Amazing Fireplace - Before and After

This was supposed to be on post on my mom's awesome Valentine decorations but I sorta missed the boat on that one. So now...........it's a before and after post. My mom has been sick of this old fire place of hers forever. She has hinted to my dad for years that she wanted to redo it. Well, it just so happens that my little sister married a guy is who pretty terrific and working with wood and offered to give it a little makeover.

BEFORE

Are ya ready???????????

AFTER

Pretty amazing isn't it. You'd never even
know that it was the same fireplace.
And wow, check out that darling Valentine
Banner. I wonder which daughter loves her
the most and made it for her.

My little sister (who didn't make the garland),
happens to be pretty amazing at decorating and did
most of the Valentine decorating, pretty darn
cute isn't it!

There is a awesome place here in Utah called
the Wood Connection that you can buy darling
unfinished wood crafts at.....that's where these cute
hearts came from.

So if your sick of your old fireplace from the 70's, there is hope. It may take a few years of hinting, but eventually the man in your life will get sick of it and give in. Or like in my mom's case, she just made sure her daughter married someone who is very talented at working with wood.

In other news, I'll be taking a little break. We are moving tomorrow. We wont have the Internet again until Tuesday. We will miss squeezing 6 people into this little 2 bedroom apartment of ours. I'll miss the washer and dryer being in the kitchen and never knowing if I'll wake up to a cold or hot shower. Actually surprisingly is hasn't been too bad, but I am excited that our house is finished and we get to enjoy it and make more wonderful memories.

7 Years ago today...................

The sweetest boy ever came into my

life. It was Sunday and your Dad was at a

church meeting. I kept trying to call him to

tell him to get home, we were having a baby, but

didn't get an awnser. When he finally got home

I was really hurting.

We arrived at the hospital and a few hours later

your were born. You had tons of dark hair.

You were my biggest baby 8 1bs 4 ozs. The

night you were born there was a huge snow

storm in Logan. But we were in our

own little piece of heaven with our new son,

safe and sound in our little hospital room.

I am so blessed to have you as my son. You

are kind and loving to everyone. I love to come

help in your class at school, it makes me feel so

good when you beg me to stay for lunch

with you. I can't believe that snowy night

in Logan was 7 years ago. I wish I could slow

time down a little. Thank you for making

me such a proud mom. I love you and

hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Valentine T-Shirts

I feel bad that I didn't get this done sooner.
But honestly, if you decide to make it, it
works up super quick. I'm not even
going to do a tutorial because I've done a
million of these T-Shirts and your probably
sick of them.

I am learning some tricks that make this a
little easier. I found this new stuff called
Steam a Seam (Lite) and it's pretty much
wonderful. So much easier to work with
than whatever fusible web stuff I was using before.
It's sold by the yard in most fabric stores.

It seems like I get a lot of questions about what stitch I use.
I know this picture is horrible, but you can kinda
get the idea. It's stitch #22 on my machine.

If you could use a tutorial click on the
4th of July T-Shirt tutorial on the right
side bar of my blog. It will pretty much
tell you what to do.

I made these for my daughter and a couple
of her friends. They are all excited to
have matching shirts on Valentines day.
Oh, one other thing - I just bought plain
white t-shirts at Target and Walmart.
I think I like the Target ones a little better.
They are a little easier to sew on and only
$4.99.

Service Auction

Last night our Relief Society (women's church group) had a service auction. It's one of my favorite activities. Whoever wants to can bring something they made, or a service they will provide and we auction it off. It is so much fun. One lady auctioned off free piano lessons. Another a free haircut. One cute one was a basket with pretty much everything needed for homemade chili and cornbread. There are tons of things to choose from.

First we we fill out a little sheet with random questions like, "Did you shave your legs this week?" and depending on our answer's we get so many points. We had a funny guy in our ward do the auctioning which added a lot to the fun.

Here are the things that I made for the auction. Both were super easy. I love this valentine fabric by Sandy Gervais for Moda. The heart is something I just hurry and made that you can just hang on a doorknob or something.

This little pillow I saw on this blog and thought was so cute. It really was easy to make and I just used my scraps which my husband of course appreciated!

It was such a fun night. I won some homemade bath salts that are peppermint scented. I really wanted some chocolates that my friend made, but my bid lost. She was nice enough to bring me my very own box today (ok, so I hinted, a lot). - Thanks Julie!

She is pretty much a genius!

I was visiting my friends blog the other day and noticed

this picture of her coat closet that she had re-done.

Is this not the smartest thing you've ever seen. It's not

like kids can reach and hang their coats up on

hangers anyways.

As soon as we get into a real house this is the first

project on my list. No more excuses for throwing

down coats and backpacks as soon as they come

in the front door from school!

Cami...............your a genius!

CONSTRUCTION ZONE

I decided to take the plunge and try to fix this blog of
mine all by myself. This might turn out to be a
big mistake, we will see. Try and be patient
with me for a few days while I get things looking
decent.

Thanks so much for everyone who gave me advice.
One sweet reader even offered me a free blog
makeover when she was finished with her blogging
class (so sweet). I hadn't honestly played with blogger
for a long time, and when I realized they had made
things much more reader friendly I decided to give it
a try. Hopefully this weekend I'll get a some
time to work on it.........wish me luck!!!

SICK OF MY BLOG!

Ok people I need some help!

I'm so sick of my blog, I can't stand it
anymore. It's dark and dreary. The
middle section is too small. I'll
have a post looking good and then push
publish and it looks all messed up.

I want it to look bright and cheery
like these blogs.
SIMPLIFY

(a picture from her blog)


PLEASANT HOMEI want big beautiful and bright pictures
like these girls.
(ok, so that might take a photography class)


I need advice, help, heck I'll take anything.
Do you know someone who charges a
reasonable amount for a blog makeover?
I'm good at trades too. I can sew them
a quilt or something.

Do you recommend type pad over blogger
I'm just sick of this messed up blog.
I think that's why I took a 6 month
break, it just got too frustrating!

HELP!