You Were Made for This Ransom Style

 Click here to find out the story behind my mantra, "You were Made for This."

Click here to see more of my "You were Made for This" photo series. 

Wordless Wednesday: Snap, Crackle, Pop

I love it when Noah eats Rice Krispies....

 He puts his head down near the bowl so he can hear the snapping, crackling, and popping and he giggles.

I love his innocence.




For more Wordless Wednesday check out 5 Minutes for Moms and Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

Thankful For Frame

This is another craft I whipped up for my Thanksgiving mantel. I thought creating a frame where we could write something we are thankful for each day would be fun. I simply used a frame from The Dollar Store and I had everything else on hand making this an extremely inexpensive project. 

Items Needed:

Frame

Paint (optional)

Scrapbook Paper (One printed sheet and one solid colored coordinating sheet)

Ribbon

Dry Erase Marker

What You'll Do:

1. Take your frame a part and paint if desired. I painted my frame green. You could skip this step though and leave the frame plain or buy one already painted. 

2. Adhere your printed scrapbook paper to the back of the cardboard that comes with the frame. Reassemble your frame. 

3. Cut letters out of plain scrapbook paper using a personal die cut machine to spell out "Thankful For". I used my slice. You could also use stickers if you don't have a die cutting machine. Adhere the letters to the frame. 

4. Tie some ribbon to the dry erase marker and then glue it to the back of the frame. 

5. Write what you are thankful for, erase it, and write something else! 

Linking up to the following link parties:

Craft-O-Maniac

Making Monday Marvelous @ C.R.A.F.T

Making the World Cuter

Get your Craft on Tuesday

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Just a Girl Show and Share Day

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Thanksgiving "Newsprint" and a Banner

A couple of people have asked if I would share the file I created to make the newsprint I used in my Thanksgiving Newsprint Decorations. So I saved the file as a PDF and it is available for download here. I should note that the text for the file came from here.


I also created a banner using the newsprint. It was easy and quick to make.

I just followed these simple steps.
1. Using a ruler and pencil create a triangle in your desired size on a piece of card stock. Cut out your triangle out to create a stencil.
2. Print multiple copies of your "newsprint" onto card stock.  The size of your triangles will dictate the number of sheets you'll need to print. I was able to cut two triangles out of one sheet.
3. Trace and cut out 10 triangles from your newsprint. You could tea stain your newsprint for a more antique look. I did that for my framed decorations but opted not to do that for this banner.
4. Adhere letters to your newsprint triangles. I cut them out using my Slice machine but if you don't have a personal cutter you could always use sticker letters.
5. Adhere the triangles to ribbon and hang your banner!

Linking up to the following link parties:

Craft-O-Maniac

Making the World Cuter

Get your Craft on Tuesday

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Just a Girl Show and Share Day

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Quote of the Week: Key to Change

"The key to change is to let go of fear." 

~ Rosanne Cash

November Desktop

I change the background on my laptop every month. Some people might find that a pain but I don't mind. They always have a calendar on them and I like the fact that I can see the dates for the month super easy. They also usually have a spot to add a photo if you like.

I'm always excited to go to the different blogs that offer free desktop backgrounds each month and choose one for the month. I love November's from LeeLou blogs. It has owls on it!!

Another great place to get free desktop backgrounds every month is The Shabby Princess blog. 

What do you have as your desktop background??

Wordless Wednesday: Listening to His Sansa

Noah received a Sansa (MP 3 player) for his birthday. It has some of his favorite (Beatles) songs on it as well as some of his favorite home movies on it and he loves watching/listening to it. He likes to bring the speakers right up by his ears. 

Silly boy!

Here he is enjoying it...............

For more Wordless Wednesday check out 5 Minutes for Moms and Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

We Voted

We voted! Did you?

Ok, well Noah didn't really vote but he got a sticker anyways. 

Now, I'm watching the results. Interesting indeed.

Our state's governor's race is a real nail biter. Neck and neck. 

Interesting indeed!

Thanksgiving Newsprint Decorations

Now that Halloween is over it is time to take down the Halloween mantel and put up a Thanksgiving mantel so I have been working on some Thanksgiving decorations. 


When I saw this project at Muse Lodge blog I loved it but wasn't really feeling it as part of my own Halloween decorations but instantly knew that something similar would be perfect as part of my Thanksgiving decor so this is what I came up with........

Simple and inexpensive and adorable! 


What ya will need:

• 3 picture frames 
• Decorative scrapbook page
• "Newsprint" paper - Like Jennifer at Muse Lodge I didn't want to cut up a book so I made my own "newsprint." I found a version of the story of the first Thanksgiving online that I liked and copied and pasted it into a word document. I then adjusted the font type and size to my liking and printed it out on regular old printer paper. I wanted the paper to have an aged look to it so I tea stained it by putting 2 tea bags in a mug of hot water. I let the tea bags sit in the mug for about 10 minutes then let the water cool. I poured the water into a shallow pan and dunked the paper in the pan for a minute or two. Then I let the paper dry overnight. 
• Glue Stick
• Brown Sharpie or Brown ink pad
• Stencil or patterns of a turkey, pumpkin, and leaf - I just googled each object and found a coloring page I liked for each one, saved them to my computer, and then resized them. I then cut each one out and used it as my pattern. (I used this pumpkin, this leaf, and this turkey.)

What ya need to do: 
1. Adhere your scrapbooking paper to the cardboard piece that comes with the frame.
2. Trace your stencil pattern for each object on to the back of the newsprint paper and cut out each object.
3. Using the brown sharpie or brown ink, ink the edges of your objects.
4. Adhere each object to the covered cardboard pieces and re-assemble your picture frames.


Your done! Cute, quick, and inexpensive!

Linking up to the following link parties:

Craft-O-Maniac

Making the World Cuter

Get your Craft on Tuesday

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Just a Girl Show and Share Day

Whatever Goes Wednesday

October Recap

I can't believe it is November! October seemed to FLY by and Christmas (yikes!) is just around the corner. October was a busy but fun month which included Noah's 14th birthday, Halloween, Halloween crafts, baseball, and more! 


I thought it'd be fun to make an October collage using some of my favorite pictures taken during the month......

Goodbye October, Hello November! 

You Were Made for This Pumpkin Style

 Click here to find out the story behind my mantra, "You were Made for This."

Click here to see more of my "You were Made for This" photo series. 

My Beatles Fan and His Yellow Submarine

I hope all of you had a safe and happy Halloween.


Noah didn't have the best weekend. He was in a pretty foul mood and had various meltdowns so we weren't able to do much for Halloween. Originally Noah was going to dress as one of the Beatles for Halloween but decided later he didn't want to dress it but we already had Paisely's costume so despite the bad mood, I did manage to snap a few photos of my Beatles fan and his yellow submarine....