Spring Break Project 5...Bookshelves!

We sort of have a book-fetish at our house...ok, maybe it's more than a fetish! We have currently installed 36 feet of shelving and haven't even began our "fiction" section of our library! Whew! Talk about a ton of books! We had acquire so many that we were running out of space. Our bookshelves were full and so were the tops of them, the desk and all the cabinets in sight! Our solution, without spending a fortune, was to install shelving units on our walls to free up floor space and maximize book space. Thanks to my brother for helping us pick out the correct wood and brackets from Ace Hardware, we are now several steps closer to getting all of our books up on shelves and off of our floor! Here's what we got so far...

Three, 4 foot shelves...

Three, 8 foot shelves...

If anyone were to want to study theology and preaching, kinesiology or the art of teaching feel free to come on over! Hopefully we will have all the fiction books up before the end of spring break! We seriously need to enter the technology age when it comes to books...lol

-Kristy

Spring Break Project 4...Pantry Doors!

This is perhaps, one of my favorite projects of the entire break! I found a "recipe" for DIY chalkboard paint and had to try it! My pantry doors were bare and white and every time I tried to hang something on them it would get knocked off because it is such a high-traffic area. The chalkboard paint seemed like a perfect solution! Now my doors are painted and no longer bare and we can write on them with chalk instead of writing on a board that will just get knocked off and broken. Here's a picture of the finished project! Katie and I had fun trying our hand at this new idea!

Complete with the Alabama apron :)

Here's how you make your own chalkboard paint:

1 c paint
2 tbs non-sanded grout

Mix together and paint on a solid, dry surface. Will most likely take two coats. Apply thickly.

We used black craft paint, but the recipe we used said you could use any kind and any color of paint that you want.

Happy painting!
-Kristy

Spring Break Project 3...Garden!

So, I've never been the "green thumb" type. I haven't ever cared much about gardening, planting or anything of the sort...so this whole garden thing, well, it's sort of a risk-taker for me, lol! I am stepping out on a ledge in the name of frugality and, in attempt to cut back on our grocery bill each month, am growing some fruits and veggies right in our very own garden which is now nicely secure behind our new fence!

I am looking forward to these plants producing fruit and veggies, but in the mean time, well, let's just hope I remember to water them! Here's a little sneak peak of our garden, week one, in pictures!

My baby watermelons, apparently known as "icebox melons"

Snap peas, cucumbers and onions!

My blueberry plant!

Strawberry plant!

The poor corn and jalapenos that didn't make it into the ground before I ran out of potting soil.

Here's to hoping for a fruitful crop in about 60-90 days! Yay for Spring!

-Kristy

Spring Break Project 2...Water Heater!

Our next big "under-taking" for spring break was installing a new water heater, per insurance regulations. Apparently ours was a year older than they prefer so we had to get a brand new one. Lucky for us, we have amazing family, yet again, that helped us install it minus the $500 fee that Lowe's wanted to charge us. Since the insurance company needed pictures to document I figured I would use them to document here too...just incase another company years down the road gets this same idea! lol! Here are the pictures I know you're dying to see (or maybe not)!

The pretty, white and NEW water heater! I could have come up with PLENTY of ways to spend that money that did NOT include a water heater...lol

Some important part that the insurance company needed documented...I have no idea what is special about this picture.

Proof that it is up to date and new! Praise the Lord!

Now, I know that was the most exciting thing you've read all day! ;) Happy spring break!
-Kristy

Spring Break Project 1...Fence!

This spring break Shaun and I, along with the help of our family, have been EXTREMELY busy! Our biggest project this break was installing a privacy fence so we can contain and landscape our back yard! It is so nice to walk out our back door and see a nice, new fence instead of our neighbor's trash cans, lol! We still have one side to fence it, but it is currently covered with vines from our neighbors so we have to spend a couple of weeks clearing that out before we can put that side up. As far as the landscaping goes, we haven't made much progress in that department but as you can see in the pictures, we re-planted the bushes from the front of our house along our porch in the backyard. Check out these pictures of our house/yard post-fence!

Back left corner...

Front left corner with our tangerine tree and porch!

The very sad looking plants that will hopefully be "revived" in a day or two...they have the prettiest purple flowers on them!

Back stretch, meeting the neighbors chain link fence and vines...

Right side of the house where I am planting my garden!

Front of the house with the fence up!

Shaun and I are so thankful that God blessed us with such a wonderful family who so selflessly sacrificed part of their spring break/time off to help us out! We are so grateful and can't wait to use this house to continue honoring God for His faithfulness!

-Kristy

Homemade Peppermint Patties...YUM!

The newest recipe around our house is homemade peppermint patties...YUM! They are delicious and at 88 calories each, are better for you than the store bought versions! The best part is that they are super easy to make!

Here's what you do...

1. Soften 4oz cream cheese in a bowl. For less calories, use low fat or fat free.
2. Blend in 1lb confectioners sugar, adding a little at a time.
3. Add 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract and mix well.
4. Roll dough into small balls and press in the center to make an indention for the chocolate.
5. Let the dough sit for a few minutes until it gets firm. Put in the refrigerator to speed up the process.
6. Melt your choice of chocolate according to the directions on the chocolate package and place in a piping bag (or zip loc bag with a cut corner). Dark chocolate duplicates the taste of the York Peppermint Patty, but I prefer milk chocolate. Either one will work.
7. Squeeze chocolate into the indentions in each ball of dough.
8. Set in the refrigerator and let harden.
Enjoy!

Tune in later this week for homemade drinking glasses from old glass bottles and chalkboard painted doors!

-Kristy

DIY Project Updates!

I realize it has been FOREVER since I've written a post and I have a ton of things to get caught up on so I figured what better place to start than updates from some of my previous blogs!

The first update I have is for cleaning products. I had a little trouble with the consistency of the shower cleaner I started making back in January. The product cleaned great, but was hard to use with a spray bottle so I started searching for something just as good in the clean department and even better efficiency-wise. Here's what I found...
This cleaner uses dish soap and white vinegar. If you're into keeping the chemicals out of your products, I would suggest the organic dawn dish soap; however, it is a little pricey so if you're more into saving money just the wal-mart dish soap works great. The measurements for each aren't precise, and I swear there really isn't a science to it. I just mix half the soap with half of the vinegar. You need more vinegar than soap to keep the consistency liquidy enough and if you use half of each the consistency should be perfect. I store mine in the original soap container after I have mixed it and squirt it into the shower, scrub and rinse! Here's a picture of my last batch...just remember to shake it before you use it and you should be good to go!

The next update I have is for my homemade toothpaste. The last recipe called for baking soda, salt, water and peppermint essential oil. In place of the salt, this time I used stevia which is a safe, organic sugar. It makes the homemade toothpaste taste more like store-bought toothpaste, so you don't have to get used to the salty taste of the other recipe. I am still having trouble using a pump bottle with this mixture, but it works great in a tupperware with a lid too! Here's a picture while it was still in the pump bottle, it worked in here for 2-3 days before it needed to be stirred again.

Those are the only updates I've made so far! My laundry soap, homemade deodorant and cleaning supplies are holding up nicely! I'm looking forward to posting some spring break projects soon! Our current project is DIY chalkboard paint for our pantry doors!

Happy Spring Break!
-Kristy

Canvas & Twinkle Lights Head Board

Ok...here's my latest project!

One of my goals for this year was to redecorate our bedroom and it's been an on-going process for the last few months. It's still not finished yet, but today I marked one HUGE project off the list! I have been looking for something to put on the big empty wall space above our bed as well as something to add light to our room (part of our room was an add-on and has no light source) so I could actually see into my closet when i'm trying to get dressed, lol!

I saw a few ideas on pinterest and finally got up the nerve to try one. It took a long time (and quite a few burned fingers) to get it right, but i'm so glad I stuck with it!

Here's the picture!

Here's how to do it!

Materials:
3 canvases (or how ever many you need to fit your size wall space)
one strand of lights for each canvas (I just used old Christmas lights)
hot glue
clear packing tape

Directions:
Attach one strand of lights to the back of each canvas. I used my hot glue gun and glued the lights down one at a time around the outside of the frame, plus the middle bar, then just strung the rest through the middle, attaching the rest with hot glue to hold in place. It was very time consuming, but got the job done. (I have already decided that if I do this again I am just going to risk putting more nails in the wall and string the lights around the nails and merely hang the canvases on top to avoid burned fingers and a ton of time.)
Use clear packing tape to tape down any parts of the strand of lights that sticks out from the canvas.
Carefully use the hot glue gun to to glue the canvases together from behind. I ran a line of glue down each of the seams and let it dry. It isn't perfectly stable but if you pick it up with two people it should stay together fine.
Finally, measure the area you are going to hang the canvases and place long nails/screws into the wall making sure they stick out far enough to give room for the lights to "breath" behind the canvases. Then hang your canvases, plug in, and enjoy!

I'm still working on a solution for the part of the lights that runs down to the plug, lol. As for now, i'm loving the this project so much that it doesn't bother me. When that changes, I'll look for a solution! :)

-Kristy

Dying Easter Eggs...With A Twist!

With Easter quickly (yes, time seems to be FLYING by) approaching I took some time a couple weeks ago to dye Easter eggs with some of my girls! Katie mentioned that she hadn't ever dyed Easter eggs so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to let her try her hand at it! And, like all good ladies do, we turned to pinterest for some inspiration before we began dying eggs...wanting to find something a little "different" or "more creative" than the traditional egg dying.

Here's what we came up with...

You start off boiling eggs and preparing your egg dye like you would for traditional egg dying.

Then, before you put your eggs in the dye lightly crack the shells of the boiled egg. We just firmly rolled ours on the marble counter top and that seemed to do the trick!

You don't want the shell to peel, but you want it to crack enough that it breaks the inner film so the dye can seep into the egg itself.

Next, set your egg in the color of dye you want your egg to become and leave it there for 5-10 minutes. This method takes a little extra time to soak into the egg itself and to make sure the color is bright enough that it shows up on the egg. The lighter the color the longer it needs to soak.

Finally, pull the egg out of the dye and let it dry. Once the dye is dry peel the broken shell off and admire the very cool design you just created on your egg.

The girls and I were so excited that we ate several eggs before they even made it to the carton! What a great way to encourage little ones to eat eggs!

Just a little something different for the long-time tradition of egg dying! I would love to hear any Easter holiday traditions or suggestions you have!

Happy Spring!
-Kristy

February...a month in review, a few days late!

Time to play "catch-up"...

At the end of January I made a commitment to post at the end of each month, reviewing our goals set back in January so at the end of the year we could look back and reflect before setting next year's goals.

I'm afraid I don't have any exciting goals to celebrate for February (I blame it on being the shortest month, haha)! We spent the majority of the month preparing for future goals and playing "catch-up" as we experienced busy schedules complete with sickness, long days at work, etc.

I'm excited to report that our backyard is ready for a fence to be installed over spring break (Lord willing)! My dad and Shaun have both worked very hard to trim some trees and clear out some extra shrubs/bushes, etc. so hopefully the fence installation process will be as pain-free as possible! We shall see.

Furthermore, Shaun is still looking into master's programs so we haven't made any progress on signing him up for his GED or getting him enrolled in a graduate program.

I am all signed up for my ESE Certification Exam K-12, just waiting on the income tax refund to come in so I can afford to pay for it. ($200 for a test to better myself as a teacher...seems like a sick joke to me but I suppose I "gotta do, what I gotta do")!

We have been working diligently on redecorating our bedroom, as that is another of our goals and still aren't finished yet. I spent most of the day today repairing broken picture frames and putting together a new headboard/wall light piece inspired by pinterest...stay tunned for a blog on that project!

All in all, we maintained all of our financial goals and are working hard to pay off my student loans and both of our cars! One day those will be all paid off!!

My last thought for the month of February is this:

"God is faithful!" 

February was a very busy month for us filled with FCAT Writes, changes in work schedules, multiple doctor's appointments trying to get my thyroid in check, etc. Through the busy times, the hard times, the happy times, and all the other times in between...God is faithful! He is guiding and directing our steps each day and we are so thankful! 

"May God be glorified in 2012!"

-Kristy