Favorite Traditions

This time of year is always hard for me. I'm not the type of person who gets really excited about Christmas, but I try my best to make it fun for my kids. One thing that I have always enjoyed was making candy cane reindeer with my mom. It's a super simple craft we have done since I was in kindergarten. We make about a hundred of these little cuties each year at Christmas time to share with the kids classes, teammates and for my mom's work. 

All you need are:

• google eyes (I prefer either 5mm or 6mm)
• pipe cleaners
• 5mm pom poms
• hot glue
• candy canes

Tinkles even helped this year!

Set backs and a Craft

Just when I thought I convinced myself that I could be more positive and make this our home I heard the words "Honey, this isn't our home..." come out of the hubby's mouth... The back story: All I was trying to do was hang our gallery wall. I want so desperately to get all our beautiful photos unwrapped and out of the box. Unfortunately  for me, the wall that's best for hanging the photos on is the one that goes down the steps. Not an easy task to say the least. So I enlisted the help of Ty who quickly told me "This is a bad idea...wait for dad please." lol He's pretty wise for 10. When hubby called Ty told him what I tried to do. I'm assuming that he thought I was possibly putting nails in the wall or something, because that's when he said "Honey, this isn't our home!" No matter how he meant it to come across it felt like a huge slap in the face. It's been a few days and there's still not gallery wall, but I'm done sulking. The hubbs has promised to help next week so I went ahead and created a project that's been floating around in my head. Do you ever have those creative ideas that you just can't get out of your head? 

I love project life and when the new Heidi Swapp kits came out I snapped up the foil value kit.  As soon as I opened it I knew I had to frame some of the cards for the gallery wall! 

Supplies: 2 pk 5x7 & 8x10 white frames from wal-mart (only $2 each!), white photo mats, and PL kit (I also use some scrap Dear Lizzy paper from her daydreamer collection)

The finished picture doesn't even begin to show the gorgeousness of the gold foil on the prints! I love it when an idea comes to life...it's even better when it turns out better than expected. ( Oh and I never use nails to hang my pics ;) The command photo hanging strips are possibly one of the best things invented!)

New Beginings

I am one of those people who doesn't deal well with change and starting over. That's why the past 12 days have been so difficult on me. The hubs and I made the tough decision to sell our home and look for a place to rent. There were many factors that went into our decision, but on August 1st we made our move into our new "home." After the first couple of days trying to adjust I realized just how unhappy I was. I came to the conclusion that I'm living in someone else's house. It's not my own to do as I please. This to me is a very disheartening thought. (Don't get me wrong. We have a very awesome landlord that gave us permission to paint as we wish and make small changes, but the when it comes down to it it's not our home.) My husband is way more positive about the situation than I am. He's ready to buy new light fixtures, fix the sink, paint every room in the house, ect... I feel like I don't want to put too much money into a home that we won't be staying in long (hopefully.) Well I should say that I fear that we will put money into this home and become too comfortable- meaning no motivation to buy a new home of our own anytime soon. That is my worst fear. I have so many mixed emotions, but I promised after a melt down the other day (loosing my shoe closet was that tragic!) that I would try my best to be positive about the situation. The hubs had it right the other day when he told me to be thankful that we have a roof over our head and the kids are able to stay in the same school district with all their friends. (He's pretty smart like that.)

So I'm trying to make the best of our situation. Today I even retrieved the mail from our new mail box...Something I've been avoiding for the past 12 days... So here's where I invite you to follow along as I try to piece our life back together after the big move. (because let's face it no matter where you move to you will always have to piece everything back together, right?!...lol)