Christmas 2011

So my thought was "just do one post about all our Christmases"...because I have/will have soooo many pics I will sit down and edit them and make a collage of my favs and do a quick recap of our holidays, and because we Christmas it straight through the new year down at the river. Well two things changed that: one being that my camera blurred almost everyone of my Christmas pics :( SUPER SAD about that and the other being that i forgot my camera when we left for the river. So I sit here while it's peace and quiet at the river and upset about little to no Christmas pics from this year. But I do have amazing memories with my family and I was thankfully able to salvage some pics by editing them, and most of them I am still working on.

But until I get those finished I thought I would share two of my favs. I hope you had a very merry Christmas and I hope to get all my pics edited and a full recap on Monday :)

Merry Christmas y'all!

It's 5:00 am and im the only one awake...except for hubby because he couldn't sleep because I couldnt sleep.

But look...the jolly old man came last night! And Santa brought lots to lil man and baby girl!

We sent last night with hubby family after Christmas at his gmas. So that's were Santa came. ***please note no offense to anyone*** me and hubby CANNOT WAIT for next year to have our Christmas with our family at our home!!!!!!!! That my friends is excitement whole heartedly and in no way is intended to be rude or ungrateful.

So far we have opened presents at 2 places and have two to go and it has been so much fun because lil man is finally old enough to get the owning art and baby girl just thinks it's so awesome that we allow her to tear something up. The disappointment is they both get so excited about what they got they play with it and don't care to open anymore lol!

So I just wanted to pop in and say Merry Christmas and show you my babies were on the nice list and got some pretty awesome stuff...now will they hurry up and wake up already I wanna open presents!

I got real crafty!

So I really did think katie taughte how to draw. So I found the merry christmas tree online and thought.id give it a shot. It really didnt turn out too bad! I still like santa better. 

My tip to you: use katies sharpie method do not paint it. I painted this one and it was much more difficult!!

Im loving them both and cannot wait to make more bower power inspired things for our new home!

P.S. Its a short week yall!! Them the jolly man comes and im sooo dang excited! :)

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Mr. Clause

I followe Ms. Katie Bower over at bowerpowerblog.com and she has got one personality on her, and I love it! Its funny because I read all these blogs and totally feel like I know these peeps. See katie has a baby boy the same age as little man and I will read some of her stories about what he has done and I totally get this "omg our boys have got to play together". But then I remember she has no idea I even exist...oh well.  My point is she is like this celebrity blogger and me and her made the same ornaments this year, the thread balls.  Funny thing is our posts about them were posted the same day...i have to admit I got a little giddy thinking about her amazing decor ideas and how amazing her home looks then we make the same ornaments!! Ahhh!!

So she also made the pottery barn knock off santa, you can see the original in my previous post. I had to make this post into three diff ones because im posting from my phone...sorry yall!!

When I get to decorating my new home, I want to mock katies...its just perfect! So I thought I would get busy by making her pottery barn knock off santa! So who did I call? Ghost busters!! ;) no, my bff. And we PLANNED to making them together however someones sharpie got carried away and we ended up doing them somewhat separate. ;) its ok though because I still got some time with her and she helped coach me thru my santa. Thanks tam!! :)

So here he goes, what ya think!? My mema said "thats one of them paint by numbers". I know I cant draw yall but thanks to katie I now cant paint or draw anything I want...hehe its on like donkey kong!

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Images I knocked off! :)

I follow

Question Answered :)

One of my friends, who commented on my post about the house, asked how we got it sold?   I left out that amazing juicy part, honestly thinking no one really cared.  HA!!  I'm so glad you do though Jessica.

I know you have heard of "flippers", you know people that buy homes super cheap and update them, then turn around and sell them for a profit.  Basically that's what happened.  But it sounds SOOOO much easier than it really was.

For starters it was extremely difficult to find someone that would buy a un-repaired sinkhole home in Tallahassee.  Sinkholes are very common in Florida, and if you are anyway affilated with real estate you will know that for the past 3-4 years the legislature and insurance industry have been in fights about sinkhole claims in our state.  Apparently, people will see a crack in their wall and report it to the insurance company as a "sinkhole".  But to actually deem your home as a sinkhole home, there are tests that have to be done (that cost well over $10k)...so insurance companies have gotten really tight on sinkhole claims because the testing alone cost them a good penny.  BUT that being said, if you really do have a sinkhole it makes your life a living you know what because they are so tight with sinkhole claims.

Anyway, back to my story, sinkholes in North Florida are not that common so it took me calling multiple attorneys to find one that could represent us and to find a buyer.  Most buyers will only buy in south Florida because they know they will get a better return on their investment, apparently the market in Tally is doing pretty good!!! :)  So I called several people that I found on Google and finally found a guy from South Florida that was interested in buying our home up here.

He flew up, took a look at our place, and decided he wanted it...that was as easy as I made it sound!! He was an answer to our prayers for almost two years!  I'm excited to ride by the place over the next several months and see what he does with it and how fast it will sell! :)

Hope that answered your question Jessica!!

2011 Ornament Craft

I love having a craft project for every holiday, or just for fun.  But lately, with everything that has been going on I failed to have a Thanksgiving craft :( and honestly I rather have like 12 days of crafting before Christmas, but that will come next year hopefully.  I did however get to making two ornaments.

The first is inspired from a Pinterest project I used to make twine balls for a wedding shower I hosted in October.  After I made the balls I thought they would look awesome with white string as ornaments, but the problem I found was what to use to make small balls.  I went to hobby lobby and picked up my supplies

Basically all I used was balloons, white string, mid podge, gold and red ribbons, and spray glitter.  First thing I did was take the balloons and barely blow them up, I wanted my balls to be about the size of normal glass ball ornaments.  You can make yours whatever size you feel like.

 It looks like a pile of snow balls!!! Except it was probably 79 outside and they are not made of snow...lol!

I dipped my fingers in the mod podge and rubbed it on the string, making sure it was nice and saturated.  Then I wrapped the string around the balloon in several different directions.  That really sounds so much easier than it actually was.  You have to make sure the string, all of it, stays pretty wet so you have to re-dip your fingers often. After you get the string like you want it, let it dry over night.  The next day you can take the spray glitter and spray it to the strong while the string is still on the balloon.  This is a close up picture of what the glitter looks like with the string still on the balloon.

Then you can pop your balloon and gently pull it out of one of the larger openings in your string.  Ta Da, this is what you get!  I fell in love, I thought it would look really pretty with a tree full of these...next year I cannot wait to add these to our tree.  But I will probably have to make new ones next year, two reasons: one being that the mod podge make not make it through the storage in the attic heat over the FL summer and two being that my parents added them to their angel tree and they actually look good on there!

The second ornament I made was also Pinterest inspired but it will be my gift tags this year.  They are initial ornaments, so simple, cheap and super cute!

 I took the glass and used that as my guide to draw circles on the cardboard and cut them out.  Then I used my cricut and cut circles out of scrapbook paper in the same size...note that was much harder than it sounds!  Then I glued the scrapbook paper circles to the cardboard circles.

I glued different scrapbook paper to the back.  The "D" ornament below was different paper I used from the one above, I promise the back really did match!  Then I used my cricut again and cut initials out of my black vinyl and mod podged over the entire ornament twice and sealed the edges with a glue gun so you could not tell it was cardboard.

I think they turned out super cute and will look awesome on our gifts this year!

The Time is Finally Here!!!

**Note: LOOONG blog post ahead, and sorry no pics YET**

Most of you reading this blog are aware of our "story" but only a few of you know the details about what my family has been through in the past *almost* two years.  This post has been in the back of my mind for two years, I have written it several times in my mind and now that I am sitting down to actually write it...it is going much differently than I imagined.

In March of 2010 my hubby and I walked outside to find a rather large hole in our front yard.  This hole, which was large enough to swallow two vehicles was deemed a sink hole.  At the time it happened, I never would have imagined to go through the next two years like we have.  Like I said, I imagined this post to focus on all the details of what my family has gone through...every single detail...while they are fresh in my mind...and that's not to "air my family's dirty laundry" but to document these details while they are still fresh to have something to go back to in years to come.  But now that I sit here writing this post, I have decided to focus on the aftermath and not the battle. So, VERY long story short: a sink hole opened in our front yard, we moved us and our baby out and into my parents' home, we have lived with them almost two years, had a second baby, and finally today signed the papers on the sell of our sink hole home.  

This is honestly the best feeling I have felt in a long time, besides having our two babies this feels like the best day of the last two years.  The stress, the worry, the fear, the depression, gone...I finally feel like a person again.  I feel like myself, I feel like I have no worries (although I know that wont last long), it is truly AMAZING!! 

What makes me even more excited is we have already begun looking for our next home, selected one, entered into a contract and are set to close!  I am so excited to be able to FINALLY blog about my house, begin working on diy projects again, and enjoy raising my family in OUR home.  Don't get me wrong, we are SOOOO thankful for my family allowing us to live with them, scratch that TAKE OVER, their home. We will never thank them enough for all they have done for us. 

So the new house, I know you are all on edge DyInG to know about it.  Where did we find one, what does it look like, when was it built, how many bedrooms, how many bath, what's the yard like...I get it...but honestly its not that impressive right now but my most favorite part about this home is me and hubby went into it thinking this is NOT the perfect house for us, but it IS the perfect house for us to turn into OUR HOME!!! We already have a DIY list a mile long, I have paint colors chosen, decorations I have been making, furniture ideas picked out, and the pantry organized!  I know I'm a little anxious but come on people I haven't had a house in TWO YEARS!!!! I feel like a kid on Christmas morning, I cannot sleep at night dreaming up ideas and picturing my sofa in the living room and the picture I'm gonna hang on the back wall of the living room...ooooohhhhhh mmmmyyyy gooosssshhhhh I'm excited!!!

I cannot wait to post our journey in getting in the new house, projects, and document us beginning our life again.  It's like we are newly weds all over again, but this time we have two babies....YESSSSS!!!!!!! :)  Life is GREAT yall and I am sooo thrilled to get it started :)