Living Room Makeover....Phase 1.2

I wanted to work on the living room today but DH was enjoying his first day off on about 3 weeks, so I decided to be a nice wifey and wait for another day to nag him for help. But I did complete a quick little project that made a world of difference.

We have been staring at these 10 square feet of hideous green tile for a year and a half.
After browsing Home Depot and seeing the great options they had for laminate tile, we decided to go with that.
Before :

10 minutes and 10 dollars later:
Couldn't have been easier but what a difference.

Bridal Shower Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had these cookies last week and my sister-in-law's bridal shower, hence the name (and I can never remember the name of the lady who made them:))
Anyway, I think they're quite good.

1/2 cup shortening

1.2 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream shortening, butter, egg, vanilla and sugars.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.

Slowly add flour to creamed mixture.

Add chocolate chips.

***Note: dough will be crumbly

Drop onto parchment lined cookie sheet using a Tbsp. measure.

Bake for 11-13 minutes at 350°.

Transfer to cooling rack.

10 Minute Table Runner & Cake plate

I wanted to add a little Spring to the kitchen so I whipped this table runner up in literally 10 minutes, maybe less. Possibly the easiest thing in the world to sew. If you want a tutorial, let me know.

Also, I found this awesome plate at DI for $1 so I made it into a cake stand using an upside down sundae dish and some gorilla glue. Pretty self explanatory.

My kitchen feels spring-y. Mission accomplished.

Living Room Makeover....Phase 1

Our living room has been on my to-do list for a while now. Two day's ago my friend and I painted her family room in 3 hours so for payback (and personal motivation) I got her to come help me paint my living room today.

I saw a blog recently where someone did a board and batten look in their bathroom and I fell in love. Gorgeous!

And one day I would simply LOVE to have a playroom like this:

I've been a lover of wainscot for a long time but board and batten is so much cheaper. I decided on a dark tan on the top and white board and batten on the bottom. My board and batten isn't going to be as tall as the board and batten in the pictures, but it's still 4 1/2 feet. Had to get DH to help with the top

I am so excited to hang this above the fireplace:

Or something very similar. I'll be taking a class at Hobby Lobby for Roberts. I told DH it will be my birthday gift to myself.

Recipe Book

I mentioned before that DH's baby sis is getting married next month and that I was making her a recipe book. I've been having too much fun making these recipes cards with my Memory Mixer software. Here are a few:






I hope she likes it!

Christmas in March

Today I got two things I've been needing for a while.

Our oven has had problems since we got it. DH diagnosed the problem as a broken top heating element. So I've been cooking with an oven that has been working on 1/2 power. It literally took over a 1/2 hour to heat up to 350. And it's been getting worse so yesterday I finally got up the guts to ask our boss/landlord for a new one. Today they delivered my new black beauty. I was so excited to cook dinner tonight! And it only took 10 minutes to heat up to 425!

Also, we got a new (well, new to us) computer! Our neighbor works for a large medical clinic and they recently updated all their computers. We got a computer tower that had been wiped clean for $25! And a functioning computer is really nice to have now that I'm the Primary President in our ward. I've been driving 30 miles to use my in-law's computer to do all my primary stuff. It got old quick.

I've been Primary President for about 6 weeks now and it's keeping me unbelievably busy. But I'm happy to be busy right now because a month ago I had an ectopic pregnancy. It's been devastating, but we have faith in the Lord and know that another little one will come along soon enough. Before we found out that this little baby was stuck in my fallopian tube, we told DH's family about the pregnancy using this:

Now for some crafts.
-DH's baby sister is getting married next month. I've been making some things to get them going. I glass etched some Pyrex for them similar to the ones I made for us

-I also made them a "wedding night basket." I won't post pictures of that:) Let's just say it has everything they may need or want for their honeymoon.

-I'm in the process of making her a recipe book. I'm using my Memory Mixer scrapbook software to make each recipe all cute and scrapbook-like, then I'll send them to Costco to print. Pics to come.

-I made a What's for Dinner? calendar using MIL's supply of bottle cap's and DH's endless access to sheet metal.

But now that I'm so busy, and am rarely home at dinner time, I haven't been making most of the meals I have planned. I'm hoping that as time goes on, I won't be so busy. I'm lucky to have an understanding husband who doesn't complain about my calling.

-DD saw this at DI and had to have it but it said Wal-Mart on the sides. Yuck.I replaced it with this.

-Finally, my brother and his family moved back to Utah from Texas and they're living with my parent's until they find a house. This freed up my parent's spare king size bed. They graciously offered it to us because they know that our queen gave us both back problems. Now we're sleeping oh so comfortably with plenty o' room for the little one when she climbs in.
I don't even care that it doesn't fit our queen headboard.
Best sleep we've had our whole married life.

Crafts Catch-up

I just wanted to catch up on a few things while I'm using my parent's computer.
I made this for my sis-in-law to keep all those pesky neighbor kids from ringing the doorbell.

My other sis-in-law is getting married in May. I've been practicing glass etching to jazz up her pyrex.

And of course more cricuting led me to this: