Blong

Do you like my new word? I hope it's a new word and not something that means something bad. It stands for Blog and Long. I'm blogging and today was a long day! Lots of explanation for something so silly.

I was at work from 9:30pm Monday night - 3:30pm Tuesday afternoon. I got home at 4 today, made dough for 8 dozen cookies and baked 1 dozen of them for my hurt neighbor, sat down for 4.5 seconds. Tried to finish an episode of Once Upon a Time, but was tired. Tried to nap but couldn't. I got up and made dinner. Shoveled dinner down and went to a meeting until 8:30, got home and worked on another painting project for about 15 minutes. Then got ready to go back to work, and now here I sit. My eyes are droopy but it will take a little bit to fall asleep. I guess I could TRY but I don't really want to.

During the meeting we had an opening prayer and I promise that I didn't know if I would be able to open my eyes again, but I persevered.

I want to go see Wicked.

Here are some random projects I've been working on because I really don't have anything else to write about.

Except I COULD write about Bones and Downton Abbey, but I'm still a little tender regarding DA so I'll refrain. Just in case I say something I might regret :)

 A mission shadow box for my grandpaaaaaaa

 I just really wanted to paint stripes on something.

 who does this look like to you?

engagement photo shoot prop for Ty and Jessica

 A random magnet board that I wanted to paint.

 Ohhhhhh. I LOVE Wicked. Garghhh I wanna go to there. Found this on my desk today and it made me happy!

Ughh one of my 'peeps' just woke up and it's 11:30, cross your fingers she'll go back to sleep!

Whoville

This month has flown by, I do not approve. Out of all the months, I wish December lasted the longest. Maybe we could shave a few days off each month and add them to December, whaddya think Mayans? So far your calendaring expertise has been helpful perhaps you could assist us with this.

Besides the fact that this month has gone by much to my dismay, I have gotten quite a bit done. I had my final and only got one question wrong (holla back), lots of work, etc.....I'm too ADD to list everything.

Amidst all that stuff I have forgotten to blog about Whoville. That is the theme of our Christmas decor for 2012. I was told I have free reign over decorations and could do whatever my little heart desired.

I started out by going to Michael's and bought some fancy ribbon, I was going to be fancy this year. The ribbon sat and stared at me for a few days and I decided I can't pull off fancy and why pretend to be fancy when we are not? Too much pretense. My next thought was Whoville. I love the Grinch and all things Dr. Seuss plus Hobby Lobby had 50% off their entire Christmas decor sections. I filled that cart like nobodies business. I got some great deals and spent about $60 total on all the decorations to decorate the entire living room. Those bags were filled with glitter for dayzzzzz.

I also decided to make several decorations just to be fun and to save some money. Here are some things I made:

I cut out a bunch of random colored circles and sewed them in looooong sections to make garland, I made a bunch of paper cone trees, I cut out aprox. 50 coffee filter snowflakes, I sanded/painted/glittered an antelope just because I can, and helped make 5 elf stockings.

I also made this silly canvas sign. I cut out the quote onto vinyl using my silhouette. After painting the base green, I punched out all the letters from the vinyl and painted the letters on. Then cut out the tree (which ended up being made in reverse- red was supposed to be on top), and added some fake snow paint to give the tree something to 'stand' on.

 The tree once it was decorated with all the sparkly ornaments and disco balls. Completed with a crooked star. Let's pretend that's on purpose.

 Bad cell phone pics but this is the living room from further back.

This is a random mishmash of decor. Since we've never done this theme I really underestimated how much stuff I'd need to buy to fill this living room so we were lacking a bit of shelf-type decor.

I just like staring at the tree in the dark. I might spend a bit too much time staring at the tree.

I'm really not wanting to blog so here are a few more random pictures of random decor. Perhaps I'll do a better post another time but probably not. It was a fun change from the last several years with the rusty snowman theme (no offense) but we've just done that for SOOOO LONG.

Merry Christmas Eve!! Have a wonderful day!!

So far today.....

This is what I've done:

demoed our uglllly bathroom that we are going to have redone by next Tuesday when Ty comes home....ohh boy. Give me a crowbar and 30 minutes and I can do work. After blogging I'm gonna start on the counter, except maybe I'll just start on the bottom doors because I don't do plumbing. What started this epidemic, we saw this picture yesterday and started today, we think things through around here.

Screen printed 6 tshirts for next Tuesday for family to wear. I still have several more to do but am waiting for the shirts from people. Once I got the screen printed correctly it took about an hour.

I've started printing on sticky notes after I take scripture study notes so I can include them in my scriptures and not have scribbly unreadable margins....which I'll still have but that's not the point. I just like to print on post-it's, I gotta get some better colors though.

Although these items were done in the exact opposite order. Scriptures were first, then tshirts, then the bathroom. Taking a small Sonic happy hour raspberry limeaid break, the best ever.

Oh I might have watched the Olympics a bit too....no judgement zone it only happens 2 weeks every 2 years ok. Water polo is my favorite (the mens version is more intense and funner to watch though). I also quite enjoy Apparatus Gymnastics too, I can't wait for ribbon dancing, I'm not even kidding.

ALSO I've made my bed everyday for the last 5 days, that's a record for me, I used to find no reason to make my bed besides just throwing the covers around a bit but now I love it, it makes my entire room look so much cleaner. Go me!!

T-Minus 6.....

.....days until Ty gets home!! How exciting. I feel bad because I haven't been updating his blog as regularly as I should be, I'm several weeks behind, but I've been doing it for 2 years, come on!! Cut me some slack.

By this time next week he will be here which is so weird. It seems like he just got dropped off but thinking about all that's happened in the last 2 years it seems like so long ago, but for the most part it went by super fast for us here at home.

Anyways, this week in between all the other stuff on my to-do list, I'm going to make a bunch of posters (I want to make one for each person who will be there but I don't know how many that will be). I might make a banner that he can run fast walk thru, that's always been a dream of mine his.

I'm also going to screen print t-shirts for friends and family who want one. They are pretty simple to do. So far I'm making about 10 but probably more once I get a few emails back. Here is the image I created in Word....seriously Word is the best I could do on my laptop, I have yet to install photoshop so it's a pretty pieced together image, oh well.

It started out with just the map of Chile with Welcome home Ty but then I decided that it would just look like people spilled something down the front of their shirt. Then I added the flag, but I had to recreate it so it would be similar in size/shape to the map. Since the Chilean flag looks like the Texan flag, I wrote it big letters what it was I was trying to convey with the map and the flag.....

wow that was a long, wordy, and pretty unnecessary description. I guess I don't have to explain my random actions.

Hmmmmm ok I'm either going to watch an episode of Arrested Development or read Jane Eyre....so many choices, and I'll probably do both considering I'll most likely be up for four more hours....ughh hopefully not again. Speaking of Jane Eyre, look at this thing I found today on Etsy. 
Super cute right? I'll take two : )

"I thought Spa meant swimming"

Just a fun quote from our YW activity tonight from one of the young men. We decided that the girls had A LOT going on over the last couple weeks, girls camp, efy, youth conference so for our activity tonight we decided to have a low key spa night. I hope it was low key for them because it wasn't for me!! :) I have to organize my thoughts/pictures before I post about my weekend scrap-booking retreat so maybe I'll have time to do that tomorrow, maybe.....

For our spa night, I randomly decided that I wanted to do pink and zebra print. It kind of worked out but then I forgot to grab my zebra paper so I had to use random 12x12 scrapbooking papers:

 our table set up. Each girl had a 12x12 scrapbook paper with a water bottle 'labeled' with a piece of funky duct tape that I threw together like an hour before activity. It was quick and cheap. Then I got different sized jars and filled them up with needed nail supplies (cotton balls, swabs, makeup sponges, home made lotion, nail files, cuticle sticks, and nail polish remover). There were also small soaking bowls (2 for $1 at dollar tree) that I put between each mat. Some girls soaked their nails, some didn't.

 A close up view. I also got a $1 metal tray and put the nail polish on that just to be fancy-ish. I just used those cheap plastic table clothes that are like 80 cents just so we didn't ruin the table.

 another close up I guess, I took really random pictures.

Off to the side we had a little table station set up where girls could make their own sugar scrub. We bought little jars for $1 several months ago and have been saving them for this activity. You fill up a little jar 3/4 of the way with sugar then mix in Dawn Renewal dishsoap pomegranate flavor until it's a good consistency. There is no wrong or right way to do it, just until it's a texture you like. Then we had the girls try it out. It's nice to use this hand soap because it makes your hands super soft and it's great if you're a gardener it gets dirt and grim off lickety split!!

Then the girls painted their nails (sorry for the weird color, my camera was on a weird setting). We also 'baked' washcloths for a fun spa treatment. What you do is fill up a bowl or sink with water, add a few drops of essential oils, I had Eucalyptus so that's what we used, place the washcloths into the water and let them soak for a few minutes. Next wring them out pretty well and roll them tightly and place in a 9x13 glass pan. Cover pan with foil (or smashed pie pans if your church foil cupboard happens to be locked :/) and bake for 20 minutes on 350. Serve the cloths with tongs (make sure to warn everyone that they're very warm and hold them by the tag to avoid being burned.) One of the scrapbooking ladies does this for us every year at our EMW scrapbooking retreat and it's my favorite part of the weekend!! It's so refreshing and great.

I think the girls had a good time, we realized it was later than we thought so we ended with some ice cream treats to celebrate a YW's birthday then the girls went home. It was fun. I went crazy while setting it up but that's just how I roll I guess.

Haven't Done this for Awhile.

Last week some friends got together to make some cards. It sure was fun by golly gee. I actually accomplished a lot that night, which is really weird for me. Tomorrow we are having a card swap thing so I got all my pieces prepared for that as well. Hip Hip Hooray!! I don't have to stay up until 2am doing that tonight. 

Anywhoooo here are some cards I made. The pictures will just stay sideways because my computer is being a complete spaz right now. I thought if you spent a certain amount on a computer it was exempt from being a spaz....

I actually made this one after our card party because I ordered another butterfly and a texture plate from here. If you like your bank account, do not click on that link.

 I tried to get close to show you the texture of the paper but my P&S camera can't do that, so I settled for a blurry close up.

 I'm not a huge fan of this card but I wanted to try making a 3-D element so I just went with it.

 you can see the 3 layers of hearts. I glued the first one down completely then just put a thin line of aqua mono glue on the 'spine' of the other two hears then fluffed them up.

 This is one of the cards I made for the card swap. This picture just shows the size and orientation of the card.

 A random baby shower card, we always need these but never have them. So I made ONE.

 

I just thought I'd leave you with this cute picture of shelley eating with chopsticks. She's funny. After I took her picture she kept eating with the chopsticks even though she had a fork, she just stabbed her meat with one then ate rice one grain at a time :). She loved it.

Maybe next time I'll post about my new favorite food (be excited) and my new journal-ing ways. I'm a journaling fool these days. That post might come later today if I get my to-do list all done.

p.s. no switching to typepad, I could not figure that site out for the life of me. Slash I spent about 4 minutes trying to figure it out then canceled my account.

Littlest Warrior

While browsing a favorite blog this morning I was reading about a craft project this lady was participating in. I decided that it would be a really good idea to get in on the 'action'. I haven't read much about the program but I did check out their site. Every year they get donations of a certain crafty variety to give to kids of all ages who are battling cancer.
This year they are looking for beanies of all sizes and all types-knit, crochet, fabric. As well as homemade tote bags to use in the hospitals. What a fun way to help the younger people who are going through such a tough time. All the info is on their site if you'd like to participate.

I am going to try to make several hats and maybe a tote to donate, I have enough yarn to make hats for the entire country so half the work is already done ;). I figure if I can do one hat every evening by the end of the week, I'll have lots to donate...that is if my poor fingers cooperate.

Here are a few links to patterns if you'd like to participate...although ANY pattern can be made in any color.

very easy, very basic beginner knit pattern

20 minute sewed tote bag. Such a fun/easy pattern

sewed fleece hats for those who sew

There are so so so so many patterns online, the options are endless for these tough kids. I'll post an update when I get some of my stuff done.

OH YA this is Pinterest Thursday...I'll post later about that...I have some pinterest plans for today...

Pinterest Crafting #2

P.S. Please don't judge my horrible picture. I just can't bring myself to take out my big camera to take a good picture, besides she has good pics of the same thing on her blog.


Today is Pinterest Thursday!! I almost forgot it was Thursday after a rather unusual Wednesday. But I remembered just in time. This week I am posting a handout I made for my Visiting Teaching ladies for January. There's a blog that I pinned on Pinterest a few weeks ago and I've gone back to it several times since pinning. She has some really cute church related ideas and free handout ideas. Her site is called Inkablinka. If you'd like to follow my Church Pinterest board click here! Here is the direct link to the instructions to make these wheels.

I really love handouts, making, giving, and receiving them. It's not a waste of time to me, even if it gets looked at for a day or two then gets thrown out, I still like making them. I hope that this site will help me be a better visiting teacher. I'm more likely to go if I have a cute handout or treat for them :D.

here are a few very random pins from my funny board. They have nothing to do with anything but I thought they were funny...duh

Pinterest Crafting #1

If you saw my subway art of 2012 goals yesterday, it might be a little confusing but I know exactly what each thing means and I guess that's what matters since they're my goals!! One of the more mysterious words was Pinterest. My goal isn't to pin more (we all know I DON'T need to do that) but my goal is to make something that I find on Pinterest every week. It could be a new recipe, a craft, knitting, crocheting, sewing, photo idea, etc... I've decided that I am going to try to use Thurdsday's as my Pinterest idea day.

 The big idea is that I'll go through my boards and kind of clean up a bit. I have pinned A LOT and in the beginning I pinned without abandon so I need to go through and reorganize and unpin some things. I'm also trying to be really good at pinning the PermaLinks, not just the blog where the idea was found. That is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves about Pinterest is people don't know how to pin properly. So often I click on one of my pins and am taken to some blog where I have to scroll through two years of blogs to find the ONE. So I've started just going to the pin's link and pinning it for myself so I know it's right.

ANYWAYS.....sorry for the tangent.

Today's project is from a pin I pinned a few days ago. I made myself a pair of "15 minute PJ pants". Truth be told, just folding the fabric right took 15 minutes but once that was done, they were pretty simple.

I had purchased a whole bolt of this crazy pink houndstooth flannel the day after Thanksgiving for $6.99, when it's usually $50-60 bucks for the bolt. That's a good deal to me!! The next day they were all on sale for $25 which is still a 'good deal' but not a 'great deal'!!

Since our YW activity yesterday was to make PJ's I thought I'd make a quick pair. Here is a horrible iPad pic:

They are super bell-bottom-ey because I didn't use the best pair of PJ's to trace...oh well.

Here is the direct link to the blog with the instructions and here is a link to my sewing board if you're interested.

Happy Pinning/Crafting/Creating

Really Last Minute

Two blogs in one day...wahhhhhh? WEIRD. Someone better take my temperature. Like I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to very quickly, post about a few very last minute Christmas gifts I'm working on. All my gifts from my previous post are wrapped and ready to go, if I didn't have a splitting headache I'd go deliver them now :(.

The first is a gift I'm making for my grandma, I should be working on it now.
It's going to be a birthday calendar eventually.

So I had a bunch of these poker chips...why we have them when none of us play poker, I dunno, but we did. So I started by spray painting all the ones that weren't black, black. 

Then I picked out 6 pieces of slightly patterned paper and printed the first name of each member of my family along with the day they were born ex: Mariah 8th.

Cut out each name with a circle punch and glued it onto the now dry poker chip.

This is a horrrrrible picture of the basic idea behind this bday calendar:

It will be a wooden piece that says, Peck Family Birthday's. Underneath that, I'll have the months written across the bottom of the board. Each month will have an eye hook beneath it where I will daisy chain the poker chips.
Still with me?
No?
OK.

 This tool above is called, a Crop-a-dile. It cuts through just about anything. I'm able to cut through the paper and plastic poker chip. Once the holes are made, I'll use jewelry jump rings to connect the chips, in order under their corresponding month

 

I apologize deeply if you're still reading. I don't think I'm making ANY sense but it's been a long day!!

 These are all the poker chips, basically done, I still have a few more that I need to redo do to glue mishaps. Tomorrow I'm going to punch holes in each of these and place them in order by month.
I guess this might be a gift that gets delivered a little after Christmas because I don't have any wood to make the sign. So that's a bummer. I think I also need to find some eye hooks.


SOOOO if you're still reading here is another last minute gift I've been working on:

 Headband Earwarmers!! They are so hip right now and I can make them in about an hour so they are the ultimate last minute DIY gift!!

I've made three in the last day and a half, one was already gifted so just two are shown. These two will have homes soon. If you know how to do basic crochet stitches, you can make this so super easily.
If you want to make your own, watch this video. 
I didn't make mine as thick as hers and I added a flower. She's very wordy and kind of slow getting to the point so once I watched enough to know what I needed to do on the ends, I just made up my own directions as I went but it's pretty simple.

I'm thankful for my knowledge on how to knit and crochet, I'm able to make gifts for people that I wouldn't otherwise be able to make. It's pretty fun to watch a piece of 'string' as my dad calls it (yarn) turn into something else like a hat, blanket, scarf, earwarmers etc...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Nacho Libre and Me

I've had some very strange posts in the past, but this one might just take the cake on strange and possibly disturbing?

I know you are all wanting to see more of my painted figures...hehehahahahohoho ya right but here they are anyway:

 one of the star wars guys with Nacho Libre. Ty is getting the Nacho Libre guy in his next package and the hairy star wars guy is going to be added to my star wars set for my uncle:

 

I do find it a little funny that I've never been into Star Wars and the only names I know are, Darth Vader, Luke, and there's a princess. OH MAN I forgot I was going to make them glowing swords. Perhaps I'll make a few out of toothpicks after I post this...

This is quite possibly the weirdest thing that's ever been on my blog:

 

 They're for my dad for Christmas so shhhhhhhhh. It's Kiss, one of his favorite bands when he was younger. Don't ask me WHY that is. These officially take the cake as being the hardest figures I have painted on yet.

Soon I should be getting another box in the mail full of more wooden pieces and I have some plans for those to turn into nativities, random people, and Ghost Busters. Right now I'm working on painting more princesses, heroes, and a set of Harry Potter characters. This has turned into a really fun activity for me, albeit time consuming and a little frustrating when I accidentally mess up...So far I've only really messed up bad on one, Harry Potter. His glasses weren't exactly round so I tried to fix it and my hand spasmed in the middle of it and so he has reallllly thick glasses now. OH well.

Today I made this snowflake for my uncle, another Star Wars thing. I believe they are called Storm Troopers (I totally looked it up). I might get brave and make a few more but don't count on it.

A Very Homemade Christmas

It seems like every year I end up making more and more gifts. I think they're more personal and fun that way? Maybe that's just me haha. I used to think it was just cheaper to make items but I've learned that's not always the case :D. It also takes a lot more time, which is running low. I'm watching the clock as I blog because I have lots to do and have to go back to work in just a few short hours. Here's an incomplete short list in pictures of what I've been working on for gifts this year:

 Pillowcases!! Wowzers I've been making these things like crazy...well I've made like 6. I made this one two times for each of my brothers, I'm sure Ty REALLY likes his haha. I didn't know how great it would be for his mission, oh well!! I'm also making 'Cars' ones for two little boys and a zebra one for a cousin still.

 I'm sure whoever has been to my FB is tired of seeing these pictures. But These are my favorite homemade items this year!! They are so fun to make, although they are time consuming, they are so relaxing to make (even though I'm very tense when I paint, esp. such small pieces.)

 I decided the girls needed boys to play with too. I remember as a kid Ty and I would always play with our action figures and you NEED the heroes to rescue the princesses. DUH Ty. So they are now a set.

I'm going to make these ones today or tomorrow for my uncle who is obsesssssed with starwars. He has a WHOLE room dedicated to Star Wars/Star Trek. RIDICULOUS. He has glass cabinets he keeps his TOYS and 'real' light sabers. hahahaha good thing I like him, otherwise I would not make these. I've never been a big fan and have a hard time staying awake during these movies.

And here's a really bad pic of one of the blankets I'm working on. It's almost done just maybe four more rows and edging. 

______________________________________________

For those interested in doing the craft night I think we decided to do it Friday, Dec 23rd. Hopefully this will work for you, let me know if it does/doesn't. I know it's pushing it pretty close to Christmas and people have lots going on. Would 6:30 work for everyone? Also I need to think of one craft we can all make together, I was thinking this might be fun:

Coconut oil lipgloss

It would be pretty cheap and we could make a lot with the ingredients. It would be a fun small last minute gift option. Or if you have any other ideas, let me know, I'm WIDE open for suggestions. I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas. 

The rest of the night can be spent working on your own crafts/gifts/wrapping gifts etc...location TBD.

(PS Michelle, I KNOW you'll be home by the 23rd so looks like you'll have to participate in our CRAFT night!! :D)