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Thursday, January 27, 2011

What's Happening Wednesday

Haven't been engaged the past few weeks but am trying to get back in the groove. I find that I feel so much more fulfilled and less anxious when I actually share the depths of my life and what I have been up to. Which seems a little backwards to me. I have been trying to keep busy lately. Challenging myself to cook more and bake more for my family. Learn about wholesome ingredients and how to keep that in our budget. Let me share a bit of what I have been up to.

Crafting! Love paper crafts folks, it's true. Now that my daughter is of the age where she can entertain herself for a few minutes and I don't have to worry that she is eating the dog food, I have taken to getting back into the one creative outlet I seem to do sort of well at. I recently got a Cricut Expression for Christmas! Oh man, I'm in love. She is Aqua and we have become quick friends her and I. Here is a little project I did the first time I tried it out. A little "B" for our front door. Super simple and a personalized door hanger for under $2! Cute and budget friendly.


Isn't she pretty??

I started out with a 5"x5" wood block from the craft store $1.59, used acrylic paint (about 5ml, $0.05) with a foam brush I already had. Painted 2 coats to make sure it was evenly coated and let dry overnight.

Using the Cricut Classic Font I cut out 4.5" letter B's in 'tall ball' (Mango Frost matstack, printed paper) & 'tall ball shadow' (Hippie Chic matstack, metallic brown). Both papers are by DCWV.





Next I glued on the metallic "B" with ModPodge and coated over once, allowing it to dry for about 15 minutes.




 I then did the same for the patterned "B" and added 2 more layers of ModPodge and let dry overnight.

 
Lastly I used thumbtacks to pin the hanging ribbon in place. By the way, found the ribbon at Dollar Tree and it was $1 for 9 yards and by golly it is decent ribbon, decent enough I bought 5 rolls in different colors but am thinking I need to go pick up more!


So there you have it, my personalized door hanger that takes barely any effort and looks adorable. A peek into my next project, art for the wee girl in my life...




One of 3 for our girls new room decor. The others will be an owl and possibly a bird. Stay tuned.

Now off to pick up my adorably handsome son! Night folks.





 


 

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

New BzzAgent Campaign!

If you know me, you know I love all things FREE!! and NEW!! First let me tell you about the fact that I am a BzzAgent. In my own words, being a BzzAgent is basically me the average person in America who uses everything from t.p. to high cost home electronics signs up to help companies with W.O.M. (Word of Mouth) advertising. Now you might think this means that my words have to all be positive since the companies 9 times out of 10 let you try their product or service for free in return for your W.O.M.. This could not be more untrue. These companies want your honest opinion and they want you to tell your friends and a lot of times they want you to share the product and coupons with your friends! What could be better is what I say! So there you have it, that is what being a BzzAgent is all about.

So with that being said, let me introduce you to my newest campaign. As with my previous post I mentioned "fixing up myself" and I got in on the 50th Anniversary COVERGIRL campaign! You can sign up for fun quizzes and to win freebies and celebrate with them and all the while learn new tips on how to bring out the inner beauty in yourself!

Covergirl's Facebook page


Also looking forward to the Stouffer's® Corner Bistro® Stuffed Melt and Soup campaign about to start as well! Can't wait for my BzzKit to arrive in the mail for this one. I will tell you all about it when I get it.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Becoming less "processed"

I strive to be a great sort of good homemaker. Alas my poor husband has had to live with a not so great homemaker for 6.5 years of our 7 year marriage! Now to put it in perspective between September 2009 and September 2010 I went on a "fix my faults" kind of mission. Now in no way did I want to change who I was, leave myself at the door or anything of the sort. I really wanted to remember that before I was a slave wife, mother, I was little old me. Somewhere between moving to a new country, getting hitched, going through a crazy custody battle for 5 years, trudging through miscarriage and infertility, finally becoming a biological mom, becoming a full time custodial step mom, seeing Sir-Reads-Alot through the murder of his younger 1/2 brother and the incarceration of his bio-mommy I lost, forgot, ignored and took advantage of the person I once was.

This started me on the "fix my faults" journey. I started out by heading into the doc's office and making sure I was a-ok. Well came to find out I was going to again struggle trying to have another baby and was diagnosed with PCOS. We tried a few rounds of Clomid and when that wasn't even working after 3 rounds and a few "emotional breakdowns" later I gave it back to God and said if we were meant to have another child, He would provide and let it go. We are heading into year 3 now as of the new year. Next I decided after the tragedy and trauma our family had dealt with in the previous year, a bit of soul seeking and talking might do this mama some good. So I found myself an amazing counselor and off we went. I went through an amazing and life changing  period. I will never be the same. I learned that I could be the person I wanted to be if I only rearranged a few things and worked on a few others. During that time, we came to the conclusion a lot of my stress came from my inability to get normal, daily and routine things done. You know things like all of my daily duties like cleaning, laundry, dishes and anything else that would fall into the realm of what a housewife does. We came up with a plan to have me tested and evaluated for ADHD. Something that after talking about more than just my current life challenges, went through my whole life and it's challenges. So off I trotted to a different clinician for that and low and behold, something I have thought for many years and even Mr. Subby who was diagnosed at 13 for ADHD thought I had. My life changed the day I started my medication. That day I was able to clean off my kitchen table. in one sitting. that is unheard of. really, unheard of for me. So life changed. The laundry was getting done, the house was clean, things were put away. I was starting to see what the "whole" me could do as a wife, mom and friend. I was blown away.

So the long way of getting to the title of my post. In the fact that my house is a bit better on the organized side, I have been able to increase my curiosity in cooking and baking. Making things for my family that are less processed and made with more love <3! Tried out my hand at prepping and making ahead today. Made 3 meals of Chicken Cordon Bleu from Fix Freeze Feast and Whipped Sweet Potatoes from Fix, Freeze, Take and Bake. I thought we better try them out and freeze only 2 meals of each. So. Good! I know everything that went into it and it was delicious. Bonus! I am excited to keep going. Tomorrow I think I will be trying out Mozzarella Meatballs and Tomato Corn Chowder. Watch out Martha, here I come!

Friday, January 7, 2011

I heart Swagbucks!

Have you heard of Swagbucks? Basically it is a search engine like google that rewards you for using their search engine, giving you digital dollars called "swagbucks" at random. I use the toolbar religiously and most of the time, use the same searches day in and day out instead of using bookmarks. I still bookmark sites so that I can remember sites names etc., but now I just use the dropdown menu in the toolbar for most of my common searches. I don't know how many times I have been rewarded for going to my favorite social networking sites but it adds up.

I like Swagbucks because it is easy and takes no extra thought on my part. The other bonus is that I paid for a majority of my Christmas presents this past year with Amazon gift cards I scored using my collected "bucks". If your friends sign up under you, then you can get bonus bucks when they win. And pardon the pun but it really winds up being a "win, win" for everyone ;-) Holler!

*I have included my personal referral link in this post or as well you can click on my banner at the bottom of the page

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

What I want this to be

I want my blog to be about all things. I have tried so many times to create a blog for just one reason or post or type of post and I never continue on. This time I am going to try and all me to flow through out it. My life is complicated, yet simple in many ways. I love what I do; I'm a stay at home mom wife, HOLLER out to my kids, I'll call our oldest boy, almost 14, Sir Reads-a-lot and our 3 1/2 year old Miss Run-me-ragged and my hubby, Mr. Subby. We live the average American life (well I"m not really American, just a legal alien!) and deal with most of the average family dilemma's. We have had our fair share of the unusual but this year I am deciding to try and move forward from the past few years and learn to use each day to it's potential and find the potential inside of me that I know God had given to me. We stand strong in our faith, in our friends and in our family. I have found a love for most things crafty and all things owl. I can't pass up a great deal and want to share what I find or make with the world. Maybe one day someone will help me with the things I can not find the answers for on my own.

Welcome.

Chels.

New Year, New Hoot!

So I am again going to try and start myself a blog...I shall return. I promise!