Nesting...

... Is the best pregnancy symptom. I've been feeling it big time with the holidays being over. There's a lot to get ready for the baby and school in the next 12 WEEKS! Where does the time go? With all of the nesting going on, I've been noticing how much clutter we have. Most of the visible places look fine but open a cupboard, closet, or unused room and it tells a different story.

Then yesterday, I saw this blog challenging to declutter 52 things in 52 weeks in 2014. Like I said, there's some serious nesting going on here. But really, I think it's a great idea. I love the idea of keeping things simple and getting rid of all the unnecessary JUNK that we don't use.

There are 2 things I think are key to decluttering:

1. Everything needs to have a place to be. I don't mean just thrown in a junk drawer or empty bedroom but a legitimate, organized spot where it belongs. 
2. If it doesn't have a place, then you either make one or GET RID of it.

So this is my plan for this year. I hope to end the year with a lot less clutter, and a lot more peace.

To start, this week I decluttered the papers on the fridge. It's amazing how cleaning such a small area can make such a huge difference in how the room feels.

I mentioned unused rooms... Well the next pictures are just a little embarrassing... It's basically a vacuum for all of the stuff I don't want to get rid of or needed a place to throw it, I mean store it.

Can you say hoarder? And there's MORE around the corner! Dont't worry. I have a plan. I'm only keeping what will fit in this closet. And it's going to be super organized!

Happy 2014!

Before and After

When we got our fish tank it came with a nice sturdy table. The only problem was that it reeked of cigarette smoke. There was no way we would get the smell out so we made use of a small sofa table that we had.

It was definitely not sturdy enough to hold 50 gallons of water and a tank, so Josh cut out some boards to help support it... Not to mention I measured wrong so he had to slide cardboard underneath the boards to get the right height.

There are also a TON of wires associated with a fish tank. Who knew??

Well, long story short: it was an UGLY mess! 

You can see half the mess in this picture.

 So, (in all my craftiness) I MADE a dust ruffle... from scratch... with no pattern (and just a little bit of online help)!  I know, I'm surprised how well it turned out too. :)

It's such a small thing, but made such a huge difference in the room.

Finished Projects

Here are a couple of projects I finished today.  The board is just plywood and the words are vinyl.  I really like the way it turned out.

 

 

This is just a picture frame that I had laying around.  I put scrapbook paper inside and the letters are stickers.  It is dry erase and a cute way to list the meals for the week (I think).  The thing I like the most about it is that it only took about 15 minutes to make and I had everything I needed so it was free too!

Falling for You

I LOVE fall.  I used to love spring the best, but within the past few years I've fallen for the autumn months (..sorry I couldn't resist).  There's the cooler temperatures, changing leaves, Halloween, long sleeves, new TV shows, Thanksgiving, time with family, and oh yeah.... hunting season.

Hunting season and I have a love/hate relationship.  Well, hate is a little bit too strong of word.  Dislike doesn't sum it up either, but it's the best word I can think of right now.  Any hunter's wife knows where I'm coming from.  It's that moment when he says, "Is it cool if we go look for a ___________?" (Fill in the blank: dove, deer, moose, antelope, grouse, turkey, coyote...).  Of course that's cool.  I really have no problem with it and I encourage Josh to do the things he loves to do.  In that moment, however, at first there's the thought of "Now what am I going to do?"  (I will still end up doing what I would normally do but it's just different I guess).  That goes with the hate part.  Then the Love... how about some ME (ME/Talon) time.  I can do what I want (again, not much different but you know what I mean... I can work on projects that only get accomplished during good quality me time).

And then there are the times that we go "hunting" together.  LOVE- the outdoors, 4-wheeling, hiking.  Dislike- what are these guns for? Oh yeah. Maybe I don't want to see any animals. :)

Last night officially began hunting season around here. Doves I think. So here is what I did.

I LOVE fall decorations!

He loves to play in cupboards and put things on his head

And here is a glimpse at what Talon did.










I love the way his chubby feet look under the cupboard door. :)

Happy Hunting!

Pumpkin Project

For the past couple weeks, we have been making these cute pumpkins for our Young Women's activities (PS: I am in the YW's presidency and I love it! It's fun being so close in age to the Young Women even though the other leaders like to joke and say I look like I am one of them. One even tried to hand me a handout on dating today during the lesson before she realized I wasn't one of the girls.)

Anyways, I think it is safe to say that this is the first sewing project I've finished in the 2 and a half years we've been married. Decorations of any kind are definitely lacking in our home, so I'm excited to have these for the fall!

Shelf Projects

I realized this week that my summer "break" is halfway over!! Although I have kept myself busy the past two months, I feel like I have not accomplished a single thing that I had planned to do this summer (besides school and work). The summer got off to a very slow start as I spent the first two weeks coughing up a lung or two. I got back into work the same time I started my first class of the summer. This was a 4 month course that was squeezed into 8 weeks. Gotta love summer classes! Last week, I started a new phase of my job where I spend my Tuesday and Thursday nights (until 10:30) on campus in class both as a student and a TA.

I know it probably sounds like I am complaining but I definitely am not! I am so glad I have something to do this summer because last summer was the exact opposite. I love my job(s) and I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have homework. I have learned that I would rather be busy enough than bored out of my mind.

So.....here is why I'm writing this. Even though I have had a very productive summer with my job and school, I can't say the same for the projects at home that have piled up over the past year. Projects that had me saying, "I can work on that in the summer." Right....

This shelf is where a lot of these projects have been stashed. My goal from now until I head back to school in the fall is to have these shelves looking a lot better (i.e. the projects finished). So.... here's what everything is:


1) Brighton Quilt - This lovely quilt looks great in my head but right now it is just a jumble of T-shirts, bandanas and jeans. That is why it stays hidden behind my cutting mat. I'm having a hard time getting this from my head into actually becoming a quilt.


2) Getting the ink out of our clothes - Some time ago, somebody left a pen in their pants pocket and it EXPLODED in the washing machine! Not the nicest thing to have happen. Luckily it didn't get on all of the clothes but I'm still working on getting some of the ink out. I hear hairspray does the trick but maybe I haven't tried long enough. Does anyone have a better idea?


3) 72-Hour Kits - The milk jugs are supposed to become nice little 72-hour kits. I still need to buy the stuff to go inside them.


4) Hang decorations - "They" decided to move our wireless internet router to the exact place where I had my cute frame that says "Home is where your story begins" so I need to find another place for that. There is also a "Welcome" sign for the front door and a Family Home Evening Chart that I need to finish making.


5) Organize School Books - Last (for now), I need to get my schoolwork from last semester organized in new folders and in the closet.


I can't wait to get started!

New Year's Resolutions!!

I know this is late to post since we're already halfway done with January, but better late than never. :) I can't even find my resolutions from last year so I don't remember if I reached my goals or not. It's possible that the only goal I accomplished from last year's list was to get married in the temple. I think that's a big enough accomplishment that I'm not going to worry that I didn't even remember my other goals.

This year, I'm keeping it simple with just a few reasonable goals.

1. Get in shape! Throughout my high school years I was pretty fit, but once I started college a lot of that went out the window. It's not really a big deal because all of my clothes from high school still fit but I sure did gain the "Freshman 15." A large part of that has been since I got married. (It doesn't help the figure to start out married life with about 15 eclairs a whole cheesecake and 30 brownies in your freezer.) I also wasn't as active as I had been in high school. I'm not really hung up on the weight, I just want to be fit and feel good about myself! So... this semester I'm taking a ballet class and I got weights, an exercise ball, and a mat for Christmas so I'm already to go with this one!

2. Find new recipes: One thing I've learned since marriage is that I don't have much of a variety of recipes. I want to find a new recipe each month that will become a permanent member of our other favorites. So far this goal has gone well. This month we had Slow Cooker Creamy Italian Chicken. It was delicious!

3. Learn how to quilt: For a long time I have wanted to make a quilt from old t-shirts, bandanas, jeans, etc that I wore when I worked at Brighton Girl's Camp. Both years I worked there were incredible and I think a quilt would be a wonderful way to memorialize some of the good times I experienced there. This year is as good as any to do this and learn something new!