Fall Fun Around Our Home

 In honor of the day, I thought I would take a few snapshots of things around our house. Found these candles and thought they looked fun, smell festive too!

 Pumpkin carving!

 Owls...

 Silly face caramel apples!

Projects Two and Three...Finally!

Project #2...

I decided to make myself an earring holder and love it! I realized that many of my posts have to do with organization...but I finally have the time to do it! I feel so incredibly busy and there is always so much to be done, but I am grateful for a flexible schedule now. Full-time work and full-time school never was good for making a home. So I find myself organizing and doing all the things that I have wanted to do for years and feeling like it is coming together one day at a time.

I have become a fan of pink as of late and even though it doesn't match the bathroom, couldn't resist! Again, just got a frame from the thrift store for $1, painted it, backed it with fiberglass screening and then with fabric. Add a hanger and you're done!

 Here it is with my earrings that finally have a home!

 I think it turned out nice in my bathroom. I found the white shelf at the thrift store for $4. I have my headbands and bracelets on the shelf with a few other odds and ends. I hang my necklaces from the bar and now the earrings are easy to find and fast to put off and on.

 Project #3...

I found this cute shadow box at the thrift store for $1 with the roses in it. The door is hinged, so it can be closed for a box, but I like to keep it open for more dimension and so it can stand up. All it needed with a little TLC - removal of some extra hardware, a little paint and glass cleaner. Cute for the baby room or living room.

Project #1

I was so excited to make this! I got a frame from DI and painted it, then backed it with ribbons and fabric. A whole lot of hot glue and a picture hanger later...I feel like I have a little flower garden! All of the baby's cute little hats on the left, headbands in the basket on the right and all of her cute little hairbows and clips on my new ribbon frame creation! I am so pleased with it. Thank you to all the sweet friends and family that have given us so many cute accessories.

Three Fun Projects in the works...Stay tuned...

Troublesome Corner Fix!

My Mom found this shelf at the thrift store and gave it to me. I thought about different places that I could put it in my house, baby room? kitchen? BATHROOM! I have a corner in my bathroom that has been useless to me! Nothing fits in it and it is such a waste of space. I was glad I finally found a garbage can to fit in it. So I painted this beauty and put it above the garbage can. Voila! No more wasted space and my counter is finally clear of clutter and everything I use the most is in easy reach.

Easy DIY Earring Holder

   I love DIY projects that save a lot of money. Lately I have been working hard on birthday and Christmas gifts. This is one that I made to hold earrings. I just went to the thrift store and found an awesome frame that I painted black after taking out backing and glass. I went to Lowe's and bought fiberglass screening - like is used in your windows. : D I got a whole roll for about $6. My rotary cutter even worked on it. (It is not the metallic screening, it is a lot softer and pliable.) I cut it to cover just short of the entire back of the frame and hot glued it into place. Then I chose some brightly covered fabric, cut to fit the entire back of the frame, stretched and glued. Make sure you have a bracket to hang it on the wall with. Either get a frame with one already on it and cut your screen and fabric around it or buy one for about 30 cents and hot glue it on.

    My Sister-in-Law was cute enough to send me a thank-you picture of her birthday present with her earrings on it. I think it turned out nice and it really is such a great way to organize all of your earrings where they are easy to see and easy to find.

DIY Necklace

This necklace was so fast and easy and it was very inexpensive! All you need is ribbon and washers. That's right, washers! You can pick them up in the home improvement section of the store and get about ten for $1.50 or so in many different sizes. The necklaces look great with either all one size washer or a mix. Just weave two different pieces of ribbon through the washers, tying a knot between each one to hold it. I choose to put two knots a little farther up the ribbon as well to make the look come together.

ON SALE - Photo Boxes at Michaels!

Good deal through Saturday, Sept 3 - usually 3.99 a box on sale for 1.99. I love these photo boxes! I use them for everything. I have all sorts of them to sort out scrapbook elements, sewing materials, stamps, ribbon and other crafting supplies, my pictures, decorations or other odds and ends. These will be so cute in Baby's room.

Fast Organization

Found this small shelf at Dollar Tree for a buck.

Take the little brackets off the back...

A little paint. I like gloss...

Voila! My bathroom drawer was getting really messy, so I used it for all of my hair pins and barretts as well as a bracelet. It is small enough that it doesn't take up any room but looks nice and keeps things in their place. Try it for hair accessories, jewelry, buttons, beads, etc.

White Chicken Chili : D

This is one of my all time favorite recipes. So easy and so tasty. It is even easy to stick in the crock pot!

16 oz Chicken Broth
2 - 15.5 oz cans of Great Northern White Beans
2 - 4 oz cans of Chopped Green Chiles
Cooked, cubed Chicken (I don't really put a figure on it, how ever much I am in the mood for.)

Some onion - to your preference diced or sometimes we used dried onions
3 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 cup of Sour Cream
1/2 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream (Half and Half works if you prefer.)
Cooked Rice - to your own preference, we usually make about 3 or 4 Cups of uncooked rice

Put the chicken broth, white beans, green chiles, cooked chicken and all of the spices in a large pot. Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer. The original recipe says to let it simmer for one hour with occassional stirring. This helps all the spices blend, however if you are impatient like me, you just add a little extra water or chicken broth and let it boil for about 30 minutes and it tastes great.

At this point you might be wondering what on earth you just made! It will look dark and taste very strong....but you remove it from the heat and whisk in the sour cream and the heavy whipping cream. This will be more of what you were expecting! Taste it, if it is still too strong for you, put in a little more of one or both of the creams. You can either pour it over the cooked rice or mix the rice into. Rick and I like to eat it with chips and cheese.

Simple Earring Tutorial

I love these earrings because they are so simple to make! I didn't even need any jewelry making tools. I have shied away in the past because I didn't want to spend money on fancy pliers and expensive beads. I just needed a few inexpensive jump rings, the actual posts and some buttons.
Just organize them in some sort of pattern that you might like. Don't stress over it, it will look different when everything hangs and you can rearrange as you go. I just used my fingers to open the rings and put everything together...

Jean Quilt

I have been wanting to make a jean quilt for as long as I can remember. I have always kept jeans and planned to do it but never have for a good twelve years! I'm kicking myself now because I got sick of so many sitting around that I DI-ed most of them. The other day I finally sat myself down and started. No better time than the present! I am so happy with my progress and I have had so much fun. Here is the first pair of my Husband's jeans on the chopping block...He thought for sure I was taking his good pants so I had to point out why he couldn't wear them anymore with all of the holes and things. : D He was very good about it. : DI had an epiphany one night as we were going to bed and decided that I would embroider on some of the squares that didn't have seams or pockets and such. I want to do some hearts as shown below...

I want to spell our names and the year that we were married. I didn't want to leave the baby out so I was going to put her name too but realized that future kids would feel a little left out of the family picnic blanket. So I am leaving enough blank ones to put each child's name in one square of their own, but then making each child their own blanket with their name on it. I'll start with ours and see how far I get! : D Progress pictures to come...