SICK BABY!

I've got myself a sick baby today. Here's what happened when I sat down to do a post.



I think this little guy needs some snuggling. I promise I'll be back tommorow with something, I don't know what yet, but something!

I've finally finished my bracket album!!!

It only took me a month and a half from start to finish but it's finally done. This is for my mom for her birthday, it's like a week late, but I tried, really I did.

If you want to find our where to get supplies and digital paper go here. I made on the pages on photoshop, and then I put them all on a 20x24 page on photoshop like this. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Ok, so once I'd done this, I took my CD to Walmart and had them print it. To print it was about $13.00. I then cut them all out and glued them to the bracket chipboard book using modge podge. I also went over the pictures with modge podge to protect them from sticky fingers and things like that. And finally I'm done. YEA!!!

One more thing, SITS is giving away this awesome purse. I haven't owned a purse since my grandma gave me one in Junior High, pathetic huh! If your interested on winning it click here, and if your new to SITS tell them I sent you please.

My first blogging award!

I am so excited, yesterday I received my first blog award. I received my award from Songbirdtiff. She is the sweetest girl and I have loved getting to know her better through our blogs.






Ok, here are the rules and remember if you already have the award just accept and that's all you have to do.

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.

4. The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link "Arte y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. Show these rules.

Here are my awards in no particular order.

Ritch in love - She's a flight attendant and always has the coolest pictures from her travel, she also has way good taste in clothes!

Kaysville Momma - If you want tips on cooking, coupon shopping, or want to hear the story of adopting their two sweet kids, this is the place to go.

Shiner Circus - This is where I go for a good laugh, or to see some cool refurbished furniture.

How did I get here - Megan, is an incredible mom, decorator, thrift shopper, scrapbooker, and flute player, we actually played the flute together in college.

The Hoyts House - Tausha cracks me up, she's hilarious. She's an awesome decorator, and I'm way jealous of her Cricut machine, she does the funnest things with it.

And there you have it, some of my favorite blogs.

Ok, moving on. Yesterday I had my monthly scrapbooking class. It's a pretty good deal, every month you buy ten dollars of stuff out of the Close to my Heart catalog, and then at the class you get to make a two page layout and two cute cards.

This isn't the layout I made last night, but I wanted to show one we made, that I've actually put some pictures on. I still need to work on the journaling.

We made the cutest cards too. I've learned not to actually give them away, because they're nice to get ideas from

The picture doesn't do justice to the second one, it is so stinkin cute. I can say that without being braggy because I just copied someone else's. The white card in the middle comes out and that's what you write on.

I have also almost finished my digital scrapbooking template album, so check back tomorrow to see the finished product.

Hogle Zoo

I started this blog to be kinda a journal for my family. As you can see I haven't really talked much about my family for a while. Soooooooo, I hope no one minds if I post about our little family outing to the zoo.

My husbands work had their summer party at Hogle Zoo. So lucky us went and enjoyed a fun day all at their expense.

Here we all are on the very exciting train ride that last all of about 30 seconds. But if you count standing in line, it was more like 30 minutes and 30 seconds. But the kids loved it.

Here's the hubby and kids sitting on the elephants trunk, don't worry, it's just pretend :)

Our baby, such a cool little guy!

When I asked my kids what they remember most about the zoo, they said the elephants peeing. Hmmm, I guess it was sorta a shock.

That was our fun filled day at the zoo!!!!!

Just a reminder, today is the last day to sign up for the card swap. So, if your interested, click on the card swap button on the side!

My very own Ragamuffin Garland

So you all remember the Nester's Ragamuffin Garland. Well, I've been wanting to make one forever. My little sister made a couple and they were so cute. I finally got around to it, so here ya go...............





The nester was right when she said that these take a lot of fabric, mine isn't very big and it took about 5 yards of ribbon and 1 yard of fabric. I think I could have easily used 2 yards, and squished it all closer together so it was more full, but I was too lazy to go and buy more.

I bought the M from Hobby Lobby for 99 cents, and painted it Blue. Then I sanded and stained the edges to give it that distressed look. My hubby drilled a hole in it so I could hang it from the ribbon.

I hung it my favorite way to hang everything. With knobs from Home Depot.

And ta da, here it is........

It really was a lot of fun to make, I'd like to make one for my daughters room now. Just a hint, my sister made hers out of remnants of drapery fabric. I think it worked a little better, the stiffer fabric made it look a little more full.

Someone asked me if I made the quilt. I wish I could take the credit, but no. I saw this one at a place called The Village Quilt Shop at a place here in Utah called Gardner Village. I priced out what it would cost me to make it and then have it quilted, and well it wasn't that much more just to buy it, and I figured my time was worth something right.

I'm running out of ideas!

Or maybe I just need to get my act together and finish some projects. I wish I was like the nester, she could post about emptying the trash and it would be interesting. Well anyways, I decided to show pictures of my flower gardens.

I really can't take credit for any of it. The guy we bought our home from, loved yard work. Me, not so much. I do love how it looks after we've worked really really hard outside though, which is what we did all day Saturday. I have the sunburn to prove it.

Honestly, I don't know what half of these plants even are, luckily I haven't killed too many of them.

As you can see our fence needs to be painted REALLY bad.

The plant is one of my favorites. I think it's some kind of lavender, It grows really tall and gets purple blossoms at the top, it's fun to put in flower arrangements.

Hey, how did this get here?

Those trees on the other side of the fence that needs to be painted are Russian Olive trees. They're a pain in the rear. All the white stuff all over the flower beds, is the blossoms from that tree. And then in the fall we get to clean up all the leaves from the tree. Lucky us, there is even a Chinese Elm right next to it, that blows seeds all over, and then grow cute little trees all over our yard. I think both of those trees are even illegal to plant, they're nasty little (big actually) weeds.

Oh look, a cute little Oak Bush, or at least I think that's what it's called.

Well there ya have it. My flower garden. If you know what any of these plants are called, let me know.

The SITS girls are at it again..........

Look what their giving away at SITS this time....


My kids would be so excited if I won this. If you want in on winning this go check it out here.

My Imperfectly Beautiful Mantle!

I don't think my mantle is really anything special but I will share it anyways. Now if I had like a endless supply of money, it would have beautiful molding instead of the painted dry wall, but I don't so this it will have to do.

My house isn't very big, only like 1400 square feet, so if I have a lot of decorations it starts to feel a little cramped. I wouldn't mind having a little something more though, but what? I'm out of ideas, and it's gotta be cheap! I will gladly take any suggestions.

Also I really don't know which looks better, the wreath.......

or the picture............

Also does it look better with or without the little willow tree figurines? Help me out here all you decorating diva's, I could really use your help! If you'd like to see a lot of beautiful mantles and get some wonderful decorating go and visit Kari and Kijsa, two incredibly talented sisters!

Family Home Evening!

I hope no one will mind me sharing a little something that our family really enjoys. Every Monday night we have something we call Family Home Evening.


My kids love it, sometimes I'm lazy and don't really want to do it, but my kids are persistent and make sure that we do. We usually start out with a song, then a prayer, a lesson, (usually a scripture story, or lesson on reverence, or kindness or something like that, you get the idea) then an activity, and if I've gotten my act together a treat. My daughter loves to teach the lesson, it doesn't always make sense, sometimes she just makes up stories with our dinosaur flannel board set, but she loves it.



Sometimes we don't do any of that, we just go swimming or work in the yard together.

So, I hope no one thinks I'm trying to push our religion on them, it's just something my family really enjoys and it brings us closer as a family. As crazy as life can get sometimes it's nice to have one night a week set aside to spend time as a family. Do any of you do something similar? I would love some ides! I know you guys are out there, I really would love to hear from you.

Goin Digital!

So I have a new obsession. Digital Scrapbooking. It's faster and cheaper and if ya ask me just as cute. This is actually my first real project. It's for my mom's birthday, which were celebrating tonight, so Shanna if your looking at this don't let mom see. There are actually eight of these and you glue them into a chipboard album which I bought at Roberts. It's called the Bracket album by Basic Grey. I got the templates for this album here, the digital paper from Shabby Princess, and from a freebie I got here. Now is just need to run to Walmart to print these babies off. I will show you the finished project when I'm all done!

And the winner is..............

Becky!!! Just so you all know, I just had my hubby pick a number between 1 and 54. I will definitely do this again, maybe this fall, so come on back. Ok, back to Becky, you need to go check out her blog, it's darling. She has a beautiful home and a beautiful family. Congratulations Becky! E-mail me at cardswappinmom@yahoo.com and let me know what letter you want and where to send them.

It doesn't have to be perfect to be Beautiful!

Once again the Nester has amazed me. The thing that is so great about her is that she is real. Not real like she is alive, but she's not fake, she says it how it is. Why can't she move to Utah and be my neighbor? We have some really nice community pools here. I think the crypto-speridium should be under control this summer :)

Anyhow, on her last post she talked about how there are so many things in our lives that are imperfectly beautiful. Like our homes, as much as we want them to be perfectly clean and lovely, that's more of a house, not a home.



I remember when I lived in California, I had this friend and at her house there were two kitchens, one inside the house that was immaculate and beautiful, and then there was one in the garage that they actually used. Really weird. While the house was beautiful, it was so uninviting, you didn't dare touch anything. What a fun childhood those kids must of had eating all their dinners in the garage so they didn't mess up the real kitchen.

So I am learning to let go a little and let my kids have fun and make messes, and ya know what, we are all happier because of it. My kids are having fun and I'm not cleaning all the time. I still have a long ways to go, but slowly I'm getting there.

Its a GIVEAWAY!!!

Ok, today is the big day. My very first GIVEAWAY. I hope you will all like it. As you all know I'm way excited about my new monogram stamp set, so I decided to make some cards with it. OK, here ya go...

So who ever wins will get two of each of these cards, that's 8 cards and 8 envelopes wrapped up all pretty like this!

What's that, you don't need cards with the initial S on them? Well, who ever wins, I will put whatever letter you want on them. So leave me a comment, I will pick a winner on Monday night and let you all know who the winner is Tuesday morning! Good Luck!

Lucky Me!

Wow, thanks for all the love yesterday. Is this what the nester feels like everyday? I didn't want to leave my computer. It was so exciting, every time I got on there were a ton of new comments. Just the day before I was feeling sorry for my self. This whole time I thought that page views on my site meter were how many people were visiting my blog everyday, and half of them were from me checking out everyone else's blog DUH! It's probably good, my head was getting a little big.

For the first time in my life I didn't want to eat lunch or dinner. I was too buy gawking at my computer. And every time I walk in my kitchen, I think wow, I really did do an awesome job, I am just so creative, then my kids spill punch on the carpet and bring me back to reality :) Anyhow, thanks for spoiling me yesterday, it was a ton of fun, I hope you will all come back and visit. And to thank you all come back tomorrow I'm going to have a GIVE AWAY!!!

Teletubbies???

So I sat down with my kids this morning to watch cartoons. I've seen them watching telebubbies before, but never really paid attention, until today. WEIRD!!! How did these freaky creatures make it onto television, and why do kids like them so much? You can't even understand what on earth their saying half the time. The whole episode is like 5 minutes long, but repeated six times. If ya ask me their a little scary looking, shouldn't my kids be frightened by them, I was. I used to not like Barney, but now I don't think he's so bad, at least he speaks correct English. Am I just being mean?

Tagged!!!

I was tagged a couple days ago by my good friend Marie. Like her, I'm still stuck on the Random Surprising facts section, maybe it will come to me as I'm typing.

How to play this game of Tag: Post these rules on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog!

3 Joys
1. My husband and children
2. Spending time with my mom and sisters
3. Playing the flute


3 fears
1. Loosing my husband or a child
2. Going through post partum depression again.
3. Somebody hurting one of my children.


3 Goals
1. Get back into flute lessons, play with an orchestra someday.
2. Working on food storage
2. Save money for a rainy day


3 current obsessions/collections
1. Blogging (not doubt about it, I'm obsessed)
2. Digital Scrapbooking
3. Trying to decorate my home on a little budget


3 Random surprising facts about myself
1. In college I tried to hide from an apostle (their is a logical explanation , sorta)
2. In college me and some roommates got pulled over for holding onto the back of a roommates truck and rollerblading. (Very Stupid, I know)
3. I broke up with a return missionary just to send my boyfriend (now husband) on a mission.

Ok, now I tag - Shanna, Aubrey, Sherri, Lawon and Megan

Had to throw in a picture just to make this post a little more interesting.

My daughter and her cute cousin, such little ladies!!!

Cousins are the BEST!!!
Check back, I'm going to have a give away!