Fixer Upper

So I've been binge watching Fixer Upper on Netflix. One thing I really like about the show is how it make the "american dream" of home ownership possible, even for a family with a $100,000 budget. Granted, it's in Texas and house prices are different in every state, but still I can dream, right?

The part I love most is seeing how the house is transformed not only through construction but interior design. Since that is something I can control more in our rental apartment, I thought I'd post the latest pic from my ongoing wreath project:

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Family History Guess Who

My latest project has been creating a Guess Who game using my family members and ancestors. I hope as my family plays the game that we can be inspired to learn more about each person.

For those of you who would like to do something similar, I have the following suggestions:
-Get color photos of all of the family members you want to sketch (or you will spend most of your time waiting to find out the hair/eye color of family members for whom you only have black and white photos.)
-Figure out the dimensions of your guess who game before sketching (I didn't, so I had to scan and then re-size all of my sketches to fit.)
-Sketch in pre-drawn boxes (they they will be ready to cut right away!)
-Depending on your preference, you may want to copy your black and white sketches first and then manually add color (I colored mine before copying them, and the peach tone I used for everyone's skin didn't show up. However, I do think that the printed versions looked more professional than the colored pencil versions.)

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Nursery Art

I love Dash's room, and thought I'd share about the artwork that's in it:

Dr Seuss sketch- I did this for a ward christmas poster a few years ago, and decided to keep the sketch at the bottom.

I painted this right after we decided to start trying to get pregnant. Inspired by the movie 'Up.'

I made this poster for Dash's room the week before he was born- I needed something to do while I waited for him to make his debut. 

We just framed this poem and hung it today! It's inspired by the poem 'The Dash.'

Rhetorically, Rebekah

Wrapping a Wreath

I've always liked how wreaths brighten up a porch. I looked up a bunch of wreath ideas on pinterest, and decided that even though we don't have a front door, I could still make one to hang up on one of our walls. I was expecting this project to take an hour or maybe two- little did I know how long it would actually take!

I decided to do a yarn wrapped wreath, and chose a foam base for it since I wanted to be able to pin various decorations to the wreath so it could be used all year round. This is what the wreath looked like after spending an hour wrapping yarn around it twice:

Unfortunately, the designs I had in mind called for a thicker wreath. After re-checking some tutorials online, I realized I would have to wrap the wreath with yarn a bajillion lot more times to get that thickness. So I improvised and used grocery bags to help bulk it up:

Matt was slightly concerned when he saw what had become of the wreath, but I assured him it wasn't finished.

I bought new thicker yarn and rewrapped the wreath three more times (adding another two hours): 

And then I spent an hour cutting fall leaves out of felt and arranging them on the wreath. Although white isn't the best background for fall, it will be for other seasons and holidays, so I figured it was worth the sacrifice. I'm still glad I went with a foam center, because the leaves pinned in nicely, but if you just want the thickness of the wreath without having to wrap it in yarn and grocery bags, I'd really recommend going with wrapping a straw wreath. 

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Super Saturday Sneak Peek

I spent today working on these crafts for our upcoming Super Saturday activity!

Sunday Cans- we originally got the idea from this article, although this article that came out recently was good incentive to keep it!

New Sew Baby Bows- we got the idea for bow ties from this tutorial, and the baby girl bows from this tutorial. Both are way easy, and I was able to make all 6 fairly quickly.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Etsy

My Etsy Shop Logo:

And Business Cards / Earring holders:

Are ready to go!!

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

I'm Baaaaaack!!

I remember reading a friend's blog and once she hit her bar studies, she bid the world adieu and stopped blogging for months. I remember thinking that I wouldn't do the same thing, but I basically did. Now that the Bar is over, though...

I finally finished that Family Proclamation Project I started two months ago:

I opened my own Etsy shop! And I had my first sale within a week--which was totally unexpected and awesome. Hopefully I'll have an official logo soon. I'm planning on posting new earrings once a week.

I'm volunteering at a walk-in immigration clinic on Tuesdays, to keep up my lawyering skills. We'll find out about my Bar results in 8-10 weeks, which means end of September/ beginning of October.

The sky is the limit now that I'm done studying. I can read books just for fun, visit family, go to the pool...I might even write a children's book!

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Color Me Mine

This post is brought to you by Color Me Mine, a craft store where you can pick a ceramic piece, paint it, and the store will glaze/fire it for you. We had seen the store at the Riverwoods and finally decided to give it a try. Little did we know they were having a date night special with 2 for 1 studio fees! Instead of doing a kitchen item (such as a plate or mug) we'd chose to do something for the nursery. Behold, our dinosaur bank: 

We had so much fun going out for an actual date night! We'll get the finished product next Thursday, and the colors are supposed to be much more vibrant. 

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Halloween Festivities

*The title of this post is not to be confused with the post I did last year.

Even though Matt will be gone for Halloween, we still wanted to participate in the festivities. We tried something new this year by making our own caramel apples! I won a huge jar last week for guessing how many caramels were inside and I used about a third of them for these apples. They weren't as attractive as the ones we get from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, but they still tasted delicious.

This year we decided to do "The Incredibles" as our pumpkin theme. 

The goal: 

The reality:

Yeah...you can't really tell that it's "Jack-Jack"-O-Lantern. 

 Same pumpkin, other side:

Doing the "I" was a little bit easier in the design, although Matt had to spend some time carving out the circle around it so you could see the faint glow of the candle.

Matt also cooked pumpkin seeds again this year, which he will be eating all by himself (No offense to Matt's cooking, I just don't like pumpkin seeds).

What have you been doing to celebrate Halloween?

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Easter Appreciation Post 2

I had a surprisingly wonderful Easter. It was so wonderful, in fact, that I'm dividing it into two posts. This is the "traditions" post, which includes: Family Time, a New Recipe, and Easter Egg Decorating. 

Family Time

My brother and his wife were in town and chose to spend Easter with us!! Even though they start a new semester of school today, they postponed going back to Idaho to be with us. It was awesome to have company over. I hadn't expected much out of my Easter because of finals, but this was a great excuse to take a break. 

Apparently I only remember to take pictures when people are playing ping pong or pool. No other times. Even though we did an easter egg hunt, had two picture-worthy meals together, and went to church, this is all I've got. (However, it was a pretty epic game of pool. The white ball hovered on the edge of the pockets several times throughout the game.)

 New Recipe: Bird's Nests 

1 c peanut butter

1 bag butterscotch chips

3 cups chow mein noodles

mini cadbury eggs* 

Melt peanut butter and butterscotch chips in microwave until smooth. 

Mix in chow mein noodles, form into nest-like structures. 

Add "eggs" and refrigerate. 

Ta-da!

*(or other egg shaped candies, but why would you want anything other than cadbury eggs?)

Easter Egg Decorating:

 I have to say, we outdid ourselves this year.

In case you can't tell what the eggs are: (going clockwise) 

Yoda, Batman, Mickey Mouse, Nemo, Despicable Me Minion, and Carolina Blue.

What are your favorite Easter traditions?

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

PS If you like Peeps and creativity, and you are looking for a distraction online, check out this link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/lifestyle/peeps-diorama-contest/2014/

Family History

Last month, I got a 5 picture frame at a silent auction. The frame was origionally from Zions Merchantile, which specializes in creating more antique-looking decorations. The middle frame had a paper that said "Families are Forever"and I immediately thought about putting pictures of my and Matt's grandparents in the remaining four frames. It took some digging to see who had copies of pictures of our grandparents, but thanks to two aunts, a cousin, and my father-in-law, here is the finished product:

Our paternal grandparents are on the right, and our maternal grandparents are on the left. It's great to see what they looked like when they were younger so we can see more of a family resemblance. I'm grateful we have the technology to preserve these photos for posterity.

What's been your latest family history project?

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Amateur Artists

Our FHE activity. The theme was "swirl." I am very grateful to Matt for not getting mad at me when I accidentally "swirled" paint over some of his art.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Christmas Party Poster

So I spent a good portion of today working on the following poster for the Ward Christmas Party:

Nothing traced, everything handwritten or drawn. As with any project where I painstakingly pay attention to detail, I always have a spelling error. Do you see it? I promise I know how to spell, but I finished the poster around midnight (with the help of Amazing Matt) and was too tired to triple check. Because apparently double checking, which we did, wasn't enough.

Anyway, the mistake is fixed now:

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Earring Update!

A good friend showed me how to make this awesome earring organizer using wire and a picture frame! I also used the back mat of the frame to organize my studs. Don't they look great??

I got the frame at Walmart, which made it easy to pop the glass out. We stuck the wire in between the mat and the frame in the back, although I need to reinforce it with glue so the wires can stay in. 

A small nail and hammer solved the problem for the studs. 

Thanks to Chalyce for showing me how!!

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Earrings

Back in 2010, I invested in earring tools and parts so I could make my own earrings. It's been an economical way to give unique gifts over the past two years, and is a hobby I enjoy. Earrings have always been my favorite type of jewelry (and really the only jewelry I wear) and I enjoy making them because they require much less time to design and make than a necklace or bracelet. 20 minutes and I can finish a batch like this: 
(zoom in on your computer screen to see better)
























If you have any other earring ideas, send them my way!

Rhetorically,
Rebekah