Glass Etch Projects

I found these great steal top jars at Old Time Pottery for $3.50 each. You could use them for anything: Dog Treats, noodles, candy, cotton balls, craft supplies... I don't know what I'm going to use it for so I put my initials on it with the "M" in the middle being larger than the "B" and "W". I just love these great mugs from the $ store! They are really heavy and are great for gifts. I put a fancy "J" on it for my father-in-law. These would make good groomsmen gifts. Etching is so fun - Tuesday Night Craft Night has turned into "Etching Night".

Rice Krispy Treat Ornaments

Bailey and I made these with butterfinger bells on top with Wilton's white cookie icing (left over from previous projects) underneath as a glue to keep the bell from falling off. These are for upcoming Christmas gatherings with family...mainly for all the kids :) One batch of Rice Krispy Treats makes 22 ornaments. I will make another batch of red ones next. Merry Christmas!

Goals for 2011

After looking at the previous post and last year's "new years resolutions" I see that I did not finish a few projects and I am horrible at printing out pictures and putting them in books or frames. Oh well...there is always room for improvement.


My Goals for 2011:
- Play the guitar more
- Make my first quilt out of ZTA T-Shirts from college and a few alumni shirts thrown in :)
- Use my embroidery machine and make some fabulous stuff
- Make a business plan for my future business
- Learn new things...or hobbies ;)
- Pray more and read my Bible more


The BIG Possibilities of 2011:- Blake getting accepted into Officer Training School and Pilot school
- Sell the house after Blake gets accepted into Officer Training School (see above)
- Move to Texas and Arkansas with Blake, Bailey, and Meiko for 2 years of Pilot School
- Start online business and work from home while living on Base in Texas
- Possibly home school Bailey for K4 and Kindergarten


The BIG BIG Possibilities of 2013...yeah nothing too big in 2012 besides living away from family for the first time:
- Open my boutique :)
- Start on Baby McArdle #2 :)

Looking Back on 2010

This year has been a really good one for Blake, Bailey and I. We are still in the "planning for the future" phase in life so he is doing training and I am still trying to figure out what I REALLY want to do for the rest of my career. It was a great year filled with lots of changes! I love blogging because it helps to remember what the heck I/we did this year.

Here the the big points:

- I learned to play guitar...still learning...

- We started getting the house ready to be sold in the future

- We joined a new church and it has been awesome!

- I went with my best friends/sorority sisters to ZTA National Convention in New Orleans and we won CROWN CHAPTER for the first time!

- I had my first wreck :(

- Blake deployed to Qatar & Afghanistan for 3 1/2 months
- Blake got the Mustang GT convertible
- Bailey took Swim Lessons
- Bailey was a beautiful Flower Girl in a wedding
- Bailey started Pre-K as a 3 year old
- Bailey started Dance/Gymnastics at Dance Connection
- Converted Bailey's nursery to a "big girl" room

Hobbies Started:
- Guitar
- Cookie Decorating
- Ventured deeper into new sewing projects: Applique, Make a button hole, scrub top, dresses, diaper/wipes case, stuffed animals, pillows, curtains...
- Painting Canvas
- Painting Wooden things
- Making door signs with my jigsaw
- Glass Etching

Sweater Dress

I am not a pencil thin girl, but I have not given up on looking good in a sweater dress. I have tried on probably 30+ sweater dresses since last winter (when the became popular). I have tried on every blend of fabric - stretchy, non-stretchy, knit, cotton, crocheted, jersey...no luck - they grab in the "problem" (butt, legs, stomach...) areas or make me look like I put on a paper sack. Well this past Sunday I went shopping with my best friends and their mom and saw a sweater dress in turquoise (ZTA colors) that looked like it might be a good fit and I was right! Holy Moly! A sweater dress that actually fits and in the best color ever! It was more than I normally would pay for a dress but I had a $15 off coupon so it was in my dress price range. I love it! What I love about turquoise is that it looks great paired with brown or black so I can have 2 different looks with it. Also, I found the cutest workout pants with a folded pink rim around the top and I got the only cropped pair in the store so they were $8! I was going to pay $25 for them because I loved them and I had coupon but they rang up for $8! I practically screamed in the store...I couldn't believe my luck. I never shop at Express because their prices are over my budget usually or I could buy twice as much with my money at other stores so I skip over it...but it was my lucky day! These pictures are off the Express website...it's not me :)

Roll Tide Elephant Bar Stool

I purchased this stool from Ross about 3-4 months ago. I had intentions of painting cutesy designs on it in crimson and black but the more I thought about it I wanted to make a really cool stool/statement piece. About 2 weeks ago Blake took over half of the office/spare bedroom/craft room with his putting green so I guess its a hobby room at this point. In the past 4 years this room has changed from our office to our spare bedroom to my craft room to a putting green in the center of the room. In this room we have our Alabama pictures and Alabama decorative items so I wanted it to me nicer than crimson polka dots and swirls. So I looked online and there are zero Elephant Bar Stools! I thought for sure someone would have awesome bar stools but zero! I even looked at the "Rainforest" restaurant and they didn't have any elephant stools (they had every other animal but no elephants). So this is the first one! I found an elephant painting I liked that looked possible to paint and ideas started swirling around in my head. I painted the legs in crimson and modpodged (5 layers to make it a hard plastic) houndstooth scrapbook paper on the middle legs. The upclose picture of the houndstooth is not fully dried. I think it turned out great! I will probably make a few more in the future for Blake's "Man Room".... at our next house.

Crafty Girls Weekend Coming Up

I have been wrapped up in Christmas activities over the past few weekends but this weekend I have zero parties to attend and I get the whole weekend with Bailey. Tonight we may get messy with some paint and work with glitter! I have been seeing lots of fun projects done in glitter and as much as I loathe glitter mess...I want to use it on my wooden and canvas projects. Also, Bailey and I will be going to see "Tangled" this weekend together...I'm so excited to see it. I love Disney Princesses. She has no idea we are going...I told her it would be something special so she is excited about the surprise. Also we are going to see my best friend in Birmingham this weekend and will be going to my two favorite stores: Old Time Pottery & Home Goods! Ahh! I'm so pumped to get good deals and spend time with my best friend. After we get back from shopping we are going to etch up some glass for Christmas gifts. I'm such a craft dork! Here is what I made the two past Tuesday Craft Nights. I love the 5 point crown for Zeta!

Glass Etching

Hobby #47? Just kidding...I really don't know how many it is but this one is fun to do. I have been noticing a lot of glass etching projects on the blogs I follow and decided to give it a whirl. It is super easy and turns out great on flat surfaces but when you work with cylinder objects the sticker is hard to work with and you have to make sure the Armour Etch doesn't slide off onto the glass...oops...but the ribbon covers up the mistake and it matches Bailey's room more. I made the plate for my boss and the mug for my husband's best friend. I'm going to Old Time Pottery this Sunday in hopes of finding some great glass items to etch up! I bought a couple of wine glasses from the $ store but I want to get some unique items along with plain glass platters to jazz up.

Frazier's Cherub Choir

Little Bailey's music debut was this past Sunday. She was so excited about going on stage and singing her Christmas songs. She did so good and did all the hand motions and sang all the songs. When I go to Bible study on Wednesday nights she goes to Cherub Choir (3 year olds). So precious! She is so lucky to be raised around family. My parents and my sister and her boyfriend came as well as Blake's parents and sister. She has her little fan club follow her at all her events. Blake came strait from work to make it to her performance. He has missed a few of her events like her dance recital and school play due to flying so she loved having her daddy there.

Christmas Cookie Decorating Party

This year I decided to not do a cookie exchange party with my friends and do a Cookie Decorating Party with Bailey's friends. It was just precious watching them make their cookies for their mommies and daddies or brothers. I went to TJ Maxx last year after Christmas and bought some pop-up cookie boxes on sale to use for this year -- they were super cute boxes with glittery snow men on them. Here are pictures of Bailey and her friends at her first ever cookie party.

Review #4

I co-hosted a Cookie Decorating Party with my little girl this past weekend and we used Wilton's cookie decorating icing - $5 a bottle...well I spent $3 each because I bought them on Thanksgiving. I had to buy 4 of them so it was a tad pricey for icing but oh so worth it. I thought about making icing but that is one thing I hate making! Oh it is so sticky and the powdered sugar makes a cloud and travels all over the place. Plus the kids needed an easy thing to use and they were perfect. I have 1/2 of each bottle left after decorating 60+ cookies so I have plenty left over to do batches of cookies for 2 events coming up.

Review #3

I haven't done a review in a while so here are my latest:

Products
Shark Steam Mop
Rating: *****
Reason: It is fabulous! My floors have never felt so clean and sparkly. I love that it doesn't require any chemicals or going back and forth to the sink to rinse. I love that I don't have to switch out solutions and tools to go from my tile to wood floors. It's amazing!

Cricut
Rating: *****
Reason: It's so fast and I love the paper doll cartridge. It has everything I need to do Bailey's projects at school and has lots of cute animals as well. I love that it cuts vinyl so now I am able to add monograms to glass and wood projects for super cheap! It also cuts fabric but I haven't gotten into that yet :)

Delia's Jeans
Rating: *****
Reason: I know it's a juniors store but they have great skinny jeans for girls with uhh..."junk in the trunk". I love them. I wear them with my assortment of flats and boots.

Food
Chick Fil A's Peppermint Chocolate Chip Shake
Rating: *****
Reason: Heaven in my mouth! Oh it is soooo good! Bailey and I split a small the other day and we were both amazed at how yummy it was.

M&M Pretzels
Rating: *****
Reason: So yummy and they have less calories!

24 Days until Christmas!

I have been following many blogs about crafting over the past year and a very popular craft to make this time of year is the advent calendar. They are making them out of cups on sticks to sewing each individual square onto a quilt. Talk about time consuming...although very cute and it makes a great decoration. So two days ago I was at the commissary and there they were - advent calendars. I remember in first grade when my teacher brought the advent calendar to school and said for everyday one child would get to open the cardboard flap and get a piece of chocolate. I could not wait for it to me my "special" day. It's funny how excited our class got over a $2 advent calendar...oh the simple times were the best :) So I picked one up for Bailey and this morning we hunted down the number and opened the cardboard flap - she was excited to eat a piece of chocolate at 6:45 AM.

Christmas Decor

I put up our Christmas Tree over a week ago. I didn't have anything to do and I wanted to relax on my Thanksgiving break. I finished the red stocking for our front door (ribbon holes were put in later). I would have made it with polka dots but Blake said, "No. You put polka dots on everything." Yeah, I might but it is for other people! So here is the plain red stocking. Merry Christmas!!!

Black Friday 2010

This year I have already purchased/made everyones gift by mid November so I didn't NEED to go shopping for Black Friday. In fact I was making up stuff I needed just to go. I took a few orders from friends and family and met my sister in Prattville at 4:45 AM meaning I got up at 3:30 AM to be there on time. It's family tradition to us to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving and so I have to go with family. My dad and family started this about 12+ years ago! It's crazy to think we have been doing it that long. We are usually in Georgia with the entire Whitehead side but this year my little family stayed home to be with my husband's family.

We get to Wal-Mart and find out people have been there since 10 PM the night before for the TV's and Laptops! That is crazy yet awesome to me. I would do it if I had like 3 girlfriends with me...just stay up all night leaning against the cereal talking about everything. However I still got what I was going for...Shark Steam Mop! WOW! I used it last night and it made mopping fun! Who knew?! Plus my floors sparkle and it requires no chemicals! Good Buy Swifter wet jet...you have been replaced. I also got Bailey some new pajamas $4 for the set! Pretty awesome deal. Also I got a candle set for $5! They smell Amazing.

Next on to Office Depot for ???? I have to keep it a secret. They did not open until 6 and my sister had to get that item and she was only about the 15th person in line. I did not want to wait and miss out on my Target deals so I went solo. Target is such a big store to conquer by your lonesome but I was on my way. I wanted the 3 sets of the 700 count sheets, the 7 princess doll set, binoculars, Tom Tom, 32" TV, Princess Game, Whack-A-Mole Game, Chenille blanket, and some $1.99 movies. Well they were sold out of the king size sheets so I could only get 1 set of queens for us, I got the princess set, and both games...everything else was sold out! I looked everywhere and couldn't find the stuff! On a side note - the Prattville Target has the sweetest people ever working there! I must have had 7 people help me find things...most of which were sold out. They were so nice to have been up all night long and there was no wait in the lines. Now I know I have to go to Target close to the opening of time or they will be sold out - I got there at 5:30 and they opened at 4:00.

Next I went and picked up my sister - good news she got her item! Woo hoo! Then we went to Belk and JCPenny for some major steals! My sister went home and then I met up with two great friends for breakfast to recoup and head out again! I went to Shoestation, Bath & Body Works, Hobby Lobby, and Joanns. I made it home around 11:00 AM in time for lunch. The next day I went back to Target and used my $10 gift card they gave me the day before to purchase the chenille blanket I couldn't find on Friday. It was another successful Black Friday!

New Hobby - Wooden Door Signs

I have been seeing a few "friends" on Facebook getting into making adorable door signs and knew I had to give it a whirl. I love decorating so why not have a door sign for every holiday/season! So I started looking up door signs on different websites and clip art that I could draw out and came up with a few fun designs for Christmas and Baby Shower Presents. There are a few more I am working on right now that I love but they are not ready to be shared :) What I love about this hobby is it's fun to do....maybe not the cutting and sanding part but the painting is fun. I love that I can do it in my living room while watching TV and being with my family at the same time. Bailey and I talk while I paint while she is playing or watching one of her shows. So this is the beginning of one of my favorite new hobbies.

I made this present for my wonderful parents with a vinyl "W".

I made this stocking for my fabulous In-Laws with a vinyl "M".

Roll Tide Elephant on our front door. I love this little guy :)

(I tested the staple gun out on a scrap peice of wood, but I pressed too hard on the elephant and the bumps came out! Oh well...you can't tell from a distance!)

Bunco Ornaments for 2 Bunco games coming up with ornament exchanges.

Baby Gift for Little Will.

Baby gift for Isabella and Little David.

Baby Shower Project

I have been very busy the past few weeks getting ready for my good friend's baby shower. I made 2 bibs, two diaper cakes, "D" & "I" painted letters, 2 little stuffed elephants, 4 dozens cupcakes, 23 blue and pink elephants with "S" on them (forgot to take pictures!), some fabulous strawberry limeade punch, and a wooden green elephant to hang on the door. Here are my creations for her shower!

Christmas Card Pictures

Last year for Thanksgiving I wanted to make my mom some family Christmas card pictures for her to send out. So this year I rounded up the family once again for the Whitehead/McArdle Christmas card. After canceling with the photographer once and then moving the dates and times around more than twice I canceled the photographer again. I was like, "It's just not going to happen." Well then it was back on but I decided to take the photos and get my sister's bf to help with the group photos. My sister-in-law and I went and scoped the areas I wanted the pictures taken and wrote down our ideas so it would go faster before the crew arrived. The pictures really did turn out good...great even for a 3 1/2 year old digital camera. I was a tad frazzled and jumpy during the process but my family forgave me for my bossiness as they always do. So I saved a little $$ and we finished in less than an hour...not bad for my first photo shoot :)

Merry Christmas from the Whiteheads & McArdles

Crafting on a Budget

For the past two weeks Blake has been looking for a job. The 3 month orders he was going to get were not funded. It was a shock at first but we are doing great. Nothing is in our hands and I can't control anything so I'm trying not to worry about it. In the mean time we have been cutting out our spending. We are bagging our lunches, eating dinners at home, spending more time at home, accomplishing more projects, I dyed my hair brown to avoid the $80 highlights due this week and in another 8 weeks after that... It's been good changes and we are adjusting. It's unfortunate because he loves flying and there isn't anything available in that field right now so he is going to go back to the banking industry or some other job until pilot school (fingers crossed and prayers...lots of them). So over the past 2 weeks I have deleted my emails about the "new clothes that just arrived this week!" I have cut back on my trips to Michaels, HL, and JoAnns and I am making things out of fabrics and materials I already own. I have made 2 elephant stuffed animals with ribbon tags, 3 bibs (still in progress), 2 Christmas shirts for Bailey, and painted a few other things with paint I already had. I have also been using the mess out of that cricket! Wow! I knew I would love that thing once I started using it. I didn't know it could make those cupcake flags until last week so I made 40 "S" flags for the baby shower I am co-hosting this Saturday for my good friend who is having TWINS. I had been busy knocking out projects for that as well (Painted Letters, 2 diaper cakes, 40 elephant cookies, 40 cupcakes...). And then there is the monogram machine still sitting in the box in the corner of my craft/spare bedroom. I use it to organize my cricket creations...so it is getting some use :) So it's not so bad not having money to do things as long as you fill your time up with things you love like family and craft projects. Bailey loves "helping" me with crafts so I'm trying to do some things she can "help" me with.

Halloween Fun

The week before Halloween we went to Eastchase for their trick-or-treating event with some other little girls from church that are Bailey's age. She loved going from store to store with them.On Thursday, Bailey's class had a story book fashion show. Bailey was Fancy Nancy and did a fabulous job with her one line, "I'm Fancy Nancy." I was so proud...my little drama star ;) I forgot to get the camera battery from the charger...so the pictures from my phone will have to do.

On Friday, Bailey's school had a fall festival so she wore her lady bug costume from last year. After school I had to run some errands on base and when we went to the hospital to pick up my prescriptions they were having a trick-or-treating event inside with about 12 tables all decorated in fun themes representing the different offices in the hospital. So we went back out the car and put on her lady bug costume - they even took her picture and gave us a copy.

On Saturday, Bailey and I went to my parent's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. She had already collected a large bucket full of candy so we gave that to my parents to pass out to the trick-or-treaters. This was Bailey's first time trick-or-treating so she was excited. We left Meiko with my dad but every time the doorbell rang he ran outside and scared the kids so he went with us from door to door in his blow fish costume.

On Sunday, Blake got back from his flight so he was able to go to our church's trunk-or-treat event. We met up with some of our Sunday School class' girls that are Bailey's age. She loves being with them - although she is 1-2 years younger then them all she is the same height and weight so she fits in :) She decided she wanted to be a lady bug since she was Fancy Nancy all day Friday. After she jumped on the "blow up jumpy things" and got enough candy we went to Blake's parents neighborhood. After eating dinner Bailey said, "trick-or-treating would make me tired and I have enough candy. I will just stay here." So she helped pass out some candy and played with Barbies in her lady bug costume.

Update: It's been two weeks after halloween and we have thrown away the rest of the candy...she would ask for a piece when she woke up, after every meal, for a snack...any reason at all.