Back to Work....

Hello world :) It has been a very long time since we have done a blog post! Well, it is no secret that consistency is a struggle for me and I have been on hiatus from many things. Mostly in part because we moved to a new city (well, pretty much out into the country) this summer and then found out we are expecting our third child so I have been out of action for a bit. However, now that life is settling down again, I felt that old nagging feeling to do some crafting.

Setting up our new house has been a wonderful, fun and tiring experience. We have pretty much painted the place head to toe and made it our own. And now, I am settling in and really starting to decorate more. We are very visual people in our family and so I have taken on a few craft projects (as always, inspired by Alicia!) that would be great visual representatives and pieces of art for the family. The first one we attempted was our family rules.

Hubby and I took some time to really think about what is important to us and what is important in how we raise our children and we really wanted to focus on the character traits that we are trying to build in them. I googled several other great blogs that had also created similar rules and artwork and took a lot of inspiration from them. Myra over at My Blessed Life had some great family rules done in an artistic style that totally appealed to my sense of style. Rachelle, who is the mommy blogger at Fingerprints on the Fridge, also had some great ideas and a wonderful step by step tutorial that got me started!

We chose the perfect time to take this project on because Michaels Art Store had all their canvases on sale so we were able to get decent size canvases for a decent price. After buying a few foam paint brushes, a large bottle of matte mod podge and a different paper pad each, the project cost about $40 each.

So, following Rachelle's instructions, I painted my canvas a nice green color that goes well with the yellow walls in our new place. I spent a good hour or two choosing the papers that I liked and putting them in an order that seemed to balance out wild and crazy with a little more subdied.  I tried to stagger my rules so that there was a mix of longer ones and shorter ones and that they made some sort of sense in order at least in my mind.  And this is what I got!  It felt like a long process, it took me 2 days to complete this project - but it was a lot of fun.  I spent a couple hours the first night and several hours the next day to finish it all up.  I was very greatful for my cricut machine that allowed me to cut out the lettering in the sizes and fonts that I liked and saved me having to try and hand paint anything.

As commented on many of the blogs I read on this project, the paper did wrinkle and ripple as modge podge was applied.  Despite my best attempts and sureness that I had worked with paper tons and would be able to get it to stay flat, it did what it wanted.  So, if you decide to take on this project, be forewarned!  It will wrinkle and crinkle, but if you can embrace this, it actually does add an authenticity to the project making each piece quite unique and now that it's done and hanging on my wall I don't notice the bumps much at all.  So here is my final product!

Because I had so much fun making mine, and I have the cricut, I also helped Alicia with her family rules as well and it's amazing how different they both are, but they both totally suit our personalities and family homes.  Here is her finished project....

Happy crafting and don't forget to let us know if you decide to make your own family rules!  

Nadine

A little more organization never hurt anybody!

So lately all the blogs that I have stumbled across or follow have been talking about organization!

I signed back up for Fly Lady, which in the past, has done wonders to help me keep my house functional, clean and organized.  It's really worth checking out.  You get daily emails with a 15 minutes task to do, special challenges, and monthly focuses.  It's an awesome cleaning plan where they constantly encourage to do what you can when you can.

I also stumbled across a blog, that initially I told myself I would NEVER look at :)  And you know what happens when you say never!  My initial issue was that I read the blog address (and therefore the blog title) wrong.  The blog address is www.imperfecthomemaking.com.  Now, it would make sense to read it as imperfect homemaking, but I however only saw I'm Perfect homemaking.  Maybe a sore point I need to deal with?!?  This site has a great series done back in October on 31 days to organizing your home.  I did day one and loved the changes.  Picture is coming, i forgot a before  picture, and i will take an after one once DH hangs the new photo frame turned white board for remembering what is in the bin to give back to others!

And that was it, once I started, I just couldn't stop.  I saw a neat  picture with cool jars for keeping laundry soap in.  Well, I want to display my homemade laundry soap in a pretty jar too, along with the extra baking soda and vinegar for stains and smells.  This time, I did remember the before and after pics. 

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So, what cool things have you guys been doing to organize your household?

Menu Boards....

Okay, I am totally blaming Alicia for the fact that we have not blogged in over 5 months! She had a baby and I have been very preoccupied staring at her little bundle of cuteness. But all excuses aside, we have a super cool kitchen related project to share with everyone.

I stumbled upon the inspiration for this board at Robby Gurls Creations which i stumbled across through pinterest.

We have been talking about trying to meal plan for ages. We know for sure that when we meal plan our grocery budgets are better, we are more likely to have dinner made on time each night, and we have way less stress. So, without further ado, I introduce you to our menu planning boards....


This is my board, I did mine in primary colors just to add a little bit of color and excitement to my kitchen. (And hopefully it will keep my eyes from glossy over and forgetting all about it!)

For each day there are small tags to remind you what you will be making for dinner that day. The hanging file cards at the bottom are color co-ordinated to match the small tags depending on the types of food category.

We made 6 categories of recipes:
chicken, beef, side dishes, soup, desserts, & miscellaneous

The board is then accessorized with fancy magnets to hold up the small tags and the month labels.  We priced things out and all in all it ended up costing about $40 to make the boards.  The biggest cost was the board itself, which we were only able to get at Walmart for $19.97.  The paper and stones came from Michaels Art Store.  The binder rings were a dollar store find!  The button magnets and magnet tape can be bought at Walmart as well.

(And while I think of it, for you technies who notice each detail...yes it says that Alicia wrote this post, but it was actually me (Nadine)).

Here is Alicia's awesome board!  She went for a blue and green color theme with the same recipe categories.  Now, our job over the next few weeks is to print out our recipe cards to make this board fully functional.

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He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!!!

Happy Easter everyone!

My family has had a wonderful day. The kids and I used the resurrection eggs we made at our mom's group to make an Easter tree center piece for our table. It was a wonderful way to teach the youngest about Easter and a great visual and tactile way to review it for my older one.



We then celebrated the rising of our Lord with an Easter egg hunt throughout the house. I was hoping to go outside, but the weather wasn't cooperative today.

Blessings for the day,
Nadine

I got my CSA box!

Hooray for Wednesdays! Besides being the day we go to our mom's group, it is now also the day I get my box of delicious, nutritious organic locally grown veggies. Check it out!










This box had:
1 bunch of red beats
1 bunch of red kale
1 bunch of sorrel
1 bunch of mizuna
1 bundle of chives
2 large shallots
1/2 lb. of crimini mushrooms
2 heads of green leaf lettuce
1 long english cucumber

So, we thought we would try out a "seasonal" recipe last night. It was a bit challenging just to find something we all agreed on that was wheat free and vegetarian (we had company for dinner) and also dairy free (though i did end up fudging on that a bit. We ended up making a delicious fresh chunky pasta sauce with rice spirals and a Greek salad.











The kids weren't big on the pasta sauce (I'm sure they'll get used to fresher sauces with time) but the adults all liked it and would eat it again! Why don't you try some yourself. Check out the recipe here . Let me know what you think, or any changes that you made to it yourself!