Simple and Easy Valentine's Day Crafts

Creating a Valentine's Day vignette, whether for your mantle, entry way or other flat surface should be simple and inexpensive. In this post I will show you how you can dress up your simple abode for this, the most romantic of holidays. First of all let me just say (again) how I heart the Dollar Tree. Seriously, you can find anything you need for crafting, lots and lots of things, for $1!!! YAY! For example, I wanted to put a pretty, white picture frame on my mantle but I did not want to shell out $15 at the Hobby Lobby for one. So I created my own. I simply bought a dollar store document frame, painted it white then I added some fabric trim I got at Hob Lob for .99c per yard. I needed 2 yards. But you can use any ribbon, or scrap trim you may have. I hot glued it on, popped in my heart printable and tada! Simple beauty. I also bought a pack of three small plastic terra cotta look planters at the Dollar Tree. I spray painted one white, hot glued some ribbon around it, fill

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Mil Besos Printables

Here's another printable I created. This will be going on my mantle for Valentine's Day and maybe beyond ;) It's Mil Besos which means 1,000 kisses. And that's what I strive to give my little guy on a daily basis ;) {albeit while he struggles to get out of my grip}. These would be great printed on photo paper, made into cards, framed in a pretty white frame, you get the picture! Enjoy Linking this up to > Southern in My Heart

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Scrabble Tile Necklace Tutorial {Easy Peasy}

A few months ago, I learned how to make some cute scrabble tile necklaces at church. I fell in love with how cute and simple these are to make. However, I did not like the idea that I had to purchase a very expensive (and stinky) epoxy to cover them with. Soooo I googled those necklaces and found a way to make them easier and cheaper! Is there any other way? I got my supplies from Ebay. But you can get them thru etsy as well. {You can probably get these at a hobby shop too, but I don't like driving around trying to find stuff so I usually just go to ebay or etsy ;)} This is the Ebay store I bought them from >>> Scrabble Tile Kit Except I did not get the kit with the chains so the price was lower. I bought the chains and silk cording over at Oriental Trading Company>>> Cording Here They come out to about $3 a piece and make great gifts ( as you will later see -- my nieces were thrilled to get these as gifts from their favorite Aunt :D) So after

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I Heart Faces

I recently discovered this VERY cool blog I heart faces . It's for people who love to take pictures-LIKE ME! They have fun weekly photo challenges, photography tutorials, and much more. The fun, weekly challeges are open to everybody. You don't have to be  professional to enter. I think it's fun to! Try it! This week's challenge is called "Innocent Wonder". This is the picture I chose: This picture is of my little guy while riding the train. We don't usually venture out to the BIG D (Dallas) but when we do and we take the train, he is ecstatic! He loves looking at the big skyscrapers slowly begin to appear on the horizon. He loves to see the trees and suburbia slowly disappear into an abyss of darkness whilst we travel underground into the BIG City :D Enjoy!

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Valentine's Day Printables {Free}

This past week was pretty busy with work and church things. But towards the end of the week I started feeling pretty yucky. Needless to say I spent two days in bed. UGH! I have so many things to do (don't we all??) and I just didn't need to be laid up in bed. You girls know what I mean. Anywho, since February is right around the corner I decided to make some cute Valentine's printables. You can just right click on the picture and save it to your computer. Then you can print them out using your photo software. This way you can make multiples in one page in case you want to use them for your kids' Valentines :D I am working on a fun family activity/recipe for Chinese New Year and Valentine's of course. Come back and check in tomorrow. Have a great week. And a couple for everyday :D In White/Black And red with frame linking up to the following:   http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

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It's Been A Long Time Bowling

This past weekend we decided to go bowling. My sister and her family were back in town and we all decided to go bowl. Aaron has always loved bowling. For some reason, even as a toddler, he has been fascinated by the atmosphere, the lights and the sounds of the bowling alley (maybe it also has something to do with the SNACKS at the bowling alley). So we all piled up in our cars and headed down to Plano Bowl . We didn't have to wait long for a lane and all the kids were excitedly putting on their bowling shoes while others picked their bowling balls-some pink some green and some electric blue. Some kids with bumper guards, others without. I decided not to bowl and instead watch everyone have fun. It's times like these that I love recording our outings. I know in the future this will be something we will look back upon and smile. Memories made with family. Isn't that what life is all about? Laying back at the end of the day and replaying the happenings of tha

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Laundry Room Part Deux :)

A few months ago I showed you guys my laundry room makeover. Basically, what I wanted to accomplish was to make it a nice soothing place to do my laundry and organize a few things. Because as we all know doing laundry has to rank right up there with having your wisdom teeth pulled out!! It completely sucks!! BIG TIME! Sooo in light of this revelation I decided to finish up the 2nd part of this project by adding some more storage to the room. The hubster, being the Super Duper Handy Guy that he is, built me some pretty shelves to go over my folding table. Now, I am the first to say that we are VERY lucky to have such a nice sized laundry room with a sink EVEN!! (say it like Snagglepuss LOL) With that said I had bought some really nice iron/metal scrolled shelf supports/brackets at my local antiques shop. I knew I would use them eventually and that was like 2 - 3 years ago. So now is finally Eventually ! We painted them white to match the soon to be made shelves. I wanted to create

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My Sister and her Family Photo Session

I think I mentioned that my brother-in-law is on leave from the military. He and my sister and their three girls came up to spend some time with us these past couple of weeks. I have been itching to take some pics of them and practice my photo shooting skills (of which I have A LOT MORE TO LEARN) and finally a good day to do it came! So enjoy my beautiful nieces {and their parents} I love experimenting with my camera and my new found love-PICASA!! It is way easier than Photoshop and FREE!! I actually use the PICASA Picnik site and it ROCKS! You do have to pay 24.95 per year to use their premium features but they are totally worth it. I can't wait to buy myself a snazzy new camera. I am currently researching some Nikons and Canons. I hope to have it by the spring because I already have a shoot scheduled for the spring. I will be photographing some gorgeous Show Horses!!! I also will be photographing my co-worker's family. I am so excited for this new hobby of mine.

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