Meal planning is one of those things that has been very hit and miss at our house.  The lack of planning usually leaves us eating out, eating cereal for dinner or not eating at all.   I honestly think the failure to plan meals comes from frustration of not knowing what to cook.  One would think that in the 12 years of marriage I would have an abundance of dinner recipes on hand, but somehow when I sit down to plan for the week, I can only think of 2 maybe 3 things to cook.

Last month I hosted craft night and one of my craft projects was some decorated clothespins with the days of the week.  Those suckers have been lying around for days weeks waiting for a purpose and then it occurred to me that I could make a meal planner/menu board.  It just so happened that I had a diy chalkboard that wasn’t being used, so I glued on the clothespins and added on a slot made from an envelope to house the unused menu cards.   I listed all of our regular meals on the cards, and then made several extra blank cards so that I could rotate new meals into the mix.

Now on Saturday mornings, I plan the meals for the week (with the help of my boys).  My husband and I have been using this amazing app called Wunderlist for all of our t0-do’s around the house.  We recently added a category for shopping and keep an on-going grocery list.  This comes in handy whenever someone is out and about, they can also stop by the store and pick up the items on the list.

The meal planner board has been up for a couple of weeks now, and it has revolutionized dinner time in our house!  As the late General George Patton said ”A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.”

I don’t know about you, but I love Valentine’s Day!  I love the candy, I love the chocolate and most of all, I love all the cute Valentine’s decorations!  To be honest, I started getting a little excited about Valentine’s before Christmas was even over.  I hate to admit that, especially since I always criticize stores for not ‘living in the moment’ and putting the next holiday out too soon.  Case in point, I saw Cadbury Eggs for sale at Kroger yesterday.

I had been thinking a lot about what to make for a Valentine’s Day Banner that would hang on the mantle.  I remembered that last year, I had a friend tell me that she liked to sew paper.  I was like “you SEW paper?!?!”  I was skeptical at first, but last year when I made these Valentines for my son’s party, I decided never again would I limit my sewing machine to only sewing fabric.

I came up with this banner and it was super easy to make!  I found these hearts on the Silhouette online store and cut them out in a few different colors.  Next, I layered them on top of each other (mixing sizes and colors) and then I sewed them all together.

I’m hoping to sew some vertical and make hanging hearts for the windows next!

Here’s to the colors pink and red and eating my weight in Chocolate!

xoxo,

Shari

I’ll be the first one to confess  that I am a lover of neatness!   I think it was ingrained in me at a young age.  I can remember my mother teaching me to make my bed up as soon as I rolled out of it and my father telling me ”everything has a proper place”.  I was the only girl growing up, so mom had me handling most of the inside chores like vacuuming, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, etc.   Mom taught me to keep things put away and always clean as you go.

Over the years, I developed a good habits of keeping things picked up and put in their “proper place” which helped our house look clean from the surface.  The thing that I struggled with was the actual cleaning part.  I would see dust bunnies and try to remember the last time that I had cleaned that certain area.   At times I would get really compulsive and spend an entire Saturday deep cleaning the entire house and then I would feel exhausted and annoyed that I lost a whole day to cleaning.

One day on Pinterest, I found this pin called “15-20 Minutes a Day to a Clean House” - this sounded right up my alley!   First of all, it was a small daily time commitment and second it was simple.  I retyped the list so that it would be “Shari’s Cleaning Schedule”.  I don’t want “Betty” to get the credit for my clean house, but snaps to her for coming up with this schedule.

I’m two weeks in and I have to say this is hands down the easiest schedule to stick with.  I have a scheduled time that I clean each day which is from 7:40-8:00 a.m (that helps me stay consistent).  Aside from the easy-peasy 20 minutes of daily cleaning,  I keep the house picked up and do a load of laundry each day.  The best thing about this schedule is that you have Saturday and Sunday off!

xoxox

-Shari

The funny thing about life, is that it has a weird way of coming full circle.  Seven years later, “Rusty” and I work together again…in fact, he’s my boss.  Last week was his 40th birthday!  I couldn’t think of a better gift than to make him a subway art piece with some of his favorite ballads!   I have pretty impeccable taste in music, so I added some of my favorites too.  What fun I had downloading dozens of rock n’ roll fonts while listening to November Rain.

I placed the final printed piece in a black 8″ x 10″ frame and gave it to “Rusty” for his special day!  I think this Rock Ballad Subway Art will stay near and dear to his heart just like Heaven.

I knew that it would take me until Jesus comes back to choose a paint color, so I had my little man Ev’ do the honor of picking this great color for the accent wall.  I opted for white the rest of the room.

The room is almost finished, so I’ll be posting photos soon!

Alas, the inside of the Craft Suitcase is complete!

Here’s a picture of the Fabric Covered outside.

This little project was inspired in part by the abundance of washi tape that I’ve acquired lately and the fact that I enjoy making cute little gifts for people!

It was so easy and fun to make!  I simply wrapped washi tape around some tea-lights that I had on hand and then used rubber stamps to add the words “you light up my day” to the muslin bag.

I’ve been trying to think of more simple and fun crafts to use my washi tape for while I work on my big project which is re-finishing the inside of my soon to be craft suitcase.

Stay tuned, I’ll be posting some photos as soon as it’s finished!

Last fall we took a family vacation to Cape Cod, we came home with a jar full of seashells and a car full of sand.  My son has asked me on multiple occasions, “mommy, when are we going to make something with the shells?”

I came across that jar of shells the other night and decided to use them in a summer/beach themed wreath.  I dismantled my Spring Wreath that I made a couple months ago and I was able to salvage the $3 grapevine wreath.  For the sake of being cheap thrifty, I’m going to try and reuse it throughout the whole year –  we’ll see how it holds up…

The summer wreath was so simple to make.  I wrapped the grapevine with strips of burlap and then hot-glued on the seashells.  The sign was a little stencil and paint project that I put together with cardboard.  My favorite thing about hot glue for crafts is that you can take easily take apart and re-purpose almost everything.

I’m already thinking about a patriotic themed wreath for July.  Please let me know if you have any great suggestions!