Carol gets crafty- Round 1.

I have determined that I have a major ego problem.  And I am going to credit this ALL to Etsy & Pinterest. I now have this terrible habit of looking at cute things, and thinking to myself "Hmmphhh.  I'm sure I could probably just make that myself, and save some $$ in the process."
I'm warning you- it is a terrible personality trait to have.  The best part about me thinking those thoughts is that i am the LEAST artistic or creative person you will ever meet.

Prime Example: Young Authors. You all remember Young Authors, right?  You know, the books you had to write & illustrate by yourself in Elementary school?  Mine were a complete joke.

However, I was clearly over confident in my abilities, and thought my books were utterly amazing when I was writing them.  Unbeknownst to me, I was the only one who thought that.  In fact, they were so terrible that my parents were seriously embarrassed by them, & conveniently never let me show any of my literary masterpieces to any guest that came to our house. Unsure as to why, with such classics as "The Ant in Jail," where the main character (aka the Ant) went to Kroger & stole cornflakes, blue suckers, and ice cream because he didn't have enough money to feed his family, then got busted & went to jail.  However, because of his super strength he got out of jail & then the police hired him to deal with the real criminals (ie: spiders & flies).  Whats not to like?  I'm positive that most people would think "The Ant in Jail" had a really great message behind it.  Message being that people will go to great lengths to provide for their families, duh.  I'm sure that was exactly the heart-felt message I was going for when brainstorming this scholarly novel at age 7. 
  The irony behind my horrendous stories & hideous illustrations is that my brother won the Young Author's competitions damn near every year.  His stories all took place in exotic places, like the African rain forests, had fantastic characters, good plot lines, and the most amazing illustrations to go along with it.  In addition, my parents have held onto all of his Young Authors books all of these years, and can still be found in my parents basement.  Yet, mine are nowhere to be found.  Way to encourage freedom of Expression, Pat & Jan. Hrmph.  Okay Okay, I'll admit- Kent kinda robbed the gene pool in the artistic arena.  But hey, I've got skills too.  I won the math award every year.  No joke. Every year. How. Cool. Am. I?

**Side note: Lets now discuss my brother's limited math skills & how ridiculous he is. In our hometown, there is this math competition, called "Math-athon" that fourth graders get to participate in, but only 4 kids get selected out of every school.  Then, the kids on the Math-athon team competed against other elementary school's math-athon's teams, and each competition was on tv.  It always astounded me that he made the "Math-athon" team because even at 10 years old, we were all aware that Kent wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to crunching numbers.  A future as a graphic designer- yes, an accountant- hell no.  I did his college math homework for him, if that tells you anything.  Anywho, somehow the topic of the Math-athon came up on our last phone convo, where he proceeded to tell me that the whole reason he got on the team was because he cheated on his Math-athon test because his ruler had all of the multiplication tables on it.  So basically, he thought he was gonna get his 15 mins of fame via the Math-athon.  However, he failed to realize that you only get air-time if you answer the question first & get the answer correct.  Due to the fact he couldn't bring his trusty ruler on set, his quest for fame immediately went downhill when he didn't answer 1 question while he was being filmed.  I think they were onto him :) Bahahahaha.  Love his heart.

The champion Math-athoner, Kent

So let me reiterate, the fact that I THINK I can get crafty & creative is utterly hilarious.  I think both Kevin & my parents get a little scared & shudder a little bit when I tell them that I'm gonna make something.  However, so far- none of them can argue with the results.

Lets look at 2 little items I crafted for our humble abode.

So, I constructed this little to-do list after seeing a similar concept on Pinterest, except the one they showed was a Menu board.  See, sometimes I ask Kev to do a simple chore, but he fails to remember to do it, which drives me psychotic.  However, if I write down a list of stuff, he will always do it.  The problem lied in the fact that I never have anything to write down a to-do list on.  Paper gets thrown away.  Spread-sheets are way too anal, etc.  In addition, I could also never find anything that was cute to hang up in our kitchen.  Everything I saw was either plastic/grade school-esque or a plan white board (ick).  So, this little number not only keeps my house organized, but also encourages Kev to get his butt up from watching football to help out around the house a bit more.  Super super easy to make.  Its just a scrapbook shadow-box frame, a sheet of scrapbooking design paper, and then just random stickers I found that I liked at Hobby Lobby.  The glass is ideal for using the dry erase markers/eraser when you're making out your weekly to-do lists.  I adore lists, and I literally think in bullet points, so this just works for us.  

I know some of you all probably aren't overly impressed with my creations, but considering my artistic ability is on the same wave length as my 3 year old nieces craft skills, I'm super proud of my DIY projects :)  Its baby steps, right?  

Anyway, lets move on the creation #2.

How flippin adorable is that wreath???  Love love love.  Want to know what I love the most about it?  It only cost about $15 (give or take) to make.  All you need is a wreath ($4), little pumpkins from Hobby Lobby ($1.5/piece), 4 pieces of felt ($1 total), Monogram letter ($2), & about a 1/2 yard of burlap fabric ($2.50), and spray paint ($3).   All you do is cut the burlap into strips, hot glue them down on the felt, twist them into a flower, and hot glue those bad boys down.  Then, you just hot glue all of the burlap flowers down to the wreath, add the spray-painted pumpkins, and Waaa Laaah.  You have a fabulous new Fall wreath.  And yall, listen, if I can do this, ANYONE can do this.  

Mmmkay guys, thats about it for now.  Quick heads up- God knows I've been talking incessantly about how many changes we've made in our house recently, and FINALLY my next post is gonna be allll the pics from those decor changes.  Sooo excited to show you guys!!

I'm gonna leave you all with this because it will absolutely warm your heart. BEST PROPOSAL EVER. Enjoy!!