Daily Prayer Reminder

My husband and I have been married now for 5 years! WHEWW that's HALF a DECADE! Over these past 5 years, we have slowly been getting better at praying together more often. I have to say that we finally became consistent in our prayer life when I made a Daily Prayer Reminder. I had a really cute frame sitting in the hall closet so I grabbed it and instead of putting a picture in it, I placed a piece of paper. Lastly, all you need is a white board marker. 

Sorry the picture isnt all that great but it does say Mon, Tue, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sunday. My husband and I sat down and decided who and what has been put on our hearts and placed them under a day. Then when we go to bed, we see this right on our night stand and remember to pray. 

WE have enjoyed this and it has been a wonderful way to remember to pray together!

DIY One Year Photos

I have to say...I am one proud Momma. I have such a wonderful son and family and Im gonna brag about it! :)

I absolutely LOVE photography and wanted some nice photos for when my son turned one. I originally planned to have a professional take his pictures but he got sick and thats when I stepped in...Miss Krissa the Amateur photographer. 

How To:

I bought a nice shirt for my boy (something that brought out his blue eyes)

I then bought balloons to match the scene

I already had a chalkboard (WHICH I LOVE), I use it for LOTS of pictures

I just pulled our outdoor bench and his little red kid chair outside and started taking pictures. 

I put my camera settings on P (which is for program) 

My husband helped me keep my son happy/smiling and sitting, we did this by ringing a bell (which my son loves). We also started letting him play with the balloons which made his day!

I used the website Picmonkey.com to add a little more contrast and brightness to the pictures. This website allows you to picture edit and save to your computer. I LOVE IT. I was super happy with the pictures. Here are some more:

 Too Cute for words huh?!

A Gift for the Bookworms

My mom loves to read, so for her birthday I decided to get her a book, tagged along with a cozy drink that she enjoys...all wrapped in a bow. 

I also made cake batter truffles is the previous post on my blog. 

How to pick a book for a friend or family member:

Go to a local used book store, along with a couple of books that you know that person LOVED. Ask the employee what they would recommend based on the books that your person loved. 

OR

Go to Amazon.com and look up the books that you know they enjoy and at the bottom of the page is books recommended based on the book you searched. 

My husband did this for me one year and he told the bookstore employee that I loved harry potter, twilight, and the Hunger Games series so....she recommended a series called Poison Study and I LOVE this series also. Good job Bookstore Lady!

Cake Batter Truffles

My best friend gave me this recipe So I will send you to her site for the instructions. Here are some Tid Bit hints to making them look nice:

1. Roll them as perfectly as you can in a ball shape

2. Chill for the whole 15 minutes

3. Take the fork, poke it into the bottom of the dough ball and dip in white chocolate mix but roll your fork in a clockwise direction, DO NOT lift it out and dip again and again. The dough balls are fragile. 

As you lift the dough ball out of the container, roll it so the white chocolate can drizzle off excess. 

4. Hold the fork verticle with dough on top and use two fingers to swipe it off the fork while letting it rest on your two fingers (this way you don't ruin the coating on the sides). Then carefully use the fork with your fingers to place it gently back onto the wax paper to dry

5. Immediately decorate with sprinkles. 

Here is the link: http://morecipes.blogspot.com/search/label/dessert

Dye your own peacoat!

This was my little sisters peacoat that she was selling at our garage sale. It fit well but at the time I already had a black peacoat. I decided to try something new and bleach the CRAP out of it and then dye it.
I used a big bucket, placed 1 cup of bleach and then added hot water. I stirred it around then added my black peacoat. I then added more hot water till the water covered the peacoat by an inch. I let it sit for 2 hours. I would stir it around every 30 minutes or so just to make sure all the folds got bleached.
After two hours i disposed of the bleach water and rinsed the coat with hot water, then did it all over again TWO more times. I even let the coat sit in there over night. I know bleach eats away cloth but the coat held up great. Since it was black I had a long way to go to get it a light enough color to dye.
After bleaching it. I put it in the wash with hydrogen peroxide which counter acts the bleach. I dried it and this is what it looked like.

Not quite off white but it was a pale pale pink. I bought three boxes of Rit dye called Scarlet Red. I really wanted a Blood Red peacoat so I gave it a shot. I first only used one box of dye and followed the directions. It came out as a soft peach color. I then decided to try it again with two more boxes of dye. The directions specify to let it soak in the the dye bath for 30 minutes which I did about an hour, and I also added 1 cup of salt to the dye bath to help better dye the coat. The final product was a beautiful dark peach color (the computer makes it look orange, its not orange even though that would have looked good too. Not blood red as I originally wanted but I still love the color.

I cannot wait to wear this for FALL! I love my peacoats, scarfs, sweaters and jeans. :)

Easy Beach Wave Hair

I finally discovered a way to get a loose beach wave in my hair with no hassle. It took me maybe 15 minutes to do this but I also have somewhat thin hair. All you need is a curling iron, hair spray and possibly bobby pins. 

I pinned my bangs back in a poof first but you can do whatever pleases you. I then take a piece of hair and wrap it around the curling iron. The TRICK to this, is 1. DO NOT open the curling iron. Just wrap the piece of hair around the iron. TRICK 2. Let your hair twist as you wrap it around the iron. Dont worry about it being flat/straight as you would when doing ringlets. Here is a picture:

See how in my finger tip the hair strand is twisted...thats what we want! Also see how the iron is not opened, I wrapped my hair around it as a closed iron. Here is a picture of my hair when I was finished curling it without doing anything else yet. 

It is somewhat ringlet like but look closely...the ends are fairly straight while the rest of the strand is curly. The next step is the run your fingers through your hair and separate the curls. When finished, hairspray your hair while "poofin" it up with your hands. Once again here is the final product. 

ReDone Bookshelf

I have been wanting to paint this old bookshelf for a while now to match our new Ikea shelf. I fell in love with the idea from pinterest to put a design on the inside backing of the shelf. Here is the old one. 

This was so easy to paint and decorate. I HATE HATE sanding so I used a primer, and brushed it on which took maybe 30 minutes. I let that dry, then I bought three cans of a dark brown (almost black color) spray paint. I started spraying! 

The most difficult part was  that my shelf wants to fall apart but I just WOULDNT let it! Not after I put all this time and money into it. I took off the backing carefully and bought some fabric that I liked, along with spray glue (kinda spendy 9.99 for a can). I cut out the fabric to match the backing, I sprayed it and layed down my fabric. It was just too easy. I then reassembled the backing and had fun placing it once again in our living room. I love it. It now matches and it has character. Here is the final outcome!

The shelf is from target so I had to do a little research on priming a smooth surface I think it is made of linoleum. Worked out great though. Here is a website I used for tips on spray painting anything. 

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2010/10/spray-paint-faqs/ 

Total Cost to do this project:

3 Cans Spray paint 12.00

Primer 6.00

Brush 3.00

2 1/2y Fabric 13.00

Spray adhesive 10.00

Total: 44$ with products to spare for more pinterest crafts!