Projects

I've never met a person that says they have enough time to do all the things that they want to. If that's you, keep it to yourself, because all of the rest of us will hate you. There are lots of things I would do with extra time like run more, go back to school, be a better housekeeper, cook more (and more nutritiously), play with my kids more, blog more, stay in touch with more friends and family, garden, date nights, organize... anything and everything, keep up with my school stuff, practice the piano more, learn to play my harp... you get the idea. There are so many things I wish I had more time and energy to accomplish, but the reality is I have to get the day to day stuff done and at this point our family is pretty much just in survival mode. However, this school year is a lot different for me than any previous years, I have 4-5 days each week that I am at home! Of course this has mostly translated into increased sanity and more play time with my little rascals... toss in a little piano practicing, working out, and internet time wasting and I'm back to the same amount of spare time as usual. Really it's great, but I want to start adding in some of those other things that I've always wanted to, starting with projects around the house.

I am not good at decorating or crafting. I am not very creative when it comes to making my house feel like a home, but I'm pretty good at seeking out things I love (thank you blogs, pinterest and random google searches). We have lived in our house for 3 years now and I'm starting to feel pretty sad about how little I've done to make it our own. Time for that to CHANGE! So I am making my first list of projects to make my house a home. I'm starting simple, but with winter coming on it seems like we spend way more time indoors and we also seem to have a lot more stuff hanging out all over the floor... so I'm starting there.

PROJECT 1: Over the door "hang-all" for the mud room. My inspiration (bottom left corner below):

from This website. I think I want the knobs to be white or black with a rustic banged up paint job. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go with my original color scheme that I wanted for that room, if I do the knobs will be bright pink, yellow and orange... we'll see.

Project 2: Sticking with the them and the same website, I need a small pretty coat rack for inside the front door. It is going to hang low, and I might even hang the occasional ribbon strung holiday decoration from it. The inspiration (top left):

I just love the pretty knobs! I think there will only be four on mine. Now.... where do I find them???

Project 3: Coat (hat, back pack, tie, etc) hanger for Jack's room. It will look like the front of a propeller plane. Sorry, not picture for this one, but I'll try to describe the picture in my head. I will make the front of a propeller plane out of wood and paint it to match the plane theme already in his room.The propellers will each have three little knobs to hang things from. Ok, I'm giving myself some serious credit for creativity on this one! I'm sure it's going to be so stinking cute!!

Project 4: I can always use a little more space in my kitchen drawers and cupboards so I'm going to hang my measuring cups and spoons inside a cupboard door. This will free up a drawer for my tupperwear lids... and then free up a huge shelf in my cupboard for more kitchen gadgets (my FAVORITE)!

Mine will be much simpler. I'm just going to buy 3M hooks and use a level to make them straight :) Maybe I'll post a picture.

Project 5... and 6: My inspiration for these two came from a Relief Society activity. Another girl (who happens to have an amazingly cute home) painted a super cool picture frame. She hangs it on the wall and hangs things inside of it, like ornaments. The video I'm linking shows the idea using an old window frame... I'm going with simpler! After I looked at the video, I noticed the other one on the same page and realized I wanted to do something similar... A chandelier of ornaments. I'm thinking I will make a ball shape rather than a Christmas tree shape, and since my current light fixture isn't a glammy/glitzy style I think I will go with some brown base more crafty looking ornaments. This one will be an adventure, but since I don't decorate for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving, I've got a little time.

Now, no looking at pinterest, blogs or magazines until these are finished. Wish me luck!

Happier Halloween

I have never liked Halloween, except for the candy of course. Even as a kid I really hated dressing up because I just felt weird, and I didn't really care for knocking on all of the neighborhood doors asking for candy. There were a few exceptions I suppose. One year I was a BYU cheerleader and I loved my costume so much that it made the whole experience worth it. The same was true when I was Ty Detmer (BYU Quarterback/Heisman award winner). Essentially all of the other Halloweens I felt like my costume just wasn't good enough and I didn't really want to run around the neighborhood all night. There was another problem. My parents hated Halloween, so I almost felt guilty liking it. My dad still complains that it is a Pagan holiday and we shouldn't celebrate it. I also detest pumpkin guts, so making Jack'O'Lanterns never appealed to me. All of these things added together made me pretty unenthusiastic about this night of ghosts and goblins.

Since I have had children I have enjoyed it a bit more. I haven't dressed up for years, but I do like seeing them dressed up, however the process to get them to that point has usually been less than fun. I have been a boring mom that has no Halloween decorations and really can't get into all the Halloween traditions.

This year was different, maybe just a little, but different still, and I think I might be making progress. First of all the Young Women were in charge of the Ward Halloween Party this year which forced me to get festive a little earlier. I also saw a darling craft on facebook and decided to copy it with the kids. I got really excited for Jack's costume and putting it all together (including a little sewing)! It all turned out pretty great. I even dressed up... and liked it!

Woody, Anikan Skywalker and Witch before the Halloween Party (Cow was still napping). At the party, Jack and Gunner won the costume contest. It's true, they were pretty fantastic!

Can you tell that the holes on my stomach make a skeleton face?

On Halloween night before Trik'or'treating with Jack and Daddy's Jack'o'Lantern.

After walking around the neighborhood, we visited Aunt Cassie at work, Grandma and Grandpa Bolton and Aunt Chelsey, Grandma and Grandpa Bolton, and Grandma Linda and Grandpa Thurgood.

I think it was a pretty successful night!