The Santa Chronicles

I took Bella and Bristol to see Santa today. Pretty brave if you ask me. Considering the performance Bristol gave last year. Every year PetSmart has Santa available for pictures. We’ve taken our kids every year. First just Bella, then Beau & Bella, then Beau, Bella & Brady (that was an interesting year), then Bella and Bristol. Bella is totally used to this mess. A portion of the money goes to help various animal charities. Last year I think we went on Cedar Valley Humane Society day. This year we helped support Last Hope Animal Rescue. I love that we are able to help organizations that love animals as much as we do through PetSmart Charities.

Anyway, this year Bristol did much better. He didn’t want to sit still, but that’s Bristol. He never wants to sit still. We named him Bristol before we knew he would use our house like Bristol Motor Speedway, but it totally fit. Here’s my Instagrammed version of the photo.

I entered their picture from last year in PetSmart Charities Awkward Family Pet Photo Contest. You can go here to see the picture and “like” it. Maybe they’ll win a book! Anyone else take their pets to go see Santa? Please tell me I’m not the only crazy one.

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Random, Thy Name is Amy

I woke up this morning after just four hours of sleep and realized I that I need a vacation. I also realized that I still owe you some bridal shower posts. It’s finals week and I’m back into why-did-I-think-going-back-to-school-was-a-good-idea mode. So what do I do when I’m stressed about finals? Study? Nope, not this girl. It’s Pinterest time, baby! (Don’t worry, I’m studying too.) Sometimes a girl just needs to laugh. Am I right? By the way, I’d really like my composition professor to read this blog post. Holy partial sentences, Batman. Anyway, let’s get back to needing a laugh. A long while ago I shared with you some of my favorite pins from my “This is How I Roll” board. Anyone else addicted to pinning ecards? Ready for a few to make you smile on this beautiful Sunday? Let’s do this!

This one is for Ashley & Noreen…even though we don’t work together anymore [sad face]

I’m fairly certain some people think this about me. But I blog and I have more people than just my family who actually read it on occasion so some people don’t want to. I’m calling it a win.

Let me know if you want one…

Ready for one last one?

I hope that at least one of those made you smile or laugh out loud. If you’re addicted to pinning ecards too, let me know. I’d love to follow that board! If you find one that describes me, tag me in it!

If you follow me on Instagram (username: thisDIYlife) or on Twitter and you see my Instagram pictures there, you know that the past week hasn’t been all studying and pinning ecards. Our church bought a new building and the past week has been full of a lot of painting and some designing. It’s been a lot of fun. Here are my highlights

I’ll be sharing the project pics after it’s done and probably after I’m back from vacation. I hope you have a fun stress free day!

A Little Girly

Hi my name is Amy and I’m a walking contradiction. I love having my hair done, my nails done and I love a cute pair of shoes. I also love Instagramming my cute shoes

But I’m no stranger to a whole mess of paint on my hands either. As evidenced by this Instagram picture

 

My favorite shoe designer is Christian Louboutin and I swoon daily when I look at the Instgram feed (username: LouboutinWorld) of shoes I love and can’t afford (yet). Naturally when I saw this Loubi nails pin on Pinterest I knew at some point I was going to have to test try them out.

FYI, the website that has the original inspiration is in French

No doubt inspired by these classic Loubi shoes [swoon]

Now that I am passed two weddings and six weeks of shellac on my nails, I was able to test this out. I figured it would be easy. Paint my nails red and then paint them black right? I painted red

But they were not red underneath. Still white (admittedly horrible picture – but you can see the color is not red)

So I was at Sally Beauty Supply using up a gift card and got some of this nail polish. It has a teeny thin little brush for doing nail art. Perfect to get the bottom side of my finger nails

Then I painted the top of my nails black. Can I just say that I never thought I would paint my nails black again. Didn’t I get over that in the early 90s? Seriously? Oh the things I do for love (of shoes) and Louboutin

My nails aren’t as long as the (p)inspiration nails, but I still love them. The picture doesn’t do them justice. It’s not like they will last forever anyway. Tomorrow I will probably have paint on my hands again!

Someone tell me that I’m not the only one who loves DIY but loves being girly too! Please!

Name That Title

I’m not much different than a lot of people. I have a few names and a lot of titles. Most of you know me as Amy, some of you call me Ames and there is one person who is allowed to call me by my childhood nickname. Only my aunt Linda can call me Roo…so don’t even think about it. There is no possible way I could tell you all of the titles I have. I’m a wife, a (fur)mommy, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a blogger, a DIYer, an event planner, a student and I wouldn’t trade any of those titles for anything. One of my most favorite titles is Fun Auntie Amy.

A couple months ago as I was spending a couple days with my niece Hannah I was thinking about why it’s so important to me that I’m involved in my nieces’ and nephews’ lives and it hit me. I remember when I was little spending time with my aunts. I was/am seriously blessed. Maybe it’s because I was adorable when I was little and quite hilarious. You know, like I am now. I remember when I was little spending time with my aunts.

I remember spending a weekend with my aunt Delta or going shopping with her. Over 25 years later and I still remember that. I remember the time she spent with me and the investment she made in me and the love and support that I have always felt from her. That’s how I want my nieces and nephews to feel. I want them to have memories like that of me. In 30 years I want them to know how unbelievably important they are to me and how much better I am because I get to be a part of their lives, just like my aunts made me feel.

Whether it’s Target and Starbucks with Mikayla

Picking apples and pumpkins with Evalee

Having a chocolate crinkle cookie with Adi that’s as big as her head

Birthday ice cream with Reygan

Shopping at Hobby Lobby with Hailey, ColdStone with Landon or a movie with Hunter, Fun Auntie Amy days are my favorite days. I’m pretty excited to go to North Carolina and see my friend Kristen and meet the rest of her family. Sure it will be great to see her after 14 years, but I’m really looking forward to kicking her and her husband out of the house and having a Fun Auntie Amy afternoon with her boys.

I wanted to share this with you today because it’s a special day. It’s my aunt Delta’s birthday!!!! Happy birthday Aunt Delta! I hope you have had an amazing day! I am so blessed that God brought me into a family where I get to be her niece. Delta, thank you for all that you have done for me! I love you!

Right and Left

A little bit of early morning geometry. I woke up at 5 this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep with thoughts of Christmas lights and tissue paper pom poms filing my typically right brained head. Instead of wasting the day, I got up and accessed the left side of my brain…to figure out Christmas lights and tissue paper pom poms. Some right triangles and an equilateral triangle later, I think I have the vision figured out. BTW 16 years after high school, I’m pretty impressed with myself that I remembered those words!

Just have to bring in in of the engineers in my life to figure out the logistics. Almost 10 years ago when the hubs and I were planning our wedding, I had a vision about what I wanted the reception to look like and my McDad made it happen. I’m not sure how he did it. I’m not supposed to worry about stuff like that. I’m the talent. (If you click on that link, start at 1:50 and it’ll make more sense)

I can’t wait to see this become a beautiful wedding and reception space! And yes that is red shag carpet on the walls. Who does that?!!?

Want to see some of the stuff we’ve been creating for my brother and SILTB’s wedding? You can follow me on Instagram (thisDIYlife)! Someday, I will figure out how to get them to post to my facebook page too. If you know how I can do that, please share. Remember, I’m the talent!

Today’s plan includes some quality time with my niece Mikayla and my nephew Landon, time with my Stampin’ UP! demonstrator playing around with my favorite digital scrapbooking program and I have to go see a man about a horse lady about some tissue paper. Anyone have big plans for today?

Missing

It’s not just a great new show on ABC. Seriously, the hubs and I have really gotten into it. It’s starting to fill the void that was left when we lost Keifer and 24. I may have cried when that ended.  Michael and I sit and watch it and wait for Jack Bauer to come running in. It hasn’t happened yet, but we’re still waiting.

Missing could also be described as me on my blog. I’m really sorry about that. I’m going to proceed with giving you a bunch of lame excuses about why I haven’t posted in ten days and then I will admit that none of them are good excuses and promise to do better. My first lame excuse was my finger injury during the carpet removal fiasco of April 2012.

Second excuse (and tied for the least lame) – I was able to spend some quality time with one of my nieces for a couple days. Since I’m “Fun Auntie Amy” I have to wear them out when they are at our house. I love spoiling them and sending them back to their parents. It’s just what I do. So Hannah and I went out for lunch on day one and then on day two we made a day out of it. Lunch, shopping, a stop at the fountain in the mall to throw coins in

She didn’t quite get the coins in he fountain though…she just wanted to jump in and pick them up. The ice cream we had after this though, she totally knew what to do with that.

Lame excuse number three – Amy needs a j.o.b. I never shared this with the whole world, but you might have guessed. Back in July I lost my job and if you do the math it’s about 40 weeks ago. My days are mostly spent looking online for jobs that I would be great at. I have over 11 years of experience in customer service and not only that, but I love it! I’m a people person! So if you know of anything in Eastern Iowa, let me know!

Lame excuse number four – my brother’s getting married. You’re probably thinking that this is the lamest of all of them. I mean, usually the groom’s family has little to do with the wedding because it’s the bride’s day, but in this case it’s different. I’m the wedding planner. After I planned Ashley’s Revealing the Bun party I was reminded about how much I enjoy event planning. So when Lindsee asked me to help plan the wedding I may have said yes and then gone home and jumped around the house for joy. I’m seriously having a ball with this. Planning is going quickly because the first meeting was at the beginning of March and the wedding is June 22nd. Being my cheapskate frugal girl self I’m trying to save them as much money as possible too. I have a bunch of little DIY projects that I’m doing for the wedding that I would love to show you, but I don’t want to ruin it for the wedding. I’m taking a lot of pictures though and after the wedding I’ll have weeks of posts for you on party decorations. I also designed the invitations and as soon as those go out, I’ll be sharing with you the different designs I created and posting them so you can download them and use them yourself. Cause that’s how I roll. So if you’ll just hang in there with me, you’ll get some great stuff. Promise!

Excuse number five (tied for least lame with number two) – I was uber busy this past Saturday! First was my niece’s last soccer game. FYI, it was cold and misting. We were all bundled up, but it was worth it to see my favorite soccer star strut her stuff

After the cold game, I went and soaked my feet in a hot bath. It was Cora’s (step mom) birthday and we went and got pedicures. Also in prep for the wedding in just 8 weeks. We figure we can touch up our toenails for the next few weeks…or maybe we’ll go get another pedi. Anyway, if you have an aversion to toes, you may want to scroll past the next picture

Then it was out for lunch with Cora, my sister, my SILTB (sister-in-law-to-be/brother’s fiance) and my niece. Perfect day for Panera broccoli cheese soup! Some shopping with my mom filled out the time until Lindsee’s dress fitting

Like I was going to show the actual dress? Then we went to the hall where the wedding and reception are going to be. We took some measurements and planned some things and it’s all coming together! I can’t wait until we can transform this place into something beautiful

So there you have it, my lame excuses. Now for the promise to do better – I promise to do better. I have invitations to print this week and ties to make and I’m hoping to finish up the flowers too. But I should be able to find some time for a house project too that I can share with you. Now which one? Maybe some spring cleaning? Or maybe some paint something since our weather is turning nice? What do you want to see? Tell me!

I Guess I’ll…

Yesterday was washing day at our house. I was washing dishes, washing laundry, washing some fabric for some fun projects and washing carpets. I made it through the dishes and laundry no problem. The fabric got washed too but it was what happened next that is putting those projects in hold.

I was trying to get some stains out of the carpet at the bottom of our stairs and threw in the towel. Meaning I decided to just rip up the carpet there instead. That’s a reasonable leap right? So up came a three foot square piece of carpet to reveal a scratched wood floor.

At least I can clean it now…that’s my theory. Part of tearing carpet is also tearing up the little wooden strips around the edge that hold the carpet stretched. My hand slipped and met a nail. If I let a little cut stop me, I would get little to nothing done on a daily basis. When you DIY you will get cuts. I washed it off, the on a band aid and went about my merry carpet ripping way.

This morning I woke up and just about cried when I bent my finger. It was seriously swollen and touching it hurt like it got stung by a tracker jacker…maybe not that bad, but it hurt. Now it’s all wrapped and I’m slightly DIY impaired right now.

No fabric projects for this right handed girl who can’t use scissors. Boo.

I also have a bunch of gardening to do. Baby’s breath must get planted soon

Guess I’ll have to just read the next book in the Hunger Games trilogy…like I wasn’t going to do that anyway. I guess now I won’t feel as guilty.

A life on hold

I’ve done it. I’ve been sucked in. Book one was finished in less than 12 hours with a break for some Sunday night tv. I started reading this one today…and will probably finish it today. I know I’m not alone. Admit it. Do you feel like your whole life is on hold while you read and read to find out what’s going on with Katniss and Peeta?

Maybe I’ll get back to some DIY after the third one. I must finish up a birthday present for my baby who turns one today and is always so eager to help me with projects.

I’m so happy God have us Bristol and so fortunate to be his “mommy”! And it’s almost time for the Quell.

Blown Away

We live in a small town about 30-45 minutes from the big city. With gas prices going up, I try to make just 2 or 3  trips into town a week. Usually on Tuesday and Sunday and sometimes on a Friday or Saturday. Sunday is church in the morning and sometimes book club at night. My niece has gymnastics on Tuesdays so I go watch her tumble around and have fun and then I run errands. This past Tuesday was a particularly busy day. I had to drive one car to my parents house to pick up another one so I could go pick up a fabulous craigslist find. Then I had to meet my friend Shawnta to pick up a mini muffing pan that I had her order over a month ago (sidenote: I love this pan and if you have one, you should make mini ham or turkey puffs…then eat them all by yourself…cause I do). After that I was headed to gymnastics and then I was meeting a former co-worker for some coffee. Then after all that was time for me to run errands, like grocery shopping and my weekly Goodwill trip just to see what they have. That all got derailed with this

I’ve heard that a giant hole in your tire is a bad thing. I’m here to tell you that it is. I rearranged my schedule and thanks to my wonderful mama who let me borrow her van, I was able to get my mini muffin pan from Shawnta (go here if you need one of your own)

I met Lynette at Panera (Yummmmmy) for a croissant and traded vehicles with moms and went to pick up my craigslist find. I walked up to the house, saw it and looked at the guy I was meeting and said “This is the bright spot in my day!” For now it is sitting on our three seasons porch.

I can’t wait to put it outside in the garden we are creating for  Beau & Brady so we can sit in it and enjoy the nature God created and remember the good times that He gave us with our boys. We still have some planning to do but the only things that are definitely going in that garden are this chair and a blue bottle tree.

Yesterday, I took a drive to a different town and got tires put on the car. Of course that included a stop at JoAnn Fabrics where I picked up a couple things – more on those projects next week. I also stopped at Target and sent my friend Kristen this

Someone tell me this happens to them! I’m pretty sure it happens to my friend Ashley. She posted this on facebook a few weeks ago

I walked out with less than that, but I didn’t walk out with nothing. A couple months ago, I found some great ikat fabric on a suuuuuper awesome deal. As in, I got 6 1/2 yards for 7 cents. No, that’s not a typo, 7 cents! It wasn’t even a big enough purchase to pay sales tax on. It’s an outdoor fabric, so I’m going to use it…outside! Well, on the three seasons porch as cushions for the banquette so I was pretty jazzed to find some plastic plates that coordinate perfect

Green! You’re surprised aren’t you? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

There you have it, that’s been my week. Maybe I’ll get some projects completed this weekend to share with you next week. What have you been up to? Blown tires? Random unintentional trips to Target? Six yards of fabric for 7 cents? Perfect outdoor plates to go with your fabulous fabric?

A Little Bit of Art

I’m chillin’ on my couch waiting for the Daytona 500 to start and thought I would share something with you. I made my first attempt at being artsy with my Valentine’s Day subway art. I also made an attempt at some St. Patty’s Day subway art too…and of course I’m going to share that with you too!

Just like the Valentine’s day one, I’m sharing this with you. If you like this and want one for yourself, I’ve uploaded it to Picasa so you can download and print your very own! Here’s how it works: Click on this link to take you to the picture. Once there, on the left hand side towards the top there will be a link to download. Click on that and you can pick your poison – open it or save it.

Hope you all have a great Daytona 500 day and I hope your driver wins…as long as your driver is Jeff Gordon that is.