The New IOS 9.1 EMOJIS

My husband and I are always sending each other emoji text messages.  It's fun and random and who doesn't smile at random emoji texts.  A random animal as you are tired of your daily hustle and bustle. It will bring a smile to anyone's face, or at least I would hope so.

For the longest time I've said there needs to be new emoji's.  I've just tired of the same ol' ones.

Introducing the new IOS 9.1 Emojis!!!

This link will take you to a list of all the new ones and what they are.  So if your scrolling through them and see one and you're like "what is that?", this list will help with that!

What's your favorite????

BOOK REVIEW - an egg on three sticks

An egg on three sticks by Jack Moyer Fisher

This book was published in 2004, over 11 years ago.  While reading this book, I felt like I was reliving some of my thoughts when I was a teenager.  I didn't have to go through a lot of what she had to go through but I found I could relate to the main character Abby quite a bit.

She was your typical teenager who lived in a strict house.  With lots of rules and a father with a "nothing changes" attitude.  Soon everything changed as her mother started drifting into a serious state of depression.  There eventually seemed to be no rules and no more family dinners.  Her mom eventually ended up trying to commit suicide (i hate that word) and went to a psychiatric hospital for about a year.  It was her, her sister Lisa and her father.  Things started to feel normal when all of a sudden mom was coming home.

Lisa was trying to figure out this new mother she had at the same time trying to figure out the teenage feelings she was having.

This was a great book, a bit different from what I was expecting but a good different.  I tried to find other reviews on this book aside from Amazon but couldn't find many.  Not even an author website. From what I can see she didn't write other books.  If you've read it, let me know how you feel about it!

Our Wedding Guest Book

Our wedding had some pretty sweet details to it, if I do say so myself. ;) One was our guest book.  I got this unique idea from Pinterest (are you seeing a pattern? I need to start creating on my own).

The frame was the hardest part to figure out with this project.  I knew it had to have a bigger gap than normal picture frames.  So I didn't stress about it, I just made some "blank" and "signed" containers for the reception and I would figure out what to put it all in after the wedding chaos.  So I found these frames during one of my many trips to Hobby Lobby during the creating part of getting things done.  I put it in the back of my mind until after the wedding.

Once the wedding was over, I gathered all my supplies and hearts and got that frame from Hobby Lobby.  I started playing around with how I wanted it to look.

 I realized I didn't have enough signed hearts to fill the whole 12x12 frame so I played with the idea of the last name or the first names and the date. A lot that I say had just the initials and then the date on just one heart.  I liked the whole name and each date digit on one heart.  The rest of the room I had, I filled with hearts I put words that meant marriage to us.

Overall I think it turned out pretty cute and is now hanging on my wall finally.  I mean it's only been almost 4 months since the wedding. ;)

So it's been out for a while, It's new to me!

Have you ever bought a few things and not wanted to open them because they are just so pretty and fantastic looking while still in the package;  But you are dying to start using it and creating with it?

I have that problem...

About 8 months ago we started to get ready to sell our house and move.  I had to pack nearly everything in the house so we could stage it.  So this meant that I had to pack all my crafty stuff away.  I had just purchases some new fun things and one of those "things" was the Becky Higgins Project Life Trinket Value Kit.  The past year is seems we are seeing a lot more pastels and golds in the scrappy world.  I LOVE THEM! Ever see a color you love and you just feel like you need to buy everything in that color scheme? 

I have that problem...

Anyways, the kit is beautiful!

The amazing Pastels with just enough brighter pinks and even PURPLE! I love this purple and gold together.

The Project Life brand doesn't have a lot of purples let alone a beautiful lighter purple like this.  The embellishments are just as pretty as the cards!  With most of them having the foil gold accent to them, its just enough.

I discovered Project Life by accident one day on....you'll never guess...PINTEREST! I was looking for original scrapbook layouts and ideas when I stumbled upon this magic that would forever change my idea of scrapbooking!

It was introduced as a way to keep track of your weekly events and happenings.  Each layout would represent a week and so on.  I knew I didn't have time for this so I just create... I'll share some of my favs one day. :)

Let the creativity begin

Finally I'm getting into all my crafty fun stuff.  I feel like it's been forever since I've been able to sit down with all my stuff and either just stare at it (admit it, you've done it too), or use some of it.  I've even started some reorganizing of it.  But...it's a disaster area right now.  I have to label and still put a lot away, find homes for a few things.  I honest feel like its never ending trying to get it neat looking and I have SO MUCH stuff that can just go, but do I sell it or throw it away.

You'll have to excuse my poor pictures.  I take them with my cellphone usually and the lighting really sucks downstairs so the quality of a lot of my pictures aren't the greatest.  But they give you a picture and that is what matters right?

So I got this AMAZING roll-top desk for my wedding from my old boss.  I had my eye on it for a long time when it came into our warehouse (he stored it there).  So when we all lost our jobs and corporate closed the door, he handed it over as a gift. :)

I need to REALLY organize it but I love it.

Pinterest...oh Pinterest.  How I love you! I get so many ideas from there.  I love organization, but don't have the other family members to help me enjoy my love for it.  So I often find ways to do it in my own world.

My awesome peg board that I painted myself.  And this little treasure I picked up at Goodwill.  It's an old tape holder. It holds Project Life / Pocket Scrap-booking cards perfectly.  I'm still trying to weed some of my cards out because I have found what colors I like the most and in my journey to find them, I kind of created a good collection. Tomorrow I'll show you one of my newest favorites.

When I run into something way too cute to resist for organizing any of my craft stuff, I have to get it.

Like this thing that I found at Office Max for like $10 for the whole thing.  It is perfect for all those smaller things like buttons or charms or thumb tacks.

I also like turning things made for one purpose into something useful for me. ;) This idea came from something I found on Pinterest...of course. Here's the Link to that blog.

This Fun thing was found at Salvation Army.  Can you tell I love to treasure hunt?  I put labels on the inside of the drawers and filled them with all my die cuts and things.  I love how it turned out.

Please share a link to your blog if you have had fun ideas for organizing.  Check back tomorrow for the opening of a new item that's been sitting in storage for WAY TO long!

Keeping The Moon By Sarah Dessen

You know, I'm a mom; you know what that means?  I can't run away when I want to.  So why not mentally run away in a book? If you don't like to read or just don't do it, it works, trust me.

So here it is...my FIRST book review.

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen is an author writing for young adults.  Young adult books tend to be faster reads for me. This one I started a few months ago, put it down while moving and finished a majority of it within the last week.

The main character - Colie was a troubled teen who spent her life moving from town to town while her mother tried to create a stable life for the two of them.  They were both overwheight until her mom found her calling being a fitness guru and became known world-wide. Colie followed her mothers diet and exercise plan and soon became a healthy weight herself.  But the "fat Colie" never really went away.

Her mother decided to have Colie stay one summer with her Aunt in a new unfamiliar town.  She wasn't thrilled but soon learned to deal with it and meet new friends.  Colie spent the summer with her Aunt Mira learning how to love herself and how to let things go.  She got a job at a restaurant, by accident, called The Last Chance.  Here she met the girls that changed her looks and feelings and met the guy that made her look beyond what was on the outside.

I did find this book to be a tad slower and kinda boring, but like I said, Dessen writes for young adults.  It was good though.  Made you want to "let go" of that inner fat child. ;)

If you read it or have, let me know what you think of it.

Let the Lake memories BEGIN

My parents bought their dream house on a lake and with this lake comes a lot of fish. :)  We are a family that loves to fish...not to eat them, but to just....fish.  On Labor day we went there for dinner and some time on their beach and did some fishing.

You can see how shallow the water is where they are fishing.  That's where all the little fish were that were dumb enough to bite the worm.  ;)  It was FUN though.  Of course, though, it being Nevaeh's first time fishing, she thinks fish are suppose to bite right away.  Oh well, she loved it.  And she loves the beach.

Connor decided to take the line off one of the polls because I guess it was too weak or something...

It seemed to take him forever to get it done.  The new line that he put on wasn't working right for some reason, or operator error, however you want to look at it.

He finally got it done.....

and casts it out.

And...

All the pulling of the new line off of the poll (or whatever you call it - I don't know fish talk) he didn't have enough line to fish with....HAHA the line went in the water along with the bobber and bate.  

Oh good times.

I love that this is just the start of many memories to be made on this lake.

Holy Cow - Busy Busy Busy...

First and foremost, moving sucks!  I still can't see the end of the tunnel with all my boxes everywhere.  I mean, how does one family of 4 create so much stuff!?  On the plus side, my craft space is being created.

Stay tuned for new updates on it...I'm so excited to be able to have my own space even if I do have ugly paneling walls and I have to share with the cats.  

Among moving we've had a lot of other stuff going on.  My son is a Freshman this year and has been working all summer on making the JV football team.  Which has been a lot of work on my vehicle too.  The day after he found out that he did make the JV team, I got a call from the team Doc saying Connor has a concussion.  It was a scary few days after.  Seeing your child not being able to properly process things and miss his nose and mouth is not something a mother wants to experience. Thankfully the team Doc is amazing and put him through a lot of tests before allowing him to even run again.  This, however, meant he had to miss the first 2 games.  But he got to play in his 3rd game! He couldn't make it through the game without hurting himself again though...I'm telling ya, that Doc and I are going to become real close.  He ended up dislocating his finger but they were able to get it back in and tape it up so he could go back in. 

We've also had Nevaeh's soccer, first days of school and our first illness make it's way into little Ms. Nevaeh's little body.  So far Nevaeh has loved school.  She's only gone for a day and a half and then has had to miss her 3rd day (today) because she's not feeling good.  

Oh my gosh, I can't forget the Fair.  We HAD to take a day to go to the Fair in town.  Papa always takes the kids to the Fair.  Right now the only one young enough to enjoy it with his still is Nevaeh. So the three of us went to the Fair.  I enjoyed people watching while they rode rides, then we got yummy junk food to eat and Nevaeh and I got our picture taken with a desert fox.  The poor thing is nocturnal so every time someone wanted a picture with it, they had to wake him up.  He was so soft though. 

So. sorry it's been a while.  This is what's been going on.  I'm looking forward to getting into all my fun stuff and show you all what I create and creating new things!!!!!!!! Maybe a recipe in there somewhere. ;)

Officially a Soccer Mom (again

My daughter wanted to play soccer this year so I signed her up and hoped for the best.  She's a little dramatic...ok, that's an understatement; she's A LOT dramatic.  Last year we tried dance class but with it being her first year in preschool and it was later in the evening, she didn't last long. Which made me sad, but not as much as her hating to go.


Her and her poor team had ONE practice before their first game.  It was pretty entertaining and I'm not sure they learned too much but they had a great time.  We ended up being on the same team as one of my greatest friends son.  Nevaeh was super excited about that.  She saw some kids from her preschool class and would go up to them and give them a BIG hug.  She's so sweet! She loved going to the store and buying stuff for her sport.  She's always along when we buy her brother stuff for his sports so she thought she was pretty cool.

Her first game was pretty interesting also.  The coach couldn't be there and "left it up to the parents" to help guide these poor kids who have never played an actually soccer game.  We kinda had the other coach help us out.  So not only did these kids not know what was going on, there was only 4 that wanted to play and it was 80 degrees outside.  They were troopers though and drank lots of water.  Nevaeh didn't complain once and we were so proud of her.

We still have yet to have another practice.  I'm not sure if that's a normal thing for this age, but we are just going with the flow and making sure she has fun.  The last game we had this past weekend was also picture day.  So we had to arrive 45 minutes early.  What a cluster mess!  We were without a coach again and we were missing 2 players.  At one point I got so tired of standing around looking like a lost idiot that I was about to give up and get my money back.  But we finally figured out where the line was and waited to get their individual pictures taken and just got their team picture with the 4 of them and no coach.  It'll make for a good story later on I guess.


When we were finally done, we went to play the game (15 minutes late).  We had quite the crowd there for Ms. Nevaeh.  My brother and my nephew helped coach them thank goodness cause I didn't want to do it.  They did awesome with the kids, even had them stretch before the game.  My brother would give the kids a pep talk whenever they were out for a break and they were both encouraging. It was a lot of fun to watch.  My nephew has played soccer since he was Nevaeh's age and my brother has helped coach him all the way through.

The soccer games have sure been a good break from all this house stuff going on.  And seeing Nevaeh have so much fun is priceless.  I'm so glad she loves it.  She counts down the days until her next game between each one.

House Selling Prep

I have an amazing family...I mean AMAZING.  They are always there to help when I need it.  My mom told me that we wouldn't recognize our house once we had it staged for selling.  She's right, we feel like we are visiting a house and sleeping somewhere strange.  This has made a lot of sleepless nights for both Jason and I.  It's just weird.

When staging our house we needed to do some painting...desperately, we needed to replace the kitchen and laundry room floor and we needed to replace some of the ceiling fixtures.  Not to mention all the cleaning we needed to do.  It was a lot of work, I'll be honest.

Thank Goodness I have a father who is a painter...he was a lifesaver when it came to putting color in the house.  And thank goodness I have a tall son because he was great for spray painting ceilings. Once the painting was done the house looked SO MUCH better already.  We of course had to live without a stove and washer and dryer for a few days.  But we survived.  The Fridge was still working and so was the microwave so we could eat some things still.

This is Our dining room in shambles.  But I wanted to show you the ugly light fixture that was there.

And the new one! Looks MUCH better!!!!!!

We Cleaned the carpet also.  Boy was that an adventure.  The first machine we rented wouldn't work.  It just wouldn't spit out water no matter what we tried.  After taking it back to the store and getting the second one (the ONLY one they had left), we get it home and get it ready to start cleaning and it WORKS! So we clean about a quarter of the living room and all of a sudden water starts spraying out of the back.  We played with it for a while, even got tools out.  Once we put our heads together and realized it was out of water and maybe that was the issue, we filled her back up and wow, what would you know, it works!!!!!!

Sometimes the little details in places make a big difference.  I don't really care for bare counters and my bathrooms were bare and boring.  So I looked in my craft stuff and found some flowers and I went to Goodwill and scored this nice looking vase.  I love it!

If it wasn't for all my family that helped us get this house ready for selling, we wouldn't have had 3 showings in the first week of being listed.  Now we just cross our fingers that one of them will make and offer.  We will be moving next weekend so stay tuned because moving is always eventful! 

Staging The Outside

It's August people....AUGUST!!!! Mid August to be exact.  What does this mean? Back to school in just a few short weeks.  This summer has FLOWN by and we didn't do anything I wanted to do. Well, we got married...that's the one thing I wanted that we did do.  Instead of doing wonderful things with the kids we decided to move...at the same time as our parents.  They want their dream house on a lake, and they got it.  We will be purchasing their house which has about twice the room as the house we are currently in.

My mom is a house selling genius and knows what the buyers are going to want to see and what they don't want to see.  So what does this have to do with my current house? It needed A LOT of work.

Our House when we first bought it in 2009

The Front was WAY over landscaped and overgrown and because of our frost this Spring, a lot of the bushes that were once ok looking, were now very ugly.  One weekend we decided to just go to work on it. We bought red mulch...and more red mulch.  We bought so much mulch the store was probably getting sick of seeing us.  We pulled out enough weeds to fill our whole yard and make it at least green with weeds.  And we dug up a million and seven lily bulbs.

This wasn't ALL of the lilies

It was a lot of hard work but it looks amazing now and more clean.  Nevaeh was such a trooper through it.  It was hot out and she basically had to entertain herself between the small jobs we could give her.  Along the way I found a friend for her that kept her busy for a couple hours actually.

So cross your fingers the outside will draw some attention.  Now, I must go pick those nasty weeds that are trying to invade my pretty red mulch!

My inspiration to begin this fun journey

What inspires you? Maybe it's other people...maybe it's watching them interact and react to their peers and life events.  Or maybe it's a social media group. Maybe their idea's strike something in you to do or create something magical.  Everyone is different, and everyone thinks differently.  With me, it's a couple things.  My family being number one.  My son and his strong ambition, likeable personality and head strong attitude.  My daughter, who is so strong willed it's often trying on us.  My husband who is such a unique individual he teaches me something new about not only myself but what it's like to really love someone.  My parents, who have done nothing but been patient with me and understanding of my crazy way of doing things. 

The other thing that inspires me is the obvious.  Social media has helped me realize what my passion in life it.  What drives me to be creative and helps me set my goals.  I like to create and sometimes my brain just doesn't know where to begin. 

More lately than ever, I have found myself taking a step back and watching my life and how my family interacts, accepts and takes on life's challenges. From how my son helps keep other kids spirits up so much he received the Sportsmanship Award last year, being the only male in his whole class of over 200 kids.  To how my husband forgives me and loves me unconditionally when I don't even feel like I deserve it.  My daughter who freakishly is always in my head and knows my feelings and thoughts way too often and reacts to every emotion I have.


Then there's me...some praise me for being able to "handle" my husband they say.  "How do you deal with it?" they often ask.  I guess I don't look at it as "dealing" with it.  I love him which means I need to look at all aspects of him and know how he functions, know what makes him tick and what stops his ticking.  He does have a very strong will and has what others may see as pointless or different ways of reacting to life's events and obstacles.  He has a temper that didn't take me long to learn how to handle.  My husband is a gaming/techy lover.  It's his out, his way of taking himself from the outside world and allows him to think about things more clearly.  Some see his hobbies as pointless or expensive or even a waist of time.  I, however, see these as a part of his life that will never go away.  And I have also found that joining him in his hobby and taking interest in it has helped our relationship on many levels.  Over the years I have found gaming enjoyable and stress relieving.  Do you read?  It's like reading (which I also do) but you are a part of the story.  It takes you out of reality for a bit and refreshes your head so you can think more clearly when you're done.  Some men say he's lucky to have a wife that doesn't nag at him for getting so engrossed in a game or project it takes his attention for nearly the whole day.  I don't see it like this.  As long as the kids and I get attention, he's at the table for dinner and in bed at night, I want him to do what makes him happy.  He is  my #1 fan and inspiration...plus I have my own hobbies, so when I leave his alone, he leaves mine alone.

We are currently getting ready to move and start our lives over in a new home with more room for our fun little family to spread out but still enjoy each other.  My husband and I are very excited for this move and excited to be able to have more room to enjoy our hobbies. 

My family, to me, is unique and special.  I'm so glad you are going to take this new journey with me and learn about everyone and our love for life and creating.  I hope you enjoy!