Do you smash?

I have scrapbooked since I was in high school and I have journaled since I was a little girl.  So the Smash Book is a perfect fit for me. What is a smash book?  It's a journaling scrapbook, kind of the way old school scrapbooks used to be.  For mine, I use a notebook to record my thoughts and feelings with lots of fun stuff thrown in, like photos, receipts, ticket stubs, patterned papers and other embellishments.


I started with a spiral bound notebook that came with a place to put a monogram or a decorative accent. (excuse the rotten cell phone pic)


I just used the initial of my last name for now.  But I need to do something with the front cover so I may change the initial.


I like to keep movie stubs (my husband had one too to go in the memory jar) and take random photos  like of chips at Chili's, so this is the perfect place to keep and record those things. 


I have a little cubbie that holds all of my smash book stuff on my desk.


I looked at all my local craft stores for tapes and couldn't find any.  That forced me to look around at what I already had and thank goodness I did because I found all of these tapes in my stash. They are good to tape a photo or a little journaling card onto a page. 


I have found a few "smash" products like journaling pads, small envelopes...


and clips.  


But I've also found some fun things to use in the stuff I already own like the tapes above and some stickie notes and date stamp.


So far I'm really enjoying it.  I write down things I want to record on little stickie notes and keep them in my book.  Then when the mood strikes I can do a page about it.  Here is a page I did about my 2012 goals. Speaking of goals, I'm not doing so hot with stressing less or eating better, but I'm doing pretty good on the journaling one.  Yay!!

The Best Way to Give Money as a Gift- Birthday Balloons

Are you looking for the perfect way to give money as a gift?   These Birthday Balloons are the perfect way to give the gift of money!



Birthday Balloons.  Box full of Balloons with money in them are the perfect birthday gift for anyone.





Fun Finds Friday

It's been a while since I have done a Fun Finds Friday post so I'm going to do a little catch up.


For Christmas my in-laws gave me this Kodak Hawkeye camera still in the box.    It's in perfect condition and has the instruction manual and flash cubes. 


They also found these vintage flash bulbs.  I'm still trying to figure out what to do with them, but I think they would look really neat displayed in an apothecary jar.


A few weekends ago, my family and I went on a thrift store crawl.  We stopped at a bunch of the Goodwill's in our area looking for treasures.  I still can't believe I was able to talk them into going with me.  We all had a great time, lots of laughs and even my pre-teen son was able to find a few things he liked.  I found a bunch of books to keep my reading self busy and a cool looking camera.  I thought it looked vintage, but after Googling it I think it's just a junk piece.  Oh well, it still looks good to me and goes well with my collection.  


I also found the Brownie box camera (the rectangle one on the left next to the red suitcase).  -On a side note- I am obsessed with Country Music so that's why I have the Grand Ole Opry poster framed.  But I am looking to change it out with different artwork so if anyone has a link to any, I would love to see them.


My favorite find of the weekend was these vintage Christmas records.  I love love love the artwork on them and can't wait to display them around my home next Christmas.  I would also love to get a record player and see how they sound.  

What fun things have you found lately?

Current projects and home goals for 2012

 Here are some of the things I am working on right now...


I'm journaling a little bit differently this year with my own version of a Smash book.  It's a cross between a journal and a scrapbook and so far I'm loving it.  I'll do a blog post soon.


We have a birthday coming up and thankfully my son has chosen to go roller skating.  Which means all I have to do is invitations (found these pre-made -I just had to print the details on them), cake and goodie bags.  Woo Hoo!


I rearranged my craft space again after being inspired on Pinterest.  I'll do a post about that soon too.


And we are in the middle of a big clean up and clean out!  My daughter filled up 2 trash bags with items from her room alone.  I still need to finish de-junking my closet, the garage and the boys' room.  It always feels good to get things nice and organized.

Once I get all of the previous projects finished, then I'm going to start on my goals for my house this year.  I want to:

*redo the kids' bathroom
*repaint my office / crafting area (for the 4th time) 
*repaint the giganto entertainment center in my craft area
*either re-carpet or install new flooring through out the upstairs
*figure out what to do in the boys' room since my son is outgrowing his bunk bed.
*do some sort of wall treatment to the top of my stairs


What projects are you working on?  Do you have any house goals this year?




winter decorating

Winter has not yet come to Tennessee this year; the weather has been very mild.  I'm sure that we will eventually have a few snowy days, but for now, the snowflakes in our home decor will have to do.





How is the weather where you are?

one little word

We are 9 days into the New Year.  How are you doing on your resolutions?  Me?  I'm doing pretty good.  Although not with resolutions, resolutions stress me out!!!  I  have made goals instead.  To me a resoltion feels like a one time shot.  So if your resolution is to not eat sweets and you have cake at your son's birthday party then it's blown and you have to wait until next year to try again.  Goals feel much more doable to me.  If you have cake one day, you just try harder to eat better the next day.

My Goals for 2012:

*drink more water
*commit to eating healthier- less sugar, less fat, more fruits and veggies
*cook at home more
*stress less
*have more fun
*be more social
*continue daily scripture study
*write in my journal weekly

One of the ways I am trying to keep myself motivated to accomplish these goals is to join the one little word craze.

The word I have chosen for 2012 is: 


in·ten·tion (n-tnshn)
n.
1. A course of action that one intends to follow.
2.
a. An aim that guides action; an objective.



My goals will be easier to meet if I do them with INTENTION!  Living with intention means living with a plan.  It means planning to drink more water, planning our meals ahead of time, planning time with friends etc.  It means not mindlessly consuming treats or spending hours on-line or wasting time (not that I do that much anyway- but still).  I am inteneding on 2012 being our best year yet!!

What are your goals/resolutions for 2012?  Did you choose One Word?

linking up to:  The Lettered Cottage

blessings dry erase frame


We made this poster last Fall to celebrate all the things our family is grateful for.  Everyone still looks at it daily and a few new things get added weekly.  But I'm thinking we are a little out of pumpkin season and it's starting to fall down so I decided to make something more permanent.


Using a dry erase board concept I came up with this frame for our family to write our blessings on.


I took apart a frame from Goodwill.  I left the frame in the original color.


I wrapped the cardboard mounted topiary picture with wrapping paper.


I printed out the word "Blessings" on regular copy paper and attached that to the front before putting everything back into the frame. 


We use a dry erase marker to write our blessings on the frame.  Look at some of the cute things my kids have written.  Perhaps I need to talk with my oldest son (the one who wrote "myself") about humility.  But he also wrote "mom" up there so I might have to forgive him. :)


I added a family photo at the bottom and some other little trinkets. 


Hopefully as we record our blessings it will help us to remember just how much we do have and what we need to be grateful for!



A recap of Christmas and more

The past couple of weeks have been insane!  We traveled to Utah for 10 days during Christmas.



Now that everything is all cleaned up and I have finally dug myself out from under this mess, I can start blogging again.  I thought I would start with a recap of our trip.


We left Tennessee in the evening after dinner.  Instead of packing all of our clothes in suitcases, we used plastic totes.  They stack better and hold more items.  We did pack a few suitcases with toiletries and a change of clothes and I had to have somewhere to hide the Christmas presents.


We drove straight through the night and into the next day until we arrived in Utah.  After 28 hours in the car we were all so excited to arrive.


We stayed at the Staybridge Inn on Decker Lake Drive in West Valley.  It was a WONDERFUL hotel.  If you are ever in Salt Lake area and need a hotel, I fully recommend this one.  We had a suite with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  Plus there was free breakfast, free dinner on Tues, Wed and Thur, free laundry, a free theater to watch movies, an awesome indoor pool and water slide and it's located right next to a Trax (the commuter rail) stop.

We had so much fun and were able to do so many things while in Utah. 


We ate at yummy restaurants like the Training Table!




We got to go see the lights at Temple Square.  It magically started snowing big fluffy flakes while we were there.  It was so beautiful!!!


We shopped and shopped and shopped some more at so many great stores like Ikea, Downeast, Quilted Bear and more.


We visited with family and got to see Santa!


We went to Christmas Village in Ogden.  Its a city park where little tiny houses are decorated for the Holiday.  It was so fun and pretty, but very COLD for us Southerners!


Unfortunately, my daughter's skin couldn't handle all the dry weather mixed with the chlorine from swimming every day and we ended up at urgent care for a terrible rash she had.  Thank goodness she was able to get some medicine to help her feel better.


We left cookies and milk for Santa.


And celebrated Christmas morning in our hotel room. 


After all the shopping and Christmas presents, we didn't fit as well in the car on the way home.  We put a few things (mostly laundry thank goodness) in some flat totes and attached them to the top of our car for the ride home.  We had a few mishaps like 2 sick tummies and not enough room.  But the worst thing that happened was one of our totes flew off the car and landed on the interstate.  Luckily it was 2am and there weren't any other cars around.  I was so sick thinking what could have happened.  My husband ran down the road and grabbed everything.  So even though we already were scrunched we had to shove all of those items into the inside of the van as well.  Yuck.  My kids were total troopers and we drove hard and fast and made it home in 26 hours.  All in all it was a fun trip, but we are so happy to be home!!