Monday, January 31, 2011

Free Valentine's Printables {Subway Art and others}

There are lots of cute Valentine Printables out there- so in the name of DIY- I created my own version on Subway Valentine Art using Photoshop. I know- I jumped on the free printable bandwagon. :)


get it HERE

If you like it- you can have it for FREE. CLICK here- and download it to your computer.  Print it in any size you like- I did an 8 x10,  and frame!  I just printed mine on cardstock, but you could print it on photo paper too- which would probably look a bit nicer. :)  You could print it smaller and use it for a card too- why not?


I made postcards, and 5x7 cards on cardstock. I used an ink pad to distress the edges. And that was it.

HERE is my cute version of a Valentine card your kids can make- for dad, grandparents, teachers, etc.
HERE, HERE, HEREHERE,and HERE are other cute versions of Valentine Printable Art. And there are many more out there! So you are sure to find a version just for you, or why not-  DIY- and make your own?


Let me know if you have any problems downloading it- or with any of the other links on here. :)
Thanks for reading- enjoy!
oxoxox


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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Three Ingredient Chocolate Muffins

If you LOVE chocolate, and you love your waistline....you have got to try these!
We have made these for years, but them seemed to take on a new life- after watching Hungry Girl make them on her new show. This time, my kids made them, and loved them!

To make these:
Three Ingredient Chocolate Muffins
1 box of Devil's Chocolate Cake Mix- although any kind of chocolate cake mix would work-
NOTE: do not add the stuff you normally would to make a cake! Just a dry cake mix is all you need :)
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips {we added this}

Mix these all together. Scoop into muffin tins.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
Makes 12-15 muffins- or should we say- cupcakes...

Here is the recipe from Hungry Girl.

TOMORROW... I have a fun little surprise just for you- and just for Valentine's Day :)
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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Valentine Love Message Blocks + Valentine Decor

I know it has been slow-n-go on this bloggy here lately. But finally I am getting time to post something! {yay!}
I have blocks for everything-autumn, spring, summer, baby, etc. - and was kind of bored with blocks- until I saw a few cute versions of Valentine Blocks out in the blog/internet world.
(Here and here are two great ideas for this craft-thanks for the inspiration ladies!)

 Instead of using vinyl, I just printed the font on scrapbook paper. We had the wood in the garage, and my sweet husband cut 3 inch squares for me. The font is called smiley monster, and I used size 48. I played around with different fonts, but I ended up using the same one my friend Erica used on her blocks. :)  I used modge podge to attach the papers- just like I did with these spring blocks.


The best part about this little craft is... IT WAS FREE!! Anyone locally, want to come make some? I don't even think we bought the wood. :) And the scrapbook paper- I have had forever. You can't beat a free cute craft! These would make great gifts- for family and friends too.

And just for fun, here are a few Valentine's Decorations from this year:


I made these a few years ago- I think. I did some very thrifty Valentine's Day Decor one year-and these were the splurge part. Yep- I was being very thrifty.  

 I put my OXOX in front of the family canvas photo. Do you have a canvas photo yet? These seem to be everywhere- I got this one for like $40 from Canvas on Demand, and it is pretty large. I love that Costco makes them now-and has great prices, and you can almost always find a great deal from Canvas People. Right now Canvas People has at least 25% off plus free shipping. I actually have a few more canvas photos on order :)  Just doing some decorating...nothing fancy-mostly thrifty!

Well this post took me an hour. Yep, such is the life with 3 small crazy boys running around. Just keeping it real....I'm a mom first and somedays it is not an easy job. ☻Hopefully I can get the time to post a few more things I have had finished for a while... 
Hope you are having a great end to January!
OXOXOXO

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

DIY-Pottery Barn Inspired Heirloom Frames

I am up to my eyeballs in health-problems with my littlest one; but I had to share one little project with you --- it gets my mind of things that aren't so pleasant to think about right now. ☻

Have you seen these frames from Pottery Barn?



I so love them- we have seen frames like this everywhere lately in Home Decor-I think it is a really fun look.
BUT...guess what these 3 frames cost from old PB?? $129!!! Are you kidding me? I don't even spend that on a piece of furniture. OK I'm very frugal/cheap/whatever you want to call it.

Lucky for me, I have some pretty good thrift stores in my area. I found these way back in June:


A few months later, I found another one with a round opening. (sorry no before pic)  For 3 vintage frames- all gold to start with- I spent about $16. (I even thought that was expensive- until I saw what PB wanted.)

First I painted them black. And then I put them on a black shelf.  Bleh. Too much black.

Anyway- so I copied good old Pottery Barn and now they look like this:



Personally for about $16, plus about $3 for a can of spray paint, I'll take these instead.
I learned a few things about getting the "heirloom/antiqued" look.

You can do a glazing technique, as I did here on this table.  You can get the extra glaze off with a wet rag, OR- if you let it dry, and don't like it, I used finger nail polish remover w/ a Q-tip and got the extra off! It totally worked! It did not take off the paint, just the extra glaze, after it had dried.
OR you can paint them black first, and then white- or whatever color you chose. THEN you just use a light and fine sanding square and lightly sand where you want the black to show. If  your sanding square or sand paper is too coarse, you could end up sanding the black off- and then just having gold- so you have to be careful.
Here is the 2 different finishes:


The one of the left was sanded, and the two on the right were glazed. Personally I like the sanded one- it was easier and less messy. (I might even remove some of the glaze on the glazed ones, and sand them instead.)  Plus, I haven't really mastered the art of glazing. There are a few pieces of furniture in this house waiting for a glazing-- but I'm just not sure-it may be easy to do- but I am just not great at it yet.

Here are PB's and mine:



I like them on a blue wall. Hhhmmm... where would you display them? 
I'm not sure where they are going - so ideas & suggestions would really be great! ☺
Thanks for reading. Hope you are having a great week!
OXOXO


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Sunday, January 9, 2011

My {BIG FAT} CRAFT PROJECT!

Another BIG FAT craft project...o.k. well not exactly...but let's just say it is making me big and fat- and that is the part I dislike...

I was going to wait to share this, but it is good news, and there is so much sadness and bad news right now, I thought I'd share some good :) plus everyone that blogs is doing it...
ha ha ha ha


* Number 4 is coming to our family this summer  {July}.*
*For about 1 week, I'll have 4 kids ages 5 and under.☺*
*Hoping for a healthy baby, {boy or girl-just make it a healthy one} and that I survive my 4th c-section with no complications.* believe me, that part was never in the plans...but ya gotta do what you gotta do to get them here safely...
*I  have made it through the first trimester-the morning sickness is starting to subside...* yay!
*I might just get my blog-mojo back!*
*whoot! Maybe I'll even sew something!*
*Yay for new babies! Yay for being fat AND pregnant! *
*Yay for having grey hairs and being pregnant at the same time! ☺*
***Big yay for moms everywhere! Grateful that I get to be a mommy to another one-  too!**
{big ultrasound tomorrow- hoping and praying they find everything well!!}

OXOXOX
thanks for reading!


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Friday, January 7, 2011

Hungry Girl's T.V. Show!

In case you did not hear, Hungry Girl has a new T.V. Show on the new  Cooking Channel!  It starts tomorrow!
She is one of my favorites when it comes to yummy eating without a ton of calories. (The Hungry Girl publishers, graciously allowed me to do a cookbook give-a-way a while ago.) Even if I don't look like it these days, {sigh}, low fat delicious cooking and baking has always been a big love of mine. ☺

If you do or don't own a Hungry Girl cookbook, and you are trying to "be healthy" this new year- make sure you check out her show! I have my DVR set! It is all about PIZZA! {You want a pizza me?}

Looks DELISH!

Happy New Year!
Thanks for reading and sticking with me these days! It's been pretty crazy. Right now I'm praying my youngest doesn't end up in the hospital again....as I just found out he has another UTI, among other things...crazy. Waiting for the test results..
oxoxo
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Saturday, January 1, 2011

Favorite Projects from 2010

Here are some of my favorite projects/creations from this past year-2010. Looking back, it seems like years ago I did these things- and it was only months.... Of course most of my projects are inspired by someone or something- you creative bloggers- mostly ☺ It makes me tired just looking at what I did! Maybe I was a bit crazy last year or something...because I keep wondering- Where did I find the energy to do all those crazy things?? For the most part,  I loved 2010! It was a great year for my family and we were very blessed. ♥ Here are the fave's of 2010:







Placemat Crafts- February 2010


























































Wishing you the BEST 2011! Happy New YEAR!

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