February Photo of the Day- Instagram Style

My name is Michelle and I'm a procrastinator (I think I heard somewhere that acceptance is the first step, or is it denial?). I never seem to finish anything unless there is a deadline. Not just any deadline, a big fat ominous deadline looming on the horizon. The nearly there, fast approaching horizon.

So the fact that I started a February photo of the day challenge BEFORE the end of the month is a sure-fire sign that I am heading in the right direction and on the road to recovery. It doesn't matter that I missed the first seven days of the month (I started on February 8th) I started BEFORE February 29 and that my friends, is a big deal.

I stumbled upon this little gem and decided to take the Instagram photo of the day challenge.

You might notice that the day I started, February 8th, the theme of the day was "sun." I don't know if was an omen or just coincidence, but there was no sun to be found all day long. The only glimpse was when it was setting and I just so happened to capture it as I drove by the railroad tracks. The hobo was a perfect touch and completely unplanned.

Day 8- Sun

Day 9- Front Door 

Another day 9er and not part of the challenge, but the best fortune I've ever had. The tear makes it a little hard to read. It says, "A spontaneous picnic in the near future will be beneficial to you." Who wouldn't want that?

Day 10- Self Portrait

Day 11- Makes Me Happy

And it was also around day 11, that I got sick. That did NOT make me happy.

Day 12- Inside My Closet

Day 13- Something Blue
In loving memory of Grandpa Ray.

Day 14- Heart

So fellow procrastinators, it is not too late! (Like I needed to tell you that, it's never too late for a procrastinator.) Jump on board the Instagram photo challenge and finish out the month strong! Remember the journey to change begins with a single step, or the last half of a month-long photo of the day challenge.

-Michelle

Neighborly Love

This year for Valentines I decided to be a good neighbor and pass out some treats. I didn't want to do anything too complicated but also wanted to try something creative. I came to the conclusion that cakes balls would do the trick.

I started out by making two different cake mixes, chocolate and vanilla. I let the cakes completely cool and then destroyed them with a fork; didn't want to dirty another dish so I did the destroying right in the pan.

After the cakes were a crumbly mess I added about 3/4 of a can of canned frosting to each cake and mixed it into the crumbs. There should be enough frosting in the crumbs to easily form a ball. Being the type of person that I am I like to do things myself and I really wanted to make my own frosting. However I have heard that the balls don't turn out as well with homemade frosting; hence the canned frosting.

After the balls were formed I let them sit in the fridge over night. The next day I melted both white and milk chocolate on the stove. I put the balls directly into the melted chocolate in the pan, stirred them around with a spoon until they were covered, and then placed them on a pan to cool. After ruining some chocolate I learned that the chocolate should not be heated up too much or it will dry out. It's better to completely remove it from the heat when it is almost all melted. While some of the balls were still wet I added some fun Valentine sprinkles. Others I let cool completely and then drizzled the opposite chocolate on top.

The whole time I was dipping the balls in the chocolate I was worried about it being too thick. But after they cooled and I tried one I found it was delicious a little thicker and my worry was for naught.

This is the finished product. I dropped plates off to a few friends and satisfied my desire to spread some Valentine cheer.

Happy Valentines Day!

-Nicole

Closet Reading Nook

Our third bedroom upstairs waited longer than almost any of the other rooms to be redone. I knew that it would become a "big girl" room for Johana as soon as we had another baby. So, last year when I found out that I was pregnant, I became excited to start planning the makeover. Pinterest was great for ideas and I had a lot of fun with the whole process. The room had two closets, and the main one was big enough that I didn't think that we needed to use them both for storage. Since my little girl LOVES books, I wanted to turn it into some type of a reading nook for her, but wasn't sure if I should or not. Then after I saw what Thrifty Decor Chick did with a closet turned reading nook in her home, I knew that it would be fairly easy and would probably be a fun addition to the room. Below is a picture of what the room looked like when we first came to look at our house.

As you can see, this closet was just an ordinary closet with shelves for storage. All it took was removing two shelves, securing the bottom shelf with support brackets to turn it into a bench, some paint, some sewing, and ta-da, we had a reading nook.

I made the cushion and the two pink pillows. It was my first time making a seat cushion, so it hangs over the bench just slightly. It works though. I even made my own piping so that it would match the fabric. I used this tutorial for the pillows, which were super easy to make.

The top two shelves are to keep books and decorations.

There was already a light with a pull string in the nook, the string just needed to be replaced, and a cover for the bulb. I found a candle holder at Ross for $11, that became a mini chandelier with some hooks and a chain to hang it.

I also added a small ceiling medallion to cover a small hole that was up there. I like the little bit of visual interest that it adds, plus it matches the bigger ceiling medallion that we used on the main light in her room.

It is a fun place for a toddler to climb up and play. She loves pulling the string to turn the light off and on, and calls it her, "special reading place." She has also been excited to show people her sparkly light. I am happy with the way that it turned out, but still find myself tweaking it here and there.

-Mandi

Linking to Sarahndipities and Blue Cricket Designs and Thrifty Decor Chick.

My Beanie Experiment

I love to wear beanies. In winter time, they are a constant accessory to my outfits. A couple of years ago I decided I was done spending money on beanies and undertook the task of teaching myself how to crochet. 

As many hours of frustration and unpicking passed I graduated from a holey scarf, to a whole scarf. More time passed and I became quite proficient at chemo style beanies. Over time I became bored with the chemo beanies and decided to branch out. 

I had seen lots of cute frog beanies online and thought it would be a fun thing to figure out how to make. This hat is actually my second successful frog. My first beanie was a much darker green and did not have another color around the bottom. I think it looks much better with a lighter green color for the hat and with a contrasting color bordering the bottom. This pattern is a super simple one. The hat is just your basic chemo style beanie with flaps added on after. Both of which I used a double crochet stitch for. For the green part of the eyes I just made a circle with about nine stitches and then continued out from that circle to form a "tube" like shape. Then for the white part I made a smaller "tube" shape and sewed it into the green.

This hat came about by accident. I had some left over yarn and decided to try to make a shell stitched hat. As I was going along I noticed that the it kept getting bigger and bigger instead of forming the sides of a hat. So I decided to use a single crotchet stitch and bring in the sides so it could be used as a hat, not a hot pad. The hat turned out better than I thought it would. However, next time I would not bring in the bottom part of the hat so much because when it is on a baby's head it looks too puffy for my taste. This has was also a super simple hat. I did four double crochets in every fourth stitch. Then just converted to a single crochet, skipping a stitch every now and a again to bring it in to the current size.

It has been so much fun creating my own beanies. I hope to have some patterns and more hats available soon.

-Nicole

Mandi

 

Hi, I am Mandi. I have been a part of the blogging world for the past 3 or 4 years as a silent observer. I never quite felt up to the challenge of trying to manage my own blog, but enjoyed seeing the great things that everyone else was doing. Then, around the New Year, I decided that I was ready. I was ready to have a place to share what I create, what inspires me, and what I have learned over the past few years. 

I am blessed to be married to an amazing guy who seems to get me most of the time, and is patient with all of my crazy ideas and constant projects. We are continually learning and growing together as we journey through parenthood, homeownership, and life. I am also blessed to have two beautiful daughters who make my life both a lot crazier and a lot more rewarding than I ever could have imagined. Here are my two little ones: 

I am a pretty motivated person. I have always taken on more than I can handle and often times find myself chest-deep in a project trying to finish it at the last minute. I do love to create. In all of the craziness of everyday life and the world that we live in, I am trying to create a peaceful, comfortable home that my family will enjoy spending time in. I am also trying to create a life full of experiences, learning, and memories for my two little girls. My family is probably my biggest motivation and inspiration for doing what I do. 

I love reading, snowboarding, soccer, board games, movies, holidays, and exploring new places. I like writing, organizing and re-organizing, cooking, and having fun. I am shy when I first meet people, at times impatient and impulsive, but mostly happy and excited about life. I am a hard worker, resourceful, and creative.

I have  had a lot of fun the past 3 weeks trying to come up with blog posts and taking pictures of some of the things that I have been working on. Already, just the thought of getting another post ready has motivated me to finish some projects that have just been sitting for a while, or to start others that I had been wanting to start. 

-Mandi

Valentine's

I have been excited to decorate for Valentine's Day ever since I took down all of my Christmas stuff. I have slowly been working on my mantel for the past couple of weeks and then decided that I just needed to be done with it or the holiday would come and go and I wouldn't have any pictures to post. I love playing around with different fonts, so this print is my new decoration for the year. I just printed at home and stuck it in a frame that I already had. Feel free to use it to add to your own Valentine's Decor.

Download

Here is what it looks like on my mantel:

And the up close shot:

The other fun thing that I made was the paper heart chain. I followed this tutorial. It is written in Mandarin or another language with characters, so I couldn't read it, but the pictures make it really easy to follow.  Since I wasn't using double sided paper, I folded my strips in half so that the pattern would be on both sides. I then made another chain, but attached them together side-by-side instead of up and down. I also had the idea to make some of the hearts out of photos of my girls. I used the little cards that come in the package when you print photos. I know that both Costco and Shutterfly send them, so that you can see what you ordered. They were the perfect size, so I just cut them into strips and used them like the paper. They turned out pretty cute, and it is fun to look through our pictures from last year on the hearts. Here is a close-up of those hearts:

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

-Mandi

Linking here to Design Dazzle and here to Thirty Handmade Days.

For the Love of Polaroid- Free digital polaroid generator

If you could've met young Michelle and asked her what she wanted more than anything, her first answer probably would've been a Power-wheels jeep; but as her tastes matured, she definitely would've looked you straight in the eye and said without hesitation "one of those cameras that prints pictures."

Why are polaroids so cool? Is it the instant gratification? The dreamy hazy photos? The cool white border? I'm not sure it's even possible to understand the mysterious allure of the polaroid, all I know is that I fell pretty hard for them many years ago.

Fast forward nearly two decades. Michelle is grown up. Michelle has fallen pretty hard for something or someone else. Ben, the coolest guy in the world (I realize that's a pretty bold statement, but it's the truth. For proof, read on). Ben has many endearing and admirable qualities, but cemented his title as the coolest guy in the world, the day he walked in with a Fujifilm Instax 210 polaroid camera.  

Now, this is not just any camera. This is a super camera, that has been on many journeys to new lands, helped spread holiday cheer, and documented many significant milestones over the last few months.

This fall, I realized another dream (it's been a big year). I replaced my Cannon D30 with the mighty Cannon 7D. And although I love, love, love my Cannon 7D, sometimes I will reach for the polaroid before I pull out my 7D. 

You might ask why I would shun a fancy pant HD digital camera for a $60 low resolution throwback from 1985. Well, the answer is simple. 

It hasn't taken a bad photo yet.

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself.

See what I mean? They are so perfectly imperfect that you can't help but love them.

We love them so much, we had to include a gallery hanging by the guestbook at our wedding.

Now for those of you that can't stomach the idea of cheating on your digital camera with a polaroid camera, you can still share in some of the magic by creating digital polaroids with your photos in Photoshop. 

I've played around with a few of my photos and have created some polaroid-like actions in Photoshop that are okay, but a couple weeks ago I found a Free Polaroid Generator on DeviantArt (this generator is a free downloadable package of actions for Photoshop) that has some pretty stellar actions and is super easy to use. So rather than spend time creating my own actions, I use theirs.

These pics are examples of just 4 of the free polaroid actions in the generator but there's plenty more where these came from.

 

 

I feel like I should have something clever to end with, but I'm drawing a blank. I can't successfully wrap up a post about my love of polaroid photography, because there isn't an end in sight. So I'm gonna go ahead and finish with a cliffhanger ending.

-Michelle