DIY Hobby Lobby Art

I have been so swamped lately with trying to get our house on the market and staging it. One of the biggest challenges I have found is essentially eliminating the pictures around the house that are personal photos of our family. Boy is that hard to do!! But I do understand the reasoning -- so I've been trying to come up with cheap, easy replacement art for our family room and living room.

I found {and fell in love with} this awesome art piece at Hobby Lobby! It was perfect! Full of fun color, non-taste specific and non-personal! Until.. I looked at the price tag. $129.99. Even if they were half off, which they weren't, that's still a lot of money to spend on "staging" art. Yikes! I passed it up and walked a few aisles away when it dawned on me that it would be such an easy DIY copy! I quickly ran back over an snapped a photo!

I knew I had an old frame lying around the house I wasn't using. I bet you do too?! I got this one with my mom at an estate sale years ago for $4. You can always find old frames at Goodwill or garage sales! I have tons that I buy with no specific purpose but are so nice to keep on hand for little projects. Bonus ~ if you're not happy with *said* project you're not heavily invested so it's okay!

sorry it's upside down. bad art but cute frame with lots of potential, right?!

So here's how I did it!

1. *optional* If you want to paint the color of your frame {I think a fun bright frame would look great!!} you'll want to do that first.

2. I bought a large piece of white poster board to cover up the original print with craft glue. As long as your print isn't too big this should work and they usually aren't more than $0.50 at Hobby Lobby! Use the matte side of the poster board.

3. I grabbed about 15 different scrapbooking papers from this aisle at Hobby Lobby. They are often 1/2 off regular price of $0.60 or so. Don't worry about being too matchy ~ I think the more random the prints are the more interesting it will turn out!

oh hello, little shopping buddy

4. Start cutting "petals". I made a variety of sizes for each color and put them in piles by size.

5. Glue the petals down with the craft glue (glue stick would be fine too!). I started with an outside circle and worked my way in. IMPORTANT: don't go in a perfectly circular motion - glue the petals down at different areas so there's not a pattern to how they are layered!

6. Voila! I waited for mine to dry overnight and had the hubby hang it in our family room. I love it every time I look at it!

Happy Tuesday!

411

I thought this was a cute blogging prompt {I hope you'll join me and do it too!}

1. How long have you been blogging? And what got you started on blogging? 
I've been blogging for almost five years now off and on at this page! I started just as I was graduating college in Oklahoma because I wanted to keep a journal for myself as I started a career and Joe finished medical school. This is going to sound terrible but I'm very surprised with myself I've kept up with it {even after some long breaks here and there!} - just because I'm VERY much a project starter but sort of bad at finishing all the projects I usually have going at once. :) But I'm so glad I've done this - we've had so many life transitions while I've had this blog and it's fun to look back and read my account of everything as it happened. 

2. Did you go to college? If so, where, and what did you study?  
I went to the University of Oklahoma and got a BS in Industrial Engineering. I love the field because it's kind of a "soft" engineering - it's all about engineering for large systems and having a good knowledge of people, human factors and how we interact with large systems. I do wish sometimes I would have chosen something that channeled more creativity though! I never thought I was creative or could BE creative since I loved math so much. But you can be both! :)

3. Where have you traveled?  
I feel so lucky to have traveled as much as I have - which isn't really all that much compared to a lot of people! When Joe and I were in school and newly married we went on three or four cruises and we loved that - we just really love cruising because it's convenient and you get a lot of "bang for your buck"! So we've been lucky to visit most of the Caribbean islands - at least for a day or so. We took our Honeymoon to St. Maartin and visited St. Barths too. When I graduated college the ONLY thing I wanted was to celebrate with a long trip to Paris and London so we did that. I love London - it's definitely my favorite city as of now because of the great museums, nice people, the royalty/traditions, gardens everywhere, fish and chips.. just love it. Seriously. I am not afraid to admit I've begged Joe to get his medical license in the UK so we could move there. And I still would if he were to ever say yes! I also traveled for a living before I became a stay at home mom. I went all over the US and also to Italy for work. 

4. If you won the lottery what would be the first thing you'd buy?  
I'm sure I'd obviously save a lot of it or do something boring like pay off medical school loans but if we're talking pure splurge? I'd buy a big country lot of land near my parent's farm and build a giant house with a big porch on the front and a pool in the back and big windows and lots of room for my kids to run around. 

5. What are your three biggest pet peeves?  
I hate when people put their car in park in a drive-through - doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose? I hate when people wait until a cashier reads the total at the checkout to *begin* digging their checkbook/wallet out. You know it's coming, right? And I just hate cars driving around with loud music playing. Noise pollution. 

6. What is your favorite movie? 
I love The Long, Long Trailer which is a hilarious movie Lucille Ball did. She's my idol so I've seen it a million times and laugh so hard each time I watch it. 

7. What's your drink of choice: wine, beer or liquor. Or water, soda or tea?
I want so badly to "get" wine but I don't. I really don't like beer. I will always appreciate a good margarita but I don't have them very often. I almost always order iced tea when we eat out and I always have sweet tea in our fridge. I just love it. My mom makes the best sweet tea!!

8. What is something you enjoy doing when you have "me" time? 
I'm afraid I love watching reality tv like The Real Housewives series but I love reading too!

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to any store what would it be?
Either Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn - places I never shop because they are too expensive! :)

10. Share with us an embarrassing moment of your past. Or present.
When I was in high school I won a local beauty pageant and the year after I had won, as part of the crowning of the next "queen" I was asked to do a little reading in front of the audience for entertainment before they announced the winner. I totally put off practicing but I just studied the night before and felt pretty sure that I had the entire thing memorized by the time I got there the next day. Well. I got out on stage and with hundreds of eyes watching... I blanked on the entire thing. I remember just repeating the line I had gotten stuck at over and over hoping it would spark the memory of what was next but I just had nothing. I found my mom's face in the crowd and she just looked horrified - Hah!!! I quickly said something to kind of "sum" up the point of the piece and walked off the stage. I was so mortified!! To this day I hate speaking (even praying in public!!) without having something rehearsed and memorized perfectly!

11. What day would you love to re-live again?
Definitely our wedding day! I feel so badly, but we don't have video of it and I feel like I've forgotten so many details. 

12. If your life was turned into a movie what actor would play you?
I feel like for some reason Mandy Moore kind of acts like me in movies? I think she's kind of the sweet girl next door with a little quirky side. 

13. What are the jobs you had in high school/college/early years?
I've had so many random jobs - I helped at my grandma's daycare very early on in the summers - like when I was 14 and 15. When I was 16 I worked at Gap for gas money and car insurance funds - my parents had a rule that I had to pay those myself to teach me responsibility. Then I moved way up in the world and became a manager at Claire's at the end of high school. I had to pierce kids and babies ears! I have no idea how they trusted me to do that!! I tutored elementary kids as part of a state grant in Oklahoma when I moved there for college and then did research with an engineering professor until I graduated and my first job out of college was being a manager at Hallmark corporate. 

14. If you could travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, where would you go?
I would love to visit Ireland! I want to go for a long enough time that I could rent a car and drive coast to coast - that's my dream vacation!!

15. Show us the most current picture of you, your family or something meaningful to you.
The little man that owns my heart, taken yesterday :)

16. Where do you see your life five years from now?
We know we'll be in Kansas City. I'd like to see us living in our "forever home" where we will raise our kids. I would like to have one or two more children and maybe homeschooling them. I'd like to be teaching a college level engineering or math class one or two nights a week. I hope we're still working hard and saving for fun vacations and teaching our kids to be good people.

Now I want to hear your answers!!

Jersey Boys

Last Friday night Joe and I went on a date to see Jersey Boys! He had gotten me tickets for my birthday in November and I have been anxiously counting down the days to go. I think this was the first time we had hired a babysitter to go out to dinner and a show EVER that didn't include a work event for Joe!

We went to a steakhouse for dinner and had an awesome meal! We kind of didn't know what to do with ourselves without having a toddler to occupy/feed/entertain/chase - please tell me I'm not alone here?! Hah!

We had second row seats to the show and we sat in between two older couples. It just cracked me up - I realized they probably remember when the Jersey Boys were putting records out!

We had such a fun night! If you ever get the chance to see this show, do it!

Oh What a Night it was! ;-)

Randoms

This is just a random little brain dump of things I have swirling around in my brain. :)

1. Last night we had a "holiday" party for one of the anesthesia groups Joe works with. It was really fun to get dressed up and get a babysitter! But several people asked me if I was rooting for 'Bama. Oops. Wardrobe fail!! Take a close look at Joe ~ he is wearing a bow tie! I have begged him unmercifully for years to wear a bow tie because I think they are so old fashioned looking and I ended up just buying him one for Christmas! Hah! I think he looks so cute in it! We're bringing bow ties back, y'all!! 

2. I have been in the mood to tackle some furniture projects lately. I had been looking for months for a little wood table to re-do to keep in the kitchen for Landon to eat at and work on crafts, etc. It had been such a challenge to find something close to what I want {solid wood with clean lines and at least two chairs and cheap}!! I ended up buying this one used for $30 and I'm not totally in love with the shape but I have some ideas on how to make it more my style. Stay tuned...!

Then I bought this china hutch at Goodwill I'm going to re-purpose for a tv cabinet for our family room downstairs. I have a serious love affair with old furniture. We have three other old pieces of furniture in our garage right now too. Please don't call Hoarders on me.

3. I pinned this recipe on Pinterest right before Christmas and I have made it three times now and it's just a problem that I know it exists - I just can't go back to life before I knew about it. Red Velvet Cheese Ball. Isn't that just dangerous? It's rolled in mini chocolate chips. Don't even click on the link unless you want this to be a part of your life permanently. Hah!

Look. I couldn't even get a picture taken before I took a bite.

4. I snapped this random picture after bath one night and I just love it. My boys. I love my boys.

5. The Dollar Tree has little nests with eggs in the craft section. I love tucking nests into random bowls and other nooks and crannies around the house.

Have a great week!!!

One Night Chef

At the very end of November I hosted our annual (and last!!) residency class Christmas and we did something very different and neat this year!! We have a local chef (engineer by day!) who does private parties to collect donations to send to his home of Nepal. He has a special school he supports there. He charges $25/plate to cook and serve a 3-course meal and then any tips above that are sent to support his efforts in Nepal. I love this idea! You can tell he has such a passion for his work and I was so inspired by him!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited that I didn't have to worry about preparing the meal for everyone myself. Hah! The whole idea was my friend Trish's and I'm so glad she encouraged us to go this route as a class to celebrate Christmas and support this charity!

Surya came to my house with a huge load of groceries to start cooking about four hours before the party started. He also brought reinforcements! These two sweet girls helped him cook and serve :)

I was so amazed at all the action going on in my kitchen!!

We all sat down to eat and Surya did a nice little introduction to each of the courses and also at the end he talked about his charity work.

Our first course was a sweet potato soup served in a pumpkin. I am sure that I've never had the wherewithal to serve anything from the inside of a pumpkin. It was one of the best soups I've ever had in my entire life and I am not just saying that!! I didn't even get a picture of it on my plate. Yes. That good!

Then he served us shrimp fettuccine. I loved how he really decorated the plates! It was so full of flavor!! I think if I won the lottery I would just hire Surya to move in with us. Hah!!

For dessert we had (I wish I could remember the actual name) but it was an ethnic banana kind of like a plantain with ice cream and a cinnamon stick. I was just amazed!

Here is our whole group! I care so much for everyone at the table! We have become such a great family during this journey of residency!!! Such a fun night! :)

Christmas 2012

Like I said in my last post, our Christmas was very different this year than it has ever been. I feel like we're still trying to figure out what our groove is for holidays since we don't live in the same city as our parents. Yet! :) Usually, we travel to Kansas City and spend Christmas Eve with Joe's family having a nice meal, going to church and wake up Christmas morning and do the traditional Christmas then. And then we spend the next day or two at my parents'. But this year, since Christmas fell on a Tuesday and due to the rotation Joe is on this month, he couldn't leave town. So we celebrated our own "Christmas" on Christmas Eve and day and then went home the following weekend.

We always open one gift on Christmas Eve, which is a new pair of pajamas. This is one of my favorite traditions. I love PJs! Landon got really into opening his gift (he did not have the same enthusiasm on Christmas day as you will see..).

Joe got me a nightgown from the Disney Luxe collection. It sounds totally immature but it's actually so nice and we have a total Disney theme going on this year so it was fitting. The print has tiny little pumpkin carriages all over. I love it!

Since Joe had to work a half day on Christmas day, Landon and I actually woke up and acted like it was a normal week day. I put him down for a nap after lunch and during that time Joe got off work and we set up all the presents under the tree and Santa came ;-) So when he got up from his nap it was kind of like Christmas morning. He doesn't know the difference anyway!!

Unfortunately, Landon had no interest in gifts. We kind of forced him to unwrap a few and then unwrapped the rest for him. I put about 1/2 of them away to "introduce" again on a rainy/snowy/boring day. Hah!!

The biggest hit was definitely this Melissa & Doug cookie sheet. It is so cute and yes, I realize probably a little girly but he doesn't know the difference and he loves "cooking" and watching us cook! :) It has little wood cookies that velcro on the cookie sheet and a spatula you can use to scrape them off. He plays with it every single day!

On Friday we headed up to Kansas City to spend time with our extended families! We were so glad to finally be able to go home. We visited with Joe's family first. We had a really good time playing games with his brothers. Joe's parents got Landon a drum set he loved!!

On Saturday night we went to stay the night with my family and do Christmas with them. The celebration just kept going on! I love visiting because my sister's two kids play so cute with Landon :) My parents got Landon a Medieval Knight dress up set and he walked around all day with the shield and sword. It was so adorable!

We had such a good Christmas this year! I hope you did too!!

Paris Baby Shower

My friend Kelly Jo is expecting a baby later this month! I hosted a baby shower for her a few weeks ago and I had so much fun planning a way to celebrate her new little girl! I thought a Paris theme would be cute (and we kind of combined it into our book club and read The Paris Wife).

Here is the table set up! I ordered a cake from Sam's Club and I am serious when I tell you they have the best cakes!! I found this Eiffel Tower sculpture at Hobby Lobby and just sat it down right on the top. I got some baby's breath and carnations for the table and added a few framed "Paris things" like a little vintage print and a picture of Mona Lisa I converted to black and white. I made a pink glitter "M" for her little girl's name :)

For dinner I sat up a grilled cheese bar and asked all the girls to bring their favorite kind of cheese. I cut up French baguette bread and buttered my griddle and let people assemble their sandwiches themselves. We are talking super easy!! We had so much fun with it!!

Kelly Jo got so many cute gifts. She is just one of those people who is so full of energy and has so much charisma and I love her! I bet her little gal will be just like her :))

Congratulations KJ! I absolutely can't wait to meet sweet M!!!! :)