created using Dymaxion Script which free to download HERE)

For this last shirt, I used a small travel size spray bottle for a fine mist and ended up with this even, faded look.

This time I bleached the front and back of the shirt. The garbage bag kept the bleach from bleeding through.

(Eagle design from 123rf.com; Certificate font can be downloaded for free HERE)

Find cute designs

I made shirts using designs from three places: my kids’ school, the Silhouette store and online images.

School: I asked the secretary at my kids’ school for a digital copy of the school logo/mascot and she happily emailed me a black and white copy. I imported it into my Silhouette and started cutting. My kids were super excited to be able to cut their mascot. Plus I can use this design to make teacher gifts for the holidays and teacher appreciation. (For internet safety, I’m not posting that one, but it turned out great.)

Silhouette Store: For $1 each, their shapes are a cheap and fun way to find thousands of designs. It’s like the iTunes store for crafters. And they just added Batman shapes. Kid #4 is going to be ecstatic. :)

Online Graphic Websites: I purchased designs like the tiger and eagle for $1 each from 123rf.com. I wanted to do something a little more grown up for my older kids and decided to design my own logos with their school mascots. While the Silhouette can trace and cut any digital image, I’m a stickler for honoring the copyrights of online images and only use royalty-free or paid designs that I have permission to use. There’s so many websites with free or cheap images that there’s no reason to play dirty.

Create Your Own: For all you crafty/artistic types, make your own designs! You can draw or create your image on the computer and cut it free hand from freezer paper or contact paper.

#2 - Buy Year Round

Rather than buy clothes in big, expensive spurts, I’m on the watch for clothing deals year ‘round. I grab staples like jeans and coats at garage sales, thrift stores and clearance sales as I see them. That way back to school shopping is about a few new items to update, not completely overhaul a wardrobe. Mr. Thrive laughed when I bought the kids’ new school backpacks the week after school got out for the summer, but our local store had the popular $20-$25 backpacks slashed to $9 each. Done and done. And when Kid #2 who is brutal on shoes found his favorite pair for 50% off, I bought one pair in his size and another identical one in a half size bigger. For the price of one pair, I got two and was prepared for that day ~~a mere three months later~~ when Kid #2 was ready for new shoes yet again.

#3 - Budgeting for clothes when you don’t have a clothing budget

Back to school shopping used to stress me out because the reality is that we didn’t have a clothing budget for our family at all. Whenever someone needed new shoes or pants, we’d eek it out of our monthly gas or food budgets. But Mr. Thrive came up with a great idea at the beginning of this year that has allowed us to budget for ongoing clothing, birthday and school expenses on our limited income. He set up a savings account for each of our kids separate from their personal savings accounts. When we did our taxes, we put $50 in each kid’s account. Then every two weeks $5 goes into each one. For us that’s $30 a paycheck and is what we can afford—your family may do more or less. It may not seem like a lot of money, but it adds up.

Now, whenever one of our kids needs clothes or field trip money, I just take it out of their account. No worrying. No stretching gas. No panic when they grow through three shoes sizes in one year and we’re already tight on grocery money. The money is there and my kids are taken care of. So the $6 for Baby Girl’s glitter shoes came straight out of her account and not the gas tank. And $2 came out of each of my older kids’ accounts to cover their spirit shirts. And since the money is constantly being replenished, I don’t have to worry about choosing between new jeans or groceries next month because I know we’ll need both.

So what creative, free and/or cheap things do you do to help your kids get ready for back-to-school?

I’d love to hear your ideas!

See how we save on school lunches HERE.

For more clothing / refashion ideas, be sure to check out my other projects HERE.

Girls Tights Update: Video How-To Awesomeness

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:58:00 +0000

Remember that girls’ tights tutorial from last year?

Well I’ve had several questions from viewers about trying variations of this project and had a chance to film a video how-to with Megan from Brassy Apple over at MyCraftChannel.com.

I hope you’ll stop by and check out the video version as well as the other great episodes on MyCraftChannel.com.

If you like this project, please take a minute and share it on Facebook, twitter and Pinterest! Thank you!

Kids Summer Break Sewing Project: Silly Pillows

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Well, despite my hours of dedicated research on Pinterest, my kids still arrived at ‘bored’ last weekend. *Sigh* It’s only been a couple of weeks and apparently all the park trips, splash pads and kid crafts just aren’t cutting it anymore. And movies, coloring and playing outside were also nixed. Bummer.

But those stacks and stacks of pictures got me thinking … and I looked over my ginormous ugly-stained-ripped-worn-out t-shirt stash and started thinking.

And suddenly I decided that it might just be time to turn the kids loose and let them design their own silly pillows any way they’d like. It’s stash-busting, sewing-teaching and time-killing all in one.

The end result was pure delicious awesomeness. See?

Crazy robot monster? Sure.

Superhero shield? Bring it.

Random ‘spider head’ pillow? Okay.

I {HEART} Cherries? Yes ma’am.

And these were so ridiculously fun to make.

Me and my dirty half dozen blew off two solid days working on these and they were giggly and excited the whole time. I loved that they were bending over backwards to help with dishes and laundry to give mom time to finish sewing their pillows.

So this isn’t a tutorial so much as it is a list of tips and ideas to get the wheels turning and hopefully save you a few headaches.

1. There are no rules! I’ve been terrified to sew with knits because I don’t have a zig zag on my vintage Featherweight, nor do I own a serger. Who cares—you’re not making clothes! Pillows don’t have to hold up to the wear and tear of being pulled on and off of little bodies. If you’ve got a zig zag or serger, by all means, use it. But if you don’t (or are scared to try), don’t sweat it. Just use lots of pins to keep the fabric from pulling and stretching, GO SLOW, and lengthen your stitches. Our pillows have been beat to death and drug around everywhere in the last two weeks and they’re holding up great. (They came through the wash like champs, too).

2. Give your kids total control over their designs – no mom ‘fixing’ or ‘helping.’ Period. When their design was finished, I just drew a seam allowance for the pillows by simply pinning the pattern to the fabric and tracing a .5”ish line around the edge.

3. Let your kids help with the cutting, pinning, sewing and stuffing as much as possible. It’s going to be messy, imperfect and slow, but totally awesome. You know your kids’ ability levels – help when needed and then get out of the way.

My older kids (including my 6 yr. old) cut out there designs by themselves. It was sloppy and jagged.

I mean really sloppy and jagged.

Who cares?! The rough edges will be covered up by the seam and my kids were so proud of themselves.

4. Keep the pillow shapes simple. If your kid’s design is really small or oddly shaped, apply it to a square, rectangle or circle pillow. The basic shape of the superhero shield and spider head where fine as-is, but the small cherries and alien robot monster would have been impossible to make without attaching them first to an easy-to-sew rectangle base.

5. Sewing applique pieces: I attached large shapes like the cherries and alien body by simply pinning the shape to the pillow top and straight stitching around the edges. Contrasting thread helped little details really pop.

The smaller pieces were ironed on using lite-weight heat’ n ’bond and then top-stitched for extra durability.

But … rock-what-ya-got!

If you want to skip sewing on details, do it! Just use a heavy weight iron-on product. If you only have fusible webbing, that’ll work, too! If you don’t have anything but a sewing machine handy, just sew the whole thing together. See? No rules!

6. Fun extras like handles for shields or pockets for treasures can be attached for extra awesome powers.

7. Scraps make the sweetest dress up gear ever. See?

Best project outfit ever, kid. Well done.

8. Get creative for stuffing ideas. I had a little bit of store-bought stuffing on hand, but not nearly enough for four pillows. The solution? I had the kids pick out stuffed animals from the toys bins that were ready to be tossed and remove the stuffing. The old, dirty fabric from those stuffed animals got a rinse in the washer and then joined my fabric stash. :)

Both types of stuffing work great and it saved me a trip to the store. Love that.

So give Silly Pillows a try.

We’re sure liking them at our house. :)

A lot.

And if you liked this project, please share it on Pinterest, FB or twitter using the tabs below. Thank you!

Putting On My Big Girl Pants: My TV Anchoring Debut

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 06:26:00 +0000

A month ago I sat at the computer trying to decide weather or not to publish a new post on Thrive. It was short and sweet – just a quick note to say that Thrive was closing it’s doors and to thank everyone for their support during the last year and a half.

This year has taken me places I never imagined with all of the usual gut-checks on work-family-life-me time that go with it. When I sort of fell off the bloggy edge of the world a few months back, I just closed my browser and walked away. I didn’t sign off. I didn’t check email. Nothing. I’ve worried for months about friendships hurt, relationships damaged, bridges burned and readership lost.

And so I sat here last month with my hand hovering over the publish button wondering if walking away for good was really the right thing to do. I asked myself if this was me finally surrendering to a new reality of I-just-can’t-do-this-anymore or simple an act of sabotage by someone afraid to succeed as much as fail. After several minutes I finally closed the computer and walked away once more. I had made a choice … a scary one … but one I believe in like I haven’t in so long.

THRIVE stays.

Because my time away from here and my almost-goodbye made me realize a few things:

I still believe in the idea I had for THRIVE when I first launched this site.

I still love creating and crafting without spending a dime.

I still get emails from wonderful women around the world sharing their stories of thriving and I cherish the feeling of not being alone.

And even if I post less often than other sites, it’s still worth doing.

So I took that scary first step back Wednesday night and found myself at KSL 5 in Salt Lake City for a bloggers meet and greet. Me and 40 or so other bloggers were invited down to the KSL studios to mix, mingle and get a behind-the-scenes look at the TV and radio side of broadcasting. I’m privileged to live close to so many talented bloggers and was excited to meet up with them again. Well … excited and nervous. And of course Wednesday was one of those crazy days that went sideways from the start and I almost backed out. But thanks to a quick pep talk from Mr. Thrive, I put on my big girl pants, a shirt that was a total mistake and got in the car. (And let’s be honest: when you’re plus-size, everyday is technically a ‘big girl pants’ sort of day, but you get my point.)

(Leanne from Organize & Decorate Everything and Me)

And I’m so glad I did.

This was just what I needed: a chance to get out back out there with the amazing ladies in blog land and reconnect … to chat about SEO strategies … copyright infringement … our love/hate relationship with Pinterest … summer plans with our kids … upcoming projects and features … how bad we wanted to win one of the killer Kaboo bags up for grabs even though some of us (me) don’t actually own iPads … who was going to EVO … finding gas for under $3.50/gallon … and just generally trying to make it all work with life and families in the mix.

(Can you find mine?)

Oh, and did I mention that being down at KSL 5 was crazy awesome?

(And no this isn’t a sponsored post.)

(Waiting to go on The Nightside Project with Kaysi from Keeping It Simple, Me, Ashlee from Topsy Turvy, Isabelle from Les Chateau des fleurs)

I’d never done a behind the scenes thing for TV or radio before and had a blast. I love this channel and listen/watch them regularly. They ‘get’ the value of blogging and women in social media. And more than any other station around here, they actively involve bloggers in lifestyle, DIY and parenting segments in addition to the regular ‘experts’ that usually get trotted out. Or maybe that’s just it: they see us ‘mommy bloggers’ as experts in our own right with something important to share.

And so I shared, too.

(KSL social media rockstar Natalie (in the grey) + the KSL evening anchor team)

Each of us was handed a news script and told that we’d get a chance to tape our own segment from the news desk.

Holy cow.

While one of the evening anchors, Mike Hedrick, was going over the short hand symbols on the script, he casually asked me what I blogged about.

“I registered my domain for THRIVE the day we got our first foreclosure notice in the mail.”

And Mike stopped dead in his tracks and looked straight at me. “Really?” he asked in a surprised, yet thoughtful tone as he stood there waiting for me to continue.

And then I told my story.

And I told him how passionately I believe that creativity doesn’t have to be a casualty of financial hardship. And I told him that you could do crazy things like try and remodel your house, clothe your kids and decorate for the holidays without running to the store. And I told him that this unwelcomed change has become one of my biggest blessings.

And then I told him about your stories, your triumphs, and the awesome things this community of women connected by hardship and energized by creating is doing.

Mike smiled and listened and asked questions and smiled and asked questions some more.

Ten minutes later I still had no idea how to anchor the news, but I felt absolutely sure that pushing forward with the whole ‘rock-what-ya-got’ message was exactly what I wanted to do. Of course I still had to do the anchoring thing in the same bad idea of a shirt without a clue what words like **VOT** and **(BOTTOM THIRD)** meant, but I got through it. Sorta.

(Thanks to the awesome Natalie from Boogers On The Wall for co-hosting with me!)

My first news story couldn’t have been more perfect.

Yup, Penn State. I’m still part of that 61 percent.

(Thanks Natalie Wardel and everyone at KSL for an awesome night. You helped kick my craft into gear. And thanks, too, to Nicole from MOMentity for some great ideas on getting it done!)

What Not To Toss Weekend: Girls’ Pillow Case Skirt Refashion

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 09:31:00 +0000

Anyone else have one of these in their linen closet?

A special pillow case made by a grandma/aunt/mother/friend/neighbor that you can’t bear to part with even years after it’s stopped being used? Or what about regular ‘ol pillow cases with fun designs that are rarely used?

My girl is way too tall for one of those popular pillow case halter dresses for toddlers that are all over Pinterest, so it must be time to put that pink and purple number in the donate bin after all, right?

Wait! Don’t Toss That!

Ten minutes of superdee quick refashioning will yield an easy skirt project, perfect for older girls.

I just measured from my daughter’s waist to knee and added 1.5” to make a casing for a simple elastic waist. Then I sewed the casing and added some reclaimed elastic from an old pair of underwear just like I did here in the Captain Underpants elastic waist twirl skirt.

See?

Start to finish was less than ten minutes since the side and bottom hems were already finished – love that.

Now my crazy-tall girl has a breezy summer skirt that’s actually long enough to wear, yet lightweight for hot days.

Perfect for grand adventures or lazy walks.

So glad I pulled that sweet pillow case out of the donate pile.

Plus, I think her grandma will appreciate seeing her handiwork being loved again.

Win, win.

Old pillow case?

It’s What Not To Toss This Weekend!

If you liked this post, I’d love it if you’d please share it on Facebook, twitter or Pinterest. Thank you!

You can find more What-Not-To-Toss Weekend projects here.

I Was Here Today

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:33:00 +0000

I saw an all-call on Facebook this week from a fellow craft blogger who is fairly connected in social media circles. She was soliciting input for an article for a large media outlet and posed the following question: “Are the Mommy Wars over? Or are moms still judging moms?”

Mommy Wars?

I’d never heard that term before, but knew immediately what she meant.

So after reading the thoughts of fellow craft/mommy bloggers and leaving my two cents, I emailed the reporter. Here’s what I wrote:

Yes, the war (if you want to call it that) still rages on with both sides gaining ground using the same weapon: social media. The pervasiveness of blogs, twitter and Facebook make the crushing weight of comparison available at a mouse click. The glossy, air-brushed triumphs of the moms on screen are often weighed against our own un-showered, weakest moments. The context and perspective are lost, leaving in its wake the damaging illusion of perfection. However, this same medium is being used more and more as a voice for women to drop the illusions, 'keep it real' and bravely reveal their short falls, fears and insecurities. Interviews I've read in the last few months from a few prominent mom-bloggers reveal that their 'here's where I lost it/came apart/totally failed' posts resonate most with their readership. On my own blogs, I've found this to be true as well. This message of being compassionate and patient with ourselves and others is a welcomed counter balance to envying the Jones and their blogspot.

It’ll be interesting to read the article when it comes out and see what direction the finished piece takes. But for now, the question of moms judging moms has been spinning in my head, helping me bring together thoughts about several things that I’ve been thinking about for the past few months—appearances, judging and chasing the illusion of perfection.

A while back my camera went missing. For days I couldn’t find it until one night Mr. Thrive found it in the bottom of our closet … in his guitar case. Naturally.

It was pretty clear that some little body had snuck it back there and played with it for awhile. When Mr. Thrive pulled it out, the new long-life batteries were almost dead, the lense had been messed with and all of the settings had been tweaked. But the worst part was that all 118 images on there were gone. About half of the pictures I could live without, but I had spent hours on a tutorial and had lost all of it. Given the recovery location, I was sure it was kid #5 who walked off with the camera and did all the damage. And though I was so bummed about what was lost, I was surprised by how not mad I was.

I’d been in a funk over the camera thing and surprised by how much this small love turned huge passion meant to me. I’d missed recording some pretty cool things in our family’s life that week and it bothered me. I was seeing how this medium of blogging and photography was helping me finally keep something of a record of this one wild, crazy and precious life I get. Loosing my camera that week felt a little bit like loosing a part of my history—in a very small way, sure—but a piece nonetheless.

I’d been so inspired by the photography of my cousin’s wife and especially love the pictures of her kids. Not only does she capture their souls, but the way in which she does that with her camera also captures her love for them as a mother.

A while back she and her husband almost lost their son to bacterial meningitis. Seeing their son in his ICU bed, in the back of an ambulance and hooked up to wires was heart wrenching—yet they captured this experience in pictures and later wrote about that experience.

“I needed to record the whole process as part of my life, as difficult as it was. This is my life, and perhaps these would have been our final moments. These images would have been even more priceless to me: those last memories of feeling my baby breathing. Whatever they were, I wanted them remembered forever.”

A lot of people openly questioned how she could take pictures during moments like that, let alone share them. But I understood why she felt compelled to record and then share these moments amidst tears.

We are the Facebook, Twitter and TV Generation; a generation that is used to both carefully packaged programming and live on the scene coverage that records life as it happens. And taking pictures is what we do--how we record what happens around and to us. I bet most of us have hundreds of pictures of our family’s life and history, but little journaling or written stories. Blogs and scrapbooks have become a new way to start recording and capturing our lives so that our children and grandchildren will have a record of what we went through.

But part of that new form of recording seems to gloss over the painful and uncomfortable.

In our desire to paint the illusion of the perfect life, perfect family and perfect experiences, the imperfect but powerful forces in our lives are too easily deleted. And what doesn’t get deleted, we wouldn’t dare share: Don’t let them see me weak. Don’t let them see this mess. Don’t let them see this pain or struggle or hurt.

A few years ago I would never have taken pictures of myself stressing over bills or broken down on the side of the road. But today I probably would so that I could look back and remember how precious life is … how difficult moments have an amazing ability to immediately reorder priorities and clear away the crap in our lives … to remember how much we love our kids despite the messes and whining and drama and work, and how shattered we’d be if it was ever gone.

I reread a post this morning on my family blog that I’d wrote a while back on one of my lowest days as mom. I was trying to put into words why I felt driven to record a moment that was hard to look back on, “… to acknowledge that ‘I was here today,’ even if today sucked…” and I think that’s exactly it. In every experience, good or bad, I need to record that I was here today, even if today sucked.

I think it’s why I cried and snapped pictures and cried and snapped pictures when my two youngest wound up in the hospital, just weeks apart.

I think it’s why I drug my camera along for the ride one Thursday when I fought back tears as I was bombarded by broken water lines and standing water and kid barf and vermin and three back-to-back tantrums by three different kids in three different stores all before lunch time--and then felt compelled to blog about it.

I was here today, even if today sucked.

And I can’t help but look back at history and wonder how different it would be if those accounts were recorded scrapbook or blog style with the goal to impress, not recount honestly.

What if all we had from Washington crossing the Delaware was a smiling group shot of the troops in Trenton?

by Peter Fiore, from When Washington Crossed The Delaware by Lynn Cheney

What if no one recorded how bad the storm that night was, or how trapped the American troops were, or cropped carefully around the shoeless feet of those hungry troops who nearly froze to death on the march there because no one wanted to remember just how bad it was?

Or what if the only record we had of the Martin and Willy handcart companies was a picture of the group heading out and then arriving in the valley?

"Ever Onward" by Joseph Brickey

What if no one recorded just how bad the storm was that pressed in on them, or how devastating their losses in the Cove were, or the impassioned words of Brigham Young to go rescue those stranded on the plains, or the courage of those brave men who risked their lives crossing the icy river to bring those pioneers home?

How different would our lives be, even generations later, if we didn’t know what they went through?

Those moments that are the hardest to record--the ones we want to look back on the least--are the ones that mold us, shape us, steel us and sanctify us. They are our Delawares and Martin’s Coves … those places were we are tried, tested, broken and delivered … the places were we find our faith and our God and our strength to keep going.

I was here today …

I’m feeling more and more that the greatest favor I can do my for children, my posterity and especially myself is to be honest and complete as I record this time we have together. Otherwise I worry that the scrapbooks, blogs and status updates I leave behind will be at best, just a hollow highlight reel that teaches them and me nothing, or at worst, a devastating weapon of illusion that another woman uses to beat herself down with. It’s time lower those weapons of false perfection, step away from the air-brush and ease up on the cropping. It’s time to raise up the camera, even if there’s toys on the floor, dirty faces or faces without make-up--and share them. It’s time to be more patient and forgiving of ourselves and trust that others will be, too.

I was here today …

So as I sit here un-showered at the computer this morning with my flat caffeine-free Diet Pepsi, bed head and Mother’s Day hash browns, I issue a reminder call to all of us out there to take a deep breath and embrace the imperfect, un-edited version of our lives and share them—please.

Stuff Doesn’t Matter. Life is Precious and Short. Perfection comes in every shape and size.

I was here today.

Happy Mother’s Day from me and my imperfectly, perfect crew.

How To Paint Your Stairs: Prep Work

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:01:00 +0000

For the record, let me say this: painting your stairs is fairly easy, but very, very time consuming.

This is not a quick weekend project.

I highly recommend painting your stairs if you’re looking for a cheap facelift and/or to buy you some time until you can do a major stair remodel.

That being said … holy cow. This project was a chore. Awesome, but a chore.

If we could have tackled this on it’s own, it would have been fairly straight forward. But since we were now launching into painting the stairs in the middle of painting the entryway floor and door …

… and trying to finish the kitchen pantry …

… and the dishwasher breaking and needing to be hauled up and down those entry stairs and across the disastrous painted floor on not-so-much dry paint …

… and the stairs off the back deck deciding to rot and fall off at the same time leaving no other way to get in and out of the house ...

… and not having a working entry light which meant that all painting had to be done during the day with kids around whose bedrooms and playroom are downstairs just made everything more complicated.

So I wasn’t surprised when Mr. Thrive got home the night of the paint-down-the-stairs-onto-the-entryway fiasco and was so, so not happy.

And can you blame him?

But we were committed, so I busted it to get going to try and fix everything in the two weeks left before company rolled into town.

The first thing I did was use a hammer to pull up the carpet tack strips that were nailed to the top of the treads and front of the risers. I had to use a chisel a couple of times to get the tack strips to lift up enough for the hammer to pull them loose.

I hadn’t ripped the carpet off the sides of the stair case or along the railing that first night …

… but the remnant carpet looked lame so off it came, too.

And then hundreds of staples had to get pulled out with pliers.

The super, tiny ones needed a small screw driver hammered underneath them to lift them up enough where I could grab them with pliers.

After four solid hours of ripping out staples and tack strips, I had some wicked awesome blisters. So here’s tip ladies: wear gloves for this part.

At this point I didn’t know how to proceed since as you can see in the picture above, the treads weren’t plywood or hardwood, but rather particle board that is notorious for leaching paint like a sponge. Plus it’s a lot coarser than plywood or hardwood steps. For 30 seconds, I really considered ripping up those cheapy particle board steps and putting down something that could be stained. But at $11 a tread, I was looking at a lot of money I still didn’t have.

So painting it was.

The nice thing about having particle board steps is that you don’t have to sand them down at all—in fact it’s a nightmare to even try. So the stained areas on the steps got a quick spot coat of KILZ …

… and then the whole thing got two heavy coats of oil-based primer.

And I was pleasantly surprised -- the particle board took the paint very well. The first coat of primer sucked up a lot of paint and dried very light, but the second coat covered beautifully.

I had hoped two heavy coats of primer would hide all the staple holes everywhere.

Um, no.

After the first coat of primer it was pretty clear that no amount of paint was going to cover those bad boys.

So, tip #2: fill all the holes with wood putty and then sand smooth before priming and painting. It’s a total pain to have to go back to do that step after the painting has started.

Between my super-cautiousness-on-the-drying-times-after-the-floor-mess thing and the afore-mentioned issues with the rotting-back-stairs-and-dishwasher-and-painting-only-during-daylight thing, the prep work took a full week to complete before we were ready to start painting the finish colors.

Phew.

So for anyone wanting to paint their stairs – especially stairs with particle board treads, let’s recap how to do this the smart way.

Painting Your Stairs: Prep Work

1. Remove carpet and pad using pliers and the claw on the back of the hammer.

2. Remove the carpet tack strips with a hammer and chisel.

3. Remove staples using pliers.

4. Patch staple/nail holes with wood putty, allow to dry thoroughly, sand smooth.

5. Sand non-particle board areas like the risers/kick boards and sides of stairs lightly.

6. Sweep stairs and wipe clean.

7. Spot treat any stained areas with KILZ and allow to dry at least 30 minutes.

8. Coat stairs with two coats of oil-based primer, allowing each coat dry thoroughly.

************************

Back on Friday with the fun part – painting the finish colors!

How NOT to paint a vinyl floor–Epic FAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:22:00 +0000

Thanks for your kind comments on my door painting fail – so glad I’m not the only one who’s screwed up a DIY project.

And I’ll give a quick disclaimer right now: painting your floors can look AWESOME and is a great solution for a cheap face lift until you can replace flooring outright.

However … however, if you rush this project, you’ll screw it up royally. Guess which route I took?

Yeah.

After horribly trashing the floor around the door with not one, but two spray painting fiascos, I couldn’t take it anymore and wisely plunged into tackling the floor. I mean, come on … really? How long could you greet friends at the door with a floor that looked like that?

But at the same time … finish one project, woman, and then move on.

The entry floor was covered with the same peel-n-stick vinyl tiles that we have in the kitchen. The original linoleum was a dark, heavy 70’s brown, so the white vinyl was a big improvement. But just like the kitchen floor, these tiles were 10 years old and seriously showing their wear. This is freshly scrubbed.

See? It never looks clean. And that was before several layers of spray paint over spray.

So after a quick wipe down, that floor got two coats of oil based primer.

Seriously, oil based primer is the greatest stuff ever. I was giddy with how much better it all ready looked. I let that dry for a couple days and then rolled on a coat of white semi-gloss paint (what I had on hand).

And then …yup, you guessed it … I went stupid again.

Instead of letting that paint dry for 2-3 days minimum before taping over it, I waited a mere 18 24 hours until it felt dry and started taping away. Laying out the grid was easy …

… I just followed the lines of the vinyl tiles.

Then I rollered on a second coat of white semi-gloss paint over the entire floor to help seal the tape edges so that the next layer of brown paint wouldn’t seep under the tape. Again, only waited a day and then charged ahead with the brown. I rolled on two coats using the same paint I used on the front door. I waited a day, and then started carefully pulling up the tape. And at first, it looked wicked awesome.

But on the second square something really, really bad started to happen: the paint under the tape started coming up. Everywhere. In huge pieces.

Oh, snap.

I wanted to cry … really, really cry.

But I didn’t, because Mr. Thrive wasn’t thrilled about the huge door mess that had created the floor mess that was now a painted floor mess. And I was determined to save this project and actually finish a project for once. So I lightly sanded down the worst of the edges and and carefully started touching up the peeled off areas in each square. (Thankfully just the white semi-gloss lifted and not the primer underneath.) And while not perfect, I was relieved to see that with some patience, it was completely fixable.

Phew.

But … but … after finishing my touch ups, I left the paint tray on the stairs and went upstairs for a minute … and my three year old daughter saw the very full paint tray just sitting there and wanted to help momma with the painting … and she tried to pick it up to go down the stairs and paint … and dropped the heavy tray … and watched all of that white paint land on the carpeted stairs and splatter across the newly painted floor … and then probably panicked that momma would be mad and promptly ran back up the stairs, tracking big paint foot prints on all the steps that hadn’t been covered by the paint to start.

And anytime you have a 1/3 of a gallon land on your floor, you know there’s not a snowballs chance that it’s coming out.

That’s when I cried.

For a full five minutes I lost it and cried like a baby.

But then I took a deep breath … and hugged my baby girl and apologized to her for yelling and being mad when I was the one who left the paint out … and I put my big girl pants on and started to hustle.

Because it was two o’clock in the afternoon … and Mr. Thrive was going to be home at seven … and I didn’t want him to have to walk into that kind of mess … or stress over how on earth we’d pay not only for new flooring in the entryway, but also for the stairs. So I scraped as much of the paint out of the carpet as I could … and wiped all the excess paint off the floor … and took a few quick, crappy pictures to blackmail my children with as my mind raced as to how on earth I was going to fix this mess. (Edited to add: yes, yes I was having flashbacks to this moment.)

Oh, and did I mention that we had company coming in from out a state in just two weeks?

The floor I knew could be repainted. Again.

But the stairs? The only thing I could think off was to rip the carpet off the bottom tread and hurry down to Lowe’s and see if could match it. I knew I couldn’t get it installed before Mr. Thrive got home, but I was hoping that having the replacement stuff already ordered would soften the blow. So I grabbed a hammer and a pair of pliers and started yanking.

Holy cow. We vacuum and sweep twice a day and that’s how much dirt was under the carpet and pad. It’s probably ten years worth … but still. Ewwww.

I was completely grossed out … and even more worried about what to do … but the reality was that I couldn’t afford new carpet—even a small amount of replacement carpet – so the choice was to live with the huge paint stains on the carpet plus one naked tread at the bottom –or- figure out a way to rock-what-ya-got.

And so I took a deep breath … and then another … and then made an executive decision. And I started yanking and pulling and ripping until all of the carpet going upstairs was gone and I was left with this:

And suddenly I had not only an unfinished door and an unfinished floor, but was now waist deep in a stair project.

And that’s where things got interesting. Back in a bit.

What Not To Toss Weekend: Busted Calculators & Remotes

noreply@blogger.com (Nike@ChooseToThrive) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:46:00 +0000

How many of you have wound up with one of those freakishly large calculators or remotes from the dollar store? Kid #2 proudly came home with the calculator version and it lasted all of a day before it cracked in half on the first drop.

Time to toss that bad boy, huh?

Wait! Don’t toss that!

The outer shell may be toast, but the buttons can live on.

A few left-over peel-n-stick magnet strips and scissors later …

… we wound up with some fun, practically free frig magnets.

And man have the kids had fun doing math problems on the frig this week.

And while petty and childish, I’ll admit that it was fun last night to skunk my snarky nine-year-old who declared that he “pretty much knows everything about math, mom” with a simple problem using negative numbers.

Um, Kid … –25 + 54 does not equal 1, nor is the square root of anything involved.

And so that no one’s left out, anyone without a freakishly large calculator could just buy a new one for $1 and cannibalize it to make their own, cheap magnets. A small screw driver is all you need to open it up to get the numbers out, unless of course you’d like to just drop kick it a few times instead.

Anywho …

Overly Large Gimmicky Calculator or Remote?

It’s What Not To Toss This Weekend!

And hey, what else could you do with calculator, remote or even keyboard keys?

Make push pins? Embellish cards? Art? Let me know.