Sunday Blues

It's Sunday January 8th, 2012....that means it is the night before I go back to work :(.  I am sooooooo not ready to go back. I have enjoyed being home with my boys for the past three weeks and one of those weeks my husband was home too!  I do enjoy teaching, but it doesn't even compete with how much I love being home playing with my kids.  Earlier I posted my new year resolutions so you might be wondering if I am keeping up with my goals...week 1 SUCCESS!  I ran 11 miles I drank over 72oz each day and I am organizing my mail station (more on that later).  So far so good. Let's see how week two goes. What I am least looking forward to is that since tomorrow vacation ends, I need to step on the scale and see what damage the holidays did, YIKES!  I may have to add some weight loss goals (let's hope not).

I do have a crafty project to share with you. I first saw this idea on Pinterest, but I unfortunately cannot find the original pin.  So as a disclosure, this is not my original idea, I just wanted to share with you my project and end product.

I purchase a lot of wood plaques of varying sizes from hobby lobby. They ranged from $1.99 to $2.99. They were on sale for 40% off.  My first step was to paint the plaque and then sand the edges to give it a bit of and aged look.

Then I took Mod Podge and painted a layer on and laid my photo on the wet Mod Podge. I let the everything dry for about 15 minutes then I did a layer of Mod Podge over the photo and let that coat dry for 30 minutes then I did a final layer of Mod Podge making sure to change my brush strokes to the opposite direction to create a linen effect.

After everything dried I sanded the back of each plaque to get the excess paper and Mod Podge off.  I used Command picture hanging strips to hang my finished product.  Right now I have 4 photos completed but my goal is to complete 10-12.  This project was a bit time consuming due to drying time, but I think it was totally worth the time. 

I hope this encourages you all to venture into the world of Mod Podge! I am off to enjoy one last bowl of ice cream! 

Christmas Card Storage

Until a few years ago my least favorite part of the holidays was figuring out what to do with all of the photo cards we received. I always hated throwing them away but at the same time I couldn't imagine all of these loose cards piling up in a box.  So I usually ended up allowing myself to keep a couple of them and then I had to toss the rest.  A few years ago my little sister had a Christmas party and she had a few years worth of cards out on display. She had hole punched the corner of her cards and placed them on a binder ring.  So I went home and I punched mine, but I didn't have a binder ring...my solution ribbon of course.

Well this year I was pulling my cards off my card display and my Yourstory by Provocraft caught my eye.  I looked through my stash and found that I had an 8x8 book..perfect!  So I cut plain white cardstock to 8x8 and then scored one side at 5/8 of an inch using my simply scored by Stampin' Up.  On each page I put one photo and I added a few extra blank pages in the back in the event of straggler.  Next I heated up my YourStory and in went my book.  After a few minutes of cooling my card storage was done!

 

This was the front and back of our family card. We tried to go for funny this year using a "business" theme. :)

This was a simple and fast project and now I have a photo book to look back on our family and friends.  I hope this helps you with your Christmas photo storage.

This is my last week of vacation so I am trying to get as much time as I can in my craft room.  I hope you all find time this week to do what you love, be it paper crafting, knitting, reading, enjoying your family, etc! Crafting while I can ~Breanne

Reso-what?!?

Happy New Year!!!  I hope you all had a wonderful time seeing 2011 out and welcoming 2012 in.  My night I would not of had any other way.  We took the boys out to dinner, came home and put them to bed. After picking up the house we curled up on the couch and watched Crazy Stupid Love (great movie).  When that was over it was time to feed the baby again and then there was just 7 minutes until the new year.  We toasted in the new year with a drink of water and of course a kiss and then off to bed we went.  Even though we stayed up late that does not mean our kiddos were going to sleep in. Sure enough we had a 6am wake up call from Tyson.  While at dinner Dallen and I started talking about new years resolutions and what ours are going to be individually, as a couple and as a family. There are so many things to consider.  I have so much that I was to accomplish and become better at in 2012, so I thought I would share my goals with all of you that way I am accountable. 

Similar to most people I want to be healthier in 2012, I want to lose weight (my last 3lbs of baby weight) and I want to exercise more.  But for me just saying that does nothing for me.  Let's be honest unless I have a plan I will continue as I am.  So I have two big goals I am going to complete in 2012 they are to do 1 tri-athalon (looking for July-ish) and I am going to run 1 half marathon (October-ish).  In a few months I will begin training for the triathalon until then to keep me active I have decided to make monthly goals.  For the month of January my goal is going to run 10 miles a week. This can be on the road or in the gym. I just need to put in the miles.  As of this post (January 1st) I have put in 3.5 miles for this week and I still have 6 days to complete my task.  I am excited for this running adventure this month.

In keeping with wanting to be healthier I am going to make it my goal to drink at least 72oz of water a day.  I hope to drink more, but I am starting with an amount I think I can obtain. I drink water, just not enough. With my new water bottles I know I will be able to maintain this goal.


Now onto some of my other goals.  I would say that I am someone who is always trying to organize different areas of our home. However, I never fully complete the task.  So I am going to pick one area of our home and dedicate a month to completely organizing this area of our home.  My goal is to complete the organization and live with it for a week and then make any adjustments to that area to make it work more efficiently for our family.  I will take before and afters of my organization area and let you all know how it is working.  My first area to work on is a mail center.  Right now the mail piles up, the filing piles up and it just clutters my office.  I am excited for this organizing adventure.


Now for my last resolution. This one is sort of random, but I think it is a good one. I have decided that I am not going to purchase ANY wrapping paper, gift bags, clothing boxes or tissue paper in 2012.  After cleaning up from Christmas I realized we have an abundance of all of the above.  Now I must apologize ahead of time, I have two boys, no girls, so if you are a friend or loved one who has a daughter she may be getting her birthday gift in a Cars, Monster Truck, or Alien bag.  I figure the kiddos want what is on the inside more than what is on the outside anyway.

Now for my blog, I am going to commit to blogging twice a month. In fact I have already planned out my blogs for January.  You may just get more than one! :)  

There you have it, my goals for January and 2012!  Enjoy and have an amazing 2012. I am off to get ready to have our Japanese New Year Lunch/Dinner at my Uncles house.  I may just add a few more pounds after all the delicious eating I am about to do!  Happy New Year Everyone!