A little bit of organization

Ok - so my cabinets in my sewing room were starting to look a little pathetic.  Everything was just getting thrown in wherever and I couldn't really find anything when I wanted it so I figured it was past time to do something about it.

I headed down to Michael's to buy some photo boxes (since we don't live close to an IKEA - had to make do) and I think the cashier was thinking I was a little crazy buying about 15 of them (they were on sale) - but hey, they work great and I love them.  What do you think?  This is just one of the cabinets that I organized.

Before: (sad I know)

After:

Now everything has a much better and prettier home and hey I can even find things now.

A view from the back porch

So I've mentioned here several times about the many balloons that we get to see in the air throughout the year.  Not very often do we get to sit on our back porch and watch this:

Yep, you guessed it, this landed practically in our back yard - ok so maybe on the road behind us, but close enough to call our backyard.  It was pretty fun watching it.  It then took off again and flew right over us,  they were so close we could wave to them and say "good morning".

An hour at the Airport

Yesterday, we went and spent about an hour at our second airport here in the valley.  This would be the airport where the smaller planes fly in and out of.  It was actually somewhat of a special day whereas there was a B-17 visiting.  That was the purpose of our visit.  Jake is working on an Aviation merit badge for Scouts and had gone out there the day before with his merit badge counselor- so of course he wanted to head back out there to show all of us this plane. 

So out we headed and this is what we saw:

 The bomb compartment:

First class seating at it's finest:

This particular plane was built in 1947 and never actually saw war but many others just like it did.

While we were there we saw a friend of mine who does have a plane out there.  How exciting was that?  She took us over to it so the kids could sit in it and check it out.  The plane's name is Skittles - gee wonder why?  Wouldn't be the colors would it?

Future airline pilots:

Even saw the news helipcopter while we were there.

It was definitely a fun-filled time

A trip down memory lane

As I sit here today I find myself thinking about the good ol' days.  Could it be that my class reunion is this Saturday and it forces me to remember how old I really am?  Or could it be that my second daughter is a senior this year and is looking toward college in less than a year?  Whatever it is, it has caused me to take a trip down memory lane.

What I have accomplished since graduating from High School?

1.    I have a wonderful husband who works hard to provide for us.
2.    I have four beautiful children
3.    I have one very handsome little grandson.
4.    I have a roof over my head and food on the table.
5.    I have been able to travel to Mexico, New York, Hawaii and muliple other states.
6.    I went to Disneyland for the first (and so far the last) time in my
       life.
7.    I have lived in three different states.
8.    I have a calling at church that I love- the nursery- who doesn't love going to church and being
       able to play?
9.    I have bought (along with the bank) three houses.
10.  I have great examples in my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews.

I love my life and wouldn't change a thing.

A new bulletin board

As I've mentioned before, I went thrift store shopping while on vacation.  This will be the first of my makeovers that I found there.

These are the items I started with:

When I first picked up the blue picture frame, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to turn it into a bulletin board. But not just your everyday bulletin board. I wanted to be able to use clips instead of magnets and twine instead of metal.

Here is the before:

This frame had a nice price tag of $1.50 - just call me the last of big time spenders.



After removing the picture inside (which was just a piece of paper with cardboard backing) and the birdhouse on the front, I gave it a couple coats of black paint.  Once more I turned to my Cricut machine for the vinyl lettering and turned this once donated picture into this:



This frame now has a new home in Sierra's bedroom - hence the Paris theme.

Total cost  - $ 1.50 and little bit of time.  Everything else I already had on hand.

Thanks for looking

Alexis' Thrift Store Treasure

As you know, I LOVE thrift store shopping.  Well, unfortunately I have passed on that passion to my daughter and my niece.  While on vacation, we took a little trip to the thrift store a.k.a. Deseret Industries.  That place is so much better than Goodwill near my house.  Anyway, we came up with a challenge, we had to find something UGLY and turn it into something a little (or alot) more beautiful.    Lindsey found a hideous picture frame and some hanging thing (no idea). Watch her blog for her projects coming soon.

The things I found will also be coming soon.  I still have a few small details to work out. 

Alexis found someone's old treasure box and decided that she could do something with it.
We bought it and gave it a new home with us.  Here is what she started out with:

It needed alot of TLC so we took the lid off and gave it a bit of sanding:

Time to give it that new look.  Alexis picked out a lime green paint, painted it and then put it back together.  We decided that the outside needed something so we found a great tutorial on how to make ribbon flowers (sorry, I have no idea where we found it).  Added some vinyl lettering, a couple buttons and a cute little handle at the top - and ta-da she now has a "new" treasure box.

Cost:
box - $1.50
ribbon - $1.00
paint - left over from a previous project
handle - free (already had it) check it out, it's an old spool that we painted
vinyl lettering - free (already had - I love my cricut)
buttons - free (found in button jar)

New Treasure box - Priceless

Stay tuned for more Thrift store challenges - we have several