box makeover

Since my hubby did a great job on the shelves in my closet, I now needed some cute storage boxes. I had one that I bought a log time ago and paid 25 dollars for but I really didn't want to spend 50 dollars on some boxes. As I was loading some paper in the copy machine at work yesterday it hit me...I could use the boxes the paper comes in and cover them with pretty fabric for storage. Here they are! I think they came out great.

Isn't this fabric great. So spring time...Total cost for two storage boxes...20.00 dollars and I have extra fabric for a project I already have in mind.

Say Cheeeeese!

My sister, niece, and two of my sister's students came up to our house this weekend. While my sister and her two students went shopping Saturday, I got to spend the day with my sweetie pie of a niece. She is sooooo sweet. First we did an arts and crafts project and made garden stones for a special gift for her mommy. Then we went to the park for several hours and had a blast playing in the one warm day we had. Here are some pictures of my day with her. She takes her cheeeese face seriously, you'll see what I mean...

Working on our arts and crafts
Our stones...
Posing with a stone. Cheese face #1
Cheese face #2...
Cheese face #3 ( I told you she takes them seriously. HAHA!!)...

And finally a smile (and look at those big blue eyes)...

Progress

My weekend has given me a bunch to blog about but I am going to try and spread it out through out the week so I don't go overboard in one post. Today seems like a good day to post about progress since it is weigh in day and all. I lost one more pound. I have become happy enough with that through out the day. This morning I was a little disappointed because I wanted to see more of a loss. But I am happy that I lost a pound. It is progress in the right direction. Also, I think that this week will be a good week. I think that the slowness over the last few weeks is due to teetering on the edge of dropping a point for my daily point values. Today's pound has dropped me down a point. If I get to where I feel stuck again I may go ahead and drop a point before it actually shows I have to on Weight Watchers online. I remember this tip from my days of attending the meetings.

The other progress I wanted to share was the progress on the deck. Ryan is doing such a good job. It is looking great. He was a little frustrated that the beautiful day we had Saturday (72 and sunny) was half spent on buying a loading up the supplies and bringing them home and unloading. He actually spent ALL day (I mean ALL day Sunday from 8:30am til 7pm only breaking for lunch I made for him) working on the deck. It was so cold (only 41) and WINDY Sunday. So here is the progress so far. I won't post again on the deck until it is finished so that I have a good before and after picture.

My favorite part of the new deck is that I get to go shopping for new deck furniture and planters. :)

Yummy recipe

Despite a migraine yesterday. We hosted a dinner "party". It was my husband's uncle's bday and we had them over for dinner last night. The menu was grilled steak (not for me YUCK! I am not a huge meat eater and I don't like steak at all. I have been called crazy.), salad, rolls, mashed potato bake, and for dessert earthquake cake. Now you are probably thinking the yummy recipe that I am going to share with you is the earthquake cake, but it's not, its the mashed potato bake. It is the first time I made it and it was out of this world. My mother in law and Ryan's aunt both want the recipe. Here is the recipe courtesy of Paula Deen's cookbook The Lady and Sons Too:
5 cups water
4 cups frozen hash brown potatoes (not the shredded kind)
One 7.6 ounce package of Betty Crocker Butter and Herb Mashed potatoes mix
1 stick butter
4 ounces of cream cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
french-fried onions
Preheat the oven to 350. Bring the water to a boil, add the hash browns, and cook for 5 min; drain. Prepare the mashed potato mix according to package directions. Soften the butter the cream cheese together in the microwave. In a large bowl, mix together the hash browns, mashed potatoes, butter and cream cheese, cheddar cheese, sour cream, garlic salt, salt, pepper. Place in a greased 2 quart casserole. Bake for 25-35 min or until golden on top. Sprinkle the onion over the top and bake for about 5 to 8 mins or until onions are golden brown.

Makes 8 servings.

I typed it into weight watchers online and it is 6 points per serving. So YUMMY.

My sister is coming up tomorrow with two of her students to go shopping up here. I am excited to see my sister (I always am) but the most exciting part is that while she takes her two students shopping I get to watch my niece. It is the first time that Aunt Lissa and Kaylee bug have ever gotten to spend time just the two of us. I am so excited and have so much fun planned for us!

My first Award!

Lisa from Another Day Today bestowed this award on me. She is so sweet and totally made my day! I really enjoy reading her blog and seeing projects she completes. My favorite so far is the makeover her and her hubby did on their door. It was amazing! Thanks so much Lisa.
Along with this award I am supposed to list 10 things I love and then present the award to a few other bloggers.
10 things I love:
1. My husband. Plain and simple, I love that man.
2. My family.
3. Scrapbooking and card making. It is such a fun way to preserve my most favorite pictures and memories.
4. Adding little decorative touches to my home.
5. Reading a good book in the sunshine on our deck.
6. The beach.
7. Riding our motorcycle on a warm sunny day.
8. Football
9. achieving goals I have set for myself.
10. Traveling.

I would like to give this award to Kellie. She was the first blog I ever read. I love reading about what she does on the weekend. Her and her husband always have so much fun.

I would also like to give this award to Megan. She has a great blog and a great Esty store. I love seeing the sweet things she makes. I bought my first Esty purchase at her store.

And finally I would to give this award to Kristen. She has great blog and makes the prettiest picture frames. I am sure that she will be my next Esty purchase.

New Project

We have begun our "big" project of the year. I say we but really it is just my hubby that has begun the project right now. I will be helping once the wood is purchased this week or whenever Ryan is ready for me to help. I tend to stay out of his way when he does a project, a lesson learned many years ago :). I think our deck will look amazing when we are done. It should be done by the end of April. We have had to special order some of the wood and the new posts.

When we moved into our house the only deck we had was this part. This part will soon be changed. We are removing most of the front of it and opening it completely up and adding stairs into that lead into the backyard.

Ryan added the part of the deck on the right within the first month that we lived in the house.

Here is the work he did late Sunday afternoon. Basically, he broke ground. He is ordering the wood today. It has to be specially ordered because the places we have checked don't carry 20 foot boards.

Also, we are removing all the wooden pickets and replacing them with these:

photo taken from here.

You will have to excuse the current deck. It looks so much prettier when I have my flowers out and it has been used. Right now it is still in it's bare winter phase. If warm spring weather would ever come and STAY I could plant some stuff but as you can see the grass hasn't even started to green yet.

Weekend recap and weigh in day

First...today is weigh in day and my tightening of the reins paid off and I lost 3 pounds!!! 4 pounds away from 10% (earlier I posted I was close but I had the wrong weight in my head of what I needed to be at for 10%). So, a loss of 3 has put a nice smile on my face today. :)

I did enjoy my time off work. It was such a needed break but I picked the crappiest of spring days to take off. It rained both Thursday and Friday then it snowed...that's right SNOWED...Saturday. YUCK!!! I want and need warm weather now!!! I did get out a little on Friday during the break in the rain and took some pictures at a tiny park in Cave Springs.

As I wrote on my last entry my bro-in-law and 5 of his friends were supposed to come up to stay the night Friday and skydive Saturday. 5 actually turned into 12! They were a great group of people though. All of them were very nice. Well, since it snowed Saturday, skydiving was canceled and they decided to stay another night and try skydiving on Sunday. Sunday turned out perfect (cold but sunny) for them and they were able to jump Sunday. This is a pic of some of the group:

Here is my bro in law, Cole, suited up:

Here is a shot of him floating back to safety:

Here are him and his trainer after the jump:

And here are him and his friend that jumped with him post jump (Cole is on the right):

They said it was totally amazing. Everyone had a blast. Although when Cole landed he was ghost white and looked like he could either pass out or throw up.

a break and a great website discovery

I am taking a much needed break from work. I took off work today and tomorrow. I was all looking forward to just relaxing and hanging out this weekend but within an hour it has turned out that I will have a crazy weekend. Today, I plan to SCRUB the house from top to bottom; sometimes I just get in the mood to do this and I am going to do it right after I type this. Tomorrow if it is nice (which it appears to be a slim chance of that) I am going to go to a local public garden to take pictures and browse our downtown square at some new shops down there. Here is where it turns crazy; my husband informed me yesterday that my father in law is staying with us Friday night. Then within an hour of that my little bro in law calls and ask if him and some of his buddy's can stay with us Friday night and Saturday night. They are driving up here to go skydiving...SKYDIVING!!! Sounds fun but waaaay to scary for me! So Saturday we are going to watch them jump (oh, and my sis in law is jumping with them too). It will be nice seeing all of them and hanging out. I am sure I will be posting pictures of the brave skydivers Sunday. I just pray all goes well for them!

I bought a cake and cupcake recipe book at the store the other day and they had these cute cupcake cups and I was like where did they get these and then on one of the pages in the tips section it gave the website. There are a TON of things on this website for baking and decorating. Here are just a few pictures I copied from their website to show some of the stuff they have. Too cute!

These are cupcake holders that look like Easter baskets:

This is another example of a cupcake holder:These are an example of cookie stencils:There is so much more that you just need to check out for yourself. Check out their website by clicking here.

Weekend recap

I had a great, great, great weekend this past weekend. My mom and dad came up on Saturday and stayed the night. :) :) :) I think I needed a mom and dad fix!! My mom and I went to SSD and I treated her to a card making class. The cards were designed by Bettie and she also taught the class. Here are a lot of pictures of the different cards we made:

This first card is made to look like a purse. How cute:

This second card was called the diamond card:The third card was the masculine card of the group:

I loved all the embellishments on this card:

I added a little personal touch on this birthday card with extra pink pearls I had in my set:

This library card was very cute too:

We also went shopping and my mom got me a few scrapbook supplies and some candles. While we went out my dad and Ryan hung out and played pool.

a little late...

First, today is weigh in day. No good news here. I stayed the same this week. It wasn't totally unexpected but that doesn't change the fact it is still disappointing. I know what I need to do to change the lack of weight loss from this week and I WILL be reporting a loss next Monday ;)!!

I am a little late posting my new closet transformation but I guess it is better late than never. Now, the pictures do not give my closet justice. It is actually a large closet and wraps completely around our shower to the other side (which belongs to my hubby). Ryan is great to me. I told him I wanted shelves built and he said okay. Well a couple weeks went by and then I was looking at closets on better homes and gardens and drew out how I wanted mine. I told Ryan that I had drawn some plans for my closet and he said "well get me your blueprints and I will build it." He had it done for me in two days. So, here it is:

Before pics (the thought crossed my mind not to show my embarassing mess of a closet as it was before):

After (I even have room to spare now) :) THANKS HUBBY, YOUR GREAT!!!

I am ready for the grass to be green. Not just because I am looking forward to some color other than brown, but because of HER:

This is after she rolled around in the grass (one of her favorite things to do) and after she shook off already. I have to sweep DAILY. But who could get too upset with this:

(I am bribing her with a treat to sit still)!

Hunger Games

I finally read another book since Breaking Dawn. I just haven't been able to get into any other book since then. I told my sister that reading the Twilight series may have ruined me from ever reading another book again. But I finally did it. The book I read was called Hunger Games. For an excerpt click here. It was a really good book the only part that sucks is I have to wait until September for book 2. It was good enough that I finished it in two days. However, my longing to read more about Edward is still there. Oh how I hope Stephenie Meyer decides to finish Midnight Sun. I found out about the Hunger Games from Stephenie's website as a recommend read by her.

We have been having amazing weather here and I have been able to workout outside again so that has been fun and Ginger (my pup) loves it too because she gets to go with me. So far so good staying on plan this week. Oh and my awesome hubby got my project done and I will post about it tomorrow. So excited.

A much needed break and weigh in...

There are times when I need a break even from things I love to do. This past week was one of those times. I took a break from my computer (I hadn't touched it until now since Tuesday) and I took a break from working out (I got back to working out on Saturday but hadn't in about a week and a half) those are both two things I enjoy but just needed a break. If I could have taken a break from work last week I would have done that too!!! I will be taking some mini breaks from work soon though.

This weekend was a sad one for us. My mother-in-law had to put her dog to sleep on Saturday morning. What a hard decision to have to make but she did what she felt best for Mena. So today I include a poem in memory of a beloved friend:

Goodbye With heavy hearts; and a tear in our eyes

after all these years; we must say goodbye

Please understand; we've done all we could

if there was anything we could do; you know we would

I'm sitting right here; gently rub your ears

while I talk to you softly; trying to hold back the tears

The memories you gave us; we'll never forget

especially the ones; of the day we all met

One last hug; and one last kiss

you have no idea; how much you'll be missed

To look into your eyes; this one last time

you tell me it's ok; you know it's your time

Close your eyes now; and go to sleep

we'll pray to the Lord; your soul he'll keep

Go in peace now; our good friend

we'll stay right here with you; until the end

Dream of that special day and time

when we'll meet at the Bridge; and all will be fine

We'll run and play; side by side

with a soft warm feeling; deep down inside

Your memory will live on; in each one of us

you'll always be number 1; to all of us

Have a safe journey; through the night

I promise when you awake; you'll be in God's light

So with heavy hearts; and tears in our eyes

just for now my friend; we say goodbye

~John Quealy

On a lighter note; I bought and hung up this sign in our laundry room. I was originally going to paint the room the green color of the lettering but I didn't buy the sign the first time I saw it hoping it would go on sale. When I went back it was gone and I couldn't find it for months. Then this week I went back to Hobby Lobby and there it was and it still matched!

Also, today is weigh in day. I lost one pound but not enough to hit my 10% goal, BOO! But hey a loss is a loss and I am happy with that.

My fantastic hubby is working on a project for me that I hope to post later in the week. :)

Blooms and Easter decor

I love that everything is starting to bloom here and I love to take pictures of flowers. Saturday when we got home from our ride I noticed that our globe willow tree in the front yard had buds on it. It happened like overnight! Here is a picture of the globe willow I took yesterday.

Also, I took a picture of the buds on our Bradford pear tree yesterday.

And can you believe that today there are flowers on it.

I love Bradford pear trees. They are perfect to me. They have beautiful white flowers in the spring, pretty dark green leaves in the summer, and are the perfect shape. If we had a long driveway I would love to alternate a Bradford pear and a cherry blossom tree all the way up the drive and on both sides. There is a house here that has Bradford pears along the drive on both sides and it is so pretty.

I also put out some Easter decor. Just enough to let you know Easter is coming. I got this bunny and tree at Hobby Lobby this past week.

Now, I don't normally decorate with stuffed animals but this one is very special to me and it will be out every Easter no matter what. This bunny was given to me by my husband our first Easter when we were dating 11 years ago. On my sister's high school graduation day (we were actually getting ready for the graduation) our house caught on fire. We lost just about everything, my mom and I grabbed my sister's cap and gown, the dog, and backed the car away from the house and that was all we had gotten out at the time of the fire. We pulled ourselves together and knew there was nothing to do at the time and went to my sister's graduation. Well, there were a few things that we were able to save the next day going back to the house and my mom got my bunny out and had it cleaned by a company that cleans items that have been in a fire and gave it to me. So that is why this bunny will always be special to me.

I also made this image to put in this frame for Easter. It normally has a picture in it but I made this and changed it out for the holiday.

This is an up close picture of the spring table runner I put out on the sofa table. This was a gift from my mom when she went to Germany last summer to visit my family. It is so pretty and just says "Spring is here" to me.

This is the last of my Easter decorations.