I Love My Silhouette!

After a wonderful Thanksgiving (‘ful’ like, I’m so full from Thanksgiving I had to find a project I could do sitting down), it was fun to start thinking about Christmas and tackle the first project of the season! Yeah, so maybe we ate ourselves into oblivion for 3 days but it was SO worth it! I hope all of you had awesome weekends with friends and family, food and laughter and all that really matters! We sure did.

Today was my Silhouette’s maiden voyage and it was such fun! Love her! Tons of projects are lining up in my head and I can’t WAIT to use this clever little tool again. After seeing Thrifty Décor Chick’s “Give Thanks” letters and also My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia’s, I really wanted a lovely Christmas message to create with the Silhouette. Did I mention I love this thing? Thank you my dear in-laws for making my dorky craft dreams come true!

A quick trip to Michael's today and $7 later, an array of cute paper choices lined up our dining room table. I picked a great black & white damask pattern,

red and white stripes and a linen steel blue.

 

Made my design in the software and then started cutting!

I organized my piles of cut paper, then laid out my design

 I used a hole punch at the top of each letter and used some string we had to string up all the letters together. I hung them in one of the dining room windows (p.s. I love blue).

Now I just need a little garland and some more Christmas decorations to complete the window. All in all, the Silhouette proved to be a rock star in the paper cutting arena. 

Katie

If you have children, you HAVE to get this ....

Elf on the Shelf ...

This little Elf is a great daily tradition for your children and family.  These are sold everywhere for around $25!

The story is this ~ you receive this Elf from someone and open the box.  Give him/her a name and once the Elf is named it becomes magic.  It sits on the shelf, watches and listens.  Each night the Elf flys back to the North Pole and reports to Santa about behavior and special requests for presents.  Your Elf can listen but cannot talk to you.  You cannot touch the Elf or his/her magic will go away.  In the morning, the Elf is somewhere different in your house.  It becomes a game each morning to find the Elf!  On Christmas Eve, your Elf goes back with Santa and returns next year on Thanksgiving night.  The Elf comes with a book with a wonderful story explaining all of this. 

It has brought such joy and happiness to my 4 boys ... they can't wait to wake up each morning and look for "Fred!"  It is a unique tradition that your children will enjoy. 

Happy Holidays!
Amy

Fitness Friday - Post Turkey Day!

OH my .... how many of you overindulged yesterday?  I did!  How many of you had to take a nap after eating?! Uh ... food coma. 

Did you know that the average Thanksgiving meal eaten by one person is 4500 calories?!  WOW - that is 2 days worth.  So, let's detox and move today.

Post Turkey Day workout:

WALK WALK WALK WALK or JOG JOG JOG JOG 45 minutes or more!!! 

Take your kids to the park, run around your yard with the kids, walk through the neighborhood, ride your bike ... anything to move and burn some of those calories!

Planks and crunches (see last Friday's workout for directions) - as many as you can do for 4 minutes each

Get your Christmas decorations out of the attic!  Have a wonderful rest of the Holiday weekend.

Amy

Turkey Pumpkin

Happy Turkey Day week!   This is a GREAT craft and decoration item for your Thanksgiving table.  It is not only cute, but easy for your little ones to make. 
(Props to our 5 yr old's Sunday School teacher for this one:)

 Simple construction paper .... cut a head and feathers ... write down what they are "thankful" for.

 I think he had some help on this one ... what happened to Dad?  He is more thankful for Santa this year than Dad!  LOL

Toothpick inserts into pumpkin.  Feather is scotch taped on to toothpick.

Simple and cute.  Now, go get crafty with your little Turkeys!
Amy

Moms Crafty Mondays Linky Party!

Yay! It's Thanksgiving week and we cannot wait to cook and eat some delish southern food, spend time with family and enjoy this beautiful fall weather we’re having in Atlanta! Not to mention the extra walks needed to burn off Thursday's feast!

We are officially launching our Moms Crafty Mondays  so you can link up your favorite renovation, re-do, craft, great recipe or any other Crafty-ish post! 
To post, just become a follower of Moms Crafty, post your link with the linky tool and then be sure and visit other links. We love comments and so do the other fellow bloggers so feel free to leave them here! Linky closes in a week.

Can't wait to see your projects and share them with others! Hope your holiday week is wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!

Katie & Amy

Fitness FRIDAY .... soap box!

To breakfast or not to breakfast??

I am asked this question a lot, being in the fitness industry for so may years.
Excuse me while I climb up on to my soap box people ... get ready... 

EAT BREAKFAST!!!   

In simple terms ... your body's metabolism goes to “sleep” after the last time you eat.  (For most of us, that is a late night snack before you go to bed, for others, it is dinner). 

Think about it this way:  You eat dinner at 8 pm, you go to bed at 11pm, you wake up at 7am.  From 8 pm to 7am your metabolism is "asleep."  That’s 11 LONG hours of not burning off brownies calories.  When you eat breakfast, your metabolism "wakes up" and starts working, earlier, for the day.  If you SKIP BREAKFAST your metabolism stays in slumber until you eat... lets say lunch.  You have wasted hours and hours of burning calories if you wait to eat.  Not to mention that your body doesn’t have a constant steady stream of food to turn into energy and steady your blood sugar for the day.

Be healthy, eat breakfast.  Get your bodies working properly!  You will find that your day starts better, you’ll be more focused, your body will be primed for a good days work and you’ll have more energy.

If you are not a "breakfast" person, find something small that will jump start your metabolism for the day.  (ie:, tiny whole wheat bagel, cheese stick, turkey lunch meat, banana, 90 calorie granola bar, yogurt, handful of almonds). 

And now, back to the workout for the week!!! 

Your workout this week:

Go BUY a pair of dumbbells/hand weights for your house. 
(Target, WalMart, Play it Again, Sporting Goods store).  To determine the weight you should buy, pick up a set of weights; press them over your shoulders and above your head.  It should be somewhat difficult to do this.  On a scale of 1-10, 1 being easy, 10 being hard, this press should be at least a 6.  If it is not a level 6 on your scale, get heavier weights.  If you do this test in the store, you will purchase the correct weight and be able to do multiple exercises with this one set of weights. 

Next week we will start using weights in our weekly Fitness Friday workouts. 

Walk Walk Walk(or jog) ~ 30 minutes or more 4 times BEFORE next Friday.  Now when I say walk, I mean furiously!  Walk/jog fast enough that you actually get out of breath and sweat!!!

Crunches  ~5 days, through 4 commercial breaks while you are watching TV. Muuaaaahahahahaha!! (evil laugh inserted here)  Squeeze your abs at the top of each crunch. 

Push Ups ~ 4 days, You can do these on your knees or up on your toes.  You pick ... however, you must get low enough that your chest "burns."  4 sets of 12 repetitions.
 
Planks  ~  push up position, or on your elbows and toes with everything else off the floor, pull your bellybutton into your spine and HOLD IT  FOREVER!!! Do as many as you can for 5 minutes.

Wokr hard, eat breakfast and post your progress or comments.
Amy

Organizing

Take a look at our "Organizing" tab for tips on organizing your family & house! 

Featured on Remodelaholic!

We are very excited to be featured on Remodelaholic today! They have a wonderful website and featured my kitchen re-do… Be sure to go visit them!  Thanks Remodelaholic!

What should I make for the class art project?!

Hey Crafties!   Did you do your Fitness Friday workout???

Newest obstacle .... As the all unknowing Grade mother, I was thrown into a class art project with one week to figure out what to do, get the students to help make it, and turn it in.  WHAT?! 

Of course I was panick stricken ... ackkkhhh! 

So my brain started to churn and I remembered that my sister painted some stools for my boys' rooms several years ago.  They are precious!  Ah Ha ... thats a great idea.  Paint a stool.  Now, what can I paint that 26 students can say they helped paint?  Hmmmm ......  each student can use their fingerprints .... fingerprints can make bugs .... fingerprints that are ants .... ants like picnics .... ants like sugar.... sugar is sweet .... sweet is watermelon!  YEAH!!!  That is it!!!!!!

I have my idea.  Each kid brought $1 for the project.  I was able to buy a stool at Target and lots of acrylic gloss paint from WalMart. 

I sketched the watermelons and ant lines on the stool with pencil.  I wanted the students to see where the ants should be on the stool ... so I drew a line where they would put their fingerprints.  I had each student dip their pinky finger in black acrylic gloss paint and paint 2 of their fingerprints on any of the lines. 
As you can see, some of the ants are A LOT bigger than others.  LOL.  That is ok! 

Paint your initial layer of color, let it dry, repaint more layers until you like the consistency. 

 I added an ant hill on one side. 

Put a small black dot on each fingerprint for the ant's head.

Each head gets 2 small antenae with 2 small dots on top of each head.  I used a fine tip black Sharpie marker. 

Add 8 tiny legs on each fingerprint for the legs.  I used the Sharpie here too.

Add a few streaks of green and black for some grass for the ant hill. 

Add some black ovals in your watermelons for seeds. Erase your pencil lines! 

I sprayed it with Krylon Spray Paint Clear Gloss so the acrylic paint would not chip off.    
Maybe their class stool will get a good bid at the art auction!
Amy

Fitness FRIDAY!!

Here we go ... into the world of sore muscles!  Now I know all of you have a pair of jeans that you love.  Jeans that fit "just right."  The question is ... can you fit into them this Fall??  Let's make sure .... this is your workout for the week.  We are starting out slow.  You can do this WITHOUT equipment. 

Walking lunges x 100.  oh my!  (take BIG steps in front of you, make sure your knee stays over your ankle - if your knees are over your toes, you have to take BIGGER steps forward!)  Lunge down your hall, in your backyard, in the driveway. 

Wall sits - 1 min x 3  Ouch!  (put your back on the wall, legs are sitting in an invisible chair/90 degrees parallel to the floor) 

4 minutes of Abs - you pick!  Crunches, full sit ups, planks (looks like push up position, but you hold that position - pull your bellybutton into your spine)

Your GOAL is to do this workout at least 4 times BEFORE next Friday.  Leave a comment on your progress, soreness, etc.  Keep up the good work!
AMY

Layering Your Clothes

Reason #422 why Fall is so delicious: Layering!

I love the look of layered clothing but never feel like I do it correctly. 9 out of 10 days, I wear a shell with something over it (i.e. plain crew neck t-shirt) and maybe something over that (i.e. sweater or shrug), maybe throw a scarf on and a necklace or funky earrings and then I scramble to try and make it all work together.  Then the layers are shed one by one because I feel like I've dorked it up. Scarf - gone. Necklace- gone. Jacket - gone. Great, now I'm back to my plain white, brown or black t-shirt. Why do I continue to buy the same shirts? Who needs 8 different white t-shirts? Old Navy and Target, stop putting t-shirts on the asiles I walk down!

This is the season of layers and texture (at least that's what I'm declaring for moi)! I'm open to new techniques and styles and really want to get out of my boring old navy t-shirt wearing habit and bring some style to this mama's wardrobe.

With that said, this video is great and today's inspiration for today's post:

The Art Of Layering

Thanks Accessorize and Organize for the video! 

Wrap yourself up in scarves, sweaters, jackets, tights, boots and all those yummy fall things and send us your suggestions! How do you dress for fall? How do you layer? How do you accessorize? What are your tricks!? How do you dress up without dressing down your wallet completely? We'd love to hear from you!

Katie

"Hand-me-down" sweatshirt makeover!

With 4 boys, I LOVE hand-me-downs. I have several friends with older boys who send their clothes my way ... thank you, thank you, thank you! 
 The challenge is to make it seem new to my boys.  Yes, they enjoy the "new" clothes, but sometimes would like them to look a little different.  HENCE .... iron on patches!!!
 I have some really great sweatshirts, Russell, that are simple and plain. 

I went to Michaels and bought 2 packs of iron on patches @ $2.99 per pack.  I mean ... really?!  S.O. Chaaaa-eeeap! 

This is so very simple.  Heat your iron to the hottest setting 

Place the patch where you desire.  Place a cloth (dish towel) over the patch, iron on top of the cloth and press down for about 15 seconds. 

Then flip the shirt inside out, and repeat the process, holding the iron down for about 25 seconds. 

Ta - Da!  2 "cool new" sweatshirts for my little guys.  I washed and dryed them in the laundry and the patches stayed on perfectly.  Yippee ... new clothes! 

Dollar Store and a Glue Gun

Hi Crafties! So I've seen this done like 62 times on other blogs and and have wanted to do the same thing. Sorry I'm not giving everyone props on this but definitely saw it on Decor Chick's blog.  Regardless, a super easy project and a minimal investment. That gets a big fat MCA (moms crafty approval)!


These cute lil' glass vases are at Dollar Tree and so are the tall glass candle holders. I needed something with a lil' height on our mantle but didn't want to distract from our lovely Winston painting so I kept thinking I’d keep it simple with some glass. The glass would do a little reflecting as well and brighten up the space above our fireplace. The idea is to put the two pieces together.  So far I’m digging it!
I can already see Christmas fillers all over the place. (P.S. I’m a Christmas freak. I love it for so many reasons and having our house decorated and smelling like a fresh cut pine is sheer happiness!) Enough about Christmas, it’s not even Thanksgiving!

Little bit of hot glue around the rim

Let it dry upside down

Shut your mouth ... How cute?!

Easy as pie! The Dollar Tree rocks!  Total project cost $4.  Wow! :)

Katie

ANYTHING FALL LINKY PARTY

We love Fall SO MUCH... so much that we want to throw a party! We're opening up MC for a Fall Linky Showdown! No rules, just post.

Link up to one of your posts and Anything Fall is the theme. Can't wait to see your luv for fall too!

Party door shuts next Friday.

MOM ... where are my SOCKS?!

"Kids, Mom & Dad, Needs a mate"
I bought 3 small baskets at Dollar General.  I labeled them with index cards and scotch tape.  I put them on top of my dryer. 
I put ALL of the family's socks in these! This has worked SO well for me in my laundry room.  The boys come into the laundry room, grab a pair of socks, grab their shoes in this organizer (which is in the laundry room - see previous post), and go!  It is wonderful.  I don't even take socks up to their dressers anymore.  And ... I always have a basket for those socks that come up missing ... that you find 2 months later under the seat in your Tahoe.  :) 

How simple?!  V.E.R.Y.  Love it!!