Pick yourself up, Brush yourself off

“Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.” 
― Elizabeth Gilbert

Life is a funny little thing.

I'm not sure if it's just me or maybe

just silly girls like me that over think their lives too much, 

but it's been one of those weeks where I wish I could do more, and be more.

There has been a lot of firsts this year and there are somedays where 

I feel like I just can't get a handle on everything. 

I started a new job, obviously became a wife, I applied to do online school in January

and I'm not quite sure where and how I'm supposed to fit into all of these new roles. 

Am I supposed to be a super couponer that saves enough money 

to buy a home with my husband before I'm  22?

Do I need to be the super cute crafty wife that has an apartment

 that looks like a Martha Stewart catalog?

Should I be super woman that works full time and goes to school full time 

and doesn't break a sweat?

Am I supposed to be the toned and glamorous woman that can

work yoga pants like Julianne Hough?

I will admit there are days where I feel like I have to answer YES

to all of the above questions.  

Not because my husband cares,

(He loves and supports me dearly and will probably roll his eyes if he ever reads this)

Not because my family cares, 

Not because my friends care. 

I think I feel this way (and hopefully other women) feel this way

because we have this image in our head of what our lives could be like.

Somehow if we got our lives to fit this picture perfect world then we could finally feel 

like we could relax and be satisfied. 

Like I said this week has been "one of those weeks", so today I decided to change the image in my head of who I am and what I want to accomplish and who I want to become. 

I am all about looking for good deals but I am checking extreme couponing off the list.

I enjoy doing crafts but I am going to stop drooling 

over all the beautiful homes I see on pinterest.

I am going to be brave and try to go to school and work full time but I am only going 

part time and I may cry and sweat a little while doing it. 

Finally, I am going to push myself to be more active, but I'm am going to enjoy my

life and my body and maybe even wear yoga pants to the grocery store
and fake it until I make it like Julianne Hough. 

I am going to start reminding myself that I am unique and there are things about

me that I can feel happy and proud about. 

 Like I said, life is a funny little thing and we go through cycles where we feel 

on top of the world and other times where we feel 

like we wish we could hit the restart button.

But when I comes to those down times I'm going to remind myself

to pick myself up, brush myself off, and tell myself that I am enough. 

Early Christmas.... Don't hate me :)

This fall weather is getting me so excited for all of the upcoming holidays!

I have seen so many cute ideas for 

word art for the holidays and decided

 I wanted to make my own.

My vision is to hang three pictures from a rod

like so....

(example from http://countrygirlhome.blogspot.com/)

I want to leave them up all year and switch them out

 with different holiday word art.  

When I get that far I will post a picture :) 

So far I have only made two different word art images 

but I'm wanting to do more because they were just too darn fun. 

Feel free to print them yourself if you so please.

Click here for "Jolly" and 

click here for "Little Christmas"

These have been so fun for me to create!

They aren't professional by any means but it's always fun to have

things in your home that you created yourself.  

(especially if they involve Christmas)

Happy (early) Holiday Season!!

PS my husband is going crazy over this whole Christmas in September thing......

I just can't help myself. 

First Fall Craft

Like I said in my last post, I am so excited for colder weather!

I love everything about fall, especially here in St. George where we kind of cheat

the colder weather months ;)

I also love decorating for all of the fall holidays!

So when Ty took a guys night out hunting doves,

I headed to the dollar store to see what creation I could make!

I had remembered seeing a picture on pinterest

 (all this pinterest stuff is starting to get embarrassing)

anyway, this is the picture but the link just lead to the same picture...

 without a tutorial or anything. 

I decided I was going to try and replicate it and this is my journey.

This is what I bought..

The Dollar Store had these fake styrofoam fake fruit which was perfect!

I didn't have a plate I wanted to use so I just picked one up. 

Then I traced the top of the apple using the candle and cut about a 1/4 of an inch down

Then I ripped off the top part of the apple and dug out the styrofoam.

Classy right? haha I just went for it.. I probably could of done it

nicer buuuuut live and learn right? 

Then I shoved the candles into the spots,

lit the candles,

and then as the wax melted, slowly poured it over on every side.

I accidentally didn't watch very carefully and the "apple peel" caught on fire

needless to say I'll be doing that one again...I told you it was a journey. 

Overall I think they turned out alright. 

(I should say that I didn't like how it looked with the burnt candles,

 so after I melted the wax, I replaced it with new candles)

I got a little brave and drew some leaves on the corners of the plates

with a skinny sharpie.

Voila!

Happy Fall!

A Fro Yo date for Me and Mr. B

Ty is always so good at spoiling me and making sure I am happy.

Unfortunately sometimes its harder than others but there are two words

that can make me happy in no time. 

Frozen. Yogurt.

I have a weakness for the stuff.  

I especially LOVE mixing every fruit flavor, with fruit and granola on top...

Mmmmm, mmmmmm, mmmmm.

Well my sweetheart and I went on yet another fro yo date 

and decided to eat it while watching the city from the old airport. 

(Poor guy had a headache and was sick of pictures but he let me take "just one more, I promise!" ;)

It was the first time we had actually felt cold outside in a loooong time! 

We are ready for cold rainy weather!

(Junky phone picture but you get the idea)

This may seem like a silly post but I just want give a shout out

for the little things in life.  

They make me happier than the big things most of the time 

and remind me of the great blessings in my life both big and small,

like a cute patient husband, cold rainy weather, and frozen yogurt. 

Articles of Faith Ice Cream Cone Matching Game

I've only been teaching primary for a little over a month but I am already 

needing new ideas to keep those little bodies reverent!

I have had a lot of help from my mom and my mother in law who have been

around the block a few times when it comes to primary!

They have given me many ideas similar to this game which I have used and am grateful for but I decided

 I wanted to make my own just for fun.

I saw a similar idea on pinterest.... yeah I know... :)

Anyway, her idea was a matching game where you matched the lowercase letter the cone, (or in my case the # of the article of faith)

to the upper case letter (the summarized version of the article of faith).

 I thought it was super cute and adjusted it to fit primary. 

I teach the 7 and 8 year olds in primary and felt that they are at the perfect

age to start familiarizing themselves with the Articles of Faith. 

Although one day they would fully memorize all of the Articles of Faith,

for now I just wanted them to take away the basics of what we believe and why 

these 13 beliefs are so important to what makes our church true. 

With the help of Ty and my mom we came up with these summaries of each Article of Faith.  

This is just one example and the rest are pretty similar. 

I probably should have found a way to type the article of faith on the ice cream scoop 

but my handwriting will have to do.

If you would like to make your own,  click HERE to view the PDF I made.  I just printed it off, cut it out, and used it as a stencil on my scrapbook paper that I wanted to use. 

I had fun making it and maybe one day, when I have been around the primary block a few times, I can give it to my daughter or daughter in law to use :) 

Something Old Something New, Something Striped, Something Blue.

I have had a lot more time on my hands now that Ty's work schedule and I am left at home alone.  I've already had enough of the couch and the TV so I turned to 

to my closet to see what unfinished projects I left when I used to have time.

I found an old men's striped button up shirt that I got at DI several months ago hoping to eventually turn it into something.  Nothing ever happened to it until this week! :)

I regret that I did not take a before picture so this picture I found off of the internet will have to do...

I have seen tutorials for DIY clothing refashions where you make big shirts smaller, but I was always too afraid! 

It seemed too complicated but out of desperation I 

decided to make some simple marks (with a sharpie I might add... yeah I'll remember NOT to do that for next time, I wasn't thinking clearly obviously)

 for where I wanted the new sleeves and waist to be and took the scissors and sewing machine to it! 

Well the stars magically aligned and I came out with this!

I was pleasantly surprised! 

Hopefully there will be more diamonds in the rough in my closet! 

Our attempt at ice cream...

Thanks to my love of Pinterest and my optimistic view that EVERYTHING posted

on that beloved website must work... right?

 we attempted yet another Pinterest recipe.

Ty has come to hate the words 

"I found this new recipe on pinterest!" 

But because of the great man that he is he decided to try it :)

The first time we tried the exact recipe from this website

http://www.justmarriedwithcoupons.com/2013/08/3-can-peach-ice-cream-recipe-cansgetyoucooking.html

It turned out great, it was a little too sweet but I really enjoyed it! 

We then decided to try banana, adding a chopped up banana instead of a can of peaches,

thinking that it would taste like a banana creamy perhaps??

This is how the final product turned out!

Although this was not my favorite flavor so far I am excited to try maybe strawberry... 

haha there will never cease to be homemade treats in our home as long as Pinterest is around.