Knock Off Decor

Have you heard about the new blog Beckie over at Infarrantly Creative started?  It's called Knock Off Decor and it is a whole site dedicated to knocking off designer styles and making them on your own! Popular styles that are imitated are Pottery Barn, Ballard Designs, Anthropologie, and Land of Nod, just to name a few...  It is a really neat site shows that when you are flipping through those great catalogs and saying..."I could make that!".....you really can!!

Well I decided to submit my Daily Organization system that I made last week, and it was selected to be featured!  :)  Woohoo!  I was sooo excited when she emailed to let me know and I have been waiting for it to post before sharing!

So....without further ado, go check out KnockOff Decor and see my post featured!  Check back often too, there are lots of really great ideas out there!!

Last One

Ok, I made one more thing (well maybe not ONE more thing....) for Valentine's Day.  I love all the burlap wreaths i have seen around the blogworld so I wanted to make my own!  I changed it up a bit by hand sewing a couple fabric hearts together and hanging them down the middle of the wreath.  Makes me smile driving up the driveway too, so cheery! :)

I've been Krogering

Anyone else out there a Kroger shopper?  I just learned today that you can link up your Kroger Plus card and upload up to 150 coupons on there.  No need for clipping and sorting, just select them online and they are automatically there for when you go shopping.  This is great for lazy couponers like myself who either a)forget to cut them out at all or b)cut them out and then forget about them!

Just thought I would pass along a little tip!

Did you also know that you can use your Kroger card at Shell gas stations and still get your $0.10 off?  Hubs told me that one about a month ago so now Shell has been getting more of my business when I don't have a Kroger's nearby!

Me and my two went Krogering yesterday...one in his fireman gear, the other with his curious George in tow...thank goodness for the giant Car Shopping Cart and $0.99 matchbox cars, they are great bribery for happy shopping! And don't forget to get your sticker! :)

My 'Daily Organization System'

I have had my eye on this for awhile....you know, while perusing the PBK catalog and wishing my house could look as organized and cute as the ones in the catalog!  Anyway....they have this cute little set in a laundry/mud room that I loved but no way I would pay for!  Its basically a set of a white board calendar, a chalkboard and a cork board.  Simple right?  But pBk wants $99 per board! No way I would pay $300 for that but I do still love the look.

 I found this set of 3 frames at Goodwill awhile back for $14.  Wasn't sure what I would do with them at the time, but the price was right and I knew I could do something with them!  And this was it!

The dimensions were perfect.  The width was the same but they are not as tall but that is fine with me.  I wanted to put them in my laundry room and there isn't that much space anyway. The only thing I bought for this project after the frames was a package of cork tiles.  They were on sale at Michael's for $10 and I had a 40%off coupon.  Score!

So, here is what I did.  First I took out the lovely old children's art work and glass and painted the frames.  pBk has wooden ones but I wanted black to show up better in my room.  A quick coat of spray paint and we were looking good!

I took two of the glass coverings from the frames and the plan was to spray paint one with chalkboard paint and the other with just white paint for the dry erase board. (note to self....don't craft in the backyard with boys running around.  They actually stepped on TWO! My fault for even trying to do the second one while they were around so I had to have glass for the white board and now needed to get creative for what to paint for the chalkboard.  

Luckily I had a box in the garage that I could cut down to the right dimensions so box it was!  Project salvaged! :)

 While the paint was drying, time to fit the cork board.  It took two tiles to fit into the space.  

I wasn't a fan of the lines it left so I added some pizazz with some grosgrain ribbon and made some cute rosette pushpins for it!

 The chalkboard was easy.  Just pop it in.  Make sure to treat the board by coloring it the first time and then wiping away and its good to go!

 Last was the whiteboard. In case you didn't know, any piece of glass can turn into a white board.  I contemplated but fabric or burlap under the glass but decided to keep it in line with what I was copying!

I used a permanent marker to draw my calendar on the glass.  I knew I didn't have enough room for both a weekly and a monthly calendar so I decided to make a monthly view and leave room for notes or      To-Dos lists underneath!

 Once the calendar was made, it was time for the Silhouette to come into play.  I used American Typewriter font and cut it out onto black vinyl....and transferred it on!

And that's it!  Here is each one in all their homemade glory!  Pardon the lighting...they are hanging in my laundry room so no natural light! :)  I couldn't line mine up the same as PBK thanks the alarm and light switch but that allows the chalkboard to be low enough for the boys to play on anyway!

 And here they are all together!  LOVE!  Adds so much character to our little room and a great place to make and leave notes as we head out the door to the garage.

 I think they look awesome and for a mere fraction (About $20 total cost) of the pBk price, woohoo!  

2 in 1 valentines/st pattys day craft

i've been motivated this week.....

this one i got from here.  If you have never been to the How Does She website before, you have got to check em out.  They have crafts of all kinds and skill levels and tons of things to do with a 2x4!  I had a set of blocks left over from our Countdown to Christmas blocks so this was perfect, i love it!  And two decorations in one...you can't beat that! :)

I have a couple other things in the works....we will see how it turns out.  Happy Crafting!

zachisms

Matt and I talk a lot about how funny our kid is.  I mean, he says some funny stuff....but I am sure ALL almost 3 years olds do that! :)  We constantly marvel about how at 18 months, we were worried about his speech development and now at not even 3 years, I think he speaks much better than some kids even older than he!  Thankful to answered prayers!!

My friend Mary posted tonight about some of her favs that her 3 yr old twins say and it reminded me that I have been wanting to do the same....so without further ado...ZACHISMS.

*glubs=gloves
*clause it! = Pause it (oh, what a different generation and the joy of the DVR!)
*today while driving in the car, "make-up makes you pretty mommy".  Why thank you, honey! ha!
*while getting dressed for bed after bath, "I don't want to wear these jammies, they make me slow.  I want my FAST jammies!"
*while playing in the backyard the other day, we like to point out the airplanes.  I asked Z where he thought the plane was going..."it is flying to space to get in a rocket because there are monsters and ghosts in those people's houses"
*"rock and roll, baby" not sure where he picked that up but it cracks me up every time!
* during bed time, matt says every night z asks, "tell me what you do today?"
*And one of my all time favs....when pointing out the obvious body part that he and his brother has and i do not...."is your's broken, mommy??"  hahaha!  gotta love the mind of an ALMOST 3 year old!

No more curls

Littlest man was beginning to look like a girl/mad scientist with some of his crazy curls in the back so off to the barber we went.  Since it was his first haircut and all, we went to the Kids place.  M was really good while the stylist was cutting with scissors but he didn't care much for the clippers.  All in all though, he was such a good trooper and enjoyed his lollypop at the end! :)

Love is in the air!

For Valentine's Day, of course!  The house always feels so bare after all the Christmas decorations come down so I am working on a few Valentine's projects!

I decided I need a wreath on the door and have been wanting to make a yarn wreath so thats what I did!   I made several different types of flowers from felt and fabric and clustered them together! I love how it tuned out.  What do you think??

I think I may add a bow to the top but overall I just love it!
**ooooh, my first feature, thanks stephanie! :)

book recommendations??

Anyone read any really good books lately?  We are trying a new system this year in book club and wanting to get our selections lined up for the year.  We also are reading every other month now with a craft in between!  YAY!  Between all the mommas and the many small children, reading isn't something we get to do as often as we like so we decided to try out a new system.  I am hoping the extra time will have more of us finishing the books than we did in 2010, myself included!! :)

In January we read Saving CeeCee Honeycut.  I stayed up late last night finishing it and and really loved it!  It was very The Help-esque (which comes to the big screen in AUGUST!....Not sure if I am more excited about that or Zach excited about Cars 2!)  Overall just a really good book.  Definitely recommend it.

March's book will be a non-fiction book...The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship.  Susan gave this to me for my birthday and I was in the middle of reading it before starting CeeCee.  The women in the book have been friends since forever...some starting in Elementary, much like our group!  I had been enjoying reading it and seeing how their group was like ours!  I think this one will definitely have some good conversation too! :)

For those of you that don't know....here is a pic of me and my book club ladies for our 5th "anniversary".  For my 30th birthday back in 2008, I decided I wanted a photo shoot of our group!  What a great time we had!  We took pictures with the kiddos too....lots more babies since this last shoot and we added one more lady when she moved back home to Houston that summer!  Out of the now 11 women in our book club, 4 I have known since elementary school....(Kindergarten in fact), 2 from Jr High, 2 from High School, and the last 2 additions from college and soon after.  I am so blessed by these women and am often reminded of just how very lucky I am to have such a wonderful group of friends.  We meet once a month and I look forward to it so much!  (I am lucky to have several other very close girl friends, 1 from work for like 9 years, wow, and a few special ones in Dallas too, don't want to leave them out!!)  But anyway...I digress....just a little tidbit about my awesome book club! :)

So.....if you are still reading....any book recommendations?? :)